Sailor Moon followers are receiving an unlucky replace on what appeared like a promising launch this February. The new house media launch of the unique anime movie trilogy by Viz Media reportedly isn’t the genuine expertise initially promised by the corporate.
In December 2024, a brand new Sailor Moon Blu-ray set listing turned public on-line. This house media set was a group of the first three Sailor Moon anime movies primarily based on the primary TV collection from the Nineties. Sailor Moon R: The Movie, Sailor Moon S: The Movie and Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie can be accessible collectively on a single disc as a substitute of individually, for the retail worth of $29.98. Among the main points listed on the again of the duvet was the point out of the movies being accessible to view at a “4:3 full screen” facet ratio — beforehand not accessible within the particular person releases by Viz Media in 2018, nor generally accessible within the unique Japanese releases.
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Old-School Sailor Moon Anime Fans Get Unfortunate News on New Blu-ray Release
Unfortunately, Sailor Moon followers are discovering that the promising information from December was too good to be true. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Three-Film Collection was launched on Feb. 11, 2025. A social media consumer named Fred Francis (@/fredjfrancis) purchased the gathering and gave an in depth report on X (previously Twitter). “And as suspected, the three-movie pack is not 4:3 at all,” Francis mentioned. “Viz literately [sic] lied about including 4:3 here. Also, I will check the compression rate for these and compare them with the original Viz movie releases. And, the biggest drawback was the extras that Viz had with each set being removed, including interviews and the R movie at the theater BTS [behind the scenes].”
According to Francis’ analysis, the Sailor Moon specials have been closely compressed to suit them plus all three motion pictures onto the 50GB Blu-ray disc. Additionally, the audio modified from Digital Theater Systems to Audio Coding 3, with the compression fee from Lossless to Lossy. Another X consumer, @/Krycek7o2, joined the dialog by revealing that Viz Media nonetheless didn’t use the unique Stereo Mix on the primary movie for the unique Japanese model. As @/Krycek7o2 explains, the Japanese Blu-ray disc has two audio mixes: the unique mono (on this disc) and the stereo combine. Die-hard Sailor Moon followers hoping for a higher-quality launch nearer to the preliminary variations of those traditional movies might be disenchanted to listen to the brand new assortment is technically worse than the 2018 single releases by Viz Media.
It must be famous that the current product description of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Three-Film Collection now lists these movies with the 16:9 facet ratio — not the 4:3 ratio initially displayed on the packaging when it was first formally revealed in December. It’s potential that the product description was corrected after the Blu-ray was launched.
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The Sailor Moon News web site stories that the unique three anime motion pictures have been animated in a “Full-Screen” 4:3 open matte format. However, the Japanese screenings and residential media releases have been introduced within the matted widescreen 16:9 model. What’s peculiar is that the North American VHS and DVD releases within the Nineties have been the 4:3 variations, that means that the “lower quality” releases confirmed greater than the Japanese theatrical variations.
Given the cinematic nature of the Sailor Moon movies, the swap to 16:9 isn’t as dramatic because the facet ratio controversy over the Disney+ version of The Simpsons. Nonetheless, the present Sailor Moon film releases weren’t the way in which the animators meant the movies to be seen. Considering the controversy over the poor preservation of the original anime TV series, followers possible hoped that the traditional Sailor Moon anime motion pictures would obtain higher remedy. Disappointingly, the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Three-Film Collection is as a substitute technically inferior to what was launched seven years in the past.
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Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose
- Release Date
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December 5, 1994
- Runtime
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1 hour 1 minute
- Director
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Kunihiko Ikuhara
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Sailor Moon S: The Movie
- Release Date
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December 4, 1994
- Runtime
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61 Minutes
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Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie
- Release Date
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December 23, 1995
- Runtime
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1 hour quarter-hour
- Director
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Hiroki Shibata
Source: X (formerly Twitter), Sailor Moon News
