Author Archives: Adam

Sailor Moon episodes 7 and 8 are now available on Hulu

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Sailor Moon episode 7 - Cross dressing Umino with Naru

This Monday, June 2nd, Hulu has added two new episodes of Sailor Moon. These episodes are subbed only by Viz and are being released at a rate of two episodes a week every Monday for the foreseeable future. This week we have episodes 7 and 8.

Episode 7, Usagi Learns Her Lesson: Becoming a Star Is Hard Work, has Usagi and her classmates going wild preparing for the Cinderella Caravan, a local talent show promoted by teen idol Mikan, or rather a monster who is posing as Mikan. The talent show is nothing but a plot by Jadeite and the Dark Kingdom to steal energy. Along the way we have Usagi and Naru breaking the 4th wall by performing the show’s theme song and Umino cross dressing in an attempt to do anything to win the contest!

Sailor Moon episode 8 - Ami and a Youma

Episode 8, The Girl Genius Is a Monster: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror, introduces us to Ami Mizuno, a quiet genius at Usagi’s school with an IQ of 300 (IQs over around 160 are generally thought to be beyond our ability to properly measure). The Dark Kingdom has infiltrated a cram school and Usagi suspects Ami might be in league with the enemy. As it turns out she’s the latest Sailor Guardian Sailor Mercury!

Next week we’ll be seeing episode 9, Usagi’s Misfortune! Watch Out for the Rushing Clocks, which although dubbed in English was sometimes not aired in syndication due to the unfortunate English title “Time Bomb”. Also released next Monday will be “Cursed Buses! Fire Warrior Mars Appears” which is the first appearance of the greatest character in the series!

Both Codename Sailor V Complete Edition manga books are out now

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Codename: Sailor V - Complete Edition Manga - Covers

Following the last release of the Sailor Moon Complete Edition manga we now have all of Codename Sailor V released in Japan in this same format. The Complete Edition of the Sailor Moon, and now Sailor V, manga are high quality collector’s editions of the manga with larger, brighter pages and which include all colour pages previously only seen in pages of Nakayoshi and Run Run. While Sailor Moon appeared in Nakayoshi the Codename Sailor V manga was often serialized in another magazine, Run Run. The Codename Sailor V manga was also written by Naoko Takeuchi and it predates Sailor Moon, though it continued to be written alongside it and it’s final story was actually written after Sailor Moon’s run had been completed. It tells the story of Minako when she was Sailor V in the days before she joined Sailor Moon as Sailor Venus. Chronologically the entire story takes place prior to the first issue of the Sailor Moon manga.

Codename: Sailor V - Complete Edition Manga - Comparison with original manga

This complete edition was released on Thursday May 29th. Unlike the Sailor Moon releases of this manga there is no new art for the covers but instead the art of the original books for Codename Sailor V volumes 1 and 2 are used for these. As you can see by the comparison to the original manga releases these ones are a bit larger and feature a much larger image of the volume 2 cover art. These books are Japanese only. You can order them from Amazon Japan (vol. 1, vol. 2) or CD Japan (vol. 1, vol. 2).

Codename: Sailor V - Complete Edition Manga - Colour pages - Gym uniform

Keep reading to see more of the colour pages included in this release.

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Crunchyroll to stream the new Sailor Moon anime Sailor Moon Crystal

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crunchyroll

Last weekend at FanimeCon 2014 in San Jose Crunchyroll announced that the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, would begin streaming on it’s site starting July 5th at 3am. This new anime will be streamed with English subtitles as it is released in Japan on Niconico. The announcement was made on their website shortly afterwards.

Anime series can be streamed for free on the Crunchyroll web site. For those looking for a better experience there is a pay service which will allow you to view the shows in HD without ads and on all kinds of media devices for $6.95 a month. You can sign up for a free 14 day trial of this service though a credit card or PayPal account will be needed for this trail. It’s certainly great to be able to watch a Sailor Moon series online streaming without commercials! It’s unfortunate that Hulu doesn’t have an ad free plan for fans of the original anime who are likely willing to throw their money at them but the fine people at Hulu have poor business sense and offer no such option.

Sailor Moon episodes 5 and 6 are now available on Hulu

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Sailor Moon episode 5 - Mika and Shingo hypnotized by the Chanela

The 5th and 6th episodes of Sailor Moon are now available subbed and streaming on Hulu. As was mentioned previously by Viz, who has acquired the rights to the series, two new episodes will be released every Monday! This week includes two new episodes which were previously not dubbed into English. For many nostalgic fans this is a great chance to check out these episodes for the first time!

Sailor Moon episode 5 - Evil Shingo and Mika

Episode 5, Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love has tensions grow between Shingo and Luna, who is integrating herself into the Tsukino family as a pet, as the Chanela appear in town. Shingo and his friend Mika, along with many other children, are hypnotized by the Chanela who are actually a plot by the Dark Kingdom. One has to wonder if the Chanela themselves were actually innocent creatures with autonomy created as part of this plot and discarded afterwards or if they were just mindless tools. This episode features an interesting twist as Usagi, disguised as Sailor Moon, hides her face from Shingo fearing he might recognize her. Later in the series Usagi’s transformed self is never recognized by anyone. Perhaps Usagi, new to her powers, simply didn’t realize this was the case so early in the show.

Sailor Moon episode 6 - Yusuke Amade playing the piano

Episode 6, Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid, has Usagi befriending a jazz musician Yusuke Amade, whose music is being used by the Dark Kingdom in order to collect energy. Usagi plays cupid in that she gives him advise on how to win over Akiko who he’s interested in. Usagi uses her transformation pen to get into a club and in doing so sports a punky looking green hair style.

Sailor Moon episode 6 - Usagi with green hair

Soldier of Love and Beauty Sailor Venus shirt for sale until Sunday at Arteesel

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Soldier of Love and Beauty shirt featuring Sailor Venus

From now until midnight on Sunday May 25th at Arteesel you can pick up a couple of great Sailor Moon shirts for $12 a piece. “Soldier of Love and Beauty” features a silhouette of Sailor Venus against an orange or blue background. “Usagi and the Starry Night“, which we posted about before, features Super Sailor Moon in a style reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Usagi and the Starry Night

The Sailor Venus shirt is made by artist sigma-astra. Check out her Facebook page, Redbubble store and Society6 store for more of her stuff. She’s done a set of five shirts in this style, which are also available at her RedBubble store.

The Van Gogh shirt is designed by Gilles Bonne. Check out his personal web site, Red Bubble store, Facebook, Twitter, deviantART or tumblr pages for more of his stuff.

Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon returns to Toronto with Linda Ballantyne and Toby Proctor June 19th

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Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon

Fan Fiction is returning to Toronto and this time Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, will be joining Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, at this comedy special. The show takes place Thursday June 19th at 9:30pm at the Comedy Bar at 945 Bloor St. West in downtown Toronto.

Toby Proctor dressed as Tuxedo Mask for Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon

Fan Fiction The Show is a recurring comedy special that consists of a live comedic reading of Fan Fiction of one franchise or another with various comedians playing the parts of characters from these franchises. Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon was a great success when it first took place last July and had Toby Proctor dressed up as Tuxedo Mask for his performance. For thoughts on that check out our interview with Toby Proctor at Fan Expo 2013.

Get your tickets through NXNE. Follow Fan Fiction The Show on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with their other shows.

The Sailor Moon Pullip doll is coming in July, will come with a plush Luna and will cost $170

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Sailor Moon Pullip doll

The Sailor Moon Pullip doll which was announced in March is available for pre-order in Japan and with that we have more details about it. The doll will be released in July and will cost a whopping 17,280 yen, about $170 US. Pullip dolls sure aren’t cheap! This kind of price is expected for a licensed doll like this. Sailor Moon also comes with a mini stuffed Luna accessory.

Luna accessory with the Sailor Moon Pullip doll

The doll’s height is 31 cm, a bit over 12 inches, with a 6.5 cm head, about 2.5 inches.

Sailor Moon Pullip doll

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Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune, to appear at Unplugged Expo in Toronto September 27th and 28th

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Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune, at Unplugged Expo

Barbara Radecki, who voiced Sailor Neptune in the Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon S, will be making an appearance at Unplugged Expo 3 this September 27th and 28th at the Chestnut Conference Centre in downtown Toronto. Barbara Radecki also provided the voice of Serena’s mother in both the DiC dubbed first two seasons and the Cloverway dubbed S and SuperS seasons and one of the Doom and Gloom Girls in the episode Day of Destiny.

Ikuko Mama - Serena's Mom

Last year’s Unplugged Expo had a huge gathering of Sailor Moon voice actors to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show. I had a fantastic time at Unplugged Expo 2. For more on that check out the first and second panels that were recorded at that convention.

Sailor Neptune

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Schedule of Sailor Moon related events at Anime North 2014 May 23rd to the 25th

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Anime North program cover

The Anime North web site has posted it’s schedule for this coming weekend’s convention. Here’s a run down of the Sailor Moon related events which will be taking place at the convention which will feature as guests Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask and John Stocker, voice director for the movies and later seasons of the anime.

Friday May 23rd:

5pm – Sailor Moon Merchandise and Media panel. This panel is run by Emily of the Moon Chase blog. I’ve been to this panel at other conventions in the past. It will be a run down of the current state of Sailor Moon as far as merchandise and rights goes. With a lot of new merchandise coming out and Viz getting the rights to the old and new anime this panel should prove interesting.

7pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

9pm – Sailor Moon Resurgent. This panel will have the Sailor Moon voice actors sharing stories.

Saturday May 24th:

1pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

3pm – Sailor Moon voice actors. This is the Saturday Sailor Moon voice actor panel featuring the convention’s guests.

4pm – Sailor Moon. I don’t have any details about this panel. It seems to be a fan panel to discuss the show.

Sunday May 25th:

2pm – Sailor Moon voice actor autograph session.

4pm – Sailor Moon voice actors. This is the Sunday Sailor Moon voice actor panel featuring the convention’s guests.

Watch Sailor Moon episodes 1 to 4 for free on Hulu

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Sailor Moon on Hulu

Following Friday’s announcement of Viz’s acquisition of the rights to the series, the first four episodes of Sailor Moon are now available to view with subtitles for free on Hulu and Neon Alley, including episode 2 which has never been dubbed. Viz will be releasing two new episodes every Monday from now on. Though the episodes can be viewed for free they will include commercials which can’t be skipped. Hate commercials? That’s too bad. Hulu’s pay service Hulu Plus is truly terrible as it will not remove commercials.

The episodes are completely uncensored with English subtitles. The current episode previews are kept though they have been moved from before the credits until after the credits. Next episode previews are included in their normal spot at the end of the episode. Commercial bumpers are the only thing missing from these episodes.

Sailor Moon episode 01 Screenshot - Japanese DVD

Japanese DVD
Sailor Moon episode 01 Screenshot - Hulu

Hulu

The quality of the release is quite good. Since it is streaming it is not perfect but the quality is comparable to the Japanese DVD releases, the current best quality release there is, as can be seen with these example screen grabs.

Sailor Moon episode 2 screenshot - Japanese DVD

Japanese DVD
Sailor Moon episode 2 screenshot - Hulu

Hulu

The Hulu service is not available in all countries. As a Canadian I needed to use a proxy service to view the episodes. I use Unblock-US, a pay service, though others exist. I was not able to access the Neon Alley site directly even from a proxy. Though no legal Canadian option is available at this time Viz is trying to find a way to bring the show to Canadian. This includes talking to YTV about the possibility of airing it on TV. Once the DVD and Blu-Ray releases are out later this year, Canadians will be able to enjoy those.

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