Sailor Moon Crystal, the remake of anime’s most successful magical girl series ever, is set to premiere on July 5. Most people would say this is pretty soon, but for truly dedicated fans of the franchise it’s not nearly soon enough.

If you fall into the second camp, you can now make the waiting a little easier by catching up on the original Sailor Moon series, which you can watch right now for free on video streaming site Hulu.

San Francisco-based anime distributor Viz Media, which also publishes the English edition of creator Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon manga, recently announced its license of the original Sailor Moon animated series and its associated sequels, which first ran in Japan from 1992 to 1996, and from 1995 to 2000 in North America.

For several years, the Sailor Moon anime has been out of print in the U.S., with used copies of its home video/DVD release being either difficult to find or expensive to purchase. Having an official North American home once again has opened up streaming possibilities for the beloved series, a distribution model that didn’t exist when Sailor Moon originally aired.

On May 19, the first four episodes of the anime’s first season became available in English-subtitled form. Of course, that’s just a drop in the bucket of the 200 episodes Viz as licensed, but Hulu users can look forward to two new episodes being added every Monday.

In other words, even if the wait for Sailor Moon Crystal is killing you, in the meantime you can look forward to 16 free episodes of the franchise’s animated beginning to pass the time with.

Source: New York Keizai Shimbun