Sailor Moon licensed in Spain by Selecta Vision

Same. A lot of this stuff is hearsay at this point and I'd rather wait for Toei/Viz themselves to say something.

I think that Toei should have full control of the 90s anime and that Naoko should only have control over the manga.

I just find it hard to believe there is a big freeze if they just announced the airline deal for Latin America. Clearly they aren’t blocking the 90s anime.

They may have an issue with Viz, and it could be territorial, tied to the HD master, or streaming. Kazé and Viz USA might be the same company overall, but they still operate very differently, so a problem with one doesn’t necessarily mean a hold for everybody else. That said, they still managed to negotiate the new masters with Viz for SuperS and StarS and Madman has had no problem licensing with them either. So I really think this is hearsay at this point.

Finally, Toei and Naoko have been very random and selective with their license for years. The Towers Mexico DVD releases went through hell and then had their license pulled out of nowhere YEARS ago- but the license wasn’t on hiatus or pulled by others. There was the Brazilian dvd issue as well, not to mention the Eternal editions being continuously delayed.

I really doubt there’s a big hold on the series unless we hear otherwise from Toei or Osabu... not other companies pointing the finger.

These are very close sources of Viz Media + Toei. I'm not used to telling bullshit, I always have a record of conversations with my contacts.

You have to understand the contracts.
Any contract passed before the freeze, must be honored under penalty of prosecution for deception.
Unless there is a clause that gives the Japanese the right to break the contract.

Viz Us, Madman, will have to go out season 5, since the contract was passed several months before the freeze. Just like here with the airline.

The freeze only concerns new contracts, not old ones, so Japan is just waiting for contracts with publishers to stop by themselves.

And honestly, once done, they will sell the license to other publishers (I no longer see Viz Media get the rights in Europe and the US) because it would be stupid to freeze to resell them.

When you go to the Kazé France website, the collector's boxes are no longer available for sale. Just click on each box, and go to the websites of purchases (Fnac, Amazon, Cultura). After in France, the physical stores still have leftovers but they can not order anymore.

Again, how do we know when they negotiated this? And if they have to honor contracts before the freeze, then they should have honored Selecta and Kazé Germany who had announced their licenses a while back...

That said, I wouldn’t mind them renegotiating with a better company afterwards. They got what they wanted out of Viz USA, which was the Dub, now they can sell that as a more complete series package to any other publisher... I just hope they don’t go the Netflix exclusive route. I’d still like a physical copy.

Selecta have never obtained the contracts since 2015, start of the negotiations. They were still talking.
Kazé Deutschland, when they announced release a Blu-Ray version, the contracts should not be signed yet. They probably have too much foresight, because too sure of them.

They may have taken a verbal agreement as for granted while waiting for a written record.

Toei could have said "OK, it's you" but Naoko Takeuchi would not have validated yet.

A publisher in France has paid the acquisition fees for a title (I would not say the name of the publisher but the Japanese studio, you know who it is). Another publisher came behind with a better offer. The series eventually went to the other publisher, leaving the other on the floor. And yet the other had already paid for the acquisition. Like what, in certain clauses you can make the blow of bi***.

Here is the answer that Pika gave me last Tuesday concerning the rights of the manga.

Again, where is this news coming from? That’s a French fan anime account. He says that Kaze Germany confirmed it, but there is no link to a new confirmation or any new info about this. His only source is the same old post about Selecta Vision and Kaze Germany from September.

Oh I didn't remember there was a thread about this.
I can confirm what the French account says. Selecta vision, the Spanish distributor held a live event on Twitter.
I actually asked them about Sailor Moon. Well, lots did.
They said : things are blocked from about 6 months ago by Naoko Takeuchi herself due to her dissatisfaction with the booklet of SM Stars released by Viz Media. Everything has to be redone, thoroughly supervised by her and will ask to do any changes she thinks appropriate.

It's already been several weeks (2 months) that the info circulated on the net.

Sailor Moon - La VF ne se laisse pas faire

Yeah, gotcha about what Selecta said. I was just under the impression something new had been said, not that it was the same discussion that they previously had. I’m still hesitant to believe it until I hear it from the horse’s mouth though. At this point, it’s all hearsay...

Even if Viz loses the rights, I doubt we’ll have to wait long for a US re release (either by Toei themselves or another licensor). Toei just started their Sailor Moon in America 20th anniversary campaign. I doubt they had any plans of rolling that out without having the show available to the market at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense.

Also they’ve been teasing a “worldwide” release for Eternal. If Viz is losing the license, then they’ve got to at least already have some plans and negotiations going on for that.

*If* Viz indeed loses the license and *if* Toei decides to find a new licensor rather than release the series themselves, I hope the new licensor will be more amenable to potentially re-releasing (if possible) at least the original film and Cloverway dubs (and maybe make some effort to get the Toon Maker pilot released).

I doubt anyone even has a good copy of the Toon Maker pilot anymore. The Toon Maker pilot will, frankly, never be released.

Wishful thinking here, but I'd love it if Discotek Media got a hold of the license if Viz lost it.
Their Galaxy Express 999 (TV) Blu Rays are upscaled, but they preserve the grain and it looks fantastic compared to the blurry Japanese version~

They may have said that, but I don't believe it's true. There's no way Naoko would hold up the rights for something as insignificant as a booklet error. I think it's just an excuse someone fed international licensors to cover up the fact Naoko/Toei want to create artificial scarcity so they can milk the show again in the future.

They refused the Germans, the renewal, the Italians too. France also lost rights, not renewed.
So there was a big story with Viz Media Europe & Viz USA.

With us, in France, the series has known big worries because of Kazé France, you too, you had big worries: the disgusting master.
Kazé France, the errors annoyed the Japanese. It was the same with you, when you yelled at Viz USA.


The mangaka was fed up I think, and Toei too.
So they block the rights until the contracts expire, and then resell to another publisher.

I’m pretty sure Italy let the license expire since it didn’t do as well as they had hoped.

Naoko may lose her crap over a lot of stuff, but some dumb booklet containing wrong information about Haruka and Michiru while a lot of old international dubs where they are "just friends" are still airing definitely isn't a reason.

what are the chances Toei will just handle the license themselves at this point?

Another redub is out of the question (and Toei USA or whoever picks up the license would just be dubbing the Eternal movies onward and probably with the studiopolis cast) but hopefully whomever gets the license releases the old dub.

If Pioneer and Optimum were able to release edited versions of the three movies with the DiC music I don’t think it would be too big of an issue to release the DiC dub.

Just gimme Sailor Moon: Fighting Evil by Moonlight Edition

All 159 episodes of the Optimum dub

The Three Pioneer/Optimum Movies

Con footage with the Canadian cast as a special feature

Selected episodes commentary with the dub cast and crew

I doubt Naoko would be that pedantic. Heck! Uranus still has her mantis arm after how many revisions?!