Nothing much today, just doing a little dusting and cleaning after a work shift. Trying to update some of the common content to today rather than have information that's years old present. Surprisingly this wasn't as much as I had originally thought, so the FAQ page has been updated as has been my blurb in the about us section. Next up sometime in the future is the links section. Not looking forward to that, but I have to get to it sometime.
So a couple weeks ago I went to Otakon and had a great time. It was a pleasure to meet Tommy of Family of Moonlight and Destiny Revival, Senshi-chan also of FoM, as well as Yosenex of Genvid, and I look forward to seeing them again in the future, as well as meet others from the SM online community. Sadly there was no news for a Sailor Moon comeback to the states this time around. I was at the Funimation panel hoping since they are the most likely choice (and seemingly the only American company with an industry panel), but still enjoyed the panel nonetheless. I wrote an article about the panel over at Family of Moonlight. So as y'all wait for me to start posting comparisons for Sailor Moon R, have fun reading that article, as well as all the other fan coverage that FoM brings.
Also, even though I added a spot for this in the FAQ, I figured I'd mention it here too. Yes, I'm aware of the international Sailor Moon revival, likely to start celebrating the 20th anniversary a touch early. However, here I'm only going to focus on news from North America as it happens. This site has always focused on things here and I just don't have the energy to keep up with everything worldwide. For info on the international revival as news pops out of different countries, I recommend a combination of Genvid and MoonKitty.net for news, as they have proven to be good with keeping up with such news over the years. When things happen on the North American front (which is a matter of time in my opinion given events and talks over the past months) I will report as things happen.
Literally as I was typing this, Lilly-chan of FoM informed me that her Sailor Moon Universe panel at Matsuricon tomorrow will actually be streamed live. So for those of you who have yet to witness the panels cons have to offer, especially in the Sailor Moon fandom, I highly recommend checking out the Family of Moonlight livestream page for her panel starting at 11AM EST and ending around 1PM EST tomorrow (8/14). Before or after that I also recommend checking out everything else covered at FoM, from cons to anything the fandom does. It's well worth going to, I promise y'all will enjoy it.
Today marks a historic day here at Sailor Moon Uncensored. Today marks 10 years that we have been up and running. It's quite an honor to hit such a milestone and have all of you to thank for it. To celebrate, for the first time in years we have a combined update from all three of us with our own messages on the past 10 years not only here, but all around us.
Bob Wheeler - Animeguru0
Wow. It's been ten years.
I don't know whether I should be happy I was a part of something that has lasted ten years or go curl up in the fetal position and cry since I'm freaking OLD now. Seriously, I'm creeping up to 30. Here's the real question: When the hell did I become an adult???
It's truly been a remarkable time. When we started this site, I was a mere 16 years old. I was transitioning into my junior year of High School. I didn't know how to drive a car. I had acne. Now? I'm 26 years old (math, duh), I work Internal Audit for the largest gaming company in the world, I have a responsibility to almost half the properties on the Las Vegas Strip, and the most important thing: No acne. I'm so much busier now than I was at 16. So much has changed, but really, the foundation remains the same. Three friends sharing their common interest with the masses.
Aside from just us all growing up, the thing that has changed the most is not us, but Sailor Moon itself. One of the things that was so fun about maintaining this site was, Sailor Moon was still relevant 10 years ago. S and SuperS were just beginning to air. Movies were coming out. DVDs were being released of the original Japanese show left and right. It was an exciting time. Now? Sailor Moon is all but dead to America. Pioneer is gone. ADV is gone. The Manga is gone. Ultimately, the demand for Sailor Moon in America also dried up and seemingly disappeared. Without the demand, my intensity and desire to continue to maintain the site dwindled. The whole point of this site was to expose the TRUTH about Sailor Moon to North American audiences. To show the deception and lies. With the TV show pulled from the air, there was just no need anymore.
With that said, I apologize for never finishing the Classic and R series. Although kudos to Dan for picking up the slack. He really deserves a pat on the back for never giving up on this site. I'm glad that even after 10 years, we still have a loyal fanbase. It's fun browsing the old comparisons now and then and running through memory lane. Although it's hard to say if I'll have any impact on the site in the next 10 years, I'm hoping it's still here for people to enjoy our work, and to remember fondly with us those times way back in 2000 when the Sailor Moon world was being thrown upside down.
I'll leave it at that. I want to say thank you to our mods on the forums, both current and former. We have made some great friends, and I'm grateful for each one. To Dan and Tiff, I love you guys! The fact that we've been friends for over 10 years now is.....well.....sick. It's just sick. Do you know what's really sick? Remember the site we all met each other!? *DIES* Oh God....That's a whole other story. But the biggest thank you goes out to one specific person:
You.
Thank you so much for making this site a success. Thank you for being a part of the movement for truth in anime. Thank you for being a part of a movement to get our favorite shows to come to America in an unaltered form. Look at how different the anime world is from 1995 to 2000 to 2005 to 2010. The "Uncensored" movement in anime is not our success, it's yours. It's because of you we (generally) don't have watered down and edited shows anymore. Thank you, and congratulations to you for YOUR success.
Happy 10th SMU. Here's to another great 10 years.
Dan Bednarski - MarioKnight
It's hard to believe, but today marks 10 years that Sailor Moon Uncensored has offically been on the map. I remember months prior when Bob started talking with myself and Tiff about possibly putting the site together, if for nothing else but fun for us if it didn't take off. 10 years and well over a million hits later, we clearly did the right thing in going about to make and maintain the site. It's a staple of the Sailor Moon online community even during the slow shift the past few years, as my inbox can tell you. It's been a resource not only for fans, but used as a reference in many articles regarding the anime industry and even censorship in general. The fan response when we first opened the forums a few years later was overwhelming, alongside with the e-mails and messages we've gotten throughout.
This site has meant a lot to me on many personal levels. First and absolute foremost, all the friendships and people I've been able to meet over the years has been amazing. I've been blessed to be able to have met so many people through the community, some (including Tiff, hopefully someday Bob) even in person. It truly has been a pleasure and an honor for me. SMU also indirectly helped me get some direction in my life, as things I would do for the site I found I enjoyed and eventually would decide a path for myself. Due to frustrations of webhosts at the time, I built, configured, and maintained my own personal server to run the site on. As I was doing this, various ideas I had for years making the site more efficient than manually editing and creating static HTML pages, I felt motivated to study code and databases. Both of these things were enjoyable to me, and I would soon begin to steer into the path of IT as a career. Time will tell to see how well this will work for me as I just finally got a college degree. I can say that without working on this site to serve all of you, I wouldn't have made such strides in my life both socially and professionally. Thank you everyone for that.
As Bob mentioned above, the purpose of the site was to expose everything that didn't make it over here with regards to the anime. And yes, with it being off the air for so long combined with the now widespread ability to see the show in its full, uncut glory, today there is really no need for such a site. The anime market has changed drastically between when we opened the site and now. Even so, there is still demand for the completion of this site, which is a pleasant surprise. I had been wanting to finish it in any case, if for nothing else but my disdain for leaving a project unfinished, and seeing that you all still have interest in this warms my heart and give me more motivation to continue. The response that the last batch of Classic comparisons was more than I had expected given the few years that had gone by between those and the last batch. I am very much looking forward to continue to bring comparisons online for your pleasure. Yes they are long overdue, but in a strange way I'm happy since this gives us more to look forward to.
Another surprising thing to see is just how strong the Sailor Moon fanbase not only stays, but also grows. For a show that outside of Japan has been officially dead for many years (and not just the US, worldwide), seeing a fanbase that we see with Sailor Moon has got to be one of the most amazing things to witness and be a part of. Very few shows have such a good fanbase almost 20 years after they started, and the majority of that small list never officially ceased to exist. It looks like the powers that be have finally figured this out, and have been rolling out an international revival to start the 20th anniversary celebration. Countries like Italy and Brazil have already started things off, and you can bet that it's only a matter of time for us. Though nothing official as of yet, in my view it is only a matter of time, and you will see news here as it breaks. It feels good to be excited for new Sailor Moon news here after many years.
It looks like I'm starting to get off on a tangent so I'll try to wrap this up quickly. Thank you Bob and Tiff, for all the time we've spent working here on SMU and especially our friendships outside of this site. I am honored to have you as close friends, even as life has drifted us apart over the years we can still go to each other whenever we need to. I would also like to thank each and every one of you who has come and supported SMU all of these years. Without all of you, this place would have been short lived and easily forgotten. Instead, you all showed interest and gave us a reason to keep it running the best we could. It's been a pleasure serving you these past 10 years, and I hope we can still do so for another 10 years if not more.
Thank you.
Tiffany Wood Gould - SerenityMoon
Ten years ago today, my two dear friends and I started Sailor Moon Uncensored with the hope of informing fans of the differences between the original, Japanese show and the dubbed, American version. It became a widespread success and a joy all in one. I never imagined I'd have people emailing and messaging me, exciting to be talking to "Tiff of SMU!", or people coming up to friends of mine at anime conventions and becoming excited to learn that they were friends with "Tiff of SMU!" And while I received a lot of praise and compliments, I also receive a large amount of hate mail for my opinions and blunt thoughts. There were angry letters, insults, and even death threats, all over a television show.
But that television show helped me to meet some of the best people I'll ever know. My husband, for one. Were it not for SMU, I wouldn't be the happiest woman on earth with the best man in the world, for we originally met via the SMU online forums. Countless friends, including the forums' moderators, who I have since met in person and developed long-lasting relationships with. Many fans, both rookies to the series or those there from the beginning.
Yes, SMU has been a lot to me. There was a time when I was super dedicated, making lovely graphics to improve the look of the site and working on opinions essays to entertain readers. There was a time when our forums were booming with new member after new member, with discussion after discussion developing left and right. I was a busy administrator, and our mods were constantly helping keep our message boards in order. But life gets in the way. You grow older, you develop new interests, and in my case, you get married and have children. Sailor Moon will always be an old love interest of mine, but even my 28 year old self has to admit to my eager teenage self that it has been placed on a back burner. And I'm okay with that. Maybe someday soon, I'll break out those old DVDs and amuse myself with cheesy villains and predictable plots.
Can I continue to consistently contribute to SMU? No, I can't. But would I do it all over again if I could?
You bet your ass I would.
Happy 10th, SMU.
Well the day has finally come. It has been years and I apologize for it, but after graduating college and getting some things from my parents last weekend, this weekend I have finally finished up the first season. Episodes 41, 42, 43, and 44 are now complete and added to the site. Yeah, I was shooting for yesterday to those who saw my slightly hidden messages, but after hours of note taking, then editing them as I put them in the database, I practically passed out midway through 44. Being that I still had to write summaries and two cent boxes, I decided to sleep and start anew today. I am very happy to say that today, after nearly 15 years the first season has now been completely exposed with all the changes that were made in its travel across the ocean. That take a big load off my back. ^_^
From here, obviously season 2 is next, as I work to complete the meat and bones of the site. There will also be some other changes I've been working on the past few weeks that will eventually be seen. I clearly need to revamp the links page, been messing around with code for affiliates now that I'm getting back to being involved in the SM online scene again, spelling and grammar checks abound, etc. Lots to do, but I felt finishing the first season was top priority. One thing I did do today was make a trip to the present and create a facebook fan page for the site for people who want to get updates and whatnot on their feed, maybe more in the future, who knows? So expect to see changes around here, and Sailor Moon R will be started in August. This weekend I am going to Otakon, so between work and packing for the weekend, I will not be able to start the season. If any of you are going, my badge will have MarioKnight on it and I'll be everywhere essentially.
Until more things happen here, please enjoy the newly completed first season of comparisons!
Details in this news post, basically for the first time in 5 years, Sailor Moon has a chance of being brought back to North America. Read the article for details.
I was able to find some time after work today to look for solutions and have the main site up and running. Still have to redo some code in the admin center so that can work correctly, but I can still do stuff without it so I can put that off for a bit. I apologize for having nearly nothing up for the past few days because of this.
Also, the RSS feed has been changed, please use the link to the new feed to continue to receive updates from your RSS feedreaders.
Our webhost has implemented some upgrades that rendered some of my older code obsolete, making much of the site unviewable at this time. Please bear with me as I fix the code, probably not until Thursday or Friday sadly as I have a lot of work to do for school as it's the final week in my quarter and I'm working full time on top of that.
While no new comparisons are ready at this time, today brings the first new news for Sailor Moon in nearly two years. Read this news article to see info of another official poll Sailor Moon is a part of, and please vote to help a rebirth happen. Continued support from the fans will have to pay off sometime.
I know it's hard to believe, but it's now been 8 years today that SMU has been up and running! ^_^ It has been quite a good time over the years. There's been some ups and downs, in which we've been clearly in a down period for some time now, but it's good to see that even in the down, SMU is still holding along well. Even with little updates in the past year and a half, we still have quite a good amount of content, and we have a nice community going on in the forums. Not too many SM-based sites can say that they've been around for 8 years, and it's nice that we can say that we have been and still have room to grow.
Sadly, I don't have any actual content for our 8th anniversary. For those of you who don't read the forums, my life has been a hell of a roller coaster. You'll see that my last content update was back in September 2006. As much as I hate to admit going so long without adding a comparison or anything, the stats don't lie and that is the case with me. This point in time for me was really the last time I've had much free time. Not long after this, I had taken a second job at my EB GameStop (my name for the company, especially since my store was an EB before the merger) for a little extra cash plus benefits. Not to mention I always work two jobs for Christmas season anyways. In the then-new year I got moved to another store in my main job (Taco Bell) where things just began to fall apart professionally and personally for me. Professionally it wasn't working out for me in my new store and causing just too much stress, personally I was going through rough times with my then-girlfriend. Both of these factors took up so much time and energy, I put an end to both in April, ending my relationship and leaving the bell on good terms, taking my vacation time for the year in my last paycheck.
While I was still working at the game store, I knew that I wasn't making enough and wouldn't get enough hours to live off of, so I took a job at a warehouse. While it kept me afloat well, I just could not physically make minimum numbers there after a few months, and made the choice to leave on my own terms, rather than drag it out and wait for the numbers to actually matter a couple months later. I had just got a promotion at the game store which the pay and hour increase would still allow for me to pay my bills, though obviously not much for extra spending, which was fine for me. Around this time (fall 2007) I had learned of a hit on my credit from a past debt and was starting to prepare to start tackling it a month or so after being working only the one job. But on my last day at the warehouse, I got a call from a lawyer, so my plans quite clearly changed, with me giving him all my spare money at that time and setting up a plan for the rest. I had to sell a good chunk of my stuff (thankfully I have a chance to reclaim some of it working in a game store) and go back to working two jobs, returning to the first bell I worked at, in my mall.
I got my debt cleared up within the time alloted to avoid legal issues while juggling around my other bills. At the start of this past April, I made the switch of working full-time at the bell and part-time at the game store. The EBGS home office was giving my store very little hours to work with, and I just couldn't stay afloat. At this same time, I was asked if I wanted to run the bell as my DM was shifting some people around and my store was going to be without one. At first I accepted and got a nice raise to be an acting-GM to compensate until it would be official. Within weeks I had finally caught up with my financial troubles. In May I was really close to getting the perfect job for me, a sales representative in the Syracuse area for Nintendo. But regardless of all the work I had been doing the past couple of years to fix my mistakes, I couldn't be hired there not because I wasn't good enough, but their insurance would not add me onto their plan with 2 moving violations within a 5 year period, even though none were current. Had I only had one I'd be there right now. Thank you right eye contact for popping out of my eye for the first time I can remember while driving during nighttime, though still allowing me to see the road lines well but tricking me into thinking I was going the speed limit while I was really going 10MPH over. -_- However because of me not getting the job for that reason, knowing if not for that I'd be working for the current worldwide leader of video games, it gave me confidence that I haven't had in quite some time. It made me realize that I can do much better for myself than working two jobs at a local mall. I couple weeks later I began enrollment in ITT Tech as I have a campus nearby, so I can finally get some sort of degree in something I want to do, and be able to market myself even better for future jobs than I already can. If I almost got into Nintendo with no degree, imagine where I can go when I have a degree.
So where I stand now is in about a month, I will be returning to school. While I'm not looking forward to a bunch of schoolwork again, I am looking forward to having that work be mostly stuff I can enjoy. The two most important things I'm looking forward to is having direction and structure again. Barring my three months at the warehouse, my work schedule has been anything but set in place, so knowing exactly when I'll be going to class and when I'll be working during each quarter means I can effectively plan my time better than I've been able to. As for direction it's good to finally me moving in one.
As for how this has to do with the site, well, I would hope that it gives you a better idea of why I haven't really been doing much during that period of time. I'm the kind of person who wants everyone to have an idea of what's going on, rather than just a generic update saying that times have been rough for me for a couple years making it hard for me to do things here. I think y'all deserve to hear why since you've hung around so long, though I do apologize for its length. I can't promise you when I will have more comparisons or other updates added on here, but I can say that I am in a much better position to get things done here and elsewhere which I haven't been able to say for a good while. I was really hoping to have some more comparisons done for today, but they didn't get done. Currently, I'm on a nice 9 day vacation. Not getting paid for it kinda sucks, but at the same time, I haven't taken an actual significant break from anything for nearly two years. My body has been wearing itself down physically and mentally, and anybody who has seen me in person the past two weeks or so that knows me decently well can tell this with a quick look. I'm taking these first couple of days just to get some much needed rest and relaxation, trying to avoid doing anything that requires much use of my body or mind. I will then be going to Otakon for the weekend, to get some much needed time out of my area and do things to enjoy myself. I have a few free days after Otakon, and we'll see how I'm feeling those days in regards to what I want to do for them.
Thank you all for your patience in this long road for completion of the site. I hope y'all enjoy what will be coming as we work towards actually finishing up the comparisons. And if any of you will be at Otakon, I look forward to meeting anyone willing to meet me. My badge name is Narsk, and I'll be around various places there (most of which will likely be the game room, I still can't get over the face that there's that big a room just for games o.o;; ), wearing a messenger bag with Inuyasha on it, having Sailormoon SuperS phone tags hanging off the top section alongside a Phoenix Wright plushie hanging the same way, with various FMA and gaming pins, and whatever other accessories I happen to purchase at the con. Hopefully I'll see some of you there, and afterwards we might finally see some life again here. It's been a good 8 years here on SMU and I will not let it die.
We have been given a chance to have our voices heard. Toei is holding a poll of shows American fans want to see come over here, and Sailor Moon is on the list. More details as well as a link to the poll can be found in the latest news article.
Building on yesterday's news, another tidbit has come through from Anime Central earlier this year. Click the link or go to the news section to see.
Sadly there's no comparison today, however this should change fairly soon. I've finally made it so I'm working one job 30 - 40 hours a week, which frees up a lot of time and gets rid of a lot of stress for me. I can't say exactly when right now, but having time and motivation at the same time now, finishing up the first season fairly soon looks very feasible.
But that is not why I update today. Over at Otakon this weekend, it looks like there is a little news tidbit that shows that Sailor Moon has not been forgotten by companies and is still being pursued. Click the link or go to the news section for more, and hope along with me that something comes out of it.
Hihi everyone! As you may or may not have noticed, about a month and a half ago, SMU finally achieved what few fansites manage to do, and that is make the 1,000,000 hit milestone. ^_^ I am very happy to see this milestone be hit, especially in a period of time where content updates to the site have been quite slow and well past the peak years ago.
Speaking of content, all I have is an update to my section in the About Us page of the site, which was really outdated. o.o;;; I really wanted to do more for the milestone, but it happened when I was in a job transition, and since then the amount of days I've had off between the two jobs can be counted on one hand. I wanted to finish up the first season and announce the milestone at the same time, but it just proved too much for me, and I didn't want to waste any more time to announce it. I am hoping to actually do that soon, but I refuse to set a timeframe up as of yet. If I can manage to make it so I only work one job I might start setting up timeframes again, but right now working ~60 hours a week just drains me. @_@
Anyways, happy million SMU, and here's to a million more! *raises beer bottle* ^_^
>_>; so this isn't a big deal or anything, but since my "About Us" section was in HUGE need of updating, I went ahead and re-wrote it. XD;; enjoy!
Due to issues of multiple spambots and such, many of you have probably noticed that forum registration has been closed for a couple of months. I have been planning and working on a method to keep them from getting in, and have completed this, so forum registration is open once again!
When a new user wants to sign up for the forums, there is a new link labled "Forum Account Request Form" alongside the "Register" link. This new link will open a new window with a short simple form to fill out, with just your username, email, birthday, and a validation code to prove you are not a spambot. Once this has been filled out and submitted, you can still make an account like normal. As soon as an admin notices the new account, they will check to be sure that a request form for the account was filled out, and then activate your account while sending you an e-mail stating that they can now access the forums. This will take no longer than a day or two for activation to occur. If a few days pass with nothing happening, please contact me immediately.
This new addition to the system does two things. As already mentioned, this extra setup will keep spambots away, giving us more control of the accounts activated. Because the form isn't part of the phpBB registration process, the form won't be filled out by the spambots, therefore any account they might make will be deleted after the two day rule (which is now modified to if an account here is made but no request form is filled out for that account within two days, it get's deleted). The second is that this finally forces users to input their birthdays in their profiles, as entering your birthday is a required part of the new form. This makes our lives a TON easier for trying so hard to enforce it, and will be lessannoying for everyone else from having to see a mod post about not entering your birthday in. Everybody wins.
With all that said, time to celebrate the re-opening of registration and to prepare to meet some more new people! ^_^
=D OMG, an update from Tiff!
The Christmas spirit bit me in the ass, like it always does, and I felt compelled to make the layout Christmas-y.
And so I bring you the SMU Christmas layout. I created the buttons myself, made from a Sailor Moon Artbook image, from which I edited the chibi senshi from. The chibi Usagi is taken from a Sailor Moon Channel splash page. It took me about three evenings, and I'm quite proud of it.
This is my gift to the fans, new and old. Thank you for your years of visits.
Happy Holidays!
(Oh, and our beautiful Christmas logo was made last year by forums member NameGoesHere, the winner of last year's Christmas logo contest. =D)
August 13th, 2010
Dan - Starting to work on cleanup
August 6th, 2010
SMU Staff - Happy 10th Anniversay SMU
July 25th, 2010
Dan - Sailor Moon Classic complete! And more
April 12th, 2010
Dan - North American comback much more possible
November 18th, 2009
Dan - Code fixed
November 15th, 2009
Dan - Servers upgraded, fixes soon
May 20th, 2009
Dan - Another poll, another hope
August 6th, 2008
Dan - Happy 8th Anniversary SMU! ^_^
August 13th, 2007
Dan - Vote Sailor Moon in Toei's poll!
July 25th, 2007
Dan - The ray of hope shines just a little brighter....
July 24th, 2007
Dan - Sailor Moon to make a comeback?
July 5th, 2007
Dan - Million milestone ^_^
May 2nd, 2007
Tiff - OMG a Tiff update?!
December 5th, 2006
Dan - Forum Registration Re-opened
November 13th, 2006
Tiff - A Christmas Gift
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