🌙 My 2022 Sailor Moon Predictions
Sailor Stars Movie, new Sailor Moon musicals, and more Moonie merch?
2021 has been a bit of a wild ride for Sailor Moon fans with numerous delays affecting both the anime, manga, and musical corners of the fandom. Despite all of the drama though, 2021 still gave us a new Sailor Moon musical, online streaming of some Sailor Moon musicals for the first time, the final volumes of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition manga, and the international releases of both Sailor Moon Eternal movies.
What could 2022 have in store for Sailor Moon? Here are some of my predictions.
1. Sailor Moon Crystal Season 5 Announcement
I’m honestly willing to put money on getting some kind of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 5 announcement at some point in 2022. What I’m unsure about though is what form this animated adaption of the Sailor Moon manga’s Stars arc will take.
This fifth Sailor Moon Crystal chapter could do something similar to the fourth which released as two separate movies, Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and 2. It’s unclear how successful Sailor Moon Eternal was though so the companies involved may opt to produce a lower budget TV series like Sailor Moon Crystal 1 through 3. An international release on Netflix is likely.
2. A New Sailor Moon Musical
At the very least, I think we’ll get some kind of announcement of a new Sailor Moon musical but if they decide to produce some kind of revised version of the current Princess Kaguya musical instead of making a brand new performance, we could see it debut before the end of 2022 as well.
3. More Full-Colour Sailor Moon Manga
Full-colour versions of the first two volumes of the Sailor Moon manga have been released digitally in Japan. They’ve been out for a while now so it’s only a matter of time until more volumes come out. I wouldn’t expect an English translation of these until 2023 or even 2024 though as they would be competing with the Naoko Takeuchi Collection release.
4. The Naoko Takeuchi Collection Manga Will Actually Come Out
The Naoko Takeuchi Collection, which is basically just a smaller, cheaper, paperback version of the large, premium Eternal Edition release, has been delayed several times but I’m pretty confident that at least the first two volumes will hit shelves in 2022 in English-language regions.
5. At Least 1 Sailor Moon Art Book
Waiting for a new Sailor Moon art book to release has become somewhat of a meme lately due to the complete absense of any announcement or updates. With the Sailor Moon manga officially turning 30 last month, in December 2021, there really would be no better time for a new art book to come out. It’s also possible that we could get something to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 90s Sailor Moon anime or even Sailor Moon Crystal and Eternal.
I’m 50/50 on a new Sailor Moon art book coming out this year but we’ll definitely get some kind of announcement at the very least.
Sponsor: I’d like to thank my friend, Sarah, for sponsoring this issue. She runs a variety of different projects but the one I love the most is Adorka Bows, an online store featuring cool pins inspired by the magical girl anime genre.
My fave right now is this special diestuck magical girl pin which looks super cool.
6. Sailor Starlight Merch
The inevitable arrival of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 5, in whatever form it takes, will undoubtedly be accompanied by a plethora of merchandise based on the Sailor Starlights, Princess Kakyu, Sailor Galaxia, and all of the other characters that appear in the Stars arc.
7. Sailor Moon Video Game Collabs
I doubt we’ll get a dedicated Sailor Moon video game in the near future but I can definitely see some kind of collaboration with an existing title or series.
In late-2021, Fortnite finally added several Naruto characters and items complete with cellshading to ensure that they look exactly like their anime counterparts. I could definitely see Fortnite expressing interest in bringing over some Sailor Moon characters.
Of course, there are options beyond Fortnite, such as Minecraft, that could work really well with some kind of Sailor Moon collab. We’ll probably get some Japanese mobile puzzle game collab in 2022 but I’m hoping we’ll get something more substantial and less niche.
8. IRL Sailor Moon Events
The pandemic isn’t over but it does seem to be stablising. As a result, I can definitely see some real-world Sailor Moon events happening again in Japan in mid to late-2022.
9. Sailor Moon NFTs
Love or hate NFTs, this is something I can definitely see Toei or Kodansha dipping their toes into in 2022. More and more mainstream pop culture properties are selling official NFTs to rake in some extra cash and it’s only a matter of time until we get some Sailor Moon NFTs. After all, 2021 did see the arrival of official One Piece NFTs.
Digital Sailor Moon trading cards? Digital animated anime scenes? It’s hard to say what form they’ll take. If we don’t get Sailor Moon NFTs, my backup predictions are NFTs based on Dragon Ball or maybe even Ghost in the Shell.
10. New Sailor Moon Project Announcement
My final (and riskiest) prediction for 2022 is that we’ll get an announcement relating to some kind of new Sailor Moon media project in addition to Crystal Season 5 and the musicals.
This could be something small like audio plays but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some kind of new live-action series or movie produced, or at least released, by Netflix. The company has already shown interest in the Sailor Moon brand with Crystal 1-3 and Eternal arriving on the platform in 2021. I wouldn’t be surprised if the contract they signed for that content included something about producing and releasing new Sailor Moon content. If not, we now know that Netflix is talking to the companies and individuals behind Sailor Moon so a new deal could likely be struck fairly easily.
While Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop was a massive flop, their live-action version of Winx was a big enough hit to garner a renewal for a second season. There tends to be a lot of crossover between the Sailor Moon and Winx fandoms so Netflix could see the success of Winx as justification for a Sailor Moon adaption. There’s an audience for it.
What’s more, after the various manga, musical, and anime versions of Sailor Moon, most fans would welcome a creative reinterpretation of the story and characters. The Japanese live-action Sailor Moon series showed what can be done with Sailor Moon when the creatives have free reign. I’d love to see what Netflix would do. At the very least, it would give us another version of Sailor Moon to analyse for the next decade or so.
I wonder how accurate my 2022 Sailor Moon predictions will be. 🤔 Can’t wait to check this newsletter again this time next year to see what did or didn’t come to pass.
Thanks again for subscribing and sharing and have an amazing start to 2022!
Sailor Moon Says! 🌙
~ Brad
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