Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

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usamimi
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Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by usamimi »

https://kotaku.com/we-tried-to-uncover- ... 1827695456

This article is long, but SO worth the read! BUT if you really need a reason to read it, here's spoilers: When a writer went on a recent quest to find the long-lost "Toon Makers" Sailor Moon (aka "Saban Moon", aka that old promo reel footage from Anime Expo 98 we've all seen a million times).....she discovered an entirely NEW live-action series loosely based on Sailor Moon that was never made called "Team Angel". Not only that, but they have the promo reel video in the article!

It's wild to think after all these years, we're STILL finding new stuff about Sailor Moon no one knew about. :shock:
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by mbanu »

As the president of Bandai America in the 1980s, Ward was like the Cassandra of anime: He saw the potential for the Japanese cartoon medium to spread its seed—and Bandai’s toys—in the U.S., but nobody who could help believed him. “Japanese anime was viewed as a joke here in America,” he said. “There wasn’t a network that would go near them.”
This period is so interesting! You had anime studios pleading with the C/FO to find them an in with Hollywood studios, Ward throwing up his hands at the idea of legitimate network anime, and then grey area UHF folks like Marukai spreading shows across the country in an effort to improve toy sales. I also wonder about the PBS angle; who was getting anime on public television back then?

The splash-screen drawing of Usagi as the Statue of Liberty is very nice; you can tell it was done by a fan. (^_^)
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Fireminer
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by Fireminer »

Is it just me or does a lot of mass media things in America in the 1990s felt so... flashy and campy and such? It was as if the decade started with goofiness and ended with unserious grimness.

Anyway, I have these two questions:

1. Was the animation of that 1995 Anime Expo video average or bad compared to American cartoon shows of the time? Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers first broadcasted in 1989 and it was gorgeous, but as far as 1996 you had something as bad as Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.

2. Looking at the Team Angel video, do you have the impression that its creators just didn't seem to catch on that high-energy, vibrant feel of Sailor Moon? Or was it just because of the nature of live-action and how different was it to anime that the promo video seemed so unenthusiastic?
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by usamimi »

Fireminer wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:42 am Is it just me or does a lot of mass media things in America in the 1990s felt so... flashy and campy and such? It was as if the decade started with goofiness and ended with unserious grimness.

Anyway, I have these two questions:

1. Was the animation of that 1995 Anime Expo video average or bad compared to American cartoon shows of the time? Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers first broadcasted in 1989 and it was gorgeous, but as far as 1996 you had something as bad as Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.

2. Looking at the Team Angel video, do you have the impression that its creators just didn't seem to catch on that high-energy, vibrant feel of Sailor Moon? Or was it just because of the nature of live-action and how different was it to anime that the promo video seemed so unenthusiastic?
Yeah, a LOT of live-action 90s American shows (esp ones aimed at kids) were VERY campy. Just take a look at clips from the American Power Rangers show--a lot of the people involved with Team Angel were in that same circle of people producing those kinds of things.

As for the rest of your questions:
1. The thing about Rescue Rangers was that it was a Disney cartoon, so it had the backing of Disney AND telling merchandise. Most American TV cartoons weren't very high quality, they were mostly just being made in hopes kids liked them enough to keep ratings high & sponsors paid, and/or buying any toys they were selling. Even Disney shows from later in the 90s didn't always look very good (you can find plenty of ugly screencaps of their Aladdin and Little Mermaid animated shows, for example).

2. For a late 90s attempt at a Sailor Moon-style live-action weekly TV show, it was on par with what I'd expect. Again, on par with their attempts at American Power Rangers or similar shows. Enough to make it flashy for young kids to be interested, but that's about it. It's goofy as hell, but they probably assumed that was good enough for a proof of concept to sell around (and you gotta keep production costs as low as possible to make a profit).
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by Fireminer »

usamimi wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:36 am Yeah, a LOT of live-action 90s American shows (esp ones aimed at kids) were VERY campy. Just take a look at clips from the American Power Rangers show--a lot of the people involved with Team Angel were in that same circle of people producing those kinds of things.

As for the rest of your questions:
1. The thing about Rescue Rangers was that it was a Disney cartoon, so it had the backing of Disney AND telling merchandise. Most American TV cartoons weren't very high quality, they were mostly just being made in hopes kids liked them enough to keep ratings high & sponsors paid, and/or buying any toys they were selling. Even Disney shows from later in the 90s didn't always look very good (you can find plenty of ugly screencaps of their Aladdin and Little Mermaid animated shows, for example).

2. For a late 90s attempt at a Sailor Moon-style live-action weekly TV show, it was on par with what I'd expect. Again, on par with their attempts at American Power Rangers or similar shows. Enough to make it flashy for young kids to be interested, but that's about it. It's goofy as hell, but they probably assumed that was good enough for a proof of concept to sell around (and you gotta keep production costs as low as possible to make a profit).
And it is not just live action shows. I know that this is cherry-picking, but to me it felt like the 1990s American started with "You can't touch this" and ended with Woodstock 1999.

Anyway, I am graceful for your answers, but can I ask one more question? Had that live action Team Angel been made, which other shows would it compete with for audiences? I know that Power Rangers shows of that period had gotten better than the original, but other than that?
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by usamimi »

Hmm other than Power Rangers, The Secret World of Alex Mack comes to mind. Other than that I can't think of many live action programing that would've appeals to girls, which I think is part of the reason they wanted to make it: there wasn't much competition, so they were probably thinking they could make some money trying to fill that gap in the genre.
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by Akage »

Fireminer wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:42 am
1. Was the animation of that 1995 Anime Expo video average or bad compared to American cartoon shows of the time? Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers first broadcasted in 1989 and it was gorgeous, but as far as 1996 you had something as bad as Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.
Several years ago, some cels from the US Sailor Moon version popped up on eBay. I purchased a couple of them but also kept some of the auction photos.

Image

Image

Image


At the time this was released in the US, we had Animaniacs. Animation for that show was quite well done when compared to this. Some regions of the US, such as mine in the San Francisco Bay Area, were also test markets for several localized anime series. In 1995-96, I was able to watch Tenchi Muyo in English and the Asian TV channel showed Japanese episodes of Dragonball Z.

The bar was already high.
Fireminer
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by Fireminer »

usamimi wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:25 pm Hmm other than Power Rangers, The Secret World of Alex Mack comes to mind. Other than that I can't think of many live action programing that would've appeals to girls, which I think is part of the reason they wanted to make it: there wasn't much competition, so they were probably thinking they could make some money trying to fill that gap in the genre.
I actually had Sabrina in mind, though. And how attractive was the pre-Lizzie McGuire Disney sitcoms to the tween and teen girls of the time?

Anyway, the whole "Team Angels" thing feels lazy to me. Like others have said in this threat, the bar was already way too high when the show was conceptualized. It just didn't have that "hook" that attracted people to it in the first place.
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by usamimi »

Ah, yeah I forget about Sabrina because I always think of it as more of a sitcom, but it does kinda fall into that category! And yeah, the Team Angel concept was definitely lazy. They were just looking to make some money by filling a gap they thought Sailor Moon was leaving behind. I would've been curious to see an actual pilot to see what kind of plot they dreamed up for it, though, because that opening looks BANANAS :lol:
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Re: Chasing after the long-lost American Sailor Moon

Post by Fireminer »

Say, hypothetically, if this live-action show had been made, on which timeslots which it were likely to be aired? I did read a long time ago that there was a period which Sailor Moon were screwed by being shown on weekdays at the time children would had gone to school.
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