Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray review

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Cover

Sailor Moon Eternal was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on June 30th. This included both a standard and limited edition of both. Good news for Japan, which previously had seen only a theatrical release of the films. Less useful internationally as many countries are streaming the films on Netflix with English audio and subtitle options. Still the limited edition Blu-ray and DVD have a number of nice features fans may be interested in checking out. I picked up the limited edition Blu-ray, which I’ll be discussing in this post.

There were a number of vendor exclusive versions of this release which differed amongst retailers and while I got the release from Amazon Japan I opted not to pay the cchionsiderable extra cost on top of the already high price tag for these exclusives. In retrospect I enjoyed the box art so much that perhaps a nice print of it would have been worthwhile, but it’s a bit late for this!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Discs

The set itself comes with a really beautiful package. This isn’t a standard DVD or Blu-ray sized box but instead something the size of a laserdisc or LP jacket. Inside are four discs. There’s a Blu-ray of the films, a Blu-ray disc of bonus features and two audios CD soundtracks, one for each of the movies.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Chibiusa and Usagi

Blu-ray

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and Small Usagi

Netflix

Disc 1! The movies. There isn’t much on this except for the two Sailor Moon Eternal films. I won’t repeat my review of those films. I quite enjoyed them and you can read my more in depth thoughts in my full reviews of Part 1 and Part 2. Interestingly enough the two movies are just one long video track of this Blu-ray. This doesn’t mean this is one movie or that it was always intended as one movie as there are still ending and opening credits, but we could easily have had separate video tracks for these.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Part 1 chapters

The disc’s menu has chapter markers which more or less break the movies up into single episode Acts, like with the TV series. This isn’t perfect again because some of them are shorter than others. The “Ami” chapter is only about 11 minutes and the “Rei” chapter is about 12. The second film’s chapters are broken up a bit more evenly as that story isn’t as clearly separated into distinct stories like with Part 1. Keep in mind that there are no English audio or subtitle options. As with all other Japanese Sailor Moon video releases, this is only meant to be viewed by a Japanese audience. If you want to watch it in English, get a Netflix subscription!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - The Amazoness Quartet

Blu-ray

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Sailor Quartet

Netflix

The video quality of the Blu-ray is quite good. It’s hard to compare a Blu-ray to a stream of a movie because there are all sorts of things which can affect a streaming video’s quality. Netflix adjusts its video quality based on a user’s bandwidth so I don’t know if the quality I was watching the movie at was the best possible. I took some screenshots from the Netflix stream for my reviews but there may have been issues with using a web browser to do that. The Blu-ray, to me, looks superior to the streaming version I’d seen on Netflix. I had watched the films twice on the Netflix app on PlayStation 5 and then once through the Netflix site a web browser on a laptop connected to a TV via HDMI. I’ll include a few screenshot comparisons here and at the end of the post. Keep in mind there is jpeg compression on these images which is a form of lossy compression but that same transformation was applied consistently to both types screenshots using the built in Mac OS screenshot function. I did find the level of detail in the Blu-ray release is superior to what I saw with the streaming version. The fine detail such as lines looks better.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - To be continued...

Part 2 ends with a screen saying “To be continued”. This was included in the original Japanese theatrical release but was not in the Netflix version that most people have watched. The insinuation here is evident. They intend to continue Sailor Moon Crystal with a Stars arc. What that will look like or when we will get it remains to be seen. I hope we aren’t going to have to wait months for this one!

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Disc 2 menu

The second disc is another Blu-ray and includes all of the bonus features. The menu is all in Japanese but I will explain the feature in the order they’re seen on the menu. Many of these had previews posted on YouTube which I’ll include links to. As with the movies these are only available in Japanese. As many of the features involve some Japanese person or people talking throughout this might not be terribly useful for fans who don’t speak the language.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with director Chiaki Kon

The first feature, accessed with the top left button, is an interview with the movie’s director Chiaki Kon. She was director on Season III of Sailor Moon Crystal as well as both films. For whatever reason a Luna plush on a stool is featured prominently in the center of the screen while Chiaki Kon is off to the side. The interview is 9m46s but you can watch a three minute preview on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with character designer Kazuko Tadano

Next, the top right option, is an interview with character designer Kazuko Tadano who also worked on the original Sailor Moon anime. It’s hard to ignore the one very distracting aspect of this interview which is the large cartoon face which is superimposed over her face in every scene. I recall seeing Kazuko Tadano at Otakon in 2008 where she seemed to have no qualms about being seen in public. I recorded a panel she was on and my camera ended up losing the footage. Perhaps her image can’t be captured on camera! This feature is 10m30s and a short preview can be seen on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Moon Effect music video

The next feature is a Moon Effect music video. This is a long clip from the film only the actual dialog and sound effects are removed keeping only the song itself. The video is 6m11s long.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Trailers

Next up is a series of trailers and ads for the film. Having seen a lot of these I think I may have seen them all but it’s so hard to tell at some point as many commercials and trailers reuse a lot of the same footage over and over again. The whole thing is 7m10s.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the main Sailor Guardian cast

After this we have a 20 minute interview with the main cast of Sailor Guardians and Nehelenia from the first film. This, like many of the interviews, occurs on stage. This includes Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Hisako Kanemoto, Sailor Mercury, Rina Satō, Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu, Sailor Jupiter, Shizuka Itō, Sailor Venus, Misato Fukuen, Sailor Chibi Moon, and Nanao, the voice of Nehelenia. A short preview can be seen on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the Amazon Trio cast

We then have an interview with Kotono Mitsuishi and the voices of the Amazon Trio. By all indications this nearly 22 minute video is hilarious, but I have no idea what they’re really saying. At one point they do a game where there are four options per question and … well I don’t know what the questions or answers are. Check out a preview on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the full cast in Princess dresses

Next we have all of the Sailor Guardians’ voices from both films in princess dresses. They all look quite lovely! Throughout this 18 minute clip we see them all answering various questions while wearing evening gowns which are colour coordinated to suit the Sailor Guardians they voice. There’s a lot of posing for photos going on. This preview is on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Interview with the core cast

Finally we have a stage interview with the voices of Chibiusa, her mom and her two boyfriends. This 21 minute interview includes Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Misato Fukuen, Sailor Chibi Moon, Kenji Nojima, Tuxedo Mask, and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Pegasus. I can’t tell if Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is really nervous, doing a bit or both. Is this Bob Newhart level awkward comedy or perhaps some sort of thing that women find appealing? Really not sure. One fun part of this feature is a wild crescent moon shaped flower arrangement. As with the other features you can watch a short clip on YouTube.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Booklet - Pages 28 and 29

The 3rd and 4th discs are audio CDs. Disc 3 is the soundtrack for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and Disc 4 is the soundtrack for Part 2. The labels on the discs themselves indicate this and the track listing in the booklet also breaks them into “Part 1″ and “Part 2″. Both have large numbers of tracks as well as TV sized versions of the songs included in them. Disc 3 has more tracks which may be because of music which is used in both films appearing on this soundtrack. I haven’t done a detailed study of each track and identified where it appears in each film, but it seems to mostly be broken up by the films. The part 1 soundtrack has 51 tracks, 49 of which are fairly short instrumental tracks. Track 50 is Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for the films. At 2m35s it is a shorter version of the song, with the full length version being 4m20s. Track 51 is the movie sized version of Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together with You) by Yoko Ishida which is only 1m32s as opposed to the 5m17s full length version.

The part 2 soundtrack is similar but with only 34 tracks, most of which are are instrumental. Track 28 is the full version of Moon Effect which is a whopping 6m12s, like the version on the Sailor Moon Eternal character song album. Track 33 is another TV length version of Moon Color Chainon. At 2m34s it’s one second shorter than the version on the part 1 soundtrack. I guess one of these is the one with Momoiro Clover Z and one is the version with the voice actors but I honestly can’t tell the difference. Track 34 is the movie sized version of “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll Go As Myself) cover by Anza. This version is only 1m34s. The full length versions of all of the songs on these soundtracks were previously released on the Eternal Edition of the Moon Color Chainon album. It seems like none of the tracks on these soundtrack CDs are available elsewhere, except for the full length version of Moon Effect.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Booklet - Pages 4 and 5

Also included is a special booklet. I’ve included photos of each of the pages with most being at the end of this post. This starts off with character art for all of the characters in the movies. Next is a “Cast Comment” from each of the voice actresses portraying the Sailor Guardians. We then have the “Character Design Comment” which shows us individual art of each character which was used for the cover art. I think that cover image is quite amazing so it’s nice to see each character with a bit of detail here. We then have a “Key Animation Gallery” which shows storyboards and how they compare to images from the final product. There is then an “Event Report” which seems to give a bit of a description for a number of events related to the promotion and release of the film. A “Music Review” discusses the new songs featured in the film. There is then an “Interview” but it’s not entirely clear to me who that interview is with. Finally there is the track listing for the “Original Soundtrack”, the 3rd and 4th discs in this set.

Sailor Moon Eternal Limited Edition Blu-ray - Back Cover

So what’s the verdict? Is this set worth getting? Since it’s a Japanese only release with no English subtitles or audio for the films or any features, this has a limited appeal. While the movies are available to stream on Netflix the features in this set are most certainly not. The music soundtracks are the only way which is currently available to get most of the songs included, so that’s an aspect to consider. It’s worth noting that even though such a thing hasn’t been announced yet it seems quite likely that international versions of this film will be released in time. I expect a North American English DVD and Blu-Ray release will come eventually. That version will likely have Japanese audio as well as English audio and subtitle options. So why get this one? International releases (meaning outside of Japan) will likely include few to none of the special features in this release. Instead I would expect some cast interview with English voice actors and some character art. As always, we’ll be sure to share any info about such a release if and when we hear anything.

Keep reading for more images of the set including photos of all pages of the booklet.

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Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 review

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - The Amazoness Quartet

The Sailor Moon Eternal films are both streaming on Netflix worldwide, outside of Japan, and it’s been nearly six years since I’ve been able to do a review of Sailor Moon Crystal content! Here are my thoughts on the first of the two film. These are usually about 25% story recap, 70% silly observations and jokes and 5% actual review type thoughts.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - The Amazon Trio

As with the rest of the Sailor Moon Crystal series these movies are a very faithful adaptation of the manga source material. As Sailor Moon SuperS is the anime season that probably varies the most from the manga, fans will probably find the differences considerable while those who’ve read the manga will find this all very familiar. The main difference in this story would be the relative unimportance of the Amazon Trio who dominate the first half of the Sailor Moon SuperS season, acting as pick up artists for young women, older women and boys. In this film like with the manga they aren’t much more than monsters of the week. Easily discarded.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru's green jacket

The movie isn’t billed as a Sailor Moon Crystal movie, though that’s obviously what it is. It isn’t really standalone. Fans of the Sailor Moon Crystal TV and web series will of course be happy to see this continuation of the story they’ve been following. I have to wonder how many fans of the old 90s anime will see these movies appear on Netflix and check them out without having much context. These aren’t anything like the Sailor Moon R, S and SuperS movies from the 90s, standalone stories with little connection to the TV series. That said these movies do present a single story arc which begins and ends with these films. Sure we may not know where Chibiusa comes from or how everyone got their powers but we can more or less follow the story of the Dream arc without needing that back story. Part 2 will have more issues here with the Infinity arc backstory for Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru being particularly important. It’s really mostly an issue of background on characters. One Letterboxd review, for example, asked if the child (Chibiusa) wants to boink (engage in sexual relations with) her dad (Mamoru). I think to anyone who’s familiar with either the original anime series or Sailor Moon Crystal this much, in less graphic terms, is pretty much assumed! So much to say it does seem that some people are coming into these movies fresh and these are the types of questions which must be coming up.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Usagi watches the eclipse

The film starts more or less where we left off. A roughly six month gap occurred during Act 38 and then, in an instant which lasted almost five years in the real world, the movie starts. It actually rewinds a bit and recaps a bit from Act 38 which wasn’t in the first Dreams manga arc. The gang are in the park to view an eclipse during which they see Pegasus. A note on casting here. While almost all of the Sailor Moon Eternal English voice cast are actors reprising their roles either from earlier seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal or the Sailor Moon SuperS dub of the original Sailor Moon anime the voice actor for Pegasus/Helios is a different actor. This wasn’t a huge surprise. Chris Niosi voiced Pegasus in Viz’s dub of the original Sailor Moon anime a few years ago. Since then he was target of some abuse allegations and, following his own admission of his role in such and other events, he was recast in many of the roles which he had been working on. Brian Beacock takes over as Helios in this series. Since the character did not previously appear in Sailor Moon Crystal this isn’t technically a recasting of the role however this is an outlier with most other actors returning. Brian Beacock previously voiced Ail/Seijurou in Viz’s dub of Sailor Moon R!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru, Chibiusa and Usagi in bed

The girls find a couple of kaleidoscope toys which Mamoru is disappointed to have to buy. These are about $10 which is certainly more expensive than some cheap kaleidoscopes but considerably cheaper than the replica kaleidoscope toy which sells in Japan for roughly $300 US! I guess Mamoru got a real deal there, not to mention they end up being magical items. Not wanting to open up a rift in time and space in the middle of a crowded park the girls opt to spend the night at Mamoru’s, something which is hardly new to either of them. While going to bed Chibiusa and Usagi both wish they were the opposite’s age and if anyone of you grew up in the 80s and 90s I’m sure you’ve seen how this movie plays out!

Sailor Moon SuperS Special - Lilica Hubert

Chibiusa protests going to bed. This is a habit I am very familiar with as I have two children, the oldest of which was conceived around the time of the last episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. No relation between those events. She asks Mamoru for a story saying that she used to get these from her parents back in the future. The examples she gives are stories about robots and vampires. Wow! Are these real stories??? I suppose technically the Droids from Sailor Moon R are like robots but I wouldn’t describe them as such and those come from the future. Vampires? In the manga we get a side story about a vampire girl named Lilica. It seems unlikely Chibiusa’s parents told her this story as it’s one that Chibiusa herself experienced, unless they’re really trying to mess her up by telling her stories about her own future which took place in their past. Time travel!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Chibiusa wakes up

So Pegasus shows up looking for a maiden with beautiful dreams and a major plot point here is that we don’t really know if the Princess is Minako or Usagi. Sorry we don’t know if the maiden is Chibiusa or Usagi. At this point we think it’s Chibiusa. Pegasus appears with sound effects that seem right out of Sailor Moon SuperS! An odd choice.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Usagi and Chibiusa encounter a tiger

The next morning there’s a tiger loose in the Juban shopping district. What an odd problem that does not on the surface appear to be related to any sort of evil villain at all. It’s been six months since the Death Busters were defeated and it’s evident that neither Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon or any other Sailor Guardians have transformed since. For some reason instead of leaving this escaped circus tiger problem to animal control or maybe the local police the girls decide that they should of course transform? Are they actually equipped to fight a tiger? If they happened upon a bank robbery would they just transform and take down the robbers? Does this mean that, to be consistent with their behaviour, they should monitor a police scanner and fight crimes like Batman? The whole situation seems odd. Anyway it doesn’t work since the grail isn’t around because Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto aren’t there. Luckily they get some new transformation broaches which is good because animal control still hasn’t shown up.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and Small Usagi

They transform into Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon right away. No two stages of transformation needed at this point. Convenient! They get a bunch of news toys. Chibi Moon gets a bell that makes the SuperS sound effect and they both have their $10 kaleidoscopes transform into Kaleidomoon scopes. They fight a could of the Amazoness Quartet, who unlike the Amazon Trio are the main villains of this story arc, and PallaPalla swaps their ages, with hilarious consequences!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Small Usagi and Big Chibiusa

I feel like the age swap, in the manga and in this movie, was oddly brief. It could be a major plot point with serious consequences. Instead it’s treated a bit as a joke and a bit of “be careful what you wish for” type wisdom which really is silly since people can’t wish for things. Mamoru and Usagi have this really weird moment where they express how awkward their age difference is. It seems there’s a limit to the age gap! Older Chibiusa seems to have some sort of revelation that she can’t hook up with her father. The two seem concerned and frustrated trying to find a solution which turns out to be … just transform again? Really no one tried this? So we’re okay with transforming to be scabs for animal control but when their fundamental ability to fight an active threat in town is in question they don’t even test their transformations? A bit weak! Seeing young Usagi is nice, though we will see her again later, and seeing not evil older Chibiusa is kind of cool.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and young Usagi

Then things really start to seem like a series of episodes and we cut from one character’s story to another. The manga frequently does this in a number of arcs, having a story focus on a certain character. This works well when they are broken up into individual comic acts or TV episodes. In the movie however it’s very obvious that these are a number of stories stitched together. I appreciate the faithfulness to the source material but there is a down side. These aren’t totally contained, with the age swap story bleeding into the Ami’s family sucks story and such, but we can see the obvious separation.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Ami's parents

First up is Sailor Mercury and her terrible parents! Ami’s mother works too hard and is never home. This isn’t totally horrible. One can hardly expect a single mother to quit her job so that she can spend more time with her daughter, who’s out studying and fighting crime most of the time anyway, but it does seem like Ami has a rough home life. Ami’s socially awkward mother happens to be the significantly better parent as her hippie father just took off for not so clear reasons, sent some divorce papers in the mail and doesn’t seem to want to have much to do with his daughter. He makes hollow gestures like sending her paintings of fish which does little to make up for his lack of support. Perhaps if he paid child support Ami’s mother wouldn’t have to work graveyard shifts most nights. Ami meets little fairy Mercury, learns a bit about herself and gets these little shoulder pads. Shoulder pads were bit in the 90s but in 2021 no one really has shoulder pads anymore.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Pegasus kisses Chibiusa

Meanwhile Chibiusa has this whole weird thing with Pegasus who spends a lot less time under the pretence of being a horse in this continuity. We’re pretty late in Sailor Moon SuperS before we discover that this horse Pegasus is actually a dude named Helios but in this continuity we learn it pretty quickly. We don’t really think of him as Pegasus for long. We have the humourous scene where Chibiusa kisses a horse but then he turns into Helios. Whatever. At least she’s not making out with her dad again.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei's sexy grandpa

On to the next “episode” of our lives. It’s Rei’s turn! Her grandfather is sick and hot damn, he’s gorgeous! Fans of the original 90s Sailor Moon anime will recall Rei’s grandfather as a creepy old man who lusted after teenaged girls. Sailor Moon Eternal Rei’s grandfather, who looks somewhat like his manga counterpart, is a hunk! He has grey hair but still looks quite fit and youthful. I bet original anime Rei’s grandpa would have had more luck with the ladies if he looked like this! Someone has mentioned that he looks like Colonel Sanders in the parody dating sim I Love You, Colonel Sanders! and I think that fits perfectly. Superficial signs of age but still a youthful appearance. It’s like those men’s clothing catalogues that get young models with their hair died grey to wear their clothes.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - A mirror that doesn't reflect

Rei wanders into a house of mirrors and is really amazed that one of the mirrors isn’t reflecting an image. Is this really that weird? Isn’t that just like… a piece of glass? Or even a wall? Non reflective surfaces are by far the norm in the natural and unnatural world but Rei assumes this is… magic? Super weird.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Deimos and Phobos

We see a young and cute Rei meeting Phobos and Deimos for the first time. She can converse with them somehow and instantly knows their names. We get the humanoid Phobos and Deimos reveal which is something I’ve posted about extensively over the past six months but that still was considered enough of a spoiler that some dude on Twitter felt the need to publicly announce his unfollowing me for daring to reveal this 25 year old information. As I’d mentioned before there was always some confusion over the colours, which had been settled when the movies were released. As we see here Phobos is the fairy on the right, who is dressed in red, while Deimos is the one on the left, dressed in purple.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei and Tiger's Eye

Young Rei is cute but child bride Rei with Tiger’s eye is super creepy. When PUA Tiger’s Eye in the anime goes after mostly teenaged girls it’s a bit weird but when he’s with a full on a child it’s about as awkward as Mamoru and young Usagi!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei uses a bow right handed Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mars Flame Sniper

Finally let me rant a bit about handedness, which will be coming back in the next film. Rei’s Mars Flame Sniper has her pulling back the arrow with her left hand. This is the left handed way to hold a bow. We see young Rei doing archery in this story and she pulls back the arrow with her right hand, the correct way for a right handed person. This seems like a mistake. What’s the issue here? Well it would go back to the 90s anime since many of the transformations and attacks in this movie are nearly identical to the ones we saw in Sailor Moon SuperS! Perhaps the person who animated that attack many years ago simply didn’t know much about archery.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 17 - Makoto's father was Brock from Pokémon

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 17

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Makoto's parents

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1

Makoto is the next to power up. The most notable change since the last Jupiter episode is the photo of her parents. We originally saw this during the Black Moon arc where I couldn’t help but notice that her late father looked suspiciously like Brock from Pokémon. We see this photo again but it’s changed slightly. The frame is different and though her mother and father are posed in the same way her father’s hair is evidently not Brock like at all and they aren’t wearing the same clothes. Why would Makoto have swapped out this photo with a nearly identical one? It’s not like it’s a new photo!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Sailor Jupiter slaps Makoto

Hawk’s Eye has set up an herb shop which Makoto is drawn to. She gets slapped by her little fairy Sailor Jupiter thing and then gets a weird crown of oak leaves, which leads to her power up and shoulder pads. If they’d had acid washed jeans as part of their power ups do you think we’d still be using them as part of their uniforms in newer incarnations?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru coughs

Meanwhile we learn more about Helios who comes from Elysion which I suspect could be in the Hollow Earth but I’ll discuss that more at length in my Part 2 review. Mamoru is sick, couching up blood. It’s a bit troubling to see characters with an infectious lung disease given the ongoing pandemic. This is all caused by magic since Mamoru has a black rose inside of him but that doesn’t really explain why others are catching this disease or why Mamoru seems to be the only one who remains sick.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Artemis gazes at Minako lovingly

Finally, Minako still doesn’t have her shoulder pads and for whatever reason all of the other girls sort of assume she should have them. This whole plot reminds me a bit of how in Sailor Moon S of the original anime Minako was the last to be targeted for her Pure Heart and she felt self conscious about it. A scene where Artemis is staring at Minako in the shower is cut down for the film. Originally Diana mentions the way he’s looking at her which upsets Luna. I suppose the film is trying to downplay the Artemis/Minako shipping.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Human Artemis

Minako decides she wants to be an idol, which is the plot of another handful of original anime episodes, and this seems to be done via an MXC style competition which is extremely dangerous. Indeed Minako ends up falling to her death saved only by Artemis who turns human! This is one of the big spoilerish reveals of the movies! We’d seen Human Luna before but this is the first time we see animated Human Artemis! As a change from the manga we see the end of Minako’s story and her transformation and new attack. This moves the scenes showing us what has been going on with Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna to the second film.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Human Artemis and Sailor Venus

Roll credits! I can’t read any of this but it’s worth noting that Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for Sailor Moon Eternal, plays here in the credits. I expected it would be the opening theme (and may even have claimed that it was) so I was a bit surprised to see these movies don’t have actual openings. Next is Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute or Wanting To Be Together With You which is a cover of the first ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS, which seems fitting here. This particular version is performed by Sailor Moon veteran Yoko Ishida.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Hotaru

There’s a brief post credits scene which shows us Hotaru and gives us a hint at what we’ll see next!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Ami, Rei and Makoto

All around I enjoyed the first film, despite some sort of odd pacing that isn’t really meant to be told in movie format. I might have preferred to see this as a series of episodes which would have had a slightly longer run time but perhaps the animation wouldn’t have been as good in that case. This movie looks great and is a considerable improvement on what we saw in the first 26 episodes. It’s very difficult for me to think of this as one single movie as I was able to, along with every else who first saw these films on Netflix, watch both parts at once. If I saw this in theatres would I have been annoyed at having to wait until the next part? I don’t know. In Japan the time between the two films was barely more than a month.

What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments! I’ll get to posting a Part 2 review at some point.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this film.

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The Sailor Moon Eternal movies are now streaming on Netflix!

Sailor Moon Eternal on NetflixSailor Moon Eternal on Netflix

It’s June 3rd and the Sailor Moon Eternal films are finally available outside of Japan! The two movies, Part 1 and Part 2, are streaming in countries around the world in a number of languages on Netflix. This started at 12:01am Pacific Time, 3:01am Eastern Time and, regardless of your time zone, it’s out now! Go watch it! If you like it, watch it again!

Sailor Moon Eternal - A Netflix Anime Film

The Sailor Moon Eternal movies have been out in theatres in Japan since the start of the year. Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 was released on January 8th and Part 2 followed on February 11th. Fans have been patiently waiting for the release outside of Japan. It seems like it’s been forever that we’ve been waiting but, all considered, we’ve been less than five months since the Japanese theatrical release of the films. We can now watch the movies in our own homes!

Sailor Moon Eternal poster

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Poster

A retweet campaign is being done to reveal the Sailor Moon Eternal box art

Sailor Moon Eternal Blu-ray cover - Sailor Pluto and Saturn

The Sailor Moon movie Twitter account is running a retweet campaign where every 630 times a tweet is shared, two new characters on the Sailor Moon Eternal DVD and Blu-ray box art will be revealed! As of now we have seen the first image which includes Sailor Pluto and Saturn. Fans should retweet this tweet, which is embedded below, to make this happen sooner.

Seeing as the Tweet has already been shared over 3,200 times as I write this post and there are only five images to be released, I think the hard work is done! Fives times 630 is 3,150 so I expect all goals have been reached. The account and official site mention that on the day after hitting a milestone a new image will be released. It’s not clear at this point if we should expect one new image every day or if they’ll just reveal the last image tomorrow as the highest level of retweets was met. 630 is a reference to the June 30th release date of the movies on home video. This isn’t a terribly high bench mark! The Sailor Moon official account frequently achieves thousands of shares for many of their posts without needed to motivate people with these kind of rewards. Below is a breakdown of what characters will be revealed with each milestone.

    1: Eternal Sailor Pluto and Eternal Sailor Saturn (630 retweets)
    2: Eternal Sailor Uranus and Eternal Sailor Neptune (1260 retweets)
    3: Eternal Sailor Jupiter and Eternal Sailor Venus (1890 retweets)
    4: Eternal Sailor Mercury and Eternal Sailor Mars (2520 retweets)
    5: Eternal Sailor Moon and Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon (3150 retweets)

Sailor Moon Eternal Blu-ray cover - Silhouettes

Worth noting is that the box art is square. Atypical for a Blu-ray or DVD release however the previous Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-ray sets have all been square. The season 3 sets were smaller than the earlier much larger boxes, but they were all square.

Fans looking to import this Japanese Blu-ray or DVD set now have the option to pre-order them from Amazon Japan. I had issues ordered a few things from the site recently as they always showed that they weren’t in stock but pre-orders are now available for a number of DVD and Blu-ray options. There are a number of price points depending on what kind of bonus items will be included. I opted for the limited edition Blu-ray without the pre-order incentives because I had trouble justifying paying $30 for a file folder and another $30 for a lithograph. But if you’re really cheap just put that money towards a Netflix subscription and watch the movie there.

Keep and eye out on the official site, news site and movie Twitter account to see the new images shared every day. I don’t expect I’ll be updating the site or this post with every individual image, but I’ll probably retweet them on my own Twitter account.

The Sailor Moon Eternal films will be released this Thursday, June 3rd, at 3:01am Eastern Time

Usagi tired

We’ve known for some time that both Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and 2 will be released on Netflix June 3rd. For those planning to watch it as early as possible you may have been wondering when exactly that might be! Netflix generally releases all of their new content at 12:01am Pacific Time. I happen to live in the Eastern Time Zone, a fairly populace area, so it will be available at 3:01am Eastern Time. To be more specific Netflix uses Pacific Time and so since that currently uses Pacific Daylight Time and not Pacific Standard Time, that is what will be used. With Sailor Moon Crystal episodes being released using Japanese time in the past this caused some confusion when Daylight Savings Time began and ended as it changed the time of episodes’ release to those who change their clocks!

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 28 - Usagi and Chibiusa sleeping

The Sailor Moon Eternal films will cover the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon Manga which deal with the Dead Moon Circus. This was previously adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS in the original Sailor Moon anime. These movies are a continuation of Sailor Moon Crystal which previously adapted the first three story arcs of the manga as episodes.

Sailor Moon episode 9 - How did Luna tie this clock to herself?

At what time do you plan on watching the movies? Will you try to catch them when they first become available in your time zone or will you wait until later in the day?

Details for the Sailor Moon Eternal Japanese Blu-ray and DVD have been revealed

Sailor Moon Eternal poster

The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with details about the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal home video release which is coming on June 30th, Usagi’s birthday. We previously mentioned that there were a number of versions of this release, including the Limited Edition DVD and Blu-ray releases which are packed with extras. The bare bones versions of both the DVD and Blu-ray do not appear to have any of the extra features but instead simply include the two Sailor Moon Eternal films.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Poster

Both the four disc limited edition DVD and Blu-ray have similar features with the Blu-ray obviously having HD 1080p video while the DVD has a standard definition, almost certainly 480p, video. The contents are as follows:

  • Disc 1: The actual movies, both on a single disc, with audio commentary provided by Misato Fuken, the voice of Chibiusa, and Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, on both films. Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2’s commentary also features Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, the voice of Helios/Pegasus.
  • Disc 2: Bonus features which includes a music video for the character song “Moon Effect”, a collection of promotional videos for the film, footage of the film’s premiere, a video of an Amazon Trio night, a completion report interview (?), a stage greeting (?) and interviews with Chiaki Kon, the director of the films, and Kazuko Tadano, character designer and animation director of the films. I don’t understand what all of these features will be.
  • CD 1 and 2 are still only described as being the Sailor Moon Eternal drama collection and will include the movie versions of Moon Color Chainon and Moon Effect. This certainly isn’t enough to fill two audio CDs so I think it’s safe to say we don’t have all of the details we could have about these.
  • A special booklet measuring 28cm x 17.5 cm or roughly 11″ x 7″.

Ultimately a lot of these features are very much in Japanese and audio or dialogue centric making them difficult for fans who don’t actually speak Japanese to get much out of. With the movies coming to Netlix weeks before this video release this might not be a worthwhile purchase for everyone!

While I usually order my Sailor Moon videos and CDs from Amazon Japan, this has become impossible lately. This release is not in stock and I don’t know if it ever will be. CD Japan seems to be a popular option with fans. I can’t say I enjoy paying more in shipping and import fees than the actual price of a product. There are also versions with pre-order exclusive bonuses such as figures which are even harder to get outside of Japan. There are proxy services which will allow you to get these. I don’t have much experience with these.

Are you looking to pick up this set? If so, where are you planning to buy it from?

The Sailor Moon Eternal movies will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on June 30th!

Sailor Moon Eternal Blu-ray and DVD

A great gift is coming for Usagi’s 43rd birthday as both Sailor Moon Eternal films will be released on one DVD and Blu-ray set June 30th. The news follows Netflix’s announcement that the movies will be streaming worldwide on their service on June 3rd. There will be a more expensive 3 disc Blu-ray (or DVD) and CD combo or a less expensive but still expensive single disc version. A trailer for the home video release was shared to the official site. You can watch it below.

Though we don’t have a lot of details about the special features the more or less bare bones release appears to be just a Blu-ray, or DVD, of the film itself. The single disc Blu-ray will cost 9,800 yen, about $90 US, while the DVD will cost 8,800 yen, about $81 US. The first run limited edition Blu-Ray set will include the disc with the films, a bonus Blu-ray disc who’s contents have not yet been specified, two CDs which will include songs from the film as well as some drama tracks and a booklet. Drama CDs usually include audio of the characters, performed by the voice actors, along with songs. In this case the songs are Moon Color Chainon, the opening theme for the film, and Moon Effect, one of the character songs which feature the entire film’s cast. The exact content of these CDs remains to be determined. There have been a number of Sailor Moon drama CDs released in the past though they’re not of much use to fans who can’t understand Japanese. This Blu-ray set will cost 15,000 yen, about $138 US. The DVD version is 14,000 yen, about $129 US.

Sailor Moon Eternal Blu-ray and DVD

Note that Japanese Blu-ray discs are region A which is the same region as North America. I have imported many Sailor Moon Blu-ray discs and they play without issue on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game systems which were bought in Canada. Japanese DVDs are region 2 NTSC discs and are incompatible with North American region 1 DVD players, unless they are region free. These sets will almost certainly not have any English subtitles or audio.

There are also vendor specific pre-order bonuses from specific retailers. Some are included with the base price but some others are included for a premium price. For Amazon Japan the free pre-order bonus is an A4 sized file folder featuring Sailor Uranus and Neptune. The premium pre-order bonuses are a framed lithograph (high quality printed image) and a Luna and Artemis mug set. There are not currently any pictures of these items. The sets are currently being shown as being out of stock on Amazon Japan. I’ve had issues preordering a number of their recent CD sets. We will be sure to share some links once other purchasing options are available.

There are also a number of Sailor Moon figures as pre-order bonuses. A set of the five Sailor Guardians in Eternal outfits is available with what I believe is the official fan club. A different set with Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon and the Sailor Quartet is available from the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store. (Update 2021-05-03: It seems the King e-shop and Sailor Moon Store figures are of Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto and not the Sailor Quartet. I misinterpreted the half broken translation I was reading.)

Do you plan on picking up any of these sets? With the movies streaming on Netflix in early June many fans will have had the opportunity to see the films before this is released. It is also likely that we will eventually get a much less expensive domestic release of these films, though it’s hard to say when that might be. While the bonus video and booklet certainly do seem appealing I look forward to getting more details of what this includes before deciding if these are worth the price! What do you think?

The Sailor Moon Eternal movies are coming to Netflix worldwide on June 3rd!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie - Only on Netflix June 3rd

We finally have official confirmation of something we’ve suspected for a long time. The Sailor Moon Eternal films are coming to Netflix! Both Part 1 and Part 2 will be released worldwide on the streaming service in many languages on June 3rd! Watch the announcement trailer which includes Sailor Moon voice actors from around the world and some odd music which is absolutely not in the actual movie.

A listing for the film is also now up on Netflix. It is mentioned to be a double feature but it isn’t clear if this will be one amalgamated movie or if both parts will be released separately. With Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 having been released in theatres in Japan on January 8th of this year the worldwide release will take place nearly five months later. Fans have been waiting for a date for the Netflix release for a while. The fact that the movies were coming to Netflix for international audiences outside of Japan has been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie on Netflix

The first hint that Netflix would be dubbing the series goes back to November with the Astro Girl fiasco. A listing showed up on the Screen Actors Guild web site suggesting that “Astro Girl: (Aka: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie)” was being done with a “Netflix dubbing agreement”. The simplest interpretation of this was that Netflix was dubbing the series, which we now know to be correct. At the time I classified this as a rumour.

The next hint came in December as a voice actor accidentally shared a photo which unbeknownst to him revealed a monitor in the background showing an image of the Amazoness Quartet and the words “Property of Netflix”. As this voice actor previously voiced Tiger’s Eye in Sailor Moon SuperS it seemed evident that he was reprising his role in Sailor Moon Eternal. At this point I thought there was no longer any doubt that the movies would be released on Netflix. The only question remaining was when. We now have that answer!

Finally in January there was a Facebook post by a Spanish voice actor of Tuxedo Mask who straight up stated that he recorded Sailor Moon Eternal and thanked Netflix for bringing him and some other Spanish voice actors back to reprise their roles. This not only served as further confirmation of the already evident fact that Sailor Moon Eternal would appear on Netflix, but that it was also being dubbed in a number of other languages. We can now see from the trailer that this is in fact the case!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie on Netflix

For those of you who would only be satisfied by the most official of official statements, here it is! Please don’t mind my saying I told you so!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie

It’s worth noting that the trailer also includes a brief clip of Kotono Mitsuishi performing Sailor Moon’s voice in Japanese which suggests that fans will have the option to watch the movie in the original Japanese with subtitles in addition to the dub language of their choosing.

Are you already subscribed to Netflix? If not, will you be signing up in order to see these films?

An album of Sailor Moon Eternal character songs was released today, February 10th

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Cover

A new CD featuring character songs went on sale today, February 10th, in Japan. The full title of the album is “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection”. Character songs are hardly new to Sailor Moon! These are songs which are performed by voice actors from the series as those characters. I don’t know what, if any, of these songs will actually appear in the films. Often character song don’t actually appear in the film or series they’re associated with but in some cases they have.

The album is available to stream on a number of platforms. Many of these, including Spotify, are restricted only to users in those areas. Apple Music allowed me to play 90 seconds of each track which gives a nice impression of most songs. This was a longer preview than I found on any other servies.

Update: You can stream the entire album on Spotify!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Luxury Edition

You can also order this from online stores. I usually order my Sailor Moon CDs from Amazon Japan but for whatever reason this album is not in stock. It is available to order from CD Japan for 3500 yen, $33.50 US. There are two versions of the album. The “cheaper” version, which is still expensive by North American standards, has an MSRP of 3500 yen. The “Luxury Edition” costs over double that price with an MSRP of 7800 yen, almost $75 US. This comes with a “Moon Crisis Bangle”, which is a nice word for bracelet, as well as a ticket to the Eternal Weekend Party event in Japan on March 21st. Needless to say I don’t expect that this version of the album would have much appeal to fans outside of Japan.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection - Vendor Exclusive Bonuses

There are a number of vendor specific bonuses for those particular retailers. These include things like stickers, magnets and file folders.

The album has quite a large number of tracks by many of the actors in the films. This includes all of the Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, the Amazoness Quartet and the Amazon Trio. For the individual tracks all Sailor Guardians are credited as Super Sailor ___ while in the final track which includes all Sailor Guardians they are all credited as Eternal Sailor ___. A full track list with character and actors is included below.

1. ETERNAL MYSTAR by Kotono Mitsuishi as Super Sailor Moon
2. formula in blue by Hisako Kanemoto as Super Sailor Mercury
3. Signpost by Rina Sato as Super Sailor Mars
4. Don’t Look Back by Ami Koshimizu as Super Sailor Jupiter
5. I’m gonna be an IDOL! by Shizuka Ito as Super Sailor Venus
6. Dream colored fist love by Misato Fukuen as Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Helios
7. Astral Mission by Junko Minagawa as Super Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Ohara as Super Sailor Neptune, Ai Maeda as Super Sailor Pluto and Yukiyo Fujii as Super Sailor Saturn
8. Welcome to the circus by Reina Ueda as CereCere, Sumire Morohoshi as PallaPalla, Yuko Hara as JunJun and Rie Takahashi as VesVes
9. Dream’s Eyes by Satoshi Hino as Tiger’s Eye, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Hawk’s Eye and Shota Aoi as Fish Eye
10. Ray of light by Kenji Nojima as Tuxedo Mask
11. Moon Effect by Kotono Mitsuishi as Eternal Sailor Moon, Misato Fukuen as Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon, Hisako Kanemoto as Eternal Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato as Eternal Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu as Eternal Sailor Jupiter, Shizuka Ito as Eternal Sailor Venus, Junko Minagawa as Eternal Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Ohara as Eternal Sailor Neptune, Ai Maeda as Eternal Sailor Pluto and Yukiyo Fujii as Eternal Sailor Saturn

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 is already out in theatres in Japan with Part 2 coming out tomorrow, February 11th. Fans are still awaiting some confirmation of when we might be able to see the films outside of Japan. Though it seems likely the movies will be streamed on Netflix, there has been no indication of when that might be.

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

The Moon Color Chainon Animation Music Video shows us many spoilers for the Sailor Moon Eternal films

Sailor Moon Eternal - Young Rei

Sailor Moon Eternal is now out in Japanese theatres. Those of us outside of Japan are still hoping for news of when the movie will be out in their area. If you’re looking for a 4 minute and 20 second video which gives clips from throughout the entire movie I’ve got some good news for you! An “Animation Music Video” of the Momoiro Clover Z song Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for Sailor Moon Eternal, has been released. The entire video is footage from Sailor Moon Eternal. This seems to be mostly from Part 1 but it seems like this includes some scenes from Part 2. This is a mix of old footage and a ton of newer footage not in previously trailers and officially released clips. Be warned there’s everything in this. Every character people got annoyed at me for posting screencaps of is in this. If you haven’t read the Dream arc of the manga and don’t want to be spoiled for the films, don’t watch the clip which I’ve embedded below!

Of course at this point none of this is “new” footage as the first movie is actually out. I haven’t seen the film yet! I’m really looking forward to seeing a decent version of it, hopefully on Netflix some time soon, but I haven’t been watching the low quality cam footage which can be found if you spend a bit of time looking.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Deimos and Phobos

I figure this video is also on the Blu-Ray which comes with the Moon Color Chainon CD/Blu-Ray combo which came out a couple of days ago. My copy of both of the albums is in the mail somewhere in Cincinnati and I’ll be doing a review after I receive it at some point. I’ve got a big move coming up so my posting may slack a bit in the next few weeks but I’ll get around to it when I can.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Cats getting shit done

Lots of fun stuff in here! What’s your favourite part? Young Rei and Usagi are very cute. Human Artemis and fairy Phobos and Deimos are cool! Chibiusa kissing the horse is always funny. Those cats are looking bad ass!

Sailor Moon Eternal - Chibiusa kisses a horse

Keep reading for more screenshots from this clip.

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