Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, The Complete Fifth season, is coming to Blu-ray May 28th

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars The Complete Fifth Season

It looks like won’t need to wait much longer for the next season set of the original Sailor Moon anime. Last week in a since deleted Tweet Viz announced that Sailor Moon Sailor Stars The Complete Fifth Season would be coming to Blu-ray on May 28th. Why was the Tweet deleted? Who knows! Is May 28th still the official release date? Probably. The set is not listed with any online retailers yet, but should be showing up soon. Along with the announcement we also get our first look at the cover art for this release which features Eternal Sailor Moon.

With the release of the fifth and final season this will complete the rerelease of the series on Blu-ray. While the first few sets included significantly improved video quality the difference becomes less noticeable for the later series which already looked quite good in the sets released a few years ago.

The set will include English audio as well as the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. Will you be picking it up?

Did Robbie Daymond, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, secretly confirm that he’s dubbing Sailor Moon Cosmos with a photo of him wearing a Sailor Moon Star Locket pin?

Robbie Daymond, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, wearing a Star Locket pin

Today, December 20th, the Sailor Moon Cosmos films were released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan. International fans are up in arms begging for any news about a release outside of Japan, but we may have gotten a hint that a dub is coming soon! Robbie Daymond, who voiced Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon Crystal and the Sailor Moon Eternal films, shared a photo of him recording “an unexpected & awesome two sessions to finish out 2023″. He does not mention what these are and if it’s indeed a recording of Sailor Moon Cosmos he surely signed an NDA (non disclosure agreement) so I would not suggest for a minute that he’s done anything to violate this. Robbie Daymond is wearing an interesting looking pin in this photo. That is a pin of The Orgel or Star Locket from Sailor Moon. This is the locket that Princess Serenity gives to Tuxedo Mask in Act 6 of the Sailor Moon manga and Sailor Moon Crystal. It’s also featured in the original Sailor Moon anime.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 6 - Orgel watch

Is this an obvious sign? An unquestionable confirmation that Robbie Daymond is recording the dub for Sailor Moon Cosmos? Well I can’t say for sure but if I wanted to give a subtle clue about recording a show that didn’t violate and NDA this is a nice way to do it. The secrecy behind the recording might explains why he refers to it as “unexpected”. If I wanted to troll people by giving them false hope while I recorded a fry commercial this would be a fantastic way to do it so take it with a grain of salt. Remember that a few years ago Michael Yurchak, the voice of Hawk’s Eye, posted a photo of Instagram which had a barely visible image of the Amazoness Quartet on a monitor which was our first indication that a dub of Sailor Moon Eternal was being recorded for Netflix. The film premiered on Netflix six months after that leak. Let’s hope we don’t wait that long!

Sailor Moon's Star Locket

We are long overdue for news about a release of Sailor Moon Cosmos outside of Japan. Regardless of how it gets released a dub is likely and a dub using the same cast as we’ve had for the first four story arcs is certainly the way to go. The timing for this makes sense and I’m optimistic that this could be a good sign, but we should always wait for official news which I will of course share to this site when I get it.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 13 - Orgel protects Sailor Moon from suicide

I’m looking forward to getting my Japanese Sailor Moon Cosmos Blu-ray in a few days and I hope that a fan sub shows up some time soon as well. I will always encourage supporting the official releases when possible. Let’s hope we get news of a North American dub and release soon! If that’s indeed what this is I wonder what took Robbie Daymond two session to do. Tuxedo Mask spends most of these movies as a gem. Perhaps he just meant it was two sessions for the two films. I think Taiki’s forehead has more lines than him.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos - The Golden Crystal

Update 2023-12-23: It looks like this pin is from The Lantern Girl’s etsy shop. Unfortunately this particular pin is currently out of stock.

Sailor Moon S Complete 3rd Season is now available on Blu-ray!

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season Blu-Ray

Today is the day that fans have been anticipating for … well a few months I suppose. Sailor Moon S Complete 3rd Season releases today online and in stores. This set, like the two others which came before it, has updated video quality better than the sets released many years ago. Is it worth upgrading? I can’t tell you what to do but I’ve been happy to pick up these sets and am enjoying rewatching the series for the first time in a bit. We all need something to do while we wait for Sailor Moon Cosmos after all. You can support the site by buying the set using the Amazon link below.

This set, like others released by Viz, includes the new English dub, Japanese audio with English subtitles and many special features. Are you picking this set up? What’s your favourite part of the Sailor Moon S season?

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season is coming to Blu-ray on July 25th

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season Blu-Ray

Viz has released the trailer for Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray and DVD. While it isn’t up on any online stores just yet we do have a released date, July 25th. Didn’t Sailor Moon R just come out? I’m still watching my set! You can watch the whopping 18 second trailer below.

Why, you may ask, would I buy Sailor Moon S on Blu-ray again? The series was released in two parts years ago. This set, like Viz’s new release of the first season and Sailor Moon R, will include updated higher quality video. While the S season did not have quite as many quality issues as the first two seasons in its original release it did suffer from some problems and will likely look much better in this release. It’s also a single release with the entire season instead of two individual half season sets. Do you plan on picking this release up?

Sailor Moon S: The Complete Third Season Blu-Ray

There isn’t much in the trailer but we do have our first look at the cover art!

Sailor Moon R Complete Second Season will be released on Blu-ray February 28th

Sailor Moon R Complete Season Blu-Ray - Cover

A full eight months after the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime was released on Blu-ray we are finally getting Sailor Moon R released as well! This single release containing the entire second season of Sailor Moon is coming February 28th 2023 with an MSRP of $49.99. Like with the season 1 release this is likely a new and improved version of the Blu-ray with better video quality than what was released in 2015. This release will have the original Japanese audio, Viz’s new English dub and optional subtitles. I was very happy with the first season release and look forward to getting this!

Sailor Moon R Complete Season Blu-Ray - Contents

The set is currently available to pre-order from RightStuf for $44.99. It’s also listed on Amazon however no price is currently indicated and there is no option to purchase the set yet.

Sailor Moon Laserdisc vol. 4

Does the box art look familiar? It should! This art was originally used for a Laserdisc cover for the first season release of the original Sailor Moon anime. This image of Sailor Moon appeared on volume 4. This was reused for the first VHS and DVD cover of the dub only release by ADV, the first DVD cover of the original Japanese DVD release and the inside cover of the first Japanese Blu-ray. It’s also similar to a pose that Sailor Moon makes in the intro to the Sailor Moon R Movie. Seeing it used as a Sailor Moon R cover is a bit odd but it does seem that they updated Sailor Moon’s broach to the season appropriate Crystal Star.

Sailor Moon Japanese Blu-Ray Vol. 1 - Comparison between dub only DVD, Japanese DVD and new Blu-Ray

By looking at the back of the box we don’t get much of an indication of anything new. As with the first season it seems likely we will get the same features as were included in the 2015 DVD and Blu-ray release. Since the first season set had a new interview included it is possible that some new content is in this set, but we don’t see it listed at this time.

Sailor Moon R Complete Season Blu-Ray - Back

Will you be picking up this set? Is it worth double dipping for you? I bought the first season again and am very happy with the set!

The Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray set is now available for purchase

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

The new release of the first season of Sailor Moon is out on Blu-ray today, June 14th. We have learned from fans that have received the set that these Blu-rays discs have new and improved video quality as well as features not on the releases from 2014. I got my copy today but have not have a chance to watch any of it yet. I did get myself a new Blu-ray drive and plan on doing a proper review as time permits. The release should be available in stores that sell this kind of thing as well as through online retailers. You can support the site by buying it through the link below.

This is a North American English language release by Viz which includes the original Japanese audio with optional English subtitles as well as the new English dub which was done by Viz using the same voice cast that appears in Sailor Moon Crystal.

Have you gotten your set yet? What do you think?

The upcoming release of Sailor Moon: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray will include improved video quality and a new interview not in the 2014 version

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

Sailor Moon: The Complete First Season is coming to Blu-ray … again. As the first season was originally release on Blu-ray in two parts in 2014 and 2015 many fans had been wondering if it was worth it to buy this again. When I posted about this in March I predicted these would just be the same discs bundled in new packaging. I was wrong! With fans starting to get their hands on the release we can now see that this is a new updated Blu-ray with superior video quality to the originals as well as some new special features. Considering getting it? You can support the site by using the link below to buy it.

The original Sailor Moon Season 1 Blu-Ray releases were, simply put, not good. The video quality was bad. It’s an old show. Viz obviously had some pretty low quality standard definition sources to work with. This show is not HD. The original film source was never scanned in high definition. What we got in 2014 and 2015 were pretty low quality releases with obvious video artifacts. At the time these looked much worse than the DVD releases in Japan as well as others which had come out in other countries prior to this. You can have a look at what that release looked like in my review of the Japanese Blu-ray release which looked better.

Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1 Blu-ray (2014) - Episode 6 screenshot

Original 2014 Blu-ray

Sailor Moon The Complete First Season Blu-ray (2022) - Episode 6 screenshot

New 2022 Blu-ray

So what does this new version look like? Check out this Twitter thread by Fred Francis where he goes through his set and examines the menus and video quality with side by side comparisons of screenshots. I won’t repeat all of his comparisons here on the site but as you can see from the images above the difference really is night and day. The 2014 release is obviously worse looking than the much nicer looking 2022 release. It’s still not HD. It’s still a standard definition master which has been upscaled to 1080p using software. It just looks much better. The standard definition master was likely superior. More recent software algorithms may also been a contributor. Even as the Sailor Moon series went on the quality of releases by Viz improved dramatically to the point where Sailor Stars doesn’t have the same issues that the first couple of seasons did.

An interview with Katsuyuki Sumisawa

In addition to improved video quality the disc menus and even some features are new. This set has an interview with Sailor Moon writer Katsuyuki Sumisawa which had not been released in the earlier set.

Katsuyuki Sumisawa

Whether or not you consider this set worth purchasing is of course your own decision to make. For me it seems worth the upgrade at the reduced price. The full season costs less than what a half season cost eight years ago.

Will you be picking this set up?

Source: @fredjfrancis on Twitter

A new cheaper Blu-Ray set for Sailor Moon season 1 is coming from Viz in June

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

Good news for fans of the original Sailor Moon anime who for some reason didn’t actually buy the Blu-Ray sets that came out eight years ago. Viz has a cheap season 1 set which collects all 46 episodes in Japanese and in English on six discs coming June 14th 2022. Previously Viz had released half season sets for the entire Sailor Moon series. This meant five seasons across ten sets. This new set has a more affordable price tag of $49.99, less than even half a season used to cost! Amazon has the set listed for that full MSRP while Right Stuf has it for $44.99. You can support this site by pre-ordering the set from Amazon using the links in this post.

Viz’s Blu-Ray sets aren’t the best but they’re the best we’ve got. All Sailor Moon TV series Blu-Ray discs released anywhere in the world are basically upconverted to high definition from a standard definition source using software. This means the show will never look like something which is actually an HD remaster from the film source, as many anime series have done. Viz’s release, mostly in the early seasons, didn’t look that good. I compared Viz’s Blu-Ray release to the Japanese Blu-Rays and DVDs in my review of the first Japanese Blu-Ray set. The Japanese set isn’t perfect either, but it’s nicer than Viz’s set. As the years went on the quality of Viz’s Blu-Ray sets got marginally better until the Stars set which was actually pretty good. This was probably due to a number of factors including the quality of the video masters they had available and the techniques they used in order to clear up the video. This of course raises the question of what, exactly, this set will look like.

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

My prediction is that this set will just be exact copies of the Blu-Ray discs which were including in Viz’s first season Part 1 and Part 2 sets. Same menus. Same special features. Same marginal video quality. If that’s the case it’s a decent deal if you don’t have these already. It’s evidently a great series and this is your best way to watch it in English or in Japanese with English subtitles. When I watch my Star Trek The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine full series sets whenever I pop in the first disc of a season I get ads for the previous season set, which was included with the set I already bought. This happens because they didn’t author new Blu-Ray discs. They just reproduced more of the discs they had already authored and put them in a bigger box. We don’t know for sure that this is the approach that will be taken here, but that would be my guess. That’s common for rereleased movies and series. There is one bit of evidence which suggests that we may actually be getting reauthored discs. The Right Stuf listing mentions an interview with Katsuyuki Sumisawa as a special feature. As this wasn’t on the original release this would mean at least one disc, potentially all of them, is potentially going to be new.

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

It’s possible that Viz will go back to their source material and redo the video in better quality. It’s also possible that they’ll use other masters like the higher quality Japanese Blu-Ray releases or some of the other Blu-Ray releases which have been coming out around the world since 2014. They might also take some high quality masters and use newer technology like AstroRes to get the best possible HD version software algorithms can give! This is possible. I think it’s somewhat unlikely. If this were the case then there would be good reason for a fan to want to repurchase these sets in better quality. Personally I’ll be waiting until confirmation of what these sets are like before I decide whether or not to purchase the series again. Getting the same discs in different boxes isn’t enough of an incentive to me, if that’s what this set is. Getting new discs with similar video quality would also not be a terribly enticing release.

Sailor Moon Complete First Season Blu-ray

Here are some details about this release from the Right Stuf web site:

About Sailor Moon Season 1 Blu-Ray
Sailor Moon Season 1 contains episodes 1-46 of the anime directed by Junichi Sato and Kunihiko Ikuhara.

Usagi Tsukino is a cheerful schoolgirl who often finds herself in unwanted trouble. One day, she saves a talking cat named Luna who gives Usagi a brooch that transforms her into Sailor Moon, guardian of love and justice!

Special Features: Clean Opening and Ending, Trailers, Art Gallery, Announcement Panel & Fan Reactions, Dub Recording Behind the Scenes, Official Announcement, Trailer Moonlight Memories Pt. 1, AX Sailor Moon Panel, Official Cosplay Team Interview, Sailor Moon Day Highlights, An Interview with Katsuyuki Sumisawa

See More
Details
Publisher: VIZ
Media: Blu-ray
Spoken Language: English, Japanese
Subtitle Language: English
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Themes: Battles, Magical Girl
Age Rating: 14+
Run Time: 1060
Year Created: 1992
Release Date: 6/14/2022
Dimensional Weight: 1
Region Code: A

The special features listed are more consistent with what we got in the older sets except for the Katsuyuki Sumisawa interview.

Will you be picking up this set?

The original Sailor Moon anime is now streaming on Crave in Canada

Sailor Moon on Crave

Canadian Sailor Moon fans can now watch the original Sailor Moon anime on Crave. The streaming service added all five seasons of Sailor Moon to it’s catalogue on Friday September 18th. When we originally posted this news in August it wasn’t clear whether or not the series would be streamed in English but now we know that it is but also that the original Japanese version is not available on the service. This seems like a very odd choice but luckily Canadian Sailor Moon fans can still watch the Japanese version of the original anime for free on Tubi. It’s worth noting that the video quality of the series on Crave looks quite good. It seems that Viz has used some better masters for this than were used for their original Blu-Ray releases. I haven’t been able to do specific comparisons but some fans are suggesting that these are the same versions used for the Japanese Blu-Rays.

The impact of Sailor Moon being added to the service was immediately apparent. Though I didn’t see the show in many categories when I checked the service slightly after midnight on September 18th by mid day Friday it was in many categories on the site including Just Added TV Shows, Buzzworthy and Kid Stuff. Sailor Moon was trending on Twitter in Canada on Friday and, something which is always a sign that news about the show has gone mainstream, I had two non Moonie friends text me to tell me that they saw that the show was on Crave. What’s the best way to show appreciation for the kind gesture while politely telling someone you knew about a thing months ago?

It’s hard to explain what a cultural phenomenon Sailor Moon was here in Canada. While the show was of course popular in the United States and throughout the world in the 90s the show really was a mainstream staple which everyone knew about in Canada in the 1990s. It wasn’t just a hit amongst anime fans but something every kid knew about. It played multiple times a day on Canadian channels YTV and Global. Now that it’s gotten prominent attention on a popular streaming platform a lot of people who may not have followed the show much over the past 20 years are likely having a chance to see it again. Though this won’t include the DiC dub for which most people are nostalgic for, hopefully many of them will appreciate this new and more faithful dub for what it has to offer. I wonder how many people this weekend will be watching the show and seeing those early episodes which weren’t originally dubbed such as episode 2, Punishment Awaits: The House Of Fortune Is The Monster Mansion, episode 5, Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love, and episode 6, Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid.

For a lot of us including readers of this site Sailor Moon never really went away but for casual fans in Canada I think this is a big deal and I hope this brings the series back to the attention of some older fans and makes some new ones.

Have you been watching the show on Crave?

If you’d prefer to own a physical copy of the show you can support the site by purchasing the home video releases using the links below.



Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2 is out on home video today!

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2 - Blu-Ray cover

Today is the day! Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 2 is now available to purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray, which means the entire original Sailor Moon anime, with Viz’s new English dub, is now out! Fans have been waiting to see the final season of Sailor Moon dubbed into English since the 1990s but after Sailor Moon S and SuperS were dubbed, the final season never followed! The set is now available to purchase in stores and online. Fans looking to buy it from Amazon can do so using the links below.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episode 200 - Galaxia fights Princess Serenity

Have you gotten your copy yet? Did any of you wait until now to watch the fifth and final season? What did you think of the final episodes? If you’re looking to pick up any of the earlier sets you can support the site by ordering them from Amazon using these links.