The 2016 Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration is this Saturday, July 9th, at the Ontario Science Centre. Last year I attended the event and recorded the voice actor panel. This panel included Roland Parliament, voice director for the first 65 episodes and the voice of Melvin, Tony Daniels, the voice of Jadeite and Wise Man, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, and Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna. If you missed last year’s event you can watch the panel below.
This year’s event looks like it will be a lot of fun. It has some great guests including voice actors Vince Corazza, the voice of Alan and Tuxedo Mask, Tony Daniels, the voice of Jadeite and Wise Man, and David Fraser, the voice of Raye’s Grandpa and other minor roles in the series. Jennifer Cihi, who sang many songs for the English dub, will be there to perform a concert. For more information on this and other events at the convention check out the event’s web site.
This weekend is Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California. Once again this convention will play host to a number of Sailor Moon actors, this time with a lot of the cast from the new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal. Could this mean we will finally be getting news about the English dub of Sailor Moon S? It’s been a whole year since the voice actors for Sailor Moon S were announced at Anime Expo 2015. We are long overdue to see these episodes. The voice actors will be signing Sailor Moon S art at the convention so I think it would be reasonable to expect to learn something related to Sailor Moon S at Sunday’s panel!
This convention will feature Stephanie Sheh, Sailor Moon, Cristina Vee, Sailor Mars, Amanda Miller, Sailor Jupiter, Cherami Leigh, Sailor Venus, Sandy Fox, Chibiusa, Robbie Daymond, Tuxedo Mask, new voice actors from Sailor Moon S Erica Mendez, Sailor Uranus, Lauren Landa, Sailor Neptune and Christine Cabanos, Sailor Saturn. Most of the events will be going on this Sunday, July 3rd. The Sailor Moon panel will be at 10am Pacific Time and an autograph session will be held at 1:30pm. The cast will be signing Sailor Moon S posters provided by Viz.
The second Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration will be taking place next month, on July 9th, at the Ontario Science Center. This year has some great guests in store yet again. Voice actors Vince Corazza, the voice of Alan Granger and the third voice of Tuxedo Mask, will be there. Tony Daniels, the voice of Jadeite, will be making his second appearance at the convention. Jennifer Cihi, who provided the vocals for many songs in the original English dub of Sailor Moon, will be there to perform a concert. Fan Fiction The Show, who have previously done comedy shows in Toronto about Sailor Moon and other fandoms, will be putting on a live comedy performance at the convention.
There will also be a lot of Cosplay guests including Yume and Kitsurie from Cosmeko, Jelly Cosplay, and Ammie Cosplay. I met Cosmeko at Unplugged Expo a couple of years ago and they had some great tips for making Sailor Moon costumes and accessories.
I had a great time at the Toronto Sailor Moon Celebration last year and even had a chance to participate in a few of the panels. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make the trip to Toronto this year.
This weekend is Eternal Con at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York. New York City Sailor Moon fans will have a chance to meet Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, and Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. Though the convention runs from June 10th to the 12th these voice actors from the original dub of the Sailor Moon anime will be there on Saturday June 11th and Sunday June 12th.
A panel will be held on Sunday, June 12th, at 1pm with all of the voice actors. Photo ops will be Saturday at 11am and Sunday at 12pm. I did not see any specifics about autographs on the site but the cast likely be available throughout Saturday and Sunday when they are not otherwise occupied.
Also appearing at the convention is Yuuta Mochizuki who played Tuxedo Mask in a number of Sailor Moon Musicals. He was the second Tuxedo Mask and first appeared as Kunzite in the very first musical. Many Sailor Moon and Sentai fans may also know him as the original Red Power Ranger in Zyurangers, the series which was adapted as the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
This weekend, June 3rd to the 5th, is Villains Con at the David S. Palmer arena in Danville, Illinois. The convention will feature Jennifer Cihi, who provided the vocals for a number of songs from the English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime, and Lauren Landa, the new voice of Sailor Neptune for Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime and Sailor Moon Crystal.
It is with great sadness that I report that Yuko Mizutani has died as a result of breast cancer. She passed away on Tuesday, May 17th, at the age of 51. Yuko Mizutani has been a voice actress for many years but Sailor Moon fans would know her best as the voice of Sailor Moon’s mother Ikuko Tsukino in Sailor Moon Crystal. She has provided voices for characters in many other popular anime series such as Tekkaman Blade, Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (Samurai Pizza Cats), Martian Successor Nadesico, Saber Marionette J and Digimon. She will be remembered fondly by fans in Japan and throughout the world for years to come.
Sailor Moon Crystal is still ongoing and Ikuko Tsukino will continue to appear later in the series. It remains to be seen who will continue in this role in the future.
This weekend is Emerald City Comicon at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. In attendance will be Linda Ballantyne, the voice of Sailor Moon, and Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter. Linda Ballantyne was the 3rd voice of Sailor Moon who appeared throughout the Sailor Moon S and SuperS seasons. Susan Roman voiced Sailor Jupiter throughout the entire series.
The two will be hosting a panel, Stories from the Moon Kingdom, on Saturday from 12:15pm to 1:1pm. They will also be signing autographs throughout the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There are a lot of other cool guests at the convention including Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!
There was an event today at the Anime Japan convention in which we saw the new Sailor Moon Crystal opening, closing, got a new trailer and even got a preview of what seems to be about half of Act 27. All of this footage is now available online, though the episode footage is of lower quality with people talking over it. Those people happen to be the voice actors for Sailor Moon, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn as well as the new director, but this is still a fairly terrible way to watch a clip.
This is not all of Act 27, yet it appears to be a continuous episode. Is this what people saw at the premiere event earlier this month? If it is then we may have been wrong in assuming Sailor Moon Crystal will not have a 1:1 ratio of manga chapters to episodes. Yes this clip concludes after the fight with the Daimon that comes from the girls at Mugen Academy but at less than 12 minutes we are hardly getting a full episode. Not everything seen here is in proper order either. We see Usagi disguised as a student of Mugen Academy. Is this a change in the order of the story or are we just being presented with a bunch of out of order clips from the first two episodes, strung together in a somewhat cohesive way? Regardless, it was mentioned that this season will span 13 episodes and there are 11 manga chapters for the Infinity Arc, so while this isn’t a 1:1 ratio, only two new episodes will be added to this season. It is still not clear if or how Act 27 will be split.
The better quality footage is of the music videos for the opening and ending themes. We previously mentioned that this is only the first of the ending themes and that many CDs would be released throughout the coming months. Also included is the CD cover art for the first single.
Here is the new opening In Love With the New Moon sung by Etsuko Yakushimaru. She previously sang the cover of Otome no Policy on the 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album and her voice here reminds me a lot of that song. This new opening has a lot of naked people in it, if you’re into that.
Next is the first ending theme Eternal Eternity sung by the voices of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, Junko Minagawa and Sayaka Ohara. This song reminds me of a few other anime themes including the opening theme for Revolutionary Girl Utena. Some of the visuals reminds me of the footage in the opening as well. The other that came to mind was a song from the Street Fighter II anime movie Itoshisa To Setsunasa To Kokoro Tsuyosa. Yes I know, I seem to only have watched anime the late 90s. It was better then.
Finally we have the new trailer, which includes some footage we’ve seen before.
There’s a lot of new footage here so I’ve included a bunch of screenshots for your convenience lower in the post. Of note is just how different Luna and Artemis look! Reminds me of something out of the Moon Animate Make-Up! project. What do you think of the new animation? I think it looks great, but obviously a bit different. I’m real excited for this new season which is a bit over a week away. Here’s hoping we get some news about a streaming version soon.
Today, Saturday March 19th, was Viz’s official Sailor Moon panel at C2E2 in Chicago. The C2E2 panels were streamed on the C2E2 site. I didn’t catch the panel myself but thanks to many users following the panel on Twitter I was able to keep up with what was going on. We were hoping for significant news which is long overdue and we didn’t get any. We didn’t get anything about the release of the upcoming dub of Sailor Moon S and also didn’t get any specifics about the upcoming new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, covering the Infinity arc of the manga, which will be starting to air on Japanese TV on April 4th.
Never fear! Anime Boston is next weekend and we will be having yet another Official Sailor Moon panel next Saturday, March 25th, at 5pm. Big news about these topic may be left for then. Anime Boston is being held at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston.
Anime Boston will have some Japanese voice actors from the original Sailor Moon anime in attendance! Husband and wife voice acting couple Toshio Furukawa and Shino Kakinuma will both be there. Shino Kakinuma voiced Naru Osaka throughout the series. Her panel will be held on Friday March 25th at 4pm, right before the Official Sailor Moon panel. Great timing! Toshio Furukawa provided the voice of Hawk’s Eye in Sailor Moon SuperS as well as Shun Hayase, a side character from Sailor Moon S. His panel will be Friday at 1:30pm. The two will be signing autographs on Saturday March 26th at 11am. Toshio Furukawa will be doing his own autograph session on Sunday March 27th at 10:30am.
The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal to be added to Hulu and Neon Alley takes us to the future! Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, has the gang following Chibiusa to the 30th Century Crystal Tokyo and getting their lives threatened by Sailor Pluto in the process. Who does she report to anyway? I sort of assumed her boss was Neo Queen Serenity, who probably wouldn’t appreciate her employee killing her past self, but I guess these rules exist for a reason! Fans of the Pokémon anime will recognise Sailor Pluto’s English voice, Veronica Taylor, as Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum. Yes that’s right I’ve found another reason to bring up Pokémon. Sailor Pluto’s adult female voice actually sounds more like Ash’s Mom, Delia Ketchum. Does that make King Endymion Professor Oak?
We get to see Diana the kitten this week very briefly, though we won’t hear her talk until the next episode. One thing we also see but don’t totally see if Usagi and Mamoru having sex! This was hinted at heavily in the manga but in Sailor Moon Crystal not a lot is left to interpretation.
Next week is Act 20, Crystal Tokyo – King Endymion, has us actually hearing Diana’s voice, though we don’t yet know who will be voicing her. We’ll also see the purple version of Tuxedo Mask and get a bunch of backstory including who Chibiusa’s parents are! OMG who could it be?!
