Does Luna have a last name? I would never have thought so but it seems that now she does! Luna’s full name is listed as Luna Kuroneko in the broadcast credits for the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime! While the “new” dub by Viz has been out for many years and these episodes have been available to stream and on home video, they were not broadcast on TV until recently as part of the Toonami Rewind block. While the new dub isn’t the same one as aired during the 90s Toonami is able to air Sailor Moon thanks to Viz’s new dub. Those ending credits show only the English voice credits for the episode and amongst many other first season credits, many of whom aren’t actually in the first two episodes, we have Luna Kuroneko voiced by Michelle Ruff. Michelle Ruff is indeed the voice of Luna in the new Viz English dub. I saw the photo above on the Moon Sisters Facebook Page. It can also be seen on the Codename Sailor Earth Twitter page. Definitely worth checking out both pages if you like funny videos and wild ships.

What’s this name about and where is it from? Well “Kuroneko” simply means “black cat” in Japanese. Usagi refers to Luna as “Kuro neko Luna” in the opening narration starting with episode 2 and for the first half of the first season in of the original Sailor Moon anime. I believe she stops referring to her as such after Makoto shows up. I never assumed this was meant to be a name but rather a description of Luna’s colour and species. It seems like someone may have taken this literally and considers it to be Luna’s full name which, as is the standard in Japan, is stated with the family name first and the given name second. The order of names in the credits is given in the western style of given name first and family name second, as it’s done with the other names in the credits.

Luna does not otherwise have a family name which is mentioned in the manga, the original anime or Sailor Moon Crystal. She is an alien cat from another planet who as far as we can tell doesn’t have a family name. The human version of Luna who appears in the second half of the live action Sailor Moon series goes by the name Luna Tsukino as she is a part of the Tsukino family when not transformed into Sailor Luna. Human and cat Luna are the same character but cat Luna doesn’t use that full name in the series and even when Human Luna shows up in the manga, anime and Sailor Moon Crystal, she does not pretend to be part of the Tsukino family so the name simply does not apply to those series. That being said if Luna was ever brought to the vet she might be tracked in their system as having the family name Tsukino, if that’s how things are done in Japan. Somehow the idea of Luna getting prodded by a vet seems perverse and we know she doesn’t get spayed so perhaps she’s never been.

How official is this name? It’s in the credits so that’s something. It isn’t stated anywhere in the English version of the show and while it is said repeatedly in the Japanese version, that’s hardly what was likely intended with those scenes. I’d say the name is more or less as official as original dub names like Darien Shields or Amy Anderson.

This of course raises another interesting question. What is Artemis’s name? Is he Shironeko Artemis, meaning “White cat Artemis”? Does that mean Diana would take her father’s family name, Shironeko, even though she’s grey? Calling her “Haiironeko Diana” or “Grey cat Diana” would fit with the trend but not with how family names work.

Have you been watching Sailor Moon on Toonami Rewind? I’m Canadian so I don’t get Cartoon Network. Sailor Moon airing on Toonami is not a part of my own history of watching Sailor Moon so I have no nostalgia for it. The show played on Global and YTV throughout the week and also on US stations UPN 38 and WPix in the early hours of the morning back in 1995, years before the show reached a broad audience in the US through Toonami.

The latest Pullip doll has been announced on the official Sailor Moon site. It’s Human Luna! Luna is usually a cat but in a few instances she appears as a human. Most fans would know this form best from the Sailor Moon S Movie, which is based on a standalone manga story “The Lover of Princess Kaguya”. Her human form also appears at other times in the manga. Most recently in Sailor Moon Crystal we briefly see an image of Human Luna while she is praying on the Moon.

Pullip dolls are high quality, though somewhat expensive, dolls with disproportionately large heads. This doll will retail for 180,000 yen, almost $150 US. A more expensive Premium Bandai exclusive version of these dolls is usually made, which will often have school uniforms for most of the Sailor Guardians. What could the Premium Bandai exclusive outfit for Human Luna be, given she only ever appears in these clothes? Human Luna’s adult form does not resemble the younger Sailor Luna from the live action series enough for that to be the obvious choice, though that would be a great exclusive.

Dolls for many of the Sailor Guardians as well as Princess Serenity, Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Chibi Moon have been released or announced to date. Human Luna is a bit of a surprise given a lot of prominent characters have still not been released and so little Human Luna merchandise had been made to date. There has still been no announcement for Sailor Pluto or Sailor Saturn pullip dolls or any villains from the series. One has to wonder if we’ll get Shingo, Rhett Butler and Sailor Luna before getting the often neglected Sailor Pluto!

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The final English translated Sailor Moon manga by Kodansha was released yesterday. Sailor Moon Short Stories vol. 2 collects the last few stories that hadn’t been seen before. You can pick this up at your local bookstore or online retailer (including the Amazon link at the bottom of this post).

The bulk of this manga is Princess Kaguya’s Lover. This story was originally published as volume 10 of 18 in the original manga series, taking place immediately after the battle with Professor Tomoe and Mistress 9. It is the story of Luna falling in love with a human and becoming a human herself, and it was animated as the Sailor Moon S movie.

In addition to this are two other short stories. The first is Casa Blanca Memory, a story centering around Rei, which was originally published with Princess Kaguya’s Lover.

We also have Parallel Sailor Moon, a story which tells of an alternate future, if you can call 1999 the future, where Usagi’s daughter Ko-Usagi and her friends, Ami, Rei, Mina and Mako all become Sailor Guardians themselves. It was originally published in the Materials Collection art book.

Please support the site by ordering this and other Sailor Moon products through the Amazon link below or the Amazon widget in the left sidebar.

Here’s the first of two Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary panels from Unplugged Expo in Toronto last weekend. This is the Saturday panel from October 26th. On this panel we have Jill Frappier, the voice of Luna, Ron Rubin, the voice of Artemis, Roland Parliament, the voice of Melvin and voice director for the first 65 episodes of the dub, Julie Lemieux, the voice of Sammy, Katie Griffin, the voice of Sailor Mars, Susan Roman, the voice of Sailor Jupiter, Stephanie Morgenstern, the voice of Sailor Venus, Terri Hawkes, the voice of Sailor Moon and Toby Proctor, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. The MC at the podium is me, Adam Gardner.

The Sunday panel was recorded as well. It included Ron Rubin, Susan Roman, Terri Hawkes and Toby Proctor. It will be posted online as time permits in the coming days.

Thanks to Kate for helping out with the camera. Check out her Sailor Moon screenshots on Instagram or Twitter.

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.

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.

I am happy to call myself a fan of the series and enjoyed it immensely. The few issues I had with it paled in comparison to some of it’s great aspects such as the powerful story lines that were unique to the show and of course the lovely Keiko Kitagawa. If you’ve never taken the time to give this show a proper chance I would suggest you do so. What else are you going to do with your time while you wait for the new anime? The complete series and specials are available with English subtitles from Miss Dream. There aren’t many options to support the series in North America but you can always import the DVDs from Amazon Japan.