SAILOR MOON SAILOR STARS Has Its Flaws But Comes Through in the End

I grew up on Sailor Moon. Sailor Mars has always been my favorite, and I remember when I was in middle school, my older brother brought home DVDs for the fifth season in Japanese. This season featured the Sailor Stars, who were controversial, and so I believed that I’d never see the season in English. Well, this year, VIZ Media released their dub’s version of the season and then were kind enough to send me a copy to watch and enjoy. I had remembered some very loose plot points but forgotten many of the details. It has been a trip going back and revisiting this season. If you want to watch the fifth and final season of Sailor Moon, you can purchase it on Blu-ray from Amazon and VIZ.

This season is all sorts of great and terrible. I still am baffled by the fact that no one can tell that the girls are the Sailor Guardians. I can sort of understand why people don’t catch onto the Sailor Stars (they change sexes when they transform), but the other girls don’t have any change except their clothes and maybe some lipstick. The Sailor Stars are ridiculously surprised to find out that their schoolmates are the Sailor Guardians and I don’t get it.

Some of the dialogue also comes across as very dry and stupid, but I’m putting that as a product of its time and won’t fault VIZ too much for that one. Also, I’m not sure why, but I find the attack names for the Sailor Stars hilarious. Sailor Star Fighter uses Star Serious Laser, Sailor Star Healer uses Star Sensitive Inferno, and Sailor Star Maker uses Star Gentle Uterus.

Speaking of the Sailor Stars, I have mixed feelings about their voicing. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part, Erika Harlacher, Melissa Hutchison, and Sarah Williams do a great job. However, when the characters are in their teen idol versions (aka their male forms), they sound weird. It both makes sense and is annoying at the same time as we end up with these characters who sound like grown women pretending to be teenage boys.

My final spoiler-free topic is music. I’m not a fan of the opening and closing credit songs. However, the music we get throughout the episodes, particularly the theme for the Sailor Stars is fantastic. It is so 90s but in a good way. Honestly, the music is one of the best things about this season.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Sailor Moon and you remember that it falls into some of the tropes most commonly associated with Shonen anime, you’ll love this final season. Just be prepared for a lot of Sailor Uranus hating everyone (for pretty stupid reasons usually) and Usagi constantly crying and being depressed (typically for good enough reasons at least)