The live action Sailormoon musicals in Japan are very popular. Commonly called Seramyu, they are still continuing in Japan. Each musical has many performances, usually of which two are released onto tape. The musicals themselves change during their runs so while the performances still have the same stories, scenes and/or songs may have been added, taken out, or changed and different actresses are often used to replace ones that have left. The first musical on tape is usually an early version of the musical (which coincides with the musical's CD), while the second, the revision, reflects the changes that the musical undergoes.

The very first Sailormoon musical is for the first season, with the Dark Kingdom as the main enemies, but the Sailor Team uses their Sailormoon R attacks. There is one S musical (the revision was never released onto tape); two versions of the SuperS musical; two SailorStars ones; the Eien Densetsu musical and its revision, The Final First Stage; Shin Densetsu Kourin; Kaguya Shima Densetsu and its revision; Last Dracul Jyokyoku and its later-continued revision; Transylvania no Mori and its revision, and Ankoku no Princess Black Lady and its revision.

The musicals are currently divided into either of the four "stages." The First Stage features Ohyama Anza as Sailormoon and includes all musicals from the first musical up to and including The Final First Stage (the fifth musical). After the last performance of The Final First Stage, nearly all the actresses left the musical, and the senshi were recast. Shin Densetsu Kourin begins the Second Stage with Hara Fumina as Sailormoon. Fumina left Seramyu after Kaguya Shima Densetsu and a new Sailormoon, Kanbe Miyuki, took her place opening the Third Stage by starring in Last Dracul Jyokyoku. Miyuki left after Last Dracul Seishuu Shou (the late revision of Last Dracul Jyokyoku), allowing the Fourth Stage to start in the summer of 2001 with Kuroki Marina as Sailormoon in Ankoku no Princess Black Lady.

The musicals don't follow the anime or manga plotlines. They use some of the characters from the anime and manga, but they also invent new characters and stories. For instance, the Eien Densetsu musical revived Queen Beryl, Kunzite, and Zoicite, who worked with Galaxia and some of her Animamates (mostly newly invented ones) against the senshi. For the most part, however, what the enemies want coincide with what they want in the anime. The Animamates, for instance, still want the Sailor Crystals and the Star Seeds. Kaguya Shima Densetsu, Last Dracul Jyokyoku, and Transylvania no Mori have totally new plots that aren't based on either the anime or the manga, however, Ankoku no Princess Black Lady visits the plotline of the second arc of Sailormoon R which was neglected when the second Seramyu skipped over the R series and went straight to the S series.

There is a lot of merchandise for the musicals. Some of the more available ones are the Sailormoon dolls with with uniforms and set-ups based on the musicals. The dolls are very cute. There are so far 6-inch Inner dolls, sold as a set of five; 6-inch Outer dolls sold as a set of four; some Sailormoon dolls; a Chibimoon doll; and 12-inch Inner Senshi dolls sold separately. Other merchandise include the videos, CDs, special omake and pre-order videos you can order if you physically attend the musicals, and stuff you can only buy at the musical showings like pencil boards, calander stickers, stationary, keychains, badges, and other stuff.

Sailormoon is not the only anime to have musicals created after it. Other anime titles, like Sakura Taisen, Akazukin Cha Cha, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Shoujo Kakumei Utena have had musicals as well. (Saito Rei, the major First Stage Sailorpluto, played Touga and Kimura Sanae, the first Sailoruranus, played Juri in the first Utena musical.) However, I don't think any have become nearly as popular as Seramyu.

This Seramyu Webring site is owned by Airashii. Previous   Next   Random   List

On this site, all of the musicals (except for the first and some of the later ones) have some pages on them with pictures and information. This site also has some screenshots and scans, doujinshi pictures, and links where you can find more information, media files, and copies of the musicals. All names on this page are written family name first, given name second.

Sailormoon Sailormoon S Sailormoon SuperS Sailormoon SailorStars Eien Densetsu Shin Densetsu Kourin Kaguya Shima Densetsu Last Dracul Jyokyoku Transylvania no Mori Ankoku no Princess Black Lady Screenshots & Scans Seramyu Doujinshi Misc. Videos/CDs Seramyu Links Seramyu Webring

The Sailor Senshi fuku are pretty good. They really improve with each passing musical, and in the Second Stage musicals, they are very well done. A lot of people don't like how they're overly sparkly and large though. Princess Kakyuu has an excellent outfit. The enemies have nicely done costumes as well, like Galaxia, the Amazon Trio, and the villains from Kaguya Shima Densetsu. The senshi have nice school uniforms. Their everyday clothes can be good or bad -- Michiru, for example, has a horrible dress in Kaguya Shima Densetsu and a strange outfit in Last Dracul Jyokyoku.

As a whole, the songs from the musicals are very good. Individually, some songs are better than others.

The First Stage musicals usually always do "La Moon" and "La Soldier" at least once. In the Second Stage musicals, "Everlasting Moonlight" became a recurring song, while "LINK" began gaining popularity. The song crossed over into the Third Stage and was joined by "FIRE" from "Last Dracul Jyokyoku." The introduction of "Koi no Senshi ja Irarenai" in "Transylvania no Mori" led on over into the Fourth Stage with its criticized "21st Century" remake, followed by the brand new song "Tuxedo Versus" which quickly became a fan favourite over past Tuxedo Kamen songs.

Some of the popular songs that span across all of the musicals (other than "La Soldier" and "La Moon") include "To a Brand-new World", "L'amour D'amour Moonlight" and "Sailor War" (5 variations).

Generally, "La Moon" is the song the senshi sing while fighting the final enemies. "La Soldier" and "La Moon" are alternated in the musicals for the final song that the Sailor Senshi sing alone, though the entire cast sings a song together, sometimes one of the two mentioned. However, in some of the revisions of the musicals and in Kaguya Shima Densetsu, "Solar Miracle Make-up" is the battle song.

The dancing's pretty good, the choreography and all that. Some actresses are just naturally better at dancing than others, and many people like to complain that the actresses can't dance very well.

The special effects range from wires to lift the senshi around in the air to videos of them 'transforming.' For the most part, they're tastefully done.

The wires are pretty obvious to spot, and they sort of detract from the actual spectacle of the senshi flying around. Of course, people in the audience probably can't see them. One of the better examples of the wire technique was in the Sailormoon SuperS musical when Tigerseye is whipping a bunch of animals to do tricks -- the stage is darkened so you can't see the wires. In the Sailormoon S musical, the wiring is overdone.

Transforming is relatively ignored except for Sailormoon really. In the Sailormoon S musical, she's wearing an overly large princess dress, is lifted off the stage, transforms, then comes flying back on wearing her SM fuku. In the Sailormoon SuperS musical, the Outer Senshi remain transformed throughout the entirety of the musical, and the Inners transform offstage, just having some computer animation there in its place. Chibi-usa and Usagi are shown transforming via video with special effects on it using computers. In Sailormoon SailorStars, the Starlights shout out the words, the lights go out, and a few seconds later they're in their fuku. In the same musical, SuperSailormoon appears to quickly transform into Eternal Sailormoon. This is achieved by there being a battle scene with quickly flashing lights so that you can't see that the actress for Sailormoon has gone off stage; a body double dances for her while Sailormoon's backstage changing. They then switch places again before the lights brighten once more.

As for attacks, most of them are done with lights and minor explosions, nothing really big. Like when they say their powers -- which come from both the anime and the manga -- sometimes lights will follow the path and 'hit' the enemy, and there will be a little explosion.

Pegasus in Sailormoon SuperS was entirely a special effect. He was created by lights on a large screen on the stage.

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