How do you condense the first arc of a best-selling, beloved magical girl manga into ninety minutes with less than twenty performers and time left for a musical encore? Surprisingly well, actually.

English Sailor Moon fans will be quick to let everyone else know that the UK is last in the line; we're only, for example, seeing the Viz Blu-ray of the '90s anime series in 2025. However, when it was announced London would be the city on The Super Live tour after Taipei and Paris, everyone was excited.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live is being held at two venues in London, HERE at Outernet and Koko, and the set boils down to a multi-level stage area and a massive screen that serves as moveable scenery and the backdrop for the show. The performers—five Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, Queen Beryl, and the ensemble who do double time as schoolgirls and Dark Kingdom minions—dance and sing while condensing the first arc of the manga, which sees the girls face off against the Dark Kingdom.

The performance uses a mix of familiar storytelling, musical numbers, and high-powered spotlights. The screen also serves double duty: It helps move the story along and provides subtitles for the audience.

The screen uses a mix of manga-style art to create gorgeous, hazy images of the Moon Kingdom and the vague figures of Serenity and Endymion. It actually works really well and helps convey the basics to the audience, such as giving all the info you need about each Sailor Guardian, from their civilian identity to their color-coded powers. The downside is that many of the subtitles read rather bluntly, and the straight subtitles, which deliver much of the dialogue, are very bland and mediocre compared to the musical numbers.

There is quite a bit of dialogue, but if you've seen the anime or read the manga, you'll know where this is going. Of course, we're here for the performances, beginning with “You're My Universe,” a more recent song introduced in the Nelke musicals. Most of the other songs are original to The Super Live, although there is also the obligatory encore set, which includes “La Soldier” from the Sera Myu runs and, of course, the final song of the night has to be the Japanese anime opening theme “Moonlight Densetsu” (“Moonlight Legend”).

During the musical numbers, the screen features quirky lyrics and feels more like colorful desktop screensavers with a hard-core Sailor Moon aesthetic. Even better, Usagi's go-to advisor, Luna, appears on-screen at several key points with pre-recorded dialogue, and it's great to see her; Luna was missing from all of the Nelke musicals until she was introduced as a puppet in the Nogizaka46 production and then as a real live girl in The Lover of Princess Kaguya.

So, what isn't included in this performance? Well, most of the worldbuilding is out. The Four Generals are nowhere to be seen, and neither is Queen Serenity or the Moon Kingdom, bar a brief flashback showing Beryl as a human and the tragedy of Endymion and Serenity.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live is fast-paced but still feels less rushed than most West End shows. We get to see the Sailor Guardians assembling, transforming, and doing their catchphrases, but the songs aren't quite as catchy as, for example, the Nogizaka46 musicals or 2013's La Reconquista.

There are some uses of English words; in one song, when all the Guardians focus on their power, it features intelligence for Sailor Mercury to love for Sailor Venus. For the most part, we also get original Japanese terms, until one section where the cast suddenly switches from ‘maboroshi no ginzuishō’ to “Silver Crystal' for a couple of minutes.

However, what the show lacks from not being a full performance is easier to export. The venue was packed with people, some in their forties and others bringing their kids. The cast was also really welcoming. They gave the signal to whip out themed light sticks for the final encore and then met VIP guests for high fives and photos after the show.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live feels like a test run to gauge interest for future ventures (in an ideal world, this would be full, local runs of the earlier musicals). That said, the production put a lot of love and care into the performance and utilizing local venues to make the show feel like it belongs. It's an intense experience visually and musically, but there are calmer moments and times to breathe. And, despite being loud and noisy, it's a very child-friendly event, so if you have a little Sailor Moon or a small Tuxedo Mask, they will love this show.

The mix of the light show, dialogue, interpretive dance, and circus skills (the girls use ribbons at one point and then produce light-up spinners that show each Guardian's symbol at high speed) works brilliantly, along with a much-loved story.

The actresses themselves are a mix of newcomers to Sailor Moon while the actor for Tuxedo Mask (Sufa, who appeared as the same character in Shining Moon Tokyo, a dinner show which was canceled early due to the COVID-19 pandemic) reprises a different form of an earlier role.

Led by Yui Yokoyama as Usagi/Sailor Moon, the Inner Guardians actresses portray their characters as true to the story of Sailor Moon whilst also coming across as enthusiastic and upbeat. By the time they start doing circus tricks with LEDs, it's clear they're having a lot of fun!

Despite the time and space constraints, the girls manage to embody their characters well, from out-going wannabe idol Minako (Sailor Venus) to stern and strict Rei (Sailor Mars), and the performance does spend a few minutes with each Guardian before they transform, rounding them out as living, breathing characters, before they become powered-up magical girls.

Queen Beryl (Mayu Tsuyuzume) is suitably threatening yet still able to play a more tragic role in her unrequited love for Endymion. She also gets a song all of her own which helps the audience to understand the Dark Kingdom and exactly what she wants in the world.

The Prince of Earth, meanwhile, continues to be played as dashing, charismatic, and, ultimately, the driving force behind Sailor Moon's growth as a Guardian, either as her destined love interest or as an unwilling and brainwashed member of the Dark Kingdom.

The rest of the company plays changing roles throughout the production and really rounds out the cast so that the performance feels perfectly balanced between its central cast and the supporting players with the 2.5D focus of the show.

So, North American audiences, should you go? If you love Sailor Moon and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live is coming to a city near you, definitely! It's one of those experiences that doesn't come along all that often, and hopefully, sold-out shows will convey the need for future productions outside of Japan to all the important people.