Happy Valentine's Day, Moonies!

Looking for that perfect card to send to that Sailor Moon or Tuxedo Mask in your life? Well look no further! For years now I wanted to scan the old Sailor Moon valentines made by Cleo so many years ago, but I never got the chance to. Finally, I did and Emily helped to make them look even BETTER than the real ones did - so here you go Moonies! There are eight of them to choose from! These are in PDF format and will need to be cut out. I didn't bother to scan the backs of the cards because there were horribly cheezy valentine's day puzzles and it was probably a better idea to leave you room for writing your own messages. If you choose to use these on your site, please give Moon Chase credit and link back to this post.

Click here to download the PDF

Kodansha Results Report Finally Done!

Here you go Moonies! This is what will be arriving to Kodansha in approximately a week from tomorrow. I'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow morning and paying a visit to Purolator to get this binder going. This report is approximately 50 pages, only about a quarter as big as the reports we sent to FUNImation and Toei. 14 of these pages are just filled with your comments! Give us a couple weeks and the manga results will be posted alongside the other charts and results we posted earlier. We think you will all be pleased with how the fans voted. Once again special thanks to the fans for all of their patience throughout this campaign - you all deserve to celebrate tomorrow as a major part of Operation Moonrise is finally finished! Big thanks to each member of the Moon Chase staff too for all the help and support to put this together! And a very special thank you to my classmates and professor from last night. I am fortunate enough to take a class where we look at certain futuristic themes in anime. Yesterday I bought my Sailor Moon anime cel to class so the class could see what a real cel looked like, and appreciate the work that's put into bringing these cels to life on screen. As soon as I mentioned that it was from Sailor Moon, everyone instantly recognized the series warmly, and it seemed everyone had fond memories of the series to chat about as the cel got passed around. This was a pleasant surprise and it gave me a much needed motivational kick to finish this report after a very busy two weeks! I can't describe the happy feeling I felt when everyone recognized the series and spoke about it, but I one day hope that all Sailor Moon fans will be able to enjoy the series again and relive fond memories once again. I just thought I'd share this story to hopefully make some of you smile :).

I did speak to a representative from Kodansha this morning and they are aware of the resurgence of Sailor Moon. They are looking forward to reading this report! All of us wish this purple binder the best of success in bringing back the Sailor Moon manga!

BREAKING NEWS: Sailor Moon Already Back On The Air In A European Country!

Luftetarja e Henes Returns to Albania!

This is a complete surprise to all of us here at Moon Chase - we never even knew there was an Albanian dub! Just a few hours ago, reader Toni sent us an email telling us that Luftetarja e Henes (Rough Translation: Fighters of the Moon) began last week in Albania! Albanians only ever got the first, second, and fourth seasons of Sailor Moon, and only the first two were censored. It is a little strange that there's no third season in between, and if there were certain plot elements that were a huge issue (such as the relationship between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune) then there are ALWAYS ways around that creatively (even though some fans may not agree with plot changes). It certainly is no reason to scrap an entire season! Nonetheless, congratulations to the fans in Albania - you can enjoy Odango-Atama again (and hopefully, one day everyone in the world will be able to again).

It is not on a regular cable channel but on a premium one (as will be the case very soon with Italy and Mediaset Permium's Hiro Channel). Albanians that want to watch Sailor Moon will need to subscribe to Digit-Alb and will have to get a package that includes the children's channel Bang Bang. Albanians can tune in at 6:35 PM on weekdays! Hey Toei, why is there no mention of this anywhere on your website? We wonder if there are other smaller markets that the show is being broadcast in throughout Europe. If any of our other fans see the show, please send us an email and we will help get the word out!

A special thank you to Toni for sending us this very special sighting that we may have otherwise never known about!

Backstage Launches New Property Site For Sailor Moon!

It seems that news surrounding Sailor Moon's revival continues to pop up from Italy! Loyal Moonie Bambino Light left us a nice breakfast surprise this morning - Backstage Licensing launched a property site for Sailor Moon today!

Before we talk about what is on the site, here's a short lesson in the inner workings of the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, we'd have loved to have shown you another example of a property site in English for Flashpoint, but it appears Alchemy TV's site has disappeared. Entertainment companies put these pages up, along with a sales flyer, to promote the property to different markets. With Flashpoint, the site was there to promote it to different markets in other, non-North American countries. However, since it appears that Italy only has the rights to the Italian version, we're not entirely sure what other markets the show is being pitched to. Italian is also an official language in the countries of Switzerland, San Marino, and The Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The biggest market of these is obviously Switzerland, but out of all of the country's four official languages, German is the one that is the most used (and Sailor Moon likely aired in that language during its heyday).

What's on this site? A sales flyer, in both HTML and PDF form, in both Italian and English! This is a part of a sales package which goes to potential buyers of the show with a few details about the series. Every company pitches their properties differently, so we can't guess what might be included in Sailor Moon's. Emblazoned across the site's header is another new image of the Senshi - these new pictures keep getting better and better! We have featured it below. It is also interesting that the show's genre is listed as "Adventure/Sentimental". We couldn't have listed it better!

This is an exciting time to be a Sailor Moon fan, and soon there will be a timeline post on this site listing all of the major events in the revival stretching back to last summer. We've noticed that many sites are now starting to take note of something that we've been following from early whispers, and we think a lot of fans are coming out from hiding - don't worry, this will clear everything up for you!

Shokotan to Cover Not One But Two Sailor Moon Songs!

New Album Full of AniSon Covers Coming Soon!

Set to be released on March 10th is a new album from Shoko “Shokotan” Nakagawa called “Shokotan☆Hip 3: Anison Connects Mankind”. This album is chock full of familiar songs from anime, and comes in two flavours, a CD-only version (SRCL-7220) and a CD+DVD version (SRCL-7218). For those fans who opt for the latter version, you’re in for a treat! Not only do you get videos and making-of clips on the DVD, but you get a bunch of additional tracks too! Two of these additional tracks are Moonlight Densetsu and Sailor Star Song, the two beloved openings of the Sailor Moon series! Shoko will also cover two songs sung by stars of Sailor Moon, Give A Reason from Slayers Next by Megumi Hayashibara (Himeko) and Don’t You…? from Himitsu no Akko-Chan by Mitsuko Horie (Sailor Galaxia). Shoko is even covering a song from Yoshihiro Togashi’s Yu Yu Hakusho, Smile Bomb! This release is just starting to pop up on online stores. You are better off just searching for Shoko’s name and working from there since the album’s name is probably going to change from what the stores have listed now. Here is the tracklist:

01. Angel Night ~ ~ You are an angel ("City Hunter 2")
02. GOD KNOWS ... ("The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
03. Interstellar flight ("Macross FRONTIER")
04. Unyielding wish ("Magic Knight Rayearth”)
05. Freckles (“Rurouni Kenshin”)
06. Rain-Kissed Bouquet ("YAWARA!")
07. Smile Bomb ("Yu Yu Hakusho")
08.Fuse of Excitement ("Fushigi Yuugi”)
09. Give a reason ("Slayers NEXT”)
10. Refrain of Soul ("Neon Genesis Evangelion")
11 Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power! ("Dragon Ball Z")
12. Precure 5, Full Throttle GO GO! (Anime "Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!" / Kudou Mayu with Purikyua 5)
Bonus tracks (CD + DVD)
13. Bit by Bit My Heart is Charmed, Opening Song -short ver .- ("Dragon Ball GT")
14. Don't say "lazy"-short ver .- (anime "K-On!”)
15. Moonlight Densetsu-short ver .- ("Sailor Moon")
16. Sailor Stars Song-short ver .- ("Sailor Stars”)
17. Wonderful Color Happiness -short ver .- ("Magical Emi, the Magic Star")
18. DON'T YOU ...?-Short ver .- ("Himitsu no Akko-chan”)

Shokotan always covers her anime songs vibrantly, and this album looks like it will be a lot of fun! Shoko has always loved to sing songs from Sailor Moon and cosplay as her. Here are a few links to video for you all to enjoy!

From 2009, singing with a bunch of dancers cosplaying as Sailor Mercury.
Cosplay Silliness on a Japanese Variety Show - 1
Cosplay Silliness on a Japanese Variety Show - 2

BREAKING NEWS: More Details on Strategic Meeting Happening in Italy!

Hi Moonies! We had wanted to bring this to you sooner, but unfortunately the official website of Backstage was down all yesterday afternoon and evening and it just appears to be back up and running. We have the translations of each of the press releases below, but a quick note: to make it easier to understand, we broke up the sentences a little. Don't worry if there appear to be more sentences in our translation than the original, we have kept all of the original ideas in the article intact. It was just very difficult to understand and read if we left it the way it was! We've also got some brand new images throughout these articles for you to enjoy, and it turns out that what we thought was going to be a new logo last week, is in fact officially the new logo!

From Backstage Italia:

Sailor Moon Licensing Meeting

On Thursday, February 11th, the first meeting dedicated to the revitalization of one of the most beloved animated series will take place in Milan.

Backstage, in partnership with Toei Animation, is organizing a day dedicated to Sailor Moon, with the aim to bring together all of the companies involved and to make the revival of this Japanese animated classic which we will all see again on the small screen.

Speakers include:
Gianpietro Peia, C.E.O. of Backstage
Ryuji Kochi, Vice President Toei Animation Europe SAS,
Fabrizio Margaria, Program Director “Fascia Ragazzi” Mediaset,
Fulvio Albertella, Partner, CRA (Customized Research & Analysis),
Stefania Perletto, Licensing Director Backstage
Elena Grazioli, Responsible Brand Assurance Backstage

Anyone interested in participating in this meeting can register their membership by sending an email to mario.delpennino @NOSPAMbackstagelicensingMAPSON.com.

It doesn’t seem like Naoko Takeuchi is going to attend this meeting, however we can only assume that anything that these people want to propose has to go through her first, as is the case with the style guide. Maybe she will be a part of this meeting through conference calls? Seriously though, if anyone can attend and participate at this meeting, we’d be emailing him for an invite if we were an Italian Sailor Moon blog. We would love to have a chance to present our campaign results in the flesh at such a collaborative meeting!


A Much Longer Press Release From Licensing Italia:

Aspirations Growing on Sailor Moon!

Toei Animation, Backstage and Mediaset will talk about the new revival of the TV series and licensing of future projects for Sailor Moon.

After 10 years since its last broadcast on TV, the news of the re-launch of Sailor Moon has been circulating for some months now in the licensing sphere, and is attracting increasing interest from companies who hope to find a license in 2010/2011 for a strong female with a lasting presence on television.

Backstage strongly believes in the potential of this license. They undertook a deal during 2009 with Toei Animation, in order to obtain permission directly from the series' author, Ms. Naoko Takeuchi. She gave them the green light for the global media rights in the Italian market, including Television rights, publishing, music, merchandising, and theatrical releases. "We are very proud to have the license rights for the second time to Sailor Moon," says Gianpietro Peia CEO Backstage "and we're pleased with how we managed to handle the negotiation with Toei Animation. It is not easy to gain the trust of the companies from the Land of the Rising Sun, but thanks to the incredible work we have achieved with Dragon Ball, Backstage is now the reference point in Italy for the world of Japanese animation.

Mediaset also showed a sharp interest in the TV series, composed of 200 episodes and 6 movies (note – the three specials are considered to be movies in Italy), and has been trying to win the television rights for Sailor Moon program since last autumn. “I could not part with a series was such a historic part of Mediaset” says Fabrizio Margaria, program director of Fascia Ragazza with Mediaset. "After being gone for a long time from the small screen, I am very pleased to be able to rebroadcast this on our networks. And it will likely be that the episodes which will air this autumn will be all of the episodes in full, without the old complaints that now would appear anachronistic for the delight of all of the old fans!”

Toei Animation is closely monitoring the implementation of the development plan of the license. Italy is most certainly one of the main markets for Japanese anime in Europe, and business results in terms of licensing have always been extremely positive. "We're happy," commented Mr. Kanji Kazahaya, CEO of Toei Animation Europe "to entrust the revival Sailor Moon with Backstage. The Italian public, in fact, has always shown great awareness of Japanese animation, decreeing some of the biggest international successes in terms of merchandise. "

The expectations in terms of business results are very ambitious, Sailor Moon can count on a very broad fanbase of fans that are knowledgeable and affectionate towards the series, and this was confirmed by market research conducted recently by Research CRA Milan.

"With Sailor Moon, we are hoping to repeat her success just as we did with Dragon Ball," said Stefan Perletto, Licensing Director at Backstage, "The research we have confirmed that the property is highly favored with target adult women, now mothers, who discovered Sailor Moon first, but also on younger age groups. At the same time we note that the response of companies is very open to the license also because there seems to be no new strong female character on the market."

To create the optimal conditions for the use of this franchise by companies, Backstage requested and obtained the permission of the author to approve the Style Guide for Sailor Moon. The development of the new Style Guide has been entrusted to a team of creative Italians, coordinated by Elena Grazioli, head of Brand Assurance Backstage. With the approval of the author, they are finalizing the graphics of the first series. "The Italian companies will experience a gallery of new images and new poses for the development of their products," Elena Grazioli tells us.

To learn more about Sailor Moon, Backstage organized a Licensing Meeting which will be attended by Ryuji Kochi (Toei Animation), Fabrizio Margaria, Fulvio Albertella.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 11th at the offices of Milan Backstage in via Lombardini 10.

To participate in the Meeting and Licensing for information contact:

mario.delpennino@NOSPAMbackstagelicensingMAPSON.com mario.delpennino @ NOSPAMbackstagelicensingMAPSON.com

eleonora.peia@NOSPAMbackstagelicensingMAPSON.com eleonora.peia @ NOSPAMbackstagelicensingMAPSON.com

This one just seems to be patching together some quotes etc. from earlier releases, but this was a very well written Press Release about the meeting!

We can't wait to see more of these new images - hopefully we will see them used for promotion with a North American release too! These images are all copyright Naoko Takeuchi/PNP, Toei Animation, and Backstage Licensing.

CTV Builds The Bridge Without CBS... For Now!

Some of our readers may remember some of the woes Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis' Flashpoint had last Fall - new episodes were not scheduled to air on CBS, but CTV went ahead and put the show on its Fall schedule anyway. And it was a success, being one of the highest rated (if not the highest rated) show on Friday nights in Canada! Flashpoint is also special because it helped to open the door for several Canada-U.S. co-productions, another one of them being the upcoming cop drama The Bridge, which features Toby Proctor (Tuxedo Mask #2). CBS has delayed the premiere of this show for the timebeing, but CTV is not going to let these 11 episodes wait until then! The show will premiere with a bang on March 5th at 9PM Eastern Time with a two hour episode (just after the network completes their Vancouver Olympic Broadcast)! Fans who are looking to see Tuxedo Mask in his new law-enforcement role can check out a trailer here - he appears at 1:20 (with a gun, sorry no roses!). For more information on the show's development and inspiration, check out this post from one of our WGTS friends, TV, Eh?