The fourth complete season set of the original Sailor Moon anime is now out on Blu-ray! Sailor Moon SuperS The Complete Fourth Season was released on January 30th in stores and online. You can buy the set from Amazon to support the site. Previously the season had been split up into two instalments but we now have it all together as one set. These newer releases have generally been of better quality than the older sets. That said as the seasons went on the quality of the original sets improved, so the difference between this release and the earlier one is likely to be less noticeable than other seasons.

If you’ve been following The Discourse these sets also have a pinkish hue which you may never have noticed until people started to make a deal about it. It’s something that’s visible with side by side screenshots but nothing I ever made much notice of while watching the series.

Sailor Moon SuperS mainly focuses on Chibiusa as she befriends Pegasus and the girls face off against the Dead Moon Circus. This is an adaptation of the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga. It isn’t the strongest or most popular season but it does have some solid episodes and redeeming qualities such as the humourous monster designs. I’m looking forward to rewatching these episodes.

Did you pick up this set? What do you think of it?

Great news for Sailor Moon fans who don’t want to spend money on physical media but don’t mind spending money on streaming video services. The new Viz English dub of Sailor Moon SuperS is now available on Hulu! The subbed version has been on Hulu for many years, but the dubbed episodes have only been released some time after the home video releases were sold in stores. I’m not sure exactly when this happened but it seems it was recently. I frequently received questions from fans asking when SuperS will be out on Hulu, so I know some people had been waiting for it! Earlier today I stumbled upon this article from Variety which listed “Sailor Moon: Season 4″ as being released on October 1st. When I doubled checked Hulu’s list of October releases, Sailor Moon was not listed, however the dubbed episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS were already streaming on the site.

As a Canadian I don’t have the option to watch Hulu without some sort of proxy and I’m not going to bother paying for something which is that much trouble. Other streaming options exist in Canada, such as TubiTV, but that service does not offer the dubbed episodes which stream on Hulu. Fans can also watch subbed episodes on Viz.com but this also doesn’t include the dubbed episodes. Until recently Yahoo View! was a free option for content which used to stream for free on Hulu but the service ceased in June of this year.

If like me you’re holding out on moving forward with the digital and streaming revolution you can listen to Viz’s Sailor Moon dub by buying the seasons using the links below.

The next season of Sailor Moon will be released on Blu-Ray in Japan as Sailor Moon SuperS Part 1 and 2 are scheduled to be released. Part 1 will cost 19,800 yen, about $180 US, and be released on May 8th while Part 2 will cost 14,800 yen, about $135 US, and will be out on July 10th. These prices are probably a bit higher than what it will ultimately cost. Both sets are up for pre-order from Amazon for a bit less. There are two versions listed there, as is the case with other retailers, where the one with the vendor exclusive incentives cost significantly more. Note that these are Japanese releases with no English audio or subtitles. If the other seasons are any indicators they are of decent quality compared to the North American releases but still a software upscaled version of standard definition sources. Japan, like North America, is region A so these will play in a North American off the shelf Blu-Ray player or PlayStation system.

According to the TOEI web site each of the sets includes 22 episodes which is almost certainly incorrect. Sailor Moon SuperS is episode 128 to 166, a total of 39 episodes. The price discrepancy between the sets likely indicates that there are more episodes on volume 1 than volume 2, which has been the case with past sets. It’s likely that volume 1 includes 22 episodes, plus the Sailor Moon SuperS Special, while volume 2 includes the remaining 17 episodes. This would actually split the sets up quite well into the 22 episodes featuring the Amazon Trio and the 17 episodes featuring the Amazoness Quartet. The Amazon Japan listing states the length of volume 1 to be 573 minutes, which accounts for 22 episodes plus the hour long special, while volume 2 is stated to be 405 minutes, which would account for 17 episodes. This assumes roughly 24 minutes per episode without commercials.

Other special features are sparse as always. We have the 15 second commercials for each episode as well as the lower quality (non super) creditless opening and ending credits. Since Sailor Moon SuperS has two ending themes one would assume that each set will have one of the end credits.

As always there are a bunch of vendor exclusive incentives. These include posters, stickers and other little knick knacks. In some cases these will come with each volume but with others you have to buy each. This is an annoyance for me as I do not live in Japan and the exclusives needing both volumes aren’t shipped with either order but need to be ordered separately. There are individual images of all of the exclusives below.

The Official Fan Club exclusive is an A4 sized (8.27″×11.7″) sticker sheet for the individual volumes as well as the laser disc box sized poster for those buying both versions. Note that this is for the Japanese Sailor Moon fan club and not the International fan club.

The Seven Net exclusive for volume 1 is an acrylic plate, something which we used to refer to as pencil boards, a small hard sort of poster. The volume 2 exclusive is a B2 sized (19.7″×27.8″) tapestry.

The Amazon Japan exclusive requires buying both volumes and includes a lunch tote (a small bag) and an A4 sized (8.27″x11.7″) tapestry.

The Animate exclusive, coming with the purchase of both volumes, is an “acrylic key holder” which is a sort of laminated card which I guess you could put your keys on if you didn’t actually want to put them in your pocket.

Finally the Neowing exclusive are large A2 sized (16.5″×23.4″) cloth posters. There’s one that’s included with each volume.

Actress Karyn Dwyer who provided the voice of BesuBesu or VesVes of the Amazoness Quartet in the original English dub of Sailor Moon, died last week on September 25th. Born in Newfoundland Karyn Dwyer starred in many TV series and movies which were filmed in Canada. She lived in Toronto where she worked on Sailor Moon. She is well known for her starring role in the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate.

VesVes, named after the asteroid Vesta, went by the name BesuBesu in the English dub which Karyn Dwyer voiced the character in. My deepest condolences to Karyn Dwyer’s friends and family. Her contribution to Sailor Moon will be remembered with fondness by her fans.

Source: Pop Goes The News

Sailor Moon SuperS Part 2 has been officially announced. It is set to be released on November 13th. We have a good look at the box art which was posted on RightStuf where the set is available for pre-order. As I understand it this set was announced at the Moon Panel at Anime Expo last weekend. Though I did not attend or watch this panel I did attempt to follow along with #moonpanel on Twitter but I didn’t see anything related to this mentioned. Since SuperS Part 1 was released in April of this year this is a decent turnaround between sets. Fans have certainly had to wait longer between releases before! Let’s hope that the Sailor Stars sets aren’t far behind!

Pre-orders from RightStuf will include the postcards you can see in the image above. These postcards feature the Sailor Team, Chibiusa, Zirconia, Nehelenia, Helios, the Amazon Trio and the Amazoness Quartet. Are you planning to get this set?

Thanks to Chad for bringing this to my attention.

Sailor Moon SuperS Part 1 will be out on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 24th. Those looking to pre-order it should be careful to get the right version. I often get these from Amazon however the Special Edition is hard to find on the site. The Amazon listing for the product only includes the DVD and Regular Edition Blu-Ray but there is a separate page with no box art which has the Special Edition Blu-Ray. This includes a box to house both volumes and a special booklet. The set can also be pre-ordered from Right Stuf. They have Special Edition Blu-Ray, Standard Edition Blu-Ray and DVD copies listed on their site.

As is often the case with such a release Viz has given us a sneak peak at a lot of the voices in the form of some videos. These ones were posted to the Viz Media Twitter account as well as their YouTube channel. This includes a full trailer showing various characters and a couple of clips of the Amazon Trio. You can watch them embedded below:

We also recently got cast information about Sailor Moon SuperS Part 2! Long ago we learned about the actors appearing in Part 1 but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago at Anime Boston that we finally got an announcement of who would be voicing Queen Nehelenia (now spelled Nehalennia) and the Amazoness Quartet. This was confirmed on Twitter. The Amazon Quartet take the place of the Amazon Trio as the season’s villains once their story arc is completed. The cast includes Laura Post as Queen Nehalennia, Erica Lindbeck as Ves-Ves, Xanthe Huynh as Palla-Palla, Erika Ishii as Jun-Jun and Cassandra Lee Morris as Cere-Cere. Cassandra Lee Morris previously voiced Calaveras of the Ayakashi Sisters in Sailor Moon R.

Are you planning on picking up this set?

Fans waiting for Viz’s next Sailor Moon TV series release will need to be a little more patient. The release had originally been scheduled for April 10th, as we mentioned back in November, however some readers have noticed that pre-orders were being delayed until April 24th. Indeed the listings on Amazon and Right Stuf’s web sites now show an April 24th release date. After some concern in our comments section reader Drew reached out to Viz for clarification and they confirmed that the new release date for Sailor Moon SuperS Part 1 is in fact April 24th. This is only a two week delay but I know some fans have been waiting quite some time for this one!

I’m not aware of any reason given for the delay, though such things are not uncommon. Since there haven’t been any dubbed episodes released to stream yet this will be the first chance we get to hear Viz’s new Sailor Moon SuperS dub. It will also be the first time the Sailor Moon SuperS Special will be available in North America. This shows, amongst other things, what Haruka and Michiru were up to during the Sailor Moon SuperS season. Are you planning on picking up this set? You can pre-order it from Amazon using the link below.

Yesterday was Sailor Moon Day at Anime NYC. This included Viz’s Moon Panel, as is often the case with conventions Viz attends. The main thing announced at this panel was that Sailor Moon SuperS would be released on April 10th but we also learned about a new voice acting credit! Janis Carrol would voice Zirconia! That’s great! So who exactly is Janis Carrol? I saw some fans saying how happy they were to see her get the role as she had the perfect voice. This wasn’t a name I was familiar with but I actually was familiar with the actress. Janis Carrol is an alias for veteran screen and voice actor Barbara Goodson known best to many fans as the voice of Rita Repulsa from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Note that she only provided the English voice for that character. The actress who portrayed Witch Bandora in Zyurangers, which was adapted as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, was Machiko Soga who sadly passed away in 2006.

IMDB redirects searches for Janis Carrol to Barbara Goodson’s page. Why? Browsing through her credits we see the name Janis Carrol listed for a number of other Viz Media titles including Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. IMDB recognizes that this is another name she uses and redirects users to the appropriate page. Why, then, use this alias which isn’t all that well hidden for anyone trying to investigate? I don’t know for sure but some fans have speculated that this might have to do with union work. Some actors will have their name tied to a union and will use an alias for non union work. I don’t know if this is true in this particular case as I don’t know the specifics of how Viz hires their actors. There are many reasons for which a person may use an alias for certain jobs.

Barbara Goodson previously voiced a few single episode roles in Viz Media’s dub of Sailor Moon R. This includes the monster Falion, a lion Cardian who attacked Sailor Jupiter and her friend in episode 49, as well as the kindergarden teacher, from episode 52 when Minako was protecting a bunch of school children. IMDB lists both of these on their Sailor Moon SuperS page which has a Sailor Moon S Movie image because they’re a bit of a mess. This site used to have a different page for the English dub and it’s generally very difficult to distinguish casts from various dubs on the site.

Barbara Goodson has also provided the voice of a number of other anime characters throughout the years. I remember her mostly from the English version of the anime series Teknoman, originally called Tekkaman Blade, where she played Star as well as the voices of Doris in Vampire Hunter D and some voices in Akira. These were things I was watching around the time Power Rangers was on and I was amazed at how little she sounded like Rita Repulsa in these roles.

We still have not gotten any voice actor information for Queen Nehellenia who first appears in episode 148. Since Sailor Moon SuperS Part 1 only goes up to episode 146 that means we won’t actually be hearing Queen Nehellenia or the Amazoness Quartet in this release, which is likely why we have no voice actor information for them. Since Zirconia and Queen Nehellenia are similar characters, with Zirconia being interpreted as some sort of reflection or alternate version of Queen Nehellenia by some, it is possible that they will have the same voice actors. Since Barbara Goodson is able to portray a range of characters, having her do both roles would work quite well. This is certainly not guaranteed however as different voice actors have portrayed these two characters in other versions.

Yesterday was Sailor Moon Day at Anime NYC in Manhattan. Viz Media held a Moon Panel with the cast of the English dub of Sailor Moon at which they revealed long awaited details about Sailor Moon SuperS on home video! The Blu-Ray and DVD release will be out April 10th and is currently available for pre-order from Right Stuf for $71.99. A Right Stuf exclusive coin is included for the Limited Edition. Though the release isn’t named “Part 1″ the episodes listed are only episodes 128 to 146, the first 19 episodes of the season, even though Sailor Moon SuperS runs up to episode 166, leaving 20 episodes for the eventual second part.

Fans who attended the panel mentioned that the set would also include the Sailor Moon SuperS Special though this isn’t specified on the product listing. This special has never seen a release in English before. The Sailor Moon SuperS Special originally aired on Japanese TV between Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 131 and 132. Since it’s not standard episode length and doesn’t have an episode number it isn’t really considered to be part of the show proper. It also doesn’t continue the story of the Dead Moon Circus but instead involves a few flashbacks and some side stories. The first side story shows us what Sailor Uranus and Neptune were up to during this season and the other tells the story of a Vampire girl Lilica who is one of Chibiusa’s classmates. This story is an adaptation of the first of Chibiusa’s Picture Diary from the manga. It makes sense to include these with the TV series if that is indeed what is going on here. The Japanese DVD release included the SuperS Special along with the first SuperS DVD. One would expect they will be doing the same when Sailor Moon SuperS gets its upcoming Blu-Ray release in Japan.

Update: A poster handed out at the event confirms that the “Never-before-seen TV Special” will be included in the set. This would be the Sailor Moon SuperS Special. This can be seen in photos of the pamphlet on Twitter. Thanks to Liza from our Facebook page for finding this confirmation.

https://www.rightstufanime.com/Sailor-Moon-Super-S-Limited-Edition-Blu-ray-DVD

A CD collecting music from the Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Classic Concert is coming December 6th! This concert, where the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performed songs from various Sailor Moon series, took place in Japan on August 2nd and 3rd at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. This album will be released in Japan but is available to order online from sites such as Amazon Japan and CD Japan. The price is 3500 yen which is about $33 US.

The album collects mostly opening and ending themes from all five seasons of the original Sailor Moon anime, a couple of songs from the musicals, a few songs from Sailor Moon Crystal and a bit of instrumental background music. Some songs are instrumental while others include vocals. A track listing is available on the Official Sailor Moon site. I’ve translated it and included it, and a description of where the songs are from, below for your convenience.

Disc 1:

1. Background Music
2. Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Opening theme for the original Sailor Moon anime
3. Ai No Senshi (Guardian of Love) – Song featured in Sailor Moon R episode 68 and Sailor Moon S episode 102
4. Heart Moving – Season 1 ending theme #1
5. Princess Moon – Season 1 ending theme #2
6. Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute (Wanting to Be Together With You) – Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme #1
7. Otome No Policy (Maiden’s Policy) – Sailor Moon R ending theme
8. “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll go with my looks) – Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme #2
9. Background Music for Sailor Uranus and Neptune
10. Eternal Eternity – Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 ending theme #1
11. Commercial Break Bumper Background Music

Disc 2:

1. Moon Prism Power Make Up! Background Music (Although the title is similar to that of a song from the original Sailor Moon anime this is the background music which plays when Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon)
2. Moon Revenge – Sailor Moon R The Movie theme
3. Tuxedo Mirage – Sailor Moon S ending theme
4. La Soldier – Song from many early Sailor Moon Musicals
5. Three Lights Medley: Todokanu Omoi -My Friend’s Love- (Unreachable Feelings: My Friend’s Love) and Nagareboshi he (To the Shooting Stars) – Two songs from Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
6. Ai No Starshine (Starshine of Love) – From the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal Musical
7. Moon Pride – First Sailor Moon Crystal opening theme
8. Gekkou (Moonbow) – First Sailor Moon Crystal ending theme
9. New Moon ni Koishite (In Love With the New Moon) – Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 opening theme
Encore. Sailor Stars Song – Sailor Moon Sailor Stars opening theme

In order to promote this release a four minute video of the concert has been released. You can watch it embedded below.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts on this album once it’s released.

Fans in Japan can get special exclusive incentives from various retailers. Amazon Japan and CD Japan are not included. One of the incentives is from the Official Sailor Moon Fan Club however this item does not appear to be available from the international Sailor Moon Fan Club.