The Sailor Moon Crystal Limited Edition Blu-Ray Box Set 2 is officially out in Japan. The box set showcases a 24-Page Full Color Booklet, the second charm for the bag chain charm set from DVD Box Set 1 (In the Shape of the Mercury Transformation Pen/Heshin Wand), as well as the disc case which showcases artwork of Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno. Box Set 2 will include episodes 3&4 of the series. The Box Set is going for ¥7020 after taxes (about $80.00) on the sales website CD JAPAN

The regular Blu-Ray and DVD will be released in Japan on December 10, 2014 as shown on the merchandise website Sailor Moon Collectibles as well as on CD Japan. It will retail for ¥4860 for the Blu-Ray and ¥3780 for the DVD .

Ladies and Gentleman,

Viz held its Sailor Moon panel at the 2014 Anime Expo. Announced were the dub cast for the Viz Re-dub of Sailor Moon (The Classic Anime) as well as the release of a new box set, along with date.

Sailor Moon Season 1, Part 1 box set will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 11, 2014 and has been seen to run from $56-80 for Blu-Ray with about $30-50 for the standard DVD release. Online Retailer Right-Stuf had a pre-order promotion for a limited edition coin but that has since sold out.

The Limited Edition Blu-Ray/DVD set comes with episodes 1-23 on 3 Blu-Ray and 3 DVD plus an 88-page, full-color premium booklet, all in a nice chipboard art box that will have room for Season 1, part 2. Viz has stated that all 5 seasons will be released in these boxes.

Now what about Sailor Moon Crystal? As of now, according to Japanese Entertainment Website Natalie.Mu(Site is in Japanese), the season will be released by King Records in 13 two-episode volumes with a limited edition release of Volume 1 (Episodes 1-2) in Japan on October 15, 2014 with a wide Blu-Ray/DVD Release on November 12, 2014 (The Day after Sailor Moon Season 1, Part 1 is released in the US… Actually, the same day due to time difference). The limited edition Blu-Ray set will actually be housed in a large designer box that doubles as a music box that will play the theme for Crystal “Moon Pride” (Though the box is part of a Japanese Promotion that comes from buying the individual DVDs) and the DVDs come with special booklets, with Vol. 1 coming with a larger bag chain charm and and all volumes including smaller charms, which may be attached to the aforementioned chain (Information found on SailorMoonCollectibles.com) and it seems that the Prices are going from 7020-8100 Yen, depending on the title and can be pre-ordered on the CDJapan website (The rest of the titles can be found here as well). The prices for the normal Blu-Ray are going for 4860 Yen and the Regular DVD volumes are priced at 3780 Yen and all of these can be found on the CDJapan website as well.

There is currently no word of a US set release for Sailor Moon Crystal as of yet but information on them will be posted for both Sailor Moon Classic and Sailor Moon Crystal as we get more details.

Update (11/16/2014): Limited Edition Blu-Ray for Episodes 1&2 for Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal Released October 15th. Pictures for the Limited Edition Blu-Ray set shown below:

The Art for the DVD showcases Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon. The set also includes a special booklet, the enclosed Sailor Moon Bag Chain and the first charm resembling Sailor Moon’s Moon Stick. The remaining charms will be included with later limited edition Blu-Ray box releases. Also, the large box for the full Blu-Ray set has also been revealed

As stated above, it will house all of the boxset disc cases and double as a music box that plays the Series theme “Moon Pride”.

Since there has been a lot of gloom around the Sailor Moon fandom lately, I decided to have a little fun and see if any of the fans had noticed that there is a connection to Sailor Moon amongst the fallout of the recent scandal involving the “Terminated” Arnold Schwarzennegger. Yes, we all know now he kept his love child a secret for 13 years, but our connection has nothing to do with any of his legitimate or illegitimate family. I gave the fans a few hints via our Facebook page:

1. Staff on English dub of Sailor Moon
2+3. Has something to do with Arnold’s other announcement made during the fallout of this week’s scandal. Nothing to do with the kid or the maid.
4. (Because I am feeling nice). This staff member has a tag on Moon Chase. Said staff member was written about within the last year (as of this date).

Lots of you tried to search for Arnold’s name on our blog and turned up nothing! I was actually a little surprised that no one got this. Without further delay, here is your answer.

Andy Heyward

Who is Andy Heyward? Before his current venture of A Squared Entertainment, he was the former CEO and founder of DiC Entertainment. DiC Entertainment was the production company responsible for the first two seasons. Andy Heyward also served as Executive Producer for Sailor Moon. How does this all connect, you ask? Easy.

This is how I came to know about it. I just happened to have CNN on when the news broke that Arnold was putting a halt to his acting career, but then I got distracted by a phone call from a friend. I had missed the news, so I went to CNN’s site to read the rest of the story. To my surprise, I read the name “A Squared”, and a lightbulb went off in my head. Oh yeah, thats’ Andy Heyward’s new production company devoted to making cheezy and tacky cartoons based on prominent celebrities. For those of you that haven’t seen trailer for The Governator, here’s your link. Aren’t you glad this is being shelved? We sure are. And here’s hoping it never gets taken off that shelf again because if we were kids, we wouldn’t have watched this crap. And is it us or does Arnie look a little too square/boxy? Would you have watched this toon as a kid?

Hope this brought a smile to your faces – and if you want me to share more random obscure connections to Sailor Moon as I encounter them, let me know and I shall post!

So this morning when a new article about Pretty Cure showed up on our radar, we got excited that maybe a US channel had finally picked it up! Sadly, that was not the case, and it was only a namedrop. Instead, we got a link we couldn’t read (and would have had to pay $45 bucks to). So, we decided, it probably wasn’t worth it, and we played a few tricks with Google to figure it out. We can say for certainty that Toronto’s Breakthrough Entertainment has picked up Toei’s short series, Marie and Gali. There are a total of 17 episodes and each one is around 5 minutes long. We posted a lot more about what this series was here in a post about Toei’s appearance at MIPCOM not too long ago. This is the second Toei property to be picked up by a Canadian production company (the first being Pretty Cure). As of this writing we have no access to a press release or a news article of any kind, so we don’t know what will happen to this series (if it goes to broadcast, where it can be seen, etc.). We will try our hardest to get you more information!

Hi Moonies! We’ve got another North American VA exclusive for you all at the end (we always save the best things for last)!

The Death of Alice Blue to Finally Have Canadian Premiere!

A movie we have been following for a very long time is finally going to premiere in its home country! The Death of Alice Blue (part I – The Bloodsucking Vampires of Advertising) has been invited for its Canadian premiere to the Montreal World Film Festival. This one runs from August 27th to September 7th, and we’d tell you more except that as of this writing none of the films showing this year have been announced on the site. We wonder if any of the VAs in this one (Barbara Radecki, Katie Griffin and her husband Michael Kulas) are going to attend? Congratulations to Park Bench and Alex Appel for finally getting this movie a premiere in Canada and here’s hoping it gets a distributor so the rest of us can see it soon!

A Sapphire Shines Again!

Lyon Smith (Prince Sapphire) shared some news and stories with us! He has his own official site now which we encourage fans to go visit – he posts a lot of really cool links to his works too! While his time on Sailor Moon wasn’t as pleasant as many fans may think it might have been, he is also excited about a possible redub and if he was given the chance he would do it again! Hey FUNImation, are you reading this? Consider Canada for a re-dub! This is our second official VA that has confirmed to be interested in reprising their role for a re-dub of Sailor Moon (this is great news for Operation Moonrise)! Some fans may not know this behind-the-scenes story, but when Lyon was first cast he was called in to replace Tuxedo Mask. It was his first series that he had landed as a regular! At the time though, production was too intense (and we’ve heard similar stories from other actors from those first years). But the show did launch his voice career, and since then he has voiced memorable roles in other anime, cartoons and video games! He played Pythias in Mythic Warriors: Guardians of Legend, the Mysterious Guy in Biohazard 0, Kevin and Michael in Beyblade, Ed in Get Ed, Magma in Spider Riders, and he is currently appearing in Bakugan Battle Brawlers which has been a huge hit with the kids all over North America! In the first season he played Masquerade, and in the second season (which is recording right now) he plays Prince Hydron. And this prince’s voice is based on none other, but the Japanese voice of Prince Diamond! We really admire Lyon Smith for watching episodes of Sailor Moon in Japanese – we’re not sure how many others have (we know Roland Parliament did for sure). He will be reprising his role as Masquerade for the upcoming Bakugan video game. And there’s even more Lyon to be heard in CBC’s Magi-Nation – he plays the hero, Tony Jones! In another awesome coincidence, Lyon was also a student of Roland’s!

Lyon Smith is also a budding musician – he writes his own music and also helps out with sound design for plays in Toronto. He currently composed music and worked sound design for the play A Singularity of Being, which is loosely based on the life of Steven Hawking. Lyon’s music is really worth checking out if you’re into alternative rock! He covered the song You Believe in Rock and Roll for a David Bowie tribute album (2.CONTAMINATE) which is on iTunes. He has his own site for fans to check out his music – and altrock fans will take a liking! There’s even a bit of experimental and mashing in there too. And best of all, all the music is free! He is also on MySpace as well. We once again encourage all our readers to check out his music.

Special thanks to Lyon and best of luck on your upcoming works!