''Sailor Moon Sailor Stars'', or simply ''Sailor Stars'', is the fifth and final season of ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

'', a Japanese

magical girl is a Genre#Subgenre, subgenre of primarily Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered on young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into wh ...

anime series based on the ''

'' manga series by Naoko Takeuchi; the season was directed by Takuya Igarashi and produced by

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

. Like the rest of the ''Sailor Moon'' series, it follows the adventures of Usagi Tsukino and her fellow Sailor Guardians. The season is divided into two

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of a plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing narrative, storyline in episode, episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strip ...

s, with the first 6 episodes consisting of a self-contained arc exclusive to the anime in which the Sailor Guardians encounter Queen Nehelenia again. The remaining 28 episodes adapt material from the "Stars" arc of the manga, in which the Sailor Guardians meet up with the Sailor Starlights, led by Princess Kakyuu. They discover that Sailor Galaxia, the leader of the " Shadow Galactica" organization and a corrupted Sailor Guardian, plans to increase her powers and rule the Milky Way. The season began broadcasting on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

on March 9, 1996 and ended on February 8, 1997 for 34 episodes. It was later released on DVD in six compilations with five episodes, by Toei, from September 26 to November 21, 2005. Sailor Stars was not dubbed during the initial English-language dub of Sailor Moon in the early 2000's. In May 2014,

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

announced that they licensed the series from the start for an uncut release, and also that they plan to release the fifth season on Blu-ray and DVD after Cloverway Inc. and Optimum Productions lost their licenses to the English-language adaption of Sailor Moon. On December 14, 2015, Viz Media streamed the first episode of ''Sailor Moon Sailor Stars'', along with the series finale of ''Sailor Moon SuperS'', on

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in the United States, followed by a streaming release of the entire show on Tubi TV in Canada on July 15, 2016. The first 17 episodes of ''Sailor Stars'' were released on Blu-ray and DVD in a dual-language format on June 18, 2019. The rest were released on November 12, 2019. Three pieces of theme music were used: one opening theme and two ending themes. The opening theme, titled " Sailor Star Song", is performed by Kae Hanazawa. The ending theme, used for the first 33 episodes, is " Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto..." performed by

Alisa Mizuki is a Japanese actress and singer. She began her career as a child model and gained attention for starring in commercials for Fujifilm, Fujicolor, among other brands, in the early 1990s. She released her debut single "Densetsu no Shōjo" in 199 ...

. The second and final ending theme that was used for the final episode is " Moonlight Densetsu", performed by Moon Lips.

Episodes

Release

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

released two

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

in 1996 to promote this season: ''Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars'' for Sega Pico, and ''Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars: Fuwa Fuwa Panic 2'' for

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

Home video releases

Japanese

Blu-ray

English

Blu-ray + DVD combo

Notes

References

{{Takuya Igarashi Sailor Stars 1997 Japanese television seasons Sailor Stars Milky Way in fiction Space opera anime and manga