“me I can’t solve anything with only kale that can’t chew tuxedo”

As a promotion for the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal movie, which is still scheduled to be released in theatres in Japan on September 11th, 10 episodes of the original Sailor Moon anime will be released every week on the official Sailor Moon YouTube channel from now until late July. This will mean that fans will have the opportunity to watch up to the end of Sailor Moon S. This is being promoted mainly to fans living in Japan who can speak Japanese.

Originally these videos were open to fans worldwide, which meant anyone could watch them, but as of Friday morning I can no longer watch these videos. Looking into it a bit it seems the videos are only available to view in Japan, Somalialand and Macedonia. If anyone knows of a reliable and free way to access region restricted videos please leave a comment with details!

“Yeah yeah yeah punishment”

There are certainly no English subtitles by default but YouTube does allow for automatic closed captions. While the videos were still viewable globally I did this for episode 1. If you’re a fan in Japan, Somalialand or Macedonia, or are otherwise able to load these videos I would suggest trying this out for a laugh! Click on the “Settings” gear on the bottom right of the video. Chose “Subtitles/CC” and then “Japanese (Auto Generated)”. Now click back through to “Subtitles/CC” and click on “Auto-translate” and scroll down to your language of choice such as “English”. I’ve included a few choice quotes in this post.

It was 50,000 years since I was mischievous, but thanks to you, I went and chose Paisley.

No doubt this is actually a pretty terrible way to watch a show and since most people will need to do sketchy things to do it, why bother? There are many ways better and easier ways in which a person can watch Sailor Moon these days. Fans can of course buy the series on DVD, Blu-Ray or digitally and watch it either in English or in Japanese with English subtitles. Americans with a Hulu subscription can stream the series on that service. The first four seasons are available to watch dubbed and subbed though Sailor Stars is currently only available in Japanese with English subtitles. Americans can watch those same episodes for free on Viz’s web site. Canadians can watch subtitled episodes for free on TubiTV. The service has ads but it is free to watch.

Awesome sailor moon remember tonight

So is there any reason to watch these episodes? The video quality is pretty good! The best you’ll get for free at least. I don’t know if this is using the same source material as the Japanese Blu-Rays. They aren’t quite as nice, perhaps due to being compressed when uploaded, but I find it looks better than the Viz Blu-Ray releases. Don’t take my word for it though. Check out these screenshots for comparison. I’ll add a few more at the end of the post.

YouTube	Japanese Blu-Ray
Viz Blu-Ray

Here’s the schedule for which episodes will be released each week. New episodes will be posted on Fridays though because of time zones this ends up being a day earlier in North America. The date range suggests that episodes will only be hosted for a week and then removed, but I’m not certain about that. The Japanese site restarts episode numbers for each season which is a bit odd as Japanese sources usually use the full episode number. I’ve included both for reference.

April 24th to April 30th – Sailor Moon 1 to 10
May 1st to May 7th – Sailor Moon 11 to 20
May 8th to May 14th – Sailor Moon 21 to 30
May 15th to May 21st – Sailor Moon 31 to 40
May 22nd to May 28th – Sailor Moon 41 to 46 and Sailor Moon R 47 to 50 (1 to 4)
May 29th to June 4th – Sailor Moon R 51 to 60 (5 to 14)
June 5th to June 11th – Sailor Moon R 61 to 70 (15 to 24)
June 12th to June 18th – Sailor Moon R 71 to 80 (25 to 34)
June 19th to June 25th – Sailor Moon R 81 to 89 (35 to 43) and Sailor Moon S 90 (1)
June 26th to July 2nd – Sailor Moon S 91 to 100 (2 to 11)
July 3rd to July 9th – Sailor Moon S 101 to 110 (12 to 21)
July 10th to July 16th – Sailor Moon S 111 to 120 (22 to 31)
July 17th to July 23rd – Sailor Moon S 121 to 127 (32 to 38)

Supposedly the reason for only releasing the first three seasons is because the movie is a retelling of the Dream arc of the manga which sequentially would follow Sailor Moon S, but since Sailor Moon Crystal is not at all in continuity with the original Sailor Moon anime this seems a bit odd! The new trailer for the Sailor Moon Eternal film is included at the start of every episode which is posted to YouTube.

If you are able to get these videos to load, here are some links to the individual episodes for convenience:

Sailor Moon Episode 1 – The Crybaby: Usagi’s Beautiful Transformation
Sailor Moon episode 2 – Punishment Awaits: The House of Fortune is the Monster Mansion
Sailor Moon episode 3 – The Mysterious Sleeping Sickness: Protect the Girls in Love
Sailor Moon episode 4 – Learn How to be Skinny From Usagi
Sailor Moon episode 5 – Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love
Sailor Moon episode 6 – Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid
Sailor Moon episode 7 – Usagi Learns Her Lesson: Becoming a Star Is Hard Work
Sailor Moon episode 8 – The Girl Genius Is a Monster: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror
Sailor Moon episode 9 – Usagi’s Disaster: Beware of the Clock of Confusion
Sailor Moon episode 10 – The Cursed Bus: Enter Mars

For everyone else you can support the site by buying episodes using the links below.

Keep reading for more screenshot comparisons.

YouTube	Japanese Blu-Ray
Viz Blu-Ray

YouTube	Japanese Blu-Ray
Viz Blu-Ray

YouTube	Japanese Blu-Ray
Viz Blu-Ray

Following Friday’s announcement of Viz’s acquisition of the rights to the series, the first four episodes of Sailor Moon are now available to view with subtitles for free on Hulu and Neon Alley, including episode 2 which has never been dubbed. Viz will be releasing two new episodes every Monday from now on. Though the episodes can be viewed for free they will include commercials which can’t be skipped. Hate commercials? That’s too bad. Hulu’s pay service Hulu Plus is truly terrible as it will not remove commercials.

The episodes are completely uncensored with English subtitles. The current episode previews are kept though they have been moved from before the credits until after the credits. Next episode previews are included in their normal spot at the end of the episode. Commercial bumpers are the only thing missing from these episodes.

Japanese DVD

Hulu

The quality of the release is quite good. Since it is streaming it is not perfect but the quality is comparable to the Japanese DVD releases, the current best quality release there is, as can be seen with these example screen grabs.

Japanese DVD

Hulu

The Hulu service is not available in all countries. As a Canadian I needed to use a proxy service to view the episodes. I use Unblock-US, a pay service, though others exist. I was not able to access the Neon Alley site directly even from a proxy. Though no legal Canadian option is available at this time Viz is trying to find a way to bring the show to Canadian. This includes talking to YTV about the possibility of airing it on TV. Once the DVD and Blu-Ray releases are out later this year, Canadians will be able to enjoy those.

Episode 1, The Crybaby: Usagi’s Beautiful Transformation, is the iconic first episode in which Usagi meets Luna and transforms into Sailor Moon in order to fight the first monster who has been masquerading as the mother of her friend Naru.

Episode 2, Punishment Awaits: The House of Fortune is the Monster Mansion, was originally not released as part of DIC’s dub. We can only speculate as to why it wasn’t released. It could be because Umino assaults his teacher and makes unwanted advances to Usagi or maybe they just wanted to get to the superhero group show Sailor Moon was marketed as more quickly, as three of the episodes that were cut from the series occurred before Sailor Mercury showed up. The plot centres around a new fortune telling house that opens up in Juuban. The children who go there become evil and fight along with the monster of the week, who is posing as a fortune teller. When Umino and the rest of the kids from school go bad it’s up to Sailor Moon to stop them!

Episode 3, The Mysterious Sleeping Sickness: Protect the Girls in Love, has Jadeite using the local radio station FM. No. 10 to send out flowers to girls to drain their energy and put them to sleep. It features scenes of Naru sleeping that were later used in the Italian Nintendo DS game La luna splende.

Episode 4, Learn How to be Skinny From Usagi, features a terrible message about body image as Usagi is obsessed with her weight problem and her friends are tricked into going to an evil gym to get their energy drained.

Next week’s two new episodes were both previously not released with an English dub. Monday May 26th we will be seeing “A Monster’s Scent! Chanela Steals Love” in which Shingo’s relationship with Luna is strained as the new pet craze, Chenelas, turn out to be a plot by the enemy. We will also see “Protect the Melody of Love! Usagi is a Cupid” in which Usagi must protect Amade Yuusuke, a struggling artist who is being targeted by the Dark Kingdom who are trying to steal energy through his music.