The first performance of the new Sailor Moon Musical, Petite Étrangère, opened on August 21st at AiiA Theater in Tokyo. The new musical’s story arc covers the first appearance of Chibiusa, fighting with the Black Moon Clan, and traveling to the future city of Crystal Tokyo to meet Sailor Pluto, Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion.

A recent poll in Japan revealed which shows turned the respondents into lovers of anime, and the results were completely different top five lists for fans in their teens, 20s, and 30s. The survey was carried out by website Charpedia, garnering 10,000 responses with a nearly even split between the sexes. 77.2 percent of participants were between the ages of 10 and 29, with the rest ages 30 and above. Below are the top five, broken down by age group:

The University of Tokyo Newspaper posted an interview with Shintarō Kawakubo, the editor of the Attack on Titan manga, on Wednesday, where he discusses the popularity of the series, and is quoted as saying, “The serialization is slated to end in three to four years, but Attack on Titan is a work that will be passed down from generation to generation for a decade — no, five decades.”

Chelsea Bernard from Tofugu.com has started a new series chronicling - you guessed it - female badassery in Japanese history. As she says, Japanese history, like most national histories, tends to be a bit of a sausage fest, but it’s her hope that this series will fill in some of those gender gaps and show you why the badassery of Japan’s women deserves to be recognized too!

“Attack on Titan” fan-favorite Levi, the ice-cold member of the Survey Corps, is about to get his own two-part anime DVD series. Taking place years before the start of the original “Attack on Titan” manga, “Attack on Titan: No Regrets” focuses on Levi’s past. 

The popular idol group AKB48 announced at their Group Summer Festival last Sunday that they are recruiting new “part-time” members — for 1,000 yen (about US$10) an hour. Typically, potential AKB48 candidates must first undergo an arduous audition and trainee process before being promoted to regular members, but the “Part-Time AKB” campaign winners will bypass this long process.

Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki appeared on TBS television last weekend to discuss the studio’s future now that Hayao Miyazaki has retired from directing feature films. Suzuki explained that the studio is now considering dismantling the production department, in exchange for the studio focusing on managing the trademarks of its existing characters and films.