Keiko Kitagawa, Sailor Mars from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, will voice Sailor Cosmos in Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2

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Keiko Kitagawa as Sailor Cosmos

In a shocking turn of events the voice of Sailor Cosmos from Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2 is Keiko Kitagawa, a popular model and actress who is best known to Sailor Moon fans for portraying Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series! This comes as a surprise as many fans likely expected Sailor Cosmos to be voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi who voices Sailor Moon in Sailor Moon Crystal as well as Chibi Chibi. Keiko Kitagawa will also be voicing Guardian Cosmos who is a separate character who protects the Galaxy Cauldron where star seeds are born. Check out some footage of Sailor Cosmos as voiced by Keiko Kitagawa below.

Now it is time to speculate wildly about the true identity of Sailor Cosmos! The Le Mouvement Final musical cast Satomi Okubo as Sailor Cosmos because she’d previously played Sailor Moon which supports the idea that Sailor Cosmos is a future version of Sailor Moon. Since Kotono Mitsuishi voiced Sailor Moon back in the original 90s anime as well there wasn’t another Sailor Moon voice actor to fall back on, unless we consider Kae Araki, the voice of Chibiusa, who filled in for Kotono Mitsuishi when she was off sick at the end of the first season and start of Sailor Moon R. Instead by casting Keiko Kitagawa perhaps this means that Sailor Cosmos in this version is actually a future incarnation of Sailor Mars! Looks like that rivalry finally got settled and Rei got Usagi’s power!

Sailor Moon episode 43 - Sailor Mars with the Moon Stick

A preview of Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2 was shown to fans earlier today. Keiko Kitagawa met with Kotono Mitsuishi at a press event to discuss the film. They had previously worked together on Rikokatsu. While some fans were upset that Kotono Mitsuishi didn’t get the role she was quite supportive of Keiko Kitagawa and her performance. Naoko Takeuchi herself was also said to be at the recording of Sailor Cosmos’s lines! Kotono Mitsuishi is Sailor Moon royalty! She’s the star of this movie, the titular character and has been the face of the press of all things Sailor Moon Crystal for the past decade. There’s no need to be upset that she didn’t get to play a third voice in this movie which she’s already all over!

Keiko Kitagawa and Kotono Mitsuishi with a Sailor Moon Cosmos Poster

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 16 - Sailor Mars

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2 - Sailor Cosmos

Keep reading for more images from this trailer and the press event.

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Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 is now in theatres!

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Sailor Moon Cosmos poster

Today is the day. Thanks to time zones it’s been June 9th in Japan even longer than it has in North America. Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 is now in theatres and lucky fans will have a chance to watch it today! We should expect more information about the films, including spoilers, to roll in throughout the next few days. This of course raises one important question. When is it coming out here?

Usagi watching TV

Unfortunately we don’t have any details about a release of either of the Sailor Moon Cosmos films outside of Japan. This isn’t necessarily surprising. When the Sailor Moon Eternal films were first released in theatres in Japan we also didn’t have any news of an international release. Part 1 had been released on January 8th 2021 with Part 2 following on February 11th. The films weren’t released on Netflix until June 3rd of that same year, nearly five months after the first one had been released in Japan. The announcement wasn’t made until April. If things followed that same timeline, which they certainly won’t match exactly, we could hear about it in about three months, September 2023, and get it on Netflix in about five, around November 2023. This is of course not at all certain. It may not be coming to Netflix. Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be a short theatrical run! Maybe it will be stuck in limbo for months. We really don’t know, but the past suggests we may not know for a while and this is normal. No reason to panic!

Failing that we can always hold out hope for a Japanese video release. Sailor Moon Eternal Parts 1 and 2 were released on video on June 30th 2021, nearly six months after the theatrical release of the first film. If this sort of schedule is planned for Sailor Moon Cosmos we should see a Japanese Blu-ray release near the end of the year, around December. Nothing is set in stone but an eventual Blu-ray release is pretty much certain at this point. It’s just a question of whether or not we will see it before the movies are released either streaming or in theatres. A Japanese home video release will of course not include any English audio or subtitles. That being said if a domestic release is nowhere in sight by then we should expect fan subs of the films.

A high quality bootleg or fansub of the film prior to some sort of Japanese video or streaming release is unlikely. I of course always encourage fans to support the official releases when they can. Viz has been doing great work in dubbing the original anime, Sailor Moon Crystal and the films and putting them out on quality home video releases and on various streaming platforms. I’m sure they’re working hard to get us Sailor Moon Cosmos as soon as they can manage it and I look forward to seeing these films in whatever method we get.

Have you been lucky enough to see Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1? If so, what did you think of it?

Who is the new Sailor Guardian that Naoko Takeuchi is working on?

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Chanel artwork of Usagi, Chibiusa and Hotaru

Naoko Takeuchi seems to be working on the designs for a new Sailor Guardian! Could this mean another Sailor Moon project is coming?

Chanel artwork of Ami, Rei, Minako, Makoto, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna

You may have seen the images of the Sailor Moon Chanel collaboration. This art, made by Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi, appeared in a Chanel catalogue titled Chanel Magazine 2023 Special Issue: 31 Rue Cambon Tokyo. What does that mean? 31 rue Cambon is in Paris, not Tokyo. It is the address of the Chanel Store there. This seems to be a piece of promotional material, which is not for sale, to advertise Chanel products to rich and trendy clients. Sadly I was not on the distribution list. There seems to have been an interview with Naoko Takeuchi related to this event which I believe appeared in the magazine but it may have been at an associated press event. Twitter user @chibi_rabbit posted a Tweet which says that when asked if she was working on anything new Naoko Takeuchi said she had an idea for a new guardian. Let the speculation commence!

What could this possibly mean? Naoko Takeuchi obviously created many Sailor Guardians over the course of the manga but it didn’t end there. She also created the designs for Princess Sailor Moon and Sailor Luna who appeared in the live action Sailor Moon series. Notice that Chibiusa has her mother’s Moon Stick in this artwork, while her mother has the longer version from the end of the Dark Kingdom arc of the manga. Maybe she’s thinking of an updated version of Sailor Chibi Moon who is herself the head of the Sailor Team along with the Sailor Quartet. Maybe it’s Sailor Artemis, a counterpart to Sailor Luna. It could be anything! The word Sailor isn’t included in the Tweet so it may not actually be a Sailor Guardian but instead someone like Tuxedo Mask. We also don’t know in what context she’s thinking of this. Does she just feel like drawing a new character or is this going to be tied to some sort of piece of narrative fiction, be it a new manga chapter or a continuation of Sailor Moon Crystal? We really don’t know but it doesn’t hurt to speculate!

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

Speaking of Chanel! I never made the connection back in the day but it seems the perfume scented Chanela from episode 5 of the original Sailor Moon anime were almost certainly a reference to the Chanel Number 5 perfume scent.

Who do you think the new character could be? What sort of continuation of the Sailor Moon story do you want to see?

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site, @mikichi1979 on Twitter, @chibi_rabbit on Twitter, Sailor Moon Fan Network

A Sailor Moon Cosmos official visual book will be released on July 4th

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Sailor Moon Cosmos Official Visual Book

Yet another Sailor Moon Crystal book is coming in soon! The book will be released on July 4th which is shortly after the June 30th release of Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2. It will cover both films and will include an overview of the films’ story, character bios, interviews with cast and crew, artwork and merchandise related to the film. The book will be sold at stores and online retailers, though I have not yet seen it listed anywhere.

MSRP for the book is 3300 yen which is about $24 US. Not too expensive, but books are expensive to ship from Japan. Will you be picking this one up?

Source: The Sailor Moon Official Site

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season is coming to Blu-ray on July 25th

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Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season Blu-Ray

Viz has released the trailer for Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray and DVD. While it isn’t up on any online stores just yet we do have a released date, July 25th. Didn’t Sailor Moon R just come out? I’m still watching my set! You can watch the whopping 18 second trailer below.

Why, you may ask, would I buy Sailor Moon S on Blu-ray again? The series was released in two parts years ago. This set, like Viz’s new release of the first season and Sailor Moon R, will include updated higher quality video. While the S season did not have quite as many quality issues as the first two seasons in its original release it did suffer from some problems and will likely look much better in this release. It’s also a single release with the entire season instead of two individual half season sets. Do you plan on picking this release up?

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season Blu-Ray

There isn’t much in the trailer but we do have our first look at the cover art!

Watch these new clips from the Sailor Moon Cosmos films in an annoying format

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Sailor Moon Cosmos clip - Rei and her grandfather

Hey kids. Do you like Tik Toks? Do you like portrait orientation for your videos? Do you need to watch short clips which loop over and over because social media has destroyed your attention span? If you answered yes to all of these then you’ll love these recently uploaded clips from the upcoming Sailor Moon Cosmos films which are YouTube Shorts! The latest clip, embedded below, shows the Sailor Starlights.

In addition to this we got some other clips earlier this week. Below is a preview of Eternal Sailor Mars and Venus.

And here are Eternal Sailor Mercury and Jupiter.

And here’s some footage of Eternal Sailor Moon.

What a terrible way to see new footage from these movies which will be in theatres in Japan on June 9th and 30th. Still no news on a release outside of Japan but as soon as this is announced there will surely be a post about it!

Keep reading for some kind of annoying vertical screenshots from these clips.

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The first images of the Sailor Animamates from Sailor Moon Cosmos have been revealed

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Sailor Moon Cosmos Character and Relationship Chart

When the second Sailor Moon Cosmos trailer dropped a few days ago many fans were wondering where the Sailor Animamates were. Well we’ve finally got our first look at them! A character and relationship chart was posted to the Sailor Moon Cosmos official site. This includes pretty much all of the major characters from the Sailor Moon Crystal films. We’ve seen a lot of these before however the important additions are the Sailor Animamates as well as Sailor Phi and Chi and Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne.

If you’re looking to get a close look at these characters just click through on the chart and you’ll see everyone’s image. The art in these isn’t fantastic but evidently the finished product in the film looks great judging by the trailer.

Familiar to fans of the original Sailor Moon anime are Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Tin Nyanko, Sailor Aluminum Seiren and Sailor Lead Crow.

Sailor Iron Mouse Sailor Tin Nyanko
Sailor Aluminum Seiren Sailor Lead Crow

There was one more Sailor Animamate in the manga, Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon. Papillon is the French word for butterfly, hence the wings.

Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon

Another few characters who are from the manga but not the original anime are a couple of pairs of Sailor Guardians. There’s Sailor Phi and Chi as well as Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne.

Sailor Phi and Chi Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne

There are many other characters in that chart with new art for their designs you can check out. I’m only posting the new ones in this post because they seem most newsworthy.

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on June 9th with Part 2 following a few weeks later on June 30th. We don’t have any specifics yet about a North American release of the film. Sailor Moon Eternal was released on Netflix in many countries outside of Japan so that may be what’s planned for this film. A worldwide theatrical release of the film would certainly be great though the world of movie theatres is in a pretty dismal state right now.

Watch the latest Sailor Moon Cosmos trailer!

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Sailor Moon Cosmos - Trailer #2 - Sailor Saturn

The second full trailer for Sailor Moon Cosmos has been released on the Sailor Moon official site. These are all characters that we’ve seen in the last trailer but it’s nice to get a new and better look at some of them. Sailor Galaxia features prominently in this one as well as Sailor Chibi Chibi. You can watch the trailer on YouTube or embedded below.

One shot near the end of the trailer showing everyone supporting Sailor Moon is quite similar to a scene from the original Sailor Moon anime during the fight against Queen Beryl in the first season. Intentional homage? I suspect it is. I don’t believe this particular scene is based on a specific page in the manga. Given what’s going on with everyone in the scene this is based on I suspect this may parallel what’s happening and who’s including.

Sailor Moon episode 46 - The Sailor Team face off against Beryl

sailor_moon_cosmos_trailer_2_the_whole_gang

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on June 9th with Part 2 following on Usagi’s birthday, June 30th. No specifics about a North American release are currently known.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this trailer!

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You can watch Sailor Moon for free on Pluto TV and YouTube if you live in the US

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Sailor Moon on Pluto TV

Great news for people who live in the United States of America and pretty much no one else. There are a couple of ways to watch Sailor Moon for free online! A couple of weeks ago Viz uploaded all episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal to their YouTube channel. You can watch them through this handy playlist. As I’m Canadian I only see an empty playlist but it seems Americans should see actual episodes there. Enjoy!

Yesterday Pluto TV added a Sailor Moon channel to its lineup. What exactly that looks like I couldn’t really say because as a Canadian I don’t have access but Americans should be able to see something.

But don’t worry fellow Canadians! Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal have been free on Tubi for years. The original Sailor Moon anime is also available on the streaming service Crave for those who have a subscription to that.

Of course you can always just buy the Blu-ray sets and watch those if you’re into physical media.

Sailor Moon R Complete Second Season is now out on Blu-ray … again

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Sailor Moon R Complete Season Blu-Ray - Cover

Today is the day! The second full season Sailor Moon Blu-ray set with remastered video has been released. Why, you may ask, would I buy this set? Well maybe you didn’t buy Sailor Moon R Part 1 and 2 when they were released many years ago or if you did perhaps you’re quite picky about the quality of your anime and want to experience Sailor Moon R in the best quality possible! This set, like the first season set released last year, is made from new masters which are of considerably better quality than the first release. To be clear this is still an upscaled release meaning they used a standard definition source and used software to convert it to high definition, rather than going back to the film source, but the quality of the source material and the process used to upscale it have yielded a better result than what was release in 2015. Beyond that the price is better! MSRP is $49.99 US and the set is on sale on Amazon for only $39.99 right now. If you’re looking to order it you can support the site but using the Amazon link below.

I got my set today and am looking forward to watch it. Did you pick it up?