Full transcript of “Uncovering the Original Sailor Moon Presentation Pitch | Ep 2 | The Vault”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 welcome to the Vault a miniseries within the tales of the Lost universe that Ventures into Secrets hidden inside the archives of the Library of Congress in this next batch of episodes we will be exploring the many cancelled American anime adaptations created by Renaissance Atlantic and Bandai entertainment rejected pilots and TV treatments forever lost in the archives until now each new episode covers a new discovery what piece of lost media might turn up next follow us as we dive into the depths of the f tonight's episode will leave you pretty Soldier Sailor Moon made its debut on Japanese television in March of 1992 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon the show which followed a
0:47 group of magical girls who fought to protect the world from Evil forces was a significant part of the magical girl genre it was influential in its portrayal of strong female characters and its themes of friendship love and Justice the success of Sailor Moon in Japan led to its International release and it became a hit in many countries worldwide including the United States the English dub of the series premiered in 1995 and quickly gained popularity becoming a staple of the American anime scene its success paved the way for other magical girl anime to gain popularity in the United States and helped to establish anime as a mainstream form of entertainment today Sailor Moon remains a beloved and influential series with a dedicated fan
1:33 base that spans Generations though the series was immensely popular in the United States longtime fans will remember that Sailor Moon didn't always have the easiest time being dubbed into English as it went through a notoriously arduous cycle of cancellations and re-airings the show's themes of gender identity and sexuality made it a controversial topic for American audiences and the original Japanese script had to be heavily edited to appeal to a wider audience these challenges along with being initially aired on dead time slots made it difficult for the series to find a consistent home on American television during its first cancellation fan English translations of popular Japanese anime had become increasingly popular in
2:18 North America due to the lack of official localizations for several years after their debut dubbing anime was a new and intimidating Venture for American Executives in the 9s making it difficult for most anime to receive an official dub due to the need for approval and Licensing deals with networks this resulted in many early dubs only being released directly to video as the entire process of distribution was separate from localization today the pipeline process of dubbing anime has changed significantly due to the availability of streaming services that offer both licensing and distribution back in the 1990s selling Japanese anime to American networks was a much more difficult process than it is today it involved
3:05 negotiations between the Japanese rights holder known as the licenser and American Distributors known as The lenses the two parties would enter into a licensing agreement which not only granted the leny the rights to airs said anime but was also not limited to merchandise distribution sub licensing and a myriad of other promotional opportunities unfortunately with Japanese animation still being more or less a foreign concept to many American Executives there were fewer Distributors interested in the medium however on the off chance that a show did make it through the cracks once a network purchased the rights to airing the series The localization process would begin the process of localization may involve changes to the script character names and cultural differences to make
3:51 the anime more understandable to American viewers the anime is then dubbed into English or subtitled and any necessary edits are made to comply with American broadcasting regulations the anime is then marketed and distributed to American networks for broadcast the success of the localized anime was often determined by its popularity in Japan and the marketing efforts of American Distributors back in the 80s ' 99s and early 2000s these deals were almost exclusively centered around home video and television broadcast rights but way before a network can even enter into any sort of Licensing agreement with a rights holder the network first has to approve the licenser presentation pilot so what exactly is a presentation pilot think of the TV Pilots that are often
4:36 created to be pitched to network Executives in order to get a series created in the context of selling a Japanese anime to America to be dubbed a presentation pilot would typically include a dubbed version of the first episode or even a trailer of the series the presentation pilot is designed to demonstrate the anime's appeal and potential to American Distributors and audiences it may include scenes that showcase the anime's unique art style characters and story lines as well as any action or humor that might appeal to American audiences the presentation pilot is an important tool for convincing American Distributors to pick up the anime for localization and distribution this allows them to get a full sense of the anime's potential how you choose to create your presentation pitch is what can really make or break a
5:23 deal with investors Executives and major television networks that are looking to purchase it that is where this next piece of lost media comes in this is the very presentation pilot that Frank Ward and his Associates at Bandai America had shopped to Fox Executives in 1994 as he recalled in our previous interview that he and his team had initially pitched the anime for syndication according to Frank at the time potential buyers had dismissed his initial presentation because they simply didn't believe Sailor Moon would be successful or worth taking seriously and would not be something American audiences would be interested in despite the stats on anime's impact internationally he noted that presenting them this media would only have you laughed at which had
6:08 happened to him multiple times investors wouldn't want the media to be licensed and dubbed because they saw it as a waste of funds Frank notes that much of this attitude was due and in part to racism and a dee rooted xenophobia investors would simply turn up their nose at anything they deemed quote unquote unamerican at the time and if these franchises were going to be pitched to an American audience they had to again feel American which resulted in Renaissance Atlantics initiative to americanizing the Japanese material like Sailor Moon and St seya as an effort to save the series only for executives to ultimately choose to have the anime dubbed and this was only because they now deemed it as the more affordable
6:53 option so lucky for anime fans in North America that the release of many of our most beloved anime was made possible due to the American adaptation being a more costly Venture though apprehensive of Japanese content the final decision ultimately boiled down to finances it might sound hard to believe that Executives had rejected this initial presentation from Frank Ward and his team but try to imagine this through the lens of ignorant 50s Something year- Old American investors in the early 9s with little to no idea of what Japanese culture was as a medium still harboring racial biases towards a country they had previously gone to war with with all of that in mind their rejection of anime is perhaps a little less shocking this is
7:40 the Bandai America presentation pitch of Sailor [Music] Moon our extremely popular Sailor Moon has become a social phenomenon Sailor Moon is booming in films musicals books everywhere it has been in great demand in the character merchandising business you cannot explain its attraction without the metamorphic costumes of the girls and their episodes of love and [Music]
8:28 friendship the heroine of Sailor Moon skino usagi is a junior high school girl she is rather a clumsy girl who comes late to school or secretly has early lunch her teacher scolds her for getting a bad grade one night she is given a mysterious cat Luna a compact that enables her to transform into a sailor Warrior her mission is to summon four sailor Warriors and prevent the ambition of dark kingdom who tries to dominate the [Music]
9:28 world [Music] a person who supports the girl is a wondrous Warrior Tuxedo Mask [Applause] the Sailor Warriors gather one after another to shatter the ambition of dark [Music]
10:23 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] kingdom thank [Music] the genius girl Ami Mizuno is Sailor Mercury whose Guardian planet is [Music] Mercury [Music] up the maiden Reino is Sailor Mars her
11:10 guardian planet is [Music] Mars [Music] [Applause] fire k [Applause] [Music] powerful Makino is Sailor Jupiter Jupiter is her [Applause] [Music]
11:56 guardian and the beauty Mino IO is Sailor Venus she has Venus for her guardian [Music] [Applause] Planet V five girls had a fatal relationship in their previous existence Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity a princess of the past Moon she falls in love with the prince of the earth IND Damian but the happiness does not last long Queen barel attacks the moon leading to Army of the Earth it's these four girls who protect the princess but during the attack of Queen barel IND Damian and serenity [Music]
12:45 died Queen of the Moon Queen Serenity seals the metalia at the risk of her life then she transfers the two to today's world so that they can see and love each other again the Sailor moons teleport to the North Pole to challenge the last battle during the harsh battle Jupiter Mercury Venus and Mars all get killed and even the Beloved Tuxedo [Music] Mask having lost her companions Sailor Moon leaves for the last battle her
13:30 friends who are supposed to be dead protect her from the enemy filled with a warm sunshine of Life they revive and The Story Goes On and On [Music] eternally in the second year for Sailor Moon we produced a musical which turned out to be a great [Music] success [Music]
14:27 fore [Music] thank you for dining with us there's more where that came from what lost media do you think will be shown From the Vault next if you would like to support this little series don't forget to like And subscribe tataa for now
