Hello Kitty/Sailor Moon inspired t-shirts on sale today at TeeFury

Hello Senshi and Hello Serenity shirts at TeeFury

Today and today only these cool looking Sailor Moon and Hello Kitty inspired shirts area available at TeeFury. These shirts are Hello Senshi, featuring Sailor Moon, and Hello Serenity, featuring Neo Queen Serenity. As with all TeeFury shirts these are available for $11 but only for one day so you can only pick these up until 11pm Easter Time on December 29th.

Hello Senshi t-shirt at TeeFury

The shirt’s artist is Gilles Bone who has done a lot of other Sailor Moon inspired designs we’ve posted about on this site. For more of his work check out his personal web site, Red Bubble store, Facebook, Twitter, deviantART or tumblr pages.

Hello Serenity t-shirt at TeeFury

Sailor Moon R episodes 65 and 66 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon R episode 65 - Calaveras and Petz

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon R are now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week for episodes 65 and 66 we have the Sailor Guardians face off against Petz and Calaveras … twice.

Episode 65, Dispute Over Love: Minako and Makoto’s Conflict, has Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus sharing an episode! We recently saw Ami and Rei get their own episodes but I guess Makoto and Minako weren’t able to hold their own! Instead they fight with each other for a while, which is mimicked by Calaveras and Petz’s bickering and fighting in this same episode. Sailor Jupiter uses Sparkling Wide Pressure for the first time in the ensuing fight while Sailor Venus uses her Venus Love Me Chain for the first time. The Droid in this episode is made out of wine which is kind of cool!

Sailor Moon R episode 66 - Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru

Episode 66, Usagi’s Parental Love: the Curry Romance Triangle is all about making curry! We get a good look at the future version of Usagi and Mamoru in this episode. Normally when we see Crystal Tokyo in other episodes we see Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion all decked out in their royal garb. Here we seem to be seeing them in civilian clothes, though those are fairly fancy clothes. Chibiusa thinks a lot about her parents as she gets close to Usagi and Mamoru. So right. Curry. Chibiusa needs to make curry for a school curry party. Is this a thing in Japan? In North America we do pot lucks but diversity is the key. Having a pot luck where everyone brings the same food is a bit of a waste of time. Whatever. Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru go to Juban Super, the supermarket in Azuba Juban, to get some meat. Too bad Calaveras and Petz took over the supermarket and turned all of the patrons into zombies! Unfortunately the zombies’ black skin makes it look a bit like all of the zombies are really just dark skinned minorities.

Sailor Moon R episode 66 - Dark Fruit turns people in to black zombies

Finally Chibiusa and Mamoru ditch Usagi and run into Rei. Rei reluctantly agrees to help them make curry, but ultimately Chibiusa decides to go back to Usagi. This makes us wonder what the Curry Romance Triangle mentioned in the title actually is. Is it Chibiusa/Mamoru/Usagi? This love triangle is always a problem and at the heart of the Sailor Moon R series, culminating in some rather incestual behaviour between Black Lady and Tuxedo Mask. The other love triangle here is the Usagi/Mamoru/Rei combo. Rei and Mamoru were a legitimate couple in the first season, something which ended abruptly when Mamoru was mortally wounded, regained memories of a past life and then was turned evil. The Moonlight Knight only recently gave Mamoru his memories of him and Rei’s relationship back at which point there was an assumed romance between him and Usagi, but the choice was never really presented to him. We can see Rei’s obvious hesitation at getting in the middle of existing relationships. Where does this hesitation come from? Does she not want to take Usagi’s place in her relationship with Chibiusa or is is that she’s worried she may rekindle some old feeling between herself and Mamoru? Luckily Mamoru is wearing the absolute worst shirt so there’s no risk of a hot girl like Rei falling for that!

Sailor Moon R episode 66 - Rei, Chibiusa and Mamoru

This is supposed to be one of those mosquito repellent things, right?

Next week is episode 67, The Beach, the Island and a Vacation: The Guardians’ Break, which was not previously dubbed into English or released in Viz’s subbed only set.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical first impressions

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Tuxedo Mask kissing Black Lady

On Sunday, September 7th, the new Sailor Moon musical Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère (French for Small Stranger) was broadcast streaming on Niconico. Though the sign up pages are confusing a ticket to watch the live stream can be purchased even from North America. The stream which was previously broadcast live can still be viewed on the Niconico site. Consider viewing it this way to support the musical if you intend on downloading a copy later. For those waiting for a version with English subtitles the gang over at Miss Dream are currently translating it. I watched the stream of the musical on Sunday and although I don’t really understand Japanese I found it easy enough to follow as the story of the Black Moon Clan, Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto and Crystal Tokyo has been told before a few times. My review may include spoilers for events that are mostly known to Sailor Moon fans. It may include mistakes since I may have misinterpreted some events.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Sailor Pluto and Chibiusa

The musical begins with Chibiusa already in the present though the opening scene, which is itself a flashback, shows us the future events in Crystal Tokyo as the Black Moon Clan attack. Neo Queen Serenity, seen in this future, is played by Satomi Okubo, the actress who plays Usagi. At the end of the musical she appears to be played by another actress, likely because the short notice wardrobe change would be tough. Usagi and Chibiusa’s relationship is pretty hostile, as is expected, and Mamoru is trying hard to get along with both, much to Usagi’s frustration.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Chibiusa and Usagi

The Sailor Team is in a rock band of sort named Usagi Band, though Usagi is not present during their performance. There is a new actress, Momoyo Koyama, who plays Sailor Mercury. The rest of the cast is returning. Sailor Mercury, Mars and Jupiter aren’t in the musical a ton as they stay behind while Sailor Moon, Venus and Chibiusa go to the future.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Usagi Band

The Black Moon Clan are not all represented. The four Ayakashi sisters are not in this musical, who’s cast is entirely comprised of women, though Rubeus, Saphire and Prince Demande, all men, do appear along with Esmeraude, the only woman in the Black Moon Clan. My Japanese is not great though it seemed to be insinuated that some, perhaps all, of the Black Moon Clan are actually Droids. If this is the case this is a considerable departure from the Manga.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Black Lady

As expected Wise Man gets his hands on Chibiusa and transforms her into Black Lady. We get a nice inappropriate father/daughter kiss between Tuxedo Mask and Black Lady. Sailor Pluto dies sacrificing herself and this shock causes Black Lady to become young again and transform into Sailor Chibi Moon. In the manga this is what happens though in the anime Chibiusa leaves at the end of Sailor Moon R without having transformed, returning only partway through Sailor Moon S.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Sailor Chibi Moon mourns Sailor Pluto

Back in the present time Chibiusa has a tearful farewell with her friends after which the curtain lowers and the musical is done. Once the performers have all bowed to the audience another small bit follows as Chibiusa, still dressed as Sailor Chibi Moon, gives a letter to Usagi, still dressed as Sailor Moon, explaining that Chibiusa will be returning to complete her training. This letter comes from Usagi’s future self, Neo Queen Serenity. We will likely see Chibiusa continue to be involved in future musicals.

Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Sailor Moon reads a letter from her future self

Overall I found the musical quite enjoyable. The performances and singing were good. My favourite performance, as with the first musical, was Yuga Yamato as Tuxedo Mask and King Endymion. Check it out if you have a chance, though I would certainly suggest watching last year’s musical, La Reconquista, first.

Keep reading for more screenshots from the musical.

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Volume 12 of the Sailor Moon manga is out now

Sailor Moon manga vol. 12 - Cover

Volume 12 of the Sailor Moon manga was released today! It is now available in stores and online. Buy it from the Amazon link included below to support the site.

This story concludes the main story of the Sailor Moon manga. This is it! Will Sailor Moon beat all the bad guys or will she be killed along with all her friends? You’ll have to read the book to find out! There will be two more books of short stories which are aside from the main continuity which will be released in the coming months.

Included as always are some nice looking colour pages.

Sailor Moon manga vol. 12 - Colour pages

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Is My Little Pony’s Crystal Empire inspired by Sailor Moon’s Crystal Tokyo?

Sailor Moon - Chibiusa overlooking Crystal Tokyo - My Little Pony - Arriving at the Crystal Empire

If you’re a fan of My Little Pony be sure to check out our sister site The Ponyville Gazette on which this article was also posted.

This past Saturday was the season premiere of season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The story of this first episode centred around a location called The Crystal Empire. A while back when clips of this episode first appeared online someone made this image suggesting a link. While I certainly believe there are visual similarities there I think that now that the full episode has aired we can look at them objectively and see just what does and doesn’t add up.

Sailor Moon's Crystal Tokyo - My Little Pony's The Crystal Empire

The similarity in the image above is hard to ignore. These are both cities made of crystal with one large tower in the middle. The Crystal Empire has a road formation made of stars. Crystal Tokyo does not but from this angle we see a diagonal road leading to the tower which makes the two cities seem similar. The structure of the two cities is somewhat similar with the way other buildings are spread out with some grassy areas, but this is not atypical of any city. It should be noted that a view of Crystal Tokyo during the day is somewhat rare. More often than not we saw Crystal Tokyo during a perpetual night as it was all but completely destroyed and occupied by the Black Moon Clan.

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