Linda Ballantyne, one of the voices of the legendary anime character, talks to BuzzFeed about how she got the gig, what it was like to fill those really big shoes, and breaking ground with the show’s feminist values.
Toei Animation
Linda Ballantyne
Linda Ballantyne sits in a plastic chair in a sparse room at the Los Angeles Convention Center, one floor above the faint rumblings of the cosplaying crowd at the Anime Expo 2014, where fans are eager to feast their eyes on the latest Kill la Kill merchandise and Sailor Moon apparel. Ballantyne, clad in a purple tie-dyed dress shirt and white pants, is there as the convention's "Guest of Honor," and as the third English-language voice of the eponymous Sailor Moon, she'll be taking part in a reunion panel for the English-speaking cast of the classic series.
Sailor Moon broke new ground in the '90s, when it became one of the first anime series to gain cult popularity among North American audiences. The show, based on Naoko Takeuchi's manga series, first aired on Japanese network TV Asahi in 1992 and would make its debut in North America in 1995 on Canadian network YTV and local stations across the U.S.
But the following year, the show hit a roadblock. Syndication ceased in the U.S. in 1996, but thanks to a fervent group of fans with an online petition of more than 30,000 signatures (yes, a 1996 online petition, mind you), and a "procott" to get Kellogg's Pop Tarts to advertise during the show's time slot, syndicated episodes returned to the airwaves on USA Network that same year. The show would later shift to Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the U.S. in 1998.
Sailor Moon went on to produce a barrage of licensed products, sequels, video games, and stage musicals, and soon, the series became a pioneer in the anime takeover of North America, eventually opening the doors for shows like Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon to cross over as well. Sailor Moon attracted a large female audience on both sides of the Pacific, as anime, up until that time, had catered to a predominantly male audience.
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