Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Sailor Moon S: Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Sailor Moon S is another exciting season of the beloved classic anime. The series comes from producers Kenji Ōta (Princess Princess), Iriya Azuma (Cutey Honey Flash), and Munehisa Higuchi (Neighborhood Story). The third season of Sailor Moon is one of the best seasons in the entire production run. The fantastic journey continues with new villains and brand-new missions. Based on the manga classic by Naoko Takeuchi, Sailor Moon S is an essential. Fans will cherish this great collection – including all 38 episodes (episodes 90-127).

The third season of Sailor Moon brings new adventures to the forefront of the journey. The Death Busters are evil beings led by the diabolical Professor Tomoe. These evil villains are seeking pure hearts. The Death Busters want the heart crystals in order to gain more strength and power. The group works to gather the crystals by targeting ordinary citizens.

Yet Professor Tomoe didn’t expect to encounter a new problem in the crystal heart gathering: two Sailor Guardians are also seeking out the crystals for their own purposes. These Sailor Guardians do not work with Sailor Moon (Kotono Mitsuishi) or her fellow Guardians. Are these new Guardians friends or foe? Can Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars (Michie Tomizawa), Sailor Mercury (Aya Hisakawa), Sailor Venus (Rica Fukami), and Sailor Jupiter (Emi Shinohara) band together to save the day?

The characters are essential to the anime. Sailor Moon is a gem – an anime masterpiece – because of the great characters. The characters add so much warmth, charm, and heart to the series. The entire team is essential to the epic journey. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, and Sailor Mercury are great characters. The journey these characters go on as they fight crime, evil-doers, and fight for tomorrow makes the series an even greater classic. It is largely because of the enduring love fans have for these characters that Sailor Moon is such a beloved masterpiece of Japanese animation.

The animation is exquisite and some of the best animation in the entire series is showcased in the third season of the series. The third season is a bit darker than the two previous seasons with some episodes having an even more complex visual narrative. The nice blend of beautiful animation contrasting with a dark and foreboding atmosphere from the villains makes the animation stand out – providing a sort of blend between fantasy, horror, and surrealism.

These elements of the animation add a lot to the series and make Season 3 all the more special. Season 3 is arguably pushing boundaries with the series as it makes an anime that already experimented with complex villains and themes even darker. It is all the more entertaining visually because of the sheer creativity of the animation team.

The traditional cell-based and hand-drawn animation is as exquisite and enchanting as paintings in a museum. The animation is breathtaking and masterful. The artistry of Sailor Moon is so great that it enchants from beginning to end. One of the masterpieces of Japanese anime, Sailor Moon S is an incredible season and one of the greatest in the entire series run.

The animation feels entirely organic – elevating the storytelling to even greater heights. This type of classic animation isn’t possible with modern Japanese anime in the same vein. Classic hand-drawn animation is even more sophisticated. The character designs by Kazuko Tadano are great, too.

Sailor Moon S features great score music by Takanori Arisawa (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R). The music is one of the best things about the series. The classic anime score is one of the best in the entire medium. The legendary score music adds so much warmth, heart, and energy to the series. The score is sublime. Beautiful, majestic, and stirring.

The scripts for Sailor Moon S are written by Megumi Sugihara (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R), Yoji Enokido (Sailor Moon SuperS, Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie), Katsuyuki Sumisawa (Dragon Ball), Sukehiro Tomita (Yu Yu Hakusho), and Shigeru Yanagawa (Ranma ½). The writing is fun, charming, and full of adventure – the kind of writing one wants out of an epic anime series. The writers did great work adapting the beloved manga while adding some fun creative flourishes to the classic series, too.

Director Kunihiko Ikuhara (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R) brings Sailor Moon S to life with a vision that is outstanding. The directorial style provides plenty of artistic flourishes that have become enduring. An anime masterpiece that would never have been as legendary without the great directing by Ikuhara, Sailor Moon S is one of the best seasons of the entire series. The season is even darker than previous seasons and the energy is incredible. A must-see season of Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon S: Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by VIZ Media, Sailor Moon S is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The series has new encoding that supersedes previous presentations available on Blu-ray in North America. VIZ has reencoded the release with brand new authoring. The encoding offers a significantly improved presentation.

It is important to note that the original release of Sailor Moon S was one met with controversy with fans. The original authoring on Blu-ray provided the series with a encode that was sometimes jarring for fans to watch. The presentation had plenty of presentation errors with lots of artifacts, aliasing, and edge anomalies that made the previous presentation less enjoyable for fans.

VIZ had produced their own upscale of the material and it was not met with positive responses by critical fans. (The same issue resided on season one – Sailor Moon – and season two – Sailor Moon R). The newer reissues have improved encoding with brand new discs. The new presentation is still upscaled but it offers the Japanese upscaling with better colors, clarity, and detail.

Despite the fact the new and improved version is a significant upgrade (one fans should consider well worth buying), it is worth noting that it is still derived from Japanese upscales of the animation and doesn't provide true cell-based/film-based transfers from the original film. Toei Animation hasn't invested in true restorations of the original materials – leaving some to wonder what happened. Restoration costs would be enormous given the number of episodes but it seems like a true HD restoration should happen.

Even though one can't help but hope for a true high-definition restoration of the entire classic series, Toei Animation has not invested in one. Imagine what the series could look like if restored from the original film prints – scanned and restored in glorious 4K UHD 2160p. It would be a dream come true.

Despite my reservations with the presentation, Sailor Moon S has never looked better before on home media in North America with quality upscales. The upscales are superior to the previous Blu-ray and it offers a vastly improved presentation. Fans who want the absolute best picture-quality available will certainly want to consider this release – even if it means double or triple dipping on the release.

Sailor Moon S: Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release provides a nice selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The Blu-ray release provides a new dub production that was completed by VIZ. The new dub is considered more faithful to the original. A number of small changes were made to the original dub and as such a new dub was created.

The Japanese language version is the best option for purists. The audio quality sounds clear, engaging, and warm. The lossless audio provides a worthwhile audio presentation for series fans. An impressive encode. The subtitles are good as well and are free from egregious spelling or grammatical errors.

Sailor Moon S: Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc 1:

Art Gallery featuring 16 pages of click-through illustrations.

Disc 2:

Art Gallery featuring 22 pages of click-through illustrations.

Disc 3:

Interview with the English Cast (HD, 13:48)

Interview with Keith Silverstein (HD, 10:33)

Clean Opening & Endings (HD, 3:05)

Art Gallery featuring 16 pages of click-through illustrations.

Disc 4:

Art Gallery featuring 10 pages of click-through illustrations.

Disc 5:

Art Gallery featuring 11 pages of click-through illustrations.

Disc 6:

Getting to Know the Guardians: Sailor Uranus (HD, 7:27)

Getting to Know the Guardians: Sailor Neptune (HD, 10:05)

Getting to Know the Guardians: Sailor Saturn (HD, 8:26)

Episode #119: Live Reaction with the new Guardians (HD, 24:44)

Art Gallery featuring 20 pages of click-through illustrations.

More from VIZ (HD, 1:40)

Sailor Moon S: Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sailor Moon S is one of the best seasons of the entire series. Sailor Moon S is an anime classic and the third season adds even more entertaining twists and turns to the story. The action-packed series has outstanding charm and the characters make the series. An anime masterpiece that has withstood the test of time.

The Blu-ray release provides a new and improved upscaled presentation of the third season of Sailor Moon. The presentation quality is significantly better than the previous Blu-ray edition and it is worth double-dipping on. The downside is that the set is still upscaled from standard definition and is not in native high-definition (from the original cell-based animation). Even so, the Japanese upscales provided on this release are superior to the previous upscales. The Blu-ray also comes with a nice selection of bonus features. Fans who want to own Sailor Moon S with the best quality should strongly consider adding this release to their collection. Highly recommended.