More voice actors have been added to the roster of guests of honour for this year’s Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration: Sugar Lyn Beard (Rini/Sailor Minimoon) and Susan Roman (Sailor Jupiter).

Sugar Lyn Beard was the second voice actress for the character of Rini who transformed into Sailor Minimoon in the original English dubs of Sailor Moon and played the majority of the episodes featuring the child of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask from the future. Sugar is known as an actress as well as a television and radio personality.

For Susan Roman, being part of the wacky, wonderful world of animation for most of her adult life has been a dream come true. Along the way, she worked on projects that have since become mainstream classics. She is probably best known as the voice of Sailor Jupiter in the original English dub of Sailor Moon.

Additional sponsors have also recently been added for this year’s convention. The current list of sponsors includes:

• Tessellate Videos (official photo and video sponsor)
• Chop Shop Goods (clothing sponsor – selling show exclusive T-shirts)
• Right Stuf Anime (prize sponsor, enter the contest here)
• Arda Wigs (prize sponsor for cosplay contest)
• Pink City (prize sponsor)
• Girl Guides of Canada (activity sponsor)

The complete program is set to be released by the end of May and will include scheduled times for a variety of panels, activities, and screenings. The Sailor Moon R movie will have a featured screening at this event, for those fans who missed the theatrical screening or who wish to watch it again with other Sailor Moon fans.

Crafting and video games are returning in “Game Center Crown” and attendees will be able to try a couple of Sailor Moon video games included with their admission as well as make a selection of crafts including buttons, hair bow clips, tutus, mini backpacks, and more. Outdoors, there will also be an area where fans can play a giant game of chess and see if they have what it takes to be a chess master like Sailor Mercury! There will also be “capture the rose” and some other casual games.

Additional features for this convention celebrating the 24th anniversary of the classic anime series are to be announced at a later date.

Pre-registration tickets are $25 general admission, $20 for children 6-11. Admission at the door is $30 general admission, $25 for children 6-11. Children 5 and under are always free.

Fans attending Anime North can also meet some of the Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration crew and hear more about the only Sailor Moon convention in Toronto.

Full press release is available here for the guest announcements.

Fans in the Vancouver area can look forward to meeting voice actress and singer Shizuka Itou (Sailor Venus in Sailor Moon Crystal) this August at Anime Revolution Summer.

Some of Shizuka Itou’s other voice roles include: Yayoi Kunizuka (Psycho-Pass), Tamaki Kousaka (To Heart 2), Lenalee Lee (D. Gray Man), Irina Jelavic (Assassination Classroom), Himawari Kunogi (xxxHolic), Hinagiku Katsura (Hayate the Combat Butler), Koko Hekmatyar (Jormangund) and Akeno Himejima (High School DxD).

In March 2016, Shizuka Itou was also awarded Best Supporting Actress at the 10th Annual Seiyuu Awards.

In addition to voicing anime and game characters, Shizuka Itou is a well-known singer in Japan and has lent her vocals to ending theme songs in animes such as Hayate the Combat Butler and Amagami SS.

Three day pass tickets are approximately $75 +tax for the convention (currently discounted to $70 +tax). Single day passes are also available at the door and range from $50-$60 (plus taxes). Their ticket site is currently experiencing some technical difficulties, you may encounter errors in Google Chrome but you can try another browser for the time being.

Source: Anime Revolution Facebook Page

Voice actors Ron Rubin, Jill Frappier, and Loretta Jafelice will have a reunion for the first time at a convention, for their roles as the talking celestial cats in Sailor Moon.

Ron Rubin is well known as the original voice of Artemis for the entire run of the DiC and Cloverway dubs of Sailor Moon. He is one of the busiest animation actors around and his voice can be heard in countless anime shows and cartoon series.

Jill Frappier was the original voice of Luna for the entire run of the DiC and Cloverway dubs of Sailor Moon. She is an actor, storyteller, drama teacher “extraordinaire,” and has performed in well over 100 plays at major theatres in Toronto and across Canada, including the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. She also makes pottery, under the brand Jill’s Objets.

Loretta Jafelice is best known for her roles of Eugeal of the Witches 5 and Diana, the celestial kitten from the future. She also voiced some monsters of the day.

Another highlight guest for us this year is the wonderfully talented Jennifer Cihi, the singing voice of Sailor Moon.

Jennifer will be performing alongside Serasymphony in a special ticket concert that will run appriximately 90 minutes including intermission and will start at 8pm in the Imperial Oil auditorium. Concert tickets are discounted for attendees of the Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration if purchased in advance. Public sales of the concert tickets will open on April 24th for those who wish to only attend the concert.

Concert ticket prices are discounted to $12.50 for Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration general attendees (Ages 12+), $6.25 – for Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration Child attendees (Ages 6-11), and free for children 5 and under accompanying a Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration general attendee with a concert ticket. Prices go up for event attendees on April 24th (the discount will be reduced). Questions about tickets for the concert can be emailed to info@blc3music.com.

Fans will also have the opportunity to meet SeraSymphony and Jennifer Cihi before the concert at the convention, even if they do not have concert tickets. Their will be separate panels for Jennifer Cihi and SeraSymphony as well.

Other guests of honour added to this year’s event are:

Cosplay Guest of Honour – Grey Cosplay

Our seventh cosplay guest of honour, GreyCosplay, is a Toronto based cosplayer who has been enjoying the art and the challenge of bringing his favourite characters to life for 4 years.  From anime and manga to video games and comics, Grey has dabbled in it all.

Cosplay Guest of Honour – Phil Mizuno

Our sixth cosplay guest this year is Phil Mizuno, an up and coming Canadian-native cosplayer who followed his heart and is pursuing his passion to empower others through positivity and creativity. Phil has been cosplaying for just over 2 years, and currently lives and creates his cosplays in Toronto, Ontario.

Guest of Honour – Fan Fiction The Show

Joining us for a second year, Fan Fiction The Show will be entertaining you again with the hilarious antics of a Sailor Moon themed fan fiction comedy performance. The one hour performance will be rated PG so that all of our attendees can enjoy it!

This year’s event is quickly evolving into a very full day of spectacular guests and lots of fun activities. We hope to see you there if you can make it!

Pre-registration tickets are $25 for general admission to the convention. General admission at the door will be $30. Children 6-11 are $5 off and children 5 and under are free.

The full press release is available here. If you would like to be added to the press list for future press releases about this event, please send an email to info@sailormooncelebration.com

Just released is the Japanese trailer for the upcoming arc of Sailor Moon Crystal:

According to the official website, the show will be premiering Monday, April 4th on TOKYO MX and air weekly on Mondays. On Tuesdays, it will air on San TV and BS11; Fridays on TVQ Kyushu; and Sundays on Television Hokkaido and TV Aichi.

The new theme song, “In Love with the New Moon” is sung by Etsuko Yakushimaru. The new ending theme, “Eternal Eternity,” is sung by Sailors Uranus (Junko Minagawa) and Neptune (Sayaka Ohara).

Also, since it is Sailor Neptune’s birthday today, there is a Twitter event where they released a special image of Michiru to celebrate her birthday after 1000 retweets of the announcement of the trailer on the Sailor Moon 20th official account.

Here’s the tweet showing the birthday image:

【1000RT達成！第二弾は6000RT達成で解禁！】

早速の達成ありがとうございます！海王みちるバースデー画像を公開致します！

別サイズは後日こちらのTwitterにて公開致します。#海王みちる生誕祭#セーラームーン3期 pic.twitter.com/9G5qyssd5C

— セーラームーン20th公式 (@sailormoon_20th) March 6, 2016

We will be on the lookout for official confirmation of streaming options for fans outside of Japan to continue watching episodes.

Hello, Sailor Moon fans!

I took part as a speaker in the first episode of the Zannen, Canada podcast and there was plenty of talk about Sailor Moon. I reminisced about how I got into Sailor Moon and my experiences as an early fan of the franchise before the Internet age. There’s also discussion of missed opportunities for anime in Canada and hopes for the future.

Some of you may remember Jesse Betteridge’s previous version of Zannen, Canada which was a Canadian focused anime news site. The podcast is like the next generation of that, with lots of discussions about anime and future interviews with industry figures. She podcast has a primarily Canadian focus, but should be of interest even if you’re outside of Canada and would like to hear more about anime in North America.

If you’d like to listen to the first episode of the Zannen, Canada podcast, you can check it out here.