The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be released on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday at 9pm Eastern Time. Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, continues with Chibiusa being Black Lady and making out with her dad.
We will get real cute moment with Sailor Pluto this week as we see a flashback to when she was young. Sailor Pluto will also give Diana a part time job which makes one wonder what her actual job is if a tiny kitten can do it.
The next new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available this Monday, April 18th. Act 28, Infinity 2 – Ripples, will air on Japanese TV at 11pm Japan Standard Time and be available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu immediately afterwards starting at 10:30am Eastern Time, 7:30am Pacific Time. This episode has the students of Mugen Academy attending a retreat in the woods as Rei faces off against Eudial of the Witches 5.
We’ll see more of Haruka and Michiru, but not much more of Sailor Uranus and Neptune than we did last week. Not that one has to do with the other!
I’ll be traveling in Italy all throughout next week so I won’t have my review up until at least a week after this episode airs. I hope everyone enjoys it!
The latest English episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, is all about Black Lady and Black Lady making out with her dad. We only got glimpses of her last week but here we see here normally. Her voice is provided by Sandy Fox, who also plays Chibiusa, though naturally it sound different from her child voice.
I love to make fun of the fact that Black Lady loves making out with her dad but this is a bit of a complex issue. Chibiusa has fairly normal feelings for her father but add time travel, magical aging and a bit of evil into the mix and things and get a bit confused. Next Friday is Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, which is a lot more Black Lady!
The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday, April 15th, at 9pm Eastern Time. This week on Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, we finally get a proper look at Black Lady, the evil older version of Chibiusa who’s all about making out with her dad. Chibiusa has used magic to be aged and time travel to meet a younger version of her father. The result? A father/daughter combo that is the same age and Chibiusa is all about kissing her dad!
I joke but the reasons for Black Lady having these feelings for her father are complex. Take a young girl without a true understanding of her feelings who naturally has a love for her father and artificially age her prematurely and the result is this mess we’ve found ourselves in. Usagi is, naturally, not terribly pleased with the situation! Black Lady, who was heard briefly last week, is voiced by Sandy Fox who also plays Chibiusa. Her voice for Black Lady is quite different from what we’re used to hearing.
Well isn’t this just confusing. The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, the 28th episode, is also called Act 27. Sailor Moon Crystal Act 27, Infinity 1 – Premonition – Second Part, is now available on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. This episode covers the second part of the manga chapter which is Act 27, and so in order to keep the numbering for future episodes, Act 27 is used for both parts. This will be a bit confusing in the future as the Act number for every episode will not accurately reflect how many episodes have been released to date. Crunchyroll, Hulu and Neon Alley all refer to it as Episode 28 – Act 27 … I will continue to refer to episodes as “Act XX” so it will be Act 28 next week, even though this is the 29th episode and some services may use 29 to refer to it.
Since this episode covers half an Act of the manga, the pacing is a bit off, but with two monster attacks in that original story it actually works decently. Overall this was another great episode full of lovely animation. I enjoy all of the cute animation things they’ve included which have super deformed characters and silly little things. These are often unrealistic such as Usagi pulling a hammer out of hammer space or Sailor Chibi Moon breaking the forth wall by blowing away a balloon which Sailor Moon pops up in.
There’s a massive Luna book in the Tsukino living room. What’s that about? I guess if I saw a book with a picture of a cat that looked just like mine on it I might buy it but I have a sort of generic looking black cat who is also named Luna. Coincidence? Of course not I named the cat after the Sailor Moon character.
A big change this week is this new fancy communicator that Mamoru has but absolutely refuses to use. First we see Mamoru on this ancient assed phone talking about his communicator, but not using it. It’s odd enough to see a man of Mamoru’s age and lack of family attachments not using a cell phone, but having him use a land line to refer to his communicator is absolutely absurd. Are there limited minutes on this thing? I don’t think it’s using the cell service of Tokyo. Pretty sure it’s being relayed through the massive super computer hidden under the arcade. Pretty sure these things can be used to do point to point or conference type calls as much as needed. Mamoru has no one in his home and given his willingness to divulge secret identities last week, it’s hardly a security concern to use the communicator which he’s openly wearing on his wrist as it’s designed for. In reality in 2016 he should have a cell phone and the communicators are not really something that needs to exist, but with this being such a faithful adaptation of the manga it’s not simply a case of upgrading a disk to a CD and a tape to a DVD when things are so closely tied into the story. This isn’t the live action series which beautifully adapted period relevant cell phone technology to suit the story after all. So Mamoru uses a lame phone and doesn’t really use his communicator like he should.
We get a decent look at the Witches 5 this week. They aren’t really supposed to be in it as much as they are. In the manga they don’t show up at the battle but then they needed to stretch out the battle with something. They’re supposed to show up one at a time starting with Eudial in the next Act. That seems to still be happening. Cyprine is shown but Ptilol is not. This may be because there are 6 members of the Witches 5 and showing them all makes their name seem stupid.
Chibiusa heads to the amusement park with her friends. Mamoru accompanies her and brings Asanuma along and how in love is this guy with Mamoru? Also in attendance are Chibiusa’s friends who are all basically slightly younger versions of characters we’ve seen elsewhere in the series. Kyuusuke, who we’ve seen before, is basically a small version of Mamoru. Chibiusa’s relationship with him isn’t that weird considering she’s totally made out with the fully adult version of her actual father. The Umino looking kid is Sorano. He also looks like Amano from the Sailor V comic. Speaking of originality, his name, Sorano, is like Hikaru Sorano, Minako’s Ami looking friend from Sailor V. I’m not sure what that other kid’s name is but he looks like a tiny Asanuma. Maybe he’s totally in love with Kyuusuke. Why not? I’m shipping those two.
Chibiusa loses her hat. This is a big deal because Ikuko Mama, who’s pretty much her 3rd most important mom, gave it to her. This hat travels really far, behind a massive building, and so far that Mamoru can’t follow. Chibiusa runs after it and Mamoru leaves immediately afterwards, but never quite manages to catch up. More than anyone needs to say about that later.
Usagi transforms into a student from Mugen Academy. Great plan! This school is huge, having student from all levels and with 60 floors! Somehow though she gets called out by a student that doesn’t recognize her. She must be really good with faces. Mugen Academy is a new school, but somehow one that has produced a great number of celebrities. I expect it didn’t actually spring up between seasons but I feel it can’t have produced that many important graduates in such a short time. The Daimon this week is a cat that really doesn’t seem to care about being turned into a monster. Classic cat!
Cue the transformation sequences. We did this last week. Stock footage has its cost savings purpose and when used properly it can look good and not be annoying. This week’s purely stock footage transformations, most of which we saw last week, ran from 13:55 to 18:22. That’s four and a half minutes of transforming and posing. The show is 24 minutes long with a minute long opening and ending. We don’t have time for this. This is excessive. I like what the new episodes are doing and the love improved animation but this is one aspect which I did not appreciate and I hope it is improved in the future. New here is only Sailor Chibi Moon’s transformation sequence which is cool if not kind of like the rest. She does a somewhat humorous “you have a small penis” pose with her fingers which I find funny but, given the wide variety of perversion on the Internet, I’m sure will actually be appreciated by someone out there.
Sailor Neptune and Uranus appear in this episode as cardboard cutouts. I felt like I was looking at frames of the manga. I get that they don’t really do much in this fight but they are so briefly shown in flashes that it’s a bit disappointing. Sailor Uranus in a mask and cape is cool though. Her gender is still ambiguous and Usagi seems to recognize her.
Hotaru is all over this episode. She doesn’t do a ton but it’s nice to see her and her wicked new hair cut. She seems to have changed the most of the new characters with just this. She seems to immediately discover everyone’s secret identities by asking “Who the hell are you?” and then Sailor Chibi Moon seems to think there’s no more reason to hide things. A funny exchange. Naturally we’ll be seeing a lot more of her as this season goes on because it’s not the original anime which downplayed everything about this character.
Enter Mamoru. Remember this guy? Yeah he just fails on every level in this episode. He ran after Chibiusa and her hat. Chibiusa is a child. He’s a grown man! He jogged in the original anime. This guy can’t keep up with a child and the wind. He even had an extra four and a half minutes to catch up while everyone was transforming and posing for the cat Daimon that didn’t really care about anything. If only Mamoru had some way to find out where everyone was! Oh right, he very specifically mentioned his communicator as a tool to keep in touch with Usagi at this exact time and he’s just not using it! Does this fossil from the 90s need a land line to stay in touch with his girlfriend? Maybe the girls should have started a fire and sent out some smoke signals so that Mamoru can keep up!
Next week is Act 28, Infinity 2 – Ripples, which is a confusing name for the 29th episode and 3rd part of the Infinity Arc but here we are. This episode will air next Monday, April 18th, and be available to stream at 10:30am Easter Time. The gang head out to a sort of school retreat by students of Mugen Academy where Eudial of the Witches 5, posing as a student, gets up to no good. She’s the paired Rei villain of this story arc, so it becomes a Rei episode! Since Act 27 Part 2 actually went a bit into the story of Act 28 it’s hard to tell where exactly this one will end. It should be easy enough to just wrap up the episode where the manga chapter does.
Good job if you made it this far. My review seems a bit more unhinged than usual this week. Keep reading for more screenshots from this episode and the next episode preview for Act 28.
This is it! Episode 200 of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars is now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This is the last episode of the series, making the entire 200 episode run of the original Sailor Moon anime available to watch in Japanese with English subtitles for free… if you live in the right country. There’s no telling how long these episodes will remain available to free Hulu users as older episodes of some shows will often be available only to those with paid Hulu Plus subscriptions. This episode is rated TV-MA, no doubt because of the lengthy nude scene which isn’t terribly high on detail. I first watched the second half of this episode before seeing any of Sailor Stars at my local anime club. It was unsubtitled and I really didn’t know what was going on, but thanks to VKLL I later saw the rest of the series and figured out what was what.
Episode 200, Usagi’s Love: The Moonlight Illuminates the Galaxy, wraps everything up quite well. Chibi Chibi became a light and then turns into a Star Seed and then into a sword. A bit crazy but the idea is basically that Chibi Chibi is the light of hope, which is not at all what she is in the manga. She is Galaxia’s Star Seed, ejected out of her when Chaos began to take over her body. How does a Star Seed continue to have autonomy outside of the host? The Silver Crystal never seemed to have a mind of its own, but Chibi Chibi is sort of like the good half of Galaxia, removing itself from the body which is evil. Usagi transforms into Princess Serenity with wings, which is a very cool form I’ve always appreciated. Princess Serenity, ever kind and forgiving, does not want to use the sword to attack Galaxia. This is messed up! Galaxia’s Star Seed is begging Usagi to kill Galaxia and she’s refusing. Can you imagine if a part of you left your body and gained some sort of agency and then tried to kill you? Galaxia is like Devon Sawa in Idle Hands! Galaxia lost her Star Seed and now it’s time for Sailor Moon to lose her clothes. This is where the TV-MA rating comes in. Usagi starts flying around totally naked. What are they going to do, cancel the show? This is the last episode! There’s a bit of sparring and finally the light of the Silver Crystal reaches good girl Galaxia who is somewhere inside evil Galaxia. The good Galaxia inside evil Galaxia’s brain takes Sailor Moon’s hand just as real Galaxia does and poof, she’s healed! We assume at this point that Galaxia’s true Star Seed is somehow reincorporated into Galaxia, merging their memories. Does Chibi Chibi die? Does the Silver Crystal let Galaxia be good without a Star Seed while Chibi Chibi still exists, as she’s seen flying around later? Speaking of Star Seeds, all those Star Seeds Galaxia gathered are released like Pokémon let back into the wild. This is good news for all of Usagi’s up to now dead friends, including Mamoru who returns as Endymion because that is his coolest form. Chibiusa? Not around. Makes me wonder why Galaxia didn’t go to the future to get her and Diana’s Star Seeds. Perhaps she should have captured a bunch of Sailor Guardians and bred in a sort of Star Seed farm to keep making more!
Everyone’s alive and it’s time for the Sailor Starlights to head back home. Seiya says his farewells to Usagi who is still ignorant of how he really feels about her. Luna shows some serious lust for Yaten, which doesn’t make Artemis very happy. We then see Hotaru and Setsuna, happily chilling with their murderers Haruka and Michiru. I guess that was all part of the plan? Hotaru must be getting used to those two trying to kill her at this point. Usagi and Mamoru share a moment alone in front of the moon, exchange pleasantries and kiss. With a series full of constant interruptions to their romance, they are at last at peace and can be together. In an homage to the famous quote from the first season, Usagi states that she’s 16 years old and a bit of a klutz and a crybaby, but that she’s actually a Guardian of love and justice, Sailor Moon. When Usagi used to say these words it was more like “Oh isn’t this weird but I’m a superhero” but here her tone is totally different. It’s like she’s saying “I look unsuspecting and I’m a bit emotional, but I’m a badass superhero and I’ve got this shit covered.”. What a perfect line to bookend the series and demonstrate just how much she’s grown not just in power but as a character who uses love and kindness over her sheer power. These final end credits are accompanied by the original opening theme, Moonlight Densetsu, which was not used elsewhere in the season, as well as a lovely montage of images.
The end.
For those who’ve seen the series before, I hope you enjoyed revisiting it. For those who are seeing it for the first time, I hope you loved it. The manga is its own thing in many ways, so check that out if you haven’t. Hopefully Sailor Moon Crystal makes it all the way to the end and we can see a totally different ending to the series and a very different origin for Chibi Chibi.
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Update: The episode will actually be referred to as Act 27 – Infinity 1 – Premonition – Second Part. Such a confusing title.
The next new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will air on Japanese TV tomorrow at 11pm Japan Standard Time. This will be 10am Eastern Time, 7am Pacific Time, and the stream should be available on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Neon Alley shortly afterwards. Last week the episode was available around 10:45am Eastern Time, some 15 minutes after the episode would have concluded on Japanese TV. There’s a countdown on the Act 28 page at Crunchyroll which is counting down to 10:30am Eastern Time. I would recommend watching it on Crunchyroll which has a free and paid commercial free option as well as apps to watch those episodes on, though some of you who live in a country which Hulu doesn’t hate may already have a subscription with them. Last week Hulu restricted the episode to Hulu Plus only for a while, thought it was immediately available to watch on Viz’s web site Neon Alley which is a different way of watching Hulu content. Free users watching on Hulu should go to the Neon Alley page if they can’t find the episode right away.
This week we get Act 28, Infinity 1 – Premonition – The 2nd Part. This is the direct continuation of the half episode we got last week as the manga chapter for Act 27 has now been split in two in order to make this story arc 13 episodes long. The gang will travel to an amusement park where Chibiusa will meet Hotaru for the first time. We only briefly saw Hotaru last week. She’ll be wearing a Mugen Academy school uniform, which Usagi will also have thanks to her Disguise Pen.
This episode will also feature our first look at Sailor Uranus and Neptune. Last week we saw Haruka and Michiru but we haven’t yet seen them transformed. Of course promotional material, the opening and ending themes and the commercial break bumpers have featured these two prominently so we won’t be too surprised to see them.
The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week is Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis. Black Lady is still not really here. She’s semi visible, mostly obscured in a kind of mist. The technique used for this was changed slightly between the streaming release and the DVD/Blu-Ray version which is what we’re getting for these English versions. This screenshot is, lazily, from the original streaming version.
Act 21 and 22 of Sailor Moon Crystal are based on the equivalent chapters of the newest version of the manga, but these were actually originally a single chapter, though it was a long one. This makes gives this and the last episode an odd pace, which is why Chibiusa’s transformation into Black Lady is teased out over such a long time that it seems like a powered up attack from Dragonball Z or maybe Ryu’s multi episode Hadouken from Street Fighter II V.
Next week on Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, we will get a proper look at Black Lady.
This weekend is Emerald City Comicon at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. In attendance will be Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, and Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter. Linda Ballantyne was the 3rd voice of Sailor Moon who appeared throughout the Sailor Moon S and SuperS seasons. Susan Roman voiced Sailor Jupiter throughout the entire series.
The two will be hosting a panel, Stories from the Moon Kingdom, on Saturday from 12:15pm to 1:1pm. They will also be signing autographs throughout the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There are a lot of other cool guests at the convention including Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!
Update 2016-04-15: The game is now also available in the US iTunes store.
In September Sailor Moon Drops, a Sailor Moon game for iOS and Android, was released in Japan. An English version of the game, now called SailorDrops, is now available in the Canadian iTunes Store and Google Play Store. Since this game is free American users should have no trouble downloading it. You’ll just need to switch your iTunes store to Canada (using the link on the bottom right of iTunes) and registering a Canadian iTunes account with a new e-mail address. Don’t like having to jump through these hoops to play this game? How do you think we enjoy watching stuff on Hulu?!
Update: It seems that this game is region locked and not playable on US iPhones. Hopefully the game will be out in the US soon.
The game is all about matching sets of three symbols to make chains and complete levels by getting certain points in a certain number of moves. The mechanics were a bit of a mystery in the Japanese version but this English version with English tutorials should be quite easy to follow.
The Japanese game has had a number of events and I’m not sure what the event schedule will be for the English game. A lot of them were date sensitive so starting those later in the English version wouldn’t make a ton of sense.
Be sure to add me as a friend. My username is Sailor Moon News and my ID is ww3a6189c. I probably won’t be the one playing but my girlfriend is pretty much obsessed with this game so if she switches from the Japanese version to this one, that account will have a lot of activity.