In a collaboration which would have surprised me a decade ago but doesn’t phase me in the least these days pain killer brand Bufferin has teamed up with Sailor Moon Eternal for their latest campaign. Art from this features our first look at the designs for Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films. What do you think of their new look? This seems to be a lazy placement of the characters with Sailor Neptune’s hand clearly positioned to be holding Sailor Uranus’s but the two’s hands never quite seem to overlap.
Bufferin is a brand of aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid, which used to be available here in Canada but which isn’t sold here anymore. The brand still seems fairly common in the US and in Japan. I don’t take aspirin due to some conflicting health issues I have, so be sure to consult your doctor or pharmacist if you aren’t sure what pain killers might be appropriate for you. The campaign will feature Sailor Moon characters on product packages. Thanks to commenter nonameq9 who shared one of these images in the comments.
The Bufferin site has now been updated with a Sailor Moon section which shows the updated art as well as ads featuring Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon. There’s also a quiz which fans can complete for a chance to win either a Luna cushion or Super Sailor Moon Room Wear. Certain screens on that quiz can give a higher resolution view of some of the characters which I’ve included in this post.
The first of the Sailor Moon Eternal films will be in theatres on January 8th and will tell the first half of the Dream story arc from the Sailor Moon manga. We previously saw the civilian forms of Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru in an ad for Ichiban Kuji. There is some other art of them in their civilian forms in a recent ad campaign for J!NS glasses.
It isn’t clear how much involvement these character would have in the first film as they are mostly absent from the early half of this story arc of the manga. My own expectation is that the film will end with a short appearance of Michiru Mama, Haruka Papa, Setsuna Mama and the younger version of Hotaru who was a baby when we last saw her at the end of the Infinity arc. What do you think?
Keep reading for more images from the campaign.