We’ve known for some time that both Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and 2 will be released on Netflix June 3rd. For those planning to watch it as early as possible you may have been wondering when exactly that might be! Netflix generally releases all of their new content at 12:01am Pacific Time. I happen to live in the Eastern Time Zone, a fairly populace area, so it will be available at 3:01am Eastern Time. To be more specific Netflix uses Pacific Time and so since that currently uses Pacific Daylight Time and not Pacific Standard Time, that is what will be used. With Sailor Moon Crystal episodes being released using Japanese time in the past this caused some confusion when Daylight Savings Time began and ended as it changed the time of episodes’ release to those who change their clocks!
The Sailor Moon Eternal films will cover the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon Manga which deal with the Dead Moon Circus. This was previously adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS in the original Sailor Moon anime. These movies are a continuation of Sailor Moon Crystal which previously adapted the first three story arcs of the manga as episodes.
At what time do you plan on watching the movies? Will you try to catch them when they first become available in your time zone or will you wait until later in the day?
The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with details about the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal home video release which is coming on June 30th, Usagi’s birthday. We previously mentioned that there were a number of versions of this release, including the Limited Edition DVD and Blu-ray releases which are packed with extras. The bare bones versions of both the DVD and Blu-ray do not appear to have any of the extra features but instead simply include the two Sailor Moon Eternal films.
Both the four disc limited edition DVD and Blu-ray have similar features with the Blu-ray obviously having HD 1080p video while the DVD has a standard definition, almost certainly 480p, video. The contents are as follows:
Disc 1: The actual movies, both on a single disc, with audio commentary provided by Misato Fuken, the voice of Chibiusa, and Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, on both films. Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2’s commentary also features Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, the voice of Helios/Pegasus.
Disc 2: Bonus features which includes a music video for the character song “Moon Effect”, a collection of promotional videos for the film, footage of the film’s premiere, a video of an Amazon Trio night, a completion report interview (?), a stage greeting (?) and interviews with Chiaki Kon, the director of the films, and Kazuko Tadano, character designer and animation director of the films. I don’t understand what all of these features will be.
CD 1 and 2 are still only described as being the Sailor Moon Eternal drama collection and will include the movie versions of Moon Color Chainon and Moon Effect. This certainly isn’t enough to fill two audio CDs so I think it’s safe to say we don’t have all of the details we could have about these.
A special booklet measuring 28cm x 17.5 cm or roughly 11″ x 7″.
Ultimately a lot of these features are very much in Japanese and audio or dialogue centric making them difficult for fans who don’t actually speak Japanese to get much out of. With the movies coming to Netlix weeks before this video release this might not be a worthwhile purchase for everyone!
While I usually order my Sailor Moon videos and CDs from Amazon Japan, this has become impossible lately. This release is not in stock and I don’t know if it ever will be. CD Japan seems to be a popular option with fans. I can’t say I enjoy paying more in shipping and import fees than the actual price of a product. There are also versions with pre-order exclusive bonuses such as figures which are even harder to get outside of Japan. There are proxy services which will allow you to get these. I don’t have much experience with these.
Are you looking to pick up this set? If so, where are you planning to buy it from?
Netflix has released a few Sailor Moon Eternal trailer which features new clips which we have not seen in other trailers. It also features English voices from the Viz dub cast. The trailer is making the rounds online on YouTube and various Netflix social media accounts. If you log in to Netflix and search for Sailor Moon Eternal you will be able to see three trailers. The third one, “Netflix Original Trailer: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie” is the same one you can see on YouTube though on Netflix you are able to listen to it in English, Spanish, French, Italian or Japanese. Check out the trailer embedded below.
A great gift is coming for Usagi’s 43rd birthday as both Sailor Moon Eternal films will be released on one DVD and Blu-ray set June 30th. The news follows Netflix’s announcement that the movies will be streaming worldwide on their service on June 3rd. There will be a more expensive 3 disc Blu-ray (or DVD) and CD combo or a less expensive but still expensive single disc version. A trailer for the home video release was shared to the official site. You can watch it below.
Though we don’t have a lot of details about the special features the more or less bare bones release appears to be just a Blu-ray, or DVD, of the film itself. The single disc Blu-ray will cost 9,800 yen, about $90 US, while the DVD will cost 8,800 yen, about $81 US. The first run limited edition Blu-Ray set will include the disc with the films, a bonus Blu-ray disc who’s contents have not yet been specified, two CDs which will include songs from the film as well as some drama tracks and a booklet. Drama CDs usually include audio of the characters, performed by the voice actors, along with songs. In this case the songs are Moon Color Chainon, the opening theme for the film, and Moon Effect, one of the character songs which feature the entire film’s cast. The exact content of these CDs remains to be determined. There have been a number of Sailor Moon drama CDs released in the past though they’re not of much use to fans who can’t understand Japanese. This Blu-ray set will cost 15,000 yen, about $138 US. The DVD version is 14,000 yen, about $129 US.
Note that Japanese Blu-ray discs are region A which is the same region as North America. I have imported many Sailor Moon Blu-ray discs and they play without issue on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game systems which were bought in Canada. Japanese DVDs are region 2 NTSC discs and are incompatible with North American region 1 DVD players, unless they are region free. These sets will almost certainly not have any English subtitles or audio.
There are also vendor specific pre-order bonuses from specific retailers. Some are included with the base price but some others are included for a premium price. For Amazon Japan the free pre-order bonus is an A4 sized file folder featuring Sailor Uranus and Neptune. The premium pre-order bonuses are a framed lithograph (high quality printed image) and a Luna and Artemis mug set. There are not currently any pictures of these items. The sets are currently being shown as being out of stock on Amazon Japan. I’ve had issues preordering a number of their recent CD sets. We will be sure to share some links once other purchasing options are available.
There are also a number of Sailor Moon figures as pre-order bonuses. A set of the five Sailor Guardians in Eternal outfits is available with what I believe is the official fan club. A different set with Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon and the Sailor Quartet is available from the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store. (Update 2021-05-03: It seems the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store figures are of Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto and not the Sailor Quartet. I misinterpreted the half broken translation I was reading.)
Do you plan on picking up any of these sets? With the movies streaming on Netflix in early June many fans will have had the opportunity to see the films before this is released. It is also likely that we will eventually get a much less expensive domestic release of these films, though it’s hard to say when that might be. While the bonus video and booklet certainly do seem appealing I look forward to getting more details of what this includes before deciding if these are worth the price! What do you think?
We finally have official confirmation of something we’ve suspected for a long time. The Sailor Moon Eternal films are coming to Netflix! Both Part 1 and Part 2 will be released worldwide on the streaming service in many languages on June 3rd! Watch the announcement trailer which includes Sailor Moon voice actors from around the world and some odd music which is absolutely not in the actual movie.
A listing for the film is also now up on Netflix. It is mentioned to be a double feature but it isn’t clear if this will be one amalgamated movie or if both parts will be released separately. With Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 having been released in theatres in Japan on January 8th of this year the worldwide release will take place nearly five months later. Fans have been waiting for a date for the Netflix release for a while. The fact that the movies were coming to Netflix for international audiences outside of Japan has been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry!
The first hint that Netflix would be dubbing the series goes back to November with the Astro Girl fiasco. A listing showed up on the Screen Actors Guild web site suggesting that “Astro Girl: (Aka: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie)” was being done with a “Netflix dubbing agreement”. The simplest interpretation of this was that Netflix was dubbing the series, which we now know to be correct. At the time I classified this as a rumour.
The next hint came in December as a voice actor accidentally shared a photo which unbeknownst to him revealed a monitor in the background showing an image of the Amazoness Quartet and the words “Property of Netflix”. As this voice actor previously voiced Tiger’s Eye in Sailor Moon SuperS it seemed evident that he was reprising his role in Sailor Moon Eternal. At this point I thought there was no longer any doubt that the movies would be released on Netflix. The only question remaining was when. We now have that answer!
Finally in January there was a Facebook post by a Spanish voice actor of Tuxedo Mask who straight up stated that he recorded Sailor Moon Eternal and thanked Netflix for bringing him and some other Spanish voice actors back to reprise their roles. This not only served as further confirmation of the already evident fact that Sailor Moon Eternal would appear on Netflix, but that it was also being dubbed in a number of other languages. We can now see from the trailer that this is in fact the case!
For those of you who would only be satisfied by the most official of official statements, here it is! Please don’t mind my saying I told you so!
It’s worth noting that the trailer also includes a brief clip of Kotono Mitsuishi performing Sailor Moon’s voice in Japanese which suggests that fans will have the option to watch the movie in the original Japanese with subtitles in addition to the dub language of their choosing.
Are you already subscribed to Netflix? If not, will you be signing up in order to see these films?
This weekend are the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup series qualifiers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Uzbekistan team performed a Sailor Moon inspired 5 Balls performance complete with Sailor Moon outfits and Smusic! The team placed first, gold, in this qualifying performance. You can watch a video of the performance below.
Evidently the outfits the team is wearing are meant to resemble Sailor Moon herself. While five different costumes to match the various Sailor Guardians would have been nice, there are probably good reasons, perhaps rules of the competition, which meant that having matching uniforms was preferable. While the music for the performance starts out as generic music unrelated to Sailor Moon it quickly switches to something fans will instantly recognize. We have an instrumental version of the Sailor Moon opening theme Moonlight Legend followed by an edited version of the actual theme song by DALI, without the vocals. This then cuts to some background music used in Sailor Moon S when Sailor Uranus and Neptune transform before finally going back to Moonlight Legend to end the performance.
While I am not an expert in Rhythmic Gymnastics I believe this win qualifies the team for a spot at this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo, if they had not qualified already. These qualifiers, like the Olympics themselves, were originally scheduled for 2020 but delayed to this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Could we be seeing a similar performance again at the Olympics?
It’s a multi series Sailor Moon crossover event as Keiko Kitagawa, who played Sailor Mars in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, and Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon from the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal, play mother and daughter in the upcoming TV series Rikokatsu! The series will air on TBS Television starting this Friday, April 16th.
Update – April 14th: I mistakenly referred to this as a movie in my original post. This is in fact a TV series which will air starting this Friday on Japanese television. Perhaps a fan subbed version will make its way online in the coming weeks!
The plot of the show has Keiko Kitagawa’s character of Saki Mizuguchi falling in love with and marrying Koichi Obara, played by Japanese actor Eita. As they have conflicting personalities they intend to get a divorce and, to serve the high jynx plot of the series, do not tell their family about this. Kotono Mitsuishi plays Midori Mizuguchi, Saki’s mother.
Watch the trailer for the series embedded below:
Asian Drama series have a dedicated following outside of Japan. Do you any of you plan on following this series?
The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Prism on Ice musical, which had been planned for this June, has been delayed by one year until June of 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The ice skating show, which had originally been scheduled for June of 2020, had previously been delayed due to the pandemic. Some events, such as the Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical which is now scheduled for September of 2021, are taking place this year. The same was not possible for the Prism on Ice event.
The stated reasons for this delay are Japan’s travel restrictions and requirements to quarantine for visitors from many countries. This has already meant that foreign visitors would not be attending this summer’s Tokyo Olympic games. While this is not a concern for September’s Sailor Moon musical, an event which is able to generate sufficient ticket sales while selling exclusively to Japanese customers, the same is not true for the Prism on Ice show. This skating event features performers from around the world which made the logistics complicated.
It remains to be seen what aspects of the show might have changed following two years of delay. The show’s main star, Russian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva, was set to play Sailor Moon. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 late last year and suffered from a back injury around the same time. This has kept her from competing. It’s possible that the delay may also be to accommodate Evgenia Medvedeva’s schedule in the hopes that she will be in a better condition to perform in the show by next summer. She is a huge Sailor Moon fan and even traveled back to Japan early, around this time last year, to prepare for the event before it was delayed the first time.
Regardless of what happens with the musical we certainly hope for a quick recovery for Evgenia Medvedeva. For fans who were hoping to see this event they may have a chance by next summer to visit Tokyo, assuming travel restrictions are lifted by then. Are you hoping to make it to Japan for this one?
The next Sailor Moon musical, The Lover of Princess Kaguya, finally has a new release date of September 2021 in Japan! This musical was originally scheduled to be performed in Japan in the summer of 2020 however it was postponed along with many other events such as the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sailor Moon official site has been updated to mention only that the event will take place in September, though specific dates and locations for these performances are not yet specified.
Years ago this musical was only referred to as the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon New Musical and it was planned for a 2019 release. This was when it was announced alongside the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical and The Super Live musical. We finally have a proper updated logo for the musical in which we can see Luna and the somewhat awkward full title Musical Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Lover of Princess Kaguya. The Lover of Princess Kaguya manga story on which this musical is based is all about Luna falling in love with a human. This story is probably best known to some fans as Sailor Moon S The Movie which was an adaptation of that manga story.
We still don’t know much about this musical than we did in 2019. With this story focusing on Luna, will we be seeing excellent puppet work like they did in the Nogizaka46 musical? While Human Luna will be appearing in this musical that is only briefly near the end and Luna will be an actual cat for most of the story.
Would you consider traveling to Japan in September of this year? Though the ongoing pandemic is still raging in many parts of the world, many people in all age groups will likely have access to vaccines by the end of the summer making this a low risk trip for many, which certainly wouldn’t have been the case last year.
If you’re looking to catch up on the manga story this musical is based on it is included in volume 6 of the Eternal Edition of the Sailor Moon manga.
I am saddened to share that veteran anime voice actor Masahiro Anzai died of heart failure last Monday, March 15th. He was only 66. Though he had many major roles in popular anime series his role on Sailor Moon was only heard in one episode. That was Rhett Butler, the cat who fell in love with Luna, and the monster Bakeen who he turned into. That role didn’t actually include any dialog as Rhett Butler, a cat, communicated primarily through meows and other animal sounds.
I always had a particular fondness for the character of Rhett Butler. Masahiro Anzai no doubt contributed to the character’s charm. That episode is one of my favourites and certainly the one I find the most humourous. It’s a funny but also heartwarming story as this cat who takes on the role of a feline Tuxedo Mask protects Luna from Zoisite. As a Rainbow Crystal carrier Rhett Butler is the only one with a strong enough will to keep his own personality once he transforms into the monster Bakene. He rescues and protects Luna. Sadly this romance wouldn’t last. Artemis shows up only two episodes later and so Rhett Butler must contend with the affection of his owner An.
Rhett Butler appeared later in the series when he was kidnapped along with a few other Rainbow Crystal carriers but he had no voice work in that episodes. Bakene was also meant to appear in the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon series however little is known about the voice cast in that show.
Aside from Sailor Moon Masahiro Anzai was also the voice of Ryunosuke’s Father from Urusei Yatsura, Cherenkov from the Starship Troopers Anime, Majaho from Wings of Honneamise, Seisuke Tsuruta from Gorillaman and Philionel El Di Saillune from Slayers.
Masahiro Anzai’s memory will live on through his many fans for years to come.