Apparently, stage movies are a thing now. I only caught on last month, when I saw two within a week of each other. I’ve already mentioned the second one – NBC’s stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar that was broadcast live on Easter. The first one was so weird I have to blog about it. I saw a movie of a play about a cartoon. That’s right, I drove to Shoreline to see Sailor Moon: The Musical – Le Mouvement Final at the Crest.

I was just a little too old for the first generation of Sailor Moon. Ok, that’s an excuse. I watched Ranma ½ during the same years Sailor Moon was new. Anyway, I never got into Sailor Moon. But my kids did. They’ve read all the manga and dissect the differences between the anime reboots. My oldest was Sailor Mercury for Halloween. So when a friend tagged me on a facebook post announcing a Sailor Moon event at the Crest, I bought tickets for the whole family.

Sailor Moon Musicals

Apparently, in Japan, Sailor Moon is a musical theater genre. They film the productions, and the films get released to cinemas. When we went, the Crest was hopping with Sailor Moon fans, some of them in cosplay, others laden in branded merch. We sat in front of a group of Japanese women in their fifties who turned out to be the most fun part of the experience. More on them later. First, the movie. Here’s the official description:

Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians face their final fight with the evils of the galaxy in the filmed version of the Japanese musical Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Musical -Le Mouvement Final-. Usagi Tsukino says farewell to Mamoru Chiba as he is set to leave for school in America. As Usagi says goodbye, she faints, and a super idol group called the Three Lights appear to catch her fall. Meanwhile, new enemies—the “Shadow Galactica,” are calling themselves Sailor Guardians and are aiming to steal Sailor Crystals! A mysterious young girl named Chibi-Chibi and a new group of Sailor Guardians, called the Sailor Starlights, also appear, but are they friend or foe? Can Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians stop the Shadow Galactica before it’s too late? Sailor Moon’s final battle for the future of the galaxy is at stake, and it starts now!

It doesn’t make any more sense when you see it. It might be a condensation of the storyline from manga or anime, though, because people in the audience knew what was going on. They obviously had strong opinions about the “new” characters as they appeared on screen. (Hint: They loved all of them.)

The Filmed Theater Experience

As you’d expect, the “show” was silly and fun. I was quite happy with the experience until the end. When the story was complete, the cast came back out on the stage on our screen and did a musical number. Then another. Then another. It was like watching the Return of the King, with ending after ending. There was an extra half hour of musical revue after the full-length movie. It was a school night and pushing eleven before the grand finale. I’ve never been happier to hear the line, “Fighting evil by moonlight,” because I knew that had to be the last song.

But even the drag-on balls ending was made bearable by the audience (at the Crest, not the one in the film). They made it more fun with their mix of childish enthusiasm (there weren’t actually many kids there) and knowing chuckles (even my kids were sophisticated enough to chuckle at the naivete of the story). The entire audience choked when (spoiler alert – maybe?) Usagi and Mamoru kiss and she declares, “We’re going to have a baby!” But the ladies sitting behind us were the best part.

Takarazuka Revue

In the States, all-female productions are edgy. In Seattle, feminist theater is having a moment with Coriolanus: Fight Like a Bitch, and Seattle Opera’s upcoming O+E. But it’s a long-standing tradition in Japan. I first heard of Takarazuka Revue in the sidebars of the manga Princess Jellyfish. The author wrote about how everyone in her studio had become a Takarazuka otaku.

The Takarazuka Revue was opened in 1914 by Ichizo Kobayashi. This titan of industry founded the all-female performance group to attract passengers on his railway line to visit his hotel where they performed. Today, Takarazuka has five full troupes—Flower, Moon, Snow, Star and Cosmos – augmented by Senka, or Superior Members, who move between the troupes performing specialist roles. Each troupe has its specialty and loyal followers, but they basically do Broadway style musical theater. As with opera, each performer specializes in a particular type of role, and the ones who inspire the most devoted otaku fans are the otoko yaku – women who play the male romantic lead.

Every time the woman playing Tuxedo Mask came on stage, the middle-aged ladies behind us squealed like starstruck teenagers in an anime. When Tuxedo Mask gave his signature wink (which happened a lot) the ladies freaked out every time, sending my family into rounds of giggles. Their response made me wonder about Takarazuka because Sailor Moon was an all-female performance and I didn’t think the franchise had been around long enough for the ladies behind us to be on a nostalgia trip.

Besides Tuxedo Mask, there was a three-member idol boy-band in Sailor Moon Le Mouvement Final. (Spoiler: They later turned out to be female in the story, too.) These otoko yaku gave very convincing performances – their physical movement read “male” and even some of their singing voices sounded male. But their makeup was feminine – false eyelashes, smoky lids, glossy lipstick. It worked really well for a live-action anime, since bishounen are very feminine by American standards.

Afterwards, I looked it up online. The best source for details in English is the Miss Dream website. It doesn’t look like Takarazuka produced the Sailor Moon musical. However, the actress playing Tuxedo Mask, Yuga Yamato, was the hero of the Moon Troop until 2009. Several other Sailor Moon performers are also former Takarasiennes. So I went to the movies for one authentic otaku experience, and got a second one in the bargain.

Get the Weirdness for Yourself

It doesn’t look like the Takarazuka Revue tours. If you want to see the famous troupe for yourself, you have to get tickets to either their original theater in Hyogo, Japan, or visit their second theater in Tokyo. It also doesn’t look like Le Mouvement Final is being performed live anywhere. The film of Le Mouvement Final doesn’t even have an entry on imdb, but it is touring North American cinemas this spring. So if you want to stay up late on a weeknight with a bunch of middle-aged otaku watching a cross-dressed cast in a PG movie of a play about cartoon characters – it might be coming to a theater near you soon.

The Crest may well be the last hold out of that cherished American tradition, the second-run theater. They don’t have $1 shows anymore, but regular weekday screenings are still only $4. And instead of the old blown out seats, they have leather recliners now and sell beer at concessions. I forgot about the Crest for a while, but they do a lot of these funky events. There’s a monthly series of these filmed live performances from the Royal Opera House. Most recently, the Royal Ballet celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday with three pieces; next up Verdi’s opera, Macbeth on May 23.