New 'Sailor Moon' Anime



A new anime series based on Sailor Moon will be released in the summer of 2013, according to Anime News Network. The new series will be released simultaneously worldwide. The theme song will be performed by Momoiro Clover Z.

Despite its age, the Sailor Moon manga has been tearing up the charts here in the U.S. since its re-launch by Kodansha last year, a new anime series, especially if it’s broadcast on TV, can only fuel greater awareness and sales.

Toei Shopping 'Sailor Moon' Anime

Toei Animation is offering 200 refurbished episodes of the Sailor Moon Magical Girl anime at the MIPTV market that will be held next week in Cannes. MIPTV is a worldwide content market at which producers such as Toei offer their wares to representatives of TV networks and syndicators of electronic entertainment from more than 100 countries. In addition to the Sailor Moon episodes Toei is also offering the rights to the 243 episodes of the 1980s TV anime Dr. Slump, which is based on the manga series by Dragon Ball-creator Akira Toriyama.

The 200 episodes of Sailor Moon would presumably include all the Sailor Moon TV anime series including the original series (46 episodes), Sailor Moon R (43 episodes), Sailor Moon S (38 episodes), Sailor Moon Super S (39 episodes), and Sailor Moon Stars (34 episodes, the only episodes that have never been available in the U.S.).

Worldwide "Sailor Moon' Revival Spreads Worldwide

A resurgence of interest in the Sailor Moon property has led to a return of the classic magical girl anime series on the Japanese airwaves last fall. Now Toei Animation is hoping to revive the property on a global scale starting in Italy. Toei is partnering with Backstage, which will handle the property’s rights in publishing, TV, and merchandising. Mediaset has acquired the TV rights to the 200-episode anime series and plans to begin broadcasting it in Italy in the fall of 2010.

Toei Animation’s Kanji Kazahaya told Global License: “We are certain that strategically Italy is the ideal country to initiate a global re-launch of the classic Japanese animated series such as Sailor Moon. The Italian public has traditionally been passionate about anime.”

No word yet on a possible North American revival of the property. DIC introduced the series (in a bowdlerized form) to American TV, while Pioneer and ADV released uncut versions of various elements of the extensive library of Sailor Moon anime. Tokyopop released the Sailor Moon manga here, but the licensed lapsed before it could issue the new revised editions that were issued in Japan starting in 2003.