Watch the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Live Show

Last Friday we were happy to share with you the news of the new Sailor Moon anime series set to air in the summer of 2013. This news was announced in a 20th anniversary live show which has now been translated by the Sailor Moon fan subbing web site Miss Dream. We’ve included the video below. Here are the important facts about the new show! It will be an all new anime series starting in 2013. Kotono Mitsuishi and Toru Furuya will be reprising their roles as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Momoiro Clover Z will be doing the theme song but unlike we mentioned in our previous news item it does not seem that the song they performed during this event will be the theme song. After the video we’ll be sharing more thoughts on the video, what we saw and why Toru Furaya is a dirty, dirty liar!

A big thanks to the staff at Miss Dream for putting this together. They have also expressed their intentions to fan sub the series as it airs.

With over an hour and a half there’s a lot to take in from this video. Aside from the announcement of the new series there’s actually quite a bit here for fans to enjoy. Kotono Mitsuishi, Toru Furuya and Fumio Osano share some great insight into the early days of the manga and anime.

The announcer for the show was great. He was clearly a fan of the show, asked relevant questions and best of all was completely hostile to his audience. They couldn’t have this event open to the public so it was only press on site and none of them cared at all for Sailor Moon, and the announcer constantly reminded us of how lame they were for not being more excited.

Kotono Mitsuishi starts off the show with a bang by flashing Sailor Moon’s panties! The host goes on to talk about how important panty shots are. Kotono also shares some great stories about her first experiences with voice over work. She was apparently very intimidated by working alongside so many veteran voice actors. We also learn about Peach Hips, the band which was formed by the voice actors for the Sailor Team. As she tells us, they weren’t allowed to use any Sailor Moon names in promoting themselves, but they still did all right! Finally we get some nice insight into the character of Misato from Evangelion. Not only did Kotono Mitsuishi think of an older Usagi when doing the voice, but we also learn that once she was cast some of Usagi’s look was incorporated into the character’s design, such as her bangs which are split in the middle.

Toru Furuya came in looking stylish. He commented on his Sailor Moon t-shirt saying it was a custom design. Oh really? Interesting that the French lady that latter appears in this event has the exact same shirt!

Finally we have Fumio Osano, Naoko Takeuchi’s editor. Clearly this is a chair which would have been meant for Naoko herself, who does not appear for reasons I’ll get into a bit later. He is clearly not a public speaker like the other entertainers on the stage are, and is visibly nervous in all he does. It is really great to see him in this event though, as this man has so much inside knowledge about what went on in the early days of the manga that no one else but Naoko would be able to share with us. He shares some interesting stories about how he was convinced that the show would be a failure, and that it was the Moon Stick toy which seems to have ultimately saved it. He also has some harsh words for Hong Kong bootleggers and their counterfeit merchandise!

The show finally goes to France where the band Momoiro Clover Z are performing what is without a doubt the worst rendition of Moonlight Densetsu, the Japanese Sailor Moon theme, that I have heard in my entire life. Clearly this is a band that is meant to be auto tuned, or at least meant to sing their own songs. When communication between the Japanese and French feeds takes place there is a jarring 4 second delay. The actual announcement of the new show is made by a Japanese girl to a room full of French speaking people who only understand the implications when the news is translated for them. Not the most epic way to announce this to the world, but regardless of how it was delivered fans across the globe all shared in what one fan referred to as a moongasm.

The French woman’s words aren’t subtitled, which is interesting since her and the Japanese woman on stage are usually not saying the same thing at all, but ultimately she doesn’t say much of consequence.

These girls acted like they were really into Sailor Moon. I remind you that this is the 20th anniversary event and when they rattle off their ages, there is a 16 year old, three 17 year olds and a 19 year old. The 16 year old goes on to say that she always wanted to be just like Usagi! That’s great, even though the show was off the air when she was a one year old…

We were at first under the impression that one of the songs they performed later was the theme song but this does not seem to be the case. They clearly pretend to not know they would be asked to perform more songs and then go into a fully choreographed act.

Back in Japan we have our panel weigh in with their thoughts as Kotono Mitsuishi and Toru Furuya share their excitement at being involved in the show, which tells us they will in fact be reprising their roles. Who else will return is not clear. At this point the only news we know of is contained in this video.

To close to event Fumio Osano brings out a letter from Naoko Takeuchi, the author of the Sailor Moon manga, and asks Kotono Mitsuishi to read it. This is all very epic and emotional, but fans wonder why Naoko isn’t here herself for such an important occasional. Naoko Takeuchi is a brilliant woman, who’s mind gave us an amazing story with fantastic characters, but she is not one for public appearances. In an interview on the first season laser discs she appears very nervous, clinging to a disguise pen toy, speaking timidly. She pretty much never does public appearances, and that’s just something fans have had to come to accept. How much involvement will she have with this new show? It’s not really clear. She didn’t have a ton of involvement in the original anime but did have a bit more on the live action series, but without ever doing public appearances any involvement will likely not be terribly well publicized.

Stay tuned to Powet.tv as we’ve got some big announcements coming up about our continued determination to bring you all news related to Sailor Moon. Without a doubt if there is any new information about this show it will be shared with you as we get it.