Anime Expo SM news (July 10th, 2001)

First off, many people at Anime Expo went to talk to ADV officals at AX to see if their "announcement" was true, and the ADV guys all said that there are no offical plans on the first two seasons, that they don't have a thing. In fact, here's a quote from a member of the ADV staff on the animeondvd.com forums. (Click here for the post) Pending the availably of the materials, we are negotiating for an uncut/unedited release of the first two seasons of the original Sailor Moon (SM and SMR). That's what I got from Matt. Carrot Glace A.D. Vision, Inc. So it seems like nothing really has changed since October, and that they've even somewhat admitted that they CAN'T do an uncut release. Like I said a few days ago, DiC has rights, if they haven't sold them yet, they won't now, and when their contract ends on May 31, 2002, seasons one and two are up for grab. ADV can't do a thing, and don't have these rights. They've been saying since October that they haven't been able to get the materials, well, if they had the rights to do a release, they would've had them a while ago. To furthermore prove this and put this to a hopeful end, let's break down ADV's thing about "not obtaining the materials." It has been about nine months since ADV entered the SM world and announced releasing the dubs on tape, and wanting to do uncut releases but didn't get the materials. Now, last year at Okaton 2000, Pioneer announced aquiring rights to S and SuperS. Six months later, the first release was out. Now if ADV really DID have rights, it's pretty obvious that they would've gotten them months ago, seeing as Pioneer was able to easily release stuff within six months. It's quite obvious ADV can't do a thing and I don't even see why ADV is saying anything about these seasons besides the dub because come May 31, 2002, all companies have the same chance of obtaining them, while I don't see many going for it. I know ADV will and I'm sure that Pioneer will challenge them. While on the topic, let's head on over to the Pioneer booth. Let's see what they have to say. And judging by what most people who talked to Pioneer guys are saying, Pioneer knows that we want Stars. They said that they've been thinking about a subtitle only release, but before they even want to touch it, they want to see how SuperS will do in the stores, namely, the last couple releases or so. They know that SM fans fans will buy it, but they want to see how well things sell to the people who aren't already Sailor Moon fans so they can decide if they want to release Stars or not. I think this is a good thing, as they're playing things at a nice, slow pace and not causing an overload on Sailor Moon releases like Toonami caused with the dubs last year. Things are looking pretty good in the Sailor Moon world right now, let's hope they stay that way and enjoy it all.