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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Sailor Moon-Volume 7: Fight to the Finish (1995)

Sailor Moon-Volume 7: Fight to the Finish (1995)

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Released 26-Nov-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Anime None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1995
Running Time 130:49 (Case: 135)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (65:24) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Junichi Sato
Studio
Distributor
Toei Animation
Madman Entertainment
Starring None Given
Case Click
RPI $24.95 Music Bob Summers
Michael Benghiat


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This is the seventh volume of  Sailor Moon on DVD. If you are not familiar with the Sailor Moon series then I strongly recommend you start with my review of Sailor Moon Volume 1: a Heroine is Chosen.

    If you haven't seen volumes 1 to 6, then I recommend not reading further - skip to the discussion of the transfer.

    The episodes on this disc are:

  1. Tuxedo Unmasked - Tuxedo Mask collecting the seven Rainbow Crystal carriers for Queen Beryl
  2. Fractious Friends - the Scouts turn on Serena, and a paparazzi catches it all on film
  3. The Past Returns - the Scouts take the fight to the Negaverse, and get a history lesson
  4. Day of Destiny - Serena confronting Queen Beryl alone
  5. The Return of Sailor Moon - the Scouts are normal teenagers again
  6. So You Want to be in Pictures - auditioning for a movie role can be dangerous

    This volume is called Fight to the Finish, which is an accurate description of the first four episodes on this disc. That's the interesting point about this disc: it contains the last four episodes of the first series of Sailor Moon, and the first two episodes of the next series. The episodes are numbered in sequence, which is fair enough, but you'd think they'd give you some hint that there's the end of one series and the start of the next. The second series has the same title sequence, but everything shown in the titles took place in the first series, so maybe we'll see different titles later?

    These are some of the best episodes in the series. The first episode gives Amy (the quietest of the Scouts) a chance to shine in combat against the brainwashed Tuxedo Mask (or Prince Darien, as he appears). The second shows Sailor Moon pitted against the other Scouts (some of this is very funny). The third and fourth episodes are effectively a double episode (presented as separate episodes): the confrontation between Serena and Queen Beryl, and with an interlude in which Queen Serenity explains the end of the Silver Millennium. The Day of Destiny episode includes two songs: Carry On and It's a New Day — both are rather good.

    The fifth and sixth episodes introduce new arch-enemies, and would have functioned (on TV) as the introduction to the new series, justifying called the Sailor Scouts out of retirement. In a way it's somewhat mean to have them on this disc, because it means that you're forced to keep buying the discs to see where the new storyline leads. Gosh, you don't think that's intentional, do you?

    There is a serious moral at the end of every episode, but they're sugar-coated, so they go down smoothly.

    This is the most dramatic so far of the Sailor Moon discs. Even so, you can let your children watch this without concern — perhaps the best would be to watch this with them (and you will probably enjoy it, too). Recommended.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. That's the original aspect ratio, as is appropriate for a TV series that was made in Japan in 1992 (the 1995 copyright is for the English adaptation).

    This disc plays all the episodes in sequence, which is handy if you want them in sequence (or you want to plonk the kids in front of them). You can select an episode from the menu, but it will play from there to the end of the disc. All the timestamps mentioned in this section are cumulative from the start.

    The picture is reasonably sharp and about as clear as this style of animation can get. Shadow detail is irrelevant to anime. There's no significant grain. There's no low level noise.

    Colour is strong, but not completely saturated — there are plenty of bright colours on show. There's no colour bleed or over-saturation.

    There are plenty of tiny film artefacts, but they are not a problem. There are very few larger ones: like the hair at top left of frame at 57:10, the shadowy blob and track at 29:20. There's occasional minor telecine wobble. There's some aliasing, but it's not troubling. There's one nasty patch of tape tracking problems, starting at 88:06, and running for a few seconds — fortunately, these come at the very start of Episode 41, The Return of Sailor Moon, in the teaser, so they aren't too annoying. Even with that problem, these episodes don't look at all bad, but Discs 4 and 5 were cleaner.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single sided and RSDL-formatted; the layer change is at 65:24, between Episodes 39 and 40 — barely noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack; English Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded. It sounds mono. There are no audio artefacts on this disc.

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible. There are no obvious mismatches between the dialogue and mouth motion. There's one moment in the first episode when Malachite's voice sounds wrong — almost as if they used the wrong voice actor.

    The English title music is credited to Bob Summers. The songs in Day of Destiny are: Carry On by Michael Beghiat and John Author and It's a New Day by Michael Benghiat and Lois Blanch.

    You'll get nothing from your surrounds or subwoofer with this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is lightly animated (with a moving background) and accompanied by music. It offers a choice of which episode to start at. When you select an episode it starts playing there, but then continues through the remaining episodes.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The R1 and R4 versions of this disc offer the same features. Nothing to pick between them, really, except that ours is PAL, and theirs is NTSC. Even the package artwork is the same.

Summary

    The last four episodes of the first series, and the first two of the next. Lots of plot development! Not a fabulous DVD, but far from the worst you'll ever see.

    The video quality is not fabulous, but there's only one big flaw (nasty tracking glitches for a few seconds).

    The audio quality is fine.

    There are no extras on this disc.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-NS905V, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

Other Reviews NONE