And Now, To Answer That Question Lots Of You Are Asking...

To all our readers:

We’ve gotten a few emails from fans regarding possible campaigning to bring back Sailor Moon. While we usually take the time to email every fan back, we’re noticing that over the last month we’ve been getting a lot of emails lately about the same thing, and hopefully this post will answer that. The question everyone is asking is:

Why is Moon Chase not organizing a campaign to bring the show back?

Because at this point in time, it would be absolutely futile. Fans have to remember that Naoko Takeuchi was one of the big forces (if not the biggest force) in all of the international rights being pulled. Jay Navok of Genvid.com has been trying for quite some time now to get in touch with Naoko to get the rights to use images in his book, Warriors of Legend, however he has not had a lot of luck in getting a contact. In fact, to even get an address would probably cost a lot of money and then you run into issues wondering if it’s worth it to attempt to send a letter she may not even read. The letters would also likely have to be read in Japanese, and machine translation will not do for something like this. It’s useless to start a campaign when it would be very difficult to get the attention of some key players in the matter in Japan. We have thought of a few ideas for possible campaigns, but right now is not a good time - especially since Anime News Network is reporting quite frequently that the anime industry is in major trouble here in North America, among other issues. We also think that maybe now isn’t a good time to contact Naoko even if we could, since her husband, Yoshihiro Togashi keeps jumping in and out of the manga scene in Japan for undisclosed reasons.

We have organized a couple, smaller campaigns. This was done to prove to any of the industry execs that do read the site and keep tabs on what is going on with Sailor Moon to let them know a significant number of fans are still interested. We ran the letter writing campaign last year when Amazon had posted bootleg DVDs of the series passing them off as legit! We also did promote ANN’s poll to see what series would be popular if Toei were to expand their AniBB service to North America. And of course, one of this site’s biggest purposes is to bring you as much Sailor Moon News that we can from all over the world, be it sightings, inspirations, or what the actors are up to. That’s a campaign in itself to create awareness to and support from the fans. Many argue that Sailor Moon is passe, but with everything that is going on, we don’t think so! We never expected to have nearly 30k hits by now, which has pretty much tripled our expectations for this blog.

Readers also have to remember that we’re not SOS. We are creating awareness of what we find the fandom might be interested in reading, but we are currently not running an active campaign to bring the show back. In some places we are more, and some places we are less than what SOS was in its heyday. We are simply a site that reports on where Sailor Moon is; where it’s needed we also campaign to support the show. There’s so much out there that fans are missing out on, and we work our very hardest to bring as much of it as we can to you all.

We really don’t recommend fans start a campaign yet. However, there may be an opportunity in the coming future. Should there be more talk of Toei expanding their AniBB service to North America, then we may plan a campaign to let them know how much fans would like to see Sailor Moon included. It’s best to sit and watch and see how this does when it happens (if it does), but acting now probably wouldn’t have any effect.

Here are the best things that you as a fan can do to support a licensed release of Sailor Moon:

-Don’t buy illegal copies of Sailor Moon. That’s just giving pirates more incentives to continue to make more copies for sale to overseas buyers, and it really wouldn’t show anything to Toei if they were supported. By not purchasing these bootlegs, you are showing Toei you’d rather have a legit release of the show. If you are still dying for the DVDs, look for legit ones on eBay or other internet stores. They are still available, but some are hard to find, and all are definitely pricey.

-Support the actors from the show (especially for foreign dubs). If the show is to return, the production companies are likely to keep the same cast they had before for continuity’s sake, and supporting the actors and actresses shows the VAs that you really enjoyed their performances, and that you want to see them back in the role. And hey, a lot of their work outside of Sailor Moon is really good too!

-Buy licensed anime. Given the state of the industry and some fans using fansubs of licensed titles as a quick and dirty solution to getting their favorite anime instead of going to the store and getting it, doesn’t help the anime industry much. This may result in many productions not making it here in the future. Buying licensed anime shows the distributors that you still care about anime being released in North America.

-Promote this site, and other Sailor Moon fansites you like in as many places as you can. Some fans who loved watching the show have no idea where to turn to see what is going on with the show - the more awareness that you can create among fans to say “hey, the show may be dead but the fandom is not!” means in the future, should a campaign ever arise, everyone knows where to find the information (and it makes it a lot easier for us in rounding up everyone to get involved).

-Remind the world around you once in a while about Sailor Moon. Cosplay as your favorite Senshi at a con, show a couple episodes to a few girls who look bored and need inspiration or to a youth group, or find some other ways to keep it up and about in your community. People will remember “Oh yeah, that show about the meatball head I used to watch when I was younger!” and they will probably search for it on the internet, and come across sites like this to find out what’s happening. Keeping Sailor Moon in the top searches for Anime also sends a message that fans still care about it in North America.

This being said, we have something very big coming up soon this summer for you all to look forward to - but we're keeping it a secret until it drops . You'll all just have to wait and see!