The Complicated Story of Sailor Moon, Saban Moon & Team Angel

0:00 for decades superheroes around the world have overwhelmingly been marketed to young boys dreaming about becoming powerful men with transformative abilities that grant them control over their world and heaps of appreciation to validate their existence for decades the market failed to recognize that young girls like that stuff too and there's just as much money to be made if not more selling it to them hi i'm dan larsen and this is the history of sailor moon

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2:21 even going to try what we will cover here is the story of where all of this stuff started and the how and when it arrived in the u.s because it happened more than once and it was almost a very different thing than what it ultimately became sailor moon is about a young teenage girl originally named usagi tsukino serena in some adaptations who meets a black cat named luna that introduces her to a world of magic and adventure when she transforms into sailor moon she becomes a powerful superhero fighting against the evil dark kingdom led by queen beryl sailor moon joins forces with the other sailor guardians sailor mercury sailor mars sailor jupiter and sailor venus a team of magical girls each with their own special powers on a quest to find the legendary silver crystal they are superheroes learning about what their true purpose is in the universe while

3:06 simultaneously doing their best to make it through the very complicated and difficult world of their teenage lives falling in love wearing pretty things and kicking ass sailor moon was created by naoko takayuchi in 1991 like a lot of other kids naoko dreamed of becoming a comic book artist she joined the astronomy club and hung out with all the other kids who read comics you know the cool kids her father counseled a more pragmatic approach go to college get a degree make sure you can get a real job when if you can't do comics that's good advice that lots of parents give their kids mine did naoko listened to hers i didn't listen to mine naoko went to school for chemistry at kyoritsu university of pharmacy where she got a degree in chemistry she completed her thesis on the heightened effects of

3:52 thrombolic actions due to ultrasound and got a license to practice pharmaceutical medicine i have some very funny stories about the ways i quit different jobs it's true all of it in japan comics are known as manga but the term applies to a much broader range of comics based media unlike the us market comics are much more widely socially acceptable entertainment medium with genres and subgenres targeting different demographics for example shonen essentially means boy or youth shown in manga are comics targeted at young boys some of the most popular pop culture brands in japan and around the world started in shonen manga shojo in this context means young woman shojo manga are comics targeted at young girls some of the most popular pop culture brands

4:38 in japan and around the world started in shojo manga in terms of subject matter all manga can feature any genre for a particular story or series the distinction between shonen and shoujo is who the intended target audience is sailor moon is a shojo manga because it was originally intended for young girls takeuchi wanted to make a comic about superhero girls in space magical adventures fighting monsters and evil it was her editor who suggested the sailor suit costume inspired by the uniforms commonly worn by girls in school her first comic was called codename sailor v it was about a young girl named minako aino who meets a white cat named artemis who introduces her to the world of magic and adventure artemis gives her a crescent moon compact and a magic pen with them minako becomes sailor venus and travels out into the world to find

5:24 the other sailor guardians and the moon princess codename sailor v first appeared in august of 1991 as a one shot in a special edition comic anthology magazine called run run the comic was so popular it was picked up as a regular series in nakayoshi a larger comic magazine by the same publisher and furthermore it ultimately attracted the attention of toei animation who were interested in adapting it for an animated series toei was already well versed in the magical girl genre heck it practically invented it shows that focus on young girls with magical powers who can transform into more powerful beings while keeping their real identities secret but before toei could move forward on codename sailor v they wanted to work with takeuchi to see if they could broaden the appeal for the tv audience keep the core the same but make it more merchandisable the toy companies

6:10 are very important to financing the production of shows for kids in japan in this case bandai one of the largest toy companies in the world influenced by popular super sentai series of live-action superhero television shows takeuchi changed the focus of the series from sailor venus to the team of sailors and instead of venus as the focus the new face and name of the franchise was sailor moon sailor moon the shojo manga started off very similar to codename sailor v except this time it's luna the cat a young girl named usagi tsukino and the superhero identity of sailor moon she leads the team of sailors in the battle against evil the quest for the silver crystal and the defense of the solar system takeuchi continued to produce the sailor moon comic while the animated series was in production in order to retain a degree of creative direction over the whole thing sailor moon the comic hit shelves in december of 1991 toei's animated adaptation first

6:58 aired just a few months later in march of 1992. originally conceived as a single arc the popularity of the comic the animated series and the merch dictated otherwise toei pressed takayuchi to continue the series beyond her original intended ending she wanted to kill off all the heroes toei wanted to figure out a way to bring them back four additional arcs were developed by takeuchi with the comics running just a few months ahead of the cartoons sailor moon quickly became one of the most popular and most lucrative brands in japan making takeuchi a lot of money but it would also force takayuchi to question to what degree she was sacrificing her own creative voice to the people working on the animated series how much the characters and their voices were changed the way the characters were depicted by a studio full of male creators something to think

7:43 about while she drove her porsche to work toei developed three animated feature films as well as television specials and short films the series ran for 200 episodes over five seasons from 1992 through 1997. there's a lot of bouncing around in the timeline between different media there are guides available online to help you navigate the proper watch order if you need them the popularity of these super sentai series in japan impacted sailor moon well beyond the development of the toei animated series by 1993 super sentai had produced 16 different seasons featuring 16 different themed teams since 1975. none of which had been able to break into the u.s television and merchandise market that changed in 1993 when saban entertainment and fox kids successfully adapted the 1992 super sentai series kyoryu sentai jew ranger as mighty

8:29 morphin power rangers what followed was a deluge of properties rushing to take advantage of an audience that was starving for more power rangers and a bunch of studios that wanted to replicate the low-cost quick turnaround process that saban had used to produce the series and stock the shelves a decades-old method of taking existing japanese footage removing all the direct references to japan and japanese culture re-record all the dialogue reshoot out of costume scenes where necessary import and rebrand all of the existing merchandise get rich in the 90s that's business 101 baby so in 1993 renaissance atlantic entertainment one of the production partners on mighty morphin power rangers began working on a way to develop a similar product for girls renaissance believed that sailor moon could be that

9:15 property standards and practices are a lot more strict in the u.s and culturally there was a lot of stuff in sailor moon that they didn't think would translate in order to make it work in the u.s it would need significant changes changes that toei wasn't interested in making without the rights to the animated series but with bandai interested in selling their existing sailor moon toys in the u.s renaissance began developing a spiritually similar but wholly different kind of sailor moon show renaissance atlantic independent of bandai reached out to tune makers a new animation studio to collaborate on a pilot the plan was to re-imagine sailor moon as a hybrid live-action and animated series they produced a 17-minute proof-of-concept short that showcased the now live-action show that switches to animation when the characters transform into the sailor guardians the animation is heavily

10:01 westernized attempting to mimic the style that filmation popularized on shows like he-man and the masters of the universe luna is now a white cat the cast is more diverse and to really drive home the point the girls can now fly through space on their space sail boards so i considered the concept for a hot second and then declined citing the cost of whatever this was as opposed to just i don't know redubbing the original series as is the only known footage was shown as a two-minute trailer to the crowd at anime expo in 1995 and the only reason we've seen that is because fans recorded it themselves the attempted live action reimagining has been referred to by some as saban moon even though saban entertainment technically had nothing to do with it it did convince toei that a partnership with deke animation was the better path to bring sailor moon to the us and canada

10:48 [Music] don't touch that remote or queen barrel might zap your tv and turn it into a jelly donut yum be right back [Music] in 1995 toei licensed the first two seasons of sailor moon to deke productions who brought in optimum

11:34 productions to handle the dubbing into english which burned renaissance atlantic founder frank ward because right out of the gate deak and optimum had to censor the show the way that toei wouldn't allow frank and renaissance to do previously [Music] edits to sailor moon started with the opening theme the original theme song moonlight densetsu or moonlight legend was re-recorded with different lyrics attempting to set the expectations for the show as a more straightforward western superhero fare as opposed to the japanese focus on the love story between usagi or serena as sailor moon and the mysterious tuxedo mask aka mamoru chiba aka darian shields in the deke version other significant edits to the series include removing any and all nudity reducing the violence modifying outfits

12:20 changing character names rewriting dialogue and most importantly reinterpreting relationships between characters what i can say is that deke is notorious for having altered the characters and relationships that did not fit the expected heterosexual dynamic that was allowed to be broadcast to the target demographic at the time in the original series sailor uranus and neptune are lovers in the deke version they are cousins somehow that was considered better and now she's coming here sailor moon is number one in france italy spain hong kong and japan bigger than power rangers and turtles combined we're talking serious moon power blast off for the moon sailor moon

13:06 coming this fall from deke the deak sailor moon adaptation premiered in canada in august of 1995 and in the u.s in september after two months they had nearly exhausted all of the 82 episodes they could potentially air by november with 17 episodes left to adapt production was halted and the series was cancelled due to low ratings in the u.s networks were airing it in early morning and afternoons assuming that it was the younger kids that were going to be watching while in canada performed better airing during prime time mainstream networks in the u.s weren't ready for anime but the fans were if the networks could figure out when to program for them modern japanese cartoons weren't considered a serious option for the us at the time but the fans were hungry for it they were desperate and taking extreme measures to watch anything that was being produced

13:52 importing sharing circulating vhs tapes recorded directly off japanese television including the original uncut broadcasts of sailor moon when the deke adaptation was canceled the fans went to work they started a campaign called save our sailors with the goal of convincing deke to finish the last 17 episodes and bring it back to broadcast using the tools they had they began buying up products from the brands that had sponsored sailor moon while it was on the air like pop-tarts they bought a lot of pop-tarts and it worked but not really while the save our sailors campaign was underway irwin toys and general mills had already been working to complete the series and bring it back through general mill's subsidiary the program exchange a company that deals specifically with television syndication and program distribution two years after

14:37 it was cancelled in june of 1997 sailor moon was back on the air in the us at the usa network the final 17 episodes of the deke adaptation aired for the first time in canada in november of 1997. and in june of 1998 the full series including the last 17 episodes were part of the toonami programming block on cartoon network this was the missing piece for so many years traditional u.s syndication couldn't match the precision targeting and audience focus of cable and programming blocks like toonami in 1998 deak's rights to the sailor moon series expired sailor moon was far more popular in the u.s than it had ever been frank ward decided to take another shot with toei he felt particularly empowered after deke's adaptation had been cancelled in 1995. he felt validated because he still believed live action was the only way for sailor moon to break through to the degree that power rangers had he still believed that there

15:24 was a place in the market for a show like the one that they had previously developed maybe with a few tweaks and look he wasn't totally wrong while he was trying to get a live-action show made for the us market sailor moon was starring in live-action musicals on stage in japan there was precedent beginning in 1993 there would eventually be over 800 performances with the first 500 produced by bandai from 1993 to 2005. frank ward this time without toon makers or any animation at all headed the development of a new live action adaptation or at least a show inspired by sailor moon that he called team angel that said it strays so far from the look feel tone and quality of sailor moon that it doesn't even succeed in being a knockoff it is really something something else toe a past again but there were other things

16:11 working behind the scenes in 1993 deak had merged with parts of the abc television network and then a few years later in 1996 that entity was purchased by disney along with deke's entire library including their adaptation of sailor moon in 1998 disney and deke began developing live action features they released meet the details in 1998 and inspector gadget in 1999 it is likely that sailor moon would have been next on the list a 1997 article in variety mentions that director stanley tong was set to direct the live-action adaptation hot off the heels of his 1997 success with mr magoo starring leslie nielsen it never happened because in 2000 deak was purchased back from disney by original owner andy hayward backed by bain capital and chase capital partners and besides deak only owned the rights to the first two seasons of sailor moon

16:57 in the us and toei had already licensed seasons three and four to cloverway a us-based media licensing agent that specialized in japanese animation and manga by 1999 cloverway had already established themselves as a partner on multiple projects with toei in 1999 cloverway brought optimum productions back to the project to work on the english dubs just like they had for deke back in 1995. this time there was a lot less editing of the content now that the audience had been established as being older and the distribution was either cable via toonami in the us or home video the new cloverway dub aired in 2002 on toonami meaning that four of the five original sailor moon seasons had officially been broadcast in the u.s they weren't able to do the final season despite strong ratings because cloverway was never able to renew the license sailor moon was on a path in the u.s where so many changes have been made

17:42 that the new product is different from the original macros and super sentai cannot exist in markets that robotech and power rangers have claimed naoko was concerned about the changes that were being made by toei to sailor moon in japan it was even worse in the us and canada in 2009 approaching the 20-year anniversary of the original animated series sailor moon saw a resurgence in popularity around the world driven by its broadcast on animax a japanese satellite television network dedicated to anime as well as toei's licensing of sailor moon to international markets where it had never aired in 2014 vis media announced that they had acquired the rights to sailor moon including the three films and television specials thus allowing them to release for the first time uncut restored versions of the first 89 episodes that deke had previously produced studiopolis was contracted to redub the entire series

18:28 which began streaming on neon alley and hulu two years later it was available on 2btv with original japanese audio as well sailor moon has been one of the most successful merchandising brands around the world for several decades if you can think of a product that can be licensed that toei could put the sailors on it probably exists comics toys kids costumes and plenty of other bandai and band presto produced several video games that are mostly available in japan in 1997 the 3d adventures of sailor moon was released in the u.s and that follows the deke adaptation in 1999 tokyo pop released a series of novels written by stu j levy and leanne centaur that are generally in the deke universe as well in 2000 the deep verse also got a collectible card game from dart flip cards which by the way is my new bounty hunting name long out of print it

19:14 allowed players to fight as sailor scouts against various monsters and villains in 2003 pretty guardian sailor moon produced by toei was broadcast on japanese television it was a live action sailor moon show just like the super sentai series that had been running since 1975 just like frank ward was trying to develop for the us since 1993. it ran for 49 episodes and was released on dvd along with two additional films it retells the origins of sailor moon and the other sailors introduces many of the familiar characters from the series i don't know if frank ward has ever seen it or if he ever wants to the deke adaptation of sailor moon was released on vhs it is not only obviously out of print but also considered defunct at this point no longer recognized as even a valid english dub considering all the changes that were made sailor moon was released on dvd in 2002 viz media

20:00 released their version on dvd and blu-ray beginning in 2014 a 25th anniversary blu-ray collection was released in 2017. sailor moon continued to grow decade after decade with new ways for new generations of fans to pick up the series in 2014 sailor moon crystal was released as an original net animation celebrating the 20th anniversary of the series it takes the series back to the real roots pulling its inspiration from the comics rather than the animated series in 2014 bizmedia released the english language version on neon alley and hulu crunchyroll broadcast their own version in partnership with toei directly and just last year in 2021 sailor moon eternal was released essentially a fourth season of sailor moon crystal both crystal and eternal are available to stream on netflix as of this video 2022 will see a sailor moon 30th

20:46 anniversary merchandising and collaboration extravaganza across japan that will certainly bleed into every other market around the world the fandom is the biggest it has ever been and there are far more resources for selling the product to focused demographics sailor moon played a prominent role in bringing anime and manga to the world in general as part of a late 90s early 2000s expansion to other markets but it played a much more specific role in the growth of anime and manga targeted to female fans a genre previously dominated and controlled by dudes was opening up to more women creators and stories focused on girls and women as the heroes fighting the monsters controlling their own destinies empowering future generations sailor moon helped move the entire industry to recognize the power of the fanbase that naoko takayuchi's characters had connected with what kinds of stories they wanted to read and watch

21:32 who they wanted to see in those stories and what they were willing to buy the magical girl genre took off writing the success of sailor moon navigating the path she charted for others to follow the genre itself being subdivided into different magical girl tastes for different demographics from magic knight rey earth to wedding peach to smile precure sailor moon has sold tens of millions of books worldwide sold tens of billions of dollars worth of merchandise it is not just one of the most successful shoujo manga it is one of the most successful comics and franchises ever created period it was not only able to expand out into other markets around the world but it survived those attempts to ultimately be restored to its original content and persist nonetheless the successive relaunches reimaginings and re-releases true descendants of the

22:17 original brand instead of their safe westernized echoes this is not robotech this is not power rangers this is sailor moon thanks for watching please like and subscribe if you're not already a subscriber thank you very much to those of you who already are thank you again to magic spoon for sponsoring this video and special recognition to kotaku who have an incredible story about frank ward and the two different live-action versions he tried to make for the u.s please go read that article if you have a chance link in the description below check us out on twitch at twitch.tv toy galaxy if you're in the position to help the channel grow if you would like early access to the videos ad free please visit our patreon at patreon.comtoygalaxy and let us know in the comments down below how much of your creative integrity you would be willing to sacrifice if it meant you would be a millionaire most people don't get to

23:03 have both usually you have to pick one or the other difficulty level is that you have to keep your name attached to whatever they end up making as the creator all of it of that thing all of it fill my pockets with money and we'll be fine throw all the money at me cut