The latest English episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, is all about Black Lady and Black Lady making out with her dad. We only got glimpses of her last week but here we see here normally. Her voice is provided by Sandy Fox, who also plays Chibiusa, though naturally it sound different from her child voice.

I love to make fun of the fact that Black Lady loves making out with her dad but this is a bit of a complex issue. Chibiusa has fairly normal feelings for her father but add time travel, magical aging and a bit of evil into the mix and things and get a bit confused. Next Friday is Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, which is a lot more Black Lady!

The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday, April 15th, at 9pm Eastern Time. This week on Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, we finally get a proper look at Black Lady, the evil older version of Chibiusa who’s all about making out with her dad. Chibiusa has used magic to be aged and time travel to meet a younger version of her father. The result? A father/daughter combo that is the same age and Chibiusa is all about kissing her dad!

I joke but the reasons for Black Lady having these feelings for her father are complex. Take a young girl without a true understanding of her feelings who naturally has a love for her father and artificially age her prematurely and the result is this mess we’ve found ourselves in. Usagi is, naturally, not terribly pleased with the situation! Black Lady, who was heard briefly last week, is voiced by Sandy Fox who also plays Chibiusa. Her voice for Black Lady is quite different from what we’re used to hearing.

The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week is Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis. Black Lady is still not really here. She’s semi visible, mostly obscured in a kind of mist. The technique used for this was changed slightly between the streaming release and the DVD/Blu-Ray version which is what we’re getting for these English versions. This screenshot is, lazily, from the original streaming version.

Act 21 and 22 of Sailor Moon Crystal are based on the equivalent chapters of the newest version of the manga, but these were actually originally a single chapter, though it was a long one. This makes gives this and the last episode an odd pace, which is why Chibiusa’s transformation into Black Lady is teased out over such a long time that it seems like a powered up attack from Dragonball Z or maybe Ryu’s multi episode Hadouken from Street Fighter II V.

Next week on Act 23, Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, we will get a proper look at Black Lady.

The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday, April 8th, staring at 9pm Eastern Time. Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis, is all about not really seeing Black Lady. We see these shadows of her throughout but we don’t get a clear look at her. The obscuring of Black Lady changed a bit for the Blu-Ray release, which is the updated animation we’re getting for the dub. This screenshot is actually from the original streaming version.

I feel like this episode is kind of slow. That’s probably because Act 21 and 22 were originally one manga chapter which was broken into two. It gives this episode a weird pace.

The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now online on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week on Act 21, Complication – Nemesis, Sailor Moon is kidnapped and held hostage by a completely inappropriate Prince Demande. He respects consent even less than Mamoru did! We’ve also got a bunch of tension between Sailor Pluto and King Endymion. She is Seiya to Mamoru’s Usagi if that makes any sense.

This week we got a look at evil Chibiusa. We see this in both the young and older version of her. We’ll see a bit more of her next week in Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis, but even then she’ll be somewhat obscured.

The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday, April 1st, at 9pm Eastern Time. Act 21, Complication – Nemesis, has Prince Demande kidnapping Sailor Moon! This is personal for Prince Demande who, just like Mamoru, doesn’t respect a woman’s autonomy and choses to force a kiss on Usagi.

This episode gives us a glimpse of things to come for Chibiusa as we see the symbol of the Black Moon Clan on her forehead and an image of someone that looks just like her but a bit older.

The Bandai exclusives for the Sailor V and Black Lady Pullip Dolls have been revealed! Sailor V will come with Artemis and Black Lady will come with Evil Luna P, which is just like Luna P only with a symbol of the Black Moon Clan on her forehead instead of a Crescent Moon. Bandai exclusives for Pullip Dolls are usually alternate costumes. In the case of most Sailor Guardians, this meant a civilian form school uniform. As Sailor Venus already came with Minako’s school uniform it makes sense that it not be included with this release. Black Lady couldn’t very well have had a school uniform since she never goes to school!

We had previously announced these two Pullip Dolls, high quality very expensive dolls with huge heads and eyes. Sailor V will be available later this month and Black Lady will be available in January. To get the Bandai exclusives the dolls must be preordered from the Premium Bandai site (Sailor V, Black Lady) for the price of 18,000 yen (about $150 US).

More images of the dolls were released along with this news. The above image shows Sailor V along with Artemis for scale.

Source: The Sailor Moon Official Site (Sailor V, Black Lady) & Premium Bandai (Sailor V, Black Lady)

Support the site by ordering some of the previously released Pullip Dolls using the links below.

A couple of new Black Lady products have been revealed. Black Lady is the evil grown up version of Chibiusa who likes to make out with her father. The Black Lady Pullip doll was revealed on the official Sailor Moon site. The doll will be coming this December and will cost 18,000 yen, about $150 US. Pullip Dolls are high quality creepy looking ultra expensive dolls with huge eyes and heads. They usually cost around $150 to $180 US when released in North America.

This weekend at the Tamashii Nation 2015 Event a Black Lady S. H. Figuarts figure was also revealed. Not a lot of detail is known about this figure. At the event a Wise Man figure can be seen behind it but there was not label for this. It is not posable so it is not part of the S. H. Figuarts line and it seems too small to be part of the Figuarts Zero line. Is this to be included with the Black Lady figure? If it is this is much bigger than anything else which accompanied any other S. H. Figuarts toys. We’ll have more details on this as we learn them, assuming this will be for sale and not just a prop for the display.

Also revealed at this event was one of the most uninteresting S. H. Figuarts figures to date. A Sailor Moon R version of Sailor Moon! How completely similar to the version we’ve already gotten! She has a Cutie Moon Rod and slightly different Brooch. S. H. Figuarts dolls are very details and posable figures with swappable parts. They usually cost about $50 when released in North America.

Source: The Sailor Moon Official Site, Sailor Moon Collectibles, Amiami on Facebook, @hobby_maniax on Twitter

The last volume of Sailor Moon Crystal was released on Blu-Ray last month, on September 9th. I’ve dragged my feet on this review so much that the next disk, volume 13, is released today in Japan. Volume 12 can be purchased from sites such as Amazon Japan for 5194 yen, about $43 US. The next and final volume can also be ordered from Amazon Japan for 5994 yen, about $50 US. As always this release contains only two episodes, in this case Act 23 and 24, in Japanese only and the cover art included is of Black Lady, Chibiusa’s older and eviler self.

The charm included with this release is Sailor Moon’s Crystal Star, her transformation broach for this story arc.

Two episodes are included on this disk. Act 23 – Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, and Act 24 – Attack – Black Lady. The video quality as always is great. As with other DVD and Blu-Ray releases some minor changes to the animation have taken place since the streaming version. Nothing of significance is included with these particular episodes. Nothing changes any of the scenes in any major way. The biggest change with Act 24 is the colour and brightness for certain scenes. As always you can check out Crystal Comparisons for screenshots which show the changes for any particular episode, including Acts 23 and 24.

A 20 page full colour booklet is included once again. Unfortunately I am unable to identify the subjects of the first interview. The names are Nozomi Matsuura and Yukiko Kariya. This web site indicates that they work for Bandai, but no other details are given. The second interview is with the voice actors playing the Black Moon Clan. This includes Mamoru Miyano, the voice of Prince Demande, Hiroki Takahashi, the voice of Rubeus, Tsubasa Yonaga, the voice of Saphir, and Houko Kawashima, the voice of Esmeraude. Also included in the booklet are the usual episode summaries for Act 23 and 24, character designs for Black Lady, Prince Demande and Saphir, backgrounds and screenshots from the episodes and a page for Fumio Osano, Osabu.

These episodes include an audio commentary featuring cast and crew from the show. This includes Munehisa Sakai, director of the first 26 episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, Hisako Kanemoto, the voice of Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato, the voice of Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Shizuka Ito, the voice of Sailor Venus.

Should you get this? Should you pay over $50 to buy and ship this set with only two episodes in a language you can’t speak when an English and Japanese version will eventually be released for much less and you can watch the series for free online in the mean time? That’s your call!

Keep reading for more images of this set’s packaging including images of all pages of the included special booklet.

Late as usual here is my review of the 11th volume of Sailor Moon Crystal on Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray. This volume was released on August 12th and includes two episodes, Act 21 and 22, in a collectible set which includes a 20 page colour booklet and charm of Sailor Venus’s Star Power Stick. You can order this from Amazon Japan and other online retailers for about 5,194 yen, about $43 US, plus a ton of shipping. The next volume, volume 12, will be released next week on September 9th.

The art on the cover of this volume is of Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion, the future versions of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Since a lot of this second story arc takes place in the future these characters feature prominently in the episodes on this disk.

The charm included this time is Sailor Venus’s Star Power Stick. As with all of the other ones you can put them all together on a charm bracelet and be really cool.

Included are Act 21, Complication – Nemesis, and Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis. These two episode are based on two chapters of the manga from the versions which were released in 2003 however both episodes were originally a single manga chapter, Act 20, Complication – Nemsis. Because of this the pace may seem a bit slow.

Like with other releases there are a number of mostly minor changes to the animation. These mostly result in touch ups which make the animation a bit nicer looking and very occasionally results in more significant changes to what appears on screen. I’m unable to take screenshots of Blu-Rays with my current AV setup but a great site for examining these differences is Crystal Comparisons.

Almost nothing of significance is changed for Act 21. In one scene a chair is added behind Usagi mostly to compensate for an earlier continuity issue where a chair disappeared and then reappeared behind her. Other than that the changes are mostly cosmetic.

The next episode previews remain unaltered. I’ve mentioned Chibiusa’s shirt gate time and time again. The next episode preview for Act 22 which appeared at the end of Act 21 originally included her blue long sleeved uniform, which was an error, and that uniform still appears in this version. This had been corrected in the streaming version of Act 22 and is still corrected on this release.

If you check out the changes for Act 22, you’ll note some changes for the appearance of Black Lady. In the original streaming episode Black Lady first appeared pretty much as a shadowy black figure with glowing eyes who later became more visible. The intention was, and still is, to obscure her identity. Now in the Blu-Ray we see her as being more transparent and smokey than previously in her first appearance and then darker in her later appearance. It seems to do the job better, but was anyone really still wondering what her true identity was at this point? There are a couple of other minor changes to this episode. When Usagi is possessed by Neo Queen Serenity her eyes glow and in the streaming version they are a bit darker. The reactor effects have been redone a bit to add some circles around the main column of energy. We also see the Sailor Guaridans standing behind Sailor Moon in one scene where we previously didn’t.

Both episodes include an audio commentary. These feature Munehisa Sakai, director of Sailor Moon Crystal, Kenji Nojima, the voice of Mamoru Chiba and Misato Fukuen, the voice of Chibiusa.

Also included is the 20 page full colour special book. This one features the usual episode summaries, character designs, backgrounds, page for Osabu and two interviews. The first interview is with Momoiro Clover Z, the musical group which performs the Sailor Moon Crystal opening theme, Moon Pride, and ending theme, Gekkou. The second interview is with the four voice actors who portrayed the Ayakashi Sister. Wasabi Mizuta provides the voice of Petz. Rumi Kasahara, who provides the voice of Berthier, had previously voiced many small roles in the original Sailor Moon anime including Ptilol of the Witches 5. Tomoe Hanba voices Calaveras and Satsuki Yukino provides the voice of Koan.

As always I recommend this only to hardcore fans. English speaking fans should contend with the streaming version until the eventual multi language Blu-Ray is released by Viz. This is a cool set with some cool stuff in it, but it’s hard to justify the price tag for two episodes.

Keep reading for more photos of the set including all 20 pages of the special book.