RightStuf has pre-orders up for the original Sailor Moon anime. The prices are very decent.

The DVD set is just over $30. This comes with no physical extras, and video extras are Convention Featurettes (Short Version).

The Combo BD/DVD set is $57 and will come with a coin of Sailor Moon’s first henshin brooch, and her transformation phrase an 88-page, full-color premium booklet, all housed in a shimmering chipboard artbox. Special Features: Dub Recording Behind the Scenes, Art Galleries, Convention Featurettes (Extended Version).

While I think the coin is a bit meaningless (no coins in the series, so why a coin? Marketing folks at TRSI, we fans like to get stuff that’s related to the series if possible,) it still seems a good deal for a BD set and artbox.

I have a complicated relationship with the Sailor Moon Super S arc. In one sense, it’s 90% about Chibi-Usa, and her struggle with not being as grown up as she desires to be (the plight of most humans until 35 or so when it switches to wishing they were younger than they are.) 5% of the story is the complete and total damseling of Mamoru and the last 5% is a fantasy about a decidedly adolescent ideal of the future. The Outer Senshi are most notable by their absence until the very end…and yet it is the Outer Senshi that are the catalysts for what passes for “growth” here in Volume 7 of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Perfect Edition (美少女戦士セーラームーン).

Each one of the Inner Senshi go through a crisis of confidence when they are unable to transform. In the middle of a fight against the Dead Moon Circus, each is visited by vision of Setsuna, Haruka or Michiru, reminding them of their skills, strength and responsibility. When their own will appears to them (as a kind of miniature self) they find their new power and transform.

When last of all, Minako is suffering from her crisis, we turn to the Outers’ new home life. It has been 6 months since they vowed to raise Hotaru as a family. Haruka and Michiru appear to the public to be a married couple, but in reality, they and Setsuna are equally involved in Hotaru’s parenting.

It’s been six months, but Hotaru looks 4 or 5 years old when we first see her, reciting W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming (a poem that is often on my mind these days for these lines:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.)

As Minako finally gets the boost she needs to take her rightful place as leader of the Senshi, Hotaru awakens as Sailor Saturn once again, and mobilizes the Outer Senshi to join the fight against Queen Neherenia’s Dead Moon Circus.

There’s a surprising depth to this volume, if one cares to parse it. The Lemures don’t just suck away energy this time, they contribute to a general lack of caring and we physically see Azabu-Juban getting dirtier and more run down as people become more selfish and angry.  The crises the Inners have begin with their inability to transform, and it might seem obvious that their older role models provide them with new confidence, but in each case it is from within themselves that they find the spark to power up.  This is a clear lesson  – mentors are great, but you have to find it in yourself to grow.

Even Chibi-Usa who originally resents Usagi for being what she desires to be, learns that she has to change from within to become that ideal.

My sympathy for  both the Amazon Trio and the Amazoness Quartet is higher reading the manga than watching the original anime, most probably due to the compressed time we spend with them.

I’ve always said I like Super S the least but, after this volume, maybe my opinion has softened on that. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2 (Haruka and Michiru married. What a lovely thought.)
Service –2 On principle

Overall – 9

In advance, let me wish you all a happy International Sailor Moon Day tomorrow!

In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Manga, Perfect Edition, Volume 6 (美少女戦士セーラームーン), the Death Busters Arc comes to a climax with all of the things happening all at once.

Mistress 9 appears and finds herself locked in a battle for Hotaru’s body with Sailor Saturn…which is really super creepy and could have carried the story by itself if it had had to.

Sailor Moon finds herself powering up yet again, and so much so that she drags all the Senshi with her to “Super” form. Sailor Saturn destroys everything and Sailor Moon saves it and Michiru, Haruka and Setsuna take Hotaru away to raise her as the most awesome alternative family in all of manga. But I’m not biased or anything. ^_^

The story ends with the Outers helicoptering off to their Yuri paradise in the sky. This is still the best arc of the manga, hands down. ^_^

Following all of this is the lead-in to SuperS season, which is my least favorite, so expect me to review it in one fell swoop. But. I find, for some reason unknown to me, Chibi-Usa is not annoying me as much this time around. We’ll see how I feel after re-watching the old anime and being reminded of Araki Kai’s epic whine, if that remains true. ^_^

The extras are another of Chibi-Usa’s diary, this one a little ditty about Sailor Moon souvenir watches and evil energy suckers, and the poignantly sweet story about when Luna falls in love that was turned into the Super S Movie which was really pretty good, actually. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9 (When Saturn swings her Silence Glaive, I get chills)
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2 In Luna’s story, there’s an ever-so-small moment between Haruka and Michiru.
Service – 3 On principle for long legs and short skirts.

Overall – 9

Best cover, some of my favorite artbook images, and generally speaking, the strongest story – Volume 6 is great in reality, not just in memory. ^_^ Many thanks to Okazu Superhero Jye N. for his sponsorship of today’s review!