We’ve got our first look at Viz’s upcoming home video release of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars which is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray later this year. It was previously announced that this set would be out in the Spring, but we have not received any specifics about a release date beyond this. The box art features Eternal Sailor Moon with her Eternal Tiare. This was shared in an article on the Kodansha Comics web site discussing Sailor Moon. It is mentioned that the first 17 episodes of the season will be included in this first set which will also contain behind the scenes interviews. This is the English release by Viz which will include the first ever English dub of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars as well as Japanese audio with English subtitles.

The article includes a humourous interview with Sailor Moon editor Fumio Osano, commonly referred to as Osabu, in which he seems to suggest that North American readers may be interested in the Eternal Editions of the manga because of their large hands. Perhaps he has been baffled by the size of American comics since seeing an Xbox controller years ago! He also discusses his involvement with the manga over the years and more specifically his work as it relates to the North American audience.

Source: @fredjfrancis on Twitter

The Eternal Editions of the manga which are mentioned really do look great. They feature new translations, larger glossier pages and all colour pages which originally appeared in Nakayoshi. Order the first two volumes and pre-order others using the links below:

Though Sailor Moon Sailor Stars is not yet available to pre-order you can support the site by buying previous releases using the links below:

Rika Izumi, who played Sailor Mercury in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, can be seen on the official Sailor Moon site although no mention of her involvement in the franchise accompanies it! Rika Izumi, who went by the name Hama Chisaki when she played Ami Mizuno, appears on the cover of the latest issue of Tokyo Calendar. The fact that the magazine’s cover model used to be on a Sailor Moon series actually has nothing to do with the magazine’s inclusion on the site. It is featured because of a story in its pages which discusses Sailor Moon taking place in the Azuba Juban area of Tokyo. Though the site only mentions that the article will be appearing in the next issue of the magazine the Tokyo Calendar site actually includes an online version of the article. Check it out to see an interview, in Japanese, with Sailor Moon’s editor Fumio Osano, Osabu, about Sailor Moon taking place in Azuba Juban.

You can also check out this article on dining in Azuba Juban which features Rika Izumi who is in this piece a normal Japanese adult and not dressed as a superhero or genius school girl.

I sometimes feel like the fantastic live action series is being completely forgotten by those who control the Sailor Moon property! It often receives little or no mention when various versions of the series are considered and this latest article is a fine example of that! Rather than acknowledge that this actress who had a major role in the only Sailor Moon series to be on TV during that entire decade the live action series remains firmly swept under the carpet like it was the Star Wars Holiday Special!

Meanwhile the cast of the series got together recently to celebrate Daigo’s 40th birthday. Daigo is Keiko Kitagawa’s husband. They regularly get together to celebrate each other’s birthdays or similar such events. I’m glad someone remembers this series favourably!

The first ever North American performance of a Sailor Moon musical will be taking place in Houston Texas during the Anime Matsuri convention in April. The news of this special performance of the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical was posted on the official Sailor Moon site and Anime Matsuri site last month. The specific date of the musical performance has not yet been announced but it will be during the convention weekend which takes place from April 7th to the 9th at the George R. Brown convention centre in downtown Houston, Texas. This may be a slightly modified version of the musical as the entire cast will not be present. At this time only the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask, with the exclusion of Chibiusa, will be in attendance. Notice that the poster specifically made for this event features all regular cast members but Airi Kanda who plays Chibiusa.

In addition to the musical there will be many Sailor Moon themed guests. This includes Fumio Osano, Osabu, who is best known as the editor of the Sailor Moon manga. Also appearing are voice actors from the English versions of Sailor Moon Crystal and Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime Cristina Vee, who plays Sailor Mars, and Christine Cabanos, who plays Sailor Saturn.

Confirmed guests for the musical are Hotaru Nomoto, Sailor Moon, Yume Takeuchi, Sailor Mercury, Karen Kobayashi, Sailor Mars, Kaede, Sailor Jupiter, Rimo Hasegawa, Sailor Venus,
Syu Shiotsuki, Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Fujioka, Sailor Neptune, Mikako Ishii, Sailor Pluto, Karin Takahashi, Sailor Saturn, and Yuga Yamato, Tuxedo Mask. Also attending are dancers Risa Kawamura, Yoshimi Hidano, Ayano Nagasawa and Ayumi Sagisaka.

The 7th volume of Sailor Moon Crystal was released in a Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray on April 8th. This release has Princess Serenity on the cover and wraps up the Dark Kingdom story arc. This is a Japanese language release with no English audio or subtitles. Those looking for an English version of Sailor Moon Crystal can continue to watch the streaming version with English subtitles. You can order this disk from Amazon Japan or CD Japan for as low as 5046 yen, about $42 US. The regular edition Blu-Ray and DVD will be released on May 13th at the same time as volume 8 is released on Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray.

As with other releases, this comes in a special collectible box and includes a charm and full colour 20 page special booklet. The charm included in this release is Sailor Moon’s Cutie Moon Rod, which is the attack item she uses in the second story arc. The Cutie Moon Rod does not appear on the episodes included in this release.

The special booklet follows the same format as the previous booklets did. It includes episode summaries, interviews, character designs and a special page by Fumio Osana, also known as Osabu. The interviews are with producer Junichiro Tsuchiya and the voice actors for the Shitennou, Daisuke Kishio, Kosuke Toriumi, Masaya Matsukaze and Eiji Takemoto. The character designs included are of Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, the Shitennou, Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity.

There are only 2 episodes included on this disk. Included are Act 13, Final Battle – Reincarnation, and Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Etrangère. This has the Sailor Guardians vanquishing Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia and concludes with the appearance of Chibiusa.

Streaming version

Blu-Ray version

All home video releases include some minor updating to the animation, and this release is no different. Some of the changes however were no just cosmetic. The major change which I found a bit upsetting was the modification to young Queen Serenity’s dress. In a scene in Act 13 we see a flashback to a young Queen Serenity petting a kitten Luna. In the original streaming version Queen Serenity is seen wearing a dress that is similar to Princess Serenity’s, and quite unlike the dress that adult Queen Serenity wears throughout the series. This seemed like a neat side reference, reminding us that Queen Serenity was young herself once, and perhaps also the Princess at the time. In this updated episode her dress is modified to look like it does when she is an adult.

Streaming version

Other changes to the episodes included the removal of white eyes when the Sailor Guardians are wounded. Seeing zombie Sailor Guardian eyes was a bit off putting but kind of cool. Now they have pupils again. There was also some amount of injury added to the various girls after they had been beat up. Even the preview image for Act 13 in the special booklet shows the Sailor Guardians with dirt on their faces that does not appear in the streaming version.

A great resource to comparing the streaming version to the home video releases is Crystal Comparisons. This site has a thorough comparison of both versions of the show with many screenshots broken down by episode. Check out all the changes in Act 13 and Act 14 to see what was modified for this release.

The audio commentary for both episodes on this disk is provided by Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Fumio Osana, the editor for the Sailor Moon manga, and another voice which I was unable to identify. I do not speak Japanese so I don’t have anything to add about the content of the commentary.

As usual I can only recommend this release to hardcore fans. With only two episodes and no English audio or subtitles most fans are better off just watching the streaming version or waiting for the inevitable domestic dubbed and subbed release which is yet to be announced.

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

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical was released on DVD on January 28th in Japan. This is a region 2 DVD so if you’re thinking of getting it, make sure you have a DVD player that you can watch it on. The DVD can be imported from sites like Amazon Japan or CD Japan. It will cost a bit over $50 US plus shipping fees. If you don’t speak Japanese, I’m sure you can find a subtitled version of this musical somewhere.

The main feature, the musical itself, runs in at 2 hours and 36 minutes. This is the second of the latest round of musicals focusing on the story of Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto, the Black Moon Clan and Crystal Tokyo. Like with the first musical, La reconquista, it features an all female cast, even for the male characters. This DVD only has Japanese audio included and no subtitles so it may not be worth much to English speaking fans. The video quality isn’t great. There is no Blu-Ray and the video is interlaced. I can’t say I feel it’s much different than the feed I watched on Niconico when it was first playing. Judge for yourself with the screenshots below.

Niconico Version

DVD Version

The performance is followed by footage of the cast members speaking to the audience.

The second disk includes the special features. Its total duration is 84 minutes and spans many different parts, each of which I will briefly explain. All features are in Japanese only and as I do not speak the language, I can’t say I have a full grasp of the content.

The first bit of footage shows various clips of Chibiusa throughout the musical, first starting with her running around among the audience and going through the entire story. This lasts roughly 15 minutes.

Next is footage from a July 21st live performance which appears to be taking place at some sort of mall in Japan. The first song performed is Ai No Starshine (Starshine of Love) followed by Moonlight Densetsu, the theme song to the original Sailor Moon anime. As this only covers two songs it runs for about 6 minutes.

This is followed by an interview between Fumio Osano, Sailor Moon’s editor also known as Osabu, Satomi Ookubo, the actress who plays Sailor Moon, and Yuga Yamato, the actress who plays Tuxedo Mask. This is a 10 minute interview.

Next is footage of the 6 actresses who play the Sailor Guardians, Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Pluto, sitting around, drinking juice and chatting for 40 minutes. This is pretty long to watch if you don’t speak any Japanese but I imagine if you know what they’re saying it is much more interesting.

We then have the two actresses who played Chibiusa, Kokoro Kuge and Airi Kanda, going around and interviewing various other actresses for about 10 minutes. It may not be obvious from the musical itself but yes there are two actresses to play Chibiusa and Sailor Chibi Moon. This is standard for earlier musicals as well.

Finally the last clip is something that I couldn’t quite figure out. It has all actresses from the musical one by one talking while holding what appears to be an autograph card signed by them. I don’t fully understand the purpose of this. Perhaps the cards were part of a giveaway of some kind. This lasts for about 8 minutes as we work our way through all of the actresses.

The packaging is pretty standard for a DVD. It comes with a 26 page booklet which includes character bios and the words to songs from the musical.

It’s difficult for me to recommend this DVD to most of my readers. It’s region 2, not playable in most DVD players outside of Japan. It’s in Japanese only and the quality isn’t good enough to be something worth watching raw instead of the decent quality subbed versions available. If you’re a hard core collector of all things Sailor Moon, you’ll probably just buy it anyway as I did.

Keep reading for more images from the menus and photos of the packaging and all pages of the included booklet.

This Sunday, April 27th 2014, there will be a live streaming event on Niconico which will include announcements of the voice cast and some character art for the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, as well as the cast for this summer’s new Sailor Moon Musical. The special will air at 4pm Japan Standard Time or 3am Eastern Standard Time. Hope you don’t like sleep!

This event was first announced on the Sailor Moon official web site on April 8th but we only got details about the event in an update on April 18th which mentioned the unveiling of the voice cast and the appearance of the five main cast members from the new Sailor Moon musical! Atsutoshi Umezawa, director for the new series, mentioned via Twitter that we would also be seeing character art from the new show at the event!

The event will also feature Fumio Osana, the original editor for the Sailor Moon manga, Munehisa Sakai, the director for the new series and Yuh Kamiki who is listed as being a producer for the Sailor Moon Crystal anime. Yuh Kamiki had not been previously announced as being affiliated with this show. A quick search finds a Japanese actor by that name with no anime series producing experience who I do not believe is the anime series producer who will be at this event.

Thanks to Sara Ann from our Facebook page for this information.

Earlier today (yesterday in Japan by now) was the first performance of the new Sailor Moon La reconquista musical. A bunch of Sailor Moon fans and even Naoko Takeuchi and Fumio Osano were in attendance. Fan reactions seem positive at this point. All of the songs were new. The story is said to be close to the manga. The Sailor Guardians are now using smart phones, which seems like an appropriate modern version of their seemingly futuristic communicators at the time of the original series. We also see in some images that there are swords! I have not gone seeking out any elaborate spoilers but if you’re interested in that you can check out this full review by Sailor Moon fan Yosenex.

A Tweet by Sailor Moon Obsession shows us that the program for the musical includes new art by Naoko Takeuchi.

A couple of Japanese web sites have some photos from the musical posted online. Check out natalie.mu and Sponichi Annex for some of those.

We’ve gotten confirmation via Moonkitty’s Twitter page that the musical would be released on DVD. This will likely be a region 2 DVD playable in Japanese DVD players. A Blu-Ray is likely but there has been no specific confirmation of this. Subtitles on either seems unlikely given past releases but again this is just speculation. We’ll be sure to share specifics once they become available.

It was also stated last week that the final showing of the musical, the evening of September 23rd, will be streamed live on Niconico video. This won’t be a free broadcast as a net ticket will be needed, which is different from an actual ticket to the show, for 2000 yen (about $20 US). I have not attempted to purchase a net ticket myself though the web site clearly states “This program is not available outside of Japan.”. I’m not aware to what extent this restriction is enforced but if I learn of a method to bypass this I will pass on those details.

The latest issue of ROLa Magazine in Japan includes an interview with Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon. This interview is a rare treat as Naoko Takeuchi very rarely makes public appearances having done next to no publicity since Sailor Moon went off the air over 15 years ago. Her editor Fumio Osano also participates in this interview. The magazine interview is in Japanese but luckily the hard working people at Miss Dream have translated the interview for English fans to enjoy. So go ahead and check it out for some great insight into the early concept of Sailor Moon. This is only the first part of the interview. The second half will appear in the next issues of ROLa. I’m sure the staff at Miss Dream will be bringing us a translation of that as well.

Some interesting things are learned from this interview. I never thought of Tuxedo Mask as a parody of a character and who knew old men would lobby for less attractive female characters?

The Sailor Moon live event is now over. We didn’t learn a ton but it was mentioned that the new Sailor Moon anime would begin airing this winter. It was also mentioned that it would be streaming on Niconico, a Japanese streaming video service. Fumio Osano was in attendance but didn’t have much to tell us. Not much else was learned aside from it being based on the old anime but not being a remake, which is fairly vague.

The event began with a look at various products we’d already talked about on this site. It then included an introduction to certain cast members of the new musical, Sailor Moon La Reconquista. In attendance were Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus as well as all four of the Shitennou. Finally a performance of Moonlight Densetsu was done by Momoiro Clover Z who were confirmed to be doing the theme song for the new anime, which is information we already had. Also unchanged was the quality of Momoiro Clover Z’s performance.

The event closed with a fairly anticlimactic Q&A. The reaction of the sleep deprived fan base seems to be mostly disappointment at this early hour. It’s safe to say everyone was hoping for a bit more information about the anime. Be patient Moonies! Winter is coming. Now go home and go to bed.

A new Sailor Moon stage musical will be playing in Japan this September. Miss Dream bring us many details of this event with their translations of Fumio Osano’s Tweets and various flyers. Japanese readers can see the announcement on the official Sailor Moon site. We’ve got dates, preorder details and cast information.

This Sailor Moon Musical, which is referred to as SeraMyu by some fans, will be playing over a 10 day period, running from September 13th to the 23rd. Tickets will be on sale starting in July by phone but can already be purchased online through this link.

From the description in the flyer in Nakayoshi we learn that this musical will be a retelling of the story of the fight against the Dark Kingdom, which covers the first manga story and first season of the anime. We already have the main cast with Satomi Ookubo as Sailor Moon, Miyabi Matsuura as Sailor Mercury, Kanon Nanaki as Sailor Mars, Yu Takahashi as Sailor Jupiter, Shiori Sakata as Sailor Venus and Yūga Yamato as Tuxedo Mask. Indeed, Tuxedo Mask will be played by a woman in this musical. Check out a picture of all of the cast members below. What do you think of their likeness?

A few of these actresses have online presences you can check out.

Here are the modelling site profiles for Satomi Ookubo (Sailor Moon), Kanon Nanaki (Sailor Mars), Yu Takahashi (Sailor Jupiter) and Shiori Sakata (Sailor Venus).

In addition you can following the Twitter pages of Yu Takashi (Sailor Jupiter), Shiori Sakata (Sailor Venus) and Yūga Yamato (Tuxedo Mask).