Earlier this week Viz Media announced the new English dub cast for their dub of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars which will be coming to home video on June 18th. Though I’m used to calling this Viz’s “new” English dub this is the first time the final season is being dubbed in English and so these characters have not had English voices before! The voice cast includes Stephanie Sheh as Chibi Chibi, Sailor Chibi Chibi, Melissa Hutchison as Seiya Kou, Sailor Star Fighter, Erika Harlacher as Taiki Kou, Sailor Star Maker, Sarah Williams as Yaten You, Sailor Star Hearler, and Carrie Keranen as Sailor Galaxia.

Fans will probably notice that Stephanie Sheh is also the voice of Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon, in Viz’s dub. Her being cast as Chibi Chibi follows with the Japanese casting where Kotono Mitsuishi, the Japanese voice of Sailor Moon, also played Chibi Chibi. Why is this casting important? In the manga it certainly makes sense for Chibi Chibi to have the same voice as Sailor Moon! Her true identity turns out to be a future version of Sailor Moon so they should share a voice. In the anime however that identity is not kept and aside from the visual resemblance, due to the characters resembling each other in the manga, they are not the same person or even related in any way. The end of the anime was written before the manga was completed and the casting was likely done before the identity of the character was known or decided. So much to say it isn’t really necessary to have Chibi Chibi voiced by Sailor Moon’s voice actor.

The rest of the voice actors have experience in other anime. The three Sailor Starlights are voiced by women, as was the case in the Japanese version. These characters are men while they are in the civilian disguises as The Three Lights and transform into women when they are Sailor Guardians, their genuine selves. In the manga it’s insinuated these are simply disguises but in the anime they actually transform their bodies. Melissa Hutchison who plays Seiya, the more prominent of the Sailor Starlights, is best known for playing Clementine in the Walking Dead video games. Erika Harlacher who plays Taiki has voiced many anime characters including Kurapika in Hunter x Hunter. Sarah Williams who plays Yaten has voiced many video game and anime characters including Sayaka Miki in Madoka Magica and Jinx in League of Legends. Carrie Keranen who plays Sailor Galaxia has previously voiced a number of single episode character in Sailor Moon including Kazuko Tadashita, one of the animator from episode 21, Saeko Yamamoto and Blizzar, the skier and monster from episode 38, Utonberino, a cardian
from Sailor Moon R episode 55, Amanju, a cardian who was chosen by Ail in Sailor Moon R episode 57, Avogadora, the Droid in Dark Fruit in Sailor Moon R episode 66, as well as the Xenian Flower from the Sailor Moon R movie.

Source: @VIZMedia on Twitter

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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.