Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		1.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Sailor Moon S: Season 3, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 14, 2018

One of the most imposing challenges in television, and particularly the multi-tentacled and intricately complex world of Anime, has to be figuring out how to keep a series feeling fresh when hours upon hours of content is already out there. It's a bit of an easier challenge in the feature film world, where 90-120 minutes every now and then really isn't much time to explore in the grand scheme of things, but when a show gets up into quadruple digit runtimes, chances are that the writers might be starting to grasp at straws. But some might just be finding their stride. With Sailor Moon's third season, the plot feels familiar but the story has some legs, thanks in large part to the "reset button" technique employed in season two. Season three manages to build on the characters and story lines from before and after the memory wipes, creating a fun and sometimes frenzied excursion through yet another season of the Guardians doing their best to triumph over evil.

The Sailor Guardians have put the fight against evil behind them. Their focus is on exams and their dreams are on acceptance letters into high school. Yet, as tends to happen, they're pulled away from their lives in order to save the day once again. Professor Tomoe and his partner Kaolinite are up to no good, employing various daimons to seek out pure heart crystals from unsuspecting humans. These "Death Busters" and their cohorts, known as "The Witches 5," are out to end the world using a talisman created from three special pure heart crystals. Almost as suddenly, two mysterious new Sailor Guardians appear. Their mission to "stop the bad guys" is familiar on the surface but they actually aim to collect the heart crystals for themselves.

Superficially, it's the same-old, same-old: The Guardians want a normal life, but some new enemy of the season or monster of the week drags them back into the fight. But there are wrinkles. The Guardians face an enemy their powers cannot defeat. Sailor Moon loses her ability to transform and must learn a new transformation and attack sequence. The pair of new Guardians seem neither friend nor foe but something else that keeps the characters, and the audience, guessing. Even Chibi-Usa makes an appearance to add some new, yet familiar, variety and wrinkles to the season.

Season Three, or "S," is once again largely at its best away from the battle scenes and as it follows the Guardians in their everyday lives, as the show builds the characters and their interactions and their places in the world beyond just the battles they fight. The girls individually and collectively grow, by choice and by necessity, in their battles with the Death Busters but more interestingly in their pursuits of romance, their commitment to academics, and the ever-blossoming friendships they share. These core "human" characteristics are finely interwoven into practically every episode, essentially serving as a connective conduit between audience and the characters they have come to love as champions of good but, more, as relatable humans and friends outside of battle.

One of the more interesting connective tissues between Sailor Moon seasons is an overreaching theme of an abstract concept. Season one explored love's power to save. Season two saw the guardians learning what love really means. In season three, a heart's purity is at the center of the story. And that focus, abstract though it may sometimes be, is what helps keep the season fresh. Individuals with "pure hearts" are attacked in each episode, but the show takes the time to define what that means. Several of the Sailor Guardians are targeted for their own purity of heart, as are a girl who cares for abandoned cats, a girl who dreams of experiencing her first kiss, and a talented drummer, just to name a few. The definition the show offers is broad, but that increased scope allows for more challenging content and context both in battle as the Guardians, and the audience, consider the implications of the story's greater meaning, all while allowing various types of kind and caring personalities to shine.

An important aside for this release is that the romantic relationship between Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh is depicted closer to the original Japanese version than it was in past US releases, where it was censored.

Sailor Moon S: Season 3, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sailor Moon S: Season 3 Part 1's 1080p transfer regrettably and irritatingly carries on with the previous seasons well-documented problems. Rather than regurgitate all the drama and dissect the image all over again, it seems best to simply refer readers to the previous releases comprehensive breakdowns and know to expect more or less the same basic visual presentation here. All of the core problems remain, and though the image maintains a base foundational boost in overall color and clarity thanks to the 1080p resolution, it's otherwise a disaster, so troubled even those who generally dismiss any video deficiencies will be left wondering what went wrong. Few Blu-ray releases exhibit so many problems, consistently and egregiously, as this; a poor master has been put through the processing ringer and come out much worse for wear. Please click here and here for more.

Sailor Moon S: Season 3, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sailor Moon S: Season 3 Part 1 features English and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtracks. Neither are particularly robust. Effects lack precision clarity and nuanced detail. Music, notably opening title music, doesn't stretch all that far to the ends, settling to image towards the middle. The lack of spacial range is disappointing, and the absence of more affirming clarity, instrumental distinction, and a muddy low end are issues of note. Dialogue in both languages does benefit from the center imaging and clarity is generally fine.

Sailor Moon S: Season 3, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sailor Moon S: Season 3 Part 1 contains extras on all three discs. DVD discs are also included.

Disc One:

• Gallery (1080p): Still images of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus.

Disc Two:

• Gallery (1080p): Still images of Haruka Tenoh, Sailor Uranus, Michiru Kaioh, Sailor Neptune, and a group shot of the five original Sailor Guardians.

Disc Three:

• Interview with the English Cast (1080p, 13:48): An interview with various cast members from Sailor Moon Day 2015, including Ben Diskin, Cristina Vee, Amanda Miller, Robbie Daymond, Stephanie Sheh, Cherami Leigh, and Sandy Fox. Discussions include favorite moments in the show, favorite fan moments, and meeting the new Sailor Guardians introduced in this season.
• Gallery (1080p): Still images of Kaolinite; Professor Tomoe; Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon Luna and Artemis; and Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, and Sailor Chibi Moon.
• Clean Opening (1080i, 1:33): With English or Romaji Subtitles.
• Clean Ending (1080i, 1:32): With English or Romaji Subtitles.
• Trailers (1080p, 7:01 total runtime): Trailers for Sailor Moon Season 1, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon Crystal Season 1, Ranma 1/2, and Inuyasha The Final Act.

Sailor Moon S: Season 3, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This half-season of Sailor Moon doesn't deviate from core formula, but it does offer more high-yield characterization and digs fairly deep into the season's theme, defining a "pure heart." It maintains freshness with new characters and familiarity with old friends thrust into new battles. Sailor Moon S: Season 3 Part 1 delivers the same crummy video as previous seasons. Audio isn't great, either, and the extras are not particularly thorough. For fans only, and only on a good sale.