Kappei Yamaguchi has been announced as a guest of honour at this year’s Anime Revolutionconvention in Vancouver.

Here’s the announcement from Anime Revolution:

Anime Revolution welcomes the ever-popular Japanese voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi as an official Guest of Honour.

Mr. Yamaguchi’s versatile voice can be heard voicing many leading characters in a number of top ranking anime titles such as: Usopp from the number one shounen series in Japan: One Piece, Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kid from the forever continuing series Detective Conan/Case Closed, L from Death Note, Teddie/Kuma in Persona 4, Inuyasha from Inuyasha, Ranma Saotome from Ranma ½, Raimon “Monta” Taro in Eyeshield 21, and Ryuichi Sakuma in Gravitation, to name a few.

Let’s not forget that Yamaguchi-san was the voice of Artemis the plush / CGI animated cat in the Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Series!

We hope fans will enjoy seeing the voice of Artemis in PGSM in Vancouver! Be sure to tell us about it if you are able to attend.

Toru Furuya has been announced as a guest of honour at this year’s Anime Revolution convention in Vancouver.

Here’s the announcement from Anime Revolution:

Anime Revolution welcomes veteran Japanese voice actor Toru Furuya as an official Guest of Honour. Mr. Furuya will be interacting with fans during panels and autograph sessions at the anime convention which is held in August 16-18, 2013 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Fans may recognize his distinctive voice behind famous lead characters such as: Mamoru Chiba and Tuxedo Mask from the ever so classic Sailor Moon series, Yamcha from the all time favorite Dragon Ball series and movies, Amuro Ray from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series and movies, Pegasus Seiya from Saint Seiya, Suppaman in Dr. Slump, and Mario in various Mario video games.

We hope fans will enjoy seeing the original Tuxedo Mask in Vancouver! Be sure to tell us about it if you are able to attend.

Sailor Mercury Figure Details:

The figure will be released sometime in October in Japan, and will probably ship to North America in November/December. Bluefin Tamashii Nations does not have order information quite yet (hopefully sometime this week there will be some news).  It will cost exactly the same price as the Sailor Moon figure at 4410 Japanese Yen ($46 USD), stand 14 inches tall, and this first production run will have special accessories.  There will be 3 exchangeable faces, 4 exchangeable right hands, 5 exchangeable left hands, front hair parts that include a Head Mounted Device Goggles (or her visor), and two types of pocket computers.  So far, the only image that is out right now is one we posted previously, but we anticipate there will be some more soon in different poses.

Sailor Moon Cosmetics:

Since Premium Bandai has moved to a build-to-order model, there is no reason why the shopping services should not work this time.  But please remember that the ordering limit of two per customer still holds for each product. The releases are being paced apart by a couple of days, as mentioned in our last post.  Some reporters at the Tokyo Toy Show this weekend posted some more details about them, including a hand model with each shade painted on her nails so fans could better see what the colors looked like, and pictures of the products.   But the most important thing is that there will be a third product added to the line (and sorry, nothing is going to be themed for the Outer Senshi or Starlights). Now we have heard a few rumors for what this third might be – a fragrance, an eyeshadow palette, or lipstick/lipgloss, and we are leaning towards the fragrance (although one of the others could happen). We too are disappointed that the majority of the branding of this 20^th anniversary is only using the images of the Inner Senshi, when what made the show so special was its huge cast.

As for the products that are known and on the way: the powder compact is not going to be like your typical face powder, and will instead be like a “luster powder” to add some shimmer to your face. The compact itself is more glossier and shinier than the photos on Premium Bandai suggested initially.  As far as the nail collection goes, the pink shade of nail polish is significantly lighter than the photos on Premium Bandai had suggested. Also, fans should be aware that each bottle is only holding about 3.5ml of nail polish – this is significantly smaller than nail polish bottles you would find at the store, so the polish in each bottle will not last as long as fans might had hoped it would (perhaps only one or two uses per color?) The other surprise was that the bottles do actually come out of their golden exteriors, and we wonder if the rings of the different symbols around the bottle tops could be wide enough to wear around a pinky.

What do you think of these products?  What do you think the third item might be?

Sailor Moon Musical:

Nicovideo has a special hub site set up just for the musical for their more premium members to and purchase tickets  from their mobile phones, as well as links to sites from Animelo and Nelke Planning.  While there is no video content as of this writing, we would not be surprised if there was considering Nicovideo’s involvement in the 20^th anniversary.  We have also heard that the plot is going to stay true to themes from the manga.  It will be interesting to see how this translates to the stage for the first time!

Hey, fans!

The Anime North website has provided a link to Alex Krung’s photos of the masquerade entrants. For those of you who can’t get enough of pictures from Anime North, we hope you enjoy these!

We will also definitely be sharing more photos taken by Sixthcrow/Blake on our Google+ page and starting to post our convention coverage soon!

Fumio Osano (aka Osabu) shared a lot of new merchandise earlier today on Sailor Moon Channel! He also tweeted earlier that he will do his best to make sure the manufacturer has enough product  supply.  First, he announced a special 20^th anniversary wallscroll and microfiber mini-towel.   The mini-towel retails for about $6.30 USD,  and is fast absorbing with a full color print.  The wallscroll is also in full color, and retails for about $33 USD.  The next items that were announced were a gold and silver ring, designed after Sailor Moon’s Crisis Moon Heart Compact in Sailor Moon SuperS.  Both rings are made of sterling silver (or silver 925) and the gold ring is coated with 18-carat gold.  Both rings feature a pink Swarovski crystal in the middle. And these are quite pricey, retailing at around $166 USD.  The rings, the poster, and the towel are all being sold from Premium Bandai.  Lastly, a few weeks ago the Tamashii nations S.H. Figuarts Sailor Moon line announced that Sailor Mercury was going to be next! And today, it was confirmed that the figure would be released in Japan in October.  The figure will have some hand and face parts, and come with Sailor Mercury’s computer and visor.  The faces being included are supposed to resemble her gentle expressions. We are working to find you some details about pre-ordering and hope to share that with you as soon as we are able to.  For sure though, we can guess the price of Sailor Mercury won’t be too different than Sailor Moon’s (around $43 USD).  All of us at Moon Chase hope that ordering from Premium Bandai will become a lot easier in the face of the struggles that happened this week!