A new trailer for the Sailor Moon Cosmos films has been released and this one includes the Sailor Starlights! We also have photos and names of the voice actors who will be portraying them and release dates for both parts of the films in June. In the trailer we see Seiya, Yaten and Taiki also known as the idol group The Three Lights as well as their Sailor Guardian counterparts The Sailor Starlights! You can watch the trailer on YouTube or embedded below.

We already knew that the Sailor Moon Cosmos films cover the Stars arc of the Sailor Moon manga in which the Sailor Starlights feature heavily so seeing them isn’t a surprise but it is nice to finally see them. They sure do look great! We have a few clips of Seiya and Usagi on a rooftop, many clips of the Three Lights as their civilian identities and a bit of transformation sequences and attacks for the Sailor Starlights. There’s also a bit of music, something that is likely to be an important part of the film as the Three Lights are an idol group who perform many songs. Manga is not a medium which lends itself to music but the original Sailor Moon anime had a lot of Three Lights songs, and these films surely will as well!

Seiya Kou, Sailor Star Fighter, will be voiced by Marina Inoue who has been an anime voice actor for nearly twenty years. She is known for having provided the voices of Armin Arlert from Attack on Titan, Momo Yaoyorozu from My Hero Academia and Cure March from Smile PreCure!

Taiki Kou, Sailor Star Maker, will be voiced by Saori Hayami, a voice actor and singer who’s been working for about 15 years. Her voice acting credits include Leona from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and Himawari Uzumaki from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Yaten Kou, Sailor Star Healer, will be voiced by Ayane Sakura, who’s been doing voice acting for about 12 years. Her roles include Ochaco Uraraka from My Hero Academia and Yae Miko from Genshin Impact.

Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 1 will be in theatres in Japan on June 9th followed by Part 2 on June 30th. There has not yet been a date announced for an international release.

What do you think of these designs?

Source: The Official Sailor Moon Site

Keep reading for more screenshots from this trailer.

The big news from the 30th Anniversary Streaming Event was the announcement of Sailor Moon Cosmos! The two films, Part 1 and Part 2 as was the case with Sailor Moon Eternal, will continue to Sailor Moon Crystal series and cover the Stars arc of the Sailor Moon manga. The current plan is to have these films come out in the summer of 2023 though delays are not completely uncommon with Sailor Moon Crystal. A trailer for the films was shown at the event and then posted on the Sailor Moon Official YouTube Channel. You can watch it embedded below.

The Stars arc is the fifth and final story arc of the Sailor Moon manga so this is likely the end of Sailor Moon Crystal. There’s a lot going on in this trailer! The Stars arc has Usagi meeting the Three Lights and fighting Galaxia. Though it seems that revealing the Sailor Starlights is something that is being kept for a later date we do get a quick look at a poster of The Three Lights in the background in Usagi’s room and an arm seen in the trailer likely belongs to Seiya who is wearing his school uniform. Sailor Galaxia is shown, with her face somewhat obscured. We also got a quick look at Chibi Chibi arriving at the end of the trailer. The final shot has three shooting stars crossing the sky, which would be the Sailor Starlights who are arriving from outside of the solar system.

The film’s title, Sailor Moon Cosmos, is a reference to Sailor Cosmos who is a future incarnation of Sailor Moon who we sort of see in the trailer but sort of don’t.

Mamoru, Tuxedo Mask, is seen briefly in this trailer. Will we see much more of him in the films? What a nice looking golden crystal in that one shot.

Now the speculation can begin about this film! It looks like the art style is fairly similar to what we saw in Sailor Moon Eternal. Does this mean that Kazuko Tadano is returning? The official movie site lists her as the character designer but not the animation director for the films. Since I can’t read Japanese I’m not able to translate anything else.

We haven’t seen much of the Three Lights and Sailor Starlights yet. The songs they performed were a big part of the music for the Sailor Stars season of the original Sailor Moon anime. One would think this would be an important part of these new movies. Who might voice these characters? Perhaps some popular Japanese vocalists! In the original Sailor Moon anime the Three Lights were men as civilians and they transformed into women when they became the Sailor Starlights, though they were voiced by women at all times. The Sailor Moon Crystal series follows the manga more faithfully in which case the Sailor Starlights are women and they disguise themselves as men when they are the Three Lights. It seems likely they could get women to do the voices of these characters, though it could go either way. What popular Japanese pop singers would you like to see voicing the Three Lights?

A note on language while discussing these movies. I’ll generally be referring to the Sailor Starlights as women with pronouns to match and the Three Lights as men with the equivalent pronouns. A lot has happened since the 1990s as far mainstream acceptance of transgender, genderfluid and non binary identities. It might not be evident how exactly to classify these characters by modern standards. As the story tends to have the Starlights identifying as women while they’re Sailor Guardians and the Three Lights identifying as men in their civilian identities I’ll be using language which fits that when discussing those characters. Since the Japanese language doesn’t use pronouns in the same way as we do in English I expect this isn’t something that is likely to be addressed in the official canon but am happy to update this practice if there seems to be cause to do so. If any of this seems incorrect or inappropriate feel free to bring it up in the comments.

Are you excited for these films? Do you think they will actually be released in 2023?

Keep reading for many more screenshots from this trailer.

As part of Viz Media’s ongoing effort to promote and build up hype for their upcoming release of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (coming to home video on June 18th!) they have released and English clip which includes our first impression of the voices of the Sailor Starlights! This clip from episode 173 is the first appearance of the Sailor Starlights. Check it out below!

As we previously mentioned the Sailor Starlights will be voiced by Melissa Hutchison as Sailor Star Fighter, Erika Harlacher as Sailor Star Maker and Sarah Williams as Sailor Star Hearler. These are their feminine Sailor Guardian identities. I’m anxious to hear if their portrayal of the Three Lights, their masculine civilian identities, will differ.

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Stage on!

Source: @VIZMedia on Twitter

Following last week’s news about Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 1 coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on June 18th fans can now pre-order the set from Amazon. This includes the less expensive DVD version, selling for just $28.26, as well as the standard Blu-Ray version, which is selling for $61.12 and the Limited Edition Blu-Ray which is $71.73. This is slightly less expensive than pre-ordering from RightStuf, which currently costs $71.99, though users ordering from RightStuf will be able to get the exclusive coin. If you pre-order from Amazon using the links below, or any other Amazon links such as the ones on the left sidebar on the main page, this will support this site.

This set includes episodes 167 to 183. This includes the short six episode Nehelenia arc, which is a sort of bridge between the SuperS season and Sailor Stars, and the introduction of the Sailor Starlights and their alternate identities, the Three Lights! The set will end with the introduction of the mysterious Chibi Chibi! These will be available for the first time with English audio, featuring Viz’s new English dub of the series, as well as Japanese audio with English subtitles. We never got a straight answer as to why Sailor Stars wasn’t originally dubbed but some fans believe that it was because the content would have been considered inappropriate for some viewers. If that was ever true it seems like this is no longer the case!

Do you ship Seiya and Usagi? Will you be getting this release? I’m certainly looking forward to watching it in English for the first time. Though I’ve imported the Japanese DVDs and laserdiscs of Sailor Stars over the years the copies I’ve watched the most were VHS fan subs and a bootleg DVD, both of which used the VKLL subtitle scripts.

Following last year’s 25th Anniversary Classic Concert we are getting yet another Classic Concert with this summer’s Sailor Moon Classic Concert 2018. An image, which will likely be used for posters and the album cover, has art in the style of the original Sailor Moon anime as opposed to least year’s concert which had Sailor Moon Crystal inspired designs. I have a nostalgic preference for the original anime myself though it would certainly have been nice to have seen these designs incorporate musical instruments or something of a musical theme as we saw last year.

The concert will be performed August 28th and 29th at the Tokyo Art Theatre and September 7th at the Osaka Festival Hall. A set list for the concert was posted to the official Sailor Moon site which gives us a good idea of what to expect. There are similarities to the last Classic Concert but there are also some new songs we haven’t heard in a while, such as a nice assortment of character songs from the original anime, mostly those from the Sailor Moon R era. I couldn’t find a translated list of the songs online anywhere but so made an attempt to provide one here.

I’ve done my best to translate the track listing below. I don’t speak or read Japanese so I usually just copy and paste this kind of thing into Google Translate which gives me a rough idea of a translation, usually enough to understand what song it’s a reference to. In this case the set list was only on an image so it was a bit trickier figuring out what these songs were. The list below is incomplete with a few sections including ??? when I just couldn’t make any guess at a translation. This includes kanji which I have no ability to translate. If anyone can shed light on some of those missing or incomplete titles please mention it in the comments and I’ll update it.

Update July 11th: Thanks to a comment by Mayuri I was able to complete the track listing!

M1: Background music
M2: Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Sailor Moon anime opening theme
M3: Background music
M4: Character songs (Since this is a single song it seems likely this will be samplings from five character songs into a single song)
M4-1: Onaji Namida wo Wakeatte (Sharing the same Tears) – Ami Mizuno’s character song
M4-2: Sei Hi Ai ~ Fire Soul Love ~ – Rei Hino’s character song
M4-3: Starlight ni Kiss Shite (Kissing in the Starlight) – Makoto Kino’s character song
M4-4: Route Venus – Minako Aino’s character song
M4-5: Tuxedo Mask’s Entrance Theme
M5: I am Sailor Moon – Sailor Moon’s character song and the ending theme to the Make Up! Sailor Senshi special
M6: Otome No Policy (Maiden’s Advice) – Sailor Moon R ending theme
M7: La Soldier (Piano) From many early Sailor Moon musicals and Sailor Moon R episode 88
M8: Birth of a Legend (Piano)
M9: Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Tuxedo Mirage – Piano – Seems like a mix of the Sailor Moon opening theme and the ending theme for Sailor Moon S
M10: New Moon ni Koishite (In Love With the New Moon) – Opening theme to Sailor Moon Crystal Season III
M11: Eye Catch Background music (Commercial break bumpers)
M12: Toccata and Fugue (Bach) (Violin & Piano) – A piece of classical music by Johann Sebastian Bach
M13: Uranus and Neptune Medley (Violin & Piano)
M14: eternal eternity (Violin & Piano) – Sailor Moon Crystal Season III first ending theme
M15: Sailor Starlights Make Their Appearance
M16: Three Lights: 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
M17: Wandering Stars
M18: Shadow Galaxia (Part 1)
M19: Golden Queen Galaxia
M20: Shadow Galaxia (Part 2)
M21: Sailor Stars Song (The Sailor Moon Sailor Stars opening theme)

Songs M17 to M20 aren’t specific songs that I’m aware of but likely cover background music or songs related to the Stars arc centering around the Sailor Starlights and Galaxia.

It seems likely that a CD of this concert will be announced and released afterwards. As with the last concert this will likely be a mix of various musical styles using classical and other instruments. Do any of you plan on attending any of these performances?

The official Sailor Moon site has been updated with an image of Princess Kakyuu and the Sailor Starlights, Sailor Star Maker, Fighter and Healer, from the upcoming Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical. The cast of this musical was previously announced with Asami Okamura as Princess Kakyuu, Riona Tatemichi as Sailor Star Maker, Meiku Harukawa as Sailor Star Fighter and Saki Matsuda. as Sailor Star Healer. What do you think of the new costumes?

Last week we also got a look at the Sailor Cosmos and Sailor Chibi Chibi costumes as it was announced that Satomi Okubo, who previously played Sailor Moon in earlier musicals, will be returning as Sailor Cosmos.

Sailor Starlight Pullip dolls have been announced on the official Sailor Moon site! The Sailor Starlights Sailor Star Maker, Sailor Star Fighter and Sailor Star Healer join many other Pullip dolls already released. There isn’t much in the way of details at this time as we don’t have a date or price for these, though the price point would likely be the same as other dolls, costing between $150 and $180 US when released domestically.

Pullip dolls are high quality very expensive dolls with disproportionally large heads and eyes for their size. Different model Pullip dolls are used for different basic figures. Most Sailor Moon characters are Pullip dolls while Chibiusa and Sailor Saturn are Dal dolls, which are a bit smaller as the basic model is of Pullip’s sister. Tuxedo Mask is a Taeyang doll, which is Pullip’s boyfriend. One has to wonder if the Sailor Starlights would have alternate costumes as the Three Lights or, if such a doll were planned, if they would make male Taeyang dolls for the Three Lights Seiya, Yaten and Taiki. Many of the other Sailor Guardians had civilian costumes as Bandai Premium exclusives.

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At long last Sailor Moon fans in the United States can now see the Sailor Starlights in a legal release! This week on Hulu and Neon Alley‘s new episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars we get to see the Sailor Starlights Sailor Star Fighter, Maker and Healer, also known as the Three Light Seiya, Taiki and Yaten. But first we must wrap up this short 6 episode arc and close the story of Nehelenia. Many have noticed that I’m often negative in my reviews so I will just say that this week we are getting two absolutely fantastic episodes of the series. Now let me talk about these wonderful episodes as I complain about little problems I have with them.

Episode 172, Moon Power of Love: The Nightmare Ends, is the last in this mini arc that we are starting out the Sailor Stars season with. The main focus here is on Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn. For some reason Sailor Chibi Moon is disappearing. This is somewhat like how Marty McFly was disappearing while time traveling when it looked like his parents weren’t going to get together. This is nonsense in a time travel movie and is double nonsense here. Time travel isn’t involved. Nehelenia does not come from the future and is not affected by time travel. Galaxia, who we will learn is the one that released Nehelenia, is also not traveling through time. Many things have threatened Mamoru and Sailor Moon but they don’t generally result in this Marty McFlying of Chibiusa. Beyond this time travel is not used to resolve the situation and to save Chibiusa either. Whatever. This episode isn’t about Chibiusa McFly. It’s all about Sailor Saturn being awesome! Sailor Saturn appears so late in Sailor Moon S that we don’t get much of a look at her. She is gone for SuperS and although she will be around for this season, she actually doesn’t get much screen time. She never actually gets a transformation sequence or any stock footage attacks. She does manage to use two moves in this episode. First she uses the Silence Wall to block Nehelenia’s attack. She then uses Silence Glaive Surprise which, in the Manga, just makes mist, but here it seems to be much more important. It releases a massive amount of energy even though it is blocked by Sailor Chibi Moon so that it isn’t completed. The insinuation seems to be that this attack would destroy Sailor Saturn and Nehelenia if used to completion.

Finally Usagi shows up after climbing through a bunch of rose bushes. She takes pity on Nehelenia. This is what Sailor Moon is about! This is how Sailor Moon SuperS should have ended. Nehelenia is evil, sure, but she has a rich back story where we can see her as young and innocent and then corrupted. Usagi and her friends feel her pain and this is something which hurts her much more than hostility would. In the Sailor Moon Manga the Sailor Guardians kill the bad guys. In the Sailor Moon Anime they use compassion to find non violent solutions to their problems and this is what I love about the anime. This all works out well. Mamoru is healed, Sailor Chibi Moon returns and sticks around until the end of the episode only. Young Nehelenia is seen waking up from what seems like a bad dream. It’s not clear exactly what her fate is. Either there is some sort of reboot or she’s trapped in a dream of an ideal world, possibly not unlike death. Whatever it’s all good.

I must stop for a moment to discuss what isn’t happening now. Chibiusa leaves at some point and isn’t seen again for most of the season. This is done without any fanfare. I mentioned in my thoughts on episode 167 that her fake leaving should have been retooled as a better departure either at the end of 172 or the beginning of 173. Either place would have been fine. As the final insult when I grabbed my Japanese R2 DVD for Sailor Stars volume 2 to get screenshots of episode 173 it has Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn on the cover. Nonsense! Chibiusa is not on this disk at all, which includes episodes 173 to 178. The original laserdisc containing this same image contained episodes 171 to 174, and so it included the majorly Sailor Saturn and Sailor Chibi Moon centric episode which this refers to. So I am sad to see Chibiusa leave, even though I understand why she is gone and the story of the season works best without Usagi having her family around, but it is still an unfortunate departure from the manga, where all 10 Sailor Guardians are present throughout.

Sailor Stars Volume 2 on DVD

Sailor Stars Volume 2 on Laserdisc

Finally we get to episodes 173, Farewells and Encounters: the Transitioning Stars of Destiny. We open with a look at the new idol group the Three Lights! It seems everyone is a fan. Minako and Makoto like Seiya. Rei likes Yaten. Ami likes Taiki. Usagi doesn’t seem to know anything about them and is instead preoccupied with the fact that Mamoru is leaving for America. No only did Chibiusa leave between episodes, but her boyfriend is going too! At the airport Mamoru gives her a ring and puts it on her ring finger. He does not flat out ask her to marry him but the symbolism of the ring and its placements is essentially a marriage proposal. The two kiss in the airport as strangers walk by. A North American audience may not find this noteable but in Japan kissing in public is uncommon, which is why it will often seem important for characters to verify that they are alone before they kiss. This public gesture demonstrates the strength of their feelings for one another. Mamoru leaves in this episode, and there is a strange light seen outside of his plane. We won’t learn until much later what that is specifically about. For Usagi, Mamoru has gone to America to study.

As Mamoru leaves, Seiya enters. It’s not even a little bit subtle and it isn’t supposed to be. Even while they are still at the airport the Three Lights arrive, and so Usagi’s potential love interest Seiya enters her life. As he crosses Usagi he senses something about her. The target for this episode is an actress Alice, who is doing a movie with the Three Lights. This puts Usagi once again in Seiya’s presence. She doesn’t know who he is and assumes he is trying to pick her up by suggesting she should. The combat starts and we see one of my favourite villains of the series, Sailor Iron Mouse. She is one of the Sailor Animamates, the Sailor Guardians who work for Galaxia. Sailor Iron Mouse extracts a Star Seed from Alice but it isn’t a True Star Seed so it’s just like a Mirror of Dreams that isn’t Golden or a Heart Crystal that isn’t a Talisman. The Sailor Starlights show up and fight alongside Sailor Moon. For no real reason Usagi decides not to tell her friends about this encounter.

A note on gender. Things get a bit complicated when it comes to the Three Lights and the Sailor Starlights. In the manga they are women who dress as men when they are the Three Lights. In the anime they are men in their civilian forms and women in the Sailor Guardian forms. We can debate weather they are originally or truly men or women. I tend to feel that their true forms are their Sailor Guardian selves and that the Three Light male identities are their disguise. This does not really matter at the end of the day, as gender is fairly fluid in this series, with sexual preference being an independent vector to gender. They are who they are, they love who they love and they are loved by whoever loves them, regardless of their gender. All said I will refer to the Three Light with masculine pronouns and the Sailor Starlights with feminine pronouns.

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The latest Petit Chara figures have been announced on the Sailor Moon official site and this Sailor Stars set will include Eternal Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Chibi and the Sailor Starlights. This set will be released in late September. You can pre-order them from Premium Bandai.

Petit Chara figures are non poseable super deformed figures. This season of Sailor Moon was never released in North America, though many fans are likely still familiar with the story through fan subs and the manga. Eternal Sailor Moon is simply the powered up form of Sailor Moon for this season. Sailor Chibi Chibi is a mysterious girl of unknown origin, whos actual identity varies depending on what continuity we’re talking about. The Sailor Starlights are Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Maker and Sailor Star Healer, Sailor Guardians from another solar system who traveled to Earth in search of their princess.

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Keep reading for more images of these figures.

Volume 11 of the Sailor Moon Manga’s new English edition by Kodansha is in stores and available online today. This book features Sailor Chibi Chibi on the cover, a character so shrouded in mystery that if I were to tell you who she is I would spoil the whole story for you! This book covers the beginning of the “Stars” arc, the final story arc of the Sailor Moon manga to be completed with the next volume. In this book we have the appearance of Chibi Chibi as well as the Sailor Starlights posing as the Three Lights. Buy this book through the Amazon link below to support our site.

The book as always comes with some nice looking colour pages. Check out a couple of previews of that below.

Why are you still here instead of being out buying or reading this book? Get to it!