Later Development
Online petitions requesting the dubbing of Sailor Stars have been held since 2000. Sailor Stars, the final season of the Sailor Moon anime, was never dubbed originally because Toei was not putting it up for license. TokyoPop was looking into renegotiating the rights to the manga series. On May 5, Marc Lunden of Mania Entertainment reported from Anime Central 2007 that "Toei currently has a lockdown on all Sailor Moon licenses, but Geneon expressed interest in case the situation changed." However, Geneon was merged with Universal Studios in February 2009. Similarly, Madman Entertainment was forced to stop print of the Sailor Moon DVD licenses it acquired, despite the R4 DVD releases being very successful.
In August 2007, Toei held a poll to determine viewer interest in potential series to make available for Video on Demand. There were 50 options, including popular titles such as Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Ojamajo Doremi. The results of the poll show that 2535 out of 3979 votes—63.7 percent—had been placed for the Sailor Moon series. The Sailor Moon anime is currently part of a subscription service in Japan where premium members are allowed full access to their titles. This was produced in accordance with the ISP BIGLOBE and subscribers pay ¥1554 (US$13) (UK£6:50) per month.
In May 2009, Funimation Entertainment released a poll to gauge consumer interest in potential DVD releases; one option was "re-dub of entire Sailor Moon series." This helped viewer interest rise, and got many fans' hopes up that Funimation may indeed license Sailor Moon. A fan campaign, organized by former members of the SOS group, continued to survey fans to gain their opinions on hypothetical details of the redub. The poll has closed, and the results have not been publicly revealed.
In 2010, one of several YouTube videos featuring Sailor Moon was removed by Funimation, citing copyright infringement. The company later commented that, despite their attempts to acquire the rights to the series, the company does not have the rights yet. In addition, Sailor Moon in chibi form was featured as a magnet decoration in a Funimation office during a Hetalia Axis Powers preview video.
On March 18, 2011, Kodansha Comics USA announced that they would be reprinting Sailor Moon in English in new deluxe editions beginning in September 2011, along with its prequel, Codename: Sailor V. The first volume of both series were released on September 13, 2011, and will continue to be to be released bi-monthly.
GE Animation is currently producing new merchandise for the Sailor Moon franchise released in the US such as stationary, plushies, jewelry, posters, coffee cups, towels, blankets, pillows, clocks, post cards, puzzles, playing cards, and other accessories. Hot Topic has also licensed the exclusive apparel rights to the franchise, and has been offering T-Shirts both online and in Hot Topic stores, along with a Halloween costume as a part of their new costume line.
Read more about this topic: Sailor Moon (English adaptations)
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