BREAKING NEWS: Two Lost Souls Have Returned!

In the last few days, two very important people involved with Sailor Moon have finally returned to our radar!

Sailor Moon R II: The Promise of Naoko

Forgive us for the Sailor Moon Return pun :p. For the last few years, pretty much the only news we had heard of Princess Naoko came from people who had been around her, from students in 2004, to more recently, Naoko's own husband. On New Years' Day of this year, it looks like Princess Naoko's Room has returned in a much different form to the official Sailor Moon Website. And, we were lucky enough to get a picture of Naoko (even if it is from last October). In Shizuoka City, lies Bandai's Hobby Center, which is their main toy factory. The toy factory has a showroom, and also aspires to be the first green toy factory with zero emissions, and wants to be a pioneer in plastics recycling. Naoko visited the Bandai Hobby Center in October, and had the opportunity to check out some Gundam plastic models (known as "Gunpura") and has joined the ranks of other mangaka in drawing their characters in a Gundam style (it is Gundam's 30th anniversary after all!). Naoko says that this is a drawing of Usagi in a Hobby Center Uniform. The entry hints that there may be more updates from Naoko to come in 2009! To check out a full translation, go visit here! We are so happy to finally have a new picture and some words from Naoko in many years! Naoko, please continue to update your site - we miss you!

Rika Izumi Makes a New Splash!

Rika Izumi (otherwise known as Chisaki Hama) is well-known for playing Sailor Mercury in PGSM. After the show wrapped in 2004, she disappeared altogether, and castmates were rumored not to be allowed to talk about her on their blogs or post pictures. Last summer, she made her return modelling in magazines, and she even got a role in the movie Clearness playing the character Reiko. She appeared in 3 scenes in the film, the last of which we have pictured here for you with an arrow. The movie is a romance based on a keitai shosetsu (mobile phone novel), about love in the sex trade. More recently, she has appeared in a noodle commercial as the beautiful Kimono Girl of a lonely boy's dreams (played by SMAP's Masahiro Nakai). This morning, we read an article all about her "re-debut"! Rika confirms that she gave her school the priority after PGSM ended, and that she graduated with a literature degree from Meiji University in 2007. Shortly afterwards , she took up modeling again! She wants to do more acting, and she hopes to be able to express herself as sexy and as lovely as Marilyn Monroe did. She wants to costar with everyone that she can, and she is still good friends with her former costars of PGSM. The article makes special mention of her friendships with Keiko Kitagawa and Mew Azama (Sailors Mars and Jupiter). When she was ready to return to the entertainment business, she sent her own shots around to agencies before she was signed. The article also features a brand new photo shoot, along with a few shots from her noodle commercial. Click here to see! Fans can also go to A Fruitful Spring to check out her most recent magazine appearances!