Yesterday we reported that a number of online retailers were offering Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2 as a digital download but that it was not available on Amazon Prime Video. Though it was not listed along with the rest of the series, the final 17 episodes of the season are in fact listed on the site. Fans looking to buy these digitally from Amazon Prime Video can support the site by using the link below.
I don’t believe this is a new addition, but simply something I didn’t notice previously. When one looks at the Amazon Prime Video page for Sailor Moon it only lists up to season 501, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 1. This is what I originally looked at to try to find if the new episodes were available. Part 2 is listed on a totally different page which is likely why I hadn’t seen it.
For those who’ve gotten the digital version, what do you think? If you’re still looking to buy the physical release on November 12th you can support the site by pre-ordering it using the links below.
The physical release of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2 is less than two weeks away which means the series is now available to purchase digitally from a number of online retailers. The series is available to purchase separately for the English dubbed episodes or in Japanese with English subtitles. The retailers currently offering the series are iTunes, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store and Google Play. Strangely absent is Amazon Prime Video who had Part 1 up for sale two weeks before that set was released physically. The Amazon Video page for Sailor Moon does not include these final 17 episodes of the series.
With these episodes now available the entire Sailor Moon series is available in English for the first time ever! Since Sailor Stars was never dubbed with the DiC/Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon the Viz dub is the first and only official English version we’ve gotten.
Buying digital downloads of the original Japanese version with English subtitles seems unwise as the series was available for free in this format for quite a while on Hulu. The service is now only available for paying customers who can still stream the series in its entirety in Japanese with English subtitles as well as the first four seasons in English. Sailor Moon had been streaming for free on Yahoo! View but that service no longer exists. Canadians can stream the entire series in Japanese with English subtitles on TubiTV. This is a free streaming service with ads.
Have any of you downloaded this version to listen to the end of the dub of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars? If so what did you think? If you’re holding off for the physical release you can support the site by pre-ordering it from Amazon using the links below.
This weekend, October 25th to the 27th, is the Tamashii Nations event in Japan, an exhibit where they unveil many upcoming toys. At this year’s event we’re seeing a ton of Sailor Moon figures and toys which includes three PROPLICA toys based on Sailor Moon Eternal, an S. H. Figuarts Eternal Sailor Moon and five Figuarts Mini figures. This was revealed on the official Sailor Moon site and as the event has started, people have already gotten a look at these.
PROPLICA, a portemanteau of prop and replica, is a series of high quality show accurate props. We previously saw many transformation items and broaches based on the original Sailor Moon anime series from this collection. We now have the first PROPLICA items based on Sailor Moon Crystal as the “Eternal Edition” items which are based on the Sailor Moon Eternal films are being released. This includes the Crisis Moon Compact, Sailor Moon’s transformation item, the Chibi Moon Compact, Sailor Chibi Moon’s transformation item, and the Moon Kaleidoscope, Sailor Moon’s attack item from this arc. These are all based on the Dream arc of the manga, which is what is being adapted as the Sailor Moon Eternal films which are coming to Japan starting on September 11th 2020. Note that the name Moon Kaleidoscope is the manga name which we can confirm is being used for Sailor Moon Crystal, though that particular item was referred to as the Kaleidomoon Scope in the original Sailor Moon anime.
The latest figure in the S. H. Figuarts line is Eternal Sailor Moon. This figure is not specifically branded as being a Sailor Moon Crystal figure and is listed as being part of the Sailor Moon series, that meaning the original Sailor Moon anime. Though we have gotten S. H. Figuarts and Figuarts Zero figures based on Sailor Moon Crystal, these are specifically branded as such. This is a nice looking figure, as all of the S. H. Figuarts have been.
Finally we have a lot of Figuarts Mini figures from both the original Sailor Moon anime as well as from the Sailor Moon Eternal films. From Sailor Moon Sailor Stars from the original anime we have Sailor Star Fighter, Maker and Healer. From the Sailor Moon Crystal films Sailor Moon Eternal we have Super Sailor Moon and Sailor Sailor Chibi Moon. It seems feasible that we would also be seeing an Eternal Sailor Moon in this series at a later date, perhaps when the second film’s release approaches.
I had some wild speculation about what the black rectangle in the first image might be concealing but after seeing footage of the event it seems it’s just a monitor showing images we’ve seen.
Do you plan on buying any of these? Are you taking out a mortgage to do so?
An update on the Sailor Moon Official Site gives us the release date of the first Sailor Moon Eternal film which will be hitting theatres in Japan on September 11th 2020. This includes a poster which shows us the image we’ve already seen and the release date.
The note on the official site as well as a longer text on the film’s news section mentions that a poster will be available at the Tamashii Nations event on October 25th and that the back of the poster will include an image of Usagi and Chibiusa meeting Helios. I wonder if this will actually be Helios the human, who appears later in the story, of Pegasus the winged horse, the incarnation of Helios which appears in the earlier parts of the Dream arc. The details on the site also mention that this is the release date of the first Sailor Moon Eternal movie, confirming that this is still indeed meant to be two films.
The word “Roadshow” appears alongside this date on the poster and official site. This is a term used in Japan to refer to a limited release of a film prior to a wider release. Roadshow releases were common in the US until the 1970s when the practice was mostly stopped but this continues in Japan. This makes me wonder when a wide release of the film is planned in Japan, though ultimately this doesn’t make much of a difference as my real concern is when the film will be released in North America. We have not yet received any details about the film’s release outside of Japan.
The Sailor Moon Eternal films now have an official Japanese web site. There’s really not much there besides the poster and teaser, both of which we’ve already seen. The text at the bottom of the site is an image, meaning I can’t even copy and paste it into Google Translate! Luckily some fans have deciphered this text and the noteworthy information on this page is that TOEI will be collaborating with Studio DEEN for these films. What does this mean?
Studio DEEN is a Japanese animation studio which has been around since 1975. They’ve done a lot of anime for TV, video and film. This means that some fans are jaded because of what the studio did with some property or another, but at the end of the day it can’t be denied that Studio DEEN has also done some quality work over the years. Hit and miss? Sounds like Sailor Moon Crystal to me! What can we infer from this? I’d say pretty much nothing! For such a large studio who’s worked on so many properties we don’t know what effect this will have on Sailor Moon Crystal. We will have to see what they come up with!
Have a look at the Studio DEEN Wikipedia page to see which of their works you’ve seen. What did you think of them? I’ve seen some of the stuff listed but it’s hard to tell if the episodes I saw were those they worked on. Since I’m mostly familiar with older anime series the two works which stick out as being of high quality to me are DNA² and Angel’s Egg. Angel’s Egg in particular is an absolutely beautiful film. Since it was made in 1985 I don’t imagine much of that staff is still around! I can’t say I’ve seen anything the studio has put out recently.
Looking at this new web site we see that elements of the Sailor Moon Eternal poster are actually saved as individual images. This allows us to get a look at just Sailor Moon or Sailor Chibi Moon from the posters.
Here’s a music video by Instagram influencer Yuranis León which is called Sailor Moon and has the words Sailor Moon in the lyrics and even has the words Sailor Moon appearing on the screen though I’m not sure what, if anything, it has to do with Sailor Moon.
I don’t think I have a very good explanation for what this is or even who Yuranis León is. As far as I can tell she is an Instagram influencer which I think means she has a popular Instagram account but doesn’t have any sort of “normal” job for which people follow that account other than is just being a very popular account. This is a thing which happens now and I am an old person who does not understand the world I live in. Yuranis León has recently released a music video “Sailor Moon” which is very popular. It has nearly 10 million views on YouTube which is more than many recording artists can hope to get. I suppose this makes her a singer, though her popularity predates this activity as far as I can tell.
So what does this have to do with Sailor Moon? I’m not sure. It seems as if this was a video made by someone who had heard the name Sailor Moon but had no real idea what it was. Everything is pink though Sailor Moon isn’t really about pink things. In the back of the video where Yuranis León spends some time dancing is something which looks like a toy box but this seems to fit more with Barbie than Sailor Moon. If this song had been about Barbie I think it would have worked about as well or maybe a bit better. She has a cat and Sailor Moon also has a cat though this cat doesn’t look much like Luna. The cat does resemble the fluffy white cat Luna from the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon series though! Could that be a reference? Almost certainly not. Her name is Yuranis which is sort of like Uranus? Not really.
Update:
Following my posting of this article Aurélia, a fan who frequently comments on the posts here at Sailor Moon News, added a translation to the lyrics. They have many more references to Sailor Moon than I expected! It seems like the song itself is heavily related to Sailor Moon while the music video itself doesn’t really match the lyrics. Here is her translation:
Somos las Sailor, las Sailor Scouts
[We are the Sailor, the Sailor Scouts]
Que llegamos todas a salvar al mundo
[Who all come to save the world]
A salvar el mundo de todas las malignas
[To save the world from all the Youma]
Porque somos las Sailor Scouts, las Sailor Moon
|For we are the Sailor Scouts, the Sailor Moons]
Las Sailor Moon, Moon, Moon, Moon
[The Sailor Moons, etc.]
Fuego de Marte, enciéndete, enciéndete
[Mars fire, ignite, ignite]
Burbujas de Mercurio, estallen, estallen
[Mercury bubbles, blast, blast]
Rayo creciente de Venus, fulmina, fulmina
[Crescent beam of Venus, strike, strike]
Curación lunar acción, curación lunar acción
[Moon Healing Escalation, Moon Healing Escalation]
Ay, me transformaste
[Oh, transform me!]
What do I even tag this in? It doesn’t reference any particular incarnation of Sailor Moon. I’ve chosen “Reference” but I’m not sure there’s even anything that would pass for a Sailor Moon reference in here. It’s just using the words “Sailor Moon”. I can’t really tag it in “Fan Community” because I haven’t seen any evidence that Yuranis León is a fan. I guess she must be to use the name Sailor Moon in this song. Whatever. I watched it. Now you have to watch it. If you have Sailor Moon fan friends who you hate you can send this to them so that they have to watch it too.
Thanks to @JulioDHH on Twitter for spotting this one. He asked fans to flag it and instead I’m sharing this with a bunch of fans which probably isn’t what he would want but here we are. Forgive me Julio!
Great news for Sailor Moon fans who don’t want to spend money on physical media but don’t mind spending money on streaming video services. The new Viz English dub of Sailor Moon SuperS is now available on Hulu! The subbed version has been on Hulu for many years, but the dubbed episodes have only been released some time after the home video releases were sold in stores. I’m not sure exactly when this happened but it seems it was recently. I frequently received questions from fans asking when SuperS will be out on Hulu, so I know some people had been waiting for it! Earlier today I stumbled upon this article from Variety which listed “Sailor Moon: Season 4″ as being released on October 1st. When I doubled checked Hulu’s list of October releases, Sailor Moon was not listed, however the dubbed episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS were already streaming on the site.
As a Canadian I don’t have the option to watch Hulu without some sort of proxy and I’m not going to bother paying for something which is that much trouble. Other streaming options exist in Canada, such as TubiTV, but that service does not offer the dubbed episodes which stream on Hulu. Fans can also watch subbed episodes on Viz.com but this also doesn’t include the dubbed episodes. Until recently Yahoo View! was a free option for content which used to stream for free on Hulu but the service ceased in June of this year.
If like me you’re holding out on moving forward with the digital and streaming revolution you can listen to Viz’s Sailor Moon dub by buying the seasons using the links below.
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2, the final release in Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime, is now available to pre-order from Amazon. The set will be out on November 12th of this year, just in time for Christmas. You can support the site by pre-ordering it using this link or through the links below. A lot of people used the Amazon links on the site to buy the first set which is greatly appreciated. I run Sailor Moon News as a hobby but these ads which I pepper all over the site help cover the modest expenses that the site incurs.
It bears repeating that the Right Stuf already had the set up for pre-order and fans chosing that retailer can get a “Gift With Purchase” of some Sailor Stars Art Cards if they pre-order using this link. The design of those cards hasn’t been released yet. I don’t get a kick back from Right Stuf but don’t let that stop you if you’re looking to get those cards!
Are you planning on getting this set? I was quite happy with Part 1, as you can tell from my review. If you’re missing any sets, here are a bunch of links where you can order them.
This afternoon I received my replacement booklet for the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Limited Edition Blu-Ray set. I was surprised to see this so quickly as I’d only put in the request 11 days ago on September 8th and today on the 19th it arrived at my door. Great turnaround by Viz and Warner Brothers! I was however a bit surprised to check out the relationship chart and to see Sailor Uranus and Neptune were listed simply as “Partners”. I was hoping their connection would show “Love” like is indicated for Usagi and Mamoru. Additionally the lyrics for Moonlight Legend have not been corrected.
In the press release by Viz it did indeed state “Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus are not friends, but in fact, partners” and we understand in this context that this means romantic partners and not, say, two people working together to sell insurance. In the relationship chart is that so clear? Are they partners in fighting evil or partners in the bedroom? Having watched the dubbed version of Sailor Stars Part 1 the faithful adaptation makes it clear beyond any doubt that these two share an intimate relationship with a number of suggestive lines. As I’d mentioned in an earlier post on the issue, they were previously listed as “Partners” in the Sailor Moon S relationship chart and that didn’t seem to have caused the same concern. Of course no one even noticed the error with the lyrics going back to the first season so I’m not sure how much people paid attention to such specifics. It’s worth noting that the term “Lovers” was used extensively in the Sailor Moon R relationship chart, though these two were not in that season.
Although the original press release mentioned “The erroneous text is in the romaji provided with the song lyrics.” and fans assumed this was in reference to an untranslated piece of text from Moonlight Legend, the Sailor Moon anime opening theme for all but this season, this doesn’t appear to have been fixed. I’m wondering if there was perhaps another romaji problem that was corrected? I did not do a page by page word for word comparison of both booklets to check.
Other minor changes exist in the relationship chart such as the Three Lights’ names being corrected to given name first, where this was inconsistently using their family name first in the old chart. They are also listed as “Sailor Star Lights” as a group where they weren’t before. Minor formatting changes exist on other pages but as I mentioned I didn’t do an exhaustive comparison.
What do you think? Am I being extra picky by expecting these two to be listed as being in “Love” after all that’s gone into this? Did you get your replacement booklet yet? Have you noticed any other differences?
Following the release of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 1’s Limited Edition Blu-Ray on June 18th, some fans found issues with the included booklet. Viz Media has posted an update on their official web site which has details on how to get a replacement booklet. This involves sending an e-mail to SailorMoonStarsBooklet@visionmedia.com with your Full Name, Phone Number, Email address and Mailing Address.
I sent in my own details and the response from Viz mentioned that replacement booklets would start to be sent out “no later than the end of September”. There was no need to send in the original booklet or provide any proof of purchase for the original set.
We previously reported on the issues with the booklet. The main concern was that Sailor Uranus and Neptune’s relationship was mentioned as being a “Friendship”. I jokingly suggested many other changes to the chart to reflect the reality of the season. Viz does not get into any details about the changes being made to the booklet in their post, referring only to “several errors”. They had previously mentioned that there will also be a correction to Japanese Romaji lyrics for the theme song “Moonlight Legend”. This pertains to the first line which was not translated in the English version of the lyrics. This error has been in those lyrics in every booklet since the very first season. Odd that this only gets corrected in the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars booklet as this is the only season not to use this song as its opening theme, instead featuring it only once during the end credits of the final episode of the series.
Viz’s full statement appears below:
Updated: SAILOR MOON Season 5 Set 1 Statement
Dear SAILOR MOON fans,
The booklet included in the Limited Edition version of SAILOR MOON Sailor Stars Season 5 Part 1 included several errors which we have addressed.
For those of you who purchased that product, we now have a replacement solution for the booklet. As soon as possible, please send an email to SailorMoonStarsBooklet@visionmedia.com with the subject line “Sailor Moon Replacement” and include the following details:
Full name
Phone number
Email address
Mailing address to where the replacement booklet should be shipped
Once you have provided the information, you will be on your way to receiving a replacement booklet.
Thank you again for your continued patience. We appreciate your ongoing support for SAILOR MOON. If you have any questions or thoughts on the replacement process, please reach out to us through this page or through social media:
Facebook: facebook.com/OfficialVIZMedia
Twitter: @VIZMedia and @Sailor_Moon_NA
The VIZ Media Team
Here is the complete response I received via e-mail:
Dear SAILOR MOON fan,
Thank you for your email and for providing your contact information.
Replacement booklets will start to ship by no later than the end of September 2019. Requests will be fulfilled in the order received assuming complete and correct contact/shipping information has been provided.
We appreciate your patience and your ongoing support. If you have any questions or thoughts on the replacement process, please reach out to us through this page or through social media.
Facebook: facebook.com/OfficialVIZMedia
Twitter: @VIZMedia and @Sailor_Moon_NA
The VIZ Media Team
It’s not clear if or when sets sold at retail will include the new booklet. You can buy Sailor Stars Part 1 from Amazon using the links below. Part 2 will be out November 12th.
