When talking about iconic anime and manga, it’s impossible to discount Sailor Moon. The title character and her band of Sailor Guardians revolutionized the magical girl genre in their quests to vanquish evil. Just as iconic is the original opening theme ‘Moonlight Densetsu’. As soon as anyone hears those first few bars, they will immediately want to grab their talking cat and take down some baddies.

Thanks to Nami Kiniei and her accompanying band, this nostalgic tune takes on a new traditional twist. She plays the shamisen, a stringed Japanese instrument. Backed up by flute, percussion, a 20 stringed koto, and a 17 stringed koto, she presents a version of the theme song bursting with traditional charm.

A nice touch is that the instrumentalists have matched their kimono’s colour to the main characters from the series. The symbols associated with each Sailor Guardian appear above them during the performance.

If you like traditional Japanese covers of popular music, you may also like this rendition of the Final Fantasy battle theme or a tribute to the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.