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).

**”Charaben” is an amalgamation between character and bento and is used frequently in the Japanese language (before you ask us what that word means).

Literally just minutes ago, this article was posted for release to the news media providing more details about the venture between ANIMAX and Foodies TV in Japan, teaching kids how to make character bento meals. We are all loving these pictures right now and are really wishing there was some way to watch this channel! On February 7th, Kaerenmama (real name, Kyoko Sugawara) is going to show kids on Foodies TV how to make these bento, as well as teach them something about proper nutrition as well. There will be a special taping where 40 viewers will be invited to watch, sponsored by Tokyo Gas. In true Sailor Moon style, viewers will once again have to enter a lottery to win one of 20 pairs of tickets (each network is offering 10). The special will be aired on both ANIMAX and Foodies TV throughout the month of March. We wonder if Kotono Mitsuishi’s (Sailor Moon) daughter will watch this with her?! Moreover, the two channels have announced a competition where children can also submit their own bento recipes for a contest. The winner will be announced on May 18th in Shogakukan’s child-rearing magazine, edu. Looking at these pictures alone, it looks like fans have yet another reason to be jealous of Japan, again. We wonder if a Sailor Moon cooking special could ever thrive in the English TV market?

(click to enlarge)

Just the Barest Minimum?

This morning, Sailor Moon Channel updated again predictably, as it does at the beginning of the month. We on staff were fully expecting her not to acknowledge that the series was back on the air, and feature either a new game or addition to a feature on the site, and some new fan letters to Luna. Well, both of those were there. The 8th Luna Report was posted, and this one featured more snippets from the manga to put together a typical day for the Senshi. Right at the top of the fan letters posting was a letter from a 25 year old fan named Risa from Kanagawa Prefecture. Our plans for Phase 4 had included a template for fan letters to SMC, and one of those were planned to include something about being happy the show was back on the air on ANIMAX and how it’s a joy to see something we all enjoyed when we were younger again. However, we’ve been unbelievably busy with the other phases of the campaign and keeping a Hawk’s Eye on what’s going on in Japan, so this part was shelved to go with the upcoming phase. This letter must have been one of several she received from Japanese fans, and this may have prompted her to finally take some acknowledgment of the rebroadcast. The picture we have featured above is a screenshot of the index page (the frames are just not aligning properly, this is why the Moon and the spark on the right have gaps), but in a box, we have highlighted the announcement, which simply says that Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon is broadcast from Mondays to Fridays on ANIMAX. It doesn’t link anywhere.

Here’s the translation of the letter from Risa!

The rebroadcast of the animated cartoon ‘Sailor Moon’ started 9/1 on ANIMAX, and when I was in grade school I looked forward to watching it happily every day! I loved Sailor Moon!

I am turning 25 years old and the cartoon is still a big favorite of mine (*laughter*). I am happy! Please continue with the forever lasting eternal Sailor hero that I wanted to be when I was younger!

Hey Risa, there’s no reason to be embarrassed being a fan of it at such an age! We know of many fans who are much older! And here is “Luna’s” very un-fun response:

Sailor Moon finally began rebroadcasting! Please continue your support and everything else you are doing and watch it everyday! Broadcast details are on the right of the home page above the News.

We thought we’d see something a little more fun from “Luna”. This response just appears very bare bones and boring compared to the energy she has for responding to the other letters.

This does, however give us a few more pieces to the puzzle. This announcement comes nearly a month after the rebroadcast, and nearly two months after Kotono’s first interview promoting the return of the series. Moreover, there was never an announcement about the movies rebroadcasting on Toei Channel. Perhaps, there is still a lot of animosity between Naoko and Toei , and she felt that she would have to publicize the movies on Toei Channel if she announced the series’ return on ANIMAX (they were being packaged together as Sailor Moon Matsuri [Sailor Moon Festival] ) and perhaps this is the reason why she avoided posting anything on the site about it.

Still though, something doesn’t seem right. A proper site with something like this would have at the very least linked to ANIMAX’s Sailor Moon subsite. This is why this is just a bare minimum mention. “Luna” could have said something like “I am watching it to” or “I am glad to have my adventures with Sailor Moon again”, but it looks like it was never meant to be.

Nonetheless, ありがとうございます 武内直子. 私たちは愛美少女戦士セーラームーン. として、それと思ったほど悪くないではなかった！ あなた美少女戦士セーラームーン英語で、別の機会を与えていただけますか？

EDIT: The announcement now links to ANIMAX!

ANIMAX has finally issued a press release announcing the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon DVD Collection release. It doesn’t say anything new except that it does confirm that they are being printed on dual-layer DVDS, the sound is monaural and there will be textless openings included as extras, and series notes of some sort (for now). The 20th anniversary page lists that features are subject to change, so we may get more extra features (and if fans are going to spend a small fortune on the boxsets, we hope there will be more). Below is our translation of what they wrote in the release (sans the cast, crew, DVD, and plot details). We’ll warn you ahead of time that the sentences are long in the original and we tried our best to adapt them to English grammar.

—

Sailor Moon DVD-COLLECTION announced! Vol.1 on sale Dec.11!

The landmark girl’s cartoon of the 1990’s Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon.

It became a booming social phenomenon that far exceeded the realm of a mere TV animation and girls’ comics and animated cartoon in 1992, the TV series lasted for 5 seasons of production, three movies, and spawned several character goods such as dolls and wands that helped to make it become an explosive hit, now finally appears in a DVD-BOX.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon DVD-COLLECTION VOL.1 is put on the market on December 11, 2009, and Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon DVD-COLLECTION VOL.2 is put on the market on January 21, 2010.

Collect from 1 story to 24 stories in Vol.1 to 25 stories to 46 stories in Vol.2.

A collection of notes and textless OP / ED are included as special features.

The inner jacket glitters and shines like the stars!

This volume has revived the anime beautifully because of the new print mastering, too.

See the sailor warriors fighting, in a new BOX.

—

We also updated our DVD post with links to CDJapan and Amazon Japan! If any of our readers find other sites in English that will ship internationally, please let us know so we can add it to the list!

We came across two new commercials today on Japanese streaming sites, and once again, we worked very hard along with one of our Moon Chase friends Aaron Maupin, to put them together! Sadly, the video quality of the original that we got this from wasn’t that great and we re-encoded everything at the highest quality we could so we didn’t lose too much more. Both of these begin with a “countdown” – 6 days before the Sailor Moon got back on the air, teasers would air with Kotono Mitsuishi recording a new voice over with a countdown by the day! The user who uploaded this cut just that part out of the teasers and made a countdown. The first one ends with a commercial we saw in the last batch, but the second one ends with a commercial we have never seen before. We hope you enjoy – and thanks again to Aaron Maupin for his help in translating! Go visit Game Socks!

Link:

Link:

Both commercials are uploaded to YouTube as well (first one and second one).