This musical is based on the Sailormoon Super S series.
The Dead Moon arrives on Earth as traveling circus. Helios, in the
guise of Pegasus, escapes from Dead Moon by entering the dreams
of Chibi-usa. The Amazon Trio of the Dead Moon Circus holds auditions,
which of the senshi go to and all make it in except for poor Usagi.
What they don't know is that it's a trap in order to peek into Dream
Mirrors. After their Dream Mirrors are taken out, they are possessed
by the evil of Dead Moon, starting with Ami. Eventually, they become
good again and fight the evil forces with the aid of Pegasus. The
musical is also based on the Super S manga, with the Golden Crystal
inside Mamoru's heart rather than Pegasus's horn , Usagi's transformation
as Eternal Sailormoon, and death of Nehelenia. The musical is also
based on the Sailormoon S anime series with Hotaru possessed by
evil, Miss Dream rather than Mistress 9, and working as a crony
for Zirconia, and the Outer Senshi wanting to destroy her before
she becomes Sailor Saturn, senshi of destruction.
When I heard about this musical, I was very excited.
After hearing many good reviews about it, I finally had to get it.
When I popped it in the VCR, I was bursting with excitement. But
the excitement wore off as I watched; I was very unimpressed. But
after watching it a couple of times, I started
to like it. Now I love it! It was the perfect blend of my two favorite
Sailormoon series and, unlike the other First Stage Musicals, was
almost close to the anime.
The acting was pretty good in this musical.
It seemed as though everyone had a fun time performing this musical.
Ooyama Anza was wonderful as Usagi-chan, as usual. She captured
Usagi's innocence and overall cuteness and perkiness without being
corny or annoyingly sweet. Another Seramyu great was Morino Ayako-sama
who, as usual, was an excellent Ami-chan. Morino-sama is adorable,
especially in her number about not wanting to be good anymore but
evil (Ii Ko Yameta). Yet another Seramyu star is fiery Kotani Misako-sama
as Rei-chan. She, along with Ooyama-sama and Morino-sama, light
up the stage. Although her voice is a tad shrill, she is still perfect
as the fire-cracker Sailormars. Ooyama-sama, Morino-sama, and Kotani-sama
are a dynamic force to be reckoned with. And then there are the
other senshi.... I wasn't all that thrilled with the actress playing
Mako-chan, Inayoshi Takako-san. She was okay, but she looked a little
old for the role; they could have gotten someone better. Now many
of you all are going to hate me but I thought the actress for Minako-chan,
Soya Chizura-san, was OK. I mean she's no Suzuki Nana-sama, but
she's not as bad as people make her out to be. Granted she's not
very attractive and she can use some acting classes, but she's a
whole HECK of a lot better than the Venus they got for the Sailor
Stars Musical. At least this Venus can dance... and juggle. Now
for the Outers... Kimura Sanae-sama was okay as Haruka-san but she's
no Takagi Nao-sama. Although she has the "tough-guy" to
carry off the role. I wasn't too fond of the actress for Michiru,
Fuji Miyuki-san. She didn't really stand out; you wouldn't notice
her except for her flying solo in the Fukkatsu, Crisis Yurusamaji.
Saito Rei-sama was great. Although she doesn't really look or act
like the Setsuna-san from the anime, she is still quite beautiful
and very talented (watch for her in the Usagi Circus Showtime number;
GREAT LEGS!!!!!) Lastly, Takeda Keiko-sama was perfect as the melancholy
and pale Hotaru-chan. She's quite pretty and sometimes she looks
evil, which works to her advantage. Moving right along, Mochizuki
Yuuta-sama was good as the ever-smiling Mamoru-san, although I don't
really care for his singing voice; too nasal. But he's still a cool
Tuxedokamen- TUXEDO LA SMOKING BOMBER!!! Lastly, let me go on record
for saying I HATE the actress of Chibi-usa, Shirai Takami Dia-san.
At first, I thought people were just being hard on her, but after
seeing her, I can honestly say she's crappy. The only thing going
for her is that she's cute. Where's lil' Kawasaki Mao-chan when
we need her! On to the villains. The Amazon Trio were funny as hell
(they rap, and THEY SOUND GOOD!) Kimura Tae-sama was an adorable
Fisheye and Kasahara Ryuji-sama was hilarious as Tigerseye and has
great acrobatic skills. Ono Hikari-sama was okay as Hawkseye but
I was expecting a little more, but then again Hawkseye didn't do
much in the anime either. But she looks just like him though. Zirconia
really freaked me out. I tip my hat off to the people in charge
of makeup, they made the actress look as ugly the anime counterpart.
As far as acting goes, she was as sinister, annoying and ugly as
the anime Zirconia. I was very excited when I heard Nehelenia made
an appearance in the show; she's my favorite villainess. The excitement
wore off when I actually saw her; a mere back-up dancer in a bad
costume and a crappy wig. Speaking of which no musical is complete
with back-up dancers; there's a guy back-up dancer, he's funny and
he flips just as good as Kasahara-sama. (and Endo Ado-san gets to
talk!!!)
The score for this musical was pretty good. And 90%
of the musical was live which was a plus. I was upset that the senshi
sang Double Moonlight Romance and Over the Moon. Mori de Tanoshiku,
a new version, freaked me out (mainly the back-up dancers dressed
as forest creatures) Omoidashite Anata wo was a nice song; the clips
were a nice touch(If you've seen this musical, you'll notice the
holograms are clips from the Sailormoon S musical). The Amazon song
and Dead Moon no Kuroi Yume sounded great and are my two favorite
songs. The Outer Senshi kept going flat during Fukkatsu Crisis Yurusamaji
except for Saito-sama(why is Neptune flying?). The fighting songs,
Solar Miracle and La Moon, were jammed packed with energy, along
with La Soldier. My all-time favorite song is Usagi Circus Showtime;
it had a Broadway musical-esque quality with a dash of Barnum and
Bailey.
As a whole, this musical was very good, one of the
best from the First Stage Series. The effects were handled very
carefully and nicely, such as Pegasus and the Amazon Trio's "1,2,3"
trap (I'm still laughing about the Moon Crisis sequence). The music
was great and scenes and plot was clean and smooth, unlike the other
First Stage musicals. Some things from the original version should've
been left in, like all of the senshi transforming with computer
animation like Sailormoon and the Moon Gorgeous Meditation sequence.The
costumes were good too, well, the villains' costumes anyway. Both
senshi and villains were really into their roles, some better than
others. If you like the Sailormoon Super S series or Seramyu in
general, this musical is a must buy.
|