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Sailor Moon Musical Cast Celebrates Usagi's Birthday Across Tokyo

This past Tuesday celebrated the birth of everyone's favorite pretty soldier in a sailor suit (and later, her future daughter).

The ditzy, bun-headed protagonist of Sailor Moon—Usagi Tsukino—has her birthday on June 30, with her daughter from the future Chibi-Usa sharing the date as well. In commemoration, the main cast of the current Sailor Moon musical celebrated with a special trip across Tokyo.

The five Guardians had quite the busy day during Usagi's birthday. They began by making a surprise appearance at Aoyama's Q-pot Cafe, a cafe known for their limited edition Sailor Moon-inspired treats, where they were met with shocked and elated fans. Afterwards, they made their way to On Station in Shinjuku, where onlookers sang Happy Birthday to Usagi and the cast offered some autographs. At both locations, the cast teased a special surprise to be held at Nico Nico Honsha in Ikebukuro and invited fans to check it out.

Once there, the cast greeted fans with a performance of one of their numbers, "Ai no Starshine." After the performance, Satomi Okubo—who portrays Usagi/Sailor Moon—thanked all of Usagi's fans for coming out to celebrate her's and Chibi-Usa's birthday. Okubo was then surprised with the presentation of an honorary birthday cake with Usagi and Chibi-Usa printed on the icing.

After the performance, the cast went on to share their first impressions of each other when working on the musical. Okubo confessed that she "was scared at first" of her co-stars Kanon Nanaki and Shiori Sakata, who portray Rei/Sailor Mars and Minako/Sailor Venus, respectively. After spending time and eating lunch with each other, however, they warmed up to each other right away. Sakata amusingly recalled Nanaki having very little reaction to her jokes. The entire cast commented on how well they were able to cooperate and perform with Momoyo Koyama (Ami/Sailor Mercury). Yū Takahashi (Makoto/Sailor Jupiter) truly felt her fellow cast member's passion during performances. Sakata fondly remembered how Takahashi comforted her through more troubling times. Meanwhile, Koyama loved how Okubo always kept a smile on no matter what. Okubo even reminisced about Sakata's mother's cooking and how delicious it was.

Lastly, the fans asked the cast what the musical meant to them after all this time, what with this upcoming installment of the musical being their last. Takahashi admitted that this was "truly [her] youth" and that it feels like growing up. Nanaki expressed that the musical "brought out [her] best".

"If 10% of my life was eating and another 10% was sleeping, the other 80% would be dedicated to the musical," Koyama stated. "It's the world to me."

Sakata mentioned that the musical "felt like home" to her.

Okubo had the last, tear-choked word in, making the rest of the cast cry along with her. "I've been in the musical since my second year of high school. I've changed a lot since then, and a lot of it is because of Usagi. I'm so happy that she was here with me."

Afterwards, the Guardians fought through the tears and gave one last performance at the event, singing "We are the Pretty Guardians" from the musical and "Moonlight Densetsu", the classic Sailor Moon opening. They signed off by kicking off "Usagi Tsukino and Chibi-Usa Birthday Commemoration Week". This celebratory period between July 1 and July 4 will see Nico Nico broadcasting episodes 73-88 from the show's second season Sailor Moon R as well as the new series, Sailor Moon Crystal.

Source: Comic Natalie