Header fan art by former Disney (now Sony Animation) artist Mingjue Helen Chen.
Welcome back to Mooniversity, our column for all things “Sailor Moon.” As we continue to await word on the release of the Sailor Moon Cosmos movies — which mark the conclusion of the second anime continuity — outside Japan, now’s a perfect time to talk about the future of the series. Will we ever get another manga, anime, live-action show, or movie? And will they offer new stories, or adapt the same five arcs again?
Personally, I feel if Naoko Takeuchi was truly interested in a continuation or spin-off, then we would’ve had one much more recently than 1999, when ‘Parallel Sailor Moon‘ was published. At the same time, the live-action show and new anime have probably already kept her very busy, and this year, she disclosed in a Chanel collaboration that she has an idea for a new “Senshi.” So who knows? Let’s speculate anyway.
“Sailor Moon Super”
(As in “Dragon Ball Super,” the currently running sequel to Akira Toriyama’s original manga, not season three.) There’s merit in the idea of continuing the original comic, even if the possibility of switching the focus to Chibiusa, Saturn, Helios, and the Sailor Quartet may not be commercially appealing. What would be interesting is to show how Usagi became Neo-Queen Serenity: the ’90s cartoon came up with its own backstory for this, establishing she became ruler of the world after leading it out of a new ice age in the 30th century, but the manga stated she became Queen aged 22, not long after the series’ conclusion.
Speaking of the ’90s show, there’s even more you could do in that universe, since several of the villains (ie. the Spectre Sisters, Professor Tomoe, the Amazon Trio, Galaxia and Nehelenia) were redeemed and survived, unlike their comics counterparts. While Eternal and Cosmos have or are giving us moments not adapted in the original anime, like the Sailor Quartet’s debut, Cosmos’s introduction, and Usagi and Mamoru’s wedding, it’d still be great to see these scenes get incorporated into a revival. Heck, revisiting the manga and anime could canonize the Shittenou being the Inner Guardians’ past loves in both continuities!
“Sailor V” and the Short Stories
“Sailor Moon,” the manga and anime, evolved from an aborted attempt to expand “Codename: Sailor V” into a TV show. With Usagi’s story officially over again, perhaps it’s finally time for Minako’s prequel series to be animated? Yes, it’s a shorter, more comedic and dated series, but that’s why it could make for a fun throwback, especially after how poe-faced Crystal was.
Likewise, it’d be great to see all of the short stories get adapted onscreen – during the ’90s run, only ‘The Lover of Princess Kaguya,’ ‘Ami’s First Love,’ and two of the ‘Chibiusa’s Picture Diary‘ stories got turned into anime, and it’s a shame Toei didn’t adapt more into theatrical short films or TV specials during the reboot.
A Proper Reboot
Take three: imagine a cartoon that’s not a 1:1 adaptation of the comic like Crystal, or a long, filler-heavy show like the ’90s anime, something that lets its creators explore or deviate from the story at their own pace. As far as I know, this is not something Japanese comic book shows do anymore, so unless a local producer has an amazing pitch for Toei, this is a good argument for finally doing an original American take. Imagine a Sailor Moon series from the creatives it so heavily inspired on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, or My Adventures with Superman? Or a take from The Owl House creator Dana Terrace that leans heavily into the queer and horror elements? The possibilities are endless.
(Also, a reimagining might not need to be a TV show: consider Scholastic’s upcoming retelling of Osamu Tezuka’s “Unico,” by Samuel Sattin and Gurihiru.)
A True Film Series
The genesis for this column came from a piece about a Hollywood Sailor Moon movie, so let’s not go over too much old territory again. What I will say here is that Toei can easily do their own feature-length retelling of the ‘Dark Kingdom’ saga et al., and they can make it more distinct from their previous versions by using 3D animation, or going for a hybrid look ala Spider-Verse, Mutant Mayhem etc. Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle, and Studio Ponoc’s upcoming The Imaginary, are great examples of Japanese animators using digital technology to create the latter, and a Sailor Moon movie that beautiful would be an absolute dream come true.
Continued belowAnother Stab at Live-Action
While I’ve made it clear that I don’t like the idea of a live-action Sailor Moon, it’d be irrational to think everyone agrees about that: Naoko Takeuchi’s probably heard about the success of Netflix’s One Piece, and her own husband, Yoshihiro Togashi, has a locally produced live-action series based on his comic “YuYu Hakusho” coming to the streamer in December. Since Netflix was the platform the Eternal movies were released on outside Japan, and will likely be so again for Cosmos, don’t be surprised if the streamer announces a Japanese or English-language live-action Sailor Moon in the near future.
Before we finish, I just want to say it would be awesome if any future animated iterations of the Sailor Guardians were voiced by actual teenagers – like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem, it’s an absolute no-brainer that makes you wonder why it’s never been done before. Thanks for reading, and be sure to bookmark for next time, when we get into the Halloween spirit for a discussion for the series and… vampires…
