Naoko Takeuchi drew some new Sailor Moon pictures and they appeared in the March 2013 issue of Japanese fashion magazine TokyoViVi. There is a much older looking Sailor Moon, a lot of chibis, and the cover is adorned with a very angelic looking Usagi, Chibi-Usa, and Pegasus. What’s even better? In a few weeks I hope to have hi-res scans for you (the magazine is on the way to me). So more on this, later. But until then, there’s a beautiful high-res image of the cover on the magazine’s official blog.

So around April Fool’s Day, somehow a rumor got perpetuated around the fandom that on April 4th, the new Sailor Moon Series’ theme song (performed by Momoiro Clover Z) was going to be released. No fans shared the source of this rumor with me, nor was I able to find any news in Japan related to this. Sailor Moon likes to surprise all of us when we least expect it, so I was 95% sure that nothing was going to happen. Something did happen that day though! Bakusho Show Battle is a variety show in Japan that airs twice a year, and celebrities, bands, idol groups, and comedians come together to battle. And how do they battle? By parodying hit songs of course (either by shooting a video or performing live)! They are placed on two teams, Team Ronbu (or team “London Boots”), and Team Chutto. There are different categories, and one group from each team are placed head to head against each other. At the end of each battle, 5 celebrity judges pick their favorite, and at the end all the votes are tallied to see if Team Ronbu or Chutto wins. The episode can be found around the internets if you know how to look. Momoiro Clover Z was given the task of parodying the Sailor Moon S opening. While this gave fans a good taste of what they might sound like when the new series makes it to broadcast, at least one fan on our facebook page was not amused. Momoiro Clover Z did not win their challenge against Natsuki Kato, Oniyakko Tsubaki, Mou Chugakusei and Ryosuke Tsunaba (aka Ronbu) parodying the opening and the ending (where Nello and Patrasche die) to Dog of Flanders. Momoiro Clover Z came to the show in their typical character colors, adorned with sashes featuring their website address. While Momoiro Clover Z didn’t get much love from the judges (only one vote), they were on the winning team, Team Chutto! Here’s the video below for you to watch. Fans can see some photos from the show and read more about the challenges here.

As far as the new series goes, it’s probably going to be delayed (and some things aren’t even decided yet). Follow Osabu8 on Twitter - and he tweets in English too so don’t be afraid to ask him questions! We’ve noticed he’s pretty receptive to fans. We’re going to be taking Operation Moonrise in a completely new direction soon too, so watch out for that.

In case you missed the mentions on our Facebook page, here is a little info about a couple of events we think Moon Chase readers might enjoy in the Toronto area. I will be attending both of the following events. Feel free to say hello if you see me!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF)

Cost: Free!

Location: Toronto Reference Library and surrounding area (Yonge and Bloor, Toronto)

When: May 11, 9am-5pm and May 12, 11 am-5pm.

Who Should Go: anyone who likes comics! Especially if you want to see smaller publishers and independent comic artists.

What You Can Expect: This celebration of comics, graphic novels, and their creators includes a vendor fair of comic artists selling prints, merchandise, and of course comics! There are also readings, interviews, panels, workshops, gallery shows, art installations, and much more.

Guests: You can find the full list here.

Cosplay?: Not recommended. This event is held in a public library. Geeky and comic fan clothing is cool though

Anime North

Cost: Varies. See the registration page for full details. Currently $60 for a full weekend pass, kids 6-13 are half price.

Location: Toronto Congress Center, 650 Dixon Road, and at the Doubletree International Plaza Hotel, 655 Dixon Rd. (directly across the street) and surrounding area.

When: May 24, 6pm -2am (dealers’ room opens early at 5pm); May 25, 10am-2am; May 26, 10am-6pm

Who Should Go: Anyone who likes anime!

What You Can Expect: This large, fan-run convention features a variety of vendors (dealers’ room, artists’ alley, crafters’ corner, comic market, and art show, various contests (masquerade, music videos, Anime North idol, skit contest, etc.), panels (fan run and guest run), anime showings, and many other events.

Guests: You can find the guests of honour listed here, and featured guests listed here.

Cosplay?: Strongly encouraged! even if you do not want to participate in the masquerade, there are lots of photoshoots and you will see many attendees walking the halls in costume. Saturday is the most popular day to cosplay, but you can wear costumes as often as you like. Regular clothes are cool too

Hey fans! We have a big announcement to share with you today. A new live-action movie has been announced for Sailor Moon!

This new film is currently in development and will include all of our favourite senshi.

The cast so far:
Sailor Moon – Dakota Fanning
Sailor Mercury – Candice Accola
Sailor Mars - Janel Parrish
Sailor Jupiter - Alexa Vega
Sailor Venus/ Sailor V - Amanda Seyfried
Sailor Uranus – Celeste Beryl Bonin
Sailor Neptune - Nina Dobrev
Sailor Pluto – Kat Graham
Tuxedo Mask - Ian Harding
Motoki Furuhata - Zach Roerig
Naru Osaka – Emma Watson
Queen Beryl – Salma Hayek

Other roles are still under negotiation at this time. The screenplay will be written with the consultation of Naoko Takeuchi. If this film is successful, we can expect it to be expanded into a series of movies. Michael Bay is slated to direct this film, to be called Sailor Moon: Moon Rising and is excited to add his flair to the Sailor Moon franchise.

All of us here at Moon Chase can’t wait to buy our tickets!

Edit: April Fool’s! There isn’t really a live action movie in the works, but we hope you all have fun today with April Fool’s jokes. Feel free to share your favourites from the web in the comments.

Hi Moonies:

I’ve decided to format this more as a letter to the fans rather than take more of a journalistic tone. This is probably the 7th time I’ve revised this in the last 6 months. Something terrible happened to me near the end of August and it is probably best to use words like tragic, catastrophe, dehumanizing, awful, and others of that caliber to describe it. It had affected me to the point where, I’d sit down and start to write something, but then the reality of what had happened would hit me and I’d worry my work wouldn’t be as good as it used to be. My friends will all tell you I wasn’t the same person they knew. I had to live a nightmare every single day, and I knew I had to focus on trying to make the best of a really crummy situation and just deal with this. I had to work very tirelessly to put myself in a better situation in January (and thankfully, I am). And a few of my staff members helped me to understand it was okay to take Moon Chase off of the stove. There was very good reason for it – and though it must have been frustrating for all of you, I hope you can understand.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t completely ignored what is going on with Sailor Moon. While I don’t have anything really big to report, I did learn a few little things in the last few months. Where should I start? Let’s go back to the summer. Read the rest of this entry »

We’d like to thank our reader Sea Sixtythousand for sharing this sighting with us! Buycostumes.com has a Sailor Moon costume, as well as a new Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask costume available for pre-order, and we have confirmed that these are official costumes produced by Leg Avenue. Our contact at Leg Avenue has also informed us that Hot Topic will not be carrying any Sailor Moon costumes this year and that these costumes will be available exclusively online through buycostumes.com. Furthermore, those of you who have asked for larger sizes are in luck this year, as Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars will be available in both regular and plus sizes! The Tuxedo Mask costume is the first we’ve heard of an official costume for men anywhere, so guys who are interested in cosplaying as their favorite male sidekick are also in luck this year! We’d like to take this time to mention that the “Anime Adult Boots” and “Anime Adult Wig” are not officially licensed Sailor Moon products. The boots are a part of Ellie Shoes’ Let’s Party line, and Ellie Shoes makes the best, long lasting, colored boots of all the costume companies in the industry. So if you are comfortable wearing stick heels, the boots are worth buying if you plan to cosplay as Sailor Moon for a while. We have been unable to confirm the manufacturer of the wig as of this writing. For those fans who are also wondering why there are costumes for Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask, but no other characters, this decision was made by buycostumes.com. We are still sorting through your responses on the costumes part of our survey (and will continue to do so when we get the last of our responses). Leg Avenue is still making the costumes, and rest assured your comments will get to them. If there are other characters you would like to see costumes of, please take our latest survey (link is in the post directly below this one).