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

Keiko Kitagawa as Sailor Cosmos

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

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

Sailor Moon episode 43 - Sailor Mars with the Moon Stick

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

Keiko Kitagawa and Kotono Mitsuishi with a Sailor Moon Cosmos Poster

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 16 - Sailor Mars

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2 - Sailor Cosmos

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

Continue reading

Check out the first images and voice actor information for Princess Kakyuu, Sailor Galaxia and Chibi Chibi

Nana Mizuki as Princess Kakyuu,, Megumi Hayashibara as Sailor Galaxia and Kotono Mitsuishi as Chibi Chbibi

We’ve got more cast details and our first look at Princess Kakyuu, Sailor Galaxia and Chibi Chibi from the upcoming Sailor Moon Cosmos films. The movies will start Nana Mizuki as Princess Kakyuu, Megumi Hayashibara as Sailor Galaxy and Kotono Mitsuishi as Chibi Chibi.

Nana Mizuki as Princess Kakyuu

Nana Mizuki, the voice of Sailor Kakyuu, is a voice actor known for such roles as Hinata Hyuga in Naruto, Tsubomi Hanasaki in Heartcatch Precure! and Ann Takamaki in Persona 5.

Megumi Hayashibara as Sailor Galaxia

Megumi Hayashibara, the voice of Sailor Galaxia, is a well known veteran voice actor. Some of her more memorable roles include Rei Ayanami and Pen Pen in Evangelion, Pidgeotto and Pidgeot in Pokémon, Ai Amano in Video Girl Ai, Lina Inverse in Slayers, Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop and Ai Haibara in Detective Conan.

Kotono Mitsuishi as Chibi Chibi

Fans will surely recognize Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Chibi Chibi, as providing the voice of Sailor Moon in both the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal. By providing the voice for Chibi Chibi this continues the tradition from the original Sailor Moon anime of having Kotono Mitsuishi provide the voices of both Sailor Moon and Chibi Chibi. As Sailor Moon Cosmos will more closely follow the story of the manga than the original anime this will make sense considering Chibi Chibi’s true identity.

What do you think of the designs for these characters? Are you excited for this new cast?

Source: The Sailor Moon Official Site

A Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary live event will be streamed on YouTube April 28th

Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary Live Event

The Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary is underway and to celebrate there will be a special live event on April 28th which will be broadcast on the official Sailor Moon YouTube channel. This event will feature voice actors from Sailor Moon Crystal including Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Shizuka Ito, the voice of Sailor Venus, Shoko Nakagawa, the voice of Diana, and Hyadain, a musician who previously did the music on the Sailor Moon The Super Live musical. You can watch the event on the 28th at 10pm Japan Standard Time, 7am Easter Time, using the embedded link below. Not much to see there right now but there is a convenient countdown showing when the event will start. The official site claims anyone can watch it for free which suggests it should be available to watch worldwide.

What will be discussed? It could be almost anything! It seems likely something will be announced. Evidently the best thing to get news about would be a continuation to Sailor Moon Crystal as a Stars story arc. We don’t really know what form this could take. The theatrical films Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and 2 performed quite poorly at the box office. It’s hard to say if they remained profitable with home video and streaming sales because movie accounting is usually deceptive and intentionally obscure. It’s also quite difficult to account for factors such as increased sales for Sailor Moon merchandise which is difficult to tie directly to any streaming series or movies. I certainly hope it’s something Sailor Moon Crystal related but I have learned not to get my hopes up too much.

The choice of hosts for the event is a bit curious. Kotono Mitsuishi is usually included in these things so that’s not odd. Shizuka Ito being included doesn’t make much more sense than any other Sailor Guardian if we’re talking about a Stars story arc. A Sailor Moon Crystal style Sailor V series seems unlikely so I’m not sure what that connection could be. Shoko Nakagawa is probably not there simply because of her work as the voice of Diana. She’s a popular media personality who hosts the popular Pokémon Sunday. Hyadain’s involvement could be related to many things. As he did the music for the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Super Live musical he may simply be there to discuss the upcoming performance of the musical at the Japan Parade in New York which is coming up on May 14th. He may also be there to discuss his involvement in an upcoming musical or that he is contributing music to new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal.

What do you think will be announced at this event? You’re allowed to say nothing! It might be nothing…

Keiko Kitagawa and Kotono Mitsuishi star in the upcoming series Rikokatsu

Kotono Mitsuishi and Keiko Kitagawa

It’s a multi series Sailor Moon crossover event as Keiko Kitagawa, who played Sailor Mars in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, and Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon from the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal, play mother and daughter in the upcoming TV series Rikokatsu! The series will air on TBS Television starting this Friday, April 16th.

Update – April 14th: I mistakenly referred to this as a movie in my original post. This is in fact a TV series which will air starting this Friday on Japanese television. Perhaps a fan subbed version will make its way online in the coming weeks!

Shiro Sano, Keiko Kitagawa and Kotono Mitsuishi in Rikokatsu

The plot of the show has Keiko Kitagawa’s character of Saki Mizuguchi falling in love with and marrying Koichi Obara, played by Japanese actor Eita. As they have conflicting personalities they intend to get a divorce and, to serve the high jynx plot of the series, do not tell their family about this. Kotono Mitsuishi plays Midori Mizuguchi, Saki’s mother.

Kotono Mitsuishi and Keiko Kitagawa in the Rikokatshu relationship chart

Watch the trailer for the series embedded below:

Asian Drama series have a dedicated following outside of Japan. Do you any of you plan on following this series?

Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 14 - Rei

Source: Kotono Mitsuishi on Twitter, Rikokatsu official site, Rikokatsu Twitter account

An album of Sailor Moon Eternal character songs was released today, February 10th

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Cover

A new CD featuring character songs went on sale today, February 10th, in Japan. The full title of the album is “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection”. Character songs are hardly new to Sailor Moon! These are songs which are performed by voice actors from the series as those characters. I don’t know what, if any, of these songs will actually appear in the films. Often character song don’t actually appear in the film or series they’re associated with but in some cases they have.

The album is available to stream on a number of platforms. Many of these, including Spotify, are restricted only to users in those areas. Apple Music allowed me to play 90 seconds of each track which gives a nice impression of most songs. This was a longer preview than I found on any other servies.

Update: You can stream the entire album on Spotify!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Luxury Edition

You can also order this from online stores. I usually order my Sailor Moon CDs from Amazon Japan but for whatever reason this album is not in stock. It is available to order from CD Japan for 3500 yen, $33.50 US. There are two versions of the album. The “cheaper” version, which is still expensive by North American standards, has an MSRP of 3500 yen. The “Luxury Edition” costs over double that price with an MSRP of 7800 yen, almost $75 US. This comes with a “Moon Crisis Bangle”, which is a nice word for bracelet, as well as a ticket to the Eternal Weekend Party event in Japan on March 21st. Needless to say I don’t expect that this version of the album would have much appeal to fans outside of Japan.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Vendor Exclusive Bonuses

There are a number of vendor specific bonuses for those particular retailers. These include things like stickers, magnets and file folders.

The album has quite a large number of tracks by many of the actors in the films. This includes all of the Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, the Amazoness Quartet and the Amazon Trio. For the individual tracks all Sailor Guardians are credited as Super Sailor ___ while in the final track which includes all Sailor Guardians they are all credited as Eternal Sailor ___. A full track list with character and actors is included below.

1. ETERNAL MYSTAR by Kotono Mitsuishi as Super Sailor Moon
2. formula in blue by Hisako Kanemoto as Super Sailor Mercury
3. Signpost by Rina Sato as Super Sailor Mars
4. Don’t Look Back by Ami Koshimizu as Super Sailor Jupiter
5. I’m gonna be an IDOL! by Shizuka Ito as Super Sailor Venus
6. Dream colored fist love by Misato Fukuen as Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Helios
7. Astral Mission by Junko Minagawa as Super Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Ohara as Super Sailor Neptune, Ai Maeda as Super Sailor Pluto and Yukiyo Fujii as Super Sailor Saturn
8. Welcome to the circus by Reina Ueda as CereCere, Sumire Morohoshi as PallaPalla, Yuko Hara as JunJun and Rie Takahashi as VesVes
9. Dream’s Eyes by Satoshi Hino as Tiger’s Eye, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Hawk’s Eye and Shota Aoi as Fish Eye
10. Ray of light by Kenji Nojima as Tuxedo Mask
11. Moon Effect by Kotono Mitsuishi as Eternal Sailor Moon, Misato Fukuen as Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon, Hisako Kanemoto as Eternal Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato as Eternal Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu as Eternal Sailor Jupiter, Shizuka Ito as Eternal Sailor Venus, Junko Minagawa as Eternal Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Ohara as Eternal Sailor Neptune, Ai Maeda as Eternal Sailor Pluto and Yukiyo Fujii as Eternal Sailor Saturn

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 is already out in theatres in Japan with Part 2 coming out tomorrow, February 11th. Fans are still awaiting some confirmation of when we might be able to see the films outside of Japan. Though it seems likely the movies will be streamed on Netflix, there has been no indication of when that might be.

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

An in depth look at the Sailor Moon Eternal magazine

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Front and back covers

The Sailor Moon Eternal magazine which we posted about last week was released on December 24th. Now that I’ve gotten my hands on a copy, and taken many photos of it, I’m prepared to share some thoughts on it. I’m very happy with this magazine! For the price this really is a great value. The magazine costs only 550 Japanese yen, a bit over $5 US, and includes 32 full colour pages with photos of Sailor Moon Eternal as well as other series from throughout the years. Don’t accept the photos I am sharing as substitutes for the real thing and pick a copy up for yourselves if you can. If you happen to live in Japan this is probably easy enough though international fans will find that the shipping cost for such an inexpensive item is significant, as was the case for me when I ordered my copy from Amazon Japan.

I’ll include photos of all pages of this magazine. These aren’t the best they could be as I don’t own a scanner anymore and because I’m in the middle of a move my camera is in a box somewhere. These were taken with my iPhone and edited to create smaller files. If anyone would like a close up photo of anything in this magazine let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Front cover - Sailor Saturn, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune

First off is the cover, which is quite beautiful. Note that this is the online exclusive cover featuring Sailor Saturn, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune with Chibi Moon on the back. There is also a cover which is sold in stores in Japan which features Sailor Moon on the cover and Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus on the back. I was surprised at just how big this was! This is much larger than a magazine and is probably more like a special edition newspaper. The paper quality isn’t the best and there is no binding. These are just loose sheets so the item came packaged in a sealed plastic bag. As indicated on the cover this magazine is released by Sponichi also known as Sport Nippon. Why is a daily sports magazine releasing a Sailor Moon magazine? Not sure!

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 2 and 3 - Interview with Nanao, the voice of Nehelenia

Pages 2 and 3 feature a two page interview with Nanao, a Japanese actress and model who will be providing the voice of Nehelenia in the films.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 4 and 5 - Interview with Naomi Watanabe, the voice of Zirconia

Next is a two page interview with Japanese comedian Naomi Watanabe who will be providing the voice of Zirconia.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 6 and 7 - Character bios

The following two pages include bios for all of the Sailor Guardians as well as Tuxedo Mask and Helios. The ordering of these, as well as some other elements in this magazine, strikes me as a bit odd. Anyone who reads manga will realize that Japanese is written “backwards” as compared to what is seen in the west where panels will be read from right to left and top to bottom. These bios however are sorted from left to right starting with Sailor Moon in the top left and ending with lowly Helios in the bottom right. All the while the Sailor Mercury transformation sequence at the top of the pages goes from right to left.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 8 and 9 - The Dead Moon Circus, Chibiusa and Pegasus

Page 8 shows us the Dead Moon Circus with Nehelenia, Zirconia, the Amazon Trio and the Amazoness Quartet. Page 9 has Chibiusa and Pegasus with an overview of the film’s story.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 10 and 11 - Interview with Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Usagi, and Momoiro Clover Z

Page 10 is an interview with Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, and it also includes a few images from the film, most of which we’ve seen in better quality at this point. Page 11 has information about Momoiro Clover Z and Moon Color Chainon, the theme for the film. It also includes some other staff information.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 12 and 13 - Usagi and Mamoru's Miracle Romance

Pages 12 and 13 are layed out like newspaper clippings telling the story of Usagi and Mamoru’s “Miracle Romance”. This features images from earlier in the Sailor Moon Crystal series.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 14 and 15 - Sailor Moon Cafe Ad and Sailor Moon's History Map

Page 14 is an ad for the Sailor Moon Cafe. Page 15 is half of a fold out which I’ll explain below.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Sailor Moon's History fold out

This Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon’s History fold out is the back side of the centerfold which is actually pages 15 and 18. This shows a timeline of the various incarnations of Sailor Moon spanning manga, anime and musicals. Even the often forgotten live action series gets a mention! The final piece in the history is a poster for the Sailor Moon Prism On Ice show which we hope to see soon!

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 16 and 17 - Centerfold - Small Worlds Tokyo Map

The centerfold for the magazine is a two page spread of the Small Worlds Tokyo exhibit which included a mini version of Tokyo as seen in Sailor Moon. This features some side by side photos of real locations in Tokyo compared to scenes from Sailor Moon Eternal!

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 18 and 19 - Sailor Moon's History and VR Dream Flight Ad

Page 18 is the other half of the Sailor Moon’s History fold out and Page 19 has an ad for VR Dream Flight which is an event I haven’t posted about but probably should have. This is a Virtual Reality experience which lets fans fly around Tokyo with Pegasus, Chibiusa and Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 20 and 21 - All manga covers

Pages 20 and 21 show us every single manga cover released in Japan! This includes four full releases and the first two covers of the new colour versions.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 22 and 23 - Moon Color Chainon Ad and a weird Q&A chat thing

Page 22 is an ad for the Moon Color Chainon CD/Blu-ray releases which are coming on January 13th. These are still not in stock on Amazon Japan so I’m hoping that gets resolved in the next couple of weeks. Page 23 is a weird thing which I can’t quite figure out. It seems to be a fake group chat between various Sailor Moon characters though I’m not sure who’s who or what’s going on.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 24 and 25 - Sailor Moon Eternal Ad and Four Choices Quiz

Page 24 is an ad for a Sky Garden Sailor Moon Eternal event which will include a screening of the film, a shop, a cafe and the VR event. Page 25 has a quiz where there are four choices each. Again the order of these question is a bit odd, reading left to right. Some of these are very easy but I’m frankly stumped by question 7 which asks which character is Phobos. Perhaps it will be obvious what colour Phobos and Deimos are in the film but as it currently stands there is only conflicting evidence of this from manga art book sources.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 26 and 27 - Konica Minolta Planetarium

Pages 26 and 27 are ads for the Konica Minolta Planetarium where fans will be able to take their photo with a Sailor Moon poster, buy Sailor Moon themed drinks at the cafe as well as other merchandise.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 28 and 29 - Merchandise

Pages 28 and 29 show tons of Sailor Moon merchandise which is available for sale from various retailers.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pages 30 and 31 - Colouring Page and 3coins Ad

Page 30 has a colour page based on the Nehelenia poster. I’m not sure the paper can be drawn on terribly well but I’m not about to let my children loose on this thing to test that theory out! Page 31 is an ad for 3coins which is a store which is selling a number of fairly inexpensive Sailor Moon products.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Back cover - Super Chibi Moon and the Index

Finally the back cover of the magazine shows Super Sailor Chibi Moon!

All in all I really think this is a great magazine. It’s full of ads, yes, but they’re all Sailor Moon ads. For the low price point this is a fun collectible for fans to check out. Below I’ve included a few more close up images of some things in this magazine.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Human Artemis

Spoiler! This is Artemis in human form! There was a leak of this image earlier but here is a higher quality version.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Phobos or Deimos?

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Deimos or Phobos?

Which is Phobos and which is Deimos? Wikimoon mentions that there has been inconsistent evidence of which character is what colour. The two are only ever shown in black and white in the manga so there’s no conclusive evidence there. They are in some of the Sailor Moon art books however in volume IV Phobos is purple and Deimos is red (PIPDIR) while in volume V Phobos is red and Deimos is purple (PIRDIP). Hopefully the film will clear this up once and for all, but will this really settle things conclusively? This reminds me of the controversy in the Transformers fan community where there is a never ending conflict between the cartoon purist FIRRIB camp (Frenzy is red, Rumble is blue) and the toy collecting FIBRIR camp (Frenzy is blue, Rumble is red).

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Pegasus

This is an image of Pegasus in a cage which I shared previously in lower quality.

Sailor Moon Eternal Magazine - Mamoru and Young Usagi

I hadn’t seen this image of Mamoru and young Usagi before so I figured I’d share.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th 2021 with Part 2 coming shortly afterwards on February 11th. Get caught up with the series before the films are released by using the Amazon links below or streaming the episodes on Crunchyroll or Hulu in the US or on Tubi in Canada. Read the manga stories the film will be based on in volumes 7 and 8 of the Eternal Edition which collects Acts 39, Eclipse Dream, through 49, Earth and Moon Dream, as well as some side stories.


Watch the new music video for the Sailor Moon Eternal theme song Moon Color Chainon featuring the Sailor Guardians’ voice actors!

Moon Color Chaining - Momoiro Clover Z and the Five Sailor Guardians - The actresses for the Sailor Guardians singing

A longer video showing the Sailor Moon Eternal theme song Moon Color Chainon which includes the voices of the Sailor Guardians singing has been shared on YouTube and the Official Sailor Moon Site. You can watch the video embedded below.

This is different from the full length video which was shared earlier this month. That was the Momoiro Clover Z version of the song. This version, which is the one included in the Eternal Edition of the album, is still sung by Momoiro Clover Z but joining them are the voices of the Sailor Guardians from Sailor Moon Crystal. That includes Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, 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. We had gotten a preview of this version of the song in a very short clip which was released in October. This is a longer version but at a minute and a half it is still a short version of the song with the full version being about three and a half minutes.

Moon Color Chaining - Momoiro Clover Z and the Five Sailor Guardians - Kotono Mitsuishi as Sailor Moon

All four members of Momoiro Clover Z as well as the five voice actors appear in this video. The close up shots are all of the members of Momoiro Clover Z while the shots of women standing in front of a brick wall with a TV screen are of the voice actors. You can tell who is who by the colour of the border around the image and of course the character shown on screen while they are singing.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Rei, Makoto, Ami and Minako

The video also includes clips from the Sailor Moon Eternal films. Some of it is new and some of it we’ve seen before. I’ve included some screenshots of the new footage in this post.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Minako

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th with Part 2 following the next month on February 11th. Though no date or specifics have been announced it seems likely that the English version of the films will be streamed on Netflix.

Moon Color Chaining - Momoiro Clover Z and the Five Sailor Guardians - Sheet music

Keep reading for more screenshots from this video.

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New Sailor Moon Eternal content appears in the latest issue of Animage

Animage - Amazoness Quartet and Amazon Trio

There’s a decent amount of Sailor Moon Eternal content in issue 511 of Animage which was released in Japan on December 10th. I saw a lot of these scans posted in the @news_saturn Twitter account, which also provided translations of some of the content. In the image above we see the Amazoness Quartet and the Amazon Trio. Below we see Mamoru with a black rose on his chest. While roses are common in the Sailor Moon anime they aren’t something Tuxedo Mask has in the manga or Sailor Moon Crystal, but the manga did have this black rose growing on his chest while Earth was under attack.

Animage - Mamoru

Also included is an interview with voice actors Kotono Mitsuishi, who plays Usagi, and Misato Fukuen, who plays Chibiusa. This interview has some nice insight! Misato Fukuen mentions that she’s happy to be returning to the character after four years and that it’s been so long that she needed to do vocal training to get the voice just right! Nice to see fans aren’t the only ones to notice that it’s been so long since we’ve had any new Sailor Moon Crystal! They give some hints about what is coming up in Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2, though this isn’t really some greatly hidden industry secret since the story is right there for everyone to read in the manga!

Animage - Kotono Mitsuishi and Misato Fukuen

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on January 8th. Part 2 will follow shortly afterwards on February 11th. There has not yet been any news about a release of the film outside of Japan.

Source: Kotono Mitsuishi and Misato Fukuen interview, Amazoness Quartet, Mamoru, Amazoness Quartet and Amazon Trio

New Sailor Moon Eternal clips were shown on an NHK Sailor Moon TV special

Sailor Moon Eternal - Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru

This past Saturday, December 5th, there was a two hour long Sailor Moon special which aired on NHK in Japan. This special centered around voting on fans’ favourite characters, episodes and songs from Sailor Moon and also included a number of special guests and clips from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films! Though the special was televised you can watch a version online by following this link. There’s a lot going on in this two hour video so I’ll point out a few places where you can find new Sailor Moon Eternal footage.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Chibiusa

At 64 minutes and 24 seconds you can see the voice actors who portray Chibiusa, Misato Fukuen, and Mamoru, Kenji Nojima, doing a live read of a clip from the upcoming film which features Chibiusa and Mamoru speaking in the build up to Chibiusa’s transformation.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Usagi and Chibiusa

At 77 minutes and 28 seconds we see a clip of Chibiusa, Mamoru and Usagi speaking. Diana is also present but doesn’t speak in this footage.

Kotono Mitsuishi reading lines from the season finale

And while it’s not Sailor Moon Eternal footage there is something quite interesting at 114 minutes and 8 seconds. Here we see Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Usagi from the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal, doing a live recording of some lines from the first season finale. Why is this important? She didn’t have a chance to record these for the original episode as she was off with an illness. That episode, and a few others, were recorded instead by Kae Araki who later returned to voice Chibiusa in Sailor Moon R. I shared this on Twitter after having seen it posted by the Sailor Moon Canada account which prompted an interesting discussion where I learned that this was not the first time Kotono Mitsuishi recorded these lines. As noted in the Tuxedo Unmasked article about her illness which kept her from recording those episodes, she had recorded audio of that final scene. The article mentions that this was an audio tape though I understand there is a CD which exists as well. She also recorded those lines for the 2018 Classic Concert. I have that CD but it is boxed up somewhere but user David Perez on Twitter says it’s on track 9.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Kazuko Tadano

There are some odd things in this video such as footage of Kazuko Tadano with an image of the anime character which was based off of her hiding her face!

Sailor Moon Eternal - Storyboards

We also get a look at some storyboards for the film. Some aren’t easy to make out but there is a pretty close up shot of a couple of pages at one point.

Sailor Moon Eternal commercial - Holy Grails

We’ve also got a new 15 second commercial for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 which shows Usagi and Chibiusa with the Holy Grails, Helios and Pegasus. You can watch the commercial on YouTube below.

With Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 coming to Japanese theatres on January 8th and Part 2 coming February 11th we are getting a lot of new content coming at us lately! There seem to be new clips and images of the film most days! I’m trying to keep up with the news. Feel free to share anything you spot in the comments!

Keep reading for more screenshots from these clips.

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The Sailor Moon Eternal theme song Moon Color Chainon has been released … sort of

Moon Color Chainon

The Sailor Moon Eternal theme song, Moon Color Chainon, has been released in Japan as we get many details about the CD and Blu-Ray releases posted to the official Sailor Moon site. Though Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 won’t be released until January 8th 2021 and the CDs and Blu-Rays of Moon Color Chainon will be released on January 13th the song is already available to stream on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. Unfortunately fans outside of Japan will find that any links to these songs won’t work! Momoiro Clover Z did perform this song live and full length versions are also available online. The YouTube video embedded below is one such example.

We’ve also gotten a lot of details about other track which will be included on the full albums. Here I was expecting these would be closer to a single but we can now see that there will be a few tracks on each!

Ziv Zulander as Randal Crandle

The Momoiro Clover Z Edition of the album will include the version of Moon Color Chainon by Momoiro Clover Z without the Sailor Moon Eternal cast. The other songs on this album are listed as the “-ZZ ver.-” which most likely means that Momoiro Clover Z performs that version and not that Ziv Zulander, The Bots Master, will be recording the vocals. Note that all of the tracks but Moon Color Chainon were included with earlier Sailor Moon Crystal albums. Here’s a track listing.

M1: Gesshoku Chainon (Moon Color Chainon) – The Sailor Moon Eternal theme song – Momoiro Clover Z ver.
M2: Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – The original Sailor Moon anime theme song -ZZ ver.-
M3: Moon Pride – The first Sailor Moon Crystal theme song -ZZ ver.-
M4: Gekkou (Moon Rainbow) – The first Sailor Moon Crystal ending theme -ZZ ver.-
M5: Tuxedo Mirage – The Sailor Moon S ending theme -ZZ ver.-
M6: Moon Revenge – From Sailor Moon R The Movie -ZZ ver.-
M7: New Moon ni Koishite (In love with New Moon) – The opening theme for season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal -ZZ ver.-
M8: Gesshoku Chainon (Moon Color Chainon) [Instrumental or Karaoke version]

Moon Color Chainon

The Eternal Edition of the Album includes the version of Moon Color Chainon by not only Momoiro Clover Z but also the cast of Sailor Moon Eternal! All three songs on this album are the ones which will be played with the films. The cover art for this album is included at the top of this post. The second track is a cover of the first Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme by Yoko Ishida, who performed a number of songs in the original Sailor Moon anime but not this one. This is the ending theme for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1. The third track is a cover of the second Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme which will be performed by ANZA, the first actress to play Usagi in the Sailor Moon musicals. This is the ending theme for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2.

M1: Gesshoku Chainin (Moon Color Chainon) – The Sailor Moon Eternal theme song – Momoiro Clover Z with Sailor Moon (Kotono Mitsuishi), Sailor Mercury (Hisako Kanemoto), Sailor Mars (Rina Sato), Sailor Jupiter (Ami Koshimizu) and Sailor Venus (Shizuka Ito)
M2: Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together with You) – The first Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme – Yoko Ishida
M3: “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll Go As Myself) – The second Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme – ANZA
M4: Gesshoku Chainon (Moon Color Chainon) [Instrumental or Karaoke version]
M5: Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together with You) [Instrumental or Karaoke version]
M6 : “Rashiku” Ikimasho [Instrumental or Karaoke version]

All considered it seems like the Momoiro Clover Z Edition includes a version of the theme song which won’t actually be in the movie and some covers which we’ve actually gotten in other releases while the Eternal Edition includes three tracks which will be in the movie, all of which we’ve never actually heard on other releases! If you’re only going to buy one of these then the Eternal Edition seems like the obvious choice for Sailor Moon fans, though perhaps Momoiro Clover Z fans will be inclined to pick up the other album!

The CD and Blu-Ray can still be ordered from a number of online retailers, though currently Amazon Japan does not seem to have the items in stock. The Momoiro Clover Z version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition, CD Japan) is 2500 yen which is about $24 US while the Sailor Moon Eternal version (Amazon Japan exclusive, regular edition, CD Japan) is 2200 yen which is about $21 US.

What do you think of the song? Which song are you most excited to hear?