We're getting a (Japanese) novelization of the Sailor Moon story ?!?

I suppose my hopes since this is another retelling of the same old story is that they add some new stuff and material to spice it up like maybe new Sailor Senshi, enemies stuff to add to the plot a la PGSM.

It's more common for there to be manga adaptations of light novels but it's not entirely unheard of for anime to have novelizaitons. Usually the novels tend to be original stories like the Naruto and Attack on Titan novels have original side stories or how the Tenchi Muyo novels continue the story further than the anime. There was a three part novelization of Digimon Adventure that came out years ago in Japan only that expanded on the characters and story some. Probably the most famous novelization of an anime series would be the Gundam novels that diverge from the anime in entirely different ways and has original stories. I wouldn't expect anything as ambitious from this Sailor Moon novelization but we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Lol this franchise has to be one of the few that just keeps re-adapting the same arcs over and over again. Adding little things here and there.

I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to be able to write novelizations of media for profit, and I started writing novelizations of media even before knowing what "fanfic" was. Then, after I learned what fanfic was, I wrote both a close-to-canon adaptation of The Past Returns and my fanfic universe version of those same events.

I'm not going to lie. I'm a little jealous that someone else actually gets to essentially write Sailor Moon fanfic that's not fanfic because it's official work. I'm not that jealous, though, because with all the restrictions, one won't be able to put one's own spin on the characters.

^There was the Tokyopop novelizations from 1999ish that used the DiC names (for obvious reasons) and mixed aspects of the English dub and Japanese version and the manga together with some proto-Twilight and bubblegum tween lit for good measure.

I think it is fairly common. CLAMP paired with Nision Isin (a prominent writer) and asked him to write a new xxxHolic story. The story he wrote became a book and was even translated to English. CLAMP designed the cover.

I think it is a good sign that Naoko is finally allowing other authors to play with her creation. Maybe one day we may get original stories.

Until today Naoko never ever allowed anybody to play with her creation, so I was as surprised to see her attitude changing now as you are.

Well, Crystal is an 1:1 adaptation of the manga she wrote; it's supposed to be a faithful adaptation of her work and it is not her fault that TOEI messed it up so badly.

Much like it won't be her fault when the novel adaptations end up being badly messed up.

The point is that as long as Naoko gets her royalties and sportcars she never objects to anybody "playing with her creation" whatever way it pleases them.

☾セーラームーン☽

According to this post on Miyoko's official blog/website:

- There will be three volumes.
- She was worried when she was assigned to write the novelizations because she wasn't familiar with Sailor Moon.
- She never watched the anime before. As the mother of two boys, she only ever saw stuff like Kamen Rider.
- She read the manga for the first time after getting this assignment and instantly fell in love with it.
- She noticed similarities between it and her own "Fairy Navigator Runa" series and wonders if she had been unwittingly influenced by "Sailor Moon."
- After reading the manga, she attended a musical (presumably Le Mouvement Final)
- While writing the novel(s), she listened to music from the anime.
- Says her style is often called "somewhat dark and heavy" but this time she tried to capture the brightness of the original.

I guess it's safe to assume it'll be a covering the Dark Kingdom Arc... :/

So WHAT?

She paid her dues so there’s nothing wrong with her sitting on her laurels and making money off her hard work.
What’s she supposed to do, force Toei to pump out a 68 episode season covering the Dark Kingdom? It’s childi to bad mouth Naoko just because YOU don’t like the way that the franchise is going. Nobody is being forced to watch/read/buy anything that derives from her material.

My guess is volume 1 will cover Acts 1-6, volume 2 will cover Acts 7-10, and volume 3 will cover Acts 11-14. Hopefully the novels will be great and sell well enough that they do the rest of the arcs and/or maybe some original stories.

Re: Naoko.... I'd say her relatively hands-off style of managing the series and her staying out of the spotlight is vastly preferable to, say, how J. K. Rowling has been handling Harry Potter and making headlines for being obnoxious and messy on social media.

It's so weird they'd decide to a novelization of Sailor Moon now. I'm also amazed that so many people seem upset about this? It seems dumb yeah, but it nothing that wild. The only interested in any potential new artwork this might include.

Where are you seeing people being upset about this? I can't seem to find discussions about it anywhere besides here. It is pretty random that they're doing this now, but better late than never I suppose. At worst it'll be a boring, straightforward novelization of the manga, but at best it may contain interesting new scenes and details like the La Reconquista novel had.

I think you didn't quite follow the discussion and thus missed the point.

In the post above Clow said that "novel publication could be a sign that Naoko is finally allowing other authors to play with her creation", implying that it's a change happening to her previous stance. In my reply I pointed out that Naoko always allowed other authors to play with her creation quite liberally and without any strict control, so there is no change of any kind happening now.

Well, allow me to clarify my point. Naoko has a reputation of being very controlling of "Sailor Moon." For example, it took a long time for "Sailor Moon" to be re-released in North America and in other countries and that, according to distributors, was due to Naoko having to approve how things were done.

If she is allowing a new author to write a novel based on "Sailor Moon," then, perhaps, she is becoming less restrictive.

That is what I intended to say.

Eep, I exaggerated. I skimmed over the thread too quickly, and noticed some complaining about Takeuchi. My bad.

This "reputation" is a result of TV companies trying to negotiate distribution rights for as cheap as possible (something Naoko & Toei didn't like at all), thus resulting in prolonged talks and cancelled releases. Everything else is just fandom rumours and speculations - the entire history of the franchise for over two decades clearly illustrates Naoko is willing to put her seal of approval on anything and everything that will bring some solid profits.



^ This creature successfully cleared all stages of Naoko's strict "quality control" and jumped right to TV screens. Which says us all we need to know about quality and control when it comes to BSSM.

^ Do you have solid proof that she approves of every individual frame in the show?
Also, A+ gif. Consider it stolen :3