A voice actor’s post on Instagram appears to show him recording the dub of the Sailor Moon Eternal films for Netflix. Those who follow this site know that I’m not one to jump to conclusions when rumours are flying around but at this point I feel confident in stating that the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films, which are coming to Japanese theatres on January 8th and February 11th, are coming to Netflix. The post made to Instagram earlier today seems to all but confirm this. Thank you to Twitter user Gabe Nwagbala for pointing this out to me. You can thank him by checking out his YouTube channel which features Super Smash Bros., Tekken and Soulcalibur! The post in question, which has since been deleted, was made by voice actor Michael Yurchak. He provided the voice for Hawk’s Eye in the Viz dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. As Viz had generally kept the same voice actors for both their dubs of the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal it makes sense that he might be reprising his role for the Sailor Moon Eternal films, which are the equivalent of the fourth season of Sailor Moon Crystal. The photo in question was not meant to leak any information about the project and was likely quite unintentional. Michael Yurchak was simply commending the VSI group for their safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The monitor in the background of this photo shows two of the Amazoness Quartet, who look to be VesVes or maybe CereCere and JunJun, while the writing at the top of the monitor reads “of Netflix”. That could say “Property of Netflix” or something of the sort. This confirms what was previously suspected when the Screen Actors Guild had a listing for “Astro Girl (Aka: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie)” which had a note stating it was a Netflix dubbing agreement. Note that Michael Yurchak’s Instagram profile states that he is a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

This isn’t an official announcement but it’s really hard to deny the implications here. This is a voice actor who was previously associated with the series who’s indadvertedly shown us that he’s working on a Netflix project and those characters are from the new Sailor Moon Eternal films and they appear to be in the style in which this movie is going to be. Netflix generally dubs their own series so it’s not unreasonable to expect that since Netflix dubbed this movie it is so that it will appear on Netflix. This post also seems to confirm what many had been hoping and that is that the original voice cast of Sailor Moon Crystal is returning for the Sailor Moon Eternal films. Though Michael Yurchak’s character Hawk’s Eye was not in the earlier seasons he was in the original Sailor Moon anime and Viz kept the same voice cast from the original anime for Sailor Moon Crystal. The obvious interpretation of this image, given the Amazon Trio do interact with the Amazoness Quarter, is that Michael Yurchak is voicing Hawk’s Eye in these films and that, when possible, the rest of the Viz cast will be reprising their roles. There’s a bit of speculation here as I don’t know if Netflix and Viz need to have some sort of agreement, if guild work is a factor or if all of the actors were available and willing to be in these films. We will have to wait for some official confirmation before determining more details about the full cast. If most of the cast is in fact returning there is still some question as to whether Chris Niosi will be returning as the voice of Pegasus, a significant role in these films, as the actor had been recast in some other voice acting work he’d been doing following some controversy.

It is worth noting that last month voice actor Stephanie Sheh, who provides the voice for Usagi in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, shared a photo of herself doing voice over work while wearing a Sailor Moon shirt. While this alone is not definitive proof of anything if we consider it in the context of what we’ve learned since it seems plausible that she could have been recording her lines for Sailor Moon Eternal at that time.

We still of course don’t have official confirmation of this. I am a skeptical person who’s threshold for believing rumours is pretty high, but I really do think it is now well established that these films are coming to Netflix. It remains to be seen when we might actually be getting these films. Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be out in Japan on January 8th and Part 2 will follow shortly afterwards on February 11th. While a simultaneous release of an English dubbed and subbed version on Netflix would be nice I don’t know if we should realistically expect this. It is nice to see them recording their lines prior to the film’s release which does suggest it could be added to the service sooner rather than later. It also has not yet been confirmed that a subtitled version of the film will be released along with the dub. While a lot of anime on Netflix is both dubbed and subbed I’m reminded of the Pokémon Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution film which had the option of including Japanese audio but had dubtitles, basically closed captions for the English dub, rather than subtitles of the Japanese dialogue.

Some fans have also wondered if the movies being on Netflix would mean no home video DVD and Blu-Ray release. I would say such a release is still quite likely. Many Netflix original movies and series still get home video releases and it is certainly likely that these films would sell quite well to fans who’ve bought the rest of the series even though it was available on other streaming services.

Ultimately a Netflix release of a Sailor Moon film just means more people being exposed to it. While a lot of anime fans subscribe to services like Crunchyroll and Funimation a lot more people subscribe to Netflix. This might allow the Sailor Moon Eternal films to reach a much wider audience beyond the dedicated fans which have been following the series to date!

I sincerely hope that sharing this photo does not have negative consequences for Michael Yurchak. By the time I was made aware of this photo’s existence it seemed to me like the genie was out of the bottle and although I subsequently had a large part in propagating it I think that next step was inevitable, whether it would have been me or someone else who did that. It is clear to me that no Michael Yurchak did not intend to have anything he was working on identifiable based on the image and it was only obvious to fans because of existing rumours about Netflix doing this dub.

Thanks again to Gabe Nwagbala for pointing out the original post to me. He also shared that this was predicted in a video from August by Animal Lover & Anime Fan Natalie “LifeLight” Glevicky. She later posted this new video which discusses the evidence for the Netflix series including this post! If you’re a fan of fighting games such as Tekken, Super Smash Bros. and Soul Calibur you’d be wise to check out his YouTube channel.

Get caught up on Sailor Moon Crystal before the new movies hit Netflix by purchasing the series using the Amazon links below which supports this site:

You can also stream Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll.