Aside from French versions of the manga, the orginal Japanese versions had mysteriously gone out of print, leading some to speculate (once PGSM had been announced) that perhaps it was being pulled in order to allow for a greater focus on the new show, just as the anime R2 DVD releases and overseas DVD licences for Sailor Moon had been.
Well as was reported here yesterday, this theory seems to have been proven correct. Sailor V will be re-released starting October 22nd (the lovely Minako-sama's birthday). Who knows what new revisions and improvements Takeuchi-sensei will make to reflect the changes in the storyline that have occured due to the creation of the anime and the Sailor Moon manga?
As one of the world's 2 biggest Aino Minako (anime, not Live action) fans, I took it upon myself to find out-- and the results were shocking, enlightening, amusing, and sometimes even terrifying...
So starting today, and continuing on for the next 9 or so weeks leading up to the fantastic release of this classic work, in a feature exclusive to Genvid, I, Dr. Xadium, will present the tantalizing tidbits I could find regarding the revamp of Sailor V for the new century.
To begin with, the new series will most likely continue to be called Codename: Sailor V and not Pretty Guardian: Sailor V or Idol Soldier: Sailor V as some Moldavian fansites have reported. The revised manga will, much like George Lucas' recent DVD re-edits of the classic Star Wars films, be revised quite a bit to strenghen continuity ties with the latter Sailor Moon series, providing yet more crossovers and "origin" stories for characters that will be met later on. (But more on that in the weeks to come). Intriguingly, as with the Pretty Guardian manga, the Sailor V dialouge has been tweaked and edited, sometimes in minor ways, but sometimes in ways that introduce shocking new twists to the classic characters we thought we knew.
Take for example, this revised page from Chapter one of the manga. In the original, Artemis has just spent half a page berating Minako for being lazy, and she responds by asking him if he is a transsexual cat, given that his name is "Artemis", which is female. As the exchange stood in the old manga, it was a funny gag meant to display how the seemingly uninterested-in-studying Minako actually gained a lot of knowledge about the greek myths surrounding "Artemis" thanks to her lov of video games. But in the revised manga, the passage has had much of the dialouge regarding the mythological Artemis redacted, in favour of a new, somewhat shocking revelation, perhaps symbolizing the bold new direction the manga is destined to take (my thanks to Unnamed_Mangaholic_Z for the pre-print scan and NipponCha_Cha_Chai for the quick trans/scanslation of the new text; Please remember to buy the manga when it's commercially available. )
Remember to read the panels in a right-to-left direction.
Why this shocking revelation? Is this "very special" episode of Sailor V in which Artemis reveals his/her/its tortured past as a confused kitten at the whim of the cruel Silver Millennium crew an extension of the "World Crusher" character retcon for Princess Serenity ala Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon? Is Takeuchi-sensei reaching out to the transgendered fur movement in an attempt to capture a new demographic? Sadly there isn't enough data from the new manga for us to know (the new liner notes haven't even been prepared yet) But one thing is clear-- Sailor V's revision promises to be more than just a cosmetic touch-up: the very foundation of the Sailor Moon universe may be rocked to its core. Perhaps the way is being laid for a "reboot" of the series to take it in a bold new direction for a new line of manga, or this will just end up being the Sailor Senshi version of the Crisis of Infinite Earths. At any rate, from the materials we have on hand, we can see that the changes will be comeing fast and thick.
Next week: Tuxedo Kamen Begins: The ignonimous debut of everyone's dashing hero in Tux and top hat-- in Sailor V!