Anime - A Rollercoaster of Emotion

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

21 minutes ago, majestic said:

  Reveal hidden contents

No, Sailor Chibi-Moon only becomes useful in fights once she starts lusting after a winged horse with an extra horn.

 

Just like her mom lmao.

Though I suppose Pegasus doesn't give her a love rod

Edited March 1, 2021 by KaineParker

[InsaneCommander]

SM R episodes 2-14

 

This series I’m watching with subtitles. I had to google the suffixes "san", "sama", etc since I didn't remember their uses exactly, but that is just a detail.

 

Spoiler

So people finally started using their brains. Naru understood that when something unusual happens it could mean danger. And they finally guess somebody's identity by the obvious similarities in appearance (Moon Knight and Mamoru), although they later see both of them as separate people at the same time.

 

The babysitting episode was great, especially when the baby peed on An’s face. Oh, and Ail and An didn’t seem to have learnt the concept of an open relationship well.

 

Spoiler

In the end Usagi returned to their apartment and quickly forgot about the danger when they offered her some cake.

And if the tree was trying to teach them love, why did it attack the Sailors with acid?

 

Episode 14 deserves its own post, since it is the one with the psycho child. Btw, I already know what is her relation to the other characters.

Edited March 1, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

The babysitting episode was great, especially when the baby peed on An’s face

That one sure was something else.

Sailor Moon manga and late SM R spoilers

Spoiler

I went ahead and checked out the manga and I think in that scene where BRACK RADY tongues Mamo-chan the intent was to show him as a puppet (with blank eyes and stiff hands) but the art doesn't portray it well. At all. Even so it's still creepy with the incest and sexual coercion, if I wanted to be charitable I'd say that Takeuchi was shooting for something more mature but it fell flat on it's face because this is ultimately a cute story about magical girls that makes such things feel out of place. All in all I think the anime really benefitted from filler that allowed it to expand on characters in a way that manga's pace couldn't while the relatively strict TV standards stopped some of the more....weird stuff from getting included. A straight translation really doesn't work and it's made all the worse by Crystal being ****ing hideous.

Spoiler

Seriously what the ****

Spoiler

Really I think that more animes could benefit from not being (bad) copies of the original artstyles. Even JoJo, which I have annoyingly stan'd on this board, would have benefitted dropping the gym god **** from the first few parts. Even the creator no longer draws those characters like that.

Spoiler

 

 

 

I am once again editing this post because I watched more Sailor Moon

Spoiler

Lmao the new Witches 3 got killed in her first outing. Guess it's culling time cause there's five episodes left.

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by KaineParker

[Bartimaeus]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

Most of this is second hand information, but yes, I've read that Minako's continously more and more goofball personality in the first anime was based on her in Codename: Sailor V.

Thanks for the further information, and I basically agree with everything you said based on what we know. And yeah, maybe Ms. Takeuchi as being vindictive and jealous, maybe she just...wasn't good enough and didn't know what to do, but either way, the results speak between the two mediums speak for themselves.

Spoiler

8 hours ago, majestic said:

tells Sailor Moon how much she admires her

What? Why? Has Sailor Moon done *anything* decent in this series? Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's almost always completely collapsed, given up, actively harmed their cause without good reasons (even reasons that made sense to her that would be predictably wrong!), etc., on top of being awful towards everyone, especially Chibi-Usa. Who the hell is admiring her in this terrible story? She seems to be as genuinely contemptible as Haruka and Michiru always believed her to be.

8 hours ago, majestic said:

The death of her surrogate mother hits her so hard that she also unlocks the Silver Crystal's power and she transforms into Sailor Chibi Moon.

This story beat actually makes sense, and serves multiple purposes. Congratulations, Ms. Takeuchi - you finally had a half-decent piece of writing here. Bonus points that both Chibi-Usa and Setsuna have actually been two of the more decent characters in Crystal, particularly compared to everyone else. Chibi-Usa and Setsuna is actually something I wouldn't have minded a little more exploration of in R/S - it was real low-key and only implied in the original show. On the other hand, being implied or subtle is a lot better than being hit over the back of the head with a hammer with, so maybe it's for the best.

@KaineParker lmao wtf

Let's get that a size up, shall we:

Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Just how I remember them. I can't believe this isn't a parody.

...And also, I can't believe you didn't have anything to say about episode 28!?

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Now that I think about it...Usagi sort of owns and/or is the moon, why the hell doesn't SHE have a magic moon laser?

@majestic

  Reveal hidden contents

And there it is.

Alright, so let me get this straight...all this weird creepy stuff happens in the manga, right? And now, in SMC, Chibi-Usa's chest is even larger and more exposed than it was in the original anime.  Didn't Naoko Takeuchi complain about that for the original show? Are we sure that Naoko Takeuchi wasn't complaining that Chibi-Usa wasn't exploited *enough* in the original show? Because at this point, that'd probably make more sense than the reverse. Maybe SuperS was the one season she actually had oversight over and approved...

 

By the way, who says  she doesn't. It's her second attack in Sailor Moon Crystal. Collecting and then emitting moonlight from her tiara. I haven't really mentioned it because even the manga drops that crap after a couple of pages or a chapter or so.

Probably Viz blocked YT video:

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

What? Why? Has Sailor Moon done *anything* decent in this series? Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's almost always completely collapsed, given up, actively harmed their cause without good reasons (even reasons that made sense to her that would be predictably wrong!), etc., on top of being awful towards everyone, especially Chibi-Usa. Who the hell is admiring her in this terrible story? She seems to be as genuinely contemptible as Haruka and Michiru always believed her to be.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I am pretty sure Sailor Pluto is using Usagi/Sailor Moon as a stand-in for Neo-Queen Serenity here, who at this point is still encased in her Silver Crystal sarcophagus. There are flashbacks I haven't mentioned where a very young Sailor Pluto is being sent to her post by Serenity.

To be honest I'm not sure that makes Serenity all that admirable. She looks like roughly the age of Sailor Saturn when she's sent to the space time gateway (although who knows with these giraffe people and their weird aging), which would make her ~12.

I don't care if she was born for this or not, sending someone at the age of 12 out alone to guard a place and to never ever have contact with anyone ever again is wrong. The show made it plenty clear that Sailor Pluto's existence should have been a secret and that Chibi-Usa has done something very wrong in befriending her. In reality of course that saves everyone in every time because otherwise Nemesis/Death Phantom would have succeeded in bending space time with the DIABOLICAL BLACK CRYSTAL and even destroyed everyone's past.

It's hard to believe Usagi would do that to someone, especially since she and all her friends know how terrible it can be when your childhood is, let's face it, ruined by factors not at all under your control. Hell, she attempted suicide over it.

It's also strange that Usagi does that, because does that mean nobody guarded the spacetime corridor prior to Crystal Tokyo being built? Or was that flashback supposed to show the original Queen Serenity and not Usagi. If so, then that's really confusing. Good job on making Queen and Neo-Queen Serenity looking exactly the same then.

You know, when I overanalyze the original anime then it goes to interesting and happy places. It shows us that love and friendship can conquer everything, even if in real life Haruka and Michiru's standpoint logically has far more merit (there's a reason Spock sacrifices himself in the Wrath of Khan because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and it is for this reason alone that the reboot, by making Kirk do the sacrfice, would suck ass even if it was more than a terrible action movie with no consistency or logical plot progression). It actually shows us friendship in the episodes. Like the one were Ami realizes that she's being manipulated because her friends would never believe that she cheated on her exams.

Sailor Stars spoiler:
 

Spoiler

 

Or Minako when she considers dropping her dream of becoming an idol even though she was invited to a casting to focus on saving the world and studying more (this is where I linked that picture from earlier, where Minako completely acts out of character and the girls wonder what the hell is wrong with her), where everyone goes to meet her and tell her that she needs to try and achieve her dream, because why else should they be fighting if not for that?

I loved that epsiode. It ends with Minako being invited to the final round and her deciding that now that she knows she can make it, she'll give her friends something back for the encouragement and support by focusing on them and saving the world. It's a perfect end for Minako's character arc, and one that according to a filler list wasn't even in the manga.

 

Minor character spoiler for Sailor Stars anyway:
 

Spoiler

 

Then there's the issue that the manga goes and ruins Sailor Pluto's sacrifice by having her reborn in the 20th century Tokyo as Meio Setsuna (even though she died in the 30th century, so yay rebirth time travel) so she can be in the Infinity arc. The same thing necessarily happens in the 90ies anime later by her mysteriously coming back in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, but the problem originated in the manga in the first place.

Even here the anime is better, in a way. Because there is no direct explanation of how Sailor Pluto managed to come back from the dead in Sailor Stars, and her being keeper of time and space and her not talking about her past meeting with Sailor Moon. It's general fan headcanon for the 90ies anime that Sailor Pluto's character has a non-linear timeline in the show, that the Sestuna that shows up in Sailor Stars is merele a version of herself that travelled back from before her sacrifice.

It's still strange and detracts a bit from the sacrifice, but at least it isn't entirely out of what you could logically do with time travel, and it doesn't completely invalidate it.

 

Really thinking about what happens in SMC, and by extension in the manga (although I guess to a lesser degree, maybe) makes your brain go to terrible and weird places. Even with the arguably most well defined titular character in it. Sailor Moon claims to fight for love and justice with her Sailor Senshi team, but all they really do is indiscriminately kill everything that stands in their way. Maybe that'll change in the later arcs, I don't know yet. But 90ies anime Usagi is showing true compassion and justice by letting Nephrite redeem himself. He just dies anway, but that makes him infinitely more interesting than EVIL guy does EVIL because he's EVIL (his entire manga personality).

I know you guys probably are getting tired of me raving about this "Unicorn of War" guy, but for me he's the epitome of what's wrong with reviews that prefer the manga over the 90ies anime. When you look at his YouTube video (not going to link this here, if you want to go to YT and increase his viewcount be my guest ), well... to quote/paraphrase:

"The manga explicity states Usagi's strength comes from her great heart and compassion..." (fine, manga, fine, 90ies anime shows us this by having her show compassion)

Shortly afterwards:  "The manga Usagi would KILL anyone who tried to hurt her friends."

Find what's wrong with these two statements. I honestly can't believe this guy enjoys MURDER DEATH KILL Usagi more than Messiah!Usagi in the 90ies anime, just because he thinks "redemption arcs are lame" and that the villains in the Black Moon arc are "so convinced that they're right it makes no sense for them to be redeemed".

I mean that's a nice conclusion to draw, if we'd ever be shown just how dedicated and convinced the Black Moon clan is. But the Spectre Sisters are given one chapter each to die and they have no personality beyond EVIL WOMAN who does EVIL because they're EVIL.

Not that I generally need my villains to have any real motivations. I'm fine with staturday morning cartoon villains. I even love them at times, Joneleth from BG2 is arguably one for the longest while until the final chapter gives him some more backstory, but then he just doubles down on being a large ham evil guy in the end. I still very much prefer Joneleth over Sarevok, even though Sarevok has arguably the better story (I disagree with the common idea that Sarevok has the more nuanced motivation, it's wanting power for the sake of gaining power for both of them, Joneleth being the more tragic case beause it was his sister that convinced him, not because he was literally born evil like Sarevok). 

 

 

I also want to point out that Ms. Takeuchi felt the need to create side stories for Sailor Moon somewhen around the Infinity or Dreams arc where she expands on everyone's backstory. The fact that these separate character development stories even exists validates my impression that there is barely - and none in most cases - character development for them in the actual Sailor Moon manga. Miko Stoklasa would say "don't give me that crap about books or comics, if it's not in the movie then it's bad writing" as he usually does when fanboys try to explain something in Star Wars to him when referencing separate background material.

It's also possible that there's better characterization later in the series, in Infinity, Dreams and Starsm and that reading the entire manga at once lets you fill the gaps for the first two arcs. It's not like they're long. Some of chapters are immensely drawn out just to fill pages. Doesn't change the fact that aside from Usagi, Mamoru and Chibi-Usa barely anyone even had a character in the Sailor Moon manga for the first - at least - 26 months of it being released.

 

Spoiler

Like when Sailor Saturn destroys Earth at the end of Inifinity by casing DEATH REBORN REVOLUTION, that attack alone goes over four pages in the chapter.

@KaineParker

Spoiler

SMC makes it much more clear that Endymion is controlled when Black Lady is kissing him, especially because his hands keep dangling and are completely inanimate the whole time, unless he's ordered to do something by her.

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

@majestic

Small general character personality spoiler about Steven Universe (himself) in regards to the two different Sailor Moons:

Spoiler

Spoiler alert: Steven Universe (the character) takes strongly after Usagi Tsukino (original anime version) in how they attempt to resolve problems, including with his enemies. That's, of course, empathy and trying to make friends when possible, and giving people chances to redeem themselves when the opportunity presents - more than many of his enemies deserve (fittingly, they're also opportunities they don't always take). Usagi does kill a lot of generated minions, but to my knowledge, she never really intends to actually slay another real person outside of a couple desperate and half-hearted times (e.g. I think she did actually try to blast Eudial once or twice?). I only bring this up because of you mentioning how that one guy, and other viewers like him, prefer a more psychotic and violent Usagi: this problem is not limited to just Sailor Moon. Towards the end of Steven Universe's run, there was an increasingly vocal minority of fans who were just...bloodthirsty and desperate for violent, deadly resolutions for the story. I've been watching some of first season SU along with you (although I'm already a bit farther along because I'm a hopeless nerd for this show) and am now looking back at those people and wondering how in the absolute hell they could ever want that for this sweet little goofball boy - but they're out there and they're loud. It's bizarre, to say the least.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

A Roflcopter of Emotion

Edited March 1, 2021 by HoonDing

[majestic]

SMC, Act 26:

Final episode for Black Moon, and the final one before the animation overhaul. Phew.
 

Spoiler

 

Sailor Moon blasts Nemesis, everyone is back to the Crystal Palace. Everyone? Oh, no. Sailor Moon isn't there. Tuxedo Kamen's hands start glowing, then he disappears. Neo-Queen Serenity wakes up and revives King Endymion (finally, typing force ghost each time was annoying). Curious how she ignores the dead Senshi next to him. Guess they're not worth bringing back. Sucks to be you guys. Hey maybe overthink this devoted to your princess spiel a bit when you're back home.

Then there's some overlong expositiony stuff and Serenity talking to her daughter, then Serenity sends Chibi Moon after Sailor Moon, they both use their moon scepter to fire ONE (1) shot at Nemesis/Death Phantom and... the entire planet explodes. Their transformation brooches and the moon scepters also explode in their faces. It's okay though, I guess they'll be making their love rods next season. Or in this one already. Who knows.

This has got to be the most anticlimactic final battle of any story arc in the history of ever. Not that it matters. Nobody cares. At least, I don't. And apparently not even manga fans do.

Those of you who bet that Neo-Queen Serenity would use her powers to revive the entire Earth again please go and collect your winnings. Everyone who thought the destruction would resolve itself by resetting the timeline, I'm sorry. This is going to be played totally straight apparently.

First arc: Sailor Moon casts MOON HEALING ESCALATION and repairs Earth

Second arc: Neo-Queen Serenity waves her Scepter around, repairs Earth

Third arc: Not sure what she'll use, but the same thing happens there.

Where did Serenity get her powers from? Just in the scene before that she told Chibi-Usa that she'll transfer all her power to her now. Well, maybe that was just until the moon scepter went boom. Or... dunno. In theory both Chibi-Usa and Sailor Moon have their Silver Crystals on them right now. So what is the Queen using to restore everything?

Guess the answer is: Who cares. Just enjoy the ride.

Neo-Queen Serenity upgrades the Sailor Senshi (the ones from the past, presumably the ones from the present were revived with the rest of Earth) and teleports the Crystal Heart Compact to Sailor Moon (she can't meet her younger self directly for fear of changing history. Good thing that didn't bother Endymion like the entire time. What?

Usagi and Serenity decide that screw like matter, like time and time paradoxes at the same time and meet up. This is probably supposed to be interesting or moving, but the only thing that I can think of right now is that scene in 30 Rock when Alec Baldwin meets future self.

Look at everyone meeting themselves from the future, and wheee we're back hooooooooooooome. Usagi wonders if it all was a dream (in spite of seeing her new transformation brooch, boy Usagi your anime counterpart was a little airheaded but not that obtuse) until Chibi-Usa shows up.

Okay, she wants to go home now, and Usagi freaks out, runs home and cries on her bed. What? Usagi, you spent the entire arc hating every second you shared with Chibi-Usa and now you're bothered by her going home? Well... okay. Why not. I guess defeating Nemesis together and seeing her sexually assualt her father creates a battle sister and deeper mother/daughter bond.

By the way, now that I think of it, do you think Mamoru and Usagi will ever discuss the time when he was forced to cheat on her with her unborn daughter? That would be awkward, right?

Oh boy.

Oh... this. This goodbye scene in Crystal actually makes Usagi have an internal monologue with the text from the manga. Why? Even in this crude form it's obvious what is going on. What is going on? Why is going on. How is going on.

Hey, only Mamoru and Usagi are present at the goodbye. Sure, Chibi-Usa barely had time to interact with the other girls in this version, but that's still odd. Chibi-Usa thanks Mamoru for always being there for here. How sweet and innocent this would be if it weren't for, uhm, yeah, that little thing that happened between them that everybody pretends didn't happen. I wonder if they used Luna-P to mind wipe each other?

Yeah, I'm going to go with that is what happened. Brain bleach. The one thing that I don't have. Oh how I envy you characters here.

Usagi wonders if it all was a dream... again. Mamoru assures her it wasn't. So, at least one of them is thinking back fondly. Looks like Chibi-Usa killed it in the sack. Not bad.

Why.is.my.mind.going.to.these.places? Oh right, that's because this is sick and twisted AND colorful and bubbly and for little girls.

Mamoru and Usagi kiss, and what do you know, Chibi-Usa falls from the sky, probably because they could resuse some of the old animation.

Yay. At least it's over. I mean, until the Professor shows up and is an evil maniacal genetic engineer that's trying to create super humans instead of a tragic figure that wanted nothing but to save his daughter. Because remption arcs suck.

 

 

 

 

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Small general character personality spoiler about Steven Universe (himself) in regards to the two different Sailor Moons:

  Reveal hidden contents

Spoiler alert: Steven Universe (the character) takes strongly after Usagi Tsukino (original anime version) in how they attempt to resolve problems, including with his enemies. That's, of course, empathy and trying to make friends when possible, and giving people chances to redeem themselves when the opportunity presents - more than many of his enemies deserve (fittingly, they're also opportunities they don't always take). Usagi does kill a lot of generated minions, but to my knowledge, she never really intends to actually slay another real person outside of a couple desperate and half-hearted times (e.g. I think she did actually try to blast Eudial once or twice?). I only bring this up because of you mentioning how that one guy, and other viewers like him, prefer a more psychotic and violent Usagi: this problem is not limited to just Sailor Moon. Towards the end of Steven Universe's run, there was an increasingly vocal minority of fans who were just...bloodthirsty and desperate for violent, deadly resolutions for the story. I've been watching some of first season SU along with you (although I'm already a bit farther along because I'm a hopeless nerd for this show) and am now looking back at those people and wondering how in the absolute hell they could ever want that for this sweet little goofball boy - but they're out there and they're loud. It's bizarre, to say the least.

 

Spoiler

I've only managed to sqeeze in a handful of episodes so far, but I have no idea how you could want Steven to become violent and murderous. His gem power was a shield for the brief moment it worked.

But Crystal is over soonish and then I can dedicate more time to SU. Part of the issue is that I can't watch on TV, what with Season one not being available for streaming anywhere. Ahem. You know what I mean. I already have to spend my entire work day in front of the computer, and then I spent way too much time typing up these posts here, so, erm, yeah. There goes my motivation.

Stupid working from home finally fused work and my private fun PC together in my brain. I hope I can untangle that soon, because this sucks. Haven't played a game either since Christmas. Le sigh.

 

[Bartimaeus]

@SMC: I think this is the part where Mike of RLM would say, "Wow, that was worthwhile and completely lived up to my expectations, and definitely DIDN'T make me want to kill myself!"

What an unmitigated disaster that all was. I hope this didn't retroactively sour the original show for you at all - that can happen to some people.

Spoiler

@SU: That's perfectly fine, go at your own pace that works best for you, . As for how somebody might want Steven himself to become violent and murderous...well, you know, I guess let's just say that objectively speaking, it would've been pretty justified - but that's the difference between someone like me or you and a character that's supposed to be an actually morally decent hero.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

What an unmitigated disaster that all was. I hope this didn't retroactively sour the original show for you at all - that can happen to some people.

No, it did not. It took almost 25 years for me to work up the "courage" to rewatch the original 90ies anime. There are a few movies that I've rewatched that kind of... killed my nostalgic enjoyment of them. I like to call that The Black Hole effect, named so after, you probably guessed it, Disney's The Black Hole, which I loved as a kid and has two actors that rank very highly on my list of actors I enjoy watching - Ernest Borgnine and Maximilan Schell.

Rewatching that was an unmitigated disaster in spite of the cast.

It took someone who has never seen the show before liking it for me to even consider going back, and what a wonderful ride that was. It took a dip for some 20 episodes with SuperS, but hey, in 200 episodes, that's... still a pretty goood run.

If anything, watching Sailor Moon Crystal and partially reading the manga made me appreciate the 90ies anime even more. Yes, even SuperS.

 

Spoiler

 

I still disagree with giving the three creeps of the opening arc their undeserved redemption and I think the show could have done better than spend 20 episodes showcasing a thinly veiled sexual abuse allegory, but that was at least framed as being terrible.

Unlike this entire Chibi-Usa lusts after Mamoru thing that doesn't go away from now until she meets Pegasus and starts lusting after a horse, not counting the semi-crush she develops on Hotaru in between.

In a way this is like how I felt after watching The Last Jedi. The first thing that came to mind was: "I'm sorry, George Lucas. Please buy back Star Wars."

The prequels still are turds, but they smell better than the fresh and worse turds next to them.

Except that SMC didn't go and ruin an established franchise, it shows where an old franchise could have gone if the original creative team of the show didn't have the good sense to make a real, working adaptation. The flaws of the original anime are severely lessened by watching this train wreck. I'm convinced now that the 90ies anime is the best the writers could do with what they were given, and it neatly explains why everything that is complete filler beats the story episodes with both hands tied behind its back and only half a leg left. The crippled Black Knight wins, no reason to declare a draw here.

Although to be entirely fair, I do consider the Sailor Moon S anime storyline to be somewhat interesting. It had the most interesting set of villains of the series, bad guys with a better motivation than being EVUL and a thematically satisfying conclusion, even if not everything worked out or some things felt forced. Sailor Stars comes somewhat close in the very end where (major spoilers)

Spoiler

Usagi goes full Jesus and wins by stopping to fight, in a scene that might just have inspired the end of Matrix Revolutions, although that is also so full of religious symbolism that I'm uncertain if both weren't just inspired by Jesus dying at the cross for all of mankind. Except Usagi never dies, but that's something else.

But all of Sailor Stars falls a little flat because there's nothing original in there. It just repeats story beats from the first three seasons, some of them even verbatim, plus the villains aren't interesting, even in context of Sailor Moon, and you can't head-canon justify the forced conflict in this one, unlike with S where it's managable to believe that Haruka and Michiru actively force themselves into this conflict so that they don't have to face the fact that their convictions aren't nearly as strong as they would like them to be.

There's still SMC season three to watch, and two movies based on the Dream arc. Not sure if there'll ever be a Stars adaptation. I hope not, because my brain would force me to watch it, and it is the arc that manga fanboys consider the most different from the 90ies anime version, something that fills me with nothing but dread. I've also read that Stars is the most grimdark of all of Sailor Moon, i.e. Sailor Moon's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

I keep mentioning Harry Potter in comparison to Sailor Moon. Uhm. It does bear the queston, did you read the novels or see the films?

Spoiler

edit: In my earlier post, that's not exactly the 30 Rocks scene I wanted to post, but I didn't find the one where Jack is stuck with his past and future self in an elevator and they talk out their differences for a bit, only for Jack to then go and say: "So that leaves one question. Do we have sex with each other now?" and everyone else is like "yeah, sure!" which would have been more fun and what actually came to mind after I saw Serenity and Sailor Moon looking at each other. Because hey, in this show? Psh. Not too far out.

30 Rock is a sitcom I can also recommend. It does have its ups and downs, but it's pretty good mostly. And Alec Baldwin slays. But apparentl the interned doesn't like Alec Baldwin these days. Not sure what he did, but something about being a terrible father or some such?

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Thanks for the further information, and I basically agree with everything you said based on what we know. And yeah, maybe Ms. Takeuchi as being vindictive and jealous, maybe she just...wasn't good enough and didn't know what to do, but either way, the results speak between the two mediums speak for themselves.

  Reveal hidden contents

What? Why? Has Sailor Moon done *anything* decent in this series? Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's almost always completely collapsed, given up, actively harmed their cause without good reasons (even reasons that made sense to her that would be predictably wrong!), etc., on top of being awful towards everyone, especially Chibi-Usa. Who the hell is admiring her in this terrible story? She seems to be as genuinely contemptible as Haruka and Michiru always believed her to be.

This story beat actually makes sense, and serves multiple purposes. Congratulations, Ms. Takeuchi - you finally had a half-decent piece of writing here. Bonus points that both Chibi-Usa and Setsuna have actually been two of the more decent characters in Crystal, particularly compared to everyone else. Chibi-Usa and Setsuna is actually something I wouldn't have minded a little more exploration of in R/S - it was real low-key and only implied in the original show. On the other hand, being implied or subtle is a lot better than being hit over the back of the head with a hammer with, so maybe it's for the best.

@KaineParker lmao wtf

Let's get that a size up, shall we:

Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Just how I remember them. I can't believe this isn't a parody.

...And also, I can't believe you didn't have anything to say about episode 28!?

OH MY GOD!

The one where Hotaru tries to give a letter to an athlete? It didn't stand out too much for me tbh.

Sailor Moon is now Super Sailor Moon and Hotaru is now an infant. Insomnia watching this show is weird.

 

[majestic]

Huh, not sure, maybe he meant the episode where Mimetto-kun breaks reality by baking way too many items in the Daimon oven.

Even spelling that out is funny.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Oh that one

It honestly confused me a bit, I thought Daimons just got power through their seeds so why would tossing in more **** cause things to warp reality.

I remember enjoying it a lot. The lion attacking Chibi-Usa made me laugh for some reason. I'm not doing episode by episode recaps right now because I'm currently pressed for time. Maybe I'll do it for the pedo horse and thinly veiled sexual assault episodes that are coming up.

[Bartimaeus]

@majestic

Good. I'd like to remind you that the whole reason this happened (me deciding to watch it which made you decide to watch it), happened only because of the fantastic original English dub, including the following clips (please make sure you watch them all in respect for them allowing you to re-watch the show):

Spoiler

I especially love the Minako one, which makes it sound like she's accusing Artemis of cheating on her.

@HP: Don't worry, both: books first. And I'm sure SMC season 3 will be much better than everything else thus far, .

Spoiler

WHAAAT? No, I was talking about episode 28, where...you have the Twister sequence, the famous meme "okay" gesture sequence, the minion who sexually assaults the poor male victim athlete guy, the Kaolinite-Hotaru troll sequence, the Chibi-Usa cheerleading sequence...that entire episode was a trip, how could it not be memorable?

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

20 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic

Good. I'd like to remind you that the whole reason this happened (me deciding to watch it which made you decide to watch it), happened only because of the fantastic original English dub, including the following clips (please make sure you watch them all in respect for them allowing you to re-watch the show):

@HP: Don't worry, both: books first. And I'm sure SMC season 3 will be much better than everything else thus far, .

  Hide contents

WHAAAT? No, I was talking about episode 28, where...you have the Twister sequence, the famous meme "okay" gesture sequence, the minion who sexually assaults the poor male victim athele guy, the Kaolinite-Hotaru troll sequence, the Chibi-Usa cheerleading sequence...that entire episode was a trip, how could it not be memorable?

 

 

Heh, that third clip is from SuperS. One of the better episodes.

Spoiler

Okay, you're right, by the way, now that you mention it. The episode has a load of trippy things happening, including a Diamon who would like to give the pure heart crystal back. That okay gestures orderly is freaking me out. I don't know why, but there's something about this animation that just screams creepy.

Heh, when it comes to HP I went the other way around. I ignored the hype on purpose until I was subjected to watching the first three movies and realized that they weren't so bad. When I was done watching them all I started reading the books because I figured that everything I thought was weird or a plot hole or not explained enough in the movies would become clear upon reading the novels.

Boy was I wrong. It's worse in the source material. Well, in my opinion. Your milage may vary as you've read the novels first. It might just have been my general disappointment with The Order of the Phoenix. I didn't like the film, but I hated reading the book. It was overly long, a complete drag and Mr. Potter was even wangstier than he was in the movie, and everyone was out of character. Good grief. Could say that it was the SuperS of HP.  

Liked the others though, mostly.

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

I actually gave a specific edit at the bottom of the spoiler for that third clip, if you want to go back and read it (don't think it was there when you replied to my post), .

The only two I fully remember reading are Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, probably because I read the first four in second grade (age ~8) and never re-read them after. I don't have as much of an excuse for Order of the Phoenix since that came out a few years later, but for whatever reason, I don't strongly remember it either (weirdly, I have a better memory of some other stuff that I read during that same time period...oh well, c'est la vie). Funnily, the first two + the Order of the Phoenix movies are the three I remember the most fondly and have thought are the most fun when re-visiting them, but I was presumably a bit younger than you were when they came out, so it's probably not a particularly good or equal vantage point into what's the best.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I actually gave a specific edit at the bottom of the spoiler for that third clip, if you want to go back and read it (don't think it was there when you replied to my post), .

Heh. Yeah. Watching these clips, uhm. Can it be that Mamoru is a much more condescending prick in the DiC dub than he really is and that is the reason why people in reviews think that Usagi's relationship with him is bad? Weird breakup storyline nonwithstanding (which beats Usagi verbally abusing an otherwise sympathetic Chibi-Usa for no reason).

Because I do know that our dubbed Rei comes across as a lot meaner than her original character is, e.g. the original dialogue would be something like "Oh come on Usagi, don't be silly!" and in the German dub she'd go like "My god Usagi you're such a moron!"

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The only two I fully remember reading are Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, probably because I read the first four in second grade (age ~8) and never re-read them after. I don't have as much of an excuse for Order of the Phoenix since that came out a few years later, but for whatever reason, I don't strongly remember it either (weirdly, I have a better memory of some other stuff that I read during that same time period...oh well, c'est la vie). Funnily, the first two + the Order of the Phoenix movies are the three I remember the most fondly and have thought are the most fun when re-visiting them, but I was presumably a bit younger than you were when they came out, so it's probably not a particularly good or equal vantage point into what's the best.

Oh part of it is good fun, but the frustration and the feeling of having to yell at the screen/pages because everyone's a moron kind of outweighs that for Order of the Phoenix.

Edited March 1, 2021 by majestic
edit: Lots of typos in this one. Whee!

[Bartimaeus]

Hmm. In the new English dub, even when he's insulting her, he seems so much more playful than he does in the old one, so you might be on to something there. His VA is also...just not very good for the first couple of seasons (post-season 2, they pretty much re-do the entire cast because a different company got the rights to dub it - his voice still isn't a great fit beyond season 2, but he does at least come across as a collected gentleman in comparison to this more juvenile initial voice for him; also hence why Usagi sounds like a 45 year old woman trying and failing miserably to impersonate a teenager post-season 2...although that voice actress is hilarious, so it's not all bad).

Are there any Harry Potter movies where they *don't* act like moron kids? I mean, really - admittedly, I've only seen the last three exactly once because I thought they were all horrific drags with little redeeming qualities for actual fun value, but still. That's probably why I like the first two best, because they literally *are* silly dumb kids, and the movies feel appropriately silly for that, so they're still fun to me. Then Prisoner of Azkaban comes along and suddenly the universe is all a combination of either borderline grimdark or just really annoying teenage drama stuff (or both!) from then on, and I don't know, it's really just not that fun anymore. I liked Order of the Phoenix a lot more since it immediately followed Goblet of Fire, I guess, which was just...admittedly less grimdark than the following movies, but endless and pointless teen drama that just wouldn't stop.

From what I recall, I enjoyed the books more than the movies, but again, I read the majority of them when I was very young, so they might have an undeserved advantage over the movies.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic

Good. I'd like to remind you that the whole reason this happened (me deciding to watch it which made you decide to watch it), happened only because of the fantastic original English dub, including the following clips (please make sure you watch them all in respect for them allowing you to re-watch the show):

  Reveal hidden contents

I especially love the Minako one, which makes it sound like she's accusing Artemis of cheating on her.

@HP: Don't worry, both: books first. And I'm sure SMC season 3 will be much better than everything else thus far, .

  Reveal hidden contents

WHAAAT? No, I was talking about episode 28, where...you have the Twister sequence, the famous meme "okay" gesture sequence, the minion who sexually assaults the poor male victim athlete guy, the Kaolinite-Hotaru troll sequence, the Chibi-Usa cheerleading sequence...that entire episode was a trip, how could it not be memorable?

 

I watched that one in two parts so I guess I didn't associate those things.

I would also like to go for the world record

[majestic]

Sailor Moon Crystal Season III, Act 27.

Spoiler

There's a naked Hotaru and a naked Chibi-Usa in the opening credits sequence. They're lying next to each other, and their hands touch gently.

We're off to a good start here, I can already tell.

Usagi is nude too. However everyone is having their arms and hands in front of their breasts. So that's... okay? Is that the okay kind of nudity in an opening sequence without context? Hello anyone here?

The season starts with Pharaoh 90 telling Kaorinite of all people to destroy the hated "light" that threatens him. Said light is purple. Neptune, Uranus and the not really dead Pluto awaken Saturn with their three talismans. Or try to. Who knows.

Well, okay. I already know this will end with Saturn destroying Earth and Serenity/Sailor Moon reviving it again, so hey, off to a good, early start then.

Mamoru and Hotaru share the same dream, Rei sees something in the fire. Mamoru and Rei have some inner monologue because you obviously cannot infer from the context what just happened. So this annoying sh*t of taking the text directly from the manga still continues.

The animation looks better than the old one, obviously, but it's still not very engaging. The end of the opening credits looks an awful lot like the one from Sailor Moon S. I wonder if that image is taken from the manga, which would explain the similarities, or as a reference to the best 90ies Sailor Moon season.

If it is the latter, then stop doing that. Your piece of manure show has no right to do that. No right. None.

Usagi dreams of a church and Mamoru. We hear church bells in the background and Usagi's voice tells me: "Oh, church bells!" Mhm. Thanks for telling me the obvious. What is this, some closed captioning for the hard of hearing but in spoken form? Now that would be fun, huh? Kind like an audio description for deaf people.

Usagi is late for school, Chibi-Usa is having breakfast. All the scenes where people are eating in this show are horrifying. Go look it up if you don't believe me.

Usagi's father is watching new about a giant tick monster attack on Tokyo. On morning TV. As if it were the most normal thing in the world for Tokyo to get attacked by giant tick monsters that turned other people into monsters as well. Usagi goes off to school, not taking note of the giant tick monster attack.

What the actual f...?

Mamoru, Chibi-Usa and Usagi meet in the park where Chibi-Usa plays the mature grown up girl much to the detriment of Usagi, who gets angry. Wow, so this crap was actually in the manga and they just really put it into SuperS instead of S? Why and how am I both surprised and not surprised at the same time? Chibi-Usa goes off with her friends from SuperS. I think that confirms it. Bleh.

Usagi monologues about how she's happy that the Black Moon arc is over (and so is everyone else Usagi, really) and how they're leading a normal, regular life now. In Tokyo. Where they just had a GIANT TICK MONSTER ATTACK. Have I stressed that enough yet?

GIANT.TICK.MONSTER.ATTACK on morning news. Usagi: "Yay, so happy to have a normal life again!"

Woah, woah, woah! Look at Michiru having an actual real life smart phone.

And Haruka is called a he by various people. Michiru comes with their helicopters to pick them up for school. Yep. So... they don't have just one 'copter. They have two. Each of them has one. And apparently a license to fly them and they're allowed to hop around Toyko willy nilly. I wonder if we'll get some backstory about where they got all their money from.

Hahaha, who am I kidding, this is Sailor Moon Crystal.

Usagi goes to the Crown Arcade and introduction-monologues Ami, Rei, Minako and Makoto. Ami is a genious, Rei is a miko, Minako was once Sailor V and Makoto likes cooking and gardening.

So that's one sentence that sums up all the characterizations the girls got in the prior 26 episodes. I like how the season simply assumes that nobody watched the manure that came before. Heh.

Haruka plays the racing game with the girls. Makoto and Minako are head over heels in love. This was more fun when it was Minako and Usagi.

The faces of everyone look terrifying too. Their mouthes are... are... weird. None of them have a cupid's bow when their mouthes are closed and the characters are sufficiently far away from the camera. Instead there's... nothing. The lips are two lines that don't meet under the nose. Look at this Michiru-Themed freak, I'm half expecting her mouth to split open and her trying to consume Mamoru, whom she is talking to in this scene:

Look at Minako being a complete goofball over falling in love with Haruka and giving us exposition on the Professor's Infinity Academy (hence the name of the arc: Infinity).

Hum. Okay. So that means either the manga started to have some legitimate character stuff in Infinity or this emancipated itself a bit from the source material. Sigh. There's no way around reading the manga now, is there? Rei is mean to Usagi. Looks like I accidentially turned on some Sailor Moon S episode I haven't seen before.

A daimon egg falls from the sky and turns a random passerby into a GIANT TICK MONSTER right in front of Usagi. See Usagi, this is what you get for not paying attention to the morning news.

Transformation sequence time. *yawn*

Looks like everyone got a boob job from Wiseman too last season. Best plastic surgeon of the 30th century.

The girls give their full spiel for a giant tick monster that can't talk and doesn't seem to have any abilities to understand or perceive things beyond the basest instincts. Good job girls. I'm sure the giant arachnid cares.

Did I mention yet that Ami tells the enemies to douse themselves with water and repent every time? No? Yeah, she does. The giant tick is quaking in its boots now. I mean, it would be if it had any. It's a tick, it is suitably unimpressed and doesn't give a single flying heck.

Minako remembers that she has a sword. She attaches it to her chain and casts VENUS WINK CHAIN SWORD. Makoto does something called JUPITER COCONUT CYCLONE.

I had to look that up to confirm that I've heard COCONUT. She does that. Really. This time the GIANT TICK MONSTER is suitably impressed and explodes.

Back at the super secret command bunker Luna talks about how the morning news mentioned a GIANT TICK MONSTER ATTACK at the Infinity Academy. The girls decide to take a closer look at the academy.

Well that was... a bit better than anything in the first two arcs. However, I've actually thought that of the first episode of the Black Moon arc too, and look how that turned out. So I'm not holding my breath here.

Also, no, please leave Makoto out of lusting after Haruka for real, instead of just fangirling her beause she's okay with who she is, and Makoto isn't.

@Bartimaeus and @KaineParker, last edit of the day. Good night!

edit: I lied. The ending credits have Haruka and Michiru lying next to each other on a similar bed of roses like Chibi-Usa and Hotaru lie on in the openening credits. Except these two are fully clothed. I'm not sure if I like the implication. I mean I don't care if Chibi-Usa and Hotaru have a romance but one is 9 and the other like 12... eh.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

Chibiusa.

 

Where should I start? Maybe with this:
 

Spoiler

 

And now she has a crush on Mamoru. I watched up to the episode everyone appears to fight in a construction site, when she remembers being with her parents and I know she is Usagi and Mamoru's daughter, but not if of a future reincarnated version of them or some thing to do with time travel. So I imagine they look the same in the future, but she can't see the similarity? Well, at least this time it is a child who can't see the obvious...

In her first episode she managed to drug and hypnotize everyone. The bad guys could learn something from her. But instead they prefer to run away even when they come in full force. I'm curious about how they will up their game to stand a chance.

In the beach episode they saw she was kind of far from the beach. And Usagi already knew she couldn't swim. What could possible go wrong?

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

@majestic

Yeah, so Hilda season 2 is going pretty good, . Kind of miss the Pretty Guardians, been tempted to start SuperS, but I figure I should watch a few episodes of something I *don't* like first, and Hilda's sadly not that. Maybe I'll try an episode or two of Jojo's or that Thus Spoke Somebody spinoff KP mentioned and probably confirm that I'm just not enough of a weeaboo to enjoy anime at large, even the apparently decent stuff.

But what I'm definitely not doing is watching a show that I despise with every last fiber of my being, unlike a certain somebody in this thread. ...Although, wait - I just said that's what I *should* be doing so that I can appreciate SuperS more. Maybe I actually SHOULD watch a few episodes of Crystal first! Okay, fine, just for you @KaineParker, here goes an entire episode of Thus Spoke Theoden of Rohan. Normally, I wouldn't commit to watching an entire episode because I'm such a viscerally negative person that will curl up into a ball and die if I try to sit through something that I hate, but it's only 24 minutes. It can't possibly kill me, even if I hate it with every fiber of my being. Probably. This isn't going to go well, I can just tell by the title card. Hoo boy.

Episode 16: At a Confessional. It's the first episode, but okay, I guess it's also the sixteenth episode, whatever that means. It's probably a bad idea to drop straight into a spin-off series like this, but you're the one that recommended it. I had to switch to Japanese audio because the English VAs were very obnoxiously anime, and that's probably the only thing worse than obnoxiously anime Japanese voice acting. Also, I can turn down the volume to like 10% so the only thing I can really hear is the tone of what's being said while reading the subtitles.

Spoiler

lmao @ this bastard making this old broken hobo carry this crap...and he lasted for ten minutes before up and dying, RIP

And then I was treated to a like fifteen minute-long game where he had to catch three pieces of popcorn in his mouth to survive, aaaaaaaaaand off goes his head. That's rough, buddy.

Created a loop of guys who swear revenge at him from beyond the grave, nice...or wait, the original guy caught on and came back too, welp.

The episode didn't make me want to die, there were actually some funny parts, dialogue could've been a little tighter at times but it's an anime so what can you do, and the animation and some of the characters at the end of the episode both made me want to die. All in all, not nearly as bad as I expected. Don't think I could watch an entire series like this, but...four episodes might be doable, and then I could start claiming to everybody that I've totally watched Jojo's and please don't question me anything about it because I know absolutely nothing.

@majestic

So, uh, I don't know if you noticed this or not...but your tone about Crystal has been getting...just a teensy tiny little bit negative as of late. Just something to monitor while you're loving the show. It's easy to start getting hyperfocused on the little things when the rest of the show is so incredibly perfect, so it's a good thing to remind yourself to just enjoy it while it lasts, you know?

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I wonder if we'll get some backstory about where they got all their money from.

bro they didn't have time for that in the original show, the hell makes you think they're going to in this one lmao; although now that I think about it, an unnecessary detail that will presumably be poorly handled and unreasonably explained is the exact type of thing that this show would dedicate time to, so you know what, it probably will happen at some point

Edited March 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

Chibiusa.

 

Where should I start? Maybe with this:
 

  Hide contents

 

 

And now she has a crush on Mamoru. I watched up to the episode everyone appears to fight in a construction site, when she remembers being with her parents and I know she is Usagi and Mamoru's daughter, but not if of a future reincarnated version of them or some thing to do with time travel. So I imagine they look the same in the future, but she can't see the similarity? Well, at least this time it is a child who can't see the obvious...

In her first episode she managed to drug and hypnotize everyone. The bad guys could learn something from her. But instead they prefer to run away even when they come in full force. I'm curious about how they will up their game to stand a chance.

In the beach episode they saw she was kind of far from the beach. And Usagi already knew she couldn't swim. What could possible go wrong?

 

 

I loved Chibi-Usa's introduction, one of the top moments of the show for me, and helped set a good tone for her strange character. But uh, you know, objectively speaking, yeah, it's all pretty bizarre, .