Sailor Moon DVDs Still Available?!

We Spot a Howling Error in This Month’s Neo Magazine!

In May, I had the pleasure of picking up an issue of Neo Magazine at a Barnes and Noble. Neo is the UK’s only magazine devoted to anime, manga, and Asian films. I was impressed with this magazine! Some of the features include some well written anime, movie, and manga reviews, top 25 lists of essentials that readers should check out, short Con reports, news from Japan, and my personal favorite, a new Japanese recipe each issue! I recommend anyone who comes across this magazine in their local bookstores, to pick it up. It’s a little pricey, but definitely a few shades different from Newtype and Anime Insider.

Their June issue contained a huge freebie: a nearly full-sized book filled with manga previews of Archlord, the Dreaming, Last Fantasy, My Dead Girlfriend, Recast, Return to Labyrinth, Star Trek, Elemental Gelade, Magical X Miracle, Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode, Vampire Doll, and Yonen Buzz! What piqued my interest more , was one of the headlines at the bottom of the cover, "Unreleased Sailor Moon Episodes". This was news to me as Toei has pulled all of the international licenses, and I wondered what this was about.

In their anime reviews section, “Sailor Moon S: The Hearts Collection” was being reviewed as an import anime (Mistake #1: They should have called it "The Heart Collection", but I’m letting that one go). For fans who may not be aware, Geneon never released the movies, or the S or SS seasons to the U.K. A company called MVM distributed the first two seasons, but they didn’t sell very well - and nearly drove the company to bankruptcy (our favorite superhero isn’t cheap). Their store is still selling some of the releases, and I suspect these are leftover stocks from their original run, and not new ones as Toei has pulled the property out of international markets. Back to the subject at hand - the biggest error that they have listed on this review were pretty laughable. They have written the retail price as being $40. I had a pretty good laugh reading that, and wondering in what market? I remember having to pay $153 (after taxes) for the SS Boxset at a Best Buy, and I’m pretty sure the S Boxset came close to $100, if not more. And the biggest error? Under Availability, they have it listed as "Now".

Now, I really like this magazine, and I feel really bad about saying this, but it would be nicer if the Editors could do a bit more research. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the Sailor Moon World, it’s pretty common knowledge that in North America (which is the region referred to in the review) the boxsets are not commercially available (or if they are, it’s scarce). The licenses have expired and a fan’s best bet is to look on eBay, and sometimes it is difficult to find them then. For the last month, I have been assisting a friend of mine who recently became an anime fan in finding them on the internet. And it is hard to find the boxsets, and when they are found , the price skyrockets over $200 in some cases. $40 is a far cry from the price paid in a store, or on an auction site.

Nonetheless, it is still a somewhat new magazine (first issue was January of 2005) , and maybe we shouldn’t be this harsh on them for getting some key facts wrong. Here’s hoping the editors do a little more research the next time they wish to report on Sailor Moon. When I get access to a scanner, I will post a copy of the article here. Special Thanks to dooky for letting us know about the DVD situation!