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Just like the Sailor Senshi are always there for each other, so too are the members of this documentary’s group of cosplay collaborators.

There are countless videos that show how cosplay enthusiasts put together their outfits. In the Name of the Moon: A Sailor Moon Cosplay Documentary, though, doesn’t put its focus on the technical aspects of hobby, but on the human ones.

The documentary follows the LaSoldier cosplay team, which was formed by a group of like-minded college friends whose original goal was to dress up as the Sailor Senshi for the 2010 iteration of Maryland-located anime convention Katsucon.

For a quality finished product, even individual cosplay requires a sizeable time investment and emotional commitment. So multiply that by the large number of characters in Sailor Moon’s core cast, and the result is feelings and friendships as strong as the anime heroines’ magical powers.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/inthenameofthemoon/132013825

Just to be clear, all of this talk of interpersonal relationships isn’t meant in any way to take away from how impressive LaSoldier’s finished costumes are. The before/after images from the 71-minute documentary’s preview trailer prove that these fans really know their stuff.

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In their interviews, though, the LaSoldier members keep coming back to the connections they felt first to the characters they cosplay as, and then to each other.

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But even though their bonds mirror those of the anime icons they admire, reality is creeping into LaSoldier’s lovingly crafted fantasy. Cosplay is a young person’s game, and it’s not unusual for even ardent anime fans to find their priorities shifting as they get older. Adult responsibilities and demands on your time and energy can make it difficult to set aside an entire weekend to travel to an anime convention to show off a costume, let alone spend months gathering materials, sewing, and coordinating with the rest of the group. “We just live…so far apart now. Just, specially, it’s hard to get together,” laments one LaSoldier member in the preview, while another admits that they may only have one more full-force gathering in them.

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Still, you can’t have a bittersweet reunion without some sweetness too, and it’s clear the LaSoldier cosplayers have a deep, genuine affection for one another.

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While the preview ends with an expressed release date of Fall 2013, In the Name of the Moon has been much more recently added to video streaming site Vimeo, and if you’re interested in checking out the rest of LaSoldier’s story, the documentary can be rented or purchased here.

H/T Kotaku Japan
Images: Vimeo/@Productions