The first two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 128 and 129, are now available on Hulu

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Adam

This morning the two latest episodes of Sailor Moon which were added to Hulu and Neon Alley were the first two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS. This is the 4th season of the original Sailor Moon anime loosely based on the Dream arc of the Manga. This introduces us to the Dead Moon Circus which at this point is Zirconia and the Amazon Trio. Hulu updated their banner now that the new season is available. This new banner shows the Sailor Guardians in their powered up Super forms, including an image of Chibiusa and Usagi in their Princess dresses with Pegasus wings from the final episode of the season. What a spoiler! Many fans don’t seem to like this season that much given the amount of focus that is given to Chibiusa. My feelings are mixed. While most of the season spends a lot of time with filler without focusing on the main story I find that those episode are still quite well done, giving us some very interesting well fleshed out villains and hilarious monsters in the form of the circus inspired Lemures as well as providing very good character development for Usagi and Chibiusa, though this is done at some expense as there is of less development amongst the other Sailor Guardians present and Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru don’t appear in the season at all.

Note that Sailor Moon SuperS is pronounced “Sailor Moon Supers” in Japan. The previous season, written as Sailor Moon S, was itself pronounced “Sailor Moon Super”. This can cause some confusion when hearing the names of the seasons spoken, rather than written, in Japanese. English speaking fans still have a habit of stating the title as “Super S”. As this site is written, I have no requirement of pronouncing it one way or the other as you aren’t hearing what I’m saying out loud anyway.

Episode 128, Meeting of Destiny: The Night Pegasus Dances, starts out with Chibiusa’s dream. This dream, which is a mix of dream and reality, has her encountering the winged horse Pegasus. Pegasus is the proper name of an individual, much like the Pegasus of Greek Mythology. I’ve had many debates about whether or nothing there is such a thing as “A pegasus”, a species, as is used in such places as the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, or whether it is a proper name as it is here. For Sailor Moon purposes, Pegasus is not “A pegasus” but rather a winged horse with a golden horn who is named Pegasus. This means he is also a unicorn, which is not a typical way to portray a standard pegasus. Pegasus exists in Chibiusa’s dream but he is not a figment of her imagination, as we learn later in the episode when he appears to save the day during combat. Pegasus uses his powers to transform Sailor Moon into Super Sailor Moon, which she can’t do without the Holy Grail which she should still have but doesn’t use, and also transforms Sailor Chibi Moon into Super Sailor Chibi Moon for the first time. Pegasus will not be using his powers to power up the rest of the Sailor Guardians for about another half season. He also gives Sailor Moon the Kaleidomoon Scope, which is a weapon named after a kaleidoscope, a toy used by children to use mirrors in order to make a cool design when you look into a tube.

This episode introduces us to the Dead Moon Circus who’s big top appears during a solar eclipse where the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. Though a flying big top appears over Tokyo no one seems to question it. The in story reason for this that is given is that people do not question things that change, assuming it happens for a reason. This is an appealing thought, and one used by promoters of pseudoscience to explain why sheeple don’t see evidence for UFOs or other conspiracy theories, though the opposite is generally true. Humans are wired to detect patterns and we often see some that aren’t there. The flip side of this is that we don’t often miss patterns that are there and that we are more likely to assign meaning to the meaningless than to assign no meaning to something meaningful. For the purposes of this fiction though, the idea that no one notices the big top is an effective plot device and a funny idea. It does somewhat resemble the idea of bystander apathy, where everyone assumes something is someone else’s problem, so no one does anything, but that doesn’t really work in the way the big top goes unnoticed. The target for this episode is Unazuki, Motoki’s sister. The targets for this season are pursed by the Amazon Trio which is comprised of Hawk’s Eye, Tiger’s Eye and Fish Eye. Since Unazuki is a young girl, she is pursued by Tiger’s Eye. Once captured Hawk’s Eye makes Unazuki’s Mirror of Dreams appear before her. When looking through it the victim screams as if the violation of having their dream probed was a serious assault. Fairly creepy.

Episode 129, Super Transformation Once Again: Pegasus’s Power, is a title as ridiculous as the hyped second transformation it refers to. OMG Pegasus showed up again! OMG we transformed for a second time! This will happen repeatedly throughout the season as Pegasus is (almost) always required for Moon Crisis Makeup (although Sailor Moon did it without any aid in order to save Sailor Saturn last season) so we will constantly have him show up as part of the lengthy transformation and attack sequence of this season. This week’s target is Reika, Motoki’s girlfriend. Hawk’s Eye targets older women, so Reika falls under his domain. Apparently older doesn’t mean much older, as Reika is college aged. Tiger’s Eye’s upper age limit seems to be pretty low. While Reika is the focus this is also a Chibiusa episode. There will be a lot of these in Sailor Moon SuperS. Reika’s horse reminds Chibiusa of Pegasus and so she asks her, by using a carrot to indicate his horn, if she’d ever seen a horse like him. Reika recalls such a horse from the world of dreams. This comes back later in the season as all of the Sailor Guardians have a revaluation of “Oh that’s right I used to dream of Pegasus, I guess I just forgot”. We still have a lot to learn about the mysterious Pegasus and because of how Sailor Moon SuperS plays out, it will be a really long time until we get answers to any of the questions we have about him.

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Viz’s new English voice actors for Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Saturn and more revealed at the Anime Expo Sailor Moon Panel

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Adam

Viz’s Sailor Moon panel took place today at Anime Expo in Los Angeles. You can watch the stream of the event at Ustream. The main announcement that took place was the cast of Viz’s new dub of Sailor Moon S. Though most of the cast appeared in earlier seasons the new characters who’s voices were announced were Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn and Professor Tomoe.

The new cast, all of whom were in attendance, are listed below:

Professor Tomoe by Keith Silverstein
Sailor Uranus by Erica Mendez
Sailor Neptune by Lauren Landa
Sailor Saturn by Christine-Marie Cabanos

Keith Silverstein also voiced Usagi’s father Kenji Tsukino while Erica Mendez also voiced Reika, Motoki’s girlfriend.

We previously mentioned that Erica Mendez would be appearing at Unplugged Expo July 31st to August 2nd in Toronto based on her role as Reika. Now that she’s been cast as the voice of Sailor Uranus fans of Sailor Moon will have another reason to meet her.

There was more announced at this event. We’ve learned that there will be another Moonlight Party on July 17th. This will coincide with the release of the English dub of the second half of Sailor Moon R on Hulu.

It was also announced that the dubbed version of Sailor Moon Crystal will be exclusive to Hulu. We can infer from this that Sailor Moon Crystal will not likely be playing on English television. Though the subtitled version of Sailor Moon Crystal will remain available on Crunchyroll and Niconico, this does not leave any option for viewing Sailor Moon Crystal in Canada, where Hulu is not available. Canadians still have no legal option for viewing the streaming version of the subbed and dubbed versions of the original Sailor Moon Anime. This said there are many proxy.

A clip of the English dub of Sailor Moon Crystal was shown, and can be seen at the 41 minute mark of the stream. The first two episodes will be premiering at Anime Expo today at 6pm Pacific Time, which is 9pm Eastern Time.

Jennifer Gould, the voice of Sailor Saturn, to appear at Unplugged Expo 4 from July 31st to August 2nd in Toronto

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Adam

Unplugged Expo continues in their tradition of having great Sailor Moon voice actors as guests at their convention. For Unplugged Expo 4 in downtown Toronto the weekend of July 31st to August 2nd they will have voice actors from the original and new Sailor Moon dub! First up is Jennifer Gould, who played the voice of Sailor Saturn in the original English dub of Sailor Moon S. She also appeared as the voice of Parapara of the Amazoness Quartet in Sailor Moon SuperS and as the astronaut Himeko Nayotake, Kakeru’s love interest in the Sailor Moon S movie. Jennifer Gould is also an accomplished singer who won a Juno in 2008. Juno is Canadian for Grammy.

Also appearing is Erica Mendez, the voice of Reika, Motoki’s girlfriend, in Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. This is a somewhat minor role in the series though Erica Mendez is more well known for other anime voice acting credits such as Aladdin in Magi: The Kingdom of Magic and Ryuko Matoi in Kill la Kill.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 11, Reunion – Endymion, Review

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Adam

The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available. Act 11, Reunion – Endymion, can be streamed on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Niconico. This week a mysterious familiar looking fellow named Endo shows up in Tokyo.

So who is this Endo who looks exactly like Mamoru but has no costume? Everyone seems to very quickly notice that he is Mamoru but for some reason quickly discounts it because his eyes seem to look a bit different. It’s hard enough to accept the show’s basic concept that a tiny mask or tiara completely hides one’s identity. Indeed Sailor Moon Crystal, like the Manga, does a great job of not falling for this too much as people are pretty quick to recognize the true identities of other despite their costumes. Why is is that all of a sudden no costume and simply telling people your name is Endo is a perfect disguise? Then there’s of course the fact that the name Endo is clearly short for Endymion, but also the name of Motoki’s effeminate friend. I guess this is supposed to be a colossal coincidence since Evil Mamoru takes Endo’s name?

Endo instantly bonds with Motoki. His reason for targeting the arcade actually makes some sense. He senses something about the Sailor V video game, which is over the Sailor Guardians’ headquarters, and so he infiltrates the place by befriending Motoki. Endo and Motoki’s relationship in the Manga is a bit gay, most noticeably in a reach around arcade stick grab panel that is seen at one point, but generally in the way they hang off of each other. Brad from Moonkitty make an interesting observation on Twitter that it’s trouble to associate homosexuality with evil. Indeed the examples of homosexuality in the first arc of the manga and subsequently the first season of the anime, are amongst villains. Sailor Moon is fairly good about portraying their heroes as being gay or lesbian once Sailor Neptune and Uranus show up, as well as hinting at some same sex attractions amongst other characters earlier in the series. I like to think this early connection between evil and homosexuality was not intended as a correlation, but all things considered it’s nice to see it toned down.

Motoki’s heterosexuality is also present in this episode as we get a better look at Reika, Motoki’s love interest. We originally saw a brief glimpse of her in act 3 but this is the first time she is fully present. She seems a bit miffed at Endo and Motoki’s affections for each other.

This week we get a look at Ami’s apartment, which we are supposed to be really impressed with because it is fancy looking. Perhaps this is a cultural difference but I find the fact that Usagi’s family lives in a full on house in crowded Tokyo to be more impressive and desirable than Ami’s apartment living. Minako humorously asks if her carrying around a sword in an apartment lobby is conspicuous and everyone thinks it is. The sword’s strength is demonstrated as Minako then uses it to destroy one of Ami’s mother’s diamonds.

As things develop the headquarters is infiltrated by Makoto who is herself brainwashed into stealing the Silver Crystal. When things get serious I guess there wasn’t much to fill the episode as we painstakingly watch every character’s transformation sequence. There is a lot from the original anime that I miss but excessive stock footage is not one of those things! In the original manga publication this act and the next were actually a single story but they were split for later publications. This is why they likely needed to fill a bit of time. During the ensuing battle Venus uses her “Venus Love Me Chain” attack for the first time and Rei kicks evil Tuxedo Mask.

Beryl shows up and it’s revealed that Endo is actually Mamoru, and for some reason people are surprised by this. Does anyone actually ship Beryl and Mamoru? I mean, I love to ship all kinds of people and relish in how much it annoys fans but this coupling just doesn’t work for me.

Luna and Usagi’s relationship has some attention this week. She console’s Usagi at the beginning of the episode and later, after being attacked by a very evil Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon hugs her once more. Their complex relationship is obviously much more than owner/cat dynamic and closer to one of mentoring and close friendship.

Next time is act 12, Enemy – Queen Metaria. As I mentioned this next story was originally part of act 11 in the first manga publication. During the 2003 rerelease of the manga the story was split in two. Sailor Moon Crystal is following those chapter breaks for episodes.

On December 20th we’ll be seeing more of evil Tuxedo Mask, some Mamoru/Queen Beryl shipping and some pretty violent shocking events.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this episode and the next episode preview.

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Sailor Moon episodes 29 and 30 are now on Hulu

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Adam

The two latest episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley. As with every Monday Viz adds two new episodes of the series with English subtitles. This week we have episodes 29 and 30 as the search for all of the Rainbow Crystals continues. The major theme for these episodes is relationships!

In episode 29, Total Chaos: the Messy Love Rectangle, Usagi and Makoto are devastated to learn that Motoki has a girlfriend, Reika. Since it’s still early in the series Usagi hasn’t figured out that Mamoru is Tuxedo Mask so she’s still fawning over Motoki while Makoto is reminded of her old boyfriend. The Makoto/Motoki coupling in the anime continues throughout the first season as he’s used by the DD Girls to try to trick her when they go to the North Pole. In the live action series this relationship is more important as it’s ultimately insinuated that they are to be married after Usagi and Mamoru tie the knot. This episode also features a nice romantic scene between Kunzite and Zoisite. These lovers were a male/female couple in the dub as Zoisite’s gender was swapped while here in the original subtitled version we see their relationship as it was intended, a strong love between two men. The art in this episode is particularly interesting, as there are many cool animation tricks showing super deformed characters and hidden frames that aren’t always that obvious, including the kind of racist portrayal of Usagi shown below.

In episode 30, Grandpa Loses Control: Rei in Danger, we are introduced to Yuuichirou who shows up at Rei’s shrine and is immediately smitten with her. Though Rei and Mamoru’s relationship is well established at this point the end of that is near, thanks to pesky destiny, so a romantic interest for her is found in Yuuchirou. He’s a bit of a bumbling idiot but has a good heart and cares about her. We also see Rei’s Grandpa showcased in this episode as he plays host to another of the Rainbow Crystals. Rei’s Grandpa is romantically linked with every young girl to visit the Hikawa Shrine because he’s a pervert!

Enjoy the romances this week because next week is pure comedy with two of the funniest episodes of the series.

Unazuki and Reika’s hidden appearance in Sailor Moon Crystal Act 3

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Adam

There’s a neat little easter egg in the third episode of Sailor Moon Crystal in the appearance of two characters who will likely show up later in the series. I would never have noticed it at first but it was pointed out to me by Yosenex of Go Robo Now. Check out his review of act 3 for his thoughts on the episode. What we can see in this screenshot are two girls standing on the sidewalk which bear a striking resemblance to Unazuki and Reika. Unazuki Furuhata is Motoki’s younger sister and Reika Nishimura is his girlfriend. Both appear in a number of episodes of the anime and throughout the manga.

Reika’s hair is fairly generic but Unazuki’s is more specific and recognizable which leads me to believe that this similarity was intended. What you you think?

Here is an undoctored screenshot of the scene which appears right before the commercial break, at about 11:27, right after Usagi and Mamoru’s encounter on the bus.

Source: Go Robo Now