Items Tagged With tokyo

I have a couple of comments to get through before moving onto today's long editorial.

First off, just regarding Sailor Moon news in general, apart from the minor updates to Sailor Moon Channel, there's been nothing (that comes to mind) to discuss. If there was any breaking series-related news to be had, we'd certainly have it up here as we did with the Lohan rumor. There's going to be a doujinshi event here in Tokyo again on Sunday, so at the very least, I'll have more pictures and stories from that next week.

There's been an update at Sailor Moon channel and I've translated the small notice on the top left.

Finally, the Asakusa district's rainy season has begun to clear. We dropped by our friends at Banpresto and held a fireworks viewing party along the Sumida river which Takeuchi-sensei attended.

It had this wonderful "Ah, it's summer!" type feeling to it. This month we here at Sailor Moon Channel are working together to see a fortune-telling page get made. Please look forward to it.

Banpresto's HQ is in Taito-ku, not too far from where I live. The Asakusa district is a famous old entertainment center about twenty minutes from my apartment, and is well known for its opening and closing of the Sumida river ceremonies, where fireworks are lit on the river that runs alongside Asakusa. You can see some pictures of Asakusa at the WoL Tour page, since we went there on Day 2.

Wanted to bring up one or two things. First off, did you know Sawai Miyuu's been in some public service posters for the Tokyo government? I've been seeing these around the city since February but never had a camera to take a photo of it for the site, and accidentally stumbled onto the campaign's website a few days ago where I found they had a scan of it.

The campaign site itself is here. They basically want people to stop calling ambulances for minor emergencies and take taxis to hospitals instead, which they've renamed "support cabs."

Once again, myself, Yosenex (WoL's photographer), and Brad from MoonKitty went to a Japanese doujinshi event together. This time it was called "Amichan no Ochakai" which translates to "Ami's Tea Party" and was located in Akihabara. Pictures in this article were taken by Yosenex (except when they're of him.)

We also had a fourth person in attendance, a friend of Yosenex's named Jared, who came cosplaying for the event. He drew crowds in the main "Electric Town" entrance of Akihabara, with everyone from tourists to the girls in maid costumes that hand out flyers asking to take photos.

With a can of Chu-Hi in hand, anyone can become a sailor senshi,
and wind up having that permanently recorded in internet form.

UPDATE: ANN has noted the Lohan interview.

It seems that the Lohan rumor continues. Both we and AnimeNewsNetwork pointed out that there was nothing in Animage. Keep in mind, though, that that is ALL we have stated, that it was not in Animage. FYI, from this interview:

The people behind the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the Japanese manga series "Sailor Moon" have sent her some materials to look at, she said, and fans have begun lobbying hard for Lohan to play the titular character, a rail-thin blonde known for her strong powers and sexy costumes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Apr. 20, 2006 - (Royal Palm Beach, FL) Genvid L.L.C. is proud to announce that its "Sailor Moon" based reality tour, the "Warriors of Legend Tour of Tokyo" has sold out. The tour is based on sites described in Genvid L.L.C.'s book "Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon."

The Warriors of Legend Tour of Tokyo is a for-fans, by-fans tour which promises devotees of the blockbuster series an inside look at the life of the characters in a way seldom experienced by even Japanese otaku. The ten tour attendees are flying into Tokyo from cities around the globe, from San Francisco and New York to Toronto, Sydney, Okinawa, and Bagdad, for a 4 night, 3 day adventure of a lifetime.

Before we begin, let me mention that we've filled 9 of the Warriors of Legend Tour's 10 slots, and will be closing the tour for registration within the next few days. The level of commitment from Sailor Moon's fans blows me away and I'm honored to be guiding this group.

If everything goes well, when the tour concludes on June 30th, 2006 (Usagi's birthday), I'll be writing a letter to Takeuchi, explaining what we did on the tour and including some photographs of those in attendance. I think she will be absolutely thrilled by it.

You may recall I and several others attended a Sailor Moon doujinshi event last fall in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. Six months later the same group has held another event in Tokyo proper, which WoL photographer Yosenex and I went to yesterday.

The directions to the place were pretty confusing and we were lost for a little while, wandering the streets of Mitaka, an area located slightly west of Shinjuku. Entering a building on an uncrowded side-street, we saw a small color sign near the elevator featuring the same artwork that had been on the March flyer that had been handed out in October. We knew we'd arrived.

As may come as no surprise the lack of updates has been for veritable lack of things to discuss. I'd love to have some new series translations or something along those lines  for you but even Sailor Moon channel hasn't been updating with new things lately.

I've looked for Sailor Moon stuff here in Tokyo, it's about as hard to find in mainstream shops as DDR is in most arcades. Unless you look really hard or go to a place that specializes in otaku stuff, it's gone. Sawai Miyuu's pretty easy to find though, she's in a new advertising campaign. I'll get a picture of the posters you can find in train stations next time I get the chance.

I think that's about all there is to say, I'm doing a lot of traveling right now (Kansai all this week) so I don't have much time to update. I'm willing to accept guest articles if anyone's interested. Andy's sent in a new installment in his Anime Recs series so that'll be up soon.

Last, on the tour, we have three slots currently open, but we'll be finalizing the attendance list soon so this is the last chance. If you contacted us but didn't hear back, please write to us again.