Here is the American version of Sailor Moon that we will never see
A version of Sailor Moon without her traditional pigtails (the odangos that infected a generation), but with an unlikely hairstyle that perhaps more resembles a American housewife of the 90s. This is what fans call "Saban Moon," an American attempt to re-create Sailor Moon in a format more popular with US families. Saban Moon never went beyond the pilot and this contributed to making it a myth, however in these days that very first episode has popped up on YouTube. The credit is all of Ray Mona, youtuber who does an extraordinary job of recovering multimedia products that have never seen the light. Mona retrieved the footage directly from the Washington Library of Congress, which holds a huge archive of unpublished audiovisual material. Before that, only the music video had appeared, presented at a convention for a select few.
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But why remake Sailor Moon and what would it have been so different from the original version? To understand it you need a bit of context: we are around 1993 and in the United States the souls began to be dubbed and broadcast in the afternoon, albeit with great censorship. In fact, let us remember that anime are often created for a more adult audience than the one to whom “cartoons” are offered in the West, spectators who, on the other hand, have a culture that is in some ways very different from ours. Despite the efforts of censorship and adaptation, however, everything that came from the East seemed to have great success: one case above all was that of the Power Rangers. In search of a "female" version to import, Saban Entertainment (same production company of the Power Rangers adaptations) hired the American studio Toon Makers (known for Thumbelina or The Pagemaster) to recreate the "Sailor Moon" concept which was still unpublished. in the USA, transforming it into a version more suited to Western palates. The show was supposed to air on Fox, in the block traditionally dedicated to the Power Rangers.
Toei Animation, which owns the rights to Sailor Moon, temporarily authorized the American company to create a promotional video, a pilot and three other episodes. When they saw the promotional video and the pilot, it seems that the parts of Bandai considered the "destruction" more than enough, suspending the license and effectively putting this American version of Sailor Moon in the drawer. According to other rumors, however, the project was blocked by the too low budget for a technically too ambitious series.
The American Sailor Moon, in fact, should have combined animated parts with live action scenes, which in fact represented the ordinary life of the Sailors, before the transformation. Shooting the live action scenes was the Renaissance Atlantic, known for the production of the Power Rangers, while the set was the same used for Bayside School. The cast included Stephanie Dicker (Sailor Moon - Victoria), Melinda Cowan (Sailor Mercury - Blue), Danny DeLacey (Sailor Mars - Dana), Tami-Adrian George (Sailor Jupiter - Lita) and even Adrienne Jo Barbeau (actress with a nomination at the Golden Globes) as both Queen Beryl and Serenity.
The characters have all been completely redesigned: Luna no longer a black cat but a soft white long-haired cat, Queen Beryl a sort of Maleficent, Marzio without a mask and resembling a Disney prince. The storyline, from what little you see, completely different from that of the original manga and anime.
The most inclusive Sailor Moon we will never have Although the drawings and the format had lost all of the allure of the Sailor Moon loved by old and new generations, this Saban Moon also had something innovative. A clear choice, in fact, was to have a more inclusive "cast": Sailor Mercury would be a girl with disabilities, Sailor Jupiter would have black skin and Sailor Mars more visibly Asian traits. The Sailors would fight using flying "surf", while Sailor Mercury's wheelchair would be transformed into a real spaceship.
We must also admit, however, that Saban Moon's "death" was lucky for all of us: Toei changed the program and just dubbed the original version. Although the dubbing in some aspects distorted the plot, it made the real Sailor Moon usable all over the world, guaranteeing the global success it still enjoys today and which for some has even transformed it into a feminist icon. A success that in the 2000s relives in the reboot "Crystal", graphically closer to the original manga (albeit with some uncertainty) and now distributed by the very American Netflix.
But if you believe in the multiverse, and you want to enjoy the Sailor Moon that didn't exist, you can review the pilot in this video (starting at 1:43). You decide if, after all, it was better this way ... or if we really missed something.
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