Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary Special Program

Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary Special Program – Event Review

Early on April 28, 2022 a special program celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sailor Moon was broadcast on the official Sailor Moon YouTube channel. It’s a pretty unusual date to plan an online event, specially with Usagi’s Annual Birthday party event just around the corner (thats when we normally get all the big Sailor Moon news). The first half was a retrospective on the last 30 years of the franchise, and the second half was jam packed of announcements and first looks! Here are some the highlights:

First we were welcomed to the live stream by all four hosts scheduled to appear: Hyadain (composer of the Super Live music), Shoko Nakagawa (voice of Diana), Kotono Mitsuishi (voice of Usagi/Sailor Moon) and Shizuka Ito (voice of Minako/ Sailor Venus).

After giving a brief introduction to the history of Sailor Moon, they showed a timeline with some of the most important milestones the franchise has hit in the 30 years since its conception. Included in the long list there are notable achievements like the 90s anime, Bandai musicals, a brief mention of the Live Action series, and then a huge jump from 2003 to 2012 when the 20th Anniversary merch lines began their run, to the creation of the Official Fan Club, the Classic Concerts, all the way up to two mystery events happening later this year and in 2023.

Part of their retrospective included taking a look back at the beginnings of the manga starting with the debut of Sailor Moon in the Dec 1991 (officially the February 1992 issue) issue of the Nakayoshi magazine. We also got a reminder of the tankobon (first Japanese manga) release of the manga that was subsequently published. After reproducing the opening sequence of the 90s anime, a letter sent from Tohru Furuya, voice of 90’s Mamoru / Tuxedo Mask (who wasn’t able to attend the event) was read by Shoko Nakagawa. In it, he expresses his fond memories playing Mamoru, his deep gratitude for the role and even shared that many fans have told him Tuxedo Mask was their first love.

The walk down memory lane continued with a quick overview of the biggest acomplishments of the 20th and 25th Anniversary projects, which include Sailor Moon Crystal, the Kanzenban (special release manga) run of the manga (and even mentioned the International release), the Nelke musicals, the grand opening of the Sailor Moon Store, Sailor Moon Eternal, along with an extensive line of collectibles that began with the Shining Moon powder (soon to be re-released).

At this point the presentation took a shift and the hosts talked about one of their more recent projects: Sailor Moon The Super Live. They played a promotional video of the musical and reminded us that the 5 main actresses will be at the Japan Parade in New York City in just a couple of weeks.

It’s incredible to think that it’s been almost 10 years since Sailor Moon Crystal began to air and we still have the same voice cast through all episodes and both Sailor Moon Eternal movies. Kotono describes a strong friendship that has emerged within the inner guardians voice actresses after working all these years together!

After reminiscing everything that’s happened in the last 30 years in the Sailor Moon franchise, we got a rapid fire round of news and upcoming releases. We had already heard about most of these, but there were a couple of surprises too! We got a reminder that the Universal Studios Japan collaboration is still going on in Osaka, and a new Qposket collaboration book is on the way. Also, as mentioned above, a re-issue of the Shining Moon powder compact will be coming soon, as well as a brand new line of Samantha Thavasa, Samantha Tiara and Samantha Vega purses and clothing was just announced yesterday among others exciting releases like the Ichiban Kuji lottery and Figuarts mini collectibles.

At this point they drop the biggest news they’ve been holding onto (for maybe even years!): We finally got confirmation of the final arc of the manga (the Stars arc) production! It’s not only confirmed, but we also got the name of the final two movies, the key visuals, and even an incredible teaser trailer! Please check out our post here for more details.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos, The Movie! (pt. 1 & 2)

Finally, the person we were most eager to see, Naoko Takeuchi’s editor Fumio Osano aka Osabu came on stage towards the end of the presentation, and as always he was bearing even more great news: The Sailor Moon Museum’s main visuals featuring new Naoko artwork, and official dates! We have a post with all of the museum information here.

Osabu dedicated a last few words to the Sailor Moon fans and supporters, and also thanked the hosts for doing the merch presentations, as he jokingly said people will get sick of him always doing the announcements. Everyone else expressed how happy they are for this thirtieth anniversary project and we all look forward to new and exciting things to come.

Hope you find our coverage of this event useful!
Review by: Cyn