Of course, when you do things like essentially redo an entire anime dub and fail to explain that on the box, that can lead to confusion over what you're actually buying. Sailor Moon: Season 1, Part 1 is the first 23 episodes of Sailor Moon. In this DVD series, Viz Media and Studiopolis have re-dubbed all 200 episodes of the original Sailor Moon, so this is only one volume of many to come.
Of course, you pretty much have to re-dub a series when the version that was originally dubbed for American audiences was cut so much compared to the Japanese source material. You're putting in "new" content, and that means you either force your fans to deal with grating voice continuity issues or you re-dub the whole thing. Viz went with a completely new English cast, which may or may not matter to fans of the original. Personally, I miss some of the classic voices, and I think the original voice for Serena, Terri Hawkes, captured the carefree, silly nature of the character better than the new voice actress, Stephanie Sheh (Orihime Inoue in the English dub of Bleach). I miss the proper sounding voice of Luna in the original dub as well. The new version played by Michelle Ruff (Rukia Kuchiki in the English dub of Bleach) is well done, but it just seems flat compared to the proud and proper version played by Jill Frappier in the 90's. I will admit, most of my criticism may be based in nostalgia, so take it with a grain of salt (and take a look at the voice acting comparison for yourself in the clip listed at the end of this review).
For those new to Sailor Moon, however, a quick summary is in order. Sailor Moon follows the adventures of Usagi (known as Serena in the American version), a 14 year old girl who is given super powers, or rather they are awakened when she meets a cat named Luna. She discovers she is the guardian of the moon, Sailor Moon, on a mission to discover the rest of the guardians, and ultimately find their missing princess as well. All the while, the evil Queen Beryl aims to stop her, and to steal the energy from people in various schemes. Sailor Moon's powers manifest in transformation sequences, and her weapons of choice include a magical tiara and a healing wand. Yes, I knew how ridiculous that sounded when I typed it. Sailor Moon trades tiaras, skirts, and magical disguises for the magical swords and robot transformations you might find in other superhero shows. It takes a while to actually get there, though, as the show meanders through quite a few "filler" episodes and diverges from its Manga source material in quite a few places. It has to be remembered that this was a pretty common format for superhero shows. So while Sailor Moon might not have broken ground in the overall format of superhero shows, it paved a path for other shows in the magical girl genre to follow. And it found a place in the hearts of many people from all walks of life who discovered something special in the heroines of Sailor Moon. The show brought friends together. It was an introduction to anime for others. It was a little crazy, in a lot of ways, but celebrating the strangeness of it all was part of the appeal.
Don't get me wrong, the show has problems. It has some huge old problems, man. Not too much of the big stuff (like dating older guys, accidentally seducing your dad - yes really, that happens) shows up in this volume, but there is the minor annoyance of some silly concepts. After all, Usagi's transformation is started by uttering the phrase "Moon Prism Power Make Up!" It's difficult for that to sound empowering for a superhero, as it is also difficult to understand why some of the Scouts (Sailor Moon's team mates) need to wear heels into battle, but these are the parts of the whole that make up these superhero girls. I can say that in comparison to the new Sailor Moon Crystal series that is currently being played on streaming services such as Hulu, there are some ways in which this series is better. For example, there are fewer ridiculous knock-knee or boobs-butt poses in this series as compared to Crystal - but only fewer. And the art style seemed to be much more vibrant and expressive, especially compared to the relative dead-eyed look of the new Usagi and her pals.
This volume begins with the origin episode where Usagi meets Luna and is introduced to her powers. Along the way, she teams up with Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars. And, of course, Tuxedo Mask, with his flamenco music and roses, makes several appearances here. The volume stops at Episode 23, which is where Naru has fallen in love with the villain Nephrite and Sailor Moon has to step in and save her.
The only extra feature in this volume is the Convention Highlights feature. While fun to watch, it's just a bunch of unnarrated clips of the convention, cosplayers, and voice actors seen at "Sailor Moon Day" at Anime Expo 2014. This would have been a great opportunity to talk about the interesting past that the series has outside of Japan - or to talk about anything to do with the series, really. Having the original American intro (where the lyrics were changed from the romantic theme of the Japanese version to a more "super hero" oriented song) would have been nice as an extra feature, at least. A "premium full-color collectable 88-page booklet filled with art, character profiles, episode guides and more" was also supposed to come with this DVD, though it was missing in my screener copy. Perhaps we'll see some better features in later volumes.
There's good and bad in this first volume of the remastered Sailor Moon. It does show its age in a number of style choices and some cheesy plots. The remastered version does look good, even if it's good old 480p. It looks clear, and doesn't have the graininess that you might find on older VHS or DVD copies of the show. And you're getting the 4:3 format, so there's no messing around with the screen size. You also get the original Japanese music, not the American version of the background music. Much like old episodes of Dragonball, there's a much older feel to the music than the time period it came from. It feels like it belongs somewhere in the 70's with its sometimes hokey sound, but that's just how Japanese cartoons sounded at the time. And as for the overall plotlines, they were a bit corny too. Monsters prey on women in jewelry stores, girls who dream of becoming models, girls who want the perfect wedding dress, girls in love - so many girls in love. Though it's not utterly vapid, it often is just too much to take seriously, so a sense of humor may be required to get through it all.
This is a good start to the Sailor Moon series, and a good way to catch up on the original if you've left it behind since those days when it first aired on US televisions. A lot of the uncensored content will surprise you, but none of it is particularly shocking. Of course, it is interesting to see what was deemed too much for American audiences, such as depictions of bathing and some rather gruesome monsters. With options to listen to the original Japanese audio and subtitle options that optionally translate Japanese signs in the background, this is a well rounded offering. Fans and newcomers should find plenty to like here.
