The Sailor Moon official site has posted a lot of details about the upcoming Sailor Moon Prism On Ice show which was announced last summer. The event will be taking place June 5th to the 7th at the KOSÉ Shin Yokohama Skate Center in Tokyo. We had previously learned that Evgenia Medvedeva, a Russian figure skater and Olympic medalist, was going to be in the show. We now have confirmation that she will be playing Sailor Moon herself! An article at Oricon includes photos of Evgenia Medvedeva in her Sailor Moon costume! The rest of the cast includes Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus as well as Tuxedo Mask. The villains are the Dark Kingdom’s Queen Bery, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite. All of the above mentioned characters will be portrayed by figure skaters, most of whom are world class competitive skaters, from around the world.

Also appearing in the musical is Anza as Queen Serenity. Anza is best known to Sailor Moon fans as the first to play Sailor Moon in a Sailor Moon musical. She continued in this role for many years. The other special guest, who’s role is not mentioned, is Kurt Browning. He is a World Champion figure skater who was a well known sports celebrity here in Canada in the 1990s.

The show will also have a voice cast which includes the main cast from Sailor Moon Crystal. Only the Sailor Guardians currently have voice actors listed at this time. This could mean that the show will mainly feature those characters in spoken roles or perhaps the others will be announced at a later time. The details on the site list them as being the voice actors from the Sailor Moon Eternal films. As the Dark Kingdom specific characters will not be in the Sailor Moon Eternal films, they may not have been mentioned for this reason. It may also prove more complicated in booking voice talent from a previous season when there hadn’t been an expectation for them to be reprising their roles in the future.

Music will be by Akiko Kosaka, who has been involved with music in the original Sailor Moon anime, the Sailor Moon Musicals and Sailor Moon Crystal.

A full translated cast list in included below:

Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino: Evgenia Medvedeva
Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno: Satoko Miyahara
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino: Mirai Nagasu
Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino: Alissa Czisny
Sailor Venus/Minako Aino: Becky Bereswill
Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru Chiba: Andrew Poje
Queen Serenity: ANZA
Kunzite: Jason Brown
Jadeite: Takahito Mura
Nephrite: Dylan Moscovitch
Zoisite: Seiya Hashimoto
Queen Beryl: Shinko Sakamaki

Additional skaters: Youji Nakano, Shigeru Matsumura, Koichi Kobayashi, Kohei Yoshino, Yuka Kono, Takana Ito

Special guest appearance: Kurt Browning

Voice cast:

Sailor Moon/Tsukino Usagi: Kotono Mitsuishi
Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno: Hisako Kanemoto
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino: Rina Sato
Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino: Ami Koshimizu
Sailor Venus/Minako Aino: Shizuka Ito

Other staff:

Screenplay: Takuya Hiramitsu
Choreography: Yuka Sato, Benji Schwimer (Assistant)
Music: Akiko Kosaka, Lunar Eclipse Meeting

As I put the list from the official site through Google Translate some of the names that aren’t hyperlinks may be incorrect. I’ve included Wikipedia links when I found them to give some insight into what those athletes have done.

Are you excited for this event? Will any of you be making the trip to Japan to check out this show in June? Who are you most excited to see?

Characters from Sailor Moon Crystal will soon be appearing in the popular Japanese mobile game Monster Strike. What is Monster Strike? It seems a bit like StreetSmash, the Street Pass mini game in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS where you smash round pieces into others on a board. The characters will be appearing in the game shortly, meaning no specific date has been given. A number of images, available on the Official Sailor Moon site and Monster Strike web site, show that this will include Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus, Tuxedo Mask, Queen Beryl, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite. Some fans believe this art may be a first look at the designs of the upcoming fourth season of Sailor Moon Crystal. I’m not convinced.

We have previously learned that Kazuko Tadano, who was a character designer and animation director for the first two seasons of the original Sailor Moon anime, would be doing the designs for the Dream arc of Sailor Moon Crystal. What her take on the series is remains to be seen however she did a sketch of Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus back in 2013 which gives us an idea of what her art style is like more recently. If you’re looking to see how she drew Sailor Moon back in the 90s note that she did all of the laser disc cover art, which has been used for home video releases over the last 25 years. So much to say the image of Sailor Moon most people think of matches her style.

I frankly don’t see the resemblance here. The art style and almost comically large heads in the Monster Striker images just don’t seem to fit with either anything that Kazuko Tadano has put out or what Sailor Moon Crystal was doing. If I had to venture a guess I would say this art is made by one of the artists who has done other Monster Strike art over the years. Further by the very fact that we only have characters from the Dark Kingdom story arc shown here I don’t think it’s likely that these are new Sailor Moon Crystal designs. We similarly never saw any of the characters unique to the first two story arcs done in the style of Sailor Moon Crystal’s 3rd season. There is plenty of art from the Dark Kingdom arc which could be used for purposes such as these if that was the desire here. Instead this appears to be Sailor Moon Crystal in the style of Monster Strike. The super deformed or chibi versions with very large heads seem to fit with in game graphics of other characters. This is only my own personal assessment of the art of course! You are free to make your own determinations about what you think and these will be confirmed in 2065 when we get the two Sailor Moon Crystal Dream Arc films.

Further to the art shown on the web sites there was a video stream which showed the Sailor Moon content. Start watching the video embedded below at 11 minutes for the relevant content. This included a number of images of mash ups between Monster Strike characters and Sailor Moon characters. The only name I could decipher was Alice who is Sailor Moon. The other Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask have gotten a similar treatment.

In addition to being featured in this game there will be a number of Sailor Moon Crystal x Monster Strike products sold at the XFLAG store in Shibuya. This includes a number of food items.

Do you play Monster Striker? Do you plan on playing the game when these characters are out? What do you think of the designs? Do you believe these are Sailor Moon Crystal Season 4 designs, Monster Strike style designs or something else?

Keep reading for more art which will be used in the game.

A few weeks ago we got our first look at the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical. This new musical will be playing in Tokyo this summer first at the Tennōzu Galaxy Theatre June 8th to the 24th and then at the TBS Akasaka ACT Theater September 21st to the 30th. What, you may ask, is this musical all about? Nogizaka46 is an all female pop band in Japan and this is a Sailor Moon musical featuring members of that band. As we can see from the promo image and the posts on the Sailor Moon official site and musical’s official site, 10 of the band members have formed two Sailor Teams. One is Team Moon and the other is Team Star.

The two teams seem to be identical in costume and appearance, though we can clearly see that the members in those costumes differ from one image to the other. With multiple shows being put on over a fairly short time the two teams are scheduled to perform on different nights. At first I imagined this was to give the other team a break on the off days but since a lot of the other cast of the musicals is only listed once it seems like not everyone is on that schedule. Perhaps this setup is simply meant to vary the performances to feature more of their talent. It remains to be seen if the performances themselves will vary depending on the team performing. Perhaps each team will have an exclusive song to encourage people to see multiple performances! At this point this is only speculation.

Here’s a translated cast listing. I’m not good with Japanese names (since Google Translate messes them up) so I had a little help from this Anime News Network article for this list. I attempted to find a relevant link when possible. All members of Nogizaka46 have profiles from the official site and for others I tried to find a profile or social media link.

Team Moon:
Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino: Mizuki Yamashita (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno: Riria Itō (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino: Kazumi Takayama (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino: Ami Noujo (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Venus/Minako Aino: Hina Higuchi (Nogizaka46)

Team Star:
Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino: Sayuri Inoue (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno: Miria Watanabe (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino: Ranze Terada (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino: Minami Umezawa (Nogizaka46)
Sailor Venus/Minako Aino: Kana Nakada (Nogizaka46)

Naru Osaka: Yuka Yamauchi
Umino Gurio: Marina Tanoue

Kunzite: Chihiro Andō
Zoisite: Sari Kojima
Nephrite: Shin
Jadeite: Rina Takeda

Ensemble (I assume this means background dancers, various monsters and such)：
Mayuko Kawamoto, Mayu Kaburagi, Kumiko Saitō, Ayuka Kurachi, Minami Watanabe, Mami Mitsuoka

Queen Beryl: Nami Tamaki

Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru Chiba: Mikako Ishii

Director: Worry Kinoshita

Only the main cast of the Sailor Team will be composed of Nogizaka46 members. The rest of cast of characters are played by various musical stars and dancers, as was the case with other musicals. To me the most interesting casting decision here is that Mikako Ishii, who played Sailor Pluto in the last few musicals, will be playing Tuxedo Mask! It’s well established that Sailor Pluto has an unrequited love for King Endymion in the future! What better way to gain someone’s affection than to literally become them? Also returning is Chihiro Ando as Kunzite. She previously played Tiger’s Eye in the Amour Eternal musical. As we see from this an other casting we once again have an all female cast even including the male characters.

It seems clear that the story will cover the Dark Kingdom story arc though beyond that it’s hard to get a sense of what the content or structure of the musical will be like. Given the cast and that we have two returning cast members I’m inclined to think that it will be a similar presentation to musicals we have seen in the past.

So … which Team are you rooting for? Is that how we’re supposed to be reacting to this? Go Team Star! No way Team Moon is the best! … and so forth.

This is a review and discussion of the Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series Act 11, We Got to Meet the Real Minako!, and 12, Sailor V’s True Identity Was The Princess. These episodes introduce us more personally with the character of Minako and reveal Sailor Venus and Artemis for the first time! Since these two episodes aired in Japan just before Christmas in real time, that being December 13th and 20th, they also include a decent amount of Christmas content. Karaoke Crown and many other locations are decorated with Christmas decorations and in Act 12 Usagi transforms into Santa Claus and buys Minako some cake, which appears to be some sort of strawberry shortcake, and wishes her a Merry Christmas. We also have discussion of a Christmas pageant and Minako is redecorating Nako Nako in a Christmas style. Once again this confirms that these episodes come close to real time.

Though we have seen her previously as Minako and Sailor V Act 11 gives us our first elaborate scenes featuring Minako Aino as portrayed by Ayaka Komatsu. This character is really the polar opposite of Usagi in nearly every way as we’ll see in both of these episodes. While Rei is generally portrayed as being the voice of reason, keeping Usagi’s impulsive light heartedness in check, Minako is the same on a whole other level! In her we see a serious, mission driven and broody character who, though in contrast to others in the series, is incorporated well and makes for an interesting dynamic. It took a while for Rei to come around but ultimately she fully integrates into the group hanging around HQ and in social situations. We won’t be seeing the same for Minako.

The plot for Act 11 is straightforward. Minako was injured and taken to a hospital and Usagi is looking to crash it. She mentions that she is only superficially wounded. I wonder how one gets superficially wounded by getting hit by a truck? This seems like an all or nothing type of thing where either the truck doesn’t hit you, and you’re totally fine, or the truck hits you and you have a bunch of broken ribs, a concussion and possibly end up dying. Perhaps it is Minako’s super strength and powers, which she exhibits even in civilian form, which account for her coming out of this relatively unharmed. I wonder what the truck looks like!

Minako has a couple of handlers in this episode and neither of them is the guy who was with her when the car accident occurred. Did he get killed? One of them brings her the Sailor V outfit from the trunk. Does this mean that Sailor V brought her Sailor V outfit to London in case she needed to fight crime? Perhaps it was simply in the car when she landed! I wonder why the uniform is even removed. Most Sailor Guardians transform and don’t actually keep their uniforms separate. Minako clearly has Sailor V’s compact which allows her to transform in the manga so why does her costume persist after reverting to her civilian form? Assisting her starting in this episode is her ridiculous cartoon character of a manager who looks like some drop out from a Japanese variety show which isn’t worth watching.

Artemis is seen but not heard in this episode, though his identity isn’t revealed. He is voiced by veteran anime voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi who has voiced iconic characters such as Ranma in Ranma 1/2, InuYasha in InuYasha and many, many more. They discuss Minako’s decision to become Sailor V and the Princess. Odd… isn’t the Princess already the Princess???

Mamoru still has Usagi’s handkerchief on his night stand. Has Hina noticed this? He’s playing a very dangerous game!

So Usagi wants to find Minako and offer her some kind of well wishes, and get an autograph, but no one knows which hospital she’s at! Luckily her father, who we don’t see in this episode or ever, somehow found out that she’s at the Juuban Hospital. This is relayed through Usagi’s mother, with whom she has actual contact and an actual relationship. Usagi and Makoto go to the hospital and abuse of their powers to disguise themselves as nurses. Not a bad trick! They see Minako’s annoying manager chasing her at the hospital and assume he is a monster! Hilarity ensues, Usagi blows Minako’s cover and somehow they end up getting pushed into a room alone with Minako and horrible manager.

Minako immediately notices that Usagi is Sailor Moon, though neither Usagi or Makoto can do the same. Her impression of Usagi is complete disappointment, as Usagi is a star crazy fan looking for a signature who seems to put no priority into her missions, the exact opposite of Minako. Usagi actually mentions looking for Sailor V and the Princess along with other less important things than chasing idols, because she is very bad at masking her secret identity. Minako is so completely upset by who Usagi is that she choses not to show up to this week’s conflict in order to fight bad guys instead simply asking herself why this girl is Sailor Moon. Why, we must ask, does Minako care so much about one of the four Guardians? She is the Princess, as we are meant to believe at this point, and Sailor Moon, who the show is named after, is one of her guardians and not the other way around! The truth, as you may suspect, is a bit more complicated.

Back at the HQ we get an actual look at just what it is that Ami is doing when she’s “looking for Sailor V”, as she’s apparently been doing for the past month and a half. She’s at a computer doing web searches on the Internet! Fair enough! It seems to work! They find a hit for a Planetary Festival which includes Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter in the description and mentions that the guest is V. This is sadly not a great lead as Minako actually flakes on showing up but it is a great trap set up by Zoisite, who does a really good job of hypnotizing everyone!

Luna, it seems, can’t be hypnotized and it tied up and has tape put on her mouth. How can she get out of this? Band aids on her forehead was literally a thing she could not get out of in the manga and anime series! Still we see Luna effortlessly remove the tape from her mouth by, if you look closely, simply touching her paw to the non sticky side of the tape. This is not how tape works! Shortly after Luna’s struggling seems to have completely removed the ropes. How is this possible? It must have been done in the same way that she tied a clock to herself in the anime.

At the climax of the battle Zoisite and Tuxedo Mask touch each other, which causes and a big flash and a revelation. Zoisite also sees Tuxedo Mask and the Princess! Unfortunately the silhouette of the Princess we see can’t be accurately identified as anyone. It seems that it’s neither Miyuu Sawai, who plays Sailor Moon who isn’t actually the Princess as far as we know, or Ayaka Komatsu, who plays Sailor V who at this point we are to believe is totally the Princess. Why is this? Is it some third person? Actually it just seems that they hired an actress to play this silhouette in order to keep the worst kept secret a secret from fans. To be fair, this was probably effective amongst young fans, first time viewers and that odd subset of watchers who were convinced that Minako was the Princess who I will never stop harping on.

Act 12 starts where Act 11 left off, with Minako being disappointed with Usagi! It really is a continuation and follow up to the last episode as Usagi goes back to the hospital to get the autograph she forgot, and we go through a lot of the same motions again! This time she seems to be more of a doctor than a nurse in her disguise and when she see the manager, who’s actually a monster this time, she suspects that he’s just a manager unlike the last time where he was just a manager and Usagi assumed he was a monster! Life is hard for a superhero teenager!

Meanwhile Minako is using Photoshop Elements to work on a Nako Nako graphic. I’m really surprised she isn’t getting someone else to do this or perhaps farm the work out to some outside company. Never a moment’s rest for an idol I suppose!

Let’s talk about this manager monster for a moment, and not just the fact that they found a way to make an annoying actor even more annoying by making him a monster. The odd thing I always noticed was that this monster’s shadow looks like Chibi Chibi! Chibi Chibi isn’t actually anywhere near this series and I doubt the resemblance is intentional.

Minako ends up doing normal person for a day! This wasn’t why she was running away from her manager but that’s what Usagi thought, noting that this kind of thing happens in comics all the time! Totally legit. In fact an episode of the original Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon SuperS episode 146, Juban Holiday: The Carefree Princess, had just this plot when Princess Ribuna shrugs off her responsibilities to be normal for the day. Minako is upset that Usagi doesn’t notice that her manager is a monster and thinks her idea that she just wants to escape is dumb, even though that’s exactly what she was doing when Usagi found her in the last episode! She was trying to escape the hospital without her manager knowing!

Minako gets her clothes dirty on wet paint and so her and Usagi go clothes shopping, a great excuse to bond! They get ambushed by fans at the store and Usagi dresses herself up as Minako, using her clothes and not her magic phone, and distracts the crowd. Minako thinks this is stupid because she could just have taken the back door. This reminds me of myself, a cynic calling out something ridiculous from this show! This would have been a perfect time to ditch Usagi completely but I guess Minako wanted her hat back and so she meets up with Usagi again!

Finally the two end up in a ferris wheel, why not, and Usagi gives Minako a cake for Christmas. To their surprise the two eat it the same way which they find quite funny and in this, Minako finally allows herself to laugh and relax for the first time in ages. Indeed even Minako, originally dismissive of Usagi’s simple mindedness and lack of focus on her mission, warms up to Usagi’s kind hearted optimism! All of the girls are lonely and find friendship in Usagi and Minako is no different. In her case she secluded herself for the purpose of her important mission. With this she finally decides it’s time to reveal herself to the gang.

Following the battle with Minako’s manager monster Sailor V shows up and transforms into Princess Sailor Venus. She’s got a tiara! Oh wait they all have tiaras… She has a tiara fitting of an actual Princess! She also has a crescent Moon on her forehead in the style of Princess Serenity. Artemis the cat shows up and presents Sailor Venus as the Princess of the Silver Millennium! Looks like the gang’s all together and there are no more mysteries! Sailor “Venus” is the Princess of the “Moon” Kingdom and Sailor Moon is just another guardian. Makes sense! Case closed. This revaluation somewhat resembles the appearance of Sailor Venus in the manga which takes place at the end of Act 7, Mamoru Chibi – Tuxedo Mask, and beginning of Act 8, Minako – Sailor V, but the rest of these manga chapters have little relevance to this story and we the big Princess switcheroo from early in Act 8 doesn’t happen for a while or possibly ever!

There’s another confrontation between Zoisite and Tuxedo Mask but this time Zoisite remembers something important! Tuxedo Mask is Endymion! Mamoru recognizes this name too, but what does it mean? Maybe it was his name back when he was courting the Princess. You know Sailor Venus who is the Princess! It’s in the episode title “Sailor V’s True Identity Was The Princess”. During this confrontation Sailor Venus attacks Zoisite with an unnamed attack which appears to be crescent beam and he turns into a rock. They’re running out of Shittennou. Maybe they should bring in Kunzite!

Feel free to leave a comment with your own thoughts on these two episodes. If you’re looking to watch along with the series you can get English subtitled fan subbed versions from sites such as Miss Dream, TV-Nihon and Sea of Serenity. Fans looking to stream the show can do so from Dramanice and Kiss Asian.

Keep reading for more screenshots from these episodes.

This is a review and discussion of Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 5, Is Usagi a True Friend?, and Act 6, The Transfer Student is Sailor Jupiter. These episodes aired on TV in Japan on November 1st and 8th respectively and, as with earlier episodes, those dates seem to match dates in the show as a calendar in Usagi’s room shows that the month is November. For the first time we get a live action original story with Act 5 and Act 6. While Act 6 is somewhat close to the manga Act 5, is still its own original story. While it may have seemed at first like this would be an episode per episode adaptation for the manga, this is no longer the case and the series will continue to deviate from the source material as it goes on. Want a faithful adaptation? Watch Sailor Moon Crystal! This series is about to do its own thing!

Act 5 is all about Ami doubting her friendship with Usagi. There’s a monster in here somewhere, but that small aside is almost unnecessary to the story. This is a pure drama episode focusing on the friendship between Usagi and Ami. In earlier episodes it seemed as if things were going well for those two, but we are quickly learning that for Ami, making friends doesn’t come all that naturally. As she goes through her daily life she sees a number of examples telling her that many friendships are not as they appear, and so she begins to doubt the strength of her bond with Usagi. This goes so far as to having her imagine being shot by Usagi! Like mother, like daughter! Though my mind always goes to Chibiusa when I see Usagi with a gun, there is an early image of Usagi drawn by Naoko Takeuchi which similarly shows Sailor Moon wielding a gun. This was drawn before the concept of Sailor Moon was completely figured out.

Ami buys a book, “How To Be A True Friend” which gives advise that she doesn’t really follow all that well. This causes her to act atypical in a number of ways. She speaks to Usagi more casually, using the honorific “chan”, which was something Usagi had mentioned she wanted her to use. The “chan” honorific is used between friends while the “san” honorific is more formal. When other students boo the teacher because of a surprise test, she boos along! She even intentionally fails the test (or pretends to have failed the test) in order to help out with chores as punishment. She even skips her cram school in order to go to a pyjama party with Usagi and Naru. This is not the Ami we are used to, and it’s not one we will see for long!

This pyjama party is some weird stuff. It’s no one’s birthday, but it’s full of streamers! The girls sing karaoke and Ami claps along in a robot like motion and finally joins in. When it comes to trying on makeup however things are not as easy as screaming a catch phrase and transforming. Ami ends up looking like a clown causing Usagi and Naru to laugh, which Ami perceives as laughing at her. Distraught she tries to wash it off and collapses out of exhaustion. Usagi finds the book and is upset that Ami is trying to be someone she’s not. She tells her that lying is the one thing friends don’t do! Usagi, of course, is a good friend through all of this but Ami only sees evidence that their friendship is eroding as she basically is hearing her state ways in which they aren’t real friends. She doesn’t say “chan” and they lie to each other.

Meanwhile Rei, who herself has been shown to be very antisocial in past episodes, is very socially aware and the voice of reason. She tells Usagi not to push things and she’s totally right! What we have in Ami and Rei are a girl who doesn’t have friends because she’s bad at it and a girl who doesn’t have friends because she doesn’t want any!

There’s a whole glasses sub plot. Ami wears fake glasses, which is pretty odd. Do people really do this? I’ve recently started wearing real glasses and it’s a real pain to get used to. As I type this I’m distracted by the visible frames and twitching my nose, but Ami feels some sort of comfort from them. This makes me wonder… what if she really needed glasses? Ami wears glasses but Sailor Mercury doesn’t! Does transforming somehow heal all physical limitations? In the not at all canon Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon series which only ever had a pilot which never went to air, Sailor Mercury was in a wheel chair but when she transformed she still needed a special flying vehicle (which we can’t call a wheel chair because it doesn’t have wheels) to move around. Would a Sailor Guardian with glasses have something like Sailor Mercury’s visor? Regardless, they’re fake, and by the end of the episode Ami finds she isn’t wearing them anymore which is a sign of her gradual transition into the person she was pretending to be.

Ami also manages to call Usagi by her given name “Usagi” by the end, though there is no “chan” honorific included. This is an upgrade from the “Tsukino-san” she would usually say. Moreso Naru and Usagi’s other friends refer to Ami as the more informal “Ami-chan” instead of the formal “Mizuno-san” they had been using. This was a small change none of them had noticed, but indicative of an overall acceptance on their part that they were seeing Ami differently. The use of honorifics in this show and anime in general isn’t something that is always obvious to western viewers who don’t use such terms, but this episode in particular illustrates how different honorifics can be used even between classmates at the same level and that this can tell us something about their relationship. Throughout the series it is notable that Usagi very quickly uses the “chan” honorific when she first encounters the Sailor Guardians. This is an example of how easily she makes friends and is reflective of her genuine kind heart.

A bit of trivia. Early in the episode when Ami is listening to the radio she’s tuned to the FM frequency 77.7. This would refer to a 77.7 MHz carrier frequency. The problem? This is out of the normal range for FM radio which is in the range of 87.5 to 108 MHz. So what’s at 77.7 MHz? Pretty much nothing! A bit of reading at Wikipedia tells me that in the US and Canada radio controlled devices generally use between 72 and 76 MHz, putting this frequency between those that are commonly used. I don’t know why Ami isn’t just tuning in to everyone’s favourite radio station, FM no. 10!

Act 6 introduces us to Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter. She’s played by Mew Azama who I feel perfectly captures the character both in the way she looks and acts. The immediately evident thing about her is that she’s incredibly tall, and we’ll notice that whenever we see a group shot of the girls either posing in the show or in promotional material. Check out the new banner I’m using for the site and you’ll see that she’s leaning in and still taller than everyone else! This episode once again has a lot of drama and emotion and to me is one of the high points of the series. One might be inclined to say that, like with the episodes introducing the other characters, that this episode follows the manga Act 5, Makoto – Sailor Jupiter, but upon some reflection the only resemblance is the appearance of Makoto. While the Manga story centres around a wedding dress shop this episode is about basketball and no more resembles it in any way than the anime episode 25, Jupiter – the Powerful Girl in Love, with Crane Game Joe follows it. The anime, similarly, introduces Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars in similar ways to the manga, but did not do the same for Sailor Jupiter or Venus.

Basketball is a major theme here and I wonder if anyone working on the show ever actually played the game. I’m no pro myself but at 6’2″ it was inevitable that I end up shooting a few hoops from time to time in my day, although a general lack of coordination and athleticism kept me from excelling at the sport. The superstar basketball player that all the girls show up to watch play is Takeru and this dude is not at all well equipped to play basketball! He’s wearing a really inappropriate hat and his scarf can’t possibly be doing him any good. Instead of basketball shoes he’s got these old and busted boots. Nice superstar! I wonder, do people really do this kind of thing in Japan? Just hang around a basketball court fawning over a run of the mill street player and taking photos? It reminds me a bit of episode 14 of the anime that centred around tennis where everyone turned out in droves to watch a player.

Usagi, creeping around the court to watch this Takeru guy, gets confronted and intimidated by a few jerks. Makoto shows up, protects her, and beats the crap out of them! How fantastic. Makoto is a transfer student from another school where, rumour has it, she got in a fight and so she got kicked out! As always Makoto is wearing the wrong school uniform and although it isn’t mentioned the idea is that she continues to wear this because she’s so tall and that her new school doesn’t have a uniform in her size. I don’t know how sizes work in Japan but as I understand it in North America women’s clothes sizes only affect width and for height you get petite, grande and venti clothes. I think that’s right…

Makoto has no friends, and so she hangs out on the roof at lunch time in the no friends club with Ami! As always though, Usagi is there to become her friend! This seems natural at this point as Makoto helped defend her. While walking on a bridge Usagi walks on a ledge to compensate for the fact that Makoto is so tall! Shopping montage! The two go shopping and try on various humorous clothes. The store they go to is Claire’s which is a chain which has locations here in Canada. A good place to buy gloves during prom season which work for Sailor Moon cosplay! Makoto is new to the area, having not only changed schools but also having moved in to a new place. She lives on her own since, as she states, her parents died when she was 10. These backstories keep getting more tragic! More important than that, as we eventually learn, is that she left because of her “Sempai”, a theme which is always around for Makoto. She compares various boys she finds attractive to her “Sempai”, a term which here means a student of a higher grade, something which in the English dub was a reference to her “old boyfriends” though in reality it does not seem like they ever dated. We see a number of people leaving Makoto at one point and it seems like one of them is likely her Sempai. There are two teenaged boys in the mix but I imagine the last one to leave, the well dressed one, is meant to be him.

When Makoto arrives home at her apartment one night she finds a love letter from Takeru inviting her to show up at a fountain at 10. Makoto arrives early in the morning, but hours and hours go by and no one shows up. This bears a striking similarity to episode 147 of Sailor Moon SuperS, Destined Partners? Makoto’s Innocence, in which Makoto waits for hours in the rain for Tiger’s Eye who has stood her up. Inspiration for this series from the anime is certainly possible, as that series had completed airing years before this series began production. In this story however, Takeru did not stand her up at all. The letter was a cruel prank by the three basketball jerks which causes great heartbreak to Makoto. Luckily Luna sees this and, somehow, is able to alert the girls via their cell phones. I expect she could communicate with them when in the headquarters but she’s clearly on the go when she sees this which makes me once again wonder if Luna’s powers have any limit!

This leads to a completely ridiculous and hilarious scene in which Usagi, Ami and Rei seek to take revenge on the basketball jerks by somehow using their phones to transform into basketball players? Does using a magic phone to make yourself wear basketball clothes make you better at basketball? This episode seems to suggest that yes it does, which makes us wonder why this isn’t used for actual saving the world purposes! So the girls show up looking all bad ass and totally cream these jerks at basketball using seemingly superhuman abilities to do things like jump super high. Justice?

Meanwhile through a conversation with Rei she mentions that she doesn’t like boys. Does this mean she likes girls? The interpretation from the manga would more mean that she’s not interested in boys, not that she’s interested in girls instead. In this way she’s quite unlike her boy crazy anime counterpart, though in other ways she is much like she was in the anime. In the manga it is mentioned by Rei and Minako that as Sailor Guardians their dedication to protecting the Princess precludes them from pursuing romantic relationships. Though this passage somewhat resembles the sentiment Rei mentions here, it can’t be said that it’s for the same reasons. Rei has only been a Sailor Guardian for a brief time, around a month by my estimate, and does not know who the Princess is or have full access to her memories of her previous life. It seems like this attitude about men is one she had before meeting Usagi. Further, without getting into specifics, the girls continue to pursue romantic relationships and it’s strongly indicated that far in the future at least one of the Sailor Guardians, besides the Princess, will herself be getting married.

Finally Takeru seemingly shows up at Makoto’s apartment but he’s actually possessed by a monster and he takes her to a dimension filled with candles. Makoto is so hardcore that she resists his charm and decks him. Woo! We get a real sad montage of everyone who’s left her, but Sailor Moon comes in to take Makoto’s hand, perfect symbolism of Usagi’s friendship which saves Makoto from a life of loneliness. Takeru, it turns out, is a bit of a wuss as he flees from the monster in terror while hardcore Makoto faces him. He’s quickly dispatched and the four Sailor Guardians are finally together as a team! Now there’s just that pesky business of finding the Princess…

We get a glimpse of Zoisite as the episode ends. Again, he looks very little like his manga and anime counterpart, except for the pony tail.

Feel free to leave a comment with your own thoughts on these two episodes. If you’re looking to watch along with the series you can get English subtitled fan subbed versions from sites such as Miss Dream, TV-Nihon and Sea of Serenity. Fans looking to stream the show can do so from Dramanice and Kiss Asian.

Keep reading for more screenshots from these episodes.

We’ve got some great villain Petit Chara figures coming in May! The latest set includes Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, Queen Beryl, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisyte and Kunzite. These were announced on the official site and are also listed on the Premium Bandai and Kiddy Land sites. This is being called the Dark Kingdom set though I would say the Silver Millennium set might be a more accurate title with the inclusion of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion. Regardless the Dark Kingdom characters are the big appeal of this set as we’ve already gotten a number of Sailor Moon variants including Princess Serenity, though this is the first time we get Prince Endymion himself, rather than Tuxedo Mask or Mamoru. I’m still waiting for a Moonlight Knight figure perhaps bundled Ail and An.

These aren’t the first villains we’ve seen in this line of toys, which previously saw the release of the Ayakashi Sisters, the Black Moon Clan and the Amazon Trio. I’ve already gotten a few of these figures and look forward to adding these to my collection.

Seeing Jadeite from this set reminds me of the super deformed version so of various characters we saw in Sailor Moon R episode 58. We only need Morga to be able to recreate this whole scene!

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A while back we got a look at an odd choice for a Sailor Moon S. H. Figuarts figure with Zoisite dressed as Sailor Moon from episode 33 of the original Sailor Moon anime. This figure, with slightly different colours, a boomerang and a mean looking face, was Zoisite’s trap to lure in Tuxedo Mask. We have now learned, via the Sailor Moon official site, that this figure is a San Diego Comic-con exclusive. The figure is referred to in Japanese as “Nise Sailor Moon” which means a fake or imitation Sailor Moon. Like with other high quality Figuarts figures it comes with a number of replacement pieces and even a custom Luna with weird surprised eyes.

Pictures of the packaging also surfaced and have been included above. San Diego Comic-con will be held next weekend, July 8th to the 12th, where the figure will sell for $45. A limited number of these figures will be sold via lottery in Japan as well. There has not been any mention of this figure’s availability following the convention. Are any of you attending San Diego Comic-con this year? If so, please drop me a line if you’re able to pick me up a figure and I’ll be sure to compensate you for any costs.

Image source: @donato_denny76 on Twitter (1, 2) and the Sailor Moon Tamashii Nations site

We previously announced that a Sailor Moon Crystal Character Song Collection CD would be released on April 29th. Previews of all songs have been posted to the official Sailor Moon Instagram page. The first 9 tracks posted match the names given in the track listing earlier. The final song was previously posted to YouTube. The clips on Instagram are all 15 seconds, the maximum length for videos on the site, but with a sample of every track we get a good idea of what’s in store for next week.

All video clips are embedded below.

Kotono Mitsuishi as Usagi Tsukino performing “Come Rain Come Shine”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「降っても晴れても-come rain come shine-」月野うさぎ（CV:三石琴乃）15秒ミュージックスポット公開♪ #sailormoon #sailormooncrystal #セーラームーン#セーラームーンCrystal

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 13, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Hisako Kanemoto as Ami Mizuno performing “A Touch of Rain”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「a touch of rain」水野亜美（CV:金元寿子）15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 14, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Rina Sato as Rei Hino performing “Sea of Fire”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「火の海」火野レイ（CV:佐藤利奈）15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 15, 2015 at 4:58am PDT

Ami Koshimizu as Makoto Kino performing “Cherry Pie”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「cherry pie」木野まこと（CV:小清水亜美）15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 16, 2015 at 4:02am PDT

Shizuka Ito as Minako Aino performing “Because the Sky Makes My Heart Fly Away”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「♡(ハート)が飛んじゃう空だから」愛野美奈子（CV:）15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 17, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Kenji Nojima as Tuxedo Mask performing “Moonrise of Your Eyes”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「君の瞳のMoonrise」地場衛（CV:野島健児）15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 18, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Daisuke Kishio as Jadeite, Kosuke Toriumi as Nephrite, Masaya Matsukaze as Zoisite and Eiji Takemoto as Kunzite performing “I’m Going Down”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「I'M GOING DOWN」ジェダイト（CV:岸尾だいすけ）&ネフライト(CV:鳥海浩輔)&ゾイサイト(CV:松風雅也)&クンツァイト(CV:竹本英史)15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 19, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Ami Koshimizu as Makoto Kino and Ami Koshimizu as Makoto Kino performing “Midnight Secret Talk”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「真夜中secret talk」水野亜美（CV:金元寿子）&木野まこと(CV:小清水亜美)15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 20, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

Rina Sato as Rei Hino and Shizuka Ito as Minako Aino performing “Star on Stars”.

「美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal」キャラクター音楽集CrystalCollectionより「Star on Stars」火野レイ（CV:佐藤利奈）&愛野美奈子(CV:伊藤 静)15秒ミュージックスポット公開です♪

A video posted by セーラームーンCrystal PRアカウント (@sailormooncrystal.pr) on Apr 21, 2015 at 4:01am PDT

All of the Sailor Guardians perform on the final track “Revolution Night and Day” was included in the last post.

A Sailor Moon Crystal Character Song Collection CD will be released on April 29th. A preview of this CD has been posted to the Official Sailor Moon site. Just what is this? This is not music or songs from Sailor Moon Crystal but rather songs performed by the voice actors from the show. The old Sailor Moon Anime frequently had these and occasionally included them in the series. The site mentions that it has been nearly 20 years since the release of a Character Music Collection. This should be a surprise to fans of the 2003 Sailor Moon Live Action series which had many albums and singles of character songs by the main cast.

The full track listing in Japanese is on the Sailor Moon official site. There are 10 tracks in total. Songs will be performed by the voices of Sailor Moon by Kotono Mitsuishi, Sailor Mercury by Hisako Kanemoto, Sailor Mars by Rina Sato, Sailor Jupiter by Ami Koshimizu, Sailor Venus by Shizuka Ito, Tuxedo Mask by Kenji Nojima, Jadeite by Daisuke Kishio, Nephrite by Kosuke Toriumi, Zoisite by Masaya Matsukaze and Kunzite by Eiji Takemoto. All of the Sailor Guardians have their own solo tracks, as does Tuxedo Mask. The Shitennou all perform together on one track. Two duets are done, one with Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter and the other with Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus. The final track has all of the Sailor Guardians performing together.

You can preorder the CD from Amazon Japan or CD Japan for 3240 yen, about $27 US.

There have been a lot of new S. H. Figuarts figures revealed since I last posted about them. A Super Sailor Moon S. H. Figuarts figure has been officially announced. It was originally revealed at the Wonder Festival 2015 Winter along with many other figures! Also revealed at this convention were the long awaited Sailor Pluto, Sailor V and Zoisite dressed as Sailor Moon S. H. Figuarts. In total this makes 4 different Sailor Moon S. H. Figuarts figures, 3 of which are mostly just different colours. This is likely the case because it’s much easier to reuse existing molds and change the colours of a figure than to make new molds and a completely new figure. A Sailor Chibi Moon figure had already been revealed which we posted about last year. All figures will cost about $40 to $50 once released in North America.

Super Sailor Moon has a few cool accessories with the Kaleidomoon Scope, her attack item from Sailor Moon S, as well as the Holy Grail which she originally uses to transform in to Super Sailor Moon.

Sailor V looks great. No accessories are shown to be included though this doesn’t mean she won’t have any. The Sailor Venus figure came with a Sailor V mask but this is a drastically different costume. Zoisite dressed as Sailor Moon is from anime episode 33 in which Zoisite posed as Sailor Moon in order to lure in Tuxedo Mask. His colours are slightly different than Sailor Moon’s with a darker costume and green eyes. No accessories are shown here either, though Zoisite stabs Tuxedo Mask while in that costume in the anime. That might be something nice to include.

Sailor Chibi Moon is only in her original form, not her Super Sailor Chibi Moon form. She comes with her Cutie Moon Rod.

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site announcement for Super Sailor Moon, info about Anime Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon Collectibles post about Super Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon Collectibles post about Wonder Festival 2015 Winter

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Keep reading for more images of these figures.