To Our Readers:

A couple of hours ago, a user posted a link on one of our commercials that contained potentially harmful information and/or malware. Luckily, I caught it as soon as I could and disabled the comments for that particular commercial as Veoh’s interface was once again not allowing me to delete comments. We are currently looking for a new place to host our videos and we are going to be reuploading them over the holiday season. For now though please bear with Veoh, there really isn’t much else that we can do about it at this moment.

While we are doing our best to combat these spammers, we can’t catch them instantaneously. Unfortunately our staff members cannot be around a computer 24/7 to catch these things as soon as it happens. As I have mentioned before, our comments policy states that users don’t post links to their own sites when commenting on commercials. If you see a link on a comment on one of our commercials please let us know and we will get to it as soon as we can, but for your own safety please do not visit these sites as many may not likely be safe. We have done all we possibly could short of disabling comments for everyone, which is really unfair to the rest of you. We live in a Web 2.0 world and everyone has the right to interact in a safe environment. The Me and I have contacted Veoh about this several times about this problem and it seems that they are unwilling to do anything about it, so until we can find a new host and have the time to move all the videos over, the best we can do is tell you all to be careful.

Apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused,
Moon Chase! Staff.

Keiko Kitagawa’s Movie Career is Booming!

Keiko Kitagawa (PGSM Sailor Mars) seems to be everywhere these days. Aside from her new success with the dramedy Mop Girl, she has two movies out this month, Southbound and Heat Island. Both films have gotten rave reviews, and have hailed Keiko’s performances as superb.

Southbound was released on October 6th and failed to do well in the theaters, but received glowing reviews from the press. This is based on an award winning novel by Hideo Okuda and is a heartwarming coming of age story. Junichiro Uehara, an activist, decides to relocate his family to rural Okinawa from the high-paced city life of Tokyo. The children have a hard time adjusting to their new life, and especially adjusting to personal changes in their father’s life. These include a mistress on the side. The mother plays a key role in bringing the family back together. Keiko Kitagawa plays Yoko Uehara, the oldest daughter in this family who is a graphics designer. Mika Nakashima sings the theme song, Eternal Poem.

Heat Island is about Shibuya’s underground fight clubs. Some fight as a way to support their families during tough times, or for their own survival. The underground is also responsible for running the casinos much like the Yakuza, after a robbery from a Latin American Mafia. Keiko plays Nao,the model girlfriend of gang leader Aki. Aki is the main character in this movie and definitely someone you do not want to mess with. Keiko enjoyed playing this underground “ghetto” character. We have heard rumors that this film is currently seeking worldwide distribution and we will keep you posted as soon as we hear more about it. The movie just came out last week and though the few reviews that have started to trickle in have been great, we are hoping that this movie will be a hit in Japan.

Keiko Han and Toru Furuya Appear at Namco Wonderpark Hero’s Base!

In Kanagawa Perfecture, just south of Tokyo, there is a giant arcade that Namco has opened known as the Wonderpark. Two weeks ago, there was a tournament for arcade players (coinciding with the first anniversary of their Hero’s Base part of the park), and three stars of various Gundam series came to the championship. Keiko Han (Luna in both anime and PGSM, Queen Beryl in the anime) and Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) were among them! Keiko played Lalah Sune in many of the series’ incarnations, and Toru is best known for playing Ray Amuro. Toru actually helped some of the players and played along, and from the pictures we have seen, it looked like he had fun! Afterwards they held a Q&A session with the players and talked about their experiences recording the series. They all agreed that it was fun, and they had very fond memories of it. They also said they would play these characters again if they were given the opportunity, as well as humoring the fans by asking them to keep them as their favorite Seiyuu because their work relies on it :).

Masaya Kikawada Continues to Ride On!

Masaya Kikawada (PGSM Motoki Furuhata) is currently on a Japan road tour in support of the new Kamen Rider Movie, Kamen Rider The Next which was just released on October 27th. We also got our paws on an interview he did a little over a week ago. He reveals that while the suit is tight and hard to move in, it makes him want to look his best just like the people who played the character before him – almost like straightening his tie and setting his hair. He feels hot when he puts on the suit! During his wire stunts, he admits that he was a bit of a baby, afraid and a little wimpy when he was first learning them, but after a lot of practice they became a second nature to him. He also agreed with the PG-12 rating because he thought some of the violence in the movie was too intense for television. He thinks that a true hero must not only be strong but also be humble and gentle. When he was younger he aspired to be just like Goku from DragonBall because he was not only good-looking but a hero that everyone could look up to – but he also wanted to be a responsible adult. The movie that precluded this, Kamen Rider the First, was released by Media Blasters’ Tokyo Shock division earlier this year, and we anticipate hearing news of this being released here in the future.

And Finally, For All You Hunter X Hunter Fans:

We came across yet another article that brings in a new theory for why Yoshihiro Togashi took his hiatus. This one cites discord with the editing department at Shonen Jump, and Togashi wanting to redo everything by himself. The editors might have put too much pressure on him in the beginning, and though Yoshihiro says he is ready to start drawing again, the writer of this article has his doubts. He finds this sudden need for perfectionism unusual. The writer also thinks that Yoshihiro didn’t want to write because his son is seven years old now and that he wanted to be a part of his happy childhood. *shrugs* We may never know all of the reasons why the hiatus happened, but it seems that while some writers in Japan have harsh words for Yoshihiro, they seem to forget that the manga is back now and that it will be finished. Isn’t that the most important thing of all?

Hey Moonies, sadly Maria Vacratsis and the rest of the cast from Showcase’s Rent-a-Goalie didn’t win the award for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series. The award went to local favorite, Corner Gas. The show just made it’s debut on WGN and for those of you south of the border who haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely catch an episode or two. The show even has a connection to Sailor Moon, David Huband (Serena’s Dad) played a kid’s Dad in the Season 3 episode, Men in Trees.

We need to step aside for a second and comment on the awards show itself. While it definitely turned Regina’s humdrum Conexus Arts Centre theatre into something wonderful, this was one of the poorest structured awards shows we have ever seen. We’re not sure whose brilliant decision it was to cram 10 awards into a 1 hour show, especially when it was complete with skits for entertainment. The winners weren’t even allowed to make speeches, instead a co-host met up with the winners on stage, asked them a question, and then they left the stage. CBC we know you were trying to make the awards more hip to attract more viewers, but come on. Some things should have been censored – even if a fifth grader giving the host the finger was done in jest. Some of the jokes were also a little crude, and the hap-hazardness and rushing after half an hour quickly sent the show down the hill. Some awards were even awarded off-camera. This was supposed to be a celebration of an especially good year in Canadian Television, and it seemed anything but – sorry to offend any of you CBCers who could be reading this, but it’s the truth. Or perhaps Regina should just be grateful that they got a new electronic billboard, new seats, and stage enhancements. We know Regina is capable of much more than this and we are truly disappointed with the production and handling of this event. We truly feel sorry for everything viewers and nominees had to experience tonight.

Hey Moonies! In last week’s episode of Mop Girl we saw Momoko (played by Keiko Kitagawa AKA PGSM Sailor Mars) have a nightmare in which she was stuck in a shrine with a pervy Kannushi who gave her a lot of money. We wanted to show you all this scene because of Keiko’s priceless reaction but we figured it was too mature even for our “For Older Readers Only” tag so we decided against it. Momoko had to clean up the scene where a Member of the Assembly had died of a mysterious fall. Sayuri Negishi was stuck in a whirlpool of corruption allegations regarding nursing homes and is especially under fire from another Member of the Assembly, Ruuhira Fuji. Momoko later connects two and two together and discovers that it was a pre-meditated homicide – Sayuri died of some sort of remote-controlled electrocution! Momoko does find a way to save Sayuri’s life, but not without getting embroiled in the complicated world of politics and blackmail. It turns out that another one of Sayuri’s friends, Kayo was also involved in planning and executing this homicide. Momoko leaves the scene happy she saved Sayuri’s life, but sad that she watched a friendship fall apart the way it did.

This week’s scene comes as her day is replaying over again , and she attempts to visit a shrine and blend in with some tourists so that she can catch Sayuri. We’re so used to seeing Keiko play fierce characters and to see her whine at the end of this is too funny for words!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Hey Moonies – we came across this sighting of a brand new commercial with Miyuu Sawaii (PGSM Sailor Moon) and we almost didn’t recognize her! She is promoting some kind of healthy Green Tea drink but yes that is her in the short wig! We were unable to find a copy of the commercial to include in our weekly commercial posts as of this writing, but we will link you to the one on the site (click the white arrow in a green circle on the left). You may need to upgrade your version of Windows Media Player to watch it.