::ahem::
Welcome to the Hobby Haven. Today, I'll be giving you guys another media review, this time for the second boxset of Sailor Moon's first season. I try to do media review about every month, which is why you're seeing it now as opposed to a few months ago. If I ever hit the big bucks and can buy things more frequently, I promise I'll publish more of them and on a more frequent basis. ;)
But for now, let's take a look at boxset 2! All the info is after the jump.
I have long since decided to buy all of my Sailor Moon sets from The Right Stuf, mainly because I've had great experiences with them (and they offer gifts with purchase on occasion), so naturally, as soon as they offered it for pre-order last October, I jumped on it. I paid $52.99 for the BD/DVD combo pack, which will fit into the chipboard box that was released in limited quantities with the first boxset. It officially streeted shortly before Valentine's Day, but I got mine at least a week and a half early. The nice thing about retailers like TRSI is that they will usually get new releases in before the official street date--and them ship them out to customers once they arrive at the warehouse. Ahh, the perks of pre-ordering!
Anyway, this set picks up at episode 24, on a cliffhanger of sorts from set 1. This set gives us two new characters, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus (my personal favorite) and finishes up the first season. Of special note are some long-missing episodes that were cut from DiC's earlier release of the show. We get an episode showing us Sailor Venus' tenure in fighting crime in London as Sailor V, and we get the original two-part season end (DiC had edited the last two episodes into one).
The special features are still kind of blah, mostly promotional material from the various Viz-sponsored Sailor Moon events at conventions last year. A lot of it is spent re-hashing information we already know, although if you are really interested in the voice actors for the new dub, you might like some of the interviews. I get that Viz is using these features because they are materials that they personally have made (and thus it's cheap), but I just can't help but feel that there's something more interesting that they could have done.
The box art is a little more interesting this time, because we have a nice big graphic of all five girls together on the front page. Less wasted space, more visual impact. There is a graphic of Princess Serenity on the back, along with the usual product information.
If you ordered it early enough at TRSI, you were given a set of collectible art cards, with the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask on one side, and Queen Beryl and her henchmen on the other. Would have been nice to not have them be reversible, and thus be able to display all of them at once, but I suppose we can't have everything.
The discs continue being themed after each of the characters. Disc 4 is Sailor Jupiter, Disc 5 is Sailor Venus, and Disc 6 is Princess Serenity (they're colored shamrock green, golden yellow, and lavender, respectively). I was hoping for Disc 6 to have either Tuxedo Mask or maybe the cats, but perhaps they are saving that for season 2? The disc art on the BDs is noticeably darker and richer colored, with the DVD disc art being much lighter and more pastel-shaded. This helps to tell them apart at a glance, and I think it's a very clever idea.
My biggest peeve with this is that somebody (be it Viz or TRSI) put a sticker touting the new extras right on the slipcover. Not on the shrink-wrapped BD case where it would be easy to peel off, oh no. Now I've got to break out my hairdryer and see if I can't use heat to get the darn thing peeled off. ::grumble::
Audio/video quality is the same as the last set. You can check out the review I did of season 1's first boxset if you're curious, but basically, if you liked the way the first one looked and sounded, you'll be fine with this one. If you didn't, then this is more of the same. The set is also available in DVD-only, for those unhappy with the BD. From what I understand, the pillarboxing issue that was present on the first set has been resolved. As for the new dub: I've only listened to a few of the episodes (I prefer the original Japanese track), but the new cast seems to be very competent, and none of the voices sound out of place. Mercury and Venus' voice actresses sound a little too similar for my tastes, and when the girl are speaking off screen, it's hard to tell who is who. Perhaps it's a question of them not being quite settled into their roles yet.
Miss Scarlett suggests: If you picked up the first set, make sure to continue the story with this second set!
