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The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
This 21 episode set (69-89) of Sailor Moon R deals mainly with the little pink-haired Chibi-Usa, still getting under Usagi/Sailor Moon’s skin, but loved nonetheless by all the Guardians. Chibi-Usa just may be the central figure in the Guardians’ quest for victory over the Black Moon Clan. This cycle of episodes also reveals yet another, mysterious Guardian, Sailor Pluto, who holds the key to Chibi-Usa and our Guardian heroines passing into the future to help Chibi-Usa save her mother, and save the future (and the past).
In all, this collection feels a bit more coherent than Part 1 since there is a little bit less crossover from other story arcs, although the second story arc from Part 1 does sort of kick things off for Part 2.
Video Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
Season one of Sailor Moon looked bad suffering from ghosting and stairstepping and noise now, just as in part 1 of Sailor Moon R, the issues with stairstepping around the line art, major softness, and video noise abound in Sailor Moon R: Season 2 – Part 2. It looks obviously to be an upscaled from SD transfer that only rarely looks pleasing, but more often is disappointing. The AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement on Blu-ray of Sailor Moon R is just barely a step up from season 1of the series, unfortunately, and still falls behind Ranma ½ from Viz, which is a fine release of an older anime series.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Avoid the canned and over-acted English dub and go straight for the the Japanese track. The original Japanese voice cast is all over this series and are incredibly funny. The English track is offered in a narrow DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (48kHz/16-bit and the original Japanese in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz/16-bit) providing up clear dialogue with a good amount of dynamics given the limited amount of channels.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
- Sailor Moon at Otakon – An interview with Stephanie Sheh & Robbie Daymond (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:19:39)
- Dub Recording Behind-the-Scenes – Interviews with Cherami Leigh, English voice of Minako Aino/ Sailor Venus and Veronica Taylor, English voice of Sailor Pluto (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:11:52)
- Welcome, Chibi-Usa – An Interview with Sandy Fox, English Voice of Chibi-Usa (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:07:06)
- Sailor Moon Anniversary (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:03:35)
- Galleries (Discs 1 -3; 1080p)
- Clean Opening w/ Optional English or Romaji Subtitles
- Clean Closing w/ Optional English or Romaji Subtitles
- Viz Media Trailers
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
This fun mahō shōjo series continues to roll out from Viz. While the picture quality is a bit disappointing, the quality of the content never is for fans of this classic.