So I really like Sailor Moon, especially the musicals. And one of my friends really likes pirates and vampires. So I talk to her time to time about the Kaguya and Dracul musicals, and she wanted to watch one! The Dracul arc is too much for anyone to start off with, so that was a no. I considered Shin Kaguya for a few reasons, but she's seen some clips with Hikari and also really like Uranus and Neptune, so I decided to show her Kaguya Shima Densetsu Kaiteban because it has Hikari and is also the first musical with Yuuka! Anyways, we watched it tonight! She liked it a lot, and the following are some of her thoughts, as well as some of my thoughts on her thoughts.

Things that confused/surprised her:

• All of the kids in the audience - Since so many of the current US fans are adults, she assumed that was the intended audience. I was afraid she would be put off by the short comic scenes, but she enjoyed them as much as I do (which is quite a bit), though I occasionally had to explain that people were laughing because that's actually a pun in Japanese.
  
• The use of English - Another thing she was surprised by. She asked how they choose which lines are in English and which not.
  
• So many characters - Like I said, this was her first time watching anything Sailor Moon, so she couldn't remember anyone. She even asked "are there two Sailor Moons" when Usagi and Minako were first onstage together. She got the enemies pretty well (the color coding on Ruby & co helped), but struggled with the senshi.
  
• So Many Mamorus - As a continuation of the last point, the presence of two different Mamorus did not help anything. At one point she thought there was one actor for all of them, and at another she thought there were four separate actors (Mamoru, Tuxedo Mask, King Endymion, and Space Knight). She couldn't remember Mamoru, so she just calls him Mamo cause that's what Usagi says.
  

Things she disliked:

• Chibiusa - One of the main reasons I considered watching Shin Kaguya instead is because I feel that it portrays the relationship between Chibiusa and Usagi much better. In this musical it's almost entirely Chibiusa being mad at Usagi/NQS for nagging at her, which gets annoying pretty fast, especially if you don't already have a solid foundation for their relationship.
  
• The cats - Neither of us really understand why they are cats instead of human children, but putting that aside, having three children who almost always immediately yell "MYAAAAA" as soon as they come on stage isn't the most pleasant thing. I also like them better in Shin Kaguya because there are only two of them and I personally like their voices better, but it's not too big of a difference. She did agree that they were cute, especially when they were wearing clothes at the end instead of cat costumes.
  
• Certain costumes - She thought Dark Plasman's makeup looked like a monkey and that Usagi and Chibiusa's civilian outfits were too similar. Frequently referred to Mako as "Dora the Explorer" because she was wearing a vest, but Dora doesn't even wear a vest.
  
• Certain points of the plot - She was really confused about what exactly Coatl and the pirates were trying to achieve, specifically about why either group couldn't have what they wanted while also living alongside the current people of Earth. I actually mentioned the case of Planet Grimm where they politely asked for the Silver Crystal and Moon was going to give it to them, and she found that funny.
  

Things she liked:

• Haruka and Michiru - The whole time she kept asking when they would have a scene together just the two of them. She was glad when they did, but was disappointed they did not kiss.
  
• Usagi and Mamoru - She loved You're My Jewelry because it's a love song and she loves love. She was real glad they kissed.
  
• Loof Merrow - She was probably the main attraction here. She's a pirate, she's a princess, she's Hikari Ono, who could ask for anything more? On multiple occasions she would just be like "man look at her acting." 
  
• Leah Ruby - Also an amazing actress. She didn't care so much for the sad mother storyline as she just really really liked the actress.
  
• Kern, Serpen, & Kraken - Like I said, she liked the short comic scenes, so of course she loved these three, though I don't think she ever remembered their names. "Formation A" was a favorite.
  
• Other costumes - She really liked the senshi outfits, especially the Eternal outfit with the wings. Other top picks were Ruby's red suit, Tuxedo Mask's outfit (especially the gold accents), and anything worn by Loof Merrow (with exception of maybe the trenchcoat).
  

Anyways, she had some more specific thoughts about certain songs and the like, but I feel like this is detailed enough and also it's 3 AM. Hope some of y'all find this interesting, let me know if you have any questions on her thoughts, answers to our questions/confusions, or other comments!

Always fun to hear about non-fan opinions!! I can totally sympathize with the too-many-characters complaint. The fact that their names are mostly Japanese or made-up foreign-based 'words' doesn't help lol. Really nice to hear that a lot of the comedy scenes were a plus for her despite being aimed at a very young audience!

Thanks for sharing! I really should watch this musical myself XD. Been seeing so much love for Loof Merrow around GC. Need to witness the awesomeness myself!

We had some extra time after finishing finals and she wanted to watch one of the vampire musicals, so we watched Last Dracul! I don't think she liked it as much as Kaguya Shima, but it sets up for Transylvania no Mori and Chou Wakusei Death Vulcan, which I think she'll like. Her are her thoughts:

Things that confused her:

• Why Saturn wasn't transforming - I tried to explain the whole ending the world and she was like "but couldn't she just... not do that?" later when Saturn did transform, she got confused about why the world didn't end.
  
• Chibi moon - Apparently, she went the whole Kaguya musical without noticing that Chibs also transforms. There was the usual confusion over which planet her crystal is for.
  
• Who was a vampire and when - Mostly whether the inners were vampires when they were in the black robes.
  
• Le Fey - Really the nightmares in general, but Le Fey in particular. She understood that Le Fey was dead, but didn't get why he hadn't just made her a vampire before she died (I didn't explain that, because the story does later.) She also found it funny that he declared some random woman his new wife and gave her his old wife's name, and that she was immediately dedicated to him, turning on her old allies. I gotta agree, it's a bit ridiculous. We started calling her "Le Fey 2.0" to specify which one we were talking about.
  

Things she disliked:

• Marina - She thought Marina looked wayyy too young ("like 8") and that it made the whole UsaMamo thing a bit odd. She also didn't like her voice as much.
  
• Death Manetjes - While she loved the Short Comic Scenes in Kaguya k, she did not like these characters because they are so over the top. Specifically Death Pi, the lady, because her "funny voices" are mostly just yelling.
  
• No Hikari - 
  
• Usagi and Mamoru - She said that Usagi and Mamoru talk a lot about being in love while not actually seeming in love. I agree with this to an extent, and while I like Hidemasa Edo, I don't think his chemistry with Usagi is the best, which is one reason he's not my favorite Tux (Mochizuki Yuuta and Kenji Urai are my favs, particularly because of their interactions with Usa and, especially in Kenji's case, Chibs.)
  
• Chibiusa - She liked her more in this one, but still not enough to bring her over to actually liking the character. I'm curious if her interactions with the Quartet in TnM will change her opinion of Chibs.
  

Things she liked:

• Dracul - He's a vampire, she likes vampires. She especially liked the little hiss sound he makes which I find ridiculous but love. She also already liked Mocchi as Space Knight and "the narrator with the voice of god."
  
• Death Lamia - She is ALSO a vampire, and Ames likes vampires. She liked the actress and said "that is a very specific look she has going on" which seemed like a compliment in context, but now I'm not sure. She was also dead set on Death Lamia and Dracul hooking up until Le Fey came into the picture. She wanted a love triangle with them and Tomoe, which I would find entertaining but also a huge mess.
  
• Uranus and Neptune - She liked Chobi!, as well as the dramatic scene where Uranus

  Spoiler:

  says the little speech about Neptune always following her and calls her the Soldier of Smiles and all that. She wants a romantic song between them, so I'll have to show her Destined Couple sometime, and maybe some new myu clips too... hm. 
  
• The Sammeal Flasks - She thought they looked nice. She was confused why there were 2 red ones, but when I told her one was actually pink and they were color coded for characters in the next musical, she was appeased.
  
• Tuxedo Mission - While in general she didn't like the Death Manetjas, she did enjoy 5 Tuxedo Masks. 
  

She was able to keep up with the characters better in this musical, both because it was her second and there were more individual plotlines as well. (Pluto had a separate entrance from UraNep, Saturn sang To a Brand New World, Ami attempted Germany...) I think the inners getting image songs in TnM will help solidify this even more, though in that case there are so many villains to keep up with...

Anyways, we're both home for the semester, so we won't watch the next one until August at earliest! At the moment, I was planning on showing her the kaiteban of Transylvania no Mori instead of the original because all of the inners get songs, Dracul is present, and Usagi sings The Last Change. I'd considered the original because I prefer the actors for Giles de Rais and Lilith of Darkness, but if anyone has another reason it would be preferable, shoot it at me!

Omg Ive been trying to sit down and reply to your initial post all week long and I lost my original typed up mess and waaah. I'll have to post a response to watching the Dracul shows later!

But as far as Kaguya goes:
Wow! That's so awesome that you could get a non SM fan to watch an SM musical, probably the most niche aspect of SM in the Western community. Is she a fan of musicals in general or Japanese musicals? I imagine it might be hard to swallow a live show like that entirely in Japanese rather than English. I've had a hard time getting people who even like SM but haven't really exposed themselves much to the Japanese version to watch not only the Japanese version of the 90s anime but get into the musicals.  If you don't mind, I'm gunna go through your points and try to clear up anything or just comment in general. xD

cardea wrote:

Things that confused/surprised her:

• All of the kids in the audience - Since so many of the current US fans are adults, she assumed that was the intended audience. I was afraid she would be put off by the short comic scenes, but she enjoyed them as much as I do (which is quite a bit), though I occasionally had to explain that people were laughing because that's actually a pun in Japanese.
  
• The use of English - Another thing she was surprised by. She asked how they choose which lines are in English and which not.
  
• So many characters - Like I said, this was her first time watching anything Sailor Moon, so she couldn't remember anyone. She even asked "are there two Sailor Moons" when Usagi and Minako were first onstage together. She got the enemies pretty well (the color coding on Ruby & co helped), but struggled with the senshi.
  
• So Many Mamorus - As a continuation of the last point, the presence of two different Mamorus did not help anything. At one point she thought there was one actor for all of them, and at another she thought there were four separate actors (Mamoru, Tuxedo Mask, King Endymion, and Space Knight). She couldn't remember Mamoru, so she just calls him Mamo cause that's what Usagi says.
  

1. Well, I'm sure most of us on here are aware but Sailor Moon was and always will be a childrens show. Sure, the manga has more adult themes and scenes in it but initially Sailor Moon was and made for kids. The musicals came out at pretty much the same time as the anime, it was meant for children but they clearly kept the adults who had to bring the children in mind. In fact, the musicals garnered quite the following. You'll start to notice in some of the audience shots in later shows there are a lot of adults in the audience in comparison to children.

2. I guess it depends on which English lines she particularly speaking of. If its the attacks and stuff, that's because to Japanese adding in English is cool. Just look at a lot of jpop songs and other popular media. They use English words all over the place. The thing to note though is they use them more like loan words. Like how in English, we use loan words like ballet for example. It's originally a French word but its now a part of normal English vocabulary.

3/4. It's always always 100% recommended to have seen some bit of Sailor Moon or be familiar with it because they make these shows in mind that the audience knows what Sailor Moon is and has watched at least some of the show/read the manga. Let's just put this blame on you for not exposing your friend to SM before a musical.

cardea wrote:

Things she disliked:

• Chibiusa - One of the main reasons I considered watching Shin Kaguya instead is because I feel that it portrays the relationship between Chibiusa and Usagi much better. In this musical it's almost entirely Chibiusa being mad at Usagi/NQS for nagging at her, which gets annoying pretty fast, especially if you don't already have a solid foundation for their relationship.
  
• The cats - Neither of us really understand why they are cats instead of human children, but putting that aside, having three children who almost always immediately yell "MYAAAAA" as soon as they come on stage isn't the most pleasant thing. I also like them better in Shin Kaguya because there are only two of them and I personally like their voices better, but it's not too big of a difference. She did agree that they were cute, especially when they were wearing clothes at the end instead of cat costumes.
  
• Certain costumes - She thought Dark Plasman's makeup looked like a monkey and that Usagi and Chibiusa's civilian outfits were too similar. Frequently referred to Mako as "Dora the Explorer" because she was wearing a vest, but Dora doesn't even wear a vest.
  
• Certain points of the plot - She was really confused about what exactly Coatl and the pirates were trying to achieve, specifically about why either group couldn't have what they wanted while also living alongside the current people of Earth. I actually mentioned the case of Planet Grimm where they politely asked for the Silver Crystal and Moon was going to give it to them, and she found that funny.
  

1. Yeah, in this show, Chibiusa is sort of going through a rebellious stage and a lot of the scenes of her with the cats and then the ending is just fodder for character development for her. She understands the meaning of having and appreciating a mother, something the three cats went without for 5000 years. Maybe, the Shin Kaguya would have been a bit better on the Chibiusa front because they pretty much get rid of the rebellious fit side plot.

2. How can you dislike the cats. Omg what is wrong with you two. They are only the most adorable things in the show. xD XD  The fact that they are cats is never explained as far as I can recall. It seems like the show writers put them in there to have child actor opposites of Chibiusa's character. At the same time the rest of hte villain team are human versions of rocks from a comet. So...my best guess is since the comet was gone so long, taking on the form of cats was easy for them to stay safe and hidden, plus they may not have had as much magical power since Coatl was so far away.

3. The costumes are actually a lot better in this show than others so... glad you didn't show her like Gaiden or something. lol

4. Because we wouldn't have a story if they all could just live happily by each other to begin with. xD I thought the story was pretty clear though? Dark Plasman, the personfication of the comet Coatl, felt cheated that he wasn't made into a planet, like Earth, and was jealous of Earth with possibly a hint that he also was in love with Princess Moon. Princess Moon had saved the earth from the comet the first time around. The pirates deal is that they want to stop Coatl but think the only way is to steal the silver crystal (which the plot turns the into allies at the end). Also, I don't think its gone into as much as Shin Kaguya but I think they all blame Princess Moon for the destruction of their kingdom.

cardea wrote:

Things she liked:

• Haruka and Michiru - The whole time she kept asking when they would have a scene together just the two of them. She was glad when they did, but was disappointed they did not kiss.
  
• Usagi and Mamoru - She loved You're My Jewelry because it's a love song and she loves love. She was real glad they kissed.
  
• Loof Merrow - She was probably the main attraction here. She's a pirate, she's a princess, she's Hikari Ono, who could ask for anything more? On multiple occasions she would just be like "man look at her acting." 
  
• Leah Ruby - Also an amazing actress. She didn't care so much for the sad mother storyline as she just really really liked the actress.
  
• Kern, Serpen, & Kraken - Like I said, she liked the short comic scenes, so of course she loved these three, though I don't think she ever remembered their names. "Formation A" was a favorite.
  
• Other costumes - She really liked the senshi outfits, especially the Eternal outfit with the wings. Other top picks were Ruby's red suit, Tuxedo Mask's outfit (especially the gold accents), and anything worn by Loof Merrow (with exception of maybe the trenchcoat).
  

I don't have really much to add other than yaaaaay. These are all things that make this a good show. You're My Jewelry is probably one of my fav Usa/Mamo scenes in Myu and I wish we got even more of that kinda stuff. Leah Ruby is probably one of my top fav actresses in Myu. She was a fantastic actor and singer.

Anyway, it's still pretty awesome that she liked it despite any issues she had with the shows. I mean, generally the shows are there for people already fans of SM so its interesting to get someone to watch them that has little SM background. ^^