DVD Review: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Volume 2

Wednesday, June 2nd - 3:31 am
Update - Jay Navok

Dance senorita, dance!

Brought to you by Bandai Visual is the second DVD release of the Sailor Moon live action series. Including the first four episodes of the show plus a bonus feature, the disc is standard fair for a Japanese DVD release, and will set you back about 55 bucks plus shipping. Note that this review is so late because the disc was initially sold out when I pre-ordered it, and it took them several weeks to get it back in stock.

Many thanks to aDam for graciously providing screen captures from the DVD!

Disc stats:

Region: 2
Release date: 04/23/2004
Official length: 98 minutes
Languages: Japanese
Sound options: Dolby Digital (stereo)
Subtitles: None
Catalog number: BCBS-1813
Bonus: 10 minute omake "Sailor Moon ni Oshiokiyo"

Packaging: Once again, I'll point out that I really don't care much about the packaging as this stuff just gets shoved onto the shelf and it won't be looked at again until the next I decide to pull it out, and who knows when that could be. Of course it's still important that the disc not look like something my six year old cousin put together on MS Paint. As the cover was very clearly Photoshopped rather than MS Painted everything is right with the world. That's not to say that this is a spectacular cover. Apart from putting Mercury in the middle (note to Fox: sounds like a great TV show) and having the senshi switch poses, there's very little difference between this and the not particularly grand cover of disc one. For all the work they put into shoving bubbles around the background, the cover is actually quite bland and not at all eye-catching. On the spine is artwork that informs us this is disc two, and it has a picture of Sailor Mercury on top. The back of the disc is similar to the anime discs in that it has a small box with screen captures from each episode as well as a summary of the particular act. It has Sailor Mercury in one of her poses, and a brief sentence or two about the bonus included. Disc artwork is once again of Chisaki as Sailor Mercury.

Inside the packaging are a few flyers, however they are the exact same as what was included with DVD 1.

Once again, it's too bad they didn't include sticker sheets like the anime DVDs did. At least the Mercury single CD had a sticker. (Decently sized enough to be put on a bumper if you're daring.)

Menus: Once again, no change from disc one except for the theme colors. The disc has an animated main menu, with still shots for the individual episodes in the chapter menu. Last time I said, "Given that there isn't a whole lot to do on this disc, you're not going to be seeing the menu much, so the pause while it animates isn't so bad." But the animated pause actually does start to get annoying.

Yep, that's a menu.

The second to the bottom option is the chapter menu, and the bottom button starts the bonus feature. An example of the chapter menu:

Everyone who likes basketball likes basketball episodes, but what if you don't like basketball? A conundrum.

Video: Absolutely no problems here. Some of the anime DVDs suffered from red saturation on my setup. The video here is picture perfect and doesn't have any issues. I'd like to have more to say on this but I said it all last time.

Audio: There's only Japanese, there's only one sound option (Dolby digital), and there are no subtitles. The audio on it is good, the voices are loud (unlike the problem I had with the first disc, but I believe that was due to my set up and not the disc itself) and things in general are clear.

I said with volume one that even though there aren't any subtitles, you can get through it with basic knowledge of Japanese. Things get a bit tougher with this volume. You'll still understand the basic story without a problem, but it seemed to me that there was more speech in this volume than the previous one.

Content: This disc contains episodes five through eight of the television series. Each episode consists of a brief trailer or summary of the previous episode, followed by the series opening, the three main body sections, and a teaser for the next episode. (No ending sequence, of course.) Since everything moves directly into the next, sometimes you forget an episode has just ended. Or maybe that was just me.

As there are full synopses in our archives I don't think it's necessary to go into content summarization, but in effect:

Act 5: In which Mercury tries to be someone she's not
Act 6: In which Jupiter comes thundering in, all on her lonesome
Act 7: In which Motoki gets sick in an amusement park
Act 8: In which there is much kupi

Opinions: The acting in this volume continues to be not-so-impressive. Chisaki does a pretty good job in her first Mercury-centric episode that kicks off the volume, as good as she could do coming from a non-acting background, but it still wasn't that moving. I get the fact that Ami's lonely, and that it's hard for her to be extroverted, but her interaction with Usagi in this episode came off as strange to me. I also found it hard to believe that Usagi, by the end of the episode, wouldn't continue to push on Ami into sitting and having lunch with her from the start. To me, Usagi comes off as a tad concerned with her own self-image with her friends in not doing this, even though it's supposed to be about Ami's own awkwardness in sitting with other people.- which is another point I take issue with. The Ami in the anime wasn't that weak willed. The other kids in the class didn't like her, but she didn't like them in turn. She didn't want their attention or to be their friends. Even later into the series, when she becomes far more confident, her main concern is either studying, or being her senshi friends. As long as she had the others, I don't think she particularly cared what anyone else thought.

In the next episode we have Jupiter's introduction. I think Azama does an impressive job as Kino Makoto; and as far as acting ability goes, she comes in off-the-bat at the highest level compared to the others. (I believe she belonged to some Okinawa dance troupes, so that would make some sense.) The Makoto character also plays off well in the series, although they've actually made her a tad more serious. In her anime introduction episode (which it should be noted occurred much later than in this series- when the Triple-M Trio of Moon, Mercury, and Mars, had been acquainted for a while and gone through quite a lot) her sempai obsession is treated more lightly, and we get a number of good gags out of it early on. Whether the direction they've taken with her from early on is good or bad is something that may pay off later, or may not. It will depend on how many more Makoto-centric episodes we have. So far there haven't been that many.

In Act 7 we find Usagi thinks Motoki is Tuxedo Mask, and since she wants to figure out whether he is TM or not, when he invites her to an amusement park (along with a couple freeloaders) she agrees to go. Motoki comes off as a bit desperate or disturbed if he's so eager and willing to go on dates with middle school girls. Be that as it may, the episode is fairly good for the sort of pseudo-filler it actually is, in that it doesn't feel like filler. (Despite the fact that Usagi's realization by next episode that Motoki isn't Tuxedo Mask seems like it's moving the storyline along, it really isn't. The episode is more a setup for another villain failure, so Jadeite can be kicked out. Otherwise he wouldn't have enough losses under his belt to justify what Queen Beryl does to him next volume.) Also, turtle-lover Takai is a hilarious character that I'm sure many of the teenage males in Japan watching the series can identify with (all three of them), or alternatively want to destroy for even daring to touch a certain Keiko K.

The final volume, Act 8, focuses on Rei and Makoto- the antagonism between them, and the friendship that two senshi (who, until just recently, were complete strangers with very different backgrounds) can develop. The driving force behind the episode's plot was something lifted from the manga's extra story Casablanca Memory although they don't get into things much here. (That gets left to much later acts.) It was a good episode with a couple of amusing site gags, but it still wasn't anything other than standard TV fare. Our fiery little Rei-chan doesn't like her papa that much, but papa sure does want to show off his little Shinto priestess. Rei doesn't let him, Makoto saves the day, Nephrite gets kind of prissy, and Zoisite screws over Jadeite.

The interaction between the four generals is something very interesting. I'll leave it to another DVD review session to go over my thoughts on this in further detail, as Kunzite still hasn't appeared, but suffice to say, the complexity of the way things work in the dark kingdom is something that has always made the Sailor Moon storyline far more interesting. They're villains and are on the same team, but they have very different drives. Zoisite's backstabbing of Nephrite in the anime led to one of the most incredible and powerful story arcs in the show. We didn't get to see Jadeite interact with Zoisite in the anime/manga, although we have in the musicals (they sing, they dance, they prance, and a good time is had by all) so it's something quite unusual and entertaining.

That Zoisite and Jadeite are appearing at the same time can't be the selling point of the show, though. Up through Act 8, there's still nothing that draws me into this version of Sailor Moon. Through this point it still feels like just another TV drama, albeit one that happens to use the Sailor Moon characters and general plotlines. We'll see in the next volume whether that changes.

Bonus: The bonus feature on this disc was likely filmed right after the previous one, although they changed their clothing before filming. It's the ditzy duo again, Sawai "Usagi" Miyuu and Hama "H to the C" Chisaki. Like the last time they start by introducing themselves, and then dive into clips from the show.

Some times, some crimes
Go slipping through the cracks.
But these two gumshoes
Are picking up the tracks.

There's nothing very interesting about their initial conversations. They joke about one of the cameramen and his attitude toward them (the way he gave directions and such), as well laugh ant point at the scene in Ami's mind (Act 5) where Usagi points a gun at her. When reviewing clips of Jupiter's episode, they comment on how amazing Makoto is. They note that she transformed on her own, she pulled off her move on her own, she defeated the youma on her own.

FACE.

Far more interesting is their recollection of the theme park in Act 7. Miyuu loved the roller coaster, but was very scared of the drop ride that they had to go on. It was made all the more fun with Keiko's face in the shot.

Miyuu comments on how incredible "Jadeite's" piano playing is. When she realizes her mistake, she yells and claps, "I mean zoi! Zoi! Zoi! Zoi!" They put the katakana for "zoi!" up on the screen for good measure. (See aDam's thread for the image.)

Left: Better go hide the body quick!
Right: I'll show you where to kupi.

The cut scenes which are included consist of a couple seconds from Act 5 where Ami collapsed and they find her in the bathroom, and another of the girls from Usagi's class practicing their Kupi! squeal from Act 8. There's a reason that when it came down to shaving some seconds off the clock, these scenes were cut- they're not all that interesting. A Volume 2 "Extended Edition" would probably not be worth it.

Conclusion: The show is still pretty rough, but the DVD is about as good as you can expect a region 2 disc to be. The extra is nice, the menus are plain, and the video quality is grade A. Despite the blandness of my description, fans of the live action show who wish to support it and want to see it in as high video quality as possible are urged to obtain the disc. Toei's not counting the number of people downloading the show overseas, but they do see sales figures.

Setup: JVC 27" Television (regular, non-digital and non-flat TV)
Aiwa stereo system
Sony NS300 R2 DVD Player
Monster S-Video cables

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