Hello readers! Lots of updates for you this time about the North American voice actors. They’ve been busy! Updates about Emilie-Claire Barlow and Stephanie Beard will be featured in an upcoming post.

We previously reported that Harvey Atkin (Bumboo/Pox) will be appearing in Barney’s Version. This film has now premiered at Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival (Spain), Venice Film Festival (Italy), Toronto International Film Festival (Canada). It is scheduled to show at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York on October 7th. Still no date for the theatrical release confirmed.

Dennis Akayama is also appearing in a recently released film. He plays Captain Hotaka in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Another installment in the Resident Evil series, this film follows Alice as she joins a group of survivors who want to relocate to a mysterious safe haven known as Arcadia (description from IMDb).

Sabrina Grdevich (Anne/Sailor Pluto #1) appeared in an episode of Rookie Blue, as Anna Vetter. In this episode of the police drama, a heat wave wreaks havoc on the city (description from IMDb).

David Fraser (Grandpa Hino) will be playing Karl Rove in the upcoming film, Casino Jack. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, on September 16th and 17th. It is expected to show in theatres starting in December 2010. An official trailer is available here. He also appears in Covert Affairs as a supervisor in the episode entitled “Houses of the Holy.” The show is a crime drama about a CIA agent.

Katie Griffin can be heard as Hikaru in Beyblade: Metal Fusion. Canadian fans may be interested to know that new episodes are coming up on YTV. We previously reported that Robert Tinkler (Rubeus) appears in this show as Gingka. We have also heard that more voice actors from Sailor Moon may be appearing in this series, so keep listening out for them!

Naz Edwards (Queen Beryl) will be appearing on stage in the upcoming musical The Drowsy Chaperone, which runs from November 11 – December 26, 2010 at the Performance Network theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ticket information is available here. Here’s the description of the play from the theatre: “A lollapalooza of a musical to take you back to the dazzling fantasy of the 1920’s – when stars had charisma, Broadway had romance and audiences had the time of their lives. You know the one… where the Broadway star wants to leave the show because she’s fallen for an oil-rich lummox, so the producer hires a gigolo to woo the girl and put the kibosh on the nuptials? Winner of Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, it’s guaranteed to put a song in your heart! Featuring Naz Edwards (Little Shop of Horrors).”

Tracey Hoyt (Rini #1) can be heard in The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! as Sally’s Mom.

Sarah Lafleur (Sailor Uranus) appears as the title character in Taylor Warren, a 14 minute short film. It premiered July 25th at the Regency Academy Theatre in Pasadena, CA as part of the 2010 Action On Film Festival. (source: sarahlafleurfan.com)

Alice Poon (Catsy) can be seen in Devil, recently released in theatres, as Officer Choi. This PG-13 film is about a group of people trapped in an elevator who realize that the devil is among them (description from IMDb).

Alison Sealy-Smith (Amphibia) has now appeared in seven episodes Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures as Nurse Lydia. Although these episodes premiered some time ago, we only now have confirmation of her appearance in them.

Robert Tinkler (Rubeus), can also be heard in The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! as Fish, Thing 1, Thing 2, and other characters. Fans can catch this series on Treehouse in Canada and PBS in the US.

EDIT (May 29th): The Impostor has finally come forward, and has notified the woman in the false images. We have removed the images now that this mystery is solved, and we will have more to share with you later.

I promised you a bombshell last week, and here it comes. Last year, when I was trying to put things together for the Operation Moonrise campaign and asking Roland Parliament about specific companies involved, he told me that I’d make a great Detective or Investigative Journalist. I kind of agreed with the journalist part, but not so much the detective part as I couldn’t see myself solving any real mysteries. Little did I know less than a year later, I’d be filling that Detective role.

You all probably know most of the story by now. Tuesday, March 30th – I get home after a long day at school, only to find that there’s an e-mail waiting for me from the representatives of Sarah Lafleur asking me to take down a reference to an upcoming interview from an impostor. I write up something quick for the website and leave it to my staff to clear up anything related to this impostor, as I head off to an event feeling a little paralyzed. After years of earning the trust of the other actors I do know, I wondered how I fell for this. But, I am only human, and I will do my best to help fix this situation. I sent every email I had from the impostor to the reps in an effort to help their investigation. I felt for her, Sarah had worked really hard to come up in entertainment, and she has had a string of appearances on big productions in the last few years. It can be difficult for Canadian stars to make it big in Hollywood, but she managed to do it. When I heard that she was going to be on multiple episodes of Ugly Betty last year, I was so glad that an actor who worked on Sailor Moon had come so far! Never mind our reputation with the fans, companies, and other important people involved, but her reputation was also becoming just as damaged (if not more) with these false stories going around.

A week later, a comment on the site frustrates me. A fan says that the blonde we had featured on the site was not Linda Ballantyne at all. At this point, after all of the stuff we had to deal with, I was ready to just chalk this up to a fan just being mean and questioning our accuracy. Though, I did have a hunch go through my mind that maybe I should go back and check the emails I got from Linda. Comparing these headers to the ones on the Sarah Lafleur emails, one very crucial piece of information was common between the two. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, that I would call up Linda’s agent in the morning and get a few things on the site verified oficially. I didn’t want to remove it just yet because I wanted her representatives to see it first.

I had a window of about an hour of free time to make the call, and I was nervous. Thankfully, it wasn’t as nerve wracking as some of the first phone calls I had made before sending out the reports for Operation Moonrise. Her agent was super friendly, and did verify that we were dealing with an impostor. We exchanged emails, and I sent everything I had and started to take the Linda posts off the site. I felt for Linda too, because the images we got from the impostor weren’t very professional looking at all. She was shown with a beer at a party, and bowling, and actors rarely ever share personal images like this. And the story about her yelling at a grocery store cashier was probably fake. It was while I was sorting through these emails, that I had a sudden rush of adrenaline come through me and in my mind I thought “NO ONE @#$%! WITH SAILOR MOON ON MY WATCH!” I halted everything, and thought I’d try to solve this mystery of who this impostor might be with all the evidence I had – the one common thread between the two emails, and another tiny piece on what the document properties of the fake Linda Ballantyne interview told me. A couple hours later, I had nailed it. I figured out who it was (with the assistance of some others to verify my hunch was correct – thank you for your help). As soon as I shot off the emails, I called up Linda’s agent again to tell her I had figured out who it was, and it was then that I got the best surprise – Linda was willing to do the interview! I was relieved, that finally I could bring some good news to the fans after a rough couple of weeks. An hour later, I went and I called up Sarah Lafleur’s agent to share that I had figured this out. Sometimes, it takes a lot of convincing to these people that you aren’t a deranged fan but someone who has a legitimate concern, and I really hope that they don’t look down on us or the rest of their actress’ fans because of this. The vast majority of fans aren’t crazy like this person was at all.

I have since told every VA that I know to contact Twitter and get a couple names reserved to prevent this from happening, and I sincerely apologized that this happened at all. I have since decided that for every new interview that we are offered, I am going to take extra measures to make sure I am dealing with the real person. For any one else involved with the show that reads this site (I do know of a few of you!) that has not contacted us, please have you, your agents, or other representatives reserve your names on Twitter, you can do this without having to sign up for an account. I don’t want to see this person do it again (and I do think this person would try to do this again some time from now).

Now, as for the impostor, I am sure word of this post will get to you somehow. And don’t try to deny that it wasn’t you (or come up with some other crazy excuse), we have a lot of solid proof that it was you that did this, so don’t try to hide. No, I’m not going to name you on this site. But, I will say this to you. This act of yours was pretty low. And, we thought that you couldn’t stoop any lower especially given how you continued to label us as liars all over the internet after we had officially debunked a rumor you had started years ago. You fought hell and high water to convince all the fans that you were the one that was telling the truth, in spite of our many phone calls and other investigations to prove that your little rumor was not true at all. No, I’m not going to link users to those posts on this subject or they will instantly know who you are. I believe that you should be the one that reveals yourself to the fans, and everyone else involved in this scandal for what you have done. Don’t dismiss what we are about to tell you as rubbish.

And, here’s what you need to do (and you have to do this because you’ve caused too much damage):

1. Apologize to me, and the rest of the staff of Moon Chase for what you did. We’ll probably never know the reason why you picked these stars to impersonate, but given our reputation with a lot of movers and shakers involved with Sailor Moon, we had to work very hard to fix the damage you caused us. We were lucky enough that with a lot of hard work everyone was sympathetic this time, but the next time we have to clean up your mess, you could ruin it not just for us but for every other fan of Sailor Moon.

2. Apologize to the two stars you victimized. Do this publicly, or contact us and we will forward your apologies to the relevant parties. And be sincere about it, no simple sorries. You hurt the reputation of two stars, and maybe you don’t understand what this means in the entertainment industry. And you stole their identities. How would you feel if someone pretended to be you for a few months and started to write fake stories about you all over? A lot of important people use our site as a measure of fan buzz around certain projects or an actor, so try putting yourself in this position. How would you feel if a potential employer based their professional image of you on phony stories posted on the internet?

You also owe an apology to the other stars of Sailor Moon that you interacted with and pretended to be these people to. You took the camaraderie between the cast for granted. Not even I try to pretend to be “part of the cast” when I communicate with any of them. It is very likely that you are making them think twice about the kinds of fans that they communicate and interact with. Again, when you are ready with your words, forward them to us and we will send them to their representatives.

3. Apologize to the blonde woman whose photo you used mercilessly to portray Linda Ballantyne. We don’t know who she is, but we’re betting she’s someone close that you know based on the photos we have seen of her at a birthday party and bowling. Perhaps, you are alright with having your own photo plastered around as a celebrity to give you more attention, but others are most definitely not, in an industry where image is VERY important. You have hurt her identity as well, because now it is possible that she will be recognized as Linda Ballantyne, and not for her real identity. There are still some images of this blonde woman being passed around the internet as the real Linda Ballantyne, and it will be very difficult to remove all of them given the nature of the internet. This damage that you have caused is a lot more severe than you will ever understand. Tell her that the photos you posted of her are going to be displayed as official images on several sites for Linda Ballantyne, so that when you or her see it, you can get them removed. Because, this person could also be charged with identity theft even though it was you that posted the image (still want to hide and let people that don’t even know you did this suffer?). We’re not going to clean up this mess for you. It’s about time you took some responsibility for your actions. In case you have forgotten whose image you used, we’ve amalgamated all of them into one for you below. Likewise, if any of our readers know the identity (and also contact information) of this woman please let us know so that we can tell her what this impostor has done. We will remove these images once this woman has been identified and notified of what has happened (As of May 29th, we have been notified that she has been notified).

4. This, you must do too. Apologize to all of the fans you have led for a ride with the various rumors about Sailor Moon you have started, and maintained were true even in the face of legitimate evidence that you were the one who was lying. Of course though, you’ve been doing this for years, and we don’t know if you will ever stop. Know now, that we are watching everything that you are saying and we will always be there to get official statements from relevant parties debunking your rumors. The next time we hear of a sensational rumor, you will be at the top of our list of people who we think started it.

5. Never do anything like this EVER again. All parties from all sides are watching what is going on. The situation is very serious, and if you pull anything like this, you will not be the only one that has to pay, but the fans as well. You will ruin the reputation of this site and others, and actors will think twice about interacting with fans because of the damage you have caused. If you want respect from Sailor Moon fans, try being nice for once and not craving attention constantly by posting fake rumors or being “the first” to notice an actor’s presence on the internet. You may get more than you ever expected by just being a nice fan.

I can’t report on what action is being taken, but that all of the evidence I have has been passed on to representatives of both actresses. The happy ending that I can share with you, is that two weeks ago I received a couple signed photos from Sarah Lafleur in the mail, and a note that simply said “Thanks for all your help!” I have scanned one of the photos for you all to see below. Also through every step of the investigation, Linda as well as her agent have thanked and told me how they appreciated all my sleuthing. This all means a lot to me and my staff, and once again we promise that the next time an opportunity like this rolls around again with an actor we have not previously encountered, we will take measures to ensure we have the real one and not an impostor. I have always felt that I have had a lot to prove when it comes to writing, and I am thankful for everyone who has not lost faith in me, our staff, and our site in the face of what has happened. And Roland, a special thanks to you for encouraging me that I’d make a great detective and investigative journalist. This experience has made me believe it, too.

In light of the recent mishap with the Sarah Lafleur imposter, we’re putting together a little project to heal the biggest broken heart of all. Want in? Join our forums and get in on it here! You only have until Wednesday April 7th at Midnight!

Here’s another update on the North American voice actors for everyone, this time we have a few actors returning to roles in shows, a concert date, and a movie trailer.

Sarah Lafleur (Sailor Uranus) made an appearance in the November 27th episode of Ugly Betty. The episode, “Level 7 with Me” was about Daniel Meade’s attempt to reunite with his deceased wife, Molly (played by Lafleur) with the aid of the Community of the Phoenix. Betty and Daniel’s mother, Claire had been suspicious of the motivations of the community, fearing that the community wanted Daniel to invest large amounts of money into it. With help from Matt and Amanda, Betty was able to find Daniel before it was too late. He and Natalie had been drinking some tea with a hallucinogenic drug in it that made them see their loved ones in front of them. Daniel was able to see Molly one last time as Betty tried to coax him out of the trance. In a touching scene, Molly told Daniel that he had to let her go. He kissed her goodbye and then returned to reality with Betty standing before him. Betty later told Daniel that he kissed her eyebrow, because Molly was taller than herself. The episode was a nice way to say goodbye to Sarah Lafleur’s character, but I’m sure we will continue to hear about Molly in future episodes.

Julie Lemieux (Sammy) returned to her role as the voice of Pig Will in a recent episode of Busytown Mysteries (Hurray for Huckle!). The episode, “Sandcastle Squasher/Strange Ski Tracks Mystery” aired November 21st. The Canadian animated children’s show is based on the works of author and illustrator Richard Scarry. It centres around six characters solving the mysteries of everyday life in an imaginary place called Busytown. (description from IMDb)

Harvey Atkin (Pox, Bumboo) returned to his role as Judge Alan Ridenour in the November 18th episode, “Perverted” of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Here’s NBC’s description of the episode: While in the park, a family stumbles upon the mutilated body of Clyde Vandyne, a member of a biker gang known for prostitution and contract killing. To everyone’s surprise, incriminating DNA evidence points to Detective Benson as the prime suspect. Munch and Fin investigate the murder, while Stabler fights to prove his partner’s innocence. The detectives must find the missing link to both Vandyne’s murder and Benson’s involvement.

Harvey Atkin will also be appearing in the upcoming Barney’s Version, a film currently in post-production and scheduled for release in 2010. No details on the name of Harvey’s character yet, but here is a description of the Canadian/Italian film from IMDb: The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Emilie Claire Barlow (Sailor Venus #2) performed December 4th and 5th in Brasil with the Art of Time Ensemble at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Toronto fans will also have an extra chance to see Emilie perform in April 2010. A second performance for Glenn Gould Studio has been added, for Thursday April 15, 2010 at 8pm. She was previously scheduled only for Friday, April 16 at 8pm. Tickets and additional details are available here.

Stephanie Beard (Rini #2) appears in an online trailer for her upcoming film, Not Quite College. The trailer has strong language, mature themes, and Stephanie appears smoking in it. We are suggesting that only our older readers watch it. The film looks like it will appeal to fans of American Pie and similar. If you’re ready, you can view the trailer here. Stephanie appears around 1:30 wearing a bikini and smoking a cigar.

This post has JPEG versions of all our slides and all our major announcements made at our presentation at Animazement! As much as I really wanted to be there, I couldn’t – mainly because my schedule didn’t permit it, and I would have had to fly there. And as you all know, I absolutely have to get a new laptop (my old faithful isn’t going to last much longer) so all my savings are going towards that. This was the first year one of our staffers was attending a con with a Sailor Moon Panel, and having learned a lot from the panel last year (we were the only ones without a powerpoint presentation and most of our points that we had submitted weren’t even read) we thought we’d actually make a presentation and have one of our valuable staffers present it. The plan was that I was going to text in the middle of our presentation with a greeting for the fans and a major announcement, but that didn’t happen as I ran late running errands and I had to leave to go lend my support to local TV. So, for all of you wondering what this late breaking announcement was:

We are working very hard behind the scenes to put this together in phases. However, for those of you who are really wanting to get involved and have your voice heard on more than just polls and surveys, please join our forums. We will only be posting that campaign information there.

We also pledge to you we won’t do anything “infamous” like the Pop-Tarts procott (if provoked on the forums, I may share a story of a similar procott I had to do for another organization a long time ago). As much as we can, we staffers will keep you all up to date on what we are doing and how we are doing it.

BUT: we need every fan who has ever watched an English dub of Sailor Moon in their own countries to get involved. Mostly, we want North Americans , but we’ll have plenty of things for places like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and everywhere else the English dub aired. And for the rest of you international markets? We will have something for you to do too – don’t worry, we aren’t forgetting you!

So please, join our forums. Tell all your friends. Tell your friends to tell their friends. Post links in your sigs on any forums your on with a short sentence like “Hey, Remember Sailor Moon? I sure do and I’d love to have it back! Join me on the Moon Chase Forums!” and add a link. If you have a blog or a site, please link us. We need all the fans we can get to make this a success!

And now, our presentation which we have aptly titled: Moon Beams! Powerpoint chopped off the bottom of my slides when it converted them to JPEG.

Slide 1: Title and names of staff.

Slide 2: Naoko Takeuchi and Yoshihiro Togashi

Yoshihiro Togashi

☽ It’s been too long since we’ve heard from him, he came back twice last year in ten week increments to publish new chapters of Hunter X Hunter. Hunter X Hunter is also getting the Sailor Moon remix treatment as new volumes were released last year with improved drawings.

☽ On the bright side, Yu Yu Hakusho will released (by Bandai) in Japan on Blu-Ray this October and is predicted to be a hot seller! No word on Sailor Moon coming to Blu-Ray. We’re saving our pennies for the day though!

☽ He wrote about Naoko seeing a monkey in their garden last November. His short message read “My wife saw a monkey in the garden. He escaped to the junior high school in the neighborhood after that. The people in the junior high school have seen that monkey recently, even though we live in the same neighborhood and just noticed it now.” Yoshihiro also thanked his fans for their patience, and says that his drawing skills are getting strong again. He is also on some sort of diet that requires him to get 10,000 steps a day and he plays outside with his son a lot. He also said to his fans that it was inexcusable for them to have had to wait this long for the manga to return, but at the same time we’re wondering what’s going on since we haven’t heard anything this year.

Naoko Takeuchi
☽ In January, Sailor Moon Channel posted a picture of Naoko and a short message and drawing from her visit to the Bandai Toy Factory last October. Our favorite part of this post wasn’t the picture that was posted, but the heading “Sometimes Naoko Takeuchi as Princess Naoko shows her nerd side to the public in photos!”. She is looking well and we hope to hear more of her again!’

Slide 3:

Naoko Takeuchi

☽ Frequent Sailor Moon Cosplaying Idol Shoko Nakagawa has also ventured into manga, and revealed that she was partly inspired by Naoko’s work. One of her mangas, Noko no Koi is about a girl raised without love who is saved by a mysterious figure. The other one is Sukashikashipan-Man (sand dollar man) who looks like most tokusatsu heroes.

☽ Naoko was also cited as a major figure in the history of Girls Novels in Japan when they took a turn from being all about romance to being about the friendships between girls. Sailor Moon was a brilliant example of the power of friendship overcoming everything (when all the senshi fought together, they were unstoppable)! To all the girls who read these manga, every character is strong and brave for who they are in their personalities, and they inspire every girl to be true to themselves and to have a good heart.

Slide 4:

Toei Animation:

☽ Pretty Cure has been given a second chance in the North American market. When 4kids lost the license to the showin 2008 without doing anything with it, Toei took the show upon themselves. The English dub is produced by both Toei and the Ocean Group, and as of this writing can only be seen on Canada’s YTV. Fans outside of Canada can watch it if you know where to look (wink wink nudge nudge – we can’t tell you to be fair to the companies!) We really recommend it though – the dub really reminds us all of what Sailor Moon should have been like in it’s heyday.

☽ There is still no word about any future plans for Sailor Moon. However, Toei did launch their own on demand service in North America, initially on Direct2Drive, later adding crunchyroll and Vuze (formerly Azureus). They also entered a digital partnership with Funimation on distribution of their series. Though Sailor Moon scored the highest in a survey of potential series for this service in North America by a longshot, it remains to be seen if the series will be added. Toei hasn’t completely ignored Sailor Moon – the show is often mentioned in their short “About Our Company” blurbs.

☽ If fans want to see Toei expand their ondemand service, please support them – right now this is the best any Sailor Moon fan can do. Toei is just starting out on it’s own in North America and if their ondemand service gets more popular, who knows what series they may add next! Toei, if you bring Sailor Moon back, we’ll forgive the atrocity that was Dragonball Evolution!

Sailordees’ Note: Of Course, everything changed a few days before this was presented. Fans should still support their service though!

Slide 5:

Geneon:

☽This story completely missed our radar and we didn’t notice it until just a few weeks ago. Though, this did happen in February which is starting to look like the busiest month of the year outside of Moon Chase for us all. If you visit the site you’ll see that this and last February had barely any posts.

☽ As some of you may recall, Geneon folded and left the North American anime industry in late 2007. However, the company hasn’t necessarily been asleep. Many of their former titles were picked up by Funimation, and their titles through Bandai Visual Entertainment were picked up by Bandai Entertainment. We also learned that New Generation Pictures, which was involved with the dubbing, subtitling, and translation of quite a few Geneon series has managed to compensate for their losses by getting a ton of video game work! And we just found out that ADV will be re-releasing the first Appleseed Movie, which was once a Geneon property.

☽ In November of last year, Dentsu (Geneon’s parent company) announced that it was selling 80.1% of its ownership in the company to NBC Universal’s Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPI). UPI in turn, merged the company with its Universal Pictures Japan division to form a new company, and on February 1st of this year, Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan (GUEJ) was born! GUEJ has released some titles on Blu-Ray (in conjunction with RONDO ROBE, the new name for Pioneer Animation, a label under the Geneon umbrella specifically for animation and related entertainment) including ef – a tale of memories, Fate/stay night, and To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index) and Card Captor Sakura (which just got a big Blu-Ray boxset)! We also spotted a few soundtracks and other music CDs.We were excited to read this and we really hope that someday this will mean that Geneon will come back to North America. Their reps were always the friendliest at cons and they really did a lot with their fans. A few independent anime store owners that we have spoken to preferred Geneon’s pricing strategies in the past, and they aren’t fans of Funimation’s pricing or release strategies. For example , Ouran High School Host Club was released in two volumes of 13 episodes each, priced at 60 dollars a volume. Many stores also find Funimation releases are more pricier than others.

Slide 6: NA Voicestars:

☽ Stephanie Morgenstern’s (Sailor Venus #1) TV Series Flashpoint is still the biggest story of the year . She created the show, writes, and produces the show along with her husband, Mark Ellis. The show is going to get picked up for a third season by CBS , and airs in many international markets such as the UK, New Zealand, Poland, and Latin America. The show has been nominated for a few TV awards in Canada.

☽ Two other VAs were featured on the show as well – Alice Poon (Catsy) in the episode “Attention Shoppers” and Robert Bockstael (Prince Diamond) in “Haunting the Barn”.

☽ The show is only on DVD in the UK and Australia, and is available on iTunes in Canada. As of this writing , the episodes are only available streaming through CBS.com in the United States.

☽ And here is our big announcement at the con this year – Moon Chase will be starting a blog devoted to Flashpoint, and the two blogs will be networked as part of the Moon Chase Blog Network. Sailordees has read fan input and will only post specific flashpoint stories which directly relate to Stephanie Morgenstern. Flashpoint is one of the top reasons why our readership has increased over the last year, however many fans feel that we are covering this more than other stories. The blog has a really great name, but we can’t tell you what that is right now. The only hint we can give you is that it comes from a line said a few times each episode by members of the cast. Keep your eyes on the site for more information!

Slide 7:

☽ Two years after moving to Hollywood, things are finally starting to look up for Stephanie Beard (Rini #2) and we are so glad – she has been through too much in the last two years! She appeared on King of the Hill a few weeks ago playing a trendy teenager who just wanted a normal, classy cotillion. Her name was Michael Savage (named after the infamous personality of the same name), and she was royally embarassed by Bobby and Peggy hill when they showed up in grungey gangster clothes. The show is streaming on Fox.com for fans who want to check it out.

☽ Stephanie Beard also wrote to us exclusively with the news that she is indeed in a scene in the upcoming Adam Sandler movie, Funny People. She is sitting next to him in a Thanksgiving Dinner scene, but she isn’t sure if they cut that scene out or not. So when the movie is out in July, please go see it and look for Stephanie!

Slide 8:

☽ Emilie-Claire Barlow (Sailor Venus #2) released her 7th jazz album Haven’t We Met. The album is really good and Sailordees is very close to posting a review of it. Emilie-Claire has roles in two popular Canadian cartoons, 6teen and Total Drama Island. The shows have become so popular internationally , and you guys can actually check these shows out on Cartoon Network! She also has a large fanbase of her music in Japan and travels there once a year to perform at Tokyo’s legendary Cotton Club. In fact, she just announced that she will be appearing there again in August! She was featured in a few news articles in Japan which praised her not only for her voice, but for her production and arrangement skills – something few female jazz vocalists do! Last year she won a National Jazz Award in Canada for Female Jazz Vocalist of the year. She was nominated for the same award this year, but didn’t win. She continues her cross-Canada tour in support of her latest album.

Slide 9:

☽ Roland Parliament (Melvin and ADR Director) is now teaching at Niagara College’s Acting for Film and Video program. Roland has always been teaching students everything from voice acting, to audition preparedness, to skills for radio and marketing. He loves to teach students and he is still hard at work on a textbook all about voice!

☽ Jill Frappier’s (Luna) Dragontrails Drama has helped many kids make it big in the entertainment industry! Dragontrails is a special drama school where kids learn all about acting, movement, and fighting skills in Toronto. Kids who have gone there have gone on to star in films and TV shows like Cinderella Man, A History of Violence, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Law and Order, and even Flashpoint. In fact, one of the girls who is making her name in Canadian entertainment is Hannah Endicott-Douglas, who last year starred as Anne in a brand new Anne of Green Gables movie on CTV, as well as starring in an episode of Flashpoint – “Planets Aligned”. Jill has a lot of really cool programs for kids at her school from those who want to act professionally to those who just want to do it for fun!

– Sarah Lafleur (Sailor Uranus) had a major role this season on Ugly Betty as Molly, the love interest of Daniel Meade, the editor of Mode. We’ve caught a couple episodes this season and we have come to love her character. She is sweet, humble, charming and seems like the perfect woman for Daniel!

Slide 10:

☽ Megumi Hayashibara (Himeko in S Movie) and Hikaru Midorikawa (Ail, Fiore) returned to their roles as Lina Inverse and Zelgadiss Graywords in Slayers Revolution and Slayers Evolution-R (to be released by Funimation sometime in 2010).

☽ Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars) came out of retirement at an anime festival in Nakano last fall. She appeared at a special talkshow event at Anime Bunkasai last September and answered questions from fans who wanted to know more about being a Seiyuu!

☽ Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) continues to make appearances at Intel, Gundam, and other anime-related events. He’s quite the geek, maintaining his own website, and even dressing up as Ray Amuro.

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☽ Anza Oyama (First Sera Myu Sailor Moon) joined Japanese rock band Vitamin Q and released an album with them late last year. Vitamin Q is a much softer rock band compared to her heavy metal band, Head Phones President!

☽ Yuu Shirota (Sixth Sera Myu Tuxedo Kamen) is currently appearing on J-Drama Tenchijin on NHK . The show started in January and will run until November. The story centers on Naoe Kanetsugu, a loyal and devoted samurai in Echigo Province in the 16th century. Kanetsugu was trained in his early childhood by Uesugi Kenshin and after his death, served Kenshin’s adopted son Kagekatsu and is known for his extreme loyalty to the Uesugi family. He also made every effort to protect the people of Echigo with a strong sense of justice and genuine sympathy toward commoners.

☽ Miyuki Kanbe (Third Sera Myu Sailor Moon) tragically passed away last June of sudden heart failure. She continues to be missed by Sailor Moon fans, her colleagues, fellow actors, friends, and family. Her death was one of the most popular news stories for some months afterwards and fans are still shocked and saddened by the news. Two weeks before she passed away, she had talked with her agent about acting again, as well as expanding into the fashion industry. She had so much ahead of her, and this was truly a tragedy. We still send our condolences and prayers to her family

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Sorry we don’t have more, there probably is more but we barely have time to cover everything that we’d like to. Sailordees also lost many of her important links to keep up with the actors during one of her several laptop meltdowns in the last few months. Now that we have a new writer we’re still trying to organize the site and hopefully divvy up who writes up what. We’re always looking for more writers and if you are interested in giving us a hand please send us an email – moonchasers@gmail.com.

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☽ Keiko Kitagawa (Sailor Mars) and Mew Azama (Sailor Jupiter) are now college graduates. Keiko earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, and Mew earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Academic Advising and Career Counseling.

☽ Rika Izumi (Sailor Mercury) returned to the idol industry last year. She was in a movie called Clearness, appears occasionally in Ray magazine, and was featured asa beautiful woman in a ramen commercial for Nissin!

☽ Kappei Yamaguchi (Artemis) returned to his role of Goku, for the Japanese dub of Dragonball Evolution. The movie was not well received there either. In fact, probably the only good thing about it was the Japanese theme song “Rule” by J-pop queen Ayumi Hamasaki.

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A short profile of Keiko Han (We provided this because they were not able to attend, and we had dug up some interesting information on them that we thought we’d share with fans!)

☽ Keiko Han: Born April 5, 1953 in Tokyo, Japan.
☽ Not only a seiyuu, but a fortune teller too! She has written five books about astrology, including a Hello Kitty themed book in 2000 about the Chinese Zodiac. We kid you not! We’ve added the only picture of it that we could find.
☽ She is a veteran seiyuu having starred in over 30 different anime alone!
☽ Played Luna and Queen Beryl in the anime, and played Luna in PGSM.
☽ Is also famous for her role in Mobile Suit Gundam as Lalah Sune.
☽ Like the English voice of Luna, she is also an acting instructor ! She teaches voice to college students at Tokyo Media Academy
☽ Currently appearing as a narrator in Tytania. This series is a space opera about people who try to liberate the galaxy from the rule of the Tytania-clan and seek refuge with a rebel force.

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☽ Yasuo Yamaguchi: Born sometime in 1935 on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture.
☽ Began working for Toei Animation in 1958, was an assistant director by 1963 and later transferred to production. He has been with Toei for almost their entire existence, Toei began in 1956.
☽ Worked on many series including Maple Town, Getter Robo, King Kong, and Candy Candy. Maybe some of you remember watching Maple Town in the 80s on Nickelodeon?
☽ Candy Candy was his first foray into anime aimed at girls – the story goes that he was the only producer left that Toei could ask to work on it. He really didn’t want to work on a girly anime!

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☽ As Chief of the production section, he produced Sailor Moon.
☽ After he retired in the 90s, he became an adjunct professor at Tokai university, and researched digital anime making processes for the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry.
☽ He now serves as the chairman of a Canada- Japan content forum, and is the interim executive director of the Japan Video Association.
☽ The “Canada-Japan Content Forum” was established and officially started its activities on January 1, 2008 with the aim of expanding exchanges between Canada and Japan in the field of digital content. The CJCF conducts activities to promote exchanges between Canada and Japan in the sector of digital and traditional content including video games, animation, mobile content, Internet content, music, film, drama, TV programs, photography, etc. The animation scene in Canada is just starting to boom with many programs making it big around the world, and perhaps there is something for Canada to learn from Japan since they have been animating for much longer!
☽ He is a founder of the Toei Animation Research Center.
☽ On May 4th, called for major changes to improve the Japanese and the North American Anime Industry , saying that the anime industry bubble has burst. Citing the worldwide economic troubles and Japan’s own specific problems, Yamaguchi says that the number of anime programs in 2000 was 124, and had more than doubled in 2006– 306 –but that it has been dropping, down to 288 in 2008. He also notes that anime companies tend to keep chugging out the same moe and mech materials, something many of us have complained about at some point or another. Fansubs and poor management of overseas distribution are also cited. That last point about overseas distribution has been something we here at Moon Chase have been vocal about for a while.

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Keiko and Yasuo stuff: See them next year, we hope.

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BREAKING NEWS:

☽ Please visit our site as soon as possible. Funimation has posted a survey asking for fan input on a re-dub of Sailor Moon. As of this writing we do not know if Funimation has any rights to Sailor Moon, however they are holding the majority of Toei’s North American licenses. We also don’t know if any of this includes the lost episodes, specials, or Sailor Stars.

☽ We have posted information about the poll and facts that fans should consider when making their comments to Funimation. Please read our article before you answer the survey so you know about the issues surrounding this.

☽ This is exciting news and all of us on staff are currently planning a campaign to further get our voices heardfrom both Funimation and Toei beyond this poll.

☽ We will only be posting campaign information on our forums, so if you are interested please join us! moonchase.freeforums.org

☽ Campaign Information Will Not Be Posted on the Site. This is because it is a lot easier to manage the action through the forums, and we don’t want to have our posts turn into one long discussion thread that may really veer off topic .Campaign Information will only be visible to members who have joined our forums.

☽ Our forums are dying for people to post! We’re really trying to make the site more interactive than our front page comments. The site gets between 100-200 hits a day from all over the world and it just seems that the same few people are always commenting, and we are sure that most of our readers probably want to interact with other readers. We’ve already got a pretty cool 3 word RPG thread and we’d like it if more people participated!

☽ We have a lot of really big things planned this summer, so stay tuned!

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Any Questions?

– Thanks for your time and for visiting Moon Chase!