After interviewing the director, choreographer and star of the Sailor Moon Super Live show I was left with more than a few questions. While the press notes were detailed and the promo video was indeed intriguing, I was still curious about just what this show would entail and how it would translate to American audiences. Well, last night I was invited to check the show out on its Philly stop and all my questions were answered in one of the most charming and memorable nights of theater in recent memory. Think of the Super Live as effectively 3 shows in one, you’ve got a musical, you’ve got a concert and you’ve got a mini convention all in one night!
I showed up an hour early and found the theater full of everyone decked out in their favorite Sailor Moon merch, looking to buy event exclusive souvenirs. Fans were all friendly and shared this love of the property, and that camaraderie and anticipation for the show had the whole lobby abuzz. The musical merch line was 3 floors deep, so I opted to forgo waiting for an official wand, which is commonplace at Asian concerts and were specifically for the jukebox back half of the show. As we were let in, we found our seat and discovered photography and videography were off limits for everything except for the last song, which I will get to later. This was a blessing since it kept the room dark and everyone was locked in for the musical portion of the show.
For the story portion, all songs and dialog are in Japanese. The production overcomes the language barrier however with the ingenious use of a large video screen in the back of the stage. This is also used for backgrounds, various special effects and to give the musical performances an almost karaoke like vibe. It takes a minute to get used to going from fore to background, but after a while your eyes start to bounce instinctively back and forth, to keep up with the story. There’s a surprising amount of action here too, that felt very much like a Tokusatsu performance given the costumes and their spirited choreography. Without going too deep into the narrative, it was a very engaging mix of story and music that really worked to push the live action presentation as far as they could.
I don’t know if this was simply because it was a Philly crowd, but EVERYTIME a particular character had a hero moment the entire crowd would just go nuts with applause. There was also the requisite swooning for Tuxedo Mask (Riona Tatemichi), who really did a fantastic job playing to the mostly female audience. The scouts were all great and did a great job at juggling the musical performance and the physical one, this all while enduring easily more than a dozen costume changes – primarily from scout to schoolgirl, and a few others… Queen Beryl (Sayaka Okamura) for me easily stole the show for me, belting out ballad after ballad and really winning the crowd over over the course of the show with her voice’s power and passion.
About two thirds of the time is the narrative musical and then the event switches gears after the conclusion of the story into concert mode. Lights sticks are then allowed out for a jukebox concert composed of new songs, the catchiest songs from the musical and of course the theme song which the event ends on. The theme is where the crowd is allowed to snap and record until their heart’s content as well. It’s during this portion of the show the players are a bit more loose, and ham it up quite a bit as they go from number to number, with more of a concert vibe – when it comes to costumes and choreography. Before the theme song however, Queen Beryl belts out one last show stopper as the cast runs up and down the aisles and the crowd absolutely loses their minds as they hype everyone up one last time for the Anime’s theme. This love is infectious as it is energizing and after this final frenzied number the cast bow out and we are forced once again to contend with the real world.
Sailor Moon: The Super Live was a blast! Part con, part concert and part musical – the event gives a fan of the Sailor Scouts almost everything they could have asked for and more! Sadly I didn’t get to attend the VIP experience that offered the participant the chance to high five all the scouts post show. But I left with a heart full of hope and happiness, which is more than enough. While I entered with more than a few questions, I left fully sold on the Super Live experience from here on out. Given how rare it is for these kinds of events to come stateside, it’s good to know at least here the hype is real. So there’s still a few dates left in NY, and if you’re able and you’re a Sailor Moon fan, I don’t know if you can handle this level of FOMO after you start seeing the video and pics from a single song!
