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Sailor Moon Website's Animation Page Opens a Countdown

The official website for the Sailor Moon 20th anniversary project will open its animation page on Friday with a countdown to releasing content. The countdown page, which depicts the words "eight days left..." with a waxing moon, is currently visible, but the countdown does not begin until tomorrow.

The new Sailor Moon anime will begin streaming worldwide on the Niconico service in July. Producer Atsutoshi Umezawa (Precure franchise) said that it "is not remaking the previous anime, but adapting the original manga and starting from scratch again."

Munehisa Sakai (One Piece, One Piece: Strong World, Suite Precure) is directing this new adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi's original manga at Toei Animation, the studio behind the first anime. Yūji Kobayashi (scripts on Saint Seiya Omega, Smile Precure!) is in charge of the series scripts, and Momoiro Clover Z is performing the theme song. Yukie Sakō (chief animation director on Majestic Prince, Nyan Koi!) will serve as the character designer and Yasuharu Takanashi (Naruto Shippūden, Fairy Tail, Precure franchise) as the composer. The art directors will be Takashi Kurahashi (Mononoke, Gatchaman Crowds, Hakaba Kitarō) and Yumi Hosaka (Mononoke, Gatchaman Crowds). King Records is producing the soundtrack.

Takeuchi launched the original magical girl team manga series in the shōjo monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi in 1992. It soon spawned anime, a live-action television project, musicals, and other adaptations, and it also sparked a worldwide boom. The 20th anniversary project began in 2012, and featured the first musical in eight years at the AiiA Theater Tokyo last September. Kodansha has been republishing the original manga in a complete edition since last November, and Kodansha USA Publishing's Kodansha Comics imprint has been publishing the manga in North America.