5 Lessons Learned From Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon Says...!

Sailor Moon Says…!

I’m sure it sounds really contrived to say this, but Sailor Moon left a large impression on me growing up. In addition to being a fun show/manga about magical school girls who triumph over the forces of evil, but it was full of all sorts of lessons that ultimately would have a direct impact on my life well into adulthood.

What makes this topic all the more fascinating, at least to me, is there there is no “right” or “wrong” answer to what fans can take away from the series. Depending on one’s culture, values, and life circumstances, the lessons that any given fan walks away with will be completely different from other fans.

Today I’d like to take a look at some of those lessons I took away from Sailor Moon and about the impact the series had on my life. And, while I’m at it, I’d like to invite you to share your stories about the effect the series has had on yours.

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Prism Power: Exclusive Interview With Sailor Moon Series Director Junichi Sato

Prism Power: 173% Funded on Kickstarter and Counting!

Prism Power: 173% Funded on Kickstarter and Counting!

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined when I started this blog two and a half years ago that not only would I be writing a book about Sailor Moon, but that I would be sitting down for coffee to chat with those involved in bringing the series to TV.

The world apparently works in mysterious ways, however, and that’s exactly what’s happening.

I’m incredibly pleased to announce that the Prism Power book will be featuring an exclusive interview with Sailor Moon series director and critically-acclaimed anime veteran, Junichi Sato!1

Click here to check out the Kickstarter campaign! (ends on June 29, 2018)

Unlike the other stretch goals — including the 悪霊退散 (Akuryo Taisan) bookmarks printed on Japanese-style washi paper and the oh-so-close-to-being-funded illustrated map of Sailor Moon‘s Azabu-Juban — this exclusive interview with Junichi Sato will be joining the anime episode and manga act reviews as a part of the book itself.

If this is something that interests you, there’s more information available in today’s Kickstarter update, including some of the questions I plan on asking, and an opportunity for you to submit your own! It’s not every day that we get to ask why certain choices were made to someone who personally had a hand in Sailor Moon‘s creation, so I’m hoping to make the most of it!

In closing, I just want to say how immensely thankful I am to all of you who read Tuxedo Unmasked, and have even turned this personal project of mine into an exciting two-way dialogue. None of this would be possible without you.

Tuxedo Unmasked Book Gets a Name and Announcing Other Exciting Projects

"Prism Power" (cover design not final)

“Prism Power” (cover design not final)

Picking a name for my upcoming Sailor Moon book was surprisingly much harder than I ever expected it to be. After all, I had quite the opposite experience with this blog. I actually already had the name “Tuxedo Unmasked” picked out before I even knew  what I wanted the blog to be about. After two or three false starts, I settled on what you see here today.

But! I’m happy to announce that the name issue is finally behind us now.

Prism Power: A Fan’s Guide to Sailor Moon is now starting to take shape! I’ve hammered out the direction a bit better, and the slow, painful exciting drive toward writing all of the content continues to chug along.

I’ve got a few more announcements about the book — including the Kickstarter launch date and details on that — and about some other new Sailor Moon-related projects I’m hoping to start up soon.

Stick around, I’ll try to keep this interesting!

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Tuxedo Unmasked Book Announcement, Details, Kickstarter, and More!

Henshin-ing from a blog into a book!

Henshin-ing from a blog into a book!

It’s been awhile since I made the initial announcement about the upcoming Tuxedo Unmasked book, but ever since that post I’ve been working feverishly behind the scenes doing research and working on the initial drafts for this deep dive into the Sailor Moon universe.

My goal is for the book to serve as a thorough analysis of the first season of Sailor Moon, taking you through each anime episode and manga act of the Dark Kingdom saga to shine a light on the many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments throughout the series.

Rather than just being a cleaned up reprint of the material you can already find here on this blog, I hope to take the in-depth investigations that Tuxedo Unmasked is known for and turn that obsessive attention for detail to the very source of the Sailor Moon story itself.

But I think I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I start talking about lofty goals and ideals, we should probably get back to basics and explain what it is that we’re doing in the first place. So, in the true spirit of Tuxedo Unmasked, I think we should probably put this in the form of a question:

Why do we even need a Sailor Moon story guide?

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Sailor Moon x My Melody Café 2018 Review

Sailor Moon x My Melody Café @ The Guest

Sailor Moon x My Melody Café @ The Guest

When I think about likely Sailor Moon cross-overs, I have to say that Sanrio’s My Melody doesn’t even rank into the top 20 of the properties that I would ever imagine seeing any form of synergy with. And yet, here we find ourselves with a new collaboration café featuring these two juggernauts of cute.

Opening to four cities across Japan (Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo, and Nagoya), this tie up with The Guest cafés features our favorite Sailor Soldiers in Sanrio-inspired designs and offers up a variety of equally adorable dishes.

Thanks to the stars aligning in my favor, I was able to get into the Sailor Moon x My Melody Café on opening day here in Tokyo, so I figured I’d share the experience with all of you here.

You might want to eat a light snack before reading this, otherwise you’re gonna get hungry…!

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What Are Some Rejected Tuxedo Unmasked Articles?

The life of a blogger isn't as glamorous as you'd imagine

The life of a blogger isn’t as glamorous as you’d imagine

As anyone who has read this blog for… okay, probably more than a week… can attest, not every article is actually a question that anyone in their right mind would ever really ask. However, I find that putting things in the form of a question helps clarify the topic we’re about to discuss, and it gives you, the reader, an idea about what you’ll hopefully learn about by the time you reach the end.

That said, the number of questions that ultimately become articles on this blog pales in comparison to the many, many topics I research along the way.

Today, we’re going on a behind-the-scenes look at Tuxedo Unmasked to talk about some of those failed, rejected, or otherwise poorly-conceived topics. Stick around — one of your questions may be in here!

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This Week in Sailor Moon (February 25 – March 3, 2018)

Time for some Sailor Moon news!

Time for some Sailor Moon news!

You know, it feels like just last week that I was here, writing about the latest in Sailor Moon press releases and talking what’s happened on these dates over the past quarter-century. That’s probably because it was just last week.

But I digress.

Once again, I’m here for our weekly wrap-up in the goings-on in the real world, as it pertains to the Sailor Moon franchise! What we may be lacking in quantity of updates this week, we make up for it in the sheer audacity of some of its business partners. But I’ll talk about that in more detail below.

Buckle up, it’s time for our trip down memory lane!

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