Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Okay, this may not come as a shock (given my user name), but I am a huge fan of Sailor Moon. This was both my first anime and manga and is what got me hooked on the whole culture. If it wasn't for it, I might not be here on Gaia today. Or know the people I know.

I first saw it on Cartoon Network as they were doing a marathon. We had just moved into our new home and my family was out shopping. So, this would be back in 1998, maybe even in '97.

After that I found the manga in our bookstore. I must admit, I like the manga alot more than the English version of the show. For one thing, the characters aren't as ditzy and it makes more sense. But for whatever reason I also love the show.

Which is why I was so happy to receive the first season uncut that ADV produced for Christmas from my Stepdad (the last person on Earth who I thought would get it for me, seeing as how he hates anime. In fact, he said he wouldn't get me another. But that's okay, I love the one he did!). I would like to get the rest of the seasons as well, to complete my collection. Unfortunately, at the time I was a high school student with no job, so I couldn't get the rest of the seasons as they were released. But no worries, I would save up my money and get them when I could.

Which is where I run into a realization. The other day Kira Dwenna was remarking on how she saw a list of manga that are being discontinued. She said that SailorMoon was on it. Which of course got me curious so I started researching it.

The company that produced the SailorMoon manga was PocketMixx. It then renamed itself to Chix Comix, and then ultimately to TokyoPop. Which explains how they still retain the rights to Magic Knight Rayearth (also originally released by Pocket Mixx in the U.S.)

And according to the TokyoPop website, they discontinued the manga back on 2005. Luckily enough for me, I had already purchased the entire series. But it makes me sad because I was hoping for a new copy of some of the manga, due to the fact that when they resized the book, some of the images ran off the page making it hard to understand what's going on. But that's okay. At least I have it all and I can make up the parts that ran off.

But that got me to thinking about the series, and how I would like to complete the anime as well. I know that ADV no longer produces it, as it was a limited release of the first and second season. And then Pioneer bought the rights to the third and fourth. Pioneer turned into Geneon shortly after that. So I look up their website to see how much the set is running for.

Imagine my surprise when SailorMoon is listed no where on their site. If you try running a search for it, you may come up with a few titles, but click the links and it either takes you to a broken page or a no longer in stock page. Apparently they are also no longer producing it.

The cheapest I can find the different series is $200 for the second season, $150 for the third, and $200 for the fourth.

There you have it. My favorite show is no longer in production by anybody in the U.S. Sure, the rights are owned, but nobody is making it. And of course this means that I will never get to see the Fifth season in English.

It saddens me to think that such a popular show just went out like that. Sure, the voice acting wasn't the greatest (especially in the first two seasons!) and the editing was not done well (cousins? Oh, really?), but I still enjoyed it. There was a time when I get their merchendise at Hot Topic and Claire's. Now to have to spend $600 for the seasons (because who can forget shipping and handling?) is a little disheartening.

Of course, some of you may say why don't I just get the imports that claim to have English subtitles. The Japanese version is better anyways. Which I won't disagree with (having personally seen the first season in Japanese, it's almost like a different show). Except that most of the imports I'm finding seem to be bootlegs, and the quality is usually below standard on those. Even though I could get the entire 200 episodes and three movies for $100 (one price I saw on Ebay) is it worth it when I might not be able to watch a third of those episodes? Or understand them due to bad translating? (Which is what happened when I bought an import of Pretear before I knew it was coming out in America). I rather have the quality that Geneon and ADV had when they put out the series. At least then I know what I am getting, instead of having to trust a seller that what they have is great quality and will run fine.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh, another reason for the depressive mood in this rant is that I went and lost half of the first season of SailorMoon through and act of stupidity. So I had to go and spend $100 replacing the whole thing. Which makes it harder for me to get the rest because I'm not exactly rolling in the cash.