One thing that might surprise some, is that America is not the only one that’s been turning pop culture properties into shows and musicals. While as of late this trend has been a bit more popular stateside with the likes of Back to the Future and Beetlejuice hitting Broadway, it’s also equally as popular in Japan where it’s also used as a way to bridge the gap between the theater crowd and the pop culture obsessed. While for us fans in the US it’s more common to see these Japanese adaptations on a procam in the theater, a la Fathom Events. Sometimes, just sometimes, they do get popular enough to tour, like in the case of the stage production of Spirited Away and now Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live – a 2.5D Musical as it is known by its full moniker, is a mashup adaption of the anime and the manga’s narrative of friendship and justice that has been going for nearly a decade in Japan. Starting last week however, it started its 21 city American tour that will be going through April 24th. I got a chance to chat with not only Sailor Moon herself, Riko Tanaka, but choreographer Satomi Toma and lead producer Makoto Matsuda before their Austin gig, to dig into not only what makes this property so iconic, but what in fact is a 2.5D musical?
Makoto, firstly for American audiences, what exactly is a 2.5D musical?
Makoto Matsuda: So it’s based on the idea of bringing the two dimensional world of manga and animation or even gaming, the characters that are portrayed in 2D brought to life in a 3D living human actor, like Riko over here. It’s a inbetween world of expressing the 2D in the best way of 3D.
Okay, along those lines, can you describe “Super Live”?
Makoto Matsuda: So if you could see it, there’s a cute image as well, but you’ll know when you see it, basically. But it has the regular songs, music, dance, technology, visuals, projections, so much more than a normal, conventional musical. So we wanted to kind of honor the situation by naming it and giving it a new category name. And it’s almost kind of like a manifesto to call it a new thing. That is our intention of calling it something not a musical, but the “Super Live”.
This is a format you’ve been pioneering in Japan for decades, how has it evolved over the years?
Yes, I have been doing this for a while. But what’s really interesting about this is that before 2.5, I think musicals in Japan were something with more of a conservative audience, it wasn’t necessarily young. It was more geared towards a certain demographic that was more stable, but not necessarily all encompassing. But once we started doing 2.5 and we incorporated more comics and animation as original stories, their fan base came to see it. So we now have a robust group of young audiences, many of whom have never been to a musical before and have been starting to come see the productions.
Riko, what was the audition process like?
Riko Tanaka: Short answer is, I want to know why they chose me to begin with. I don’t even know, but it’s something that ‘s been a very, actually long process. There have been people who were in the selection side even saying how it was an unusually, uncharacteristically longer than usual, but very carefully thought through process. But I will say that I applied on the musical side first domestically, and then this opportunity came about, and I was surprised myself, that I could apply for this beloved character – Sailor Moon’s position. I’m very honored and still in awe of the fact.
Makoto Matsuda: So actually, in Japan, there’s very few auditions, not as much as you think.
But that being said, every young actress in Japan wants to be Sailor Moon So there’s a lot of people who apply. So she’s very casual about it, but this is a really big deal that she won the Sailor Moon position. When she was selected everybody’s was so impressed and excited that she is crowned the position of Sailor Moon.
Satomi, what’s the rehearsal process like for an international tour like this?
Satomi Toma: So as a choreographer, I’ve been involved in the Japanese production of Sailor Moon for 10 years, so it’s not new to me. But it was interesting to think about how it would translate by bringing it to the overseas audience globally. But it does immensely help that the actresses, the performers and the production team, all of them, they’re very experienced by doing the best job, bringing the best world of the pretty Guardian Sailor Moon in a musical format domestically. So it was about thinking about how to translate that overseas. And as a choreographer, I felt comfortable doing what we do best in that format.
Makoto Matsuda: I do want to say this is the first time a Japanese production has made a 21 city US tour. So there we’re kind of a pioneer on its own for being able to do this. So we are excited to be doing it, leading the way so others can follow our footsteps, but we take this responsibility with excitement and honor.
Riko, the Super Live is sort of an interesting format, what’s your favorite part of the performance?
Riko Tanaka: For the musical and the Super Live, the format of the production is actually that they have the Super Live, and then at the end there’s a second part, which is a concert, and they play all the classical hits from Sailor Moon. So it’s kind of a different setup, and that part, when you switch to the concert, is really exciting, because, you know, up to that point, they’re doing all this storytelling and everything, which is great as well. But then once you switch to the concert, the beloved characters come out and do their music.
Even in the back, when they’re waiting and listening to Tuxedo Kamen and Queen Beryl, these characters have their numbers where they’re belting it out. Sailor Moon and everybody in the back are enjoying it and cheering them on, so it’s like a really fun part, and I think that kind of resonates with the audience as well.
Satomi, Pretty Guardian sailor is known for its action. How do you approach translating the essence of these sequences into live choreography that captures the source material, while also creating a fresh experience theatrically?
Satomi Toma: What I do is realistically, the actors are all young females, and not only physically how they can move, in the outfits. The costume is not like protected gear or anything. They have a lot of exposed parts of their body, so you want to be safe. And also they’re wearing high heels, doing this, which is crazy when you think about it. So there’s like a limitation to what they can do. But what I do care about is, not only doing something difficult, but doing something that would appear beautifully and elegantly, like as a movement. So not just making it into a strong fight scene, but to make it visually look attractive by doing so.
I care about the links between how it appears with the projection and other elements that are visually happening around as well, and to kind of add a little bit of a sense of a pop, like a joyfulness that comes to it as well. So just kind of keeping the feel of the movement in sync to what can realistically be done. But to kind of bring it all together, making it a realistic fight and something that is attractive to be shown on stage is something that I care about.
Riko, that’s got to be a huge responsibility, what’s it like playing such a beloved character as Sailor Moon?
Riko Tanaka: So it’s really exciting. I’ve always loved Sailor Moon since I was a small kid. I’m, you know, a little too young to have experienced it live, but there was an era where I would go rent Sailor Moon at a rental video shop and watch it. That’s how much I loved Sailor Moon. Now that I am portraying the character, I feel so much love from throughout the entire world. Everybody loves Sailor Moon, and I feel that so much playing that character myself.
What were your first experiences with Sailor Moon?
Riko Tanaka: So I was like three or four years old when I first came across Sailor Moon and I think I saw it in animation first, but you know, it was at that age when you kind of play the character with your friends. And since then, actually my favorite character was Sailor Jupiter. So that was kind of my first, first time with Sailor Moon.
Satomi Toma: I don’t want to say exactly when I first came across Sailor Moon, because you’re going to be able to calculate how old I am. But that Joking aside, once I got involved in this production, I had the opportunity to reread the original manga, and I was so moved and impressed by these elegant lines, the beauty of how it’s being portrayed. So it kind of relates to what we were talking about before, when I was talking about choreography, but how her hair moves, how her skirt flitters. I want to keep that in the production as well, so that impression that it had on me was very strong. I feel like the line work is something that left an impression on me when I was looking at the original comic for the first time.
Makoto Matsuda: I didn’t watch it when he was growing up. But I have an older sister, so she has been live watching and growing up. So I knew about it, but I never really had a chance to really see it until he grew up and saw it in the theater. That was his first time really watching Sailor Moon. And you know, there was somebody that was already doing a musical version of it. So I’m the second lead to create this world in theater production format. But I was watching and I was like, this is amazing, so interesting. But at the same time, it’s like, I would do this differently if I were doing this. So that’s how I encountered Sailor Moon.
What do you think it is about Sailor Moon that allows it to resonate with so many?
Riko Tanaka: I think it comes down to how the main character, Usagi, is a really charming, kind of little clumsy, fun character that people want to just kind of reach out and help. And then there’s Sailor Moon, which is the fighting, really powerful, strong, enigmatic character that is unbeatable.That contrast between the two makes it very interesting and attractive. I feel like keeping that gap is something that makes it very interesting to people.
Makoto Matsuda: Sailor Moon, the main character, especially, has all this contrast, it shows how even the almighty, unbeatable character is actually a normal girl that is in this lead fighting position. There’s a lot of scenes where they’re fighting, but it’s not because it’s an action, action show, it’s because the fighting is about friendship. It’s about love and trust and the building of the human connection between those characters, and it’s a story about portraying what it means to honor peace and love in this environment.
It really is also about pointing out how it is not in its best state to be fighting actually. So it’s not like encouraging people to fight, but it’s more about pointing the other direction of how wonderful it is to honor the message of love and peace through this production. And I think, personally, that might be one of the reasons why we could relate to it and why it’s been so loved for over three decades.
We’re very proud about being able to bring this musical and beloved story throughout the world. That this is a story that’s set in Japan, and the character Usagi is a Japanese girl, portrayed by a Japanese actress is something we’re very proud of, that is very special to us.
Finally, what do you want people to take away from the show?
Riko Tanaka: So in Pittsburgh, it was so amazing! The audience was so incredible. I felt the love from them so much. And you know, I came from Japan, doing this for the first time, doing it outside of Japan. And you know, I felt how America is so loving of this production and I’m very honored, and I want to make sure that this sense of how people look up to and love the beloved character of Sailor Moon can be portrayed in the best way so all 21 cities going through America. So we are really excited to bring that sense to everybody.
Satomi Toma: You know, when we were in Pittsburgh, the audience was amazing. They were all prepared and ready. They’re wearing the costumes and were ready to enjoy Sailor Moon, so it was really exciting and amazing. But we are very honored to be portraying that amazement that the Sailor Moon project has, but we are ready to do more than what is expected. We will go beyond that expectation. We are ready to show that. So I hope people would expect something really exciting, coming to Sailor Moon, not just seeing what they know, but something more!
Makoto Matsuda: There’s three things I want people to take home. The first message is this is a message about peace, but how important it is to how precious peace is. The second thing is a message of love. Sailor Moon is loved by generations of people, and we see mothers and daughters that come together, different generations that come together and are very happy about it. We want people to feel the sense of love, doesn’t have to be just like certain partners or anything, it could be just to call my mom and say hello. That kind of love as well, a message of love and compassion.
And this is probably the most important thing, I want people to feel energized. So we get energized from the feedback from the audience, the love that we receive is something that’s so contagious. We hope that the audience feels that love and excitement and feel really fresh and energized through seeing our production as well. So those are the three things that I hope the audience can feel when they come to see the super live.
Get info or tickets here: https://sailormoonsuperlive.com/
