See my review of Sailor Moon Crystal Set 1 Limited Edition.

Dear Chibi,

Guess what? Sailor Moon Crystal Set 2 is finally here!! :D I was super excited to find it in the mail (thank you Madman!) and proceeded to quickly unbox it like a child during Christmas. Except when I finally held it in my hand, my first thought was ‘Wait.. what is this?’ I swear all the promo pictures had the box looking white, but when I held it in my hand the box looked gold! Thankfully, it’s not actually white but a slight beige/gold because I wasn’t a fan of the white. This looks a lot prettier in person than it did in the pictures :)

Wow…so pretty and shiny *_*

Sailor Moon Crystal Set 2 covers the Black Moon Arc, with the arrival of Chibiusa who traveled from the future to enlist help from Sailor Moon and the Guardians to save her mother. A much darker and serious tone is set with Sailor Mars being abducted on the get-go by members of the Black Moon Clan hailing from Planet Nemesis. It makes the enemy feel a lot more scary and the situation more dire with a sense of urgency. I love how the villains look. The Spectre Sisters are consistently well-drawn, and I loved watching them mainly because of their 90s counterpart :’D Unfortunately, their roles are minuscule in Crystal (as they are in the manga) and are throwaway characters. On the plus side, I’m sure fans will appreciate the early character based episodes, allowing each Sailor Guardian to have their moment to shine. Crystal is pretty action-based and not so much ‘slice of life’. Most of the characters apart from Moon and Tux get very little character development. What I do like about Crystal though is that there is a lot more backstory for the Crystal Tokyo, Small Lady and Sailor Pluto. The history between Chibiusa and Sailor Pluto was basically non-existent in ‘Sailor Moon R’. As a Moonie who never quite liked the manga (don’t judge :P), I found this season to be a pleasant surprise.

A lot of the art and animation issues from the web-aired version has been corrected in the home video release. However, there are still some awkward frames and mistakes apparent (e.g Sailor Moon attacking with the wrong wand D:) Facial expressions are still very stiff, as though the animators are too afraid to move away from the character sheets. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but it is definitely more solid and polished than season 1.

Original net animation vs home release

Since I’ve seen the web-aired version with the original Japanese audio, I decided to watch all the home releases with Viz Media’s English Dub for comparison. And you know what? I think they’ve done a pretty decent job. I liked Chibiusa’s voice in particular. Stephanie Shehs’s Usagi can feel a little unauthentic at times.

In terms of an English adaption, I’ve noticed the Sailor Moon logo varies from episode to episode. Sometimes it’s the Japanese logo, while other times it’s the English one. The credits sometimes appear in English as well. I’m not sure why it’s inconsistent, but I prefer it all to be in English since I can’t read Japanese anyway ^^”

Now, let’s take a look at the beauty of this Limited Edition set! (Click on these thumbnails for a larger view)

The box is very pretty with a golden foil finish and matches set 1 perfectly. This art is based off volume 13 of the Japanese release, which is why it features the Cosmic Heart Brooch instead of the Crystal Star.

As a BD/DVD combo, it comes with 2 discs each with 12 episodes total. I love how they used designs from the Japanese release for the Blu ray discs. It’s beautiful. Now if only set 1 had the same treatment… ^^”

Disc art based on vol 8 and vol 12 of Japan’s release

The art booklet is pretty similar to set 1. It’s a full-coloured booklet containing some character sheets and images of props/items.

We also get 6 beautiful art cards printed on glossy cardboard, featuring the cover art for each of the Japanese volumes.

Like the previous set, the menu is a simple static image with no animation or effects. The ‘episode selection’ on the Blu Ray contains a small image thumbnail while there’s plain text in the DVD.

The extras contain textless opening and closing clips. It is exactly the same as the extra in set 1. I was a bit disappointed that it was the same opening clip with the Dark Kingdom, instead of the Black Moon version used in this season. It would also be nice to have more content for extras perhaps an art gallery or interview clip like the US release.

All in all, I think this is a solid release and a great addition to any fan’s collection. It looks really good with set 1.

I can’t wait to see the treatment we’ll get for Sailor Moon Crystal Set 3 :)

What do you think of this release? Comment below and share your thoughts!

Note: This is Madman’s AU/NZ release of Sailor Moon Crystal Set 2 Limited Edition, kindly provided by Madman for review. The Blu-Ray is Region B. 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!