The first images of the Sailor Animamates from Sailor Moon Cosmos have been revealed

Sailor Moon Cosmos Character and Relationship Chart

When the second Sailor Moon Cosmos trailer dropped a few days ago many fans were wondering where the Sailor Animamates were. Well we’ve finally got our first look at them! A character and relationship chart was posted to the Sailor Moon Cosmos official site. This includes pretty much all of the major characters from the Sailor Moon Crystal films. We’ve seen a lot of these before however the important additions are the Sailor Animamates as well as Sailor Phi and Chi and Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne.

If you’re looking to get a close look at these characters just click through on the chart and you’ll see everyone’s image. The art in these isn’t fantastic but evidently the finished product in the film looks great judging by the trailer.

Familiar to fans of the original Sailor Moon anime are Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Tin Nyanko, Sailor Aluminum Seiren and Sailor Lead Crow.

Sailor Iron Mouse Sailor Tin Nyanko
Sailor Aluminum Seiren Sailor Lead Crow

There was one more Sailor Animamate in the manga, Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon. Papillon is the French word for butterfly, hence the wings.

Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon

Another few characters who are from the manga but not the original anime are a couple of pairs of Sailor Guardians. There’s Sailor Phi and Chi as well as Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne.

Sailor Phi and Chi Sailor Lethe and Mnemosyne

There are many other characters in that chart with new art for their designs you can check out. I’m only posting the new ones in this post because they seem most newsworthy.

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 will be released in theatres in Japan on June 9th with Part 2 following a few weeks later on June 30th. We don’t have any specifics yet about a North American release of the film. Sailor Moon Eternal was released on Netflix in many countries outside of Japan so that may be what’s planned for this film. A worldwide theatrical release of the film would certainly be great though the world of movie theatres is in a pretty dismal state right now.

The voices of the Sailor Animamates from Viz’s new Sailor Stars dub have been revealed

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 175 - Sailor Iron Mouse and her phone booth

This past weekend was Anime Central in Rosemont, near Chicago. The convention included a Moon Panel on Saturday which included the announcement of the voice actors for the Sailor Animamates in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars which will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray starting June 18th. The newly announced voice actors are Katie Leigh as Sailor Iron Mouse, Andi Rich as Sailor Lead Crow, Faye Mata as Sailor Aluminum Siren and Corina Boettger as Sailor Tin Nyanko. This follows an earlier announcement of the voices of the Sailor Starlights, Chibi Chibi and Sailor Galaxia.

Katie Leigh, who will be playing Sailor Iron Mouse, is a veteran voice actor who has voiced many famous characters that some fans who grew up in the 80s are probably familiar with including Sunni in the Gummi Bears and Rowlf in Muppet Babies. Faye Mata, who plays Sailor Aluminum Siren, has appeared in a number of recent video games and anime series including roles such as Yukako in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Lene in Fire Emblem Heroes. Corina Boettger, who plays Sailor Tin Nyanko, has a background in both live action and voice acting work such as Marshtato Mary in Trolls: The Beats Goes and Anju Yuuki in Love Live: School Idol Project. She also streams video games on Twitch. I couldn’t find much information about Andi Rich. I don’t know if this is because this is a voice actor with little experience or perhaps it’s a pseudonym of someone who has worked under another name. This is sometimes done because of rules relating to union work as was likely the case with Barbara Goodson using the alias Janis Carrol when voicing Ziriconia in Sailor Moon SuperS. If any fans have details on Andi Rich’s prior work feel free to leave a comment to let us know about it.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 182 - Sailor Lead Crow and Sailor Aluminum Siren

Since Sailor Moon Sailor Stars volume 1 will only include the first half of the season, that being episode 167 to 183, we won’t be hearing all of these voice actors in the first set. We will be getting all of Sailor Iron Mouse’s episodes but Sailor Aluminum Siren and Sailor Lead Crow will only appear in episode 182, along with Chibi Chibi. Sailor Tin Nyanko will not be introduced until episode 188 which will be on the second set. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for that one!

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 188 - Sailor Tin Nyanko

What to you think of this cast? Are you a fan of any of these voice actors’ prior work? Which of the Sailor Animamates is your favourite? I must admit I’ve always had a preference for Sailor Iron Mouse!

Continue reading

New images show Sailor Galaxia and the Sailor Animamates from Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical

Sailor Lead Crow, Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Galaxia, Sailor Tin Nyanko and Sailor Aluminum Siren from the Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical

We finally got our first look at Sailor Galaxia and the Sailor Animamates for the upcoming Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical this past week. The Sailor Animamates are Sailor Guardians who are being controlled by Galaxia. The photo includes Sailor Lead Crow, Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Galaxia, Sailor Tin Nyanko and Sailor Aluminum Siren. We’ve also gotten another photo including the entire cast, the rest of whom we’d already seen with previous announcements. We also previously had cast information about these characters. Coco Isuzu is Sailor Galaxia, Shion Aoki is Sailor Iron Mouse, Miyu Hashigaki is Sailor Tin Nyanko, Yuka Kobayashi is Sailor Aluminum Siren and Iriya Yuuto is Sailor Lead Crow.

The cast of Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final

In the second photo we see that Sailor Galaxia and her Sailor Animamates are on the ground while the rest of the Sailor Guardians are all flying! Will we be seeing some fancy wire work in this musical?

The Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical poster, story, cast and schedule have been released

Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final banner

A ton of information about the Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical has been released! The musical will start in September and run in three different cities in Japan, those being Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka. As expected this musical will cover the Stars arc of the manga, which has the Sailor Guardians joining forces with the Sailor Starlights to fight Sailor Galaxia.

Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final banner

Check out the new cast members! Note that I don’t speak Japanese so for some of these I couldn’t get a good English version of the name so I just included the Japanese text. I’ll update those when I get some better into.

Harukawa Meiku - Sailor Star Fighter

Seiya Kou, Sailor Star Fighter, will be played by Meiku Harukawa.

Riona Tatemichi as Rubeus

Taiki Kou, Sailor Star Maker, will be played by Riona Tatemichi. Riona previously played Rubeus in the Petite Étrangère musical.

Saki Matsuda Sailor Star Healer

Yaten Kou, Sailor Star Healer, will be played by Saki Matsuda.

Princess Kakyuu

Princess Kakyuu will be played by 岡村麻未.

Coco Isuzu Sailor Galaxia

Sailor Galaxia will be played by Coco Isuzu (Twitter, Instagram).

Aoki Shion - Sailor Iron Mouse

Sailor Iron Mouse will be played by Aoki Shion.

Sailor Tin Nyanko

Sailor Tin Nyanko will be played by 橋垣美佑.

Sailor Aluminum Siren will be played by 小林由佳.

Juri Hirayu - Sailor Lead Crow

Sailor Lead Crow will be played by Juri Hirayu (Twitter, Instagram).

Hirani Yamaguchi as Chibi Chibi

There will be two actresses playing Chibi Chibi. Hinari Yamaguchi and 新津ちせ.

There will also be some dancers playing additional villains. These are 椎原夕加里, 肥田野好美, 匂坂あゆ美 and Ayano Nagasawa. A number of them played villains in past musicals.

Performances in Tokyo will be from September 8th to the 18th. Performances in Aichi will be September 23rd and 24th. Performances in Osaka will be held from September 29th to October 1st.

Will any of you be attending this round of musicals?

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 180 and 181 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 180 - Michiru and Seiya

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars were (probably) added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week we get episodes 180 and 181 which are all about Seiya! First we ship Seiya and Michiru, then Seiya and Haruka and then of course it’s all about Seiya and Usagi.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 180 - Sailor Iron Mouse is bad at her job

Episode 180, Brightness of Calling Stars! Haruka and Michiru’s Entry into Battle, brings back the absentee Haruka and Michiru! These two aren’t in Sailor Stars much because apparently they’re hanging out with Hotaru and Setsuna, who are nowhere to be seen in this episode. Michiru is performing a concert with the Three Lights which the girls want to go to and they are trying to phone in to buy tickets rather than the obvious solution of asking the girl who is performing in the concert if she could score them some tickets, you know for old time’s sake since they saved the world together and because thanks to Usagi their pseudo adoptive daughter who there were trying to kill is actually still alive. Michiru comes through with the tickets because that’s what you do when you’re in a superhero team with someone. The girls go to the concert, scheduled for July 13th 1996. We don’t often get years so this is a nice benchmark. Sailor Iron Mouse almost figures out who has some Star Seeds in a very comical scene! She’s starring at a poster which includes Michiru and the Three Light and determines that the Star Seed must belong to… the conductor on the poster. The show is kind of poking fun at one of my silly gripes with Sailor Stars at this point. In all other seasons the Sailor Guardians all got targeted in episodes but now for some reason no one with a Star Seed is actually having their Star Seeds removed. Well none that we’ve confirmed anyway. The concert is cool and then we ship Seiya with everyone! First Michiru asks him to help her out of her dress, which is not at all subtle. When Haruka walks in on this she tries to punch him, which is just full of sexual tension. Fighting ensues as Mr. Underpants has his star seed stolen. After the fight it looks like Sailor Moon and Sailor Star Fighter are about to become friends but then Sailor Uranus turns their hands shaking into a World Shaking. Same old. Sailor Uranus and Neptune don’t want anyone to be on the same team or be friends. They protect Sailor Moon from enemies from outside of the solar system, which is why they got involved in Sailor Moon S. Since the Sailor Starlights are also from another solar system, they are not allowed to play with the good guys! Forced drama! Oh well.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 181 - Usagi and Seiya dancing

Episode 181, Seiya and Usagi’s Nervous Date, is all about shipping Seiya and Usagi. Seiya wants to do something on his day off and decides to invite Usagi to come along for the fun. She doesn’t seem to realize this is a date and feels quite guilty about the whole endeavour. At one point she even thinks Seiya wants them to have sex, but he’s really just talking about dancing at a club. Oops! Sailor Iron Mouse is desperate at this point. She’s avoiding Galaxia and even hangs up on her! She has the bright idea that maybe the Three Lights have true Star Seeds, but when she tries to get one from Seiya he dodges the little bracelet thingy and flees. Ultimately Galaxia shows up and retrieves Sailor Iron Mouse’s bracelets, which kills her. We’ll learn more about the nature of these much later. For now lets mourn the loss of one of the coolest villains in the series, though the rest of the Sailor Animamates are cool too so we have something to look forward to. In true villain fashion Sailor Iron Mouse is killed right as she figured out who to target. If I’m ever a super villain I will always let my minions finish their sentence before I kill them. “But Adam I figured out who has the sacred amulet we’ve been searching for.” “Oh okay. Well tell me and I won’t kill you.” “It’s Ted.” “K. Thx.” *murder* While fighting, Sailor Moon sees a small bear toy that Seiya had and says his name, which causes Sailor Star Fighter to realize that Sailor Moon is actually Usagi. Good job Seiya!

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 181 - Seiya figures out that Usagi is Sailor Moon

Note: This is scheduled to be posted as I am sun bathing in St. Lucia. It was written last week. I’m assuming Viz went ahead and released these episodes on Monday as they always do. The episode titles I put may not match the translation Viz decided to go with. I usually add the titles and episode links before posting, though my screenshots come from my Japanese DVDs so much of this post is what it would have looked like anyway. I will fix up the links and titles once I return to the frozen wasteland that is Canada around February 8th.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 181 - Sailor Iron Mouse hangs up on Galaxia

Support this site by buying the first two seasons of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray using the links below.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 181 - Usagi and Seiya

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 180 - Sailor Neptune and Uranus

The Sailor Starlights are first seen in the US today as Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 172 and 173 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - The Sailor Starlights

At long last Sailor Moon fans in the United States can now see the Sailor Starlights in a legal release! This week on Hulu and Neon Alley‘s new episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars we get to see the Sailor Starlights Sailor Star Fighter, Maker and Healer, also known as the Three Light Seiya, Taiki and Yaten. But first we must wrap up this short 6 episode arc and close the story of Nehelenia. Many have noticed that I’m often negative in my reviews so I will just say that this week we are getting two absolutely fantastic episodes of the series. Now let me talk about these wonderful episodes as I complain about little problems I have with them.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 172 - Sailor Saturn

Episode 172, Moon Power of Love: The Nightmare Ends, is the last in this mini arc that we are starting out the Sailor Stars season with. The main focus here is on Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn. For some reason Sailor Chibi Moon is disappearing. This is somewhat like how Marty McFly was disappearing while time traveling when it looked like his parents weren’t going to get together. This is nonsense in a time travel movie and is double nonsense here. Time travel isn’t involved. Nehelenia does not come from the future and is not affected by time travel. Galaxia, who we will learn is the one that released Nehelenia, is also not traveling through time. Many things have threatened Mamoru and Sailor Moon but they don’t generally result in this Marty McFlying of Chibiusa. Beyond this time travel is not used to resolve the situation and to save Chibiusa either. Whatever. This episode isn’t about Chibiusa McFly. It’s all about Sailor Saturn being awesome! Sailor Saturn appears so late in Sailor Moon S that we don’t get much of a look at her. She is gone for SuperS and although she will be around for this season, she actually doesn’t get much screen time. She never actually gets a transformation sequence or any stock footage attacks. She does manage to use two moves in this episode. First she uses the Silence Wall to block Nehelenia’s attack. She then uses Silence Glaive Surprise which, in the Manga, just makes mist, but here it seems to be much more important. It releases a massive amount of energy even though it is blocked by Sailor Chibi Moon so that it isn’t completed. The insinuation seems to be that this attack would destroy Sailor Saturn and Nehelenia if used to completion.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 172 - Young Nehelenia

Finally Usagi shows up after climbing through a bunch of rose bushes. She takes pity on Nehelenia. This is what Sailor Moon is about! This is how Sailor Moon SuperS should have ended. Nehelenia is evil, sure, but she has a rich back story where we can see her as young and innocent and then corrupted. Usagi and her friends feel her pain and this is something which hurts her much more than hostility would. In the Sailor Moon Manga the Sailor Guardians kill the bad guys. In the Sailor Moon Anime they use compassion to find non violent solutions to their problems and this is what I love about the anime. This all works out well. Mamoru is healed, Sailor Chibi Moon returns and sticks around until the end of the episode only. Young Nehelenia is seen waking up from what seems like a bad dream. It’s not clear exactly what her fate is. Either there is some sort of reboot or she’s trapped in a dream of an ideal world, possibly not unlike death. Whatever it’s all good.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 172 - Mamoru and Sailor Chibi Moon

I must stop for a moment to discuss what isn’t happening now. Chibiusa leaves at some point and isn’t seen again for most of the season. This is done without any fanfare. I mentioned in my thoughts on episode 167 that her fake leaving should have been retooled as a better departure either at the end of 172 or the beginning of 173. Either place would have been fine. As the final insult when I grabbed my Japanese R2 DVD for Sailor Stars volume 2 to get screenshots of episode 173 it has Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn on the cover. Nonsense! Chibiusa is not on this disk at all, which includes episodes 173 to 178. The original laserdisc containing this same image contained episodes 171 to 174, and so it included the majorly Sailor Saturn and Sailor Chibi Moon centric episode which this refers to. So I am sad to see Chibiusa leave, even though I understand why she is gone and the story of the season works best without Usagi having her family around, but it is still an unfortunate departure from the manga, where all 10 Sailor Guardians are present throughout.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars volume 2 Japanese R2 DVD

Sailor Stars Volume 2 on DVD

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars volume 2 Japanese Laserdisc

Sailor Stars Volume 2 on Laserdisc

Finally we get to episodes 173, Farewells and Encounters: the Transitioning Stars of Destiny. We open with a look at the new idol group the Three Lights! It seems everyone is a fan. Minako and Makoto like Seiya. Rei likes Yaten. Ami likes Taiki. Usagi doesn’t seem to know anything about them and is instead preoccupied with the fact that Mamoru is leaving for America. No only did Chibiusa leave between episodes, but her boyfriend is going too! At the airport Mamoru gives her a ring and puts it on her ring finger. He does not flat out ask her to marry him but the symbolism of the ring and its placements is essentially a marriage proposal. The two kiss in the airport as strangers walk by. A North American audience may not find this noteable but in Japan kissing in public is uncommon, which is why it will often seem important for characters to verify that they are alone before they kiss. This public gesture demonstrates the strength of their feelings for one another. Mamoru leaves in this episode, and there is a strange light seen outside of his plane. We won’t learn until much later what that is specifically about. For Usagi, Mamoru has gone to America to study.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Mamoru kisses Usagi at the airport

As Mamoru leaves, Seiya enters. It’s not even a little bit subtle and it isn’t supposed to be. Even while they are still at the airport the Three Lights arrive, and so Usagi’s potential love interest Seiya enters her life. As he crosses Usagi he senses something about her. The target for this episode is an actress Alice, who is doing a movie with the Three Lights. This puts Usagi once again in Seiya’s presence. She doesn’t know who he is and assumes he is trying to pick her up by suggesting she should. The combat starts and we see one of my favourite villains of the series, Sailor Iron Mouse. She is one of the Sailor Animamates, the Sailor Guardians who work for Galaxia. Sailor Iron Mouse extracts a Star Seed from Alice but it isn’t a True Star Seed so it’s just like a Mirror of Dreams that isn’t Golden or a Heart Crystal that isn’t a Talisman. The Sailor Starlights show up and fight alongside Sailor Moon. For no real reason Usagi decides not to tell her friends about this encounter.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Sailor Iron Mouse

A note on gender. Things get a bit complicated when it comes to the Three Lights and the Sailor Starlights. In the manga they are women who dress as men when they are the Three Lights. In the anime they are men in their civilian forms and women in the Sailor Guardian forms. We can debate weather they are originally or truly men or women. I tend to feel that their true forms are their Sailor Guardian selves and that the Three Light male identities are their disguise. This does not really matter at the end of the day, as gender is fairly fluid in this series, with sexual preference being an independent vector to gender. They are who they are, they love who they love and they are loved by whoever loves them, regardless of their gender. All said I will refer to the Three Light with masculine pronouns and the Sailor Starlights with feminine pronouns.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Seiya Kou

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Taiki Kou

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Yaten Kou

Support this site by buying the first two seasons of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray using the links below.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Usagi is sad that Chibiusa and Mamoru are leaving

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Galaxia

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Mamoru proposes to Usagi

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Mamoru meets Seiya

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Mamoru leaves for America

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 173 - Mamoru sees something on the wing