The Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical started in Japan today

Sailor Moon - Petite Étrangère - Black Moon Clan

Today, August 21st 2014, marks the first performance of the new Sailor Moon musical, Petite Étrangère, in Japan. This new musical covers the second story arc, covering the first appearance of Chibiusa, fighting with the Black Moon Clan and traveling to the future city of Crystal Tokyo to meet Sailor Pluto, Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion. The musical will be running from August 21st to the 31st in Tokyo and then from September 7th to the 9th in Osaka. With the premiere we have gotten some new information about merchandise for the musical and the first international airing of a Sailor Moon musical. Fans must all be wanting to see the musical for themselves but unless they’re in Japan this isn’t possible yet. Fansubbing group Miss Dream has mentioned that they will be subtitling the webcast version during the weekend of September 6th. Indeed Niconico will have a live webcast of the musical on September 7th.

Sailor Moon - Petite Étrangère - DVD preorder incentives

News on the Sailor Moon official site has announced that the DVD of the musical will be released on January 28th 2015. Those who pre-order the upcoming DVD will get some bonuses including 5 cards and an exclusive DVD jacket for the first Sailor Moon Musical, La Reconquista, with art made by Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of the Sailor Moon manga. This is not new art but a mix of existing images. The cards contain images of the new manga cover and the DVD jacket is a reuse of the original cover of the 4th volume of the Sailor Moon Manga. The Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère DVD will cost 7800 yen (about $75 US) and yes, we once again only have a DVD and not a Blu-Ray release of the musical. I was very disappointed with the video quality of the Sailor Moon La Reconquista DVD release and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that your $75 plus shipping costs will be getting you anything better this time around. There are no real specifics on special features at this time, though comparable features to the La Reconquista DVD should be expected.

Sailor Moon - Petite Étrangère - Chibiusa, Mamoru and Tuxedo Mask Puppet

It was also announced today that the Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical will be playing in Shanghai China in Janaury of 2015. This is the first time any of the Sailor Moon musicals has played outside of Japan.

Sailor Moon - Petite Étrangère - Sailor Team

And here’s a cool little Easter Egg that may or may not have been intentional. Tuxedo Mask wearing a Canadian Tuxedo as noted by @el_Ramses on Twitter!

Sailor Moon - Petite Étrangère - Tuxedo Mask wearing a Canadian Tuxedo

Keep reading for more images from the musical or find more on the Moon Sticks and SOS Sailor Moon‘s Facebook pages. I’ll have more thoughts on the actual musical once I get a chance to actually see it!

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Sailor Moon La Reconquista DVD Review

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical DVD

The Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical was released on DVD July 9th. What’s that? DVD and not Blu-Ray? Indeed, this is a DVD only release for a musical which was recorded in 2013. The quality of the release is not great. It’s 480i interlaced video though it is in a 16×9 wide screen aspect ratio. It appear to either have been shot on low quality video cameras or simply converted to low quality standard definition video. If a higher quality source existed, there does not seem to be any reason to downgrade it to interlaced video. Whatever the reason for this may be, this seems like something that was released in the 90s and is not fit for release in 2014.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical DVD - Sailor Moon and Endymion

The first disc is just the main feature, the Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical which played in Tokyo last fall. A number of screenshots are included at the end of the post to get an idea of the video quality. This is a Japanese only release so don’t expect to be seeing any subtitles. As it’s a region 2 release it will not play in a North American DVD player so be sure you have the proper equipment to play it if you are thinking of purchasing it.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical DVD - Special features - Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask

The second disk includes all of the special features. We begin with an interview with Satomi Ookubo, the actress who plays Sailor Moon, and Yuga Yamato, the actress who plays Tuxedo Mask. This is followed by some behind the scenes footage of rehearsals. There are some Q&As including a press event and some questions following one of the performances of the musical. Footage of the girls at Karaoke gives us a look at them singing Moonlight Densetsu, the theme song from the original Sailor Moon anime. We see footage from a live promotional performance. A few clips featuring Momoiro Clover Z are included. They are first seen performing Moonlight Densetsu following one of the musical performances and then there’s this weird skit where they are characters in a cell phone game which is just all around bizarre.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical DVD - Special features - Karaoke

The packaging is fairly standard and also includes a program which I’ve included photos of below. This has a number of images of the cast of the musical, bios and other information.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical DVD - Booklet - Cover

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend picking up this release since the quality is fairly low, but it is the best legal way you may have to support this musical and watch it legally. I am happy to have paid money for this after having resorted to watching a free fansubbed version of the musical when it was first released. You can order the DVD from Amazon Japan or CD Japan. Keep reading for screenshots of the main feature, behind the scenes featurettes, DVD menus and photos of the packaging, insert and program.

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Ticketing and other info about the Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical plus La Reconquista DVD details

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical

The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with a new poster for the upcoming musical Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère! This poster features the cast of the musical including new characters Sailor Pluto and Chibiusa. A pre-sale lottery is starting today and will run until Sunday June 15th. More details about that can be found at this site.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Petite Étrangère musical - Tuxedo Mask

Sailor Pluto will be played by Mikako Ishii, a Japanese model. Chibiusa and Sailor Chibi Moon will be played by Kokoro Kuge, a 10 year old actress, and Airi Kanda, an 11 year old actress. There are two actors playing the role of Chibiusa which was the case for earlier musicals in which she appeared. In keeping with the Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical, this show will have an all female cast. Not shown in this poster but also appearing in this musical are Erika Mahiro as Prince Demande, Sora Manami as Saphir, Riona Tatemichi as Rubeus, Mitsumi Hiromura as Esmeraude and Yui Ito as Black Lady.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Requonquista musical DVD cover

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical which played last September will be available on DVD starting July 9th. You can pre-order it from Amazon Japan (6264 yen or $61 US) or CD Japan (7800 yen or $76 US). The DVD is a 2 disk set including behind the scenes footage and a 24 page booklet. This is a Japanese language DVD which is region coded to play only on Japanese or region free DVD players. Why this isn’t released as a Blu-Ray in 2014 is a mystery to me.

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How to view Sunday’s live Sailor Moon event

Nico Nico Logo

As was previously announced, this Sunday there will be a live Sailor Moon event which promises to announce the cast of the new Sailor Moon anime Sailor Moon Crystal, show more character art and reveal the cast of this summer’s Sailor Moon musical. The event will be broadcast live on Niconico. You can watch that live stream in Japanese by following instructions that were posted at the Moonkitty Facebook page. Another option, for those having trouble getting on to the Niconico web site, is to watch a live stream of the event at the Miss Dream web site.

Nico Nico Video Logo

The event will air at 4pm Japan Standard Time which is 3am Eastern Standard Time. Prior to this just follow this link to the Niconico site where the event will be streamed. Use the links on the right to either create an account or link your Twitter or Facebook account. A bit before 3am (or whatever the time may be in your time zone) on Sunday just go back to that link, log in and enjoy the show! I’ll be out of town this weekend but I will be doing my best to give live updates via the Sailor Moon News Twitter account and of course post any new information we get to the site once the event is complete.

New Sailor Moon anime voice cast and art to be announced this Sunday April 27th

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal

This Sunday, April 27th 2014, there will be a live streaming event on Niconico which will include announcements of the voice cast and some character art for the new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, as well as the cast for this summer’s new Sailor Moon Musical. The special will air at 4pm Japan Standard Time or 3am Eastern Standard Time. Hope you don’t like sleep!

Sailor Moon 2014 Anime "Sailor Moon Crystal" official artwork

This event was first announced on the Sailor Moon official web site on April 8th but we only got details about the event in an update on April 18th which mentioned the unveiling of the voice cast and the appearance of the five main cast members from the new Sailor Moon musical! Atsutoshi Umezawa, director for the new series, mentioned via Twitter that we would also be seeing character art from the new show at the event!

Sailor Moon Crystal director Atsutoshi Umeza

The event will also feature Fumio Osana, the original editor for the Sailor Moon manga, Munehisa Sakai, the director for the new series and Yuh Kamiki who is listed as being a producer for the Sailor Moon Crystal anime. Yuh Kamiki had not been previously announced as being affiliated with this show. A quick search finds a Japanese actor by that name with no anime series producing experience who I do not believe is the anime series producer who will be at this event.

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A new Sailor Moon Musical coming this summer will take place in Crystal Tokyo and feature the Black Moon Clan

Sailor Moon - Crystal Tokyo devastated

A new Sailor Moon musical has been announced on the Sailor Moon official site. Not many details have been given but we do know that this musical will follow the Black Moon story arc of the Sailor Moon manga or the Sailor Moon R season of the anime which takes place in 30th century Crystal Tokyo following the battle with the Black Moon Clan. Though Chibiusa is not mentioned by name it stands to reason that this musical will feature her introduction as well as her transformation into Black Lady. No details about the cast have been revealed but the announcement mentions that this will be announced on the site in the near future.

The 30th Century Crystal Tokyo

This will be the second modern Sailor Moon musical following Sailor Moon La Reconquista which played last September.

The 30th Century Crystal Tokyo

Note: This article previously mentioned the musical would take place in September. As of now the only information we have about the date is that it will be this summer.

Watch the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical with English subtitles

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical - Rei, Usagi, Minako, Makoto, Ami

The hard working folks over at Miss Dream bring us a subtitled version of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical which just played in Japan. The musical was streamed online via Niconico video for some of the shows and from this streamed version an English translation was put together. You can download it from Miss Dream’s Sailor Moon La Reconquista site.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical - Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion

The video is over two and a half hours so grab yourself some popcorn, pocky or whatever strikes your fancy and enjoy the show! We’ll be sure to have a review for you in the coming days.

On the Miss Dream web site you can also find the soundtrack, audio versions of all the songs from the musical, as well as a translation of the pamphlet which was sold at the show.

Today was the Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical’s opening night

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical - Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion

Earlier today (yesterday in Japan by now) was the first performance of the new Sailor Moon La reconquista musical. A bunch of Sailor Moon fans and even Naoko Takeuchi and Fumio Osano were in attendance. Fan reactions seem positive at this point. All of the songs were new. The story is said to be close to the manga. The Sailor Guardians are now using smart phones, which seems like an appropriate modern version of their seemingly futuristic communicators at the time of the original series. We also see in some images that there are swords! I have not gone seeking out any elaborate spoilers but if you’re interested in that you can check out this full review by Sailor Moon fan Yosenex.

A Tweet by Sailor Moon Obsession shows us that the program for the musical includes new art by Naoko Takeuchi.

Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical program - New art by Naoko Takeuchi

A couple of Japanese web sites have some photos from the musical posted online. Check out natalie.mu and Sponichi Annex for some of those.

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Watch the Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical live event featuring two song performances

Sailor Mars from the Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical

Last Friday, August 23rd, while some of us were enjoying the fun at Fan Expo there was a live event which was streamed online which was promoting the new Sailor Moon musical “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Reconquista”. This included a performance of two new songs “Line Up: The Five Women of the White Moon” and “We are the Pretty Guardians”. The actresses for all five of the Sailor Guardians were present for this show. You can check out an English subtitled version of the show at Miss Dream. This was all done as part of the Animelo Summer Live event. If you’re impatient you can just watch the full stream of this event without subtitles below.

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon La Reconquista musical will begin playing in Japan on September 13th and will run until the 23rd.

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Download the August 4th Sailor Moon Niconico live event

Sailor Venus, Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars from the Sailor Moon La Reconquista Musical

If you don’t speak Japanese and didn’t get up at 4am on Sunday to watch the Sailor Moon event that was streamed on the Niconico web site you can now check it out. Miss Dream has fan subbed the event and made it available for all to download! There is a direct download and torrent on the site.

This event lasted roughly 90 minutes and mostly centered around information about the new musical Sailor Moon La Reconquista. There was also a quick look at some of the upcoming merchandise, a performance of Moonlight Densetsu by Momoiro Clover Z and a very small amount of information about the new anime, which we covered in a post that went online on Sunday.

Thanks to the staff at the Miss Dream web site for getting this translated so quickly!