A new Sailor Moon Art Book “Sailormoon Raisonné” is coming April 12th!

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Adam

A new Art Book titled “Sailormoon Raisonné Art Works 1991~2023″ will be released in less than a month on April 12th! Yesterday Sailor Moon editor Fumio Osano teased that some announcements would be made today, and this seems to be the big one! What does the French word for “reasoned” have to do with Sailor Moon? I really have no idea but it is certainly following in the tradition of using random non Japanese or English words in the last decade’s Sailor Moon musical titles. This one doesn’t seem to be overtly incorrectly spelled but the phrase doesn’t really make sense. What is “Sailormoon Reasoned?”

Update: It seems the term “raisonné” in this context refers to a “Catalogue raisonné” which is a catalogue listing all known works by an artist. This suggests that this work would reference everything that Naoko Takeuchi did related to Sailor Moon during the years 1991 to 2023. I’ve been speaking French for 45 years and this term is new to me!

By starting in 1991, the year in which Sailor Moon first appeared in the pages of Nakayoshi and that Codename: Sailor V appeared in Run Run, we will be covering the entire history of the manga. This “ultimate” colour illustration collection gathers a whopping 745 illustrations in its 200 pages.

The front cover features Sailor Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter while the back shows Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chibi Moon and Saturn. A “B5″ sized file folder featuring one of these images will be available for those ordering it through the Fan Club or purchasing it at the Sailor Moon Store in Japan. B5 size is roughly but not exactly 7×10″. With an MSRP of 5980 yen, the book will cost about $40 US though expect to pay a bit for shipping or a mint for shipping if you’re still ordering from Amazon Japan, something I have stopped down due to exponential increases in their shipping costs.

This announcement has lead some to wonder if this is the same art book which was announced by Kodansha at New York Comiccon back in October of 2012. At the time the new art book was said to be released in seven countries including the United States. This announcement was made by Kodansha in Japan and doesn’t mention an international release, but such an announcement may still be coming. It’s also possible that after so much time this is a totally different project which might not actually come out here. I’m trying to figure out how long I want to wait before pre-ordering this.

Will you be getting it?

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

Phobos is Red, Deimos is Purple

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Adam

An age old controversy may have finally been answered as the Sailor Moon Eternal film has weighed in on the issue of the colour of Phobos and Deimos’s clothes! Phobos and Deimos are Rei’s crows. In the Dreams arc of the manga, and the first Sailor Moon Eternal film, we see their humanoid fairy forms. A quiz in the Sailor Moon Eternal magazine, which I posted photos of recently, asked which character was Phobos and which was Deimos. The only noticeable difference between the two is the colour of their clothes. So which is it? The answer has been a mystery until now. The Sailor Moon Eternal film, now in theatres, settles it. Phobos is red and Deimos is purple!

Twitter user @oozorakeroko2 posted that the answer as to what colour they were had been answered in the film but did not not state what that was! Earlier today Twitter user @KrissyDiggs shared a few photos of a promo packet which she got at a screening of the film. One such photo was a bio for Sailor Mars which included a colour image of Phobos and Deimos with their names under it. She then posted a close up photo of the two. The caption suggests that Phobos is red and Deimos is purple!

Why do I state that this mystery has been going on for so long? The Sailor Moon manga is black and white so throughout the Dream and Stars arcs in which Phobos and Deimos appear we can never see the colour of their clothing. There are two colour images of the two which have been drawn by Naoko Takeuchi and those gives conflicting information.

The first such image, seen in the February 1996 issue of Nakayoshi and later reprinted in the Sailor Moon Original Picture Collection Vol. IV art book, tells us that Phobos is purple and Deimos is red (PIPDIR).

A year later an image from the 1997 issue of Nakayoshi tells a different story. This image was reprinted in the Sailor Moon Original Picture Collection Vol. V art book and states that Phobos is actually red while Deimos is purple (PIRDIP). It seems that Sailor Moon Crystal canon agrees with this later interpretation of their colours. Will this settle the question once and for all or will fans continue to argue about their manga colours for years to come?

Phobos

This whole thing is reminiscent of the Transformers controversy with regards to the colours of Soundwave’s Transforming Mini-Cassettes Frenzy and Rumble. For the toys Frenzy is Blue, Rumble is Red (FIBRIR) while in the animated series Frenzy is Red, Rumble is Blue (FIRRIB).

Deimos

Check out more of @KrissyDiggs’ photos of the movie promo packet including the Dead Moon Circus and some relationship charts, bios for Tuxedo Mask, Helios, Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn and Chibi Moon, bios for Sailor Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury and close up photos of the Amazon Trio, the Amazoness Quartet, Phobos and Deimos, Human Artemis and Minako.

Fans can check out scans of the Sailor Moon art books from Sailor Music (Vol. IV, Vol. V) or Miss Dream (Vol. IV, Vol. V).

Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Art Book review

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Adam

An art book released to celebrate the nearly 5 year old 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon was released yesterday, October 20th, in Japan. I received my copy yesterday and was very pleased with the contents. From the initial description of the product it wasn’t terribly clear what would be involved. Some were claiming it would just be a review of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Exhibit at Roppongi Hills and others that it would just a product catalogue. It is both those things but so much more. It is packed full of information and images from products offered throughout the years as well as details and interviews from the original anime and musicals. This 160 page art book is packed densely full of 25 years of Sailor Moon goodness that fans will all surely get a kick out of. You can buy the book online from sources like Amazon Japan and CD Japan for 2480 yen, about $24 US plus shipping.

Overall the book is of a great quality. I was concerned when the official site referred to it as a Mook, short for Magazine Book, that it might be cheap. It is soft cover but the jacket and pages are of good quality. The book if 160 pages of full colour with a good layout. I’ll break up the contents by section to give an idea of what’s involved. I can’t easily include photos of every page, but I’ll include a lot of samples within the post and at the end to give a good idea.

The first section, encompassing about 30 pages, is named “Return of the Sailor Moon”. Getting past this ridiculous Donald Trumpesque superfluous usage of “The”, this is an overview of the Roppongi Hills Sailor Moon Exhibit which was held in Tokyo from April 16th to June 19th of this year. This includes an in depth look at the exposition which includes in itself a general overview of Sailor Moon since 1991. This spans the manga, anime, merchandise and musicals. Included in this event was a special shop with tons of Sailor Moon goods. A catalogue of all of that merchandise is included as well. A Sailor Moon Cafe was also set up the event. Details on the menu and photos of some of these beautiful food options are included.

Next is the “Sailor Moon Goods CompleteWorks” which is about 40 pages full of merchandise which has been released since Sailor Moon’s 20th Anniversary revival. This doesn’t cover older merchandise, which is included in some of the exhibit photos and later in the book, but is a thorough catalogue of everything that has been out since Sailor Moon Crystal was announced. This includes toys, clothes, food, media like Blu-Rays and CDs, and jewellery released since 2013. A lot of this stuff is still available to purchase in Japan.

The next 46 pages are about the original Sailor Moon anime. This is referred to as the Sailor Moon 1992-1997 Animation Characters Encyclopedia which sums it up pretty well. We start out with biographies on all of our favourite characters. Sailor Moon gets four pages, Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Chibi Moon get two a piece, Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Pluto and Tuxedo Mask get a page each and then the Sailor Starlights and other characters get less than a page. These are all accompanied by a number of screenshots and character art from the series. We then get an overview of the films and a season by season breakdown of all episodes. Also included at the end of this section is a full page interview with Shoko Nakagawa, the voice of Diana from Sailor Moon Crystal who sang a song on the 20th Anniversary Tribute Album. Since she doesn’t have anything to do with the original Sailor Moon anime this interview is separate from that chapter.

The next section, which is the rest of the book, is dubbed the “Sailor Moon Movement Graffiti”. I won’t pretend this name makes sense. I can’t even try to understand what this is meant to mean and it is itself divided into a few sections which I will treat as being separate. The section begins with a timelines of events occurring since the 20th Anniversary. This is mostly Sailor Moon Crystal and Sailor Moon Musical related events though there are merchandise details included as well.

The next 10 pages or so are all about Sailor Moon Crystal. We have general information about the series, some character art and interviews with all of the main cast. This includes the voices of Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Chibi Moon and Pluto.

Then we have information about the musicals, both new and old, packed full of photos and interviews. This includes interviews with all of the cast of the first three Sailor Moon Musicals. There is a lengthy interview with Anza, who played Sailor Moon in 13 of the older musicals, as well as some other lady who I don’t recognize. (Update: The other woman is Akiko Kosaka, a composer who wrote many songs from the original anime, the musicals and Sailor Moon Crystal)

The next few pages are a mixed bag. We have a world map showing products from around the world. What does North America have? The Sailor Moon RPG book and a children’s Play-a-Sound book that has little buttons that you push so that it makes noise. Both points of the map are in Canada. The RPG book is somewhere in the sparsely populated North West Territories or Nunavut and the Play-a-Sound book is somewhere in Manitoba.

Am I that Canadian for owning both of these?

There’s a map of Tokyo which shows many Sailor Moon locations with photos of where they are now! There is then a timeline which covers the manga and anime years and some of the products released over that time. As a very small footnote in the corner of the last page covering this time is a blurb about the live action Sailor Moon series which was released in 2003 and 2004. I was hoping to have better coverage of that series in this book but unfortunately that was not the case.

The final 6 pages are all of older merchandise from back in the 1990s. Most of the toys shown are now incredibly rare and very expensive if you’re lucky enough to find them. Let’s be glad we have all of this new merchandise which is only somewhat unaffordable!

Overall I thought this was a great book. It has an overview of so many different facets of the series! While there isn’t a ton on the manga or live action series the book makes up for it by going into great details on merchandise, the anime and the musicals. I recommend that any fans who were on the fence about buying this book get it! You won’t be disappointed.

Keep reading for more photos of the book. To see the rest, buy it for yourself!

Continue reading →

A Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Book is coming 5 years late on October 20th

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Adam

A new Sailor Moon art book is being released in Japan in celebration of the ongoing 20th Anniversary. This 160 page book will cover nearly 25 years of Sailor Moon, which was first released as a manga in December of 1991. The 20th Anniversary celebration has been going on for nearly five years now and there seems to be no indication that it is losing steam nearing what should be a more iconic 25th year anniversary. The book is set to be released on October 20th though it will be available early for fans attending showings of the terribly named Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical which will begin on October 15th. Fans who don’t plan to be in Japan next week can order a copy through online retailers such as Amazon Japan and CD Japan for 2480 yen, about $24 US. Keep in mind that books are heavy and expensive to ship!

Details about the book can be found on the Official Sailor Moon site. It seems like it will cover the Sailor Moon exhibit which was held in Roppongi Hills this year. This could be a nice alternative for fans that couldn’t afford a trip to Japan to see the exhibit. It is also mentioned that there will be many interviews and that it will generally cover Sailor Moon, which I assume means it will touch on the various incarnations of Sailor Moon throughout the years.

The cover features a new drawing by Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon. The book is being refered to as a Mook through the URL on the official site (20thmook160923.php) and the embedded image (20thh_mookkai.jpg). This isn’t a term I was familiar with but it seems to be a portmanteau between magazine and book. These are common in the fashion magazine industry and represent magazines which are meant to be sold over longer periods of time than usual weekly or monthly publications. I’ve got an order in for the book and will strive to have a review up on the site at some point in the future.

Pre-order the first Sailor Moon Crystal visual book

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Adam

This Friday, August 22nd 2014, a Sailor Moon Crystal visual book will be released in Japan by Kodansha. This book will include information and images from the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, including voice actor and staff information as well as a number of bonuses. Included will be a sleeve for the previously released Moon Pride single by Momoiro Clover Z and a DVD featuring the TV sized version of Moon Pride and a trailer for Sailor Moon Crystal. This DVD will be region 2, viewable only on Japanese DVD players or for those who have a region free DVD player or drive.

The art book, likely the first of many of it’s kind, can be preordered from Amazon Japan or CD Japan. Once I receive my copy I’ll post more information and images.

Source: Moonkitty, Sailor Moon: The Moonieverse and the Sailor Moon official site

Kodansha Comics giveaway and new Sailor Moon artbook info

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Adam

Sailor Moon Collectibles has the scoop on information about the Sailor Moon artbook. We haven’t heard much about this book since the original announcement at New York Comic Con last October and though there were a lot of answers that weren’t really answers, here’s what we’ve learned from Kodansha Comics USA.

The art books will all be printed in Japan and distributed around the world. We previously learned that they would be sold in seven countries, which includes Japan and the United States but we still don’t know what those five other countries are. We have learned that each country will have it’s own unique bonus materials meaning it will be quite expensive for completists to get every last one if they want all of the bonus content.

The Kodansha Tumblr page will be having a giveaway tomorrow, May 1st. Prizes, which will include Sailor Moon merchandise, will be manga, pins, calendars, posters and more.

Sailor Moon portion of the Kondansha panel at New York Comic Con 2012

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Adam

Kodansha panel Sailor Moon announcements at New York Comic Con 2012

A Sailor Moon fan has recorded a part of the Kodansha Comics USA panel from last weekend’s New York Comic Con which includes the portions relevant to Sailor Moon. The video embedded below has been cued up to when the Sailor Moon discussion begins.

This panel began with the announcmeent of a new Sailor Moon art book for 2013 that we previously discussed on the site. This art book is being put together in Japan and the details are sparse. The Sailor Moon manga box set was then mentioned. These are not new versions of the books, though typos and errors are corrected with reprints so some minor issues may be corrected in these. This followed with a reading of a letter from Naoko Takeuchi to American fans.

Thanks to Senshi_chan for recording the video.

Kodansha announces a Sailor Moon art book at New York Comic Con

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Adam

Sailor Moon art books announced at Kodansha comics USA panel at NYCC 2012

Today was the Kodansha Comics USA panel at New York Comic Con. The big announcement they had was that there would be a new Sailor Moon art book released in the US as well as in six other countries in 2013. This will not be a translation of any of the existing art books but rather a compilation taking art from all of the existing books that will also include some previously unpublished material. There were originally seven Sailor Moon art books in Japan which collected art from the manga. This includes volumes I through V, the materials collection and the Infinity art book. None of the existing art books have ever been published in North America.

The panel also included a message from Naoko Takeuchi herself. She confirmed that the box set of the new versions of the Sailor Moon manga will be released for Thanksgiving, November 20th. This message as well as the art book press release can be found below along with pictures of some of the Kodansha booth swag.