A trailer for Sailor Moon Crystal, the new Sailor Moon anime which will begin airing July 5th, has been released. Watch it now!
This is a good look at the show’s animation in action. What do you think? We have our first look at Luna whose voice actress is not Keiko Han who voiced her in the original anime and the live action series. As was been previously announced we can hear Kotono Mitsuishi, the original voice of Sailor Moon, reprising her role.
Keep reading for a ton of HD screenshots.
It is with great sadness that I share the news that Kirsten Bishop, best known to Sailor Moon fans as the voice of Zoisite, died of lung cancer on April 15th in Toronto. Aside from playing Zoisite she voiced many other characters such as Emerald from Sailor Moon R, Kaorinite and Telulu from Sailor Moon S and Badiyanu from the SuperS movie. In additoin to this she also lent her voice to a number of single episode villains including Techniclon, the monster that Andrew’s boyfriend Rita turned into after having her Rainbow Crystal extracted, Polite Society, the monster version of Countess Rose from the Crystal Seminar and many Daimon and Lemures from the S and SuperS seasons which are listed on Wikimoon.
Kirten Bishop’s portrayal of Zoisite was a bit controversial as the character, who was a gay man in the Japanese version of the show, was a woman in the English dub. She did such a convincing job of this that many fans had no idea this character was anything but the woman she presented.
In additional to her work on Sailor Moon and many other animated series Kirsten Bishop was also an accomplished film and TV actress. She will be remembered with fondness by fans everywhere.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Sabrina Grdevich joins the guest list at Unplugged Expo 3 to be held at the Chestnut Conference Centre September 27th and 28th in Toronto. Sabrina Grdevich has done a great number of voices in Sailor Moon! She provided the voice of Anne Granger, the alien, during the Doom Tree Saga. Later in Sailor Moon R she provided the voice of Sailor Pluto as heard through the Luna Sphere and during her appearances later in that season and in the S and SuperS movies. Susan Aceron took on the role of Sailor Pluto during Sailor Moon S. Sabrina Grdevich also supplied the voices of many monsters such as the Jumo the evil doll, Ninjana and Nancy Vargas, the photographer turned monster, Mistrust, a monster who creates illusions in Ami’s mind, as well as Andrew’s younger sister Lizzie.
Outside of Sailor Moon she has also done some live action work including a recurring role in the Canadian drama traders and the android whose face opens up in A.I..
This Monday, June 2nd, Hulu has added two new episodes of Sailor Moon. These episodes are subbed only by Viz and are being released at a rate of two episodes a week every Monday for the foreseeable future. This week we have episodes 7 and 8.
Episode 7, Usagi Learns Her Lesson: Becoming a Star Is Hard Work, has Usagi and her classmates going wild preparing for the Cinderella Caravan, a local talent show promoted by teen idol Mikan, or rather a monster who is posing as Mikan. The talent show is nothing but a plot by Jadeite and the Dark Kingdom to steal energy. Along the way we have Usagi and Naru breaking the 4th wall by performing the show’s theme song and Umino cross dressing in an attempt to do anything to win the contest!
Episode 8, The Girl Genius Is a Monster: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror, introduces us to Ami Mizuno, a quiet genius at Usagi’s school with an IQ of 300 (IQs over around 160 are generally thought to be beyond our ability to properly measure). The Dark Kingdom has infiltrated a cram school and Usagi suspects Ami might be in league with the enemy. As it turns out she’s the latest Sailor Guardian Sailor Mercury!
Next week we’ll be seeing episode 9, Usagi’s Misfortune! Watch Out for the Rushing Clocks, which although dubbed in English was sometimes not aired in syndication due to the unfortunate English title “Time Bomb”. Also released next Monday will be “Cursed Buses! Fire Warrior Mars Appears” which is the first appearance of the greatest character in the series!
Following the last release of the Sailor Moon Complete Edition manga we now have all of Codename Sailor V released in Japan in this same format. The Complete Edition of the Sailor Moon, and now Sailor V, manga are high quality collector’s editions of the manga with larger, brighter pages and which include all colour pages previously only seen in pages of Nakayoshi and Run Run. While Sailor Moon appeared in Nakayoshi the Codename Sailor V manga was often serialized in another magazine, Run Run. The Codename Sailor V manga was also written by Naoko Takeuchi and it predates Sailor Moon, though it continued to be written alongside it and it’s final story was actually written after Sailor Moon’s run had been completed. It tells the story of Minako when she was Sailor V in the days before she joined Sailor Moon as Sailor Venus. Chronologically the entire story takes place prior to the first issue of the Sailor Moon manga.
This complete edition was released on Thursday May 29th. Unlike the Sailor Moon releases of this manga there is no new art for the covers but instead the art of the original books for Codename Sailor V volumes 1 and 2 are used for these. As you can see by the comparison to the original manga releases these ones are a bit larger and feature a much larger image of the volume 2 cover art. These books are Japanese only. You can order them from Amazon Japan (vol. 1, vol. 2) or CD Japan (vol. 1, vol. 2).
Keep reading to see more of the colour pages included in this release.
Last weekend at FanimeCon 2014 in San Jose Crunchyroll announced that the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, would begin streaming on it’s site starting July 5th at 3am. This new anime will be streamed with English subtitles as it is released in Japan on Niconico. The announcement was made on their website shortly afterwards.
Anime series can be streamed for free on the Crunchyroll web site. For those looking for a better experience there is a pay service which will allow you to view the shows in HD without ads and on all kinds of media devices for $6.95 a month. You can sign up for a free 14 day trial of this service though a credit card or PayPal account will be needed for this trail. It’s certainly great to be able to watch a Sailor Moon series online streaming without commercials! It’s unfortunate that Hulu doesn’t have an ad free plan for fans of the original anime who are likely willing to throw their money at them but the fine people at Hulu have poor business sense and offer no such option.
The 5th and 6th episodes of Sailor Moon are now available subbed and streaming on Hulu. As was mentioned previously by Viz, who has acquired the rights to the series, two new episodes will be released every Monday! This week includes two new episodes which were previously not dubbed into English. For many nostalgic fans this is a great chance to check out these episodes for the first time!
Episode 5, Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love has tensions grow between Shingo and Luna, who is integrating herself into the Tsukino family as a pet, as the Chanela appear in town. Shingo and his friend Mika, along with many other children, are hypnotized by the Chanela who are actually a plot by the Dark Kingdom. One has to wonder if the Chanela themselves were actually innocent creatures with autonomy created as part of this plot and discarded afterwards or if they were just mindless tools. This episode features an interesting twist as Usagi, disguised as Sailor Moon, hides her face from Shingo fearing he might recognize her. Later in the series Usagi’s transformed self is never recognized by anyone. Perhaps Usagi, new to her powers, simply didn’t realize this was the case so early in the show.
Episode 6, Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid, has Usagi befriending a jazz musician Yusuke Amade, whose music is being used by the Dark Kingdom in order to collect energy. Usagi plays cupid in that she gives him advise on how to win over Akiko who he’s interested in. Usagi uses her transformation pen to get into a club and in doing so sports a punky looking green hair style.
From now until midnight on Sunday May 25th at Arteesel you can pick up a couple of great Sailor Moon shirts for $12 a piece. “Soldier of Love and Beauty” features a silhouette of Sailor Venus against an orange or blue background. “Usagi and the Starry Night“, which we posted about before, features Super Sailor Moon in a style reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.
The Sailor Venus shirt is made by artist sigma-astra. Check out her Facebook page, Redbubble store and Society6 store for more of her stuff. She’s done a set of five shirts in this style, which are also available at her RedBubble store.
The Van Gogh shirt is designed by Gilles Bonne. Check out his personal web site, Red Bubble store, Facebook, Twitter, deviantART or tumblr pages for more of his stuff.
Fan Fiction is returning to Toronto and this time Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, will be joining Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, at this comedy special. The show takes place Thursday June 19th at 9:30pm at the Comedy Bar at 945 Bloor St. West in downtown Toronto.
Fan Fiction The Show is a recurring comedy special that consists of a live comedic reading of Fan Fiction of one franchise or another with various comedians playing the parts of characters from these franchises. Fan Fiction The Show Sailor Moon was a great success when it first took place last July and had Toby Proctor dressed up as Tuxedo Mask for his performance. For thoughts on that check out our interview with Toby Proctor at Fan Expo 2013.
Get your tickets through NXNE. Follow Fan Fiction The Show on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with their other shows.
The Sailor Moon Pullip doll which was announced in March is available for pre-order in Japan and with that we have more details about it. The doll will be released in July and will cost a whopping 17,280 yen, about $170 US. Pullip dolls sure aren’t cheap! This kind of price is expected for a licensed doll like this. Sailor Moon also comes with a mini stuffed Luna accessory.
The doll’s height is 31 cm, a bit over 12 inches, with a 6.5 cm head, about 2.5 inches.
