Ask John: Why Did Sailor Moon Take So Long to Get License Rescued?

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Question:
I was overjoyed to learn that the original Sailor Moon anime had finally had its license rescued by Viz and is getting the full treatment for its release including an uncut English dub in which the original author herself will be approving the voice cast. As well as for the first time having the Sailor Stars portion of the anime released in North America. While I have good memories watching Sailor Moon on Toonami back when it was a weekly block, I’ll look forward to how Viz handles the release.

I was wondering though why did it take so long to rescue the license for Sailor Moon? One theory that I have is that Toei wanted to get English speaking audiences (both older and potential new fans) familiar with the original anime while new Sailor Moon Crystal anime is being simulcast along side the release of the original.


Answer:
Relatively few people know for certain why roughly six years passed before the Sailor Moon anime franchise was re-acquired for American release. Sometimes, however, the simplest explanations are the most likely. The development of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon reboot anime television series was doubtlessly inspired partially by the success of the 2003-2004 live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon television series and awareness that 2014 would mark the 20th anniversary of Naoko Takeuchi’s original Sailor Moon manga. Furthermore, Kodansha’s successful re-publication of the Sailor Moon manga in English and the aggressive moves that Japanese anime distributors have made into international streaming distribution were certainly also determining factors contributing to the decision to relaunch the Sailor Moon anime franchise with an international series. A re-release of the original 1992-1997 anime series would be an ideal way to generate advance publicity for the new franchise. After all, the sales and profit potential of the original anime series is limited because the anime itself is limited in amount. But the new Sailor Moon Crystal series offers an unlimited, expansive future potential for new merchandising, broadcast rights, additional animation, music rights and publicity, and more. Doubtlessly Toei Animation will want to do everything in its power to ensure that the upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal series becomes a blockbuster success.

Fans can certainly speculate that the original American distribution licenses for the Sailor Moon anime expired around 2008 and didn’t get relicensed until 2014 due to Japanese anxiety over American brand management and the introduction of gender-switching characters in the Sailor Stars season, or dissatisfaction with the limited domestic success of the original home video releases, or frustration over the heavily censored, edited American broadcast release. But the most likely explanation for the lapse in the American distribution was likely due to a combination of Toei Animation being preoccupied with other more current projects and a lack of a compelling American interest. Sailor Moon is a big, tentpole franchise for Toei and Kodansha, so arranging an American distribution license may not have been worth the required Japanese time and effort unless an American license rescue promised a great deal of success and revenue. Now that Toei has a brand new Sailor Moon anime series to promote, Toei itself has a vested interest in seeing the original ’92-97 anime series resurrected, and the most ideal American licensor would be a Japanese-owned company with experience in manga, merchandising, home video, and streaming. Viz Media is the only domestic distributor that meets all of those criteria. For example, Viz Media’s current authentic & faithful Blu-ray re-release of the Ranma 1/2 anime franchise should provide much greater reassurance that the company could also handle a similar faithful re-release of the comparable Sailor Moon franchise than FUNimation’s failed release of an authentic & faithful version of Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray and its current far less authentic Blu-ray release of Dragon Ball Z.

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