Sailor Moon R The Movie~ The Promise of the Rose Review

25th June 2017 at 9:00 pm

Dear Chibi,

Sailor Moon R The Movie: The Promise of the Rose is out on DVD remastered! I haven’t seen this movie in quite a while, but it was by far my favourite of the 3 Sailor Moon movies. Seeing it again so many years later, my thoughts largely remain the same.

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

“Long before Mamoru found his destiny with Usagi, he befriended a lonely boy who helped him recover from the crash that claimed his parents. This long-forgotten friend, Fiore, has been searching the galaxy for a flower worthy of that sweet gesture long ago. The mysterious flower he finds is beautiful, but has a dark side. Faced with an enemy blooming out of control, it’s up to Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians to band together, stop the impending destruction and save Mamoru!”

As with most anime movies, this film is best enjoyed as a standalone. Nothing in the film affects the main story at all, and the actual villains from the series (The Black Moon Clan) are never mentioned. The events portrayed in the film seem to take place somewhere between episode 77 and 82, after Chibiusa learns of everyone’s identity and when Usagi and Mamoru get back together. It makes sense since the film debuted in Japanese theaters on 5 December 1993, a week before episode 77 aired. While it’s not necessary to watch the movie, it’s a delightful experience with plenty of emotion and drama.

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

What I love about the movie is that it captures the essence of “Sailor Moon” beautifully. Themes of friendship and loneliness is also very apparent. The pacing is excellent as it never feels draggy or too rushed. With 62 minutes of run time, they did a great job balancing action and story. Speaking of action… fans of the 90’s anime will appreciate all the non stock footage used for the fighting scenes. We’ve become so accustomed to the same attack sequences, it’s refreshing to see some new animation! :D

Sailor Moon R The Movie Sailor Jupiter

Sailor Moon R The Movie Sailor Mars

I also think Viz Media’s English cast did a wonderful job. I had no issues with it and the script is pretty faithful to the original. A big tick :)

The product packaging

Let’s have a look at the packaging of this Australian release by Madman:

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

I’m happy they used the original art for the cover :)  For whatever reason, it was redrawn for the US release which left many fans displeased. The culprit? This. I’ll let you decide which looks better ;)

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

Overall, the slip design is simple and pleasing. The print on the disc itself is a bit plain for my liking though:

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

Sailor Moon R The Promise of the Rose

Moving onto the DVD menu screen, I always find these a complete let down :(

Sailor Moon R - The Movie DVD Menu

There is so much potential to make this exciting and engaging, but it’s the same background used for all of Madman’s other Sailor Moon DVDs. This time it’s worse because there’s not even a picture on the right >.<  At least “Moon Revenge” plays in the background…~ sigh~

Thankfully, the video is fabulous. While we never got a Bluray release from Madman, the DVD picture quality is stunning. I’m thoroughly impressed by how crisp and colourful everything looks :O Check out some of these screenshots:

Usagi Tsukino

Ami Mizuno

Young Mamoru and Usagi

Sailor Jupiter Sailor Moon R The Movie

Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter Sailor Moon R The Movie

Chibiusa Sailor Moon R The Movie

Ahh..so clear and sharp!!!! :D It’s amazing seeing something so old look so new again :’) I love it.

This release contains 2 ‘extra’ items. One is standard Madman anime trailers and the other is a 15-minute recap of the series titled “Make Up! Sailor Guardians“. It was shown in Japanese theaters before the actual movie. This comes included with the English dub as well. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the segment that much since the drawings aren’t…that nice.

Make Up! Sailor Guardians

‘Make Up! Sailor Guardians’ title screen

Make Up! Sailor Guardians

Not a huge fan of this art style. Usagi also acts really weird. OH WELLS XD.

I hope you enjoyed this review and found it helpful in some way. Feel free to drop a comment below with your thoughts!

Note: This is Madman’s AU/NZ release of Sailor Moon R: The Movie. DVD is Region 4. If you’re interested in getting a copy, you can order it here. For more links to other merchandise, check out our Sailor Moon Shopping Guide!

19 Responses to “Sailor Moon R The Movie~ The Promise of the Rose Review”

  1. Sally says:

    Love the fact they used the 90’s movie poster for the cover. Much better than Viz’s “re-imagining”. So bland. I was blown away by the HD quality…can’t wait for the S movie to get the same treatment. Love the poster for that one.

  2. Katie says:

    I went to a movie theatre for a special screening of it!!! It was wonderful to see on the big screen! It’s my favorite.

  3. Corza Moon says:

    Good to see they used the HD master for the DVD version too. Shame they didn’t do the blu-ray version like Viz released. It looks amazing in 1080p

  4. Ebrahim says:

    This looks so beautiful! ? And I kinda like the galaxy print on the CD, the cover has so much going on in it and it looks so cool but the only thing I don’t like is “Sailor guardians Make-Up!” Only from looking at those to pictures all in all I think “Sailor Moon R The Movie: The Promise of the Rose” looks great with the pictures you have shown!

    • Chibi says:

      haha, I guess the CD print isn’t too bad, just seemed a bit too simple for my taste.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)

  5. José Cruz says:

    Hi. I’m just wondering, does this versin cone with the original audio or is it a dub verdion? Thank you.

    • Chibi says:

      Hi José!
      Sorry I forgot to mention it on my post. Yes, there’s the original Japanese audio with English subtitles too :)

  6. Are you serious? You guys got the Japanese poster as your cover!!! What even…

  7. Pie says:

    I can’t wait to pick it up myself! The cover is so static in the american release ;.; i wish we got the original japanese cover too!! The picture is stunning at how clear it is!! i hope this quality continutes for sailor moon dvds, and i find the slip with the inside with fiore and usagi goregous~ <3 great review!

    • Chibi says:

      Hi Pie! Good to hear you enjoyed the review :) I agree, the Fiore & Usagi pic looks pretty good :D

      Really strange that Viz Media had the cover redone by an artist other than Marco Albiero to be honest.

  8. kaz says:

    Love how new and fresh the colours look on this! =)

    I agree with the DVD screen though- would be so much nicer with animated sections from the movie (if not still a picture!)

    The best of the 3 Sailormoon movies :)

    • Chibi says:

      I’m disappointed about the menu screen indeed… at least the important stuff like the actual video quality is good :D

  9. Emme says:

    I haven’t bought this movie yet. I’m holding out for Madman to release a boxset of the movies like Pioneer did back in 2001. I know it’s something that probably will not happen until they release the entire series first and than the remaining two movies individually.