Un Nouveau Voyage
Nov. 5th, 2015 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heavenly_pearlI finished watching the newest Sailor Moon musical last night. I felt like it got off to a bit of a rocky start to be honest, but once Kaolinite and Dr. Tomoe took the stage, everything was fabulous. Petite Etrangere is still my favorite so far, though.
The Bad
- I wasn't feeling Haruka as a pop idol at all. Yeah, in the manga, she does sometime play piano as accompaniment to Michiru's violin playing, so it's not as if she has no interest in music at all, but still, the musical didn't even mention her true canonical passion: racing cars. Taking that away from her really feels like a major rewrite to her character. I also felt the change took away from Michiru as well, since she's the one who actually is passionate about music. That's her thing, so why give it to Haruka? I don't understand. It wouldn't have changed much at all for Michiru to be the one giving the concert (either singing or playing the violin). Or they could have at least made them a pop duo.
- Continuing along the same lines, Michiru didn't really get to do much at all. She was mostly just...there most of the time. Not only did they shaft her by giving the concert scene to Haruka, they also took out her flirtation with Mamoru despite keeping Haruka's flirtation with Usagi. Honestly, you could have taken her out of the show altogether and it probably wouldn't change much, which is disappointing to a Michiru fan like me.
- The "tryout" scene for Infinity Academy was kinda cringe-worthy, especially since it felt like they were trying to fit in as much over-the-top humor as they could in one scene in order to make up for the fact that the rest of the show is really serious.
- Not enough Pluto. :P Though her actress says she played Pluto and Setsuna during the "thank you" portion at the end of the show, she actually didn't play Setsuna at all, since she's never showed detransformed during the show and I don't remember the name Setsuna even being mentioned. That disappointed me a little.
- I hated Mistress 9's dress. It might have been okay without the lace sleeves, but I think the major problem with it was that Hotaru's actress also played Mistress 9. I'm not sure how old she is in real-life, but as Hotaru, she looked believable as the pre-teen she's supposed to be. Mistress 9, however, is supposed to be Hotaru's adult form, so the actress looked more like a little kid playing dress up in that costume. Black Lady was played by an adult actress in Petite Etrangere, so I wonder why they didn't do the same with Mistress 9. (I do think the actress did a fantastic job as Hotaru/Saturn/Mistress 9 acting wise, though!)
- There weren't very many stand-out songs. My favorite by far was "Music of the Spheres", which was incredible, and Hotaru and Chibi-usa's duet was great as well, but I think this musical had the weakest score of the three new musicals.
The Good
- There were some pretty neat special effects during the show.
- Kaolinite and Dr. Tomoe -- they were so, so, good! Pretty much stole every scene they appeared in. I particularly loved the flashback scene. The "experiment" part actually gave me chills.
- Also enjoyed Hotaru's piano playing. Unlike Haruka-the-pop-idol, I find it very believable that a rich girl like Hotaru would take piano lessons. (And it looked like her actress was playing for real, which is awesome.)
- Mimette was kinda adorable!
- I loved that they made a reference to the anime by having Minako pretend to be Sailor Moon, and they made it even better by having Chibiusa take her place as Venus!
- The labyrinth scene, where the Witches 5 try to convince the senshi to stop fight, was amazing and so well done.
- I like that at several points in the show, they emphasized the connection between Mars, Neptune, and Kaolinite as characters with precognitive abilities.
- I LOVED pretty much the entire second act. I can't think of one thing wrong with it, other than Mistress 9's hideous dress. (And Super Sailor Moon's new fuku isn't that great, either.) Might have been nice to show Hotaru giving Chibiusa back her crystal, but that's pretty much the only thing I would have changed. Other than that, pefection. Especially loved the battle with Pharoah 90.
The Bad
- I wasn't feeling Haruka as a pop idol at all. Yeah, in the manga, she does sometime play piano as accompaniment to Michiru's violin playing, so it's not as if she has no interest in music at all, but still, the musical didn't even mention her true canonical passion: racing cars. Taking that away from her really feels like a major rewrite to her character. I also felt the change took away from Michiru as well, since she's the one who actually is passionate about music. That's her thing, so why give it to Haruka? I don't understand. It wouldn't have changed much at all for Michiru to be the one giving the concert (either singing or playing the violin). Or they could have at least made them a pop duo.
- Continuing along the same lines, Michiru didn't really get to do much at all. She was mostly just...there most of the time. Not only did they shaft her by giving the concert scene to Haruka, they also took out her flirtation with Mamoru despite keeping Haruka's flirtation with Usagi. Honestly, you could have taken her out of the show altogether and it probably wouldn't change much, which is disappointing to a Michiru fan like me.
- The "tryout" scene for Infinity Academy was kinda cringe-worthy, especially since it felt like they were trying to fit in as much over-the-top humor as they could in one scene in order to make up for the fact that the rest of the show is really serious.
- Not enough Pluto. :P Though her actress says she played Pluto and Setsuna during the "thank you" portion at the end of the show, she actually didn't play Setsuna at all, since she's never showed detransformed during the show and I don't remember the name Setsuna even being mentioned. That disappointed me a little.
- I hated Mistress 9's dress. It might have been okay without the lace sleeves, but I think the major problem with it was that Hotaru's actress also played Mistress 9. I'm not sure how old she is in real-life, but as Hotaru, she looked believable as the pre-teen she's supposed to be. Mistress 9, however, is supposed to be Hotaru's adult form, so the actress looked more like a little kid playing dress up in that costume. Black Lady was played by an adult actress in Petite Etrangere, so I wonder why they didn't do the same with Mistress 9. (I do think the actress did a fantastic job as Hotaru/Saturn/Mistress 9 acting wise, though!)
- There weren't very many stand-out songs. My favorite by far was "Music of the Spheres", which was incredible, and Hotaru and Chibi-usa's duet was great as well, but I think this musical had the weakest score of the three new musicals.
The Good
- There were some pretty neat special effects during the show.
- Kaolinite and Dr. Tomoe -- they were so, so, good! Pretty much stole every scene they appeared in. I particularly loved the flashback scene. The "experiment" part actually gave me chills.
- Also enjoyed Hotaru's piano playing. Unlike Haruka-the-pop-idol, I find it very believable that a rich girl like Hotaru would take piano lessons. (And it looked like her actress was playing for real, which is awesome.)
- Mimette was kinda adorable!
- I loved that they made a reference to the anime by having Minako pretend to be Sailor Moon, and they made it even better by having Chibiusa take her place as Venus!
- The labyrinth scene, where the Witches 5 try to convince the senshi to stop fight, was amazing and so well done.
- I like that at several points in the show, they emphasized the connection between Mars, Neptune, and Kaolinite as characters with precognitive abilities.
- I LOVED pretty much the entire second act. I can't think of one thing wrong with it, other than Mistress 9's hideous dress. (And Super Sailor Moon's new fuku isn't that great, either.) Might have been nice to show Hotaru giving Chibiusa back her crystal, but that's pretty much the only thing I would have changed. Other than that, pefection. Especially loved the battle with Pharoah 90.