Meet Linda Ballantyne, Katie Griffin, Susan Roman and Toby Proctor at Eternal Con in Long Island this weekend, June 11th and 12th

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Adam

This weekend is Eternal Con at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York. New York City Sailor Moon fans will have a chance to meet Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. Though the convention runs from June 10th to the 12th these voice actors from the original dub of the Sailor Moon anime will be there on Saturday June 11th and Sunday June 12th.

A panel will be held on Sunday, June 12th, at 1pm with all of the voice actors. Photo ops will be Saturday at 11am and Sunday at 12pm. I did not see any specifics about autographs on the site but the cast likely be available throughout Saturday and Sunday when they are not otherwise occupied.

Also appearing at the convention is Yuuta Mochizuki who played Tuxedo Mask in a number of Sailor Moon Musicals. He was the second Tuxedo Mask and first appeared as Kunzite in the very first musical. Many Sailor Moon and Sentai fans may also know him as the original Red Power Ranger in Zyurangers, the series which was adapted as the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth 1, review

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Adam

The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal aired on Japanese TV Monday May 30th at 11pm Japan Standard Time. Shortly afterwards, starting at 10:30am Eastern Time, it was available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth, has Chibiusa dead and the gang reluctantly fighting to save her.

First off we have a new opening theme. Once again it’s In Love With the New Moon but this time sung by Momoiro Clover Z. They sang Moon Pride, the opening theme for the first two story arcs. This version is fine but I prefer the first version by Etsuko Yakushimaru. Not sure I have much else to say about that. Momoiro Clover Z seems like a perfectly mediocre J-Pop band.

Chibiusa is dead. The day fans have been waiting for since the 90s is here! With her soul ripped out, Chibiusa’s body dies. The doctor announces quite clearly that she went through cardiac arrest and then passed away. All hope is not lost though, as Mamoru is able to keep her alive through some sort of healing touch. It’s as if he’s able to keep her blood pulsing with his heart which only makes sense considering he has magic healing powers. In the manga he mentions that her body is so small that supporting her is easy, but in Sailor Moon Crystal we get the impression that this is draining on him.

Usagi is heartbroken by this, and really feels as if Chibiusa is dead. What option is there to save her? Well they just need to kill Hotaru! Actually they don’t have to kill anyone, they just need need to defeat Mistress 9. Not every enemy needs to be killed when they’re defeated! Oh right this is the manga version where Sailor Moon kills pretty much anyone. Original anime Sailor Moon seems to win over and heal more villains. Anyway the trolley problem is a bit different now. Instead of kill Hotaru vs. the world it’s Hotaru vs. Chibiusa vs. the world. And now the trolley has run over Chibiusa and is heading towards the world and pulling the lever will make it roll back in time, bringing Chibiusa back to life and then killing Hotaru. I’m not sure I want to attempt to illustrate that. So much to say despite hesitation everyone, including Mamoru, supports the idea of moving forward and trying to get Chibiusa’s soul back.

The whole thorn thing seems to be new to Sailor Moon Crystal. There are thorns around the building at Mugen Academy which makes it seem something like when the Makaiju grew all over the apartment building in Sailor Moon R. There are thorns and roses all around the lobby. What’s more Hotaru’s soul, which we see occasionally inside of Mistress 9, is held down by thorns. The manga doesn’t have this level of thorniness, and Hotaru is just seen sort of floating around in nothingness. This is a sort of physical visualization of the way she’s restricted inside of Mistress 9. All this really means is that Hotaru is still alive, so there’s still hope.

The Witches 5 return and now there are 6. Everyone seems to be getting a dream of something they would like. Sailor Mars sees a version of Eudial which pretty much just want to make out with her. She pins her down holding her hand and seems to want to kiss her. Did I ever mention that Eudial is my favourite of the Witches 5 and that Sailor Mars is my favourite Sailor Guardian? I’m totally shipping these two. The rest of the gang are presented with predictable things. Sailor Mercury sees a powerful artificial intelligence supercomputer, which is cool but probably nothing compared to the supercomputer on the Moon which has the consciousness of Queen Serenity uploaded to it. Sailor Venus holds a microphone for a while but doesn’t actually sing, which is disappointing. Sailor Jupiter likes flowers. The recurring theme is making them all want to quit being Sailor Guardians.

Sailor Moon gets a whopper of a dream. Chibiusa tries to choke and kill her! This is fake, unlike the time Chibiusa tried to shoot her in the head! This really is a great episode for Chibiusa haters! Sailor Moon doesn’t buy it though.

Turns out Kaolinite is actually a monster! This is not in the manga and new to Sailor Moon Crystal. She transforms into this weird kind of Daimon who the Sailor Guardians quickly dispose of. We see a couple of new attacks with Sailor Neptune’s Submarine Reflection, which is awesome, and Sailor Pluto’s Chronos Typhoon, which is completely disappointing.

To wrap up the episode Mistress 9 eats the Chibiusa’s Silver Crystal! How terrible! Does she even know that Chibiusa’s soul is in there? Good news for Hotaru though. She’ll have some company inside of Mistress 9.

Next is the new ending theme, Only Eternity Brings the Two Together, sung by Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. This ending theme contains wet shirt Mamoru which I find looks like something out Yaoi fan art. I guess some readers will appreciate this!

Next week is Sailor Moon Crystal Act 35, Infinity 9 – Infinite Labyrinth 2. Mistress 9 has reunited Chibiusa and Hotaru inside her being. Isn’t that great! Even in death these two good friends can hang around together! We’ll also see naked Usagi in this episode if that’s something that interests you.

Keep reading for more images of this episode and the next episode preview for Act 35.

Continue reading →

Meet the cast of Sailor Moon at Anime North 2016 this weekend in Toronto

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Adam

Anime North is this weekend, May 27th to the 29th, at the Toronto Congress Center and 9 actors from the original dub of the first Sailor Moon anime will be there! This includes two voices of Sailor Moon. The first voice of Sailor Moon Tracey Moore, provided her voice for only the first 11 episodes as well as another four throughout the series. Linda Ballantyne was the third voice of Sailor Moon, providing her voice for the S and SuperS seasons. Also appearing are Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Barbara Radecki, the voice of Sailor Neptune, Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna, Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, Toby Proctor, the second voice of Tuxedo Mask, and John Stocker, voice director for Sailor Moon S and SuperS. Toby Proctor, having himself replaced Rino Romano as the second voice of Tuxedo Mask, mostly acted alongside Terry Hawkes and not the two Sailor Moon voice actors in attendance, though he did appear in four episodes with Tracey Moore.

The panel with these voice actors will take place on Friday at 5pm. On Sunday at 11am Tracey Moore and John Stocker will be holding a behind the scenes of voice acting panel. The voice actors will be signing autographs throughout the weekend. Check out the Anime North schedule for the exact times.

The convention is full of Sailor Moon related events. A Sailor Moon panel will be held Saturday at 10am and a Sailor Moon Merchandise presentation will be held Sunday at 11am.

Though I am Canadian I don’t live in Toronto. I’ve been to Anime North a number of times and have always had fun but unfortunately I won’t be attending this year.

The cast of the next Sailor Moon musical, which starts October 15th, has been announced

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Adam

A new Sailor Moon musical is coming in October and the cast for the core five girls has been announced on the official Sailor Moon site. The image of the new cast, included above, was accompanied by a brief introduction by each of the cast members. The musical will run from October 15th to November 6th in three different venues across Japan. The performances in Tokyo will be from October 15th to the 23rd. Next is Fukuoka on October 29th and 30th. Finally performances in Osaka will take place from November 4th to the 6th. We don’t have much in the way of details about this musical at this time. The last musical covered the Infinity arc of the manga but we don’t actually know if this one will cover the Dream arc which follows it or do something different.

Check out the cast listing below

Hotaru Nomoto – Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon
Hikari Kuroki – Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury
Karen Kobayashi – Rei Hino, Sailor Mars
Kaede – Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter
Rimo Hasegawa – Minako Aino, Sailor Venus.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 196 and 197 are now available on Hulu

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Adam

This week on Hulu and Neon Alley‘s new episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars everyone dies! With episodes 196 and 197 Sailor Galaxia has laid siege to the city and she’s going through Star Seeds like candy. This includes some favourite characters and someone who it turns out has been dead for most of the season. Also we find a convoluted reason to get good guy superheroes fighting each other, something I despise and which film critics seem to be sick of too!

Episode 196, Countdown to Destruction: the Sailor Guardians’ Last Battle, is pretty much what the title says. Galaxia is destroying the city and collecting Star Seeds. She got one earlier in the season, then one last episode and now she’s going for a whole bunch. Did she get others through the season on other planets or did she do that earlier? Not really important. What is important is the return of Sailor Saturn! She arrives already transformed of course, because there was no money for a transformation sequence I guess. We start off with the Sailor Starlights confronting Galaxia and then Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon brings the gang in to assist. This does not go very well as she kills Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. It’s really all about Sailor Mars though. It’s always all about Sailor Mars. This mirrors the first time everyone died in the first season where Mars is the last to go and the first ghost to touch Usagi. It’s never Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. It’s Mars and the rest. It’s Rei and the rest. Once again we see Sailor Moon single out Sailor Mars as her single closest friend. She has a big heart and has a love for all of her friends, but there is something special about this relationship which transcends all others. As if that weren’t enough we see the Star Seeds join others and Sailor Moon recognizes one that shines brighter than any other. Mamoru’s Star Seed. It turns out there was a good reason he hasn’t been returning her letters and that’s because he’s dead. Having Usagi be generally unaware of Mamoru’s death was a big change from the Manga, but one which I think worked well with the story of the Manga. Usagi thought he was being distant and her relationship with Seiya was a distraction from this. Turns out he was not being a jerk at all. Sailor Star Fighter sees this Star Seed and all I can read from her face is “Wow. Even this guy’s Star Seed is cooler than me.”. Poor Seiya never had a chance.

Episode 197, Ruler of the Galaxy: the Menace of Galaxia, isn’t done killing people off. First we see what happened to Mamoru. As we know he never got to the states, but it wasn’t clear what happened on that plane. Galaxia faced off against him and took his Star Seed. Tuxedo Mask’s reaction to this is priceless. He does not fear what she will do because he knows that Usagi will defeat her. I wonder what happened to the rest of the plane. Surely if it had gone down or everyone had been killed it would have made headlines and Usagi would have heard about it. Perhaps in this world of superheroes and weekly monster attacks on the city a missing plane doesn’t get noticed. So the gang is teleported away from Galaxia, which is very temporary. Enter Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn who are once again already transformed. We learn that Sailor Galaxia is the one who orchestrated the return of Nehelenia to awaken Sailor Saturn so that she could have another True Star Seed that wasn’t otherwise in the game. This is like using a cheat device to catch Mew even though he’s not in the game. This makes me wonder why Hotaru didn’t have a True Star Seed inside of her prior to becoming Sailor Saturn again. Is that really how this works? After a little fight it seems like Sailor Uranus and Neptune decide to be evil. Is this what happened with the Sailor Animamates? It got the impression that they were slaves but getting Sailor Galaxia’s bracelets does not seem to cognitively affect these two. We get a fight between good guys. This is a pet peeve of mine in comics and comic based properties, but here it isn’t about who would actually win. I’m sick and tired of excuses in Avengers movies for the heroes to fight each other and now in the summer of movies that are nothing more than convoluted reasons to have good guys fight each other I think I’ve hit a saturation point of tolerating this kind of Batman V Superman and Civil War nonsense. So Sailor Uranus and Neptune kill Sailor Pluto and Saturn. The rest of the gang arrives just at the right time to see them die. Oh well I guess this means no transformation sequence for Sailor Saturn ever! Maybe in Sailor Moon Crystal we will see this. So Sailor Uranus and Neptune seem to be evil and Usagi’s next. To be continued!

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

Continue reading →

Meet the cast of Sailor Moon at Toronto ComiCon this Saturday

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Adam

This weekend, March 18th to the 20th, is Toronto ComiCon at the Metro Toronto Convention Center in downtown Toronto. In attendance on Saturday March 19th will be a ton of voice actors from the original English dub of Sailor Moon. This includes Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna, and Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis.

A “Meet the Cast of Sailor Moon” panel will be held Saturday afternoon at 4pm. The cast also has space at the autograph area near the food court, though it is not clear at this time what the schedule for autographs will be.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 188 and 189 are now available on Hulu

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Adam

This week on Hulu and Neon Alley‘s new episodes of Sailor Stars everyone’s secret identities are revealed! Episode 188 and 189, which seem to directly follow each other, span a time period of over 9 months if tickets are to be believed!

Episode 188, Invitation to Terror: Usagi’s Night Flight, centres on a very impractical movie premier. The Three Lights movie which was filmed earlier in the season has somehow now been edited and is being released! The special preview, available only to fan club members, is taking place on an airplane in flight. This seems like a really terrible idea. The expense alone would be considerable. Where is the plane going? Is it flying in circles for 2 hours or more? What does a ticket cost? How is there possibly enough room on this plane for all of these fans? Rei is fan club number 2906. This is a big plane with three rows and a second level but it is still tiny compared to even a small movie theatre. Usagi receives a ticket from Sailor Aluminum Siren saying that there is a special seat saved for her. That seat is 12A. The date on the ticket appears to say January something. How does this make any sense? Throughout the season dates have generally closely followed release dates of the episodes, but this episode released October 12th 1996 is nowhere close. Usagi arrives at the airport and tells them to abort the takeoff. In this naive pre 9-11 time the flight attendant responds by showing her to her seat. Seat 12A. I had to do a bit of research into Japanese planes but it seems that they, like planes I’ve been on, have the letter for the seats starting from the left, or port, side. In this case 12A should be a window seat with her window on the left. Usagi boards the plane and is sitting in first class with the Three Lights but once sitting the window is on her right! Scandal! In all likelihood Usagi could have moved, but it looks like nothing on this ticket makes any sense. So everyone is on the plane and Sailor Aluminum Siren makes the flight attendants into Phages, in this case Sailor Stewardesses. Things are tighter than Usagi’s dining room in first class so there is no choice but for everyone to transform in front of each other. First Seiya transforms into Sailor Star Fighter and then the rest of the Three Lights follow suit. Next Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon and Sailor Star Fighter is shocked. Wait a minute didn’t she put all of this together a bunch of episodes ago when Sailor Moon knew the little toy bear belonged to Seiya? I guess not! Basically everyone transforms and that will make for great drama next episode but at this point they just take care of the monster. Sailor Aluminum Siren, so close to getting some True Star Seeds, is naturally killed by Sailor Galaxia. Her semi replacement is Sailor Tin Nyanko, though Sailor Lead Crow is still around. So many villains at a time in this season.

Episode 189, Duty or Friendship: Conflict Between the Sailor Guardians, is all about brooding! Last episode everyone figured out who everyone was and now Usagi and Seiya are kind of upset at each other but not for any good reason, just a bit of drama. Rei is working as a fortune teller and happens to have Seiya and Usagi come in asking about advise for the same problem. Yo just talk it out it will be fine! Rei gives Usagi a ticket to a Three Lights event at good old FM No. 10, the radio station that keeps coming up. We first saw this radio station in episode 3 when it had a different looking sign. The date on the ticket is September 28th at 7:30pm. Yes it seems like the better part of year has passed since last episode’s mid January Three Lights plane based movie premiere! The Three Lights are doing a live thing and Seiya and Usagi stare longingly at each other both during and after the show. The target this episode is DJ Jack of FM No. 10 who turns into Sailor DJ. Seiya is injured which causes Usagi to hold him in her arms, and there is some tension from the other Sailor Starlights because the story would progress too easily if we could all be friends.

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

The English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars, is now available on Hulu

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Adam

The first full episode from the Black Moon Clan story arc is now available to view in English on Hulu and Neon Alley. Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars, introduces us to a bunch of character from the Black Moon Clan including Rubeus, Demande, Esmeraude, Saphir and the Ayakashi Sisters. This episode focuses mainly on the rivalry between Sailor Mars and Koan. Many new voice actors are showing up this week, who are all reprising their roles from the new English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. Those actors are:

Claudia Lenz as Koan
Cindy Robinson as Berthier
Cassandra Lee Morris as Calaveras
Jessica Gee as Petz
Steve Cannon as Rubeus
Rena S. Mandel as Esmeraude
Greg Felden as Saphir
Matthew Mercer as Prince Demande

This week also gives us a better look at Chibiusa who first showed up at the end of Act 14. Amongst some background character we see a boy who looks an awful lot like Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing. What do you think?

Sailor Moon Funko Pop! Vinyl figures coming in April!

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Adam

These great looking Sailor Moon Funko Pop! Vinyl figures are coming in April. This image, shared by Funko of their set up for Toy Fair in New York, shows Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon, Luna, Sailor Mercury, Tuxedo Mask, Artemis, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus in Vinyl figures. Toy Fair starts tomorrow but this was shared on Funko’s blog and Facebook page as a sneak peek this afternoon. The card with them states “April 2016″ as a release date. I had heard some time ago that these were coming at some point but this is the first we see of the actual figures.

They seem to make these Pop! Vinyl figures of pretty much every franchise. It’s nice to have Sailor Moon join the mix. Do you plan on getting these?

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 176 and 177 are now available on Hulu

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Adam

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars are now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week with episodes 176 and 177 we get episodes featuring on Rei and Seiya and then Ami and Taiki. Don’t be fooled! These really are more episodes about the Sailor Starlights than they are about the Sailor Guardians. This is consistent with the rest of the Sailor Stars season which focuses a lot on the newer characters.

Episode 176, Fighter’s Secret Identity: the Shocking Super Transformation, isn’t all that shocking. As always we are expected to be surprised by the revelation of a character being a Sailor Guardian. More on that later. The target this week is Akane Gushiken, who Rei knows as Sister Angela, one of the nuns from her school. She is pushing Seiya real hard and he’s getting pretty pissed about it. Standard story where she pushes him because of his potential and she’s not really evil and stuff. Not that anyone in this season is actually evil but that’s another story. Seiya, and the other Three Lights, are performing in a musical The East 42 Storyt. This would presumably be a joke on West Side Story. Once her Star Seed is taken Sister Angela turns into Sailor Director, with humourous results. Next comes the reveal! Seiya is Sailor Star Fighter! I wasn’t really sure this was something the audience wasn’t supposed to have queued in on but the title suggests it is. No character is privy to this revalation so the “Shocking” aspect of the transformation would have to be on the part of the viewer. I suppose with the Three Lights being male and the Sailor Starlights being female there may be some people who didn’t see this coming. What this episode does do is answers questions about the gender of the Three Lights. Seiya is seen in a very revealing outfit while rehearsing for the musical. This shows him to have a male physique, with abs and pecks, but without breast. During the transformation sequence we see Seiya, with no shirt, having a torso resembling a shirtless male transforming into Sailor Star Fighter who clearly has breasts. While most characters throughout the series transform only their clothes, there seems to be a more physical transformation amongst the Sailor Starlights. This is not the same as in the manga, where the Sailor Starlights are women who disguise themselves as men in their civilian identities. Because the best way to hide is by being members of a super popular pop group. The episode wraps up with a shot of Princess Kakyuu, which is who Seiya is waiting for, but this fades into an image of Eternal Sailor Moon. There is some confusion in Seiya’s heart.

Episode 177, A Star of Dreams and Wishes: Taiki’s Transformation, is all about Ami clashing with Taiki! One of Ami’s teachers is Wataru Amanogawa. He discovered a comet 15 years ago, which he called Françoise, and it is due to return! Amadagawa and Taiki participate in a television show together which focuses on the comet. While doing it a child mentions that his grandfather told him that people turned into stars after they died, and asks if this is true. Amadagawa, a hopeless romantic, assures the child it may be possible if some believe it. Taiki chastises him for this! This seems like a cold and rude thing for Taiki to do but he’s totally in the right here. People don’t turn into stars when they die. This is nonsense. Stars are massive balls of burning gas, undergoing nuclear fusion. Perhaps more tact can be used against young impressionable children though. Sailor Iron Mouse shows up and no surprise Amadagawa is the target. This leads to Taiki transforming into Sailor Star Maker, which shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. If you somehow made it to episode 176 before realising the Three Lights are the Sailor Starlights, it should be fairly obvious who Sailor Star Maker and Healer are once we learn that Seiya is Sailor Star Fighter. So this is great because we get to see the amazing Star Gentle Uterus. It looks like rain will get in the way of the comet, but luckily that clears up just in time. How fantastic. Nothing worse than bad weather interfering with stargazing!

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

Continue reading →

Sailor Moon News

Bringing you the latest news about the new anime series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal and all things Sailor Moon.

Tag Archives: Sailor Mars

Meet Linda Ballantyne, Katie Griffin, Susan Roman and Toby Proctor at Eternal Con in Long Island this weekend, June 11th and 12th

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth 1, review

Meet the cast of Sailor Moon at Anime North 2016 this weekend in Toronto

The cast of the next Sailor Moon musical, which starts October 15th, has been announced

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 196 and 197 are now available on Hulu

Meet the cast of Sailor Moon at Toronto ComiCon this Saturday

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 188 and 189 are now available on Hulu

The English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars, is now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon Funko Pop! Vinyl figures coming in April!

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 176 and 177 are now available on Hulu