Viz Licenses Original Sailor Moon Anime Franchise

[prkchopexpress]

Originally Posted by dragonpiece

Just wait for another sale, I got the first 2 LE's for just 30 at rightstuf during their holiday sale.

as in one season for $60?

i think i’ve become spoiled by so much anime i find now, you get a season for like $25.

it shouldn’t cost $300+ to get the series, before accounting for the movies.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by prkchopexpress

it shouldn’t cost $300+ to get the series, before accounting for the movies.

You must not be used to collecting long running series then.

[batman2000]

any word on viz getting the rights to sailor moon eternal movie?

[themp3000]

Originally Posted by batman2000

any word on viz getting the rights to sailor moon eternal movie?

Nope, I wouldn’t even begin expect any news on that front until closer to its release in Japan in September.

[SillyG]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

You must not be used to collecting long running series then.

And a long-running anime no less!

Madman has updated their B2B website to include May's releases, and there's no updates concerning Sailor Moon Stars Part 2 in Australia.

Some Sailor Moon releases are dirt cheap directly from Madman's site at the moment (ends midnight local time; presumably Sydney). Highlights include Season 2 Part 1 Limited Edition DVD for $9.95, standard edition of Season 3 Part 1 DVD for $6.99, and the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of Crystal Season 3 for $19.95.

[mysticwaterfall]

Been debating on the blus for this for years now with all the video quality issues but I'm thinking about finally pulling the trigger spread throughout this year starting with Stars and Super S since those are the seasons I've never gotten around to watching (well, besides the first 5 eps of Super S).

I remember first watching it in the 90s on TV, 7:30 am before school. Then later watching the uncut subbed versions at various times throughout the years. I have to say as good as it is to have moved away from those original censored versions I will always miss "My Only Love" and "Carry On" song wise. Those are just amazing songs.

With how long the blus have been out it surprises me a little all the LEs are still available at regular prices. Not that I'm complaining, I'm glad it's not a Ranma like situation.

[neoz]

I believe the reason that the series hasn't moved that much is because the prices were to high for most collectors. And they rarely seemed to have them on sale. I mean they did just they weren't to much lower. I believe around $45 sometimes $35 which wasn't bad. Still kind of high for just a part one for some I guess.

[mysticwaterfall]

Originally Posted by neoz

I believe the reason that the series hasn't moved that much is because the prices were to high for most collectors. And they rarely seemed to have them on sale. I mean they did just they weren't to much lower. I believe around $45 sometimes $35 which wasn't bad. Still kind of high for just a part one for some I guess.

I mean I can see that, 50-60$ on release coupled with a lot of negative reviews probably dampened the enthusiasm a bit. Streaming as always taking another chunk. The fact that a fair number of fans still somehow feel embarrassed to like Sailor Moon.

Still though,an LE to be around 5 years later

[neoz]

I don't see why anyone should be embarrassed. I have mine out for everyone to see. They are in the same room as all my guns lol.

[Dragon78]

I am not embarrassed for liking Sailor Moon as well.

[mysticwaterfall]

People shouldn't be embarrassed, but unfortunately people care way too much what other people think.

[MOONPHASE]

I cared back in the early Toonami days since it was back when I was being bullied a lot. But then I thought wait if I don’t say anything, how will they even know. And after that, I haven’t cared what others think in those kind of situations. Also my bullying went way down after that. So I still got to watch it on Weekday afternoons but just wish it was sooner.

[neoz]

Easiest way to stop a bully is the stand up to them. First time you deck them in the face they back down. I had a kid that bullied me back in the day, hit him square in the face and he left me alone.

[Raye]

There's no shame in being a guy and liking Sailor Moon; it's one of the pioneers in generating anime fandom in the West. I watched it every morning when it used to air on network television too. Think I was the only guy in my whole 5th-6th grade class who watched it with exception of one very feminine boy who later changed genders as an adult. Heck, recently, when I went to Mandarake in Shibuya, I bought the Sailor Moon R replica pens because they were boxed and in excellent condition. (On a similar note, I went into the Card Captor Sakura pop-up store at Tokyo Dome and bought Kero merchandise with zero shame.)

The funny thing is that bullies who teased people for watching anime probably are fans of anime now. Granted it's the mainstream shows like Naruto and MHA, it's still anime.

[prkchopexpress]

i know this is apples and oranges, but the ingmar bergman set from criterion was $150. they could have charged way more (and you could say they are, but they have like five sales or so a year where you can get it for that price or less.)

i might have said this forever ago, but if you made a box set of all the seasons and it was between $150-175... that would be sold out and they have they’d have to order another pressing.

also, for the price of one half of one season, you could have hulu for like four months and watch all the episodes.

so yeah. it’s not selling because it’s too expensive, on top of the streaming. being like 90% cheaper.

i’m not embarrassed to say that i want to have all the sailor moon in my collection. but hey, why not just let it sit on the shelf forever?

[battlechateau]

I'm holding out hope for a complete Blu-ray collection. It could allow Viz to go back and make all the seasons look more consistent in quality and maybe even offer the uncut tracks for S and SuperS (very unlikely but not impossible). I'd also like to see the same done for the movies since it has always bothered by how the packaging for the R movie doesn't match the S and SuperS movies. If they did that, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[mysticwaterfall]

Originally Posted by battlechateau

I'm holding out hope for a complete Blu-ray collection. It could allow Viz to go back and make all the seasons look more consistent in quality and maybe even offer the uncut tracks for S and SuperS (very unlikely but not impossible). I'd also like to see the same done for the movies since it has always bothered by how the packaging for the R movie doesn't match the S and SuperS movies. If they did that, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Personally I dont see Viz ever doing a complete series collection or an ultimate box with the series and the movies, not really their style. If they ever did though, it would just be the same discs.

[SillyG]

Originally Posted by battlechateau

I'm holding out hope for a complete Blu-ray collection. It could allow Viz to go back and make all the seasons look more consistent in quality and maybe even offer the uncut tracks for S and SuperS (very unlikely but not impossible).

What do you mean by "uncut" tracks for S and SuperS? Aren't the Viz dubs supposed to be uncut?

As for retroactively making the seasons "look more consistent", that's not going to happen. The whole point of a remaster is to cement how a show/movie will look for the foreseeable future. Viz isn't going to do a remaster when they have already just done one.

As for a complete Blu-ray set, I can certainly see Madman (Australia) doing it, though I strongly doubt that such a set will include the movies. The movies could potentially get their own set though.

[Imaginarion]

Originally Posted by SillyG

What do you mean by "uncut" tracks for S and SuperS? Aren't the Viz dubs supposed to be uncut?

As for retroactively making the seasons "look more consistent", that's not going to happen. The whole point of a remaster is to cement how a show/movie will look for the foreseeable future. Viz isn't going to do a remaster when they have already just done one.

As for a complete Blu-ray set, I can certainly see Madman (Australia) doing it, though I strongly doubt that such a set will include the movies. The movies could potentially get their own set though.

The packaging and dub for the Viz sets is perfect; lined up on a shelf, they look absolutely beautiful. And the new English dub is 10x better than the old censored and edited one, with the added benefit of using the same voice actors for all 200 episodes of the original series, all three movies, and all 39 episodes of Crystal.

But the releases have been rightly criticized for the terrible video quality. Toei refused to properly rescan the film negatives in HD -- because Toei is as cheap as cheap gets -- so Viz were forced to upscale the SD video tape masters themselves in order to release the show on Blu-ray. In an effort to boost colors and sharpen the image artificially (which cannot truly be done unless a new, HD scan of film material is produced), Viz completely mangled the job. There is so much ghosting, aliasing, smeary DNR and lost detail in the first two seasons, it's a travesty, and difficult to watch at times. With Sailor Moon S, they had gotten the message that their upscale was dreadful, so they spent over a year remastering it in a completely new, more labor-intensive way in order to achieve a more natural, filmic look. The season looks much better than Sailor Moon/Sailor Moon R, but it's still not up to snuff for a proper Blu-ray. SuperS and Sailor Stars are sourced directly from new upscales Toei commissioned themselves, and look great -- Sailor Stars, in particular, looks incredibly good. But two seasons with acceptable image quality doesn't discount the fact that the other three are dreadful. Maybe someday, Viz will re-release the first three seasons with Toei's new upscale, but I wouldn't hold your breath for anytime soon.

Your last point has merit, though. If you take all three movies in their individual Amaray cases, they fit perfectly into one of the Limited Edition boxes released for each season. And obviously, the rainbow effect they were going for with the LE season releases is missing the final color (purple), which could easily be used for a LE Sailor Moon: The Movie set.

[InuYashaCrusade]

When was the last time Viz did a complete collection? A lot of their series get released in parts and that's it. InuYasha The Final Act got a complete release but series like Tiger & Bunny, Nura, Accel World, etc. all still haven't received one.

Got a laugh out of this though: "so yeah. it’s not selling because it’s too expensive, on top of the streaming. being like 90% cheaper."

If this series wasn't selling then we'd be seeing the price drops that you've been waiting for since 2014. Viz is clearly fine with the numbers or else we'd be seeing steep price drops, probably like what is happening with Boruto right now or the first two Hunter X Hunter sets a year or two back. Just because you don't want to shell out a few hundred to own something doesn't mean it is too expensive or "isn't selling". Go watch the series on Hulu and be done with it if you'd rather save your money.