Alisa Durbrow Models Wedding Dresses, and Lands A Role In Musica!l

She's finally back after a long time with a new agent! Alisa Durbrow (Mio Kuroki in PGSM) has landed a leading role in a musical production called “Shinsaku GO!JET!GO!GO!ZERO”, which is a 90-minute show scheduled to run from December 18-December 26, 2010. Right now she is working very hard attending rehearsal lessons to nail down the song and dance routines, as she has had only two weeks of preparation time before her debut performance. There are three different groups performing this musical, and Alisa is part of the "B" Group. On the official page, anywhere that you see a ★, this means that after the shows there will be a fan event where fans can meet all of the stars that performed that day! For more details check out the top of her blog. She posted an entry few days ago, writing that she had some trouble dancing since she hadn't danced for a long time and that practicing at home was a little hard (but we know she can do it!). Alisa's fans will definitely not want to miss her acting in this musical! We managed to find an old trailer on YouTube from an earlier production of the musical that fans can watch here. Alisa is grateful for the support her fans have given her as they have helped her gain this role! She also sends her regards to all of her fans overseas! We here at Moon Chase send our biggest congratulations to Alisa and "Ganbatte" for this musical and beyond! Special thanks to the Durbrow family for telling us about this musical!

Alisa has also been modeling wedding dresses for Hula Creative Japan, a business that specializes in wedding and special occasion photos. She models a short dress and a beautiful pink orchid bouquet and headband all over the site, and some photos even feature her with a "pretend husband". Alisa is the most stylish of all the model brides with her bouquet and cowboy boots! Hula Creative Japan offers lots of different packages for wedding dresses and kimonos (both of which are part of Japanese weddings). She is also modeling dresses for the December issue of Japan's biggest wedding magazine, Zexy (Shikoku Edition only).

Idol's New Album Just For Mothers and Daughters!

Former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji released her first solo album in Japan last week, geared especially towards mothers and daughters! Minna Happy! Mama no Uta (Everybody's Happy! Mama's Songs) is a cover album of anime theme songs from Nozomi's childhood. Included on the album is (of course) the Sailor Moon theme song, as well as songs from My Neighbor Totoro, Chibi Maruko-Chan, and Anpanman. She has also released her own song on the album, "Chibi Devil" and fans can watch a music video for that here!

While this news may seem like small potatoes, we're reporting this for the simple reason that we're a little irked. There's no Sailor Moon merchandise available in Japan except for the DVD boxsets and manga. When Sailor Moon's resurgence began in Japan, the Japanese press release all stated that this was going to be a chance for mothers to enjoy this with a new generation of fans - their daughters. All there was to celebrate this resurgence was a cooking class and a DVD launch event reuniting the 5 main stars of the show. Nozomi Tsuji's album with it's brief hint of Sailor Moon seems to be the only other thing that mothers can do to enjoy the series with their daughters (aside from watching the episodes on DVD or on ANIMAX). But where are the dolls? Where are the costumes and clothes? Somehow, we think that this lack of merchandise means that the kids of this generation won't be able to connect the same way that we did with the show, and that some of the experiences that the mothers probably want to share with their daughters related to Sailor Moon might be missed out on this time around.

Halloween 2010: A Story of Cosplay and Crafts

Hey Moonies, sorry for being a bit late getting this put together for you. Between waiting to see if we would get a few more submissions and real life getting a bit hectic for a while, there was just no time for me to post.

Without further ado, we present your Halloween stories!

Daniel writes:

ok so ever since i was little i always loved sailor moon. I lived in Portugal at the time, and the dub there included ALL 200 episodes, and sailor moon S was always my favourite season. I loved it so much, and i loved the crisis transformation the most, so i decided that i wanted the Holy grail for myself. At first i searched for an official one, but since this was 2009, they were 200-300 dollars AND the werent brand new. So i afterwards i searched thorugh youtube and the net for someone that could make one themselves. I saw many handmade ones but none were close to the original- so i got my butt over to micheals and bought materials to make my own...by the time i finished it, it was close to halloween so i decided-why not get some of my friends to dress as Sailor Moon ?...sadly none of my friends are sailor moon fans like me so i finished it and said "hey why not make it a pumpkin top?"...so now i have a mini pumpkin thats ready to be carved and if the weather here isn't too windy i will put the grail on top of the pumkin (:
For the design on the pumpkin, i am thinking of doing a moon designed like sailor moons (: or maybe even a black cat with a moon for Luna (:

Liz writes:

I really should have cut some bangs into my hair but I'm pretty scared of changing my hair style. Perhaps by next Halloween/NYCC I'll do it.
Anyway, this costume cost me 50 or more dollars to make since I used high quality spandex and crepe, and well over 20 hours to construct it since I made a rough draft out of really cheap fabric before I used the good stuff. :-D I <3 Sailor Mars. I think I'm going to make her seifuku for next year.

Juan writes:

Well I had read your article earlier that day and we were going to carve pumpkins that night. I have a picture of sailor moon as my desktop background (I'll attach it for you) with her possing in front of the full moon. I could totally envision what it would look like on a pumpkin so I said "heck why not." I printed out a copy of the picture and taped it the front of the pumpkin trying to get it as close to the surface as possible so as to get a good likeness of her. I knew I wanted to cut out the white parts from the picture so that all that would be left would be the image of sailor moon. I started by VERY carfully and slowly cutting along the line and this worked for a little bit, but soon the juice from the pumpkin started making the picture a little soggy. So it was suggested to me that I should use a needle to poke holes through the cutting lines making a pre-cut line that could be seen even without the paper. I had my sister poke the holes and I cut out the rest of it trying pay close attention to detail. In the end, after a while of hard work, we have the image of sailor moon, her head is attached to the top of the circle so it is rather delicate. Needless to say, I kept the pumpkin. :)

Ashlei writes:

Sailor Saturn has been my favorite scout since I was younger, and this year was actually the first year I've ever dressed up for Halloween. So why not choose my favorite? I used a bunch of pictures of Saturn from Google to make the costume, from the anime series to cosplayers. For the tiara, I used gold wired fabric with an elastic band attached. It stayed well. I actually bought the star from southernmooncreation's Etsy page. It's made of clear acrylic. And for the boots, I dyed a pair of white knee-high socks and used black puff paint to make the laces. I was just lounging around the house with my family on Halloween, so I decided to just wear socks instead of making boots.

A big thanks to Daniel, Liz, Juan and Ashlei for sharing your Halloween stories with us! And remember everyone, we're always happy to feature your creations, just drop us an email with a picture and a little about your creation at com[DOT]gmail[AT]moonchasers (just remember to flip it around the right way) and include "Fan Work" in the subject so it goes to the right place!

Dicembre Saluti Dall Italiano Sailor Moon

Forgive me Italian Moonies, if my grammar is incorrect! Given that it is December, fans shouldn't really expect there to be any Earth-shattering Sailor Moon news by way of licenses yet. And there isn't much going on in Japan either, save for a mention of a Tuxedo Mask cosplayer at Japan Pop Culture Festival 2010. Italy is still swarming with news of Sailor Moon - a new commercial was uploaded yesterday from DYNIT advertising the upcoming release of the first boxset in January. Since many of you can't see it (and we managed to find a way to), we're going to describe the commercial for you. Images of the anime play against the Japanese theme song. It begins with images of Sailor Moon's nails becoming polished flashing between screens that say "Le Guerriere" (The Warrior) "Che Vestono Alla Marinaretta" (Dressed Like a Sailor) "Sono Tornate" (Has Returned)! And then we hear Cristina D'Avena's voice as Sailor Moon begins to transform. And then comes a screen advertising the uncensored release of Umino lifting up Haruna-Sensei's skirt. As other images of the opening play, more words say that the video is remastered, and for the first time that the episode prologues and previews will be included with Italian subtitles. These will be on a separate DVD (we're assuming, that the editors had some difficulties in lacing in the video for these previews and prologues since they were not dubbed with the regular episodes). Finally, Italian Moonies are going to get almost everything they missed out on the first time around (any of our readers in Italy heard anything new about the missing episode from R yet?). The important part to note, is that Naoko Takeuchi's name/ Princess Naoko Planning is featured twice in this commercial (and we are happy, that finally people are being consistent with their crediting to her). It first appears (we have shown you above) near the end of the commercial with the logos of DYNIT and Toei Animation, and then at the very end alongside the Sailor Moon logo. Below, we have a screenshot of what the collector's box is going to look like. We're not sure if that package just on top of the discs is what the 3-disc holder looks like, or if it is a booklet. The one on the right is the bonus DVD with all the prologues and previews. For those of you who are in Italy and have not watched the commercial yet, click here!



Oh yeah, and Sailor Moon is still doing well in the ratings in Italy, holding the #5 spot. It is holding a market share even higher than The Simpsons!