This download is of Sailor Moon Scout Guide – Preview Edition Sailor Moon S Movie, one of the Sailor Moon Scout Guides published by Tokyopop in the 2000s. As Tokyopop has lost their license to Sailor Moon, these works are no longer under copyright protection. These are English “translations” of the Nakayoshi Pretty Soldiers Official Fan Books; the accuracy is pretty hit and miss throughout. But this is still an interesting and nostalgic read for American Sailor Moon fans everywhere!
Click on the gallery links below to view the images in low definition, or download the massive archive of the HQ files here:
Download: Gallery | PDF | CBR | ePub | Mobi | CBDS
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“As Tokyopop has lost their license to Sailor Moon, these works are no longer under copyright protection.”
Sorry, but again, that’s not how copyright works.
I enocurage you to read about the financial and legal downfall of Tokyopop, specifically in regard to the career of Stu Levy. When Tokyopop went out of business, it didn’t just go up in smoke; the company’s destruction was more akin to the detonation of the Hindenburg. Stu Levy, the man behind Tokyopop, was heavily involved in the publication of the North American books related to the Sailor Moon franchise, having translated quite a number of them himself personally. Because of his mismanagement of his copyright contracts with the various translators and ghost writers he employed, when Tokyopop went under, so too did the legal recourse of many of its employees to retain rights to translations / works they had created; including books like this, which were left in legal limbo. Tokyopop has since been reincorporated, and none of their books related to the Sailor Moon franchise were ever incorporated under the new company’s protection. Re-upping the rights for the individual translators / authors would be a complicated mess, not to mention a total waste of Tokyopop’s time and resources since they can’t get a renewed license to reprint any images from the Sailor Moon franchise from Kodansha Japan anymore. Tokyopop had nothing financially to gain from Sailor Moon, which is why they allow the copyright status to remain unresolved.
Copyright is a really fascinating and complex subject, and I enjoy reading about it. A good 99% of what is on this site breaks copyright law, so when I come across an anomoly I like to mention it. :)