As you may have heard, Kodansha USA has announced the re-release of the Sailor Moon manga, and the release of Codename: Sailor V! It may be old news, but that doesn't make me less excited. The original 18 volumes of Sailor Moon will be published as 12 volumes for the main storyline, and 2 for short bonus stories. Release begins in September (for some reason I think it'll be mid-September) for both series.

Conditions are a lot better for these series now than they were when Sailor Moon was released the first time. Precedents have been set for language faithfulness (which means Usagi will remain Usagi, not Bunny), content and format that simply weren't there in the early 90s.

When Sailor Moon was running in the US, I didn't buy it. Why? I have no clue. The manga format was pretty cheap-you remember those Mixx pocket manga, right? The binding seemed like it had been done with a glue stick, and if you opened the manga too wide the pages would pop out. At the time I had this bizarre delusion that the graphic novel format was somehow unique to the US and was a bastardization of the original Japanese 48-page comic book format. Why I thought that was the case is now beyond me...In all, I just felt like there was something off about the American release of the manga. I'd really regretted it, those manga are the one Sailor-related item I feel like I actually need.

Anyway, I'm absurdly excited about this upcoming chance to get better quality Sailor Moon and Sailor V manga with a good translation. Don't let us down, Kodansha.

If you can't wait until September to get your magical manga fix, Dark Horse will be releasing the second omnibus of Cardcaptor Sakura at the end of July. I've already got the manga in it's Tokyopop format, but I may still get the omnibi (omnibuses?) for the bonus material.

In other news, Madoka Magica is still delayed. The last few episodes should air sometime this month. Blue Disc releases are going to be about a month behind.

I've been thinking about why the new episodes are being delayed...could it be that Madoka will make a contract with QB, become a witch, and destroy the world (again)? If that were the case, it makes sense for the series to be delayed in response to the earthquake. Don't do it, Madoka! I still believe you can prevent everything from descending into chaos!