just finished watching the Sailormoon livestream recording

+ Nothing has been done yet at all regarding the anime. Things will start to move after this. So no decisions have been made at all creatively yet, the talk of how it’s a reboot/remake/more based on the manga/more mature = just speculation. They talked a lot about how fans are nostalgic over the series and want more so I think that’s where all the talk is coming from about “aiming it at an older audience” is coming from, but they’re just mentioning the nostalgia factor. I’m seeing a lot of information going around that doesn’t seem right unless there’s a separate press release elsewhere with more info.

+ From Kotono’s blog she’s clearly sure she’s involved somehow, but it wasn’t said explicitly at the event that they would be reprising their old roles.

+ Kotono was holding a giant Sailormoon plushie. She said it was given to her at the event, but she had a well-loved one just as big at home that she couldn’t bring since it was dirty-looking and old. Anno won it at a bingo tournament and he gave it to her, and she treasures it even now. She also talked about how Misato was given Usagi’s bangs and she thought that was so cool.

+ Kotono and Furuya told the story of how they were cast. Kotono auditioned normally for Satou. Furuya was given the part without an audition and was puzzled when he was sent the character design: “WTF? Is he a magician or something? And his NAME is Tuxedo Kamen? Just what it says on the tin, then?” 

+ Furuya calls Kotono by name!! *w* They’re really cute!! When Kotono was handed Naoko’s letter, he took her plushie from her, and the MC commented that he took very good care of her, and she said, “Good job, Mamo-chan!” to him adorably.

+ Furuya’s daughter is twenty now, the same age as Sailormoon. When he would pick her up from kindergarten, all the little girls would freak out at her dad being Tuxedo Kamen. If they approached him, he’d launch into a Tuxedo Kamen speech calling them little maidens and exclaiming over their purity of heart. Seriously.

+ Momoiro Clover are awkward as fuck and I can’t believe they let them make the announcement. I didn’t hear or see anything about the song they performed being the theme song, I would assume it’ll be a new single and nothing they performed there. They sang Moonlight Densetsu and two other songs, all extremely off-key. Venus also didn’t have a ribbon. Side-eye. 

+ Osabu told the story of how they wanted Naoko to open up the world of Codename wa Sailor V. But, the truth was, Naoko had already begun working on a new series for Nakayoshi at that time. The plans for it were scrapped and work on Sailormoon began extremely haphazardly. Kotono said it was the first she’d ever heard of it, and wondered whatever had become of the story Naoko had been working on. Osabu said, what indeed…

+ Osabu was asked about what Naoko was like. He said she was very fond of shopping and a very serious worker, the type who would offer to do the character designs for original characters in the anime. He said that Naoko had never lost a manuscript in all her time working. Maybe you couldn’t say the same thing about KODANSHA, but NAOKO was faultless. Furuya commented at the end, “I didn’t know you were such an interesting person who spoke so frankly!” When Osabu  presented Naoko’s letter, he added, “Usually the company writes these things and signs the artist’s name to them, but this is really from her and she just mailed it to my cell phone this morning…” Furuya: “There you go speaking frankly again…”

+ The Sailormoon anime started only six months after serialization. Osabu: “A Toei producer approached me…said all kinds of wonderful things you only hear in dreams…I almost died of happiness.” Osabu said the anime was almost cancelled after half a year because the toys were not selling and the sponsors were losing interest. Once the Moon Stick came out, it sold like hotcakes and the show was saved. Kotono said she’d never heard about that before either.

+ Kotono wanted Peach Hips to be named “Sailormoon” but the higher-ups forbade it. The MC commented that if Sailormoon were on nowadays the DVDs would have sold like crazy and it would be Peach Hips performing in France.

+ Kotono was in Precure recently and a staff member at Toei told her they’d grown up on Sailormoon and was in that job because they wanted to work on a show like it. She cried. She said she thought a lot of people in the industry had grown up on the show and would want to be involved in making a great remake or reimagining of it. Furuya added that women in their twenties now are all members of the Sailormoon generation, and he believes they’ve been waiting for a follow-up. It’s a great story and he’s looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

+ Already posted Naoko’s letter here.

+ SHAKING AND CRYING ETC