Here’s more information on the planned Sailor V anime series

Sailor Moon Volume Infinity art book - Sailor V characters

Earlier this week I posted about some newly unearthed images which appear to be art from the original planned Sailor V anime series which was ultimately retooled as the Sailor Moon anime we all known and love. I mentioned a few character names but wasn’t sure where those had come from. Twitter user @MinakoMoments posted a couple of images and their translations which are the source of a lot of the older information around about these. While these looked familiar I had obviously missed out on this information. These are from the Sailor Moon Volume Infinity art book, which is a very rare book showing a lot of images of characters from Sailor Moon drawn by other artists and people involved with the series. These images looked familiar to me because I have this book but as I don’t read Japanese I assumed these were simply early designs for Rei, Makoto and Ami. While this is technically true, these are actually Miyabi, Mamoru and Hikaru from the planned Sailor V anime!

Sailor Moon Volume Infinity art book - Sailor V information

Based on the resolution it looks like the Japanese originals from those pages in question come from the Three Lights dot net scans of the Infinity art book. The translation is attributed to a friend of the @MinakoMoments account’s poster @switchpoint. Some of the details from this image were mentioned in yesterday’s article but there’s a bit more here that we can dig into. While I fully realize this may be old news to many this was new to me so I’m sharing it here for the benefit of others who may not have known the specifics before. Close up photos were taken from my copy of the Infinity art book.

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Amano Gurikazu

At the top of the page is Amano. He was the Umino lookalike from Codename Sailor V. Perhaps I’m saying this wrong. Umino looks like Amano much like Ami looks like Hikaru, not the other way around. Those characters came first and Sailor Moon’s characters came afterwards. It is mentioned that Amano looks handsome when he took his glasses off. In the Masquerade Dance Party chapter of the Sailor Moon manga when Princess D is found to be beautiful behind her googly glasses the girls speculate that Umino must similarly be handsome behind his. Amano seems to resemble Umino in this way as well!

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Minako

Minako is presented more or less as she is in Codename Sailor V and Sailor Moon with some minor differences. She, along with a few others characters, is 15. Minako was only 13 at the start of Codename Sailor V while Usagi and the other girls are 14 at the start of the Sailor Moon manga and anime series. The plan seemed to have been to age them up a bit for this series. This would put them all in high school, which is something which doesn’t occur until the Dream Arc of the Sailor Moon manga and the Sailor Stars season of the anime. Note that the crescent moon on Minako’s forehead is upside down compared to what we see in Codename Sailor V and Sailor Moon. She looks like a member of the Black Moon clan! In her character description it’s mentioned that she has no specific ability besides her super powers, which is a big difference in this story as her friends do not actually transform. They use their worldly and otherworldly gifts to assist Sailor V. It says that Minako’s special skill is love! She really was the Usagi of this series. It seems that Minako was retooled as Usagi but then was herself brought back into the series as another character, so it’s no surprise that the two characters share some similarities.

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Miyabi Yoronu

Next up is Miyabi Yoronu. In my previous article I called her a Rei like character but now I see that she’s had a real name all along! The image seen through the page I mentioned is in fact this image of Miyabi. She uses a scroll with Rei’s catchphrase “Akuryou Taisan”, an incantation used to exercise evil spirits. That Miyabi had supernatural powers that weren’t related to being a Sailor Guardian is an interesting explanation for why Rei has powers that seem to be completely unrelated to her being Sailor Mars. The character she was adapted from needed these powers because she didn’t actually transform!

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Mamoru Chino

Mamoru Chino is not actually related to Mamoru Chiba in any way but by name. This character was clearly later adapted into Makoto Kino. This image of her smoking is why many people were mentioning that she smoked. She is 17, a full two years older than the other characters, and so she would not be in their class or grade though she would still be at their school as both 15 year olds and 17 year olds are high school aged in Japan. Mamoru is known for being strong, like Makoto, but is referenced as having “herculean strength”. Whether this means she truly had the superhuman strength of demi-god Hercules or not isn’t clear. Regardless she still has super powers! Mamoru has telekinesis, the ability to teleport and ESP (extra sensory perception). She also runs fast, which may simply be a side effect of her super strength. Surprised she doesn’t get out of breath what with her smoking. Surprisingly, Mamoru is associated with the planet Saturn and not Jupiter.

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Hikaru Sorano

Next is Hikaru who is already a character in the Codename Sailor V manga. In this series she was to be the intelligent one which was the obvious inspiration for Ami. In the Sailor V manga Hikaru isn’t mentioned as being particularly brilliant. Though she physically resembles Ami her role was similar to Naru’s as she was simply Minako’s friend and classmate.

Sailor V Anime Concept Art - Human Female Artemis

So there were only four girls in this series instead of five? The fifth woman on this page is a female human Artemis! She is credited as “fifth beautiful girl” and is shown nude wearing a tiara adorned with Artemis’s crescent moon. What the exact plan was for this gender bending male cat who transformed into a a female human isn’t clear. Perhaps Artemis was meant to be female in this series? It is mentioned in the Codename Sailor V manga that Artemis is a woman’s name, though this seemed to be intended as a joke.

A Sailor V Manga Ad featuring Usagi as Sailor V with Artemis

One other odd piece is this ad for the Sailor V Manga where it appears that Usagi is the one dressed as Sailor V along with a white cat, presumably Artemis. This ad was published though by the time the manga it advertised was out, it was quite different than what was in the ad.

Sailor Moon Volume Infinity art book - Sailor V information

So what happened to this series? I believe it was incorrect for me to say that this series was abandoned or scrapped. It’s more accurate to say that Sailor V evolved into Sailor Moon. I’m not privy to all of the behind the scenes decisions but it seems like Codename Sailor V showed promise to be a series. The idea of a girl fighting crime alone was expanded into more of a group show, like we see with these characters who would have helped out Minako. This was in turn further expanded into the girl version of Super Sentai which was Sailor Moon. Minako become Usagi, Hikaru became Ami, Miyabi became Rei, Mamoru became Makoto and then the original Minako became the slightly different Minako. Many of the other elements don’t really map from one series to another. The Dark Agency is not terribly similar to the Dark Kingdom and there wasn’t a real equivalent to Mamoru in Sailor V, though surely some sort of love interest would have popped up eventually. It seems like Sailor Moon, the manga, was made with the intention of it being adapted into an anime series. The Sailor V anime concept was just a step on that path. Wouldn’t it be great if that series had been made? It kind of did, there were just a lot of changes in getting there. The Sailor V anime is like Star Trek with Captain Pike and Number One. Sailor Moon is what we got after the idea evolved a bit.

Sailor Moon Volume Infinity art book - Sailor V characters

Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita from the Sailor Moon anime

Some images appear to be from a Sailor V anime that was almost made before Sailor Moon

Sailor V anime - Sailor V, Minako and Artemis

Some very interesting images surfaced online last week and started making the rounds in the Sailor Moon fan community yesterday, October 3rd. The earliest sign of these I could find were a series of Tweets from user @ayumikapimofu who posted a number of photos of a “new program plan” for both Sailor Moon and Sailor V. The Sailor V program appears to show details for a planned Sailor V anime based on the Codename Sailor V manga. This was in the works before that plan was abandoned in favour of a Sailor Moon anime which eventually became the show which was released in 1992. Along with the booklet featuring Naoko Takeuchi’s art are three colour images which appear to be from a Sailor V anime. These include characters from the Codename Sailor V manga as well as all new characters from this anime.

Sailor V Anime - Sailor V, Mamoru, a Rei clone and Hikaru

What’s in here is really interesting! We have Minako as Sailor V, obviously. Along with her were three girls who didn’t transform themselves, or aren’t shown to do so in these images. The one we know of is Hikaru, a girl who strongly resembles Ami from the Sailor V manga who is Minako’s friend and classmate. We also have a Makoto like character named Mamoru and a Rei like character to round out the group. Although there’s no Usagi equivalent, aside from Minako herself, this more or less resembles the group from the first season of the Sailor Moon anime. The villain seen in this is Ashura, a Jadeite looking character with blue hair. Ashura also resembles Higashi, the Dark Agency’s enemy from the first Sailor V story.

Sailor V anime - Ashura

I also spotted what looks to be the Rei type character seen through the page preceding the image of Hikaru. Messing around with the contrast it looks like she could have a crow on her shoulders. It’s also possible this is Natsuna Sakurada, the Superintendent General of the police who is obsessed with Sailor V. She has similar long black hair to Rei.

Sailor V Program - Is this Rei?

Are these authentic? It’s hard to say. These appear to have originated in a Yahoo! Auctions Japan listing which is no longer online. The art in the book looks like Naoko Takeuchi’s so those documents may be authentic but the colour images seem to be something else and their origin is not clear at all. These don’t look like some sort of concept art but rather high quality images from never before seen finished footage which I’ve never heard of, so this does strike me as a bit suspicious. Could there have been actual animation for this made and hidden for nearly 30 years? Perhaps these were just colour mock ups made in the style of what the finished animation might look like, even if no full scenes were animated. Alternatively a fan have made this art themselves inspired by the content of this booklet which is more or less a show Bible. The art style very much resembles that of an early 90s anime! I’m not able to make a definitive call one way or another. It seems plausible this is authentic, but that doesn’t mean it certainly is.

Sailor V Anime Program Plan - Index page

What’s next? Hopefully whoever buys this thing ends up scanning this or at least getting some better photos of it and then someone can do a good job of translating some of this text. If there’s more art where this came from I would love to see it but if it took nearly 30 years for this to surface new information about this series may be as elusive as the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon pilot! I’ll be sure to post any more information about this if I get any!

Sources:

I first heard about this on the moonsisters.org Facebook page which includes some decent images.

The earliest images I found were posted on Twitter on September 25th. These included an image of “new program plans” for Sailor Moon and Sailor V, the first page of the Sailor V program, a manga image from RunRun, a colour image of Sailor V, Minako and Artemis, the group image of Sailor V, Mamoru, a Rei like character and Hikaru, an image of Ashura, Naoko Takeuchi’s illustration of Ashura, a photo of all three anime images, a post with many images including the Sailor V program index which hadn’t been posted separately.

Keep reading for more images from this book.

Continue reading

The first volume of the Codename: Sailor V Eternal Edition manga is out now

Codename: Sailor V Eternal Edition volume 1

The first of the two volumes of the Codename: Sailor V Eternal Edition manga was released today, September 28th. Following in the style of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition manga which was published in 10 volumes from 2018 to 2020, this Sailor V manga has similar large high quality glossy pages. This release includes all of the colour pages which haven’t been published since the manga was originally serialized in RunRun from 1991 to 1997. The Sailor V manga, written by Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi, tells the story of Minako during her time as Sailor V which chronologically predates the story of the Sailor Moon manga. The first chapters were published before Sailor Moon, though the manga continued to be published until after the Sailor Moon manga had been completed. The story is quite interesting and at times includes story elements and characters who bear striking similarities to some that we see later in the Sailor Moon manga and in some cases adapted as ideas in the Sailor Moon anime.

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

As with the Japanese Complete Edition releases, which were similar but slightly smaller equivalents to the English Eternal Editions, we have the same cover art. While the Sailor Moon Complete and Eternal Editions featured original art for the covers the Codename: Sailor V covers, originally released in Japan in 2014, use the same art from volumes 1 and 2 of the original Japanese manga releases. I don’t have my hands on this manga yet but you can see my post about the Japanese releases for a look at what those looked like. These really are the definitive versions that fans should be looking to collect. Forget about those Naoko Takeuchi Collection versions which keep getting delayed. Those are terrible. Waste of money. Spend a little more and get the Cadillac Eternal Edition manga. They are expensive but worth every penny.

The first volume is out today and the second will be available next month on October 21st. Feel free to support the site by ordering volume 1 or any volumes of the Sailor Moon manga and pre-ordering volume 2 using the links below.




Also please check out the very outdated Sailor V Page of Funk which I made back in 1998 when no English version of this manga existed. The first time I read this manga I had a printed translation of the script which I followed along with.

Dua Lipa’s retro anime style music video seems heavily inspired by Sailor Moon

Dua Lipa - Levitating - Transforming

Singer Dua Lipa’s latest music video for the song Levitating is a joy to watch for fans of classic anime. The art style seems inspired by 80s and 90s anime while the content of the video itself seems to be influenced by Sailor Moon. The Moon is featured prominently. A locket with a crescent Moon on it is very similar to Sailor Moon’s first transformation broach. The crescent Moon frequently appears in the background. There’s even a short magical girl style transformation! You can watch the video on YouTube embedded below.

Though the Sailor Moon references are surely intentional the art style of the video itself doesn’t match Sailor Moon much. I would say that it more closely resembles 80s anime styles. Many have compared it to Creamy Mami, an anime series from 1983 which I am not personally familiar with. The colours and designs do appear to be similar. A friend of mine pointed out the similarity to Dirty Pair, from 1985, which I think could also be an inspiration. Creamy Mami can be streamed for free on Retrocrush.

Dua Lipa - Levitating - In front of a crescent Moon Sailor Moon episode 1 - Japanese DVD - Sailor Moon poses

The video’s animation was done by NOSTALOOK who specialize in making retro style anime. A full length music video done in traditional style animation certainly is impressive! I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what else this group makes. You can follow the group on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.

Dua Lipa - Levitating - A crescent Moon shaped locket

Do you like the video? What elements do you think are inspired by Sailor Moon and which might be from other series?

Dua Lipa - Levitating - Transforming

Source: Crunchyroll

Dua Lipa - Levitating - Dua Lipa flying a car

Masaya Kikawada, Jouji Shibue and Miyuu Sawai who played Motoki, Mamoru and Usagi in the live action Sailor Moon series, will star in a Super Sentai film The Legacy of the Master’s Soul

Jouji Shibue, Masaya Kikawada and Miyuu Sawai  in The Legacy of the Master's Soul

It’s a live action Sailor Moon series reunion as Masaya Kikawada, Jouji Shibue and Miyuu Sawai appear on screen together in the upcoming Super Sentai prequel special “The Legacy of the Master’s Soul”. All three actors appeared in the live action series as Motoki, Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon! The three are reprising their roles as Master Red, Master Blue and Master Pink from the Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger series which played in Japan starting in 2019. Masaya Kikawada, Jouji Shibue and Miyuu Sawai were not usually in the same episodes however all three were on screen together in the first episode of the series.

Master Blue, Master Red and Master Pink in Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 1

The film, which will serve as episode 0 for the series, will be made available to the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club on October 17th. There’s currently no indication of how, if at all, the special might be made available outside of Japan. Scenes from the series were used as the basis for Power Rangers Dino Fury which aired on Nickelodeon earlier this year and is available on Netflix. No Japanese actors are seen in this version of the show as that footage is replaced with English speaking actors as is typically the case with Power Rangers series.

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 7 - Motoki and Usagi on a boat

A trailer for the special can be seen on YouTube embedded below.

Did you watch Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger? If so, what did you think of these actors’ performances in the series?

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 17 - Mamoru surprised to see Usagi

Source: The Tokusatsu Network

Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical news: DVD and Blu-ray details, international streaming announced and music track previews

Musical Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon - Princess Kaguya's Lover Poster

The Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical begins performances in Japan on Friday September 3rd. This musical has been delayed due to the pandemic but is finally being held with audiences at 50% capacity. There’s been a lot of news about the musical recently so I’ll put the most important stuff in this post.

It was announced that the musical will be streamed not only in Japan but internationally as well! This is great news as the musicals have only started to become accessible outside of Japan recently. The Japanese streams will start along with the first showings as early as September 3rd for a hefty price of 3700 yen, about $34 US. There will be a 20% discount for those who attend the show. In contrast the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical which was streaming this past week only cost $15 US to stream! We don’t have details about the international streaming option at this time. It seems unlikely this will be available on September 3rd along with the Japanese stream. We only know that the distribution will be done through Globe Coding. Note that this is the same service which was used for the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon 2019 musical stream. I purchased a ticket for that and watched it and did not have any issues! I’m expecting that since the musical is streaming outside of Japan that it will have subtitles for fans to watch along with.

We’ve also gotten details about the home video release of the musical. It will be released on both DVD and Blu-ray on January 19th 2022. Preorders will start on September 3rd, along with the first showing of the musical. It won’t be cheap! The DVD will sell for 8,500 yen, about $77 UD, while the Blu-ray will cost 9,500 yen, about $87 US. This will include a disc with the musical itself and a second disc with bonus features. This is only the second musical we get on Blu-ray after the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical. After years of really low quality DVDs for the recent musicals I’m happy that these are finally coming out on Blu-ray, even if the price tag is a bit higher!

Finally we’ve gotten previews of some of the songs from the musical. This includes a very short version on YouTube as well as longer tracks on a number of streaming services. A collection of those links can be found on linkfire. The two tracks are You’re My Universe and this musical’s version of Moonlight Legend, the original theme song for the Sailor Moon anime. Both songs are performed by the actresses playing the Sailor Team in the musical. You can watch the shorter versions of these songs on YouTube below.

The Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical is based on the manga chapter story which was the inspiration for Sailor Moon S: The Movie. The musical will focus heavily on Luna who falls in love with Kakeru and ultimately turns into human Luna. Are any of you expecting to see this one live or do you plan on streaming it or importing the home video release?

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray review

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Cover

Sailor Moon Eternal was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on June 30th. This included both a standard and limited edition of both. Good news for Japan, which previously had seen only a theatrical release of the films. Less useful internationally as many countries are streaming the films on Netflix with English audio and subtitle options. Still the limited edition Blu-ray and DVD have a number of nice features fans may be interested in checking out. I picked up the limited edition Blu-ray, which I’ll be discussing in this post.

There were a number of vendor exclusive versions of this release which differed amongst retailers and while I got the release from Amazon Japan I opted not to pay the cchionsiderable extra cost on top of the already high price tag for these exclusives. In retrospect I enjoyed the box art so much that perhaps a nice print of it would have been worthwhile, but it’s a bit late for this!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Discs

The set itself comes with a really beautiful package. This isn’t a standard DVD or Blu-ray sized box but instead something the size of a laserdisc or LP jacket. Inside are four discs. There’s a Blu-ray of the films, a Blu-ray disc of bonus features and two audios CD soundtracks, one for each of the movies.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Chibiusa and Usagi

Blu-ray

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and Small Usagi

Netflix

Disc 1! The movies. There isn’t much on this except for the two Sailor Moon Eternal films. I won’t repeat my review of those films. I quite enjoyed them and you can read my more in depth thoughts in my full reviews of Part 1 and Part 2. Interestingly enough the two movies are just one long video track of this Blu-ray. This doesn’t mean this is one movie or that it was always intended as one movie as there are still ending and opening credits, but we could easily have had separate video tracks for these.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Part 1 chapters

The disc’s menu has chapter markers which more or less break the movies up into single episode Acts, like with the TV series. This isn’t perfect again because some of them are shorter than others. The “Ami” chapter is only about 11 minutes and the “Rei” chapter is about 12. The second film’s chapters are broken up a bit more evenly as that story isn’t as clearly separated into distinct stories like with Part 1. Keep in mind that there are no English audio or subtitle options. As with all other Japanese Sailor Moon video releases, this is only meant to be viewed by a Japanese audience. If you want to watch it in English, get a Netflix subscription!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - The Amazoness Quartet

Blu-ray

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Sailor Quartet

Netflix

The video quality of the Blu-ray is quite good. It’s hard to compare a Blu-ray to a stream of a movie because there are all sorts of things which can affect a streaming video’s quality. Netflix adjusts its video quality based on a user’s bandwidth so I don’t know if the quality I was watching the movie at was the best possible. I took some screenshots from the Netflix stream for my reviews but there may have been issues with using a web browser to do that. The Blu-ray, to me, looks superior to the streaming version I’d seen on Netflix. I had watched the films twice on the Netflix app on PlayStation 5 and then once through the Netflix site a web browser on a laptop connected to a TV via HDMI. I’ll include a few screenshot comparisons here and at the end of the post. Keep in mind there is jpeg compression on these images which is a form of lossy compression but that same transformation was applied consistently to both types screenshots using the built in Mac OS screenshot function. I did find the level of detail in the Blu-ray release is superior to what I saw with the streaming version. The fine detail such as lines looks better.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - To be continued...

Part 2 ends with a screen saying “To be continued”. This was included in the original Japanese theatrical release but was not in the Netflix version that most people have watched. The insinuation here is evident. They intend to continue Sailor Moon Crystal with a Stars arc. What that will look like or when we will get it remains to be seen. I hope we aren’t going to have to wait months for this one!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Disc 2 menu

The second disc is another Blu-ray and includes all of the bonus features. The menu is all in Japanese but I will explain the feature in the order they’re seen on the menu. Many of these had previews posted on YouTube which I’ll include links to. As with the movies these are only available in Japanese. As many of the features involve some Japanese person or people talking throughout this might not be terribly useful for fans who don’t speak the language.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with director Chiaki Kon

The first feature, accessed with the top left button, is an interview with the movie’s director Chiaki Kon. She was director on Season III of Sailor Moon Crystal as well as both films. For whatever reason a Luna plush on a stool is featured prominently in the center of the screen while Chiaki Kon is off to the side. The interview is 9m46s but you can watch a three minute preview on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with character designer Kazuko Tadano

Next, the top right option, is an interview with character designer Kazuko Tadano who also worked on the original Sailor Moon anime. It’s hard to ignore the one very distracting aspect of this interview which is the large cartoon face which is superimposed over her face in every scene. I recall seeing Kazuko Tadano at Otakon in 2008 where she seemed to have no qualms about being seen in public. I recorded a panel she was on and my camera ended up losing the footage. Perhaps her image can’t be captured on camera! This feature is 10m30s and a short preview can be seen on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Moon Effect music video

The next feature is a Moon Effect music video. This is a long clip from the film only the actual dialog and sound effects are removed keeping only the song itself. The video is 6m11s long.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Trailers

Next up is a series of trailers and ads for the film. Having seen a lot of these I think I may have seen them all but it’s so hard to tell at some point as many commercials and trailers reuse a lot of the same footage over and over again. The whole thing is 7m10s.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the main Sailor Guardian cast

After this we have a 20 minute interview with the main cast of Sailor Guardians and Nehelenia from the first film. This, like many of the interviews, occurs on stage. This includes Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Hisako Kanemoto, Sailor Mercury, Rina Satō, Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu, Sailor Jupiter, Shizuka Itō, Sailor Venus, Misato Fukuen, Sailor Chibi Moon, and Nanao, the voice of Nehelenia. A short preview can be seen on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the Amazon Trio cast

We then have an interview with Kotono Mitsuishi and the voices of the Amazon Trio. By all indications this nearly 22 minute video is hilarious, but I have no idea what they’re really saying. At one point they do a game where there are four options per question and … well I don’t know what the questions or answers are. Check out a preview on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the full cast in Princess dresses

Next we have all of the Sailor Guardians’ voices from both films in princess dresses. They all look quite lovely! Throughout this 18 minute clip we see them all answering various questions while wearing evening gowns which are colour coordinated to suit the Sailor Guardians they voice. There’s a lot of posing for photos going on. This preview is on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the core cast

Finally we have a stage interview with the voices of Chibiusa, her mom and her two boyfriends. This 21 minute interview includes Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Misato Fukuen, Sailor Chibi Moon, Kenji Nojima, Tuxedo Mask, and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Pegasus. I can’t tell if Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is really nervous, doing a bit or both. Is this Bob Newhart level awkward comedy or perhaps some sort of thing that women find appealing? Really not sure. One fun part of this feature is a wild crescent moon shaped flower arrangement. As with the other features you can watch a short clip on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Booklet - Pages 28 and 29

The 3rd and 4th discs are audio CDs. Disc 3 is the soundtrack for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and Disc 4 is the soundtrack for Part 2. The labels on the discs themselves indicate this and the track listing in the booklet also breaks them into “Part 1″ and “Part 2″. Both have large numbers of tracks as well as TV sized versions of the songs included in them. Disc 3 has more tracks which may be because of music which is used in both films appearing on this soundtrack. I haven’t done a detailed study of each track and identified where it appears in each film, but it seems to mostly be broken up by the films. The part 1 soundtrack has 51 tracks, 49 of which are fairly short instrumental tracks. Track 50 is Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for the films. At 2m35s it is a shorter version of the song, with the full length version being 4m20s. Track 51 is the movie sized version of Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together with You) by Yoko Ishida which is only 1m32s as opposed to the 5m17s full length version.

The part 2 soundtrack is similar but with only 34 tracks, most of which are are instrumental. Track 28 is the full version of Moon Effect which is a whopping 6m12s, like the version on the Sailor Moon Eternal character song album. Track 33 is another TV length version of Moon Color Chainon. At 2m34s it’s one second shorter than the version on the part 1 soundtrack. I guess one of these is the one with Momoiro Clover Z and one is the version with the voice actors but I honestly can’t tell the difference. Track 34 is the movie sized version of “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll Go As Myself) cover by Anza. This version is only 1m34s. The full length versions of all of the songs on these soundtracks were previously released on the Eternal Edition of the Moon Color Chainon album. It seems like none of the tracks on these soundtrack CDs are available elsewhere, except for the full length version of Moon Effect.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Booklet - Pages 4 and 5

Also included is a special booklet. I’ve included photos of each of the pages with most being at the end of this post. This starts off with character art for all of the characters in the movies. Next is a “Cast Comment” from each of the voice actresses portraying the Sailor Guardians. We then have the “Character Design Comment” which shows us individual art of each character which was used for the cover art. I think that cover image is quite amazing so it’s nice to see each character with a bit of detail here. We then have a “Key Animation Gallery” which shows storyboards and how they compare to images from the final product. There is then an “Event Report” which seems to give a bit of a description for a number of events related to the promotion and release of the film. A “Music Review” discusses the new songs featured in the film. There is then an “Interview” but it’s not entirely clear to me who that interview is with. Finally there is the track listing for the “Original Soundtrack”, the 3rd and 4th discs in this set.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Back Cover

So what’s the verdict? Is this set worth getting? Since it’s a Japanese only release with no English subtitles or audio for the films or any features, this has a limited appeal. While the movies are available to stream on Netflix the features in this set are most certainly not. The music soundtracks are the only way which is currently available to get most of the songs included, so that’s an aspect to consider. It’s worth noting that even though such a thing hasn’t been announced yet it seems quite likely that international versions of this film will be released in time. I expect a North American English DVD and Blu-Ray release will come eventually. That version will likely have Japanese audio as well as English audio and subtitle options. So why get this one? International releases (meaning outside of Japan) will likely include few to none of the special features in this release. Instead I would expect some cast interview with English voice actors and some character art. As always, we’ll be sure to share any info about such a release if and when we hear anything.

Keep reading for more images of the set including photos of all pages of the booklet.

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The Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical will be available to stream with English subtitles August 20th to the 26th

Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon 2019 musical poster

A Sailor Moon musical will finally be made available to stream legally with English subtitles. The 2019 Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical will be available to stream from August 20th to August 26th from Japan 2.5D Stage Play World. The stream will be available as of 8pm on the date of purchase and for 24 hours afterwards for the cost of $15. This is certainly less expensive than importing a DVD or Blu-Ray or buying an in person ticket, let alone the flight and accommodations while in Tokyo! This of course also costs more than downloading a fansubbed version of a musical but I always encourage supporting the Sailor Moon properties you enjoy by purchasing available legitimate releases. Although there are fansubs available for many Sailor Moon musicals, there is non for the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical. If you’ve been downloading musical fansubs for years using the excuse that there was no legal domestic way to watch them, now is the time to back that claim up with a few dollars!

Japan 2.5D Stage Play World - Naruto, My Hero Academia and Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musicals

The event starts this week with a Naruto stage play followed by My Hero Academia the week of August 13th to the 19th. The streaming service is provided by Globe Coding. You can check out supported devices on this page. I was able to load the test video in 720p on my somewhat old laptop without any real issues. The event is advertised as being held in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Singapore though it’s possible it works in other countries as well. It is specifically mentioned that it will not work in China (Mainland), Russia, North Korea and Middle East countries or areas (Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine).

The Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical was originally released in 2018. That is the version which was originally released on DVD and Blu-Ray, which I reviewed for this site. Since there are a lot of members of Nogizaka46 (there are 46…) the 2018 show was broken up into two teams. Team Moon and Team Star shared some supporting cast who weren’t part of the musical group Nogizaka46 but the Sailor Guardians in each team were played by unique performers from the popular idol group. The teams alternated different nights of the performance and the home video release included performances by both Team Moon and Team Star. The 2019 version of the musical was performed by a new set of performers from Nogizaka46. Having two versions of the musical already I hadn’t opted to pick up the 2019 Blu-Ray release, but as I haven’t seen the musical subtitled, as Japanese releases of Sailor Moon musicals have never included English subtitles, this will be a great opportunity to watch it again with a new cast and some context of what’s being said!

As musicals go the Nogizaka46 musical was quite good. I enjoyed the story, a retelling of the first story arc from the manga, as well as the excellent puppet work for Luna and the inclusion of Naru and Umino. For $15 I think this is a good deal and although I haven’t figured out which day works best for me I certainly plan on streaming this musical in a couple of weeks. Do you plan on doing the same? Will you be streaming any of the other events from Japan 2.5D Stage Play World?

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 Review

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Princess Sailor Guardians

Sailor Moon Eternal Parts 1 and 2 are both currently streaming on Netflix. This is my review for the second film. You can also read my Part 1 review which was posted last month. I always used to put episode reviews for Sailor Moon Crystal up within a few days of their release but the nature of these movies means that reviewing them is a bit more work! I call this a review even though it’s really more of a vague recap with random commentary and a sprinkling of what might be considered a review.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka and Michiru with baby Hotaru

Part 1 ended on a cliffhanger. Not literally. If it followed the manga more closely it would have ended on a literal cliffhanger as Minako was hanging off of a cliff but stories were moved around to make things fit into movies a bit better. The conclusion to the whole Minako and Human Artemis thing was moved into Part 1 instead of taking place after we get a look at what’s going on with Hotaru and her three moms, which is really where this movie starts off. For the most part, like all of Sailor Moon Crystal, this movie is fairly faithful to the manga source material which it was based on.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka and Michiru

Last time we saw Hotaru she was a baby being whisked away by Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. We finally see what they’ve been up to, starting with Haruka and Michiru. If I can take issue with the dub for a moment! There’s a character which, referencing Haruka, says that “He’s such a hottie”. Now I know Japanese doesn’t tend to use gender specific pronouns so this is likely not a terribly literal translation. I also understand that there being some confusion over Haruka’s gender makes sense and is a common theme in the series but are we really going to just pretend that Haruka is not very clearly dressed unambiguously as a woman in this scene? I’m not sure what this was all about.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Setsuna's left hand

Left handed mouse

Back at the house Setsuna is using a left handed mouse. What’s this? Is she actually left handed? I didn’t know this! While looking into this I found an article from Tuxedo Unmasked which mentions that Sailor Pluto may be left handed as she usually holds her Garnet Rod in her left hand. This article also goes into some detail about whether or not Rei is left handed, something I mentioned in my Part 1 review. So she’s left handed? Not likely. The only reason we see her left hand on the mouse is because the movie wants to show us her ring which is on her left hand and this is a convenient way to do so. Have you ever tried to use a mouse with your off hand? It’s very awkward. What’s my evidence suggesting that Setsuna isn’t actually left handed? In a scene a bit later in the film she’s back to using a mouse with her right hand. Ambidextrous? Seems like her handedness is whatever suits the needs of the shot!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Setsuna is now right handed

Right handed mouse

While Setsuna is browsing an article about the eclipse we see a date! 2016-03-28 or March 28th 2016. I will assume this isn’t the actual date of the eclipse but rather the date on which the article was published. This fits with the date seen in Part 1 where Chibiusa circles April 1st as her date to return to the 30th century. An article about the April 1st eclipse coming out some four days before makes perfect sense. Any problems with this? Well April 1st 2016 was a Friday in the real world and according to Chibiusa’s calendar it was a Thursday. There was also no solar eclipse on April 1st 2016. There was a total solar eclipse on March 9th of 2016 and Japan wasn’t the best place to see it from. So why would the story take place five years in the past? This would probably be because the last new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal we got was on June 27th 2016. Since the series started airing on July 5th 2014 this makes the first few seasons take place within a few years. A six month passage of time since the eclipse is suggested at one point during this film so most of it takes place in late 2016. Most manga arcs seem to take place over about year which could put the Dream arc around 2017 if the events of the first season really are to take place in 2014. If they take place in 2013, when the show was originally meant to start, things line up pretty well. So much to say with a five year gap between Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 and the Sailor Moon Eternal films we can hardly just say it’s 2021 and expect it to make sense that everyone’s just starting high school so the 2016 date seems to work.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka, Michiru and Hotaru

The big thing for the start of the film is fast aging Hotaru. This is something we see at the start of SailorStars in the original Sailor Moon anime. All of this growth occurred over a six month period and we get a sense of how quick it has been when Haruka mistakenly thinks they need diapers for their fast aging daughter. Hotaru is spouting out odd poetry and making faithful models of the solar system where events up to those taking place in the present play out in super speed. This makes me wonder just how accurate these are. If individual people are recreated in this model do those people experience joy and pain? Does Hotaru recreate every act of suffering in the history of our planet on a whim in her living room? Does this include the death of her mother as well as her father’s painful memories of it? Alternatively if the exact same information patterns of someone’s life are run over and over again are those actual new experiences or just the one experience? Is there a subjective feeling experienced more than once? The whole thing might be very unethical depending on one’s perspective on these issues.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Sailor Saturn transforms

So! Hotaru gets old and gives everyone their Sailor Crystals avoiding the requirement of a handful more individual stories in which they learn something about themselves and get their shoulder pad upgrades. Hotaru basically gives them all the upgrades herself. How convenient. Most importantly… a Sailor Saturn transformation sequence! Sailor Saturn had a transformation sequence in season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal but it was a bit different. This one is shorter but a bit more consistent with other transformations. Since Sailor Saturn never did transform in the original Sailor Moon anime it’s always nice to see a transformation sequence. She did have an original anime style transformation sequence as part of a Sailor Saturn game but this was never seen in the TV series or movies.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Two glass shards

Two shards

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Zirconia picks up one glass shard

One shard

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Zirconia with two glass shards

Two shards again

Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn show up to save the day and everyone is back together again! This doesn’t last long, sadly. Later Zirconia dispatches the Amazoness Quartet and then traps Sailor Chibi Moon and Saturn into shards of a mirror. She then picks up one piece of the mirror and then somehow has two in her hands. What’s going on here? Infuriating! This scene is brief but it’s great seeing Sailor Saturn in action since she’s so neglected in the original Sailor Moon anime. The scene of her and Chibi Moon in the circus tent is similar to their scenes in the early part of Sailor Stars when they fight Nehelenia. In a way the first six episodes of Sailor Stars are a more faithful adaptation of the dream arc than all of Sailor Moon SuperS.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Young Usagi and Mamoru

We see a young Usagi and Mamoru, which is odd since we sort of already got a fairly extensive look at young Usagi earlier. They turn young in real life and then have a dream where they’re both young which makes me wonder why their real selves needed to even be made young in the first place. How do their dream selves know that their bodies are young? Shouldn’t there be some dysmorphia going on? Regardless, seeing young Usagi and Mamoru in domestic bliss is incredibly cute. What I enjoy about this scene is how similar it is to a major plot point in the Sailor Moon SuperS film. Usagi is in a dream world with Mamoru and questions his unwavering devotion to her. While in the SuperS film this is what she uses to break out of The Matrix, here it’s just a curiosity. Basically Mamoru states that his dream is to live with Usagi and she questions his other dreams like being a doctor. It’s worth noting that many other elements from this arc, like the young versions of so many characters, are also seen in the Sailor Moon SuperS film at many points. While on the surface the movie has nearly nothing to do with the Dream arc of the manga and the SuperS season of the original anime, there are in fact many similarities. These are not likely all intended. Unless some advanced knowledge of one work or another was planned the timelines simply don’t add up. This particular manga story with young Usagi and Mamoru came out in Nakayoshi in December of 1995, the same month in which the SuperS film was released. Since both a manga and animated film take months or longer to go from story to release, these particular similarities seem to be coincidence.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Elysion

Usagi and Mamoru are now with Helios in Elysion and the whole being young thing wasn’t any sort of lasting problem. What is this place? In mythology the similarly named Elysium is the afterlife. Here Elysion, which is a unique name in Sailor Moon, is another world that seems to be somewhat parallel to the Earth. An analog to it as Helios is himself tied to the Earth and the Golden Crystal. More specifically I wonder just where it is. It is suggested that Elysium is within the Earth somehow and there are references to “the surface”. I wonder if Elysium is compatible with the idea of The Hollow Earth. This is an idea of a world deep beneath the surface of the Earth. Though specifics vary the concept is that the Earth itself is a hollow shell and that within that shell there is a whole other ecosystem where “down” is actually towards the outside of the Earth. I tried hard to see indications that Elysion had a normal sky. We don’t see any stars from it. We don’t see the sun even though late in the story there is light coming from the sky. The Hollow Earth is often described as having a small sun at the center of the Earth. The Moon is seen in the sky in that we can see the eclipse from Elysion, but it isn’t clear if the Moon itself is actually visible. Keep in mind this is one of my own pet theories about Elysion and isn’t necessarily intended in either the manga or Sailor Moon Eternal films, but I wonder if this is a kind of pseudoscientific belief that Naoko Takeuchi was into along with all the weird stuff from the Black Moon arc.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Princess Small Lady Serenity

We do this weird thing where we pretend that the maiden that Helios is looking for isn’t Chibiusa and it’s all very silly. He sees this image of a clearly pink haired woman who looks more or less like an older Chibiusa who asks him to find the Golden Crystal. She’s called “Princess Lady Serenity”. He acts as if this is Sailor Moon which makes Chibiusa quite upset, even though she clearly still has Helios’s affection.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Elysion

All this time Mamoru is just walking around in his dress shirt. Why do we pretend these dress shirts are the most comfortable thing? He gives them out to all the ladies who sleep over. Chibiusa sleeps in one during Part 1 and when he’s sick in bed this seems to be his sleepwear of choice. I often wear shirts of this type for work but I’ll generally put a t-shirt on when I’m at home relaxing, especially if I’m sick and bedridden. This would be a believable “I was out doing stuff and then I came home and untucked my shirt so it’s my after hours casual mode” but he’s been bedridden for a while now and the last time he was out was for the eclipse, as far as we can tell, when he wasn’t wearing his tuxedo (which has a ruffled shirt) but a grey dress shirt and vest. Am I to believe that he took off his grey dress shirt and put on a white dress shirt to climb into bed? This really makes no sense and is probably the biggest plot whole in the movie.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Maenads

The shrine in Elysion is guarded by the Maenads who have hair just like Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon which back in the day would have been like both Queen and Princess Serenity. I guess this really was the style at the time? What a strange coincidence that reincarnated Usagi happened to chose a very similar yet impractical and almost never seen hair style.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Nehelenia and Zirconia

So there’s some fighting which is actually the bulk of the movie. I don’t have a ton to say about this. Almost all of the attacks are so similar to the original Sailor Moon anime that I wonder if they were traced. Helios dies in a non permanent death which is actually fairly common for Sailor Moon but I don’t for a moment think it’s a real thing. Does anyone cry for Helios? Of course he’ll be fine.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Queen Serenity and baby Princess Serenity

We then see an interesting scene which is the birth of Princess Serenity. This scene reminds me a lot of the birth of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. In Sleeping Beauty we have Maleficent, the only one not invited, showing up to celebrate the Princess’s birth only to end up cursing the child to eternal sleep after pricking herself on a spinning wheel needle. Similarly Nehelenia was the only one not invited after Princess Serenity’s birth. Once she shows up an uncharacteristically unkind Queen Serenity, along with the Sailor Guardians, disparage her and tell her she isn’t welcome. She ends up cursing Silver Millennium saying it will fall. This of course does end up happening in the distant past. I wonder if any inspiration occurred between these. One noticeable thing here is that Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus are all significantly older than the newborn Princess Serenity. Though their ages aren’t specified they speak well, are fairly tall for children and seem ready to fight. I’d guess they are about 6 or 7 here. Princess Serenity appears to be an adolescent in the first story arc. She is arguably slightly older than the 14 year old Usagi who notices physical changes in herself when turning into the Princess. This would put the other Sailor Guardians at over 20 in those flashbacks, though they all appear to be more or less the same age. In the Amour Eternal musical when we see the birth of Princess Serenity the age difference is even greater as the Sailor Guardians are shown to be their fully adolescent ages at that point, similar to their ages in the modern times story of that musical. We know that in Crystal Tokyo adults done age, which include Sailor Moon eternally being in her early 20s, but is there a reason to have people frozen in adolescence in Silver Millennium?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Queen Serenity defeats Queen Nehelenia

I think if original anime Sailor Moon had been in her mother’s place when Nehelenia showed up she could have found a way to make peace or may even have invited her in the first place. The manga version of Sailor Moon does more killing of villains and less winning them over. Remember that anime Sailor Moon ended up having compassion for Nehelenia after all of the harm she did to her and her friends! Queen Serenity with her blank reflectionless eyes doesn’t seem to have any of that attitude when she seals away Queen Nehelenia.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Kissing is the cure to whatever weird lung black rose thing was going on

Once the Moon Effect character song kicks in the movie is really reaching the climax! A lot of this was released in a very spoiler filled music video! This song features vocals by the actors playing all ten of the Sailor Guardians and is included on the “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection” album. Though Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon are still afflicted with the disease which has black roses on their lungs it seems the resolution to this is… to kiss! Everything is fine now! Great!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Human Artemis, Diana and Luna

Did you like Human Artemis? Did you enjoy Human Luna (in the first season)? Well how about human version of the whole cat family including Diana! This is a big deal as this is the first time we see all of the cats in human form in any anime series!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss

Next up is Eternal everybody! There’s a new Holy Grail and then Sailor Moon becomes Eternal Sailor Moon, hence the name of the movies, but beyond that all of the other Sailor Guardians also get upgraded to their Eternal forms which means those little bubble shoulder pad things which is something we never saw in the original Sailor Moon anime! Sailor Moon finally does her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss and saves the day! The eclipse, which we can kind of see even though we’re kind of inside the earth, is finally over which is arguably the end of a very long period which only took place over the course of a few minutes, the length of time an eclipse usually lasts for. There isn’t any clear agreement of this but by that timeline the events of this film actually take place within the same day.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Chibi Moon kisses Helios

Turns out Helios isn’t dead and Sailor Chibi Moon (Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon) kisses him while he sleeps. Do we want to dig up the whole kissing a sleeping person lacks consent discourse again? In this particular case since Helios had previously expressed his interest in Chibiusa when he kissed her in the first film I think that makes this whole situation less of a concern than when Tuxedo Mask did it in the first story arc. The best kept secret of the films, that Chibiusa is actually the one Helios has been looking for, is revealed! She becomes Princess Lady Serenity and gets her Pink Moon Crystal!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion

Eternal Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask now becomes Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion for the first time without some influence from the future. Everyone gets their lovely princess dresses back and there was much rejoicing.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Sailor Quartet

Sailor Saturn still has the Amazoness Quartet balls. When these four are revived they are the Sailor Quartet! Sailor Cere, Sailor Palas, Sailor Juno and Sailor Vesta are all named after the same celestial objects they had identified with originally but now it makes a bit more sense why! They are Sailor Guardians who’s duty it is to protect Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon or rather Princess Lady Serenity and not related directly to Sailor Moon or Neo Queen Serenity. It’s really fun to see the Sailor Quartet! Sadly they aren’t around for long as they claim that they should be asleep in the jungle so they take off. Why does this matter? You’re here! Let’s get the gang together! Chibiusa should only be a twinkle in Mamoru’s eye but she’s around and actively involved in the fight so who’s to say that the Amazoness Quartet are better off chilling in a jungle somewhere? My two dream concepts for new Sailor Moon series would be a Codename: Sailor V series and some sort of future Sailor Guardian series with Chibi Moon, the Sailor Quartet and maybe Helios fighting some evil and perhaps traveling through time to do it! I won’t hold my breath for that.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Pegasus and Helios

Now Helios is there with Pegasus which makes me wonder how this is even possible! Aren’t they kind of the same being? In the original Sailor Moon anime they certainly were, with Pegasus being his name rather than a descriptor of the kind of horse he is, but it seems they are different entities. Kind of weird!

Well the movie pretty much wraps up with a bunch of people going on their way. What we don’t see in the Netflix version is a message saying “To be continued” but this is on the Japanese Blu-ray and it seems like it was in the version shown in theatres in Japan. Why remove this from the Netflix version? No idea! I hope we don’t have to wait quite as many years to get a Stars arc of Sailor Moon Crystal as we did for Sailor Moon Eternal!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Helios and Pegasus

The credits are fairly unremarkable. I can’t read any of that! We have a couple of songs here. The first is Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for the Sailor Moon Eternal films. This is actually the first time we hear it in this movie since it doesn’t have an intro like the 90s films did! After this we have the new version of “Rashiku” Ikumasho (I’ll Go As Myself) by Anza! Anza was the first actress to portray Sailor Moon in the Sailor Moon musicals and continued to do so for five years. This song was originally the second ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS, the original adaptation of the Dreams arc of the Sailor Moon manga, which makes it a fitting song to end the final movie with.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Nehelenia is defeated

All in all I found Part 2 to be a good movie. It wasn’t as obviously episodic as Part 1 where you could easily see the breaks between manga chapters. That said there isn’t really as much going on with this film which mostly centers on the big battles with Zirconia and Nehelenia.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka, Setsuna, Michiru, Hotaru, Chibiusa, Rei, Makoto, Ami and Minako

More generally the Sailor Moon Eternal films just look fantastic. The designs are great and since these movies are shorter than full seasons the animation is better and there seems to have been more time and money dedicated to every minute of this film compared to earlier seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal. We can only hope the Stars arc will look as good, though I’m hoping for a return to a series for that season or that if it will be movies that they make three of them! We shall see.

What did you think of this second film? Let us know in the comments!

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The original English cast of Sailor Moon will be streaming a panel July 9th at 8pm

sailor_moon_panel_original_cast_reunion

A Sailor Moon panel featuring the original English voice cast of the 90s Sailor Moon anime is going to be streamed on Friday July 9th at 8pm Easter Time. The panel will be streamed on YouTube. You can also watch it embedded below.

The panel will feature Linda Ballantyne, the third voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the first voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor, the second voice of Tuxedo Mask, Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna, and Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune as well as Serena’s mother and Queen Serenity in the first episode. Watch a clip advertising the event below:

The panel will be hosted by Geektainment TV who have done other similar panels on their YouTube page. It is likely that the panel will continue to be available once the live event is completed. Will you be watching the panel live?