Continued from Part 1...
Q: Do the SOS folks get paid financially for what they do?

Joel: *Smoking Man* No, we're not on the take. We have never been paid so... no, we don't get money from all the things we do..

A: Um you're kidding right? ^_^ None of our core members are employed in any capacity by any of the companies involved with "Sailor Moon". In fact, often times SOS members have to spend money out of their own pockets for the sake of the SOS. Besides donating money, SOS members also donated webspace and, of course, much of their time and effort. The only reward we asked for and got is the satisfaction of knowing that we did our share in helping our favorite show, so that others may enjoy it with us.

Q: Where does SOS get its important info from? Crow: Our vast network of boozed up old hobo's. A: We get our information from different industry sources and confirm them with second parties. In many cases we cannot disclose our direct sources of information because we respect their wish for privacy/anonymity, and we understand that improper disclosure of sensitive information may jeopardize negotiations related to "Sailor Moon" or do unpredictable damage otherwise. Often times we have to "sit" on information until our sources agree to let us release it, but it is in this manner that we continue to be trusted by our industry contacts.

Q: How reliable is the info from SOS?

Tom: Umm... you're kidding right. This comes from old scary people that you find on a street corner...
Joel: *Being SOS guy* Hey! We found out when Kiki's Delivery Service was coming out!


A: For important news about Sailor Moon on North American television, we only deal with first-hand information directly from industry sources, not second-hand information or rumors.

Joel: No rumors?! What the hell is that Prince Uranus thing, Haruka and Michiru being just friends, and the Naoko chat?!
Tom: *SOS Guy* Those aren't rumors, they're just "misinformed facts".

Q: Does anybody else have more reliable info?

Crow: *SOS guy* Hell no! We have the best info on the web!

A: Lots of people & companies do but some do not have a presence on the web OR don't have the time/money to run a fan page. The SOS Page would cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor.

Q: Is the SOS composed of just a bunch of DiC dub-worshipers who don't appreciate the original?

Joel: *SOS guy* No, we appreciate the original, it's just that DiC is making it better by getting rid of the gay people in the series and completely rewriting all the scripts.

A: A resounding

Crow: ---- Yeah?
Joel: Hell Yes?
Tom: Spank Me Like A Bad Puppy?
Joel and Crow: *Staring at Tom*

"NOPE!". As devoted anime fans ourselves, we love and appreciate anime in its original form like any good anime fan should. Most of the SOS members have a sizeable collection of original anime. Check out e.g. one of our core member's anime webpage: http://looney.physics.sunysb.edu/~daffy/anime.html which existed before there was any English-dubbed version of "Sailor Moon". Most SOS members have also seen the original Japanese version of "Sailor Moon". Personally, without exception, we prefer the original over the dubbed version.

Joel: Even though they misinterperted part of the seires like all of Michiru's sexual innuendoes, most of the plot, and the deeper significance of the show.
Tom: Well, Joel, things like that get lost when you bring a hacksaw, a half empty bottle of glue, and an editor named fat Albert together with the show.

Q: If that's the case, then why does SOS support the dub? What's SOS's philosophy in this respect?

Tom: *SOS guy* Join SOS's philosophy class. Misinterpret things all you want. Be homophobic. Support doomed causes. :) Remember, join SOS to make a better future. ^_-

A: While we consider ourselves fortunate enough to have access to "Sailor Moon" in its original form, we understand that most people in the west aren't as lucky. Subtitled anime has been distributed commercially by companies like Viz, AD Vision, and Manga Video and non-commercially by fans for many years now, but up to now they only reach the privileged few who can afford the time/money/effort to seek out anime in its original form. As a result, anime is still a relatively unknown "cult" in the west.

All: *Chanting* Anime, Anime, Anime, Anime, Anime, Anime, Anime, Anime....

All SOS members feel strongly that anime is a beautiful art-form which should be enjoyed and appreciated by all, not just a few. Thus the SOS hopes to help bring anime to within reach of anyone in North America who has access to a television. In our opinion, television broadcast and cable, is an effective way to popularize anime in the west. And anime in English-dubbed format, not subtitled Japanese format, seems to be the only viable form for television at this point.

Crow: I bet the show would be an even bigger success if the "scouts" met such TV giants as Bozo the Clown, Thomas the Tank Engine, and everyones favorite, Barney the Dinosaur.
Joel: Well, it is made for kids, so you might be right. Toddlers would sure as hell watch. We'd just have to deal with further desecration of the show.
Tom: Do you notice that all of kid's shows have a guy with a name and then what he is. Like Bozo the Clown. In the future children's programming will have such people as Wille the Drunkard, Kyle the Junkie, and everyones favorite bum, Jocko the three fingered, chronically pained, Nam vet Hobo.
Crow: Hey, doesn't he work for SOS?

(Though we all dream of one day having an All Anime Cable Network,

Crow: *As if he's reading A Cue Card* At least one cable network has the balls to put anime on their programming. Who are these great people, you ask? They are the Sci-Fi channel.
Tom and Joel: *Staring at Crow, who is counting a wad of money for plugging their sponser*
Tom: Yeah, uhhhh, the Sci-Fi channel rocks! *Looks around for the money from his shameless exploitation*
Joel: I can't believe this. You guys are sinking to SOS's level.
Tom: Yeah, you're right. I apologize, Joel.
Crow: Yeah, sorry, Joel. *Goes back to counting the money*

where we can watch quality anime in their original form 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With the increasing popularity of anime in the west, we believe that such a network will be much in demand). These are the reasons behind SOS's support of the English-dubbed version of "Sailor Moon". It is our hope that once western viewers are exposed to televised broadcast of quality anime shows like "Sailor Moon", they'd want to find out more about anime in its original form. We know this works because we know that many current anime fans in the west were converted after they watched such classic dubbed anime shows like "Star Blazers" (Yamato), "Speed Racer", "Voltron" and "Robotech". Some of these classic series were very heavily edited (e.g. Robotech was a mix-match of 3 unrelated anime series),

Joel: It was the predecessor to Sailor Moon.
Tom: Yeah. The editors of Sailor Moon strive to edit Sailor Moon as much as Robotech.
Crow: If they wanted to do that, they should have gotten Pretty Sammy and Ranma 1/2 and added those in.
Tom: It would be like a televised drug trip.
Joel: No, I think it would be more like a near death experience.

but even so, they succeeded in creating a whole generation of anime fans. It is our wish that "Sailor Moon" will help create the next generation of anime fans. Only this time they'd hopefully have heightened awareness and appreciation of original anime from an early stage.

Crow: That's why they want Sailor Moon to be so screwed up. People will have to get the original Japanese version to understand the series. That's a brilliant idea, I wish I'd thought of it.
Tom: Crow, you did. Remember you had me and Joel doing all the voices and you edited it with a pair of scissors.
Crow: Oh yeah. You guys sucked.
Joel: I'm a grown man. Most of the parts that I did were for teenage girls.
Tom: Joel did giggle pretty well though.
Joel: Thanks, Tom. I did, didn't I?

On to Part 3