A Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Book is coming 5 years late on October 20th

Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Book

A new Sailor Moon art book is being released in Japan in celebration of the ongoing 20th Anniversary. This 160 page book will cover nearly 25 years of Sailor Moon, which was first released as a manga in December of 1991. The 20th Anniversary celebration has been going on for nearly five years now and there seems to be no indication that it is losing steam nearing what should be a more iconic 25th year anniversary. The book is set to be released on October 20th though it will be available early for fans attending showings of the terribly named Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical which will begin on October 15th. Fans who don’t plan to be in Japan next week can order a copy through online retailers such as Amazon Japan and CD Japan for 2480 yen, about $24 US. Keep in mind that books are heavy and expensive to ship!

Details about the book can be found on the Official Sailor Moon site. It seems like it will cover the Sailor Moon exhibit which was held in Roppongi Hills this year. This could be a nice alternative for fans that couldn’t afford a trip to Japan to see the exhibit. It is also mentioned that there will be many interviews and that it will generally cover Sailor Moon, which I assume means it will touch on the various incarnations of Sailor Moon throughout the years.

The cover features a new drawing by Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon. The book is being refered to as a Mook through the URL on the official site (20thmook160923.php) and the embedded image (20thh_mookkai.jpg). This isn’t a term I was familiar with but it seems to be a portmanteau between magazine and book. These are common in the fashion magazine industry and represent magazines which are meant to be sold over longer periods of time than usual weekly or monthly publications. I’ve got an order in for the book and will strive to have a review up on the site at some point in the future.

Check out the Sailor Guardians, Helios and the villains from the Sailor Moon Amour Eternal musical

Sailor Moon Amour Eternal Helios, Nehelenia, Zirconia, Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye and Fish Eye

We’ve gotten a few updates about the upcoming Sailor Moon musical, Amour Eternal, recently. The latest is an image of Helios, Nehelenia, Zirconia and the Amazon Trio which was posted to the official Sailor Moon site. We’ve also gotten a look at the Sailor Guardians, old and new, in their uniforms in some images and a commercial which is included below:

We had previously learned who all of these actors were going to be but this is the first time we see them in costume. What do you think?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Amour Eternal cast

There has also been a cast change, which was mentioned in our last update, where Hikari Kuroki who was originally cast as Sailor Mercury was replaced by Yume Takeuchi. This was said to have simply been because of “cast circumstances” without specifics. I’ve learned some details about what may have prompted this. She posted on Twitter that she was leaving because of complaints. Some believe she may have been removed from her role for having posed as a gravure model in the past, which means that she did modeling in clothing such as revealing swimsuits. I also saw comments suggesting she had changed her name since then. I do not know the exact nature of all of her previous works so I can not comment on the specifics, but it seems unfortunate for something like this and the public shaming that ensued to have caused problems with her career. Many other actors who have been affiliated with various incarnations of Sailor Moon have done this type of work so it’s hard to say if this is the actual reason for her leaving and we will likely not be getting anything in the way of official confirmation if this is the case. Some details about this come from an article from Yahoo Japan. You can read a translation of this and her tweet on the Ai No Message Tumblr page.

This musical, which covers the Dream arc of the manga, will be playing in Japan in October and November of this year.

Additional images can be found at 25news.jp.

The next Sailor Moon musical, Amour Eternal, has a terrible name

Amour Eternal - Did you mean Amour éternel?

An update has been posted to the official Sailor Moon site which reveals the name of the latest musical, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Amour Eternal, as well as a complete cast listing. The new musical has been confirmed to be covering the Dream arc of the manga, adapted as Sailor Moon SuperS in the original Sailor Moon anime. This title is just the worst! Amour, as most probably know, is the French word for love. Eternal however is not French at all. It’s a full on English word. What the hell? Why not Amour éternel, which would actually be proper French? Are we supposed to pronounce it in French? It just sounds gross to say Amour Eternal. It’s just bastardizing two languages. It’s gross. The last two musicals all had fully French names. Is this supposed to be a misspelled French word or is this intentionally terribly mismatched English and French words? This is just bad and it will not stop bothering me and I will probably not be able to avoid mentioning how terribly stupid it is at least once in any post referencing this musical. This offends me as both and English and French speaking person and it should bother you too.

Everlasting love translates to Amour éternel

This title will just lead to more confusion on what the name means. Amour éternel would translate roughly to everlasting love or eternal love. I guess eternal is more the word we’re going for since it’s the actual English word in the horrible title.

Here’s an English translation of the cast, courtesy of Wikimoon:

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon: Hotaru Nomoto
Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury: Yume Takeuchi
Rei Hino/Sailor Mars: Karen Kobayashi
Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter: Kaede
Minako Aino/Sailor Venus: Rimo Hasegawa
Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus: Syu Shiotsuki
Michiru Kaiou/Sailor Neptune: Sayaka Fujioka
Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn: Karin Takahashi
Sailor Pluto: Mikako Ishii
Sailor Chibi Moon/Chibiusa: Airi Kanda
Helios: Hikaru Hiyama
Queen Nehellenia: Sayu Otsuki
Zirconia: Kanami Sakai
Tiger’s Eye: Chihiro Ando
Hawk’s Eye: Riona Tatemichi
Fisheye: Yumi
Dead Moon Circus: Yoshika Kobayashi, Risa Kawamura, Yoshimi Hidano, Chiemi Doi, Ayano Nagasawa, Ayumi Sagisaka
Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask: Yuga Yamato

Some newcomers and some repeat performances here. Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus are all new actors, as we’ve seen announced previously. We already saw that Yuga Yamato would return as Tuxedo Mask. Shuu Shiotsuki, Sayaka Fujioka, Mikako Ishii and Karin Takahashi will be reprising their roles as Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. Airi Kanda will also be returning as Chibiusa. Riona Tatemichi, who previously played Rubeus in the Petite Étrangère musical, will be playing Hawk’s Eye. The rest of the cast are newcomers to the musicals, as those characters have no appeared before.

We Are The New Pretty Guardians - The cast of the next Sailor Moon musical

We previously reported that Hikari Kuroki would play Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury. This role is now credited as Yume Takeuchi. I don’t know what prompted this change in casting, but this replacement was posted as a separate update on the Sailor Moon official site on the same day as this updated cast listing was shared.

Yuga Yamato will reprise her role as Tuxedo Mask in the next Sailor Moon musical

Yuga Yamato as Tuxedo Mask

It has been confirmed that Yuga Yamato will be playing Mamoru Chiba, Tuxedo Mask, in the upcoming Sailor Moon musical. The five main Sailor Guardians retired from the Sailor Moon musicals following last year’s musical Un Nouveau Voyage. It was unclear at the time who else might be leaving or returning. The new cast was announced a couple of week ago, but we got no details about who would be playing Tuxedo Mask. We now have confirmation via the official Sailor Moon site that Yuga Yamato will indeed be returning as Tuxedo Mask in October.

June 30th live events details

This likely means that the upcoming, still unnamed musical, will feature an all female cast. We will learn more about this new musical during a June 30th event, scheduled on Usagi and Chibiusa’s birthday. This event will feature the five actresses playing the main cast of the new musical as well as Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon. The event will be streamed on Niconico, though it will likely be region restricted to viewers in Japan.

The cast of the next Sailor Moon musical, which starts October 15th, has been announced

We Are The New Pretty Guardians - The cast of the next Sailor Moon musical

A new Sailor Moon musical is coming in October and the cast for the core five girls has been announced on the official Sailor Moon site. The image of the new cast, included above, was accompanied by a brief introduction by each of the cast members. The musical will run from October 15th to November 6th in three different venues across Japan. The performances in Tokyo will be from October 15th to the 23rd. Next is Fukuoka on October 29th and 30th. Finally performances in Osaka will take place from November 4th to the 6th. We don’t have much in the way of details about this musical at this time. The last musical covered the Infinity arc of the manga but we don’t actually know if this one will cover the Dream arc which follows it or do something different.

Check out the cast listing below

Hotaru Nomoto – Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon
Hikari Kuroki – Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury
Karen Kobayashi – Rei Hino, Sailor Mars
Kaede – Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter
Rimo Hasegawa – Minako Aino, Sailor Venus.