Monday, May 6, 2019

Viz Media: Sailor Moon Stars home video to debut in June 2019

I saw fantastic news on Twitter this week. Viz Media will officially release the first volume of Sailor Moon Stars in English for home video in June 2019!

Originally, DiC Productions and Cloverway (who owned the rights at the time) released the English-language adaptation of Sailor Moon  through season 4. As a result, Sailor Moon fans had to turn to the Japanese version with English subtitles (episodes 167 to 183) to watch the final season. From what I heard over the years, Season 5 contained visual content that was considered too inappropriate for children to watch on television in the 1990s. The English-adaptation in the 1990s contained heavy censorship (especially DiC episodes) to meet federal rules for TV programming to children. While I enjoyed Sailor Moon as a child in the 1990s, I can see how this decision to censor and remove episodes was met with disdain among fans in my adult years.

Sailor Moon fans in North America can rejoice because we will have a complete collection in English dub! Viz Media has been faithful in restoring the Sailor Moon anime series to the original Japanese release -- that means no censorship or removal of content in the episodes. It may have taken nearly two decades for this project to prevail, but the timing couldn't be better. I cannot wait to watch it myself. You may pre-order the home video set on RightStuf. Here is a synopsis:
Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians are about to face their greatest challenge yet — high school! But as the girls take their next big step in life and Chibi-Usa prepares to return to the future, a mysterious force frees the evil Queen Nehalennia! While the struggle to contain her old enemy will be difficult, it may be Mamoru's year of studying abroad that hurts Usagi the most. But there's even more to take Usagi's mind off of long-distance love with the arrival of the villainous Sailor Anima Mates and the heroic Sailor Star Lights! Who could be behind this new wave of evil? And why are the Star Lights resistant to working with Sailor Moon? Usagi has her hands full, but she'll always make time to write a love letter to her beloved Mamo.
Pre-order today! Now for 90s nostalgia -- here's the video for the opening theme of the final season of Sailor Moon!



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