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Sailor Moon Super Live London: A Magical (Girl) Show Held Back by an Inaccessible Venue
🕑 Added 2025-03-24 00:42:17 +0000 UTCAuthor: AJ Mack
Editor: Trent Cannon
Magical Girl staple Sailor Moon hasn’t had the best luck here in the UK. Whilst many Millennial weebs around the world have memories of watching the DiC dub on TV, in the UK, only the first series of the dub aired on terrestrial television. The rest was only available on satellite, meaning a vast portion of the population was simply unaware of its existence. If they did know something about it, it was probably that it’s a cartoon whose boom anime babes make Barenaked Ladies think about the wrong thing. It was only announced in October 2024 that the series was finally getting a 2025 Blu-ray and DVD release of the VIZ Production. So, it was with much joy and fangirling (gender neutral) that the news that Sailor Moon The Super Live, a touring musical that covers the first arc, was at last making its way to England! And to London, my own city no less!
I could at last finish the mission my Discord Group drunkenly started on New Year's Eve 2020/1 -- to watch Sailor Moon in all its forms: Original, Live Action, North American Pilot, Crystal, and finally 2.5D Musical!
Photo Credit: David Jensen, used with permission
The arrival of Sailor Moon Super Live follows on from the award-winning productions of Spirited Away at the London Coliseum, and My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican, (which has now moved to the Gillian Lynne). Whilst both those plays have high production values with prestigious backers, Sailor Moon was far more low-key. The cast was limited to the main Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, Queen Beryl, and six extras who pulled triple duty as school girls, office workers, and shadowy henchmen. It was the first version I’ve seen where they cut out the Four Heavenly Kings completely, so anime fans hoping to see Kunzite and Zoisite’s romance blossom on stage will be disappointed. In sadder news, Luna only appeared as an icon on the screen, meaning we were not treated to Puppet Luna as seen in the live-action version.
Sailor Moon brought with it some important aspects of Japanese theatre to the UK. The show takes inspiration from the Takarazuka Revue by having an all-female cast. This gives Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask’s swoon-worthy romance a definite tint of yuri. So, people looking for a gay old time will not be disappointed. Usagi and Mamoru were born to stare lovingly into each other's eyes and sing ballads about their tragic love story. The script and songs are also all in Japanese, with an English translation appearing above the stage. Whilst during spoken moments they appeared as regular subtitles, during the musical numbers they became full animations with bright colors and bubbly text that helped give everything that '90s nostalgia vibe. I was also incredibly impressed by LED Poi Sticks (like those used here; content warning for flashing lights) to give the Sailor Guardians their iconic attacks.
Photo Credit: David Jensen, used with permission
Fans of Eurovision will also absolutely love this production. Sparkly outfits and happy pop music giving way to soulful ballads followed by fun jazzy numbers all made for a really fun night. It was camp, queer, and full of magic! The plot was pretty truncated, acting more like a tl;dr speedrun of the arc. The last quarter of the production wasn’t even plot-based, but rather a series of dance numbers. It made everything feel like an elaborate cosplay contest (complimentary). There were even several costume changes; at one point the cast dressed in Yukata to perform a fan dance. It was all incredibly creative and wonderfully performed. Deuze Points all around for the cast and crew!
Photo Credit: David Jensen, used with permission
Sadly though, it wasn’t all fun times and glitter.
For those who don’t know, I am an ambulatory wheelchair user. I have a spinal injury following an epileptic seizure that makes standing for more than a minute painful, I also have an autoimmune disease that causes muscle fatigue. This means working my life around lots of hospital appointments and having so much extra admin for every single task.
The topic of accessible theatre is a hot one in the UK. Attempts are being made to make ticket prices more affordable, more theatres are offering at least one performance with BSL interpretation and Audio Description, and there is, in general, better awareness of access needs. The sunflower lanyard scheme has become more well known, helping raise awareness for those with invisible disabilities who still have access needs. Yet, if there is something that Sailor Moon Super Live London has taught me, we’ve still got a long way to go before weebs on wheels can have the same experience as our bipedal brethren.
When booking tickets, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to bring a friend with me or need my personal assistant to come with me instead. This meant that I needed to take their needs into account too. Since my PA is more into wrestling than magical girls, I knew I needed to provide them a space where they could happily zone out of the production whilst still keeping an eye on me. And well, call me an extremist, but I don’t think anybody should be forced to stand still at work for 90 minutes whilst being blasted with J-Pop. Whilst both venues claimed to have equal access and viewing platforms and a free companion ticket, Tickets for the Camden Venue, KOKO, didn't offer a seat for your Companion, only standing space, whereas here at OUTERNET did offer seating. So, OUTERNET it was.
In the end, my fellow Sailor Moon otaku friend was able to come with me, so my PA was spared the sparkles; however, I still think it was very bad of KOKO to not have seating for companions. Both venues only offer “limited” space on their viewing platforms, so I can understand they wanted to maximize the space for wheelchair users. Yet given that both of these venues are newly built, they should have considered the fact that maybe more than five disabled people and their friends would want to attend their event at a time.
Then there was the viewing platform itself. It would absolutely not be an exaggeration for me to say that it was probably the worst accessible seating I have ever had. The platform was in the mezzanine area, with the platform looking out to the audience rather than the stage. Since the horrors of navigating the London Underground whilst being a wheelchair user meant we got there late, we weren’t able to grab the best spot at the front. We had to sit at the back of the line, with taller and broader people in front of us. I had to crane my neck just to see, a thing that is particularly difficult when you have muscle weakness! My back pain was also made worse by having to strain, but since they didn’t allow drinks into the venue, and I couldn’t refill my water bottle because we were late (see the aforementioned issues with the London Underground), meaning I couldn’t even take my painkillers.
Even with all of that, the view was still obstructed. About a quarter of the stage was blocked off for me, which made it difficult to know who was talking at certain points, and also meant we didn’t get to see what Mercury and Jupiter were up to during their group numbers. A big disappointment, since those are our personal favorites.
The venue also didn’t provide enough chairs as promised, which meant my friend had to stand for the whole event regardless. Chairs were also not especially great for those with access needs. They were high-backed with no cushion and no arms. They looked more like table chairs that had been frantically shoved onto the platform than anything purposefully designed. Whilst most small venues do just reuse their table seating, the chairs provided are usually at least comfortable to sit in for a long time, for example, on my most recent visit, The Clapham Grand put out a plush velvet armchair for me. In the end, I opted to stay in my wheelchair, even though that meant not being able to get flush with the railing in front of me, which further impeded my view.
Photo by Anime Herald/AJ Mack
When I attended the Monday showing, the accessibility area was at full capacity; meanwhile, there were still a bunch of regular seats available in Band B and VIP admission. I don’t understand why they didn’t just have two types of reserved access seating, for example, platform seating and crowd seating. I understand the capitalist notion of not wanting to risk giving away a £145 ticket for free, but £53 for such a restricted view felt like an absolute joke. Given that more prestigious venues like the Bridge will offer front-row tickets at a large discount, I don't think it would have been unreasonable to give those with access needs a cheaper ticket price.
On the whole, I just think that OUTERNET was not a suitable venue for the show. Whilst they did have the setup for some great visuals, their accessibility needed way more work. London is not the only city either. There are thriving theatre scenes in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and more places besides! Even small university towns like Loughborough have theatres that can seat 500+ and have wheelchair space. So there really were better accessible options out there if they were just willing to look past the Central London Bubble.
That said, the staff working at the venue were kind, friendly, and helpful. They were very reassuring when we arrived late, and didn’t stop us from entering as some theatres do. I was also impressed by how reasonable all the merchandise was! I got all of this for just £35.
Photo by Anime Herald/ AJ Mack
The production was still a lot of fun, and whilst at the time I found it difficult to enjoy because of the pain and difficulty seeing – when I look back I do remember more the fun musical numbers and the clever staging effects. I ended up with the theme song (the group's final act) stuck in my head for the next two days! With the production set to tour the USA next month (with many praying they also go to Canada), I just hope that those venues have better access than the London ones. I want more disabled otaku to enjoy this to the full and have the experiences I couldn’t. In the name of the moon, I encourage you to go!
