The controversial ‘Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars’ anime is finally getting a US release. Originally released in 1996, the fifth and final series (not counting ‘Crystal’) introduced the most unusual characters in the ‘Sailor Moon’ mythos, the Sailor Starlights. These alien guardians– who become known as Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Maker, and Sailor Star Healer– travel to Earth to locate and rescue their ruler Princess Kakyuu. What is… unique about these characters is that when they adopt Earth identities, these three females take the form of male pop stars, The Three Lights, and also attend high school with Usagi (Sailor Moon) and her friends. Depending on the translation, the Sailor Starlights either pretend to be male, or actually transform back and forth between biological male pop stars and female guardians, or, in the Italian dub, exist as six separate people– with the Sailor Starlights being the twin sisters of the Three Lights, who the guys summon at times of danger, rather than transform into.
At Anime NYC, Viz Media announced that ‘Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars’ will be released in 2019 on Blu-Ray and DVD in the US. Viz has been steadily releasing new English dubs of ‘Sailor Moon’ since 2014, but this will be the first time that this particular series will be made available in this country. This series will be separated into two releases, with the first arriving in early 2019.
The villains from this cycle are Queen Nehelenia, the villain from ‘Sailor Moon: Super S’ and Sailor Galaxia, an evil Sailor Scout, more powerful than all of the rest.
As for the Sailor Starlights, Sailor Star Fighter, a.k.a. Seiya, has black hair and is the leader of the group and in her male form is a star athlete. Sailor Star Maker, Taiki, has brown hair and is somewhat cold and intellectual, although he/she forms a bond with Ami (Sailor Mercury). (Also, her battle cry is “Star Gentle Uterus,” which I can only imagine will be dubbed into something else entirely in the translation.) Sailor Star Healer, Yaten, gray/white hair, is aloof and hates Earth. He/she wants to find the Princess so they can leave. The only character that he/she appears to get along with is Luna.
This announcement follows the news that the live stage show ‘Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live’ will debut in the US for the first time next year. Sounds like 2019 is going to be a Sailor-iffic time!
Are you a ‘Sailor Moon’ fan? Are you excited to get the final chapter of the original series?
Source: iO9
