Sailor Moon Original & Rerelease US Blu-Rays Comparison

Scsigs

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Transcript

00:00Alright, hi people, it's Shakes here, and um, yeah, so I said in I think both 3Dio unboxings

00:14for all like five seasons of the show in these two different releases, I was going to give

00:21you guys a bit of a comparison in regards to these two releases.

00:26For the original 90s Sailor Moon anime, um, so yeah, um, both in terms of packaging as

00:36well as what's on the discs, so yeah.

00:39This is also not going to go over the movies because the movies actually have good masters

00:45through and through because of the fact that they were theatrical movies, and I'm assuming

00:51Toei did the remasters for those.

00:55So yeah, from the original like 35mm film that they would be on.

00:59So yeah.

01:01But yeah, so let's start off with a bit of a packaging comparison.

01:07There's really no comparison here.

01:09The 2014 to 2019 sets that Viz released for the original Sailor Moon anime were released

01:20in both regular volumes, which would be this with a slipcover, as well as this.

01:29So two volumes each basically, as well as what I have here, which is a limited edition

01:36book, or not book, um, like box.

01:42So yeah, with a booklet that has episode guides, character bios, and character art.

01:53So yeah.

01:54As well as like, uh, translated lyrics for the songs, and whatever else, uh, are in there.

02:01Whereas this is just a standard release, that is just a Blu-ray case, with just this inside.

02:11These are also only Blu-ray.

02:12The original release from 2014 to 2019 releases were, um, Blu-ray DVD combo packs.

02:22So yeah.

02:24Um, now you may wonder why these two, um, different releases exist.

02:33When Viz re-licensed the Sailor Moon, or not re-licensed, when Viz rescued the license

02:39for Sailor Moon, back in like, I think it was 2013, um, basically, um, they started

02:48work on not only the dub that they produced, but a remaster for the entire series.

02:56Starting from episode one, going until the very last one.

02:59For all five seasons.

03:02Or at least the first three, because apparently the last two seasons use the Japanese remasters.

03:08At the same time that they were doing that, Toei were also working on their own remaster.

03:13Um, and from what it seems, Toei gave Viz a low-quality master, um, for which to do

03:23their remastering work on.

03:25Now, I'm not sure what kind of master this was, if this was the same stuff that they

03:30gave, um, Deke slash Cloverway 20 years ago, or over 20 years ago.

03:36Or if, um, this was a different master that came from somewhere, but the masters for the

03:43first three seasons of these releases, or of the original release, are not good.

03:50The main problems stem from bad color correction, oversaturation of colors, bad DB&R, which

03:58led to like, smearing and smudging and whatever else, and, um, just other like, artifacts

04:05and whatever being left in.

04:08And that's mainly because it doesn't seem like either in the U.S. or Japan, um, any

04:16film masters exist for the episodes.

04:20Or if they do, they're very low-quality.

04:21Viz, er, Toei's remaster, though, is based on the original, I think, DVD release that

04:28they did back in the early 2000s.

04:31So yeah.

04:35And, um, just to say this, um, I will say neither of these is perfect in regards to

04:45visual quality, or the visual quality you may expect for a 2010s to 2020s release.

04:52Um, like I said, the first three seasons suffer from major problems in terms of the remastering,

05:00while Toei's releases seem to be kind of barebones in regards to the remastering work.

05:06Um, I will say, Toei's remaster is much better.

05:11Why is this?

05:13Well, um, on Viz's releases, from what it seems, they shifted the, um, the color, sorry,

05:23they shifted the colors into the reds for some reason.

05:26I don't know if the masters were already like that, or if they, um, they just adjusted

05:35it like that, but yeah, the masters of a lot of the episodes, if not all of them under

05:41Viz, are shifted into the reds, and it doesn't make any sense either.

05:46It makes the picture look like it has this, like, overly reddish or pinkish color hue

05:53to it.

05:54And I've seen people talk about this on Twitter, I think it was last year, where, um, people

06:00talked about, um, mainly it's stemmed from a conversation of the remasters of Dragon

06:05Ball Z that, um, Funimation have given it over the years, as well as how Toei has done

06:14remastering work of their own for the Dragon Ball movies, as well as when they did the

06:21re-cut of the Buu saga for Dragon Ball Z Kai, um, yeah.

06:27And basically, um, and then also, I think also the North American release for some reason

06:34of Super Broly, as well as, I think it's the 4K release of Super, Super Hero.

06:42So yeah, it stemmed off from that, as well as one person at some point saying that Sailor

06:49Moon fans were also not in a good boat with the remasters of the original anime, either

06:56because of the red tint that a lot of the episodes got.

07:02And we see people on Twitter, and in some other places, trying to defend or, at the

07:10very least, excuse Viz's horrible remasters.

07:16Um, and I think I did a good job, um, pretty much shitting on the, uh, all of the Funimation

07:25Dragon Ball Z remasters, um, that they've done ever since 2007, and thankfully Funimation

07:31is no longer really a company.

07:34It was dissolved and absorbed in the Crunchyroll after Sony bought both and decided to merge

07:39them together to have everything under one banner, and they chose to keep the Crunchyroll

07:45name because Funimation's had, um, had gotten, like, a bit bad in recent years for various

07:55reasons, but yeah.

07:57Um, but yeah.

08:01So yeah, that's kind of the problem with Viz's remaster, unfortunately, is that a lot of

08:07the colors are shifted into the reds.

08:09What about Toei's remaster?

08:11Toei's remaster is, it genuinely does look more like they tug it from a Standard F source,

08:20which is the original DVDs from, well, the early 2000s that they did.

08:25The good things I will say about it is that it doesn't look too overly color-corrected,

08:30and mostly that is fine.

08:33However, I personally think that the colors could use a bit of a saturation bump, like,

08:38just making them a bit more vibrant, I think, would have been a good step for an HD-lite

08:45Blu-ray release, rather than them just being poor upscales.

08:50Um, because yeah, that's another thing, is that these are definitely upscales from two

08:58different Standard F sources, and yeah, you can definitely tell.

09:05I think if Viz or Toei had, um, did what the people at DiscoTech are doing with Digimon,

09:17or that, um, AB group, I think it is, are doing with Dragon Ball, or the original Dragon

09:23Ball, and doing an AI upscale where they color-correct, add more vibrancy to the colors, and, um,

09:31and whatever else with the AI upscaling software that they're using, I think that we could

09:38have gotten a much better, um, release, um, in regards to the visual fidelity.

09:47So yeah, um, also to say this, the first season of Sailor Moon from the original Viz releases,

09:56the episodes are unfortunately, or they unfortunately suffer from ghosting.

10:01Now Viz put out a press statement back in 2014, when people started complaining about

10:07this, saying that the masters that they got, um, made the episodes, or with the masters

10:13that they got, the episodes were like that.

10:16I have to call bullshit on that, because like, seasons 2 and 3, 4 and 5, are not like that.

10:23On top of that, the DVDs are pillar-boxed, meaning that they are in a, that the episodes

10:31themselves are in a black box, um, so if you watch them on a stand-up TV with a DVD player,

10:42um, you're not gonna get great, uh, or you're not gonna get the full, like, picture taking

10:49up your TV.

10:51You know?

10:52I think that's also a problem on widescreen TVs, but I, I haven't tested and I don't care

10:57to.

10:58So, yeah, so I'm just going to assume that was an authoring error, um, for the discs,

11:07and everything.

11:08So, yeah, um, if I could show, like, screenshots and everything for comparison, I would, but,

11:17you know, I'm just doing this off the cuff as a bit of a, a, uh, first reaction to sampling

11:24these.

11:25And, um, yeah, I can't really, um, say much more about that, because, yeah, get the newer

11:36release if you're looking between the two of them, uh, you'll save a bit of money, you'll

11:42have better visual quality, and you won't be missing out on anything, really, because

11:47these discs have all of the content from these in terms of bonus features, so, yeah, it's

11:53literally just a better release, um, hands down.

11:58So, yeah, so, um, what are some of the major differences of stuff that is on the disc?

12:06The menus are mainly similar, they're not the same ones, though, because they had to

12:11re-author the discs with the new Visual Masters, um, they are mostly the same, they're in a

12:19very similar style and everything, but I would say the new release is a bit more straightforward,

12:25less stylized and everything, whereas the 2014 Blu-rays, um, original Blu-rays or whatever,

12:33um, were a bit more stylized.

12:36The newer release, as well, in terms of content, have, uh, SDH subtitles, stare, or, uh, basically

12:46subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired, um, which I'm assuming are dub titles, so

12:51subtitles for the dub script.

12:54I, most anime releases don't have those, and I think I understand why, because, like, here's

13:03the thing, um, if you're hard of hearing or deaf, and you can't hear the voices properly

13:10anyways, if at all, it really doesn't matter what language you're listening to, or what

13:18language is coming through your speakers, the subtitles, um, are, uh, are, you're just

13:27gonna go for the subtitles, and you, when it comes to subtitles, you're probably gonna

13:31want the most accurate translation that you can find, so, yeah, um, and just to say this,

13:38the subtitles between the two, pretty much identical, the only difference is, for the

13:42opening song, although it kind of swi- it's kind of inconsistent on the original release,

13:48on the new release it seems like they just transliterated the song lyrics, whereas in

13:53the original release, they translated them, um, although I think in some episodes, they

13:59are transliterated rather than translated, if you don't know what that means, it's where

14:05they wrote down the original Japanese words with the Roman alphabet, um, and, um, just

14:16put those romanizations of the words instead of an actual translation.

14:22I don't quite understand why that is, um, you would think that they would just port

14:27the subtitles from these to here, because they're the exact same in terms of content

14:34of episodes, in regards to the Japanese audio, so, yeah, I don't really know, I don't really

14:42know.

14:43But yeah, um, so I don't really, I don't think I have much to say in regards to this.

14:51It's the original Sailor Moon anime, if you're a fan of it, you probably already have these

14:56releases, um, if you want to check out the series, I do recommend the newer releases,

15:02or the originals.

15:03Again, you'll save some money, you'll get better visual masters, and you'll lose nothing

15:09in terms of content on the discs.

15:11Um, in fact, you may gain something if you care about the SDH subtitles for the dub.

15:18So, yeah, and I may not, I probably don't seem as passionate about this as I did with

15:25the Dragon Ball Z video.

15:28That's mainly because I'm not really too big a fan of Sailor Moon, like, I respect it as

15:35the show it was back in the 90s that got a lot of people, it was like one of the gateway

15:39anime series that were being dubbed in the 90s, and I understand it has a big fanbase

15:45and everything.

15:46The original Sailor Moon anime is not that good.

15:49Um, just, just like, genuinely.

15:54On a quality level, it is not that great, and it doesn't hold up that well, unfortunately.

16:00Um, they basically made it, um, more of the Sentai kind of formula that, um, that, uh,

16:11the manga author was somewhat influenced by when writing this.

16:16Sailor Moon is a mix of Magical Girl and Tokusatsu tropes, and, yeah, the series feels more like

16:24a standard Super Sentai series from back in the 90s, and, yeah, in regards to the pacing.

16:31And on top of that, the original 90s anime was based on the manga, and the manga was

16:36a monthly release, meaning every chapter would come out once a month.

16:43The first arc of Sailor Moon takes about, I think, 13 chapters or so to complete.

16:51And then, heh, you know, I think the next several arcs do similar things.

16:57Um, and, basically, they had to stretch out the content of the entire series, or seasons,

17:09to go with that and everything, and they couldn't really do much in regards to changing the

17:16overall story, although they did change a lot, considering what I've seen in Crystal.

17:22But, yeah, um, which, yeah, which, by the way, is partly why Sailor Moon Crystal was

17:27made, to be a more straightforward adaptation of the manga.

17:32And I also think Crystal is usually better paced than the original 90s anime, and, um,

17:42it handles the characters a bit better, mainly because it's more based off the manga, and

17:47the writers didn't, like, flanderize certain characters with certain personality traits

17:52that they didn't have in the manga, or were not as exaggerated.

17:57So, yeah, um, and several characters come off better in Crystal, in my opinion, and

18:05one of them being Sailor Moon herself.

18:07I don't really care for Usagi Tsukino as a character or protagonist in the original

18:1490s anime, um, mainly because, just like, she, well, she has the crybaby nickname for

18:23a reason, and they flanderize the hell out of that personality trait, and use it way

18:29too goddamn often.

18:31So, yeah, Crystal for the win when it comes to that.

18:36There's also Mamoru, he comes off better in Crystal.

18:40I think a lot of the characters are just a bit better in Crystal, they don't seem like

18:45one-note trait characters that are just there to be Usagi's friends and teammates on the

18:52Sailor Guardian team, it just, I don't know, but that's just me talking about, uh, Crystal

19:00versus the original Sailor Moon anime.

19:03Um, so, yeah, you can disagree with me on that all you want, if you do disagree, uh,

19:10that's completely fine, you know, shit like that is subjective.

19:13If you enjoy the 90s anime more, I can't stop you, and I'm not gonna try, um, but,

19:19like, the original 90s anime is just, oh boy, it is a product of its time, and if you enjoy

19:26it for that, go right ahead, but, yeah.

19:29Um, I will also say the Sailor, or the Viz Media dub of Sailor, of the original Sailor

19:34Moon anime is one of Viz Media's best, um, in regards to translation, in regards to scripting,

19:40in regards to casting, and in regards to production.

19:44It is a very good dub, I will say that.

19:48Um, I have watched a decent amount of the first three seasons of the 90s anime of Sailor

19:55Moon, and I've watched at least the first two seasons of Crystal, and both have really

20:02good dubs, and I've also seen all three movies, I believe, of Sailor Moon.

20:08All of them have really good dubs.

20:10The team who was working on this clearly cared about representing Sailor Moon as best they

20:17could, and, uh, that extends to the voice cast as well.

20:22And personally, I think even the performances get better in Crystal than in this, um, series.

20:30Because you compare the first episode of Crystal Season 1 to, well, 90s anime Season 1, for

20:37the lines that are the same, that were adapted straight from the manga for both, and certain

20:42things, I feel like, mainly Stephanie Shea as Sailor Moon, I feel like her performance

20:49gets better as it goes along, and she gets more used to playing the character.

20:54And, um, she plays the character better in Crystal as a result of that, because they

20:59dubbed Crystal, I think, after the first two seasons of the 90s anime?

21:03Um, but yeah, that's, I think that's when they started dubbing it.

21:08So, yeah, you have all the actors of the English dubs, um, or the Viz dub, being used to playing

21:17the characters, and thus, you get better performances out of them, because they understand

21:22how to play the characters.

21:24Plus, the characters have new dimensions to them in Crystal that they get to explore,

21:29which is actually, I'm assuming for the actors, pretty fun to, like, find the happy

21:35medium between.

21:37So, yeah, um, as well as the directors to give them the direction they need.

21:44Um, but yeah, so yeah, I'm not overly passionate about Sailor Moon, so I'm not gonna get

21:53mad at, um, at anything.

21:58Um, I, the only real arguments I can make are the visual quality of the masters, um,

22:06from the original 90s anime, from the original Viz releases, versus the new up-to-date ones

22:13that use the Japanese masters.

22:15So, yeah, and you may wonder, well, why did they not wait for the Japanese masters?

22:22They had to make the money back, I'm assuming, um, from Toei probably charging a pretty hefty

22:28premium to actually get to license Sailor Moon, as well as Sailor Moon Crystal.

22:34Um, you license all five of the seasons, especially when Toei usually will license things, uh,

22:42in chunks, or batches, or seasons, or arcs.

22:46Um, and then on top of that, they charge, or they have two different licenses for shows,

22:52movies, and TV specials, and all that.

22:55So, yeah, I'm assuming Viz got at least the original Sailor Moon anime and maybe the movies

23:02in one batch license, which would be good, but it probably charged, they probably charged

23:08a hefty premium, and they had to make the money back as soon as possible.

23:13Um, and then they eventually got to do, or they got to license Crystal, and that probably

23:21didn't, that probably didn't cost as much, because it's not the original 90s anime, but,

23:26you know, it is what it is, so, yeah.

23:31Meanwhile, Toei didn't really have to make any money back on their investment in Sailor

23:36Moon, they had already, uh, produced the 90s anime, I'm assuming they produced the live

23:41action series from the early 2000s, and they were producing Crystal at that time, as well

23:47as they had produced the three movies from the 90s.

23:51So, yeah.

23:53So they had already made a good amount of money off of that.

23:57They were just gonna make more money based on Viz Media licensing, and, um, producing

24:04their stuff for their releases and everything.

24:07Um, and I'm assuming as well, they did re-releases all over the place, in different languages,

24:13in different countries, and whatever else at the same time, as they were re-licensing

24:18out the series.

24:20Uh, I'm trying to remember, was it Naoko Takakuchi?

24:23Whatever her name is, um, for the manga author.

24:27Um, she was also involved in the casting process of the English dub, which was cool.

24:33Um, and everything, uh, and so, yeah, they just, I think Viz really wanted to do the

24:40series justice, and for the most part, I think that they did.

24:44If you are worried about the English dub not being great for the series, um, or at least

24:52not being as good as the Japanese, I haven't really sampled the Japanese audio, so take

24:57my words with a grain of salt, but the English dub, just going off of it by itself.

25:03And watching it while reading the subtitles for the Japanese, uh, dub is really good.

25:11It is really well translated, it's well scripted into English, it is well acted, it's well

25:17directed, everything seemed to come together really well for Sailor Moon's dub.

25:22I was blown away the first time I actually watched it in terms of how good of quality

25:26it was.

25:27Um, and it's the, it's the kind of dub you kind of hope for with a lot of anime.

25:34Um, so, yeah, it's not necessarily too surprising considering Viz Media usually does really

25:40good dubs of anime, so, yeah.

25:45Um, but yeah, eventually I kind of, I kind of want to do like a retrospective on the

25:50original Sailor Moon, on the original 90s Sailor Moon anime, but we will see.

25:56Whenever that comes along.

25:58Um, but yeah, it's not like I hate it, it's just, the original series is mid and best

26:04to me, and Crystal is a lot better in a lot of places, and I know that that's the unpopular

26:12opinion, but that's the opinion I hold.

26:17So, yeah.

26:19So, guys, um, that's basically it.

26:22So, links in the description of my shit, subscribe if you want, and I'll see you guys in the

26:26next one.

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