Lost Sailor Moon American Reboot Found, Watch It Now
Sailor Moon is one of the most popular anime shows in existence, and now footage of the American reboot has been found, and its terrifying.
This article is more than 2 years old
Sailor Moon is one of the most popular anime shows in history. The Japanese-based series made its way to the United States and became a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s. However, there was once an American reboot that existed. The footage of this reboot has been lost for quite some time, but it has since been unearthed online. It is quite rough and looks completely different than the original Japanese dubbed anime that fans have loved for decades. You can see this reboot below:
The above video is an in-depth documentary about YouTuber Ray Mona attempting to track down this long-lost footage. Apparently, this Sailor Moon reboot was stored at the Library of Congress, though it never made its way into becoming a mainstream release. What makes this footage all the more confusing, is the opening intro blends an animated cartoon look into a live-action sitcom-styled show as well. Ray Mona speaks about the intro as being a music video that was meant to accompany the series. The result of both the music video and pilot is very odd.
This Americanized version of Sailor Moon was meant to be called Saban Moon after it involved children’s TV producer Haim Saban. People might recognize his name from producing the U.S. version of Power Rangers, which also become a household name in the 1990s. We are quite glad that this Americanized version never got its chance to debut, as it is quite terrible. The opening credits and song are enough to drive even the biggest Sailor Moon fans away. Nothing about this reboot would have been successful, which could be a big reason why the footage has stayed hidden for so long. Even though the animation was rough back in the 1990s, this reboot version looks as though it took a step back to the 1980s.
Thankfully, the series that everyone received was the normal Japanese dubbed version of Sailor Moon. Saban might have been the genius that was behind Power Rangers, but he would have not been as successful if this Saban Moon series had premiered. It is just downright terrible. The animated pilot was essentially supposed to lead into a live-action reboot or vice versa. Either way, this would have not gone over well with fans at all.
The United States has a bad habit of constantly attempting to reboot or remake foreign properties into something that just doesn’t work. This has been done plenty in the horror genre, with many foreign films being altered and Americanized, and all but not landing well with audiences. For example, Spike Lee attempted to remake the Korean hit, Old Boy, but his version was just terrible. Saban Moon aka U.S. Sailor Moon is just another instance of this.
For those who want to see this new version of Sailor Moon, you can watch the above documentary. The docuseries is two parts long, but we have only attached the second part that contains the pilot episode of Saban Moon. But beware, this Americanized version might not be something that you will want to see. We sure didn’t.
