What Did Kazuko Tadano’s Interview Reveal About the Sailor Moon Crystal Movie?

Please, Super Sailor Moon, give us SOME information?

Please, Super Sailor Moon, give us SOME information?

At this point, I’m beginning to think that TOEI Animation simply enjoys toying with Sailor Moon fans’ delicate hearts. Just when you forget that they’re even supposedly making a fourth season to the Sailor Moon Crystal franchise in the form of a movie — bam! — there TOEI Animation is again with just enough information to get your hopes back up.

And that, my dear friends, is exactly where we find ourselves after the most recent release of the fan exclusive Pretty Guardian newsletter.

If it wasn’t enough to just drop the name of famed Sailor Moon character designer and animation director Kazuko Tadano, they also had to throw in just a few dazzling tidbits about Sailor Moon Crystal while they were at it.

Today we’re going to take a look at what she actually said in the interview, and see what information we can glean from it! Are you sitting down for this?

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Happy Birthday Rei Hino!

Happy Birthday Rei! (courtesy of Sweet Bee)

Happy Birthday Rei! (courtesy of Sweet Bee)

Whether you know Rei best as the cool, silent priestess-type from the manga or the bossy counterpoint to Usagi in the anime, this character managed to strike a very personal chord that still resonates with me today.

In honor of Rei Hino’s birthday, I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight five interesting facts about the high-heeled Senshi of passion and her role in Sailor Moon. Happy Birthday, Rei!

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3 Problematic Names in Sailor Moon Translations

Usagi's got some serious questions here

Usagi’s got some serious questions here

One thing that I find fascinating is the concept of what is the “official” Sailor Moon translation. In North America alone, both the anime and manga have had a whopping three different officially licensed adaptations since hitting this side of the Pacific.1

This, of course, doesn’t even take into account all of the subtitled versions, scanlations, and other fan-established terminology.

So what’s the right answer, and why is it so hard for all these qualified translators to “get it right”?

Today we’re going to take a look at some of the more challenging names to translate in Sailor Moon, and about some of the strategies used to get around them. Be sure to take notes — there might be a test at the end!2

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What Does the Full Sailor Moon Timeline Look Like?

Pretty much none of the timeline makes sense... but we'll try anyway!

Pretty much none of the timeline makes sense… but we’ll try anyway!

It’s a very rare occasion that I can make any definitive statements about Sailor Moon that doesn’t require a bunch of asterisks, footnotes, or hedge words just to cover all my bases. But I can say with absolute conviction that the Sailor Moon timeline is… well, screwy.

This is only to be expected, of course, when you consider that more and more story elements were added to both the past and the future as the series continued, requiring all sorts of course corrections to answer some questions, all the while leaving more in their place.

Today we’re going to take a bird’s-eye view of the Sailor Moon timeline and see if we can make some sense out of this tangled ball of yarn, and figure out where some of the (as of yet) unanswerable questions lie. I hope you’ve had your morning coffee, because you’ll want to pay attention for this one!

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