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

Sailor Moon Crystal Infinity arc coming Spring 2016

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.

Chiaki Kon - Director of Sailor Moon Crystal phase 3

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.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 133 - Chibiusa is an old lonely cat lady watching Sailor Moon

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 Volume 3 Deluxe Edition Blu-Ray review

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition

The 3rd Sailor Moon Crystal Deluxe Edition Blu-Ray disk was released on December 10th. Like with the other versions is cames with a number of extras and contains a whopping two whole episodes in 1080 HD. The episodes included are act 5, Makoto – Sailor Jupiter, and act 6, Tuxedo Mask.

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition - Full Cover

The box is quite nice looking as always. This one features Sailor Mars on the cover, even though her introductory episode was in the last set. The square box contains a lot. The Blu-Ray box itself has a full image of Sailor Mars and her crows Phobos and Deimos. The charm included in this set is of Sailor Mars’s transformation item. It goes with the charm bracelet included in volume 1.

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition - Sailor Mars charm

Included in this set is a 20 page full colour booklet featuring episode descriptions, art designs from the episodes and a couple of interview. The first interview is with series writer Yuji Kobayashi and the second is with Rina Sato, the voice of Sailor Mars.

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition - Booklet -

The image quality on this releases is top notch. I tend to watch the Crunchyroll feed because I like the image quality they have. The Blu-Ray version looks better as the image is much more fluid, less choppy. A lot of scenes have been reanimated or touched up with these episodes, and I suspect all episodes will get this same treatment. Act 7 has what I consider to be the worst animation so I’m hoping that episodes gets a good facelift.

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition

Again I would recommend this set only to serious collectors. Unless you’re a real completist you may find it perfectly fine to just watch the streaming version. If you’re curious about the changed scenes there are surely some other ways to get your hands on these episodes. The audio is Japanese only, no subtitles. There are also audio commentaries included on this disk but as I don’t speak Japanese I can’t comment on them. I mentioned in earlier reviews that the Blu-Rays were region A, which covers Japan and North America, but it turns out they are actually region free. The DVDs on the other hand are region 2 so they are not playable in a North American DVD player unless you are lucky enough to have one that isn’t region locked.

Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Ray vol. 3 Deluxe Edition

You can buy the Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-Ray now for 5194 yen or $43 US (Amazon Japan, CD Japan), or pre-order the regular edition Blu-Ray for 3566 yen or $30 US (Amazon Japan, CD Japan) or DVD for 2722 yen or $23 US (Amazon Japan, CD Japan) which will be released on January 14th.

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

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The new Sailor Moon anime will begin airing in July 2014

Usagi watching TV

It has been confirmed on the Niconico blog and the official Sailor Moon site that the new Sailor Moon 2014 anime will begin streaming worldwide this July. We had previously heard that it would be released this Winter, and later that it would be January, but this date has not been pushed back to July. It has been stated in the past that the series will be streaming on Niconico on release. We also have more new information as well as confirmation of things we had already learned.

Sailor Moon series director Munehisa Sakai

The series will be directed by Munehisa Sakai who is best known as the director of the One Piece anime series. The series composition will be done by Yuji Kobayashi. This role is that of writer who guides the story throughout the series. The anime will be once again produced by Toei, who did the original series. As we’ve already learned the theme song will be sung by Momoiro Clover Z, though we have no details about what that song will be. There is no information at this time about what, if any, channel TV channel this anime series will be airing on. It is entirely possible that it will only be available streaming on Niconico, a subscription based streaming service. We will have details on what exactly will need to be done by our readers to be able to watch this series as it gets closer to airing.

Sailor Moon series composer Yuji Kobayashi

A delay may not be ideal but at this point it is expected and it’s nice to have what seems to be a more concrete date, even though it’s a year later than we originally anticipated this series. Be patient fans! We’ve waited almost 17 years for new episodes of Sailor Moon. We can wait another 6 months.

As always we will bring you new information as it becomes available.

Thanks to Brianna from our Facebook page for bringing this to my attention.