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This story is a typical Sailor Moon story. Bad female villain wants to take over the universe, and the Sailor Scouts stop her.

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Sailor Moon Super S Movie

Review by Matthew Anderson

Feature Length Movie

Company: Pioneer

Running Time: 60 minutes

Region: All

Rating:PG (Subject Matter)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Usagi is a Sailor Scout. Along with the rest of the Sailor Scouts, their mission is to protect the world from evil. Recently they have been joined by Chibi-Usa, Usagi's daughter from the future.

Someone has been kidnapping children while they sleep. It appears that Chibi-Usa's new friend Peruru is involved. As the Sailor Scouts investigate, Chibi-Usa gets captured by the mysterious followers of Badiyanu, the evil queen of the Black Dream Hole .

Now, Usagi must stop Badiyanu before Chibi-Usa looses all of her life energy.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: With the more subdued colors of the source print, the video quality appears washed out. In reality, it is very well done, with not color bleeds, pixels, or other garbage. It does look better on our Pioneer 525 R1 DVD player than on our APEX 1200 DVD player.

AUDIO: The English 2.0 track is very well done. The sound is cleaner, fuller, with great directionality. The dialogue comes from the front (unless there are characters on the right and left), with music and sound on the back.

The Japanese 2.0 is pretty standard fare. Most of the sound comes from the center, with some SFX from the sides. It is quieter than the English.

EDITS: The ending credits have been replaced with English.

EXTRAS: A fair amount. The different transformations, character info, picture gallery, and the edited opening (the one used on US television) are your extras for this one.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: This story is a typical Sailor Moon story. Bad female villain wants to take over the universe, and the Sailor Scouts stop her. Unlike the TV series, Yoji Enokido script is self contained, and you don't need to know the particulars of the story. Fortunately, there is the character info to help.

ACTING: Excellent on the Japanese front. The characters are full of passion, emotion. However, with so many female characters it can be a little hard to differentiate between them.

The English actors all do a pretty good job, matching their Japanese counterparts in tone. I will admit, I do enjoy Usagi's English voice.

However Sailor Uranus needs to get that pole out of her butt.

FAN SERVICE: This is a girls series, so no nudity or panty shots to be found. Lot's of beautiful images though.

FINAL EXAM

I normally don't like shojo. I don't like the whinny female characters, the soap opera dramatics, and the romance novel feel. Sailor Moon represents everything I hate about the genre, and thus receives most of my wrath. If you a die hard fan of this series, please do not read any further. I hope to have a review from someone who likes this series in the near future to replace this one.

I don't understand the appeal of this series. The characters are stupid, the villains inept, and their powers are just plain goofy. Moon Gorgeous Meditation? What the hell is that? While the comedy is cute in some parts, Sailor Moon needs to decide to be a drama, a comedy, or a teen romance series. I really can't stand the character of Chibi-Usa. Her existence seems to serve no purpose other than to annoy us as well as Usagi.

To further add to my dislike of Sailor Moon, is this movie. The plot is nothing more than an extended episode of the series. Since it was part of the Toei Anime Fair, this is not a surprise. The movie is full of some of the dumbest dialogue ever in the history of anime. Especially the English ADR. After one of the Sailor Scouts is repelled by a very obvious force field she says "She is protected by a force field!" Duh! Also how can anyone say "Set them all free you evil sick cow!" with out killing themselves? At least the acting is decent. If you must watch it, make sure it is on the Japanese audio track.

On the technical side, Pioneer has done a fine job. While the source print is still pretty light, the transfer itself is good. Too bad I don't like this movie.

On the plus side, it is pretty harmless, and the kids can watch it with out any traumatic after effects. It is full of action, and the animation, while simple at time, still moves gracefully.

I can only recommend this movie to hard core Sailor Moon fans, or those looking for a safe anime. If you do not meet this criteria, pass on this one!

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