Coming January 28th (As of this article its now past) is the release of the recent Sera Myu Musical “Petite Étrangère” which came out in summer 2014 in Japan. For us Moonies out in the US, the musicals are unfortunately still out of our reach for actually attending unless you visit the country, but the DVD is the next best option in this case. The more recent musical is based off of the Sailor Moon R storyline that the upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal season will be covering (coming to a Crunchyroll source nearest you) which features the debut of Chibi Usa into the story along with Sailor Pluto, one of the Outer Senshi.

Extras include a behind the scenes making of feature that shows how the musical was made, a “party” video and commentary from the from some of the main cast of the show.

Currently the DVD is released at 8,424 Yen (70 dollars US) and was released the same time as Momoiro Clover Z’s new song “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” which is a song that was collaborated by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, KISS. For those who are interested, the DVD is available on this link.

Sailor Moon’s newest musical has been announced, get ready for Petite Étrangère! This new production will run in two separate locations, starting in Tokyo from August 21-31 and then moving to Osaka from September 5-7.
The cast remains the same as last time, with the exception of a new Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Moon: Satomi Okubo
Sailor Mars: Kanon Nanaki
Sailor Jupiter: Yu Takahashi
Sailor Venus: Shiori Sakata
Tuxedo Mask: Yuga Yamato
And Sailor Mercury will be played by Momoyo Koyama, who is replacing Miyabi Matsuura from the La Reconquista musical.

As some fans may have noticed, the title Petite Étrangère is also the chapter title for Chibi Moon’s entrance to the story, which is further confirmed by the official websites mention of: “A mysterious girl who came from the future, and a new enemy, Black Moon!” In other news, Sailor Moon’s new musical and anime have both attracted plenty of new stateside attention as well, with The Mary Sue spreading the word on Sailor Moon Crystal, and BroadwayWorld.com posting their own article on Petite Étrangère. Looks like this is going to be an exciting summer for Sailor Moon fans around the world!

Sailor Mercury Figure Details:

The figure will be released sometime in October in Japan, and will probably ship to North America in November/December. Bluefin Tamashii Nations does not have order information quite yet (hopefully sometime this week there will be some news).  It will cost exactly the same price as the Sailor Moon figure at 4410 Japanese Yen ($46 USD), stand 14 inches tall, and this first production run will have special accessories.  There will be 3 exchangeable faces, 4 exchangeable right hands, 5 exchangeable left hands, front hair parts that include a Head Mounted Device Goggles (or her visor), and two types of pocket computers.  So far, the only image that is out right now is one we posted previously, but we anticipate there will be some more soon in different poses.

Sailor Moon Cosmetics:

Since Premium Bandai has moved to a build-to-order model, there is no reason why the shopping services should not work this time.  But please remember that the ordering limit of two per customer still holds for each product. The releases are being paced apart by a couple of days, as mentioned in our last post.  Some reporters at the Tokyo Toy Show this weekend posted some more details about them, including a hand model with each shade painted on her nails so fans could better see what the colors looked like, and pictures of the products.   But the most important thing is that there will be a third product added to the line (and sorry, nothing is going to be themed for the Outer Senshi or Starlights). Now we have heard a few rumors for what this third might be – a fragrance, an eyeshadow palette, or lipstick/lipgloss, and we are leaning towards the fragrance (although one of the others could happen). We too are disappointed that the majority of the branding of this 20^th anniversary is only using the images of the Inner Senshi, when what made the show so special was its huge cast.

As for the products that are known and on the way: the powder compact is not going to be like your typical face powder, and will instead be like a “luster powder” to add some shimmer to your face. The compact itself is more glossier and shinier than the photos on Premium Bandai suggested initially.  As far as the nail collection goes, the pink shade of nail polish is significantly lighter than the photos on Premium Bandai had suggested. Also, fans should be aware that each bottle is only holding about 3.5ml of nail polish – this is significantly smaller than nail polish bottles you would find at the store, so the polish in each bottle will not last as long as fans might had hoped it would (perhaps only one or two uses per color?) The other surprise was that the bottles do actually come out of their golden exteriors, and we wonder if the rings of the different symbols around the bottle tops could be wide enough to wear around a pinky.

What do you think of these products?  What do you think the third item might be?

Sailor Moon Musical:

Nicovideo has a special hub site set up just for the musical for their more premium members to and purchase tickets  from their mobile phones, as well as links to sites from Animelo and Nelke Planning.  While there is no video content as of this writing, we would not be surprised if there was considering Nicovideo’s involvement in the 20^th anniversary.  We have also heard that the plot is going to stay true to themes from the manga.  It will be interesting to see how this translates to the stage for the first time!

Hi Moonies! Yours truly had heard rumblings of a new musical a few days ago but waited for someone official to say something publicly. I can now confirm that there will be a new Sera Myu musical premiering in Japan this September for a very limited run of 9 days – from the 14^th to the 23^rd at the AiiA Theater Tokyo in Shibuya.  Obviously, the production team is very busy in trying to work out the kinks involved in the new anime series, so while Naoko Takeuchi is likely to be overseeing the production, an entirely different team is going to be producing and directing the musical.  Among those is  Takuya Hiramitsu who has written the screenplay and will be directing.  Takuya has previously directed and wrote screenplays for 10 Sera Myu musicals from 1995-1998 – so he is well seasoned towards Sailor Moon (Super Senshi e no Michi, Yume Senshi, Sailor Stars, Eien Densetsu, Shin Densetsu Kourin and all their kaitebans).

Organization will be handled by DWANGO (probably manage the web presence of the musical), NELKE Planning (likely casting and production), and Kodansha. As of this writing, Toei Animation is not involved as they had been in previous musicals. Sera Myu was very successful in its run of 27 different productions and 800 performances from 1993-2005.

There will also be an entirely new cast made up of entirely women, akin to Japan’s Takarazuka revue.  This was a shock to me when I had heard about it, (and I did not believe this) but nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how this takes Sailor Moon in a brand new direction. Naoko Takeuchi was also there  for and participated in the casting process!  The biggest confirmed cast member at this point is none other than former Takarazuka star Yuuga Yamato, who will be playing Tuxedo Kamen (or Tuxedo Mask) who has had plenty of amazing roles under her belt playing male characters.  Playing Sailor Moon is Satomi Ohkubo, whose biggest role so far has been playing Lisa Izawa this year in the Japanese supernatural detective drama Galileo.  Playing Sailor Mercury is newcomer Miyabi Matsuura who was chosen as Junon’s Grand Prix winner for their girl’s talent contest last year, and who had her first stage role in Girl Story earlier this year. Playing Sailor Mars is Kanon Nanaki, who is an idol singer.  Playing Sailor Jupiter is Yu Takahashi, who played Yuri Aso in Kamen Rider Kiva. And finally, Sailor Venus will be played by Shiori Sakata, who graduated from the idol group Idol College in 2012, and has been in NHK’s high school drama Kingyo Club, and had a role in the musical Sing! last year.

For fans who want to get tickets, there will be details in tomorrow’s edition of Nakayoshi.  A schedule of performances is posted at Sailor Moon Channel, and tickets will cost 6800 Japanese Yen (or around 68 US Dollars). But those who pick up Nakayoshi will be able to start reserving tickets from tomorrow!

This new team definitely has many high expectations for this production not only from fans, but from everyone involved at the top level of Sailor Moon, (considering the excessive secrecy behind the new anime series, this could be the only new production anyone sees for a long time)??? We wish them all the best of luck, and we will keep you posted of any new details as soon as they happen.

The musical group La Soldier has secured the rights to perform the SeraMyu musicals in Germany. We have heard the leader of the group bought the rights for the first SeraMyu musical from her own savings. According to La Soldier’s website, the performances will be very similar to the original, except they will be performed in German.

The group’s premiere performance will take place in April 2012 in Hamburg. The premiere will take place on Saturday, April 7th at Theater an der Marschnerstraße, located at Marschnerstraße 46 – 22081 Hamburg beginning at 6 p.m. The premiere will include special guest star Yuuki Nanami of j-poprock.com singing in the show.

German fans can find more information about La Soldier’s appearances and performances on their website. We will also be keeping in touch with La Soldier and bring you more news about them in the coming months.