Dear Chibi,

YESSSSSSSSS. I am shedding happy tears :’D I’ve finally got a hold of Madman’s newly released Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1 on DVD! I was over the moon when I first heard Madman had officially acquired both the 90s Sailor Moon anime (all 200 episodes and movies!) and Sailor Moon Crystal. This is a pretty big deal, as Sailor Moon has never been released in Australia complete, remastered, uncensored and uncut :D WOOO!

This new release features a brand new English dub by Viz Media. Having grown up watching the original English dub by DiC, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the change. However, I came into the first episode feeling rather refreshed by Stephanie Sheh’s take on Usagi. I had this massive smile on my face the entire time. I hope the other major characters have suitable voices too. But of course, if you prefer to watch it in Japanese, that too is available with English subtitles.

I know a lot of you might be curious about the video quality, compared to the DVDs released in the US. Instead of following suit with Viz Media, Madman used the same video masters as the European release~ which I believe is a fantastic choice! I was very pleased with the video. Everything looks so pretty and detailed! This DVD seems to tick all the boxes.

Lets have a look at the packaging:

Ooohhh..niceeee.

This DVD comes with 4 discs and contains the first 24 episodes. The extras include behind the scenes of the new English dub as well as textless songs. It uses the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

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Dear Chibi,

After seeing the first two Madoka movies late last year, I was curious to see what would happen in it’s third and final movie: Rebellion. I thought the ending of the second movie wrapped up nicely, and had a sense of completion. Luckily, the third movie didn’t feel like it was made for the sake of continuing, but genuinely had some new concepts to explore. And frankly, seeing as the first two movies were simply a rehash of the animated TV series, I’m sure fans would appreciate the new content. The animation and art look stunning as usual (It has some majestic action scenes *_*).

However, the ending has left me with rather mixed feelings. It has one of those confusing Evanglion-type finales, where you’re left wondering “What just happened?” I mean it kinnnnnd of makes sense, but I don’t know if its for the better or worse. It changes your whole perception of a character you thought you knew and loved. HAH. I hope that wasn’t too spoiler-ish.

What did you think of Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion?  Are you satisfied with the ending, or do you want a sequel? Share your thoughts in the comments below (Spoilers allowed ;D)

Now, let’s have a look at this Collector’s Edition Blu-ray…shall we? ;D

This Collectors Edition Blu-Ray comes with a bunch of goodies:

Inside the case, you’ll find two postcards by Madman:

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Dear Chibi,
Yesterday I had some time to kill so I decided to check out the newly released Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie limited edition Blu-Ray :D It is apparently very similar to the anime’s 12 episode series (around 95% of the content is the same, including the actual animation) compiled as two movies (Part 1: Beginnings and Part 2: Eternal).

The packaging

Box featuring exclusive illustration for the limited edition Blu-Ray

Back and side view of the box

Two movies in two separate cases. Part 1: Beginnings has a white theme and Part 2 has a dark one.

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Dear Chibi,

I received Evangelion: 1.11 and 2.22 Blu-Ray in the mail about a week ago but haven’t had the chance to sit down and write about it until now :D

Let me start off by saying… I haven’t really watched Evangelion before. Well, I have a little bit back in my early high school days but that was so long ago and in-sequential that it didn’t make much sense XD Hopefully watching the movies this time around will be a more fulfilling experience. I want to know what the fuss is all about!

Evangelion: 1.11 You are (NOT) Alone and 2.22 You Can (NOT) Advance

The two came in a very well packaged box. I had a pleasant time un-boxing it and I loooove the look of these. The plain orange and red on the slip covers work well. Since these were part of a series/collection, I lined them up to see how they’d looked together:

One side features a face of Shinji Ikari and Mari Illustrious Makinami (new character in the movie)

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Dear Chibi,

Last night I finally got the chance to sit down and watch 1 of the 4 movies included in the Inuyasha Movie Collection. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Inuyasha, so I looked forward to viewing the movie with a fresh mindset. The first movie is titled “Affections Touching Across Time” which refers to the romantic relationship and feelings between Inuyasha and Kagome. Now if you ship this pairing, you’ll love this movie. There’s plenty of action and humor to entertain, but I personally found the romantic aspect the most appealing and satisfying.

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Dear Chibi,

After many months of anticipation, Sailor Moon The Movie (Independent Short) was finally released on youtube today! I was at work during the time it was announced, but I managed to sneakily watch it since I couldn’t wait to get home first.

Here’s the movie for those who haven’t seen it:

My expectations for this was incredibly high, so there was bound to be some disappointments. Below are some of my personal thoughts on the film:

I quite enjoyed the first half of the movie during the Silver Millennium~ the visuals were quite amazing  for a low budget film. I was surprised when the Moon Kingdom came up.  I also liked Queen Beryl. She looked awesome with her costume, props and make-up, though her voice echoed so much it was hard to understand what she was saying. Endymion and Serenity’s voices also sounded like it was recorded in a room, and that took away some realism.

I liked the opening credits when the music “Story” started playing. I was particularly fond of the Disney-ish/cell-shade shot (below)- it looked like a painting. I’m not sure that was intentional but I liked it as a standalone.

The little references such as the Sailor crystals falling into earth was a nice touch.

The dialogue could have been improved; it was kinda cheesy (especially when Endymion was speaking to Serenity) and it felt unnatural. I didn’t like Prince Endymion very much, he came off as rather…aggressive/cold.

I liked Serenity, but I couldn’t warm up to Bunny as much. She came out really whinny and her “I hate my life” part seemed out of character. Personally, I would have liked to see more of her innocence/naivety, which is a huge part of Usagi’s original character. I really liked Melvin! He was funny and I didn’t expect Eric to pop out all of a sudden XD~ He is quite charismatic, hehe :)

Naru was okay, a little over the top sometimes but I enjoyed her interaction with Bunny. Like a lot of other fans, I thought it was a bit strange they kept her Japanese name, but everyone else had westernised name. I would have preferred “Molly” instead. As far as minor characters go, I didn’t mind her or Motoki. I didn’t like the two FBI characters though, since they’re not part of the Sailor Moon plot (I’m not familiar with Sailor V). They had a decent amount of screen time (for such a short film) which could have been spent on more character development on important characters.

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