Where In The USA Is The Sailor Moon Anime?

On July 6, 2012, it was announced that the Sailor Moon series would be getting a new anime series, and it would contain a new theme song performed by Momoiro Clover Z. Sailor Moon fans eagerly waited for the new anime to come, but it was delayed multiple times. Recently, on January 9th, it was finally announced that the new Sailor Moon anime would premiere this July, and that Toei Animation was going to be "adapting Naoko Takeuchi's original manga and starting from scratch again." Fans got excited again, and many of them now patiently wait for the premiere episode on Niconico.

This would probably be the first time that North American fans of the series would be able to watch their favorite magical girl team beat intergalactic villains on an instant online stream that would be subtitled in multiple languages. However, many of the fans in the U.S. still remember back in 1995 when the first Sailor Moon anime premiered on television, and even though the show was completely edited for content, it was still enjoyable for the American fans. But, it wasn't until after 2000 when the uncut episodes started appearing on DVD. Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R was released in two subtitled-only season box sets by ADV Films, and both Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS was released on bilingual DVD sets by Pioneer (now Geneon Universal Entertainment). Sailor Stars, the fifth entry to the anime series, never came to the U.S. due to the amount of content that would've been considered objectionable to television audiences at the time. Sadly, the DVDs became out of print after both ADV Films and Pioneer allowed the rights to expire around 2004 and 2005. The box sets are now very rare to get, and if anyone finds them for sale on sites like Amazon, they would be expensive to get (both new and used).

For the past decade, other American anime distribution companies, like FUNimation, have been trying to get the rights to the series, but sadly, no company owns the North American rights to the Sailor Moon anime as of now. However, in 2011, Kodansha USA re-released the first volume of the Sailor Moon manga, along with the first volume of Codename: Sailor V (the predecessor of Sailor Moon) on September 13th. This seemed like a sign to fans that Sailor Moon was making a big comeback to the U.S., but after all the manga was released, there was still no sign of the Sailor Moon anime until the news of the previously mentioned reboot.

In my opinion, as both an anime fan and a Sailor Moon fan, if there was possibly any company to get the rights from Toei, it would probably be either Sentai Filmworks or Discotek Media. However, I was able to get the first two uncut season box sets of Sailor Moon on DVD (after I spent a total of $296.46 to get them). Of course, I had to go through the existing flaws in the Sailor Moon R box set since an episode was missing, and the audio in the beginning of one of the episodes had some of the English dub soundtrack on it. Hopefully, since the recent announcement of the reboot, the Sailor Moon anime will finally make a comeback to the U.S., and the episodes could be enjoyed again by the American Sailor Moon fan base once again.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!: A Review

Throughout the anime industry, there are many short lived anime series that would normally last around twelve episodes, and there are some that are kinda bad and those that are pretty good. Of course, what short lived series that I will discuss in this review is one that I believe in my opinion as a pretty good series: Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! Yes, that is the title of the show itself.

Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is a twelve episode anime adaptation of the light novel series of the same name written by Tomohiro Matsu and illustrated by Yuka Nakajima, and it is based around the story of Yuuta Segawa, a first year university student, who takes the responsibility of taking care of his three nieces after his older sister and brother in law go missing after a plane crash (it's presumed that they were killed in the crash in the point of view of the anime) in his one room apartment. Throughout the series, Yuuta gets multiple jobs during the Summer break to make enough money, so he could take care of all three girls and himself. In a way, the series is kinda like Usagi Drop (Bunny Drop in its English translation) in a way of how a relative ends up taking the responsibility of parenting the children of either a missing or deceased loved one, but tends to keep moments of comedy within the series.

Of course, we can't forget about the characters and what they are like throughout the series, but even though there are other interesting characters in the anime, I think it will be better if I just focused on the main characters just like what I did for the Mad Bull 34 review. First, there's Yuuta, who is voiced by Wataru Hatano (Fairy Tail), and he is our main protagonist of the series. He is introduced in the first episode starting out his first year of college, and he soon gets a call from his older sister, Yuri, to come and visit her family once in a while. But, as soon as his Summer break begins, his sister invites him to watch her children while she goes on a long business trip with her husband, but when the airplane crashes and a grave decision of splitting their daughters apart to live with different relatives comes around, Yuuta takes action to look after his nieces so they could stay together. Throughout the series, Yuuta is seen as a young man who cares for all three of his nieces, and even swears to keep them together no matter what. Next, there is the fourteen year old Sora, who is voiced by Sumire Uesaka, and she is the oldest of his three nieces. She is not blood related to Yuuta, but she cares so much about him. Actually, she has a crush on him, but calls him "big brother" instead of "uncle." She is also very short tempered, but shy. Then, there is the middle child, the ten year old Miu, who is voiced by Eri Kitamura (Blood+). She mostly refers Yuuta as "uncle" even though they are not blood related, and tends to have a crush on older boys. She is very polite and caring, but whenever Sora is trying to cook, she does her best to make sure she doesn't burn any of the food. Finally, there is the three year old Hina, and she is voiced by Hiromi Igarashi. Unlike Sora and Miu, she is blood related to Yuuta, and she's Yuri's only daughter. She is very energetic, and she's also a fan of an anime known as Luna Luna Seven. Due to her young age, she mispronounces certain words, but the characters know what she is actually trying to say while trying to correct her.

In my opinion, Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is actually pretty good even though I have never read any of the light novels (of course they are only available in Japan), and I found it comical and entertaining. The first three episodes actually sets up the story while the rest of the series goes through how Yuuta and his nieces go through each day, and without spoiling anything, the finale is actually pretty dramatic but very light in tone for it to still be enjoyable. I highly recommend this anime, but I have to say that you would have to be thirteen or older due to some of the jokes not being suitable for younger children. The twelve episode anime, including the OVA, is available to seen online on Crunchyroll, or purchased on DVD from Sentai Filmworks. However, there is no English dub of the series, so the only version that can be seen is the Japanese version with English subtitles.

Written by Nolan Schmidt