Meet Roland Parliament, Ron Rubin and more at a Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration September 27th at the Ontario Science Centre

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Adam

A single day Sailor Moon convention will be taking place in Toronto next month on September 27th. Toronto Sailor Moon fans should be sure not to miss it. The event is being put on by Emily from Moon Chase! and will feature special guest Roland Parliament, the voice of Melvin and voice director for the first 65 episodes of the original English dub of Sailor Moon and Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis the cat throughout the series. As described on Moon Chase! and the Facebook Event for the page, the event will include:

Q&A session with Roland Parliament: ask your burning questions about what it was like to be the voice of the geeky Melvin, the experience of voice directing Sailor Moon, or even find out more about his book Sailor Moon Reflections

Q&A session with Ron Rubin: ask your questions about what it was like to be the voice of a talking cat and how being part of the anime series and movies from beginning to end influenced his view of Sailor Moon and the role of Artemis

Autographs and photo ops with Roland Parliament and Ron Rubin

Sailor Moon merchandise: presentation on a selection of merchandise available in Japan and Canada, includes some real life merchandise that you can see up close!

Sailor Moon Classic versus Sailor Moon Crystal: open discussion of the two animes

Mythology and Sailor Moon: discussion of the influences of mythology in the story of Sailor Moon

Gender, Sociology and Sailor Moon: discussion of the aspects of gender, race, and socio-cultural significance of Sailor Moon (and Sailor Moon cosplaying) in North America

Sailor Moon singalong: It’s like a group karaoke! Sing along to various Sailor Moon songs, in English and Japanese. Lyrics will be on a screen so everyone can follow along.

Cosplay parade

And more!

There will be a lot to keep a fan busy with a number of panels, a vendor area and craft area. Tickets are currently only $10. The price of tickets will be going up tomorrow, August 27th, so get your tickets now. If you didn’t get a chance don’t worry, they are only going up to $12. Entry into the Ontario Science Centre exhibits must be purchased separately for those who are interested in them. I visited the Ontario Science Centre last summer and found there were a lot of interesting exhibits there which are worth checking out.

Along with your ticket you can order a $2 International Sailor Moon Day wrist band which is exclusive to this event. The event carries some Sailor Moon Day branding as it was originally planned for Sailor Moon Day earlier this month before being delayed.

Roland Parliament recently wrote the book Sailor Moon Reflections which recounted many memories from his time recording Sailor Moon. Though I never got a chance to formally review the book I did read it and found it to be fantastic. It is a very interesting take on the history of Sailor Moon that any fan of the original dub should check out.

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 134 and 135 are now available on Hulu

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Adam

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 134 and 135, have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week we get a couple of episodes focusing on some artists first as Makoto’s friend writes a novel about Pegasus and next as Chibiusa deals with a teacher who’s lost her groove.

Episode 134, Makoto’s Friendship: The Girl Who Admired Pegasus, has the Sailor Guardians excited about a new book release by a local writer. As the gang are ready to get autographs we once again see that Rei takes her autographs seriously, bringing three copies of the book to get signed. We previously learned about this obsession way back in episode 21 when she brought a bunch of autograph paper to the animation studio working on the Sailor V movie. The book, which is all about Pegasus, was written by author Tomoko Takase who turns out to be Makoto’s friend. Who knew the Sailor Guardians had friends who weren’t each other? The girls have always been presented as having been lonely prior to encountering Usagi. In a flashback we see that Makoto and Tomoko befriended each other while Makoto was at her old school so this is prior to us seeing her in the series. Her relationship with Tomoko began somewhat like her relationship with Usagi had, as she help protect her from a bunch of bullies, which leads her to read the story she’s writing. I guess Makoto didn’t remember having dreamed of Pegasus as a child at this point, something we later learn all of the Sailor Guardians did but mostly forgot. Tomoko has lost her motivation after seeing a boy she likes with a girlfriend. Chibiusa is shocked at the book, as it’s all about Pegasus who comes and fights with her and sometimes shows up by her bedside, and tells Tomoko about it. Tomoko is targeted and in the ensuing fight sees Pegasus which helps her get her groove back.

Episode 135, Connecting Hearts: Chibi-Usa and Pegasus, is not the most feminist episode. Chibiusa and her friends are painting in a park, and Chibiusa is all about doing crazy crap. She has a moustache, because she thinks artists should have moustaches, which doesn’t say much for female artists! She also draws Pegasus into the landscape because she’s a free thinking hippie who can’t follow the assignment. Her teacher, Morino Sensei, is not happy about this one bit and threatens to fail her for it. Kyuusuke gives Morino a bit of trouble mocking her singleness and blaming her stubbornness for not having a man. Harsh criticism from a little runt. Momoko also appears here and we see that her hair colour has somehow changed from a natural brown to a less normal looking purple. She still has normal looking hair when compared to her friend! When Usagi and Chibiusa run into Morino this triggers and unusual parental reaction in Usagi, who otherwise usually does no such thing. This whole exchange is quite humorous. Ultimately Morino is targeted by Tiger’s Eye, which would make her his oldest target to date. In the final scene of the episode we get a sort of weird scene in which Chibiusa changes in front of Pegasus which makes him blush, insinuating there is some sort of attraction there not typical of a human/horse relationship. There seems to be more to this winged horse than meets the eye!

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Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 132 and 133 are now available on Hulu

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Adam

This morning Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 132 and 133 were added to Hulu and Neon Alley. With that we get a couple of hilarious episodes focusing on the fragile nature of rock solid relationships which it turns out aren’t actually fragile at all. First Mamoru and Usagi’s relationship is put to the test and then Luna must deal with Artemis’s illegitimate kitten he seems to have had with some random stray! As expected we did not get the Sailor Moon SuperS Special which takes place between episodes 131 and 132. You can read more about that special in last week’s write up. There is currently no indication as to when, if at all, the Sailor Moon movies and specials will be released.

Episode 132, The Perfect Couple: Usagi and Mamoru’s Love, is not an episode about how Usagi and Mamoru are the perfect couple. It’s about the relationship, or lack thereof, between Saori and Kobayashi, two of Mamoru’s friends. Kobayashi loves Saori. Saori loves Mamoru. Mamoru loves Usagi. Usagi loves Mamoru. Chibiusa loves Mamoru. Tiger’s Eye targets Saori. It’s a whole intricate web of attraction! When Saori and Kobayashi are having a chat at Mamoru’s the conversation is a bit awkward, and it just gets worse when Usagi and Chibiusa show up. Chibiusa does nothing to reduce the tension when she flat out asks Saori what her intentions with her Mamoru are! Chibiusa is rightfully concerned that Mamoru may end up with Saori because if he does she may never be born in the first place! This concern is passed on to Usagi who can’t help but imagine Mamoru straying with this more mature woman. Does anyone actually ship these two together? This relationship reminds me of Hina and Mamoru in the live action series. They are the same age and theoretically compatible but tragically Mamoru has no interest because he loves Usagi. Tiger’s Eye targets Saori in this episode. This is a bit odd as I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out where him and Hawk’s Eye draw the line between young woman and older woman. Hawk’s Eye, who prefers older women, went after Reika, Motoki’s girlfriend who appears to be roughly Mamoru’s age. Saori is Mamoru’s school mate and appears to be roughly the same age but is targeted by Tiger’s Eye who generally pursues younger women. Ultimately during the inevitable combat Saori sees Mamoru call Sailor Moon Usagi and so she sees that she can’t possibly come between the two. Does this leave Kobayashi the winner of the covered silver medal, the runner up consolation prize of the woman who can’t have the man she wants? We will never know as they are never seen again.

Episode 133, Artemis Is Cheating? Enter the Mysterious Kitten, is an interesting follow up to the Sailor Moon S movie. This episode features one of the most hilarious scenes of the series. When asking for help with her homework Chibiusa tries to convince Mamoru that if he doesn’t help her she’ll do poorly in school, be mocked by her friends, never get married and end up old and alone. Her imagination of this shows a white haired old lady Chibiusa sitting with her cat watching the Sailor Moon anime on a TV. Does the Sailor Moon anime exist in the world of Sailor Moon? We’ve only ever seen the Sailor V series to date, but this seems possible. Artemis gets busted in this episode staring lovingly at a Nun. He later confesses he was just in awe because he dreams of getting married in a church some day. Is this a feasible goal for a cat? The Catholic Church does not consider animals to have souls, so I think they would have a bit of trouble reconciling the love between a couple of alien cats from another solar system. Suddenly a cute grey kitten with a crescent moon on her head shows up calling Artemis father, and Luna assumes the worst. Clearly the only logical explanation, given the causal nature of the universe, and that Luna has never given birth to a talking kitten with a crescent moon on her forehead, is that Artemis impregnated a real cat at some point fathering this kitten. The insinuation is simple. Artemis, having sexual needs, has been having sex with one or more cats. There is some room for a non cheating relationship to have caused this prior to the events of the Sailor Moon S movie when Luna and Artemis’s relationship became formalized. Prior to that Artemis was free to do as he pleased while Luna was being pursued by Rhett Butler and transforming into a human to make out with her space man. Luna is understandably upset, but so is Minako! She is not upset for Luna but for herself! Minako and Artemis have a strong relationship! Well it turns out it was just a misunderstanding. Diana is simply Luna and Artemis’s daughter from the future, and now everyone is back to being happy. Artemis laughs it off but sympathizes with Mamoru’s situation, having his future daughter around cramping his relationship with his girlfriend and future wife.

Why bring Diana in now and not two seasons ago? In the Sailor Moon Manga Diana shows up in Crystal Tokyo, like she did in Sailor Moon Crystal, in what is the equivalent of Sailor Moon R in the anime. We never see her at this point and when Chibiusa returns in Sailor Moon S, she returns alone. It’s not really clear why the anime writers chose not to include her but at this point they manage to throw her in for a very brief appearance before she is to be swept under the same rug Chibiusa disappears under during SailorStars.

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Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 130 and 131 are now available on Hulu

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Adam

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS are now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get episodes 130 and 131 and everyone in Usagi’s entourage are targeted by the PUAs that are the Amazon Trio. First it’s her mother and then it’s her best friend, but will either stray from their committed relationships? Once you’ve watched these episodes you’ll want to watch the Sailor Moon SuperS Special as well. You can read more about that later in this post.

Episode 130, Protect Mom’s Dream: Double Moon’s New Attack, is all about Usagi’s mother Ikuko Tsukino who is generally referred to as Ikuko Mama. In over three seasons we’ve somehow never had an episode focus on either of the Tsukino parents, so this one is a nice change. Usagi gets really mad that she didn’t get to eat a piece of her mother’s pie, which is a classic Usagi reason to get upset, and she storms off. This leads to a nice moment between Ikuko Mama and Chibiusa. What a lovely yet tragic relationship these two share. Chibiusa is stranded in the past and while Usagi does offer some sort of a parental figure to her, what with her being her actual mother, their relationship is much closer to that of sisters. Ikuko Mama believes herself to be Chibiusa’s aunt though as she lives with the Tsukinos she is more of a parent to her. Too bad all of her memories of Chibiusa are destined to disappear whenever she returns to the future. Will she still be alive when Usagi ascends to be Queen of Crystal Tokyo and Chibiusa is born? Will she ever be able to reclaim her lost memories? It’s hard not be a bit sad whenever I see these two interact. Ikuko Mama shows Chibiusa a series of photos of Usagi when she was growing up. This reminds me of the intro to the Sailor Moon SuperS movie where we see clips of all of the Sailor Guardians growing up. More importantly we see a calendar in the background of this scene which states 1995. The timeline for Sailor Moon makes no sense, as the episodes all seem to take place during the actual seasons and years they aired in over a five year period, though Usagi ages only two years over that time. Here Usagi, 14 years old throughout the first season, is 15 years old as determined by her birthday last season and her age being stated in episode 132 which is only two episodes and a short special away. A calendar in the first season showed 1992 while one in this episode shows 1995. Something doesn’t add up!

Ikuko Mama is targeted by Hawk’s Eye, because she is older than the teenaged girls Tiger’s Eye goes after. This doesn’t seem to work very well, as she is quite happily married to Kenji Papa! Hawk’s Eye creates an elaborate lie about his own mother who looks just like her making pies. He really lays it on thick! When the fighting ensues Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon and finally powered up permanently to Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon with the weapons we’ve sort of already seen a couple of times. Not sure why this needed to be dragged out this much.

Episode 131, Catch Pegasus: The Amazon’s Trap, is a great humour filled episode. Last episode Hawk’s Eye tried to seduce a married woman and this week Tiger’s Eye has about as much trouble trying to seduce Naru despite her relationship with Umino. This relationship is rock solid, not likely to be broken up by a slick peacocking PUA or some message from the future as we’ve seen with others in the series. Hawk’s Eye is hilariously shattered at the idea that a young lady could pass on his advances but be interested in such a seemingly low class guy as Umino, but he will not be deterred. He comes up with a great tactic, to fake a terminal illness! It somewhat works, as Naru decides it is the right thing to do to be at his side. Umino is broken up by this, going into a depression and drinking a ton of McDonald’s milkshakes which are MoG shakes but the similarity is no coincidence. All of this doesn’t work though. Naru’s love for Umino is too strong! They truly are the strongest couple in the series!

Next, you should really watch the Sailor Moon SuperS Special which originally aired on April 8th 1995, two weeks after episode 131, which aired March 25th, and a week before episode 132, which aired April 15th. Although this episode aired on TV and fits chronologically within the Sailor Moon SuperS season it has never been released in English to date and is unlikely to appear on Hulu next week. If you look around the Internet you should be able to find a copy of this special.

The special is broken into three parts which are each a sort of mini episode. The total length is about that of two episodes, so each episode is somewhat shorter than usual. The first part is a series of flashback clips which is generally uninteresting. The other two parts are much more better.

In the second part, The Return of Haruka and Michiru! The Ghostly Puppet Show, We get a look at what Haruka and Michiru are up to this season as they fight an evil ventriloquist’s dummy. The dummy being the evil one. Haruka is sick throughout. A fight naturally ensues at which point we learn that Michiru would gladly sacrifice many lives just to save Haruka, which is funny but completely contradicting all of Sailor Moon S. As an indicator that we won’t be seeing them later in the season, the two agree that the core group of Sailor Guardians can handle the new threat. At this point in the manga Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn would not have joined the story of the dream arc yet, but in the anime they never do.

Next is the third part, Chibiusa’s Adventure! The Dreaded Vampire Castle, which is an adaptation of the first Chibiusa’s picture diary manga side story. It focuses on a young girl named Lilica who joins Chibiusa’s class. She seems like a nice enough girl until some of the boys in her class start disappearing. It turns out Lilica is actually a vampire, so it’s a good thing the girls had a garlic filled lunch allowing them to use Sailor Special Garlic Attack which is naturally never used in any other episode.

Support the site by buying the first two seasons of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray using the links below.

The first two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 128 and 129, are now available on Hulu

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Adam

This morning the two latest episodes of Sailor Moon which were added to Hulu and Neon Alley were the first two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS. This is the 4th season of the original Sailor Moon anime loosely based on the Dream arc of the Manga. This introduces us to the Dead Moon Circus which at this point is Zirconia and the Amazon Trio. Hulu updated their banner now that the new season is available. This new banner shows the Sailor Guardians in their powered up Super forms, including an image of Chibiusa and Usagi in their Princess dresses with Pegasus wings from the final episode of the season. What a spoiler! Many fans don’t seem to like this season that much given the amount of focus that is given to Chibiusa. My feelings are mixed. While most of the season spends a lot of time with filler without focusing on the main story I find that those episode are still quite well done, giving us some very interesting well fleshed out villains and hilarious monsters in the form of the circus inspired Lemures as well as providing very good character development for Usagi and Chibiusa, though this is done at some expense as there is of less development amongst the other Sailor Guardians present and Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru don’t appear in the season at all.

Note that Sailor Moon SuperS is pronounced “Sailor Moon Supers” in Japan. The previous season, written as Sailor Moon S, was itself pronounced “Sailor Moon Super”. This can cause some confusion when hearing the names of the seasons spoken, rather than written, in Japanese. English speaking fans still have a habit of stating the title as “Super S”. As this site is written, I have no requirement of pronouncing it one way or the other as you aren’t hearing what I’m saying out loud anyway.

Episode 128, Meeting of Destiny: The Night Pegasus Dances, starts out with Chibiusa’s dream. This dream, which is a mix of dream and reality, has her encountering the winged horse Pegasus. Pegasus is the proper name of an individual, much like the Pegasus of Greek Mythology. I’ve had many debates about whether or nothing there is such a thing as “A pegasus”, a species, as is used in such places as the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, or whether it is a proper name as it is here. For Sailor Moon purposes, Pegasus is not “A pegasus” but rather a winged horse with a golden horn who is named Pegasus. This means he is also a unicorn, which is not a typical way to portray a standard pegasus. Pegasus exists in Chibiusa’s dream but he is not a figment of her imagination, as we learn later in the episode when he appears to save the day during combat. Pegasus uses his powers to transform Sailor Moon into Super Sailor Moon, which she can’t do without the Holy Grail which she should still have but doesn’t use, and also transforms Sailor Chibi Moon into Super Sailor Chibi Moon for the first time. Pegasus will not be using his powers to power up the rest of the Sailor Guardians for about another half season. He also gives Sailor Moon the Kaleidomoon Scope, which is a weapon named after a kaleidoscope, a toy used by children to use mirrors in order to make a cool design when you look into a tube.

This episode introduces us to the Dead Moon Circus who’s big top appears during a solar eclipse where the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. Though a flying big top appears over Tokyo no one seems to question it. The in story reason for this that is given is that people do not question things that change, assuming it happens for a reason. This is an appealing thought, and one used by promoters of pseudoscience to explain why sheeple don’t see evidence for UFOs or other conspiracy theories, though the opposite is generally true. Humans are wired to detect patterns and we often see some that aren’t there. The flip side of this is that we don’t often miss patterns that are there and that we are more likely to assign meaning to the meaningless than to assign no meaning to something meaningful. For the purposes of this fiction though, the idea that no one notices the big top is an effective plot device and a funny idea. It does somewhat resemble the idea of bystander apathy, where everyone assumes something is someone else’s problem, so no one does anything, but that doesn’t really work in the way the big top goes unnoticed. The target for this episode is Unazuki, Motoki’s sister. The targets for this season are pursed by the Amazon Trio which is comprised of Hawk’s Eye, Tiger’s Eye and Fish Eye. Since Unazuki is a young girl, she is pursued by Tiger’s Eye. Once captured Hawk’s Eye makes Unazuki’s Mirror of Dreams appear before her. When looking through it the victim screams as if the violation of having their dream probed was a serious assault. Fairly creepy.

Episode 129, Super Transformation Once Again: Pegasus’s Power, is a title as ridiculous as the hyped second transformation it refers to. OMG Pegasus showed up again! OMG we transformed for a second time! This will happen repeatedly throughout the season as Pegasus is (almost) always required for Moon Crisis Makeup (although Sailor Moon did it without any aid in order to save Sailor Saturn last season) so we will constantly have him show up as part of the lengthy transformation and attack sequence of this season. This week’s target is Reika, Motoki’s girlfriend. Hawk’s Eye targets older women, so Reika falls under his domain. Apparently older doesn’t mean much older, as Reika is college aged. Tiger’s Eye’s upper age limit seems to be pretty low. While Reika is the focus this is also a Chibiusa episode. There will be a lot of these in Sailor Moon SuperS. Reika’s horse reminds Chibiusa of Pegasus and so she asks her, by using a carrot to indicate his horn, if she’d ever seen a horse like him. Reika recalls such a horse from the world of dreams. This comes back later in the season as all of the Sailor Guardians have a revaluation of “Oh that’s right I used to dream of Pegasus, I guess I just forgot”. We still have a lot to learn about the mysterious Pegasus and because of how Sailor Moon SuperS plays out, it will be a really long time until we get answers to any of the questions we have about him.

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All of Sailor Moon S is now available on Hulu

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Adam

This week with the two latest additions of Sailor Moon to Hulu we get episodes 126 and 127. This completes the Sailor Moon S season, so fans can now watch all of the first 3 seasons of Sailor Moon for free on Hulu and Neon Alley. We actually wrapped up the main story of Sailor Moon S last week with episode 125 so now we have a couple of sort of terrible episodes focusing on other things which happen following the main altercation with Mistress 9, Pharaon 90 and Sailor Saturn which no one ever asked for but that we are getting anyway.

Episode 126, A New Life: Parting of the Stars of Destiny, seemingly immediately follows episode 125. We don’t actually follow up with what Super Sailor Moon and Baby Hotaru will do but instead we start by seeing Chibiusa asleep. We eventually do see where Baby Hotaru ended up. She is with her father, Professor Tomoe, who is obviously still recuperating from his injuries. Chibiusa is happy to see that Hotaru is healthy and safe, though it seems like it might be a while until they can hang out again. It’s important to note that Professor Tomoe is relatively innocent in this whole affair. He was controlled by an evil entity all this time. The only thing he did which was wrong was that he agreed to allow some unseen unknown power to bring his daughter back to life while still suffering from the trauma of seeing her die. Almost anyone would have made that same decision. At this point it seems like there is a happy ending for Professor Tomoe and Hotaru. It would certainly be bad if in not too much time some girls who previously tried to murder this baby came by and forcefully took her from her father. All that is well and good but now the episode gets really awful. Everyone should have been totally cool with Usagi being great but instead Sailor Uranus and Neptune randomly start to fight Sailor Moon because they want her to prove that she’s really worthy. She doesn’t really do anything to prove this worth, and just fights for a bit, and maybe because they respect that she’s kind of scrappy they have a complete change of heart, kneel to her and we’re all friends again. What an awful waste of time that leaves a sour taste in our mouths for characters that were otherwise so well handled for the rest of the season. Too bad we won’t be seeing them at all next season.

Episode 127, A Guardian’s Realization: Strength Lies Within a Pure Heart, may seem a bit familiar to fans. Didn’t we just see this in Sailor Moon Crystal? It’s time for Chibiusa to leave, again, but she’s quite sad about it. The real failure of this episode is that Chibiusa gave a better and more emotionally touching goodbye at the end of episode 88, after she left at the end of Sailor Moon R. Here we sort of do a weaker version of that sadness and Chibiusa once again leaves. She returns almost immediately though, which is reminiscent of the manga. When Chibiusa leaves after the Black Moon story arc of the manga, as seen in Sailor Moon Crystal episode 26, she immediately returns. This doesn’t happen the first time around in the anime as Chibiusa remains gone for a number of episodes. Perhaps the writers would have kept her away had the plot of Sailor Moon S, based on the Infinity arc of the Manga, not required her to be linked to Hotaru’s story. I feel this episode should simply not have happened and instead we should have seen this in Sailor Stars. By the time Chibiusa finally leaves for the future she’s fake left three times before finally leaving anti climactically between episodes. Chibiusa isn’t being forgotten any time soon though. She’s about to dominate the screen for the entire next season as Sailor Moon SuperS, which will begin streaming on Hulu next Monday, is all about Chibiusa!

Support the site by buying the first two seasons of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray using the links below.

Viz’s Sailor Moon R Season 2 Part 1 release does its best with poor masters

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Adam

The third Blu-Ray and DVD release of the original Sailor Moon anime was released on July 14th in North America. This release, with dubbed and subbed episodes by Viz, includes the first half of Sailor Moon R. As with other releases to date the packaging and extras are great but the video quality is quite poor. Viz has obviously gone to great lengths to provide the best product they can but it simply seems that they have continued to receive poor quality source material and are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.

I never did get around to reviewing the first season’s sets. My order was delayed for months on Amazon.ca and by the time and canceled I reordered the sets it was too late for a review to be relevant. Many fans have spoken about issues with those discs. Mainly it came down to the video quality. Viz made a blog post to discuss their issues citing bad masters as the reason for the poor quality. Unfortunately this post was essentially useless as all of the original images they have shown are a mix of two fields due to interlacing. Without getting into too many specifics with standard definition TV technology video comes one field at a time which is why with older videos you will often see stills with lines in them where it looks like two images appear at once. This is not apparent when watching video, but looks quite bad in paused or still images. The Japanese DVD releases for the first season of Sailor Moon were progressive scan, not interlaced, so all we can say for sure is that the masters Viz got were not the best TOEI had to offer, but comparing interlaced images to a final product is intentionally deceptive and gives us no actual indication of what the video quality of the masters are really like.

These sets have HD video, but they are not from an HD source. Sailor Moon was animated on animation cels and then recorded on 16mm film. That film was then converted to 480i standard definition video which is generally what is used as a source. In many cases with older shows, including many anime shows, the original 16mm film will be used as a reference to create an HD 1080p video and this creates a very high quality video. That is not what is occurring with these sets. TOEI provided Viz with 480i standard definition sources which are by all indications quite bad. Viz used video processing to clean up this source material and upscale it to 1080p for the Blu-Ray sources as well as the videos we’ve been seeing on Hulu for over a year. To say the results aren’t as good is an understatement.

The video quality here is not terrible, but not great. The first season sets were highly processed to the point where little grain on the video could be seen but the video quality suffered. It seems as if this set has undergone less processing so more of the original grain remains. While this may seem like it is a lower quality finish, this is simply because it is closer to the source material. I do not have the ability to make Blu-Ray screenshots with my current AV and computer setup, but I was able to find a few on Imgur. These are from episode 51 and I have included screenshots from the Japanese region 2 DVDs (resized to the correct aspect ratio) for comparison.

Viz Blu-Ray	Japanese DVD
Viz Blu-Ray	Japanese DVD

It should also be mentioned that, unlike with the first set, there is no pillarboxing. This means that the right and left side of the screen are black rather than being a weird decorative graphic which no one really liked.

What is the alternative? I think people may forget how much worse we’ve had it. The 90s dub was done with fairly low quality masters but as it was intended for standard definition TV broadcast we didn’t really notice. The DVDs were of low quality. ADVision’s DVDs for the first two seasons of Sailor Moon were probably the worst quality release of anything I’ve ever seen. We can be happy that episodes 67 is actually included on this release, where it had been completely omitted previously.

The episodes included on this set cover the alien story arc which introduces us to Ail and An as well as the beginning of the Black Moon Clan story arc which introduces us to Chibiusa, Rubeus and the Ayakashi Sisters.

Video quality aside the packaging and included 96 page booklet are great. The booklet includes summaries for all episodes and a great deal of character art. The cover art looks great as the does the disk art for both the Blu-Ray discs and DVDs.

A reversible cover is included and pictures all of the members of the Black Moon Clan. Unfortunately some sets to not include this cover. This was acknowledged by the manufacturer as being a problem and so a replacement is available. Included below are the instructions on getting a replacement cover, as shown on the Right Stuf tumblr:

A number of customers have contacted us regarding the reversible covers of the Sailor Moon R Set 1 Limited Edition, reporting that their copy does not have a reversible cover. If your copy of Sailor Moon R Set 1 Limited Edition does not contain a reversible cover, a replacement cover will be provided to you directly from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment at no cost to you. Please call the toll-free number 1-800-553-6937, where you will be asked for your name, mailing address, and telephone number so you can receive your replacement. Thanks everyone for your incredible patience while we worked with the manufacturer to resolve this issue.

There are some nice extras included. Creditless versions of the opening and closing credits show the original opening and the only closing used in Sailor Moon R. There are interviews with cast members from Anime Expo as well as some behind the scenes interviews that were done during recording. A lot of the art which is included in the booklet is also included in photo galleries on the disc.

This set does not lack great special features. The packaging looks great and the booklet is full of good content. No doubt if Viz had access to better source material for the video, the final product would have been great. It’s unfortunate that this release suffers due to problems outside of their control. All the bell and whistles doesn’t change the fundamental fact that this is just not a good quality release, but it’s the best we’ve got. Fans of the show who watch it online should still consider getting this set. It is the best you’ll get in a domestic release. The only alternative would be to import a Japanese or other international release or pirate the series by downloading fansubs.

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Sailor Moon S episodes 124 and 125 and the dubbed version of the second half of Sailor Moon R are now available on Hulu

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Adam

We’ve gotten a lot more than usual added to Hulu and Neon Alley this week. Sailor Moon S is almost done as we wrap up most of the story with episodes 124 and 125, introducing us to Sailor Saturn. In addition fans can also watch the second half of Sailor Moon R, episodes 69 to 89, dubbed by Viz on Hulu. These episodes were added with this past Friday’s Moonlight Party 4.

Episode 124, The Coming Terror of Darkness: Struggle of the Eight Guardians, is where a bunch of fighting happens before the epic finale. The Sailor Guardians are set to stop Mistress 9 and so they are storming the enemy stronghold. Sailor Pluto freezes time to prevent a helicopter accident and dies anticlimactically for breaking this taboo. Sound familiar? Indeed, this is taken right out of the Black Moon Clan story arc of the manga, only Sailor Pluto doesn’t die in Sailor Moon R and her returning for the SuperS movie and Sailor Stars is not ever really explained. So a ton of monsters show up. They are red proto Daimon type things which is what happens when you don’t put a Daimon seed in anything. They are quickly dispensed with. Inside the building Sailor Uranus and Neptune confront Professor Tomoe, or rather the Daimon Germatoid who is in control of him. The two are separated so that Germatoid can be dispensed with leaving Professor Tomoe as the good guy he once was. Sailor Moon has a fun confrontation with Hotaru, who tries to get the Holy Grail, because she’s really just evil Mistress 9 posing as an innocent girl. This doesn’t really work out as Mistress 9 is revealed once again!

Episode 125, The Shining Shooting Star: Saturn and the Messiah, features the very very brief appearance of Sailor Saturn. As Sailor Guardians go Sailor Saturn is the least shown one of the bunch as this it the only time we will see her until Sailor Stars and she is the only Sailor Guardian never to get an animated transformation sequence. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re still dealing with Mistress 9! She couldn’t get the Holy Grail from Sailor Moon in the last episode so she tries to get her father to get it which … works perfectly. Sailor Moon gives the grail to Professor Tomoe who in turn hands it to his daughter. But Mistress 9 puts it in the big Galaxy contraption thing to summon Pharaon 90, the big evil from the season that we haven’t really seen at all, but we are to believe he’s behind all the bad stuff. Things are going bad but… Hotaru turns into Sailor Saturn! This is great! She returns Chibiusa’s Pure Heart to her. Everything is looking up. Sailor Saturn can even go and kill Pharaon 90, too bad she’ll have to die to do it. The moral thought expedient continues! First we wanted to kill Hotaru to stop the end of the world but now she is willing to sacrifice herself to save the world. The end result is still Hotaru dying, but since she is willing it’s somehow better. Sailor Moon won’t have it though. She was not on board with killing Hotaru and she is not on board with letting Sailor Saturn kill herself and so she hurls herself into Pharaon 90 after Sailor Saturn. Emerging from the chaos is a battered Super Sailor Moon and a baby Hotaru. This pretty much ends the main story of Sailor Moon S. What follows next week are two kind of terrible episodes which follow the conclusion of the primary story arc.

Support the site by buying Viz’s dubbed and subbed episodes of Sailor Moon on DVD or Blu-Ray using the links below:

Terri Hawkes, the English voice of Sailor Moon, to appear at Ai-kon in Winnipeg July 17th to the 19th

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Adam

This coming weekend Winnipeg Sailor Moon fans will get a chance to meet the voice of Sailor Moon herself, Terri Hawkes! She will be appearing as a guest at Ai-kon from July 17th to the 19th in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Terri Hawkes was the second voice of Sailor Moon, but likely the most recognisable to many fans of the original English dub having provided the voice of Sailor Moon for most of the first two seasons.

Terri Hawkes recently co-authored Performing Motherhood: Artistic, Activist, and Everyday Enactments. Her contribution is the chapter “The Triple Threat” which deals with gender issues in theatre.

Watch Sailor Moon S episodes 122 and 123 on Hulu

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Adam

We’re getting that much closer to the end of Sailor Moon S with the two latest episodes added to Hulu and Neon Alley. This week with episodes 122 and 123 we get introduced to three more members of the Witches 5!

Episode 122, Believe in Love: Ami, the Kindhearted Guardian, is a total Sailor Mercury episode. In fact it’s very reminiscent of her first episode in which the Dark Kingdom uses computers to try to drain Crystal Seminar students’ energy to feed to Metalia. This week the Death Busters are using computers to steal Mugen Academy students’ Pure Hearts to feed to Hotaru. As we are getting close to the end of the season we need to go through more of the Witches 5 and so we are introduced to Viluy. Viluy poses as a student at Mugen Academy, Yui Bidou, and in doing so she crosses Ami who is investigating the school. She is very intelligent and we learn that the research done at Mugen Academy is not only cutting edge for the mid 90s but actually quite ahead of anything we’ve done by 2015. She has an army of nano robots. Nano robots or nanobots are miniscule robots which, when working as a team, are capable of great feats such as turning the world into grey goo. We have nothing close to what is portrayed in this episode in existence today as nanotechnology is still in its early stages. Viluy uses these robots to attack the Sailor Guardians but when her bracelet is damaged they end up turning on her which kills her. This episode continues to ask us moral questions as Ami defends Hotaru from Haruka and Michiru who want to kill her in order to save the world from destruction.

Episode 123, Shadow of Destruction: the Messiah of Silence Awakens, introduces us to the final two members of the Witches 5. Cyrpine and Ptilol are considered to be a single member of the Witches 5 because of reasons I don’t pretend to understand. Do we refer to twins as a single entity? Then why are we calling a six member team the Witches 5? I think it’s nonsense personally, but that is what they are called. How much can they be considered to be a single person when they end up attacking each other? Things get pretty serious in this episode as Kaolinite kidnaps Sailor Chibi Moon. Her Pure Heart is so great that when it’s fed to Hotaru she transforms into Mistress 9. This leaves Chibiusa near death as Mamoru needs to use his own body’s energy to sustain her life. The gang is now ready to confront Mistress 9 and the Death Busters in the next handful of episodes. They missed their chance to kill Hotaru while she was young and defenseless. We’ll see what kind of destruction she will bring now. A funny scene in this episode shows Professor Tomoe adjusting his glasses with his middle finger, making it seem like he’s making a rude gesture.

Support the site by buying episodes of Sailor Moon, subbed and dubbed by Viz, using the links below.

Sailor Moon News

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

Category Archives: Sailor Moon Anime (1992)

Meet Roland Parliament, Ron Rubin and more at a Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration September 27th at the Ontario Science Centre

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 134 and 135 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 132 and 133 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 130 and 131 are now available on Hulu

The first two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 128 and 129, are now available on Hulu

All of Sailor Moon S is now available on Hulu

Viz’s Sailor Moon R Season 2 Part 1 release does its best with poor masters

Sailor Moon S episodes 124 and 125 and the dubbed version of the second half of Sailor Moon R are now available on Hulu

Terri Hawkes, the English voice of Sailor Moon, to appear at Ai-kon in Winnipeg July 17th to the 19th

Watch Sailor Moon S episodes 122 and 123 on Hulu