Class of 1998

First Major Modern Anime Acquisition for Toonami

First Toonami Series To Have An Event For New Episodes

Most Controversial Show To Air on Toonami

You knew the moment that Sailor Moon arrived on Toonami that things weren't going to be the same again. Before the series premiered, Toonami was practically a boys-only block. Testosterone-driven shows like Thundercats, Robotech, and Voltron were the norm. Heck, the only females that actually got their hands dirty were Cheetara and Wily Kit from Thundercats, Princess Aurora from Voltron, and Jesse Bannon from The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. When Sailor Moon premiered just a scant few months after its disasterous airings on the USA Network, everybody that witnessed it realized that the mood was about to change.

On June 1, 1998, Sailor Moon became the first major modern anime acquisition to air on Toonami. Toonami not only aired the sole American season of Sailor Moon (which consisted of "Classic" and half of the "R" season), but in October, they aired the latter half of the "R" season, which was limited to Canada.

In the summer of 2000, Cartoon Network debuted the English version of "S" season of Sailor Moon, but not without controversy. It was already know throughout the fandom that two new pretty soldiers, Sailors Uranus and Neptune, were a little more than friends (okay, they're lovers), and to appease the soccer moms and would-be protesters, the censors turned them into cousins. However, that decision made it worse, as the two ladies now seem like "kissing cousins" to the casual observer. If that wasn't strange enough, during the week of Comic Con, one very pivotal episode was skipped without any explanation from the network. Okay, there were explanations, but they were all contradictory of each other. When the "SuperS" season premiered in the fall of 2000, another episode was skipped, and this time, it's clear the episode was skipped for minor content.

(For folks that want to know the whole story, check out Sailor Moon Uncensored, a great in-depth site showing you what you missed in North America.)

In 2003, around the same time that Toei began refocusing on the Sailor Moon brand in Japan by introducing a new live-action series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Toei decided to just give up on the North American market for Sailor Moon, pulling all of its DVD releases out of the market and all television broadcasts off the air. A pity and a shame considering that in an era of network blocks trying to get more female audiences like the Fox Box and Cartoon Network's Miguzi, a show like Sailor Moon would be welcome in this market.

Sailor Moon, like ReBoot, is a show that didn't get as much respect as it should have by the network (maybe it's Canadian bias or something). Toonami was the first series to make Cartoon Network consider what kind of jewel their block is, and, in effect, changed the direction of the block forever. It was a wild time when it came on.