Toei, the company which created both Sailor Moon anime series as well as the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series, will be launching Toei Tokusatsu World Official, a YouTube Channel dedicated to Toei’s Tokusatsu series. It will launch with episodes from 70 different Tokusatsu series. While the Tokusatsu series most familiar to worldwide audiences are Super Sentai shows like the ones which are adapted into various Power Rangers series, one Tokusatsu series created by Toei is the 2003 live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series. The live action Sailor Moon series was not mentioned as one that will be part of the first batch of shows. As this would be a fairly high profile show, this likely means that we will not be seeing it on April 6th when the channel launches but it could be coming at a later date.

While one may not think of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series as Tokusatsu, it most certainly is! Look at the intro paragraph on the Wikipedia page for the show:

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn) is a Japanese tokusatsu television series based on the Sailor Moon manga created by Naoko Takeuchi. It was produced by Toei Company.

The term tokusatsu refers to a live action series which uses special effects. This dates back to monster movies like Godzilla and includes superhero series such as the Super Sentai series. The Sailor Moon manga was originally inspired by Super Sentai series in which there were teams of superheroes of various colours. This came full circle as the live action series was a tokusatsu version of the manga and anime series. The show often had similar costumes and effects to other tokusatsu series. Some costumes were also reused between series, such as the Zyurangers Golems, known as Putties in the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers adaptation, being reused in Act 37 of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 7

Zyuranger episode 5

There have also been locations which were used between series, such as the location used in Act 7 of Sailor Moon which was seen in episode 5 of Zyurangers which was adapted in the first season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. There have also been scenes which were completely recycled such as one clip of the ground opening up which was used both in Zyurangers and Sailor Moon. The images below are from the televised version of the live action Sailor Moon series and from an old Power Rangers tape.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

What do you think? Would you like to see the live action series on this platform? Do you think this is feasible?

Source: Toei Press Release

A press release from License Global gives us an indication of upcoming Sailor Moon merchandise. There was certainly a time when we would go years without any official Sailor Moon merchandise being available in North America, requiring fans to look in niche comic book and hobby shops to find anything, but this is far from being true today! It seems like the ongoing trend of a lot of new merchandise being available in some fairly mainstream stores like Toys R Us, HMV, Hot Topic and GameStop will only continue. Toei Animation has merchandising deals with the following companies for the original Sailor Moon anime:

• Hybrid Apparel for apparel
• Great Eastern for apparel and keychains
• Funko for figures
• Everything Legwear for socks
• Zag Toys for figures
• Accutime for watches
• Calendar Holdings for calendars
• E-pop for mirrors and beauty tools
• SCS Direct for kitchen items
• Just Toys for keychains
• Monogram for keychains
• Fun.com for costumes

For whatever reason they’ve made a different set of deals for Sailor Moon Crystal merchandise which includes:

• Hybrid Apparel for apparel
• Infinifan for watches
• Dyskami Publishing Company for game boards
• Mimoco for cell phone chargers
• Just Funky for drinkware

Fans will probably notice that most of these are brands which already sell Sailor Moon products, such as Great Eastern (GE) and Funko, but some of these are companies which haven’t previously sold Sailor Moon products such as Dyskami which is producing a couple of Sailor Moon games soon or Mimoco who’s battery charging devices have not previously been Sailor Moon branded.

Hold on to your wallet! Or don’t. Throw it away! You’ll probably find a Sailor Moon wallet soon.

New episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal will be airing on Japanese TV on Tokyo MX in 2016. While the first two story arcs, which comprised the first 26 episodes, first appeared online simultaneously worldwide on streaming services, this doesn’t appear to be what will be happening with the next batch of episodes according to TOEI Animation Europe. The announcement, posted on their web site on Tuesday, is pretty straightforward and included below:

TUESDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2015

Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot of the Sailor Moon series from the 90’s, continues with a third season recently announced in Japan! While the 26 first episodes were aired online on Niko Niko, the new season will be broadcast on TV Tokyo MX in 2016.

In Europe, the two first seasons (26×26’) of Sailor Moon Crystal are on air in Portugal (Biggs) and in France (Canal J).

The series was recently highlighted in France during the Kidexpo event where photo sessions were organized with Sailor Moon

This lacks detail about if and when a streaming version will be available. This does not exclude the possibility of a simultaneous streaming version being online at the same time or immediately following the broadcast. It’s also possible that a version will be online some short time following the broadcast. If there is a streaming version, we also don’t know if it will continue to be on Niconico, Hulu and Crunchyroll as the rest of the series has been to date. When we learn any of these details we will be sure to share them.

It is important to note TOEI Animation Europe’s poor track record in breaking news about Sailor Moon Crystal. Earlier this year many claimed they had confirmed new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, which we later learned was not the case and was actually a problem in confusion and mistralation on their part and that of fans. I would note that I was originally skeptical of this announcement, assuming that this was a poor translation which turned out to be completely correct. In this case, mistranslation doesn’t seem to be likely to account for what we’re seeing here, though TOEI Animation Europe’s track record should be considered. We will be more confident in this news when something is announced on the official Sailor Moon site.

Source: TOEI Animation Europe (English, French)

Last week many sources reported that a second season of Sailor Moon Crystal was currently in production and would start airing this summer. This began with a statement on the TOEI Animation Europe web site which stated this. The assumption many made at the time is that this would be a second set of episodes beyond the initial 26 which will run it’s course this summer with the end of the Black Moon Clan story arc. Anime Herald has since contacted TOEI Europe who have clarified that there is no second season planned. They have clarified to say that they were referring to the TV airing of the Black Moon Clan story arc.

In Japan, the second season of Sailor Moon Crystal is currently streaming from this January (“Black Moon saga”). What the website news is telling is terrestrial TV broadcasting of the 2nd season in Japan will start from this summer.

When this news broke last week we were careful not to jump to conclusions, clarifying that the original French version of TOEI Animation Europe’s article presented slightly different information and that it could be a reference to the second story arc currently streaming online. The text of both language releases do reference the ongoing 26 episodes as being the first season before mentioning a second, which caused the confusion, but with this clarification it does not appears that any additional episodes are currently planned.

This is not to say that no further episodes will be produced. Now that the series is airing on TV in Japan it may be considered profitable to renew the series. To be perfectly clear there are currently no sources, official or otherwise, which indicate that anything beyond the initial run of 26 episodes is being planned. Should more episodes be announced it seems likely that this would come from Japan, likely on the official site or as a press event.

Update: (2014-04-15) TOEI Animation Europe has clarified that a second season of Sailor Moon Crystal is not currently in production

An article has appeared on the European TOEI Animation Page which speaks of Sailor Moon Crystal airing in France on Canal J starting this Fall. We previously reported on this when the series was said to begin airing in March, which has not yet happened.

Fans reacted to the following quote from this article:

A second season is currently under production in Japan where the broadcast will start this summer.

This certainly would be big news as the current plan was to have Sailor Moon Crystal run for only 26 episodes and conclude at the end of the Black Moon Clan story arc. While fans have been wondering if the show would continue after this for the Infinity story arc, the third story arc of the manga, there has been so such confirmation to date.

I was immediately skeptical of this translated article content and so I checked out the original French version where the same quote reads as follows:

Une deuxième saison est actuellement en cours de production au Japon.

This quote clearly states a second season is in production in Japan but it does not mention that it is set to air this summer. This clarification is crucial. While the show is currently in it’s first year many are referring to the Black Moon Clan story arc, which we have been referring to as the second phase, as the second season of the show. The French text may simply be saying that the second story arc, which is currently airing in Japan, is still in production. That said this may also be our first indication of a second season being in the works. The French article does refer to the first 26 episodes currently acquired for airing in France as the first season.

As always I leave the interpretation to you but in the interest of not jumping to conclusions I would say that it is not clearly confirmed that a second year of Sailor Moon Crystal is in the works beyond the initial run of 26 episodes.

It has been confirmed on the Niconico blog and the official Sailor Moon site that the new Sailor Moon 2014 anime will begin streaming worldwide this July. We had previously heard that it would be released this Winter, and later that it would be January, but this date has not been pushed back to July. It has been stated in the past that the series will be streaming on Niconico on release. We also have more new information as well as confirmation of things we had already learned.

The series will be directed by Munehisa Sakai who is best known as the director of the One Piece anime series. The series composition will be done by Yuji Kobayashi. This role is that of writer who guides the story throughout the series. The anime will be once again produced by Toei, who did the original series. As we’ve already learned the theme song will be sung by Momoiro Clover Z, though we have no details about what that song will be. There is no information at this time about what, if any, channel TV channel this anime series will be airing on. It is entirely possible that it will only be available streaming on Niconico, a subscription based streaming service. We will have details on what exactly will need to be done by our readers to be able to watch this series as it gets closer to airing.

A delay may not be ideal but at this point it is expected and it’s nice to have what seems to be a more concrete date, even though it’s a year later than we originally anticipated this series. Be patient fans! We’ve waited almost 17 years for new episodes of Sailor Moon. We can wait another 6 months.

As always we will bring you new information as it becomes available.

Thanks to Brianna from our Facebook page for bringing this to my attention.

Although there has still been no official announcement confirming this there is growing evidence that there could be a delay in the release of the 2013 Sailor Moon anime which was originally meant to be released this summer. The main sources for this are a tweet from Fumio Osano, the Sailor Moon manga’s editor, word from Toru Furuya, the voice of Tuxedo Mask, and word from a European distributor for Sailor Moon. Once again there is currently no official confirmation of a delay, but as there is growing evidence that this could be happening we are presenting you with all of the evidence that exists at this time and what those sources are so that you can make your own informed opinion as to what this means.

The first indication came last month with this tweet from Fumio Osano, @osabu8 on Twitter. In response to a user asking if the Sailor Moon anime would be released in June/July he replied simply “not decided.delaying”. Fumio Osano is the Sailor Moon manga’s editor. He was present at the announcement of the new anime series and is the only official voice who’s been communicating anything about the new show to the public in these past few months. We did not report on this at the time because this could be interpreted in many ways and is not any kind of official announcement of a delay. It could mean it hasn’t been decided and there is a delay, that it hasn’t been decided whether or not there will be a delay or many other things. Fumio Osano is a Japanese speaker who makes a good attempt to communicate with fans in English but his message is not always clear.

Yesterday some further news came in when twitter user @Tetho_mig sent this tweet stating that Toru Furuya, the voice of Tuxedo Mask in the original Sailor Moon anime, mentioned that the show would not be airing this summer. The insinuation at the 20th Anniversary event where the new anime was announced was that Toru Furuya would voice Tuxedo Mask in the new anime as well, so he would conceivably have information about how it is coming along. The tweet is French and translates to “Furuya confirms that the new Sailor Moon anime will not be broadcast this summer.” This was learned at the Cartoonist convention in Nice, France that took place this weekend. The convention featured Toru Furuya as well as Sailor Moon animators Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita, who had characters in the Sailor Moon anime based on themselves.

Earlier this week poster _Alexander_ at the Sailor Moon forums mentioned having communicated with Maria Örnryd, the head of TV sales and DVD rights for Plus Licens, a distributor for Toei in Europe. She mentioned that the anime would not air this summer but is currently estimated to air in Winter 2014.

For now the only official word we’ve gotten is from last summer and that was that the new show would be airing this summer. We are only one month into spring right now. Summer won’t begin until June 21st and will not end until September 21st, leaving us more than enough time to actually get this show airing during the summer as was originally planned. We’ll let you know right away as soon as there is any formal confirmation of any news, including a delay or specific release date. Here’s hoping we don’t have to start referring to it as the 2014 Sailor Moon anime!

Source: Crunchy Roll

Earlier this week Toei Animation announced that it made a deal with Viz Media Europe for the release of the Sailor Moon anime in German and French language DVDs. The entire 200 episode TV series will be released by Viz Media Switzerland in German DVDs which will have both German dialogue as well as the original Japanese dialogue with German subtitles. The French release will be handled by Kazé who will be releasing the entire first season of Sailor Moon on bilingual DVDs featuring the French dub as well as the original Japanese with French subtitles.

German and French speaking fans may want to think about picking up these releases as there are still no English dubbed or subbed DVDs currently in print.

Below you will find a few samples of the French language dub. Keep in mind that I recorded these from VHS taped versions of a TV broadcast from the 90s so these clips should not be taken as an indication of the video quality of these upcoming releases.

About a week and a half ago, on July 3rd, a photo was shared on FUNimation’s twitter and Instrgram pages. The photo included a reference to a rabbit! Time to speculate! Rabbits are important to Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon’s Japanese name is “Usagi” which is the Japanese word for rabbit. Her full name “Tsukino Usagi” is literally “Tsuki No Usagi” or “Rabbit of the Moon” because when you look at the moon from Japan (or anywhere in the southern hemisphere) you see the shape of a rabbit. So… was this a super secret tipping of their hat that they’ll be working on a redub or maybe on the new series?

Almost certainly not. About 2 minutes of investigation got to the bottom of this. The food shown is said to be rattlesnake and rabbit sausage from a restaurant named “Wurstkuche”. 10 seconds later I’m on the Wurstküche web site looking at their menu and in the “Exotics” section is in fact a “Rattlesnake & Rabbit with Jalapeño Peppers” sausage. So yeah, that’s just a normal sausage and all signs point to a coincidence.

Is it possible that in some bizarre plot someone happened to order an item, and possibly chose a restaurant, just because they had rabbit just so that they could make this really, really obscure hint that they’ll be doing Sailor Moon? Well anything’s possible. Actually no, that’s nonsense, a lot of things are impossible, but there’s some insignificant chance that is the case. All in all, it’s quite possible FUNimation spoke with Toei about Sailor Moon, and if we hear any actual news about them doing so, we’ll be sure to share it with you.