“Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” is enjoying another boom. The girls anime series became a phenomenon when it was first broadcast in the 1990s, and new products based on the manga and anime franchise are now being marketed one after another. Items priced at ¥10,000 (S$125) or more are flying off the shelves.

The anime (called “Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon” in Japanese) was based on Naoko Takeuchi’s manga of the same title. The anime series was broadcast from 1992 to 1997, attracting numerous primary and middle school girls.

The series has been broadcast in more than 40 countries, and has also been reproduced in live-action TV dramas and stage productions.

The heroine is a middle school girl named Usagi Tsukino who meets the black cat Luna, which bears the image of a crescent on its forehead and speaks like a human. This starts the heroine on a mission to protect the world from villains by transforming into Sailor Moon with four other girls her age: Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus.

Usagi’s killer phrase “Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo” (I’ll punish you on behalf of the Moon), which she utters while in her distinctive pose, became all the rage.

Sailor Moon’s revived popularity is supported by women in their late 20s who were fans of the original anime series. Businesses are targeting these women, who have considerable purchasing power now.

In October last year, the Kiddy Land Osaka Umeda store in Kita Ward, Osaka, set up a section specialising in products based on Sailor Moon. It contains about 5,000 products, one of the largest such lineups in western Japan.

Cosmetics sold there are priced at ¥3,000 to ¥4,000 and include eyeliner modeled after the pen-like device used by the heroine to disguise herself.

Some products that went on sale on March 10 were so popular, customers were limited to two per person.

One of the products is modeled after the magical compact mirror that the heroine uses to transform into Sailor Moon. The store received orders for about 600 of these products, the most orders it has ever received.

“We’re surprised they’ve become that popular,” a member of the sales staff said.

Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. held an event featuring Sailor Moon-themed clothes and bags designed by famous apparel brands at its Isetan Shinjuku main store in Tokyo from March 16 to 22. The first such event was held in 2014. Products are sold mainly for ¥20,000 to ¥40,000.

The initial event attracted many people, so the store has held it regularly. Isetan Mitsukoshi also held similar events in Osaka and Nagoya around the same period.

Major apparel company World Co. enjoyed a 20 per cent increase of its total sales when it sold products based on the anime at the company’s Its’demo variety stores for a limited period in 2014.

In fiscal 2014, Bandai Co. saw sales of “Sailor Moon” products increase by 2.7 times from the previous fiscal year. The company is expecting a similar “Sailor Moon” effect for fiscal 2015.

The anime’s revived popularity was triggered by the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Project that Bandai launched in 2012. Products based on the anime and remakes of past works have been released in rapid succession, targeting former fans.

KUMAMOTO – Abnormalities have been observed in Kumamoto Prefecture’s abundant groundwater sources, apparently due to a series of earthquakes that hit the prefecture and its surrounding area.

Water in the spring-fed pond of Suizenji Jojuen park, commonly called Suizenji Park, has almost disappeared. The park in Chuo Ward, Kumamoto, is designated by the government as a place of scenic beauty and a historic site.

“The flow of groundwater could have changed due to the earthquakes,” an expert said.

Toru Iwata, 68, representative priest of Izumi Shrine, which manages the park, said he found that about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the water in the one-hectare pond was gone on the morning of April 15, the day after a major tremor that is now recognised as a foreshock to the main quake. The depth of the water had been up to 50 centimeters before the series of quakes began.

The pond was refilled as groundwater was pumped into it, but about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the water disappeared again after the main shock on April 16.

The Suizenji-Lake Ezu Springs that surround the park were designated in 2008 by the Environment Ministry as part of the Selected 100 Exquisite and Well Conserved Waters in the Heisei era. Suizenji Park has been a popular tourist site attracting about 400,000 visitors annually.

“All we can do is to wait for the groundwater to recover,” Iwata said.

According to a Kumamoto city government survey, the depth of groundwater around the park became 20 centimeters lower. Meanwhile, Tokai University Prof. Tsutomu Ichikawa of the Liberal Arts Education Center at Kumamoto Campus, who specializes in groundwater, said the amount of springwater in nearby Lake Ezu seemed to have increased.

Around Aso Shrine in Aso in the prefecture, several springs reportedly either ran dry or gushed aggressively after the main shock.

Kumamoto Prefecture and its surrounding area are located on a plateau of volcanic sediment created by eruptions of Mt. Aso, and have layers of earth rich in groundwater. As the volcanic sediment is highly porous, it is easily penetrated by rainwater. Natural reserves of groundwater accumulate in shallow and deep layers that are separated by a clay stratum called the Futa layer.

Ichikawa suggested two hypotheses for the abnormal changes in groundwater.

In one hypothesis, the groundwater that had flowed from east to west moved south when the ground tilted to the south. This change led to a decrease in the amount of groundwater at some spots. In fact, the surface of the ground sank about 15 centimeters in the town of Kashima, which is south of Suizenji Jojuen park.

The other hypothesis suggests that the groundwater in the shallow layer flowed into the deeper layer due to the Futa clay stratum breaking or other reasons. However, as the stratum around the park measures as thick as about 10 meters, the professor thinks this theory is less likely.