Both Toei Animation & DiC Entertainment continue to publish and/or
license Sailor Moon calendars even though neither one has produced or
dubbed any episodes for years.
Toei's calendar features brand new art which is considered a plus in
the Japanese market. The design emphasis on the "Sailormoon Super"
season is because repeats of those episodes are scheduled to be aired in
Japan during 2002.
DiC's calendar features scenes and promotional art (previously
produced by Toei) which is considered a plus in English speaking
markets. DiC's 2002 effort represents a leap in quality and
marketability from previous years. Once again published by
Entertainment Calendars, LLC; the 2002 DiC calendar may actually appeal
to older fans for the very first time.
Also for the first time, fans should take note how DiC has exercised
an option for additional rights to characters, scenes & images beyond
the first 2 seasons of episodes it dubbed. DiC had lost this option and
only sought to regain it after Cloverway sealed a deal to dub additional
seasons for the Cartoon Network in the United States. Initially, DiC
wanted these rights only for licensing more toys to Irwin.
The Toei calendar should soon become available from all the usual
online sources such as Fujisan.com, The Place, Animenation, and Doki Doki Station (owned by one of our
members). The calendars should also soon be available at Kinokuniya locations in the United States. (But be forewarned, they always sell
out fast!)
The DiC calendar is currently available online at Calendars.com and
should soon appear on Teenie Bop Shop.com. The calendar should also
become available within the United States and Canada at Virgin Records
and Suncoast stores. If you should not see it, please order
it!
Toei's TV Animation Calendar
Every year Toei also puts out a TV Animation Calendar which usually
includes shows which don't get their own calendar (and ones that do). The month of December has characters from Sailormoon. (They also,
barely, show up on the cover.)
And for those interested in the history of Henshin Magical Girl
shows..... January is "Motto! Oja Majo Doremi" (More! Little Witch
Doremi) directed by Takuya Igarashi who was an Assistant Director and
then later a Director of some of the Sailormoon productions; June is the
remake of "Himitsu no Akko-chan" (notice the Sailor V-like character?)
where Akko can transform into different people with the help of her
little make-up mirror. Sound familiar?
Special thanks to Joe Inks for reminding us about this separate
calendar!
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