Hello, Sailor Moon fans!

I took part as a speaker in the first episode of the Zannen, Canada podcast and there was plenty of talk about Sailor Moon. I reminisced about how I got into Sailor Moon and my experiences as an early fan of the franchise before the Internet age. There’s also discussion of missed opportunities for anime in Canada and hopes for the future.

Some of you may remember Jesse Betteridge’s previous version of Zannen, Canada which was a Canadian focused anime news site. The podcast is like the next generation of that, with lots of discussions about anime and future interviews with industry figures. She podcast has a primarily Canadian focus, but should be of interest even if you’re outside of Canada and would like to hear more about anime in North America.

If you’d like to listen to the first episode of the Zannen, Canada podcast, you can check it out here.

Ladies and Gentleman,

Viz held its Sailor Moon panel at the 2014 Anime Expo. Announced were the dub cast for the Viz Re-dub of Sailor Moon (The Classic Anime) as well as the release of a new box set, along with date.

Sailor Moon Season 1, Part 1 box set will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 11, 2014 and has been seen to run from $56-80 for Blu-Ray with about $30-50 for the standard DVD release. Online Retailer Right-Stuf had a pre-order promotion for a limited edition coin but that has since sold out.

The Limited Edition Blu-Ray/DVD set comes with episodes 1-23 on 3 Blu-Ray and 3 DVD plus an 88-page, full-color premium booklet, all in a nice chipboard art box that will have room for Season 1, part 2. Viz has stated that all 5 seasons will be released in these boxes.

Now what about Sailor Moon Crystal? As of now, according to Japanese Entertainment Website Natalie.Mu(Site is in Japanese), the season will be released by King Records in 13 two-episode volumes with a limited edition release of Volume 1 (Episodes 1-2) in Japan on October 15, 2014 with a wide Blu-Ray/DVD Release on November 12, 2014 (The Day after Sailor Moon Season 1, Part 1 is released in the US… Actually, the same day due to time difference). The limited edition Blu-Ray set will actually be housed in a large designer box that doubles as a music box that will play the theme for Crystal “Moon Pride” (Though the box is part of a Japanese Promotion that comes from buying the individual DVDs) and the DVDs come with special booklets, with Vol. 1 coming with a larger bag chain charm and and all volumes including smaller charms, which may be attached to the aforementioned chain (Information found on SailorMoonCollectibles.com) and it seems that the Prices are going from 7020-8100 Yen, depending on the title and can be pre-ordered on the CDJapan website (The rest of the titles can be found here as well). The prices for the normal Blu-Ray are going for 4860 Yen and the Regular DVD volumes are priced at 3780 Yen and all of these can be found on the CDJapan website as well.

There is currently no word of a US set release for Sailor Moon Crystal as of yet but information on them will be posted for both Sailor Moon Classic and Sailor Moon Crystal as we get more details.

Update (11/16/2014): Limited Edition Blu-Ray for Episodes 1&2 for Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal Released October 15th. Pictures for the Limited Edition Blu-Ray set shown below:

The Art for the DVD showcases Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon. The set also includes a special booklet, the enclosed Sailor Moon Bag Chain and the first charm resembling Sailor Moon’s Moon Stick. The remaining charms will be included with later limited edition Blu-Ray box releases. Also, the large box for the full Blu-Ray set has also been revealed

As stated above, it will house all of the boxset disc cases and double as a music box that plays the Series theme “Moon Pride”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a few quick hits for you all!

In Hong Kong, MTR began selling the last of their Classic Anime Series Souvenir Ticket sets on Sunday. The last set features Sailor Moon characters with the new branding! For $105 HKD ($13 USD), riders can get the entire set of all 3 souvenir passes, a specially designed ticket holder, as well as a keychain. Each pass is valid for a single ride on or before November 30th, and the pass will be returned to the owner as a souvenir.

 

In Japan, Naoko Takeuchi has drawn a new Chibi version of Tuxedo Kamen to be animated in 3D for an RPG! He will be making an appearance in Level 5’s “Girls RPG Cinderelife”, an RPG where a player will be able to experience aspects of a typical girl’s life from work, to fashion, to shopping, and even a little dating. The really interesting thing to note on this screengrab we have featured for you is that Naoko Takeuchi PNP is the only copyright listed – so this is being done independently of Toei Animation or Kodansha (which is probably why this is a new drawing). Reprising his role as the voice of Tuxedo Mask is none other than the original voice himself, Toru Furuya! Fans can check out a trailer here and the official site here. The game will be released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS sometime next year.

 

And who watched Saturday Night Live? Did anyone notice Anna Faris dressed up as Sailor Moon Cherry Cherry Rock and Roll? The skit this cosplay appeared in was “J Pop America Fun Time Now”, and Anna appeared at the end as Jennifer, a fan who had the largest anime video collection at Michigan State University. While this wasn’t the greatest skit, it reminded us of every otaku we have met that has pretended to know everything about Japan. Fans can watch this episode online at Hulu in the USA or later this week at Global TV’s site in Canada.

This day is finally upon us – Moonies, do your part to support Sailor Moon and Sailor V today by going out and purchasing these manga from your store of choice! We would like to take this time to thank some very important people. First, to Daniel Mani, Tomoko Suga, and President Yoshio Irie of Kodansha America – thank you for reading our Operation Moonrise Manga report in February of 2010. We were absolutely ecstatic with the announcement in March and we could not have been prouder for the renewal editions of both Sailor Moon and Codename Sailor V finally being released in North America. To Dallas Middaugh and the team at Random House, thank you for a job well done in ensuring that this release went as smoothly as possible. And last (but certainly not least), thanks to Naoko Takeuchi for allowing the manga to return to North America! Thanks to all our readers who participated in Operation Moonrise Phase 3, as well as our letter writing campaign to Kodansha – your efforts were paramount to bringing Sailor Moon fans everywhere the joy they are going to experience from today until the end of the manga’s run.

We can’t keep up with every party that is being held in celebration of this occasion, so we recommend our fans check out our Facebook page. We have opened up a discussion topic for fans to share of release parties in their area. If you know of one that has not been posted, please feel free to post it there!

Go forth and “Sailor-brate”, Moonies!