majestic

It was a really good idea having the cousins around to act as both impetus and goal for character growth, both in real and superhero life. Care to guess who wrote that episode?

I wonder that more and more these days. More often than not when watching Star Trek episodes, I mean there must be someone at the creative meetings that realizes that it is utter and complete baloney what they're writing. Is there really no one around that says "Hey, guys, really, this is wrong, can we not do that?" in any of the meetings. Or like the actors. I don't know. There is more than one instance of Star Trek Discovery where they don't bat an eye saying their lines even when they're full of grammatical mistakes. I mean, what? How does that get through proofreading. The issues with SuperS are arguably more problematic. It's not out of character for Usagi to fly into a jealous rage over Rei and Mamoru spending time together. In season 1. Maybe early R. But after S? No way. I mean Mr. Serious Mode Episode knew that and acted accordingly, it's just so weird to see someone who is on the team ever since season 1 do something like that (it also doesn't help that it is probably the funniest episode in the season as a whole, it's really laugh out loud stuff, just out of place).

Yes, according to me, who has checked some single episodes and saw familiar names in the credits. Turns out I wasn't entirely correct. SuperS actually featured three new writers, while between Sailor Moon, R and S the only change was adding one (!) writer, not replacing any. Writing credits: Sailor Moon Sukehiro Tomita Shigeru Yanagikawa Katsuyuki Sumisawa Megumi Sugihara Sailor Moon R Sukehiro Tomita Shigeru Yanagawa Katsuyuki Sumisawa Megumi Sugihara Sailor Moon S Sukehiro Tomita Shigeru Yanagawa Katsuyuki Sumisawa Megumi Sugihara Yoji Enokido Sailor Moon SuperS Megumi Sugihara Yoji Enokido Ryota Yamaguchi Genki Yoshimura Mutsuri Nakano Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Ryōta Yamaguchi Genki Yoshimura Kazuhiko Kanbe Atsushi Maekawa The misconception of mine that Sailor Moon SuperS had largely the same writing team came from simply recognizing Megumi Sugihara and Yoji Enokido on the writing credits of the episodes I checked. Yoji Enokido is a new writer from S that stayed on. As far as I know he was also a writer on NGE, and most of his contribution to Sailor Moon S were pure manga storyline adaptations (but let's call them Serious Mode Episodes, I like that term ). So, remember when I complained about Usagi being mature and secure about her relationship with Mamoru but two episodes later went on an all out jealous rage? Guess those were the new writers, eh? Nope. That was Yoji Enokido and Megumi Sugihara. The other thing that colored my perception there was the fact that the two of them wrote over half of the episodes of SuperS. So whatever went wrong in SuperS wasn't just the new guys. Were they at least at fault for the weird focus of the filler episodes' attacked character of the week? Well... no. They're spread across all writers, but most of the episodes that don't have such a weird hyperfocus were written by Ryōta Yamaguchi. He apparently got the enviable task of setting up most of the girl's dream mirror violations (except for Rei, who gets that in the episode where Usagi acts like season 1 Usagi for the fun of it, written by Megumi Sugihara). But yeah, there might have been more writing problems in this season than I thought. It's an easy mistake to make when you see a familiar name every other episode, right? 😮 The Makoto gut punch psycho-horror episode was therefore also written by Ryōta Yamaguchi who... has written a LOT of Sailor Stars episodes. Like half of them.

It took 20 episodes but I've finally watched one that I remembered from the original run here. It's another one that is focused on Makoto, but alas, in this season being the focus is... yeah, you guessed it. Rapey vibe time. Poor Makoto. The entire episode spends time dealing one gut punch to Makoto after the other. Someone one the writing team really hates her, huh? Apparently she makes a good punching bag. But there is a moment in this episode that puts it far ahead of most of SuperS. I'll get to that. edit: It took an hour and a half to come up with the post. I'm not sure I'll go into that much detail again anytime soon. Ho-humm. It's 03:30... geez.

Eh... no, not immediately as soon as she returns. But a bit later probably, yes. I'm guessing I'll be done with SuperS by the time you're halfway through S. I'm considering to write a guide how to minimize the SuperS "fallout", i.e. a short episode list of episodes with important story moments. This isn't going to be long, because SuperS is mostly filler. Interestingly enough, Sailor Stars is the exact opposite. Almost nothing of that is filler. Out of the 34 episodes of Sailor Stars, only 9 are filler episodes and out of SuperS's 39 episodes, 25 are filler. Or in other words, whereas SuperS meanders way too much, focuses too much on random stuff, I'm not sure Sailor Star's hyper focus on what you call "serious mode" episodes will be any more enticing for you, although I can't really remember how the balance between silly and serious was in Sailor Stars. But I'll see soon. I hope. I didn't get around to watching as much as I would have liked recently. Too much work going on, that was a good deal easier over Christmas. My biggest problem with SuperS is, meandering aside, that the girls seem to have ignored their character growth from S in favor of a more regular comedic focus i.e. it feels as if the show tries to be funny in a more classical, jokey way than the more organic "the characters are silly so it's funny" way of R and S. The jokes don't happen because they make sense to be there, they happen because someone wanted a funny scene here. Not sure if that makes any sense? Eh, we'll see. Sailor Moon wouldn't be the first show to be ruined by later seasons. *cough* X-Files *cough* Although I'm semi-certain that Sailor Stars will be good for me.

You might be of a different opinion. The episodes certainly a silly enough. Most of the SuperS monsters are beyond silly even. I don't like the way the season is structured, the focus on random one-shot characters and... Plus there's the creepy part.

So far watching Sailor Moon SuperS has been an exercise in frustration. It's not going to mar my enjoyment of Sailor Moon as a whole, and there are some worthwhile and fun moments too, it just feels less. Less what? Less everything. I also find it odd how little I remember of this season as a whole. The general plot, yes, single episodes? Barely*. I know I watched it when it aired, because it was immediately followed by Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (and I remember liking it more than SuperS though it felt like a Sailor Moon S rehash at times). Following Sailor Moon S was always going to be hard, realistically, but to have fallen so low? I am really curious what you guys think of it. "Guys" is assuming anyone else other than @Bartimaeuskeeps or starts watching. Because I am open to the idea that I'm too harsh on this season, and I hope that the new group of enemies that comes with the second half of the season will be more fun to watch. My lack of significant memories suggests differently, but... who knows. *To explain why this is significant which seems strange given we're talking about something that aired like 23 years ago: X-Files as even longer ago and I can recite specific plot points from episodes based on the title or images from the episode alone. I can pretty much do so with Stargate's SG1 and Atlantis (which ran longer and later, respectively), any of the Star Trek shows from the TNG era, a long list of movies I've seen at the time (and most obviously the other Sailor Moon episodes). My ability to do that is tarnished when binge watching where episodes tend to morph into one amorphous blob of information** rather than separate entities (worse if the show tells a serialized story), in other words. I remember what happened, when it happened in the storyline, etc., but I do not remember in which specific plot points come up in which episodes. I once hard spoiled a colleague at work because he told me he'd seen episode three our four of a show and I was like "yeah that's when that totally unexpected and rad plot twist happens where..." and he was like "no not at all" which was a little awkward. Because that was one episode later. I... digress, I think. Sorry. Watching Sailor Moon at a pace of one episode per day is more or less fast enough to trigger that, with some exceptions, but even so with the three prior seasons the visual stimulus of seeing the episode managed to untangle that while watching. It doesn't for SuperS. I'm curious to see if it will for Sailor Stars. ** The absolutely worst instance of which happened when I binge watched FMA and Brotherhood back to back. I have no idea which is which. Heh.

You should really start timing the stock footage and skip the seconds. Talking out of my behind here but whatever you use to watch Hulu must have a skip 10 seconds functionality of some sort. Sailor Moon gets regular attack changes, the other Guardians sadly less often, but something tells me you're not going to like Burning Mandala any better than Fire Soul. edit: @Bartimaeus

Are you going to put me on ignore as well if I don't? Heh. Don't worry. It takes way too much time and effort, and it never has the desired effect. That not going to become a staple.

So, and now think back to episode one, ever thought you'd have THAT kind of discussion about this anime?

Speaking about Adventure Time (was already typing this post, so... don't want to fiddle a quote in up here) I see. That does sound more frustrating than fun (incidentially the same thing as Sailor Moon SuperS, stupid fourth season, really). More random Sailor Moon SuperS musings and observations: Still having a hard time believing this is from the same staff that made S. I mean, except the executive producer, but the replacement was already a producer on R and S, I think, so that can't be it either. With no other recourse I blame executive meddling on this one, completely without proof. Also, Mako-Chan blabble time! Yay. edit: Now that I read this, I think my love for this episode might also be based no small amount on projection and identification. Make of that what you will.

Let's not forget that this is the TV thread (and yeah, I am at fault as much as anyone for derailing it).

I consistently have to proof-read my posts and replace any "Bunny" I find with Usagi. It's too ingrained. I can't imagine how confusing this must be for people who saw the DiC dub first.

But Zora surely you realize how important it is for the United States to have all the information ? You must agree that their can be no doubt that he profited from his exposure of the NSA's protection of us all, making us less safe and putting hundreds of informants at risk. You can't agree that this is a good thing ! I mean, yeah. It's probably both, an opinion stated as fact that conveniently is slander. I guess when you're too deep in the game you can't even begin to imagine other motivations any longer. I've seen simiar things in the news here about the Gamestop shares. Investors talking about how risky it is to invest in Gamestop now and that the people buying Gamestop stock stand to lose money. They don't even mean that as silly counter-argument against what is happening. They genuinely don't understand that there are large swathes of people who don't care if they lose a hundred bucks on Gamestop stocks, as long as it hurts the fatcats, because in their world view there exist no reasons to invest other than profit.

Adventure Time is something I never tried because of the way it looks. It's available on Netflix I think and Netflix actually recommended it to me at some point. Is it worth trying to get past the artstyle?

Ah, you guys... Anyway, more SuperS spoilers: It's hard to believe that this was written by the same team that made S. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't checked the writing credits. Well at least this creepy arc doesn't last the entire season, only like a bit more than half of it. I'll be over soon.

This thread makes me feel nostalgic in the way as watching Stranger Things does. Stranger Things evokes early childhood memories, while Sailor Moon brings up memories of what was so far both the best and worst part of my life. ❤️ With some exceptions. I'm pretty sure my wife would take exception to not counting her amongst the best parts of my life (and she'd be entirely justified). Heh.

DVDs, it's not really running anywhere (SIXX cancelled it after the first season) and it isn't available for streaming. Thought about getting the blu-rays regardless, but they gone and messed up Sailor Moon R. Audio quality is terrible and the final episodes is missing, instead it has episode 87 twice. Yay... I hope they fix the problems. Eh.

It is, actually, and I'd enjoy it a lot more of it wouldn't rub me as out of character more than it makes me laugh.

Hahahaha. That gave me almost as good a laugh as the epsiode of SuperS I just watched, even if that season still irks me for its unevenness. I'll put an example in the spoilers, it's probably not going to mean much to KP or Sarex at this point, but fair is fair. And no, I have no such list so far. Maybe I'll make one when I'm done with the rewatch. Even then it's probably better to do a top 5 by season, rather than an overall. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, and I'm not going to expect my list to be similar with anyone else's. I've noticed a long time ago that no matter what (music, tv, cinema, etc) my lists are different. Heh. To give you an example, I think Men in Tights is Mel Brooks' best film. Or, uhm, at least his funniest, I mean, we could split between serious film and parody piece here, but anyway, it serves well enough as an illustration.

In my opinion: Yes, it is. The first season takes a couple of episodes to find its footing, but after that it is, if nothing else, great entertainment. You could watch the first episode, then 8 and 10 to gather the early team (the rest shows up way later) then skip to 13 and continue normally. This skips most of any early awkwardness, takes the first and arguably most boring of the antagonists out of the picture and begins the arc were the show really starts to shine in its very unique way. But the episodes are short enough, more so if you actively skip stock footage, and given the show's shoestring budget and time constraints so skipping 10 out of the first 13 episodes isn't much of a timesaver. You just see a lot less of Usagi crying. The first anime (Sailor Moon Crystal is the new one, and more closely based on the manga) and the manga are supposedly somewhat different. Legend has it that some of the showrunners and Naoko Takeuchi hated each other's guts (she particularily hated them turning Rei into somewhat of a mild tsundere). I have never read the manga, so I don't know, but I do plan on watching Sailor Moon Crystal, even though I really don't like the way it looks. Sailor Moon S (third season) is, I think, the show's absolute high point. It's not just the high point of Sailor Moon, but up there with 90ies anime in general - just don't expect any Evangelion level commentary on human existence. All that is, of course, with two "minor" caveats: First, it's silly. By far and large, it is mostly silly. There's drama, action, some social commentary, it is occasionally heartbreaking (to be honest, the first time I saw that season one finale I cried. Sure didn't tell that to my friends at school, but eh, yeah), but at the end of the day it is... silly. Assuming you can appreciate the abject silliness of the show you'll get a lot of laughts out of it. Second, and that also needs to be said, it also is a magical girl sentai shojo anime. One of the first of its kind, I think. To quote Mike Stoklasa here: It broke new GRROOOOOOOOOOOOUND! I mean it unironically though, and there's a reason why it became popular beyond all the wildest dreams of its creators. Even though it was made for young girls, the only people I know that watched Sailor Moon were guys, and we were mostly in our mid to late teens at the time. Huh. Oh, and has a really minimalistic artstyle that I think is super gorgeous, but it was noticably different from other anime at the time. edit: Wow, forum software just ate my precious edit. @Bartimaeus I agree with your theory.

If Sailor Moon S has a weakness it's that there's not enough screen time for everyone. I'm not sure why it got "only" 38 episodes, it could have done with a couple more. That's why SuperS has a reduced cast size. I'll say this for SuperS, they made sure the girls have more time to be girls in the fourth season. I'd also like to use this post to give some appreciation to the Death Busters. The Professor is just awesome. Eh, and completely insane. edit: The scene from the original English dub about the "Cousins" (boy is that bad, so glad our dub was way better) where Makoto rides with Haruka and Michiru is from episode seven of S. It's probably the best Makoto-focused episode in the entire run of the show. It usually doesn't show up in any of the "best episodes" guides because it's mostly filler*, i.e. there's no dramatic foward momentum or even any impetus for the main story line that seems to define what great episodes are for people who vote on such things (e.g. looking at IMDB's user ratings), but I think it should be way up there. It has everything and more that you could hope for in an episode of Sailor Moon (and Makoto is great, as always...). *

I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't actually just Sailor Moon SuperS that made me hate Chibi-Usa. Oh boy. edit: It's not all bad, and there are episodes in between where Usagi and Chibi-Usa aren't trying out Out-Usagi Season 1 Usagi together. Those are actually fun. edit 2: Oh boy, creepyness alert.