Sailor Moon Orion is an upcoming animated streaming television series produced by Toei Animation, Dentsu Entertainment USA, TV Tokyo Production Inc. and Viz Productions with animation from Studio Deen. It is based on the 1992-1997 Japanese anime Sailor Moon (the anime itself is based on manga series of the same name by Naoko Takeuchi) and reimagining of its' 1995-2000 dub adaptation, it is the third adaptation following the 1992 anime and the 2014 anime Sailor Moon Crystal.
Sailor Moon Orion will air on Cartoon Network in America and on TV Tokyo in Japan, It will be the first series in the franchise to be internationally co-produced.
Plot[]
Serena Tsukino aka Sailor Moon and her fellow Sailor Guardians: Sailor Mercury (Amy Mizuno-Anderson), Sailor Mars (Rey Hino), Sailor Jupiter (Lita Kino), Sailor Venus (Mina Aino), along with Darien Chiba aka Tuxedo Mask and their cat companions Luna and Artemis (during their mission to find the lost Princess and the Imperium Silver Crystal) meet King Oron, her noble father from her past life as Princess Serenity and his robotic right-hand-man and bodyguard M.A.R.U. 32, obtain four powerful blades called the Astral Sabers as they defend the universe and earth from various villains from and beyond earth.
Cast & Characters[]
- Stephanie Sheh - Serena Tsukino / Sailor Moon / Princess Serenity, A care-free and clumsy fifteen-year-old high school student with an enormous capacity for love, compassion. As Sailor Moon leader of the Sailor Guardians she stands for Love and Justice. In her past life as Princess Serenity, she was the daughter of Queen Serenity, who ruled the Moon Kingdom.
- Robbie Daymond - Darien Chiba / Tuxedo Mask / Prince Endymion, A eighteen-year-old community college student with special psychic connection with Sailor Moon. As Tuxedo Mask he fights alongside the Sailor Guardians when needed, in his past life he was the Crown Prince of planet Earth during the age of the Moon Kingdom and of the Golden Kingdom. In this new series he will have an extended role and a new persona.
- Kate Higgins - Amy Mizuno-Anderson / Sailor Mercury, A quiet but intelligent sixteen-year-old high school bookworm from Brighton Academy with a light British accent and supposed IQ of 300, who aspires to eventually become a doctor like her mother. As Sailor Mercury, she stands for Water and Wisdom.
- Cristina Vee - Rey Hino / Sailor Mars, An elegant seventeen-year-old short-tempered miko (English: shrine maiden) with limited precognition and can dispel or nullify evil using special ofuda scrolls, even in her civilian form. As Sailor Mars she stands for Fire and Passion.
- Amanda C. Miller - Lita Kino / Sailor Jupiter, A sixteen-year-old high school student who everyone thinks has immense physical strength and was rumoured to have been expelled from her previous school for fighting, She unusually tall and strong for a schoolgirl. As Sailor Jupiter she stands for Thunder and Courage.
- Cherami Leigh - Mina Aino / Sailor Venus, A fifteen-year-old perky dreamer, once a superhero formerly known as Sailor V, she has a companion cat called Artemis. As Sailor Venus, she stands for Love and Beauty.
- Michelle Ruff - Luna, A black cat who was a devoted servant to Princess Serenity and advisor to her mother, Queen Serenity and is Serena's guardian.
- Johnny Yong Bosch - Artemis, The white cat friend of Luna's and companion to Mina and trained her to become Sailor V, he remained by her side until she took on her proper role as Sailor Venus.
- Michael McConnohie - King Oron, Serenity noble father and warrior from her past life as Princess Serenity and husband of the late Queen Serenity.
- M.A.R.U. 32 (Mobile ARtillery Unit 32), Oron's nonverbal robotic right-hand-mand and bodyguard with an array of built-in weaponry, who can speak through binary code
Antagonists[]
InceVoids[]
Secondary antagonists exclusive to the series based on the villains from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and Masked Rider.
- Kurt Strauss - Lord Scorpios, the leader and warlord of IncesVoids alien cross-breed, who is an alien cross-breed between a Emperor scorpion and Six-Eyed Sand Spider and enemy of Oron. He is based on Scorpious from Lost Galaxy.
- Tom Wyner - Varus, a cyborg general of Scorpios' army and the first general. He is based on Furio from Lost Galaxy.
- Derek Stephen Prince - Teecherak, the second general of Scorpois' and is Treacheron from Lost Galaxy.
Allies[]
- Danielle Judovits - Molly Baker-Osaka, Serena's best friend and classmate with a heavy Brooklyn accent and works at her mom's Jewelry store
- Ben Diskin - Melvin G. Umino, Serena's oddball classmate with glasses that have a denoting their thickness which have odd swirls in them, he is a reporter and photographer for a newspaper called The Big Scoop because of his knack for gossip, and any other information anybody might appreciate.
- Tara Platt - Lana Tsukino, Serena and Sammy's caring yet bossy mother and Kenji's wife with a knack for cooking and lecturing her kids on their grades.
- Keith Silverstein - Kenny Tsukino, Serena and Sammy's father, Ikuko's affectionate husband, a stereotypical well-meaning salaryman, who works as a magazine reporter and head editor-in-chief.
- Nicolas Roye - Sammy Tsukino, Serena's younger brother who sees his sister as a good person, but also an accident-prone crybaby, He is also impressed the media-hyped urban legends of Sailor Moon and Sailor V.
- Lucien Dodge - Motoki Hansford, A friend of Usagi Tsukino s, s community college classmate, who works at Crown Game Center and Crown Fruit Parlor and is Serena's crush.
- Julie Ann Taylor - Patricia Haruna, Serena's former junior high school teacher, now high school teacher, who often lectures Serena for her laziness with a single goal to a find husband.
- Wendee Lee - Queen Serenity, The late wife of Oron, mother of Sailor Moon (reborn as human Serena) in her past life as Princess Serena. As the Queen (regnant) of the Moon Kingdom, she reigned during the first Silver Millennium era. When the Negaforce (Queen Metaria) attacked the Moon Kingdom, she sacrifices herself by using the Silver Crystal to seal the Negaforce and to have her daughter, Endymion and the Sailor Guardians would be reborn on Earth.
Production[]
Development[]
In 1993, Renaissance-Atlantic Entertainment, Bandai and Toon Makers, Inc. conceptualized their own version of Sailor Moon, which was half live-action and half Western-style animation. Toon Makers produced a 17-minute proof of concept presentation video as well as a two-minute music video, both of which were directed by Rocky Sotoloff, for this concept. Renaissance-Atlantic presented the concept to Toei, but it was turned down as their concept would have cost significantly more than simply exporting and dubbing the anime adaptation. At the 1998 Anime Expo convention in Los Angeles, the music video was shown. It has since been copied numerous times and has been viewed on many streaming video sites. Because of the relatively poor quality of the source video and circulated footage, many anime fans thought that the music video was actually a leaked trailer for the project. Additional copies of the footage have since been uploaded to the Internet and served only to bolster the mistaken assumption, in addition to incorrectly citing the production to Saban Entertainment, who became known for a similar treatment that created the Power Rangers series.
Years later Dentsu Entertainment USA teamed up with TV Tokyo, Kodansha, Princess Naoko Entertainment, Viz Productions, Endemol Shine North America and Toei Animation to create a 26-episode animated series of their flagship Sailor Moon manga and anime series entitled Sailor Moon Orion which of course of is named after the constallation of the same name and references the Lights of Orion from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and will also adapt the anime's 1995 dub. Unlike the two previous adapations this series will be rated TV-Y7-FV. Dentsu hold all licensing and broadcasting rights to all aspects of the Sailor Moon series worldwide, while Toei handles broadcasting rights in Japan, they carefully hand-picked Chynna Clugston Flores (Blue Monday) and Shaenon K. Garrity (Narbonic) as developers/writers/showrunners with author Naoko Takeuchi as creative consulant, they will work closely with Dentsu USA and Toei while trying to write stories that appeal more to western audiences. Each season will be listed as Volumes, various female writers from shows like Rainbow Ruby, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty and Power Rangers franchise including Sailor Moon cast member Amanda C. Miller, Cindy Robinson, Stephanie Sheh and Cherami Leigh have also joined the writers room, Hiroyuki Seshita and Hiroaki Andō serve as the show's directors. Princess Naoko Entertainment, Kodansha, and Endemol were later removed from production due to budgetary issues. The series will be creating both new major villains and incorporaring villains from the manga or anime including Easter eggs for fans.
Design & Animation[]
The characters will retain their designs from Sailor Moon Crystal to make them look older and the characters will be wearing skorts, Yukie Sako was hired to do so for this series as well some of the animators from Crystal, the show will also be featured in anime influnced style with that in mind Dentsu and Toei will use transformation sequences that are more or less faithful to the anime, but is some what similar to sequences used in the Power Rangers franchise and their costume designs will be more faithful to the manga animation will be provided from Studio Gallop of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, this series will Toei and Gallops' second collaberation since Bakutsuri Bar Hunter with special effects and CGI from Toneplus Animation Studios, but Gallop later dropped out and was replaced by Studio Deen.
Music[]
Power Rangers, X-Men, Digimon Fusion, Luna Petunia and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir composer Noam Kaniel will score the series and will incorporate Bob Summers' original Sailor Moon score, as well as music from the Saban Music Archives and will also feature Yasuharu Takanashi's score from Crystal. Asian girl group Blush will perform a song for the show's opening credits.
Casting[]
Stephanie Sheh, Robbie Daymond, Kate Higgins, Cristina Vee, Amanda C. Miller, Cherami Leigh, Michelle Ruff, Johnny Yong Bosch and some of their fellow cast members will reprise their respective roles from the Viz Media and Sailor Moon Crystal dubs, however the characters will have names conbined from the anime and it's 1995 dub and will retain their Sailor Guardian titles from Crystal and will be featured as 15-16 year old high school students, rather than 14-15 year old Junior High School students, Takeuchi also confirmed that Sailor Mini Moon, Diana, Sailor Pluto, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn, the Sailor Stars, Sailor Chibi Chibi and Princess Kakyuu will appear pending on the outcome of the series, Michael McConnohie was cast as King Oron, Serena's father from her past life and Queen Serenity's husband. Recording will take place at Studiopolis, Los Angeles with Kristi Reed as voice director, Mami Okada as casting director and Suzanne Goldish as ADR Mixer. Unlike Dentsu's previous shows Monsuno and Mega Man: Fully Charged it will have various other voice actors to play new characters in the series Instead, of the same cast members voice different characters and unlike that series each studio will have much deeper pockets and much cooler.
Broadcast[]
The is set to air on Cartoon Network and the japanese version on TV Tokyo
Merchandise[]
Jakks Pacific and Bandai signed to produce all the show's merchandise. Kodansha Comics and Viz Media will develop manga that will act as prelude to the series and Bandai Namco Entertainment will create a game app similar on Sailor Moon Drop and Topps is producing the show's trading card game (TCG) adapation.