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…

An art book released to celebrate the nearly 5 year old 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon was released yesterday, October 20th, in Japan. I received my copy yesterday and was very pleased with the contents. From the initial description of the product it wasn’t terribly clear what would be involved. Some were claiming it would just be a review of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Exhibit at Roppongi Hills and others that it would just a product catalogue. It is both those things but so much more. It is packed full of information and images from products offered throughout the years as well as details and interviews from the original anime and musicals. This 160 page art book is packed densely full of 25 years of Sailor Moon goodness that fans will all surely get a kick out of. You can buy the book online from sources like Amazon Japan and CD Japan for 2480 yen, about $24 US plus shipping.

Overall the book is of a great quality. I was concerned when the official site referred to it as a Mook, short for Magazine Book, that it might be cheap. It is soft cover but the jacket and pages are of good quality. The book if 160 pages of full colour with a good layout. I’ll break up the contents by section to give an idea of what’s involved. I can’t easily include photos of every page, but I’ll include a lot of samples within the post and at the end to give a good idea.

The first section, encompassing about 30 pages, is named “Return of the Sailor Moon”. Getting past this ridiculous Donald Trumpesque superfluous usage of “The”, this is an overview of the Roppongi Hills Sailor Moon Exhibit which was held in Tokyo from April 16th to June 19th of this year. This includes an in depth look at the exposition which includes in itself a general overview of Sailor Moon since 1991. This spans the manga, anime, merchandise and musicals. Included in this event was a special shop with tons of Sailor Moon goods. A catalogue of all of that merchandise is included as well. A Sailor Moon Cafe was also set up the event. Details on the menu and photos of some of these beautiful food options are included.

Next is the “Sailor Moon Goods CompleteWorks” which is about 40 pages full of merchandise which has been released since Sailor Moon’s 20th Anniversary revival. This doesn’t cover older merchandise, which is included in some of the exhibit photos and later in the book, but is a thorough catalogue of everything that has been out since Sailor Moon Crystal was announced. This includes toys, clothes, food, media like Blu-Rays and CDs, and jewellery released since 2013. A lot of this stuff is still available to purchase in Japan.

The next 46 pages are about the original Sailor Moon anime. This is referred to as the Sailor Moon 1992-1997 Animation Characters Encyclopedia which sums it up pretty well. We start out with biographies on all of our favourite characters. Sailor Moon gets four pages, Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Chibi Moon get two a piece, Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Pluto and Tuxedo Mask get a page each and then the Sailor Starlights and other characters get less than a page. These are all accompanied by a number of screenshots and character art from the series. We then get an overview of the films and a season by season breakdown of all episodes. Also included at the end of this section is a full page interview with Shoko Nakagawa, the voice of Diana from Sailor Moon Crystal who sang a song on the 20th Anniversary Tribute Album. Since she doesn’t have anything to do with the original Sailor Moon anime this interview is separate from that chapter.

The next section, which is the rest of the book, is dubbed the “Sailor Moon Movement Graffiti”. I won’t pretend this name makes sense. I can’t even try to understand what this is meant to mean and it is itself divided into a few sections which I will treat as being separate. The section begins with a timelines of events occurring since the 20th Anniversary. This is mostly Sailor Moon Crystal and Sailor Moon Musical related events though there are merchandise details included as well.

The next 10 pages or so are all about Sailor Moon Crystal. We have general information about the series, some character art and interviews with all of the main cast. This includes the voices of Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Chibi Moon and Pluto.

Then we have information about the musicals, both new and old, packed full of photos and interviews. This includes interviews with all of the cast of the first three Sailor Moon Musicals. There is a lengthy interview with Anza, who played Sailor Moon in 13 of the older musicals, as well as some other lady who I don’t recognize. (Update: The other woman is Akiko Kosaka, a composer who wrote many songs from the original anime, the musicals and Sailor Moon Crystal)

The next few pages are a mixed bag. We have a world map showing products from around the world. What does North America have? The Sailor Moon RPG book and a children’s Play-a-Sound book that has little buttons that you push so that it makes noise. Both points of the map are in Canada. The RPG book is somewhere in the sparsely populated North West Territories or Nunavut and the Play-a-Sound book is somewhere in Manitoba.

Am I that Canadian for owning both of these?

There’s a map of Tokyo which shows many Sailor Moon locations with photos of where they are now! There is then a timeline which covers the manga and anime years and some of the products released over that time. As a very small footnote in the corner of the last page covering this time is a blurb about the live action Sailor Moon series which was released in 2003 and 2004. I was hoping to have better coverage of that series in this book but unfortunately that was not the case.

The final 6 pages are all of older merchandise from back in the 1990s. Most of the toys shown are now incredibly rare and very expensive if you’re lucky enough to find them. Let’s be glad we have all of this new merchandise which is only somewhat unaffordable!

Overall I thought this was a great book. It has an overview of so many different facets of the series! While there isn’t a ton on the manga or live action series the book makes up for it by going into great details on merchandise, the anime and the musicals. I recommend that any fans who were on the fence about buying this book get it! You won’t be disappointed.

Keep reading for more photos of the book. To see the rest, buy it for yourself!

The new voice of Diana for Sailor Moon Crystal will be Shoko Nakagawa. This announcement was made on the Sailor Moon Official Site which included an image of Diana which is included above. Shoko Nakagawa is a media personality best known as the presenter of Pokémon Sunday, a variety show about all things Pokémon. She is also an actress and singer, having performed a great number of anime series opening and ending themes including many for the Pokémon anime and movies.

Diana is the future daughter of Luna and Artemis who lives in Crystal Tokyo. She is Chibiusa’s good friend, much in the same way that Luna and Artemis are Usagi and Minako’s companions. While Diana did not appear until Sailor Moon SuperS, the 4th season of the original anime, she appears much earlier in the manga. Diana’s first manga appearance is at the end of Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, which is this coming Saturday’s episode which will be available on April 4th. Diana appears only briefly at the end of this chapter of the manga, vocalising little more than a simple meow. We will likely not have Shoko Nakagawa saying much until Act 20, Crystal Tokyo – King Endymion, which will be available April 18th.

This coming Thursday, February 27th 2014, a live concert will be held by MTV to celebrate the recent release of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album. The concert is being called the “MTV LIVE 2014 supported by SHIDAX with LIVE DAM” and will feature some of the artists on the album. To date Shoko Nakagawa, Mitsuko Horie, Haruka Fukuhara and Momoiro Clover Z have been confirmed to be performing though more may be joining this list. The concert will be taking place at the Zepp Tokyo music hall.

A lot of exclusive merchadise will be sold at the show including t-shirts, towels and a flag. The Sailor Moon official site has images and details of these items. English information is available at the Sailor Moon Collectibles site.

Source: Sailor Moon official site (Translation by ainomessage on tumblr)
Sailor Moon Collectibles ticket on their Facebook page

The Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album was finally release on January 29th. I got my copy a couple of weeks ago and have been quite happy with it. I would encourage readers to buy a copy for themselves from sites such as Amazon Japan, CD Japan or JList. Alternatively you can download the album illegally from the Miss Dream web site.

This album, as we have mentioned before, includes covers of popular Sailor Moon songs by a variety of Japanese musical artists. We spoke a lot about who these bands were in earlier posts about this album. I generally enjoyed the album quite a bit. It filled me with nostalgia for these famous songs which I’ve listened to countless times over the years but still offered something new to appreciate with the different takes all of these artists have on these songs which are now up to 20 years old. Below I will include brief thoughts on each of the tracks.

The first track, Moonlight Densetsu, is the original theme song used in the first four of the five seasons of the Sailor Moon anime. The original theme song was done by DALI but in the S and SuperS seasons it was rerecorded by Moon Lips. This cover by Momoiro Clover Z more closely resembles the Moon Lips version. Momoiro Clover Z originally faced much criticism from fans when their performance of this song at the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary event was not great. They are set to perform the theme song for the new Sailor Moon anime yet they could not do a decent cover of this song. This album version, as opposed to their live version, sounds considerably better benefiting from the studio polish that only post production can bring. It stands to reason that the theme song we finally get will have a similar quality.

Heart Moving was the original ending theme for the first half of the first season of the anime. The version on this album performed by Shoko Nakagawa is quite a bit more upbeat than the original.

Princess Moon, the ending theme for the second half of the first season, is performed by Haruka Fukuhara. My only thought when hearing this version is that the artist sounds extremely young. This is fair as Haruka Fukuhara is only 15.

Otome no Policy, the ending theme for Sailor Moon R, is performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru. This version features a lot of interesting electronic effects, like random beeps reminiscent of dial up modems. The entire song seems whispered which is an odd choice. The end effect is that it makes me think that there might be a Japanese ghost stuck in my music player, which is all right since this rendition is fairly enjoyable.

La Soldier was not a theme song used in the anime, but was originally a song used in the Sailor Moon Musicals. It has been used in every Sailor Moon musical to date. It was also used in the final battle in Sailor Moon R. The version of this album is performed by Tommy heavenly and is by far my favourite track on the album. There is a rock type quality added which is quite enjoyable and Tommy heavenly has a great singing voice.

Ai No Senshi is the other track which is not an opening or ending theme. This song was first used when the Sailor Soldiers face off against Rubeus and the Ayakashi Sisters in Sailor Moon R and again in Sailor Moon S when Haruka gives Usagi a lift in her car. The original version of this song has a great beat and this one does as well. The song is now a duet done by Mariko Goto and Avu-chan. Avu-chan’s voice sounds very much like that of a man, which is not terribly surprising as she is a trans woman. The duet works well, though the voice can be a bit distracting. This rendition is good though the original version needed no improvement.

Tuxedo Mirage, the ending theme for Sailor Moon S, is the second song performed by Momoiro Clover Z. Their performance is perfectly serviceable but not exceptional. They are a popular band that is in my mind neither impressive or lacking in talent. I’m sure their performance of the upcoming theme song will be equally unremarkable.

“Rashiku” Ikimasho is the ending theme for the second half of Sailor Moon SuperS as well as the Ami’s First Love special. The cover by Haruko Momoi is very good, though the original song was also great and didn’t really require any improvement. This song could easily have been worse if done poorly, so I give it credit for holding up well.

The Sailor Stars Song was the second opening theme, used for the Sailor Stars series. The cover by Mitsuko Horie is not as good or fun as the original. Her style of singing does not really mesh well with the tone of the music.

Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto, the ending theme to Sailor Stars, is performed by Makoto Kawamoto. The music itself is not terribly different than the original track though Mokoto Kawamoto’s singing voice is a bit different, and quite enjoyable.

The bonus track is a French language version of Moonlight Densetsu by Clémentine, a French singer who performs mostly in Japan. It’s a very interesting track as it is more of a departure from the original than any other. The style of music is a complete novelty. The French translation takes many liberties, sometimes having only passing similarities to the original lyrics. Overall I found it quite enjoyable and found that Clémentine has a good singing voice.

This is a good album and one I would suggest all Sailor Moon fans make the effort to pick up.

Here’s a trailer for the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album which will be released on January 29th. It gives a preview of each of the tracks and gives us the details about every artists which will be performing a song. As we’ve seen before the songs are mostly the opening and ending themes, with a few other popular Sailor Moon songs included. The official web site has also been updated with more information about each track and artist.

Here is the track listing as well as the artists performing them. We’ll look at who the newly mentioned artists are later in this post.

1: Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Momoiro Clover Z
2: Heart Moving – Shoko Nakagawa
3: Princess Moon – Haruka Fukuhara
4: Otome no Policy (Maiden’s Policy) – Etsuko Yakushimaru
5: La Solider – Tommy heavenly⁶
6: Ai No Senshi (Soldier of Love) – Mariko Goto & Avu-chan
7: Tuxedo Mirage – Momoiro Clover Z
8: “Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll Go As Myself) – Haruko Momoi
9: Sailor Stars Song – Mitsuko Horie
10: Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto… (The Wind, The Sky, Surely…) – Makoto Kawamoto
Bonus Track: Moonlight Densetsu – French Version – Clémentine

Once again we see Momoiro Clover Z, the band who will be performing the theme song for the new anime set to premier in July, performing Moonlight Densetsu. They have previously performed this song twice live and this version sounds much better, having been cleaned up in a studio.

We discussed Mitsuko Horie and Shoko Nakagawa in our first post about this album and then talked about Mariko Goto, Haruko Momoi and Tommy Heavenly⁶ when more details were announced. With this latest news we have five more artists joining the list with Haruka Fukuhara, Etsuko Yakashimaru, Avu-chan, Makoto Kawamoto and Clémentine. Read on more more on each of these artists.

Haruka Fukuhara is a 15 year old actress, model and singer who is well known as the main actress on Cooking Idol Ai! Mai! Main!, a live action and animated cooking show. She has released a number of singles, most of which have to do with cooking.

Etsuko Yakushimaru is a J-Pop singer who has been the vocalist for the Japanese rock band Sōtaisei Riron since 2006. She also writes and composes music under the pseudonym Tika.

Avu-chan is the lead singer of the band Ziyoou-Vachi (Queen Bee). The members of this glamrock Japanese band are all transgender women. Avu-chan is teaming up with Mariko Goto to perform Ai No Senshi.

Makoto Kawamoto is a Japanese singer who has been working since 1996. She is well known to anime fans for performing 1/2, the second opening theme for the anime series Rurouni Kenshin.

A bonus French version of Moonlight Densetsu is also included on this CD sung by Clémentine. Clémentine is a French language singer who primarily works in Japan. This song will be sung in French though no preview is included to date so we will have to wait until the album is released to see what this sounds like.

You can preorder the album from Amazon Japan, CD Japan or JList.

The Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute Album official site has been updated with the album art, a full list of the tracks and a list of some of the artists on this album which will be released in Japan on January 29th. The songs, listed below, are mostly opening and ending themes from the series. No real surprises there.

Moonlight Densetsu (Moonlight Legend) – Original opening theme
Heart Moving – First season 1 ending theme
Princess Moon – Second season 1 ending theme
Otome no Policy (Maiden’s Policy)- Sailor Moon R ending theme
La Soldier – From the Sailor Moon musicals and Sailor Moon R
Ai no Senshi (Soldier of Love) – From Sailor Moon R and S
Tuxedo Mirage – Sailor Moon S ending theme
“Rashiku” Ikimasho (I’ll Go As Myself)- Second Sailor Moon SuperS ending theme
Sailor Stars Song – Sailor Stars opening theme
Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto… (The Wind, The Sky, Surely…) – Sailor Stars ending theme

We now know of 6 artists who will be doing songs for this album. We still don’t know what artists will be performing which songs. Three of these artists were discussed when news of this album first became available. You can read this article from November to learn more about Momoiro Clover Z, the all girl band currently slated to do the theme song for the new anime, Mitsuko Horie, who provided the voice for Sailor Galaxia, and Shoko Nakagawa, a Japanese singer who has covered a number of Sailor Moon songs and often cosplays as Sailor Moon characters. Keep reading for more details on the three other artists Mariko Goto, Haruko Momoi and Tommy Heavenly6.

Mariko Goto was the guitarist and vocalist for Japanese punk band “Midori” from 2003 until they disbanded in 2010. She began a solo music career in 2011 and has since released two albums.

Haruko Momoi is a Japanese singer, song writer and voice actress. She has appeared in a number of anime series and video games and has been doing music since 2000 as a solo artist and as part of the duo Under17. In addition to vocals Haruko Momoi also plays the keytar.

Tommy Heavenly⁶ is the punk rock alter ego of Tomoko Kawase, a Japanese vocalist. Tomoko Kawase began her career as the lead single for The Brilliant Green in 1995. She began her solo career in 2001 under the pseudonym Tommy february⁶ and then in 2003 began performing a more alternative punk kind of music as Tommy heavenly⁶

There will be different stickers packaged with the album depending on which retailer it’s purchased from. If you want all of these stickers you only have to buy this album 10 times! The images shown are mentioned to be samples, though they are almost all images which match album art for the Sailor Moon Memorial Music Box CD set which was released in 1998. The Yamano Music’s sticker featuring Chibiusa and Diana differers from the Chibiusa cover in the Memorial Music Box.

Well over a year into the 20th anniversary celebration a new Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary tribute album has been announced. This album will be released on January 29th 2014 for a price of 3000 yen, roughly $30 US. The album will have a total of 10 tracks with three of the artists already announced. The date of January coincides with the latest news of when the new Anime wil be released, though this date may be coincidental. Momoiro Clover Z, who will be performing the theme song for the upcoming new Sailor Moon anime, will be doing a track. It’s unclear at this point if the track on the CD will be the new theme song or not. As Momoiro Clover Z have performed Moonlight Densetsu, the original Sailor Moon anime theme song, in concert a number of times already it’s also a possibility that this cover will be their track on the CD. The two other artists which have been named to date are Mitsuko Horie and Shoko Nakagawa.

Mistuko Horie is best known to Sailor Moon fans as the voice of Sailor Galaxia from the Sailor Stars series. As the voice of Galaxia Mitsuko Horie sang the song “Golden Queen Galaxia”, her character single, though she has also provided the vocals for many other songs, both related to anime series she has stared in as well as others. It’s unclear at this point whether she will be performing a song as the character of Galaxia or not.

Shoko Nakagawa is a Japanese singer who has covered many songs from the Sailor Moon anime in the past including Moonlight Densetsu, Otome No Policy and the Sailor Stars theme song. There are currently no details stating whether or not this album will contain previously recorded covers or new material. Shoko Nakagawa is a big Sailor Moon fan and has cosplayed as characters from Sailor Moon a number of times.

Shoko Nakagawa performing Moonlight Densetsu and Otome No Policy:

Shoko Nakagawa performing the Sailor Stars Song:

Shoko Nakagawa performing Moonlight Densetsu:

You can already pre-order this CD from Amazon Japan or CD Japan.

Source: Three Lights and Moon Chase.