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.

Slide 11:

☽ 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

Slide 12:

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.

Slide 13:

☽ 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.

Slide 14:

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.

Slide 15:

☽ 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!

Slide 16:

☽ 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.

Slide 17:

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

Slide 18:

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!

Slide 19:

Any Questions?

– Thanks for your time and for visiting Moon Chase!

We at Moon Chase! are still saddened to read about Miyuki Kanbe (3rd Sailor Moon in Sera Myu). Her story was truly a tragedy and when we read about her older works and how successful they were, we shed some tears, she was truly taken before her time. We came across an interview that she did in 2005, shortly after the release of Kamen Rider Hibiki in which she had a leading role as Hinaka Tachibana. She talks about how she achieved her dreams of being an actress, and working on Battle Royale II and Kamen Rider Hibiki. Full, and translated interview is posted after the jump. We’ll warn you that we had a little trouble trying to translate this, so if something doesn’t seem right, it was the best we could figure out. Miyuki’s death is still popular in Japan, as she is still number 1 in the internet searches.

 

Interviewer: Did you always aim to be in the Entertainment Industry?

Miyuki: When I was in my first year of Junior High School, I worked very hard to play on the Tennis Team so that in the future I could become a professional Tennis Player! It was a lot of hard work and it hurt. In my second year of Junior High School, I transferred into another school that didn’t have a tennis program. So I tried out for volleyball with the captain of the team for that very small school. It is a sport where you need good hand-eye coordination, but the players had already been chosen. I lost out, and soon I didn’t want to go to school anymore (laughs). I didn’t have any extra-curricular activities, I would leave my house and come back only to go to school. They consulted my mother and asked her why I wasn’t involved in any extra-curricular activities and if I was okay. I didn’t think of the entertainment industry at that time, but I got very depressed and I couldn’t stand it much longer. It was then that I started taking notice of audition notices.

Then your mother supported you?

That’s right! I auditioned for many companies and was rejected, but finally I passed one audition. I was very motivated in my acting and dancing lessons that I had received. I was not allowed to slack off because of my mother’s support! I was introduced to theatrical companies one day, and I thought “This is my opportunity”.

Do you remember your first job after you were signed?

It seems (we think she is trying to say everyone thinks) Sailor Moon was my first job, but in truth there was one before that. I sang songs for a lunch program, and there were ten other idols on that show with me. While I was on this show, I auditioned for the Sailor Moon musical and I won the leading role.

**We think she is talking about an old show called Yumeko hoshi Musume, something like Morning Musume where she was part of a large group of female singing idols.

Was it hard to believe that you were going to play the third Sailor Moon?

It didn’t seem real to me, I heard the message that I had won the part of Sailor Moon several days later, and it was first passed to my mother and father. I had read the part for my audition and I performed the role in my image. Of course, Anza Oyama and Fumina Hara had played the role before me, but I had never seen them on stage and it was left to my imagination to think about how to play the role. Trying to do this for the first time, I realized what an enormous task it was.

In 2003, Battle Royale II: Requiem was released in theaters. In February 2005, Special Battle Royale II was released on DVD in which some scenes that were shot after the movie’s release were included, do you think it was better?

I am glad that there were more scenes added to the fire!

Were you scared of the challenging stunts?

(Laughs) I said I hope there are no stunts. I fell, and there was fire all around me and I felt a kind of throbbing. This made me think that my foot had been burnt! When we were shooting, I was drizzled all over with a special gel coat so that if I was on fire it would not spread or burn me. This was a valuable experience I never thought I would have!

That scene is one of the highlights!

That’s right! When we shot again for this volume, I was surprised. When I previewed my scene for the first time, I was worried for the other actors health! I talked to the director Kenta afterwards, and he said he was sorry and laughed. This was so violent because everyone liked what they saw in the movie!

Also in 2005 you have been cast in Kamen Rider Hibiki as Hinaka Tachibana . Please tell us about yours!

Hibiki’s attack is very smooth. Other than that I can’t give you much more information about Hibiki or the supporting cast.

Do you have anything in common with your character?

It is hidden in my head! But you are smart! Hinaka is very sociable and friendly, even when she meets someone for the first time.

I see it, she is just like you and I was right!

She is a little bright. If I was a little more excited I might be like her!

What did you think of Kamen Rider when you were first offered the role?

I couldn’t turn down Kamen Rider. I think that series is very cool. The show was growing up but the children may find it hard to watch.

The protagonist Hibiki, drives the series. He is damaged by the enemy and his humanity comes out quite painfully, don’t you think?

His humanity is different from all of the other series. Up until now Kamen Rider would say “Shit! I will not be defeated!” With the heroes trying to be cool and always winning, the children have picked up on this pattern and yearn to win all the time. But wouldn’t you rather see them learn a more normal pattern like in Hibiki? We have to remember Kamen Rider fights for everyone, not just for the children. It gives adults more to think about.

What is Shigeki Hosokawa really like?

He is interesting! He is very gentle and always greets everyone in stage rehearsals , readings, and shootings. The studio is always cold, and there is a heater but it doesn’t suffice for everyone. And then you think about it being cold a lot and he always says thank you for helping us make a hit!

Broadcasts are still continuing, but what about where you shoot?

They are all great! Because there is too much around when we shoot and it is often overlooked. The show is only 30 minutes long , so please record it on video and pay attention!

On your blog from February 14th to March 15th, I noticed there was a cat and dog but you aren’t their owner right?

On February 20th, I met with one of my friends who I used to play with. So I took a few pictures of my friends dog. But that pet cat is mine!

Do you spend your holidays with the cat or alone?

I sleep a lot during my holidays. I come home dead tired, and I usually go right to bed, so much for lunch. When the cat came, she likes to cuddle up with me and we both fall asleep. Most holidays I end up sleeping.

What about those scratches on your hand?

On March 6th, I was lifting up my cat. She didn’t want to be lifted up and didn’t feel comfortable so she scratched me. After that, I clipped her nails.

You have released a photobook, and you have acted. What are your future challenges?

I want to make use of my voice and be a voice actor. I want to work in cartoons. I just got my own PC and I want to have my own official website with links to my office (agency) and pictures and diaries. I am still learning about how to do all of that.

What do you do in your off time?

I have a SHADOW 400cc motorcycle that I like to ride. When I have free time, I like to go tea drinking in Shibuya.

Finally, what would you like to say to the fans?

I play Hinaka Tachibana in Kamen Rider Hibiki, and she was a good person to play. Please support Hibiki as much as you have supported the other Kamen Rider series! Please watch us warmly because we all like to act in different things!

Rest in Peace, Miyuki-chan.

Last night, we discovered the blogs of many stars who worked with Miyuki Kanbe, and we’re going to share with you some of the highlights from what we read of their entries about her. Almost all of them remembered her cheerful spirit, her cute voice, and her charming personality. It’s almost like all the Sera Myu actors, whether they worked together or not, formed a kind of kindred with each other. A few stars who didn’t get the chance to work onstage with her, met her at many Sera Myu events. We also uncovered an old 2005 interview with Miyuki, which we are working hard to translate. It’s quite long, and it’s being worked on a little bit each day. At the earliest, it will probably be posted late next week.

There are a lot of pictures in this post, so we decided to slice it for the homepage. Read the rest of it after the jump!

Nao Takagi (Sailor Uranus #2 in Sera Myu) wrote that she thought it was a lie when she heard the news. To her, Miyuki had a beautiful and powerful smile, and the two were beru close. Nao thought of her as the younger sister she never had. Miyuki often called Nao “Nao-chan”, and one of these recordings will become her new ringtone. She finishes with “I pray her soul may rest in peace now, with a smile in heaven. I love you so much Miyuki, the princess who I will never forget. Thank you for all the love you gave me.”

Hikari Ono played many roles in her 477 show run with Sera Myu. She was Sailor Star Maker, Hawk’s Eye, Neo Hawk’s Eye, Loof Merrow, Prince Dimande and Bloody Dracul Vampir. In an entry simply titled Regret, she writes of her grandmother who promised to take her to the hot springs. Unfortunately, she died when Hikari was only 17, without ever fulfilling that promise. It was then that she learned the true meaning of the word “regret”. She finds it hard when she loses someone, to think of all the things that they could not do. It is hard to move forward without regretting the past. It would be better if in some shape or form after death if life could go back and do these things. She ends with telling everyone not to regret all the things that they could not do. Many fans think that she is referring to Miyuki in this entry.

Anza Oyama was the first actress to play Sailor Moon in Sera Myu. Now a nu metal singer, she writes on her blog, that she is very sad and truly heart broken. Miyuki had a lot of courage and hope and she put smiles on everyone’s faces! The two of them talked together about their role as Sailor Moon and they had the same realizations of the character and their experiences. She prays cute Miyuki-chan finds happiness in the next world.

Marina Kuroki was the fourth and last person to play Sailor Moon in the musicals. She wrote that she didn’t have very much contact with Miyuki during the transition from the third to the fourth sailor team, but that she had many memories of the times all the Sera Myu actors would come together. Miyuki was cute, gave her a lot of advice, and talked to her once in a while. Even she could not believe the reality of the news. From her heart she prays that her heart finds happiness in the next world.

Shibue Jyoji is best known to Sailor Moon fans as playing Tuxedo Kamen in PGSM, but he also worked with Miyuki on Kamen Rider Hibiki. He played Iori Izumi (Kamen Rider Ibuki). He posted that parting is really painful, and that there is no forgetting her cute voice once you heard it the first time. It is very painful for him to know he will never hear her voice again. He remembers how she used to say he was one of her best friends, and how it delighted him enormously. He was also in disbelief when he heard the news, and wishes he could have met with her one last time. He thanked her for everything and bid her a solemn farewell.

Nana Akiyama also worked with her on Kamen Rider Hibiki, playing Akira Amami. She wrote two entries. The first one says, “I heard the sad news two days ago from some people. I have lived for 18 years, and this is the most sad news of all. I still can’t believe it. She was a good person and I wished to meet her once again. That wish will no longer be fulfilled. Still, I want to keep wishing. Just one more time, she could come out from somewhere so we could meet. I’ll write more later, right now I want to leave my feelings here.” The second one, written four days later, says “Feelings that want to be conveyed do not become words. It was not possible for me to update easily. But it was also not possible for me to settle down after today. When I think of her, my feelings surely come. But now they can become something real (NOTE: this is the best translation, these three sentences were hard). I loved everything that Miss Kanbe did, and none of my love changes for her. I think that she is watching me somewhere, and I will not say goodbye. I look foreward to the day I can meet Miss Kanbe again. You were in this world. I will not forget for a long time.” Then she addressed a couple people who sent her email, “To (usernames). Thank you for your warm and gentle reassurance. We are together with the same feelings, and you have given me the green light to cry. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you. From all the pain last week, it is not possible to remember every day that we spent together, but now I think I’ll be okay not to forget her. Tomorrow, I will update the blog. It was closed while there was so much going on, news of the tragedy a little at a time. I look forward to pleasing you. Now, it will be nice to see you tomorrow. Goodnight.

Emi Kuriyama played Sailor Jupiter from 1999-2000 in the musicals, and worked with Miyuki. She is very hurt and saddened by this news. In her entry Still now…, she couldn’t accept this news and has an empty hole in her heart. She attended the funeral, and can still to this day remember Miyuki calling to her “Kururin” in her cute and childish voice, in her healthy body. She is sad she can’t see her again, and rejected her death. She can’t come out with the words for her feelings, for the situation. But she feels that those left behind must live their lives with more strength. She got so much power, love, and kindness from Miyuki’s words , and she loved her very much. She wants to laugh hard again like fools until her stomach hurts with her again. She ends thanking Miyuki. In later entries, she expresses that she is still hurt but is doing a lot better.

Ayumi Murata played Sailor Venus in the musicals from 2001-2002. On her blog, she wrote that she was saddened and surprised to hear of the news of her co-star’s death. She sent her condolences, and prayed for her sincerely.

Chieco Kawabe played Sailor Mercury in the musicals from 2000-2002. She also played Naru Osaka in PGSM. She was also shocked by the sudden news, and was very sad. She sent her deepest condolences to those who were mourning her death. She is also praying for her.

Akiko Kosaka composed many of the Sera Myu musicals. She remembered Miyuki’s audition, how she seemed like she had stepped right out of the cartoon. Miyuki to her was sugary, lovelym and super-energetic. She was very shocked at this sudden news, and thought that Miyuki’s health had not been good for the last two years, leaving her in a lot of pain. She was certainly someone Akiko wished she had gotten to know more. She is sincerely praying for her third Sailor Moon.

Tomoko Inami played Mistress 9 and Sailor Neptune in the musicals. Though she never worked with Miyuki, she met her at many events. She sends her condolences and sincerely prays for her. Miyuki’s death in her youth of only 24 years was a true tragedy.

Fumina Hara was the third actress to play Sailor Moon in the musicals. Though she was followed by Miyuki, there were times that they got together for events. Miyuki used to call her “Fumina-chaaaaan” with a big, tense grin on her face, and lots of energy. Her death was very unfortunate, because she was very adorable, cute, and was a fantastic girl. She prays her soul will rest in peace.

Miyuki Kanbe’s funeral was held on June 21st in Kawasaki. Many of the office staff of her agency Rouge attended, as well as family and friends. One of those friends was popular idol, Shoko Nakagawa. There was a large portrait of her dressed in her Sera Myu costume (complete with odangoes) among the sea of flowers at the altar, along with around 20 other photos of her life. When everyone at her funeral saw her smiling pictures, they all began to cry. Shoko Nakagawa also fought tears many times at the service. She was very sad that she had lost one of her best friends so suddenly. Her tearful father spoke at the funeral, just before the casket was moved out. He said that Miyuki was very lucky to have so many people at this funeral whose lives she had touched. She was cremated afterwards.

Shoko wrote two heartbreaking entries mourning Miyuki. In the first one, Shoko says that when you close your eyes it is dark, much like what it is like to die. But the light that Miyuki gave will stay shining in everyone for eternity. She is comforted in knowing that wherever Miyuki is now, she is smiling down on everyone. Even though she is hurt, she will still have the many happy memories of her dear friend. In the second one, Shoko wishes she could meet Miyuki at Disneyland again or go out to eat, and wishes that they could have hung out a bit more in the last few years. She ends with a note asking Miyuki to rest in peace until they can meet again, so she can see her smile.

In another news story we read today, the entire cast of Miss Saigon was both saddened and shocked to hear of her death. One of the stars of the show, Seiko Niizuma, was quoted as saying “I thought her death was a bad joke”. Miyuki was scheduled to be a part of Miss Saigon as well, but unfortunately she never got that chance.

On behalf of all Sailor Moon fans, we are very sorry to hear of what happened to Miyuki last week, and we send our deepest sympathies and condolences to her family, friends, and Rouge.

EDIT: Some users have reported that this page is crashing because of the MIDI. I am working on a solution to this problem, for now though if you want to hear the song, open this link in a new tab or window so it plays and you still have the ambiance if you want to listen to the song while reading the page.

~Miyuki Kanbe – 1984-2008~

We have some sad, breaking news to report to you all this morning. Beloved Sera Myu actress Miyuki Kanbe unfortunately passed away June 18th at 4:08 AM in Japan. Originally from Kanagawa Prefecture, she was best known for being the third actress to play Sailor Moon in the Sera Myu musicals (2000-2001), and for playing the student Kyoko Kakei in Battle Royale II. She also had a role in Kamen Rider Hibiki as Hinaka Tachibana. She played the same role in the companion movie, Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Fighting Demons. Miyuki was the best of 500 girls who had auditioned for the part of Sailor Moon. Miyuki also appeared on the popular Japanese variety show, Ucchan Nanchan no Urinari. There will be a small, private funeral and wake, to be arranged by her close relatives. This news has hit the Sailor Moon community pretty hard, as many fansites are mourning her loss. One fan has even uploaded one of her more memorable Sera Myu performances here.

Her health took a turn for the worse just as she had landed a starring role in the Japanese production of Les Miserables in February of 2007. She was supposed to play the tragic role of Eponine. Her agency, Rouge, had released a statement apologizing for pulling out of her six-month stint in the role, but that she needed to rest and get strong again. They also thanked everyone for their warm wishes for her recovery. Since then she had been in and out of the hospital. The producers of the show had left her a standing offer that she could return when she was better. Just a few weeks ago on June 9th, she had enough energy to meet with the President of her agency, Masaki Honda, in Shibuya to talk about her career. She expressed that she didn’t only want to act, she loved fashion and wanted to work in the industry. She especially loved rehashing old clothes into new ones! The President remarked that she was looking a lot better and had more energy than she did before, and everyone around her thought her woes were over. Sadly, in the last few days, her health condition took a sharp turn for the worst, and the emergency department at the hospital couldn’t save her. She was hit by cardiac arrest while she was undergoing some medical treatment. Honda remarked that he felt like he had lost his own child, and ever since she was young she had the power and the drive to be the best performer she could. Once again, this is truly devastating news and our deepest sympathies and condolences are with her family and friends at this time. She will truly be missed.

The song you should be hearing in the background is Ayumi Hamasaki’s Memorial Address. We chose to play this song in her memory because just as Miyuki’s star was rising, her life ended tragically, and suddenly. This song was written by Ayumi for her own Grandmother, who was her rock all throughout her childhood as her dad had walked out on her own mother. She wasn’t there for Ayu very much when she was growing up, and she was raised for the most part by her Grandmother. She died just as Ayu was recording her first single Poker Face, and this song was written for her and released many years later on the mini-album of the same name. To read the translation of the lyrics, click here, and to hear the song in full, click here.