A number of sources such as Variety and The Hollywood Reported have reported that Hulu plans to end their free service. This hasn’t happened quite yet so fans are still free to watch Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal for free on the service. What is one to do when this switch happens? Hulu will continue to host the show on their pay service but will also be hosting a lot of their free content on Yahoo! View. Use this link to watch Sailor Moon on Yahoo! View. You can also watch Sailor Moon Crystal on Yahoo! View. The site seems to be identical to Hulu in most ways. It seems that Sailor Moon will continue to be available on Viz.com’s anime streaming service Neon Alley after Hulu moves to a subscription only service. Sailor Moon Crystal continues to be available on Crunchyroll though they are limiting their back catalogue to paid users.

Canadians are still out of luck with Yahoo! View which just like Hulu and Neon Alley is region blocked in Canada, but that doesn’t really matter anymore. As we reported earlier Canadians can now watch the entire original Sailor Moon anime in Japanese with English subtitles on TubiTV, which is also free. You can also watch Sailor Moon Crystal on TubiTV.

Update: The episode will actually be referred to as Act 27 – Infinity 1 – Premonition – Second Part. Such a confusing title.

The next new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will air on Japanese TV tomorrow at 11pm Japan Standard Time. This will be 10am Eastern Time, 7am Pacific Time, and the stream should be available on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Neon Alley shortly afterwards. Last week the episode was available around 10:45am Eastern Time, some 15 minutes after the episode would have concluded on Japanese TV. There’s a countdown on the Act 28 page at Crunchyroll which is counting down to 10:30am Eastern Time. I would recommend watching it on Crunchyroll which has a free and paid commercial free option as well as apps to watch those episodes on, though some of you who live in a country which Hulu doesn’t hate may already have a subscription with them. Last week Hulu restricted the episode to Hulu Plus only for a while, thought it was immediately available to watch on Viz’s web site Neon Alley which is a different way of watching Hulu content. Free users watching on Hulu should go to the Neon Alley page if they can’t find the episode right away.

This week we get Act 28, Infinity 1 – Premonition – The 2nd Part. This is the direct continuation of the half episode we got last week as the manga chapter for Act 27 has now been split in two in order to make this story arc 13 episodes long. The gang will travel to an amusement park where Chibiusa will meet Hotaru for the first time. We only briefly saw Hotaru last week. She’ll be wearing a Mugen Academy school uniform, which Usagi will also have thanks to her Disguise Pen.

This episode will also feature our first look at Sailor Uranus and Neptune. Last week we saw Haruka and Michiru but we haven’t yet seen them transformed. Of course promotional material, the opening and ending themes and the commercial break bumpers have featured these two prominently so we won’t be too surprised to see them.

At long last the final season of Sailor Moon, Sailor Stars, will be released in the United States of America. This season, released in Japan way back in 1996 was never dubbed into English and was never released on video in English speaking North America. Hulu and Neon Alley have been releasing the original Sailor Moon anime series subtitled at a rate of two episodes per week and we will finally be getting the fifth and final season on Monday December 14th. It was not clear whether or not we would see the episode on the 14th or 21st, as the current schedule would have the final episode of Sailor Moon SuperS, episode 166, playing on that day. Viz has a precedent of only including the final episode of the season on one day so as to not break up the season. We now have official confirmation, from the Neon Alley schedule for the month of December, that episode 167 will indeed be released on Monday December 14th. The schedule does note that the “Start of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars” is on the following Monday, with episode 168, which is actually the second episode of Sailor Stars. There is still the possibility that someone has made the mistake with this schedule and that episode 167 will be held off until the 21st but at this time the schedule does indicate that episode 167 will be December 14th.

Fans who have not seen Sailor Stars before will be excited to see Eternal Sailor Moon, the return of Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn as well as the Sailor Starlights and many more. It will still be a while until they all show up though as the first 6 episodes of the series are sort of like a follow up to Sailor Moon SuperS, giving us more closure on Queen Nehelenia. Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will show up right away as Sailor Saturn is also brought back into the fold. This conveniently brings the story back in line with how the Dream arc of the original Sailor Moon manga left off with the whole group together. Sadly Chibiusa and Tuxedo Mask won’t be around for long, so enjoy them while you can.

What new character are you most excited to see? Sailor Iron Mouse? Princess Kakyuu? Sailor Chibi Chibi? So many to chose from!

2015-12-06 Update: The original article title and content stated that this was the first release of Sailor Stars in North America. While Sailor Stars was never released in the US and Canada, it was released in Mexico which is part of North America. I often use the term North American when referring to the series because I am a Canadian so in many cases specifying United States of America is not the whole story. In this case however, Hulu is still not available to Canadian Sailor Moon fans and so the series is really only being officially released in the United States. Canadians may use a proxy to watch Hulu, as I have been doing, but this isn’t an official release. The original French dub of Sailor Moon also did not included Sailor Stars and only a small part of what was seen in France was ever broadcast on Canadian television. Sailor Stars will likely remains unreleased officially in Canada until either some streaming option can be made available or until the home video release for Stars makes its way here.

Thanks to reader Julian for the note about Mexico.

Great news for fans who have been waiting to see Sailor Moon Crystal in English! The anime schedule for Viz Media has been updated with the first two episodes of the English dub of Sailor Moon Crystal beginning Friday November 20th. The 3rd episode will be available on Friday November 27th with new episodes being available every Friday. New episodes can be streamed for free on Hulu and Neon Alley in the United States.

If you live in Canada, or in another country in which these services are not offered, you’re out of luck. There are of course ways to make it appear as if you are accessing these sites from another country. A free option is hola.org though there are others.

As we have mentioned before the cast for the English dub of Sailor Moon Crystal will be the same as that of Viz’s new English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. Chances are if you liked that dub you will like this one too.

Will you be watching the English version of Sailor Moon Crystal? Have you been holding off watching it until this version is out? This is also a great option for children who are too young to follow subtitles.

This past weekend Viz Media held their Sailor Moon Panel at New York Comic Con. We got a lot of news about Sailor Moon Crystal. First and most importantly, the dub of Sailor Moon Crystal will be coming to Hulu and Viz.com next month, some time in November. We previously learned that the dub cast would be the same cast which was used for Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime.

We have also learned, via a flyer of their upcoming releases, that Sailor Moon Crystal would be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2016. The first release is “Sailor Moon Crystal Set 1: The Dark Kingdom Arc” and will include Sailor Moon Crystal Acts 1 to 13. This Blu-Ray set will no doubt include the original Japanese and English dubbed versions of Sailor Moon Crystal, including optional subtitles. We’ve previously learned that Viz’s version of Sailor Moon Crystal will be the updated version used for the Japanese Blu-Ray releases, which had minor changes to the animation from the original streaming version.

In casting news we have also learned the voice actors who will be playing the Witches 5, who are 6 of the new villains from the upcoming dub of Sailor Moon S. Now that the Infinity story arc of Sailor Moon Crystal has been announced in Japan, it stands to reason that this same cast will be around to voice these characters once those episodes are dubbed into English. The new cast includes some returning actors who have done other voices in the series. Erin Fitzgerald will voice Eudial. Kira Buckland will voice Mimete. Laura Post, who previously voiced a kindergarden teacher in Sailor Moon R episode 52 and the monster Amaderasu in episode 53, will voice Tellu. Cricket Brown, who previously voiced Usagi’s teacher Haruna, will play Viluy. Johanna Luis, who previously voiced An the Alien also known as Natsumi in Sailor Moon R, will play both Cyprine and Ptilol who somehow count as one of the Witches 5.

Source: @TheMatthewPaul on Twitter, @sailor_moon_na on Twitter.

This morning, October 13th, the final two episodes of the first season of Sailor Moon were added to Hulu and Neon Alley. With the addition of episodes 45 and 46 the entire first season is now available to stream in Japanese with English subtitles. This two part story concludes the battle with the Dark Kingdom and Queen Beryl, wrapping up the first story arc for the Sailor Moon anime. These are a couple of the better episodes of the series. These two episodes were heavily edited and reduced to a single episode, Day of Destiny, in the DiC English dub. If that’s the only version you’ve seen these episodes should not be missed.

Episode 45, Death of the Sailor Guardians: The Tragic Final Battle, has, as the title suggests, everyone dying! The Sailor Guardians head to the D Point in the North Pole to fight the Dark Kingdom but are intercepted by the DD Girls who basically kill everyone but Sailor Moon. It’s not all in vain as the Sailor Guardians manage to kill all of the DD Girls, leaving Sailor Moon to move on. Naturally she’s a bit shaken by the death of her friends, and can’t find the strength within herself to move on but their ghosts appear to give her the words of encouragements she needs to move on and face Tuxedo Mask and Queen Beryl.

Episode 46, Usagi’s Eternal Wish: a Brand New Life, has Usagi left alone with all of her friends killed. When she finally meets Queen Beryl she is shocked to see that Tuxedo Mask is evil and loyal to her. In an excruciating and violent fight he beats her up quite a bit while she avoids fighting back until the last moment where she attacks him with her tiara. After restoring his memories thanks to the power of her locket he is in turn killed by Queen Beryl. Sailor Moon is now truly alone, having lost all her friends and now her lover, and must face off against Super Beryl, which is Queen Beryl amalgamated with Queen Metalia. The battle is won, thanks to the ghosts of her friends, but since this is still the first season using the Silver Crystal kills Sailor Moon. Her last wish is to make things like they were, and so the world is transformed. The Sailor Guardians are alive again but have no memory of what happened or even knowing each other, but the Dark Kingdom has now been defeated.

Next week we start with Sailor Moon R! But the story of the Black Moon Clan won’t begin right away. First we will begin with a short set of episodes surrounding Ail and An, two aliens who use cards and a big tree to drain people’s energy.

Episode 43 and 44 of the original Sailor Moon anime were added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning, October 6th. As with every Monday two new episodes in Japanese with English subtitles by Viz are added to these streaming services. This week the first season is starting to wrap up as the gang tries to get into the Dark Kingdom to free Tuxedo Mask and have a flashback to their past.

Episode 43, Usagi Abandoned: The Falling-Out of the Sailor Guardians, centers around the girls having a mutiny against Sailor Moon! But things aren’t as they seem. The mutiny is nothing more than a ruse to try to get Sailor Moon into the Dark Kingdom to rescue Tuxedo Mask. In this process Sailor Mars steals the Moon Stick from Usagi! Seems fitting after Usagi stole her boyfriend! This is the episode which was recently reanimated, scene by scene, by a team of over 250 different animators. If you haven’t already watched Moon Animate Make-Up! I would suggest watching that version of the episode instead of watching this.

Episode 44, Usagi’s Awakening: A Message from the Distant Past, is all about the flash back. Other stuff happens, mainly Kunzite dying and the discovery of a portal to the artic but really we are all about the flash back sequence. Kunzite attempts to randomly send the Sailor Guardians through time but thanks to a little meddling from the Moon Stick they are sent to the Moon where they get a lovely lesson in history from the ghost of Queen Serenity, Usagi’s mom from her past life. The Moon used to be a great place to live back in the days of the Silver Millennium, and Princess Serenity fell in love with a man from Earth, Prince Endymion. Too bad an army from Earth led by Queen Beryl destroyed the kingdom on the moon and killed everyone. Queen Serenity uses her last bit of strength to send everyone into the future to be reincarnated, including some generic Sailor Guardians! Indeed we see Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus in this episode but we also see some other Sailor Guardians in these bubbles that are going to the future. Some have speculated that one is Sailor Neptune due to her hair but as this episode was made before even Sailor Pluto has made an appearance in the manga any resemblance to future characters is purely coincidental. It’s unclear what the exact timeline of this past is, though based on the Earth technology it seems medieval. The DiC English dub stated this time period to be “1000 years ago” and this seems like a decent approximation. The name Silver Millennium does not actually refer to any particular period of time, but rather the kingdom itself which is located in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

Differences from the manga in the events of the past are numerous. Beryl’s jealousy isn’t really touched upon. The Shitennou are present but there’s no mention of them being Endymion’s generals. Princess Serenity is killed instead of taking her life after Endymion dies. Queen Serenity seems to be a ghost rather than a hologram generated by a supercomputer which she uploaded her consciousness to. We’ll see all that before long in Sailor Moon Crystal. This episode also marks the first appearance by Kae Araki as the voice of Usagi and Princess Serenity. Kotono Mitsuishi was off due to an illness and missed 7 episodes. Kae Araki later returned to voice Chibiusa and Black Lady.

Also Queen Serenity is Jesus.

The latest episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime, in Japanese with English subtitles by Viz, have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. As with every Monday two new episodes are added. This week we have episodes 39 and 40 which showcase just how terrible Mamoru is at being a bad guy. The Dark Kingdom is doing a pretty terrible job with this guy.

First up we have episode 39, Paired With a Monster: Mako, the Ice Skating Queen, and it’s all about skating. It’s episode 39 but it feel like episode 390 by the way they’re just kind of going through some winter sports. Last week was skiing. This week is skating! Supposedly back in the day skating was really popular on the Moon. So where did the ice come from? Currently the Moon is a barren wasteland, and freezing cold as there’s virtually no atmosphere, so water could only ever exist as ice, though only in shaded areas. Silver Millennium is said to be located in the Sea of Tranquility which gets a decent amount of sun during it’s days which last 14 Earth days. Images of the Moon show flowing fountains at times and ice skating rinks in this episode where the people are wearing ear muff to keep warm. Also the Moon has a very small axial tilt meaning it would have virtually no seasons. So Usagi is a terrible skater, even though Princess Serenity was apparently really great at it. Makoto on the other hand is great right out of the gate and so she’s targeted by the enemy because that’s right this week they’re looking for really good skaters to find Sailor Moon! It’s not until she’s properly transformed that Sailor Moon actually starts to skate well and then Tuxedo Mask joins her. But isn’t he a bad guy? Oh yeah I guess Tuxedo Mask is kind of mad at Kunzite so he joins Sailor Moon in this episode. Beryl needs to keep a leash on this guy. It’s total nonsense. A little arguing amongst bad guys is one thing but teaming up with your top enemy is not a good idea. Also if you’re a fan of skating and hockey you should be sure to check out the Keeping Karlsson podcast for all the best hockey pool strategies.

Episode 40, The Legendary Lake Yokai: The Bond of Usagi’s Family, is a hot springs episode! But it’s not quite as saucy as you might think. Usagi and her family are going on a little trip to the hot springs, which based on what I’ve seen in anime seems to be a huge deal in Japan. We get some good Shingo/Usagi shipping action as they fight and he steals her towel. Mamoru is an absolutely terrible bad guy in this episode as he just kind of hangs around looking at the lake because Queen Beryl made a mistake in sending him. The lake is home to a lake monster which actually has nothing to do with the Dark Kingdom. Aside from Sakiko we haven’t really seen any monsters that weren’t directly created by the Dark Kingdom before. Turns out the lake monster is a jealous girlfriend that’s mad that a boy she was in love with hooked up with a girl from space. This story strongly parallels the Beryl/Endymion/Serenity love triangle. Beryl is in love with Endymion and he falls in love with Serenity who is from the Moon, leaving her. But then instead of turning into a lake monster Beryl took her army and killed everyone on the Moon. We all deal with our jealousies in our own ways. I’m not the only one to see this similarity as the lake monster mistakes Usagi for the woman stealing hussie from her day. Sailor Moon heals the monster releasing the jealous girl from her curse. The rest of the girls eventually show up for some hot springs fun which will make some of our readers happy, like that guy that keeps asking if they’re going to do a beach episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. You know who you are!

Speaking of sexy bodies at the hot spring, check out Kenji Papa in this episode! He’s looking fit. What does he do between this point and when they go to the VR place in Sailor Moon R where he’s got a gut?

This morning, September 15th, the two latest episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime were added to Hulu and Neon Alley. Every Monday two new episodes, subbed by Viz, will be added. This week we have episodes 37 and 38 which are all about the Dark Kingdom’s terrible attempts to uncover Sailor Moon’s identity.

In episode 37, Let’s Become a Princess: Usagi’s Bizarre Training, the Dark Kingdom is running a Princess Seminar in the hopes of capturing Sailor Moon. The logic is pretty simple. Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity so by running a seminar that looks for certain Princess like innate abilities, they will be able to find Sailor Moon! The first thing they look for, the ability to throw a discus, is a decent test. Usagi does great at this as it’s nearly identical to her Moon Tiara Action which she used consistently until she got the Moon Stick and didn’t need to any more. Unfortunately the other tests, how to drink soup, how to politely serve tea and how to dance, are things that Usagi was terrible at and disqualified her from being considered to be Sailor Moon. Turns out Kunzite totally missed the boat on this one as he had no idea Sailor Moon was completely awkward, which calls the logic of this trap into question. One discovery that is made in this episode is that the person Luna has been communicating with through her computer at the arcade is actually Artemis who for reasons unknown continued this deception instead of simply coming clean. Also Artemis eats cat food right out of the can. How does he use the can opener?

In episode 38, The Snow, the Mountains, Friendship and Monsters, the plot of the week assumes that Sailor Moon is a good skier. The Dark Kingdom has a ski contest going off of the assumption that Sailor Moon would be the winner. Usagi is in fact a completely terrible skier. It’s only because she had no control over herself that she awkwardly and ineptly flew to the front of the pack and into the enemy’s trap. There is no indication as to why the Dark Kingdom would think Sailor Moon was good at skiing, but we can chalk this up to another failure on Kunzite’s part. Meanwhile this episode gives Usagi and Rei a chance to have a heart to heart about Mamoru. Rei comes to terms with the fact that Usagi stole her boyfriend and gives her blessing to the relationship.

Don’t forget that you can also now watch the first 23 episodes of Viz’s new Sailor Moon dub on Hulu.

Last weekend Viz released a number of dubbed episodes to Hulu and Neon Alley. You can currently watch the first 23 episodes of Viz’s new English dub but these episodes may not be there for long so watch them while you can. I haven’t had a chance to watch too many episodes but after watching a bit the dub seems decent. There are less changes to the script than there were in the original dub though some jokes not in the original version have been added, such as making fun of Mamoru’s pants or referring to Ami’s IQ like it was a Dragonball Z power level.

This first half of the season coincides with the episodes being released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 11th. It’s not clear how long these episodes will remain online but they may be removed when the home video version is released. We’ve already seen pictures of the packaging. Check out the new video below which shows the super high tech foil used in the box.

Start watching starting with the first episode and see how you like it!