No doubt old and new Sailor Moon fans are getting jittery as 5th July 2014 approaches, the date which "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal", a.k.a the new Sailor Moon will make its debut worldwide. No doubt you may remember those weekday mornings with Cheez TV blaring in the morning when someone would be up to watch some anime before school, or it may even have been you! Here's a bit of a Throwback Thursday before we look into the exciting new anime!
Here's the synopsis from Viz Media.
"Based on Naoko Takeuchi's legendary manga series, Sailor Moon Crystal retells the story of Sailor Moon, the Pretty Sailor Guardian of love and justice. Usagi Tsukino may be a little clumsy and a bit of a crybaby, but she's got spirit. One day this cheerful eighth-grader meets Luna, a black cat with a crescent moon mark on her forehead, who gives Usagi a special brooch that transforms her into Sailor Moon! Now Usagi is on a mission to protect a princess, find her fellow Guardians, and keep the Legendary Silver Crystal out of the hands of the evil Queen Beryl."
Sailor Moon's voice will be reprised by the original voice actor Kotono Mitsuishi who will be visiting Sydney in August this year for SMASH (Sydney Manga and Anime Show). The other sailor senshi will not be voiced by the original voice actors but come from anime such as Smile Pretty Cure, Negima, Code Geass and xxxHolic.
The anime will run for twenty-six episodes and will air on July 5th, 2014 at 7PM JST on Niconico, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Viz and NeonAlley. From then, new episodes launch the first and third Saturday of every month. Subtitles will be available in various languages over the original Japanese dub. The opening will not be a remake of the original opening and ending songs but will be sung by Momoiro Clover Z who did a pretty slick version of "Moonlight Densetsu" on the 20th Anniversary Tribute Album.
Without further ado, here is the extended English trailer just released. Fans have speculated that the song playing in the background could be the new opening "Moon Pride". The closing theme is known to be called "Moon Rainbow".
TOEI who worked on the original Sailor Moon anime will again be in charge of the animation. The new character designs have more of a manga art look and are absolutely gorgeous! An example is the teaser image that fronts the official website.
With not only the announcement of the new anime, the 20th Anniversary of Sailor Moon earlier this year has led to an amazing resurge of both official and fanmade products such as make up, cosplay props, figurines, plushies and much more! As well as long standing fansites such as moonkitty.net and eternalsailormoon.org going into overdrive with updates!
Check out fansite Sailor Moon Collectibles for some more amazing goodies!
Also released was a tribute album through King Records featuring artists such as Tommy heavenly6, Momoiro Clover Z, Shoko Nakagawa, Mitsuko Horie and Haruko Momoi as well as a bonus French version of "Moonlight Densetsu".
The ten main tracks have also just been released on vinyl with two songs per record, with the boxset at 8100yen, exclusively from HMV Records.