28-year-old document is a priceless piece of anime history.

There’s a really simple test you can use to figure out if someone is an anime fan. In the middle of a conversation, any conversation, simply drop whatever topic you’re talking about and suddenly shout “MOON PRSIM POWER…”　If they’re a regular person, they’ll panic, but if they’re an anime fan, they’ll respond with “MAKE UP!”

That’s how iconic the famous phrase ordinary schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino uses to transform into Sailor Moon has become. It’s pretty much synonymous with the entire concept of magical girl transformation, and this week none other than the voice of Sailor Moon herself showed where it all began, as voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi shared photos of her script for the debut episode of the Sailor Moon anime, including a look at the page where the transformation phrase appears for the very first time.

Mitsuishi’s personal script has her signature (written vertically) along the left edge of the cover, plus Episode 1’s original Japanese air date, Saturday, March 7 [1992]. You can also tell it’s the copy she used during recording because she’s marked her lines, and Usagi’s on-screen actions, in red. Read from right to left, the top half of the page lists the visual cues, while the bottom has the dialogue to be spoken by Usagi (うさぎ in the Japanese text) and mentor cat Luna (ルナ) as the two talk right before Usagi’s first transformation into Sailor Moon

▼ It’s the scene shown here in this film comic version.

Translated into English, the script reads:
● <Usagi, making light of Luna>
Usagi: “It all sounds so super cool♡”
● <Luna, looking serious>
Luna: “You still don’t believe what I’m saying, do you?”
● <Usagi, shaking her head>
Usagi: “No, I believe you. I do.”
<Luna, calmed>
Luna: “Really? Ok then. So, repeat after me
● <pause>
Luna: “Moon Prism Power, Make Up”
● <Usagi, saluting>
Usagi: “OK!”
<shouting>
Usagi: “Moon Prism Power, Make”
● <close-up of Usagi’s hand>
Usagi: “Up!”

And that’s how this moment in anime history, Sailor Moon’s first transformation, was made.

Mitsuishi’s photos brought back a flood of nostalgia for fans, who left comments including:

“That’s a genuine historical document!”
“Just reading the line in the script, I automatically started doing the poses with my hands!”
“That was the moment our dreams were born.”
“If it weren’t for that line, I wouldn’t have become a Sailor Moon fan. I was just about to change the channel when I heard ‘Moon Prism Power, Make Up,’ and was like time stopped.”
“Whoa, they wrote the scripts by hand back then!”
“I went to an all-boys junior high school, but every Monday we’d all be talking about what happened on the last weekend’s episode of Sailor Moon.”

One commenter also took the opportunity to retweet a pair of photos from animator Shoji Saeki, who’s in possession of a set of storyboards for the first Sailor Moon anime episode (the photographed page shows Usagi having a run-in with Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask). Saeki was given the storyboards as a gift from, of all people, Hideaki Anno, creator of the Evangelion franchise who’s also worked with Mitsushi as a result of her voicing Eva’s Misato,

And if all this reminiscing about the starting point of the Sailor Moon anime has you wanting to revisit your favorite scenes from the series, don’t forget that over 150 episodes are about to go free to watch online.

Source: Twitter/@kotochawanmoon
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he doesn’t know what happened to his stock of bootleg Sailor Moon T-shirts.