Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Grave of the Fireflies Gets a Second Live Action Adaptation!

Hey Moonies! When I read this quick blurb on Anime News Network yesterday, I figured there had to be a little bit more to this story - and it turns out there was. I don't honestly think that the few English news outlets that did report this have done this news story enough justice! And we have managed to find out a few things that they haven't bothered to tell.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) was originally a semi-autobiographical novel by the Japanese Author, Akiyuki Nosaka. It was based on his tragic experiences during World War II in which he lost his sisters and his adoptive father. The novel was written as a kind of apology to his younger sister which died of malnutrition. It won the prestigious Naoki Literary Prize in 1967. Unfortunately, aside from a shortened English translation which appeared in the journal Japan Quarterly, the novel has never been released in the English language (though a full translation does exist in German). We have also learned that an Iranian shop owner in Fukui is leading a translation of the novel in Persian because she has experienced the horrors of the Iran-Iraq war and thought this novel expressed the misery of enduring a war perfectly. She hopes that more children can read this story so they don't feel so alone in these times, and that this novel can help bring peace to her home country.

In 1988 an animated adaptation was released by Studio Ghibli , and was directed by that other legendary director Isao Takahata. Though the animation style was simple, the tale of the two siblings and the tragedies they endured during the war was no less heartbreaking. The movie did not do well in theaters back then because it was too sad - and I can attest to that from personal experience. Many years ago I had the opportunity to see this film at a local arthouse cinema , and it was presented for free by the Japanese consulate. At the end of the movie there was not a dry eye in the house and to this day it is still the most moving anime I have ever seen. Roger Ebert has also echoed these sentiments:

"When anime fans say how good the film is, nobody takes them seriously. Now that it's available on DVD with a choice of subtitles or English dubbing, maybe it will find the attention it deserves. Yes, it's a cartoon, and the kids have eyes like saucers, but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made."
The film went on to win awards internationally. The DVD was released by Central Park Media (sadly it was not one of the films part of the deal with Disney) and is very hard to find in stores.

In 2005, a Live Action version was produced to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II, and aired on NTV's Drama Complex Movie Block. This one was longer than the animated movie, and told the story from the point of view of the aunt - and showed how the war forced people to make cruel sacrifices. This one is available on DVD without subtitles (but if you know where to look there are subtitles available). Ebert mentions in the link I have provided that the film might not have worked as well if it was a live action adaptation. Even the original author agreed, saying that there would have been no other way to make this movie. Now though some of the animation was cheezy in the live action film, it didn't take away from the power of the story. It starred actors Nanako Matsushima as Aunt Hisako, Ishida Hoshi as Seita, and Mao Sasaki as Setsuko. Hard core horror movie fans may recognize Nanako as she played Reiko in the original Japanese movie, The Ring.

A few days ago, news broke out that a second live action adaptation is in production. Until now, this production was kept a secret by the production company and distributor, Pal Project. This secrecy is much like the TV movie. Barely anyone knew of that one until just a days before it aired. It was originally supposed to be directed by Kazuo Kuroki, who is well known for his war dramas in Japan. However, he died of a stroke last year, and a new director, Taro Hyugaji has stepped up to the plate. Taro recently directed the hit drama Tagatameni (Portrait of the Wind) and served as an apprentice to Kazuo on the award-winning movie Ashita (Tomorrow) back in the eighties. He got this apprenticeship just after he had graduated college and it was quite a shock for him! In the article, Taro was quoted saying that Kazuo's films were not Anti-War, per se but more about human life during the war - and this is why his films are everlasting. He wishes to make this film for the generation who does not know war so they may see what it is like. He hopes that this film will not make Kazuo and Akiyuki ashamed and looks forward to the challenge of making this film. As of this writing there is no word on any of the cast. It is scheduled to begin shooting in September and will be released sometime next summer or fall.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Care Bears are Invading September 15th!

Finally, some word about CBS's Saturday Morning Fall Schedule! Readers may recall earlier news that we broke about a new animated Care Bears Series produced by DiC (who also produced Sailor Moon in North America). The name of the new block has just been announced, and we think it's a little... corny. "Kewlopolis" is the new Saturday morning childrens block on CBS and will begin on September 15th, and Care Bears will be leading the block, followed by Strawberry Shortcake, Cake, Horseland, Sabrina: the Animated Series, and Trollz. And, there is still no mention of the new cartoon anywhere on the official Care Bears site. Again, we anticipate seeing a few VAs voice the bears and encourage fans to keep their eyes peeled!

And a few more reviews of Oopsy Does It! have popped up all over the internet. A parent blogged about her kids liking it but neglected to post much of their opinion. We found this spoiler-filled opinion the best so far and really shows the bears being more shallow than they have ever been before. The DVD will be released October 23rd, but we probably won't be raring to see it.

10,000 Hits!

On the 22nd of this month, we had our 10,000th visitor. It was our goal to have this many pageloads by the end of the year, but this site has achieved this in just over 6 months! Thank you to every fan who has visited and spread the word around about Moon Chase- we really appreciate it as starting a website or blog like this is never easy, especially when you target a niche audience. Thank you to every site which continues to link Moon Chase, and a special thank you to Jay Navok for all his support with Genvid.com. You have all stuck with us during the thick and thin and continue to inspire us to develop and add new features! We really appreciate the fan support for this site in every way (big or small) and we hope to continue to bring you as much Sailor Moon news as we possibly can!

For those of our readers who haven't, please vote on the poll at the side. We are very close to reaching a decision on adding forums but we would still appreciate your opinion!

Quick News Roundup!

VA Nominated for a Gemini Award!

Breaking News from the Canadian Entertainment front! The 22nd Gemini Award Nominees were announced this morning and one lucky VA has been nominated! Maria Vacratsis (Negaforce) has been nominated as part of the cast of Showcase's comedic hit, Rent-a-Goalie for the Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series Award. They face competition from such Canadian favorites like Corner Gas, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Comedy Inc., The Business and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. We would have also thought she'd be nominated for her well-played guest performance in Little Mosque on the Prairie. It will be around for another two seasons on Showcase in Canada and Season Two will start sometime soon! We wish Maria the best of luck on October 17th!

Sailor Moon Champions the Toei Polls!

I wanted to write a bit more about the poll when it first came out but due to time constraints I couldn't. I was elated to read earlier today that Sailor Moon held an overwhelming majority in the poll with 2535 votes out of 3979! Toei has said that these will probably be the Japanese episodes with English subtitles, but we think quite a few fans are hoping that the English Dub will be a part of this service. Fans on the boards also expressed some interest in DVDs more than the On Demand service. In many fans' opinions (including some of our staff members) the dub still holds a place in their hearts and as I have mentioned many times before, Canada barely got a chance to own the dub on DVD as many stores didn't carry the ADV DVDs of the first two seasons. The dub also had better background music than the originals for transformations etc. and we are sure many fans would love the chance to see this again. What is interesting is that it appears that Toei would like to release Sailor Stars under this new On Demand service, as the poll did not indicate that this particular season would be left out. Obviously that will get a fresh first translation, and we have to wonder if the others will be retranslated as well, and if episode 67 will finally make it's way to North America! Thank you to all the fans who voted in this poll to make their voices heard to Toei!

I return!

Hello Moonies! I am back after a road trip to Vancouver. Side Note: If you want to laugh at some almost passable-for-the-real-thing pirated Sailor Moon DVDs, there is an Asian Movie stand in the Metropolis Mall to go see. They had the Toei logo and everything but the trick in identifying that it was pirated was looking at the back cover at the language tracks, Chinese and English. I highly doubt there were any legit releases with those two languages together! On the way back, I noticed someone in a mall yesterday in Calgary with the neatest Sailor Moon mini-backpack/purse. If you are reading this, I thought it was really cool and I loved it! In any case, I am between moving and I will probably be fully settled next week. I will begin some updates today - warning, some of the news may be a little old and dated over the last two weeks but we will try to bring you everything we can! Again, thanks for your patience and special thanks to The Me for uploading the commercials!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Commercials Corner #13

Hey Moonies,

We've got a small batch of commercials for you this week, made a bit shorter for the time being because Veoh seems to be having trouble with a few of the videos. We have a total of twelve for you, seven now and five later. I'll be back this evening after work to try and fix the last five and link them up for you.

Fortunately, our feature commercial works just fine, we found another Docomo 2.0 commercial with Keiko Kitagawa!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

And, the rest:
Fancy footwork in an Aidem commercial!
A Promo for Sicko by Michael Moore!
Two more commercials with the SoftBank dogs: one and two!
A dishwasher who needs his CuCute rinse agent (Like Jet-Dry)!
In Japan, Sprite gives you wings!

EDIT:
Here are the other five as promised:
A commercial for a water park I was unable to identify. EDIT: It's for Tokyo Summerland!
A promo for Rush Hour 3!
A Lemon Water commercial with a reverse shuffleboard game?
A promo for The Fantastic 4!
Some rockin' pandas for BMB, part of the Usen Group telecom company.

Monday, August 13, 2007

When American Bands Appear on Japanese TV #4

We've got another American musical artist sighting to report for you. This time Avril Lavigne makes an appearance, again on Music Station. Here are the clips:

The first clip is her introduction on the show, she looks a little nervous but I'd say she has a pretty good handle on it.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

The next clip shows her interview and the performance of her latest hit, When You're Gone.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

And finally, the cast bids her goodbye at the end of the show.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

ANNOUNCEMENT: Some Staff Shuffling

Hey readers, The Me here;

First off, I want to thank all of our readers for sticking with us. It means a lot to us to know that you guys and gals keep coming back for more.

On the "staff shuffling" note, our manager and head news-finder, Sailor Dees will be away for a little while, so the rest of us are filling in until she gets back. We'll be doing our best to keep you guys up to date on all of our regular features here and we'll be able to answer any questions you might have at our usual e-mail address: moonchasers@NOSPAMgmail.com (without the NOSPAM, of course.)

We'd also like to remind our readers to vote in the poll over there on the right about the inclusion of Moon Chase! forums. So far people either want them or don't care, but only a handful have voted so it's hard to say yet. It's your chance to have a hand in deciding the future of our site, Vote Today!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: New TOEI Poll

Moonies, now is your chance! As we had predicted and speculated much, much earlier, Toei looks like it wants to expand its VOD service to North America. Go vote at ANN's poll for Sailor Moon - it's too bad though that the dubs are not an option at this point in time but we hope to see them soon.

Commercials Corner #12

We tried to pull out the best of commercials we could this week but our sources were pretty drier than usual. Our pick of the week is for a theatrical anime called Vexille, which is set to open next week. We are fascinated with the smoothness of the animation in this one and we think it could be next year's big anime hit - it will be premiering very soon at the Toronto International Film Festival. And, we unearthed a small connection to Sailor Moon in this movie! Toshiyuki Morikawa plays Kisaragi in this film, but he also played the object of Mimete's "affections" in episode 115 of the S Series, Soap Opera Star Yuu Kazama!


Online Videos by Veoh.com

The Rest:
Pepsi Nex!
World's Kitchen Inspired Lemon and Ginger Drinks!
Blu-Ray Camcorder!
Tama Home!
Jasmine Tea!
Daniel Radcliffe wants you to see Harry Potter!
Watering Kissmint!
Kimono by Kyoto!
Lotte Black Black Energy Gum!
Baskin Robbins!
Life Card!
Men's Hair Dye!
Softbank Dogs!
FLET'S Broadband - we mentioned them to you earlier this week!

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Another Gravure Idol Covers Sailor Moon Songs

Warning, this article is for older readers only!


It seems Sailor Moon is very popular among gravure idols in Japan - we talk a lot about Shoko Nakagawa on this blog, but we are going to introduce you to someone else. Meet Rina Akiyama, a gravure idol who loves cosplay. Our toku fans may know her from two Kamen Rider Series, she played Mana Kazaya in Agito, and Naomi in Den-O. Earlier this week, she released a CD single of her covers of two songs from Sailor Moon: Otome no Policy (A Maiden's Policy) and Moonlight Densetsu, better known as the theme song, Moonlight Legend. The single has been titled Sailor Bishojo Nantettatte Oshirina (How Oshirina Passes for Pretty Soldier). Oshirina is a nickname that was given to Rina and we'll leave it up to inquiring readers why she has that nickname. But these are no ordinary covers, these are "sexy" covers of the songs. It comes complete with a bonus DVD of her in cosplay singing these songs as well as some making of features. She will also be performing during some public appearances in Japan over the next week or so. Earlier today she appeared in Akihabara for a live event and told reporters that she was able to enjoy singing songs from a series she enjoyed as a child - despite the pressure to put this single out. For anyone adventurous who wants to see the music video of the theme song, go look here. We have to wonder what motivated someone to do such renditions of these songs - and some of us fear listening to them will destroy our happy memories of the songs she performs.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Toei adds Monthly Package to Anime-BB service!

Toei's Anime-BB service must be really making waves in Japan. Tomorrow, they are going to begin offering a monthly membership plan. Currently the service operates with members being charged around 90¢ per episode they download. The plans start at ¥1554 (just over $13.00 USD) and a member will be allowed to watch 15 titles each month with this fee from the enormous library offered by the service. But to keep the variety of the episodes under this plan going, they plan to change two titles (~100 episodes) each month. Sailor Moon is going to be included in the launch pack of this new monthly plan. We have to wonder when Toei is going to consider expanding this service to North America. The fact that they keep mentioning Sailor Moon in these press releases must mean something big in terms of popularity and just think of how great it would be if Sailor Moon was available all around the world with this service!

EDIT: We have since learned more about this service. This package is only available to current subscribers on the regular or lite plans of 4th Media, a cable provider in Japan under the Plala network. In Japan, this cable comes over a broadband network known as FLETS through a set top box, much like the ones we get in North America for receiving digital cable. The cable providers are offering this service because these are popular anime titles and many of their customers are anime fans , and they hope that they can bring more to their consumers. Unfortunately, there is a catch - you cannot cancel this service in the middle of the month as the minimum charge per month of this service is ¥1554, and customers will be charged for the full month no matter when they cancel it. 4th Media has already had a lot of other anime services on their VOD lineup, and seems to charge more than what Toei was charging directly. 4th Media charges ¥201 ($1.70) per episode - nearly twice as much!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Stephanie "Sugar" Lyn Beard Returns!

Wow, we can't remember the last time this many breaking news stories with those involved with Sailor Moon broke out so close to each other - this is the first time of what we hope will be many! Late last night, fan favorite Stephanie Beard (Rini #2) posted a video entry after an eternity on her forum. For those fans who were worried, she did make it to LA and she is doing great! She confirmed what we told you earlier about her associate producer credit and how she hopes that her dream of being in a Disney cartoon will come true soon. Her producer Craig shot the video and they are working on some tunes that we will be hearing soon, she says. Sugar tempted us by saying the cartoon scene was starting to pop up but not a hint of where we'd be hearing her next - leaving us all in suspense! She told fans to go visit her MySpace which she can update a lot more frequently and thanked her fans for their patience. Stephanie, it's good to see you are back and thriving in LA and we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. Now we are going to crash your browser by embedding yet another video on this page - but we will spare you the pain when we link you to some older "Sugar Memories" from Kevin Hill and The Red Green Show!



A Quick Addenda : we noticed a fan posted a comment about Geneon being interested in pursuing the rights. Fans should take this with a grain of salt, as this has not been confirmed (we still haven't heard back from them). When the time is right for a campaign you will be the first to know how and where you can help!

Monday, August 06, 2007

Ebay Wrangle #8

We got very lucky this week and can bring you a full sized update!

Items That Will Break Your Bank:
A LOT OF CELS O.o.
Queen Serenity Cel (Rare)!
A Rare Soundtrack CD from Germany!

Bargain Items:
Play-a-Sound Book, Figure, and Invitations!
An Art Book that should cost a lot more?
Super Famicom Game!

Best of the Rest:
Where is Xiao Ling Jing's Little Happy World?
Light-up Figure from Germany!
Notebook, Planner, and Stickers!
German Comics and Bonuses!
Lot of Official CD Releases from Japan!
☼ Pocket Games 1 ,2 , & 3!
Sailor Moon View Finder!
Original Sailor Moon Laser Discs from Japan!
Set of Sailor Moon Watches!
Quite possibly the tackiest top we've ever seen yet!
Rare Girls T-Shirt!
Palace Complete with Several Figures!
Sailor Moon Chopsticks!
Melvin/Umino Cel!
Sailor Moon Labeler!
Quiz World Toy!
Photo Album!
Sketch Kit!
Stampers!
Sailor Moon Socks!
Rare Luna and Usagi Framed Cel!
Sailor Moon Quilt!
Rare Colored Pens (possibly gel pens)!
Sailor Moon Watch!
Rare Sailor Moon Plush!
Sleeping Bag and Books!
Sailor Moon Slippers!
Some More Sailor Moon Watches!
Full set of Sailor Moon Twin Bedding!
Rare set of Gashapon at an affordable price!
Sailor Moon Pencil Case, Pencil, Leads, Ruler, and Erasers!
Journal with Lock!
Markers, Scissors and a Sharpner!
Sailor Moon Washcloth and Hand Towel!
Rare Nakayoshi Bracelet and Necklace set!
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars Cell Phone Straps!
Bento Fork and Spoon!
Chibi-Usa Makeup Bag!

World Cosplay Summit Winners!

The fifth World Cosplay Summit took place this weekend in Tokyo, Japan and featured cosplay representatives from 12 different countries all over the world. We told you not too long ago that Shoko Nakagawa and Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) had been named guest commentators for this event. They showed up and cosplayed, but neither dressed up as characters from Sailor Moon. Toru Furuya dressed up as Ray Amuro, and Shoko Nakagawa wore a kimono (we're not sure if she was dressed as any character in particular, at least on her blog she didn't mention who she dressed as).

The winners were a surprise to Shoko, Team France won First Place! Cosplayers Isabelle Jeudy and Damian Ratte cosplayed as Myoubi and Tsugiri from the supernatural manga Alichino. Second place went to Death Note Cosplayers Naoki Shigure and Kikwan from Tokyo - they cosplayed as Light and Misa. The "Brother Prize" went to a team from Mexico, Alejandra and Linaloe who dressed as characters from Sailor Stars (*sheds a tear*) Eternal Sailor Moon, and Dark Sailor Galaxia. This was Mexico's first year in the WCS and a major achievement! We think that it's neat for Japan to hold such an event and that they should include cosplayers from the US and Canada next year - there are lots of anime cons here and talented cosplayers!

There Will Be A New Care Bears Series This Fall!

On CBS in North America!

Not too long ago, we told you of a new movie that involved Tracey Moore (Sailor Moon #1). We have recently learned macho man Scott McNeil, who in the past has played many macho roles such as Duo in Gundam Wing, Koga in InuYasha, and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z is playing... Grumpy Bear in this new movie (yes, we are as shocked as you are D:). We have read a few reviews already of the new movie and they aren't great (and hope to hear more when it goes into a wider release soon). If any fan wants to watch this movie, and wishes to tell us how bad (or good) it was (preferably in comparison to the recent movies from Nelvana) we'd love to hear from them. Just over a year ago I had the opportunity to meet Katie Griffin (Sailor Mars #1) in Toronto. In a really quick chat before a benefit concert, she told me that there was talk of producing a new series of Care Bears. We had lost all hope in ever hearing news of that after learning about this new movie, but are now able to confirm that there is indeed a new series. It is slated to premiere some time in September on CBS in a new Saturday Morning Cartoon Block aimed for young children. This new Care Bears will not be Computer Animated in 3-D but in 2-D. However, it is not being produced by Nelvana at all - but is coming from DiC using the same style of Care Bears (looking more like people than bears) as the movie. And 20th Century Fox will be handling Home Video distribution. And it's looking like there will be 52 episodes made - but they will only be 11 minutes long. The show promises to be a "fresh and contemporary twist" on "everyone’s favorite bears, filled with warmth, caring and humor, and their delightful tales from Care-a-lot". We anticipate seeing a few VA's involved in this project and we will sit through the premiere of the show to let you know who is in it. We're still surprised there is not a single mention of this new show on the Official Site, this close to the Fall Season. We will keep you posted when we find out what date this show will premiere.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Stephanie Morgenstern Completes New Pilot!

For all our readers, we've dug up some very exciting Breaking News this weekend. A while ago we told you that Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) was going to play the wife of the main character in Ice Planet - which we haven't heard too much news about lately, other than it has started to shoot (some preliminary animation is currently underway), a channel in Germany has picked it up, and some CG work has started. This will not be her only TV production, we have learned. Stephanie and her husband Mark Ellis got a green light from CTV earlier this year to film a pilot for Critical Incident. Critical Incident is an action drama that goes behind the scenes of Toronto's SWAT team (or rather Emergency Task Force). The pilot just completed filming in Toronto's Commerce Court business district July 25th, and will be handed to executives this Fall in the hopes that it will be picked up for the 2008 Fall Season. From what we have read, Stephanie will not be appearing in this series but will be writing for it with her husband. The cast of the pilot includes some major TV stars such as Enrico Colantoni of Veronica Mars, and Ona Grauer of the Canadian hit Intelligence. Congratulations and we wish Stephanie and the rest of her crew the best of luck with this show!

Friday, August 03, 2007

Commercials Corner #11

Hey Moonies! We've got commercials galore once again, and since there's been so much Shoko Nakagawa news lately, we thought we'd make her Ramen commercial our pick of the update! We're not sure which anime the pose is from at the end, but we'd have preferred a Sailor Moon pose just for kicks hehe ^_^.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

The rest:
A Moving Truck and a Bus all in one!
Glico Breo!
Cats in Japan!
Camellia Diamonds!
Another Cameron Diaz Softbank Commercial!
Amacha Green Tea!
Hitachi Vacuums!
Japan Travel Board!
Lotte Coolish!
Lotte Relax!
McGriddles!
Menopause Pill!
Naruto Shippuden Commercial!
Nisshin Real Estate!
Cooking Oil Commercial!
Longer version of Pocari Sweat X SMAP commercial featuring living dinosaur skeletons!
Portable Bug Killer!
Kawaii puppies in a fabric softener commercial!
Japanese Plumber Commercial!
Return of the Mega Mac!
Sega Bear Claw Machines!
Farmers in a chemical company commercial!
Musical chemical company commercial!
WARNING: MAY BE A LITTLE NSFW! Sumo Pachinko Commercial
Another one for Tokyo Disney!
Touch Bomberland DS!
Another Tsutaya Discas Commercial!

EDIT: Here come a few more!
Temakizushi commercial from FamilyMart!
Don't forget insurance!
A study aid for the DS in Japan!
Chicken Nuggets!
Caramel Oreo McFlurry!
Pain Relief Commercial!
The cutest commercial for The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass!

Three Quick News Items

The first one is an interesting editorial that begins talking about women’s hairstyles, and then merges into the idea of "Beauty Nationalism" which is sweeping Japan right now. Because of the influence of anime on the rest of the world, the world thinks Japan is cool and Japan must do everything to keep itself beautiful and "cool"- and it cites the success of Pokemon and Sailor Moon to blame. The writer of this editorial goes into potential downfalls of this new harmonization - we are unable at this time to post a full translation, but fans can read the article here and ask a friend or throw it into their favorite online translator to get the gist of it.

Shoko Nakagawa just announced that she is going to be releasing a second album of favorite anime song covers. She released her first one, Shokotan Cover Anime ni Koishite last May, and one of the songs on it was Otome no Policy from Sailor Moon! For this second one, she wants her fans to decide which songs she should sing and has set up a place on the web for fans to vote until August 14th. Fans who want to make suggestions should go here to vote!

And finally, Yoko Ishida has been chosen as the Japanese Guest of Honor for Anime Vegas. Yoko is best known to Sailor Moon fans for singing the end to the R-season, Otome no Policy (which Shoko just covered)! And on a historical note, Otome no Policy marked her debut in the music scene. She has come quite a long way from those days, singing songs for Ai Yori Aoshi, Texhnolyze, and more recently, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. She will be doing a concert to promote a singles collection being released this September in Japan. If any of our readers are planning to attend this con we would love to hear how it went and to see some pictures!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

New Evangelion Tetralogy To Feature Four Former Seiyuu

Some of you hardcore Evangelion fans may have heard of a new tetralogy (four) of movies - of which the first opens a month from now in Japan. The tetralogy is called Rebuild of Evangelion, and will be an alternate retelling of the entire series and ending with something completely different than the original. Fans can read a translation of his rationale for a revamp here. The reaction of the fans to this is pretty mixed, some are happy, some are sad, and some just have no idea what to expect (like our translator.

The first movie , Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone will open September 1st in Japan. This movie is a prequel, and details about what exactly is going to happen in this movie have been kept mum. The creator, Hideki Anno, wrote the story and has a huge role in the production of the others. The theme song Beautiful World will be performed by popular J-pop star Utada Hikaru , and the popular endings song Fly Me to the Moon will have a brand new remix just for this incarnation. Fly Me to the Moon is sung by Megumi Hayashibara, best known for playing Lina Inverse in Slayers, and known to us as Himeko Nayotake in the S Movie. She will also appear in the movie reprising her role as teenager Rei Ayanami. Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) will also be reprising her role as Shinji Ikari - and to some fans who don't know, her voice is very tomboyish and husky so she is often selected to play male roles. Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon) is also returning to her role as Captain Misato Katsuragi and Akira Ishida (Fisheye) also reprises his role as Kaworu Nagisa.

Japanese Game Show Tests For English!

As promised in our edit to the Sailor Moon Flowers story, here come the clips from a TV show with an interesting game. In fact, you too can play along at home! Sui 10! is a variety show in Japan that features skits and games each Wednesday night. We are bringing you a special segment called Pirates of English , which featured the cast dressing up like characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. They were split into two teams of three, and were faced with a series of chests. Each of these chests had a picture and a word written in Japanese. The teams had to decide if the word that was written in Japanese was the correct word in English. For example, the first one they show is of a VCR , or "Video Player". The Katakana characters read ビヂオヂツキ (romaji: bi-ji-o-bi-tsu-ki). Bi-ji-o is the word video (オ can be interpreted to be either ji or di) but the rest is pretty much garbage. Therefore these characters are wrong and this phrase is Not English! So this is the entire segment in three parts, and you can play along at home by matching the Katakana characters you see on the screen to those found in a Katakana table, such as here in Wikipedia.

Part 1:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 2:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 3:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Sailormoon Channel Update and New Poll

Hey Moonies - if you would like to read a translation of the new letters on the page and learn of a new game that has been added to Sailormoon Channel, head over to read Jay Navok's post at Genvid. Oh yeah, and the outers are back, though we would have preferred seeing them in cute chibi form like the others at the bottom.

We have a new poll - we've been thinking about adding forums for a while and we'd like to know if our readers would be interested in having forums to interact and meet with other readers of this site. So, starting today for a little over a month you will notice a poll on the top of our sidebars over there ----->. Please vote and let us know if you would like a forum! Any fans who would like to send us their thoughts in an email are always welcome to email us at moonchasers@NOSPAMPLZKTHXgmail.com

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Typhoon Usagi Says...



Special Thanks to starcat for the caption idea!

Breaking News: Shoko Nakagawa Appointed As Guest Commentator!

For a World Cosplay Summit No Less!

Just 7 hours ago, this story broke in Japan. Shoko Nakagawa has been chosen as a Guest Commentator for the World Cosplay Summit! For those who aren't aware, the World Cosplay Summit is the creme de la creme of all cosplay competitions. Top cosplayers from all over the world converge in Japan for this event which includes not only a competition, but a large parade and mixer events. We think there is probably a chance to see some sights in Tokyo too. Shoko is very excited about this opportunity, and even posed as Sailor Moon when the announcement was made (pictured above). She looks forward to seeing all of these cosplayers from all over the world and she wants to cosplay as none other than Sailor Moon at this event! And in more Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) news, we have also learned that he too will be a guest commentator at the summit. It would be great if he could dress up as Tuxedo Kamen and the two of them could do some sort of cosplay skit at the summit - and then of course post it to the web so we could all see! Tangents aside, Congratulations Shoko and Toru!

EDIT: We found a few more pictures and stories about the event here and here!