Special thanks to our seasonal writer Starcat and her buddy Furu for bringing this to my attention just a few minutes ago!
Funimation's Blog The Funimation Update posted a survey yesterday asking for fan inputs about new series in Japan. One of these options is a possible redub of Sailor Moon. Fans, please VOTE SAILOR MOON. However, we would encourage you leave your opinion on the facts we are about to present to you at the bottom of the page in question 5. We have provided you an image of where Sailor Moon is located in the survey (Questions 3 & 4)
- Funimation would likely use their own dub artists for the show. We here at Moon Chase really don't want to see this. The VAs of the original dub in Toronto all worked really, really hard to make the characters who they were and they really put Canada on the map for anime dubs. The show was also one of the big spark plugs that started the whole anime boom in the late nineties. To lose the majority of this cast would be devastating. These are voices that we all grew to know and a few of them have even expressed interest in returning to their roles if there was a redub or lost episodes dubbed. Now, let's look at Pretty Cure. Toei is collaborating on the dub with Ocean Studios, and this partnership has produced wonderful results. Every episode that we have watched brings a happy tear to our eyes because this really is a dub to be proud of , hardly any cuts have been made. And it brings a sad tear to our eye because Sailor Moon never had this chance.
So please, if you want to see your old familiar voices have another chance at your favorite character in Sailor Moon, let Funimation know at the bottom who you enjoyed and that you would want to see a redub featuring the old stars.
On a side note, we'd also like to have Roland Parliament also have at the very least some input in the production. He worked extremely hard given the pressures he had from Optimum Productions to make certain edits to the series, to direct what we think were the best episodes of the series. He went above and beyond his role as a director to make sure that he put out a high quality product, sometimes having the dub actors stay past their call times (by a long shot) just to get the right take on a line. He would come home tired after a long day of dubbing, and then watch the next day's episode in Japanese, and make notes. And then, this would all repeat again the next day. Sailor Moon was under a lot of pressure to put out 5 episodes a week!
- Funimation seems to have the vast majority of Toei's cards in their hands. Viz only has two Toei anime licenses - Boys Over Flowers and One Piece (which is actually in a partnership with Funimation). Bandai as far as we can tell has no Toei Licenses, and ADV has only one Toei license, Saint Seiya. ADV previously had the rights to Sailor Moon, and to make a long story short, they only got the rights to the subtitled version (and they received masters of poor quality) near the end of Sailor Moon's licenses for North America. And it's looking like I'm going to have to work on this Geneon article pretty soon, but they have been resurrected in Japan. If you are going to Animazement this is a major part of Moon Chase's presentation at the Sailor Moon Universe Panel! Funimation is in a special position as well because they are now streaming a lot of Toei's series for their on-demand service on their site as well (all subtitled). These include Air Master, Captain Harlock, Digimon Adventure 02, Fist of the North Star, Galaxy Express, Pretty Cure and Slam Dunk. So right now, it is looking like Funimation is the only option for a distributor for Toei at this moment.
We here at Moon Chase happen to have spoken to a lot of independent anime/comic book store owners who praise Funimation's vast selection, but they are not fans of their pricing strategies at all. Even some fans agree, with our own The Me finding the $60 price tag per volume of Ourah High School Host Club a little too expensive. In Canada especially, Funimation needs to really improve their distribution of anime across the country, not sending the bigger selections to only the bigger cities. This was the major issue with the release of the first two seasons - many Canadians simply did not have the chance to see ADV's release of Sailor Moon in stores until very close to the license expiry. It was a sad day that Canadians could not purchase a show which had its dub produced in their own country.
We encourage our readers in Canada and the US to also comment to Funimation about their pricing strategies and distribution, what they would like to see in their own cities.
- Last , but certainly not least, is the issue of the final season, Sailor Stars. We are all dying to see it, however it doesn't seem in these times that an unedited dub on television would air without any controversy. Sure, gender bending has done well late at night with the example of Cybersix, and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block has been able to keep any objections to a dull roar, but Sailor Moon is a girls' superhero show, and many young girls back in the day did watch and love the show. It would be difficult to adapt some elements of the storyline towards the under 10 set. At this point, we would wholly support a straight to DVD release of Stars since that's the only way that we think it could be in North America and work. Ideally, we'd also support a dub which aired late at night on adult-centered animation blocks in Canada and the US, however we don't think that a dub aimed for young girls of that season could work.
Nonetheless, we have all waited too long for Sailor Stars, so please leave your opinion on the series with Funimation.
- Oh yeah, and there's a couple other series we love on this survey too. Hayate the Combat Butler 2nd Season continues one of our staff favorite comedies and misadventures of a teenage butler, and K-On! is a teenage high school slice-of-life comedy about some girls who join a club, start a band, and have to deal with a guitarist who is a complete space case. If you enjoyed Ouran as a slice of life comedy, then you'll love K-ON! too. Vote for these too if you can!
- And most importantly, be nice and informative when you write your comments. They are more likely to listen to well written comments rather than "OMG I LOVE SAILOR MOON PLZ BRING IT BACK ^_^". A higher up at Funimation could read that and say "Ok, we know you love Sailor Moon, but why do you want it back? How can we bring it back? What would you like to see?"
Once again, that survey is located here.
Fans, please join and watch our forums. In the next few days we will be planning a letter writing campaign, but we will not be posting any details on our blog posts. And we've got a few other things related to this that we have up our sleeves, so stay tuned. If any of you fans write any comments towards Funimation and would like to share them on the site, please send us an email!
And finally, we have a few words for someone else...
拝啓 武内直子:
いかがお過ごしでいらっしゃいますか。
セーラームーン全員女性。
北アメリカで別の機会をセーラームーンに与えてください。
月の名にかけて,
スタッフノMoon Chase.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: Funimation Asks About Possible Redub of Sailor Moon
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Toei's Official 20th Anniversary DVD Site
43 comments:
Sweet. Voted!
Though the original VAs for the DiC dub where alright I would much rather see a newer cast take on the series for dub then what happened with S and SuperS.
And though I think yes funimations box set price is a bit spendy for 60 dollars. If you went and bought 3-4 disks total for that set normally it would cost you between the same 60 to 120 for the series so I don't mind the price to much.
Oh man, this is awesome! I mean, sure, the Japanese version will always be best, but if Funimation were to redub Sailor Moon, I might be able to get my dub-only friend to take Sailor Moon a little more seriously! That, and seeing an English dub of Stars could be interesting! And honestly, I don't care if they don't use the original dub VAs or not! A new dub of Sailor Moon would be simply wonderful!
That would be cool. But hopefully the quality will be much better, even 5.1 surround would be great. But we'll see...
I dearly hope Funi gets the rights to SM, but honestly would cringe if the old VAs redid their roles. Usagi's (or Serena's) voice in S and SuperS was especially awful. I'm sure Funimation would prefer to use their own actors anyway.
I personally want a redub! I mean I thought what Dic did voice acting was was great but the cuts sucked and I felt the Cloverway dub was terrible. So I want Funimation to redub it they are very competant they will stick to the original and their in house voice actors are good. Hopefully they can get Toei to give us Stars too!
OMGosh!!! This is amazing! IF FUNimation redubs Sailor Moon I'll watch it religiously! They gotta! So many people loved and still love the show! Sailor Moon for new licensing!!
Oh, how I do hope Sailor Moon gets re-dubbed, but I really wouldn't want the original VAs to come back. I'd much prefer a new, fresh cast to provide the voices of the characters.
That said, I would absolutely love to see a new dub.
On price... licensing anime is expensive (especially music). And with 4 or even 6 episodes perdisc, I don't think a BoxSet asking for $60 isn't that bad. Even Japanese viewers order North American disc because of low cost. In Japan... they can end up getting 2 eps per disc and an expensive BoxSet.
As for Sailor Moon. I would LOVE a redub, just for uncut purposes. But overall I actually enjoyed SM Dub, and Cloverway... what were the odds of seeing the SMS season?! I am grateful for them being able to license it. A few mistakes but nothing that bothered me... since I am not a huge anime purist when it comes to dubbing, I watch all kinds of dubs in a lot of languages.
The acting and the voices for the DiC dub were great. So people certainly can't rag on that. And as much as I would like to hear the original Canadian cast return, I doubt they would be up for it and they would have other projects going on.
And I would actually Like to hear an American Cast try out.
To me, they don't have to try and sound like the Japanese voices. That would be just parroting - instead of finding their own voice. That was one problem Serena's VA for SMS had. She was trying so hard to imitate Terri, that she sounded awkward, but as the episodes went on, she found her own voice to work with and (to me) was doing great.
The only way Funimation would make this possible, is to get it on TV. And if it is true that they are redubbing - I hope for all - that they can find a network that will accept it.
is this a real thing? sailor moon hasnt been on t.v. since the 90's. i love sailor moon so much and i miss the show dearly, but its over. why would any company want to redub it. was would be the merrit in doing this. they would possibly, however, make a new season. i hope that operation moonrise succeds!
is this a real thing? sailor moon hasnt been on t.v. since the 90's. i love sailor moon so much and i miss the show dearly, but its over. why would any company want to redub it. was would be the merrit in doing this. they would possibly, however, make a new season. i hope that operation moonrise succeds!
i dont know. i would rather have the old VA's do the redub. and i like the VA's from the first season of sailor moon the best. if the characters just got completely new voices, it'd kill a part of their personality. like rei. i cant imagine her with another english voice. the one she's had suits her, like with some other characters. i'd so buy stars season. if they dubbed it. i never got to see it =[ and watching on youtube takes some of the excitement out of it y'know?
I personally would love to have the original DIC cast do the voices; espeically with Stephanie Morgenstern as Venus (Bleh, Emilie Barlow was LAME!)
I would love to see sailor moon redubbed.
It was my favorite show as a child; it was the only show I watched back then that actually had a plot.
I would particularly like to see it without all the homophobic changes that were made - it would be nice to see funimation keep the relationship between sailor uranus and sailor neptune, instances of cross dressing, etc. Maybe at the time SM was first released, society was less accepting, but this is 2009.
The Dic version of Sailor Moon was definitely not shown and expressed the way Naoko Takeuchi wanted it to be. With Sailor Moon being the first anime to show the transformations and attack sequences found in now everyday anime towards girls, it is truly a good anime and is original. It is a must see anime that spread the idea of magical girls fighting evil like this, it must be seen as something great, something wonderful to look back to that is more honored than it is now, something anime would have a base to build off of. Sailor Moon deserves a better reputation as well as an overall larger audience and credit. I feel that Funimation can hold onto Sailor Moon and fully revive it, so please. Funimation, you have my trust, I have seen other anime by you and they are all well done. You have some of the best dubbing. Please give all of the fans of Sailor Moon what they deserve, as well as other people that have not seen Sailor Moon to realize how great it is and can be.
*GASP* Really? Seriously? It is a possibility? Squee!
It's crazy though because I only just wanted to see it again, and after watching the episodes, I love the voices (the original ones at least) and so that would be awesome! The fact that they would do all of them and not cut any would be great! In this day and age a little more violence never hurt anybody (irony lol), does this mean they won't try and hide the fact that Saturn and Neptune are together and not cousins? - now that would be something!
I really hope this works out. Anime dubs have gotten a lot better since 1995, so I think a professional redub of Sailor Moon would be good no matter who does it. Personally, I'd be interested in seeing ADV give it a shot; I was impressed with their dub of the obscure anime Generator Gawl (which starred Vic Mignogna, who many of you may know as Edward Elric from the Fullmetal Alchemist dub).
I wasn't totally into the DiC cast. I never liked Serena's VA and Darien's sounded a bit goofy (let's not forget Tuxedo Mask's lame speeches). The cast in the Cloverway seasons, however, was pretty good in my opinion - the Outer Scouts were rather good. I actually was ok with Rini, and Pegasus's voice was really good.
That said, I would still like to see a fresh start with the cast. I'm not that familiar with the usual Funimation actors, so I can't think of many names. I do think Colleen Clinkenbeard (Yuko in xxxHolic, Rosé Thomas and Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist) should have a role. I saw her as Yuko in the xxxHolic movie and she was excellent. I don't know who'd she play though, maybe Pluto.
I voted a while back (I heard about this from somebody on YouTube) and I hope it happens!
This is great. I really hope they consider re-dubbing Sailor Moon. Concerning the character voices, I don't mind if they use their own voices actresses and actors. I mean, we've already had Sailor Moon dubbed with the older voices, and I think it would be neat to see a different set of voices on the characters. As long as the voices are great and fit the characters, and the voice actresses and actors can actually act, then I wouldn't mind at all. We can't have it ALL be absolutely the way we want it. I'm also worried of FUNimation having to toss any possible plans of re-dubbing Sailor Moon just because the fans wanted the original voice actors, and they, for whatever reason, either couldn't or didn't want to get a hold of them all. Let's not let this fantastic and RARE opportunity slip away just because we wanted to have our cake and eat it too.
SMDieHardFan
Truly re-dubbing Sailor Moon would be profitable and something that many of us are most eager to see. However, one must recognize that the earliest we could possibly see results is 2010. How progressive are we willing to be as a nation, a continent, that has fallen behind? Should be really be censoring Sailor Stars because of gender-bending? What, then, of the final battle against Beryl/Metaria, where the Sailor Soldiers are tortured and killed one at a time? Should be block this to cater to the under-10s? Then we have the same questions that DiC faced when adapting Sailormoon into English: Who is the market for a Sailormoon re-dub? And thus far, it seems an uncensored, uncut dub--not adaptation--will go much further with those of us in the 18-24 age range that grew up with Sailormoon, than with the under-10s we once were.
I grew up with Sailor Moon as a child, and I would love to see Sailor Moon make a come back, however I am a little iffy on new voices being played for the parts, but if it works then great, I just don't want it to be crappy. Maybe they should just take the english versions voices and plug them into the new version, that way you don't have to get a cast. As for the price, $60 is a little much maybe if you bring it down to $40
I'm conflicted. While some of the old cast was amazing (Susan Roman, Katie Griffin, Emilie Barlow, Stephanie Beard), I will not miss the rest of the S-SS voice actors all that much.
That said, I can't expect a "brand new cast" from funi either - as they use the exact same VAs in every one of their shows and I'm just so over that.
But... if funi chose the right VA for the parts, and not just "Oh, Laura, Colleen, Allison, Eric, you be Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Tuxedo Mask", I think I'd go for it.
I don't think many people of the original SM dub are still in the VA business anyway, so I've already sort of resigned to accept the cast will be full of funi's.
Hi Conflicted Senshi:
The vast majority are still doing voice work alongside their screen acting careers! There are very few that are not, but what's not to say that they may not return since the series has a second chance to be done the right way, this time around?
Look around on the site. You'll see most of them are still here!
omg i know a young girl who would die to get to see sailor moon she missed it the first time cuz she was like 2 at the time
I don't think a redub would be good... unless they dub it with the real japanese meanings... they changed some of the story lines with the last ones which was annoying... if anything, i would like the original dubed seasons to be on dvds that also have the japanese on them. I already have every episode of Sailor Moon on dvd, but if they released the first two seasons with the original Japanese with english subs, I would happily buy it.
Even though I don't think they should redub the whole thing, maybe they should just dub the last season which they never ended up doing... but they have to have the same voice actors either way, otherwise it will sound weird... lol...
I also think they should re-air the original series in Australia... I would make an effort to see them, even if i've already seen them all many times :D
Hikarisailorcat
First of all, If funimation is actually serious about doing this then they need to look at DiC and ALL the mistakes they did and learn from them! Do not change anything from the original, because we all want to stay true to the original anime. Redubbing is fine, and the original actors are fine to, but since they're probably going to redub anyway please stay as true as possible to original script of the episodes. If all this is accomplished then I think it will be very successful. Funimation is an amazing dubbing studio and has done an amazing job in the past. And if they decide to go through with this, then I hope this outcome will be successful to!
Honestly as long as they don't butcher the plot I'll be happy.
I'm hoping for a total re-dub. New voices, using the actual Japanese names and not ignoring certain things such as sailor Uranus and Neptune's relationship. I'd love to see stars dubbed as well but i'm not holding my breath on that. If anyone can pull this off it's fundimation they just need the right cast.
I would love it if FUNNamation re dubs Sailor moon. I mean the DIC did a horable job and cloverway wasn't to much better. They didn't even bother to dub the last seson of Sailor moon. A lot of people belive that Sailor Moon ends after Super S wich is dosnt. Sailor Moon has a fith Seson Sailor Moon Stars. It would be realy cool to see that season in english!
Now with the voice acters, I think every voice for the charts is fine BUT Sailor Moons and Neptunes. Though I did like how they played the part, I do belive however the voices were wrong for the chartor.
Sailor Moon's voice is supose to be soft and the actresses who played her I belive sounded low and if she had a cold all the time. It was a bit annoying.
And Neptunes I belive sounded older than she does in the Japanese.
Over all the other voice acters did a great job! And I would like to see them continue!
So I think it would be great is Sailor Moon came back and dubed from FUNNamtion. They did a great Job with DBZ, ONE PIECE, AND YUYU hAKISHUE i THINK THEy would do a great Job with Sailor moon.
Sailor Moon was the first anime I ever started to watch and will alwys be one of my farits. I was clearly dissaponted when no one finised the series. So I do hope Funnimation does dub the sereies and finishes it off. Then mabe it will be put on Adult Swim and cartoon network again. If they can still play DBZ once in a while they can Play Sailor Moon too.
If they re-dub Sailor Moon, I hope they do so with new voice actors. By today's standards, the old voices were terrible, and the voice actors they used then must be much older - perhaps too old to be voicing 14-year-old girls.
I have fond memories of the dub voices, but I'd really like to see Sailor Moon treated seriously this time. The old voices worked then because they had edited the show for children. If they're going for the same teenage angle that the Japanese anime had, they should use newer, better voices.
I'm not a dubbed fan, just as long as they rerealease all 200 eps and 3 movies in Japanese uncut versions, that will be when order is restored to the world! Little Brother got the treatment, and hopefully it'll be big sister's turn soon!
They need a new cast to re-do the dub. Also, SOS (Save our Sailors) tried to do this years ago and it didn't work out so well. I would love to see it done.
Sailor Moon needs to be fully re-introduced to the world and they need to do it better here in the USA.
If FUNI gets SM I would roll on the floor screaming with joy! I hope they get it!
But I would love FUNI's VA's better, especially for Serena/Usagi (Her voice was terrible...). I would also like dubbing of the SuperS/S speacials, like the Chibiusa's haunted house one.
I hope this works!
P.S, I can't vote on survey, you'll have to go on without me. :(
i want Linda back as Sailor Moon! GO SAILOR MOON! WE NEED YOU!
Well, there will be a slight problem over Fisheye and Zoisite.
if anyone here has seen DragonBall, which was dubbed by FUNI, then you know one of the characters is a homo, just like Fisheye and Zoisite in the anime. This character was changed slightly, mainly because DragonBall was on TV. I do admit they kept the homo character who was leader of the Zuka Club in Ouran, but was it on TV? I don't think it was.
So, if Sailor Moon won't be on TV, Fisheye and Zoisite should be safe. But if it is? Zoisite will probabley be tweaked, and Fisheye may become a female.
^_^
as much as i dislike dubs, i would still watch them, but if sailor moon gets dubbed again with new actors, it might get on TV! and i SURELY wouldn't miss that!!!
(i must've voted on this, like, 5 times! don't hate me!)
xD
gotta luv this anime
I will be so happy if they re-dub Sailor Moon. I've loved it as a kid and still love it now. I wouldn't mind new VAs because some of the voices were a little irritating. But honestly as long as they decide to re-dub I'll be happy. I hope they improve the editing and don't leave things out.
The one thing that really bothered me though was how they changed Amara and Michelle's relationship to "cousins" in the original dubbed verison. It's just too obvious they are really lovers and what's wrong with that? I know there are a few other homosexual couples that were also changed. I'm hoping funimation will re-dub SM and they will just keep all the realtionships as they are.
Does anyone know if funimation has made any addition announcements about the possible re-dub?
I am 100% for the idea of FUNimation re-dubbing Sailor Moon. The DiC dub was amazing, especially the VA for Serena/Usagi. Yeah, I've seen the original Japanese series and yes, DiC did butcher the series with their cuts. And Cloverway, while they went easy on the edits, I don't know what they were on when they did the casting. It was by far the worst dub I've ever heard in my life. Even as a kid I hated it. The DiC dub VA's put SO much effort and emotion into the characters that I just fell in love with them. So yes, please FUNi, get the rights to this series. Even if you do the dub yourselves and not try to get some of the VA's from the DiC dub to come back, you have amazing in house VA's, as evident by DBZ. Just don't try to get VA's to sound like certain characters on the old dubs if they don't at all, like whoever tried to mimic Terri Hawkes on SMS. Terri Hawkes is the one VA I would pray for to come back. She WAS Sailor Moon to me.
well another interesting thing is Toei animation and Miss Takeuchi are pushing for international re-release of sailor moon for it's 20th anniversary... Italy has already re-released sailor moon and remastered the quality (but not re-dubbed). So a re-dub for America with all 200 is actually now back in the cards as a possibility.
i'm 27yrs old and mommy of 4 lil gremlins which they love sailor moon. i grew up watching both eng dub, spanish as well as jap original including the sailor stars. things are definitely not like it was in the 90s children now aren't so bothered by gay/lez. my children know i'm lesbian so as a mother i wouldn't mind seeing the last season eng dubbed. and definitely redo all seasons i hated alot of the voices especially serenas it was disturbing. i'm a cancer sign just as usagis' so i would like to see and feel the emotion come from getting into her character to its full potential just as the seiyu that voiced her character almost did. usagi i can relate to her character i see myself, i'm a moon child afterall.... so much i would like to see it in english just as the original japanese version. side note sailor moon reaches out to all ages it doesn't need to be chopped up and altered to fit younger viewers times have changed children know & see so much worse nowadays so quite frankly they wouldn't be shocked to see gay/lesbian couple etc....prices well the better the quality i would be fine to pay a good price because i would know it was worth it. redub but some fresh and new voices i personally think some of your inhouse voices do not fit the characters. i would like to see an american cast that would be razor....sailor moon fan all the way here. heehee so would love to see it back....
I Would love to see sailor moon come back on television. Possibly re-dubbed and sticking to the actual dialogue uncut and uncensored, with shows these days that lack originality and morals, this classic animation could show kids these better value. Instead of all the garbage that's on television now.
I also won't mind Super S being re-dubbed and Sailor Stars being dubbed for one thing.
it was canceled before i was born so i never saw it on tv and just found it on you tube 1 day and it was love at first site i rlly want to see it on tv again so my friends will finally actually know what sailor moon is
This show was great, I have very fond memories of it and would love to see it re-dubbed with an unedited story line. I liked most of the original VAs but I wouldn't reject new VAs. I never had a chance to buy any of the DVDs when they were released, they were very hard to find. I probably wouldn't have bought any of them anyway, the show was to "edited" but I would shell out the cash for a true dub of the series.
I really would like a redub! I would really like Sailor Stars dubbed because all Sailor Moon fans have been waiting sooo long for it. I'd prefer new VA's because I did not really like the old VA's, especially Sailor Moon's in the S and Super S season.
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