In 1994, Sailor Moon S debuted on Japanese TV and, for many people, it was a life-changing series. When I first saw it, in 1998 or so, it was definitely a life-changing series for me. ^_^

Yesterday, my wife and sat down almost 20 years later to watch Viz Media’s newly remastered edition of Sailor Moon S, Part 1.

I had a computer crash the other day, so we had to start with a DVD, as my computer is the only Blu-ray player we have. ^_^;

Even in DVD, the improved quality of the video and sound are instantly apparent. And so is the restoration of color. We just re-watched the opening episode back to back and the remastering not only restores (and saturates) colors, it restores details that has been lost in the Pioneer version. This was not Pioneer’s fault, you may remember. Toei was notorious for not providing masters to localization companies, so Pioneer had the equivalent of 3rd generation tapes to work off.

Viz, having been given the chance, has really done a great technical job with the series. Admittedly the art for this series was always orders better than the first two seasons. Director Ikuhara Kunihiko (later of Shoujo Kakumei Utena) cared about the art.

We didn’t watch the dub, yet. I promise I will, but for now I was just able to revisit the moment that changed my life, when Haruka walked into the Crown Game Center and said “Hey girls…” We were both pleased to note the moments that had been kept intact for Sailor Moon Crystal – that iconic step over the game center’s lintel among them.

My wife commented that the humor in this season is a large part of what made it the “best” series for her and as we giggled our way through episodes 90-96, I have to agree. When I watched this series back in the day, I assumed that Kaolinite was in love with the Professor, but as I watched this time I was surprised to note that it seemed much more like she hated him. How did I never notice that before? He’s a complete freak, so you gotta sympathize with her. I also wondered out loud on Twitter which was better, Kaolinite in the red dress or the black. Black won, but I think I like the red better. ^_^

I have, as you might suspect, a lot of thoughts about Haruka and Michiru, but I’m going to hold off until a future disk to wax philosophic about them. ^_^

The Limited Edition came with a lovely booklet with episode summaries, character profiles, and random art that made us smile.

Ratings:

Art – 8 It’s so much better than Season 1 and 2
Story – 7 Monster of the Day for the moment, but…Uranus and Neptune!
Characters – 10 Uranus and Neptune!
Yuri- 6 Uranus and Neptune!
Service – 5 Way up from previous series, the Daimon are all overtly sexualized

Overall – 8

The Viz edition of Sailor Moon S proved that sometimes…you can go home again. Thanks so much to the fine folks at Viz for providing a review copy.