By now you have probably read our announcement post about VIZ acquiring Sailor Moon. And we also recommend reading the interview with Charlene Ingram and Josh Lopez on Anime News Network.

We now have more details from the official press release (which will be public on Monday) and the tweets from the official VIZ Media Twitter feed.

(image from VIZ Media)

From VIZ Media PR:

• VIZ has acquired licensing for all 200 episodes, the 3 movies, and additional specials
• VIZ Media’s North American rights cover digital streaming, EST (Electronic Sell Through) and all home media products in the U.S. and Canada. Tokyo-based Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is the producer and global licensor for the SAILOR MOON anime property.
• The series will be rated TV-PG
• All new and accurate English subtitles
• Subtitled Electronic Sell Through sets will be available starting in late June 2014 (beginning with season 1, part 1) and dubbed editions will be available in late 2014, day and date with the DVD/Blu-ray combo pack release
• DVD and deluxe, limited edition Blu-ray/DVD combo packs are planned for fall 2014 in 1/2 season sets
• Created from the Japanese remaster, and for the first time ever available on Blu-ray!
• The release will be uncut, uncensored, and in the original 4:3 aspect ratio
• All original Japanese names, story elements, and relationships will be intact
• New English dub will feature a new voice cast
• Monday, May 19th, VIZ Media will premier episodes 1-4 subtitled on NeonAlley.com for free as well as in high definition on the paid HuluPlus service
• 2 new episodes will premiere every Monday, which VIZ is calling “Moon days”
• Dub streaming coming soon
• VIZ Media has also acquired Sailor Moon Crystal, with more details forthcoming
• More details will be announced at AnimeExpo, July 3rd-6th at the Los angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. VIZ Media will host a variety of special activities and panels on “Sailor Moon Day” – Saturday, July 5th.

Quotes from the press release:

“We’re pleased to partner with VIZ Media to bring the beloved SAILOR MOON anime series back to North America,” says Masayuki Endo, General Manager, Toei Animation, Inc. “This fresh uncut and uncensored release of SAILOR MOON  featuring the most accurate adaptation available will be just as creator Naoko Takeuchi intended. We look forward to fans current and new discovering and falling in love with this classic series all over again!”

“SAILOR MOON is one of the extremely rare breed of anime series truly deserving of the title of ‘Legendary’,” says Charlene Ingram, VIZ Media Senior Manager, Animation Marketing. “Since its initial debut in the mid-1990’s, SAILOR MOON has been unavailable to English-speaking fans for nearly a decade. It has also never seen a complete and proper unedited release in North America…until now!”

“SAILOR MOON was groundbreaking in the way its storyline and main characters resonated with both a male and female audience, and these aspects continue to attract a new generation of fans eager to see this iconic series,” says Brian Ige, VIZ Media Vice President of Animation. “We’re thrilled to be able to release this empowering action title uncut and in its entirety. We invite fans to catch the official premieres on Neon Alley and to enjoy the series on DVD and Blu-ray later this year!”

From the interview on ANN, there is a hint that we might see some old cast members return. No names at this time as the cast announcement will be at AnimeExpo. We have no idea if it is only one former cast member at this time or multiple. However, we can speculate that former English language cast members who are eligible to work in the US are likely to have a greater chance of being considered.

They also included a preview image of the Blu-ray quality:

(image from Anime News Network)

As we mentioned previously, VIZ Media has confirmed that Naoko Takeuchi has final approval of the cast:

#sailormoon deets: This Sailor Moon release will have a new English dub cast blessed by the creator herself.

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

No television broadcasts have been announced yet, but VIZ Media is interested in talking to YTV about it:

@andrepaploo @fireaxe428 @IMissBionix @MichaelToole we’re always up for a conversation @ytv give us a call sometime
— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

@OcassionalVlog we’re actually hoping that our sempai @ytv might give us a call about broadcast

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

We want to support Sailor Moon getting a television broadcast, particularly in Canada as NeonAlley and Hulu are currently blocked in Canada. We also have a soft sport for YTV as they were the first network to air Sailor Moon in Canada.

Let’s make this trend! Canadians want to see #SailorMoon back on @YTV @VIZMedia

— Moon Chase (@moonchaseblog) May 17, 2014

Fans can also use the hashtag #SailorMoononYTV to show support! @YTV @VIZMedia

— Moon Chase (@moonchaseblog) May 17, 2014

Of course, we would also like to see a US television broadcast of Sailor Moon too (hello, Cartoon Network?)

This is an exciting time to be a Sailor Moon fan! We will keep you posted with more details as they are released.

Exciting news for Sailor Moon fans in North America. Viz has secured licensing for Sailor Moon – the original anime and Sailor Moon Crystal:

Now announcing…. We officially have the license to #sailormoon

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 16, 2014

And… we also have #SailorMoonCrystal #micdrop #winning — VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 16, 2014

Starting May 19th, fans can start watching the original Sailor Moon anime on Neon Alley and Hulu. New episodes will be aired every Monday. Canadian fans – Viz is working on a streaming option for Canada as well.

Launch trailer below:

Details are limited at the moment, but here’s what we know so far.

Viz will stream all 200 episodes and 3 movies uncut:

#SailorMoon deets: We’ve acquired all 200 episodes and 3 movies.

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

#sailormoon deets, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune will NO LONGER BE COUSINS! Can I get an RT?!

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 16, 2014

#sailormoon deets: no more Serena and Darien, meet Usagi and Mamoru

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 16, 2014

There will be a Blu-ray release – for the first time ever (in addition to DVD and digital releases):

Available subtitled and with a new English language dub:

#sailormoon deets: This Sailor Moon release will have a new English dub cast blessed by the creator herself.

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

They may also be considering televised airings:

@andrepaploo @fireaxe428 @IMissBionix @MichaelToole we’re always up for a conversation @ytv give us a call sometime

— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) May 17, 2014

(YTV was the first TV network in North America to air Sailor Moon the first time!)

You can also check out the official Sailor Moon launch site here.

Edit: added more details about the release

The voice cast has been announced for the five inner senshi in Sailor Moon Crystal:

• Sailor Moon: Kotono Mitsuishi
• Sailor Mercury: Hisako Kanemoto
• Sailor Mars: Rina Sato
• Sailor Jupiter: Ami Koshimizu
• Sailor Venus: Shizuka Ito

Notable crew and other details:

• Director: Munehisa Sakai
• Character Designer: Yukie Sako
• Art Directors: Takashi Kurahashi and Yumi Hosaka
• Animation studio: Toei Animation,
• Series Scripts: Yūji Kobayashi
• Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi
• Theme Song: Momoiro Clover Z
• Soundtrack Producer: King Records

There is also some character art available on the official Sailor Moon website. We’ve included a few shots below for you.

More images and character information (in Japanese) are available here.

The new anime series will begin airing July 5th at 7pm in Japan, on NicoNico. It is said to not be a remake, but will be a new version that adapts the original manga.

If you haven’t seen the mentions on our Twitter feed or our Facebook page yet, there is a scheduled announcement relating to Sailor Moon Crystal on April 27th.

The first indication of the announcement was from the official 20th Anniversary Sailor Moon Twitter account (thanks to Rina Love for the tip):

【更新】4/27開催「ニコニコ超会議３」セーラームーンステージの出演者が決定！ プレゼントやニコ生配信も実施！http://t.co/OzA1bDhtEw ミュージカルキャスト、アニメスタッフ、おさBUが出演決定！ 新作アニメのキャスト発表、記念品配布、ニコ生配信も決定しました！

— セーラームーン20th公式 (@sailormoon_20th) April 18, 2014

(I retweeted this status via @moonchaseblog)

Loosely translated, this tweet indicates that there will be a special live event on NicoNico Douga on April 27th which will include the announcement of the cast for the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime series and an announcement of the new musical cast. There is also a link to a page on the 20th Anniversary site with more details about the event.

This article goes into more detail about who will be there and when you can tune in to the event. The five main cast members (5 sailor senshi) from the musical will make their first public appearance in costume. Also appearing will be Munehisa Sakai (director of Sailor Moon Crystal), Yuu Shiboku (producer of Sailor Moon Crystal), and Fumio Osano (the original editor of the manga storyline). The in-person audience is limited to 500 people. The airing on NicoNico Douga will be at 4pm in Japan (3am EDT for those of you who can’t sleep!). A free account with NicoNico will be required to watch the event, which you will be able to access via this link. Also via Twitter was this tweet from Atsutoshi Umezawa, producer:

@sailormoon_20th そして、メインキャスト発表に併せて、メインキャラクターのビジュアルも初公開致します！メインビジュアル以来の、そしてセーラームーン以外のキャラクタービジュアル公開も、お楽しみに！

— 梅澤淳稔 (@A2104Ume) April 18, 2014

This tweet confirms that we will be seeing more character designs from Sailor Moon Crystal, for the main characters.

Later on April 18th, Moon-Cookie also posted a link on our Facebook page about an article on another anime news blog, but we are aware that this site does not work reliably for everyone.

We hope that the details above are helpful to you, but you can also try some translation tools to take a closer look at the article and tweets yourselves if you do not know Japanese.

Stay tuned for news from the event! We are particularly interested in the anime news as we know fans have been waiting with bated breath for more news about Sailor Moon Crystal moving forward. Once we have confirmed details, we will definitely share the information with you!

Hot on the heels of the compact announced a week ago, another set of Sailor Moon cosmetics was announced and tweeted by Fumio Osano (Osabu) today. The Sailor Moon R Miracle Romance Nail Collection features nail polish in pink, blue, red, green, and orange in artfully designed bottles that are representative of the Senshi’s transformation wands. In the post on Sailor Moon Channel, Osabu writes that there was a bit of a challenge in finding the right colors to appeal to adult tastes. The photo on Sailor Moon Channel as well as on Premium Bandai show some nail art accessories that they used to make some fake nails look nice, but it does not appear that those are going to be included (sorry, you will probably need to find a skilled manicure artist to replicate those).  And going by the dimensions posted for the bottles themselves on the site, they appear to be quite a bit smaller than what you would usually expect to see for a nail polish bottle. The collection will go on sale tomorrow, and will cost 5,250 Japanese Yen, or about $53.50 USD. We will refer you to our earlier post about where to purchase the compact.

While we understand that JList (and maybe some other sites) will be carrying the product, please understand that there is now a strict limit on how many of each item can be ordered. Last week it was around 20, this week it is only 2. On each page it says that Premium Bandai would like to be able to sell to more customers, so they have imposed this limit. As far as we know, Premium Bandai has not licensed anyone to distribute the product and we do not know how many of these sites that are promising to sell the product are going to be able to meet the demand. We strongly encourage our fans to look at the shopping services again, which (we will say this again) both have special sections on their site where you can send them a site url and they will order whatever is on there for you. Do not use the search functions there as that will most likely only search Yahoo Auctions.