Sailor Moon S: The Movie

Sailor Moon S: The Movie, known in Japan as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S: The Movie (劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンＳ), is a 1994 Japanese animated film directed by Hiroki Shibata and written by Sukehiro Tomita. It is the second film in the Sailor Moon series. The English dub is called Sailor Moon S the Movie: Hearts in Ice. The film is adapted from a side story of the original manga series created by Naoko Takeuchi, The Lover of Princess Kaguya.

The Japanese version was released on December 4, 1994, around the same time as the third arc of the Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon S. The events portrayed seem to take place during approximately the same time period - presumably during the mid-to-late episodes of the season.

Plot
Princess Snow Kaguya arrives on Earth in an attempt to cover the world in ice, after her initial failure several years ago. A piece of her comet has been lost and she cannot proceed without it. She sends her minions, the Snow Dancers, to search for the missing fragment. A young astronomer named Kakeru Ōzora finds the fragment and keeps it in his observatory to study if further.

Meanwhile, the Senshi are enjoying a day in town. Luna develops a cold and leaves the Senshi to go back to Usagi's house. On the way there, she collapses while crossing the road, and is almost hit by a car, but is rescued and nursed to health by Kakeru. Luna then develops strong romantic feelings for him, even kissing him on the cheek in his sleep, leaving Artemis feeling rejected. Luna herself ends up with unrequited love because it turns out that Kakeru has a sweetheart and girlfriend of his own, an astronaut named Himeko Nayotake, and more importantly, because Luna is a cat. It turns out the two are unhappy because the scientific Himeko cannot come to terms with Kakeru's belief of the existence of the mythological Princess Kaguya; Himeko later leaves on a space mission without reconciling with him.

The shard of the comet that Kakeru collected attaches itself to his life force, and begins slowly stealing his life-force energy, causing him to become very ill. Princess Snow Kaguya later takes the shard, but because it is linked to his life-force, he is brought even closer to death when Snow Kaguya throws the shard into the Pacific Ocean and creates an enormous ice crystal that will continue to draw away Kakeru's life force energy until he dies. She and her Snow Dancers then begin to freeze the Earth. The Sailor Soldiers attempt to stop her, but none of their attacks seem to work, as every time they destroy the Snow Dancers, Kaguya keeps reviving them using the crystal. Just before Snow Kaguya could finish the soldiers off, Sailor Moon tries to stop her and uses the Holy Grail/Purity Chalice to transform into Super Sailor Moon. She uses her Rainbow Moon Heartache, attack but is easily overpowered by greatly enhanced Kaguya's strength and power. Determined to protect the Earth, Super Sailor Moon prepares to activate the Imperium Silver Crystal's immense energy and power. All of the eight Sailor Soldiers along with Sailor Mini Moon, combine their Sailor powers and abilities all at once to activate the Legendary Silver Crystal's immense power, which destroys Princess Snow Kaguya, her Snow Dancers, the ice crystal in the ocean, and her comet once again.

When the nine Sailor Scouts defeat Princess Snow Kaguya, Sailor Moon wishes for Luna to become Princess Kaguya. Kakeru, worried about Himeko's safety, had been wandering in the snowstorm and is saved by Luna at the exact point Kakeru saved her, transformed into a beautiful human woman. She takes him near the moon, where Himeko, on her space mission, witnesses the odd phenomenon. Luna tells him that he needs to stop focusing on his work so much and to pay more attention to Himeko. She shares a sad loving kiss with him, then they return to normal. Kakeru takes up Luna's advice and meets Himeko, who now believes in Kaguya, at the airport. Artemis then comforts Luna and they reconcile.

Cast

 * Kotono Mitsuishi as Usagi Tsukino
 * Michie Tomizawa as Rei Hino
 * Aya Hisakawa as Ami Mizuno
 * Emi Shinohara as Makoto Kino
 * Rica Fukami as Minako Aino
 * Kae Araki as Chibiusa
 * Megumi Ogata as Haruka Tenoh
 * Masako Katsuki as Michiru Kaioh
 * Chiyoko Kawashima as Setsuna Meioh
 * Tōru Furuya as Mamoru Chiba
 * Keiko Han as Luna
 * Yasuhiro Takato as Artemis
 * Eiko Masuyama as Princess Snow Kaguya
 * Mariko Onodera as Snow Dancer
 * Yūko Nagashima as Snow Dancer
 * Masami Kikuchi as Kakeru Ōzora
 * Megumi Hayashibara as Himeko Nayotake
 * Tomohisa Asō as Announcer
 * Yasunori Masutani as Announcer
 * Yoshiyuki Kono as Journalist

Princess Snow Kaguya
Princess Snow Kaguya (プリンセス・スノー・カグヤ) is a powerful alien entity that travels by comet from planet to planet, freezing them and making them part of her "collection". Her name comes from the Japanese legend, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.

Princess Snow Kaguya appears as one of the monster types in the "Sailor Moon: Another Story" video game.

In the Japanese version, she is voiced by Eiko Masuyama. In the English version, she is voiced by Linda Ballantyne, who also voiced Serena/Sailor Moon in the English dubbed versions of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon Super S.

Snow Dancers
Monsters used by Princess Snow Kaguya, the Snow Dancers appear as identical pure-white women in dresses. They are made of snow and ice and seem to be formed from the ice-like structure Princess Snow Kaguya uses as her base. They are able to attack and are capable of freezing human beings in blocks of ice. While individually weak enough to be killed by any attack from the Senshi, they are seemingly countless in number. When defeated, they release a high pitched scream.

The Snow Dancers appear as one of the monster types in the "Sailor Moon: Another Story" video game.

The Snow Dancers are voiced by Mariko Onodera and Yuko Nagashima in the Japanese version.

Kakeru Ōzora
A young astronomer who believes in the Japanese legend, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. He is obsessed with Princess Kaguya from that legend, and he studies the moon because of his obsession. Kakeru Ōzura was ahead of the game but considered crazy by his peers because he would often say that a thousand years ago there was a kingdom on the Moon. As he nursed the sick Luna, he talked to her, but then stopped himself, thinking Luna was not capable of speech. The princess he believed ruled on the Moon Kingdom was Princess Kaguya. Princess Snow Kaguya took that name after Kakeru confused her with the Moon Kingdom princess. He was in love with an astronaut named Himeko, who thought he was crazy as well, until she saw the transformed Luna in space.

In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Masami Kikuchi. In the English version, he is voiced by Jeff Lumby, who also voiced Professor Tomoe in the English dub of the series.

Himeko Nayotake
This young woman is Kakeru's childhood friend. When they were both young, they dreamt of going to the moon and meeting the legendary Princess Kaguya. Intelligent and resolute, she is saddened by Kakeru's refusal to keep trying to become an astronaut after he is surprisingly rejected in his first try. Despite this, she does not renounce her dream and successfully becomes an astronaut herself. In both the movie and the manga, Kakeru and Himeko become lovers (breaking Luna's heart), but it is only in the manga where it is later revealed that Himeko is pregnant with their child.

In the Japanese version, Himeko is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara. In the English version, she is voiced by Jennifer Gould, who also did the voice of Hotaru Tomoe in the Sailor Moon S TV Series as well as Palla Palla (Para Para) in the English dubbed Sailor Moon Super S TV series.

Production
Sailor Moon S: The Movie is based on the 135-page side story "Princess Kaguya's Lover" (かぐや姫の恋人), written and illustrated by series creator Naoko Takeuchi and later published by Kodansha. Dissatisfied that she had left the production of the previous Sailor Moon film to others, Takeuchi envisioned "Princess Kaguya's Lover" as the plot of Sailor Moon S: The Movie, and proceeded to write the story "all in one go." She modeled the antagonist after an Art Deco antique named "Salome", while the Snow Dancers are modeled after a German china piece, which Takeuchi thought resembled "a character dancing in a snowstorm." On July 8, 1994, she traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of her research; there, she watched the launch of space shuttle Columbia. She enjoyed working on the film, and liked the overall result, particularly Luna's transformation sequence. The film was soft matted for its theatrical release, as it was animated in 4:3 aspect ratio.

An English dubbed version, produced by Pioneer and Optimum Productions, was released on VHS on May 23, 2000. The VHS version would air on television on November 9, 2001 during Cartoon Network's Toonami block. The film's English adaptation was released both edited and unedited. The edited version, seen in the VHS and television formats, used the original DIC music from the series, and had the transformation sequences airbrushed to remove bodylines that were tracing the characters' breasts. Luna's transformation into a human is cut short removing the growth of her breast and keeping the screen above her breast as well. The uncut version, only seen in the DVD release, kept the original Japanese music and bodylines as well as the full version of Luna's transformation into a human. A special uncut subtitled version of the movie had earlier been released to VHS on August 31, 1999.

Reception
Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Wook Kim negatively rated the film 'D', describing it as "nauseatingly saccharine". Animerica noted that the film incorporates aspects of the Japanese folklore The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (竹取物語) and Yuki Onna (雪女) in the antagonist's character.