Sailor Moon Live Action

Basic info

There are three live actor versions of Sailor Moon.

First, there was a demonstration tape produced by Saban as a concept for adapting the original Japanese Sailor Moon cartoon into an American show.  They proposed combining live actors with American-style animation.  Saban was perhaps best known at the time for their Americanization of "Power Rangers" and their Sailor Moon concept was along similar lines: American actors for the "normal teenagers" scenes and (in this case) animation for the "super-hero action" scenes.  The concept apparently did not receive much support since "Sailor Moon" was instead licenced to DiC.

The second live-actor version of Sailor Moon is the stage musical version.  Since "Sailor Moon Musical" is somewhat hard to say in Japanese, this version is often called "Sera-Myu".  The song "La Soldier" became quiet popular and you might have heard it if you have collected some import Sailor Moon music.  As far as I know, this version has only ever been staged in Japan.

The third live-actor version of Sailor Moon is a Japanese drama TV.  It is basically a direct adaptation from the original popular Sailor Moon cartoon and comic book story, but with actors instead of animation.  This version began airing on Japanese TV in 2003. 

Description and Commentary

The live TV drama version of Sailor Moon features five young Japanese actresses portraying the five "inner planet" Sailor Senshi of "Sailor Guardians".  In normal schoolgirl mode they all have black hair but in Sailor Senshi mode they have coloured hair just as in the animated series.  Oddly, Sailor Mercury's blue hair seems the most natural.  In the live-drama, Luna is a toy stuffed animal cat that comes to life.  The "live" Luna is done with computer graphics in most scenes, but as a puppet in some short scenes.  The special effects are unfortunately not so great.  Luna gives Usagi (Serena of Bunny) several items in the first episode including a cell phone, a wand, a locket and a lipstick holder.  The locket and lipstick are used to transform into Sailor Moon.  The cell phone can be used to contact Luna but it also has a built-in camera (camera phones seem to be popular in Japan).  Taking pictures with the camera activates the di