Viz on the Sailor Moon License

May 17th, 2014

I’m sure that you have wondered how Viz would be approaching the Sailor Moon license. Of all the anime distributors in the US, Viz probably has the least experience with Yuri. Was this going to be another DiC hack job or “girl on girl”-type translation the way ADV used to handle Yuri?

Well…let me quote to you from the press release Viz just sent out:

Neon Alley will be streaming Sailor Moon starting on Monday. This newly remastered version will be uncut.  This version will revert back to the original Japanese names, genders and relationships. So Zoisite and Fish Eye are totally dudes, and Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are not cousins. You can do the math from there. 

The announcement trailer makes their point very clearly.

uncut

19 Responses

  1. yoko says:

    It is as the prophacy has for told!!!

  2. Shannon says:

    Hurrah!

  3. Liz says:

    YAY!!!

  4. It’s hard for me to point fingers at ADV for the work they did on their Sailor Moon sets. Having actually purchased their season 1 set, I found the quality in both the video and audio department to be downright awful. It was literally bootleg quality, having been recorded onto a VHS tape that was than recorded onto a VHS tape and than put onto a DVD. Not only did the Season 2 set suffer the same fate, ADV was forced to leave out an episode which took the “complete” title out of the season. Given that Sailor Moon was done by Toei and that their attempt at making DVDs here in the states was downright insulting (Remember Air Master?), it’s not that unreasonable to assume that ADV worked with what they were given, and Toei was not afraid to give ADV the worst resources they could find.

    • ADV didn’t do the original Sailor Moon anime release on DVD – Pioneer did. And they were not responsible for the TV dub hack job, DiC was. ^_^

      I was referring to ADV’s historical habits and typical fanboy handling of Yuri, such as calling it “girl on girl” and other porn terms.

      • Erica, I’m disappointed. You doubt “TED THE AWESOME”?

        In 2003, ADV films released the “Sailor Moon: Uncut Season 1” set onto an unsuspecting population. This was the first official release of the original version of Sailor Moon in the states. The problem? Not only were the video and audio sources terrible, but the set contained no special features, no dub and bad menu design. It was a quick cut and paste job. Here’s a review from DVD Verdict.

        http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/sailormoonseason1.php

        I actually owned this set when it first came out and quickly sold it back. Even though it was the only official season set of the Sailor Moon series in it’s original version, the quality was too abysmal. Thankfully this interview with Charlene Ingram put aside any fears I might have regarding how this set will look.

        http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2014-05-16/exclusive/viz-media-charlene-ingram-and-josh-lopez-on-sailor-moon

        I love that bit. “We looked at their 2009 restoration and said ‘Yeah. We can do better.””

        • BruceMcF says:

          Ted, note that, “ADV didn’t do the original Sailor Moon anime release on DVD – Pioneer did.” does not parse to the first (North American) DVD release of the original Sailor Moon series, but the original DVD release of any Sailor Moon series (since by context “original” attaches to “release”), which was the 2000 Pioneer release of Sailor Moon S & Super S, after the 1999 Pioneer releases of the movies.

          I’m mildly happy that Funimation did not get it, with their tendency of over-saturate original colors, since doing the colors true to the original art ought to leave them saturated enough. In a cynical mood, I could imagine Funimation looking at the 2009 restoration and asking themselves, “OK, now how can we make these colors ‘pop’?”

          • This isn’t about who came first, this is about the quality of a product and a studio’s willingness to allow a foreign distributer access to the best resources available.

            Those Pioneer DVDs were released when TV shows on DVD were just starting to make an entrance on the DVD medium. Heck, Paramount was still releasing the original Star Trek series with only two episodes per disc. Season Sets weren’t the standard back then. In 2003 when season sets on DVD were starting to make an impact, ADV decided to release the complete first season of Sailor Moon in it’s original form. Not multiple DVDs spread across multiple release dates, but the whole package. When ADV made this announcement, it was a pretty big deal because this was the first time that the unaltered version of the first season would be seen in the states. Sure, Pioneer had some DVDs out, but it wasn’t the beginning.

            Unfortunately, the quality was horrible. Now that ViZ is doing the same thing 11 years later, I was skeptical that we were going to have a repeat in history. Thankfully that doesn’t look to be the case here since ViZ is apparently putting quite an investment into the original series by not only to dubbing all the original episodes, but also doing a better job remastering the source material to make it look even better. This is the set that I wanted 11 years ago, and it looks like we’re finally going to get it. No “We worked with what they gave us”, no “We were prohibited from including one episode”. It’s all going to be here.

  5. Jst says:

    So with Stars licensed for NA, is there even anything left on the legendary “never going to happen” list now?

    Also if the promo shots and trailer are any indication, the remaster for this release is looking about as good as it can given how and when the shows were produced. Really looking forward to upgrading my old ‘SM Uncut’ dvds.

  6. Cryssoberyl says:

    Finally. After 15+ years, the Sailor Moon Renaissance that we dreamt of is finally at hand. Let the music play!

  7. Mara says:

    Amazing, going to have to buy this.

  8. Lindsey S. says:

    After watching that trailer, I let out the biggest, most high-pitched fan girl screech ever, traumatizing my roommate and sending the dog next door into a craze. And then I danced around, and texted all my friends who care, and picked up extra hours at work because between this and the S.H. Figuarts, I’m pretty sure Sailor Moon is going to bankrupt me.
    And I’m totally okay with that.

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