8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars continue their quest for the Legendary Silver Crystal as two new powerful allies join the fight. Sailor Jupiter is the tall and tough Guardian of Thunder, and Sailor Venus is the Guardian of Love and the most experienced member. Sailor Moon herself gets an impressive new power and learns more about the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. Could their distant past be intertwined, and does that have anything to do with the Moon Princess they seek? The final ordeal with Queen Beryl looms on the horizon, and it will take everything the Sailor Guardians have to be victorious!
Starring: Kotono Mitsuishi, Tôru Furuya, Aya Hisakawa, Michie Tomizawa, Emi ShinoharaAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 92% |
Fantasy | 39% |
Comedy | 32% |
Comic book | 26% |
Romance | 25% |
Teen | 20% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p (upconverted)
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Six-disc set (3 BDs, 3 DVDs)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars continue their quest for the Legendary Silver Crystal as two new powerful allies join the fight. Sailor Jupiter is the tall and tough Guardian of Thunder, and Sailor Venus is the Guardian of Love and the most experienced member. Sailor Moon herself gets an impressive new power and learns more about the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. Could their distant past be intertwined, and does that have anything to do with the Moon Princess they seek? The final ordeal with Queen Beryl looms on the horizon, and it will take everything the Sailor Guardians have to be victorious.
When last we left the VIZ Media/Sailor Moon debacle, things weren't looking too promising. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, little has changed in the three months between the Blu-ray release of Season 1, Part 1 and Part 2. VIZ's 1080p/AVC-encoded upscaled presentation is still fraught with issues; some of which trace back to the use of an already problematic 2009 master, others brought on by noise reduction, artificial sharpening and other spit-polish techniques that only worsen matters. If there's good news to be had it's that Part 2 represents a slight -- and I stress slight -- improvement over Part 1. Ghosting doesn't seem to be as prevalent or severe and... that's about it. Clarity is still wildly inconsistent. Grain has been wiped away (rather haphazardly), smearing is a continual distraction, the series' line art doesn't fare as well as it should, and many a shot, while already soft, has been rendered hazy, as if the animation cels have been coated with a thin layer of vaseline.
The worst of it, though, is the mosquito noise. Sometimes mistaken for grain, this particularly nasty breed of erratic, merciless noise swarms various areas of the image, flittering in and out of view, anywhere and everywhere, and making a general nuisance of itself. It's most noticeable near crisp(er) lines, but also finds its way into larger areas of color. (Mosquito noise is a video compression distortion that appears as random artifacting and aliasing. Most HDTVs have built-in noise filters that can reduce or eliminate this anomaly -- the primary reason one viewer may not detect the noise others are referencing -- but these filters can cause a variety of other irritations, and should be turned off to obtain the most accurate, high-quality picture.)
There are other, less obvious issues at play -- a mounting list of 'em actually -- but none that deviate from the real underlying problem: VIZ's belief that additional, on-the-cheap processing and tinkering could somehow right the wrongs of a terribly flawed master. An ideal restoration would require access to the series' original elements and a significantly larger budget, neither of which a small house like VIZ Media can afford. But that once again begs the question: why release Sailor Moon on Blu-ray at all? So much time was spent evaluating the condition of the master and the viability of the project before signing the dotted line. From the mouth of Senior Manager of Animation Marketing Charlene Ingram herself:
Like the Blu-ray release of Part 1, Sailor Moon: Season 1, Part 2 includes four DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo tracks: English without subtitles (featuring a complete dub courtesy of a new voice cast), English with English subtitles, English with English songs and signs (via new alterations to the original animation), and Japanese with forced English subtitles. It comes as little surprise that the English tracks are superior in technical quality to the Japanese mix, as the new dub allows VIZ to sidestep inherent issues in the Japanese audio mix (most of which trace back to the age of the series and the condition of the original audio elements). The remastered Japanese audio is serviceable enough, it just sometimes suffers from prioritization and fidelity mishaps. The English dub is crisper, clearer, brighter and more carefully balanced. Voices are more stable than music and other effects in the soundscape, as is to be expected, but it rarely amounts to a distraction. Bottom line: so long as you aren't expect a sonic revelation, you'll be largely pleased with the audio presentation.
Sailor Moon heartbreak drags from Season 1, Part 1 to Part 2, with no sign or indication that future volumes will be any different. VIZ Media continues to turn a blind eye to criticism and complaints, all too content to embrace the praise of those who are so excited to revisit the classic anime series that they're willing overlook the BD presentation's many, many flaws. One can only hope a miracle lies ahead, though naiveté isn't exactly becoming, is it? The highlight of the subpar set is again the series' audio tracks. The supplements are repetitive -- offering next to nothing in the way of a series overview, a glimpse into the original production of the anime, or any insightful look at the remastering of the release -- and the video presentation is extremely disappointing (even if it is a bit better than Part 1).
Limited Edition
1992
1992
1992-1993
Limited Edition
1993
1993
1993-1994
Corrected
1993-1994
1993-1994
Limited Edition
1994
1994
1994-1995
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Limited Edition
1995
1995
1995-1996
1995-1996
Limited Edition
1996-1997
1996-1997
1996-1997
1996-1997
Limited Edition | Black Moon Arc
2015
1993
Sailor Moon S: The Movie - Hearts in Ice
1994
1995
1998-2000
1989
1994-1995
犬夜叉
2002-2003
Classics
2006
2002-2003
Classics
1996
はたらく魔王さま! / Hataraku Maou-sama!
2022
2005
2010
2003-2004
キルラキル
2013-2014
小林さんちのメイドラゴンS / Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon S
2021-2022
ハウルの動く城 / Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
2004
らき☆すた
2007-2008
魔法先生ネギま!?
2006-2007