Is this a sneak peak of Yasuharu Takanashi’s music for the Sailor Moon Eternal films?

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Adam

Yasuharu Takanashi, the composer for the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films, sent a Tweet including a video of him recording some music on November 22nd. Twitter user @CCTakato noticed that the monitor seen in the background of this clip showed Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. It is plausible that this clip is of music for the first Sailor Moon Eternal movie which will be released in Japan on September 11th 2020. Not much of the music can be heard, which is probably deliberate. Check out the footage in the embedded Tweet below.

レコーディング2日目！今日も元気〜‼️٩(๑ᵒ̴̶̷͈̀ ᗜ ᵒ̴̶̷͈́)و pic.twitter.com/BlI8kPgrNH

— 高梨康治 YasuharuTakanashi (@nassy_takanashi) November 22, 2019

Though it’s hard to make out the image on the screen it does look like it’s Sailor Moon near the middle and Sailor Chibi Moon on the bottom right. I messed around with the image a bit to try to clear it up and here’s the best I could come up with.

Is this the first still of Sailor Moon Eternal that we’re seeing? It looks like they were watching footage while recording their music, though in this case the video appears to be paused.

How reliable is this? Let’s not forget that Yasuharu Takanashi is the one that told us to expect Sailor Moon Crystal season 4 in 2018! What do you think?

A rumour is suggesting that Sailor Moon Crystal season 4 is coming in 2018

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Adam

A couple of screenshots of alleged conversations with Yasuharu Takanashi, Sailor Moon Crystal’s music composer, are suggesting that Sailor Moon Crystal’s 4th season will be airing in 2018. People in the fan community are referring this as a rumour of further delays for the upcoming season. As rumours go, this one doesn’t seem to have much weight to it. I’m reporting this as it’s being discussed in the fan community and I wanted to weigh in on it’s legitimacy and not because I think there’s much validity to the rumour itself. Let us look at the evidence provided and consider how reliable the claim is.

I originally saw this in a Tweet by Twitter user Chase the CHECH (@iHasMangic) who included two screenshots. The first is from a Facebook Messenger conversation. When asked if season 4 was coming he stated “Season 4 for Sailor Moon 2018?”. The question mark is a bit questionable. The profile image and name match that of Yasuharu Takanashi’s Facebook profile. The second screenshot is of an Instagram conversation. When asked about the possibility of a 4th season in 2017 he responds “2018! (smiley face) (thumbs up)”. Again the user name, in this case @nassy_takanashi, and profile photo match his Instagram profile. Since originally posting this I’ve been in contact with the user who posted this to Twitter and Adrian, the user who originally had these conversations. Adrian also posted these screenshots to the Pretty Guardians Facebook group and a post on the Genvid Forums. These include alternate screenshots of the same chats.

We can ask ourselves a few questions. Are these screenshots legitimate? Is Yasuharu Takanashi indicating that Sailor Moon Crystal is delayed until 2018? If he is, is such a claim a reliable indication that the series is indeed delayed? I can’t make any certain claims about the authenticity of these screenshots. One could easily fabricate something like this, but would they? If I were going to fake a screenshot I might attempt to make a more clear confirmation without confusing question marks and emoji, but then I’m not in the business of doctoring screenshots these days. With matching avatars it doesn’t seem out of the question that these are legitimate. Having seen a number of different versions of these screenshots and spoken to Adrian about it I don’t think there’s much of a reason to doubt the validity of these.

If they are indeed real screenshots, what is actually being said? The language is a bit confused but it does seem like Yasuharu Takanashi is indicating that, in his opinion, the series will be continuing in 2018. If this is indeed what he means, we can again ask ourselves if that is a reliable source. Yasuharu Takanashi composed the music for the first three seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal. It is entirely feasible that he will continue in this role if the show should continue, and we’ve received indication via the official Sailor Moon web site that more Sailor Moon Crystal is coming. As someone working on the show he may have an idea of the schedule. He may not as well. He may have been working on the show, be working on it now or be scheduled to work on it in the future and not actually have a specific idea of when the animation, voice acting and other production work will be completed and when the final distribution is scheduled for. If he did actually know when the show would be coming he may not be at liberty to disclose this. This chat isn’t a confidential discussions between professionals or close friends but rather a fans who reached out and got an answer.

Take it all with a grain of salt! If others weren’t reporting on this I wouldn’t have bothered to post about it myself but as it’s being thrown around I wanted to share it for context. There are a lot of ifs going on. If they all turn out we may be getting new episodes in 2018, but with so many unknowns I wouldn’t make any certain conclusions about this actually happening. I tend to only give consideration to information shared through official sources such as those posted on the Official Sailor Moon site. Even when we get information through official sources we’ve seen that such situations are likely to change anyway. For now the only official word we’ve gotten is that more Sailor Moon Crystal is planned and we have gotten no timeline of when this would occur.

As always if we hear anything official on this topic we will be sure to share it as soon as we can.

New episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal are coming this Spring. A new director and character designer have been announced.

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Adam

The Sailor Moon Official Site has posted some information about the upcoming new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal. The Infinity story arc will start this Spring. The production staff has been revealed with more details coming during a live event which will be shown on Niconico Wednesday January 27th at 8pm Japan Standard Time, 6am Easter Time, 3am Pacific Time.

Sailor Moon Crystal’s new director is Chiaki Kon. She has directed a number of Anime shows I’ve never heard of including Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Junjo Romantica and Hanasakeru Seishonen. It’s nice to see a woman directing a show that is largely about and for women and girls. Akira Takahashi, who was an animation director for individual episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, will be taking on the role of character designer.

Other staff remain the same. Series writer Yuji Kobayashi returns. Takashi Kurahashi remains the animation director. Yasuharu Takanashi will continue to do the music.

The third arc of Sailor Moon Crystal, called the second season by some and the third season by others, will cover the Infinity story arc of the manga, which is the Sailor Moon S season of the original anime. This will introduce us to Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Saturn as well as the Death Busters. The rest of the gang, including Sailor Pluto, will return. Unlike in the original anime Chibiusa will be present throughout this arc. She didn’t stay in the future for any period of time following the fight against the Black Moon Clan. We previously learned that the new episodes will air on TV in Japan first, though it is unclear how quickly it will be available to stream for international viewers. One way or another, the show will likely be made available either officially or through fansubs within a few days of the original broadcast. You can always count on this site sharing specifics about how to enjoy the show.

You can check out the stream on the Niconico site starting January 27th at 6am Eastern Time. I’ve watched many of the older streams online but I have been region blocked from viewing more recent ones for not being in Japan. I will do my best to watch the feed or at the very least follow news of the event and share all of the details.

As always take all news for what it is. The original release of Sailor Moon Crystal was delayed a number of time before having a firm release date. A very official source is claiming that the show will be available in the Spring but there is always the possibility of further delays. For reference, Spring this year will run from March 20th to June 20th.

Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray vol. 6 review

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Adam

The 6th Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Edition Blu-Ray set was released on March 11th. It can be purchased on Amazon Japan and CD Japan. MSRP is 7020 yen, about $59 US dollars. If you’re thinking of importing this keep in mind it is in Japanese only and there are no subtitles. The disk will play in North American Blu-Ray players for this who still want to buy it. There is also a regular edition Blu-Ray and DVD that will be released April 8th, when vol. 7 is being released in a Deluxe Limited Edition set. The DVDs will not likely play in a North American region 1 DVD player.

As with other volumes the disk comes in a collectible box. This one features a silhouette of Tuxedo Mask on the cover. The cover of the disk itself has an image of Usagi and Tuxedo Mask on it.

Every set comes with a charm which goes on the charm bracelet included with volume 1. This release includes Sailor Moon’s transformation brooch. This is the second Sailor Moon item included as volume 1 had Sailor Moon’s Moon Stick.

A 24 page full colour booklet is also included. Amongst the pages are episode summaries, character art for Tuxedo Mask, the Shitennou and Reika, interviews with Yasuhara Takanashi, music composer for the series, and Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask as well as a page by Fumio Osano, Osabu. Photographs of all pages in this booklet are included at the bottom of this post.

The contents of the disk aren’t terribly exciting. Two episodes are included as usual. This time we have Act 11, Reunion – Endymion, and Act 12, Enemy – Queen Metaria. Many fans took issue with the many changes in Act 12 hoping they would be corrected with the video release but this not the case. Sailor Venus still does not kill Queen Beryl. Sailor Moon still breaks Beryl’s necklace with the sword. The Shitennou still die. Kunzite still says something that sounds like penis. Most of the video releases have some minor updates to the animation. Though I did not notice any specific changes with these episodes it’s likely they are updated as others had been.

There is an audio commentary on this disk. I don’t speak Japanese so it’s hard for me to tell exactly what is going on or even who is present. I would seem that the voice actresses for Sailor Mars, Rina Sato, and Sailor Jupiter, Ami Koshimizu are present. There is also a man who’s identity I couldn’t figure out.

This set will likely appeal to fans with a lot of money or who feel they must have every bit of Sailor Moon on video. The video quality is better than the streaming version but is that difference really worth buying something in a language you can’t understand? I leave that call to you because at this point if you’re likely to buy this you probably already have the other volumes.

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

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Sailor Moon Crystal Original Soundtrack Review

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Adam

The Sailor Moon Crystal Original Soundtrack was released in Japan on December 24th. Now that I’ve had a chance to listen to it a couple of times I’m ready to share my thoughts. The CD contains mainly instrumental background music from the show by Yasuharu Takanashi, though it also includes the TV sized opening and closing themes Moon Pride and Gekkou (Moonbow) by Momoiro Clover Z. The first CD has 30 tracks and the second has 24. A full track listing can found on the official Sailor Moon site with a rough translation in my last post about the soundtrack.

The two CD set is not that expensive, costing about $25 US plus shipping which is pretty good for a Japanese release. You can get it from retailers such as Amazon Japan, CD Japan or YesAsia. If you’re unwilling to pay this modest cost to support the show, I’m sure you can find a site where you can download the soundtrack.

The music included covers the full first years of Sailor Moon Crystal which includes the 13 episodes which are already available, covering the Dark Kingdom story arc, as well as the upcoming Black Moon Clan story arc. This means there are a number of tracks here which have not been heard on the show before. While it may be obvious that some tracks, such as “Black Lady”, “The Gate of Time” or “Sailor Chibi Moon’s Theme” may be new there are other tracks in here which for whatever reason have not been heard before.

It’s difficult for me to know for sure, since I’m really going by ear and memory, but of the tracks there are a number which I don’t believe had been included in the show. Mainly the themes for all Sailor Guardians but Sailor Moon seem completely new. Why Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus did not use their themes in their premier episodes isn’t something I pretend to understand. Perhaps these tracks were simply written later in the life of the series of maybe there was a decision not to use them. Similarly all but Usagi and Ami’s themes didn’t seem familiar to me. Ami’s theme was heard in her first episode but I don’t believe Rei, Makoto or Minako’s themes had been heard before. For the most part the rest of the tracks are some that have been heard before.

The insert is pretty lacklustre with the pages inside being printed only in black and white. This includes a track listing, information about the artist Yasuhara Takanashi including an interview and a couple of pictures. I don’t read Japanese but I have included photos of all pages at the bottom of the post. Otherwise the packaging is simple but appealing, with images of the Moon and the Earth on the CDs themselves.

The music in the show is generally enjoyable, and if you’ve seen the show you probably have a decent idea of what that music is like. The CD set is quite cheap, so I would recommend it to fans of the show. As this covers all music from the first year there’s no concern of having this become obsolete and there being another CD set coming out any time soon.

Keep reading for more photos of the CD and included black and white booklet.

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Character designer, music composer and art directors for the new Sailor Moon anime have been revealed

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Adam

We’ve got a bunch of new announcements about the staff for the new Sailor Moon anime which were revealed today on the Sailor Moon official site. The character designer for the new series is Yukie Sako, the music composer is Yasuharu Takanashi and the art directors are Takashi Hurahashi and Yumi Hosaka. Many fans were hoping for something more concrete about this new anime, currently slated to begin in July of this year, but even though we haven’t seen anything like concept art for the series, the growing group of staff associated with it only confirms that this project is going forward. Keep reading for details on some of these people.

Yukie Sako, the character designer, worked on many anime series including some Gundam series, The Big-O, a Pokemon movie and Steamboy. Be sure to follow her Twitter feed @sakouyukie and check out her imdb or Anime News Network profile to see a list of shows she’s worked on.

Yasuharu Takanashi, the music composer, made music for Hell Girl, Naruto Shippuden, many Pretty Cure series and much more. You can read up on him at Wikipedia or check out his imdb or Anime New Network profiles to see his work.

Art directors Takashi Hurahashi and Yumi Hosaka are relatively new to the job. Takashi Hurahashi previously worked on Tai Chi Chasers, as can be seen on his Anime News Network profile. Yumi Hosaka has worked on a handful of shows which you can read about on her imdb page, including a 2007 anime series named Mononoke.

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