A Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album is coming April 4th

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Adam

A second Sailor Moon Tribute Album, this time called Sailor Moon The 25th Anniversary Memorial Tribute, is coming on April 4th 2018. This one is to commemorate the 25th Anniversary while the previous tribute album, released in January of 2014, celebrated the 20th anniversary. The album will sell for 3000 yen, about $28 US, and is already available to pre-order from sites such as Amazon Japan. Like the last tribute album this will be a collection of songs performed by Japanese artists and bands. These will likely all be covers of songs from the Sailor Moon series. Since the 20th Anniversary Tribute Album was released before Sailor Moon Crystal began airing it only included covers of songs from the original Sailor Moon anime series. La Soldier, a song from the musicals, was also included though it also appeared in the original anime. It seems possible that we will be seeing songs from Sailor Moon Crystal and the musicals with this release but without a specific track listing we don’t have a ton of details. Since so many iconic songs were included with the last tribute album it seems reasonable to expect that an effort may be made to avoid duplicating too many of those tracks or at least to revisit songs which were not included on the last tribute album, but again this is simple speculation.

Amongst the talent included in this work are a number of Japanese artists and bands some of which were previously involved with Sailor Moon and many who were not. I’ll go through a run down of who’s been announced and where you can find more about them.

First is Yoko Ishida who has been affiliated with Sailor Moon since back in the days of Sailor Moon R. She provided the vocals for Otome no Policy, Maiden’s Policy, the ending theme for Sailor Moon R. More recently she provided the vocals for a number of songs at the Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Classic Concert and can be heard on many tracks on the CD recording of this event.

Next is Sonoko Inoue, a singer and actress. You can learn more about her from her web site, Twitter profile and Instagram page.

Gesshoku Kaigi is a band composed of members who seem to like to dress is steampunk and other peculiar costumes. They’ve performed songs for games and anime series. Check out their web site and Twitter profile for more.

Silent Siren is an all girl band who have an album titled “Girls Power”, which seems fitting for Sailor Moon! The group was formed by amateur models. For more on these girls check out their web site, Twitter profile and Instagram page.

Ziyoou-vachi is a four piece rock band. They have a interesting fashion sense to say the least. Check out their web site or Twitter profile for more.

BiSH, known as Brand-new idol SHiT, is well… an idol group that is relatively new, formed in 2015. Learn more about them from their web site or Twitter profile.

Etsuko Yakushimaru, is the other artist who is not new to the world of Sailor Moon. She previously sang the vocals for the first version of the Sailor Moon Crystal Season III opening theme New Moon Ni Koishite or In Love With The New Moon. She has also performed theme songs for many other anime series. You can learn more about her from her web site.

LiSA, short for Love Is Same All, is a singer who has performed songs for a number of anime series. For more on her check out her web site, Twitter profile and Instagram page.

That’s all the information we have for now. As April 4th approaches I expect we will be getting more information about the track listing and what artists are performing what songs. Are you a fan of any of these artists and bands? Who are you most excited to hear on this album?

The Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge game is now available for pre-order

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Adam

The upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge game is now available for pre-order on the Dyskami web site for $35. The game should be ready to ship in April or May of this year. The pre-order page includes a bunch of details about the game including photos of what’s included. As an incentive those who pre-order the game now will get a special Sailor Pluto game card and Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge poster. The pre-order is a crowd funding campaign with a goal of $10,000 dollars and it seems likely that it will hit that goal before the deadline of March 9th. A video included on the page shows the game being played at the pre-release tournament held in Guelph in December. You can watch it below.

The game will ship to the US or Canada. Unfortunately it can’t be shipped elsewhere due to limitation of the licensing deal between Toei and Dyskami. The game is set to be released in May.

At this point we have images of all of the cards included with the game and the characters cover the Dark Kingdom and Black Moon story arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal. For heroes we have Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Chibi Moon as well as Tuxedo Mask, Luna and Artemis (as a single card), Queen Serenity, Princess Serenity, Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion with Sailor Pluto as a pre-order exclusive. For villains we have Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, Kunzite, Queen Beryl, a generic Droid, Esmeraude, Rubeus, Saphir, Prince Demand, Black Lady and Wiseman.

I’ve got my game pre-ordered. What about you?

Pre-orders for the Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge game will begin on February 8th

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Adam

It looks like the upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge game is getting a bit closer to release! The game, which is currently scheduled to be released this Spring, will be available to pre-order on February 8th from Dyskami Publishing. Fans are being encouraged to follow their social media pages on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and check out the Dyskami web site on February 8th for more details.

I received news from Dyskami Publishing that those who pre-order the game should expect some amazing bonus Sailor Moon Crystal gifts. Some fans have asked if this game will be available in Canada, since often it’s harder to get some board games North of the border. Since Dyskami Publishing is an Ontario based company we should expect to see this in stores here in Canada. Do you plan on picking this game up?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Classic Concert CD review

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Adam

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Classic Concert CD was released in Japan on December 6th. This sells for 3500 yen which is about $31 US. Media in Japan is usually more expensive than in North America so this price is actually pretty reasonable. This CD includes the entire performance of the Sailor Moon Classic Concert which was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan this past August. Now that I’ve given the CD a few listens I felt like sharing some thoughts on it. You can pick up the CD from Japanese retailers such as Amazon Japan and CD Japan.

All around the album is great. It’s a real mixed back of very classical sounding renditions while others have a more modern feel. It’s not simply the case that all songs are performed in the same style as we’ve seen with the Sailor Moon SuperS Orgel Fantasia album which makes everything sound like it’s played by a music box. The selection of music is also quite varied. While it is mostly renditions of popular opening and ending themes from the original Sailor Moon anime there is also a bit of background music as well as music from musicals and Sailor Moon Crystal. Sadly nothing from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series has made the cut!

The CD comes with your standard sort of insert booklet that’s only a handful of pages. It includes a full track listing and information on the many people who worked on the music and this concert in particular.

I’ll give a few thoughts on each of the tracks. This won’t be anything thorough! I’m not really a music buff and I know even less about actual concert music. I took the trumpet in school for 3 years pretty much because it was part of the curriculum and after the end of the 3rd when some of my classmates who had started that same year had surpassed me in skill it was evident that it wasn’t happening for me so I concentrated on drawing and messing around with computers. One of those paid off. The set comes in two discs with a total of 21 tracks.

Disc 1 track 1 is background music from the introduction to episodes.

Track 2 is Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend), the iconic Sailor Moon opening theme! This has been done in a variety of styles over the years and here is yet another! A fairly faithful adaptation.

Track 3 is Ai No Senshi (Guardian of Love), a song which was featured in Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S and that has been redone a few times. This is one of my favourite songs from Sailor Moon and it’s very well done on this CD. It has an epic quality that fits it quite well.

Track 4 is Heart Moving, the first ending theme for the first season. This is a decent instrumental version of the song but not the greatest. While I don’t have any strong feeling about this song as an ending theme there are a number of instrumental versions which feature in important and emotional scenes in the first season including when Sailor Moon is discouraged after the death of her friends and finds the motivation to continue fighting. This version doesn’t evoke the same emotional reaction in me than that particular version does.

Track 5 is Princess Moon, the second ending theme for the first season. This track reminds me of something out of ballet which I think suits it. It starts to show the range that this concert can offer.

Track 6 is Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together With You) which is the first ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS. Why do we jump ahead so far instead of staying somewhat chronological? No clue. This is similar to the TV version and is a good track.

Track 7 is Otome No Policy (Maiden’s Policy) which is the Sailor Moon R ending theme. This is a punched up version which isn’t really classic as many of the tracks leading up to this have been. It includes vocals by Yoko Ishida who originally performed the song back in the 90s. I prefer the version on the 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album personally.

Track 8 is “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll go with my looks) which is the second ending theme for the Sailor Moon SuperS season. It has a sort of big bang feel and includes vocals once again from Yoko Ishida though she did not perform this song in the original anime.

Track 9 is background music for Sailor Uranus and Neptune. This is a variety of music used in the anime mostly when the characters are introduced or transform. It features a lot of violin as the music in the original Sailor Moon anime did, with Michiru being a violinist. This is quite a good track for fans of those characters! They always did have great theme music.

Track 10 switches gears and gives us a song from Sailor Moon Crystal. Eternal Eternity is the first ending theme for the 3rd season, which is also all about Sailor Uranus and Neptune. All versions of this song just remind me of the Utena opening theme.

Track 11 is short and just gives us the music for the commercial break bumper for the first season. It sounds so much like the original version that I was expecting the weird “chirp” sound which can be heard on the laserdiscs of the first season.

I guess there was an intermission at this point? On to disc 2…

Track 1 has Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, speaking over some background music and then transforming to Sailor Moon’s first season transformation music. A fairly faithful version of this music.

Track 2 is Moon Revenge, the theme song from Sailor Moon R The Movie. This is one of the better songs from the original anime. This version is great as well. It’s a more classical rendition lacking the more upbeat tone of the original song but it works quite well. Some portions remind me of the instrumental version featured in the film.

Track 3 is Tuxedo Mirage, the ending theme for Sailor Moon S. The version here is very similar to what we heard on TV, without the vocals. A good track but it just doesn’t give us anything new.

Track 4 is La Soldier which is a song which was used in a number of the early Sailor Moon musicals as well as the final episode of Sailor Moon R (Let’s pretend episode 89 doesn’t exist because I hate it!). This is a good rendition but not as good as the original and nothing could top the Tommy heavenly6 version from the Tribute Album for me.

Track 5 is a Three Light Medley which merges two songs which the Three Lights performed during Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, Todokanu Omoi -My Friend’s Love- (Unreachable Feelings: My Friend’s Love) and Nagareboshi he (To the Shooting Stars). When this one started I was a bit worried because the Three Lights are a pop group and their music doesn’t translate to classical music. Still the orchestra manages to give these songs a disco kind of 70s pop sound which I think works really well. The track lacks vocals I think because the concert hall didn’t have enough place to include Taiki’s forehead.

Track 6 takes a song from the recent Sailor Moon musicals with Ai No Starshine (Starshine of Love) from the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal Musical. Again we go with a somewhat modern sound almost fitting to an 80s TV drama theme song if that makes any sense. I appreciate the unique take on the song and that an orchestra can have such an atypical sound.

Track 7 is Moon Pride, the first Sailor Moon Crystal opening theme. It’s performed with a big band sort of sound. Enjoyable.

Track 8 is Gekkou (Moonbow), the first Sailor Moon Crystal ending theme. Again this track is quite similar to the original version which had a very orchestral sound. Decent but nothing new here.

Track 9 is New Moon ni Koishite (In Love With the New Moon), the Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 opening theme. It has what I believe is a lot of saxophone and other brass instruments. A fun track.

The final track is an encore which is the Sailor Stars Song, the opening theme for the Sailor Stars season of the original anime. Yoko Ishida performs the vocals for this version, though again she was not the one to contribute the original vocals. She does a decent job. She attempt to rouse the crowd and get them to sing along which doesn’t seem to work all that well. I’m not sure if this is because the crowd isn’t participating much or simply because they didn’t bother to put a mic in the crowd to properly pick up the audio. I don’t know how popular the Sailor Stars Song is in Japan but I wonder if this was really the best track to try to get people to sing along to. If they’d done this with Moonlight Densetsu, the iconic opening theme used for the first four seasons, no doubt a ton of people would know the words. Does the average Japanese casual fan know the words to the intro of the final season which had significantly poorer ratings?

All considered I quite enjoyed this CD and recommend fans import it if they’re interested.

Keep reading for more pictures of this CD including photos of all remaining pages of the booklet.

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Anime NYC will include Sailor Moon Day on November 18th!

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Adam

Next weekend, November 17th to the 19th, is Anime NYC in at the Javits Center in Manhattan. This event will include an entire day dedicated to Sailor Moon on Sailor Moon Day November 18th! Attending will be the English cast of Viz’s new dub of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal. This includes Stephanie Sheh, Sailor Moon, Kate Higgins, Sailor Mercury, Cristina Vee, Sailor Mars, Amanda Celine Miller, Sailor Jupiter, Cherami Leigh, Sailor Venus, Sandy Fox, Chibiusa, Erica Mendez, Sailor Uranus, Lauren Landa, Sailor Neptune, Christine Marie Cabanos, Sailor Saturn, Robbie Daymond, Tuxedo Mask, and Chris Niosi, Pegasus. Viz Media will also be in attendance. This convention is sponsored by many leading companies in North American anime including many who are associated with Sailor Moon, so it seems likely that they will also be involved with the event. Sponsors include Crunchyroll, who stream Sailor Moon Crystal, Viz Media, who licenses and releases Sailor Moon in North America, Kodansha Comics, who are releasing the English Sailor Moon Manga, and Tokyo Otaku Mode, who run the Official Sailor Moon Fan Club.

Also attending as a musical guest is Yoko Ishida who performed a number of songs for the original Sailor Moon anime! She sang Otome No Policy (Maiden’s Policy), the ending theme for Sailor Moon R, Ai No Senshi (Guardian of Love), and Suki to Itte (Say You Love Me).

Are any of you planning to attend this convention? Unfortunately at this point Saturday and weekend tickets are already sold out. Friday and Sunday tickets are still available but those attendees will be missing Sailor Moon Day.

Sailor Moon Crystal Season III is now available to view in English on Hulu and Yahoo! View

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Adam

The latest season of Sailor Moon Crystal, covering the Infinity arc of the manga, will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray December 5th. The series had previously been released in Japanese with English subtitles as soon as it had aired on Japanese TV but until now the dub was not available. With the home video release only a month away these episodes are now also available to view with Viz’s English dub on Hulu and Yahoo! View. The series is restricted to paid members on Hulu but it can be viewed for free on Yahoo! View.

Viz also put together a trailer for the English version of Season III. There shouldn’t be many surprises with these voices however as the same voice actors who provided the voices for Viz’s new dub of Sailor Moon S reprised those same roles for Sailor Moon Crystal. The Infinity Arc, like Sailor Moon S, introduces us to Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Saturn as the Sailor Guardians face off against the Death Busters. You can watch the trailer embedded below.

Will you be watching the series on a streaming service or will you wait for the video release next month?

Thanks to Kevin for the heads up on this!

A Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Classic Concert Album is coming December 6th

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Adam

A CD collecting music from the Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Classic Concert is coming December 6th! This concert, where the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performed songs from various Sailor Moon series, took place in Japan on August 2nd and 3rd at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. This album will be released in Japan but is available to order online from sites such as Amazon Japan and CD Japan. The price is 3500 yen which is about $33 US.

The album collects mostly opening and ending themes from all five seasons of the original Sailor Moon anime, a couple of songs from the musicals, a few songs from Sailor Moon Crystal and a bit of instrumental background music. Some songs are instrumental while others include vocals. A track listing is available on the Official Sailor Moon site. I’ve translated it and included it, and a description of where the songs are from, below for your convenience.

Disc 1:

1. Background Music
2. Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Opening theme for the original Sailor Moon anime
3. Ai No Senshi (Guardian of Love) – Song featured in Sailor Moon R episode 68 and Sailor Moon S episode 102
4. Heart Moving – Season 1 ending theme #1
5. Princess Moon – Season 1 ending theme #2
6. Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together With You) – Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme #1
7. Otome No Policy (Maiden’s Policy) – Sailor Moon R ending theme
8. “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll go with my looks) – Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme #2
9. Background Music for Sailor Uranus and Neptune
10. Eternal Eternity – Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 ending theme #1
11. Commercial Break Bumper Background Music

Disc 2:

1. Moon Prism Power Make Up! Background Music (Although the title is similar to that of a song from the original Sailor Moon anime this is the background music which plays when Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon)
2. Moon Revenge – Sailor Moon R The Movie theme
3. Tuxedo Mirage – Sailor Moon S ending theme
4. La Soldier – Song from many early Sailor Moon Musicals
5. Three Lights Medley: Todokanu Omoi -My Friend’s Love- (Unreachable Feelings: My Friend’s Love) and Nagareboshi he (To the Shooting Stars) – Two songs from Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
6. Ai No Starshine (Starshine of Love) – From the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal Musical
7. Moon Pride – First Sailor Moon Crystal opening theme
8. Gekkou (Moonbow) – First Sailor Moon Crystal ending theme
9. New Moon ni Koishite (In Love With the New Moon) – Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 opening theme
Encore. Sailor Stars Song – Sailor Moon Sailor Stars opening theme

In order to promote this release a four minute video of the concert has been released. You can watch it embedded below.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts on this album once it’s released.

Fans in Japan can get special exclusive incentives from various retailers. Amazon Japan and CD Japan are not included. One of the incentives is from the Official Sailor Moon Fan Club however this item does not appear to be available from the international Sailor Moon Fan Club.

Listen to an English clip of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 including Haruka and Michiru

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Adam

The Infinity arc of Sailor Moon Crystal will be released on home video by Viz on December 5th. In order to promote this release they’ve released a clip of the English dub from Act 27 part 1. This clip shows the girls playing a racing arcade game and first meeting Haruka and Michiru. Watch it below!

Since we’ve already heard Haruka and Michiru in Viz’s dub of Sailor Moon S these voices shouldn’t be much of a surprise for some of us. We first heard samples of those voices over a year ago. Sailor Moon S has since been released in its entirety on home video. While Sailor Moon Crystal is currently only available for pre-order from Right Stuf you can buy Sailor Moon S from Amazon using the links below.

What would today’s solar eclipse look like from the Moon? + Foolish people in the Sailor Moon anime don’t know how to look at an eclipse!

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Adam

This afternoon, August 21st 2017, there will be a solar eclipse, meaning that from the vantage point of the Earth the Moon will pass in front of the Sun. While there is usually one or more at least partial solar eclipse in a given year, this one is notable for being visible in North America with many parts of the US being able to observe the total eclipse. Here in Gatineau, Quebec I will be observing only a partial solar eclipse. How about you? Sailor Moon is no stranger to solar eclipses! The Dead Moon Circus first appears during a total solar eclipse which is visible from Tokyo. Unfortunately for fans in Japan, it will be night time during the eclipse and they will be unable to observe it as the Earth will be in the way.

This got me to wonder about what someone on the Moon might see during a solar eclipse. I previously toyed with a similar idea when I wondered what a lunar eclipse would look like from the Moon. Since Princess Serenity lived on the Moon from birth to adolescence and always had a view of the Earth in the sky she likely observed quite a few lunar and solar eclipses during her life. Due to the nature of a solar eclipse it would always appear during a “full Earth” from the vantage point of the Moon and the shadow would always be visible from that side. In this case, as the digitally altered photo above illustrates, the observer on the Moon would see a small shadow on the Earth as only a part of it is obscured at any time. With most of the shadow still being partly illuminated by the sun which is only partially blocked by the Moon, there wouldn’t be a clear demarcation but rather a gradually darkening spot. To create the photo above I used an actual image of a solar eclipse seen from space which I got from NASA. Since this photo wasn’t of today’s eclipse, because time travel doesn’t exist yet, the image has the shadow on Australia even though the eclipse will not be visible from Australia this time around. Instead the shadow of this year’s eclipse will be seen on the United States, where the total eclipse will be visible.

Artist Pat Rawlings imagined what the the August 2017 eclipse would look like if seen from the Moon back in 1989. (Print available here) It was his hope at the time that by now someone would be on the Moon to observe it, but sadly this is not the case.

Looking back at Sailor Moon SuperS episode 128 I noticed a few humorous things. While many of the main characters are wearing the appropriate protective eye wear to view the eclipse, this is not true of all people. Usagi and others have a protective sheet to look through while some people have glasses. Indeed there are many such glasses, many made out of cardboard and a special film which blocks most of the sun’s rays, which are adequate for viewing an eclipse. As a tip if you can see pretty much anything with your shades, they aren’t fit for viewing the sun! This said there are quite a few people in this episode who appear to have no concern with staring at the sun. This is at once a bad idea and simply difficult to do. Staring at the sun during a partial eclipse is pretty much like staring at the sun during any normal time. It hurts your eyes and your instinct would be to turn away. With many of the business men and women in Sailor Moon seen simply putting their hand on near their forehead I wonder what exactly they’re looking at. This is a move that is usually done to protect one’s eyes from the sun, but the thing that they are conceivably looking at is the sun itself so something just isn’t adding up.

Luna and Artemis, usually the voices of reason in the series, appear to have no eclipse protection. Surely it would have been suspicious for a couple of cats to be wearing glasses but in this case they are simply staring at the fully eclipsed sun with no protection whatsoever. Shouldn’t they be going blind? Not really. It’s actually safe to look at the fully eclipsed sun however for most people this isn’t advisable as it isn’t terribly easy to tell when the sun is fully eclipsed and safe vs. when it’s only partially eclipsed and potentially damaging to one’s eyes.

A reminder that I do a weekly science and skepticism podcast called The Reality Check. In the latest episode Cristina talks all about eclipse myths including the real and fictional risks of looking at the sun. I managed to slip a reference to the Dead Moon Circus into the show!

Are you watching the eclipse today? Be sure to check out the NASA web site for all the details about it.

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Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD December 5th

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Adam

This past weekend was Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California. This event included Viz’s Moon Panel, showcasing all things Sailor Moon. The bulk of what we usually see at these panels is a recap of existing information but occasionally we get something new. In this case we have gotten details, including box art, of the third Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray and DVD set. The set then became available to pre-order on Right Stuf’s web site. The set looks like the other two we’ve gotten from Viz, with box art reminiscent of the Japanese releases. Since we had less Japanese releases for this season, grouping together 4 episodes per disc instead of 2, we have less postcards included.

The set will include Acts 27 through 38 which, because of the split up Act 27, is actually 12 episodes. Not much in the way of details on the special features but it looks like we’ve got a booklet with art as we did with the other releases. Right Stuf pre-orders will also include a collectible suncatcher because nothing says Sailor Moon like a sun catcher! MSRP for the set is $79.99 US but Right Stuf has the pre-order up for $71.99. Will you be picking this one up?

The other “news” from the panel was about the Eternal Edition Manga which is coming out in January. We got some art of the covers and the colour pages inside but this is mostly information we knew or had inferred from previously available information. It is nice to have confirmation of what we had suspected though. These will look like the Japanese Compete Edition manga versions which came out recently. They have the same new cover art and a lot more colour pages than we’ve seen in previous releases.

Support the site by ordering the first two Sailor Moon Crystal sets or pre-ordering the Eternal Edition manga using the links below.

Image source: @NJ_ on Twitter.

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