Italian Manga Soon to be a Reality, and More News From Italy!

This post is going to be a catchup on some new and old news that we didn't get a chance to cover in July because of Sailordees' absence. I can't tell you why she was AWOL over the summer, but I can tell you that she wanted to blog but there just weren't enough hours in a day (and she's the authority on where to hunt down all the press releases). And that doesn't even cover my own busy schedule both then and now. Don't worry, we're working on getting back on track!

The exciting news for Italian Sailor Moon fans has finally arrived! GP Publishing has announced that their Italian edition of the Sailor Moon manga will be released in both newsstand and deluxe comic editions starting November 4th! (For more info on the differences between the two editions, see here.)

A price estimate has also been released, putting the newsstand edition at €4.50 (~$6.00 US) and the comic edition at €5.90 (~$8.00 US) (both prices at the exchange rate current as of the date of this post). And as the final icing on the cake, a preliminary version of the cover art has also been released!

[Image from sailormoonworld.it]

The broadcast of Sailor Moon on Hiro finally ended last week and while there have been rumors of a DVD release going around, there is no official press release as of this writing, so we can't say anything for sure. However, the series has begun broadcasting on Italia 1 as of August 23rd, so fans can still catch it there!

Unfortunately, while the video censorship was removed and there was some minor redubbing done to fill in scenes, the missing recap/preview episode from the end of the R season was not redubbed. We had hoped this episode would have been restored with the rest of the series on tv, but we can still hope for a subtitled version of this episode in a future DVD release.

In other product news, there is at least a partial list of merchandise and the companies that will be producing them. They will start becoming available come November and December of 2010, and possibly the biggest highlight is a brand new game for the Nintendo DS from Namco-Bandai! We will keep you updated (we were unable to find sites for a few of these manufacturers)!

Giochi Preziosi: Toys including fashion dolls, accessories, costumes, and outdoor toys.
Bandai: Mini-dolls, micro-dolls, and stuffed toys (plushies).
Namco Bandai Games Europe: Videogame for Nintendo DS.
Adriatic Group: Beach Toys, and Novelties/Gifts.
MondialMix: Giftware such as accessories, photos, posters, and wall scrolls.
PlayMagic: Magic Tricks
Auguri Preziosi: Gift Items, Back-to-School items (starting January 2011).
Topps: stickers and sticker albums
Preziosi Collection: 3D items, Magazines
Image: Magnets and Charms
Italian Brands: Outerwear
Lion Italia: pyjamas and other nightclothes, swimwear and underwear
Easy Shoes: Shoes
Salati Preziosi: Chips
Dolci Preziosi: Easter Eggs and Cream-filled Eggs.
Joygum: Bubblegum

Really, There Isn't Any Trouble in the Moon Kingdom...

At Least This Nasty Rumor Put a Different Mystery to Rest!

Leave it to 2chan and wacky fanartists to start ridiculous rumors. Towards the end of August, the Asian tabloids had another field day after the popular message boards and other blog were abuzz with rumors of a divorce between Naoko Takeuchi and her husband, Yoshihiro Togashi. This time the banter began as a result of fans being angry with Hunter X Hunter going on hiatus again. The tabloid Shukan Gendai (the image posted on the right) had reported that the reason for the split were because Yoshihiro was experiencing a creative slump and he continually had to ask his publisher to push back his deadlines. Because he was still very popular, his editors gave in knowing that his fans would always come back when he did (and sales of his work would never decline). However, he may have been taking his editors for granted as he had become a video game addict and also traveled frequently overseas (the latter, is news to us!). This irresponsible behaviour frustrated Naoko and led to this rumored divorce. The fans were also coming up with all sorts of strange reasons for why this happened. Some thought he had joined the Unification Church to escape his creative slump, or that his assistant had left him because of some turbulence. What really got the discussion flared up was a post from someone claiming to be another mangaka, with some exclusive and confidential information. This mangaka posted (translated):

This is strictly confidential, he got divorced last year. They likely clashed because his wife was a considerably selfish person. Because of this his life has become fairly rough, in the future expect not to see him in print as often.

This mangaka was never identified. The photo you see on the left was also thrown around the thread. We bet it was the same person who drew those other silly drawings from before of Sailor Moon beating up on a dog. In an effort to dispel this rumor, a different article brought up this blog entry from a different mangaka, Ami Shibata. Ami is famous for her work on Blue Dragon ST, Bucky the Incredible Kid, and Papuwa. She is also a close friend of Naoko Takeuchi's, and she even drew Sailor Moon for Naoko in Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Original Picture Collection Volume Infinity. In her entry, she spoke of having lunch with Naoko after 8 or 9 years, and that she had moved to a new place that had made Naoko a neighbor in her town.

Let's put that nasty rumor to rest, for just a moment. If anything, the one article to cite Ami Shibata's post helped us to solve another mystery. Last December, Yoshihiro Togashi had revealed that a new addition arrived to their family the year before. While there were no details given on whether they had another son or a daughter, he drew a bunny. Naoko Takeuchi had always drawn bunnies in her comics, and many times they even represented girls. Was this a hint? Ami wrote in her entry that Naoko was the wife of Yoshihiro Togashi, the mangaka behind Hunter X Hunter that was currently being published in Shonen Jump. And, she also remarked that she was the energetic mother of a son and a daughter! We were happy to read this, and now we are wondering if there are as many bunny rabbits in her daughter's room as there were in Usagi's in PGSM :p. Ami Shibata also wrote about going shopping afterwards with Naoko, and purchasing 3-D paper art. The two had such a good time together, and nothing had changed at all in these many years!

We have to commend this article from Livedoor for doing a good job of finding this entry from Ami's blog, and using it to show definite proof that Naoko and Yoshihiro were definitely not divorced. With that, we officially debunk this rumor, and call everything that the tabloids, the fans, and this unidentified mangaka have said absolutely ludicrous. Shukan Gendai is also published by Kodansha, which is also the publisher behind Sailor Moon. You'd think, that they would have learned something from their turmoils with the Sailor Moon manga and not frustrate the creator any more and publish negacrud like this, but they still pushed ahead. But, there was a bright side to this rumor as we have finally learned a new detail we didn't know about the recent addition to Naoko Takeuchi's family. So we end this article offering additional congratulations to the couple on the arrival of their daughter!

Behind-the-Scenes Update!

Hi everyone - I finally have a long enough stretch of free days to return to blogging on both Moon Chase and We Got the Solution. This post is just going to update everyone on what is happening behind the scenes.

☽ I am aware that the recent article out of South Korea needs to be changed, and that will happen possibly early next week. The article that we had referenced for this article had very confusing information and we couldn't get a hold of our regular Korean translator. In hindsight, we should have waited for that article to get a little bigger and popular so that we would have had more choices to read.

☽ Interviews are mostly on their way! I emailed everyone last night and heard from all but two of them this morning. They all told me that they are almost done! It wasn't a busy summer for just us at Moon Chase, but the Voice Actors as well! If not during this stretch of days, my next one is in a little over two weeks.

☽ Some of you have noticed that the Linda Ballantyne/Sarah Lafleur impostor has struck again on our Facebook page. One of the things that really drained us from May until July was dealing with him, and trying to get him to take responsibility for what he had done. I can tell you now that the impostor was a teenaged boy. We practically had to pry apologies from him to the actresses, but he refused even to sign his name to what he has done, only referring to himself as "The Impostor". We even believe that he has lied to everyone about telling the woman in the photos that her images are being placed under a different name. We asked him several times to get us in touch with this woman so we could have exchanged contacts between her and Linda's agent to hopefully get these images removed, but he refused claiming that the woman never wanted to talk to him again. Something seemed very fishy about this because in this day and age, who wouldn't want to have their images under a different named removed? He ran away from the situation, thinking that it would go away. It was then that we put two and two together and a single file name gave us a big hint about who it might be - his mother! While this boy is a teenager, he is old enough to take responsibility and after he refused to do anything more, we told him the photos were his responsibility to get rid of. And, they spread all the way to Facebook, among other social networking sites. We tried recently to tell the impostor once again he needed to take care of this immediately, but we think he has blocked our emails. We are currently working with representatives of Linda Ballantyne to get this taken care of as soon as possible. He has put us all through the ringer. Even though it's been several months since this ordeal began, we hope that justice can finally be served.

To the Impostor, if you are reading this - we told you this was your responsibility, not ours. Running away never achieves anything.

☽ And finally, Operation Moonrise! This report may be done much quicker than any of the last ones as a third of the charts are done right now. While I can't talk about the results specifically, we were all very impressed by the turnout of 1862 responses! Aside from the countries we had set out in our responses, the other category had 35 different countries represented and 19 different languages. It was also nice to see everyone's responses to censorship concerns to the two different age groups. Thanks to everyone for responding so honestly!

I think, that's everything. Look for a new post from me debunking probably one of the most offensive rumors I've read in a long time in a few days. Since there doesn't appear to be much in terms of general Sailor Moon news, what would you prefer to see first? Japanese Seiyuu, Sera Myu actors, or PGSM actors? Let me know what you want to see in the comments below and the top voted segment by Friday will get top priority! There is also a North American VA update in the works with some sightings that you probably won't believe!

Operation Moonrise Surveys are ALL OVER! THANK YOU MOONIES!

Thank you Moonies for your support of Operation Moonrise's surveys! We are now officially finished running all of our surveys - we think we have asked fans every possible question that could be of interest to everyone! Our final total for this survey is a whopping 1862 responses! This brings our grand total of responses since we began these surveys over a year ago to 4,727! We want to thank each and every Moonie for their support of this campaign, through posting links and helping us get the word out. This is our most successful survey that we have ever run, and we would not have done this without you!

(now it is time for all of us on the MC staff to take a much deserved rest)

Last Day for Operation Moonrise: Phase 5!

Hey Moonies! Here is your very last reminder to take our last survey ever for this site because today is the last day! Every Moonie that has not taken the survey yet should take it and make themselves count because, we have shattered records with this one. Our last survey (Phase 4) achieved a total of 1534 surveys. As of this moment, we have received over 1700 responses, making this one our most successful survey yet! If you have not taken the survey yet, please hurry because you only have until midnight tonight!

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY

Pretty Cure set for broadcast in the UK

Pretty Cure, which is currently the biggest shoujo anime series in Japan, has finally landed a broadcast spot in the UK. Starting next Monday, the Sky Digital Satellite channels Pop Girl and Pop Girl + 1 will begin airing dubbed episodes of the popular anime series. The UK now joins Australia and New Zealand as places that will now broadcast Pretty Cure on television. Given that Pretty Cure is currently expanding its English fan base (Canadian fans have also been lucky recipients of the show), fans in the United States will have to keep their fingers crossed that Cartoon Network will finally pick up the show.