Sailor Moon The Super Live – London Review
It’s hard to be a Sailor Moon fan in the UK.
From the lack of any official HD release of the anime, outside of the Eternal and Cosmos movies on Netflix, to the DiC dub being the only physical disc version of the anime we ever got (which is long out of print), leaving the manga version being the only full version of the story available for us. But 2025 seems to be (hopefully) the turning point for us at long last. Crunchyroll teased the license of the original anime at MCM last year (no official release date yet at the time of this review) and not long after, it was announced that Sailor Moon The Super Live, a 2.5 musical, was making its London debut in February! Showing across two different venues: KOKO in Camden and HERE at Outernet on Charing Cross road, from February to mid-March. I was lucky to go with a friend to a weekend performance at the Outernet, making it my debut at both the venue and the show itself.
The 2.5 musical is based upon The Super Live show run, starting in Japan in 2018, and has previously been shown in New York, Washington, Paris and Taipei. Sailor Moon has a long, very successful history of Sailor Moon musicals (or as fans call it ‘Sera Myu’) ever since 1992, but The Super Live is meant to rely less on Japanese dialogue and more on music spectacle, with a condensed story to allow non-Japanese speakers to enjoy the performance. The show is 90 minutes long, with no interval and the first hour and 10 minutes of it are a re-telling of the Dark Kingdom arc, where Usagi Tsukino is awakened as Sailor Moon, a champion of justice to find the Legendary Silver Crystal and protect the Moon Princess. On her journey she meets her fellow guardians Ami (Sailor Mercury), Rei (Sailor Mars), Makoto (Sailor Jupiter) and Minako (Sailor Venus), who band together to try and defeat their enemy, Queen Beryl, but the appearance of the mysterious jewel thief, Tuxedo Mask, who’s also after the Legendary Silver Crystal, makes things complicated as Sailor Moon develops feelings for him. Then the last 20 minutes or so of the show is back-to-back musical numbers, some reprises from the musical itself, others covers of songs from other Sailor Moon musicals and the original anime, but every moment is filled with excellent choreography, light effects, high energy and catchy tunes.
The Dark Kingdom story in this musical is not a straight copy of the original arc, obviously it has to be condensed not just for simplification but also for time. For example there’s no Shitennou (or Four Kings of Heaven) in this version, only Queen Beryl and her minions (stage hands dressed in purple and black costumes) serve as the main antagonists in this show. Usagi’s mum and her best friend Naru appear very briefly at the beginning in non-speaking roles, and the only cat to appear is Luna, who has minimal dialogue too, represented by the screen with an animated cat. It should also be noted that this show is based on the manga version of the Dark Kingdom arc, with the reveal of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask happening in the latter’s apartment, and also Sailor Venus’ Holy Sword making an appearance too (and being a cool prop to boot). Despite the massive cuts, I honestly didn’t mind it. Yes, it’s a shame that the inner senshi don’t get their own introductions, instead it all being done over one song, but the moment the show begins, there’s such a loving, positive energy that you can’t help but get swept up in the performance. There are enough details kept in for non-Sailor Moon fans to follow, but Moonies can also enjoy the adaptation and how much the cast is giving to their performance.
Speaking of cast, the main cast is kept to the inner senshi, Tuxedo Mask and Queen Beryl, but all of them look amazing and suit their parts very well. Yui Yokoyama (a former member of the J-pop band AKB48) is pitch-perfect as Sailor Moon, with excellent vocal and performance range that matches the original voice actress (Kotono Mitsuishi) almost exactly in places. My personal favourite was Mayu Tsuyuzume as Queen Beryl, who has amazing range and just looks like she’s having the best time on stage. Props also go to Sufa as Tuxedo Mask, especially when it came to using the cape during choreographed sequences – that takes skill! Also Yu Nakanishi, who’s been in the role of Sailor Venus since 2018, just radiated the character’s positive and Goddess of Love energy.
As advertised on the 2.5 musical’s website, the show is in Japanese with English subtitles, and it’s part of the reason I booked tickets for the Outernet specifically, as it’s a relatively new venue (opened in 2022) and its famous for the ‘world’s largest LED screens’. So I wanted to see how feasible it would be to watch a stage show, with a big screen providing the translation behind it all. Before we even got into the venue I was impressed; the show takes place in the back building, rather than the main one on the high street, but the waiting area is bursting with colour with the key visual of the show on the walls, as well as symbols of the senshi glowing brightly on the ceiling of the corridor as you queue to go in. As you work your way in, the stage is elevated with several flights of stairs, some outlines of buildings and shapes on the side panels (equipped with LED lights), and the large screen is at the very back. The screen however isn’t just a translation panel, it’s basically everything the show revolves around. It provides a background reference when the scene changes, it produces the magical blast effects when the senshi and enemies attack, it impacts the audience when the glorious shine of the Legendary Silver Crystal materialises, and it’s the platform for characters such as Luna and Queen Materia to make their appearance. This is ON TOP of being a translator for the audience, but even then the effort doesn’t stop. For the minimal spoken dialogue, the text is simple white font but for the songs, they go all out. Every song has unique animation, how the text comes in and out, with unique colours and backgrounds too. For example, one the opening songs Usagi sings of being late for school, has the lyrics in cute speech bubbles and background filled with cartoon art of school buildings and more. Then later for the song introducing the senshi, the animation changes depending on who’s singing; so blue text and watery visuals for Sailor Mercury, green font and electrical sparks for Sailor Jupiter, etc. The amount of effort that’s gone into the videos is stunning and extremely impressive. This does provide a double-edged sword problem however, as you can probably guess, that means that a lot of your attention will be on the large screen, and sometimes I worried I was missing out on the action on stage. I don’t normally feel the need to re-see performances once I’ve seen it once, but as soon as it was over I wanted to watch it all again, but focus less on the screen and see what I failed to pick up from the cast the first time.
That doesn’t mean I missed all of the effort that went into the performance however, it just means that there was so much going on that I wanted to see it all! The show makes good use of lighting, not just the projector lights on stage, but the building and side panel shapes mention previously help set the stage for scene transitions, as well as props and costumes too. The stage hands use LED ribbon strips that looked amazing, one scene has the senshi twirling glow sticks that project their symbols when spun, which got a good reaction from the crowd. The stairs had lights on the edges of the steps as well, sometimes to help actors to see where they’re going but also for emotional beats too, like when a possessed Tuxedo Mask slowly makes his way down to face off with Sailor Moon. The effort extends to the costumes as well; I liked the UV light effects on the minions’ costumes – such a small touch but effective. The costumes of the senshi also had lots of sparkles on their skirts and shine on the bows, that really helped the colourful energy of the show and reflect some of the lighting too, like they are an extension of the spectacle.
Choreography is also excellent and very varied. Although we don’t get a lot of the senshi using the magical attacks they’re known for, I can’t deny that seeing them roundhouse kick and punch the enemy is fun to watch. You also have fun moments such as Tuxedo Mask’s cape being an extension of his attack, and Sailor Moon’s clumsiness being incorporated into her dance moves. At several points the cast had to perform on the steps too, and to the timing of the various sounds effects coming from the speakers, which is a lot to remember on top of lyrics and dialogue, and yet they all did fantastically.
And I can’t believe I’ve written for this long and not spoken about the music! The score is very good. I’m not as familiar with Sailor Moon musical songs, I’m more familiar with the anime tunes, but the show itself has show-exclusive tracks that fit within the world of Sailor Moon as a whole, and they range from upbeat pop to rock opera to heart-breaking ballads. There’s a wide variety, and so many tracks (at least over 20 tracks across the whole performance) that one is bound to get your attention. My personal favourite was Queen Beryl’s Vegas-style showstopper of a track, where she proudly proclaims Tuxedo Mask as hers and Sailor Moon’s demise as imminent. It’s a lot of fun and it’s on Spotify so I can listen to it again. I also really liked the ballad Sailor Moon performs when she’s trying to reach out to a possessed Tuxedo Mask, the agony of fighting against the man she loves. The track that introduces the senshi is fun too, each one showing off their character in just a few lines, but full of personality. The post-show musical part was also fun, their cover of ‘La Soldier’ got a squee from me as it’s one of my favourites from the series, and of course, the show closer being the theme song ‘Moonlight Densetsu’ was perfect.
Sailor Moon The Super Live is an excellent show that other theatre productions, whether they’re based on anime/manga or not, should take note of. It’s a musical, visual and emotional spectacle that showcases what fans love about Sailor Moon, but in a whole new way and medium, that transcends language barriers so everyone in the audience can have a fun time. It’s such a joyful show and I hope the run does well enough that they come back to London and maybe bring other story arcs to the stage in the near future (I would love to see live action Sailor Uranus and Neptune one day!)
If you’re a Moonie, or just curious how the Magical Girl show could translate onto stage, it comes highly recommended. Grab a ticket while you still can.
