Sailor Moon is getting a theme park ride. Universal Studios Japan announced on Wednesday that it is teaming up with the franchise for next year’s Universal Cool Japan campaign, and the centrepiece is a new “Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon x Story Ride” attraction — the first theme park ride the series has ever had.
What the collaboration includes
The park has not yet detailed what the Story Ride will do, saying more information will be announced at a later date. Alongside the attraction, the 2027 collaboration will bring back the original manga and CG anime short “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon the Miracle: Moon Place Chapter Deluxe,” which first appeared during Universal Cool Japan 2019. An updated Deluxe edition of the short played at the park in 2022, and the short later screened at Universal Studios Hollywood in California during its Fan Fest Night event, which ran from April 25 to May 16 earlier this year.
Themed food and merchandise are also part of the plan, as is standard for Universal Cool Japan collaborations.
What Universal Cool Japan is
Universal Cool Japan is the park’s annual programme of limited-time attractions and promotions built around anime, manga, video games, and similar pop culture properties. Each year the park announces its lineup piece by piece, with the Sailor Moon collaboration the first confirmed property for the 2027 edition. Past editions have mixed rides, walk-through attractions, restaurants, and exclusive merch around franchises such as Detective Conan, Attack on Titan, and Monster Hunter.
This is not Sailor Moon‘s first tie-up with Universal Studios Japan — the franchise previously collaborated with the park in 2018, 2019, and 2022. The difference this time is the format: earlier collaborations were built around the short film and themed food and goods, while 2027 adds a full ride attraction to the mix.
Why it matters
A theme park ride is a different scale of investment than a seasonal pop-up. Universal Studios Japan has been steadily pushing its anime and game collaborations as a way to drive repeat visits, and giving Sailor Moon its own ride signals how firmly the franchise still sells tickets in Japan — more than 30 years after Naoko Takeuchi’s manga debuted in 1991 and the original anime premiered in 1992. The property has stayed active since, through the Sailor Moon Crystal reboot that began in 2014 and the Sailor Moon Cosmos two-part film that closed out that storyline in 2023.
It also fits a broader pattern of classic shoujo and retro properties being revived for new audiences. The Magic Knight Rayearth revival and the return of Red River — which our Red River anime coverage digs into — follow the same logic: recognisable names from the 1990s are being reworked for viewers who either grew up with them or have never seen them.
For anyone planning around the trip, the date to note is “2027,” with the park yet to confirm when in the year the attraction opens or how the ticket system will work for limited-time rides. Universal Cool Japan lineups typically run in themed waves through the year, so expect the remaining 2027 properties to be announced over the coming months. We track confirmed anime dates in our Fall 2026 anime season guide.
Sources: Anime News Network, citing Universal Studios Japan and Comic Natalie
Featured image: Sailor Moon collaboration art from Universal Studios Japan, via Anime News Network.
