Happy Hallowe’en, Moonchasers!

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 was the date of the seventh annual Toronto Zombie Walk. The walk began at Trinity Bellwoods park and progressed along various streets of Toronto until the end point on Bloor street near Bathurst station.

Before the walk began, zombies gathered in the pit bordered by Dundas street and Gore Vale avenue, where organizers made some announcements and one organizer (Adam Pearson) even proposed to another organizer (Thea Munster)!

The walk began with zombies being directed to Dundas street to exit the park, and it wasn’t long before it was clear that even Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask had become zombies!

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask lurched along with the crowd, barely noticing curious onlookers taking photographs. Groups of zombies were soon throwing themselves at bus shelters to scare the odd victim, while other groups took greater interest in stopped traffic, moaning and grasping at streetcars, buses, and cars, trying to claw their way through the windows to scare people traveling in Toronto that afternoon. A local news vehicle was even stopped by zombies who smeared blood on the outside and piled on the hood of the vehicle. The driver, like many spectators in Toronto that afternoon, seemed to find the event enjoyable to watch.

Other costumes included a group cosplaying as characters from the Legend of Zelda, pirates, medical staff in scrubs, Mr. T, Billy Mays, conjoined twins, a 1950’s housewife with anger issues, brides, and zombie movie extras (they had signs explaining their lack of costume!). Unfortunately for the odd zombie hunter, they were vastly outnumbered by the zombies.

The organizers wore Umbrella Corporation uniforms, a very fitting tie-in to Resident Evil, one of this year’s sponsors. It also reminded me of the 2004 movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which was filmed in Toronto and the surrounding area.

Many of the zombies were very well behaved, groaning for brains and randomly moaning, but obedient when organizers controlled pedestrian traffic around busier intersections.

Following the walk, there was a showing of zombie films at the Bloor Cinema, which seemed to attract a massive lineup.

The zombies were everywhere in Toronto last Saturday. The zombie slayers were hopelessly outnumbered, and it was interesting to see even Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask become zombies. They weren’t the first Sailor Moon zombie cosplayers, but it’s definitely an unusual way to cosplay characters from the series.

Have you ever dressed as a zombie version of a Sailor Moon character? We’d love to see your costume and share it on the site!

Thanks to Derek Haecker for providing photos.

Sailor Moon Channel Fails, Yet Again

This morning marked the first of Sailor Moon Channel‘s two monthly updates. And, this update seems to be incredibly bare bones. Only the Luna Report this time! And the letters aren’t even worth talking about in too much detail. Here’s what they are about: one reader looks forward to reading the Luna Report when it is updated, and oversleeps like Sailor Moon, one fan says they rented Sailor Moon from the stores up until last year, and wants to know how Minako got her pen (answer: Artemis gave it to her a year before she met Sailor Moon), a fan wants to be like Sailor Moon because she is gentle, pure, and strong, a 14-year old boy wrote in asking how long it would take him to grow his hair as long as his favorite superhero (answer: long hair requires lots of maintenance, but please keep supporting the show), and a very short letter from an 8-year-old fan wishing Usagi good luck on her tests. Last month’s questions were a lot less shallow. Seriously? These were the best ones? But, considering it is a weekend, maybe sometime next week we will see a new “Flashimated” manga chapter. This is very disappointing since it is only a matter of days that fans still have left to order their DVDs from Toei, and there is just no mention on the official site. Earlier this week, Naoko Takeuchi was not listed to attend the 20th anniversary celebration either. Maybe we’ll hear about this event in late December or January with a small token picture and short entry… what an appalling show from the creator. What gives, Naoko?

Italy’s DVD Release Sparks Bidding War, and Still No Word on Manga

Italian Correspondent Lights sent us this link yesterday to a forums post from a fan who managed to get some more information. The lockdown may have happened because of many companies in the world selling the rights to the DVDs without Naoko knowing (but, we cannot confirm this since she is so secretive). 3 companies are currently engaged in a bidding war over the DVD release in Italy – DYNIT, Yamato Video Publishing, and Giochi Preziosi Publishing. The other interesting thing is these 3 companies are also fighting for an uncensored re-dub. We also read earlier this morning that Claudia Bovini, a staff member for Star Comics in Italy, still has no new news on any negotiations for the manga. It is likely that in the Fall of 2010, the show will air in the afternoons on a new channel, Italy 2. Fans, this is great news to know that there is competition going on for the release rights, and now it is all up to Toei and Naoko to let loose their grip on the series.

This video we’re about to show you made the news in Japan! Michelle Phan is a Vietnamese-American student studying at the University of Florida, and her makeup and costuming videos ranging from Snow White to Lady Gaga have made her an internet sensation! She just posted one a few days ago of her Sailor Moon cosplay and the Japanese article noted that it was absolutely perfect. They also made mention of her call to Naoko Takeuchi. “Naoko Takeuchi If you are watching or reading this, thank you so much for creating a hero for all of us girls to look up to. I dream of meeting you one day. I would probably cry because you are one of my biggest inspiration. Arigato!” We’re not going to say much more, but for all you die-hard cosplayers, this video speaks for itself! If any of our readers are dressing up like characters Sailor Moon, please send us pictures – we’d love to feature them!

Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon) was all smiles when she appeared on October 26th for a showcase event for the new CG cartoon, Kokkeko-San! Before we get to that though, we were so pleased to see the last article we posted on this series get mentioned on an Italian TV Blog!

At the showcase, a few clips were shown, and some 3-d clay models used in the animation were also on display with the original books the show is based on. And after we saw those pictures, we have to say they did a great job in bringing the characters from the book to life! Kotono said that she liked to voice the role of the mother “egg”, but sometimes it was hard to portray a voice that had the essence of parenting with this bright motherly character who had lots of energy! She was reminded of elementary school when she began work on this series, and also noted that “chicken” was her nickname in middle school! She feels that it was fate that she is playing this role now. She also draws from her own experience of being a mother when playing the role as well. At the conference, she also bought another “person” with her, and performed a few lines in another familiar character’s voice: Misato Kutsanagi from Evangelion! This series will be playing in both South Korea and Japan within days of each other, and is looking to be a hit for families!

This broke about 6 hours ago in Japan! (Will add a picture later). After 12 years, Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon), Aya Hisakawa (Sailor Mercury), Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars), Emi Shinohara (Sailor Jupiter) and Rika Fukami (Sailor Venus) will be appearing at a special event on December 6, 5 days ahead of the release and ahead of the 20th anniversary of the manga in 2011. The doors will open at 4:30PM, and the event will start from 5 and run until 9! They will be sharing their memories of working on Sailor Moon at the event with fans, and there will also be an episode screening. Admission is free but tickets will be limited! For those of you who want to try to get tickets, they will be available via a lottery at Toei’s DVD shop. 20 people will be chosen from those who have pre-ordered the collection by then. ANIMAX will also have a contest.Rising star Himeka, who was partly inspired by Sailor Moon to pursue her anime singing career, will also be singing at this event! We have covered her in the past on Moon Chase. In the press release on animeanime.jp, she says that Sailor Moon is what “jump started” her on anime! This will be taking place at UDX in Akihabara, at the same place Kazuko Tadano recently appeared at a session for JAM 2009.

As of this writing, it is unknown if Naoko Takeuchi herself will be attending this event. She is not listed to attend at all in the press release, and we really hope she does. The other strange thing is that the press release makes note that it is the 20th Anniversary of the manga in 2011, and that this is an early celebration. We think this might be happening now because the boxsets are set to go out of print at the end of 2011. She posted about the show re-airing on Sailor Moon Channel a month after it came back on the air, but has yet to mention the new boxsets. Kotono has also been doing much of the publicity for the show. This is great news Moonies! We are sure there are more details to come! Toei has even put up a new banner announcing the event at their official 20th Anniversary page! Special Thanks to Toy Soldier for pointing that out to us this morning!

For Japanese fans who want to get in on the lottery to attend this event, pre-order your DVDs from here, or here. They are a little more pricey than other places, but if we were in Japan, we’d pre-order from Toei just to get in on this draw!

EDIT: ANIMAX now has a page up, along with another with the rules and regulations of the lottery. They are dubbing the event “Sailor Moon Event Sailor Talk”. We love the banner and the graphics on their site. ANIMAX has 50 tickets to the event that fans can win, and from what the site says there can only be 100 guests. 100 seems a little low for something like this, why not up it to 500? Those of you who are in Japan and want to read the regulations, click here!