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'Sailor Moon Crystal' set to continue as 4th season announced

9 Comments
By Casey Baseel, RocketNews24

While it’d be unfairly harsh to call "Sailor Moon Crystal" a failure, many fans of anime’s most famous magical girl franchise were initially hoping for a bit more out of the highly anticipated reboot. Still, "Crystal" did a lot to redeem itself in its third season.

Whether due to its reworked character designs, new director, or more conventional distribution of showing a new episode every week on TV (as opposed to releasing one new episode every other week through Japanese video streaming sight Niconico, as was done for Seasons One and Two), the third arc of "Sailor Moon Crystal" seemed to meet with a warmer response from audiences. Now, following a lengthy hiatus since it last episode in June of 2016, "Sailor Moon Crystal" is rousing from its slumber, as a fourth season has been officially announced.

Although the "Sailor Moon" manga debuted at the tail end of 1991, the franchise’s handlers have designated 2017 as its 25th anniversary. A number of projects and collaborations, including a stage musical, fashion items, and partnership with Japanese professional baseball’s Golden Eagles, are planned. The one of greatest interest to anime enthusiasts, though, is the continuation of "Sailor Moon Crystal’s" faithful adaptation of series creator Naoko Takeuchi’s original comic. Seeing as how "Crystal’s" third season covered the story’s “Death Busters” arc, the next stop in the narrative is the manga’s “Dream” segment, which previously served as the basis for the original 1990s anime’s "Sailor Moon SuperS" portion.

Unfortunately for fans hungry for new "Sailor Moon" content, no information has yet been released regarding the start date for "Crystal’s" fourth season. Japan’s winter TV season already underway, though, and with the marketing effort still so low key, even a spring release seems unlikely. Given that "Crytsal’s" first three seasons were released in 2014, 2015, and 2016, though, hopefully its producers will chose to keep the pattern going and start airing new episodes sometime in 2017.

Sources: Mantan Web, Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary website

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9 Comments
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Re RealityofFake's comment, I'm a new fan of Sailor Moon and only just picked up the 90s anime and the manga when I finished watching seasons 1-3 of SMCrystal (I remember watching the 90s anime as a kid, but of course I've already forgotten what it's all about because I was too young). Also, the 90s anime doesn't really follow the original story from the manga, whereas SMC follows it faithfully. Which makes me excited for season 4 :)

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Japanese video streaming sight Niconico...

Heh! What a site! ^^;

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No they are both canon, but they are very different. Manga still came first though honey. Show writers and producers used a lot of filler to wait for the creator and writer to finish the manga to move along main story points.

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Give Sailor Moon a break. She's been fighting STDs for the Health Ministry.

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I loved Sailor Moon as a kid, and have re-watched the original series a few times. But I don't really see the point in watching the new series. It tells the same stories as the original. I tried watching the first season, but I just felt "what's the point of waiting two weeks for a new episode when I already know what's going to happen". I don't know if other fans felt this way, but I think the biggest problem is that it hasn't really caught the attention of new fans. Like the original series was huge when it first premiered, but kids today don't know what Sailor Moon is.

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I felt the same way as you above, however sailor moon crystal actually follows the manga as the originally anime doesn't follow the manga very much at all. The anime even ended before the manga is finished. So you don't really know what happens at all because the 90s anime isn't canon.

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The last thing I'd want to see is any sailor moon.

Then don't post here

I loved Sailor Moon, but i had trouble with this reboot... instead I'm hoping they make "Fushigi Yugi" with the Genbu arc

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The last thing I'd want to see is any sailor moon.

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Courtney Longo: The original anime is canon. The classic came before the manga did. So if anything isn't canon it's the manga.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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