The Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary is underway and to celebrate there will be a special live event on April 28th which will be broadcast on the official Sailor Moon YouTube channel. This event will feature voice actors from Sailor Moon Crystal including Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of Sailor Moon, Shizuka Ito, the voice of Sailor Venus, Shoko Nakagawa, the voice of Diana, and Hyadain, a musician who previously did the music on the Sailor Moon The Super Live musical. You can watch the event on the 28th at 10pm Japan Standard Time, 7am Easter Time, using the embedded link below. Not much to see there right now but there is a convenient countdown showing when the event will start. The official site claims anyone can watch it for free which suggests it should be available to watch worldwide.

What will be discussed? It could be almost anything! It seems likely something will be announced. Evidently the best thing to get news about would be a continuation to Sailor Moon Crystal as a Stars story arc. We don’t really know what form this could take. The theatrical films Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 and 2 performed quite poorly at the box office. It’s hard to say if they remained profitable with home video and streaming sales because movie accounting is usually deceptive and intentionally obscure. It’s also quite difficult to account for factors such as increased sales for Sailor Moon merchandise which is difficult to tie directly to any streaming series or movies. I certainly hope it’s something Sailor Moon Crystal related but I have learned not to get my hopes up too much.

The choice of hosts for the event is a bit curious. Kotono Mitsuishi is usually included in these things so that’s not odd. Shizuka Ito being included doesn’t make much more sense than any other Sailor Guardian if we’re talking about a Stars story arc. A Sailor Moon Crystal style Sailor V series seems unlikely so I’m not sure what that connection could be. Shoko Nakagawa is probably not there simply because of her work as the voice of Diana. She’s a popular media personality who hosts the popular Pokémon Sunday. Hyadain’s involvement could be related to many things. As he did the music for the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Super Live musical he may simply be there to discuss the upcoming performance of the musical at the Japan Parade in New York which is coming up on May 14th. He may also be there to discuss his involvement in an upcoming musical or that he is contributing music to new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal.

What do you think will be announced at this event? You’re allowed to say nothing! It might be nothing…

As we posted about a couple of weeks ago, the Sailor Moon manga is 30 years old, as it was first published on December 28th 1991. The Sailor Moon anime will be 30 years old this year with the first episode airing March 7th 1992. As the Sailor Moon official site and franchise in general made a big deal about the 20th and 25th anniversaries it was only a matter of time until we started the five year long celebration of the 30th anniversary, and that time is now! The 30th Anniversary Logo is here! It’s pretty. Full of colours. It features Eternal Sailor Moon!

What big announcement came with this new logo? New Sailor Moon Crystal? A new musical? Merchandise that people will buy? Not really but they released a “movie” and by movie I mean a slideshow showing merchandise announcements for five minutes which you can watch embedded above. Most of this isn’t that special it just seems like they saved up a few weeks worth of normal stuff they post to the official site and then just dropped them all at once on the day they released the new logo and some intern made this little video about it. I think the only one of these things which is worth even mentioning is that a Sailor Moon museum will be opening for a short time. There aren’t really any details but it’s likely similar to what took place in 2016. Come look at some interesting Sailor Moon things and please buy this exclusive merchandise!

Are you excited about anything that was announced as part of this 30th Anniversary?

The Sailor Moon manga was first published in the pages of Nakayoshi on December 28th 1991. This was over 30 years ago. What does this mean for a franchise that still carries branding related to the 25th anniversary? Will new Sailor Moon Crystal be announced soon? I expect we may eventually be seeing updated “30th Anniversary” branding for the official Sailor Moon site and the brand in general. When this might occur isn’t evident. The “25th Anniversary Project” was announced in January of 2017. At that time they teased new episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal which eventually came out as Sailor Moon Crystal’s 3rd season. Prior to this the 20th anniversary event took place in July of 2012. It was at this event that Sailor Moon Crystal was originally announced. Based on this it seems likely that Sailor Moon’s official “30th Anniversary” would be celebrated in Japan in the year 2022, which is the year in which the Sailor Moon anime originally aired. The first episode of the series aired on Japanese television March 7th 1992. There’s more value for the franchise to expand the event beyond any since day to the entire year or, as we’ve seen, an ongoing five year long celebration.

We are all anxious to hear confirmation of a Stars arc of Sailor Moon Crystal and I do hope this will be announced in the next few months. Considering that we are approaching ten years since the series was first announced and that we’ve had four story arcs over this decade, patience is certainly warranted. We deal in months and years, not days and weeks, when it comes to Sailor Moon Crystal news! It’s likely we’ll have the manga’s story wrapped up before the 35th anniversary at this pace, but I wouldn’t bet on much more than that!

The next time you run into someone who’s under 30 just remember that when they were born Sailor Moon already existed.

What’s your bet for when a new season will be announced and when we might see it? I’m thinking teased in January along with a 30th anniversary logo, confirmed at an event for Usagi’s birthday in the summer and released in 2023! This is just a guess on my part. Perhaps I’m being optimistic!