The new Sailor Moon anime will begin airing in July 2014

Usagi watching TV

It has been confirmed on the Niconico blog and the official Sailor Moon site that the new Sailor Moon 2014 anime will begin streaming worldwide this July. We had previously heard that it would be released this Winter, and later that it would be January, but this date has not been pushed back to July. It has been stated in the past that the series will be streaming on Niconico on release. We also have more new information as well as confirmation of things we had already learned.

Sailor Moon series director Munehisa Sakai

The series will be directed by Munehisa Sakai who is best known as the director of the One Piece anime series. The series composition will be done by Yuji Kobayashi. This role is that of writer who guides the story throughout the series. The anime will be once again produced by Toei, who did the original series. As we’ve already learned the theme song will be sung by Momoiro Clover Z, though we have no details about what that song will be. There is no information at this time about what, if any, channel TV channel this anime series will be airing on. It is entirely possible that it will only be available streaming on Niconico, a subscription based streaming service. We will have details on what exactly will need to be done by our readers to be able to watch this series as it gets closer to airing.

Sailor Moon series composer Yuji Kobayashi

A delay may not be ideal but at this point it is expected and it’s nice to have what seems to be a more concrete date, even though it’s a year later than we originally anticipated this series. Be patient fans! We’ve waited almost 17 years for new episodes of Sailor Moon. We can wait another 6 months.

As always we will bring you new information as it becomes available.

Thanks to Brianna from our Facebook page for bringing this to my attention.

The new Complete Editions of the Sailor Moon manga include short stories as early as volume 4

Sailor Moon Manga Complete Editions - Volume 3 and 4

I received my copies of volumes 3 and 4 of the Complete Editions of the Sailor Moon manga earlier this week and was surprised to see some of the short stories at the end of volume 4. It was not originally clear how the chapters would be distributed amongst this new 10 volume set, as there are less books each containing more pages than previous versions. The first two volumes covered the Dark Kingdom arc ending just as Chibiusa pops up. These two books cover the story of Chibiusa, Crystal Tokyo and the Black Moon from Act 15, Sailor Mars, to Act 26, Never Ending. Instead of jumping in with the Infinity arc volume 4 instead completes with a couple of the Sailor Moon short stories. We have the first Chibiusa’s Picture Diary as well as Casa Blanca Memory included in this book. As with the first two volumes this includes the colour pages, some of which have only previously been seen in the pages of Nakayoshi where Sailor Moon was originally published.

Chibiusa's Picture Diary - Beware The Transfer Student

The first story, “Chibiusa’s Picture Diary – Beware of the Transfer Student” recalls an encounter Chibiusa and her classmates had with a young vampire girl named Lilica. This was originally published at the end of the 5th volume of the manga after the chapter titled “Endymion”. Since this is the 2nd last chapter in volume 3 of this Complete Edition it seems like this would have been an obvious place to keep this story, but it seems to fit fine where it is.

Casa Blanca Memories colour title page

The other story included is Casa Blanca Memory, where we learn some of Rei’s back story. It was originally published along with Princess Kaguya’s lover in volume 11 of the original manga release and later with the second set of short stories in the reprint.

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Usagi and Umino lookalikes in Doki Doki Pretty Cure

Marmo and Ira as Usagi and Umino in Doki Doki Precure

A recent episode of the popular anime series Doki Doki Pretty Cure featured two characters who looked suspiciously similar to Usagi (Sailor Moon) and Umino (Melvin) from Sailor Moon! The girl’s school uniform actually resembles Minako’s outfit more than Usagi’s but the colours are similar and the hair in pig tails is rare enough to make this reference seem intentional. The boy’s large glasses and school uniform are nearly identical to that worn by Umino in the anime. This takes place in episode 44, “Selfish’s Trap! The Christmas Without Mana”, which premiered on December 15th.

Serena and Melvin getting Married

The two characters were actually a couple of the series villains Ira and Marmo who were disguising themselves as students in order to connivince the main character Mana that there was a King of Student Councils Contest in order to take her out of the picture and defeat the good guys (or good girls, rather).

Ira and Marmo from Doki Doki Precure

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Jessica Nigri, Monika Lee, Riddle and Katie George cosplaying as Sailor Scouts at Anime South

Riddle as Sailor Mercury, Jessica Nigri as Sailor Venus, Monika Lee as Sailor Mars and Katie George as Sailor Jupiter

This past weekend at Anime South in Florida professional cosplayers Jessica Nigri, Monika Lee, Riddle and Katie George cosplayed as Sailor Scouts from Sailor Moon!

Jessica Nigri as Sailor Venus and Monika Lee as Sailor Mars

The costumes were made over a week’s time by Monika Lee, Riddle and Katie George. Jessica Nigri was Sailor Venus, Monika Lee was Sailor Mars, Riddle was Sailor Mercury and Katie George was Sailor Jupiter. No Sailor Moon in sight! Keep reading for a selection of photos from the weekend that were posted by these girls to their Facebook and Instagram pages.

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