Release Year: 2003
Specifications: ADV Films; 945 Minutes; Region 1. Contains uncut Japanese version with English subtitles. NO English language version.
Release: Canada/USA
Status: Official
Paid: Gift
Like the Classic set, this set was released as the ultimate Sailor Moon Season 2 box set for the die hard anime fan in North America. It was released with the episodes uncut, with Japanese language only, and definitely less likely to appeal to fans who grew up with the DIC dub. Oddly, it’s also missing an episode, very sneakily hidden between the numbers on the ends of the box set.
Admittedly this post will parrot most of what I had to say about the season 1 set, but bear with me.
Advertising
I don’t own any advertising for this set to my knowledge. I was only about 14 when it released, and I haven’t seen much more than some DVD advertisements in NewType magazine.
Packaging
Box
The packaging on this set is ICONIC. It features Japanese logos, high quality art, beautiful foil silhouettes of Sailor Moon and the Cutie Moon Rod, and matches the dark blue box merchandise also released in North America, but in a purple complimentary tone to the blue of season 1. Every single piece of the set is well thought out and clearly designed by a fan who understood the aesthetic. ADV put love into this packaging and it shows.
Like the season 1 box set, the bottom of the season 2 set has a foil Cutie Moon Rod that I absolutely love.
DVD Cases and DVDs
The DVD cases feature cute high quality art of Sailor Moon, Chibi Usa, Black Lady, and Neo Queen Serenity. The backs feature screen shots from each episode, and adorable character art of Usagi in her pajamas, and Chibi art of Sailor Pluto.
Notice how episode 67 is missing from the numbers between the sets. 47-66 and then 68-89.
The inside of the case is standard for a DVD set with multiple disks. It has a location for each disk, 4 disks per set, and an episode guide for each holder.
Ironically, this time I remembered to fix the DVD’s… but there’s no character print on them to show off.
The episode guides features art of Moonlight Night, and Sailor Pluto
Audio and Video
This set does NOT include the 90’s Dub.
Like season 1… that’s where the good ends. The audio and video on this set are comparable to old VHS. The only plus side to it is actually owning the entire first series unedited, uncut, and in Japanese with subtitles. I’ve included some unedited screenshots.
Episode 67
The infamous episode 67 isn’t just missing by accident on the text on the side of the box. It’s literally just missing from the entire box set. Conveniently, that is smack dab in the middle of the season, so it would have been just an easy typo, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
It was also missing from the 90’s Sailor Moon dub.
Turns out it seems TOEI and Naoko Takeuchi would not let the episode come to North America. The running theory on the internet and in some second-hand word from ADV is that the episode was deemed too much for the American market.
You can read a pretty great recap of the episode on MoonKitty where they also talk about this issue.
Bootlegs
Bootlegs DO exist of this set, but at the time of writing this, they appear without the box, with the complete season in one of the DVD cases above.
Bootleg sets will likely not be region 1 and may contain other languages other than Japanese and English. If it includes Chinese it is definitely a bootleg copy.
Conclusion
As per season 1, I recommend this set for the completionist, or the fan who just wants to own the complete series in Japanese (minus episode 67). I do not recommend it for fans who are looking for high-quality releases. While the box set IS beautiful and a great shelf piece, the quality of the actual content is less than ideal. This is not a good set for someone looking to casually watch the series. Especially given how expensive it can be.
Sailor Moon Collection 