Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Limited Edition Bluray Review

23rd October 2019 at 10:37 am

Dear Chibi,

IT’S FINALLY HERE! *tears of joy* The fifth and final season of Sailor Moon – Sailor Stars (Part 1) is out in Australia :D As a kid, my sister and I used to rent VHS tapes from our local video store. We watched Sailor Moon in Cantonese and recorded it so we could have a copy at home to watch over and over again. Watching Sailor Moon on repeat was our favourite past time, and Sailor Stars was no doubt my favourite season.

At the time, there was no other way for us to watch the show as Sailor Moon stopped airing on TV after season 2. To have it officially licensed and released in Australia after 2 decades, is a childhood dream come true. Why is this such a big deal? Because for the first time ever, Sailor Stars is available to the English audience (it’s also uncensored and uncut). Not a fan of English dubs? The Bluray and DVDs also contain the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. Win-win!

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Limited Edition Bluray Set (Madman)
Eternal Sailor Moon graces the front, side and back of the limited edition collector’s box.
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Limited Edition Bluray Set (Madman)
Bluray box cover art
Sailor Pluto is featured on the back of Volume 1

The limited edition box & Bluray case uses some beautiful illustrations by Marco Albiero. I especially love the group shot with all 10 Sailor Guardians <3 This set includes 17 uncut episodes (167-183) on 3 Bluray discs.

Limited Edition Booklet

The limited edition booklet has 34 pages and contains profiles of some of the main characters. They seemed to have excluded Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Tuxedo Mask and Chibimoon. Seeing as the US release contains 96 pages, I feel like we got the short end of the stick here. Nothing new though, as it’s been the same with past booklets.

It would have been nice to include a couple of group artworks too like the previous booklets. There is a basic relationship chart, which still lists Sailor Uranus and Neptune as “partners”. It feels a little incomplete seeing as the relationship dynamics are a little more complex than what the chart shows… (e.g no relationship between Usagi/Seiya, Yaten/Luna etc)

There’s a typo in Sailor Pluto’s profile (impersonal is spelt “imporsonal”).

Having said all that, the booklet is still pretty nice. Check out the gallery below:

Blu-ray menu

All 3 discs contain the same animated menu, which consists of Eternal Sailor Moon’s transformation music, her transformation sequence, followed by the Sailor Starlights’s (short) transformation and introduction sequence. I would’ve preferred a different soundtrack as it doesn’t match the Sailor Starlight’s footages, and the Sailor Star Song would’ve been more exciting and upbeat- but that’s just my personal taste.

Having seen what the previous menus looked like, I didn’t set my expectations too high. It’s pretty basic but is consistent with all the others designs.

Extras

The only extras that come with the Bluray are clean opening & closing credits. No galleries, interviews etc are included.

English Voices

I’ve always loved watching Sailor Moon in Japanese (and Cantonese!) but the Viz Media cast has been doing a great job on the series so far. I quite like the choices for the Sailor Starlights, I think it matches their characters well. I think it’s enjoyable seeing it in English for a slightly different experience.

What are your thoughts on this Sailor Stars release? Comment below and let me know! If you’re interested in owning a copy of Madman’s Australian release, they are available on DVD and Bluray (region B) and limited edition. For more Sailor Moon merchandise, check out this shopping guide.

14 Responses to “Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Limited Edition Bluray Review”

  1. CCTakato says:

    I find it interesting that the Madman release had Uranus and Neptune as “partners” from the start for this set when Viz initially goofed and had them as “friendship” for the US.

  2. LOLA says:

    Thank you for quick insertion of the post about Stars, which is beautiful in terms of graphics, and the booklet is already a graphic mine, which is lovely. I can’t wait for my copy to come. :-)

  3. Anna says:

    Finally. Thank you <3

  4. Daniel J says:

    I import the AU bluray releases as I am in same bluray region. The Stars release is great, and the video bitrate is higher than some of the other seasons. The bluray case spine doesn’t match the other limited editions though.

    • Chibi says:

      Hmm! I see what you mean. The spines look different from SuperS onwards.

    • Ryan Turner says:

      I feel because the prior sets were bundled with part 1 and 2 they could do that, but because SuperS and Stars didn’t wait for both parts to release them, they’re not able to have the spines the same because they need to show the rating on the case

    • Manuel J. Herrera says:

      At least the Guardians are still at the top of them.

    • Yosei says:

      This is OCD-triggering.

  5. Corza Moon says:

    LOL Healer is now Star Fighter apparently

  6. Christie says:

    I love this season! I’m still waiting for part 2 of sailor stars to release in Australia! There’s still no news unfortunately. However part 2 has been classified under Australian classification so I hope it comes out soon!