#fukano moon

[silvermoon424]

Hi Katy, I have a question, do you happen to have images of the prototype Outer Senshi? Yellow Sailor Saturn or Sailor Uranus with big eyes and black hair? I must suck at searching because I can't find them anywhere u.u

omg it's not just you, it took me forever to find these pics even though I know EXACTLY what you're talking about and exactly who drew them! Thankfully I was able to dig them up on Reddit:

To give background: This art was drawn by Fukano Yoichi. While not actually an animator for the 90s Sailor Moon anime, he was heavily involved in both its pre-production and production and did a lot of promotional artwork.

Some people may also know him for his alternative design for Eternal Sailor Moon, known as "Sailor Moon La Cygne" ("Sailor Moon Swan") or "Fukano Moon" informally.

Anyway, I've seen speculation that this artwork was from the time period when Naoko Takeuchi was still hammering out the designs of the non-Pluto Outer Senshi. The fact that Saturn is yellow here is a nod to how Saturn's fuku was originally supposed to be "ochre" (a shade of yellow). As we can see, Hotaru/Saturn and Haruka/Uranus still have the same basic design, there are just color differences.

I think some people forget this in hindsight, but the 90s anime and the manga were literally running neck-and-neck at the time; there was an extremely short turnaround time, and designs by Naoko often weren't colored until later on.

[initiala]

A lot of Sailor Moon fans are familiar with this anime-only prototype lovingly called “Fukano Moon”, a piece drawn by illustrator Yoichi Fukano when in the development stage for Sailor Stars

The 90s anime and the manga ran very tightly together, which is why it only loosely follows the manga’s plot and has a lot of its own designs, plot development, and further develops the girls’ characters more than the manga was able to. While the anime development team knew there would be one more final power-up for Usagi, Naoko hadn’t finalized the design yet, so Fukano designed this Eternal Sailor Moon that blended more of Sailor Moon and Neo-Queen Serenity as a sort of between stage—something I think the live action PGSM took inspiration for with Princess Sailor Moon.

BUT, Yoichi Fukano was an artist for the anime team for most of the series run, and started working on concept art for S, season 3, while R was running. Once again, Naoko didn’t have the Outer Senshi concepts finalized yet, so Fukano gave us these, which looks like they’ve been (re)discovered and passed around online recently:

Haruka almost had black hair! Hotaru was……not Hotaru! Word is that Haruka and Michiru would have been 14-15 instead of 16-17 in S, while Hotaru would have been Chibiusa’s age instead of 12 (Chibiusa’s physical appearance age in S and SuperS is debated, though generally agreed that she’s younger than Hotaru until she’s reborn)

I’m particularly interested that Pluto’s uniform is a completely different color—I wonder if these were designed prior to Pluto’s animation/color design being finalized during R. And so many of the boots looking the same, without some of the individualization at this point, is so wild

Also all the scepters are so different! I do enjoy the idea that Chibiusa inherited the Cutie Moon Rod, but I also respect the eventual decision to have her gain her own individual weapons as her character arc largely revolves around wanting to be like but also not the exact same as her mother.

I also really wonder what could have been if Naoko had shared her own early design for Sailor Saturn and if we might have seen Fukano put this to the anime’s style:

[viktuurishipper96]

I am Sailor Douglas

It’s Douglas in sailor moon la swan aka Fukano Moon outfit featuring my x-naut sona. Hope you’ll like it.

ref used

[silvermoon424]

Didn't Sailor Stars originally plan on using an anime-original outfit for Usagi, before deciding to go with the manga's Eternal look? I think that outfit had a French name or something.

That’s correct! Although as far as I know, the design was never given a name. It’s known informally by fans as “Fukano Moon.” The name comes from Youichi Fukano, an illustrator and character designer who worked on Sailor Moon and designed Sailor Moon’s potential look. 

(second image comes from Three Lights, who has scans of a number of Fukano’s other works as well)

Personally, I think the design is absolutely beautiful and I love how it incorporates elements of both Eternal Sailor Moon and Neo-Queen Serenity’s designs. I think it would have acted as a cool bridge between Usagi’s Sailor Moon and Neo-Queen Serenity forms. Oh well, I still like Eternal Sailor Moon’s design.

EDIT: This design was actually called "Sailor Moon La Cygne" or "Sailor Moon Swan"!

[kicacris]

Have you ever seen Fukano Moon as in the prototype design for Eternal Sailor Moon in the original anime by one of the anime's artists

“Fukano Moon” is not a prototype design for Eternal Sailor Moon, it’s just an alternative Eternal design that Fukano Youichi created for her Sailor Moon doujinshi, so it’s by no means canon at all n.nU 

…and let me tell you, I’m not a fan of the canon Eternal fuku, but MAN, this design makes me like it. Fukano Moon looks a bit…too much? The uniform is a HUGE DESIGN MESS (the skirt, the queen bodice, the HUGE BOW, just no, hell no), but hey, that’s just me.

[silvermoon424]

Scanned by Three-Lights; artwork by Youichi Fukano, an animator who worked on Sailor Moon

A full version of Fukano Moon (a prototype Sailor Moon Stars design by Youichi Fukano that was never used) has finally been released!!

[sailorgigi]

I guess Fukano Moon is making a comeback! Gorgeous. I found the top image on Facebook, so I'm not sure where it came from. Can anyone tell me? I'm not trying to make a huge sourcing mistake, I just need to see this new drawing in full detail and this post is mainly an inquiry whether or not anyone knows. 

If you know where to download a scan of this drawing or where I can purchase a copy of a print, please let me know!!!

The second image was from the artist Youichi Fukano's Twitter which I encourage you to check out for more awesome drawings

The bottom image is the original everyone is probably familiar with. This was Fukano's fuku design that didn't get used for the Stars arc of the anime

[fukufashion]

Sailormoon le cygne

Fukano Moon From Here and Here. Cleaning up low-res images is my weak point. Everything else? Not bad for what we have.