Synopsis
This musical is based on the Nehelenia Arc of the
Sailor Stars anime. Instead of Galaxia bringing back Queen Nehelenia,
she revives Queen Beryl from her sleep. Beryl brings with her both
Kunzite and Zoicite with her. As tribute, King Endymion is brainwashed
and given to her as her love slave.Galaxia also revives Sailortinnyanko,
Sailortitaniumkerokko, Sailortheta, Sailorchi, and Sailorphi. This
musical is also based on the later part of the SailorStars anime.
Chibi-chibi makes an appearance and the Sailor Starlights eventually
find their lost princess.Chaos also makes an appearance; serving
as Galaxia's buffoonish slave and eventually transforming into his
true form when she is defeated. Galaxia, rather than searching for
Star Seeds, focuses her attention on getting the Silver Crystal.
The Animamates and Beryl's two generals disguise themselves as students
from Juuban High school while Chaos doublecasted himself as both
the director of a production at Juuban High and Juuban High's sports
coach. They causing trouble by blaming Rei for the attack of a high
school student. Sailorphi disguised herself as Rei in a priestess
outfit while Sailorchi disguised herself as the hurt student. Eventually
the plan is brought to light and the evil forces make themselves
known. Soon after, Galaxia steals Endymion's Star Seed, making him
truly evil, and kills not only Kakyuu, but all of the Inner Senshi,
her Animamates and Beryl's generals. Uranus and Neptune are given
Galaxia's evil bracelets but are killed when they both turn on her.
Beryl eventually realizes the error of her ways and that she's just
a pawn, but before she could anything, she's killed by the now evil
Tuxedokamen. In the final battle, only Sailormoon and the Starlights
are alive, aided by Sailorchibi-chibimoon. Galaxia transforms into
her final form and Sailormoon transforms in Eternal Sailormoon and
defeats her by using Chibi-chibi in the form of a sword. Chaos hold
on her is released and he evolves into his true- the strongest star
in the universe and spawner of evil stars. He almost destroys Sailormoon
and the Starlights until the newly reborn Senshi intervene. He is
defeated by the combined power of the Senshi's Planet Power and
Sailormoon's Silver Crystal Power. All are reunited and peace and
happiness is restored..
I admit the first time I saw this musical, I wasn't
that wild about it. Before I bought it, I saw clips of the Final
First Stage version (although at the time, I didn't know they were
clips of the revision). I bought the tape and found it was nothing
like the clips. I had to watch the tape a couple of times to like
it. It's actually pretty good (but the revision is better and funnier).
Ooyama Anza-sama just keeps getting better and
better as Usagi-chan. She really blossomed into the role She has
incredible energy that never falters throughout the course of the
show. She has the cute innocence of the Usagi of the anime and the
maturity of the Usagi of the manga. Next on the list is the great
Morino Ayako-sama as Ami-chan. She's been with Ooyama-sama from
the beginning as she's just as talented and cute. She looks so cute
in her duet with Zoicite (Itsuwari no Forevermore); her eyes squinches
when she smiles. Kotani Misako-sama was great as Rei-chan, as always.
I'm glad that she was given more to do in this musical, she deserves
it. Ooyama-sama, Morino-sama, and Kotani-sama are a dynamic trio
and it's sad they won't be back after the revision. I liked the
Mako-chan in this musical, Tonegawa Akari-sama; she was pretty cool.
Miyazawa Akiko-sama was a great find as Minako-chan; she had the
spunk and comedic skill to carry off the part (Kun-kun!!!) Kimura
Sanae-sama was pretty good as Haruka. She's gotten better in the
role. Harada Hiroko-sama was great as Michiru; out of all the actress
to play Neptune, she's the best and it's a shame she couldn't stay
for future musicals. Kimura-sama and Harada-sama really look good
together. Saito Rei-sama got a lot better as Setsuna-san; the slightly
sad side of Setsuna was shown, especially when she spoke of Endymion.
She looked and sounded both cool and sexy in her solo in Kick Out
a Bloody Mystery. I truly disliked Chihiro Imai-san as Hotaru-san;
she just was not right for the part. She makes strange faces and
looks like she's about to charge whenever she has a line. It's a
good thing that Takeda Keiko-sama returns in the Final First Stage
version. Mochizuki Yuuta was pretty good in his usual double role
of Endymion/Tuxedokamen. He made a very convincing bad guy. Kawasaki
Mao-sama was adorable as Chibi-chibi, although she was a little
tall for the role. She's a pretty good dancer (Kick Out a Bloody
Mystery). The Three Lights were HILARIOUS in this musical. My favorite
scene with them is the detective scene. Katayama Sayuri-sama played
Seiya-san as the straight man while Ono Hikari-sama played Taiki-san
as the slick comedian and Okuyama Momoko-sama as the buffoon. All
three actresses have great chemistry, comedic flair, dancing ability
and they all look good in their Three Lights/Starlights uniforms.
And the Starlights have a new attack- STARLIGHT FUSION TEMPEST(actually,
that's Kakyuu's attack in the manga when she becomes a senshi) Speaking
of Kakyuu, the actress who played her was wonderful. Yoshioko Sakoto-sama
not only looked exactly like the lost princess but she had the grace
and elegance to carry the role. She has a crystal clear speaking
voice and an absolutely beautiful singing voice; both of her solos
added an touch of sophistication to the musical. I really liked
Matsumoto Tanami-sama as Galaxia. Unlike the previous Galaxia, she
didn't have to scream to make herself sound tough; she had the look,
the voice and the presence to carry off the role. She reminded a
lot of the Galaxia of the anime. It's cool that in this musical
we saw the bad Galaxia and good Galaxia and Matsumoto-sama performed
both aspects very nicely.Also liked the actress who played Queen
Beryl. Nishina Yuri-sama is one of the few people in Seramyu history
that looked better than their anime counterpart. Nishina-sama gave
dimension to the character making her much more interesting; she
almost makes you feel sorry for her, especially during her death
scene. She has that evil villainess look and voice and speaking
of voice, she has a pretty singing voice, although her voice sounded
strange during her last solo (Onna no Ronsou) She was really into
the role and you can tell she enjoyed performing it. I wasn't all
that fond of the two actors playing Beryl's two generals; neither
one looked or acting like the two guys. Tomemori Akari-san has a
nice, classical singing voice, which is probably why he was given
the role. He didn't play Zoicite effeminately but Zoicite was around
Kunzite a lot though and his "duet" with Ami-chan was
a ploy-still makes you wonder. Asano Hideka-san was okay as Kunzite
but they could have found someone better (what's up with the wig?)
Hosokawa Toni-san was a pretty cool Tinnyanko and looked kinda sexy
in her uniform. Wakamatsu Megumi-san was okay as Titaniumkerokko,
better than the last one- I'm just not all that fond of the character.
Kasahara Ryuji-sama was HILARIOUS in this musical; he stole the
show and his comic skill helped make this show a success. From his
switching back and forth as "director" and "sensei"
to his dressing up as Ami-chan, everything he did, he did with great
skill. His Chaos costume freaked me out though. He, along with the
Three Lights, made this musical really funny (they're even funnier
in the revision) Lastly, the three back-up dancers seem more lively
in this musical; the two new dancers are prettier than the ones
in the Stars musical and Endo Ado-san is great as always(she must
really like being in Seramyu; she's in just about every musical!)
This score for this musical was a mix of newly
written songs and songs from the Sailor Stars musicals. First off,
let me just say that if you're not a fan of La Fatalite Sei Senshi,
you will grow quite tired of this musical; there are three actual
variants of this song plus the actual song itself. I always fast-forward
them. Anyway, one song liked is the new Sailor Tanteidan song, Kick
Out a Bloody Mystery (Rei-chan ga hannin?) It's much better than
Sailor Busters and funnier; the scene with the Three Lights is hilarious
(Shouko! Shouko!) All of the villains' songs were really good in
this musical. I liked Yami no Hitsugi, sung by Nishina-sama; she
was really into it. I also liked Galaxia Gorgeous; Matsumoto-sama
sounded really good singing this. Another song I liked was Tenkuu
no Utage; it was great opener for Act II. Mizusakianainin ni Game
was a cool song; it reminded me of a theme song for a Japanese game
show. This was yet another funny scene. The love duet between Ami-chan
and Saito Izo(Zoicite), Itsuwari no Forevermore was a nice song.
It was reminiscent of the Broadway musical-style love song. Tomemori-san
and Morino-sama both had the voices the carry it off. Another nice
song was I Miss You; Ooyama-sama and Katayama-sama sounded really
good together. The most beautiful song in this entire musical has
to be Toki Michite Kourin. Yoshioko-sama has the most beautiful
voice I've ever heard. And her high note at the end is amazing.
If you are an opera fan, you will like this song, along with Kakyuu-hime
to Surii Raitsu. Both Katayama-sama and Ono-sama sounded great in
this song as well. Onna no Ronsou was also a nice song; it brought
dimension to both Saito-sama and Nishina-sama's characters, especially
Nishini--sama's character. That raps up the new songs. From the
Sailor Stars Musical, Eien Densetsu received Chasin After You, in
which all of the Three Lights sing together and dance albeit the
ever present back-up dancers, and a shortened Sorezore no Elegy
and Densetsu Seitan . Another old song added to the roster was To
A Brand New World. Although she has a bad actress, Chihiro-san has
a strong singing voice, But Takeda Keiko-sama's voice adds a sense
of ethereralness and mystery when she sings it. The coolest song/scene
was the Curtain Call Medley at the end. It was a mix of background
music corresponding to the character taking a bow. (At the very
end Ooyama-sama and Mochizuki-sama come out together wearing wedding
outfits to the tune of Double Moonlight Romance and they kiss- NO
THEY ARE NOT TRULY GETTING MARRIED; in the very last manga, Usagi
and Mamoru, or rather Serenity and Endymion get married.)
As a whole, this musical was pretty good; it's
not the worst I've seen, but it's not the best. It offered a lot
of funny scenes as well as poignant ones. One thing that kept this
musical from being better was it's OVERUSE of wires. They used wires
unnecessarily; everybody was flying in this musical. I could be
wrong, but I counted 11 times during the course of the musical that
wires were used. In some scenes, very few, it worked but in most
cases, it was just dumb (Why does Usagi-chan have to fly across
the stage in order to drop a basketball into a basket?!?!) Another
thing kinda bothered was the overuse of colored lights as attacks.
Why can't Ami-chan have an Aqua Rhapsody? Why can't Rei-chan have
a Burning Mandala or a Flame Sniper? The only attack that looked
cool and resembled the actual attack was Star Fighter's Star Serious
Laser. Oh well..... In conclusion, this musical was okay but the
revision is even better and much funnier. Unless you're a fan of
Beryl's two generals and the Animamates, get the Final First Stage
version instead of this one. You won't regret it.
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