Sailor Moon: The Super Live Was Everything I’ve Ever Wanted

History is being made right now across the US as Sailor Moon: The Super Live travels around the country in the first-ever North American tour of a Sailor Moon-themed live show. The 95-minute show covers the Dark Kingdom arc of Sailor Moon in musical form, with dancing, special effects, and dramatic storytelling. Rounding out the show is an idol-like dance routine from all the Sailor Guardians, complete with light sticks on sale for the audience to wield along with the performers. The costumes were beautiful, the songs were catchy, and the story was a familiar staple.

I was able to catch Sailor Moon: The Super Live at the beginning of April, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Hosted by no less than the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, the “2.5D” show was presented in a musical style, with Japanese professional dancers/singers acting out the time-honored story of the moon princess who defeats the Dark Kingdom. The show is entirely in Japanese, but the production company went the extra mile to project the translation stylishly on the background special effects screen so the show was easily accessible to an English-speaking audience. While these elements are pretty standard for those familiar with live shows, it was an exciting opportunity for me. I was looking forward to a cute, energetic show covering the familiar beloved characters and story. I certainly got that; the show was faithful to the Dark Kingdom arc, and each Sailor Guardian was given their due. I expected to have a good time, but not for anything mind-blowing to happen. Even so, about halfway through, I realized I was crying.

My First Childhood Friend

When I was little, I quickly learned that my grades and position in school were the yardstick by which I was judged, both by my parents and my friends. The school district my parents moved us to was one of the best in Dallas, and they expected me to excel so I would have a good future. In this environment, people who had to take remedial classes were whispered about with derision in the hallways. “She’s so stupid, she failed Math 1. Can you believe that?”

This was before widespread knowledge of ADHD and other learning difficulties made making accommodations for yourself a little easier; when I was in school, if you failed, you were dumb. (This isn’t a “back in my day” rant, either; I’m genuinely glad students don’t have to go through that as much.) In my little mind, school was the only thing that mattered, and doing well was the only thing I could offer anyone.

Then I met Usagi Tsukino.

Originally called “Serena” in the now-infamous DiC Entertainment dub and accompanying manga, the US version of Sailor Moon originally aired on Saturdays starting in 1995, with the manga appearing in 1998. While I was a little too young for the original syndicated run, I was just in time for the popularization of the manga, and I definitely caught the reruns of the anime whenever I happened to turn on the TV for Saturday morning cartoons.

What I saw enchanted me just as much as it perplexed me; how did this loser, who had bad grades, bad habits, and cried at the smallest things have any friends at all? Her friends were so much smarter than her! And they helped her study? To me, Serenity embodied me when I was acting “lazy” on the weekends, lying on my stomach reading manga and playing video games, putting off my homework for as long as I could. She didn’t even like fighting evil; she spent her whole first battle crying!

And yet, she had friends. She was loved. This girl, who (in my young mind) had nothing to give anyone, held the whole universe in her hands. And she treasured it, for all its flaws and darkness and evil. And she got the coolest transformation scene I’d ever seen in my young life.

Because that’s the point of humanity, isn’t it? We’re smart, sure–we’ve got opposable thumbs, and we’ve got societies we’ve built out of the bare ground. But, judging by the amount of ancient human bones that have healed femurs (an injury that requires the patient to be out of commission for months and be taken care of for almost everything), our greatest strength is our ability to make friends and rely on each other.

The Eternal Magic of Friendship

In the climactic battle of both the manga and Sailor Moon: The Super Live, Sailor Moon loses. Faced against the villain Queen Metalia with her lover dead and her friends incapacitated, our titular heroine is swallowed up by darkness. It is only when her friends, the five other Sailor Guardians, wake up to find her dead that they combine their powers and prayers to revive her, that she rises up again to slay Metalia and save the Earth.

With how increasingly individualistic our country is, the implication here is a sobering one; we are nothing without others. Without her friends, it’s easy to imagine Usagi quitting Sailor Guardianship altogether, not to mention how fast she’d lose against evil if she were all by herself. She may be “The Chosen One,” but there’s a reason she’s almost always depicted as part of a team.

That’s not to say we don’t see individualism play out in the manga. When they are first introduced, Sailors Uranus and Neptune initially avoid the other members of the team and treat them coldly. In their former lives as rulers over the outer planets of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune fought alone, observing the beautiful Moon Kingdom in the distance from their lonely vigil. In present-day Tokyo, their mission is to find three Talismans so that the end of the world won’t come to pass. But despite their reluctance to join forces with others, without the help of their friends, they almost end up dying. They only awaken to their true powers as “Super Sailor” Uranus and Neptune once they become closer to the other girls and choose to fight with them. The themes of friendship and becoming better through your bonds with others run throughout this series, and continue to be a reason for its popularity today.

Growing Together

In the same way, once I finally left my hometown and met friends in college, I felt as though I had obtained my own kind of “super” form. It was the first time in my life that I truly felt I had made friends I could see keeping for the rest of my life. The change in myself was immediate; through making friends and growing through my own experiences, I have successfully morphed from a shy, insular kid into a fully functioning adult. (I even pay bills sometimes!)

It is only through our bonds with others that we can truly grow. In an increasingly online and insular future, it’s up to us to get out and intentionally meet others to create those bonds that will be with us for the rest of our lives. To be alone is to stagnate–I can guarantee that much. Sitting in the Winspear Opera House, waving my light in time with hundreds of other die-hard Sailor Moon fans, I remembered how far I’d come, and didn’t feel alone.

Behind the Magic

Original Story: Naoko Takeuchi (Published by Kodansha)

Book, Lyrics, and Direction: Kaori Muria

Music: Go Sakabe and KYOHEI

Choreography: Satomi Toma