Sailor Moon R episodes 51 and 52 are now available on Hulu

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Adam

This morning, November 3rd, the two latest episodes of Sailor Moon R were added to Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we have episodes 51 and 52 as Sailor Moon upgrades her transformation and attack item and we get a better look at Minako.

In episode 51, A New Transformation: Usagi’s Power-Up, the gang go watch the Cherry Blossoms. This seems a bit like a school trip but for convoluted reasons all of the Sailor Guardians, who are not in Usagi’s class, come along. Naru chokes Umino in a sleeping bag and everyone has a good time eating while watching the cherry trees bloom. An interesting animation technique is used in this episode as character are animated as talking to each other while a zoomed out version of the group appears in the background. During this interaction we see that Usagi is lazy and makes bad lunches but Rei is even lazier and brought fast food burgers. Usagi feeds Rei a sandwich covered in a spicy sauce causing her to breather fire, one of the last times she’ll use her Fire Soul technique and the only time it’s used while she is not transformed into Sailor Mars. A monster shows up, breaks Sailor Moon’s transformation broach and then she falls into a hole which takes her to visit Queen Serenity who upgrades her broach to the Crystal Star, returns the Silver Crystal to her and gives her the Cutie Moon Rod! Where was this weird subspace type world she visited? It’s never really revealed but it looks a bit like Silver Millennium.

Episode 52, The Targeted Kindergarteners: Venus to the Rescue, is a Minako episode which is all about shipping Minako and Artemis. The episode opens with Minako hugging Artemis in bed then she accuses him of peeping on her while she’s changing. Ultimately Minako runs into a young girl who is getting bullied and helps her out. The monster of the week is attacking kindergarten children and so Minako has decided to protect them. The young girl she befriends is a fan of Sailor Moon but, much to her chagrin, has never heard of Sailor Venus! This changes of course when Sailor Venus saves her life. Minako gets a new attack in this episode, her Crescent Beam Shower. The rest of the gang will eventually also be getting new infrequently used attacks in upcoming episodes.

Sailor Moon cosplay for Halloween

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Adam

It’s Halloween weekend and this year I put together a Tuxedo Mask costume modelled after his new costume from Sailor Moon Crystal while my girlfriend dressed up as Sailor Mars. The Tuxedo Mask costume is mostly made from scratch and with modified second hand clothing though a normal suit is used as the base. The Sailor Mars costume is pre made though some modifications were done to make it reflect Sailor Moon Crystal designs. If you made a costume of a Sailor Moon character for this year’s Halloween let us know about it in the comments on the blog, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

While I realize the coupling of Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask is not canon in Sailor Moon Crystal this relationship is legit in the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime prior to Sailor Moon stealing Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Mars due to pesky destiny. I’ll never stop shipping these two.

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Sailor Moon Crystal sanitary napkins to be released in Japan November 1st

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Adam

In an effort to monetize anything and everything, we are now getting Sailor Moon Crystal branded feminine hygiene products! These sanitary napkins, by Elle Air, will be on sale in stores across Japan starting November 1st. Sailor Moon characters will be featured on the Elis Ultra Guard pad packaging. A total of six designs are available in both nighttime and daytime versions. Characters paired on the boxes are Sailor Moon with Luna, Sailor Mercury with Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter with Sailor Venus. Check out the designs featuring various character logos in different colours that are shown in the circles in the images above and below.

Source: Official Sailor Moon site, Elle Air site

Sailor Moon episodes 43 and 44 are now available on Hulu

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Adam

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.

Jessica Nigri, Gladzy Kei, Andy Rae, Vicky Lau and Jessica Roh are cosplaying as armoured Sailor Guardians at Edmonton Expo this weekend

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Adam

This weekend at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo a number of cosplayers appeared as armoured Sailor Guardians. In this photo which was posted to Jessica Nigri’s Facebook Page we can see Gladzy Kei as Sailor Mercury, Andy Rae as Sailor Jupiter, Jessica Nigri as Sailor Mars, Vicky Lau as Sailor Chibi Moon and Jessica Roh as Sailor Venus. The costumes were designed by Gladzy Kei.

Also appearing at the convention this weekend is Rino Romano, the first voice of Tuxedo Mask from the DiC English dub of Sailor Moon.

Linda Ballantyne, Toby Proctor, Katie Griffin, Susan Roman and Jennifer Cihi to appear at MaltaComics Expo Halloween weekend

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Adam

The cast of Sailor Moon will be in Europe for the first time! This Halloween weekend, October 31st to Novemeber 2nd 2014, Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Jennifer Cihi, singer for many song from the DiC dub, will be appearing at MaltaComics Expo in Valletta, Malta.

Jennifer Cihi is often referred to as the singing voice of Sailor Moon as she is credited as Sailor Moon, Princess Serena and Sailor Mars on tracks of the Sailor Moon: Songs From the Hit TV Series and Lunarock albums. Though Sailor Moon never actually sang in the English dub many of the songs she provided the voice for had a narrative that presented them as the voice of Sailor Moon. During the original 65 dubbed episodes she sang “I Wanna Be A Star!” from the episode “So You Want to Be a Superstar”, “My Only Love” from when Princess Serena is revealed in “A Crystal Clear Destiny”, “Carry On” which plays during the fight with Beryl and “It’s A New Day” which plays when Serena wakes up after that same fight in “Day of Destiny” and “Call My Name” which is sung by Raye at the Autumn festival during “Raye’s Day in the Spotlight”. Jennifer Cihi returned to sing on the second soundtrack, providing the vocals for “The Power of Love” which played during the battle with Wiseman in “Final Battle”, “I Want Someone to Love”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Who Do You Think You Are?”.

Sailor Moon episodes 37 and 38 are now available on Hulu

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Adam

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.

Sailor Moon episodes 35 and 36 are now available on Hulu

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Adam

Two new episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime, in Japanese with English subtitles, have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning, September 8th 2014. This week we have the aftermath of Usagi being revealed as Princess Serenity and Mamoru being abducted by the Dark Kingdom. Tired of listening to subtitled episodes? The first 23 episodes of Viz’s new Sailor Moon dub have also been added to Hulu and Neon Alley for a limited time.

Episode 35, Returning Memories: Usagi and Mamoru’s Past, takes off where we left with Mamoru mortally wounded and Usagi transformed into Princess Serenity. We get a pretty good look at the events of Silver Millennium in which Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion fell in love. Unfortunately with some memories revealed Mamoru is taken away by the Dark Kingdom for as of yet unknown purposes. Most of the episode deals with the Sailor Team trying to get out of the Starlight Tower. One interesting exchange occurs when Sailor Mars slaps Sailor Moon in the face. She’s upset that Mamoru sacrificed himself for a crybaby like Usagi and is probably a bit upset that she stole her boyfriend. Zoisite dies in this episode, killed by Queen Beryl for ignoring her order and trying to kill Tuxedo Mask. Kunzite is upset about this but not enough to actually do anything about it! Finally at the end of the episode Sailor Moon uses her Moon Stick to destroy a massive building. No big deal.

Episode 36, Usagi’s Confusion: Is Tuxedo Mask Evil?, has us introduced to Minako while there isn’t anyone getting killed. Sailor Venus’s first appearance was amidst a battle after which she just ran off. Usagi doesn’t actually get to meet Minako as a civilian until after the excitement which ended in the last episode. Usagi is depressed after having lost Mamoru to the Dark Kingdom and Minako has the solution to this problem. Makeover! Minako and Usagi head over to a local salon which is having a sale which as always is a plot by the Dark Kingdom to find Sailor Moon. Oh yes, that’s their new plan. Now that the Rainbow Crystal thing is all played out they’re trying to find out who Sailor Moon is so that they can steal her Crystal. This week it’s all about DNA testing! They find a blonde hair at the site of the last battle and, assuming it’s Sailor Moon’s, they use it to cross reference against everyone who comes in to the salon. Minako sets off the machine and they assume she’s Sailor Moon. It turns out she got one of Usagi’s hairs on hers when brushing her. Wouldn’t it also make sense that the hair that was found by the Dark Kingdom was actually from Sailor Venus and that this is what set off the false positive? Anyway, Tuxedo Mask comes back and he’s evil. Not really evil but kind of evil and without much of a memory. This is all very distressing but Usagi is in better spirits just knowing he’s alive.

Tune in next week to see how else Kunzite can try to find out who Sailor Moon is.

Megumi Ogata, the voice of Sailor Uranus, and Viz Media to appear at Anime Revolution in Vancouver this weekend

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Adam

This coming weekend, August 22nd to the 24th, there are a few Sailor Moon related guests appearing at AniRevo, Anime Revolution, a convention in Vancouver. The main actor that fans will be interested in is Megumi Ogata, who supplied the voice of Sailor Uranus in the original Japanese version of Sailor Moon. Viz Media will also be at the convention hosting a number of panels. Stephanie “Sugar” Lyn Beard, the English voice of Rini, was previously announced a guest but will be unable to attend.

In addition to playing Sailor Uranus, Haruka Tenou, in Sailor Moon S and SailorStars Megumi Ogata also supplied the voices of Young Mamoru in the Sailor Moon R movie, Petz in the Sailor Moon R season as well as a number of smaller roles and monsters of the week.

Charlene Ingram, senior manager of animation marketing, will be representing Viz Media and hosting a number of panels. On Saturday Viz will be hosting two panels. The Viz Media panel takes place Saturday at 5pm and the Viz Animation panel will be taking place at 9pm. On Sunday at 1pm there will be a screening of episodes 8 and 10 of Viz’s new Sailor Moon dub. These episodes feature the introductions of Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars. Fans will be able to hear Kate Higgins as Sailor Mercury and Cristina Vee as Sailor Mars.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party, Review

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Adam

The 4th episode of Sailor Moon Crystal became available on Saturday August 16th. You can watch it on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Niconico. Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party, has everyone crashing a party put on by the D Kingdom in order to steal their jewels, hoping to find the Silver Crystal. While this is an early story in the manga it is somewhat similar to episode 22 of the Sailor Moon anime, Romance Under the Moon: Usagi’s First Kiss.

The episode largely follows act 4 of the original manga with one major exception, Jadeite is still alive. In the manga Sailor Mars kills Jadeite at the end of act 3 however in the last episode it was unclear if Jadeite actually died during the fight. Indeed Jadeite is still alive which is the biggest change to the story we’ve seen to date. Perhaps this change will lead to more differences down the line, as all of the Shitennou are still alive at this point leaving things open for different stories. In act 3 Jadeite made comments about how beautiful he thought Sailor Mars was, which may be related to a past and future relationship between the two of them. Manga art from the final Dark Kingdom story shows pairings between the Shintennou and Sailor Guardians during Silver Millennium. Sailor Mercury was with Zoisite, Sailor Mars is with Jadeite, Sailor Jupiter was with Nephrite and Sailor Venus was with Kunzite, a relationship which was also alluded to in the Sailor V manga. This may seem odd to anime fans who have only seen the Shintennou as villains however in the manga they were all friends of Endymion and good people from Earth prior to being corrupted by Queen Metalia. While we’ve followed the manga closely to date this may not last forever. By act 4 of the live action series we were still following the manga episode by episode but major changes were just around the corner.

Sailor Moon gets a new tiara and attack this week! Her last tiara was destroyed by Sailor Mars as she burned Jadeite and so she gets a new upgraded one and with that has a new attack which she uses to destroy Nephrite’s shadow. The attack she uses in the manga is Moon Twilight Flash, seen frequently in the live action series, though the attack is not named in this episode. Strangely enough an image of Sailor Moon using this attack is seen in the newspaper on the morning before she gets her tiara upgrade and is first able to use this attack.

Another fun moment has Umino acting like a total creeper when he reveals a photo of Princess D. Indeed Umino always having images of women at hand when needed is in itself creepy but something about the way he acts and speaks in this scene is particularly funny.

And speaking of creepy, the final scene of the episode needs to be addressed. Sailor Moon, after a long day at the party, passes out. In the manga she does this after consuming alcohol. While unconscious Tuxedo Mask approaches her and kisses her, causing fans to swoon at this romantic moment. She is unconscious and unable to consent to his advances. This behaviour is completely inappropriate. Luckily Luna shows up and comes to Sailor Moon’s defence.

Unfortunately we have to wait 3 weeks for the next episode! We’ve gotten used to seeing shows every two weeks but Sailor Moon Crystal is released on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of every month, not every two weeks. The next episode will be available on Saturday September 6th. Act 5, Makoto – Sailor Jupiter, will introduce us to Makoto Kino who becomes Sailor Jupiter. We see a shot of her at the end of the episode and more of her during the next episode preview. This again follows the manga schedule with Sailor Jupiter appearing in act 5.

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