As Sailor Moon celebrates the 30th anniversary of the anime, it's wild to think that the viewers in the United States almost got something so extremely different, it could barely be recognized compared to the original show. No, not the DIC dub nor the version that showed up on Toonami that contained a fair bit of censorship either — this was something entirely different.
It is known in the Sailor Moon fandom as Saban Moon and was set to be one-half live-action, one-half animation, and all kinds of Americanized oddness that made it extremely different from the series we all know and love today.
Why Was Saban Moon Pitched?
Localizations of anime in the 90s were particularly notorious for censorship and strange choices. Many fans particularly remember how rice balls were called jelly donuts in the original Pokemon anime dub. It seems that television executives didn't believe that children could connect to shows created by people in Japan with such a differing culture.
So in 1993, an American studio called Toon Makers set out to make a 17-minute pilot of their own version of the popular franchise that was specifically designed for western audiences. Toon Makers was given temporarily granted adaptation rights to the series, and began to produce their pitch. They went on to produce a promotional music video, the full pilot, and had three other episodes in the works before the project was ultimately scrapped.
Differences Between Saban Moon & Sailor Moon
While there is limited information on the series, there are some notable differences able to be gleaned thanks to released animation cells as well as a script to the pilot episode of the series. One of the major choices Toon Works made was to diversify the cast. Sailor Mercury was set to be a wheelchair user, Sailor Jupiter was changed to be Black, and Sailor Mars was made to look more Asian in descent compared to the Caucasian Sailor Moon.
They would also do more of their battles in space on various "sky flyers" instead of simply fighting on Earth. The pilot had Queen Beryl attacking Jupiter, so the girls would have to travel back into space to help fight against her.
The series would have had live-action sections produced by Renaissance Atlantic, known for their work on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as well as the rest of the live-action Power Rangers series. The girls would only be animated during their adventures in space with those portions of the project produced by Toon Makers. The only confirmed cast member for the project is Golden Globe nominated actress Adrienne Jo Barbeau — famous for voicing Catwoman — who was set to play both Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity. While there is no official proof, it is also rumored that Tami-Adrian George of Starship Troopers fame was set to play Sailor Jupiter.
Why The Series Never Came To Be
While there is no confirmed reason why the series was officially canned, it is mostly assumed that cost was a determining factor. Simply dubbing over the already animated version from Japan was far less expensive than attempting to animate parts of the series from scratch alongside filming live-action scenes.
While cartoons and live-action shows were particularly popular at the time, combining both may have also created difficulties with timing on the production side of things. The employees at Toon Makers have claimed that they were upset at the quality of animation they had to provide due to how low the budget was for the project.
Where Can Saban Moon Be Watched?
Unfortunately, the only visuals available online come from the 2-minute promotional music video recorded in poor quality. While Toon Makers' president and founder, Rocky Solotoff has confirmed that the full 17-minute pilot is contained within a "vault" of the company's works, it is only available as part of their demo reel, so it cannot be publicly shown.
Solotoff has also said that the project is in copyright limbo as after the pilot was produced but not accepted, the rights reverted back to one of the companies associated with Sailor Moon. While Solotoff believes this means the rights belong to Toei Animation, Kodansha does have the rights over the manga that inspired the series, Bandai holds merchandising and video game rights, and series creator Naoko Takeuchi holds final say over anything done with the franchise.
With so many potential names and companies being mixed in the works, it is unlikely that the full pilot will ever be able to be legally released. However, there is a making-of video for Saban Moon that might be in the possession of a Toon Works employee and could potentially be released. However, it is currently lost media at this time. While have been several small petitions over the years to see the series fully released, nothing has come from them.