The latest Sailor Moon musical, Princess Kaguya’s Lover, is now available to stream with English subtitles from Japan 2.5D Stage Play World. Tickets allow unlimited streaming for a two week period. I chose December 10th to the 23rd and so I had at long last had a chance to watch this musical a few weeks ago. I’ll share my thoughts in this post.

This musical is a pretty faithful adaptation of the Princess Kaguya’s Lover side story from the Sailor Moon manga. This story had previously been adapted as Sailor Moon S: The Movie so fans of the film will immediately recognize the story of Luna falling in love with a human Kakeru as his lover Himeko travels to space all while the evil Princess Snow Kaguya threatens the Earth! As this musical is a more faithful adaptation than even the S movie, which was itself fairly faithful, there will still be a lot of similarity between the musical and that film.

The musical starts out with a brief overview of the early events of the manga, which is not something included in the manga story it is based on. By the end of this we are pretty much where the manga is at the start of The Lover of Princess Kaguya though Diana is strangely absent, because her existence would be inconvenient to the story. Diana also doesn’t exist yet in the Sailor Moon S film adaptation. I suppose technically Diana isn’t born yet in any version of this story but in the manga we are introduced to her in 30th century Crystal Tokyo and she is in this time due to time travel. She only arrives in the 20th century during the Sailor Moon SuperS season of the original Sailor Moon anime.

We have a shared birthday party taking place which really situates the story in time more than any other. In the musical it is a shared birthday between Minako, Makoto and Setsuna. Minako’s birthday is October 23rd, Makoto’s birthday is December 5th and Setsuna’s birthday is between the two on October 29th. In the manga Setsuna is not included in the celebration, though she is present at the party. It’s okay though as she’s used to being ignored after having spent centuries pining after King Endymion. There’s quite a gap between Minako and Makoto’s birthdays but it’s not uncommon for groups of friends to get together and have a shared birthday party. It’s likely closer to Makoto’s birthday than Minako’s at this point since the events of the musical are leading up to the climax on December 24th, Christmas Eve. Yes, this is a Christmas musical!

An interesting thing which is mentioned in the liner notes for the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition manga is that voice actors Rika Fukami and Emi Shinohara share a birthday on August 8th. It’s possible that the party from the manga was inspired by a real live shared birthday party between those actors who’s birthdays are actually much closer than those of the characters they voice.

One of the main differences between this musical and the manga story it’s based on is the almost complete lack of Artemis. In scenes where he would actually be present in the manga he is instead only referenced. We will see him at the end of the musical… sort of.

The main plot of the musical centers around a comet that is going to hit the earth. At first everything seems fine because the comet just sort of died out. How exactly does this work? A massive object in space can’t just disappear. It’s said that it went close to the sun and burnt out. Was it on its way to the earth or not? The whole thing is very odd. The idea of an asteroid crashing into the earth isn’t unreasonable. The musical makes reference to the comet being roughly the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs and another like that would of course be very bad. So why a comet and not an asteroid? Well comets go around and around over and over. Asteroids do too, but that’s a bit what comets are known for since we are able to witness them due to the gas which trails behind them, often caused by water ice which evaporates when exposed to sun light. Since Princess Snow Kaguya, the musical’s villain, is said to be returning after 4.5 billion years, roughly the age of the earth, it seems this is meant to be a return equivalent to seeing a comet again.

It’s curious that since watching this musical a very popular Netflix film, Don’t Look Up, similarly features a comet which threatens to destroy the Earth. I have not seen the film and don’t intend to but from what I understand from this great review of the film, Sailor Moon sadly does not make an appearance.

This musical is all about Luna. After being harassed by the same group of kids or a similar group of kids to those who put a band aid on her in the first manga story she has the exact same thing done to her again. This disorients her and blocks her magic, yet again, which causes her to avoid an accident and end up in the arms of titular character Kakeru, the Lover of Princess Kaguya. Luna falls in love with Kakeru! Sadly Kakeru loves Himeko and while it seems like he may be returning Luna’s affection she’s sort of a Seiya to Kakeru’s Usagi while Himeko is his Mamoru. The difference being that Luna gets to kiss Kakeru.

There’s this very odd thing in the story where we act like going from Tokyo, Japan, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is really not a big deal. It’s treated as if it was hopping on a train over to the next city. Knowing that Naoko Takeuchi was inspired to write this story after a trip to Cape Canaveral makes one wonder if she forgot having flown the 16 or so hours it takes to cross the Pacific Ocean and the entire width of the United States of America. Himeko travels there for work. Kakeru on a whim takes a couple of days off to join her. Once he falls ill Himeko brings him back to Tokyo and eventually flies back to the United States. Sounds expensive! Meanwhile Luna sneaks onto two of these flights.

Things get real which means that Usagi and Luna have to explain to Himeko what’s going on. They mention that Princess Snow Kaguya, the fairly lackluster villain of the musical, comes from space. She’s shocked, asking if that makes her an alien? Lady, the talking cat is also technically an alien and Usagi is sort of an alien so maybe show a bit of respect and as a scientist, have an open mind?

It’s repeatedly mentioned that Princess Snow Kaguya was around 4.5 billion years earlier. This date closely coincides with the age of the Earth. As she’s defeated she mentions having seen a light, like that from the silver crystal, 4.5 billion years ago. Does that suggest that there was a Sailor Moon type hero wielding the silver crystal or something like it when the earth was created? Not super clear.

So there’s a big fight and the bad lady is defeated along with a nice song. This means luckily that the plan to launch a spaceship to destroy the comet in a very Armageddon/Deep Impact sort of way isn’t needed anymore. After countless delays to launching due to unpleasant weather and radiation in space along with the main reason for the mission now disappearing do they scrap it? Well no. They instead completely change the goal of the flight and proceed anyway! They aren’t going to destroy the comet but instead they’ll just go on with their newly added crew member to the Moon Base. Wait there’s a Moon Base now? Is it anywhere close to the ruins of Silver Millennium? Does the space ship even have the right amount of fuel for this completely different mission? They don’t need to reprogram a bunch of flight paths? Is the Moon, where they didn’t actually plan on landing earlier that day, even in the optimal place to travel there at this time of the month? So very odd.

As the Silver Crystal was used to save the day it’s suggested it can simply be used to grant a wish and make Luna human. Since when is that an option? The Crystal seems to be a pretty versatile tool which can be used as a sort of energy weapon, to heal people on a massive scale, to purify or cleanse evil. It seems it’s also able to just sort of make wishes come true as well. In this case it’s “make the cat human for a while” which is actually making Luna turn into a human form which she already had which is in itself a bit odd. Is the Silver Crystal like the Dragonballs?

Human Luna shows up and … it’s a totally different actress. Human Luna is the same actress who played the shadow Luna who was showing up in certain scenes. What is odd is that the actress who plays Cat Luna is quite young but the actress playing Human Luna is an adult. This gives an odd impression of Luna’s age. I suppose that the intention in casting a younger actress as Cat Luna was a practical one because a cat happens to be smaller than a person but it makes Luna seem like she’s actually a younger woman and then when Human Luna shows up it seems that the idea here is that this is actually reflecting Luna’s actual age. Her feelings for Kakeru are a woman’s feelings and not those of a teenage girl. As a fan of Sailor Moon since watching the old dub in the 90s it’s always hard for me to think of Luna as anything but the older sounding lady from that dub, even if I understand that the canon seems to instead suggest that Luna is somewhere between Usagi’s age, and therefore a peer of hers, or a slightly older young adult, to match the physical appearance of Human Luna in the manga and S movie. The live action series further confuses this with Luna becoming a very young Sailor Luna, but that’s a whole other story.

We learn that Himeko is pregnant which is something that is very much not in the S movie but it is in the manga. It’s a bit irresponsible to go into space with an unborn child in your womb as it’s being exposed to higher levels of radiation. It is specifically mentioned that there’s a geomagnetic blizzard which I think could be dangerous for the baby once Himeko no longer has the protection which the Earth’s magnetic field gives the inhabitants of the planet while they aren’t in space.

Finally Artemis shows up and what a joke this is! He’s basically a very cheap little projected image on the wall. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t look anything like Luna. He’s totally shafted in this musical!

I did enjoy the musical quite a bit, though it’s far from my favourite of the Sailor Moon musicals. I was never a particularly big fan of the Sailor Moon S movie. It’s good enough but as the movies go it’s my third favourite out of the three. This is the same story and though the manga lacks some of what makes the S Movie a bit weak, it’s still not my favourite story. I understand and appreciate that a lot of people have a special affection for the S movie, consider it to be the better film and also have a great fondness for this manga story. Those fans should be quite pleased with this musical as it’s a very faithful adaptation. Sailor Moon Crystal has given us an accurate anime adaptation of the manga and this musical does a great job of doing the same with the Princess Kaguya’s Lover side story. If only we could get the rest of the side stories and Sailor V adapted somehow!

Bottom line is that you should absolutely support this streaming event. If you haven’t already signed up you can continue to do so until February 3rd. The cost is reasonable and the musical is well worth watching. If you’re a person who’s watched musicals over the years by downloading fansubs you really should be supporting this official release if you have the means to do so. This will show that there’s interest in Sailor Moon musicals and make it more likely that more get released outside of Japan in the future.

A final thought on the end of the musical where the cast speak to the audience. A lot of them mentioned how happy they were that this musical was actually able to be performed and that they were lucky that everyone stayed healthy throughout. This serves as an interesting reminder of how severe the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was when this musical took place in Tokyo in September of 2021. Even when I watched this musical in mid December things were going fairly well, pandemic wise, where I live and then in the short weeks since the situation has very quickly become more serious and strict lockdowns are in place in my home province. This musical was delayed a whole year and, like with the Tokyo Olympics, almost didn’t happen. We shall see what the future may bring with regards to a new musical in 2022. I’m hoping for the best but also that if we get a new musical that it’s because it’s safe to do so and that fans are able to travel to Japan to see it without any serious health risks.

Let us know what you thought of the musical in the comments!

The poster and cast information for the upcoming Princess Kaguya’s Lover musical have been released. The post was up on the Sailor Moon official site briefly last night after which it was removed. It has now been reposted and the musical site has been updated with information from this musical. I didn’t catch the post when it was first online however I quickly saw the poster shared from a number of Sailor Moon fans. The poster gives us some interesting information. Luna is featured twice! It looks like the Luna in black is meant to be cat Luna while the one in the Human Luna yellow dress would be her when she transforms into a human late in the story. Also featured are Kakeru, Himiko and Princess Snow Kaguya. All ten Sailor Guardians appear which is noteable for the inclusion of Sailor Saturn. Canonically this story takes place between the Infinity Arc and the Dream arc when Hotaru is still a baby. Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna appear in the manga and I guess they got a babysitter for Hotaru during that time. The official site does mention that this is her first appearance in this story. Artemis is not on the poster and is not in the cast list. Perhaps he’ll be a plush toy or something.

I was happy to see that the Facebook page “We Are The Pretty Guardians- Sera Myu” shared the names of the entire cast as well as social media links for many of them. When this sort of cast information is posted to the official site I usually spend some time searching names and plugging them into online translators to try to do the same so I’m glad to see that someone has already done the hard work here. Please give their page a follow if you’re on Facebook.

Below I’ve included a cast listing with links to Twitter and Instagram accounts when they exist. I’ve opted for the western given name first, family name second order as I usually do on this site although the source I’m using follows the Japanese practice of family name first and given name second. This is an all new cast. There is no one returning from Le Mouvement Final, which was many years ago, though this musical is continuing with the tradition of an all female cast. There are two Chibiusas which is not uncommon for young actresses given Japanese child labour laws.

Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino – Riko Tanaka (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno – Kanon Maekawa (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Mars/Rei Hino – Rei Kobayashi (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino – Kisara Matsumura
Sailor Venus/Minako Aino – Marin Makino (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Chibi Moon/Chibiusa – Yurika Kobayashi
Sailor Chibi Moon/Chibiusa – Erena Kamata (Instagram)
Sailor Uranus/Haruka Tenoh – Shinju Terada (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Neptune/Michiru Kaioh – Ayana Kinoshita (Twitter, Instagram)
Sailor Pluto/Setsuna Meioh – Minami Chisato (Twitter)
Sailor Saturn/Hotaru Tomoe – Yuka Ide (Personal site)
Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru Chiba – Riku Sorahane (Instagram)
Cat Luna – Sakurai Yune
Human Luna – MARISA (Twitter)
Kakeru – Natsume Oki (Twitter)
Himeko Nayotake – Nanami Tamai (Twitter, Instagram)
Princess Snow Kaguya – Sayaka Okamura (Twitter, Instagram)
Snow Dancers – Moeko Koizumi, Ayumi Ozaka, Ayano Nagasawa, Yuri Hirano, Sakura Morimoto and Eri Yanagida

A lot of the actresses have done some stage work in the past. Riku Sorahane, who is playing Tuxedo Mask, seems to have the most extensive experience. Some of the Snow Dancers worked on previous musicals. Moeko Koizumi was previously in the Super Live musical as a backup dancer. I still haven’t seen that musical! Ayano Nagasawa was in the Amour Eternal musical as one of the Dead Moon Circus.

With the musical coming up in September there are still some travel restrictions in place in Japan for foreign visitors. Are any of you expecting to be able to see this musical or are we all holding out for a home video release of some kind?

We have finally gotten an update about the next Sailor Moon musical! According to an update on the official Sailor Moon site it will be coming next summer, in 2020, and it will be following the manga side story Princess Kaguya’s Lover. Fans may be most familiar with this story as Sailor Moon S The Movie, the film adaptation of the manga. This covers the story of Luna falling in love with a human while the earth is attacked by the evil ice alien Princess Snow Kaguya.

Luna in the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical

Though we don’t have any real details on the musical we can be fairly certain that it will have Luna transforming into Human Luna. As Luna features heavily in the manga story I am curious to see how they handle cat Luna before her human transformation in the final scenes. The recent Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical featured a fairly detailed puppet Luna which, aside from the somewhat distracting puppeteer, made for a very convincing effect. Could this technique have been done in anticipation of this musical? This would probably be a better choice than to just have people dressed up as cats as they did in the first Sailor Moon musical.

Artemis and Luna in the first Sailor Moon musical (1993)

It’s worth mentioning that this was the third “New Musical” which was announced in early 2018 along with the Nogizaka46 x Sailor Moon musical and The Super Live musical. At the time we had no details about what this third musical was about and it was simply referred to as “New Musical”. It was originally scheduled for summer 2019 but we now have confirmation that the musical is delayed until next summer. Without any other news about upcoming musicals it seems like we may not be getting a musical in 2018 which would make this year the first year without a Sailor Moon musical since 2012.

The name “New Musical” was almost certainly a placeholder so we should expect a better title to be announced at some point! We have quite a bit of time to wait for this musical so there’s no telling how much longer we’ll have to wait until we get more specifics on this one. Hopefully it won’t be too long! Will we be seeing those Dream Arc Sailor Moon Crystal movies before this musical is out? I won’t be holding my breath for either!

You can now watch the entire Dark Kingdom story arc in English on Hulu or Neon Alley. This week we got Act 14, Conclusion and Commencement – Petite Étrangère, which wraps up the Dark Kingdom story arc for good and starts us off with the new Black Moon story arc with the appearance of the pink haired Chibiusa. This new faithful dub will not be calling her Rini like some fans may be used to! Chibiusa’s voice is provided by Sandy Fox, who also voiced her in Viz’s new English dub of the original Sailor Moon anime.

A lot of this episode takes place on the Moon where we get a look at human Luna. Anime fans will remember human Luna from the Sailor Moon S movie, though she appears in her human form more frequently in the manga. This appearance however is a Sailor Moon Crystal original change from the source material, as we see her earlier than we otherwise should. We see the the image of one of this story arc’s new villains in the fire. I previously had mentioned that this was Rubeus, because he is who we see in the manga, though some fans have mentioned that his hair looks more like Demande’s than Rubeus’s, which is slicked upwards out of the eyes. What do you think? It doesn’t really change the story but so much to say this is one of the Black Moon Clan’s jerks!

Next week is Act 15, Infiltration – Sailor Mars. With the Dark Kingdom out of the way we’ll meet a lot of the Black Moon Clan and find out a bit of what’s up with this weird new girl who fell from the sky.

How long is that title? Oh boy. Also I’m fixing the spelling mistake in “Étrangère” in my posts. I expected Viz to fix the spelling errors the Japanese had made but I guess they’re not French either. Consistency would be nice but the title screen title is different than the Hulu episode title, both of which are wrong.

The latest Pullip doll has been announced on the official Sailor Moon site. It’s Human Luna! Luna is usually a cat but in a few instances she appears as a human. Most fans would know this form best from the Sailor Moon S Movie, which is based on a standalone manga story “The Lover of Princess Kaguya”. Her human form also appears at other times in the manga. Most recently in Sailor Moon Crystal we briefly see an image of Human Luna while she is praying on the Moon.

Pullip dolls are high quality, though somewhat expensive, dolls with disproportionately large heads. This doll will retail for 180,000 yen, almost $150 US. A more expensive Premium Bandai exclusive version of these dolls is usually made, which will often have school uniforms for most of the Sailor Guardians. What could the Premium Bandai exclusive outfit for Human Luna be, given she only ever appears in these clothes? Human Luna’s adult form does not resemble the younger Sailor Luna from the live action series enough for that to be the obvious choice, though that would be a great exclusive.

Dolls for many of the Sailor Guardians as well as Princess Serenity, Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Chibi Moon have been released or announced to date. Human Luna is a bit of a surprise given a lot of prominent characters have still not been released and so little Human Luna merchandise had been made to date. There has still been no announcement for Sailor Pluto or Sailor Saturn pullip dolls or any villains from the series. One has to wonder if we’ll get Shingo, Rhett Butler and Sailor Luna before getting the often neglected Sailor Pluto!

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