Sailor Moon S: The TV Series Box Set

I first saw Sailor Moon S when it was aired on Cartoon Network, and I was really suprised with the improvements that they made with the dub. The original background music was used, and most of the new characters names had been retained. These were removed when Dic dubbed the first two seasons, but luckily, CWI took over to dub the third and fourth seasons.

Even though I'm mentioning the dub, I prefer the original Japanese soundtrack. And in this boxed set, the sound and video were clear. Those were the problems that I found most irritating in the previously released ADV boxed sets of the first and second seasons. My only critisizms on the boxed set itself is that it lacks the reversable covers that were in the original releases, and the cases are thin-packs. Other than those drawbacks, this is an excellent boxed set to an excellent season of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. And I suggest that if you're a fan of the dub and the original version, you should definetely get this.

BASIC PLOT:
This is the third of the five sagas that make up this series. The Black Moon family has been defeated and Chibiusa has returned to the future. However, a new series of villains have arrived on the scene - the Death Busters. These new villains are considerably stronger than any the girls have faced in the past. They go around taking people's pure heart crystals, hoping to find the three that have the legendary artifacts that will cause the Holy Grail to appear - a treasure that grants its user an unrealistic amount of power. There are a number of plot turns and twists to keep things interesting, as well.

SERIES OPINIONS:
The S series is, by far, the best Sailor Moon saga. I'm glad they decided to do uncut DVDs for it first. This saga features mysterious and deadly villains, plot twists and lots of them, and some of the most interesting characters ever seen in the series. If you're a fan of the series, this is a must see.

THE DUB:
The dubbed version of the series is in many ways better than previous sagas that have been dubbed, and worse in many ways. It's better in that it uses the original background music and that more of the character names than ever before are close to their originals, but it's worse in that some scenes are horribly translated, and many of them have been Americanized, often with horrible slang. Here's a little tip - while you're watching the Japanese subtitled version of the DVD, hit the Audio button on your DVD remote and switch to the dub track. This way you can watch the English dub with the English subtitles for the Japanese version - there's no better way to see how bad some of the translations are!

DVD:
Once again, DVDs featuring an uncut dub and an uncut sub have been released. This is great because you get both versions of the series. Unfortunately, these DVDs are severely lacking in the extras department. Why couldn't they give us things like production art and interviews with cast and crew? Those would have been great extras! Likewise, the episodes only use the last of the intro sequences, and this spoils some surprises. Why did they do this? On the good side though, this set is a huge deal when opposed to buying the releases separately.

OVERALL:
Overall this is an excellent DVD set, but I remain confident that I could also have been done much better. Still, if you're a Sailor Moon fan, this is a strongly recommended release.