Sailor Moon Day kicked off in grand pink style at Anime NYC on Saturday, with 11 members of the English voice cast gathered onstage to discuss their roles on the show and tease some future releases, including the dubbed edition of Sailor Moon SuperS and a special 25th anniversary reissue of Naoko Takeuchi’s original manga. Singer Yoko Ishida made a surprise appearance to kick off the festivities, treating fans to live renditions of ‘Otome No Policy’ and ‘Moonlight Densetsu.’
The first half of Sailor Moon Season 4 (aka Sailor Moon SuperS) will come to Blu-ray and DVD “the very first week of April,” Viz Media Director of Animation Marketing Charlene Ingram announced. This season of the classic 90s anime sees the Sailor Senshi face off against the Dead Moon Circus, and Chibusa forges a special bond with Pegasus to protect humanity from those who would rob them of their beautiful dreams. The bundle will get the same spiffy treatment as previous Viz Sailor Moon editions, including a sturdy chipboard box, interviews with the English cast and an art gallery.
The new release will also include the never-before-seen (legitimately, anyway) SuperS TV special, which includes Sailors Uranus and Neptune. “As Lauren and Erica mentioned, it features Neptune and Uranus. Neptune has a really, really cool scene… quite a badass,” said Ingram.
The Outer Senshi are sadly absent elsewhere in SuperS, so it’s nice to see this special included. Those in attendance at Anime NYC were also treated to a clip of the special, as well as some scenes of the Amazon Trio at their campy best. A screening of the first three episodes of SuperS will take place later this evening.
Naoko from Kodansha Comics (no, not that Naoko) also took to the stage to announce the release of the Eternal Edition Sailor Moon manga on Jan. 30. She recalled reading the original manga serialized in Nakayoshi, and said the new editions aim to recreate that experience, only better: “All those color pages just blew my mind, and we’re so excited to print them now in color, as a collectible edition. Bigger format, premium paper with holographic treatment — we’re trying to make it glittery as possible!”
Those hoping for some news about the upcoming arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal were out of luck. There's no word on a Japanese release date, let alone an English one. Ingram also didn’t mention anything regarding new English versions of the S and SuperS films, though Viz did release Sailor Moon R: The Movie on home video and for a limited theatrical run earlier this year. Fingers crossed that the two other movies get the same treatment soon!
Will you be picking up a copy of the first half of Sailor Moon Season 4 when it comes out in April? Tempted by the Eternal Edition of the manga? Let us know in the comments!
Be sure to check back with Player.One for more coverage of Anime NYC, especially our recap of the Sailor Moon panel and interview with the Sailor Moon voice cast!
