Sailor Moon was the 4th most watched show on Crave the week it was released

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Adam

The original Sailor Moon anime was added to Bell Media’s Canadian streaming platform Crave on September 18th. It was featured in a number of categories and “Sailor Moon” trended on social media platforms the next day. Anecdotally it seemed like a lot of people were watching it, but how did the numbers add up? According to Bell’s streaming overview for the week of September 24th to the 30th the show faired quite well in its first week! It was the 4th most watched program on Crave for the week of September 16th to the 22nd, as can be seen from this excerpt from that press release:

Crave Audience Metrics

Crave continues to have Canadians covered, delivering the best movies, TV series, and original hits all in one place. Ridley Scott’s HBO Max Original Series RAISED BY WOLVES holds the top spot for the second week in a row, followed by the sizzling reality series LOVE ISLAND at #2. STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS takes #3 for the third consecutive week, and the beloved anime series, SAILOR MOON debuts at #4. Here are the Top 10 most-watched programs on Crave for the week of September 16 – 22:

1. RAISED BY WOLVES
2. LOVE ISLAND
3. STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS
4. SAILOR MOON
5. LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
6. THE VOW
7. SPIES IN DISGUISE
8. SOUTH PARK
9. THE THIRD DAY
10. THE BIG BANG THEORY

This is pretty impressive! It was beat out only by HBO’s Raised By Wolves, Love Island, which as far as I can tell does not take place on an island and is almost certainly devoid of actual love, and Star Trek: Lower Decks which streams on CBS All Access in the US. That’s great, you might be thinking, but that was a couple of weeks ago! Well it looks like the series was not in the top 10 most watched shows for the weeks of September 24th to the 30th or October 1st to the 7th.

Have you been watching Sailor Moon on Crave?

Thanks to Jesse Betteridge on Twitter for bringing this to my attention.

Listen to a clip of “Moon Color Chainon”, the Sailor Moon Eternal theme song by Momoiro Clover Z

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Adam

A preview of the theme song for the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films has been posted to the official Sailor Moon site! The song, by Momoiro Clover Z, is “Gesshoku Chainon” which roughly translates to “Moon Color Chainon”. What’s a chainon? Chaînon is a french word meaning a link in a chain. I suppose this is a reference to the Sailor Guardians all being individual links in the chain that is the Sailor Team. You can check out the short clip of the song which features the members of Momoiro Clover Z below. It includes a few seconds of new footage from the upcoming films.

Two different CD and Blu-Ray sets for this song will be released on January 13th 2021. They will each include a different version of the song. The Momoiro Clover Z Edition includes the song performed only by the group Momoiro Clover Z. The Sailor Moon Eternal Edition includes a different version of the song which is performed by not only Momoiro Clover Z but also voice actors from the Sailor Moon Eternal film. The voice actors who will be providing vocals on this version of the song are Kotono Mitsuishi as Sailor Moon, Hisako Kanemoto as Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato as Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu as Sailor Jupiter and Shizuka Ito as Sailor Venus. There does not appear to be any version which includes both songs, so fans looking to get both will need to buy both versions.

Exclusive cards are available for those who order from specific retailers with each different retailer including a different card. The Momoiro Clover Z version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition) is 2500 yen which is about $24 US while the Sailor Moon Eternal version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition) is 2200 yen which is about $21 US.

The band Momoiro Clover Z has contributed a lot of music to Sailor Moon Crystal going back to the very beginning. They performed Moon Pride, the original opening theme for the series. Fans may notice that Momoiro Clover Z used to have five members but that this video only includes four. Momoka Ariyasu left the group at the beginning of 2018 and is not featured in this song.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be in theatres in Japan starting January 8th 2021. It will be followed shortly afterwards by Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 which will hit theatres on February 11th. The movies are an adaptation of the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga which was also adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS in the original 90s anime.

What do you think of the song? Keep reading to see more screenshots from this video.

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New stills from the Sailor Moon Eternal film have been leaked and Rei is wearing Mamoru’s shirt

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Adam

We’ve got yet another early leak of images from the Sailor Moon Eternal films! This time there are three pictures! The first shows Rei, Mamoru, Usagi, Ami, Chibiusa, Makoto and Minako just hanging out. There’s an image of Chibiusa and Usagi sleeping in bed. We also have Helios and Chibiusa in an image which appears to be in a dream.

What’s important about these images? A few things. One might notice that Chibiusa is once again wearing Mamoru’s shirt while sleeping! This scene is right out of the manga as Chibiusa is envious of Usagi’s adult body, something which will have hilarious consequences. It’s not so uncommon for someone to wear Mamoru’s shirt of course as we’ve seen earlier in the series. Both Usagi and Chibiusa wear Mamoru shirts back in Act 19 the morning after it’s heavily insinuated that he and Usagi had sex. Does anyone else have a white man’s dress shirt anywhere in these leaks? Oh that’s right! Rei is wearing what could totally be one of Mamoru’s shirts as part of her lovely outfit. Perhaps Rei also got one of Mamoru’s shirts after spending an intimate night at his place.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th 2021 followed closely by Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 on February 11th. The movies will follow the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga which was adapted loosely as Sailor Moon SuperS in the 90s Sailor Moon anime.

Source: nonameq9 in the comments and @rarararanze on Twitter

The original Sailor Moon anime is now streaming on Crave in Canada

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Adam

Canadian Sailor Moon fans can now watch the original Sailor Moon anime on Crave. The streaming service added all five seasons of Sailor Moon to it’s catalogue on Friday September 18th. When we originally posted this news in August it wasn’t clear whether or not the series would be streamed in English but now we know that it is but also that the original Japanese version is not available on the service. This seems like a very odd choice but luckily Canadian Sailor Moon fans can still watch the Japanese version of the original anime for free on Tubi. It’s worth noting that the video quality of the series on Crave looks quite good. It seems that Viz has used some better masters for this than were used for their original Blu-Ray releases. I haven’t been able to do specific comparisons but some fans are suggesting that these are the same versions used for the Japanese Blu-Rays.

The impact of Sailor Moon being added to the service was immediately apparent. Though I didn’t see the show in many categories when I checked the service slightly after midnight on September 18th by mid day Friday it was in many categories on the site including Just Added TV Shows, Buzzworthy and Kid Stuff. Sailor Moon was trending on Twitter in Canada on Friday and, something which is always a sign that news about the show has gone mainstream, I had two non Moonie friends text me to tell me that they saw that the show was on Crave. What’s the best way to show appreciation for the kind gesture while politely telling someone you knew about a thing months ago?

It’s hard to explain what a cultural phenomenon Sailor Moon was here in Canada. While the show was of course popular in the United States and throughout the world in the 90s the show really was a mainstream staple which everyone knew about in Canada in the 1990s. It wasn’t just a hit amongst anime fans but something every kid knew about. It played multiple times a day on Canadian channels YTV and Global. Now that it’s gotten prominent attention on a popular streaming platform a lot of people who may not have followed the show much over the past 20 years are likely having a chance to see it again. Though this won’t include the DiC dub for which most people are nostalgic for, hopefully many of them will appreciate this new and more faithful dub for what it has to offer. I wonder how many people this weekend will be watching the show and seeing those early episodes which weren’t originally dubbed such as episode 2, Punishment Awaits: The House Of Fortune Is The Monster Mansion, episode 5, Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love, and episode 6, Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid.

For a lot of us including readers of this site Sailor Moon never really went away but for casual fans in Canada I think this is a big deal and I hope this brings the series back to the attention of some older fans and makes some new ones.

Have you been watching the show on Crave?

If you’d prefer to own a physical copy of the show you can support the site by purchasing the home video releases using the links below.

Naomi Watanabe has been revealed as the voice of Zirconia in the Sailor Moon Eternal films

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Adam

Following Tuesday’s teaser clip of Zirconia we now know that the voice for that character will be none other than Japanese comedian and actor Naomi Watanabe. A Twitter contest was run asking fans to give their guess as to who the voice actually was and, as we reported earlier this week, many of them were right in guessing that this was actually Naomi Watanabe! She is a big fan of Sailor Moon as you can see by the Super Sailor Moon costume which she is wearing in the photo above.

I had previously mentioned Naomi Watanabe in passing when announcing that she would be in The Promised Neverland live action adaptation along with live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon star Keiko Kitagawa who played Sailor Mars in the series. Earlier this week, on September 7th, Keiko Kitagawa gave birth to a baby girl!

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th 2021 with Part 2 coming shortly afterwards on February 11th. We still don’t have any details about a release outside of Japan but we will be sure to share any such information as we get it. What do you think of this casting? Could you tell that it was Naomi Watanabe based on the clip? Which of her previous works have you enjoyed?

A clip of Zirconia from Sailor Moon Eternal is released as part of a contest to have fans guess her voice actor

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Adam

We’ve finally gotten our first look at Zirconia from the upcoming film Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and it comes with a challenge for fans to identify her voice actor. I’ll admit that my ear for distinguishing Japanese voices isn’t good enough to be able to make a decent guess at who this is. Have a listen to the clip on Twitter or embedded below to hear for yourself.

／
悪の霊魂導師
#ジルコニアの #声優を当てよう
＼

映像をチェックして
思い浮かんだ声優の名前を#ジルコニアの声優は誰だ #劇場版セーラームーン

の2⃣つを付けてツイート

正解した方の中から抽選で3名様に
締切は9/10(木)23:59まで

たくさんの参加を待っています pic.twitter.com/JBRLNGaBMM

— 劇場版「美少女戦士セーラームーンEternal」《前編》2021.1.8公開 (@sailor_movie) September 8, 2020

Do you recognize the voice? If so, give us your guess as to what that might be in the comments below or on social media. Fans are asked to post their guess to Twitter using the hashtags #劇場版セーラームーン and #ジルコニアの声優は誰だ which translate roughly to “Sailor Moon The Movie” and “Who is the Zirconia voice actor?”. You’ll probably want to Tweet in Japanese to have a chance of having it be seen! Three correct guesses will be given a Sailor Moon Eternal movie poster.

A quick look at those hashtags suggests that many Japanese fans are guessing that this is the voice of Naomi Watanabe, a popular Japanese comedian and actress. Her distinctive laugh seems to be what’s making people guess this. We will learn if this is correct on Friday!

The Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released on January 8th 2021 with Part 2 coming out a month later on February 11th. With the reveal of Zirconia it looks like the main characters from the first film have all been seen.

The original Sailor Moon anime will stream on Crave in Canada starting September 18th

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Adam

A listing of next month’s additions to Crave includes the news that the original Sailor Moon anime will be coming to the streaming service on September 18th. The announcement mentions that all five seasons of the series will be streaming and although it is possible this will include Viz’s new English dub of the series this has not been explicitly mentioned. This would be the first time the Viz English dub would be available to stream legally in Canada, though the series has been available in the country on home video for some time.

Americans won’t be able to watch the series on Crave, though they can still watch the series for free on Viz’s web site. They can also stream the series on Hulu for a fee. That service also has Sailor Moon Crystal. Canadian fans can already stream the original Sailor Moon anime for free on TubiTV, though that service only includes the Japanese version with English subtitles. TubiTV also streams Sailor Moon Crystal. Canadian and American fans can also watch Sailor Moon Crystal and Sailor Moon R The Movie on Crunchyroll. Sailor Moon R The Movie can also be streamed on Funimation.

Crave is a Canadian streaming service which is owned by Bell Media, a large media company which owns a number of TV stations in Canada. Bell Canada is also a major provider of TV, Internet and telephone services in Canada. This means that Crave streams some original Canadian properties but as a number of American and other non Canadian series and movies are broadcast on Canadian stations owned by Bell Media, a lot of these end up on the service as well. This includes things like the various Star Trek series. I have a paid subscription for the service which I also use to watch HBO series for an extra cost. It adds up but it’s cheaper than a cable subscription. The movie selection on Crave isn’t as good as some other providers but they have a good selection os TV series. Do any of you have a Crave subscription? Will you be watching Sailor Moon on it?

Prefer physical media to streaming? Why not support the site by buying some of the sets using the Amazon links below?

Check out the designs and voices of the Amazoness Quartet from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films!

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Adam

The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with images and the voice cast of the Amazoness Quartet from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films! Though we don’t know exactly how the two films will be broken up I would assume these characters would mostly feature in the second film, coming out February 11th in Japan, and perhaps appear only briefly in the first film which will be in Japanese theatres January 8th. The Amazoness Quartet are part of the Dead Moon Circus and include CereCere, PallaPalla, JunJun and VesVes, all of which are named after asteroids or dwarf planets in our solar system. I certainly hope we’ll also get a look at the Sailor Quartet at the end of the second film!

CereCere will be voiced by Reina Ueda, a voice actress who’s appeared in a number of anime and video games including the voice of Mallow in Pokémon: Sun & Moon anime.

PallaPalla is voiced by Sumire Morohoshi, a singer and voice actress who’s performed many roles including Acerola from the Pokémon: Sun & Moon anime and Nina from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

JunJun is voiced by Yuko Hara, a voice actress who’s done a number of anime series including small parts in Ghost in the Shell Arise and Akari Acura in Chaika the Coffin Princess.

VesVes is voiced by Rie Takahashi, a voice actress and singer who has appeared in many anime series and video games including Mirai Asahina aka Cure Miracle, the main character in Witchy PreCure!

What do you think of these new designs? Are you a fan of any other roles that these actresses have done?

Check out these new stills from the Sailor Moon Eternal films

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Adam

Update – 2020-08-14: The original post categorized these as a leak as I was not aware that these images had been posted to the official site.

A collection of 10 new stills from the first of the two Sailor Moon Eternal films has been posted to the Official Sailor Moon site. The post advertises a collaboration with Lawson convenience stores for a number of products. These 10 stills will be available from Lawson photocopiers. Though we’d already seen a couple of these, most of them seem to be new showing us single frames from animation which will likely be seen in Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1, which will be released in theatres on January 8th 2021.

Here’s a look at each still individually.

Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Super Sailor Moon posing. We had already seen this as part of footage which was already released so this is a higher quality image than the other samples.

Sailor Mercury posing during her post transformation speech. The pose is similar to past seasons but the designs are updated.

Sailor Mars posing. Again the same pose with new designs. Her wrist seems a bit less limp if that makes sense.

Sailor Jupiter posing. Her hair isn’t holding as well as it has.

Sailor Venus posing. Her finger seems to keep getting bigger.

Super Sailor Moon hugging a faceless Mamoru. We’ve seen this one already as well.

Pegasus and Chibiusa. Many have pointed out that Pegasus is pony sized in these films.
He does seem to be a bit smaller than what we’d seen in the first Sailor Moon anime, but Chibiusa’s size is a bit inconsistent in Sailor Moon Crystal. An earlier image of Chibiusa and Pegasus which we saw made him look much smaller.

Helios. We’d seen his designs but this is the first actual frame of him that we’ve seen.

Artemis, Diana and Luna. Luna’s eyes are now blue, while they were red in previous seasons. This may be so that her eye colour is consistent with human Luna who we will be saying likely in the second film which will be released on February 11th 2021.

The Amazon Trio. Striking a pose!

At this point we are certainly seeing more and more of the art style. While I would like to see more of it in action these stills give us a decent indication of what we’re in for next year. What do you think?

Source: Sailor Moon Thailand on Twitter

Character designs and the voice cast for the Amazon Trio from the Sailor Moon Eternal films have been revealed

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Adam

We’ve finally got our first look at some of the Dead Moon Circus’s villains from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films! The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with character designs and the voice actors who will be playing the Amazon Trio in the first of the Sailor Moon Eternal movies. Tiger’s Eye will be voiced by Satoshi Hino, Hawk’s Eye will be voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga and Fish Eye will be voiced by Shouta Aoi.

Satoshi Hino, the voice of Tiger’s Eye, is a voice actor who’s been featured in many anime shows including Yuuji Sakai in Shakugan no Shana and Kamui in Gintama. Today happens to be his birthday!

Toshiyuki Toyonaga is an actor, voice actor and singer. In anime he voiced Katsuki Yuri in Yuri on Ice. He’s released many singles including the theme song for the anime Durarara!! in which he also voiced Mikado. You can follow Toshiyuki Toyonaga on Twitter @TossuiKUN.

Shouta Aoi is a singer, stage actor and voice actor. He originally sang under the name SHOWTA but later took on the pseudonym Noboru Ryugaki for independent music he released after 2009. He now releases music under the name Shouta Aoi. On stage he has performed roles such as Saki Hanajima in the live adaptation of Fruits Basket. He’s had many anime roles such as Ai Mikaze in Uta no Prince-sama and Rui Minazuki in Tsukiuta.

The first of the Sailor Moon Eternal films will be released on January 8th 2021. The film will cover the first half of the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga in which the Amazon Trio, members of the Dead Moon Circus, are the main villains. They will likely only be appearing in the first film with the Amazoness Quartet appearing in the second half which will be released on February 11th 2021.

What do you think of these designs? Are you a fan of any of these voice actors and their other roles?

Sailor Moon News

Bringing you the latest news about the new anime series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal and all things Sailor Moon.

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