In Episode 24, the first episode in this set, Usagi is still dealing with the fact that Mamoru, aka Tuxedo Mask, aka Prince Endymion has been kidnapped by Queen Beryl. A bit of a filler episode, she goes on a hot springs trip with her family. There are a few cute moments with her family, and a few funny moments where her family brings up the boyfriend conversation and Usagi has to dodge it. Ok, it’s a lot of a filler episode, but we do at least see some cracks in the evil spell that has been placed on Mamoru.
Episode 25 starts the story arc of the 7 great monsters. Though they were already defeated and turned back into humans by the Sailor Scouts, Queen Beryl’s new plan is to revive them again and combine them into an even more powerful monster. This is also where we start to see a lot of Mamoru as (evil) Endymion. There’s plenty of conflicting feelings as the Scouts struggle against fighting their former friend.
Episode 45 and 46 end out the set with a bang. A long, perilous fight spans these two episodes and also ends the first Season of Sailor Moon. The scouts teleport to the entrance of the Dark Kingdom in order to face Queen Beryl. Sailor Moon is duped multiple times, to a hilarious degree, into attempting to save an illusion of Tuxedo Mask. The other scouts save her from herself, and sacrifice themselves one by one. If there were ever a set of episodes to make you despise Usagi for being a weakling, this might be it. She redeems herself in the end, of course, but the journey to get there is pretty rough. Speaking of, the ending is a bit confusing, at least for me. I’ll spare spoilers, but it makes me wonder what really happened at the end of the fight. I’m pretty sure I’m thinking too hard about it though.
The overall visual quality of the show is not what I’d call fantastic, even on Blu-ray. There’s a bit of graininess, some lines are a little smudged looking, and the color is not as vibrant and clean as you’d expect in some areas. It’s not that this is terrible, as that’s how a lot of hand drawn animation from back in the day looks and it’s true to the source material. But if you’re expecting a full remaster on the Blu-ray, then you might be disappointed.
On both the DVD and Blu-ray copies, there are romaji subtitles to help you sing along in Japanese to the show’s opening and closing songs. There are multiple options for subtitles on the DVD and Blu-ray copies for the rest of the content as well.
The show (for the most part) looks good on DVD and on the Blu-rays that came in the combo pack I reviewed in this set. The standards you’d expect are all here including Japanese and English audio options. The extras here are certainly better than the first set. Interviews with fans from Anime Expo are charming and sometimes heartwarming. All the reactions from the fans feel like something you’d share with a close friend, including the tears from some fans. A group of cosplayers chosen to perform on "Sailor Moon Day" are also interviewed. What I particularly liked was the glimpses of some of the more obscure cosplay from fans. It takes a lot, for example, to put together an Umino (the nerdy kid from Usagi’s school) costume and really own it. Speaking of cosplay, the Art Gallery extra in this set is a particularly good extra. It may not seem like it at first, but high-resolution images of the characters doing mundane things like holding out an arm or simple pictures of lockets and wands from the show are very useful for costume reference. I feel like this extra was a nice nod to cosplaying fans. I actually hope they continue the gallery extras in future sets, since this gallery seemed way too small for such a character-packed show.
The case features a reversible cover. Instead of the pink cover with text descriptions and screenshots, you can flip the insert over to display artwork that features Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, and the scouts. 6 collector cards are also included with this set. They feature pictures of the scouts and on the reverse, pictures of the villains. They are actually more like postcards, and are nice enough to be suitable for framing.
I should also note that the DVD only has convention highlights, and a few interviews with fans. It’s also missing the clean opening and closing and the Art Gallery you’ll find on the Blu-ray. In fact, there’s a rather insulting "Look at what you can see if you buy the Blu-ray" trailer on the DVD version. Buyer beware if you choose the DVD version and are expecting extras.
