Satomi Okubo, who previously played Sailor Moon, has been cast as Sailor Cosmos in the Le Mouvement Final musical

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Adam

Sailor Cosmos has been cast in the upcoming Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical and she will be played by none other than Satomi Okubo, the actress who played Sailor Moon before Hotaru Nomoto took over the role. Satomi Okubo was Sailor Moon in the La Reconquista, Petite Étrangère and Amour Eternal musicals. This is such an interesting casting choice when considering the actual identity of Sailor Cosmos. Spoilers below for those who may not have read the manga!

Sailor Cosmos is basically Sailor Moon from the very distant future. This is way beyond when she was Neo Queen Serenity. There is some disagreement amongst the fan community about what exactly this means. Is Sailor Cosmos just a really old but still alive version of the Sailor Moon we see in the series or is she a reincarnated version, much like Princess Serenity from Silver Millennium is the Sailor Moon we know? Alternatively some fans think of her more like a descendant of Chibiusa, which isn’t really an interpretation I can get behind. It seems like Sailor Cosmos once was Sailor Moon which is what makes this casting so brilliant. Here is a great way to have a slightly older version of Sailor Moon that looks totally familiar. With there being less than two years between the ages of the two actresses the difference isn’t all that drastic, but it’s a nice touch.

This reminds me of a few other instances in fiction where a similar interaction with a prior actor occur. The most similar comparison to me is the 2009 Star Trek movie which included a completely new cast but included interactions between the new Spock, Zachary Quinto, and older time traveling Spock played by the original actor Leonard Nimoy. In this case everything down to the time travel similarity is in place. The X-Men film franchise did something similar as the Days of Future Past film from 2014 included new cast members James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto acting alongside their original series future counterparts of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

There are a few other not totally similar examples. John Wesley Shipp played the Flash in a 1990 TV series and returned to play the father of the Flash in the 2014 Flash TV series. His name changed but it was an interesting juxtaposition. Batman The Animated Series did similar things a few times. The Grey Ghost was a Batman like character from Bruce Wayne’s childhood who was played by Adam West who had played Batman in the 1966 series. In the 1999 series Batman Beyond Bruce Wayne was portrayed by Kevin Conroy who voiced him in the 1992 animated series. In this case the new Batman was Terry McGinnis, a completely new character, so it’s not really the same thing. Doctor Who is all about changing his face and time traveling so this has happened in the series more times than I would attempt to count.

All we need now is a movie in which Thomas Dekker and Edward Furlong meet! Can you think of any other examples in which an actor previously portraying the role met with a new actor?

Source: Sailor Moon Official Site

The Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical poster, story, cast and schedule have been released

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Adam

A ton of information about the Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final musical has been released! The musical will start in September and run in three different cities in Japan, those being Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka. As expected this musical will cover the Stars arc of the manga, which has the Sailor Guardians joining forces with the Sailor Starlights to fight Sailor Galaxia.

Check out the new cast members! Note that I don’t speak Japanese so for some of these I couldn’t get a good English version of the name so I just included the Japanese text. I’ll update those when I get some better into.

Seiya Kou, Sailor Star Fighter, will be played by Meiku Harukawa.

Taiki Kou, Sailor Star Maker, will be played by Riona Tatemichi. Riona previously played Rubeus in the Petite Étrangère musical.

Yaten Kou, Sailor Star Healer, will be played by Saki Matsuda.

Princess Kakyuu will be played by 岡村麻未.

Sailor Galaxia will be played by Coco Isuzu (Twitter, Instagram).

Sailor Iron Mouse will be played by Aoki Shion.

Sailor Tin Nyanko will be played by 橋垣美佑.

Sailor Aluminum Siren will be played by 小林由佳.

Sailor Lead Crow will be played by Juri Hirayu (Twitter, Instagram).

There will be two actresses playing Chibi Chibi. Hinari Yamaguchi and 新津ちせ.

There will also be some dancers playing additional villains. These are 椎原夕加里,　肥田野好美,　匂坂あゆ美 and Ayano Nagasawa. A number of them played villains in past musicals.

Performances in Tokyo will be from September 8th to the 18th. Performances in Aichi will be September 23rd and 24th. Performances in Osaka will be held from September 29th to October 1st.

Will any of you be attending this round of musicals?

Sailor Moon Amour Eternal DVD impressions

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Adam

The latest Sailor Moon musical, Sailor Moon Amour Eternal, was released on DVD on March 15th. What’s that? Still not on Blu-Ray? No. This is a DVD only release despite the fact that there is an HD streaming version available in Japan. The set includes two discs, the main feature and some special features, as well as a special booklet which is a sort of program. Photos of all pages of that booklet will be included at the end of this post. This is a Japanese only release so don’t expect to be able to follow too well if you only speak English. Fans looking for a subtitled version of the musical should check out the fan subbed version by Miss Dream.

First off let’s talk about the main feature, coming in at a whopping 2 hours and 43 minutes, the 4th of the recent wave of Sailor Moon musicals, Sailor Moon Amour Eternal. This was a decent musical with the most notable change to me being the inclusion of the birth of Princess Serenity back in the days of Silver Millennium. We never got much about this time of her life in other series and it’s interesting to see the other Sailor Guardians fully grown at this time in this particular continuity. The main cast of the 5 actors playing Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus were replaced for this musical. They will all be returning for this Fall’s upcoming musical.

DVD	HD download

The bad part about this release is sadly the terrible video quality. As with the three prior releases this DVD is 480i video. What this means specifically is that it’s interlaced video, something like the signal we’d get for a standard definition TV broadcast or VHS tape. Oddly the release is still 16:9 widescreen optimized for widescreen displays but somehow not optimized for a progressive scan display, which is what almost everyone would be watching this on. For prior releases I gave Evil Line Records the benefit of the doubt, assuming the release was of low quality due to older cameras used for the recording. Now that we’ve seen 1080p HD releases available to stream in Japan for not only this musical but the last three, it is obvious that this is not the case. This DVD is poorly authored and the company that released it is to blame. Just look at the comparison screenshot between the download version and the DVD version to see the drastic difference in quality. Even if a Blu-Ray release was not viable, a progressive scan release has been the standard for movies released on DVD for nearly 20 years. Many older TV shows are released interlaced simply because that was the limitation of TV at the time but even most early DVDs of movies are progressive scan. No excuses for this one.

Also included with the main feature is a full length audio commentary! This includes the main cast of Hotaru Nomoto, Sailor Moon, Yume Takeuchi, Sailor Mercury, Karen Kobayashi, Sailor Mars, Kaede, Sailor Jupiter, and Rimo Hasegawa, Sailor Venus

The second disc includes over an hour of special features which aren’t terribly appealing. We start out with a 30 minute interview between Hotaru Nomoto, who played Sailor Moon, and Yuga Yamato, who played Tuxedo Mask. As I don’t speak Japanese I can’t really elaborate on the actual content.

Next is a stage presentation for a Birthday Night special event, likely held on Usagi’s birthday of June 30th. This is only a few minutes long.

We then have over half and hour of video showing the recording of the audio commentary. Here we get a picture in picture view of the musical with the five cast members giving their thoughts. Not terribly useful to those who would also watch the entire commentary.

Finally we have an alternate take of the Amazon Trio talking with the audience during the intermission. This one is from the November 6th show. Since these involve audience interactions the intermission for each show would be unique.

A note about the various menus on both discs! They use a hilariously cheesy Comic Sans font. Comic Sans is the kiddy or comic style font that you’ll see in a lot of older web sites or perhaps some that are just a little cheap. Over the years it’s gotten a reputation for bad design. In this DVD’s defense however let’s remember that in Japan Comic Sans wouldn’t have the same reputation. I would simply ask our native English speaking fans, what kind of font is any Japanese text written in? Would you be able to tell a fancy and trendy Japanese font vs. a cheap and dated one? Not likely.

Also included is a 20 page booklet which is similar to what you might see in the program sold with the musical. This includes bios for the characters and the lyrics for all songs.

That’s about it. Is this worth it? Costing the equivalent of over $50 US and having abysmal video quality and some fairly lack luster extras this release isn’t terribly appealing to fans who might not actually speak the language. It really would have been nice if this physical release was at least of equivalent or comparable in quality to the relatively cheap digital copies which are available for a fraction of the price in Japan. All said I can’t really recommend buying this, but hard core fans might want to anyway!

Keep reading for more images of the box art, menus and photos of all pages of the included special booklet.

Continue reading →

Mirai is Sailor Saturn in the next Sailor Moon musical

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Adam

The actress playing Sailor Saturn, Hotaru Tomoe, in the fall 2017 Sailor Moon Musical has been announced! The recent article on the Sailor Moon official site mentioned that Sailor Saturn would be played by the actress Mirai, a 14 year old actress who played Chiriko in the 2015 Fushigi Yuugi stage play.

Sailor Moon/Pokémon Crossover CONFIRMED!!!

Although I reported on this same article a couple of days ago when I mentioned that Karin Takahashi would not be returning as Sailor Saturn in the next musical, I mistakenly did not understand that Mirai was being announced as the new actress because her name means “future” in Japanese. I don’t speak or read Japanese! When I plugged the article into Google Translate I was under the impression that the article was saying that Sailor Saturn’s actress would be revealed in the future. A bit of a “Who’s on first” sort of misunderstanding on my part. Apologies for my somewhat sloppy reporting! Hopefully the next cast members revealed aren’t single word names which mean “To be determined” and “Actress”.

Source: @stage_fushigi, @mirai0913_as, Mirai Official Blog, Mirai Profile

Karin Takahashi, Sailor Saturn, will not be returning for the next Sailor Moon musical

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Adam

An announcement has been made on the official Sailor Moon site stating that most of the cast of the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be reprising their roles for the next musical which will be taking place in the fall. The exception to this is Karin Takahashi, who was also Sailor Saturn and Hotaru in the Un Nouveau Voyage musical, who will not be returning for the next musical. I thought she did a great job in the last couple of musicals and am sorry to see her go. (Update: The new actress who will be portraying Sailor Saturn is Mirai. I was originally confused by the statement thinking it meant she will be announced in the future, as Mirai is the Japanese word for “future”.)

Returning cast members include Hotaru Nomoto as Sailor Moon, Yume Takeuchi as Sailor Mercury, Karen Kobayashi as Sailor Mars, Kaede as Sailor Jupiter, Rimo Hasegawa as Sailor Venus, Shuu Shiotsuki as Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Fujioka as Sailor Neptune, Mikako Ishii as Sailor Pluto, Airi Kanda as Sailor Chibi Moon, and Yuga Yamato as Tuxedo Mask. We don’t have any specifics about the musical at this time but it seems only logical that this 5th in the recent set of musicals would cover the Stars story arc of the Sailor Moon manga. With the musical taking later this year there is always the chance of other cast changes between now and then, but for the moment only one change in casting is anticipated.

The Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be performed at Anime Matsuri in Houston in April

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Adam

The first ever North American performance of a Sailor Moon musical will be taking place in Houston Texas during the Anime Matsuri convention in April. The news of this special performance of the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical was posted on the official Sailor Moon site and Anime Matsuri site last month. The specific date of the musical performance has not yet been announced but it will be during the convention weekend which takes place from April 7th to the 9th at the George R. Brown convention centre in downtown Houston, Texas. This may be a slightly modified version of the musical as the entire cast will not be present. At this time only the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask, with the exclusion of Chibiusa, will be in attendance. Notice that the poster specifically made for this event features all regular cast members but Airi Kanda who plays Chibiusa.

In addition to the musical there will be many Sailor Moon themed guests. This includes Fumio Osano, Osabu, who is best known as the editor of the Sailor Moon manga. Also appearing are voice actors from the English versions of Sailor Moon Crystal and Viz’s new dub of the original Sailor Moon anime Cristina Vee, who plays Sailor Mars, and Christine Cabanos, who plays Sailor Saturn.

Confirmed guests for the musical are Hotaru Nomoto, Sailor Moon, Yume Takeuchi, Sailor Mercury, Karen Kobayashi, Sailor Mars, Kaede, Sailor Jupiter, Rimo Hasegawa, Sailor Venus,
Syu Shiotsuki, Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Fujioka, Sailor Neptune, Mikako Ishii, Sailor Pluto, Karin Takahashi, Sailor Saturn, and Yuga Yamato, Tuxedo Mask. Also attending are dancers Risa Kawamura, Yoshimi Hidano, Ayano Nagasawa and Ayumi Sagisaka.

The Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be released on DVD in Japan March 15th

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Adam

The latest Sailor Moon musical, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Amour Eternal, is coming to DVD in Japan on March 15th. This was announced on the Sailor Moon official site and the Evil Line web site. This DVD will be in Japanese only and region 2, which won’t play on most North American DVD players. Why DVD and not Blu-Ray, you might ask? This is a question I’ve been asking myself for the past 3 musicals. Considering there was an HD stream of this musical, I’m a bit baffled we’re still only getting a standard definition DVD. Hopefully we will at least getting a progressive scan DVD as opposed to the 480i releases we’ve gotten for the rest. A commercial for this release was posted to YouTube. Watch the embedded clip below.

The DVD is available to buy on Amazon Japan for 6,265 yen, about $55 US or on CD Japan for 7800 yen, $68.82 US. This 2 disc DVD set will include the musical and a number of special features. The musical itself is 2 hours and 43 minutes. An audio commentary by the 5 main actors is included but it isn’t explicitly clear if this is referring to a full length audio commentary. The bonus disc will have 77 minutes of content. This includes an interview with Usagi, a video of the performance done on Usagi and Chibiusa’s birthday, June 30th, and a special focusing on the Amazon Trio and Zirconia. Also included will be a 28 page booklet which is a sort of program with information about the musical.

If you’re looking to support the musicals I would suggest buying this DVD. Fans looking to watch the musical with English subtitles can download the fan subbed version released by Miss Dream.

The Pretty Guardian Amour Eternal musical is the 4th in the latest wave of musicals. It cover the Dream arc of the Sailor Moon manga, the equivalent of Sailor Moon SuperS in the original Sailor Moon anime, which has the Sailor Guardians teaming up with Pegasus and facing off against Nehelenia and the Dead Moon Circus.

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be playing in Hokkaido March 11th and 12th

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Adam

The still terribly named “Amour Eternal” musical took place in October and November of last year but another 4 performances are now being scheduled to take place at the Eniwa Municipal Hall in Hokkaido. These shows will be taking place at noon and 5pm on March 11th and 12th.

For fans outside of Japan who are unwilling to make the long cross continental voyage to check out the musical you can download a not so legal English subtitled version of it from fan subbing group Miss Dream. The Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical covers the Dream story of the Sailor Moon manga, which we still haven’t seen in Sailor Moon Crystal and are all patiently awaiting news about.

Will any of you have a chance to see this musical in Eniwa, Hokkaido?

The Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical is now available to download and watch with English subtitles

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Adam

The latest Sailor Moon musical, Amour Eternal, recently played in Japan. The final performance was available to download through a number of Japanese on demand services however this was little help to international fans who couldn’t speak the language or even access these services which were limited to a Japanese audience. As per usual the people at Miss Dream have subtitled this musical and have made it available on their web site.

For the first time the musical is available on HD. The previous musicals were likely shot on old cameras and released only in standard definition. The video in this release seems better. I hope this means we will be getting a Blu-Ray release of this musical instead of the sub standard interlaced DVDs we’ve seen for the last three.

I haven’t had the time to watch the musical yet but look forward to doing so and maybe doing a review which is something I always drag my feet on for the musicals. Thanks to Miss Dream for subtitling this musical and for Twitter user aeors00 for supplying them with the raw version of the musical.

The final performance of the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be available on video on demand in Japan November 11th

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Adam

An update has been posted to the Official Sailor Moon site indicating that the final performance of the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical will be available to view online and on video on demand at a number of web sites. This does not appear to be a live stream but instead a video that will be available after the show. The final performance will be November 6th with the on demand version being available November 11th. The distribution sites listed are:

DMM.com

Rakuten Showtime (Link 1, Link 2)

These sites don’t have the Amour Eternal musical posted yet and the official site mentions only that it will be available on the 11th of November at noon (12 o’clock) for DMM.com, Rakuten Showtime and d Anime Store and at midnight (24 o’clock) for J:COM, iTSCOM, TOKAI and Video Pass. This means midnight at the end of the day or midnight on November 12th and not the beginning of the day on the 11th. Japanese people make some distinction between 00:00 and 24:00.

I’ve never watched a video on any of these services. The first link, DMM.com, can be navigated in English but when I tried to create an account it stated that many services were not available outside of Japan. The same kind of region restriction is likely in place for many if not all of the sites. Many of them have the last three Sailor Moon musicals available to view for 980 yen, about $9.40 US. For 2900 yen, about $28 US, you can download and stream a musical. No specific pricing for the Amour Eternal musical is available at this time. In past years the Sailor Moon musicals had been streamed online on Niconico however they are not listed as an option this time.

What does this mean for you, the every day fan who doesn’t live in Japan but wants desperately to watch the new Sailor Moon musical? Well you may be able to watch it for a price if you navigate some Japanese site and take the risk of being region blocked, though there are proxy services to get around this kind of thing. Alternatively it means it is it quite likely that someone will be able to record a version of this and that it will be subtitled. The hard working people at Miss Dream have made fan subbed versions of the last three musicals and, although they have not commented on this particular news, they have mentioned that they will sub the DVD or a streaming version if one becomes available.

If any readers have had any success viewing anything on these sites outside of Japan I would appreciate if you could post a comment with the details.

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Category Archives: Sailor Moon Musicals