The decades-long seek for the American model of Sailor Moon has lastly come to an finish. Ray Mona, a YouTuber who paperwork her efforts to search out misplaced media (together with the never-released Imply Women recreation), has managed to unearth the pilot episode of the unaired, never-finished collection that the Sailor Moon fandom has come to know as Saban Moon.
The story of the Americanized Sailor Moon begins in 1993, about two years earlier than the debut of the dubbed Sailor Moon that we all know at the moment. On the time, animation studio Toon Makers teamed up with Renaissance Atlantic Leisure, the producers behind the unique Energy Rangers, in a bid to make an English model of the collection. The 2 firms pitched a venture that blends live-action with animation that in the end by no means took off. We solely acquired a glimpse of what got here out of the venture in a quick music video proven at an anime conference within the 90s.
However now, we have now the complete first episode. In a two-part (half one | half two) collection that takes place over the span of a number of months, Ray Mona particulars her journey to uncover Saban Moon. With the assistance of Kotaku reporter Cecilia D’Anastasio, who tried to search out the long-lost episode in 2018, she acquired former Bandai American president Frank Ward’s approval to acquire a replica of the footage from The Library of Congress that she included in her video.
The pilot begins at 1:43:48 partly two of Ray Mona’s collection, and it’s unimaginable to lastly lay eyes on the collection that by no means got here to fruition. The episode splits its time between an animated and live-action format, with every Sailor Scout — and even Luna — performed by a real-life actress throughout their time on Earth. Throughout the sequences that happen in area, the present transitions to an animated model that swaps the unique starry-eyed look of Sailor Moon’s characters for one thing you’d see in a basic Disney film.
It’s a very totally different tackle the collection, and, I’ve to say, it was completely definitely worth the wait.