SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL Available Now on BD/DVD

On August 16, Viz Media released their first Blu-ray/DVD combo set of SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL, the anime retelling of the series that's far more closely based on the original manga. When it first aired in Japan, I watched a few episodes, but held out for the eventual North American release, and it's finally here.

The standalone BD cover art.

 I had preordered the Right Stuf exclusive version, which is the limited edition but with a bonus "suncatcher" trinket. The limited edition comes with a nice artbox, seven art cards of the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask, and a booklet with art and episode information.

The first season, coined The Dark Kingdom Arc, consists of 14 episodes. I really enjoyed watching them. As a big fan of the original anime, and Sailor Moon in general, I found this to be quite different but still very good. The story in general is more tight, and gone is any sort of filler they padded out the original series with (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). Although in some ways more story is given, such as the backstories of the villains, something that was changed and pretty much eliminated in the original series. It's more serious in tone as well, leaving little room for any jokes or wackiness present in the original. Once the story arc is resolved, the end of episode 14 moves into the Black Moon plot, ending on a hell of a cliffhanger. Hopefully it won't take too long for the second season to be released here. Also I must say, the score was pretty good, a few so-so moments, but there's a handful of tracks that were pretty beautiful, although used kind of excessively.

Packaging and contents of the limited edition.

Like the classic series, Viz did a great job with the dub, all of the characters sound great and their voices match them (a couple even sound a bit similar to their original DIC dub actresses). Video and audio sound great. Subtitles for both languages are locked and you have to make your selections from the menu. There aren't many extras, but they include a "Behind The Scenes - Introduction To Sailor Moon Crystal" featurette, starring five of the voice actors and runs about 14 minutes, a US CRYSTAL trailer, clean opening and closing themes, a Viz trailer reel (including classic SAILOR MOON and SAILOR MOON R), and art galleries on both discs.

I look forward to the inevitable release of season 2, as well as the upcoming Viz release of SAILOR MOON S. You can buy CRYSTAL at The Right Stuf from the links below.

Limited Edition BD/DVD with Suncatcher
Limited Edition BD/DVD
BD/DVD
DVD