Synopsis
This is Seramyu's first attempt at creating a whole
new plot. This musical seems to be based from
Japanese, Mesoamerican and Hebrew mythology. (sidenote: I don't
know much about the plot- I can only tell you
what I understood!) An evil comet named Coatl is heading towards
Earth.
Coatl's minions, Dark Plasman, Dark Menorah, and the
the Three Wives-Leah Ruby, Bilhah Emerald, and
Zilpah Sapphire go to Earth in order to steal the Ginzuishou, or
the Silver Crystal from Sailormoon. There is
another person after the Ginzuishou- the ruthless female pirate
Roof Merou, along with her pirate henchmen.
She plans on using it to revive compatriots from the dead. Leah
Ruby disguises herself as travel agent, offering
Usagi and the others on a trip to the magical jewel-filled
Kaguya Island, named after the mythical moon princess Kaguya-hime.
This is merely a trap to steal the Ginzuishou.
While on their way to Kaguya Island, they run into Roof Merou's
protected area, the Roof Triangle. The senshi
are easily spotted due to them transforming. Just as
Roof Merou makes a move, Dark Plasman appears and washes them away
in a storm. As luck would have it, they are
shipwrecked on Kaguya Island. Not only do they find jewels, but
they find Chibi-usa, who ran away from the future after a dispute
with her mother and three little kitten girls. King Endymion also
appears on the island in the guise of Space Knight in order to keep
an eye on Chibi-usa and to reveal Roof Merou's true identity- the
Artouka Princess. It would later be reveal that Roof Merou is in
love with him. Sailormoon and the others later go on to fight Dark
Plasman. It seems as though he is powered up not only by the power
of Coatl but the Crystal of Darkness, which is held in the body
of Dark Menorah. Many things are brought to light during this battle;
Roof Merou's realization of her duty as a princess and brief reunion
of Leah Ruby, Bilhah Emerald, and Zilpah Sapphire with their abadoned
daughters, the three kitten girls (they're killed by Plasman). Dark
Plasman and Dark Menorah are defeated by dual power of Super Sailormoon
and Super Sailorchibimoon's dual attack, Starlight Honeymoon Double
Therapy Kiss. Not long after, Coatl descends upon Earth. It is destroyed
by the combined power of all of the Sailor Senshi. Roof Merou takes
her place as the Artouka Princess, the Three Wives are reborn with
their daughters and all is finally well.
Being as though I'm First Stage fan, I was a
little biased and had low hopes for the Second Stage Cast, especially
Hara Fumina-san. As far as I was concerned, no one could take Ooyama
Anza-sama's place, But I wound up buying the musical anyway. First
off, I wanted to see how well Fumina-tachi did and to witness Seramyu's
first attempt at making an all-new plot. After watching it the first
time, I was very unimpressed. The plot was extremely confusing and
acting...well... it was less than great. I had to watch it a lot
so I could understand what was going on in the musical. And the
more times I watched it, the more I started to enjoy it. All things
considered, this musical was well-done.
As I mentioned before, I'm a hard-core First
Stage fan. In my opinion, the diference between the First Stage
Senshi and the Second Stage Senshi is that First Stage Senshi, especially
Ooyama Anza-sama acting more like the anime counterparts. Very few
of the Second Stage actresses captured the personalities of the
senshi in the anime. But one good thing I could say is that the
acting is not horrible; the actresses have a lot of energy and they
act more like a bunch of young girls having fun together, which
works. On to the critiques... Hara Fumina-san was okay as Usagi-chan.
She had the energy for the role, but not the acting ability. She
didn't capture the spirit of Usagi-chan that much, although she
did have her funny moments now and again. She's has a nice singing
voice, although she doesn't have the emotion of Ooyama-sama nor
the cuteness of Kanbe-sama and Kuroki-sama. Frankly, I'm glad this
was her last musical as Sailormoon. At first, I was kinda unhappy
with Akamine Hisako-san as Ami-chan but as I looked at the musical
more, I started to like her. She portrayed Ami-chan kinda like she's
portrayed in the anime- meek and quiet, although she could get a
little excited now and then. Sometimes during some scenes, she made
faces which almost her look like Morino Ayako-sama. She also has
a pretty singing voice. I liked Kanda Eri-san as Rei-chan; she has
a lot of energy and has the makings of being the next Kotani Misako-sama.
She also has a pretty singing voice. I REALLY liked Kuriyama Emi-san
as Mako-chan. In my opinion, she's the only actress who really looked
and acted like Mako-chan in the anime. She also has a very pretty
singing voice. I'm kinda iffy about Inada Nao-san. She's a very
pretty girl and her acting was pretty good. My only problem with
her is that she's a little hyper...no..very hyper and she constantly
screamed her lines. When did Minako-chan ever scream like that?
Well, she's better than some of the other Venuses- with the exception
Suzuki Nana-sama and Miyazawa Akiko-sama of course. Takagi Nao-sama
was kick-ass as Haruka-san. I loved her from the first moment I
saw her. She looks just like Haruka-san and sings like her too.
My only qualm with her is that she didn't have the rough-tough attitude
that Kimura Sanae-sama brought to the role. But what I did like
was that Takagi-sama played Haruka-san more like a big brother..sister
like in the anime. Asami Yuuko-san was okay as Michiru-san. The
acting was okay but her singing is less than perfect (she doesn't
sing much in this musical though but I've heard her sing in other
ones) Though I must admit, her and Takagi-sama looked really good
together; they have great chemistry (hmm, I wonder why). Nakazawa
Seiko-san was a pretty good Setsuna-san. I really liked the part
when she jumped out on staged and flashed everyone with her swimming
suit underneath her lab-coat. She doesn't really look the part,
but then again, none of the other actresses for Pluto looked like
her either. Mita Mao-san was a pretty good Hotaru-chan. although
she's kinda strange looking. She has a nice voice and I liked the
solo she sang (Hitosuji no Hikari no Kokoro) The Chibi-usa in this
musical is a little spitfire. Gunji Ayano-sama had just enough spunk
and energy for the role. She fussed with Usagi-chan just like in
the anime. The actor playing Mamoru-san was rather...stiff. The
whole time I watched Amano Hironari-san I wanted to say, "Dude,
I know you're the leading man, but loosen up!" Although I must
admit, he's the only actor who actually looks like Mamoru-san; kinda
acts like him too. He had the constant smiling bit down to a tee.
He and Hara-san looked really good together. He has also has a nice
voice, although he kept going flat; he sounded better on the soundtrack.
I was happy Mochizuki Yuuta-sama was in this musical. He kicked
ass as King Endymion/Space Knight...literally. The 30 century scene
with him and Queen Serenity was funny. His singing voice has really
improved. On to the villains. Kashimura Atsumi-san was pretty cool
as Dark Plasman; he has a nice voice too. although I grew tired
of his constant solos. I'm assuming the reason he got the role was
because of his singing voice. He was really into every solo he sang;
my personal favorite is Yabou no Kao. I was REALLY happy that Endo
Ado-sama got a bigger role in this musical; I'm proud of her, she
friggin' deserves it. She's a pretty good actress and singer too.
The Three Wives were pretty cool. (I've heard people called the
three ladies that; considering their Hebrew first names, it makes
sense) Yamamoto Kanoko-san was the stand-out of the trio. She's
very funny; she kept me laughing, from her adverstising for the
trip to Kaguya Islnd to her telling the story of Kaguya-hime; she's
awesome. She's also very evil looking, which works to her advantage.
It was a nice change of pace seeing Miyazawa Akiko-sama as a villain.
She was a good Minako-chan and she as a good villainess. She's also
quite funny (OOUUUJIIII!!!)(what's with that green afro?) Zilpah
Sapphire is my personal favorite of the the three. Like Endo Ado-sama,
Kawasaki Miki-san rose from the midst of being a back-up dancer
to getting a substantial role. She has that villainess look about
her. I wish she had more to do though. Ono Hikari-sama was AWESOME
in this musical; her first FEMALE role- a very nice change of pace.
She's very multi-dimensional; from her comic reactions with her
henchmen, to her conflict with Dark Plasman, to her display of affection
to King Endymion. She sounded so lovely in her solo about feeling
love for the first time. And I never realized until I saw this musical
how beautiful she is; especially in the last scene when she appears
as the Artouka Princess- one word- UTSUKUSHII!!!! Her pirate henchmen
were hilarious; they kinda freaked me out at times (FORMATION A!)
The pirate with the `fro, Kraken, was pretty cool and the funniest
out of the three. Kanzaki Jun-san was pretty funny too; I'm glad
he stuck around to do another musical. The third pirate was okay;
he didn't really stand out as much as ther two and he was kinda
stiff. One good things has that three had great chemistry together-
their death scene was sad. Oh I almost forgot about the three little
kitten girls- Mikku, Fukku, amd Kukku. Very kawaii. I liked their
first song, Natsukashii no wa Naze- they sang in harmony (nyao!
meow! nyan!) But their constant nyaa, nyaa, nyaa got on my nerves.
(In the curtain call, Leah Ruby kisses her daughter on the cheek
and they all skip offstage- once again, very kawaii)
The score was pretty good in this musical; all
new songs with the exception of Sailor War, Everlasting Moonlight
and La Soldier. Like Eien Densetsu, some of the songs were variants
of the battle song- LINK instead of La Fatalite Sei Senshi. I can't
really explain it, but the songs had a "musical-esque"
feel and were not just bunch of different type songs thrown in together.
Each song really flowed with the dialogue and scenes. And the background
music sounded orchestral for most of the songs. One example of how
the songs flowed with the scene was Ruby no Aka~ Yume wo Kaimasu
Shima no Tabi. It basically told the plot, well part of it anyway.
Another example is Ai yori Houseki Kaguya Shima. I liked that each
of the senshi had a solo wher they talked about the mystic powers
of jewels, which is the overall theme of the musical. All of the
villains songs were pretty good, although, like I said earlier,
Dark Plasman sang too many times. My favorite villain song is Star
Glory (from the way Dark Plasman sang about the "Princess Moon"
in this song, you'd think he was after more than her crystal) My
second favorite villain song is Onna Kaizoku no Sakusen; Ono-sama
sounds awesome singing this; this song also kinda tells the plot
too. I also liked Welcome Hare Hare Hire Hare- it had a very tropical,
exotic Hawaiian feel to it and everyone is doin the Hula (watch
Mamoru-san try to dance; quite funny) Chibi-usa's solo was cute
and so were both of the kitten girls solos. I LOVE Just Love Wasurerarenai;
Ono-sama sounded and looked absolutely beautiful. She had so much
emotion in her voice (from the way the angled her on the tape, I
kept expecting a hologram of King Endymion to appear on the back
screen. You're My Jewelry was pretty song, one of my personal favorites;
I like the English part (although I wish Amano-san wasn't flat most
of the time). I Do Jutice is an awesome song and Mochizuki-sama
sounded really good singing it. Another awesome song And Believe
in All; both Amano-san and Mochizuki-sama sounded good and I liked
that the senshi sang along. The most awesome song is LINK- I LOVE
this song so much, it's my favorite fighting song of all time. I
like the beat and everyone sounds good, especially Hara-san. I also
like Minna Dareka ni Ai Sarete- it's an emotional song which made
for a great finale; Ono-sama looked so beautiful as the Artouka
Princess and the Three Wives being reborn with their daughters-it's
a tear-jerker. This version of Kaguya Densetsu Shima had a new song
plus 2 old ones. The new song was Usagi Papparanppapaa- it reminds
of Mori de Tanoshiku from the Super S musical because Usagi-chan
sings about animals. They also added Sailor War. After first when
heard Sailor War was in it, I thought they meant the fast upbeat
version, but rather it's the slow, military version and it was a
blend of the Gaiden version and the `94 version.It sounded rather
good; you feel the emotion in the voices of Hara-tachi. Instead
of Solar Miracle Make-up, they sang the short version of La Soldier,
which was dumb; they should have kept Solar Miracle Make up. Everlasting
Moonlight sounded good and so did La Soldier (I liked that Chibi-moon
got to dance along with everyone else) although it just didn't have
the energy of the First Stage version.
All in all, this was a pretty good musical.
The acting was good and so were the songs. The scenes were smooth
and each scene flowed into the next. The effects were pretty good
too; from flooded ship scene (there's a Chinese-like sea dragon
who spits fire), to Roof Merou's gun sword attack to King/Tuxedo
La Smoking Bomber. The set was awesome, the best so far; they made
the stage look like a real cruise ship and a tropical island shown
at both day and night. The costumes were..eh...50-50. On the one
hand, all of the villains costumes were really cool looking and
it seemed as though a lot of time and effort went into making them.
But on the other hand, the senshi's costumes were less than perfect.
Their school uniforms looked like something you'd find at a Sailormoon
cosplay convention and the clothes they wore to the island looked
as though they took them right out of their own closets. The Sailor
fukus seemed to be made of a lighter material and they looked less
bulky, although some of their bottom skirts were a little too long,
especially Jupiter's. On a good note, the makers of Seramyu finally
got the Queen Serenity dress right. My only qualm about this musical
is that it's too confusing. But then again, the musicals to follow
are just as confusing too. Unless you want to see how Hara Fumina-san
fared, honestly, you can skip this musical and go straight to Last
Dracul Jyokyoku.
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