majestic

I'll let David Warner explain what I'm yelling at the screen when I do that:

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 35. Gonna keep this one short unless something totally insane happens that I have to comment on. I want to get this over with, four episodes (including this one) left.

One of the best episodes to be sure. Seeing this with the Viz dub is a bit confusing though, after 200 episodes in German and 200 episodes in Japanese this is weird. Even though the voice actors are great.

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 34

You need to be careful, lest I write another ten page essay on mythology and how it relates to Sailor Moon. However, here's the short version: If going strictly by the names, then yes, Saturn - the Roman equivalent of Kronos and therefore the God of Time - would be a better fit for what Pluto does in the show. But that would also make Saturn the father of Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune, and Uranus the father of Saturn... and I'm sure you're beginning to see the problems here. If you want to look at the girls, their personalities and their planets you need to delve a bit into astrology, where Saturn represents death, poverty, endings, but also fears and inhibitions (modern astrology sees Saturn as a planet representing challenges to be overcome, not something entirely negative per se). Its representation is similar to the Major Arcana card "Death", which not necessarily means the literal death of someone, but also an end to something, and perhaps a new beginning. In terms of Pluto we're reaching the limits here, there is nothing that would suggest any of the Sailor Senshi to be a good representation for a Guardian of Time. The closest you can get though, really is Pluto, but not as her being the Guardian of Time, but as a representation of transformation and upheaval - or, as she says in her introduction, guided by the planet of revolution. Pluto in astrology represents extremes: Change, transformation, upheaval and revolution without the ability to go back. Insofar her watching over time and making sure nobody goes back (which she really sucks at) does make a tiny bit of sense. As much sense as astrology can make, anyway, yes? Also, if you keep spoiling yourself with google we might as well stop bothering with making sure you don't read what you're not yet supposed to. Yes, absolutely. To my absolute shame I did not fully believe in your prediction. I shall repent. There seem to be an awful lot of animes that are called Fate /, are they all kind of connected? Where to even start?

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 33 Oh that is so clever, no wonder I missed it. Maybe her brooch is a Cursed Brooch of Confusion?

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 32

This was easily my favorite book as a kid: 600 pages full of diagrams and explanations of virtually everything, or - as the cover states: From ballpoint pens to nuclear fission.

You used there correctly (twice!), come on, you can do better than that.

How would I know, I only play **** Wars.

I see, but the one I meant finances itself through ads. No need to pay. The ads are pretty bad though, so I suggest private browsing (unless you want to have games like Hentai Empire in your browsing history ). I think they even have an Android app if you have a tablet or some such you'd prefer.

Dare I assume from your grin that you know that there are other streaming services available in Germany? I know for a fact that one of them has both Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, but the latter is terrible. Don't watch that.

First point: The actual explaination for this is: Nobody involved (not even - or mabye especially not - in the source material) thought about time travel rules of the setting before they introduced it. Therefore a lot of these little inconsistencies crop up here and there. Not even the normal run of the show seems to have any linear passage of time. You have five seasons in there and a lot of seasonal changes in them, but the girls age for a grand total of two years. The most common way to reconcile this in terms of fan-canon is assuming that Usagi reset the entire timeline with the Silver Crystal at the end of the first season and the girls are 14 for two consecutive years, and the events of the first and second season of Sailor Moon essentially play concurrently at the same time. How or why the Dark Kingdom remains destroyed in the face of this reset is... well, let's face it, you can only go with the explanation that Lost offered: It's magic. Don't bother trying to understand, just enjoy the ride. However, and now it becomes really complicated, after you've watched the entire run (and this will be spoiler free), the closest you can get for explaining everything that happens on the screen in the least inconsistent manner is: Sailor Moon is a mutable single timeline with enforced time stability setting except for memories (people retain their memories of events that never will happen). This is only true for the show, by the way, and introduced as a concept in the filler arc of Sailor Stars. Therefore, every character involved, especially those from the future, must take care that events play out in the exact same way they originally did, because otherwise they would change history (they still kind of do, anyway, but that's something else). That explains the King's actions in R (and a few other things, later). Usagi resets the timeline at the end of season one and locks the girls' and her memories away so they can have a chance at a normal life. Luna's and Artemis' memories are kept intact so they can re-awaken them as Sailor Senshi if something goes wrong. While it is not shown directly, the only way for the Dark Kingdom to not show up again is for Usagi to have stopped the reincarnation of Queen Beryl from finding the sealed tomb of Metalia (like I said, it's magic). Sailor Pluto is a Time Lord. Her appearances on the show are set a different times of her personal timeline. The spacetime corridor from R exists outside of spacetime itself, because otherwise you couldn't have #3. Sailor Pluto isn't really that good at her job. Second point: No, it will not, you'll need to live with that. The show will almost neurotically stick to the established formula for its entire run. There are some exceptions, but expect it to be here to stay and you should be good.

@Bartimaeus I'm surprised you can link the wiki images, that doesn't work for me at all for some reason. Or at least it always shows a blank image in the preview. Hey look at that, Ami gets corrupted in this version and becomes DARK MERCURY. Woha, look at this image link working. Weird. I'm loving this already. Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 31. Look, an episode so amazing that I barely have anything to say about it. Well that's easy to fix, you clearly need to watch some 90ies Sailor Moon!

Guys... Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is the schlockiest, campiest camp of all time. Imagine this like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, only with less budget and more Japanese girls, and a lot less Kevin Sorbo. And a more contemporary setting. In fact it's nothing like Hercules at all, except for the cheap production values. Looks like they didn't have the budget to properly dye the girls' hair. Usagi, Naru, Ami... they all have dark hair. They put on wigs when they transform. Except Naru, obviously, Naru doesn't transform. Luna is a terrible CGI cat unless they need one of the girls to touch her. In which case she becomes a plush toy. An inanimate plush toy that only moves on its own if the take allows for someone to move it without their hands to be seen - or they have a hand puppet version of the toy too. Mamoru is rocking a killer mullet and is trying to find the Silver Crystal and Luna gives Usagi what looks like a pink clamshell mobile phone from 2003. Which it probably is. Usagi's transformation pen is actually her mobile phone. She just takes a picture and transforms into whoever she took the picture of. That's not bad. When she transforms into Sailor Moon, she actually puts on make up in the form of her magical lipstick. How old are these actors? Okay, Wikipedia says at the time this was made the girl gang was between 15 and 17, and Mullet Chiba was 20. Finally... this is clearly the best shot of the first episode: Feast your eyes on Tuxedo Mullet and Sailor Wig. Gotta admit, I had more fun watching this than in watching 30 episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal.

I think Usagi calls Naru her best friend once, and that is in the first episode, which was probably the closest the old anime ever got to a direct manga adaptation (and even then it changed certain elements for the better *cough*). Pretty standard early installation weirdness (in the manga Sailor Moon wears Sailor V style glasses when transformed, that goes away really quickly too). I wouldn't even hold it against the manga, and I guess you guys by now realize that I tend to do so with a lot of things. More than what's fair, mostly because of comments from the fandom and the creator herself. Neither Naoko Takeuchi nor the showrunners knew where the material was going. Having a normal best friend didn't work out, and it is easy to see why, both on a meta and an in-universe level. That Naru falls by the wayside is a logical development. The 90ies anime gives her much more screen time anyway, and both the old anime and the manga even give her a scene where you can guess that she knows about Usagi being Sailor Moon and has accepted that their friendship won't ever be the same again. It happens. From what I've read, in the live action series Naru gets a completely new arc where she becomes estranged from Usagi when she makes new friends. They eventually reconcile. That makes a good deal of sense. The more I read about that live action series, the more I like where it was going. Not sure I want to watch it though. Not sure I can watch it. Where would I even get it? TF1 is a french TV station, but that doesn't necessarily make HoonDing French. He could just as well be from Canada or Switzerland, certain parts of Germany or from one of the former French colonies. Or just a weirdo that watched French TV for fun. Still, sounds like a reasonable assumption.

More like doubleplusungood, right? However, believe it or not, that's unfair to Deanna Troi. Every now and then she did something else than play Captain Obvious, and she has some character development. However, Sailor Moon Crystal doesn't make an effort in giving Rei any meaningful screen time at all. If Rei wouldn't show up every now and then as Sailor Mars to throw some fireballs at enemies repeating what just happened on screen would be the only thing she does. I think in the five episodes of season three so far she had one or two lines of dialogue where she didn't do that (might be hyperbole, but not much, really). Otherwise she dreams of something (or else has a vision in the flames), we see what's happening in the dream (complete with narration of what's happening IN THE DREAM while she's DREAMING) and after she wakes up she just repeats the narration. Mamoru does that too, but he gets a lot of screen time and character development. I'll say this for Sailor Moon Crystal, in this season at least his relationship with Usagi is decent, and it is a nice change to see both being jealous over someone other than Chibi-Usa. It's nice. But that was one two minute scene in 30 episode with a runtime of 24 minute each (more like 15-20 when you cut out stock footage and opening and closing credits). A more apt comparison would maybe be Lt. Tawny Madison from Galaxy Quest. Because she really doesn't do anything else than repeat what is going on, but... the one's satire, the other's quite clearly not. edit: I'm linking the videos for fun mostly. I know you know the reviews (and everything else) but I still like the underscore it gives my texts. Plus with nobody else clicking on it nobody is bothered by the videos bypassing the, uhm, ahem, word filter here.

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 30:

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 29:

Yeah, in the original anime that was a normal friendship. And yeah, I can understand if the look of ReBoot puts you off. I'd say the show gets better in time, which it does, because every season improved the animation, but even in the end it's a far cry from being impressive, beyond being impressive for its budget and being on TV at the time. Sadly this fine wine already turned into vinegar. The show gets the biggest technical upgrade in season 3 (season 4 was way later, and remains only half-finished, sadly, so I pretend it doesn't exist). It also has the opening narrated by Megabyte, because at the end of season 2 he manages attack Mainframe and in force and tries to turn it into... Megaframe! I just love the nerd stuff in this, and the references. The opening narration alone, when Megabyte introduces himself. My format: Virus. To Corrupt & Conquer! And it gets only better from there. Also pretty sure one of the top comments on this video is right. If Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell watched that episode when it aired, they'd probably have laughed their asses off. And now, regarding Crystal: Well... that's a tough one. It doesn't make me "crazy", although I have to admit looking at that picture of Makoto with her spliced open mouth - really, that's what I see when I look at this, it is UNNERVING - doesn't help my mental state when watching this. I honestly do wish that I would have never known about it. I could still live in my happy filter bubble where the 90ies anime was great to watch and the mysterious manga in the background was something better that I heard of but never checked out because I can't read Japanese. However, @KaineParker is right of course. Given the circumstances of the manga, the time when it was released, the stress it was put out under and the pacing issues it can be more readily forgiven for its problems than Sailor Moon Crystal. The show is a great showcase of what happens when you directly adapt source material without giving it any thought, like Tuxedo Kamen being a complete creep or the girls having internal monologues stating what is happening on the screen.

Don't ruin my point. (but yes, you're right) You should find a way to join. It's fun, and wholesome, and occasionally really creepy. But don't let that bother you. I'm not making a good case here, am I?

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 28: I thought I could do this without typing something up. Turns out I can't. But it'll be shorter, hopefully. edit: Nope, turns out this also took an hour and a half and is just as long. Meh. Edit: I realize that I once stated that I don't think that the few panty shots that made it into the Sailor Moon 90ies anime should be used to detract from its overall message because it was the wont for the time (and eh, it still is, for anime, I guess), much like one should not attack Star Trek: TOS for having the woman of color on the bridge answer the phone when actually having a woman (let alone one of color) on the bridge was leaps and bounds ahead of its time. It does not apply in this case, because the manga and the anime came out concurrently. The anime was clearly the more progressive of the two even with the sexualization aspects of it, and also the less creepy, even with everything that happens in SuperS. Yes, featuring a relationship like that in any Shojo manga was progressive, but dropping the terrible kiss-stealing trope and making said relationship much more openly seen speaks very much in favor of the anime. edit 2: I'm also really angry at the manga, Crystal and all the fanboys for some reason. That poor unicorn-guy is just my stand-in punching bag. But mostly I guess... I don't know. I expected more from the manga to be honest, not less. And it is, well, a lot less. Really. Such a disappointment.

You'll see when you watch the S movie. It... makes sense in context. S might have been the best Sailor Moon season, but I think the movie is the worst of the bunch, but that depends on how much you like the SuperS movie story, because that was a Japanese take on European fairy and folk tales. No, no gun to my head, but anything Star Wars and Star Trek related I go watch with a friend of mine who is a very active fanboy (I mentioned them being part of the official fan club, and they're often out doing promotional work when there's no pandemic, so that's free tickets - I can at least claim that I haven't given Disney money for the new trilogy ). The Bond films I went to see with my mother. So there. But, and there comes the caveat, I'd watch them without any external impetus just as well. I'm like the moron kid who burns his fingers on the stove every time because he doesn't learn.

Yeah, no. The mining ships were more than sufficient to being a campaign without having to look for a super weapon. It's not like everyone has a Beastie Boys CD lying around. At least... I hope that's not the case in the 23rd century. Speaking of on topic, you could join us watching Sailor Moon.

Before I return to hatewatching Sailor Moon Crystal so I can be done with it and focus on more fun things like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Steven Universe I'll take some time to introduce something I mentioned earlier: ReBoot. But! Not the reboot of ReBoot because that was so bad it's good gone so wrong that it's so bad it's good it's horrible. But anyway. I'm sure there are posters here who haven't seen the original ReBoot. I think @Malcador did, at least he expressed some desire to see the terrible reboot at some point. What is ReBoot? ReBoot is a fully CGI TV show from '94 that... whoa whoa whoa you say. TV, '94, CGI? Indeed! So we can get the prime issue out of the way then. The show looks dated. To say it aged poorly is the understatement of the century. The designs are simple, the animation is super stiff and even the highest quality sources you can potentially find look desastrous. For a long time this only existed as poor VHS scans. There's a DVD version now, but it still doesn't look good. With that out of the way, what is it about? Life in a mainframe! The first season is mostly episodic until the second season introduces a story arc. The creators constantly had to deal with cencorship (the show aired on ABC), which sometimes lead to hilarious episodes where they spoofed having to constantly rewrite parts of their scripts so they would pass evaluation. One of the best episodes of the entire run, the first season's "Talent Night" features a censor that is constantly banning acts from appearing. The episode ends with Bob summoning his "BFG"... It also features a YMCA spoof "BSnP" by a group called Small Town Binomes: Instead of monsters of the week most of the time like in other shows at the time (ahem...) in the first season the user simply uploads a game, and Mainframe's guardian Bob (sort of an anti-virus software) has to win against the user. Should the user win the game, any sprites, binomes, numerals or other inhabitants of Mainframe will be reduced to nulls. This is later phased out for a more story driven format. When it's not user interference that troubles Mainframe it is the two computer viruses that are around. Megabyte (voiced by the magnificent Tony Jay) who wants to control all of Mainframe and Hexadecimal, a complete nutjob whose only goal is to cause as much wanton destruction and chaos as possible. The show really kicks off in the second season when a web creature invades Mainframe. At the end of the season, a group of ABCs is seen attacking Mainframe too (ABC and the creators had a ,uhm, falling out over creative differences). It's delightfully full of every possible piece of nerd humor and reference you can dream up. From the command line of Mainframe called Phong, to the Diner owner Dot Matrix, the freelance hacker called Mouse and the fun viruses. It even has an X-Files spoof episode in the second season that features CGI Special Agents Fax Modem and Data Nully (voiced by none other than Gillian Anderson herself). Fax Modem, Data Nully and Bob also have one of the best dialogues ever. Assuming one knows X-Files and liked it. Modem keeps telling Bob his conspiracy theories, like how there is no user and the Guardians perpetrate the User myth to keep control over computer systems or that his friend Mouse is maybe a web creature in disguise. Bob eventually asks Data Nully: "Is your partner completely random?"