Paired anime films from new director seek to put finishing flourish on the Sailor saga.
Despite a huge level of hype, Sailor Moon Crystal got off to an underwhelming start, with the remake/reboot failing to hit fans with the same mix of fun and drama that the original Sailor Moon manga or its 1990s anime adaptation did. The franchise has been on a steady upward trend in recent years, though, with later episodes of Crystal and last year’s two-part Sailor Moon Eternal movie being much bigger crowd pleasers.
And now the modern Sailor Moon anime is getting a chance to stick the landing, as the last arc of the manga is being adapted as Sailor Moon Cosmos.
Cosmos will cover the portion of the Shadow Galactica arc of creator Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon manga, which also served as the basis for Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, the fifth and final season of the ‘90s anime. With Sailor Stars arriving in 1996, as the franchise was starting to run out of steam in Japan, Cosmos represents an opportunity to tell the tale with a grander scale of spectacle, especially since Sailor Stars never had an associated theatrical feature, unlike the ‘90s series’ second, third, and fourth seasons.
With the modern Sailor Moon anime sticking closer to the manga than the ‘90s series, and Shadow Galactica being the manga’s last arc, odds are Cosmos is also the last Sailor Moon animation we’ll be seeing for quite some time. The preview video is certainly leaning into a climactic atmosphere, with Sailor Moon’s voice-over saying:
“If I wasn’t a Sailor Senshi, would my friends have reached out to me? Would we have even ever met?”
“Everything, always is my fault. Because of the power I have, everyone gets sucked into things. I don’t know if I can stop it anymore. My friends always risk their lives to protect me. So that’s why there’s something that only I can do. I believe that, without fail, our future will come.”
Like Eternal, Sailor Moon Cosmos will be a two-part theatrical anime, with both movies directed by franchise newcomer Tomoya Takahashi, whose resume includes credits as director of boys’ love movie Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: Propose and episode director for Den-noh Coil, From the New World, and Pokémon XY & Z. Kazuko Tadano, character designer for the original ‘90s Sailor Moon anime and Eternal returns in the same role, as does scriptwriter Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, who penned Eternal.
Both parts of Sailor Moon Cosmos are scheduled for release in Japanese theaters in summer of 2023.
Related: Sailor Moon Cosmos official website
Top image: Sailor Moon Cosmos official website
Insert images: YouTube/sailormoon-official
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where, yes, of course, he made sure to include the trailer’s shot of Best Senshi Jupiter.