Sailor Moon Fan Meeting 2021 – Event Review.
As most Sailor Moon fans know, June 30th is one of the most significant dates of the year for the fandom, as they post nice messages throughout social media congratulating Usagi & ChibiUsa on their birthday and share artwork, cosplay and crafts all made for the special occasion.
In addition to the festive mood that Moonies create, this day has also become notable within the fandom because of the very exciting and now traditional “Usagi’s Birthday party” events held in Japan. During these presentations we get to see a few musical numbers, anime/movie updates, upcoming brand collaborations and all the merch we can expect in the future.
Previous Birthday parties have been held in the same building where the Sailor Moon Store is in Harajuku, on the top floor where they have a small auditorium for about 200 people. Active members of the Pretty Guardians Fan Club are encouraged to apply for tickets to the annual celebration, but only a limited number of fans will earn a tickets through a lottery to attend. However, the years 2020 and 2021 have been challenging for reasons we’re all aware of, so this event has been held online for the past two years.
Because the live stream of the event was behind a Fan Club pay wall, regular fans and those not willing to pay for access were not able to watch it. But worry not! We’ve gathered the most important highlights here for everyone!
Sailor Moon Fan Meeting 2021
Birthday parties are normally hosted by a presenter with either Osabu or Kotono Mitsuishi as co-hosts, but this year we had a single presenter. The voice actresses Misato Fukuen (voice of ChibiUsa/Sailor Chibi Moon) and Yukiyo Fujii (voice of Hotaru/ Sailor Saturn) were the first ones on stage. They talked a little bit about the themselves and their role in the Sailor Moon Eternal movies.
After the talk, they introduced the cast of the new musical “Kaguya Hime no Koibito” (The Lover of Princess Kaguya) set to debut this September. All five Inner Guardian actresses walked on stage in full costume and they perfomed two songs: “Moonlight Densetsu” and their brand new theme “You’re my Universe”.
Afterwards, Misato Fukuen and Yukiyo Fujii return to stage and record segment for the Fan Club exclusive podcast “Oshioki Radio” just chatting and reading some fan letters, some Q & As and have a little fun banter. Their dynamic and chemistry together is adorable, very much as their on-screen counterparts.
Next, the designer of the MariaRosa Sailor Moon wedding gowns appears on stage to guide us through the wedding dress collection as they’re being shown on the runway in a mini-fashion show. The model who is wearing the Sailor Moon dress is actually the actress for Usagi/Sailor Moon in the upcoming musical.
Yoko Ishida (famous for interpreting many of the 90s songs) steps onto the stage and sings a lovely live versions of “Watashitachi ni Naritakute” and “Otome no Policy”.
To many of the Bandai musical fans’ delight, legendary Sailor Moon actress Anza Oyama sings “Rashiku Ikimasho!” and she sounds absolutely incredible!
Then, composer Akiko Kosaka has her piano rolled in for her and Anza to play an exquisite medley of the most popular Bandai musical themes. This was their playlist:
✦ Omoidashite Anata wo
✦ Lonely Distance
✦ See Me, Boku-tachi no Jidai
✦ Moon Revenge
✦ La Fatalité Sei Senshi
✦ Densetsu Seitan
✦ Usagi Circus Show Time
✦ La Soldier
Immediately after the medley, Yoko Ishida remains on stage to offer us a peek behind the scenes of her personal coaching/lessons she uses to train singers who will interpret her themes. She explains in detail where the song has its high and lows and what techniques should be used to properly hit the notes.
Next, there is an information dump of all the upcoming merch releases for 2021-2022. Some of these include a new “Miracle Romance” shining powder, a new line of petit Q-Posket figurines, a Princess Serenity and Small Lady themed Q-pot collaboration, a new collaboration of ICE watches, the new Sailor Moon Eternal Crisis Moon compact Proplica, etc. One of the biggest announcements of the night was the news that there will soon be a online version of the Sailor Moon Store, but no confirmed date or any word on availability for international fans.
Towards the end of the event, Kotono Mitsuishi made a surprise appearance! Nobody was expecting her to attend, so everyone seemed genuinely excited to see her. The event closes with all of the guests singing “Moonlight Densetsu” on stage together.
While the event did have some interesting presentations and artists in general, the host was pretty awkward this year and there was a noticeable lack of merch announcements or updates on future projects, specifically no announcements of the Stars arc. We will have to keep waiting.
Hope you find our coverage of this event useful!
Review by: Cyn