Have you guys seen this?  It's a documentary thing that aired on Dateline years ago about Sailor Moon and its popularity.  They have interviews with Naoko Takeuchi and even Hitoshi Doi.  Does anyone else remember him?  I loved his Sailor Moon site when I was younger and used to read it all the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhwVcIR1aQse

I have not seen this. But thanks for posting it. I will have to watch sometime

Well, this was fascinating. And before I was born.

Oh god, the narrator butchered Naoko's name so badly.

It was actually really biased reporting for the first segment. They seemed to focus on nothing but sexuality.  And yeah, they killed her name. I got too irritated and just stopped watching.

Yeah, I hate that they kept calling the girls "bombshells" and "sexy" and it's like.... are they not aware that they're 14?? 0_0

The most interesting part for me was the interview with Venus and Jupiter's old VAs, it's nice that them getting the roles helped to introduce them to anime.

I quit around that part, mainly because the biased reporting ticked me off and I just couldn't sit through the video quality of the interview.

There's also one point where they're interviewing the early Sailor Moon fandom and they interview this one otaku guy who was this really diehard fan of Sailor Mercury and had all this Mercury merch in his room and his name just happened to be Greg which is like a random coincidence.  I wonder if this is why DiC changed Ryo's name to Greg in the dub?  And for some reason, the person interviewing Naoko is really obsessed with Umino and just keeps asking her questions about Umino and Naoko has this priceless expression on her face the whole time like "Why am I here talking to this guy who just seems to care about Umino?"

Cosmos-Hime wrote:

I quit around that part, mainly because the biased reporting ticked me off and I just couldn't sit through the video quality of the interview.

It's dateline. What do you except?  

I never really cared for Dateline. Most of time it's creepy murder mystery stories.

Funny thing is I was 14 or 15 when Sailor Moon debuted in the US. I was their targeted audience (well, it was aimed at girls, but what the hey, I would care to see a cartoon with nice looking girls) In high school 20 some years ago, anime wasn't as huge as it is now and I would be branded a "nerd" for liking anime, esp. about female main characters, my classmates would find it rather strange. I qualify as a nerd before it became "cool" a decade later (mid 2000s).

I viewed the first SM series (being dubbed in English) and it wasn't of the best quality, but it was recent years on a few cartoon or anime forums when I watched the Japanese (English subtitle) versions of SM that my interest was regenerated. I was more a fan of Beavis and Butthead when it originally aired on MTV at the time. Good to see some 1990s kids and cartoon shows return, they continued way beyond the typical one-year run they're given in production.

On the Dateline story on SM, they mentioned Power Rangers: they were popular as well in 1994, but I never got into Power Rangers even though I liked Ninja Turtles. I had a neighbor whose granddaughter and younger grandson lived there loved Power Rangers, also Sailor Moon, My Little Pony, Ninja Turtles and Pokémon.  My nephew who's 15 liked Pokémon too, along with Digimon and Yu-gi-oh all based on card games. I don't believe he watched Sailor Moon.

I don't know why Dateline thought anyone could get excited about Sailor Moon through this special.  Adults would probably be rolling their eyes at the cheesy voice acting and kids would be bored by all the statistical corporate spin.  And I feel like they should have included a disclaimer like, "Did we mention this show will likely air on your local UPN at the ungodly hour of 6:30 a.m. in the morning so set your VCR kids!"

...That guy really liked Mercury XD
This was a fun trip back! To when the internet was terrible colors and random pictures and .midi files...

Sailor Moon midis are a blast from the past.  I remember those midis for the dub songs like My Only Love.  And remember Geocities and Sailor Moon web rings and Anime Web Turnpike site thing?  My favorite part of this special is how Naoko's hardest decision is what uber expensive car she should drive for the day

Starchild wrote:

...That guy really liked Mercury XD
This was a fun trip back! To when the internet was terrible colors and random pictures and .midi files...

I wonder he's married with kids now (it's been 20 years since his interview)...or he still has a crush on Sailor Mercury, LOL. Maybe he's a member of the GC (come out and introduce yourself, you're on TV). Sailor Moon improved over the years, and more fans came along...it's not gone away and will NEVER go away.

Yeah, I wonder if that Sailor Mercury fanboy is watching Crystal now. I feel like I want to track him down just to find out if he still likes Sailor Moon but that would be creepy to actually do it. ^^;;

I love watching people reminisce about Sailor Moon. I'm too young to remember it, but thanks to the internet I discovered it. That must have been cool, watchng it on ACTUAL TV. Even if it was the dub...