Bartimaeus

How'd you like Chibi-Usa's introduction? It just about killed me. I certainly don't hate her, but I did find her a little wearing in some of the episodes where the majority of the episode was told from her perspective.

I'm really looking forward to meeting that pegasus. For sure. Yeah. ...Remind me to read these posts again when I actually get to these episodes. I'll be able to more properly respond to them when I've actually seen them, . My hope is that I'm not quite as creeped out by some of this as you are...but uhh, probably a fat chance of that, huh? (e): Also a sufferer of astigmatism (and the double-vision phenomenon you just described is exactly what I get), I always thought it was completely normal and never told anyone, but it apparently isn't. On the other hand, I've always had good hand-to-eye coordination and depth perception even with it (no myopia, though), so I don't know how that works out.

Steven Universe: It probably won't be, licensing with Cartoon Network shows is almost always terrible, I'm genuinely surprised the first season is somehow on Netflix (99.9% sure it's not in the U.S.). I jumped in while the fifth season was just starting, and used a combination of re-runs, live-airing, and illegitimate* sources to watch it. I don't know how you'd want to solve that. It's a shame, too - the second season is when I became fully convinced it was my favorite show due to a particularly great stretch of episodes. *Gabe Newell once said that piracy is usually the result of service problems. Well...he wasn't wrong.

Unrelated to Sailor Moon: I'm gonna have to try out this show sometime.

that guy: dig ditches, dig more ditches, ditches in ditches, ditches on ditches, ditches before the ditches, ditches beyond the ditches, ditches ditches ditches it seems like ditches were important.

lmao

It is a very different time. Also, when you watched it, the episodes were still new (and presumably you couldn't obtain the manga or read Japanese), so that would have kind of prevented you from looking up anything either, . One thing I've noticed is that this show goes a lot farther with Usagi's expressions than with anyone else's. She has so many different "meme"-ish expressions that nobody else really does. The two closest things I can think of are Rei and Chibi-Usa sticking their tongues out (at Usagi no less), as well as a commonly shared between everyone (including even the cats) exasperated expression. But Usagi's had so much more than that. I guess it's a benefit of being the protagonist...and being the most expressive character with the most screen time. (e): One positive thing I'll say about the generated villains, is that even if their designs aren't particularly memorable, I do appreciate that they are very often humorously built off of their situation/surroundings. It's not always enough to make them notable, but at least they were trying to do something.

Yeah, consider what I say to me be thinking out loud and fan-theorying, not actually asking for any genuine information/spoilers, .

lmao that could've been the worst, glad it wasn't I've only ever read one manga before, and that was the original Dragon Ball (I discovered that simply reading the manga was a lot less painful compared to actually watching the show, ). That was an experience. (e):

I read your entire post, and the good news is that I had my brain in don't-remember mode and already forgot 95% of what you said, so one of the actually good episodes of SuperS remains unspoiled, . Actually, I was also going to ask about how close SuperS follows the manga - thought there might be a Game of Thrones situation where the writers are good at adapting material, but not so good at coming up with brand new material...but it seems like from what you've said, SuperS doesn't deviate *that* far from the manga, though you'd probably actually have to read it at length to know for sure. @KaineParker R stays pretty normal in that sense, I think. It's S where it starts getting a little wackier, and then it's SuperS where it blasts off to the moon, . The good news is S is possibly the best season of the show so it's forgivable - FORGIVABLE! - whereas in SuperS...well...

I assume you meant to say "dislike"? I'm the same way - even for some of my biggest media loyalties, I've never adopted a particular label from them to describe myself as, .

Moonie is a really bad term. I can't think of anything better that fits, though, which is probably why it stuck.

The Makai Tree arc was really funny (but actually has even worse minions than season 1 that I actually complained about at the time when I was watching early R - I do not like Pokemon-style monsters that just shout their own names over and over...thankfully, that particular type does pass). I'll no doubt find it even funnier knowing how everything works out when I re-watch the show years in the future.

Queen Beryl is indeed a terrible villain. Incompetent and impotent, frequently wastes resources and minions, and is constantly taking out the anger of her own failures on her minions. Also, completely clueless. Pretty much completely contemptible without any redeeming values (in terms of likability and entertainment value) besides the fact her visual design and voice are pretty memorable. You may find the first arc of Sailor Moon R to have more likable villains (at least, I thought they were - still dumb like everyone else in this show, but they actually exist in the show alongside all the other characters rather than occupying an ethereal and secluded 'zone' where they never do anything and do attempt to do things themselves). @majestic lmao, I forgot about that Ami picture, but to be honest, while that is definitely a thing, we the audience don't really see anything from it except that it's supposed to be embarrassing and hilarious, especially since it's framed to specifically have attention drawn towards it (and I do thinking framing matters a lot for these things). So I actually have less of a problem with that versus just casual exploitation that no note is made of at all.

Yeah. I won't be happy to see it. Just watched episode 8, the Ami episode. It was a really good one, and spent almost all of the episode on good character stuff...and then the monster that appeared at the last second was hilarious and a little more characterized than normal (and also dealt with very quickly to give the episode a nice ending). (e): I actually tried to watch Redline some time back. I, uh, don't think male-focused (i.e. power fantasy) anime racing stuff is for me, suffice to say, .

Heh, it can be interesting to pay attention to who writes what in a series like this. Sometimes things are completely seamless and you wouldn't even think to check who did what, much less be able to recognize one writer's work from the next...and then other shows, there are such mountainous drops and climbs in quality between consecutive episodes that it surely cannot be coincidence. What's amazing is if for a show like Adventure Time, that I, a relatively casual watcher and nothing approaching like a superfan or anything of that nature, can recognize that there's something seriously wrong with the quality output of a few specific writers, how the heck don't the people in charge of a show? There are episodes in that show where I *hate* my favorite characters because of how utterly bizarre and out-of-character they're acting. You'd think there'd be someone down the line during production that would tell somebody else, "Hey, uh...I don't think main character X should really be acting like a bipolar paranoid schizophrenic for no real explainable reason, maybe we should rethink this?". Nah, it's all cool, just roll with it. Get these hack fraud bozos off of my show, please, and pay the other people who aren't cheats and swindlers more money to write more, please.

I always associate terrible things with Initial D because over a decade ago, I was an admin on a specific-game related forum where one of the moderators had the name "initialD", and he ending up going completely nuts over something really silly (don't remember exactly what, something pride-related), and we spent like a month trying to repair things, eventually gave up and removed him from the staff team, which only made him even more mad and we ended up banning him after non-stop infractions. I tell this story anytime anybody brings up Initial D. No, I don't have any idea what Initial D actually is, and I'm not going to find out.

Definitely agree that a variety of different methods would've been much better. Somehow, the Sailor Guardians are just as dumb in the same exact way. Superhero costumes, man - somehow, they work (almost) every time.

From your description of the episode, you would almost think this is some kind of dark psychological thriller, and not lovey-dovey silly Sailor Moon. This season sounds so messed up, . Will appreciate the guide on SuperS. It at least helps to know what's dumb in advance as opposed to reacting as it's happening and getting upset. In regards to characters not behaving like they should, it totally makes sense - it's a problem I've seen other cartoons have when they go on for too long with no good fresh ideas, new writers come in and start writing plots and characters as if they were from 2-3 seasons ago before major things and character growth happened. Although according to you, it's the same people from the previous seasons, so that makes it all the more bizarre. @KaineParker The boxing monster was indeed hilarious. The monster of the week thing (which is predominantly what drives them to fight) is indeed probably the weakest part of the show, and I've said it before that I would've been perfectly good with an episode here and there where there...just isn't any fighting at all (there are *plenty* of ways in which the Sailor Guardians could resolve conflicts, both supernatural and not, that the show could've revolved episodes around that didn't involve fighting...the show insists on sticking to its guns for the most part though). There are just too many randos generated at the beginning of episodes that you just *know* are going to get dusted by the end of it.

Slipping while climbing up to get a better look at the full moon? I've never heard of this lady, but as a fellow moon-and-stargazer myself, that is just the worst way to go, .

So far, I've seen the opposite reaction from the conservatives I know that were genuinely disgusted by Trump. One person I know has been a conservative all her life, but had started to waver when Trump started getting popular in the run-up to the 2016 election, and refused to vote for him when he won the nomination (though she also refused to vote for Hillary). After four years of Trump, she gladly voted for Biden, and I guess watched him make his victory speech and then the inauguration as well. She said listening to him make his pathetically generic and boring speeches about unity and needing to come together as a nation and blah blah blah...just about put her to sleep - which is exactly what she wants after the last four years of madness, . Again, this is someone who's been conservative all her life, is Christian, pro-gun, strongly anti-abortion, Reagan was her childhood hero (born in the 70s...). She's not had a single negative word to say about the current administration so far...I'm sure after the last four years of the nation being collectively traumatized, any minor complaints we might have would be minor indeed, and we all know it and are going to keenly keep it in mind when evaluating this administration going forward. In that sense, Biden should have a much easier time having a generally positive image compared to his predecessors - for those of us that aren't obstinately clinging to bat**** insanity, of course. Roughly half of the Republican House of Representatives gives the loud-and-proud QAnon rep, Greene, a standing ovation in the House. Can only assume the other half is thinking "welp this party is screwed...but if you can't beat them, you might as well join them".

Sounds like you're more or less watching exactly how I watch, then, . Although I think I loved the show more than you are currently - I'll be curious to see if you'll continue with/be able to stick with season 2, since it's a bit different and loses some of the insanity in favor of trying to be more story-focused. @majesticI'm actually finding myself missing Chibi-Usa. Stockholm syndrome, presumably - but no, it feels like one of the gang is missing. From everything you've said, it sounds like I will lose that feeling as soon as she actually returns, . While it's true that I love insanity and silliness, it should be noted that I generally get a very sharp and negative feeling for things that are decidedly out of place, out of character, or otherwise illogical. The single episode I had an overall negative feeling for so far was S2E16, the Ami-focused episode where there's nothing even particularly bad with it, it's just directed very awkwardly, and characters were acting bizarrely. The show has done an excellent job of straddling the line between things making sense while still being ridiculous - if it goes too far into being ridiculous while sacrificing the story and characters sensibly working within themselves, and from everything you've said S4 does just that, it is almost definitely going to start being a negative experience for me. So I am indeed expecting the worst for when I get there, as I know myself all too well - the negative parts of something are always a much stronger presence than the positive things for me. Even in my absolute favorite shows, I have always been very quick to criticize and think of things that didn't work quite as well as they should've if things had just been done slightly differently. In that sense, Sailor Moon has been great in that it has almost entirely avoided anything that I would consider to be a major negative (plenty of little things that I can and have forgiven certainly, but nothing major...yet), while pretty consistently highlighting the positive.