Sailor Moon Gets Italian Game Makeover

[scotth266]

I remember the Sailor Moon anime: I watched it alongside other great fare (Tenchi Muyo, Gundam Wing, Dragonball Z.) Pity that Toonami was essentially gutted after the failed airing of that chibi gundam show, and eventually got cancelled altogether. Now Adult Swim is the only place on my network that airs anime, and since they also air random crap, the coverage tends to be sparse and features multiple late-night/early-morning reruns.

 

[Xander_VJ]

It's a very successful show in southern Europe. Portugal and Italy at least. Most people my age in portugal remember Sailor Moon. We grew up on that, DBZ and Rurouni Kenshin

You can add Spain to that list. So, yeah, "Sailor Moon" indeed was popular in southern Europe.

OT: Italy? Hmmm... how is anime doing in Europe? I mean, I know it's really caught on among the geek crowd (people who like things that nerds like but aren't as smart as nerds are) and I have to imagine the stoner crowd too (to a lesser degree) in North America, but what`s it looking like in Europe

Well, anime started kicking in Europe during the late... 70's!

Partly because European countries contracted Japanese animation studios for doing several shows, and broadcasting a couple of original Japanese shows in the Old Continent was usually part of the deal.

The series that started it were "Mazinger Z" and "Heidi".

By the time of the early 90s, it became a phenomenon thanks to two shows: "Dragon Ball" (duh!) and "Captain Tsubasa" (a soccer anime. Who would have thought). The next big leap was in the late 90s with "Evangelion" and "Rurouni Kenshin".

The rest is history. Right now, manga and anime are arguably more popular here than American comic books.

France is the biggest manga/anime consumer in Europe, followed by the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Some shows are even more popular in Europe than in good old Japan itself, like (gasp!) "Naruto".

Long story short: Europe is CRAZY about anime.

 

[cystemic]

sailor moon has got to be my first childhood idol after mary poppins, but she kicks way more butt. im actually interested to see how many guys are gonna line up to buy the dvds or they could save us the trouble and put them on blurays... I WANT THEM ALL!

 

[Marsell]

first anime I ever saw.
I really need to check out the full series.

 

[Marsell]

Relevant:

*SWOON*

I grew up with the Scouts. :3 It warms my heart to hear them making a come back, even if it's just in Italy. I still haven't seen the Stars season.

They actually never dubbed it, if fact I don't think it was released in the US.

 

[Firia]

Relevant:

*SWOON*

I grew up with the Scouts. :3 It warms my heart to hear them making a come back, even if it's just in Italy. I still haven't seen the Stars season.

They actually never dubbed it, if fact I don't think it was released in the US.

I know. That's still no excuse for me to have not seen it. When I was watching, they stopped at what was elsewhere known as... actually I forget what it was known as. "R" or something. It was the intoduction of Chibi Chibi. Just as the scouts converted the last of the baddie girls to good (HAH!), and the big-boss guy in the crystal fortress was about to get serious, Bandai gave up the show. I found out they came back to it much later, but by that time I had moved on. I sort of regret never catching up.

I wanted to get the series on DVD, but the company that owns the rights to it has never released it to dvd as far as I know. At least, not when I looked a couple years back.

 

[tetron]

Hentai probably wouldn't be as popular as it is if it wasn't for this show.

Probably won't watch it but it'll be good for a laugh if I ever see my little brother watching it.

 

[RebekahWSD]

Ahh. Most excellent. I remember loving this, when I was a kid. And eventually, my avatar will make sense here again, woo!

 

[NihilCredo]

I, as an Italian, don't really see a need for this... Italian teenagers grew up watching manly stuff, like Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)!

As a kid, I used to watch both mystical/martial arts cartoons as well as Sailor Moon and Mila&Shiro. My family was too poor to afford gender roles.

 

[Vortigar]

Ah, Sailor Moon. Full of completely awesome stuff and some of the most horrible television I've ever witnessed. I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for you. Well, not you, any of the girls but you Usagi...

My anime in Europe bit:
Here in Holland anime was launched in the late seventies through the judicious usage of blood, guts and porn. Yep, horror and hentai was the name of the game here as far as Japanese animation was concerned. After slowly rolling into a little boom in the eighties it died down again.

It bubbled along for a while until DBZ made it flare back up in the nineties and it hasn't died down yet. There isn't a lot of anime on tv though, so its stuck with a geekish crowd of collectors mostly. But the market is large enough for loads of shows to get Dutch subtitled dvd releases, we've got conventions, a magazine and everything. Manga is mainly imported from America as the fans read English as easily as Dutch.

We've got one of the few uncensored translations of the original Ghost in the Shell manga series though, those dreaded two pages depicting Motoko's holiday sure made the world jump back in the day.

I, as an Italian, don't really see a need for this... Italian teenagers grew up watching manly stuff, like Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)!

Like many have said before I thought you guys had both the manly and girly stuff down there.

You know, wasn't it an Italian who made W.I.T.C.H.? *checks wikipedia* Yes it was! I don't even need to look up that fairy show as I'm pretty sure your country is responsible for that one as well. *does it anyway* Yep, Winx Club is Italian too. Italy has magical girls close to the heart indeed. Maybe your country is making up for lost time. I wasn't there of course, but it always seemed to me there was a connection there.

Witch is actually pretty good if you ask me. Could use some more frames of animation to make the motions more fluid here and there. The story is managed decently enough. Possibly the best show for girls from Western shores this last decade. So, thanks for that one in any case, I liked it, even if I'm a guy.

 

[Queen Michael]

Man, I love this show! Sailor Moooooon, min vääääään, ödet är dold, går ej att se... vad som vännnnntar diiiiiig... Står i stjääääärnorna....

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

I hope it's an Italian remake along these lines:

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Mars was awesome, but let's be honest: Jupiter ruled. Her and Mercury were always my favorites.

As for villians, Ail and An were awesome, but from the original manga gotta role with Galaxia.

But for me, she was too tomboyish when I was 7 to really relate to. I think I grew up as a girlie girl until my teens. I liked the idea of being pretty with long dark hair. Maybe thats why I liked Mars more!

Fair enough. It was the tomboyish aspect of Makoto that made her my favorite.

I have all three of those.

2 copies of the RPG book, an imported copy of the SNES title (and translated copy on my pc), and most of the first edition of the CCG.

Wow, I still have a SNES! It probs wouldn't work though even if I did manage to get a copy!

I recently had to replace my SNES. I hooked my old one up and the main board had finally given out. Replaced it so I could play some Mario RPG and SimAnt.

On a side note, awesome avatar. Lain was one of the first anime I ever watched.

 

[EmzOLV]

Fair enough. It was the tomboyish aspect of Makoto that made her my favorite.

That's where we differ then! I couldn't get used to Sailor Venus though :S

I recently had to replace my SNES. I hooked my old one up and the main board had finally given out. Replaced it so I could play some Mario RPG and SimAnt.

On a side note, awesome avatar. Lain was one of the first anime I ever watched.

Ah mine is still up and running, I'm surprised it has lasted this long with the way we seem to break stuff! My N64 is also quite so happy. I don't think the Sailor Moon game would work properly on my SNES however. Bit of a shame.

And thanks Lain is something that took me a few views to understand, but I just find it fascinating ^^

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Ah mine is still up and running, I'm surprised it has lasted this long with the way we seem to break stuff! My N64 is also quite so happy. I don't think the Sailor Moon game would work properly on my SNES however. Bit of a shame.

And thanks Lain is something that took me a few views to understand, but I just find it fascinating ^^

The SNES and N64 are a couple of the most reliable consoles ever built. As for running Sailor Moon: Another Story on the SNES, all you ahve to do is modify the game dock area to fit a japanese title. Though of course the game is in Japanese and is an RPG.

There are also a couple of puzzle games and a beat-em-up on the SNES as well, but I haven't got my hands on them yet.

 

[Viruzzo]

I, as an Italian, don't really see a need for this... Italian teenagers grew up watching manly stuff, like Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)!

Like many have said before I thought you guys had both the manly and girly stuff down there.
[snip][/quote]
The thing about Witch and Winx is that is aimed at a younger audience than my age, that has definitely received animation better. Sailor Moon on the other side has come out before, when girls used to watch Beverly Hills and similar stuff, but not as much animation (that was considered either for boys or for children). In short: Italian female teenagers didn't use to watch anime, male teenagers did (while children of both sexes did to some extent).

Also:

I, as an Italian, don't really see a need for this... Italian teenagers grew up watching manly stuff, like Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)!

As a kid, I used to watch both mystical/martial arts cartoons as well as Sailor Moon and Mila&Shiro. My family was too poor to afford gender roles.

Did I sound sexist/macho? I didn't mean to, but we know that irony doesn't work well on the internetz.

 

[Gigaguy64]

Ahh the memories.
Tuxedo Mask was the best character in the show.
Aside from Jupiter of course.

[sup]mmmmmmm, Sailor Jupiter...[/sup]

 

[wart5436]

Is Sailor Moon still relevant?
Was it relevant at all to begin with? It never got as big as Dragon Ball(Z, GT, XXX, GPS, whatever...) did it?

Sailor Moon grossed [ b ]$1 billion[ /b ] in merchandise sales in the 1992-97 period in Japan, and the franchise has continued making more money, the show was rerun, and at the same time it was relaunched during the early 00s as a live action sentai (like Power Rangers) series. New merchandise was issued for both the anime rerun and the live action series.

The manga was mildly popular, it's the anime (which was much more comedic) that turned the franchise into a huge hit.

So, I'd say it was pretty relevant. The series wasn't that popular in the US, but it was in many other countries thoughout the world.

Isn't Sailor Moon one of those franchises that most people have forgotten by now? Like Dragon Ball Z?

Dragon Ball Z still has enduring popularity on all continents. There's a remake of the series called dragon Ball Z kai currently airing in Japan, and it's one of the most watched anime.

And considering that Sailor Moon was actually a fan service manga/anime aimed towards *men* in Japan...

First off, fan service doesn't mean t&a, but means putting things in to please fans. Anything that is done to please the fan is fan service, it can be t&a but can also be a blood boiling action scene in a robot anime for example.

And the 2nd assertion is not true, Sailor Moon is a series aimed mostly at girls in the 2-14 years old age range. Men (not regular men htough, only men of the otaku persuasion) were , but as secondary targets.

Here are Japanese Sailor Moon commercials:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gJlLhbg5-Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk2mL8bXNmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru52i9zg4IU

One can see that none of these commercials seem to be hawking merchandise to men.

The show in itself was quite popular and well known and was household viewing. Very popular anime in Japan are often watched by the entire family during dinner time.

Just like when Disney said about one of their heroines Pocahontas, or Ariel (forgot which) is a sexy heroine made to attract male viewers. This doesn't mean that Pocahontas or the Little Mermaid is a fan service movie for men.

Many of the animated movies from Dreamworks also feature double entendre aimed at adult audiences, but that doesn't mean the movies are made for adults, the movies are mostly made for kids, with some things to entertain adults. It's the same thing with Sailor Moon and many other anime aimed at children.

Magical girl series are usually made for a core audience of young girls, with male otaku being a secondary target. They buy the merchandise aimed at young girls, as well as more expnsive merchandise which is advertised in magazines aimed at them, and not on TV.

Japanese anime for children have sub targets, for example, male otaku for anime targetted towards girls, and female otaku for anime aimed towards boys, like giant robot series (exemple, Gundam series since around Gundam Wing)

Basically, the fact that children anime star cute and/or cool characters make them attractive to the otaku audience of the opposite sex. Look at Card Captor Sakura, there was no naked transformations, and no skimpy outfits, but the show had a very big otaku following. Why? because they found Sakura cute and moe or whatever...

The border between shows for children and adults isn't as clear cut in Japan, partly because there is a sizable otaku audience (of both genders).

Actually, anime haven't had a lot of success with girls here, and the only girls I know in the 20-30 range that have any sort of interest in Sailor Moon are the VERY otaku/nerd ones. By contrast, I'm positive that the DBZ and FotNS games that have come out in the recent years have fared quite well. Also keep in mind that gamer girls are even more uncommon in Italy than in the general population (as far as I can tell).

I don't think this game is targeted towards gamers, or teenagers, but towards little girls.

The thing about Witch and Winx is that is aimed at a younger audience than my age, that has definitely received animation better. Sailor Moon on the other side has come out before, when girls used to watch Beverly Hills and similar stuff, but not as much animation (that was considered either for boys or for children). In short: Italian female teenagers didn't use to watch anime, male teenagers did (while children of both sexes did to some extent).

The core target audiences of magical girl series is girls in kindergarten and primary school. In Japan, Sailor Moon was popular with jr. high school girls too, but the merchandise buying audience was mainly little girls as can be seen from the commercials I posted.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I guess I'm the only one who is uneasy about the revival mainly because...

Spoiler: Just my opinion

There are no good games based off of anime...

You shut your dirty whore mouth! (slaps you with Naruto Ultimate Ninja series)