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Sailor Moon is among the most well-known anime in the world. Since their debut two decades ago, the “magical girls” have spawned thousands of toys, live action dramas, video games and even a musical. Needless to say, the series has incredible staying power and is still held dear by fans all over the world.

Unfortunately, the last new Sailor Moon anime episode was broadcast in 1997, leaving fans wishing for more animated magical adventures for well over a decade and a half.

Fortunately, the long wait is nearly over!

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On Friday, it was announced that the newest Sailor Moon series will debut in July of this year and will be broadcast world-wide via Niconico Douga, a Japanese video site somewhat similar to YouTube. The new series was initially announced last year, with plans to begin broadcasts this winter, but was sadly delayed.

In addition to the official announcement of series broadcast, we also learned a bit about the staff involved with the project. Toei Animation will be in charge of the series, as they were in the 1990s. Sitting in the director’s chair will be Munehisa Sakai, who worked on ONE PIECE FILM STRONG WORLD in 2009. Yuuji Kobashi, who’s provided scripts for Sazaesan and Precure, is set to oversee the show. Finally, Momoiro Clover Z, a five-member girls group that’s recently seen a sharp rise in popularity, will provide the theme song for the show. Further details about the cast and staff are expected to be released via the Sailor Moon website in the coming months. We’ll definitely let you know when any awesome news pops up!

In addition to this being an exciting event for Sailor Moon fans and fans of magical girls in general, we have to say that we’re pleasantly surprised by the simultaneous world-wide release of the show through the Internet. It’s a clever–and bold–way to reach the team’s international fans as efficiently as possible. Could this signal the dawn of a more consumer friendly approach to anime releases? Who knows, but let’s keep our fingers crossed that more follow Kodansha’s excellent example!

And, finally, here’s to another 20 years of Sailor Moon!

Note: the images used in this article are for illustrative purposes only, and are fan art. You can learn more about them here. 

Source: My Navi News
Images: Makacon (via Wachacha), Charisma Joshi Kousei Blog