Hey Moonies! Yes, we all know there have been a lack of updates going on this site in the last few weeks. There really hasn’t been anything going on. There was a story from Japan recently about a TV Meteorologist who was inspired to be in her field because of Sailor Moon, and Sailor Moon Channel has new horoscopes posted.

And we couldn’t let this actor update go unnoticed at all – Keiko Han (Luna in both the anime and PGSM, Queen Beryl in the anime) and her daughter Megumi are keeping it in the family! Both are currently appearing in Madhouse’s retelling of Yoshihiro Togashi’s (Naoko Takeuchi’s husband) Hunter X Hunter! Megumi is in the leading role as Gon Freecss, and Keiko Han plays Mito Freecss, Gon’s adopted mother. Megumi was challenged on the first day of recording; while she was working alongside her mother, she still felt some of the pressure from her! She also said that her mother was surprised that she chose to follow in her footsteps, and initially didn’t consider voice acting a career until after she had started university. Oricon conducted an interview with the two of them which can be read here!

Junichi Sato (Director for Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R seasons) will be making his first American convention appearance! He will appear at Ushicon 2012 in Austinn, Texas, from February 3-5th. For more information, check out the con’s official webpage here!

Hot Topic just recently introduced a new purple Sailor Moon T-shirt featuring Sailor Moon, Chibi-Usa, and Luna-P (or Rini and Luna Ball for you dubbies). Sailordees’ one sentence review: like the design, appeals to the younger fan in me, wish yet again this wasn’t so see through. The Sailor Moon Raglan is also back in stock. Oh, and Hot Topic now has a Sailor Moon Hoodie! Keep your eyes on the site though, the product has just launched and will probably be in stock very soon (fans do not worry, you didn’t miss this). This is a site we have on our daily radar that we check every morning and evening, and the hoodie was not listed this week.

While Hot Topic was the exclusive launch licensee for the T-shirts, FYE is now testing the sales of the T-shirts in their stores now. We contacted a representative of Hybrid Apparel yesterday, and learned that the two will always have different designs for t-shirts. But, if this test is successful then there could be potential to have Sailor Moon shirts at other retailers in the spring. Fans can check out images of the shirts posted at Sailor Moon Fans on Livejournal.

We are not sure that FYE was a wise decision. FYE has only 440 stores nationwide, of which the vast majority of them are concentrated in Eastern states. Hot Topic has 634 stores that are balanced a little more evenly throughout the US. FYE also doesn’t sell their shirts online, and we all know what the demand for these shirts are. It is hard to know if FYE’s success will match that of Hot Topic’s.

For those of you who read Anime News Network and didn’t read the posting on our Facebook page yesterday, here’s our correction reposted here.

“For those of you who have read this week’s ANN Answerman, there’s a major inaccuracy posted. “Dumbing it down even further, it’s a tangled, messy legal nightmare.” The “legal nightmare” is OVER – why else are we seeing anime-related merchandise?! There are only a few hands responsible for working the agreements for each territory, and they have come into fruition one at a time. It took a long time for these hands to reach North America. It will happen soon, major strides began in September. Once again, we invite ANN to stop talking about the rights to Sailor Moon in such a negative light, because you’re not doing the series any good with your words.”

And while we are still talking Sailor Moon politics: Italy isn’t getting the Artbooks. We don’t know any more details about this, but we do have a lot of questions. Did GP publishing ever have the rights, and did they say that they would publish them ahead of any contracts being signed? Were they pulled suddenly by Naoko Takeuchi/PNP? Did they disappear for the same reason that there will be no new toys there this holiday season? On the North America side, we can tell you that the companies are aware of fans’ demand for the artbooks. Until we hear a definite no, we will keep trying. And as far as the Mexico DVDs go? We haven’t been able to keep up with this – but please do your part to support Sailor Moon. Mexican Moonies, let us know if sales are still dwindling (Hey Cycyn, could you be so kind to send us an email to tell us what is going on? We miss you xoxo).

On the bright side, Sailor Moon’s trip to North America should have the absolute and complete go ahead to purchase her plane ticket very close to Christmas.  There should be news in 2012!

Edit: Here are some better pictures of the T-shirt designs being sold at FYE. Photos provided by Hybrid Apparel.

Tales of Festival Adds More Seiyuu!

More seiyuu have been announced to appear at the upcoming Tales of Festival! In February we told you that two seiyuu that were involved with Sailor Moon were going to appear, and we can now add a third to that list! Joining Masaya Onosaka (Jadeite) and Hikaru Midorikawa (Fiore, Ail/Alan, pictured right) is Nobuyuki Hiyama who had two small roles as Yosaku Eda and Tsunawataro. Nobuyuki Hiyama plays Veigue Lungberg in two Tales of titles, Rebirth and Graces. This is the third year in a row that the festival is being held. Since February, fans have had the option to help decide what will be performed at this 5-day festival and are currently voting on their favorite skits. Tickets are selling fast, so fans that are in Japan (or will be) had better hurry up and get them quickly as there are only 12,000 available!

And there are even more connections between Sailor Moon and the Tales of Franchise – the brand new PSP game Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X, features Mika Kanai (Mimete) as Arche Klaine, a playful half-elf. She feels doomed that because she is a half-elf she lives forever, and loses many of those who are close to her in her life. No release date has been announced yet, but the game has been teased around the Japanese media since March.

Daisuke Sakaguchi On New Daisuke CD and in New Gin Tama movie!

In Japan, a bunch of seiyuu with the first name “Daisuke” all got together and recorded a drama about the lives of 5 different young men, united by their first name: Daisuke. Among the real Daisukes is Daisuke Sakaguchi, better known to Sailor Moon fans for his very small roles in the show including a Cat, a Boy, a Young Man, and Kyuusuke Sarashina. In Daisuke, he plays the cute, younger Daisuke of the bunch, Daisuke Toma. His character is very close to that of Mitsukuni “Honey” Haninozuka from Ouran! A new drama cd was released on April 24th, and revolves around the birthday of Daisuke Toma. Buzz among fans is pretty good for this comedy! Daisuke also reprised his role as Shimura Shinpachi in the new Gin Tama movie Gintama: A New Retelling Benizakura Arc and attended the premiere. The theaters have been packed since the movie’s release, and over 2000 fans attended a special event weeks before the premiere. He is pictured here in the green-striped shirt! Kazuya Nakai (Oranja and Ittou Asanuma) and Akira Ishida (Fisheye) also appeared at the premiere, and reprised their roles as Hijikata Toushirou and Kotaro Katsura for the movie.

Kazuya Nakai sings with Nobuo Tobita and is So Not A Hero!

Just released in Japan is a brand new character single devoted to the villains Shade and Torch of Kiddy Girl-and, the sequel to the popular anime Kiddy Grade. Kazuya Nakai (Oranja and Ittou Asanuma) plays Torch (left) and Nobuo Tobita (Pupuran, Jinta Araki,Honjou and Yamagishi) plays Shade (right). The two are partners in crime ’till the end, and the songs of Kiddy Girl-and Vol. 6 Phantom of Rainbow are supposed to reflect that.As of this writing we were unable to find any samples of the songs online. And for those of you who are big fans of the Wii Game No More Heroes, did you know that the role of the Video Game Otaku Travis Touchdown is played by none other than Kazuya? He is set to reprise his role in the upcoming port of No More Heroes to the PS3 and XBOX No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise, and will probably play Travis again in the Japanese sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle when a Japanese release is announced.

Machiko Toyoshima Can Finally Play an RPG That She Is In!

For ten years now, Machiko Toyoshima (PallaPalla) has been the voice of Misha (the love interest of the main character Carmaine) in the Growlanser RPG franchise for Playstation. A year ago, an adaptation of the RPG was finally released to PSP, and Machiko was excited at the chance to finally play this RPG since she couldn’t before. In honor of the franchise’s tenth anniversary, a special series of drama CDs are being released and Machiko reprised her character in them. She was happy that ten years later this franchise is still going strong. The CD will be released on May 26th.

JunJun Invades Space!

Kumiko Watanabe (JunJun) is the voice of the lead character in Keroro Gunso (Sgt. Frog), Sergeant Keroro. The fourth movie Keroro Gunso the Super Movie: Creation! Ultimate Keroro, Wonder Space-Time Island just premiered in Japan, and Kumiko attended the premiere event held at Ikebukuro Sunshine Cinema. On stage, she was joking around with her other castmates and told the critics to give the movie a good review so that the fans can be as excited to see the movie as they were making it!She also made special mention that it took a lot of teamwork to make this movie special and acknowledged her fellow castmates. This movie also has a second connection to Sailor Moon, in that it was directed by the same animation director, Junichi Sato! As of this writing we do not know if any of these movies will be released by FUNImation, as officially we understand that they have only dubbed the first 51 episodes (first season).

Dear Moonies: We know you are all anxious! Yes, we read this story tonight about new DVDs in Mexico and Latin America, but we are waiting for official confirmation. There is an image of Sailor Moon on Capital 8’s site (which is a very good sign) but there is no press release listed anywhere, and we just want to be sure. We’re a little surprised that we don’t see the correct copyright credentials on that image, since they are all over the images (or in proximity of them) in Italy. We have contacted relevant official sources for confirmation and we will comment on this as soon as possible!

Now, back to what this post is really about:

Hours ago, reader Jim! sent us these links to some new interviews on YouTube which came from a series of specials on ANIMAX. Creators, is a talk show on ANIMAX that is hosted by Kyan Chiaki (the cosplayer at the Sailor Moon DVD Launch & Reunion Event) and actor Kendo Kobayashi. On the shows which aired on the Saturdays, February 6th and 13th, three very special guests were featured! Directors Junichi Sato and Kunihiko Ikuhara, as well as Sailor Moon herself, Kotono Mitsuishi were interviewed on the talk show. The three of them shared the untold story of how the show was born, and how it changed the industry. Kotono also shared some special memories of her time on the show, and even moves a giant Sailor Moon plush around while performing her infamous monologue right after her transformation! Unfortunately, we are really busy behind the scenes of Moon Chase with our big endeavour coming this Friday, and trying to get this rumor confirmed. We don’t have a lot of time to watch this interview – but know that we are working on getting something related to this interview to you fans through other, more exciting avenues. In the meantime, please watch it here:

First Half, Part 1
First Half, Part 2
First Half, Part 3

Second Half, Part 1
Second Half, Part 2
Second Half, Part 3

Junichi continued (and still is) on the show yesterday and next week, for his work on Keroro Gunso (better known in English as Sgt. Frog).

Junichi Sato (Episode Director, Series Director, and Storyboard throughout the series) is directing the upcoming anime, Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ (or Sea Story ~Something You Can Do~ in English). This isn’t your typical The Little Mermaid story. This is a much darker take! Marin, the Maiden of the Sea, and her sister Urin, are two pure beings of the sea who dream of the world above the water. One day, a beautiful ring falls into the sea, and the two sisters decide to venture outside of the water to return it to its rightful owner.After a long journey, they come upon an isolated island. A high school girl named Kanon lives there, and she is the Maiden of the Sky. The encounter between Kanon and Marin unleashes hidden powers for the girls, as the world they know becomes enshrouded by darkness. The show is partly based on a “magical mermaid fantasy” pachinko, and begins next week on the 24th on CBC and later on TBS (which also aired PGSM back in the day). For those of our readers planning to watch this, we’ll warn you that the series features some pretty scantilly clad girls (the premise was so good! WHY WHY WHY ARE YOU ANIMATORS NOT GIVING THE GIRLS MORE CLOTHING T_T). The official site has a few trailers and the opening streaming for fans to check out. We really like the Kame Blog (Turtle Blog_ featured on the site! There’s a bunch of promotional tie-ins as well. At a promotional event held two weeks ago, Sato commented how much he enjoyed working with the cast and crew throughout this series’ development, and that he wishes to work with them all again. At the time of this event, only four episodes had been completed. He also wished them all the best of luck for this series and their work in the future. He is pictured at the event here with the main cast (bottom row, second from right in white jacket and pink shirt). A challenge he had working on this series was trying to find the perfect way to get a childish, summery, voice out of the seiyuu involved! This looks like it will be a fun magical girl anime!

We were unable to get our own copy of the Anime Giga episode we told you all about last night. But we were able to watch it thanks to the user Iris4d so we bit the bullet and watched it using Veoh’s horrible TV client. There was one small mention of Sailor Moon in the beginning when they were introducing his creds, but other than that it seemed like they talked about every anime that he had ever worked on except for Sailor Moon. The series was huge in Japan and did influence a lot of series after it and we really questioned this decision. They profiled anime that he has worked on such as Sargent Keroro, Ojamajo Doremi, and Kaleido Star, and he cooked for the hosts of the show. If you want to watch it , click here. Unfortunately Veoh has imposed a five minute limit on their streamed videos, but if you want to watch it all you’re pretty much forced to download the client. We really don’t recommend fans go to such lengths to watch this unless they are hardcore Junichi Sato fans. While it was good to hear his thoughts on his works of paths, we honestly thought the show could have been a lot better.