Moon Prism Power, Twenty Years Later

Sailor Moon—the anime, not Usagi herself—turned 20 this year. Which means our beloved klutzy protagonist is, by the show’s own internal math, 34 years old. Thirty-four. I need a moment with that number.

Japan has not quietly let the anniversary pass. Alongside the long-awaited announcement of a new series, TV Asahi put out Sailor Moon: The 20th Anniversary Memorial Tribute, a covers album with current J-Pop artists revisiting the classic opening and ending themes. Tommy heavenly6, Momoiro Clover Z, Shoko Nakagawa—acts I know mostly through other anime credit sequences—each putting their stamp on songs that most Western fans absorbed without ever really consciously listening to them. I’m in that group. The originals lived in the background of rooms I spent a lot of time in as a kid, half-registered, never focused on, and yet somehow completely interior now. That’s a specific kind of nostalgia: not memory but atmosphere.

The album was available to import for around thirty euros. A completely reasonable price to hear those songs through adult ears while some part of you does quiet math about what 34 actually means.