In every episode of the Sailor Moon Fan Club podcast, we ask each guest our favorite question — “What’s your first memory of Sailor Moon?” It’s always incredible to see — or hear — someone light up as they recall the first time they encountered this magical [girl] series.

During the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live press junket, we had the pleasure of asking the same question to choreographer Satomi Toma, performer Riko Tanaka (who portrays Usagi/Sailor Moon in the live show), and lead producer Makoto Matsuda. And they did not disappoint.

For Tanaka, while she portrays Sailor Moon on the stage, she actually had another favorite when she was younger.

“I was like three or four years old when I first came across Sailor Moon and I think I saw it in animation first but it was at that age when you kind of play the character with your friends and stuff, and since then actually my favorite character was Sailor Jupiter and at that point I've been playing 'I'm going to do Sailor Jupiter' so that was kind of my first time with Sailor Moon,” she said.

Toma didn’t want to share her first memory, but she explained how the art in the Sailor Moon manga created by Naoko Takeuchi inspired her choreography for the live show.

“I don't want to say exactly when I first came across Sailor Moon because you're gonna be able to calculate how old I am,” she said as Tanaka laughed beside her. “But, joking aside, once I got involved in this production, I had the opportunity to re-read [...] the original manga and I was so moved and impressed by this elegant line, the beauty of how it's being portrayed so it kind of relates to what we were talking about before when I was talking about choreography but how her hair moves, how her skirt flutters, and that sense is something that I really want to... that sense of awe I do want to keep in the production as well. So that impression that it had on me was very strong. [...] There's a colored version as well but especially the black and white version, I feel like that line is something that left an impression on me when I was looking at the original comic for the first time.”

Matsuda, who’s also the founding chairman of The Japan 2.5 Dimensional Musical Association, had a more “unusual” introduction to the series.

“So he's a little unusual because he didn't watch it when he was growing up but he has a sister — older sister — so she has been live watching it growing up so he knew about it but he never really had to really see it until grew up and saw it in theater,” said the Japanese interpreter Masako Shiba, who translated his answer. “That was his first time really watching Sailor Moon and there was somebody that was already doing a musical version of it so he's like the second lead to create this world in theater production format.”

He continued: “But I was watching and I was like this is amazing, so interesting but at the same time like 'I would do this differently if I were doing this.' So there was like that kind of interesting way… that's how I encountered Sailor Moon.”

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live show kicked off its U.S. tour in Pittsburgh, PA on March 12, and will make stops in 21 cities including Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York.

Information on the tour and tickets can be found here. The promo video and a few photos from the live show can also be found below.