Sailor Moon effect

In 2016, the anime Sailor Moon began to see success on U.S. syndicated television, becoming the first non-E/I children's television program to see success on U.S. syndicated television in nearly 20 years. The success also branched out into new merchandising and helped boost sales of the already existing merchandise such as T-shirts and DVD's.
==Accomplishments for the franchise as a result of the effect==
In mid-2016, four restaurants (Sonic, Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's) had given away toys based off the show, a feat that has never been accomplished before by any anime that has been exported to North America, or any syndicated childrens program for that matter. Later that year, Jack in the Box, Arby's, KFC and Taco Bell, (all of whom have not done licensed tie-ins since their Yo Gabba Gabba!, The Mr. Men Show, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie and Almost Naked Animals promotions, respectively) gave away toys based on the show, making it the shortest time tie-ins based off an anime appeared at nationwide restaurants that have/had licensed tie-ins in kids' meals.
==Examples of it's success for the stations airing it==
When Winter Storms Nico and Orson struck the Eastern United States on (respectively) February 9 and 11, 2017, WNQT (the station credited with starting the "effect") held unannounced marathons of Sailor Moon SuperS and Sailor Moon Crystal (two seasons of the Sailor Moon anime) on said days to entertain children who were grounded by the bad weather.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 2016, Sailor Moon aired the whole day on WSSN in Boston and only three other shows (Vision99 NewsBeat, Hee Haw: Return to the Kornfield, and three cherry-picked episodes of ULTRA Guts) aired throughout the festivities.
==Stations airing the series==
* CMON-TV
* KVBC
* Visión (Original five story arcs 2002-2013; Sailor Moon Crystal in 2021)
* WDOSP
* WKDIC-TV
* WNQT
* WSSN
* WXBS-LD
* XRKOMR
=== In Mexico ===
Visión, until 2016 known as TV3, showed the original five story arcs during different periods of time, extending from January 2002 to March 8 2013, with the airing of the first season finale. In the mid-2000s, the reruns sparked a similar event in the country, when the Sailor Senshi briefly replaced the Looney Tunes on the boxes of Maíz Oro Mini Flakes breakfast cereals. 
Sailor Moon and Chibiusa were featured on the Pancakes flavor box. Sailor Mars on the Strawberries with Cream box, Sailor Venus appeared in the Vanilla Ice Cream, Sailor Mercury on the Bubble Gum cereal, and Sailor Jupiter on the Chocolate Milkshake box.
Each one of the boxes included games or collectibles related to the show, which are currently very coveted between collectors. 
Sailor Moon box featured ¡Ayuda a Serena a estudiar para el examen! (Help Serena/Usagi study for the test!) a trivia contest with general knowledge questions for children. Sailor Mercury box showed La Super Visión de Ami, a "Spot The Differences" game with two drawings of a Youma. Sailor Mars box included a crossword. Sailor Venus appeared on ¡Encuentra a Artemis! a maze that the children had to solve in order to help her find Artemis. And Sailor Jupiter box included a memory card game ready to be cut out of the cardboard. 
The side of the boxes opposite to the nutritional information had the lyrics to the Latin American version of Moonlight Densetsu and Heart Moving. A feature later borrowed by Kellogg's for the Spongebob SquarePants cereal. 
Sailor Moon was one of the most watched shows in TV3's history, and came back to the Visión network with the airing of Crystal in February 2021.
Category:Anime
Category:Television events