majestic

Watched a bit more of the first Madoka "film". The animation and sound quality are really much better - or that is because this has a bluray source and the anime I watched on Netflix. The scenes are obviously more detailed - see the pictures I posted before - but maybe the quality issue is also from using a streaming service. The material itself works just as well as it did the first time around. While you could say that the initial watch is full of surprises, a second watch doesn't fall short. The emotional impact doesn't rely on surprise at all, if anything, knowing what is going to happen makes certain parts... There's one thing that can be a little irritating, I suppose, in case you would really look at this as a film instead of six 20 minute episodes shown as one. The structure doesn't really adhere to any conventional film wisdom, of course. How could it, that was meant to work as six discrete episodes. Minor things, at any rate.

To be honest actually reading the manga, or at least parts of it so far was a major wakeup call. More than watching Crystal was. I don't think I've ever run into a deeper gulf between what seems to have been the creator intention, her statements (some which were probably made in anger while utterly stressed out) and the fanbase misunderstanding and misrepresenting everything while being incredibly militant about it. Plus an immense amount of people taking these fan statements at face value and perpetuating them even into professional reviews. In almost every review of the first Crystal season the reviewers state how much better, loving and "healthier" Mamoru's relationship with Usagi is, compared to the 90ies anime, because Mamoru spent a longer time being mean to Usagi in that one - and dated Rei for a while (which in itself is a subplot that I find a bit bewildering - what's Rei doing there, annoying Usagi or does she really like Mamoru? Going by Sailor Stars it really seems to be the latter. Poor Rei, nothing really goes well for her either, does it?). Did they even watch the show they were reviewing? Kissing a passed out Usagi? Yes, that's certainly healthy. Jumping through her open window? Oh boy, yes, please do more of that. Telling her to transform in front of him? Wohooooo. And the final kicker, abducting her when she falls unconscious after reviving Toyko and then creepily holding her back at the shoulder and sniffing her hair while giving back her bag. How romantic. Nothing screams healthy relationship more than being a creepy obsessive stalker, after all. And let's not at all get into the murder-suicide or what happens during Black Moon. Mamoru's and Usagi's relationship becomes actually nice and good and... yes, healthy, in the third arc. They love and talk to each other like real people would. By that time Mamoru and Usagi have a normal relationship in the anime as well. Just a lot less of it, because it's probably the least interesting part of Sailor Moon. We could examine what happens in the season that shall not be named, but the manga equivalent there has some of the worst things ever in it, so that's not entirely fair either. The manga fanboys are just cherry picking here and conveniently forgetting that the anime and the manga ran concurrently. Mamoru being mean to Usagi for a while was because he was distant and initially a bit mean to her in the manga (what with her test scores) and it was not at all clear if he was an ally or an enemy up until the second half. Yeah. For fun I just googled Sailor Tin Nyanko and came across a cosplay costume. So that's actually one thing I would like to ask Naoko Takeuchi should I ever get the chance. When she complained about the anime being made by men (even though some of the most prominent animators working on it were women) and her characters too sexualized, that was before she made the Dream and Stars arc, obviously. I wonder if she still feels that way when you look at all the characters - including the Amazoness Quartet, or if that statement was purely meant for the heroines, or if she stopped bothering after the third arc and just went with it.

I have rewatched that episode and more or less made my peace with the scene. It is funny, until it suddenly isn't any more - specifically when Makoto changes her expression after a while, because then it turns from everyone is embarrassed to be stuck in this situation to Makoto looking like something embarrassing is underneath Ami's skirt. Which feels weird to me, within the context of the girls transforming next to each other like they usually do. Makoto's embarrassment here is for the benefit of the audience, not because it's something that makes sense for her in this scene, if that makes sense? That part of the scene will always bother me, but that's just me. Everything else, especially the stupid fandom, no longer seems as relevant as it did before I read Naoko Takeuchi's statements about her own work. Shipping, well... oh boy. You're saying you don't like Pearlmethyst or Amedot? Seriously? Hahaha. Yeah. I started out being online at the time when the Ur-Ship sailed (surfed?) the depths of the nascent world wide web. Shippers are the worst. It's doubly bad because I still think Chris Carter caved to the fandom when they actually wrote Mulder and Scully into an actual relationship, instead of a professional relationship that turned into a deep friendship. Character reading and subtext depends a bit on the context. There's the scene in the couple cruise episode where Rei invites Ami and says they don't need boys to have fun. Oh lord, has the fandom read things into this one, while in context, the only thing Rei did there was to annoy Usagi who wanted to go more than Ami did, and the girls had just met each other too. Homosexual subtext doesn't need to be read into Sailor Moon because it's openly lived anyway. And there certainly isn't any unresolved sexual tension between Ami and Makoto, for crying out loud. Or anything. Do the two even talk to each other alone at some point, outside of Ami offering to dance with Makoto because nobody else danced with them? There's not much one on one time for the girls without Usagi in general, I think. It's almost always Usagi and one of them, or they're in a group. Well they can't all be fun like Fish-Eye. Absolutely, yes. Which is why I really liked the scene, regardless of the contrivance necessary to make it work. I don't know, Tin Nyanko screams bondage fetish in a way that Aluminum Siren didn't, but yes, the Starlights are... worse. Still sad that we missed out on Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon. Just imagine what the animators could have done with her:

One of the more beatiful things Sailor Stars does is to clear up what's going on with the two. I mean, beyond adding some subtext in the storyline episodes at the end that I immediately disregarded because Sailor Moon doesn't need homosexual subtext, and never needed it right from the start with Kunzite and Zoisite or Haruka and Michiru. There are parts of the fandom who spun an entire relationship between Ami and Makoto out of Ami asking Makoto to dance with her (and the scene in the first season where Ami fell over and Makoto stared under her skirt for a while). But seriously, if anything were going on between any of the Guardians, I doubt the showrunners would have been coy and subtexty about it. There's subtext, allegory and interpretations for other things, for instance Usagi and Unazuki talking about kissing in S which probably was Sailor Moon appropriate talk about sex (given Usagi's reaction to it, which otherwise makes no sense even within Japanese social norms, for which Usagi has no regard whatsoever anyway, just look at how the Sailor Moon R movie begins. Smoooooch me in public, Mamo-chan!) or how awakening as Guardians stood for the onset of puberty for the five, and possibly for coming out for Michiru and Haruka. It's not like they were given a chance to be a match for Nezu, were they? It's pretty clear that the writers, even while Iron Mouse was still around, simply abandoned trying to come up with interesting fight scenes, or any meaningful scenes with the villains. If nothing else, I liked Aluminum Siren's polite manner when talking to the people she was going to attack, and Lead Crow's irritation at it (and the constant eating). So, how did you like Sailor Tin Nyanko's outfit? Suddenly Aluminum Siren doesn't seem so bad any more, right?

Gothic emo lyrics and glam rockish sound. Consider me sold.

I can imagine Sailor V being a better read than the Sailor Moon manga, if only simply because it features wacky Minako hijinks. When it comes to weekly releases that's one part nostalgia for me, because that's the only thing we had for a while. It conjures up memories of a time when we'd gather the family to watch a TV show in the evening, then talk about it in school, and one part having external pacing. I specifically mentioned not doing anything new until I'm done with everything I started (which as for right now is NGE, Steven Universe, more Sailor Moon, JoJo's bizarre adventure, Cardcaptor Sakura, Revolutionary Girl Utena and a handful of live action TV that I used to follow but had no time for during crunch time last year) unless it's weekly releases because that way the additional time investment on my end limits ifself. Because it there's something I'm really bad at it's setting limits or goals for myself. If those don't come in from the outside, well... I either go on uncontrollable binges (hello watching three seasons of Steven Universe over the Easter weekend) or simply don't continue at all, even if I like or even love something. That and the fact that our government keeps on extending the school lockdowns and my nephew has started living here, because there's no way his parents can go through what he needs to learn with him - and with nothing else to do, the only time I can get to the TV is... when he's asleep. I have my own Usagi/Rei relationship with my brother, and he's the Usagi in it when it comes to school.

SPOILZ

To be honest I'm looking forward to being done with everything I've started watching. Then I'll just... finish my Lord of the Rings re-read (it's a different translation, so "re"-read is a bit of a stretch). I'll also probably try not to get entangled in watching 6 shows at once, or only if they have weekly releases and are currently running. Still haven't caught up on a lot of things I wanted to watch last year, like Westworld, Agents of SHIELD, and some other stuff. Sigh. I've thought about mailing my Sailor Moon manga PDFs to my Kindle so I can read somewhere else than on my PC. If that looks halfway acceptable that would be something. Since they're mostly uncolored nothing much would be lost in the process. Hm. Could make a case that R+ Minako is her default mode, and the first season and talking about her past helped her move on and get back to how she was supposed to be. In that case helping Minako move on was one of the nicest things Usagi ever did for her. Hmmm. That's probably not how that was intended, but it works for me.

Wait. So I was right, yes?

Nah. I've started too many things now and had too much going on at work, and checking out the Madoka movies made everything worse because... I originally only planend to check out the beginning of the first film and then go do something else (manga, Steven Univere Future, JoJo's or... work, I really should stop procrastinating) but I'm completely hooked again. The surrealist pieces look amazing.

In the spirit of the thread: Sugooooooooooooiiiiiiiii. I had no idea that was coming out next month. I always thought I was the only one here who liked Castlevania. The third season I found to be a bit weaker than the second (and a lot weirder).

No, I can't, because brain, but I appreciate the information. Didn't you say you wouldn't watch the films though? As for what's next, how about some 80ies bad movie action schlock. You could try MD Geist. (well that's mostly a joke). @BartimaeusShould you choose to watch Madoka Magica after Sailor Moon (or in between), it's probably better to take the movie trilogy. It looks a good deal better than the TV anime, and the audio quality is better too.

I watched the first five minutes of the first Puella Magi Magica Madoka film. Assuming it stays like that, it's a prettier version of the TV anime insofar as exactly the same things seem to be happening. Except the movie having movie level animation quality and dropping the opening dream sequence of Madoka. Movie: TV: Seems like there's barely any reason to watch both, but I'm guessing there are some more differences. The third film in the trilogy is entirely new material. Needless to say both versions look gorgeous, but the level of detail in the film sure beats the made for TV anime. The runtime of the anime and the first two films is also really similar (~4 hours, very worth the watch, I'd say).

Heavy ending spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica ahead: How did you like the soundtrack by the way?

Minako is technically... two different characters in the manga. In the first arc she's this dead serious leader type that's been fighting evil for a long time. She takes charge and helps everyone remember their past lives and get their act together and even gets to pull out the Master Sword LEGENDARY SACRED SWORD from its resting place on the moon (you'd think it would take Makoto to pull a sword from a stone, huh, but no, we're doing the Excalibur thing). And once Metalia is out of the way she increasingly becomes a goofball because her Sailor V persona starts bleeding into Sailor Moon. It's the sort of thing that happens when you're under a lot of pressure to deliver and are working on both your regular normal series and the sequel at the same time. You can see that in the anime as well. In the first season when she has her backstory episode and asks Usagi to help her possessed friend that stole her love from her Usagi even wonders about how much more mature Minako already is, compared to them. Look at this... Just take care not to watch it until the end because that goes all the way to Sailor Stars. It's pretty obvious where the first season ends and the second one starts. The Sailor Stars episode you haven't seen yet starts at 15:29. Makoto falls under Dark!Endymion's spell and tells him all about the secret underground control bunker in the arcade's basement, a couple of issues after falling for Dark!Motoki's lovespiel to drain her energy.

SU spoilers. The first three episodes of SuperS weren't so bad, except for having two of the top three horrible assault scenes. It just went downhill fast from there. Usagi yelling at her mother and storming off after Chibi-Usa ate all her lemon pie was a first warning sign, I guess, but... strange. Were we talking about something? Seems like I don't remember the topic. Isn't it strange tha they only made 161 Sailor Moon episodes? I could have done with a few more. I'm not entirely unhappy to have watched Crystal, in part for the same reason that I'm reading the manga now. It's better than Crystal because less adaptational weirdness and some more character stuff, but it's not really... good, and it's only going to be come worse in the next arc. It puts certain things of the anime in a new context. Also kind of looking forward to seeing more Tuxedo Mullet action in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. I've read that Minako and Rei will be fighting with each other in that one. That seems to fit a good deal more than whatever the anime tried by making her have a conflict with Makoto (twice even). There's one thing I haven't complained about in the manga chapter I read recently. It's that Makoto is the only one who falls for Dark!Endymion's mind control. Why? Is there some unwritten Sailor Moon rule that Makoto needs to be used as punching bag at least once per arc? Is that because it's easy to do?

They're starting to grow on me, and the band really doesn't even shy away from making sappy romance songs. It's hilarious and fun. BABY BABY TELL ME MORE OF YOUR LIES. SAY YOU WANT ME FOR A LIFETIME!

Steven Universe Future Episodes 1 + 2

You want some cheese good sir? 😄

I'm pretty sure everyone under Luna-P's hypnotic spell forgot about Chibi-Usa when it wore off. There's an episode in R that sets this up. The girls and Mamoru aren't affected because they never were under the spell in the first place. Why? Because the plot demands it, and there was no time to think it through when it came up - and no time for Naoko Takeuchi to spend an issue or two on dealing with the aftermath of Chibi-Usa going back home. Or maybe everyone just treats Chibi-Usa like Deanna Troi's older sister, and if you haven't seen that episode and wonder what now, yes, that's exactly the point.

Fun fact, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction ran on our TV stations under the title "X-Factor" - imagine my confusion when I found out that talking about X Factor on the internet made people think of casting shows instead of Commander Riker telling us whether silly coincidences that were believed to be magic actually happened or not. The show is also responsible for one of the hardest laughs I ever had watching TV, there's an episode where a couple talked to another one how lucky they got after their wedding - they were supposed to board the RMS Lusitania to go on their honeymoon, but their wedding bands got messed up over night and had to be repaired, so they missed boarding the ship. The other couple they talked to were all like: "Wow, you had such luck with that, OH MY GOD!" and then the camera pans out to reveal that they're all on the LZ 129 with the Statue of Liberty visible in the distant background. Sadly that was one of the "NOs", but you can't have everything. It was also probably not intended to be funny, but hey... almost felt Final Destination-ish. If that didn't come out before Final Destination. Which it probably did. Or not. It's not even that easy to find out because another fun fact, the show was so much more popular in Germany that new episodes premiered there. Season three in particular aired in '99 here, while way later in 2000 on FOX. More SUish spoilers mixed in:

Woha, I had already forgotten about repressed that. Minor otherwise really useless spoiler: You're really close now to a few episodes that... well, let's say they're going to be... you'll see!

More SU-ish spoilers: Strange feeling, huh? When even the more serious melodrama episodes suddenly are good.