Pretty Guardian
Sailor Moon
Act Zero DVD
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The Birth of Sailor V, Tuxedo Mask and Hina's Epilogue...
Cover: The final Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon DVD cover has a wonderful design featuring Sailor V front and centre posing with her Venus Boomerang and "Sailor Rabbit" in the background surrounded by heaps of CG moons and stars with an ominous Tuxedo Mask even further in the background.
The back cover features a different shot of Sailor V, this time holding her mask with shots of the Act Zero episode as well as one still from the Hina Afterwards... short and three photos from the special features.
It's a very nice cover that will sit well on any Moonie's shelf but looks even better in the second DVD box that came with all first printings of the disk. This box holds the second half of the series on DVD but since Act Zero is a prequel, I place this disk in the first Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon DVD box and put the Special Act DVD in this one.
The Menus: The menus are very spiffy with a bright purple and pink theme with a healthy dose of CG stars and a cool loop effect that kicks in when you leave the menu alone for about 20 seconds which features CG hearts and stars bursting out of the screen.
All the menus are fast loading and the chapter select screen once again shows production photos like the regular episode DVDs.
The Special Features: The real surprise on this DVD has to be the special features. They included so many that a whole new sub menu was needed!
Among the special features are the final part of the round table conversation with the five main girls and one of the directors which shows the girls giving their overall impressions of the last year before saying thank you and goodbye to the viewer.
Of particular interest is Ayaka Komatsu (Sailor Venus) who mentions that she still hasn't read the Sailor Moon manga even after staring in the show for over a year now. The other girls laugh at this fact but Ayaka tells them that from what she was told the Minako Aino in the manga is different than her character in the show so she decided not to read it so she could make the character her own. Miyu (Sailor Moon) then accuses Ayaka of making that excuse up on the spot and they all laugh some more.
A great extra feature that's included is a short documentary following Miyu Sawai and Jyoji Shibue as they revisit several filming locations. It's a lot of fun though unfortunately they don't actually tell us where the locations are.
The highlight of the special features has to be the cast farewells which features pretty much everyone on their last days of filming getting handed a bouquet of flowers. Some cry, some laugh and we finally get some true behind the scenes footage of the show being filmed featuring each character.
The Episodes: The main focus of the disk is Act Zero which acts as a prequel to the entire series so despite it being the final thing to be filmed, it in fact is the first episode chronologically. It is incredibly well done with lots of inside jokes for those that have seen the series and finally explains where Artemis and Luna come from with the former getting a lot more screen time finally than Luna, how Sailor V was awakened, when Tuxedo Mask started looking for the Imperium Silver Crystal and how he discovered Sailor V's identity and began to remember his past.
In addition to this prequel, we get two very short films, Hina... Afterwards and The Birth of Tuxedo Mask both if which seem to be set after the season finale but I place them before the Special Act. They're both very entertaining and it really shows how much everyone involved in the series loved the show by going out of their way to make as much extra content as they could for this release.
This is a must have for the episodes and the special features.
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Buy from CDJapan /
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