Why are the Sailor Moon mangas out of print?

Answer 1

The Sailor Moon mangas became out of print because the license for the series lapsed around 2004, for both the anime and the manga. This is why you can no longer find the manga and DVDs on sale in stores. Once they became out of print, the only places to find them were trading places such as eBay.

HOWEVER, the license for the Sailor Moon manga recently was renewed! So look for it in stores September 2011! The original manga, which Sailor Moon was a spin-off of, "Codename: Sailor V" has also been recently licensed, and will also come out in stores September 2011 for the US.

That's not true. You can find them on Ebay or an online manga store.

You just rarely see them in stores though.

Although both the manga and the anime were released in Mexico, pressure from a Catholic parents' group led to both being taken off the market.

The Sailor Moon mangas have been out of print in the US since around 2004. Yes, you can find them online for sale in specialty stores (sometimes) and on E-bay (for resale), but they are out of print. They license for them to be printed in the US has lapsed.

The mangas were re-released in Japan a couple of years ago though with new art on the covers courtesy of Naoko herself. I doubt they will ever make their way to the US unfortunately.