New York City Sailor Moon fans will have a chance to meet two voice actors from the original dub of Sailor Moon at Wintercon next weekend, December 5th and 6th, at the Resorts World Casino New York, near the John F. Kennedy Airport. In attendance will be Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon for Sailor Moon S and SuperS, and Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter for the entire series.
This coming weekend, Novemeber 6th to the 8th, is Rhode Island Comic Con at the Rhode Island Convention Center & Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence Rhode Island. This convention has a massive number of guests in attendance including Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, and Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter.
The four voice actors, who all appeared in DiC’s English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime, will be having a “Voices of Sailor Moon” panel on Saturday afternoon at 4pm in Ballroom E. Be sure not to miss it!
4:00-5:00 The Voices of Sailor Moon
Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight, Sailor Moon has captivated viewers all over the world for over 2 decades and helped bring manga and anime to the shores of North America. Join voice actors Linda Ballantyne, Toby Proctor, Katie Griffin, and Susan Roman as they discuss what is took to bring English dialogue to these Japanese sensations.
This morning the two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 154 and 155, were added to Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get a couple more funny episodes. First Minako and Makoto compete for the affections of a kindergarden teacher and then everyone is having trouble with the pommel horse.
Episode 154, Clash of Dreams: Minako and Makoto’s Broken Friendship, seems like a bit of a repeat of a Sailor Moon R episode in which we similarly had Minako and Makoto fight with each other. It seems these two characters only interact for the purpose of ruining their friendship! The two of them have a crush on the same teacher, Honjou, who happens to have a class full of brats including the especially annoying young Kotarou. This particular kid gets on Minako’s nerves and in the ensuing chaos one of Makoto’s bears becomes destroyed, which causes a fracture in their friendship. Minako tries to win over the class with a nice concert where she dresses in the most ridiculous costume! After the teacher gets targeted and the fighting is done Minako repairs the damaged bear and bygones are bygones. Then comes the big shocker, Kotarou is Honjou’s son! This dashes Minako and Makoto’s dreams, as if they somehow would not have expected him to be unavailable if it weren’t for the fact that he had a child. This is odd as he may very well have been in a relationship if he didn’t have a child and there are plenty of single parents out there. Regardless, this settles the whole affair and there’s nothing more to fight about!
Episode 155, Overcome Your Fear: the Jump to Freedom, shows us the evils of the pommel horse. Are these things that popular in Japan? Judging by Anime I feel as if this is a dreaded thing in the formative years of all Japanese children, where they are forced to jump over a pommel horse or they will fail phys ed and be held back a year. I similar recall an episode of Pretty Sammy which centred around a pommel horse. In this episode there are not one but two characters who are afraid of the pommel horse! First Chibiusa tries to duck out of school event due to her fear of the thing, possibly because in the 30th century they are still subjecting Japanese children to it, and then we learn that Kyuusuke is also afraid of it, a fear which goes back to childhood. The solution to both aversions to the pommel horse? Keep trying until you stop running into it! This is nonsense for a number of reasons. We must break down how this thing works. To jump over it you jump up and try to clear it, pushing yourself up with your hands while going over. Failing to clear it will mean either having the top of it hit your stomach or groin, or if you clear the front you will just land over it. For whatever reason all characters in this episode are seen failing to clear it by slamming right into it as if it was a wall. There is no in between where they almost clear it, just smashing into it. Beyond this no proper technique of progression used to surmount this problem. This is clearly a modular pommel horse which could be set to a lower height. This is how problems such as this should be approached! If the pommel horse is too daunting a task one should simply try it at a lower height and then raise it once comfortable! This is not the approach that Kyuusuke uses however, as JunJun of the Amazoness Quartet helps him get over his fear. This has to come down to fear of course. The pommel horse is not vanquished with hard work and training, but by overcoming an irrational fear of the pommel horse brought on by a traumatic experience. Anyway, Chibiusa pommel horses the Lemures and Kyuusuke manages to jump over the pommel horse as well. Hooray!
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The last volume of Sailor Moon Crystal was released on Blu-Ray last month, on September 9th. I’ve dragged my feet on this review so much that the next disk, volume 13, is released today in Japan. Volume 12 can be purchased from sites such as Amazon Japan for 5194 yen, about $43 US. The next and final volume can also be ordered from Amazon Japan for 5994 yen, about $50 US. As always this release contains only two episodes, in this case Act 23 and 24, in Japanese only and the cover art included is of Black Lady, Chibiusa’s older and eviler self.
The charm included with this release is Sailor Moon’s Crystal Star, her transformation broach for this story arc.
Two episodes are included on this disk. Act 23 – Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman, and Act 24 – Attack – Black Lady. The video quality as always is great. As with other DVD and Blu-Ray releases some minor changes to the animation have taken place since the streaming version. Nothing of significance is included with these particular episodes. Nothing changes any of the scenes in any major way. The biggest change with Act 24 is the colour and brightness for certain scenes. As always you can check out Crystal Comparisons for screenshots which show the changes for any particular episode, including Acts 23 and 24.
A 20 page full colour booklet is included once again. Unfortunately I am unable to identify the subjects of the first interview. The names are Nozomi Matsuura and Yukiko Kariya. This web site indicates that they work for Bandai, but no other details are given. The second interview is with the voice actors playing the Black Moon Clan. This includes Mamoru Miyano, the voice of Prince Demande, Hiroki Takahashi, the voice of Rubeus, Tsubasa Yonaga, the voice of Saphir, and Houko Kawashima, the voice of Esmeraude. Also included in the booklet are the usual episode summaries for Act 23 and 24, character designs for Black Lady, Prince Demande and Saphir, backgrounds and screenshots from the episodes and a page for Fumio Osano, Osabu.
These episodes include an audio commentary featuring cast and crew from the show. This includes Munehisa Sakai, director of the first 26 episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, 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.
Should you get this? Should you pay over $50 to buy and ship this set with only two episodes in a language you can’t speak when an English and Japanese version will eventually be released for much less and you can watch the series for free online in the mean time? That’s your call!
Keep reading for more images of this set’s packaging including images of all pages of the included special booklet.
The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley. With episodes 146 and 147 we are almost done with the Amazon Trio as we have an episode right out of a sitcom plot followed by a tragic heartbreak for Makoto.
Episode 146, Juban Holiday: The Carefree Princess, feels like an episode of Family Ties. This plot has been done time and time again. There’s a princess who is tired of a great life of luxury so she sneaks off for a day of innocent fun! Princess Rubina, in this case, crosses paths with Usagi and Chibiusa. She is completely ignorant about the normal world, thinking it fit to tell men to carry the bags of strangers or to steal balloons! In one particularly humorous scene we see a balloon salesman pressuring a kid into having a fit to try to get his mother to buy him a balloon. This seems to fail until Princess Rubina takes it upon herself to free the balloons from the vendor. This doesn’t go so well when payment is expected and ultimately somehow Hawk’s Eye is saddled with the bill. This method of simply asking the next closest person for payment reminds me of the parking lot attendant in Strange Brew (starring Jill Frappier) asking anyone for “six fifty”. Ultimately Rubina is targeted by Hawk’s Eye which leads to a hilarious Lemures who appears to be an elephant but turns out to be the ball, Elephanko.
Episode 147, Destined Partners? Makoto’s Innocence, continues Makoto’s tragic relationship drama. There’s a dance party and Makoto loves to dance, but doesn’t seem to get much action because in this universe guys don’t want to approach beautiful women because they’re too tall? This leads Ami and Makoto to dance together, so of course we need to ship these two. Ultimately Tiger’s Eye shows up and he has a plan to get all of the girls, because at this point we’re doing mass pick ups instead of just one at a time, and so he dances with Makoto to lure them all in. Makoto, who gets attached far too easily, imagines them dancing in white which I can only assume signifies a wedding. When she asks for one more dance Tiger’s Eye says he’ll be back later, and proceeds to dance with every girl there before just leaving. Makoto is determined to stick around and stays there all night, waiting for a man who would not come in the rain. This reminds me of Makoto’s first episode of the live action Sailor Moon series in which she is tricked into waiting for a boy who she has a crush on and ends up waiting for a long period of time in the rain before realizing it. Since this scene is not in the manga and the live action series came much later than the anime, it is possible that this episode served as some inspiration for that. It could also be a coincidence, since Jupiter’s thunder powers are inevitably related to the rain. Fish Eye shows up, because he won a sort of beauty contest, and brings Tiger’s Eye a polaroid of Makoto. In a first Fish Eye is the one to trap Makoto and call forth her Mirror of Dreams while Tiger’s Eye is the one to put his head into it.
Support this site by buying the first two seasons of Sailor Moon on DVD and Blu-Ray using the links below.
Yet another voice actor has joined the growing list that will be attending the Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration in only 2 weeks on September 27th. Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter for the entire series in the original English dub of Sailor Moon, will be joining the previously announced guests at the convention. We previously reported that this one day convention at the Ontario Science Centre would also include Roland Parliament, voice director of the first 65 episodes and the voice of Melvin, Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, and Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna.
Ammie Cosplay was also recently added to the guest list. Fans are encouraged to wear Sailor Moon cosplay at this event! Tickets to the convention are only $12, $14 including a special collectible bracelet. The bracelets are branded as Sailor Moon Day International as the event was originally going to to take place on Sailor Moon Day 2015. A lot is planned for this events including a number of panels, some of which I will be participating in. I’m coming all the way from the distant land of Gatineau. Surely you can make it out as well! For more details check out Moon Chase! and the Facebook page for the event.
Texas Sailor Moon fans won’t want to miss Amazing Houston Comic Con this weekend, September 4th to the 6th. In attendance will be Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. The convention is being held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. The convention web site does not list them on the guests page but the programming page does mention a Sailor Moon Spotlight Panel on Saturday afternoon at 11am.
Panel Room 1
Sailor Moon Spotlight
They fight evil by moonlight, and win the love of their adoring fans by daylight! Now you can meet the original voices behind the hit series Sailor Moon: Linda Ballantyne (Sailor Moon/Serena), Susan Roman (Lita/Sailor Jupiter), and Toby Proctor (Tuxedo Mask). They’ll be on hand to answer questions, act out scenes and more! Come meet the people who made Sailor Moon one of the most popular anime in North America! Autograph Signing will take place immediately following the panel.
Linda Ballantyne provided the 3rd voice of Sailor Moon for the 3rd and 4th seasons, Sailor Moon S and SuperS, of the original English dub. Susan Roman provided the voice of Sailor Jupiter for the entire first dub of the series. Toby Proctor was the 2nd voice of Tuxedo Mask providing his voice for most of the first 65 DiC dubbed episodes which spanned the first two seasons.
The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 134 and 135, have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week we get a couple of episodes focusing on some artists first as Makoto’s friend writes a novel about Pegasus and next as Chibiusa deals with a teacher who’s lost her groove.
Episode 134, Makoto’s Friendship: The Girl Who Admired Pegasus, has the Sailor Guardians excited about a new book release by a local writer. As the gang are ready to get autographs we once again see that Rei takes her autographs seriously, bringing three copies of the book to get signed. We previously learned about this obsession way back in episode 21 when she brought a bunch of autograph paper to the animation studio working on the Sailor V movie. The book, which is all about Pegasus, was written by author Tomoko Takase who turns out to be Makoto’s friend. Who knew the Sailor Guardians had friends who weren’t each other? The girls have always been presented as having been lonely prior to encountering Usagi. In a flashback we see that Makoto and Tomoko befriended each other while Makoto was at her old school so this is prior to us seeing her in the series. Her relationship with Tomoko began somewhat like her relationship with Usagi had, as she help protect her from a bunch of bullies, which leads her to read the story she’s writing. I guess Makoto didn’t remember having dreamed of Pegasus as a child at this point, something we later learn all of the Sailor Guardians did but mostly forgot. Tomoko has lost her motivation after seeing a boy she likes with a girlfriend. Chibiusa is shocked at the book, as it’s all about Pegasus who comes and fights with her and sometimes shows up by her bedside, and tells Tomoko about it. Tomoko is targeted and in the ensuing fight sees Pegasus which helps her get her groove back.
Episode 135, Connecting Hearts: Chibi-Usa and Pegasus, is not the most feminist episode. Chibiusa and her friends are painting in a park, and Chibiusa is all about doing crazy crap. She has a moustache, because she thinks artists should have moustaches, which doesn’t say much for female artists! She also draws Pegasus into the landscape because she’s a free thinking hippie who can’t follow the assignment. Her teacher, Morino Sensei, is not happy about this one bit and threatens to fail her for it. Kyuusuke gives Morino a bit of trouble mocking her singleness and blaming her stubbornness for not having a man. Harsh criticism from a little runt. Momoko also appears here and we see that her hair colour has somehow changed from a natural brown to a less normal looking purple. She still has normal looking hair when compared to her friend! When Usagi and Chibiusa run into Morino this triggers and unusual parental reaction in Usagi, who otherwise usually does no such thing. This whole exchange is quite humorous. Ultimately Morino is targeted by Tiger’s Eye, which would make her his oldest target to date. In the final scene of the episode we get a sort of weird scene in which Chibiusa changes in front of Pegasus which makes him blush, insinuating there is some sort of attraction there not typical of a human/horse relationship. There seems to be more to this winged horse than meets the eye!
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Nearly 5 months before actual Christmas Bandai enveiled these Christmas themed Sailor Moon Petit Chara figures at Wonder Festival 2015. These variant figures of Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Chibi Moon are in their Sailor Guardian forms but with Santa Claus hats and outfits matching their colours. In addition many of the Sailor Guardians have a special item. Sailor Mercury has a book of carols. Sailor Mars is holding a candle. Sailor Jupiter has a bag of gifts. Sailor Venus has angel’s wings. A mini Artemis which resembles a small snowman accompanies Sailor Venus, though no Luna appears to be included in this set.
Why now? Why not at Christmas time? Well the toys will actually be released in November, they’re just being announced now. Wouldn’t these toys make great Christmas decorations?
Source: Sailor Moon official site (Post 1, Post 2)
Relevant:
Keep reading for individual photos of the figures.
I’m a little late with this review but the latest volume of Sailor Moon Crystal, volume 9, was released on Blu-Ray on June 10th. Like with other releases this only includes two episodes, in this case Act 17 and 18. These stories, part of the Black Moon story arc, focus on Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus. The cover for this release features all of the Sailor Guardians together in their civilian school uniforms. The volume 10 box art will feature the often neglected Sailor Pluto. You can buy volume 9 from Amazon Japan for 5194 yen, about $42 US, plus shipping. Pre-orders for volume 10 will be shipped out tomorrow.
The charm included with this release is Sailor Mars’s Star Power Stick. We will likely be seeing Sailor Jupiter and Venus’s Star Power Sticks as the next two charms.
The contents of the disk are pretty standard. Two episodes are included. Act 17, Secret – Sailor Jupiter and Act 18 – Invasion – Sailor Venus. Video quality is great, as always. There are animation changes from the original streaming versions which are mostly minor and cosmetic. Crystal Comparisons is a great site to check out to compare the two versions. A frame which had Chibiusa incorrectly wearing a short sleeved blue uniform has been corrected to have her with the white uniform she wears in the rest of the scene. A scene in Act 17 had Usagi using the Moon Stick instead of the Cutie Moon Rod to use Moon Princess Halation. This has not been corrected for the Blu-Ray version.
Commentary are included as always. On these episodes we have Munehisa Sakai, the director for the series, as well as Ami Koshimizu, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Shizuka Ito, the voice of Sailor Venus. As always I do not speak Japanese so I can’t really comment on the quality of the commentary itself.
Once again a 20 page full colour special booklet is included. This book includes episode summaries and art for the included episodes 17 and 18. The first interview is with Revo, the composer for Sailor Moon Crystal’s opening theme Moon Pride. The other interview is with Ryo Hirohashi, the voice of Luna, and Yohei Obayashi, the voice of Artemis. Character art included shows Luna, Calaveras, Petz, Asanuma and a bunch of items.
It’s hard to recommend buying this. Episodes are still available to stream for free online. This is a Japanese only release with no subtitles. It’s probably worth the wait to get the English version which Viz will be released at some undetermined time in the future. But you don’t need me to tell you whether or not to buy something.
Keep reading for more images from this set including photos of all pages of the included special book.