The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Project Special Stage has been held and that means the announcements for the cast has finally been revealed for Sailor Moon Crystal. The event revealed that there were numerous titles to pick from for the new incarnation of the series but that they ultimately went with Crystal due to it being Naoko Takeuchi’s favorit for it. The series has gotten its scheduling down as well with it beginning on July 5th at 7pm JST (6am ET) and will be broadcast in the first and third Saturday’s each month rather than a weekly broadcast. The casting announcements were something that many were feared and anxious about because of the intense passion for the original cast, which is why it’s interesting that we get our lead actress back but the others bring something new to it – particularly since most grew up in the popularity of the original anime series as kids.
- Kotono Mitsuishi as Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon
- Hisako Kanemoto as Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury
- Rina Satou as Rei Hino/Sailor Mars
- Ami Koshimizu as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter
- Shizuka Itou as Minako Aino/Sailor Venus
The series is set to be directed by Munehisa Sakai at Toei Animation with Yuji Kobayashi doing the scripts. Yuki Sako joined the team as the character designer, whose recent works include Majestic Prince. Yasuharu Takanashi is serving as the composer, having worked on some big franchise including Fairy Tail and Precure. Art direction is being done by Takashi Kurahashi and Yumi Hosaka, both of which worked on Gatchaman Crowds and Mononoke. The soundtrack is set to be produced by King Records, which means we should be getting plenty of clips and samples of everything once they start to the marketing side as they’re very involved on that front. Momoiro Clover Z is performing the theme song.
Plot concept: Usagi Tsukino is a second-year middle school girl who is a little clumsy and a crybaby, but she is full of energy. One day, she meets Luna, a black cat with a crescent moon on her forehead, and she transforms into Sailor Moon, a sailor-uniformed pretty guardian of love and justice! As a chosen guardian of justice, Usagi seems to have a mission to find the Illusionary Silver Crystal with the other guardians and to protect the princess.
Meanwhile, the queen of the Dark Kingdom, Queen Beryl, also sends minions to the town where Usagi lives to obtain the Illusionary Silver Crystal, which has immense power. This causes strange events to unfold….
Can Sailor Moon really find the Illusionary Silver Crystal with the other Sailor guardians, and protect the princess…!?
[Source: ANN]