Tokyo Side Stories: Interim Season

Sailor Moon: Tokyo Side Stories - Interim Season refers to the fifth season of the Sailor Moon anime's DiC Dub continuity. Many fans refer to this season as "Pinako's Sailor Stars", to differentiate it from the actual fifth season.

The season did not feature any new episodes, but rather consisted of 41 episodes from the previous seasons. A music video for "She's Got the Power" was also used to fill time.

In addition to a new title sequence and new commercial bumpers, new bookending segments were added to each episode. These segments featured a slightly younger Pinako Aino meeting regularly with e mysterious entity named Central Control (Which was previously shown to be Artemis, but episodes taking place after this reveal still list Central Control as a separate entity) and asks her to tell her stories about the Sailor Scouts. While the stories were old, the bookending segments took place in a contemporary time with Central Control regularly name dropping characters who never appeared again in future episodes, and even referenced fanfiction and other material outside of Sailor Moon in the case of Neflite.

Production of the segments were by Carisle Animation, the same company that produced Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Tokyoma Gaiden. The animation was constantly recycled except for locations that were not in Pinako's apartment.

Episodes

The goal of this season was to produce enough episodes to reach episode number 200. Episodes for the season were glimpsed through and decided based on their proximity to the Manga's events. Fans had also wanted a manga-accurate adaptation for years, and still wanted a Dragon Ball Kai-like experience of the Sailor Moon anime, even after Crystal, Eternal and Cosmos.

The lengths of each arc is almost 1:1 (one to one) with its original manga counterpart. Episode 13 had to remain a bridge, and the Dream Arc had to have its number of episodes go down one because making it 1:1 with the manga would bring the episode count to 201.

Negaverse Arc

The earlier episodes of this arc are relatively untouched. some episodes begin with Central Control/Spectrix still narrating up until the first on screen character speaks.

160. A Moon Star is Born
161. Computer School Blues
162. An Uncharmed Life
163. Fight to the Finish<
164. Worth a Princess's Ransom
165. The Power of Neflite (A Merger of the episodes, Molly's Folly and A Friend in Wolf's Clothing)
166. Jupiter Comes Thundering In
167. Sailor V Makes the Scene
168. A Crystal Clear Destiny
169. A Reluctant Princess
170. The Past Returns
171. Day of Destiny

Negamoon Arc

The Negamoon Arc actually starts with an episode from the Doom Tree Arc, however, whether to make the four seasons conform with their primary storylines or to be more accurate to the Manga, the episode "Cherry Blosson Time" was re-edited to become a Negamoon Episode. Evidence that points to the latter being the reason include previously standalong episodes being merged in this season. Episodes from Sailor Moon S and SuperS also received this exact same treatment.

172. Cherry Blossom Time
173. Serena Times Two
174. Naughty 'N' nice
175. Catsy & Bertie (Merges episodes "Enemies No More" with the first two-thirds of "Checkmate")
176. Avery & Prizma (Merges the remainder of "Checkmate" with all of "Sibling Rivalry")
177. Rubeus' Last Stand (merges episodes "Rubeus Evens the Score" and "Rubeus Strikes Out")
178. Future Shocked
179. The Complicated Hidden Agenda (merges "Legend of the Negamoon" with the first half of "Jealousy's Just Reward")
180. The Origin of Wicked Lady (merges the second half of "Jealousy's Just Reward" with "Birth of Wicked Lady")
181. Wiseman's Betrayal (Merges "Brotherly Love" with the first half of "Diamond in the Rough")
182. Showdown with the Doom Phantom (merges the second half of "Diamond in the Rough" with "Final Battle")

Bureau of Bad Behavior Arc

183. Star Clear Predictions (Merges Episdoes "Star Struck, Bad Luck" and "Crystal Clear Again") 184. Untitled Episode - Uranus and Neptune Episodes
185. Untitled Episode - Surprise Party Episode
186. Untitled Episode - Rini & Hotaru
187. Untitled Episode - Eugeal
188. Untitled Episode - Mimete
189. Untitled Episode - Telulu
190. Untitled Episode - Viluy
191. Untitled Episode - Pharaoh 90/Mistress 9 Part 1
192. Untitled Episode - Pharaoh 90/Mistress 9 Part 2

Dark Moon Arc

193. Untitled Episode
194. Untitled Episode
195. Untitled Episode
196. Untitled Episode
197. Untitled Episode
198. Untitled Episode
199. Untitled Episode
200. Untitled Episode

Edits

For the first 23 episodes of the interim season, corresponding to Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R, Carisle Animation editors relied on the originally dubbed footage. When the remaining episodes, consisting of S and SuperS episodes were featured, only the unedited footage, sourced from Pioneer DVDs, were used as the source of the newly cut versions, no attempts were made to reintroduce the transitions that were in the original edited versions of those episodes.

All episodes shown on this list had their Music and voices extracted so that musical edits can be made on them. some episodes in the interim version actually had their japanese music inserted back in, whether it was to cover up for a commercial break, cover up a long edit, or because it had the 'correct feel'. Likewise, some of the S and SuperS episodes had some music from the DiC portion of the dub inserted for the same reasons.

The Episode titled "Rini and Hotaru" consists mainly of clips from episodes where the two are prominent, since no one episode was used as the episode's plot, it was decided that it would become an episode original to the season, with narration akin to the episode "Usagi and the Girls' Resolve! Prelude to a New Battle/Follow the Leader". Although it is later shown in Tokyo Side Stories proper, this episode marked the first time in Dub continuity that Pinako's mother, Theia (Pink Doom & Gloom Girl) mentioned being targeted for her object of power, in this case, her Pure Heart.

Some of the bookends also reference the aspects of the episodes that were changed from the Japanese version, in the bookends for "Day of Destiny", Pinako is initially excited to learn about how her mother and Mina met. By the end of the half of the episode consisting of the episode from "The Sailor Senshi Die! The Tragic Final Battle", Pinako is seen crying and telling her mother that she hated her, before Central Control explains to Pinako that it wasn't under her own discretion, though in the actual episode and its dubbed counterpart proper, all five volunteered, only one voice was heard, presumably belonging to the Blue Doom & Gloom Girl, which may still hold the possibility that Central Control's words still rang true as far as the Pink Doom & Gloom girl was concerned. Another example was in the bookends for "Cherry Blossom Time" in which Pinako, along with Queen Serenity in the same body, scolds Luna for her lack of faith in Serena. This was after Luna told Pinako that she and her friends did not make for great Sailor Scouts.

Differences from the Manga

• It's the Anime, what did you expect? the 90's animation to be completely changed to look like the manga's events wholesale?