Locations in Sailor Moon Featured in New Book of Anime Locales!

On April 26th, a few stores in Japan’s famed Akihabara shopping area began selling a new book ahead of its official release. Pilgrimage NAVI is a book about varied sites in Japan that are featured in anime. Some of these are historic, while others are of varying importance. This complete guide features sites all over Japan, photos of the sites and how they were used, and even includes traffic tips. This book is the result of a recent boom in fan pilgrimages to these areas in the wake of such popular series such as Sailor Moon, Maison Ikkoku, Lucky*Star, Evangelion, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and many more. This book was edited by Drill Project, and one of the writers said that this book is like finding different pieces you may not know about a destination or looking for places used in anime and manga that might be near your home. This is also a new way for Japanese people to enjoy Japan if they want to, he added. The book was released in May and sells for 1260 Yen or $13.63 USD. Sounds like this is a fun guide for any anime fan visiting Japan in the future and looking towards seeing some of the sites seen in their favorite anime! Fans can taste parts of the book here. The

Osaka has Anison Fever!

Not too long ago, we told you about Kotono Mitsuishi, Mitsuko Horie, Akira Kamiya, and Himeka being involved in Anison Grand Prix preliminaries in Osaka. On her blog, Kotono was excited to be going to Osaka to judge this contest and hoped that she could judge confidently. She reminisced too about listening to anime theme songs songs like the fans do now when she was younger and how much she loved them! One lucky cosplayer flattered Kotono when he told her that he liked her voice! On April 30th, an Anison Night concert was held in Osaka featuring four bands playing lots of favorite anime hits and lots of cosplayers attending. Hits from Sailor Moon, Slayers, and many more had the audience singing at the top of their lungs, and cosplayers were cosplaying from series old and new, from Gatchaman to Ar Tonelico! This was held at Beronica Entertainment Dining in Osaka, and one of the fans at the event was quoted as saying that having these newer bands bring in a new twist on older anime songs was unique. There was also a magic show and some open Anison auditions. The producer Masato Koga said that the recession has led them to really improve their performances and try to figure out how to entertain everyone across all generations of anime fans. He wants to try to continue these events to cater to everyone’s tastes! The General Manager of Beronica doesn’t want people to point at this “one dumb event” and hopes that by word of mouth, more people will attend. We hope so too, this sounds like a LOT of fun! The next Anison Night is scheduled for May 27th.

One Piece Celebrates Tenth Anniversary!

On March 27th, a special event was held at the 2010 Tokyo Anime Fair to celebrate the 10th anniversary of One Piece. Two Sailor Moon Seiyuu with roles in the anime were in attendance: Ikue Otani (U-Chouten and Sailor Tin Nyanko/Nyanko Suzu) who is the voice of Tony Tony Chopper and other characters, Kazuya Nakai (Oranja and Ittou Asanuma), and Mayumi Tanaka (Robert), who is the voice of Luffy! The thousand lucky people who were there to attend all got straw hats just like the one Luffy wears! The manga has sold 300 million copies to date, and the 57th chapter was just published. Here’s to many more, One Piece!

Ikue Otani Thanks Fans!

In March, there was a second Fans’ Thanksgiving event for fans of the popular gaming franchise Ar Tonelico. The latest game in the shojo RPG franchise Ar tonelico III: The Girl’s Song that Pulls the Trigger of World’s Demise was released in January for the PS3, and sold over 81,000 copies in its first week! Ikue Otani is the voice of the villain Mute, a girl with a monstrous and hideous appearance who still maintains her femininity. The first Fans Thanksgiving event was held in October, and Bandai-Namco games decided to do another one just a few months afterwards to celebrate the immense success of the latest game in the franchise. Ikue felt like she was playing a character half in her grave because of her character’s grotesque bony and sinewy appearance. There was also a raffle at the event where fans could win prizes such as merchandise emblazoned with the game’s logo and characters, and a book signed by the cast.

Arisa Mizuki Admired by Women, In a New Haircare Commercial, and Reprises Her Role in a Sequel!

In an Internet poll held in the month of January, single women were asked which female talent they admired most. Arisa Mizuki is best known to us Moonies as the singer of the last theme song of Sailor Stars Kaze Mo, Sora Mo, Kitto (The Wind, The Sky, Still), and she was chosen in third place with 5.9% of the vote! Arisa is also in a new commercial for a haircare line from Shiseido – Tsubaki Head Spa. Her commercial is the very last one on this page. This shampoo has a blend of essential oils to bring out the best in your hair. She was featured with 5 other actresses in these commercials and appeared alongside them at a special event to celebrate the product’s launch in Tokyo (featured in photo here). And finally, Arisa is reprising her role as the namesake housewife in a second Sazae-san special to be broadcast sometime this summer. This special is being produced in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the popular manga about a Japanese woman striving to be the most modern housewife that she can be.

Many Seiyuu Cosplay and Sing at Sakura Taisen Concert; Out Soon on DVD!

Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars), Kazue Ikura (Natsumi Ichinose, Bonnone), Kikuko Inoue (Princess Rubiina, Reiko Aya/Sailor Aluminum Siren), Mayumi Tanaka (Robert), Taiki Matsuno (Pegasus/Helios), Kumiko Nishihara (Diana), Yuriko Fuchizaki (Cyprine) and Toshio Furukawa (Hawk’s Eye) were all in full cosplay and singing hit songs from Sakura Taisen at Sakura Taisen Teito Hanagumi Live 2010 in Tokyo on March 6th. The concert was held in two parts, one during the day and one at night. This was the first Sakura Taisen concert event held in four years, and it was a wonderful reunion for the stars as well as for the fans. The show was so successful that it will be released on DVD in June. For more photos of the event, check out this post from Gamespot Japan. The one we have posted here features a few of the Sailor Moon Seiyuu – Michie Tomizawa is on the left, next to her is Kazue Ikura, and third from the right is Mayumi Tanaka!

Kikuko Inoue Flies Again in Radio Drama, and Shows Up in a Ton of Other Places Too!

Almost 7 years ago, Yahoo Japan embarked on an ambitious project to show English-dubbed anime shorts with Japanese subtitles. While we don’t know how this turned out, one of those properties is experiencing a resurrection through a radio drama in Japan. Trip Teck is a story about a young girl named Zocco who is the daughter of a Mighty King and a simple human woman. Her mother has been gone out of her life for reasons unknown, and she begins a journey to look for her. Accompanying her are two animal companions, a rabbit named Mimime and a fly named Catherine, who is played by none other than Kikuko Inoue. Sailor Moon fans may remember Kikuko as the voice of Sailor Aluminum Siren/Reiko Aya and Princess Rubina. In a new interview with the stars of the drama, she thought it was difficult to have to play a fly that advises Zocco on her journey, because who listens to flies? ITMedia has also gone a step further and posted photos of the actors recording their lines, something we hardly ever get a glimpse of! We’ve featured a shot of Kikuko working hard here! She hopes people will tune in because the show takes listeners to a completely new world and she feels that people will think that this is their journey too, and not just Zocco’s! For all you Metal Gear Solid fans, Kikuko also has a role as a new character named Chico in the upcoming game for PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. All we know about this character is that the character Amanda is his older sister. Kikuko is also voicing a commercial for a computer store advertising some sort of Intel replacement program at their store. Trading in certain desired processors and motherboards gets you a lottery ticket to win store credit towards a new machine. And those of you planning to purchase a MAPLUS GPS system in Japan, Kikuko is one of 17 popular actors chosen to record voices for the navigator, so the next time you take a wrong turn and your GPS takes forever to “recalculate” the distance, at least you can imagine Sailor Aluminum Siren contemplating a new route for your evildoing trip. And our very last Kikuko sighting for now is an appearance of her at an event for Rio Super Carnival, an anime based on a popular pachinko character (who later appeared in a Dead or Alive game). And here we thought Toru “ToFu-san” Furuya kept us too busy when this blog first started, and now it seems that Kikuko is the new hot star that’s out and about everywhere in Japan!

Thought this would be posted since a few of our readers in France enjoyed reading a past article about another personality associated with Sailor Moon there. When Sailor Moon was experiencing her first run in France, she appeared as part of a special programming block fused with a variety show known as Club Dorothee. It was hosted by a popular children’s singer, Dorothee. There were songs, and sketches, and of course many cartoons for children. However, when the block was canceled in 1997, it was in the midst of the run of Sailor Moon SuperS, and Dorothee was barely seen or heard from again… until now. She has released a new album that hasn’t been selling well, but is now performing her old hits to her fans who are now much older! And, her first concert at Paris’ Olympia Hall yesterday was a resounding success – concertgoers were happy and marked that she had not changed a bit! They were happy to see someone that was such a huge part of their childhoods again. She has a few more shows in the next couple days, and for fans who cannot catch her in concert, the show is being live streamed on IDF1.

Dancing, Plays, Video Games, and Doramas make up this round of PGSM Actor Updates!

Aya Sugimoto Dances, and Teaches!

Aya Sugimoto (Queen Beryl) is not only known for her acting, modeling, “modeling”, and “writing”, but also for her great dancing ability. Last March marked the Japanese premiere of the popular movie musical Nine, starring Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Fergie, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, and Daniel Day Lewis (is it not sad that I know them all by heart). At the premiere, Aya did a re-creation of Fergie’s infamous “Be Italian” routine from the movie with another dancer, Steven Haynes. This drew rave reviews, not only for Aya’s immense talent, but for her “talent” as well. Fans can check out a video of her performance here! Aya also did her part to repair Toyota’s image with women. The disgraced car company launched a new car in Japan called the Passo + Hana. As part of a special marketing campaign targetting women, Aya hosted a class with newhalf idol Ai Haruna. Entitled the “Girl Power Improvement Course of the Passo+Hana Women’s University in Spring”, the two of them gave women dating advice. Aya noted that a woman on a date sitting in a car, needs to make her legs look beautiful. There was also something else discussed at this class, but this blog is rated PG-13, and we’re not going to write about it.

Masaya Kikawada is a Detective!

Masaya Kikawada (Motoki) is starring as a detective in the new dorama Keishichou Shissounin Sousaka (The Metropolitan Police Missing Person Investigation Section) that just started on TV Asahi this past April 16th. This show is about a strange case that the aforementioned division of the police is called in to investigate. A physicist disappears into thin air during a supernatural show, and in their search to find him they uncover a lot more than they expected. And of course, there are always relational complications between team members. Masaya plays Junichi Morita (he’s at the end on the left side) a mild, passive, and sincere detective with a strong sense of justice. He has one flaw, and that is that he has a constant tendency to say more than he needs to. He’s also got a sharp mind and is very good with technology. Masaya also appeared at the Paul & Joe Fall/Winter 2010 fashion show in Tokyo just a few weeks ago. And to top things off, Masaya also appeared at the opening of Forever 21‘s Asian Flagship Store in Ginza on April 29th. Who knew our shy Motoki liked couture?

Akira Kubodera Voices Legendary Shogun Leader!

Capcom is going to release Sengoku Basara 3 this summer for the PS3 and Wii in Japan (it will be on its way here and will be called Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes). This is the latest in the popular game series set in feudal Japan where states are at war with each other. Akira Kubodera (Nephrite) will be playing Nobunaga Oda, but there’s a twist. He has been one of the evil characters in the two previous games, but is killed sometime between the last one and this one, and will only appear in flashback sequences. Capcom may bring his character back in a future game, and this new one features all sorts of new characters from the North and South of Japan. The game was presented on April 9th at the Ikebukuro Sunshine Theater, and many of the game’s seiyuu showed up in full cosplay. Akira dressed up as his character (first on the left). We almost couldn’t recognize him until we read the caption! What do you all think of his cosplay?

Unfortunate Tale of a Betrayed Woman Features Mariko Tsutsui!

Youkame no Semi (The Cicada on the 8th Day) is a 6 part dorama airing on NHK as we speak. It is the sad tale of a woman named Kiwako, who has an affair with Takahiro, a married man. He gets both of the women pregnant, and forces Kiwako to get an abortion. Kiwako learns right after her abortion that Takahiro’s wife was also pregnant and had a baby girl. She feels betrayed that she was not allowed to have a child of her own, even though Takahiro loves her more than his own wife. One night, she kidnaps the baby and spends the next 5 years on the run in Japan. The show picks up two decades later when the daughter (renamed Kaoru from her birth name of Erina) turns 20 and begins her own affair – Kiwako shares her story with her, finally. In the third episode entitled “Sad Women”, Kaoru’s first four years are shown. Kiwako has found a womens’ commune (the House of Angels) to live in, and has started a new life there with Kaoru. Everything seems calm and peaceful, until she is forced to go on the run again after her face ends up on television and Takahiro spots her. Mariko Tsutsui appears in this episode as Dr. Sakakibara. From what’s been seen of this dorama, it is pretty powerful and gripping.

Kaori Moriwaka in 80’s Rock Band Battle!

Kaori Moriwaka (Ikuko Tsukino) will be one of the special guests at this year’s Nexus Annexus festival at Japan’s Studio Coast. On June 6th, there is going to be an “epic” rock battle of the bands with artists that were popular in Japan in the 80s. Kaori got her start in the entertainment industry as the lead singer and songwriter for the popular girls’ rock band the Go Bang’s back in the 80s and 90s, and she will be one of the competitors in this rock battle. This should be a fun show to go see, no matter who the winner is! If you’re in Tokyo this summer and want to check it out, here’s some more information!

Narushi Ikeda Tries His Hand at Directing!

Narushi Ikeda may have played Minako’s agent Sugao Saito, and appeared to know everything that he was doing. But, this is not the case in his real life – he has always been an actor, never the director… until now! Playing at the Tokyo Globe Theatre right now is the play Hakurankai, presented by Parco Produce. It is about a team of artists getting prepared for a world’s exhibition in the very tropical Taiwan during World War II when there is much tension all over. The comedy stars Narushi, and he also makes his directorial debut in the play. He said that it was tough initially, but it was something that he had aspired to do. He always got feedback from the other actors to make sure that his decisions were working with everyone! The play has been running since January and has been a resounding success! He is pictured here in the bottom left corner, and fans can check out an interview with him here.

Not too much to report now, but we thought we’d still report these since these actors were all featured in huge roles during Sera Myu!

Kenji Urai is a Prince!

Fresh off his win at the 44th Kinokuniya Theater Awards, Kenji Urai (Tuxedo Mask from 2001-2002) will be making an appearance in a stage musical, and he wil get to play a prince! Bara to Samurai: Goemon Rock Overdrive (Rose to Samurai: Goemon Rock Overdrive) began on March 18th in Tokyo, and will travel through to Osaka in April and May. The play takes place in the 17th century, about two pirates named Goemon and Ann. Lured by a reward, another pirate tries to kidnap Goemon, but captures Ann instead. Everyone finds out later that Annu is the long-lost daughter of the recently deceased King, and is set to rule over his kingdom. At her first party, Annu meets a prince named Charles from another country who falls in love with her, but Goemon isn’t ready to give her up easily. Kenji is playing Prince Charles, and has received some rave reviews from fans already over his performance! At a promotional event held earlier this month, the two leading cast members playing Ann and Goemon (Yuki Amami and Arata Furata) were excited for the chance to cosplay as pirates on stage!

Tae Kimura Presents at 33rd Japanese Academy Awards After Winning Year!

2009 was a great year for Tae Kimura (Fisheye in Sailor Moon SuperS musicals). She won two awards for her role in the critically acclaimed film All Around Us (including a Japanese Academy Award), and became well known around Japan. A few weeks ago, she appeared to present an award at the Japanese Academy Awards, and was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the Japanese film Zero Focus. This movie was about a mysterious disappearance of a woman’s husband. We have a photo of her at the awards featured here (in the brown dress). Unfortunately, she didn’t win, but we are still proud of everything she has achieved! Zero Focus will be released to DVD and BD this June. Fans can check out more information about the film in English here.

Maki Aizawa Goes Shopping and Has a Beauty Blog

Maki Aizawa (Loof Merrow in 2004) went for a little shopping trip with her friend, Yuko Ogura (another idol) before they had to go to work. This for some strange reason was covered by the tabloids (*sigh*). They went to one of the most trendiest stores in Tokyo called ISBIT DAIKANYAMA which is very popular among idols for the eclectic selection of clothing it carries. They tried on a few items and took some photos of themselves without makeup and went on their merry way (which included posts on both Yuko and Maki’s blogs). Maki is the girl on the right side of the photo we have posted here. Maki also started a beauty blog a few months ago which is slowly gaining some steam with her fans. She reviews beauty products that she uses.

Tabe Mikako in New Lipstick Commercial!

Tabe Mikako (Yaten Kou/Sailor Star Healer) is currently being featured in a new lipstick commercial in Japan for Orbis Rouge Crystal. This lipstick has special shine enhancers in it to make your lips sparkle. Orbis has two commercials for this product, the first one features Tabe putting the lipstick on and talking about how it makes her lips sparkle. The second one, features Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott playing a Chopin waltz off of her brand new album. Both aim to show that this lipstick will make you sparkle and shine at just the right moment! Fans can check out videos of both commercials here!

Anza Oyama a Matter of Weeks Away From South America!

Anza Oyama (Sailor Moon from 1993-1998) is the lead singer of Japanese metal band Head Phones President, and they are heading out for the first time to South America a month from now! They will be playing four shows in Brazil, and 3 of them are at anime conventions: the concert on April 24th will happen at Anime Hero!, then they will head off to Anime Osasco the next day, and then to Porto Allegre’s J-Party Ballads on the 30th. On May 2nd, they will finish their tour playing in Rio de Janeiro. We know our friends at SOS Brazil are very excited about this and we can’t wait to hear what they have to report! The band sings in English, and their style of music is definitely a departure from the cutesy songs fans know Anza best for singing in Sera Myu. Fans who want to give their music a listen can check out their MySpace! We wish Head Phones President the best of luck on their tour and we hope to see them perform in other places as well.