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The new Sailor Moon seems to be showing on Niconico exclusively. Why would it
not air on TV, or both?


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2014-05-14T02:29:28.227
9709
2014-09-06T10:03:05.720
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question
sailor-moon
Why is Sailor Moon (2014) not airing on TV?


Like **senshin** mentioned, nobody really knows for sure. One possible
speculation floating around is if Toei has another series on TV in July (Say,
**Precure** or **Dragon Ball Kai** ) they wouldn't want it to compete with
**Sailor Moon Crystal**...but even that explanation doesn't make much sense.

Most likely, streaming **Crystal** on an online service such as NicoNico is
the easiest way of reaching an international market, since NicoNico _will_ be
streaming **SMC** with 10 different subtitled languages available. Online
streaming _could_ be the easiest way for Toei to keep track of how well
**Crystal** does (internationally and in Japan), either before creating more
seasons or airing it on Japanese TV.


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2014-05-14T03:00:02.273
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2014-05-14T03:00:02.273
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I think this is the main reason for online streaming only: Sailor Moon Crystal
is **_not_** expected to make money among the Japanese, so its _only_ hope to
turn a profit is to make it available to viewers **_outside_** of Japan.

The classic anime series aired on Japanese television and garnered many fans
inside of Japan, so tons of merchandise was sold to little girls. The reboot
is not airing on Japanese TV; it is streaming on a website called NicoNico
Douga.

In Western countries, streaming technology like Hulu and Netflix is hugely
popular. In spite of the rest of the world’s image of Japan as
technologically-savvy, a large number of Japanese young adults are virtually
computer and internet illiterate, only accustomed to using mobile-friendly
websites on smartphones. Among all of my college friends here in Japan, I have
only met one who had heard of NicoNico, and none who have heard of Hulu even
though it exists in Japan. If not even the college crowd knows about NicoNico,
I can guarantee you that the older generation and the shrinking birthrate’s
Japanese kids aren’t aware that the reboot exists, nor would know how to
access it even if they did. The average Japanese family won’t huddle around
the TV set on a Saturday morning to watch the next episode of the reboot, like
they did for the classic series in the 90s. This means that the entire
Japanese viewership for the reboot will be the middle-aged otaku who’ve stayed
fans for 20 years. Director Munehisa Sakai specifically said, “We want grown
women who watched the original anime to watch this!” Well, I am a grown woman
who watched the original anime and who is living in the Japan, but I really
don't want to fork out to buy a monthly subscription to NicoNico just to watch
1 show that only airs 1 episode every 2 weeks. If they had wanted to attempt
something of a substantial Japanese viewership without airing it on TV, they
should have at least put it in the Japanese Hulu (hulu.jp), but they didn't.

The chance that the reboot will draw in new Japanese fans is unlikely. And the
chance that the legions of Japanese young adults who avidly tuned in to BSSM
as kindergarteners back in the day will even realize there’s a reboot is
unlikely.

Consequently, the reboot is not very marketable in Japan. Some new merchandise
is being produced, but the sales numbers will be nothing like the boom in the
90s when thousands of elementary school girls across Japan were buying the
costumes, transformation toys, dolls, stationary items, picture books, paper
dolls, coloring books, etc.

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live-action TV series did air on Japanese TV
and did produce a collection of merchandise marketed to little girls. Even so,
it only ran for one season: the Dark Kingdom arc.

When I first heard news of the reboot, I wondered if BSSM might possibly come
back out of the woodwork and give the Pretty Cure franchise a run for its
money (this would be a considerable challenge, since Japanese kids may have
heard of BSSM but haven’t watched it at all, whereas they’ve grown up on
Pretty Cure, and PreCure is able to switch in and out the character types in
each incarnation of the series, keeping things fresh yet familiar. In
contrast, BSSM is one long tale with the same core characters throughout, less
up-to-date, and less child-friendly. But soundly thrashing PreCure wasn’t a
total impossibility). However, I can safely say that Pretty Cure is firmly
holding its ground on the airwaves and on the shelves of the toy stores,
electronics stores, 100 yen shops, everywhere in town. I’ve only come across
20th anniversary BSSM merchandise in a clearance bin in _one_ store. Not even
Animate, the main anime merchandise store, has _any_ Sailor Moon Crystal
merchandise in stock.

The reboot anime is 26 episodes long, period. Those 26 episodes are scheduled
to be released over the span of a year, one every other week. The series would
need to be renewed in order to run past the first story arc (Dark Kingdom) in
or after 2015. It’s possible that it could get approval to be extended, BUT
the situation is very different from the classic anime series’ run.

If the reboot gets extended, it will need to be based on the marketability
abroad: the international BSSM fan community. How many of you are planning to
import reboot merchandise from Japan within the next few months? If you
aren't, then I'd warn against expecting to see further seasons produced.


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2014-09-06T09:29:05.567
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2014-09-06T09:29:05.567
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