Momoiro Clover Z to reveal the new Sailor Moon theme song April 4th

Momoiro Clover Z dressed as Sailor Moon characters

Today is April Fools’ Day which means nothing on the Internet can be trusted. With that in mind I am sharing with you some information from some sites in Japan dated March 25th, but that were brought to my attention on April 1st Japanese time.

April 4th Update: Momoiro Clover Z did not perform the new theme song on April 4th but instead did a reenactment of the Sailor Moon S intro.

The news as reported by Momoiro Clover Z blog Momoclomatome and natalie.mu states that this coming Thursday, April 4th 2013, Momoiro Clover Z will be performing the theme song for the new 2013 Sailor Moon anime.

Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Live Show - Momoiro Clover Z

We were previously informed last summer during the 20th Anniversary event that the all girl colour coordinated J-Pop group Momoiro Clover Z would in fact be the group to perform the theme song for the new Sailor Moon anime set to begin airing this summer. The group then went on to perform a song Otome Sensou. Some fans took this performance as an indication that this would be the theme song but there has been no strong evidence to suggest this is the case. The band then performed the classic Sailor Moon anime theme song Moonlight Densetsu which also seems unlikely to be the theme song for the new anime.

Fans have been looking forward to any new information about this show for months. Until now Fumio Osano’s occasional twitter updates are all we’ve had to go on and those serve to tell us little more than that the show is still coming but that he can’t tell us anything about it. Let’s hope this news is reliable and that this will be the first in a series of updates about this new anime that we’ve all been waiting for.

Thanks to Twitter user @Sailormoon_UK for bringing this news to the attention of the Sailor Moon fandom.

Volume 10 of the Sailor Moon manga is out now

Sailor Moon manga volume 10 - Sailor Saturn

In case you haven’t picked yours up yet volume 10 of the Sailor Moon manga hit stores last Tuesday, May 26th. You can pick it up at your local book store or on Amazon using the link below.

This volume features Sailor Saturn on the cover and includes stories leading up to the end of the conflict between the Sailor Soldiers and the Dead Moon Circus.

Lindsay Lohan is not dressed as Sailor Moon in Anger Management

Lindsay Lohan on Anger Management not looking like Sailor Moon but wearing Minako Aino's school uniform

The Internet is abuzz about Lindsay Lohan’s upcoming appearance on Charlie Sheen’s TV series Anger Management. She will appear on the show wearing a school uniform similar to those found in Japan that many news sources such as Perez Hilton, Celebuzz and TV Guide are referring to as looking like Sailor Moon.

Lindsay Lohan on Anger Management with Charlie Sheen looks less like Sailor Moon but more like Minako Aino

In reality the uniform doesn’t make her look a ton like Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon’s outfit does indeed look like a sailor outfit, much like this one does, but this is pretty standard of Japanese school uniforms. Sailor Moon’s Sailor Fuku has a large red bow, shorter arms, different colours and no exposed stomach. Usagi’s civilian school uniform similarly has a large red bow and many differences from this. Brad from moonkitty.net has pointed out that the colour scheme of blue and white is not terribly common in Tokyo. Even though a lot of the specifics are different, the similarity to Sailor Moon’s school uniform and Sailor Fuku may very well be intentional. Lindsay Lohan is also sporting a hair style that is quite similar to Usagi’s iconic odangos or meatballs as they’re referred to as in the dub which is surely not a coincidence. I wonder if the outfit is intentionally different to avoid any legal issues or if this is just the case of a lazy wardrobe department using what they had at their disposal. It’s not a coincidence that all these news sources mentioned the Sailor Moon connection. That may be something that was mentioned in the press release that was sent out with these pictures.

Sailor Moon posing

What this outfit does look like much more than Usagi or Sailor Moon’s is Minako’s school uniform. Minako does not attend the same school as Usagi and so she has a totally different uniform with a scarf instead of a bow. That comparison would have been more apt if the intended audience was more well versed in the specifics of Sailor Moon and her friends. This being said there are still differences such as the knot on the scarf and number of stripes on the uniform. I am not insinuating that it was intentional to have this outfit look more like Minako’s, I’m just using this example to show the many differences with Sailor Moon’s.

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Linda Ballantyne and John Stocker to appear at Anime North May 24th to the 26th

Linda Ballantyne, voice of Sailor Moon

Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, and John Stocker, voice actor and director, will be at this year’s Anime North convention in Toronto the weekend of May 24th to the 26th. Head over to the Anime North web site to register for this convention before tickets sell out.

Linda Ballantyne joined the cast of Sailor Moon after Terri Hawkes left the show. She voiced the main character throughout the show’s 3rd and 4th seasons known in Japan as Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS.

John Stocker interview at Fan Expo 2012

John Stocker was involved with the show from the beginning doing small roles before ultimately working as voice director during the show’s later two seasons as well as the three movies. We previously interviewed John Stocker when we met up with him at Fan Expo 2012.

Fumio Osano mentions new “Complete Versions” of the Manga are coming

Fumio Osano tweet about the complete versions of the Sailor Moon manga

A Kanzenban or “Complete Version” of the Japanese Sailor Moon manga is in fact coming. A layout change will come with this printing which is likely to include colour pages not in previous releases. Sailor Moon’s editor Fumio Osano mentioned this on his twitter account recently. A translation appears below courtesy of the @OsabuP_English account:

Note: The aizoubon manga has a name change to kanzenban (complete version). The size + layout has changed too. More info in our next meeting

Since the 20th Anniversary event there has been talk of a new version of the Japanese manga in a different larger format. Numerous tentative release dates for this have come and gone. When new printings of the manga were released earlier this year it was not clear if these were in fact all we would get. It now appears that these were not the version we’d heard about but these Kanzenban versions are.

So what exactly is a “Kanzenban”? This term is used to describe special releases of a manga that are usually A5 sized which is 148x210mm or 8.5×5.8″ and will include all original chapter covers, colour pages and side stories. Many of the colour pages from the Sailor Moon or Sailor V manga were not included in any releases since their original inclusion in the magazines Run Run and Nakayoshi so this will be a real treat for completist fans. Original reports mentioned A4 sized comics which would have been double the size of the A5 size typical of Kanzenban releases.

Fumio Osano aka Osabu aka Osa-P

Thanks to Andrew Yu for mentioning this on our Facebook page.

G-Anime 2013: Terri Hawkes: Acting, Writing and Directing as a Professional Panel

Terri Hawkes: Acting, Writing and Directing as a Professional Panel at G-Anime 2013

Here is the second panel by Terri Hawkes, the voice of Sailor Moon, from this year’s G-Anime convention in Gatineau. In this panel Terri talks about what it’s like working as an actor, writer and director in the entertainment industry. It’s mainly geared towards people who are interested in pursuing this kind of work. There is some mention of her time working on Sailor Moon so fans of the show should check it out.

Also be sure to check out Terri Hawkes’s panel on voicing Sailor Moon as well as the interview I did with her at G-Anime.

“Tournée du chat noir de la lune” shirt for sale today at Ript Apparel

Tournée du chat noir de la luna - Ript Apparel

All day today, March 12th, this “Tournée du chat noir de la lune” t-shirt is on sale for $10 at Ript Apparel. This is the third time I’ve seen this shirt for sale on one of these shirt a day sites, though it’s the first time I’ve seen it in this colour.

The cat is Luna from Sailor Moon taking the place of the cat from an old poster advertising “Le chat noir”, a French 19th century cabaret which had a touring troupe that advertised with this poster. The French writing on the shirt roughly translates to “Tour of the black cat from the moon”.

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Toonami is looking into airing the new Sailor Moon anime

Toonami Panel at MomoCon 2013

At the Toonami panel at the MomoCon anime convention in Atlanta this past weekend a fan asked if they had plans to play the new Sailor Moon anime that will begin airing in Japan this summer. Toonami’s response was only that they were considering it.

Nothing is definitive at this point but Toonami would certainly be a fitting home for the new 2013 Sailor Moon anime as many American fans were first exposed to the original Sailor Moon anime on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block when they started airing the show in June of 1998. The Toonami block of programming, which centres around more action oriented animation included a lot of Anime, returned to Cartoon Network last May after a long hiatus.

Source: NJ_ at the Sailor Moon forums

Voice actor Chieko Honda, voice of Tellu, dies of cancer at 49

Tellu voiced by Chieko Honda

Last Monday, on February 18th 2013, voice actress Chieko Honda died following a battle with cancer. She was only 49. Chieko Honda was a veteran voice actor best known to Sailor Moon fans for providing the voice of Tellu of the Witches 5 in Sailor Moon S. Though she only appeared in a couple of episodes of the show, her contribution will not soon be forgotten by fans.

Chieko Honda, voice of Tellu

Source: Anime News Network

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