Fumina Hara Supports Japan at World Cup!

J-Cast has a short article about how some female idols are showing their support for Team Japan at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Among those mentioned is Fumina Hara (Sailor Moon from 1998-1999). Fumina has quite a few entries on her blog in support of the Japanese team! Fans may not know this, but on March 20th of 2007, Fumina married Japanese Sports Journalist (and former Soccer Player) Tetsuo Nakanishi. On June 11th, she wrote that she was happy to see the World Cup begin and told her readers to cheer for Team Japan. On the 14th, she wore her husband’s old jersey for good luck as Japan faced Cameroon. Japan won this game 1-0. She also told everyone to follow her husband on Twitter. On the 19th, she went to the Saitama Super Arena to watch Japan face The Netherlands. Japan lost this game 0-1, but on the 20th Fumina still held some hope that Japan would win against Denmark. Japan is currently tied for second in Group E.

Yuu Shirota Also Cheers For Japan and Appears in Musical

Yuu Shirota (Tuxedo Kamen from 2003-2004) was also mentioned briefly on Sankei Sports! Some sentiments of his were shared with respect to Japan’s loss to the Netherlands on June 19th. He referred to the Japanese team as samurai who fought with dignity on the field. In the game against Denmark, he wants the team to win without fail. Yuu is also starring as Der Tod (Death) in Toho’s upcoming production of the Elisabeth musical in Tokyo. At the press conference, he was unsure if he would be able to sing well for the role, but he promised to try his best. He is excited about this role having seen the play 3 times when he was in high school. This production has been running since 2000, and in 2003, he auditioned for the role of the son, Rudolph. The director didn’t think he was quite ready then, but said in a few years he might be right for an adult role. And here he is, 7 years later! The play is slated to run from this August to October. Speaking of Yuu’s high school, CyzoWoman featured an article about it. Horikoshi Gakuen is a special high school just for celebrities that features sassy uniforms, flexible coursework and hours, and high security. The education there is first class, and the only electronic device students are allowed to have with them are their cell phones (no iPods allowed).

Yuri Kuroda Directs Drama Students!

Continuing the tradition of many Sailor Moon cast and crew to teach their craft to other students, Yuri Kuroda (Blue Sapphire) is now teaching drama students. The graduating class of Nanao Shinonome High School presented a work based on the Ganba no Boken franchise. 27 members under the direction of Kuroda worked for 8 months to put this production together. There was lots of intense acting, dancing, and action which impressed everyone that watched it! Her students were full of praise for her direction, even though they acknowledged it was a lot of work to put this together. Congratulations Yuri on both a successful production and school year!

We’ll start with sports! We haven’t seen so many sports sightings in such a long time, proving that Sailor Moon has fans from almost every walk of life!

☽ High school volleyball player Nikki Glass is making waves and leading her team to victory. In her profile, she listed Sailor Moon as her favorite cartoon as a kid. Her team is currently sitting in first place in their division standings! Way to go, Nikki!

☽ Virginia Tech football player Ryan Williams shared his inspiring life story, from growing up in a bad neighborhood to living out his dreams in high school. He also shared the important lessons he learned from his mentally-disabled older brother, Dontaye. The two share a special bond, and Ryan was always there behind him, even when times got tough. When he was younger, the two would watch cartoons like Transformers and Sailor Moon, and they continue to watch cartoons together today.

Onto visual art!

☽ Roger Shimomura has an interesting art exhibit at the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle. His paintings are all self portraits superimposed on pop-culture icons, and one of them includes Sailor Moon. Considering that this was painted in 2004, it’s hard to tell whether it was influenced more by the manga or PGSM, but he has painted Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Mars in their anime style, but with elements that were not used in the anime (Sailor Moon’s choker is noticeably different, and Roger crossed his glasses with a shape familiar to manga fans). Fans can check out more of his works on display here.

☽ Teens who are patients at Australia’s West Footscray Royal Children’s Hospital are taking a novel approach to treating their mental disorders – creating art! These paintings were created through art therapy programs. While therapists are reluctant to interpret the art that they are painting, the art serves as a way for patients to express themselves and to identify their emotions and issues, along with their causes. What really struck us was a seemingly hopeful painting that one girl painted of Sailor Moon. She hoped for more power in her personal life. Sailor Moon is a special character who went from being someone who had little confidence in herself, to a superhero that was capable of saving the world, and never giving up the fight. She means a lot to so many people – and this is one of the reasons why we wish the show could come back.

Celebrity Jabber!

☽ The Daily Show‘s correspondent Samantha Bee, has sure come a long way from her odd jobs at alternative theaters in Toronto! The Toronto Star profiled her last weekend, and talked about her new Off-Broadway show. We enjoyed reading how she met her “Tuxedo Mask” while playing Sailor Moon at Toronto’s CNE several years ago! She considers it one of the low points in her career (but we sure don’t). We tried to find a picture of her as Sailor Moon but were unsuccessful.

☽ And it seems that horrid Kisten Dunst video has finally made its debut in London. Read a fan’s account of it here!

And as we end this article, we’ll leave you with this thought. Is Tuxedo Mask really a headache?