bssmoracle

Yes, I am still alive!! I haven't updated in a long time due to some real life stuff going on... we bought a new house, among other things! How exciting is that?? Anyway, there has been a lot of news that I didn't want to neglect, so this is basically a news update. Expect a large content update some time in the next week... I have lots of things planned (and have already started working on many of them!)

Sailor Moon News

There's some pretty big Sailor Moon news going on lately! The Japanese and international rights to Sailor Moon have been frozen for quite some time now, which is why products are out of print and Sailor Moon no longer airs on television. Well, word in the Genvid forums is that Sailor Moon will soon be re-airing in Italy!! An Italian member of the forum wrote that a recent post on Italian forum Anime Fun, cites an interview where Fabrizio Margaria from Mediaste Italy confirmed that the rights had been released and that the show would air again in 2010. This is pretty exciting news, but should we take it with a grain of salt? At this time, the only reports of this comment are on forums. The Moon Chase blog makes an excellent point that the rumors are pretty much unconfirmed at this point.

In the words of our dearly departed Billy Mays: But wait, there's more! According to this Japanese press release, Sailor Moon will be airing on the Japanese Animax Channel (which is partially owned by Toei) beginning on Mondays at 4:00 PM in September!!! Kotono Mitsuishi, Sailor Moon's seiyuu, also made a special appearance at a Tokyo press conference to announce this exciting news. You can find more information here, here, and here.

Brad from my affiliate site MoonKitty.net has pointed out this press release from Toei introducing a new mobile-only website for Sailor Moon!! The site currently offers animated downloads and mobile ring tones, but will soon be offering all 200 episodes for free download to phones. Unfortunately for North American fans, the site is only for cell phone users in Japan. However, if you have that access, check it out at http://www.smoon.jp!

Affiliates & Other Sites

• The Sailor Senshi Domain Group is back in business!! After spending a looooong time essentially inactive, the domain group's owner is gearing up for a resurrection! I am part of the group, and several of my affiliates are as well. It is definitely worth checking out!
  
• I'd like to take a moment to welcome my newest affiliate, Elly of the Sailor Moon Funny Faces Gallery! This site is too funny, and I know you'll enjoy it as much as I do.
  
• I've added links to a few cute sites that I found: Sailor Saturn's Palace and Sailor Moon Snipits
  
• Star Dusting is such a cute website. I love that the owner updates pretty frequently! This site also has a great image gallery. Star Dusting has a brand new layout that I love!
  
• Moon Chase has an interesting post about Sailor Moon flowers.
  
• MoonKitty.net has a great new feature: the Moonie Mailbag. Brad, the site's owner, answers your questions about Sailor Moon. What a great idea! Everyone should go pick Brad's brain about Sailor Moon... he certainly knows a lot!! :) Brad has also been updating his illustrated Sailor Moon S episode guide.
  
• Happy anniversary!!! SailorCosmos.org celebrated its 6th anniversary back in June, Kirari PGSM turned 4 in late July, and Usagi and Mamoru's Universe is celebrating 8 years online as of August 1st! Congrats!!
  
• Kirari PGSM is back up and running after a hiatus, makin' me look bad for never updating! :) Kali, the owner, has added a Sailor Moon Fanfiction Archive to the site's network. It's still getting started, so get over there and post your fanfiction!!
  

Long time, no see! I've made a few small updates and a few large ones, plus I have more in the works! Let's start off with the bigger updates...

I've recently been working a lot on adding a new interviews section. I thought it would be beneficial to post and archive of various Sailor Moon-related interviews all in one place before they disappear from the web forever, and are lost in oblivion. For that reason, although I have given credit and shown sources for the interviews, I had to post a few of them here without permission from the original people who posted them on the 'net. For many of them, there was no way to get in contact with the original poster (for example, the website closed). For others, I simply never heard back when I emailed the original poster. But I've made efforts to give credit where credit is due. I hope that this will be a useful feature on this site; these interviews are so scattered and I don't want them to be lost forever!

Moving on, I added two new splash pages from the official Sailor Moon website, Sailor Moon Channel. It seems that the new trend is for using older color manga pictures rather than new illustrations. The splash page for May shows this picture from Artbook IV (scroll down to see the part that is used; this is a two-part image!). The splash page for June uses this cute image, also from Artbook IV. I miss seeing the new illustrations, but it's nice to see a revival of the fantastic older work!!

For my smaller updates, I updated the shopping guide and some minor typos and things. Episode 115's images were not working properly, but were updated so they appear fine now. Thanks Sui for telling me! I also improved the search function a little bit (see the navigation bar on the left to search the site). I hope that having the ability to search the site has helped you use The Oracle and find everything you need!

Affiliates & Other Sites

• Codename Sailor Earth over at Moon Sisters has posted a few really cool color pictures of Kousagi from Parallel Sailor Moon, along with an interesting story about how she got them. Definitely something worth seeing! Check it out here.
  
• Both Sailor Moon Obsession and Moon Chase have posted about a new Funimation survey which asks about the possibility of redubbing Sailor Moon in English. This is an interesting bit of news, and it seems to have a lot of people in an uproar!! Opinions are really flying; some people think it's great, and others not so much. The Sailor Moon blogs listed above have excellent posts on the topic, and I encourage everyone to get in on the action by voting in the Funimation survey!!
  
• It's ALIVE!!!! Sera Myu Antics is back!!
  
• Can I go one update without mentioning Moonkitty.net? No, I cannot!! Brad is so active and is always posting something interesting. Lately he's posted a lot of Sailor Moon mobile content, like ring tones and wallpapers. If you're as obsessed with your cell phone as I am, this is definitely work checking out!
  
• Serapii Kisu is still going strong with updates in 2009... mostly with adding doujinshi images, but also adding some beautiful LJ icons.
  
• Moonlit Fantasia has a contest going on where you have the opportunity to win a Usagi wall scroll!! I love contests like this!
  
• Chibi Land is celebrating its 8th year online this month... WOW! Everyone go congratulate Chibi Jennifer on this awesome achievement!
  
• I also added two new links to the links page. If you have your own Sailor Moon site, I will be happy to swap links with you!! The links I added are: AnimeA.net (view Sailor Moon manga online!) and NijmerS Productions (a PGSM music video site).
  

I have been very busy lately with site updates!! Some of them are more noticeable than others, of course. For my content updates, I've added 13 new desktop wallpapers and 2 new SM Channel Splash Pages for March and April 2009.

Most of my updates have been most on the "administrative" side. As you can see, I've revamped the layout. Now that it's spring, I wanted something more colorful! It's also a tad wider, so I can fit more information in on your screen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

You'll also notice that there are more ads on this site. I decided that additional ad revenue will really help me out with hosting costs and everything (it's pretty expensive to maintain all the content on this site with the amount of visitors I have). They are pretty unobtrusive, so they shouldn't bother you. In fact, I have found that the ads for Sailor Moon content are really great!! There are several places I had no idea existed until I saw them on the ads. Tons of great shopping places where you can get great deals. I have really been amazed by how good the ads are.

The main thing that's changed is that I've moved to a new host. My old host wasn't very good, and I felt like I was being overcharged for the service they were providing. Well, now I've fully moved this site to LunarPages. I have had a secondary account with them for a while, and they are just wonderful. They are so easy to work with, have friendly and quick service, and most of all have affordable hosting plans with all the bells and whistles! I just love them. Their basic plan is just $4.95 per month, offers a free domain, and unlimited storage and bandwidth. It just doesn't get better than that, folks!! I definitely recommend them if you are looking for hosting.

Affiliate News

• My newest affiliate, Snowdrop has much of the manga up for download. Recently, though, scanlations of Parallel Sailor Moon have been added. They look great!!! This is definitely something you should check out if you are not familiar with Parallel Sailor Moon.
  
• Another affiliate, ChibiLand has recently opened up a new site called MoonSticks (which is also my newest affiliate). The new site has adorable, hilarious comic strips drawn by the owner of the sites, Chibi Jennifer. She is really talented!!
  
• Manga Angels has updated with one of the prettiest layouts I've seen in a while. It is really beautiful, so I hope you are able to check it out!
  
• To use the words of my previously mentioned affiliate, Moonlit Fantasia has had an "amazing comeback"! It has moved to a brand new domain and gotten a makeover with a great new layout. Way to go, FallenAngelCeres!
  
• Last but not least, Brad from MoonKitty.net is hard at work creating a great site for you. He's added some awesome new HQ desktop wallpapers with artbook pictures. I love his regular updates, so be sure to subscribe to his RSS feed to read those as often as I do.

Happy New Year, everyone!!! This is the first update of 2009, and it's a pretty big one!

I have been working on episode summaries a lot lately. I recently added summaries for episodes 051, 052, and 053... and I'm working on the next episode right now! Hopefully I can finish that up soon. I also added 8 new screencaps of episode 051, when the Cutie Moon Rod appears. Of course, episode summaries mean that I've updated lots of related pages as well! Here's a comprehensive list of pages I added or updated:

• Amaderasu
  
• Azabu General Hospital
  
• Crystal Star
  
• Cutie Moon Rod
  
• Disguise Pen
  
• Gigaros
  
• Ginzuishou
  
• Juuban Municipal Nursery School
  
• Mamoru's Apartment
  
• Manami
  
• Manami's Mother
  
• Megumi Ogata
  
• Mie Sayama
  
• Minako's House
  
• Nakayoshi Koyoshi Nursery School
  
• Queen Serenity
  
• Reci
  
• Sailor Moon's anime disguises
  
• Shiba Kindergarten
  
• Shiba Koen Junior High School
  
• Transformation Brooches
  
• Yuko Nagashima

I have also updated my shopping guide to add a new place for purchasing manga: Animaxis. This site was referred to me by Nana. Check out the Shopping Guide for more information!

My very active affiliate site, MoonKitty.net, has updated its gallery of splash pages from Sailor Moon Channel (the official Sailor Moon website). This inspired me to update my own gallery of splash pages. I am always saving them onto my computer whenever the page updates (plus I had a donation in November from a forum member), but I never get around to updating my gallery! So I've added 10 new images to the splash page gallery. If you want to read translations of the Sailor Moon Channel updates and more, you should definitely visit MoonKitty.net. The site owner, Brad, has provided a ton of very cool information in recent updates!

Affiliates & Other Sites

I've got a new affiliate! I'd like to welcome Snowdrop, my newest affie! Snowdrop is one of my favorite sites. The layout is very cute, so it's definitely easy on the eyes! Besides that, it has a great info section, as well as tons of media including awesome graphics and manga downloads. I hope you'll check it out if you haven't already!

Since I've been writing summaries of the Sailor Moon R episodes with Cardians, I wanted to share something really cool that I've found. SailorVGame.org has a set of cards for download that look exactly like Ail & An's Cardian cards. They were drawn on the computer, and they are exact replicas. The cool thing about these is that you can download them, print them out on card stock paper, and have your very own set of cards! I was really impressed by these drawings, and I know you will be too.

I've also added some new links to the links page:

• Stars of Serenity
  
• Sailor Moon Fan Site (in Turkish)
  
• Midnight Tempest
  
• Sailor Moon's Star Locket
  
• Serenitatis - German
  
• Moon Kingdom - Forum
  
• Mystic Firefly
  
• Sailor Moon UNIVERSE - Fan Series
  
• SailorWar.Net

I haven't updated in a while, but I haven't forgotten about this site! I've just been very busy lately with the holidays and everything. We also did some traveling around Thanksgiving, so it's been very hectic! Today, I fairly extensively updated the entire links page. I removed all of the buttons because they just seemed to make the page load slower, and they looked pretty disorganized. Besides that, they were kind of hard for me to keep track of! So the page looks different now, and it also includes more links. I had to remove a few, but I added many more! I've made a complete list of changes below. I also updated the link swap page to include a convenient form. If you want your page's link to appear, just use the form to contact me!

NEW LINKS

• PrincessSerenity.net
  
• Gems Ablaze
  
• The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko
  
• Second Stage
  
• Angel Dust
  
• Dark Echo Grounds
  
• Emerald Star
  
• Go! My Heaven
  
• Asteroid Senshi Headquarters
  
• ShadowGalactica.com
  
• Twin Towers
  
• MoonPrincess.com
  
• Simply Serenity
  
• Ay Efsanesi - Turkish
  
• Ballads & Bows
  
• Tsukettemiyou! - Sailor Moon Craft Kits
  
• Tsuki Mubi
  
• Serenitatis
  
• Bunny On the Moon
  
• Ker-Fluff! - Another Story resource site
  
• Musical Moon
  
• Turbulence
  
• Cauldron of Rebirth

UPDATED LINKS

• Moon Sisters
  
• Manga Angels

AFFILIATES REMOVED

• MoonPrismPower.com has been closed.
  
• ReiHino.net has not been active for several years and does not currently have any content.
  
• Senshi Card Mania-R TCG seems to have been closed.

SITES THAT ARE CLOSED/NO LONGER AVAILABLE

• Sailor Palace
  
• Sailor Obsession
  
• Ein Densetsu
  
• Galaxy Cauldron
  
• Dreamscapes
  
• Eternal Justice
  
• Rona Kino's Mostly Sailor Jupiter Page
  
• Wind on Water Galleries :: Haruka and Michiru
  
• Those Pointy Things: The Swords of BSSM

It's been a while since the last update, but I promise I haven't forgotten about this website! I've just been very busy. Today, I added the summaries of episode 048, episode 049, and episode 050! I've also started adding cast lists to the episode pages, and will continue to do so for episode. At some point, I will also go back and add the cast lists for episodes that I have already summarized. Several pages have been updated as well, so here's a long list of those:

UPDATED PAGES:
Ail
An
Cardian
Falion
Hell Ant
Juuban General Hospital
Mikan Shiratori
Minotauron
Moon Stick
Moonlight Knight
Shinozaki
TV Ashita
Virtual Reality Theater

Tiny updates here and there....

Did you notice... that I've changed around the "Did you notice?" (DYN) pages? Each episode used to have its own DYN page, but now I've moved those directly to the episode summary page, along with cast lists for each episode. I'm trying to consolidate and put more info on one page... which means less clicking around for users. I've also updated the DYN sections for episode 042, episode 048, and episode 050.

There is a new section on the menu for items. This is section is very small right now and is certainly not complete, but I will be adding more to it in the future. Another tiny update that you may not have noticed: I changed the links for the PGSM MP3s so that they now point to queenserenity.org. Again, this is small update, but something that needs to be noted in order to avoid any confusion!

I've already got a few more things in the works, so I hope to update again soon!

It's been a while since the last update, but I've been working on various things off and on during that time. I actually have a pretty big update prepared today! I managed to complete episode summaries for episode 045, episode 046, and episode 047! So I've now completed the first series and moved on to the second. Of course, that means I've also updated a multitude of pages, which I've listed below.

UPDATED PAGES:
Ail
An
Cardian
D Point
DD Girls
Endymion
Haruna Sakurada
Ittou Asanuma
Juuban Municipal Junior High School
Juuban Odyssey
Makaiju
Orgel
Queen Beryl
Queen Metallia
Vampire

HURRAY! I have just finished uploading screencaps for the complete StarS season!! That means that I've added 2,837 new screencaps from the final five episodes: episodes 196-200. YAY! Go check them out! :)

Oldies but Goodies

My excellent affiliate site, Usagi and Mamoru's Universe has just celebrated its 7th anniversary! Congratulations!! The site owner has uploaded an absolutely amazing new layout that I just love. I also had another "blast from the past" this week when I found out that one of my favorite Sailor Moon websites of the past has recently been resurrected! I used to really love Manga Angels, so I was very pleased when the owner contacted me to let me know that the site is up and running again. We are now affiliates, so please check out that awesome site!

On the topic of aging, here's one question I hear a lot: "Just how old is The Oracle?" I started the actual website in 2002, but before that, it was actually a mailing list! I started work on the encyclopaedia in late 1997. Back then, it was all done in text files on my computer, and every day I would send out new information and pictures on my mailing list. The mailing list ended up becoming ENORMOUS, with several thousand subscribers. Some of my older visitors may even remember it! I just couldn't keep up with all the users anymore (since it was a little more difficult to run a mailing list in those days than it is now), so I started the website around February 2002. I didn't start tracking the updates until December of that year, though. The Oracle was on a different host at first, but then I purchased this domain in 2004. So there you have it... The Oracle's history. It's been around in some form or another for about 10-11 years, and the website has been around for a little over 7 years. I think I might be obsessed! ;)

Ok, everyone.... I have an absolutely massive picture update for you today!! I've added 3,414 screencaps from StarS episodes 190-195. That's six episodes all at once!! I've also added 59 screencaps of the longer version of Sailor Star Fighter's transformation. The next episode will probably be a huge picture update as well... I am really looking forward to finishing up this season! I also hope to get back on track with the episode summaries really soon.

In Other News...

My affiliate MoonKitty.Net has just added an amazing Sera Myu First Stage Performance Guide. It is absolutely incredible! I am so impressed by the summaries and screencaps. If you love Sera Myu, you will definitely want to check it out!

The Moon Chase Blog has recently posted their translation of an interview with Miyuki Kanbe, the Sera Myu actress who passed away earlier this month. It is a very interesting read that you will most certainly enjoy if you are a fan of Miyuki Kanbe.

What's in your Sailor Moon collection? The Oracle's forum has a pretty lively discussion going on about what you have in your own personal Sailor Moon collection. Some people seem to have a ton of merchandise! Of course, if your collection is still small, there's always time to grow! Check out the Shopping Guide for information on how to expand.

Screencaps!

I've done a huge amount of screencaps lately! I posted several episodes last week, but I didn't update the main page because I didn't really have time. Last week, I posted 1,445 screencaps of Stars episodes 183-185, as well as 108 of Sailor Moon's Eternal transformation.

Today I've also added a lot! I added 2,071 screencaps of Stars episodes 186-189. I can't believe I'm almost done with them all! Just 11 more episodes and I'll get started on the movies. As I'm doing that, I'll continue adding more caps of the transformations and attacks, until I have completed all of those. Speaking of attacks and transformations, I also added 192 screencaps today of Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss, Star Sensitive Inferno, Star Serious Laser, and Star Gentle Uterus (additional versions). *whew!*

And now for something completely different....

One of the discussions on The Oracle's Forum lately has revolved around Disney/Sailor Moon crossover fanart. I found this really interesting picture on the Moon Chase blog which shows Disney princesses (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Belle) as Sailor Senshi. Forum member TotallyUsagi pointed out another picture along the same lines posted at How a Girl Figures... it has even more princesses!

Forum member SailorCybertron also brought up two different pictures. This one shows how Princess Serenity would be drawn as a Disney character. This one shows how Belle would be drawn if she were drawn by Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon's creator). These two drawings were done by the absolutely brilliant artistmimi-na on Deviant Art.