Via Anime News Network, Crunchyroll has confirmed that the original ’90s Sailor Moon anime is getting its first Blu-ray release in the UK and Ireland from August. It marks the first official platform for the series in the UK since the first two seasons aired on Fox Kids in 2000, and the subsequent VHS and DVD releases from ITV and MVM Entertainment. Disney bought out Fox Kids UK in 2001, and the rights to the show had remained in legal limbo until now.
The show’s five seasons (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, S, SuperS, and Sailor Stars) will each receive a steelbook release, dropping respectively on August 24; September 28; October 26; November 30, 2026; and January 11, 2027. They will each retail for £69.99, and include a holographic art card, as well as the English dub produced by Viz Media from 2014 to 2019. The first season has been rated 15 by the BBFC, as a result of “references to body image and eating disorders” in the episode “Learn How to Be Skinny from Usagi,” while the rest of the series maxes out at a 12 certificate.
Based on the concurrently released manga by Naoko Takeuchi (itself something of a reboot of her earlier comic Codename: Sailor V), Sailor Moon is a magical girl show about Usagi Tsukino, a clumsy junior high school student, who discovers she and several others are reincarnations of the Sailor Guardians, the defenders of the solar system. The show ran for 200 episodes and a special (included with the fourth season) from 1992 to 1997, and also spawned three feature films (R, S, and SuperS), which don’t have a British rerelease confirmed yet.
Sailor Moon Crystal, a reboot produced from 2014 to 2016, is not available in the UK either, although its film sequels, Eternal and Cosmos, are, as a result of being released on Netflix. With any luck, a British streaming release for the ’90s Sailor Moon, its spin-offs, and its successor will follow in the near future. The original show and Crystal can be streamed in the US in their entirety on Hulu, Prime Video, Pluto TV, and Tubi, with Crystal also available on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
In the meantime, all five seasons are available to pre-order now from Amazon UK, HMV, Zavvi, and other outlets. You can take a look at the rest of the steelbooks below as well as at the links. Additionally, International Sailor Moon Day, which marks Usagi’s birthday, will fall tomorrow, June 30.
