Archive for the Live Action Category


Sailor Moon The Super Live Event 2025 Report

April 20th, 2025

View of the stage at Sailor Moon The Super Live, 20205 at NJPAC in Newark, NJ. Five women in brightly colored super-hero version of girls "sailor style" Japanese school uniforms, sing and dance with a stage lit tot imply Tokyo, while a screen shows a deep-space image and the words "The Starry Heavens" behind them. Photo by P. Lawler, 2025.
 
Our first in-person live Sailor Moon stage show was in 2002, when we stumbled into a performance hall quite accidentally, and found ourselves in a Sailor Moon gift shop for a show that was playing. It was a version of the third season, Super, so were were delighted to be able to see it. We went to Shining Moon Tokyo, the Sailor Moon restaurant as part of the 100 Years of Tokyo Tour, where the show had incredibly clever use of  a very small space. One of the defining moments was Mars using some kind of LED light effect baton that, when swung, looked as if it was flames. (This is pertinent to this report, bear with me!)

And, finally, we were able to see the first iteration of Sailor Moon The Super Live when it came to Washington, DC and New York City in 2019. That was a lovely fully 2.5D experience, with panels from the manga in the background as the story played out. Beryl was joined by Kunzite alone of the Shittenou who appeared as baddies.

And on Friday, my wife and I attended the Sailor Moon The Super Live North American Tour 2025  event in Newark, NJ at NJPAC, as part of the 21-city North American Tour. We had sat on the idea of going for a week, so were unable to get VIP tickets, but when we got an email from NJPAC to RSVP to a “secret” pre-show event, obviously, we did immediately. And that, starting right off, was an indication of just how far NJPAC was leaning into this show. We used secret code “silvercrystal” to get an RSVP. It was adorable cringe. ^_^

Of course, we arrived too early! I walked up and down the line as people arrived taking pictures of all our cool Sailor Moon dress up, shirts and gear. At the bottom of this post is a gallery of photos I took of everyone. Two quick disclaimers: Everyone gave me explicit permission to use these photos, but if you want yours removed, please free to ask and I will! Conversely, if I took your picture and it’s not here, I apologize, just let me know and I’ll find it and add it. I had a lot of pictures to comb through. The entire (windy) time we waited, music from Sailor Moon anime and shows wafted around the plaza. You could see folks bopping and singing along to their faves.

Once inside, we headed up to the pre-show event. Again, NJPAC did a wonderful job. When we checked in, we got a bingo card. I did my best to fill out as many of the boxes as quickly as I could, because it was fun, and ran back to get a prize, which was a really large, cute Luna stuffed animal. She now sits proudly next to our Osaka-ben talking Kero-chan next to where I am typing. ^_^ We had “asian-inspired” food, which was a very generous interpretation of Chinese-ish pork, shrimp or mushroom buns, pasta with sesame oil and desserts choices of brownies, lemon bars, strawberries, and mochi donuts, with a choice of hibiscus or matcha boba drinks. We ate some food then had a few of everything dessert, while (again) ran around taking pictures…because everyone was SO cute. ^_^

Here are a few pictures I want to share specifically, just because the Outers looked amazing, as they always do. But do please check the entire gallery.

Here are thelastblackmoon and kawaiikiwicosplay as Sailors Uranus and Neptune with friends and on their own.


And this outstanding group of Outer Senshi princesses:

 

Then it was time for the show. The story hasn’t changed…but actually, it has. Every show I have seen has made small changes to the story. Here, they did some interesting things on a meta-level. While several songs insisted that all of the Senshi are still “normal girls” they likewise insisted that their powers are part of that “normal.” THIS is who they are and it’s perfectly okay.

They leaned deeply into their defining characteristics of Justice (Moon), Intelligence (Mercury), Passion (Mars), Courage (Jupiter) and Love (Venus.) This theme repeated, as did the song Starry Heavens and My Universe. And, while their introductory songs did briefly give their backstories, these were stripped of angst and centered on how Usagi changed their lives. If a lack of something can be considered a theme, then lack of angst was a key theme here. We get a number of pieces about Beryl, the war between the moon and earth and Endymion and Serenity, in the second act, but the death of the senshi is – refreshingly – absent, and it is Sailor Moon who lifts herself up, then rejoins her friends. Likewise, Queen Metallia is presented as an annoyance to Beryl, a tool, that she had no choice but to use, but she was uninterested in giving her the Legendary Silver Crystal if possible, as she plans to keep it for herself.

There were a number of moments played for jokes and a number of moments in which the audience just laughed, knowing what thing was being referenced.

The effects were presented in several ways – stage lighting and a large screen in the back that ran subtitles of dialogue and songs and also stood in for city scenes. Miasma and Queen Metallia were nicely presented on the screen. There was a metal framework in front of the screen implying the city of Azabu Juban and Tokyo tower, which I quite liked. It would light up as the miasma left and Sailor Moon saved the city..again. ^_^ But my favorite effect was in the different LED light sticks that were used…and the LED spinners.

This show had LED lighting effect in short batons, long lances which I though were extra cool and rhythmic-gymnastic-like ribbons which lit up, then could be stiff, as well. They were incredible, but completely overwhelmingly the winnerwere the spinners. You know fire spinning, right? These were similar. Things that were spun, but because it is a programmable LED, the effects were amazing. They could imply a galaxy, or an attack…the Senshi’s attacks were met with crowd approval, but when the spinners kicked in to show the planetary symbols, the crowd went wild. ^_^ It looked amazing.

The cast was excellent. This was an exhausting show. Just the number of times Usagi had to collapse to her knees make me tired. ^_^ They had stairs which they ran up and down, singing (they were doing the singing live as the occasional imperfect note confirmed,) and of course dancing, “fighting” and generally running around. The harmonies were solid, and they were just…the Senshi. Riko Tanaka’s Usagi was cute, clumsy, and somehow stronger than you expected (wifey says, “with a pair of pipes”,) while Kanon Maekawa as Ami was slightly less vulnerable than she previously has been portrayed, Rei Kobayashi was a perfect Rei, focusing on her own strengths and desires, Kisara Matsumura had a pleasant soprano, and left her heartbreak behind in one sentence and Marin Makino’s Minako was confident and still, somehow, a little goofy. I find myself less and less tolerant of Tuxedo Mask, but have to give props to Riona Tatemichi’s performance and the script for somehow making him a bit sympathetic. But the winner and still champeen is, without a doubt, Sayaka Okamura as Queen Beryl. Holy crow could that woman sing.

Once Beryl kidnaps Mamoru and the Senshi have to travel to the Dark Kingdom, the tone of the music changes dramatically. A neon sign reads “Dark Kingdom,” and the world is not dark, but a brightly lit party-all-the-time-even-if-you-don’t-want-to honky-tonk. Beryl sings “Burn Up The Dance Floor,” a song of violent, yet catchy, retribution and she just nails every note. Her reprise in the revue portion was even more enthusiastically received. Absolutely outstanding performance.

Props to the extras, as well, who work really hard with little credit, playing characters like the Dark Kingdom creatures, Haruna-sensei, Naru’s Mom, and Usagi’s Mom, in scene after scene.

The revue portion included a version of La Soldier. I sat next to a family that included a dad who was not familiar with any of this, but clearly bopped to some of the catchier tunes, a mom who was a fan and a kid who was not, but was well-behaved and absolutely befuddled when the entire audience suddenly began to sing this song. ^_^ My wife howled at the appropriate point and was delighted that she wasn’t the only one.

After a few other songs, it concluded with Moonight Densetsu. I don’t know how long this will stay up even though the audience is given explicit permission to record and post this video with the hashtag #SailorMoonSuperLive, but here is Moonlight Densetsu from the finale!


 

I hope you will also take a look at these photos of the creativity and joy of the audience.

This was a fantastic show. There are a very few seats left for remaining NYC shows…it looks like Philly and Hartford are sold out. I highly recommend this experience, if only to be part of a dedicated, shockingly non-toxic fandom. ^_^

Now that this tour has been so successful, you know I’m hoping that they do Super with the Outers next time. ^_^ I understand that having 8 more people on the tour is a lot of logistics, but…I wanna see the Outers use those LED spinners for their attacks!





Who Knows Girls’ L

March 26th, 2025

Poster for the Chinese series Who Knows Girl’s L, showing the lead characters Cheng Zhijin (left) and Gu Yi (right).Once a rarity, live-action yuri series have now spread throughout East and Southeast Asia, most famously to Thailand but also to Taiwan, South Korea, and Cambodia. One major exception to the trend has been the People’s Republic of China, where the publication of LGBTQ-related works has been discouraged by cultural norms and government policies. Small wonder then that baihe (yuri) works (including many of those scheduled to be published in English) often are set in past times and make considerable use of subtext.

Thus it was a surprise to see Who Knows Girls’ L (谁知锦意) pop up on YouTube, set in present-day China and proudly billed as “the 1st Chinese gl series . . . for sapphic ppl like you and me!” As one might expect, it was not created and distributed by a mainstream Chinese production company. Instead it’s being produced and released by a group of film students in Shanghai, who have been very forward about promoting the series and raising funds for its production. (Their initial budget was the equivalent of only $2,700 US.)

Who Knows Girls’ L is still ongoing: it’s projected to be 28 relatively short episodes (up to 15 minutes long), with eight episodes available thus far; completion of the series depends on the success of the fundraising efforts. I’m reviewing now to bring it to the attention of fans who might be interested in following it, and also as a hedge in case the series goes on indefinite hiatus for lack of funds or other reasons.

But enough throat-clearing, how does Who Knows Girls’ L stack up against the many other yuri series currently airing or scheduled to be aired? Let’s go to the tape:

The plot is a weak point of the series, combining as it does a noxious trope, an implausible plot turn, and a power-gap romance: Cheng Zhijin, a young film studio project director who’s struggling with problems on her production, drowns her sorrows at an industry party and afterwards encounters an older woman, Gu Yi, busking on a public street. Zhijin meets her again at a bar where Yi works as a singer, drinks some more, then goes home with Yi and proceeds to have a drunken one-night stand. In the office the next day Zhijin is flabbergasted as the previous night’s fling turns out to be the chief shareholder in the studio, who’s now decided to actively involve herself in the company’s operations. The plot proceeds from there, as Zhijin and Yi try to navigate the troubled waters of an employee/employer relationship.

The production values are uneven but improving, marred by occasional lapses: a slightly off camera angle here, a brief mistake in focus pulling there, problems with color grading between some scenes, and some non-idiomatic translations. (There are also several scenes in which the faces of Zhijin and one of her friends at work look unnaturally white; I don’t know if that’s a production problem or reflective of a cosmetics fad among young Chinese women.) However, the series looks significantly better than one might expect of a student production. It makes good use of multiple location shots and has an effective soundtrack, with a banger OP introduced in episode 7.

Working actor Kaiyi portrays Gu Yi, while Cheng Zhijin is played by law student Qianyue. Kaiyi gives a solid performance, while Qianyue reminds me of Yoko Apasra Lertprasert of Blank: The Series—not so much in the characters they play (Aneung’s teasing and flirtation is 180 degrees away from Zhijin’s sullen passive-aggressiveness), but in seeing a striking debut from an unexpected source. As for the scenes between Yi and Zhijin, the director and actors have clearly closely studied GAP and its successors and strove to emulate their steamier aspects; if the results don’t quite come up to Freen and Becky at their finest, it’s not for lack of trying.

Ratings:

Story — 5
Characters — 8
Production — 6
Service — 5
Yuri — 10
Overall — 6

Its status as the self-proclaimed first Chinese yuri series and a crowd-funded student project is the hook, but Who Knows Girls’ L has an appeal beyond that, based on the increasing sophistication of the production and the performances of Kaiyi and Qianyue. It’s definitely worth watching the series, following the saga of its production, and (for those so inclined) financially supporting its creation.

P.S. Some final trivia: The Chinese title of the series, 谁知锦意 (Shéi zhī jǐn yì), contains some untranslatable wordplay that puns on the characters’ names: 谁知 (Shéi zhī) is “Who knows”, 知锦 (zhī jǐn) is the given name of one of the characters, and 意 (yì) is pronounced the same as 忆, the given name of the other lead character. Also, 意 has “intentions,” “thoughts,” and “feelings” among its meanings. So, the title can be read in multiple ways: “Who knows [Zhi]jin/Yi?” or “Who knows [Zhi]jin’s intentions/thoughts/feelings?” (Thanks go to Reddit commenter _fancy_pants for pointing this out.)





Kanojo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido Short Movie (彼女のくちづけ感染するリビドー ショートムービー)

February 20th, 2025

Title image for Yorita Miyuki's Kanojo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido Short Movie (彼女のくちづけ感染するリビドー ショートムービー). Two young women with flowers in their hair hold a bouquet. The girls with long hair strokes the other girl's cheek as they smile gently. In the wake of Yorita Miyuki’s successful kickstarter for Volume 2 of her series Her Kiss, My Libido Twinkles, she floated the idea of a new live-action adaptation of the series.

In fact, Kanojo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido Short Movie (彼女のくちづけ感染するリビドー ショートムービー), a three-part adaptation, has been up on Youtube since 2022. I’ve been meaning to review it, and this seems like a good time to do so.

Let’s begin with a synopsis from my review of the Kickstarter reward of the first volume of  the manga: “Stuck in the hospital with an injury, Sana meets and is intrigued by Akane, a mysterious older girl who missed a year in school due to illness. Akane is a bit possessive, but Sana wants her to be friends with all her school friends too. When the chance finally comes to introduce Akane to her best friend, Mi-chan, Mi-chan discovers Yuri books in Sana’s room and impulsively hides, becoming a witness to Sana and Akane kissing.”

Right off the bat, this movie is a very decent live-action adaption of Yorita-sensei’s series. Pared down, as it is, to a mere four characters and a short running time, the emotions are very visible and the story moves quickly.  

Tsuboi Nagisa as Sana and Umakawa Moeka as Akane are excellent. Tsuboi’s smile is Sana’s smile, there was no question that we were seeing a live-action of this work. Akane’s behavior is toned down a bit, here and she seems less aggressively manipulative, while Sana comes off as having a stronger personality. As a result, one is pretty on board with them as a couple earlier than in the manga. 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

If you enjoyed the first volume of Her Kiss, My Libido Twinkles, this is a quick watch and a fun way to experience Yorita-sensei’s story.





Pluto: The Series

January 3rd, 2025

A promotional poster for the Thai yuri series Pluto. It shows the two main characters, Aioon and May, sitting on top of Aioon's van, looking at the sky.by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer

Believe it or not, there are Thai yuri novels written by Chao Planoy that are not part of the GAP extended universe; Pluto: The Series (streaming on YouTube) is an adaptation of one of them, from the powerhouse Thai production company GMMTV (who also produced 23.5: The Series). Unlike the other Chao Planoy adaptations reviewed here (GAP, Blank, and Affair), Pluto adds a mystery to the typical romance plot—though whether that’s an improvement is debatable, as we shall see.

Aioon (Namtan Tipnaree Weerawatnodom) is a tomboyish slacker working as a motorcycle courier. Ai is estranged from her younger twin sister Oaboom (also played by Namtan), and is thus surprised when right after Oom’s wedding (to wealthy heir Paul) Oom asks Ai to pretend to be her and break up with her ex-girlfriend May (Film Rachanun Mahawan). That night Paul and Oom are in an auto accident that kills Paul and leaves Oom in a coma. Ai feels compelled to carry out her sister’s last wish, goes to see May, and finds, first, that May is blind and, second, that she herself is becoming attracted to May. Ai decides to continue pretending to be Oom and not go through with the promised break-up. And thus the game is afoot.

The ensuing mysteries are many: Why did Oom decide to break up with May? How did May lose her sight, and is there any hope of her regaining it? What’s the connection between May, a lawyer, and Ai’s “motorpunk” friends? Will Oom ever come out of her coma? And most notably: Why doesn’t May figure out that Ai is not Oom, and why does Ai think she can get away with the pretense? The answers to these questions are revealed in the following episodes, so I won’t spoil them here. However, I will note that the series depends on a series of coincidences, connections between characters, and plot resolutions that are mostly implausible and contrived and therefore also mostly unsatisfying.

The appeal of the Pluto: The Series instead rests on the characters themselves and the actors who portray them. Here the series does better: both Namtan and Film are TV and film veterans, and both have challenging roles that they execute reasonably well, Namtan portraying twins with separate personalities and Film portraying a woman who’s lost her sight. Film also rescues May from being thought of solely as a victim of unfortunate circumstances, and shows that she has a scheming and conniving side as well, as befits a successful lawyer. As for their portrayal of the relationship between Ai and May, Namtan and Film can’t match the level of sensuality displayed by Freen and Becky in The Loyal Pin (or, for that matter, by Faye and Yoko in Blank), but they do make for a very affectionate and appealing couple, and they nail the occasional scenes of extreme emotion.

Finally, while I enjoyed Pluto: The Series for the most part, its existence does make me wish that Thai production companies would find more novels from other authors to adapt. Even the best screenwriters can do only so much with Chao Planoy’s novels, filled as they are with plot contrivances and sensationalistic elements. Other Thai authors surely deserve a chance to have their yuri novels become successful live-action series.

Ratings:

Story — 5 (too many complications, coincidences, and implausibilities)
Characters — 8
Production — 8 (the usual GMMTV professional work)
Service — 2
Yuri — 10
Overall — 7

Pluto: The Series is an enjoyable but uneven watch that struggles to overcome the implausibilities and contrivances of its source material and doesn’t completely succeed in doing so, despite the best efforts of Namtan and Film.





Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born

December 11th, 2024

Promotional poster for the Korean drama series Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, featuring Kim Tae-ri (center) as Jeongnyeon. Other characters (from left to right) are the director Kang So-bok, the current prince and princess Seo Hye-rang and Moon Ok-gyeong, and Jeongnyeon’s rival Heo Yeong-seo.by Frank Hecker, Staff Writer

The Takarazuka Revue has inspired several manga and anime. Now comes Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a Korean drama (currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+) that features an analogous 1950s-era all-female gukgeuk troupe performing plays based on classic Korean tales and featuring songs sung in the traditional pansori style. Jeongnyeon the series features Yoon Jeongnyeon the performer (played by Kim Tae-ri), a natural-born pansori genius who goes from working as a fishmonger to joining the Maeran Theater Company as a trainee and competing to become its new “prince.”

If you’ve heard about Jeongnyeon at all, you’ve likely heard that it’s based on a yuri webcomic of the same name, and that the explicit yuri elements were erased in the live-action adaptation. This is true: in the webcomic Jeongnyeon has a girlfriend, Kwon Bu-yong (the rightmost figure in the webcomic image below), who starts out as a fan of Maeran. There’s also a side character who was disrespected as a woman and decided to henceforth live life as a man. Neither are present in the TV series.

Nevertheless, Jeongnyeon is still of interest to yuri fans who enjoy dramas about the theater in general and all-female theatrical troupes in particular. And there is plenty of drama to be had: Jeongnyeon finds her quest to become a top star impeded by the violent opposition of her mother Seo Yong-re (Moon So-ri), who has a mysterious past and a hidden connection to Maeran’s imperious director Kang So-bok (Ra Mi-ran). She also finds herself beset by bullies, incurring the wrath of director Kang for various offenses, and enmeshed in a triangle of sorts with her rival would-be prince Heo Yeong-seo (Shin Ye-eun) and their would-be princess Hong Joo-ran (Woo Da-vi). Meanwhile, scandals past and present threaten the positions of current prince Moon Ok-gyeong (Jung Eun-chae) and her princess Seo Hye-rang (Kim Yoon-hye), and the future of Maeran and indeed gukgeuk as a whole hangs in the balance.

Promotional image for the webcomic Jeongnyeon, showing Yoon Jeongnyeon (center) and Heo Yeong-seo (left) in the trainee uniforms of white blouse and long blue skirts, and Kwon Bu-yong (right) in her own dark-blue uniform.The yuri elements discarded in the transition to screen reappear elsewhere as subtext: Ok-gyeong has the transmasc aura of the previous side character and with Hye-rang forms the troupe’s resident couple: They live in the same house, are casually affectionate with one another, and are even raising a young girl together. With Bu-yong absent, the show’s focus is solely on the Maeran trainees, and Joo-ran becomes a (very) thinly-veiled love interest for Jeongnyeong. Finally, in a rare example of heterosexual erasure, Yeong-seo loses the boyfriend she had in the webcomic and is free to devote her attentions to Jeongnyeon and Joo-ran. Almost all the remaining men have only minor roles or function as obstacles to the core group of women; the only other men featured, Jeongnyeon’s father and grandfather, are dead as her story begins.

As a show considered on its own merits, Jeongnyeon has a uniformly excellent cast, high production values, and a compelling if often bittersweet plot. Kim Tae-ri, who first came to fame starring in the Korean lesbian drama The Handmaiden, studied pansori for multiple years in preparation for the part, and it shows. I thought she played the role of Jeongnyeon a bit too broadly in some early episodes, but otherwise she’s completely convincing. Shin Ye-eun takes a common trope—the hard-working performer who’s overshadowed by an untutored genius—and makes Yeong-seo a complex and compelling rival to Jeongnyeon. Finally, Woo Da-vi is unjustly neglected in the show’s promotional materials, but her character is the emotional heart of the series. Joo-ran’s scenes with Jeongnyeon are some of the show’s most affecting, and certainly the most romantic.

As a story, Jeongnyeon harks back to Hana Monogatari and other “S” fictions, in which young women have relationships of “passionate friendship” (and sometimes more than friendship) with other young women, relationships ended by adulthood and (typically arranged) marriages. Gukgeuk itself lost its mass audience to television and its elite audience to Western opera (exemplified by Yeong-seo’s mother, a famous soprano who looks down on Yeong-seo’s chosen career). So, even if other events didn’t intrude, the time the characters would have with each other would be fleeting.

As a production, Jeongnyeon was created in a modern society marked by often violent misogyny and homophobia, and can be seen as a response to that. The series was written and directed by women, and its main cast are all women. The women in Jeongnyeon start and staff their own troupes and put on their own theatrical productions. They claim for themselves ownership of stories that are classics of Korean culture and sing in a style originally pioneered by men, a style that in its frequent harshness is the very opposite of the ultra-feminine stylings of the stereotypical present-day idol.

While yuri fans have bemoaned the changes made in the transition from webcomic to live-action, the mainstream South Korean audience has taken this example of “quiet feminism” to heart and propelled the show to high ratings and the number 1 position in its time slots. If Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born is anywhere near as popular outside South Korea—as it deserves to be—perhaps one day there’ll be an official English release of the webcomic, and we can experience the story of Jeongnyeon as it was originally conceived.

Ratings:

Story — 7 (a bit too much coincidence in the initial setup, and a somewhat flat ending)
Characters — 9 (complex characters vividly brought to life)
Production — 9 (impressive recreations of multiple theatrical productions)
Service — 1 (Ok-gyeong in a suit and fedora counts, I think)
Yuri — 5 (the subtext is strong with this one)

Overall — 8 (a kiss apparently left on the cutting-room floor might have made this a 9)

Yuri fans who can look past the (self-)censorship of a canon yuri story will find an entertaining and emotionally resonant drama elevated by standout performances by Kim Tae-ri and the other leads, along with splendid recreations of classic gukgeuk performances.

Note: If you want to further explore the real-life history of all-female theater in Korea, see Ha Ju-yong, “Female Masculinity and Cultural Symbolism: A History of Yeoseong gukgeuk, the All-Female Cast Theatrical Genre,” The Review of Korean Studies 24, no. 2 (December 2021), 107-144, doi: 10.25024/review.2021.24.2.107. This open-access article has a wealth of detail, including promotional posters and ads, photographs of performers, and even example sheet music for one of the songs.