Stream and Listen from Rhapsody!

When Sailor Moon was first produced and released for North America in 1995, the dub did not contain any of the original music cues and songs from the Japanese version. Michael Benghiat , Bob Summers, and Andy Heyward composed most of the tracks that were used in the series. Some of the tracks obviously had influences from the original Japanese Score (such as the Sailor Moon theme song, and some other cues used in the series). And if there is one thing most fans agree on, aside from the theme song, the music cues made the series it’s own! Which fan doesn’t get pumped up hearing the technolized North America Transformation music?

Three Soundtrack CDs were released. The first one was Songs from the Hit TV Series in 1996, and then came Lunarock in 1997. Lunarock was special because it included two songs from Japan, the theme song as well as the battle anthem, Ai no Senshi! Both albums were released by EMI Music Canada.

Full Moon Collection was released by Koch Records in 2002 and featured nearly every instrumental cue that was used in the series. This CD was so popular that it’s initial run had completely sold out, and subsequent copies became really hard to find! However this CD (like everything else in North America), went out of print. This album is still in high demand among the North American fans, and we’ve seen copies go on eBay for over $50!

Fans who wish to listen to the music, have another, odd option. Online music service Rhapsody has this album on stream only. You cannot pay for these tracks (and therefore, cannot download them to your machine). If you pay for one of their membership plans, you are allowed unlimited streaming privileges, and their free account gives you 25 free streams per month. I have tried this service, and though it is a bit of a RAM hog, it’s a nice alternative to iTunes! Once you have downloaded the client, search for Sailor Moon and follow the links to begin play (or click that link and launch the client)! The quality is quite good and we strongly recommend fans looking to hear this album find their way to Rhapsody as this is one of the only places online where all the tracks from the album can be heard. As for the other CDs since they have gone out of print, your best bet is to hunt around eBay or other auction sites for a copy, or hop over to Sailormusic .

We found so many items this week that we’re about to burst with our biggest hunt yet! Here come 50 links!

Greatest of the Expensive Items:

There’s quite a few this week!

☼ A set of Sailor Moon Plushes!
☼ Gashapon set featuring the ultra hard-to-find Sailor V!
☼ Yet another Sailor Moon Hockey Jersey.

Best Bargains:

☼ A set of Sailor Moon Plushes!
☼ Gashapon set featuring the ultra hard-to-find Sailor V!
☼ Yet another Sailor Moon Hockey Jersey.

Things that make us go O.o.:

☼ A shortened, fake, Sailor Moon Wig.
☼ What is this toy?
☼ What is in this ‘Mystery Box’?
☼ This piggy bank is definitely fake!
☼ Doujinshi Fax Paper – yes it’s cute but aren’t faxes dying?
☼ This soda is official but what is Sailor Uranus WEARING? Those aren’t her official colors!
☼ These are definitely fake figures.
☼ A Sailor Moon Festival Mask we’re not quite sure is a knockoff or not.
☼ This isn’t any Senshi we know!
☼ Sailor Moon No Smoking stickers!

Best of the Rest:

☼ A rare Sailor Stars Calendar!
☼ A rare Manga book Calendar
☼ Sailor Moon envelopes used for Lucky Money during Chinese New Year! ☼ More Lucky Money Envelopes!
☼ Sailor Moon Bento Onigiri Boxes!
☼ Sailor Moon spoon and fork set from PGSM era!
☼ A rare Sailor Venus Fork!
☼ The entire Tokyopop Sailor Moon Manga Release!
☼ Irwin Sailor Saturn at a bargain price!
☼ Rare lot of Sailor Moon Beef Curry and Bubble Gum!
☼ Sailor Moon R Glass Tumbler!
☼ Sailor Moon Mug with Figure!
☼ Sailor Moon Cel from the first opening!
☼ Sailor Moon PJs for that special Chibi-Moonie!
☼ Limited Edition PGSM Sailor Moon Figure!
☼ Most if not all of the Sailor Moon Comic Magazines from Germany
☼ A complete box of Sailor Moon Dart Flipcards trading cards!
☼ A complete box of Sailor Moon Action Flipz cards!
☼ A complete box of Sailor Moon Trading Cards Series 3!
☼ A golden jewellery box from Sailor Stars!
☼ A rare (and expensive) artbook!
☼ Blue Sailor Moon wrapping paper!
☼ Yellow Sailor Moon wrapping paper!
☼ Sailor Moon mini stamps!
☼ Sailor Moon washcloth and container!
☼ Sailor V manga in German!
☼ Sailor Moon R Cel featuring Ann!
☼ Sailor Moon Cake Figures from Europe!
☼ Sailor Moon long sleeved shirt!
☼ A Chibi-Usa Iron!
☼ An incredibly cute Artemis Cel!
☼ Rare, collectible, Sailor Moon plush keychains!
☼ Ten rare Sailor Moon plush keychains!
☼ Sailor Starlights Plushes!

We’re all shopped out just looking at all of this!

All of the staff at Moon Chase! expresses our deepest sympathies over this senseless tragedy that occurred Monday. We were saddened to hear of what transpired at Virginia Tech and will be keeping the victims and their families and friends in our thoughts and prayers.

Hey Moonies!

About two to two-and-a-half years ago, Sailormoon Channel (the official site in Japan) revamped their site but deleted any trace of the outer senshi and Chibi-Usa. Before, all of the Senshi used to be displayed on the site menu and each one of them had an animated splash screen. This was probably done to push PGSM with fans back then. Some fans were sad to see that the other senshi had disappeared, and thought that they may never come back.

On a side note: Just because the webpage says it’s for Japanese Only doesn’t mean people from all over the world can’t access it! Some parts of the site are oddly enough in English!

After PGSM went off of the air, the site took a new direction: Some features were removed, such as the goods around the world section and Princess Naoko’s Room (where she would occasionally give updates on what she was up to).

One feature that was added was the “Moon Prism Box”. This can be accessed first by clicking the moon on the homepage that says “click”, and then clicking on “Moon Prism Box” when you hit the menu. When you open it you see an animation of all the senshi, but if you click on Sailor Moon, it takes you to her bedroom (the others lead to profiles). You can click on the objects in her room and they will take you to different spots on her site, but most important is the Television – Click that and you are taken to a menu where select stories from the manga are somewhat animated and set to PGSM music. These are updated more regularly than the rest of the site! Or for kicks, Here’s Princess Serenity giving you your daily fortune !

Whoever is in charge of building this site (we don’t know if Naoko Takeuchi has 100% control over this site) has finally added one character back! Chibi-Usa returned April 1st, 2007. She has a profile in Usagi’s room, and is also the highlight character in the second set of manga animations which just went online today! We encourage fans to take a look at the manga animations if they haven’t seen them yet.

We are glad to see this character return and we are hoping that the other characters return soon! We do have to end this article on a questioning note: if this is the official Sailor Moon site, why have they made no mention of the anime episodes being available on Toei’s new Anime on Demand service ?

Obscure Portrayals of Sailor Moon in Newsmedia!

We too often hear of Sailor Sightings in the media. Or for the most part, the positive ones! Rarely does anyone ever mention the negative or obscure sightings! What we’d really like to know is What The Heck Were They Thinking when the writers came up with these obscure mentions!

Case #1: Phil Spector likes to Cosplay?

Phil Spector is currently awaiting a murder trial, but he’s using some pretty strange tactics. Why would anyone want to get sympathy from a jury wearing “a dazzling Sailor Moon haircut made entirely out of pulsating fibre optics.” . Where are the grammar police? Unless his hair is made out of fibre optics, we’re pretty sure they meant to use the word “wig” instead of “haircut”.

Tangents aside, who’d want a fiber optic wig that long?

Case #2: College Students Just Don’t Get It!

College students love to write editorials! But what happens when they try to use a Sailor Moon reference? THEY FAIL! And they make Sailor Moon totally not look cool.

We’d like to know since when did Sailor Moon attract only “leather-fringe-sporting or burlap-sack-bound 60-something fetishists” . The last time we saw Mamoru, we’re pretty sure he wasn’t any of those things! We’ve also never seen Sailor Moon Shuriken on eBay! We highly doubt they even exist for that matter.

Yes, we all know college students have a certain pride about their cartoon nostalgia. I’m sure we’ve all met someone who has their favorite cartoon of the eighties. But there are better, more tasteful ways to do this!

Case #3: Some People Just Don’t Do Their RESEARCH!

City of Heroes is a popular MMORPG which allows players to create their own superheros. Jay Doherty, a character designer for the series was recently interviewed by WarCry online. And he has a very interesting life story. Yes, we understand that this is probably a joke, but does he actually know that Sailor Moon was created by a woman ? The rat and the turtles remind us more of Ninja Turtles than Sailor Moon. And if he had five female friends, we doubt that he really played a Tuxedo Kamen-esque role in their lives. The next time you are going to fake something, at least make it believable!

Case #4: Hey, Not Everyone Who Wants To Learn Japanese Wants To Learn It Because They Are Sailor Moon Fans!

SquareEnix makes awesome games other than Final Fantasy. Chrono Trigger, Drakengard, Radiata Stories, aaaannnndddd Seiken Densetsu (or better known as Mana). There’s two new Mana games coming out very soon, but Chris Antista seems to think that Sailor Moon is one of the largest reason any Otaku wants to learn Japanese. Though it may be true of some fans, it’s probably not fair to say it’s true for the majority! Other people might have legitimate reasons, such as not wanting to learn French or Spanish in school, wanting to converse with exchange students better, or maybe because they’d like the option to watch any japanese movie or show without having to rely on subtitles all the time!

Case #5: Oh MSNBC Why Are You So Concerned About Naming the Series?

Everyone knows that Sailor Moon was a huge pioneer for anime in North America, if not just for shoujo anime. But we found it awkward when MSNBC declined to mention the name of the series, but instead described it .

“If this seems over the top for an art form that, more times than not, features Japanese teenage girls in short skirts conquering bad guys…”

The article would have had a lot more power if they could have named some of the anime that began the boom in North America. While Pokemon was a marketing champion, there were other series before it. Without them Pokemon might not have been picked up by a distributor in North America, were these series not there to pave the way for it.

It drives us nuts when journalists miss key points beyond the mainstream like this!

Thus ends our sifting through the news for stories that make us scratch our heads and wonder… WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY THINKING ?