Girls With Comics

Big news for fans of the classic anime, Sailor Moon is getting a reboot in the summer of 2013! Kodansha and Takeuchi announced on Friday that the manga would get a fresh new anime to accompany it, with Momoiro Clover Z doing the theme song.

While I am positively excited over this, I have a few questions;

Will Takeuchi be more involved in the anime?
Will it cover all five seasons?
Will they finally have a consistent animation team (ala Sailor Stars) so every episode looks the same?
I can’t imagine anyone else but the original cast as the voices. Will they be coming back?
If it’d going to follow the manga more closely, does that mean the Doom Tree saga saga will be dropped?
Will we see Luna, Artemis, and Diana in human form?
Will there be a Sailor V anime special to go with it? Please?
There’s like 50 billion more that have popped into my head.

And the most important question of them all;

Will the American audiences get to see it (legally) as well as the original 200 episodes? I remember clear as day how hard it was being a Sailor Moon fan in the 90s. That bug hit me in 95, and trust me. It wasn’t easy. It was a big deal when the manga was being released by Mixxzine (Tokyopop) but they did a horrible job with it. While we are finally getting the manga we’ve always deserved, we still have yet to get ALL 200 episodes uncut.

-Lauren

While I finish up my convention review of MAGfest 10, here’s something to keep you occupied. My friend Byron did a pretty good video on the history of Tokusatsu (think Ultraman). So here you go dear readers, get your learn on.

A History On Tokusatsu

-Lauren

Hey everyone! Look!

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/Halloween/Sailor-Moon-Costume-885764.jsp

Do you see what I see? Why, I see a $60 Halloween Sailor Moon costume! Now, I’ve seen and heard many a Moonie rage over this costume, but let’s sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up for a second.

1- It’s a Halloween costume. Sure, it will be worn to anime conventions. But, I doubt the person buying this will be entering it into a cosplay contest.

2- It actually looks like the child version costume that was released 14 years ago. 14 years ago I was 11, so I didn’t buy that version. NOW I CAN. HAHAHA.

3- It’s $60. While that price point seems out of line, most Halloween costumes are in the $40-60 range. True story, unless you buy your costumes at Wal-Mart.

4- Again, it’s a Halloween costume. I don’t know of any Halloween costume that’s actually made well. No really, I don’t.

5- Look at it this way; Sailor Moon is back in the USA. With the manga release and all of the merch that is due out later this year, you should be thankful. I know I am, since I can finally get trashed dressed up as Sailor Moon without worrying about fucking up a $200+ costume I had made for me.

-Lauren

God bless my father, and God bless eBay. Recently I stumbled onto some Sailor Moon laser discs that I did not own. I’m a huge fan of laser discs, and an even bigger fan of Sailor Moon. I forgot I put them on watching, but my dad noticed them and actually won some of them for me. He then went to see what other anime LDs this person had, and started bidding on all of them. I didn’t notice until he said something to me this morning.

Dad: Hey, have you heard of ‘La Blue Girl’?
Me: What.
Dad: The person who had those Sailor Moon discs also had other anime shows, so I bid on them. We got some neat ones. I know you like Tenchi Muyo, and I got you something called Card Captor Sakura. But I’ve never heard of this La Blue Girl.
Me: Well, uhm, La Blue Girl is an anime porn.
Dad: What.
Me: Yea. It’s called ‘hentai’. It’s animated porn.
Dad: People watch animated porn.
Me: Yes. They do.
Dad: … So do you still want the LD? I’m not gonna watch it but you know if you don’t want it.
Me: It’s fine. I’ll give it to someone.
Dad: Do you know anyone else who owns a laser disc player?
Me: … Nope.

I have to give props to my dad. He really does love my sister and I, and since he was raised in the sci-fi culture, he doesn’t bat an eye to the weird shit we like. He is also one of the few non anime fans I’ve ever met who doesn’t equate anime with being nothing but porn. To him all anime begins and ends with Sailor Moon, since my sister and I were (are) hardcore Sailor Moon fans. Of course, the conversation didn’t end there.

Dad: Do these people know these are in Japanese?
Me: I guess not.
Dad: Does anyone else besides you speak Japanese?
Mom: *from the other room* I bet people in Japan know Japanese!

No one else said anything the rest of the morning.

-Lauren

Hey guys. Let me tell you why September of 2011 will rock your face off.

SAILOR MOON AND CODENAME: SAILOR V ARE BEING RE-RELEASED/RELEASED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AMERICA!

Oh my Gahd. I don’t even. Flipping tables over and dancing like a mofo with how excited I am.

http://www.mania.com/kodansha-brings-back-sailor-moon_article_129072.html

-Lauren

Yesterday, while hanging around at school, I got into a pretty lengthy conversation about bootlegging/downloading anime. To be short, I’m against it. To be long, here’s a rough idea of what we talked about:

Guy: Why does bootlegging bug you so much?

Me: Because it takes money out of people’s pockets. If you notice at the end of each episode you stream, there’s a long list of people who work on shows. By not buying the anime (in a legal fashion) you are taking money out of their pocket.

Guy: But then how can I watch new anime shows?

Me: Wait for it to be released here? There are thousands of titles that have been released in the U.S over the past 20 years. Or, learn Japanese and buy the DVD’s from Japan. That’s how I saw all of Sailor Moon… (albeit it was on Laser Disk.)

Guy: But I don’t want to watch older anime. It’s outdated and no one cares about it.

Me: Then you’re missing out on some killer, classic titles. I get that anime that is over 5 years old is somehow “ancient”, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad and should be forgotten. Anime fans need to celebrate the older stuff just as much as the newer stuff.

Guy: Anime is too expensive.

Me: Back in 1994 I could buy a Ranma 1/2 VHS for $30, and it only contained 2 episodes. I can now buy a Ranma DVD for $5* with 5 episodes on it.

Guy: That’s not fair to me then. China/Korea/Guy on the corner has it for sale, so I can buy it.

Me: China/Korea/Guy on the corner doesn’t have a gun to your head telling you to buy it. Let’s say you work at a Target. Everything is fine and dandy, you’re getting paid, but suddenly people decide they don’t want to pay for their stuff. They steal it instead. Is that right?

Guy: No, that’s illegal.

Me: Let’s say the stealing gets so bad, that Target has to close up, which puts you out a job. Is that right?

Guy: No, it’s not.

Me: THEN STOP PIRATING THIS CRAP. One day, animation studios are going to close up because of pirating. Then you won’t have any anime. And you know what? When that happens, I will track you down (yes I will) and personally blame you for the demise of anime. (This won’t actually happen, but it was really funny to me so I had to say it.)

We actually went back and forth on this for a while. I understand where he’s coming from (can’t find it in America so it’s ok to download/buy fansubs), but at the same time, it’s wrong. In this day and age there’s no reason to have to steal anymore. We are over saturated with anime and manga now. Go watch Tenchi Muyo or something, I promise you, it’s a great series.

*There’s a store called 5 Below that does sell Ranma (and other anime) for $5. On DVD. I shit you not.

-Lauren