Someone went hunting for the American Sailor Moon pilot

[Jman]

https://kotaku.com/we-tried-to-uncover-the-long-lost-american-sailor-moon-1827695456

The lore of the internet has it that before DIC just dubbed the show, someone tried to adapt Sailor Moon’s concept with completely redone footage, live action bits straight out of Power Rangers, a multiethnic cast, and most notably, one of them in a wheelchair.

Someone went looking for the pilot and this is what they found.

 

[mochi]

I thought you hated Sailor Moon

[Chapinator_X]

This was quite a fun read. I remember reading something about Ami being in a wheelchair, but it looks worse than I thought, especially with animation supplementing the action sequences. I can't help but feel bad for Frank Ward because it seemed like he saw potential in Sailor Moon and its eventual success in the States, but could only play by the rulebook of 90's television, so he worked hard to make it palatable for the Power Rangers audience only to get the rug taken out from under him and have his replacement show also wiped from the pages of history.

The show would've been embarrassing, but it makes for fascinating lore into what the landscape must've been like for anime in the US during this period in time. Even though anime was present through a subculture that traded subtitled VHS tapes or watched the very few anime that came over unscathed like Akira, it was so niche that companies had to repurpose it all of these years by either Americanizing it to a dramatic degree or chopping up parts of a show to invent new ones like Voltron. And with the early 90's, the breakthrough was only a short time away, effectively tanking ideas like this one for a Power Rangers-esque Sailor Moon adaptation once the interest in broadcasting DiC's dub of the series came into fruition.

[mochi]

1 minute ago, imchapp.in said:

This was quite a fun read. I remember reading something about Ami being in a wheelchair, but it looks worse than I thought, especially with animation supplementing the action sequences. I can't help but feel bad for Frank Ward because it seemed like he saw potential in Sailor Moon and its eventual success in the States, but could only play by the rulebook of 90's television, so he worked hard to make it palatable for the Power Rangers audience only to get the rug taken out from under him and have his replacement show also wiped from the pages of history.

The show would've been embarrassing, but it makes for fascinating lore into what the landscape must've been like for anime in the US during this period in time. Even though anime was present through a subculture that traded subtitled VHS tapes or watched the very few anime that came over unscathed like Akira, it was so niche that companies had to repurpose it all of these years by either Americanizing it to a dramatic degree or chopping up parts of a show to invent new ones like Voltron. And with the early 90's, the breakthrough was only a short time away, effectively tanking ideas like this one for a Power Rangers-esque Sailor Moon adaptation once the interest in broadcasting DiC's dub of the series came into fruition.

I think the most interesting thing to glean from this is that it explains where the hell this toy idea came from

[Jman]

1 hour ago, mochi said:

I thought you hated Sailor Moon

I’ve said before the show has a bizarre charisma that somehow appeals to men and women the same way Super Sentai and stuff like that does for me.  

That and these things are utterly fascinating.  You don’t see this anymore in an era of simuldubs and scantlations.

[PokeNirvash]

1 hour ago, mochi said:

I think the most interesting thing to glean from this is that it explains where the hell this toy idea came from

That looks like some kind of needlessly complicated sex toy.

[mochi]

14 minutes ago, Jman said:

I’ve said before the show has a bizarre charisma that somehow appeals to men and women the same way Super Sentai and stuff like that does for me.  

That and these things are utterly fascinating.  You don’t see this anymore in an era of simuldubs and scantlations.

you also said millions of times that Sailor Moon is too childish and girly to be worth ever airing on Toonami

[mochi]

10 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

That looks like some kind of needlessly complicated sex toy.

so does the Moon Stick

[Jman]

7 minutes ago, mochi said:

you also said millions of times that Sailor Moon is too childish and girly to be worth ever airing on Toonami

I don’t want Power Rangers on prime time television either.  I still enjoy it in its weird way, still find value in it.  You can like something but not think it’s an ideal fit.

[mochi]

35 minutes ago, Jman said:

I don’t want Power Rangers on prime time television either.  I still enjoy it in its weird way, still find value in it.  You can like something but not think it’s an ideal fit.

 

[katt_goddess]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 7:49 AM, mochi said:

I think the most interesting thing to glean from this is that it explains where the hell this toy idea came from

The mystery explained!  

I always thought it was just a throw-back to the days where every action figure toy had to have some kind of machine even if it made no sense at all. Like Superman's mechanized walker - he can fly, why the hell did he need a walking chair to sit in? 

And yes, I have this thing. I also have the various musical wand things from the 90's.