Sera Myu Week Day 4: Queens of Myu
So I ended up skipping Day 3 of @sera-myu-week cause I was over on my personal blog all day due to the big Pokémon Direct (and also cause it was NogiMyu Day and I don’t know enough about NogiMyu to really post anything...I’m still figuring out how to even watch them!). But now I’m back.
So...Queens of Sera Myu.
First off, my fave Mercury, Chieco-chan!!
I actually found Kawabe Chieco initially through her role as Naru in PGSM. I ended up finding out about her SeraMyu involvement in a sort of backways fashion through her music career (mostly her song “Sakura Kiss,” which was super popular at the time). She was essentially my gateway into Myu itself, and she continues to be my favorite Mercury actress. In her era, I feel like Mercury really got to shine as a character.
Chieco is such a great singer, too; SeraMyu basically launched her idol career. Sadly, it doesn’t look like she’s released anything since 2005, and now that she’s married and has a daughter, I find it unlikely she will do any more music, given how the idol culture is in Japan. I was fortunate enough to find all her music online back in the day. My favorite song of hers is “Quiet Riot.” It’s not super well-known, being the obscure third song off the Shining!/cry baby single, but I just really relate to it.
https://youtu.be/nZISUrwWDa0
“Shining!” is probably my favorite music video of hers, though. I mean, they’re just like dancing through like Costco or somewhere, which is pretty random, but it’s fun to watch and the song is super catchy.
Ooyama Anza
So, Anza is probably my favorite Moon, though I honestly still haven’t decided on my favorite myu Moon. I did start with Miyuki (RIP), but for some reason I just got into Anza more. I thought she both sang and acted well, and she was around long enough for you to really see her develop and improve over the five years she played Moon. I really liked her at events, both during and after her run; her personality was just really great. She’s also done quite well for herself since myu, first in her solo career and now with her band Head Phones President. I think she’s probably the only major First Stage actress who still has any sort of active career. And she hasn’t forgotten about her myu days, given the concert she did with some of her former myu costars a few years ago where they sang old SeraMyu songs. She still does musicals too (her performance as Éponine from Les Mis was pretty amazing, if this song is any indication).
I haven’t gotten to really hear her music since her Myu days, but she did do the second opening song to Cardcaptor Sakura, which I really like. Also one of my favorite performances of hers was when she came back during the SeraMyu 777th show celebration (during Marina’s era) to sing her song “Knockin’ Down Hesitation”:
Saitou Rei
Right now, as with Moon, I’m torn on who my favorite Pluto is. It’s sort of a tie between Saitou Rei, Hosaka Yuuko, and Mikako Ishii.
But since I haven’t seen all of Yuuko and Mikako’s myus, I’m going to go with Rei for this. Now, to be fair, I haven’t seen all of Rei’s myus either, since her first myu (Henshin - Super Senshi e no Michi (Kaiteiban)) was never released on video. But I’ve seen the rest.
I just really like Rei as Pluto. She nails the motherly aspects of Setsuna/Pluto, and even at events she’s treated like the cast’s mother. She also plays the mature, strong Pluto really well when needed. Most importantly, though, is how she stands on her own. Like I said, I love Yuuko, but I’ve primarily gotten into her as part of a trio with Nao and Yuuka, and I have yet to see how she does in myu without them. Rei, on the other hand, does well on her own without needing the support of the other Outers as such.
This video gives good examples of how great her singing was. She could hold her own in emotional songs like “Stay Alone” and “Sorezore no Elegy” as well as funnier songs like “Kick Out a Bloody Mystery” or her fankan version of “Mata Mata Chibiusa Desu.” She was a great live singer too, which was a big deal seeing as she came in right as Myu was transitioning to live singing.
Her best song is hands down “Onna no Ronsou” from Eien Densetsu. The song itself is what the title suggests - a “women’s dispute” - and is a duet between Pluto and Queen Beryl about their shared love for Endymion. It’s just such a great song. They even brought it back to the myus twice, in Shin Densetsu Kourin and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin (the latter of which was Yuuko’s final myu). I’ve listened to it many a time, but I still think it’s amazing. Rei and Beryl’s actress Nishina Yuri both do a fantastic job of it, honestly. But what makes this even more amazing is that Rei is holding her own against a 12-YEAR TAKARAZUKA VETERAN in Yuri. Even the Eien K Senshuuraku performance, when most of the cast seem to be barely avoiding crying by Act 2, is amazing.
Takagi Nao
Why yes, I have in fact jumped on the Nao train.
I’m sure it’s a running joke in the myu fandom by now about how many of us Bandai Myu fans love Takagi Nao, but seriously...she’s just SO COOL. I mean, she is pretty attractive too, I suppose (I don’t swing that way) but it was that coolness about her that made me really get into her. In that sense, Haruka is a perfect character for her, because Haruka herself kinda gives off that vibe -- the cool, mysterious, masculine racer who’s secretly a skirt-wearing girly fighter for justice. I seriously think that Nao is largely the reason why Sailor Uranus remains the least recast role in the Myus -- she was so good, they kept her around for 4 years! Recent social media pics have shown she’s been friendly with our current Uranus, Shuu, as well, which is nice to see, especially since in my opinion Shuu is the only one to even come close to rivaling Nao in the Uranus role.
Nao also just had SUCH great chemistry with Neptune actress Asami Yuuka that you could legit believe their characters were lovers. To be fair, she did well with Shimada Sara in her first couple myus as well, but Nao and Yuuka just clicked in a great way. When Yuuko came in in Transylvania no Mori, the three of them just became this power trio that all worked really great together.
Nao is also pretty funny with her commentaries on omake videos, and looks good even without the Uranus costume, as anyone who’s seen her performance of “Galaxia Gorgeous” can attest. That’s not to say they didn’t make her look super fashionable as Haruka, though. She pretty much rocked any outfit they put her in, like this leather jacket from Death Vulcan no Fuuin:
I do really like Nao’s singing. She had great solos in songs like “Harsh Saint Cry,” “Destined Couple,” and “Broken Mobius.” Sadly her songs were always with someone else, so she didn’t get any true solo songs, at least in the musicals themselves. She did get to sing “Knockin’ Down Hesitation” at one of the Kaguya fankans, but sadly only a short clip of it exists, and like I said she did do “Galaxia Gorgeous,” which she did awesome at. Her version of the Starlights’ song “See Me Boku-tachi no Jidai” is also really good.
Yuuga Yamato
Ok, to be fair, I’ve only seen one of Yuuga’s myus in full. But I like her for pretty much the same reason as Nao...she’s SO COOL. Going into La Reconquista, I wasn’t sure if I would like a woman playing Mamoru, but she actually does a really good job. Her years as a Takarazuka otokoyaku really show; she is crazy talented. She does a good job showing off Mamoru’s love for Usagi and pretty much rocks all her songs. She actually does a surprisingly good job at King Endymion as well (what I’ve seen of it anyway).
Probably the song she slays the most is “The Guardian Who Lost Hope” from Le Mouvement Final. When I first heard this song without having seen the video of it, I assumed Galaxia was singing it, which would make sense. But then I saw the video of it and realized MAMORU WAS SINGING IT. It’s from the scene where Sailor Moon encounters revived evil versions of all the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen en route to Galaxia’s palace. It’s actually scary how good Yuuga is at being evil. As if the singing wasn’t enough, her facial expressions just kill me -- she sings these dark lines like “Your future and love are disappearing” and FREAKING SMILES. She plays evil Mamoru as if she is having the time of her life and that’s just frightening to me.
This is in the SAME MUSICAL where we have that scene of her acting all goofy and being Usagi’s “special chef.” I mean, you have to be skilled to pull that off. Just saying.
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Ok, I think this post is long enough. I better stop.
(Pics from Sera Myu Antics, except Yuuga’s, which is from Three-lights.net)
