Sailor Moon fandom is, without question, the most charming, delightful and adorable group of people on the planet. I mean that so sincerely. A more joyful, happier group of people I cannot even imagine.

Yesterday, it was my sincere pleasure to gather together with 2000 of the cutest people in the world, decked out in glorious finery as their favorite Senshi, or in Sailor Moon-inspired clothing, with ribbons and bows and handbags and t-shirts and back packs, all proclaiming their love of this lovable series to see Sailor Moon Super Live.

The performance is not quite a musical and not quite a play. It is more properly a pantomime of the key elements of the first Sailor Moon Arc, accompanied by singing, dancing and a host of really fun stage effects. The opening was worth every penny as the effects allowed integration of manga panels, and animated fore and backgrounds. We are able to enjoy rather sophisticated quick-takes on scenes like Mamoru and Usagi meeting, the gathering of the Senshi and the various battles.  The fight scenes, which combined effects, were especially fantastic when, for instance, black light effects turned Usagi’s classmates into monsters and stage elements, lighting and CGI effects combined for attacks and scenery. All of which made for a fun and dramatic stage. There were subtitles being shown but at one point, they had become rather silly, so when Kunzite was laughing evilly – about all he had for lines – I joked that I was surprised it wasn’t subtitled. ^_^ “Bwahahahah. Hahaha. Haha…” Random spoken lines are also displayed in the background as manga panels. Having seen this, I now understand why it’s called a “2.5D Musical” and I think it works.

The songs sung during the show are all original and, IMHO, mostly forgettable, except the song sung by the Senshi to encourage Sailor Moon, which was spot-on for their temperament and relationship to Usagi, and which was reprised during the concert portion of the show. The concert also included “La Soldier” and an extended version of “Moonlight Densetsu” to which we all sang along.

We had paid for the VIP seating, so when the show was over, we got high fives and hand shakes from the cast and a Super Live fan, along with the concert light stick and t-shirt we had bought before the show. The concert light stick could change colors and I giggled every time we all dutifully changed the color to match whomever was singing. We’re such nerds. ^_^

We spoke with folks about the amazing variety of goods and clothes and designs we saw. A lot of the stuff was fan-created, but without difficulty, we saw official Sailor Moon goods from Her Universe and Torrid/Hot Topics (I was wearing my old Inner Senshi HT shirt from the first time they carried Sailor Moon goods back in the 2000s, and people were recognizing it, which means we’ve all been doing this a long effing time. ^_^). And of course folks trotted out their Japanese brand goods – my wife carried her Sailor Moon x Gu collaboration purse, filled with Sailor Moon hand towel and gashopon Sailor Moon locket purses from Japan. Everyone was decked out in their Sailor Moon finest. 

Before and after the show, there was a flurry of photo activity. I took a few pictures of folks who were dressed up. One set of Haruka and Michiru were magnificently cosplaying as this cosplay magazine photoshoot. They looked so good we recognized them cosplaying as this cosplay. How amazing is that?

This group we encountered on the street outside the theater. I asked them if I could use this picture.

For some pictures of the cast and from the performance, check out this article on Theatermania. Unexpectedly, Forbes(!) also has an article on the show and short trailer, as well.

The only, only down side was that the music was so loud, it fuzzed out sometimes. This worked okay for the bad guys’ distortion music, but less so when it was meant to be melodic. I’d totally see this again, but bring earplugs to cut back on the noise. 

Ironically, the night before we had gone to see a bit of contemporary dance, Elizabeth, the dance, by Ann Carlson, which was also a kind of pantomime of female dance choreographers’ work, so as we sat through Sailor Moon Super Live, it felt kind of like it was the same – homage to a pop culture phenomenon as the dance troupe paid homage to high culture phenomenon.

Sailor Moon Super Live was a heck of a collage to celebrate of 25 years of a pop culture phenomenon.