Season 4 movies update: Sailor Moon Eternal - Delayed to 2021 (Part 1 on January 8th & Part 2 on February 11th)

Obviously we don’t know what the viewing figures will be for Eternal on Netflix yet but seeing all the hype within the international community makes me think Toei could salvage this as a hit overseas.

It’s a shame in was a bit of a flop in its home country at the box office, maybe Sailor Moon just doesn’t have the same appeal as it used to outside of nostalgia, maybe it was COVID related, we probably will never know.

However it makes me wonder how Tori will go about marketing Stars when they finally get around to it. It makes sense to strike while the iron is still hot, so hopefully it’s sooner rather than later. I could actually see it releasing internationally on Netflix first if Eternal does well. I’m not sure if they should brother with another theatrical release in Japan, to be honest.

they will most likely keep the movie format. but I won't be surprised if it takes another 5 years...

Maybe 2023, who knows?
In 2022, it's Dragon Ball Super, another movie.

They proved to us that for Sailor Moon Eternal, they produced two films in one year. So why not 2022/2023.

Eternal is being profitable regarding merchandise (in cinemas has been a big flop, it's time for everyone to accept it) and the expectations in the west are huge, so it will be - or should be considered - as a moderate success globally. We must take into account that beyond June, Eternal will probably go down in popularity on Netflix. It's a possibility we shouldn't discard but by the time TOEI will have got its profits back already.

That being said Eternal brand works better than the infamous Crystal one, for this reason TOEI might keep such trademark. Eternal merchandise blends pretty well with the 90's goods. Its design (Tadano's) is what collaborators want their products be related to.

Maybe Stars could be labeled "Eternal Legend" or something similar and will come in the same art style for the sake of income.

I am pretty sure they will change the artstyle again.

Eternal merch also works better than Crystal because it’s varied. It’s not just breath mints and fashion items- we are also getting Eternal proplicas, dolls, Figuarts, cards, Polly pockets.

When Crystal merch rolled out in Japan, it was mostly limited to food tye ins (chips & energy drinks), fashion, gashapon, and lottery prizes- which are not readily available. All the other sought out products were produced for the 90s show (proplicas, Figuarts, etc.) Sure, we got the occasional Figuarts zéro and the SMC season 3 figure of Moon, but it pales in comparison to the merch they’re doing for Eternal. Heck.. even Drops was catered to the 90s when it should have had some cross promo with Crystal!!

Even USJ got better merch than Crystal. It’s mind boggling as to why Toei didn’t try harder with Crystal.

How nice would it be to get at least one Stars film out next year for the 30th anniversary? Pipe dream, I know lol

If they organize themselves, announce it this June and don't change most of the staff. It is completely possible. I mean they produced the 2 parts of Eternal in a bit over a year. It is completely possible. I hope they don't make us wait another 5 years.

If Netflix gets on the boat, we won't wait that much.
I hope it does.

Yeah, I hope they get that Netflix $$$, too.

....as long as it gets a physical release outside of Japan lol

Ugh I waiting for them to use it, but Toei doesn't care for SM anime and they just wanna keep selling merch, they don't even try lmao they probably gonna keep this meh artstyle for stars and keep the Crystal brand away (and that's what it piss me off)

I just hope we have a manga anthology for the 30th anniversary by different authors.

That's never happening or we would have gotten one a long time ago.

If Eternal does well on Netflix I see a big boost for the franchise arriving. Netflix co-producing the Stars arc and a release in late 2022.

I do wonder though, critics/fans from Japan say the pacing is not that good and animation inconsistent. Diehard Moonies will love it anyway, but what if the movies turn out to be hard to watch for people who don‘t justify it with „it‘s 1:1 based on the source material“?

It's been a year and we're still waiting on volume 3 of the colorized manga. We might get a new take on the manga by other authors for the 50th anniversary, but not for the 30th.

Btw the American trailer for Sailor Moon Eternal has got more views in 4 days than the Japanese one in 4 months.
It's wild that they don't see the potential of SM overseas.

I'm hoping they release 90s series/movies as it's exclusively for the Japan market. Also PGSM.

Remind yourself YouTube isn't that popular in Japan.

As long as we get those high numbers in launch off. I mean is the pacing issue really Toei's (or rather Kon's fault) or the fact they are instructed to follow the manga, page by page with very little padding to make sure things are smooth?

I haven't read too many reviews but I do remember someone (maybe someone on here) stating that the Iners sequences happen one after the next with no mention of the enemy or anything strange which is sort of odd considering the team usually discuss things in the "command center" in previous seasons about the new enemy.

Pacing might be an issue for new folks coming in though but probably not as big of a deal for most folks on here who know what to expect.

Some things I've seen from folks on the internet:

For someome who hasn't watched SM in a long time, what's the difference between the original and Crystal?

Describe the movie:
It's pretty fast-paced, has a lot of subplotlines in the 80 minutes that come and go, and it relies a lot on you already knowing the events from the original series.

I think it will be okay and may make people curious and want to watch more of Crystal or the Original.

There are legit people who haven't watched Sailor Moon since it's been on Toonami or even earlier than that but almost everyone watches Netflix these days and so seeing something like this will attract a lot of attention and perhaps some Sailor confusion, lol.

It is more popular in America because it got eclipsed during Stars by Card Captor Sakura.