The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal has been released in English on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get Act 3, Rei – Sailor Mars, which introduces us to the third Sailor Guardian Rei Hino. Fans of the original Sailor Moon anime will notice this is quite similar to episode 10, The Cursed Bus: Enter Mars the Guardian of Fire, though there are still some differences. Usagi has a more obvious crush on Rei in this show. The manga, and Sailor Moon Crystal which is very faithfully based on it, progresses at a much faster pace than the original anime. We will be seeing a one to one ratio for manga chapters to episodes of this show as we progress through the 13 episode Dark Kingdom story arc.

As with other episodes this has the improved animation from the Japanese Blu-Ray and DVD release of the show. The changes are minor, but some that viewers of the streaming version may not have seen yet. For my full thoughts on this episode read the review I wrote when the episode first became available to stream in Japanese.

Next Friday, December 4th, is Sailor Moon Crystal Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party. It looks like dubbed episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal will only be available later in the evening, unlike what happens on Monday mornings for the subtitles episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime.

English fans will finally be seeing the first of Sailor Moon Crystal’s Sailor Mars as the latest dubbed episode is released on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday, November 27th. This week we get Act 3, Rei – Sailor Mars. Rei Hino will be voiced by Cristina Vee who voiced her in Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. All other actors from Sailor Moon Crystal are also reprising their roles. You can follow Cristina Vee on Twitter at @CristinaVee.

I don’t exactly at what time of day the episode will air. The subtitled episodes released on Monday always come out early in the morning however we didn’t get the first two English Sailor Moon Crystal episodes until late last Friday evening to coincide with Moonlight Party 5. That was around 6pm Pacific Time, 9pm Eastern Time. So much to say if the episode is not up first thing in the morning do not panic. Viz still plans on releasing the episode at some point on Friday November 27th.

Celebrate Black Friday in style with Rei’s crows Phobos and Deimos.

Support the site by preordering Sailor Moon Crystal on DVD or Blu-Ray using the links below.

Edit: I previously stated that Amanda C. Miller voiced Sailor Mars. This is incorrect. She will be providing the voice of Sailor Jupiter in later episodes.

Great news for fans who have been waiting to see Sailor Moon Crystal in English! The anime schedule for Viz Media has been updated with the first two episodes of the English dub of Sailor Moon Crystal beginning Friday November 20th. The 3rd episode will be available on Friday November 27th with new episodes being available every Friday. New episodes can be streamed for free on Hulu and Neon Alley in the United States.

If you live in Canada, or in another country in which these services are not offered, you’re out of luck. There are of course ways to make it appear as if you are accessing these sites from another country. A free option is hola.org though there are others.

As we have mentioned before the cast for the English dub of Sailor Moon Crystal will be the same as that of Viz’s new English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. Chances are if you liked that dub you will like this one too.

Will you be watching the English version of Sailor Moon Crystal? Have you been holding off watching it until this version is out? This is also a great option for children who are too young to follow subtitles.

The latest volume of Sailor Moon Crystal was released on Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray on November 12th (Amazon Japan, CD Japan, JList, YesAsia) while the regular edition Blu-Ray (Amazon Japan, CD Japan, YesAsia) and DVD (Amazon Japan, CD Japan, YesAsia) will be released on December 10th. This release, like the first one, only included two episodes. This month we have Act 3, Rei – Sailor Mars, and Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party. To celebrate Sailor Mars’s appearance we have Sailor Mercury on the cover and a Sailor Mercury charm included. Each Deluxe Limited Edition set comes in a fancy box with a special book and a charm to add to the charm bracelet which was included with vol. 1. This charm is of Sailor Mercury’s transformation pen.

The disk itself is similar to the first one. Episodes are included in HD with great image quality. Some of the scenes which originally had some pretty bad animation have been touched up. The Blu-Ray is region A, which will play in a North American Blu-Ray player, however the audio is in Japanese and there are no English subtitles. An audio commentary is included, also in Japanese, so I don’t have any real details on what they talk about!

The box also comes with a special 24 page book. This includes a summary and images for act 3 and 4, interviews with Atsutoshi Umezawa, executive producer for Sailor Moon Crystal, and Hisako Kanemoto, the voice actress for Sailor Mercury, character art for Sailor Mercury and other characters, backgrounds and a special page by Osabu, Fumio Osano, editor of Sailor Moon.

The set is expensive for only including two episodes, but has a lot of cool extras. It may be of interest to collectors but if you’re just looking to watch the show, you may want to stick with the free and totally legal streaming version.

Keep reading for more images from this set including photos of all pages of the included book.

The box art for the second volume of the Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray Deluxe Limited Edition has been released. This set looks a lot like the first set which we recently reviewed. The episodes included on this disk are act 3, Rei – Sailor Mars, and act 4, Masquerade Dance Party. Sailor Mercury appears on the cover despite first appearing in act 2. We will likely see Sailor Mars on the next set.

This set also includes a charm to go with the charm bracelet included in the volume 1 Blu-Ray box. This charm is of Sailor Mercury’s transformation item. Another 24 page colour booklet will be included with this set. The animation will be cleaned up to fix mistakes or awkwardly drawn scenes from the streaming version, and will include audio commentaries. This Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray will be released on November 12th and can be preordered from Amazon Japan, CD Japan, JList and YesAsia. If you are patient, don’t care about swag and want to save a bit of money you can wait until December 10th to get the regular edition Blu-Ray (Amazon Japan, CD Japan, YesAsia) or the DVD (Amazon Japan, CD Japan, YesAsia). These is a Japanese release with no English audio or subtitles. The Blu-Ray disk will play in North American region A Blu-Ray players or PlayStation 3s though the DVDs are region 2 which will not play in a North American region 1 DVD player.

Source: The official Sailor Moon site and Moonkitty.net

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

Act 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal, Rei – Sailor Mars, was released on August 2nd. You can watch it on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Niconico. With this new episode we are introduced to the incomparable Sailor Mars! Many will debate whether or not Sailor Mars is the greatest of the Sailor Guardians and these people fall into two categories. Those that think Sailor Mars is the best, who are right, and those who disagree, who are wrong! Rei’s portrayal in this episode is closer to her personality in the manga, which may be a bit of a change to those who know her fiery attitude from the original anime adaptation.

As with the earlier episodes we once again see an incredibly faithful manga adaptation as Usagi, Ami and Luna investigate missing persons on a bus that stops near the Hikawa Shrine which introduces them to the the Priestess Rei Hino. Usagi is immediately attracted to Rei, calling her beautiful throughout the episode. Usagi isn’t sure if Rei is friend or foe, just like Rei is herself unsure if Usagi is an enemy or not. It turns out both are actually being confused by the evil energy of Jadeite, who is driving the evil bus.

The main change from the manga that is seen in this episode takes place when Usagi and Mamoru meet on the bus. In the manga Usagi notices that Mamoru looks like Tuxedo Mask and Mamoru notices that Usagi looks like Sailor Moon. Clearly this is quite a change from the original anime where the tiaras and mask do a great job of hiding one’s identity. Later in the episode Rei recognizes Sailor Moon as being Usagi which tells us these disguises aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Finally we have the “death” of Jadeite which is pretty subtle. We don’t really see him die. It’s unclear if this is meant to be a change to the story or if his death was made less graphic to make the show more child friendly. I watched the episode with someone who was not familiar with the original story and they assumed he had simply escaped to return another day. We will know for sure in two weeks.

August 16th Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party, will have the Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask and the Dark Kingdom searching for the Silver Crystal. This week we actually get the next episode preview on all feeds, rather than just on Niconico as we had been seeing in the past. We continue to follow the manga with this next act. By this schedule Sailor Jupiter should be arriving in the following episode, Act 5 which will be airing September 6th.

Keep reading for more screenshots from the episode.

The third episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, Rei – Sailor Mars, will be available to stream online this Saturday August 2nd starting at 7pm Japan Standard Time which is 6am Eastern Standard Time and 3am Pacific Stardard Time. Watch the episodes on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Niconico. The preview for this episode was only available on the Niconico version of Act 2. It can be viewed below.

Act 3 introduces us to Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, as the cursed 6 o’clock bus is causing people to dissapear and suspicions are thrown on Rei and the Hikawa Shrine. The first two episodes followed the manga quite closely and it looks like this next one will too.

Unfortunately I’ll be out of town and off the grid for the weekend for the introduction of the greatest character in the series but look forward to my thoughts on the episode early next week.