Masquerade! Sailor Moon Crystal - Episode 4

We're now four episodes in on this new take of an old favorite.

So far it's been following the manga almost exactly, which hasn't been a bad thing.

I will say that I am glad a changing point has been made, but I'll get to that shortly.

Episode four covers one of my favorite chapters in the manga and original anime, Princess D's masquerade ball. At this point in the story the girls are aware that their main mission is to find their lost princess as well as the legendary silver crystal. Royalty is in town to show off an ancient gem that has never been revealed to the public's eye, so it's a good place to start their search.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! If you have yet to watch the newest episode please stop here and return after doing so. If spoilers do not bother you, or you've already gotten caught up to speed, then please continue.

Return to the Runway

Season 13 of Project Runway is off and running. As usual we never know what to expect from the challenges, designers, or the judges for that matter. 

They are already confusing me, for sure.

The designers and fans alike were thinking "what?" when Sandhya Garg was announced as the first challenge winner.

This season's group was told to create a look that would represent their design vision for a spring runway collection. They were also only allowed to use materials that were given to them in a locked trunk on their work stations. Mixed in with the basic solids and a few fun prints were some night mare fabrics as well. It was a make it work moment for all of them on this one day challenge.

I will admit that Sandhya's look was interesting, but seriously her model looks like she belongs in a zombie movie. The oddly ripped sleeves and frayed cloths added to the harsh make up with sort of messy hair just screams horror film to me.

My favorite look of the runway belonged to Fäde Zu Grau. It was simple but had a nice clean and classic feel. I also really liked the way he blended two different prints to create the skirt. 

Guess I had boring taste this time cause his look was only one of the "safe" ones. So we'll get to see more from him next time.

I have yet to really latch onto any designers yet. It's still a bit early for that. Though I did get to have a little fan girl moment for an entirely different reason during this episode.

Designer Carrie Sleustskaya was rocking a necklace that was pulled from my all time favorite anime, Sailor Moon.

During their final audition I noticed the heart and wings hanging around her neck and had to rewind to verify. Sure enough the charm was Eternal Sailor Moon's broach and wings from the final season of the original run.

That alone made my night. 

Runway and Sailor Moon, all in the same shot!

Musings on Act 2 of Sailor Moon Crystal

It's been two weeks since the premiere of Sailor Moon Crystal, and this past Saturday we got our second taste.

True to the manga, Sailor Mercury has made her appearance a bit earlier than in the original series.

Much like the first episode, a good chunk of this one can be matched up with the manga scene for scene. My personal favorite part was them actually getting their transformation pens from the Sailor V game in the Crown Arcade.

Still, a couple of small things did bug me.

I don't really mind the sweater look for Ami, but the thing just looked dingy. The uniforms are clearly white on Usagi and her friends, yet Ami's was more of a dull grey. She may be a nerd but she's not a dirty person. Hell, she's rich, so there's no need for her clothes to look grimy.

Secondly Umino is so freakin' short! Usagi is only supposed to be 4'11", but he was shorter than her when they were all standing in the hall together.

I don't like it. I know it's stupid, but I don't like it.

Sailor Moon English Cast Announced

I'm going to beat Lindsey to this one.

Even though we're only one episode into the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime, we're already looking ahead to what the future holds for the franchise.  Episodes from the original series are currently posted weekly on Hulu, and we already know that they plan on dubbing Crystal as well as re-dubbing the 90's anime.

Now we know another piece of the puzzle!

The English cast for the original re-dub was revealed at a Viz Media panel at Anime Expo on Saturday. It's unclear whether or not the cast will also handle the Crystal series, but considering Viz Media now has a stranglehold on everything Sailor Moon, it seems very likely.

Sailor Moon Crystal - The Other Review

Lindsey beat me to it, but it doesn't mean I'm without opinion on the first episode of the Sailor Moon Crystal anime.

But first, I'd like to give you some history between Sailor Moon and I.

I first encountered Sailor Moon as a teenager when I was trying to download a completely legal ROM for the Super Mario RPG. I came across a file called smrpg and thought I had struck a treasure chest full of gold coins and Goombas. Boy, was my face red when it turned out to be the Sailor Moon RPG - a little gem called Another Story.

I didn't know what a Sailor Moon was, and since it had little to nothing to do with Mushroom Kingdoms I deleted it without hesitation.

Fast forward a year or two and I was a low point in my life. My uncle, a very sweet man who lived with us and who I was very fond of, had just passed away and I had recently broken up with the first girl I ever truly cared about. I slipped into a deep depression and I had little response to the pills that the quacks prescribed to me. I was decked out in all black with long hair and a suicidal attitude. I ushered in the era of emo all by myself.

I also didn't sleep, which is a trait that I unfortunately carry with me to this day. During one of my sleepless days I stayed up and watched Pokemon somewhere near dawn on KTLA out of Los Angeles. We had one of those gigantic satellite dishes that still went by galaxies, so I got some pretty random channels. And on this particular morning, after the adventures of Ash Ketchem and his volt rat, I watched my first episode of Sailor Moon.

And I hated it.

A New Moon Awakens

The moment that all moon fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. The first episode of "Sailor Moon Crystal" has been released for our viewing pleasure. I'm sure that most loyal fans watched the new show as early as they could, even getting up at the crack of dawn to do so. I however had to put in a thirteen hour day at work before I could indulge my fan girl needs. My fiance and a group of friends were even nice enough to wait and watch it with me.

An Iconic Return: Sailor Moon is Back!

A long over due return has been announced for Sailor Moon fans everywhere. Many of us have been aware of the delayed reboot "Sailor Moon: Crystal", which will begin airing July 5th of this year, but more recently it has been brought to our attention that VIZ has obtained the rights to the English version of this classic.

 Many of us grew up with the dub by DIC, but VIZ will be completely re-dubbing the old classic in a new uncut format. We will get to see a more accurate translation with no missing episodes, no censored content and no renamed characters. I am personally excited to see a dubbed version of the final season of the series that never made it to us loyal fans in the first run. VIZ also plans to release freshly dubbed versions of all three movies as well as the TV specials that accompanied the later seasons of the show in Japan. I'm thrilled at the notion of getting to see "Ami's First Love" in a format other than a fan-sub.

Beginning this Monday, May 19th, VIZ's newly subtitled version of the series will be available on Hulu. They plan to release two episodes every Monday and later this year episodes of the dub should be available as well. Later down the road Blue Ray and dvd releases are planed, and will be in half series box sets. So depending on how they package the movies and specials we're going to be looking at, at least ten box sets to get the entire original series. Start saving your money now Moonies.

I will be.

So You Want to Be a Meatball Head? Odangos Made Easy!

You're a Sailor Moon fan, and you've always wanted to wear your hair like Usagi's but you're not quite sure how to make it work. There are several ways to pull it off actually, but the following tutorial is the easiest way I know.

I will say to start off that the longer and thicker your hair is the better the results will be. To wear odangos you're hair should reach mid way down your shoulder blades at a minimum. It is possible to do with shoulder length hair, but it doesn't leave much of a pony tail. When I use to wear my hair like this regularly, it was grown out well past my waist.


Items you will need:

• a hair brush
• a comb
• 4 hair bands (size will depend on the thickness of your hair. Thin or normal hair i suggest using small bands. For thick hair use medium or full sized bands.) If you can match the color of the bands to your hair or use clear ones.

• a mirror so you can see what you're doing (unless you're doing someone's hair, then it'd just so they can see ^_^ )

Mars Power, Make Up!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. But I'm not the type to wait until October to start planning my costume. No, being a cos-player it's open season year round for costume fodder. The cheaper the cost the better, so out of season is prime hunting time.

I recently I was made aware of an awesome sale through BuyCostumes.com. Being the Sailor Moon fan I am I couldn't pass up this Deluxe Sailor Mars costume, normally $80, for a mere $10. Compared to the cheaper versions of the Sailor Moon costumes the deluxe seemed like it would pass my nit-picking cos-play ways.