Merry Christmas Moonies!

☃ Hey Moonies! We wanted to take this very quick opportunity in between our much needed holiday break to share are warmest wishes for the holiday season and the New Year to all our readers! As you can tell, we haven't updated during this holiday season, and we are pretty much going to hit the reboot button come January since it's becoming too much to bring everything we wanted to you all :(. We are currently working on better ways to solve this (such as, not letting my computers get trashed over and over!). We didn't get around to doing a Christmas special set of posts this year, but we'll link you to last year's!

♨ While we would have really appreciated some sun since it is colder than usual in our parts of the world this year, we got the biggest present already - and it's each and every one of you! Fans gave us a lot this year that we didn't expect - from announcements of our major news stories at cons, to links on other websites, to the several emails of how much you enjoyed reading our site. Every day that I check the stats I am always surprised to see where all our readers are coming from all over the world - it astounds me that Sailor Moon had such an international audience beyond what any of us ever knew and especially how much support there were for the stars! The day we hit 50,000 hits , we finally realized that we did actually have a place among all you fans which was something that we struggled with from day 1. We didn't know how this project was going to be received when I first planned it out with my staff and friends, and the support has been overwhelming. We thank all of you for that - this was a record year for the site and we owe it all to you!

Nonetheless, we know some of you are waiting to hear at least SOME NEWS...

☽ We have some very exclusive Alisa Durbrow (Kuroki Mio) news which has come to us all the way from her family in Japan (Domo Arigato Ed and Yukari Durbrow)! We were a little concerned when we didn't see any mention of Alisa on Junes Agency pages and thought she might have quit the entertainment industry altogether (though her blog still remained). Ed and Yukari told us that Alisa parted ways with her agency in September - she had been with them for 13 years and she wanted to "graduate" and look for an agency that she can do some more music with, among other ventures! In our last post about her, we featured some old songs of hers from when she was much younger (and way before her PGSM time) and we all agreed that she is multitalented - she can sing, act, and model! We were relieved to know that we have not seen the last of her, and ecstatic to learn that she is practicing with her band and getting better at playing her guitar! She is still getting some modeling jobs directly from stylists at magazines. Ed and Yuriko shared this with us too (and we quote): "She thanks very much the fans who supported her for a long time. She hopes to see them when she get a new agency some day." We look forward to seeing you too Alisa and we really hope to hear more about your band some day!

☽ While Toei's OnDemand service in North America still doesn't have as many series as any of us wanted to see, their Japanese counterpart AniBB, continues to do well. On December 17th, they added a new plan allowing for unlimited views a month for ¥ 998 (about $11.04 USD) , and they have thrown the first month in this plan for free! Toei, we really want to see Sailor Moon here in the new year. Please bring it back to North America in 2009! Speaking of Sailor Moon, the "lost" season (Sailor Stars) made it's way into the article Top Five Things Anime Companies Did Wrong in 2008 under incomplete releases. And we have to agree with every one of their points.

☽ And we have a couple video links for you! CBS has done a really good job with their promotion for Flashpoint which will be returning in January, and Sailor Moon fan CloverPhuu has made a wonderful AMV of Usagi/Serena and Mamoru/Darien to Amy Jo Johnson's Dancing in Between which was used at the end of the episode Attention Shoppers. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Re: BIG BIG Flashpoint Roundup!

Flashpoint Predictably Returns to Canadian Television on January 9th!

As we reported last week, CBS announced Flashpoint would return to the airwaves on January 9th. It took what seemed like forever for CTV to announce that they were going to follow suit . More importantly, it seems like Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and Mark Ellis barely got a break - because new episodes are going to air immediately after the last four from last season air! Seriously, if we lived in Toronto, we'd visit the set and bring the cast and crew pizza, hot chocolate, and home-baked Christmas cookies as a token of appreciation for their hard work! Enrico Colantoni, who plays Sargent Gregory Parker on the show, had a few positive comments to say about the rise in popularity of Canadian TV shows on US networks. We encourage every reader of this blog in North America to tune in when the show returns - once again, you will not be disappointed with these new episodes! In fact, one of our last posts just below this one has a spoiler from one of our readers in New Zealand, where TVNZ aired the first season in entirety!

And just for you Amy Jo Johnson fans, she had a baby girl! Little Francesca Christine was born on December 1st, weighing 7 lbs, 1 oz. Her middle name honors Amy's mother, who tragically passed away in 1998 of uterine cancer, just as she was about to make another big acting milestone in Felicity. Amy wrote a very touching tribute to her mother in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: on Tough Stuff which we recommend all of you read if you haven't already. She was already a star before she entered in this world, as Flashpoint was shot during Amy's pregnancy! On behalf of all the readers of Moon Chase, we congratulate Amy and her fiance Oliver Giner on the arrival of their new bundle of joy!

BIG BIG Flashpoint Roundup!

☃ ☾ Hey Lunarians! ☽ Expect updates to be sporadic for the next couple weeks, it's getting very busy behind the scenes! But we just had to update you all on Stephanie Morgenstern ♀ (Sailor Venus #1) ♀ and Mark Ellis' Flashpoint! Tangentially, I have discovered new ASCII codes and am having way too much fun with them tonight... you may want to increase your browser's text size to see full detail! ☃

BREAKING NEWS: Flashpoint Returns Much Earlier Than We Expected!

Many industry insiders since we wrote our last article had predicted that Flashpoint would return sometime in February occupying the slot once held by the now canceled The Ex-List (of which the latter we predicted not too long ago). Today, CBS announced that it would return on January 9th, on Fridays at 9 P.M. in that timeslot that we had predicted! Venusians will just have to wait until a little after Christmas to catch the new episodes. As of this writing, CTV has not announced an airdate, however we would not be surprised if a press release from CTV ended up in our inbox tomorrow morning. We predict that they will air it at the same time (yay for "Reverse Simulcast"!) We here behind the scenes have managed to see the unaired episodes and we loved them so much that we are going to tune in when they air on television - and we encourage all our readers to do the same and to please support the show just the same as you did this past Summer and Fall! We really love these next episodes - and we'll tease you a little bit. Ed Lane grips with balancing his work, old ghosts, and family life, OMG THERE ARE BOMBS COMING AND YOU GET TO SEE SPIKE WORK, and umm... Sam and Jules. Not saying any more about those two! Tune in to find out more! A VA will appear on the show in one of these episodes - Robert Bockstael (Prince Diamond from the R-Season). Stephanie also makes a brief appearance as well. We look forward to seeing more of these stories come to life, and hopefully more VAs appearing on the show! We've got our fingers crossed in the hopes that Terri Hawkes (Sailor Moon #2) might appear somewhere on the show.

A Spoiler and a Flashbit!

We ran across a couple items in the news in the past week!

☀ Series Writer and Co-executive Producer Tassie Cameron remarked at a recent conference, "Basically, they asked us to make 13 pilots." This explains why the cops on the show didn't have many arcs that carried on from episode to episode. There was a short bit with Greg Parker and his son, the last few episodes get heavy dealing with Ed Lane and his family, and Sam and Jules get a little more involved towards the end of the season. It seems that this season , there is going to be a lot more with the characters and their continuity beyond the length they had in the first season. We learned of a casting call for a female actress! The role of Donna Hewson calls for a character who "is a 'triple A' Alpha female -- strong, outspoken, funny, compelling, complicated." "In her first episode, we see this tornado of a woman blowing past most of her male competition -- nailing every physical, shooting and combat test, impressing Ed and the rest of the team in an intense recruitment drive." She will appear in the first 4-6 episodes of the season, and we are guessing this is to accommodate Amy Jo Johnson's maternity leave (and we haven't heard if she has had the baby yet, Power Ranger fans). We're excited to see where this goes this coming February! Again, we will not post our new episodessummaries until they air on North American televisions.

☀ And one of the most completely random articles we caught on our radar has to do with the supplier of the training and the non-lethal weapons used on the set! Lamperd Less Lethal, a company specializing in less-lethal weaponry announced a few days ago that they once again had an agreement providing training and less lethal weapons to Flashpoint Season 2! Jim Bremner is serving as a consultant on the show, and he has posted a few pics behind the scenes of Flashpoint along with some testimonials from the cast!

Stephanie Morgenstern Appeared at Event!

Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) just doesn't appear at the occasional convention to meet her fans - last weekend, she appeared at an event in Calgary as the guest speaker! She shared her experiences in conversation with moderator Carol Whiteman at the 10th anniversary celebration of Women in Film and Television (Alberta Chapter). And the best part is, her part in Sailor Moon was mentioned on the site (we all jumped out of our chairs in joy when we read that)! We admire Stephanie for branching out to organizations and filmpools like this , continuing to inspire and mentor other Canadians trying to make it in the industry. If perchance any of our blog readers were at the event and would like to share a few anecdotes, don't hesitate to contact us!

And for all you North American fans patiently awaiting the return of Flashpoint... we saw last week's episode. And even though we are EXPLODING with excitement waiting to tell you all what happened, we are restraining ourselves with anything we can in fairness to the cast and crew. We can't wait to see this air on North American screens, and dear readers, you will not be disappointed. It will be worth the wait :).

Halloween Moonie Mayhem!

We really hoped we'd get some more email from fans about what they did for Halloween (but we didn't :( ). Since there's video in this post, we're going to throw up the rest of it after the jump - with a warning: one of our videos is rated R for content. Don't click the jump below unless you're okay watching Sailor Moon being portrayed as a dumb blonde alongside references to "tentacles". If you don't know what any of that means, then you're probably too young to hit the jump.



The Halloween Episode of G4's Attack of the Show featured hosts Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira dressed as a variety of characters... Kevin, not so much. He spent the episode switching between Billy Mays, Richard Karn, and finally, the king of every tween girl's heart at this moment Zac Efron . Olivia Munn had a greater variety of costumes, including the Google Phone, Noriko from one of my favorite PS3 games this year Heavenly Sword, and Sailor Moon. She didn't quite get the fuku right, and portrayed her as a dumb blonde . Kevin mentioned she was missing a tentacle, and before you knew it, the pair were wreaking hentai havoc on the set! G4 has posted a video of the show's highlights... and we have to ask, Olivia, was that last Sailor Moon sketch really that necessary? Check out the photo gallery here and the highlights video here! Thanks to all our fans who wrote in with this sighting!





And finally, we have a sequel to a video we posted a while ago! NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE THE PURE AWESOMENESS OF THE COSPLAY IN THIS ONE! To whoever came up with those ideas for cosplay sketches, we'd really like to know how long it took you to put these together - and if you are planning any more soon! We'd love to see more!

BREAKING NEWS: More Flashpoint Ordered!

Hot off the presses, we have just learned that Stephanie Morgenstern's (Sailor Venus #1) Flashpoint has just had another 5 episodes added to its second season, bringing Season Two's episode total to 18! We are so happy to have 5 more episodes of Flashpoint :)! Since we have a feeling that the four episodes that didn't air are probably going to be added to the North American run of Season Two, this brings the total to 22 episodes - that's a count that most seasons on primetime have, so we are finally getting a full season of Flashpoint! This deal was set in stone two weeks ago, but is just being made public now. Congratulations to Stephanie and her husband Mark Ellis on this achievement!

(P.S. did any New Zealanders catch yesterday's episode? We'd love to hear how it was!)

Hunter X Hunter News!

Naoko Saw A Monkey?!

More on this exciting news later... Hunter X Hunter volume 26 continues to do well in Japan, and was the top selling manga for the month of October. We really like this writer's spin on the series. He wrote: "Togashi started the serial in 1998, and now it's an irregular serial". Irregular, you say? We'll be using that word a lot more from now on. We read on a posting on 2chan that he announced the climax would not begin this year, and that he didn't know when it would begin. We don't know if this is for the arc or the series, as of this writing. Anyway, a few highlights from his weekly endnotes to his fans...

☀ He wants to lose about 5% of his body fat after a recent physical. He took up biking, but he lives near a junior high school and he was going to take his bike there to have them inspect it and fix it. He felt a little uneasy about that.

☀ He thanked fans for their patience with him, and feels that since the 22nd volume of the manga, that his linestrokes have been strong and he is able to draw better than he could before. He finds it frustrating that sometimes he discards a lot of drawings that don't turn out correctly, but he is sure that all his readers like this higher quality work of his.

☀ And the kicker?! In last week's issue, he wrote:

My wife saw a monkey in the garden. He escaped to the junior high school in the neighborhood after that. The people in the junior high school have seen that monkey recently, even though we live in the same neighborhood and just noticed it now.

We kinda wish the monkey dropped off a letter for Naoko asking for Sailor Moon to come back to the world! Until then, any revelation from Mr. Togashi about Naoko is a really big deal for all us fans - even if it is only about her seeing a monkey in her garden!

More Flashpoint Around The World!

Flashpoint started two weeks ago in Brazil on that country's equivalent of the WB - and we are in love with the official site that they have created for the show! We think it's even better than the ones CTV and CBS created! The show airs on Thursdays at 10 PM, in ER's old timeslot. Some Brazilians have commented that they are angry with the channel's decision to move ER to Fridays and they will not watch this show?! Please give this show a chance, you will not be disappointed! From the trailer on the site, it looks like it will be airing in English with Spanish subtitles. We encourage our readers from around the world to send us an email if the show is airing in their country - we would love to hear about it !

New Zealand to Get "Lost Episodes"!

And this here is breaking news! We have learned that the 10th episode of Flashpoint, Eagle Two, is going to air tomorrow on TVNZ. Out of respect for the Canadian and American broadcasters, we will not post a summary of this episode until it airs in North America. By all means though, if any of our New Zealand fans happen to catch the episode and would like to post in our comments how the episode was , we are sure our fans would love to hear about it! For those of you who want to check out the trailer for Eagle Two, click here!

Flashpoint Rested for Only A Flash...

Haha, and the sad part is, I never get tired of cracking jokes including the word "flash" for this show... Flashpoint has been up to a lot since we last updated, so let's get to the roundup!

Sergio Di Zio in Award-Winning Play!

We don't normally talk about co-stars of Sailor Moon actors on this site, but we're making an exception because we love playing Six Degrees Of Sailor Moon! Sergio Di Zio , who plays Mike "Spike" Scarlatti (the bomb expert) on Flashpoint is starring in a play making it's rounds around Canada! He will appear in Scorched, a play about a mother’s last will and testament that sends her surviving twins Simon and Janine plunging into her past in a war-torn country on a journey in pursuit of their origins. She wishes for them to travel back to her country to find a brother they never knew about, and a father who is claimed to have died for the country. The show will play for the second time at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, it had a sold-out run in February of 2007 and won two Dora awards! Lyon Smith (Sapphire) has often worked behind-the-scenes with sound for many of the plays at that theater. Sergio will be playing Simon, described as"an amateur boxer with a short fuse" who resents his mother. The play is currently showing in Winnipeg at the MTC Warehouse until November 29th. All of you are encouraged to go see this if you can! In an interview with the Winnipeg Sun, he revealed that Flashpoint recently began shooting it's second season. Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and Mark Ellis didn't get much of a break in between it seems :(. Nonetheless, we look forward to seeing what harrowing situations the SRU is faced with episode 10 (first season, still unaired!) and beyond....

Flashpoint May Be Coming Back Earlier Than We Expected?

When Flashpoint abruptly ended last September with four episodes still left to air on CBS and CTV, many television critics and writers predicted the last few episodes would be a midseason replacement should CBS cancel a show. And it looks like that day is coming soon. Just a few weeks ago, the network canceled The Ex-List, which aired on a Friday night. Since then, the slot has been filled with re-runs of NCIS which have been doing well in the ratings, but it has been speculated by some critics that CBS will have to come up with a better solution. And they are predicting that Flashpoint is going to fill this timeslot soon between (ugh) The Horse Whisperer and Numb3rs. Keep your fingers crossed Moonies, we may be seeing the lost episodes of Flashpoint a lot sooner than we expected! Flashpoint is available on iTunes Canada for $1.99 an episode, or 23.99 for a Season Pass, which will allow you to purchase all the episodes for Season 1 (including those that are upcoming). For more information, iTunes Canada members can click here.

Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos Named Canadian Producers of the Year by Playback!

Our favorite Canadian media industry publication has just named Flashpoint's Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos Producers of the Year! More will be featured in Playback's November 24th issue, and we have our fingers crossed that the show will win more accolades in their December issue!

And Finally, Flashpoint in Poland!

We are some of the luckiest bloggers in the world for two reasons: we've gotten to meet and work with a lot of interesting people since this site started, and we have got one of the best international fanbases who interact with us often helping us bring news to the fans they wouldn't find anywhere else! One of these fans is Maciej Puka, who emailed us all the way from Poland to tell us a little bit about Flashpoint! The show has been part of Poland's nScreen VOD service for a few months now and Maciej tell us that this service costs $9 US ($30 Poland Zloty) a month, and the show is available in HD. What surprised us even more was when he told us that not only was the show dubbed in Polish, but subscribers had three versions to pick from. The English version (what we see on TV here), English version with Polish subtitles, and the Polish dub! This is really cool that Polish people have the choice to watch it in English if they want to! We encourage the rest of our readers overseas who know anything about how this show is delivered in their country to tell us about it! We would love to feature it on this site, as Flashpoint is probably going to take the cake for the biggest achievement by a North American VA this year!

URGENT! If You Want A Dash Of Sugar In Ottawa This Weekend...

To our readers: we apologize for not getting this to you sooner. It seems Stephanie "Sugar" Beard (Rini #2) posted this on her MySpace just days ago and nowhere on her official website. She is appearing right now, as we speak, at Ottawa's Naru 2 U anime convention (which announced this back in August, but we can't keep track of every con). This morning, she hosted a Saturday Morning Cartoons Block, followed by an autograph session . Tomorrow afternoon, she will be hosting a Sunday Morning Cartoon Block, along with an autograph Session. The schedule is posted here in Microsoft Excel Format. We still don't know what she is up to in California, or where you all can see her next. Those of you who are going to this con in Ottawa, we would love to hear what happened and feature it on this site! Don't hesitate to contact us!

I'M BACK, MOONIES!

Hello readers! I should really stop making announcements that I have time to write posts since that seems to jinx me the very next day... rest assured, I have this entire weekend free! So I'm going to work very hard to get as much done as I can for you all. I was worried that our readership would have slipped significantly during this hiatus, but thankfully it didn't and (I probably don't say this enough) thanks to you all for your support!

In the meantime though, if you haven't checked out The Me's post below about possibly one of the most hideous Sailor Sightings ever on TV, I highly recommend you do!
Some other posts from other places to keep you busy:
☀ Kotaku makes mentions of perks of upcoming Club Nintendo Memberships in North America, and really makes my day talking about G.i.r.l. !
☀ Recently, a really HQ trailer of the Live Action Dragon Ball Movie popped up on the internet. And, Piccolo reminds us a little bit of Darth Sidious. I'm not any more excited to see this movie after seeing this trailer, are you?
☀And I'll end with a couple Sailor Moon tidbits for you all! ANN posted a review of a Sailor Moon Arcade game we bet only a few of you have ever heard of , and once again, it seems Sailor Moon has had a strange influence on fashion. This time, with designer Renata Morales, according to Mosha Lundström Halbert, a writer for the Varsity. Check out the pictures from her collection here!

Sailor Moon on The Price is Right

Hey Moonies, we continue to apologize for the lack of regular updates. Neither myself nor sailordees are being spared much time at present, so updates are pretty shaky. sailordees should have an update full of Halloween stuff for you this weekend, so stay tuned for that. Unfortunately for now the Commercials Corner is going to be on indefinite hold because of the immense amount of time it takes up, though if we get wind of any sightings of Keiko Kitagawa or any of the other PGSM actresses, we'll make sure they make their way here.

Of course, we're still looking for writers to help us get the stories flowing again, so if you have the talent and are interested, check out the link on the sidebar and drop us a line.

But, onto the real feature, this one made its way to our ears and we found it pretty interesting!

Rich Fields presents this showcase by doing a spoken-word version of "One Week" by the Bare Naked Ladies, famous for its verse that includes Sailor Moon and a reference to other "anime babes". Speaking that verse as a lead-in to the last prize, it was presented by one of the Price is Right models dressed up in an obvious homage to Sailor Moon, including her hair style. Of course, it's not hard to tell that the colors are all wrong (for copyright reasons, most likely) and she tried to do the pose (possibly copyright again), but the thought is certainly appreciated nonetheless. All in all, not something you'd normally expect on daytime TV.

Happy Pumpkin Day!

Hey everyone! I know we promised you new articles but something very big came up the last few days (again -_-). Anyway, we'd like to announce that CyCyn of Sailor Moon Obsession was our lucky visitor #50,000 and very soon she will have a banner to display anywhere she wants, to show this achievement!

Tomorrow is Halloween, and we'd love to hear (even see pictures!) of what you're dressing up as. Halloween is a day for anyone to dress up, and we know a lot of cosplayers read this blog and they are probably happy that they can go out in public dressed as whatever they want for one day outside of convention season :). So comment below or send us an email with your pictures and we will feature them! It doesn't even have to be about yourself even, if you've got an amusing Halloween costume that you saw (or will see tomorrow) you'd like to tell us about, we will feature it as well!

Watch the Counter!

Could it be you? We are approximately 40 hits away from another milestone for this website, 50,000 hits! We are above and beyond what we ever expected and this site has only been up for just a little over a year and a half! We want to thank all of you (readers, actors, industry) for your continuing support reading this site. Sometimes we can't post everything we find in time, but we are all so glad behind the scenes that you keep coming back no matter what! If you happen to be lucky number 50K, we'd love to hear from you (and see a screenshot). We'll even throw in a custom made banner that you can use in your forums signature or wherever you so desire to show everyone you were our lucky visitor!

Utada, Kumi, and now BoA. . . Where is Ayu?

We're a little delayed with our Sailor Moon articles a bit more than we would imagine, but we came across this today and we thought that we'd share it with you all since we do talk a bit about Japanese Pop Music on this blog. With the skyrocketing interest in anime over the last few years, otakudom in North America has also included J-Pop artists. It's been every otaku's dream that their favourite artists would make the crossover into the English market - so that fans wouldn't have to go to such great lengths to get their albums! Of course, the days of Sukiyaki are long gone, but nonetheless, some artists are crossing the pond! Joining Utada Hikaru, Puffy, and Kumi Koda, now BoA has entered the scene. For those of you who don't know who BoA is, you might recognize her from InuYasha, she sang the 4th ending song, Every Heart. She also collaborated with Japanese hip-hop group for a song called The Love Bug (which was a favorite of mine back in the day). BoA is Korean but sings in Korean, English and Japanese, and is one of the bigger stars in Asia. She has just released her first single to the United States, Eat You Up, and we really dig this track (though she should probably lose the hoodie and show her face a little more)! We've got our fingers crossed that BoA makes it big here in North America. We've posted the video for you all to watch below. Still though, we're waiting anxiously for our other favorite artists to jump across the pond, namely Ayumi Hamasaki. Oh well, perhaps it will happen in time? For more information, check out BoA's American site!

Articles Returning Really Soon, But In The Meantime...

We've Got a Heartwarming Shokotan Story!

Hey readers - I've been talking with The Me and we are both aware how much you are missing reading articles and seeing commercials - believe me, we're having a tough time trying to find time to get these things done. For most of the year now I've been taking on a few computer consultant/web development jobs and the latter has kept me busy (and stressed beyond my mind, as anyone who has had to do anything for a less-than-ideal boss can understand). The good news is that it appears that most of the stars in Japan haven't been up to a lot lately so look forward to seeing a News From The Other Side of the Pond in a few days that will not be split up by Sailor Moon production (though it's sad that the actors are up to little, it actually makes our lives easier when we bing the stories to you!). We've also got some exciting Flashpoint news from around the world to share with you this upcoming week, and an exhibit in Japan with features Sailor Moon.

In the meantime though, we read this really heartwarming and charming story about Shoko "Shokotan" Nakagawa on Kotaku, one of the best blogs for geek culture. We all try to hit this one a few times a week when we have time to kill. Tokyo Game Show (like E3 but some of it is open to the public) just ended, and Shoko appeared at the con to sing at a concert and from the picture here, it looks like she was there for some Pokemon promotion as well. We're not sure if the story in this post is true about the editor's son wanting to marry Shoko because she is pretty and knows lots about Pokemon, but we would not be surprised if it was! Shoko is one of the few idols who is always candid about the anime, manga, and games that she loves, even if the tabloids make fun of her for it. Hey, if you were a little kid and had an idol like this to look up to, chances are you'd want to spend the rest of your life with this person☻! Shoko once again ruffled the feathers of the tabloids when she posed for pictures in Sailor Moon cosplay with popular "newhalf" model , Ayana Tsubaki. Ayana is one of Japan's most popular transexual models, so of course while some parts of culture accept her, others don't. The article did say that Ayana looked impressive in her Sailor Mars cosplay - and we think so too. Aside from her boots, we thought she did a good job! Shoko remarked on her post that it's good to make lots of friends and that it was nice to cosplay with a friend as Sailor Moon characters since it's a story that her generation really enjoyed. She ended the post with an ascii character hugging "⊂二二(＾ω＾)二二つ". We don't care what anyone says about her, but she is probably the coolest of all the idols in our opinion because of her love of cosplay and anime! We've posted the picture here for you all to see.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators!

Hey Moonies! Still no word on any airdates for the last four episodes, or if there will be a boxset released soon. Canadians can click here to purchase episodes on iTunes.

We came across an interview though that we thought you all might really like to read. Mike McPhaden, a contributor to the blog Running With My Eyes Closed recently got the chance to sit down with Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis to chat about Flashpoint. This is a really good interview because it shows fans from their point of view a lot of things about the birth of the series that even we didn't know (and we were one of the few blogs to cover the show extensively from the beginning)! We think you will all get a good idea of how hard they have worked to bring this show to life, from the extensive amounts of research, to the handshaking of many big names in TV, to finally moving from a Movie of the Week prospect to a series. One of the highlights of the interview was learning the different names that they tried to come up with for the show's title. Our personal favorite is their daughter's suggestion of "Bad Guys Run Away!" Perhaps that title could be used for a future episode (hey, we'd watch it :) )! Part one is located here, and part two is located here.

Yoshihiro Togashi is #1 But...

He Never Had A Driver's License?

Oh boy. More on this strange fact later - onto the good news! The manga is back! Just a few days ago it reappeared in Jump Magazine, and the 26th volume of the manga was released last Friday. According to sales charts, volume #26 was the top seller last week. We even read a few blogs from fans in Japan who were waiting in the lines to get their copy, and one of them even remarked that reading it was better than... oh wait, this blog is rated PG-13, we can't use that word on the front page!

In his comments at the end of Jump, he said that it was inexcusable for him to keep fans waiting this long, and apologized. We can just imagine fan's frustrations asking why he continues to pull these stunts after reading that... Yoshihiro also revealed he recently got his driver's license and that now people might be able to identify him more. He is 42 and just got his license now?! Was Naoko driving him everywhere? This has only left us with more questions... perhaps it was because Yoshihiro was very busy that Naoko has been out of the manga scene for so long? He says that he wants everyone to drive , and that he has risen to the challenge of this manga, he will not give up. Brave words, Yoshihiro, but please, next time don't plan your hiatus for so long!

For those of you fans in North America, we have learned that Viz will release a dvd boxset of season 1 of the HxH anime just in time for Christmas on December 9th. Every two months after that, Viz will release another boxset.

EDIT: We have a magic number for you! According to this article, Volume 26 sold 487,403 copies!

Daily Yomiuri Asks A Question...

And Naoko Could Be An Answer?!

Yesterday, the Daily Yomiuri (one of Japan's largest newspapers) posted a very interesting article on their website asking the question "Who is the artist who played the greatest role in the 'globalization' of Japanese manga?" And before we started reading the rest, we took a step back and tried to think of who we thought was the spark that started the manga boom around the world in the last 10 or so years. The names that came to our mind were Osamu Tezuka (famous for Astro Boy among others), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), and Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon). The article written by otaku and journalist Kanta Ishida mentioned most of these names, along with Fujio F. Fujiko, most famous for Doraemon. However, it argues that the one person we missed, Rumiko Takahashi, is probably that spark. Rumiko Takahashi is known best for many different works, such as Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku. The article takes a different angle than we all expected, saying that the globalization of manta is really just the globalization of the feeling of sparks of love. Rumiko was the first female mangaka to write boys' manga in boys' magazines which later created a boom in romantic comedy manga in the 80s. We can understand that she was a big pioneer but when talking about globalization, we think the author forgot to mention when these works spread out to the rest of the world beyond Asia and we don't necessarily agree with his choice. Fans, who do you think is the artist who played the greatest role in the 'globalization' of Japanese manga?

We Need Your Help!

Hey readers - in a week I should be finished getting my little gadget back together that searches for news on all of the stars for me all at once rather than me having to do it one at a time (x 3 for different news sources). Sorry it's taking forever, if it makes any of you feel better I am still missing a lot of key software on my computer. I keep hoping I'll have time one evening to reinstall it, but I never do... However, in an attempt to keep things as easy as possible to run, I'm having a little difficulty with the Sera Myu cast. Not all the actresses and actors involved with the production are currently pursuing acting careers, and some have more work than others. Unfortunately, I'm not as familiar with the musicals as I am with the anime and PGSM and I have a hard time deciding which actors I should cover and which ones I shouldn't. So, we'd love to hear from you. Which Sera Myu stars were your favorites? Who would you like us to keep tabs on? Feel free to comment on this thread or send us an email !

It's Probably Not Official, But Nonetheless...

We were very amused when we saw this t-shirt on eBay and we think every Flashpoint fan who reads this site needs one of those! You could subtly send a message to CBS and CTV with this shirt the next time you're bored out of your mind on a Thursday night because Flashpoint isn't on. There's no point to this post other than to show fans this shirt. Hey, when you're dry for Flashpoint news, anything goes!

The Death of Alice Blue Wins Some Awards!

But Does This Mean The Film Is Any Closer To A Wider Release?

Well, it finally looks like a movie that was shot years ago involving two VAs is finally on a roll. Vampire flick The Death of Alice Blue won three awards at The Accolade Competition! The movie won an Award of Excellence for Leading Actress (Alex Appel), as well as two Honorable Mentions. One for direction (Park Bench) and the other for Feature Film. The movie features Barbara Radecki (Sailor Neptune, Serena's Mom, Queen Serenity) as Sherry, and Katie Griffin (Sailor Mars #1) as Katie. Katie's husband, Michael Kulas, also composed music for the movie. The official Facebook group still says that the movie is being submitted to different festivals, but no word yet on which festivals it has been accepted to as of this writing, or if there has been a distribution deal. We will keep you posted as soon as we find out more!

BREAKING NEWS: Flashpoint NOT Airing on CTV This Weekend.

We here at Moon Chase have just learned that CTV pulled Flashpoint off of the schedule on Sunday. This is a complete surprise since an earlier media release stated that it was going to air this Sunday. Furthermore there does not appear as of this writing any scheduled dates for the four remaining episodes. We're not sure if this was at the request of CBS or the producers of another TV show. As always, when the show returns to the air in Canada or the United States, we will continue to post our summaries and ratings pieces.

To the Students of Luther College...

The staff and readers of Moon Chase send out their thoughts and prayers to you that you all heal from this ordeal and carry the strength that saved you from the gym evermore. This was my alma mater, and I was disheartened seeing the footage of teachers I once knew on the news today. This was the last place I ever expected something like this to happen. I am completely at a loss of words for what else to say about this.

Flashpoint is On Demand in Poland!

In our never-ending quest to tell all our readers about Stephanie Morgenstern's (Sailor Venus #1) Flashpoint, we uncovered another country that some of our readers can catch it in! If you subscribe to nScreen VOD as part of n Satellite Service, Flashpoint is available to you! There's even a cool trailer with some techno music in the background. We are not sure as of this writing if the show has been dubbed in Polish, but we have a feeling it's in English - we don't think there's been enough time to produce a Polish dub. Nonetheless, any of our Polish readers who want to clear this matter up, you are welcome to send us an email at Moonchasers@NOSPAMPLZKTHXWITHACHERRYONTOPgmail.com. We'd even love to hear your opinions on the show and post them at another date on this site. I'm not entirely sure how this service works in Poland, whether customers are charged a flat rate for VOD or if they are charged per purchase. Now we are looking to you Australia, Britain, and the others - please announce premiere dates for the show already!

HBO Comes to Canada!

Some of our readers may be wondering why this blog covers Canadian TV industry news once in a while. There's two reasons for it, the first being that there aren't that many blogs that really cover it (especially from an anime fan's perspective) and second, many of the VAs appear on Canadian productions. So it's good to get a picture of the Canadian TV Landscape. Onto today's headline! Many Canadians wonder why American TV Channels aren't in Canada. The CRTC has mandated certain Canadian Content Laws, as well as a policy banning foreign companies from owning or operating channels north of the border. That's not to say that Canada is shut out completely from foreign channels - CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox all air up here, as well as a few specialty channels (and they are not just from the US either). However, over the years Canadians have gotten a little jealous when word breaks loose of great US-only shows that some plan trips to go watch, or go to great lengths to "acquire" them. In recent years, some Canadian channels, along with a few syndicated ones, have brought these shows to Canada (albeit later than they started). One channel whose TV shows have been a constant craving for Canada, was HBO. A few years ago, Corus's Movie Central/The Movie Network landed on the scene, and gradually added some (but not all) of HBO's programming to their schedule. Canadians were a little happier, but they still craved all the series and specials that still didn't air up North. Earlier today, Corus (YTV's Parent Company) announced that they planned to launch HBO Canada on October 30th, and cable subscribers who already subscribe to Movie Central/The Movie Network will receive the channel at no extra charge. No doubt, we will cover this within the first few days and tell you all about it! With this new deal, the full slate of HBO programming will make it to air day and date with the United States' HBO, but there is one catch - 25% of all programming must be Canadian. But, it's a small price to pay for the entire programming lineup, no? Playback Online says that this will deal a big blow to Super Channel, but we wouldn't count them out just yet. Anime fans of the older generation are better off watching Super Channel over Movie Central simply because of the series they carry. Super Channel also has more international programming than Movie Central/The Movie Network and many independent movies that the VAs have acted in air on the network. Super Channel has only been around for just about a year, and it takes a while for a network to really make it's presence in a market. In any case, we're excited for this and we look forward to seeing what HBO Canada will bring!

R.I.P. Toonami

To Everyone's surprise, last Saturday marked the end of Cartoon Network's Toonami block. While the block had its ups and downs, the block was a pioneer in anime programming in North America. In fact, I remember that on my trips to the United States I would always take the time to catch the latest popular anime on Toonami as YTV didn't carry a lot of the series they did. Just before S and SuperS were announced on YTV, I remember that I purposely made the family come home early from a shopping trip just to catch it on Toonami. Of course, I had no idea that the episode which had confused me was the end of the S season.

Toonami also frequently showed anime movies, even devoting an entire month to Miyazaki movies, something no networks have ever done, save for airing them once in a while. Toonami also strived to have something for everyone of all ages. Though many of their shows were rated for the under 7 set, many of them appealed to older viewers such as DBZ, Sailor Moon, and the Gundam series. In recent years, many fans complained of the lack of variety of "decent" anime on the channels, but suffice to say, many of us would not have known about the series we know and love today if it was not for Toonami.

Toonami also had some of the coolest CGI hosts we have ever seen on television. The older generations of TOM, Sara, and Moltar were never live to air (like the Program Jockeys on YTV) but they went a lot farther than some live hosts we have seen. They showed fans' drawings, video game reviews, and providing an outlet for some very lucky techno and electronica musicians to have their work played between shows. Some music videos even aired. Toonami had become more than just a cartoon block.

The network pulled this surprise on nearly everyone, sending around a message of excitement to fans, and then making an official annoucement last Saturday at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Toonami's Jetstream service will continue, but without the Toonami name. Toonami's staff will all be working for different areas of Cartoon Network. A new action block will take over Toonami's spot on Friday nights, but as of this writing we don't know anything about it. We will let you know as always as soon as you can.

This is truly a sad thing that has happened, and we are all really sad to see Toonami go. There will probably never be a block like it ever again in North America. But for all of the blocks recent shortcomings, the show was a major pioneer in bringing anime to the masses in the United States, and its influence will never be forgotten.

Fans wanting to relive any old clips from Toonami's heyday are urged to visit Toonami Arsenal - they even have some old clips from Sailor Moon! More importantly, for those of you who want to catch the farewell montages, Toonami Arsenal has posted them on their front page. This morning, we watched them all and we even marked all the mentions of Sailor Moon in the montages.

Montage 1 - 42 sec
Montage 2 - 14 sec
Montage 3 - 41 sec (They posted fanart of Sailor Moon, a very creative way of showing the show without having to air any of it THANKS TOEI LOCKDOWN)
Montage 4 - 39 sec (It's hard to tell if that's Sailor Jupiter or Molly from that angle).

Flashpoint Ratings September 18th

Flashpoint's season finale on CBS scored a record number of viewers in the United States - 9.66 million to be exact! The show was #1 in it's timeslot and 2.6/7 with viewers 18-49. Mark Berman is certain that the show will return on the network at a later time (and that was written hours before CBS made their announcement). This number was an all-time high for the series, and we couldn't be prouder! Even more surprising was a CTV Press release we found giving us the show's ratings ahead of BBM Canada! The show also hit a high in Canada with 1.46 million viewers, and the show peaked at 10:51 PM (9 minutes before the show ended) with a total of 1.66 million viewers. A total of 2.5 million viewers watched all or part of last night's episode. The show was #1 across all key demographics all across the country. While Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos seem to be getting all the credit in the media, we're a little dismayed there's little being said about the creators of the show, Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis. Without them creating the show, the producers wouldn't have this show to produce. So, congratulations again to Stephanie and Mark on a hit show, and many more episodes to come!

Flashpoint in a Flash: Episode 9

I did something different this week - I threw in both the American and Canadian commercials in the breaks for those of you wondering what sorts of commercials air in the opposite country! We all loved this episode and we're sad that it's over in the US. Full summary after the jump!


The US finale begins with the SRU swarming around a seemingly peaceful house. A woman recites a passage from Milton over and over again, Greg tries to contact someone in the house, and the SRU makes their way into the basement. A man shows up with a gun in front of the woman, and says “your time is up” REWIND! We’re now 8 years ago, and a girl named Penny is camping out in the backyard with her dad looking at stars with her telescope. The dad goes back inside to get some snacks, as she sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and someone appears behind her. She thinks it’s her dad who returned pretty quickly... fast forward to today. Penny has now grown up and awakes from her bed. Her walls are covered with murals of construction paper of the outside world. She tries to look out the window, but her ankle bracelet buzzes. On her desk, she transcribes Milton’s Paradise Lost. Back at SRU headquarters. Greg walks in and signs a female officer’s letter of recommendation for a tactical operations course. He looks at letters to his son that have all been marked return to sender. He remarks it’s just the way it always is. Back at the woman’s house, the phone rings as she is transcribing Milton. She sees it is Gerald, and she answers the phone. He tells her he has a surprise for her, and hangs up. He opens his car’s door and there’s a little girl inside. At a gas station, the attendant is watching the news (CTV News nonetheless!) and learns of a little girl who has been kidnapped 12 hours ago. Gerald walks in with the girl, and asks to use the restroom. She gives them a key. At the SRU, Jules is hesitant to sign up for a Psych evaluation, and Greg just wants everything to be copacetic (in order). Jules says she doesn’t agree with the questions, because there’s no right or wrong answer. Greg says that they are only human, and that they are going to get things wrong. At the gas station , Gerald returns the key and pays for the gas. The attendant notices the kid’s a little too scared, and she offers him a free lollipop. She swirls it in the air to look at the kid’s chin, and there’s a birthmark there that matches the description given on the TV. As she gives back change, she notices a gun under Gerald’s coat. She calls 911, says she has found the missing girl, and runs out to get the license plate. The SRU is on the scene and finds out who the car is registered, and a home address. They suit up! Gerald returns back home, and kisses Penny as if she is his. The girl walks into the kitchen, and Gerald takes off her cap revealing pigtails. He simply says “Honey, this is Lily”. ROLL CREDITS! Commercials! In the US we saw some ads including for some Kohl’s sale and Pizza Hut’s new pastas. And the premiere of NCIS, a show which none of us on staff cares about. Canadians saw commercials for CTV News, Bagelfuls, and Stephen Harper trying to convince Canadians he’s the better choice for Prime Minister (Yeah Right, I’m sorry but I don’t want Bill C-10 or C-61 taking effect). Back to the show! The SRU drives to Scarborough , while in the kitchen, Gerald praises Penny for the spic-and-span job she did cleaning. Penny asks why she is here, if it’s because she did something wrong... someone has a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. In the SUV, Ed and Greg talk about Greg’son. Ed urges Greg to go to Dallas to go see him, as it’s the only way he’ll recognize he still has a father that cares. At the house, Gerald puts an ankle bracelet on Lily, and forces her to thank him. He tells her the rules of the house, that she isn’t supposed to go near a window, or the bracelet will buzz. If she leaves the house, a wire will be tripped and she will be shocked dead. He lies to her and says the police will hurt her bad and it’s better to die. The SRU arrive at the house. Her dad told her over the phone that he has to keep her safe this way and asked him to bring her here. Gerald continues to lie to Lily when she pokes holes in his story. He forces Penny to make her lunch. The SRU gets a profile about Gerald. A contractor built this house especially with all windows frosted. He was in jail for a couple months years ago, and has no weapons registered. Gerald explains to Lily the rules are there to keep her safe. Penny wants to take her around the house rather than Gerald, and they get into an argument. Lily tries to run and is buzzed. She hugs Penny, and Gerald throws Penny in the closet for a time out. This Gerald character sure is twisted...Penny recites a passage from Milton. The SRU sets up snipers outside the house as Gerald shows Lily around. He notices motion detectors going off outside the house and the phone rings... this is where our episode began. Greg talks to him and asks him and the occupants to walk outside the house. Gerald threatens him and says he will kill Lily if anyone enters the house. As the SRU enters the house, he gives Penny a gun, and she knows what to do. Commercials! An awkward commercial about restrictions from T-Mobile, Hot Pockets Paninis, and JC Penney. Canadians saw commercials for Grey's Anatomy, Cinnamon Pecan Special K, and Winners. Back to the show! Greg tries to call Gerald again as Penny and Lily go upstairs to Penny’s room. Gerald hugs and kisses Penny, promising he will be back in 2 minutes. Penny doesn’t want Gerald to leave her alone. The SRU doesn’t know what to do to save the girl, but they eventually decide to roll under the garage door to enter the house. Lily helps Penny tip furniture down in the room. One member uses a special scanner to check the walls for surprises. The make their way through to the kitchen and around the living room. Wordy finds a box for a dog collar. Greg thinks there’s an electric circuit around the house for containment, so some members go to disable it. Ed and Wordy head to the basement, as Jules and Sam wait outside Penny’s room. They use a small camera to see inside the room, and they see Penny and try to identify her. They look around for Duglin and they don’t see him. Ed and Wordy yell in the basement for Gerald to freeze, but to no avail. Jules sees the transcripts of Milton, and Sam remembers his Dad when he sees the book. Lily shoots at Jules, Greg tries to get snipers to surround the room as Ed goes looking for Gerald...and him and Wordy find a tunnel in the basement?! They don’t know where it leads. The officer from the beginning of the episode, Kira, identifies the girl as someone who was abducted 8 years ago, and matches an age enhanced picture. Commercials! Quaker Oats, Macy’s Shop For A Cause, and Aflac Insurance. Desperate Housewives’ Kathryn Joosten appears in a Yoplait commercial and there’s a McCain-Palin ad. Change is Coming? This commercial doesn’t really tell me what they stand for... Canadians saw ads for Zellers, Iron Man on DVD, and Sheryl Crow’s Canadian tour. Back to the show! Police cars arrive at the house, as does an ambulance and an armored truck of sorts. Greg tells Jules to talk to her, because Penny needs to hear a female voice after spending 8 years at the hands of a man. Jules is scared, but Greg helps her out with advice on how to talk to her. Greg calls Spike to help out Jules and Sam. Jules works slowly to try to get Lily, but Penny freaks out and shoots again (but the SRU is safe). Lily asks how the SRU knows her name, and Penny tells Lily to keep quiet. Jules tries to get Lily to put the gun down. Penny panics and asks for Gerald, and Jules agrees to find out. She learns he has escaped through the tunnels. Kira tells Ed and Wordy that they are headed to a deserted brick factory. As they are making their way through underground railroad tracks, a man appears from the other end and shoots. Outside the house, Greg talks to Penny’s parents who seem happy that she is safe after these 8 long years. Lily wants to leave, but Penny has identified completely with her captor. Penny tells Lily a twisted story about Anne Frank, and that they can’t leave for the same reason that she couldn’t live her house. Jules tells Penny that they don’t know where Gerald is, and Penny thinks they are lying. She quotes Milton again, that without him there is no life. Lily tries to get away from Penny saying that Gerald made the story up and that she wants to go home. In the tunnels, Ed and Wordy chase Gerald. Jules promises Lily her parents are flying up from Sault Ste. Marie and that they will not hurt her. Lily runs, but Penny threatens to shoot her. Commercials! The US saw commercials for the Special K Challenge, a trailer for Righteous Kill, Lowe’s, and a Maverick ad for McCain and Palin. Canadians saw commercials for Without a Trace, Michael McCain, an apology from the CEO and President of Maple Leaf Foods about the Listeria outbreak, urging Canadians that their machinery has been sanitized, and Egg Farmers of Canada. And we’re back! Sam wants to shoot Penny to free Lily, and Greg wants Jules to stand down, but Jules tells Sam to wait. She talks to Penny in a language she can understand about choice, to let Lily choose where she wants to be. Lily chooses the SRU, and Spike grabs her and takes her to safety. Penny finally goes to the window, not being buzzed by the wire, and squints at her first glimpse of sunlight in 8 years. She watches as Lily is put onto a gurney. In the warehouse, Ed and Wordy are on the hunt for Gerald. Ed recognizes the gun he is using and counts bullets, wondering where the sixth one is in the hopes that while he reloads, he can have a chance at getting Gerald. At the house, Penny sees her parents through the blinds. They call out to her, but she moves back into the corner. Ed and Wordy encounter Gerald, and tell him to put the gun down and come to them or else in 5 seconds they will go to him. Gerald says that they don’t understand, that this is not the way he wants it to be. Ed asks what he wanted, and Gerald says he just wanted to be happy just like everybody else. Ed says he isn’t like everybody else and asks him to put the gun down. He says without Penny there is no life, before shooting himself in the head. Ed remarks that’s the 6th bullet, and walks over to Gerald. At the house, Jules talks to Penny, but once again finds herself at gunpoint while trying to reason with Penny. Greg says it’s Sam’s call to shoot. Jules makes one last attempt to help Penny , and says she wants to help her remember the girl she used to be. Greg asks her parents for memories when she felt joy and love. Jules hears all of this and tells Penny in a tone that she identifies with. Penny eventually breaks and Jules tells her there is a great big world out there that is much prettier than her room. She drops the gun, and Jules and Sam help her outside. Still slightly deranged and not used to the outside world after 8 years, she walks slowly to her parents. Greg tells Jules that he made her proud, and although she wasn’t perfect, she was human and she did just fine. Jules offers to buy Greg a drink, but Greg says he’s going to go away for the weekend. At the SRU, Kira has a ticket to Dallas ready for Greg. Back in her old room, Penny looks through her telescope, and says “the stars are still there”. The episode ends.

This was a fitting ending to a great run on two networks which far exceeded anyone’s expectations! The series is not over on CTV yet, so we’ll be keeping up our coverage of the last four episodes for all of our readers all over the world, who can’t watch the episodes or who just want a sneak peek. It’s a little odd though that the networks both chose to air commercials for just one candidate on both sides of the border rather than balancing out with the others. We also open up our inboxes to any of our viewers around the world where Flashpoint is premiering - if you read a story or learn about ratings, we would love to hear how the show is doing in your country! Don’t hesitate to send us an email at moonchasers@NOSPAMPLZKTHXWITHACHERRYONTOPgmail.com.

YTV Gets Approval From CRTC For Two New Channels

But, Shouldn't They Finish What They Started First?

Late last week, news broke that YTV had gotten approval from the CRTC for two new specialty channels, YTV Pow! and YTV OneWorld. YTV Pow! is all pow without the punch, focusing on non-violent action. The specialty channel will feature adventure shows, along with superheroes, and programs about various games associated with action series, along with current and past comic book trends. Game shows, amateur sports, and movies are also slated to make up 15% of the channel's programming. Is anyone else here reminded of Space Channel or Sci-Fi Network reading that description? YTV OneWorld looks like a clone of the network as it stands now, aimed at children between the ages of 6-17 and their families. The network will include such genres as entertainment, humor, travel, games and science and technology, and will include a 15% cap on movies and on music/dance programs. Maybe these channels could do well in the specialty market, but we think Corus should finish work (or announce if they have given up) on channels they have already won approval for, including the anime channel. It'd be nice if that was done soon, since Canadians are already being deprived of anime. We're refraining to use the word good in front of anime because there's barely any anime on TV right now. We do have a small flicker of a light at the end of this very dark tunnel - earlier this week many news outlets reported that Death Note had made the move to another Corus Network - Scream!

BREAKING NEWS: CBS Finally Renews Flashpoint!

We were ecstatic to come home from our day to finally hear the news we were waiting for! Many media outlets are now reporting that CBS has indeed renewed Flashpoint for 13 episodes next season! We would like to take this time to thank every fan who supported this show from the beginning. We have been reporting everything we possibly could about this show since last Fall, and seeing news like this really makes us jump for joy - we are elated with the success that Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis have achieved with this show, and we couldn't be more proud. We think that of all the North American VA stories that we have reported so far, Stephanie's has been the standout of this year - for a Canadian TV show to hit it big after such a long time on a US network is no small feat! We absolutely loved last night's episode, and although the fate of the last four episodes of the season are unknown as of this writing on CBS, we were so happy to hear it went out on a high note scoring 9.66 million viewers last night! We can tell you that CTV has moved the show to Sundays, and on September 28th the episode "Eagle Two" will air. According to the press release, the summary reads: "the SRU is handling a routine VIP protection shift when a bomb goes off. Realizing the bomb was a distraction tactic so that the VIPs wife could be kidnapped, the SRU attempts to find her. The kidnapping turns to horror when the wife is found alive - with a remote-controlled collar bomb around her neck." We'd like to extend congratulations on behalf of the staff and readers of this site to the cast and crew once again on a job well done and continued success - and we will be here just as much as we were this season next year! We will also continue to be there for all of you with summaries for the last episodes airing on Canadian television.

P.S. Last Night's Summary and Ratings will be up later this weekend.

News From The Other Side Of The Pond #17

Editor's Note: Among the few files which I lost on my computer was the backup of a very important widget I used to keep tabs on all the stars of Sailor Moon. This means I have to build it up again from scratch. PGSM had the smallest cast and crew, so I thought that was a good place to start before hitting the behemoth casts that are the musical and the cartoon. So for now, this update will cover the stars of PGSM.

Keiko Kitagawa Ranked 7th Most Popular Teacher According to Oricon!

Japanese survey giant Oricon recently completed a poll asking people who they thought played the best teacher. Keiko Kitagawa (Sailor Mars in PGSM) came in 7th place! The article's writer said that of all the actors in this ranking, Keiko is "the new kid on the block". According to some of the surveyors' opinions, they found her cute and lovable, and that with time it was very possible she could be a wonderful teacher. Coming in first place was Nanako Matsushima, second place went to Misaki Ito, and third was Kyoko Fukuda.
And while we're talking about Keiko, we're going to sneak in another couple tidbits we came across. Keiko's new movie, Handsome Suit is just around the corner, and the Daily Cyzo web magazine is having a contest for ten pairs of tickets to a preview of the movie October 9th! For more details (you have to be living in Japan) click here. The contest deadline is September 19th. This picture we have here of Keiko was taken at a promotional event for the movie last week. When Keiko was 17 years old, she read a novel called Norwegian Wood, about a man who remembered his college experiences back in the 60s. The novel became one of her favorites, and as fate would have it, the novel is now being turned into a movie. She read it again after 5 years, and had a different perspective about it's meaning now that she is an actress and has a good idea of what her identity is. She called on all her blog readers to read it too. Keiko will also be endorsing a new cell phone in Japan, the Prada Phone by LG (we wish we had this!). And lastly, we'd like to congratulate Keiko Kitagawa upon finishing her degree in Commercial Science at Meiji University! She will graduate in the spring.

Kaori Moriwaka to Give Free Q&A and Mini-Performance in Harajuku!

Kaori Moriwaka (Ikuko Tsukino in PGSM) will be having a free Q&A session and mini-performance at the Harajuku KDDI design studio on September 20th. No other details have been released at this time, as the event is being shrouded in secrecy - what does she have planned, we wonder? One detail that has emerged is that this is to promote her new podcast being offered through KDDI. This has already been a big year for Kaori with the reunion of her old girl band, the Go-Bang's.

Narushi Ikeda Cast in New Movie!

Narushi Ikeda (Sugao Saito, Minako's Manager in PGSM) has been cast in a new movie called Don-Jyu. This movie is about childhood friends who are torn apart, and eventually reconcile. The movie will be released some time next year. Filming began on September first. It is based on the award winning Chinese movie from 2005 of the same name. The movie will be directed by Tetsuya Nakashima, and stars another star who has worked with someone else from PGSM! Tadanobu Asano plays a leading role in the movie, and he worked with Keiko Kitagawa on the Docomo 2.0 commercials!

Masu Takeshi Directing New Play!

Masu Takeshi (Rei's Dad in PGSM) is seen here first from the left on the bottom row. He is directing a new play Puzzling Sunday which begins on the 19th in Tokyo. This play is a revival of a play which was very popular in 1996. It's a comedy about the dwellers of a luxury apartment: a daughter who refuses to obey her father's wish for her to get married, along with other quirky visitors. Masu has had to overcome great obstacles to work on this play, just last year he underwent surgery to fight stomach cancer. He says that his health is good today, and that he can even drink alcohol now to celebrate his play. We wish him all the best with his new play and continued good health!

Jyoji Shibue in New Drama!

Jyoji Shibue (Tuxedo Kamen in PGSM) stars in a new drama starting September 26th in Japan! It's a tragic story called Romera Love Feud and it is about Nanase, a 39-year-old woman whose father died in a car accident when she was 15, and her mother later ran away. Nanase is trying to pick up the pieces of her broken life as she tries to fall in love. The show also tells his story by going back and forth from the present to when he was younger. Jyoji plays Satoru, Nanase's best friend from her younger years. He is pictured at a promotional event announcing the premiere third from the left.

And finally, we came across some Aya Sugimoto news that is definitely for our older readers only after the jump!


Aya Sugimoto Engages in Some Strange Business?!

Aya Sugimoto (PGSM Queen Beryl) has long been known to be in touch with her sexuality. Just a few days ago, Japanese ISP Biglobe announced a new partnership with her, wherein she offers advice for couples to get more sensual with each other. This is by far the strangest endeavor we've seen from Aya. We know during the time of PGSM she gained a lot of notoriety for what she said about her ex-husband during their divorce, but reading this new website of hers gave us the creeps. However, there are some other cleaner but still awkward productions of hers on the way. In November, she will be doing a Tango dance show exploring womanly desires (we've got the poster pictured here). She feels that she needs to express the feelings of a woman. She also has a recipe book out, and the title loosely translates to "Cooking That Will Capture a Man". She has also posed for the Japanese branch of PETA, sitting down on a white block, wearing only white stilettos and holding a sign over her chest that says "Fur? I'd rather go naked". That news alone is making headlines all over the world, and we can even point you to an article in English. We're not entirely sure what phase of life Aya is in right now, but if she's happy, then we're happy.