Sailor Moon

[Cheerilee]

I'm sad that the original English dub is not getting an official release. It may offend purists but there were some real comedy gems in the localization and superb voice acting. My weeby partner hates the new English VAs.

The original English dub *did* get an official release.

Buena Vista (aka Disney) got the rights when they bought (and then sold) DiC, and they released it on VHS very badly, with just some "assorted episode" VHS tapes, although they did release a complete box set of the Doom Tree arc.

After DiC lost/never had (?) some rights, Pioneer (later renamed Geneon) got the rights to the movies from Cloverway, and released uncut dual-audio DVDs.

After DiC lost some more rights, Cloverway dubbed S & SuperS (seasons 3&4) for TV, and flipped the DVD rights to Pioneer (Geneon), who again released uncut dual-audio DVDs (first as single discs, and then combined into box sets).

After Buena Vista lost the rights, ADV picked up the rights to Classic and R (seasons 1&2). They released the entire original DiC dub on DVD (sold as single discs), and released the uncut Japanese version in two box sets. ADV couldn't combine both versions into one dual-audio release, because the DiC dub was too extensively edited for that. But ADV did release both versions.

The original English dub isn't getting a re-release. Just download it if you want it. The picture quality on your downloads will be better than the new DVD/Blurays, because Viz doesn't know how to DVD/Bluray (they got some garbage-quality sub-DVD master tapes, upscaled Beta to Bluray using a vaseline computer filter, and then crushed their garbage Bluray output down to DVD while forgetting how 4:3 works).

[ProfessorDetective]

I'm sad that the original English dub is not getting an official release. It may offend purists but there were some real comedy gems in the localization and superb voice acting. My weeby partner hates the new English VAs.

The original English dub *did* get an official release.

Buena Vista (aka Disney) got the rights when they bought (and then sold) DiC, and they released it on VHS very badly, with just some "assorted episode" VHS tapes, although they did release a complete box set of the Doom Tree arc.

After DiC lost/never had (?) some rights, Pioneer (later renamed Geneon) got the rights to the movies from Cloverway, and released uncut dual-audio DVDs.

After DiC lost some more rights, Cloverway dubbed S & SuperS (seasons 3&4) for TV, and flipped the DVD rights to Pioneer (Geneon), who again released uncut dual-audio DVDs (first as single discs, and then combined into box sets).

After Buena Vista lost the rights, ADV picked up the rights to Classic and R (seasons 1&2). They released the entire original DiC dub on DVD (sold as single discs), and released the uncut Japanese version in two box sets. ADV couldn't combine both versions into one dual-audio release, because the DiC dub was too extensively edited for that. But ADV did release both versions.

The original English dub isn't getting a re-release. Just download it if you want it. The picture quality on your downloads will be better than the new DVD/Blurays, because Viz doesn't know how to DVD/Bluray (they got some garbage-quality sub-DVD master tapes, upscaled Beta to Bluray using a vaseline computer filter, and then crushed their garbage Bluray output down to DVD while forgetting how 4:3 works).

Huh, what I HAVE seen of the Viz dub didn't look too bad. Admittedly, I WAS watching it on Hulu, so that could be a factor.

[Cheerilee]

Huh, what I HAVE seen of the Viz dub didn't look too bad. Admittedly, I WAS watching it on Hulu, so that could be a factor.

Nah, you just didn't notice (which is fine). The Hulu stream is the exact same thing as the Bluray release, but the Bluray has a higher bitrate (streaming bandwidth costs money) so the Bluray has less compression artifacts.

Here's a quick comparison of the old DVD versus the new Bluray.
https://i.imgur.com/ic7y5xH.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zeJbv7f.jpg

Viz got their hands on some 480i (interlaced) "Beta" (slightly better than VHS) magnetic tape masters. DVD easily exceeds the quality of what Viz had to work with. Then Viz foolishly said "This is good enough for Bluray!" and smeared a vaseline filter all over the picture, blurring things until you couldn't tell that it came from a 480i source anymore. The new Blurays aren't 480i anymore, but the old DVDs clearly have better picture quality. Viz's new Blurays fail in comparison to old DVD.

And then, for Viz's new DVDs, Viz simply crushed their smeared HD Hulu/Bluray stream down to 480i and called it a day. Like, those black bars on the left and right of the screen are hard-coded into the picture, because Bluray is meant for widescreen. But DVD stores things at 720x480, and uses "anamorphic" to either squish it to 4:3 or stretch it to widescreen. Viz left the black bars in their DVD release, and told the DVD to stretch it to widescreen (as their way of getting the center picture to land on 4:3). So if you try to watch Viz's Sailor Moon DVDs on a 4:3 CRT TV (as Sailor Moon was meant to be seen), you get black bars on the left and right (because Viz put them there), as well as black bars on the top and bottom of the screen (because the TV thinks you're trying to watch widescreen on your 4:3), and you're left watching a postage stamp sized picture in the middle of your screen.

It's just disgraceful for a professional release, and Sailor Moon deserved far better. (And then Sailor Moon Crystal happened, and it became a rough time to be a Sailor Moon fan.)

The only real advantage of the new Blurays is, well... it exists (Sailor Moon is always enjoyable, even if it's a flawed release), and it has a new dub, and it's the only legal way to watch SailorStars (season 5), and it has some pretty nice box art.

[phantom000]

I saw one episode on Toonami back in the day and i decided that it was all i wanted to see. It was too dumb and too girly for me (unlike DBZ which was just plain dumb).

I don't consider myself a 'brony' but given the choice i would rather watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic than Sailormoon. I grew up watching the original She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon so its kinda ironic because She-Ra is like a 'prototype magical girl.'

[ProfessorDetective]

I saw one episode on Toonami back in the day and i decided that it was all i wanted to see. It was too dumb and too girly for me (unlike DBZ which was just plain dumb).

I don't consider myself a 'brony' but given the choice i would rather watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic than Sailormoon. I grew up watching the original She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon so its kinda ironic because She-Ra is like a 'prototype magical girl.'

From what I've seen, a lot of that was the DiC dub. The OG character writing is a LOT less valley-girl-ish.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Sailor Moon herself is dumb. Sailor Moon, the show, is not. Important distinction. Outside of Ami, all the sailor scouts have one brain cell between them and there's no guessing who has it this week.

[MrL1992]

Ain't like there's a specific 'anime tax'! XD