Unplugged Expo Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary voice actor panel – Day 2

Unplugged Expo Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary panel - Sunday October 27th 2013 - Ron Rubin, Artemis, Susan Roman, Sailor Jupiter, Terri Hawkes, Sailor Moon, Toby Proctor, Tuxedo Mask

Here’s the second of two Sailor Moon voice actor panels that were part of Unplugged Expo‘s Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary celebration. This panel was from the Sunday, October 27th, in Toronto. Saturday’s panel had more voice actors present but Sunday’s panel allowed for a more intimate experience with Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Terri Hawkes, the voice of Sailor Moon and Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. The MC is me, Adam Gardner.

The panel focused on the cast’s time working in voice acting and featured a few attacks from the live action series. Though discussion of the new Sailor Moon anime was saved for the Sunday panel there were no new announcements made as no new information was available however the cast is enthusiastic to reprise their roles if given the chance and suggested fans on the Internet would have a lot of influence if they asked to see the original cast return. One such effort which I mentioned during the panel was this Facebook page which petitions to have Terri Hawkes voice Sailor Moon in the new anime. Please support this page and others if you’d like to hear your favourite voice actors in the new show.

Thanks to the Unplugged Expo staff for putting this convention together, to the Sailor Moon voice actors for making a great panel and to Kate for helping with the camera. Check out Kate’s Sailor Moon screenshots on Instagram or Twitter.

The Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series premiered 10 years ago today

Miyuu Sawai as Sailor Moon and Jouji Shibue as Tuxedo Mask from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series

October 4th 2003, 10 years ago, the first episode of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon TV series premiered in Japan. The show didn’t achieve much success with a North American audience but many fans did have a fondness for it. With a total of 49 episodes the series ran for about a year and also had two direct to video specials and a live stage show, along with a lot of merchandise.

Keiko Kitagawa as Sailor Mars

The story of this series was a retelling of the Dark Kingdom storyline from the manga and anime. While at the beginning there were many similarities, the series quickly defied expectations and did it’s own thing going so far as to introduce new variations of classic characters like Sailor Luna, Dark Mercury, Mio Kuroki and Princess Sailor Moon. The effects were a bit cheap and Luna was a plush most of the time but the show still had a certain quality to it that made it very much Sailor Moon.

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27, the new photo book by Keiko Kitagawa, live action Sailor Mars, is in stores now

Keiko Kitagawa's photo book 27 covers

It’s August 22nd which is Keiko Kitagawa’s 27th birthday and the date of the release of her photo book aptly named 27. This book features photos of Keiko Kitagawa, best known to visitors of this site as Sailor Mars from the 2003 live action Sailor Moon series, in photos she took in Paris and Tokyo. The book can be ordered from online sites such as Amazon Japan or YesAsia now. The book is currently available with two covers. A limited edition cover is still available on Amazon Japan for now but the standard cover will be the only one available once the initial stock runs out.

Keiko Kitagawa as Sailor Mars

In addition to this book a making of DVD and Blu-Ray has also been announced. This is a behind the scenes look at the making of 27. It will be released on November 13th. The DVD will cost 3000 yen, roughly $30 US, and the Blu-Ray disc will cost 4000 yen, roughly $40 US. Japanese DVDs are region 2 and therefore can not be played in North American DVD players however Japanese Blu-Ray discs are region A, which will work in North American Blu-Ray players.

Keiko Kitagawa, live action Sailor Mars, has a new promo for her photo book

Keiko Kitagawa and a baby goat, see?

Keiko Kitagawa, the actress who played Sailor Mars in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, has a new promo out for her upcoming photo book. The book, titled “27”, will be released on her 27th birthday on August 22nd. Photos were taken in Japan and in Paris where people are known for eating ice cream and looking at baby goats. Check out this short promo for an idea of what some of these photos will look like.

The promotional material keeps referring to this as her first photo book though this isn’t really the case. I’m sure this is true using some arbitrary criteria. You can preorder the book from Amazon Japan for about $29 US. They will ship internationally though it won’t be cheap to do so. The book is in Japanese but it’s a photo book so who cares if you can’t read it? Keiko is pretty in any language. Check her out swearing in English for an example of this!

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Keiko Kitagawa, live action Sailor Mars, to star in Judge and an Akumu-chan movie

Keiko Kitagawa's new series Akumu chan starts October 13th

Keiko Kitagawa, Sailor Mars from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon TV series, has a couple of new movies in the works! She will star in a movie “Judge” and a movie sequel to the “Akumu-chan” TV series.

Keiko Kitagawa in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

In “Judge” Keiko Kitagawa will star alongside Satoshi Tsumabuki who also appeared in Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as the guy from the trailer who says “Go” to start the race. Although Keiko Kitagawa also starred in Tokyo Drift they did not share any scenes together until now. The movie is a comedy who’s plot has them pretending to be a couple. Filming will take place in August and September. The film is currently slated for a January release.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - Satoshi Tsumabuki - "Go"

The Akumu-chan movie is a follow up to the 11 episode TV series which aired at the end of last year in Japan. This movie will have many actors reprising their roles as a new student joins Ayami’s (Keiko Kitagawa) class as her students all know him from their dreams while Yukio knows him from her nightmares! Filming is already underway though no release date has been announced.

Source: Tokyo Hive and Tokyo Hive.

Trailer for Keiko Kitagawa’s new movie Roommate

Keiko Kitagawa in Roommate

Here’s a trailer for a new movie Roommate, starring Keiko Kitagawa, Sailor Mars from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series.

The movie will be released on November 9th in Japan. The trailer doesn’t really tell us much but the story it would seem has Keiko’s character, Harumi, getting into an accident and befriending a nurse, Reiko (Mars Reiko?), played by Kyoko Fukada. The two decide to be roommates and high jinx ensues!

You can check out the official site for the trailer or check out the movie’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Source: JPop Asia

Kappei Yamaguchi, live action Artemis, to appear at Anime Revolution in Vancouver

Kappei Yamaguchi, the voice of Artemis from the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series

Legendary anime voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi will be a guest of honor at Anime Revolution in Vancouver August 16th to the 18th. Kappei Yamaguchi provided the voice of Artemis in the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series. He has also provided voices for many iconic anime characters such as Inuyasha and Ranma.

Kappei Yamaguchi joins Sailor Moon voice actor Toru Furuya, Tuxedo Mask from the anime series, who was previously announced as a guest.

Source: Anime Revolution via Moon Chase!

Keiko Kitagawa’s new photo book will celebrate her first 10 years in the industry

Keiko Kitagawa in France in front of the Eiffel Tower

Keiko Kitagawa, the actress who played Sailor Mars in the live action Sailor Moon show, will be releasing a new photo book to celebrate her first 10 years in the fashion industry. The book is set to be released on her 27th birthday, August 22nd of this year. She was recently in Paris to get photos for her book and has now returned to Japan to finish up with more photos.

Keiko Kitagawa sitting on steps in Paris

Keiko Kitagawa now has an official Facebook page where you can see many photos she took while in Paris working on her photo book. She also recorded a video which is talking about the new book. It’s in Japanese but well worth watching if like me you’d watch her read the phone book.

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Rika Izumi, live action Sailor Mercury, to appear in a new drama series

Rika Izumi in "The Fly Girl in Love" - [恋するハエ女]

Rika Izumi, who was formerly known by her stage name Hama Chisaki when she appeared in the live action Sailor Moon show as Ami Mizuno, has a new drama series coming up. The show, who’s Japanese title 恋するハエ女 translates roughly to “The Fly Girl in Love” or “Worthless Woman in Love”, has Rika starring in a minor role as Arisa Mita (三田有紗).

A character diagram appears at the official site showing Rika’s character to be competing for the affection of the main character’s fiance. This six episode series will be airing on NHK Tuesday nights starting on November 6th.

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Akumu-chan first impressions

Akumu-chan Keiko Kitagawa as Ayami Mutoi

Akumu-chan, the new show starring Keiko Kitagawa from the live action Sailor Moon show, has now aired it’s first two episodes. If you, like me, don’t live in Japan and don’t understand Japanese, you can download the show and English subtitles from D-Addicts. If you keep an eye out on that site’s torrent page and subtitles forum you’ll be able to get the rest of the episodes as they are released and eventually translated. You can also watch the show on Crunchyroll for a price. New episodes air Saturdays in Japan.

Akumu-chan - Keiko Kitagawa and GACKT in Ayami Mutoi's dream

Since this is a Sailor Moon site I won’t be talking about this show on a weekly basis but wanted to give my thoughts on the first episode and the show in general. Overall I think it’s pretty good and that Keiko does a great job. I’ll likely be checking out the rest of the series, something I haven’t made an effort to do with her shows since Mop Girl.

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