Anime - A Rollercoaster of Emotion

[Bartimaeus]

21 minutes ago, majestic said:

It gives Minako cancer and she dies, I mean, the hell Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the hell? How can you do that to Minako?

 

[majestic]

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.

[Bartimaeus]

Hey, they're not as scary as the SMC aliens, so at least it has that going for it (sorry no Ami, there was literally not a single picture of her on the wiki for some reason - everyone else had multiple, and I didn't feel like finding a different wiki to get one of her, lol).

Edited March 4, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

Started watching Guilty Crown on Netflix. It wants to be some really deep anime, but it is such a sexist garbage that I can't take it serious. Made it to episode 8 or so and I think I'm done with it.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Lexx

[majestic]

@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.
 

Spoiler

 

Actually... the episode at least wasn't terrible, and Haruka was wearing a black leather miniskirt in public while wakling around with Michiru. Telulu/Tellu is level 404. Seems like these character levels have no upper bounds. Sailor Pluto wakes up, and Setsuna, Michiru and Haruka are seen naked for a moment.

Tellu handily defeats all the Sailor Senshi at once (this makes the Witches 5 look even dumber to have just watched the GIANT SNAKE WERECAT fight the Sailor Senshi earlier without helping, good job), lucky for them SERA PRUTO shows up and uses GDI's orbital ion cannon superweapon and Tellu dies like Kane in the secret GDI ending video of the first C&C.

Don't you love it when EVA tells you ION CANNON READY? Gotta wonder about that glass ceiling though. How does that not get damaged in the blast?

Rei does not play Deanna Troi in this episode at all. But I suppose that's simply because outside of stock footage she says three (3!) words (at least in the German dub). Minako visits Makoto once but instead of talking with each other they're knocked out by Tellu's weird plants. Can't catch a break you guys, you simply don't get to be girls for once. Just give it up, if you're not Usagi, Haruka, Chibi-Usa or Mamoru there's nothing for you in this season. Nothing.

Oh, and Haruka and Michiru stubbornly refuse to ally with Usagi and the girls. It feels forced in S, but can there be explained by their philosophical differences and Haruka's and Michiru's wavering conviction in the face of the friendships they build with them. Here there is no friendship, and no philosophical conflict to explain anything. They're just as stubborn as they later are in Sailor Stars.

Rei playing Deanna Troi counter: ∞

Professor Tomoe insane laugh counter: 0

Professor Tomoe doing fun things counter: 0

 

 

27 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Started watching Guilty Crown on Netflix. It wants to be some really deep anime, but it is such a sexist garbage that I can't take it serious. Made it to episode 8 or so and I think I'm done with it.

Well that's easy to fix, you clearly need to watch some 90ies Sailor Moon!

Edited March 4, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

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.

So it's pretty much a CW cape**** show.

[InsaneCommander]

Finished SM R.
 

Spoiler

A thousand years into the future and King Endymion still hasn’t learned that he can’t leave Chibiusa alone. And worse, he actually told the others to do just that. Does he remember this happening from his time as Mamoru? Is he simply letting events happen as they did in his past?

 

And when will Sailor Moon learn to attack vulnerable enemies? Almost every battle somebody has to tell her to take the opportunity. Wiseman was fighting Demand and she just stood there, watching.

 

 

[majestic]

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Finished SM R.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

A thousand years into the future and King Endymion still hasn’t learned that he can’t leave Chibiusa alone. And worse, he actually told the others to do just that. Does he remember this happening from his time as Mamoru? Is he simply letting events happen as they did in his past?

 

And when will Sailor Moon learn to attack vulnerable enemies? Almost every battle somebody has to tell her to take the opportunity. Wiseman was fighting Demand and she just stood there, watching.

 

 

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:

1. 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).
2. 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).
3. Sailor Pluto is a Time Lord. Her appearances on the show are set a different times of her personal timeline.
4. The spacetime corridor from R exists outside of spacetime itself, because otherwise you couldn't have #3.
5. 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.

Edited March 5, 2021 by majestic

[Lexx]

10 hours ago, majestic said:

Well that's easy to fix, you clearly need to watch some 90ies Sailor Moon!

Sadly it's not on Netflix nor Amazon prime. : >

Edited March 5, 2021 by Lexx

[majestic]

12 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Sadly it's not on Netflix nor Amazon prime. : >

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.

[Lexx]

I'm not really interested in spending more money on another streaming service, though. So I'll just go with whatever I have available right now and hope that more interesting stuff comes later.

[majestic]

7 minutes ago, Lexx said:

I'm not really interested in spending more money on another streaming service, though.

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.

[Lexx]

No idea. The only other dedicated anime site I'm using rarely (for Attack on Titan) was Anime on Demand. It has a really horrible interface. : >

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

unless you want to have games like Hentai Empire in your browsing history

Does this game have a Hentai Emperor?

[majestic]

1 hour ago, KaineParker said:

Does this game have a Hentai Emperor?

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

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

46 minutes ago, majestic said:

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

you funny majestic  . but there are so many good romance games out there to play ?

[majestic]

1 hour ago, KaineParker said:

you funny majestic  . but there are so many good romance games out there to play ?

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

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

12 minutes ago, majestic said:

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

 

I'm going from memory man, cut me some slack.

Oh yeah more Supah Ess

So Artemis and Luna have a kitty in the future, who is also Chibi-Usa's best friend (aside from Pegasus and Hotaru), but we are meeting her just now. I wonder how Diana feels about her best friend using a tool/toy based on her mom?

Artemis got abducted by a clown in a kangaroo costume.

Edited March 5, 2021 by KaineParker

[majestic]

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 32

Spoiler

 

Sailor Pluto explains that it was Neo-Queen Serenity that reincarnated her as Setsuna Meio(h) (meaning Dark King of Sorrow, maybe - again with the name only in Hirakana, uhm... yeah). Good job Usagi, you might have just told that your daughter earlier? It's not like she blamed herself for the death of her surrogate mother. Some more points for the mom of the millennium award.

Uhm, Sailor Moon transforms into her Princess Serenity form and the three Outer Senshi immediately kneel before her. What? Just an episode ago you were blasting her with WORLD SHAKING and now you're kneeling like a little bitch trying to make amends for your transgressions?

The three introduce themselves. What? What the hell is going on? Guys, that's just Usagi, and Pluto, my dear, sweet, wonderful and interesting Pluto, the only Sailor Guardian with a character other than Sailor Moon, why are you introducing yourself? She remembers Chibi-Usa and calls her Sailor Chibi-Moon, which means she remembers everything that happened in the Black Moon arc. Why... why?

Haruka is ready to face the consequences for her actions. Good on you. Also good on you to know that you're the first person ever in the history of Sailor Moon Crystal that Usagi will forgive. Because the others so far she just blasted out of existence.

So, why now? I'm guessing there'll be no actual answer.

Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna stubbornly refuse help from the Inner Senshi. Oh by the way, the Inner and Outer Senshi are divided between what astrology calls the slow and fast moving planets, because Neptune's, Uranus' and Pluto's years are far, far, faaaaaaar longer than those of the other planets. Just in case you're wondering why the "inner" planets go up to Jupiter, which they really shouldn't.

Michiru explains that Haruka is both a man and a woman. A warrior with the strength of both. Is that in the source material too? Because Ms. Takeuchi was really annoyed by the Starlights being real men as civilians. Bah, whatever.

Rei gets a full line to say where she doesn't state the obvious, but she does repeat something she's said like five times already. This is... outside of some yelling and casting in the upcoming confusion fight the only thing the four girls are going to say. It's marginally better than their treatment in SuperS where they sometimes not only didn't have any lines but wouldn't even show up at all.

The Professor outfits Hotaru with new cyborg limbs. Chibi-Usa sees her in her underwear and is scared off. That's odd. According to the opening credits she should really be into seeing her with even less clothes on. Hotaru goes full emo.

Cyprine is level 999. Nice. So I'm guessing that IS max level, right? Has to be. She sure did a LOT of grinding. Cyprine just blasts the Outer Senshi down, the other girls show up and she casts Confusion on them. They all fail their saving throws and start fighting each other. Not a had showing so far. So who's going to bust them out of this bind?

Oh, wait, no. Usagi's saving throw succeeded. Or maybe this Confusion spell requires a minimum amount of intelligence and she's unaffected because she dumb. Tuxedo Kamen, Sailor Chibi-Moon and Sailor Moon are holding hands. This summons the holy grail. What? End of episode.

Rei playing Deanna Troi counter: ∞

Professor Tomoe insane laugh counter: 0 + 0.5 (he has a mild giggle when talking to Karorinite about her continued failures).

Professor Tomoe doing fun things counter: 0

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

7 minutes ago, majestic said:

Or maybe this Confusion spell requires a minimum amount of intelligence and she's unaffected because she dumb.

Not quite, but close: it's because she's always confused, so it doesn't actually change anything for her. It's classic "weakness-becomes-a-strength" stuff, majestic!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

49 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not quite, but close: it's because she's always confused, so it doesn't actually change anything for her. It's classic "weakness-becomes-a-strength" stuff, majestic!

But I thought Confusion can't be made permanent? Usagi's behavior and D&D spells are making me confused now.

[majestic]

Sailor Moon Crystal, Act 33
 

Spoiler

 

Recaps the confusion fight between the Inner Senshi and the Outer Senshi. It once again reminds us that the Sailor Senshi can all fly when they want to. Haruka and Michiru hover around, Jupiter flies towards them trying to hit them with her fists and throws a SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE at Chibi-Moon when she attempts to cast PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK.

So girls, I have a question. When that GIANT WERECAT SNAKE MONSTER almost tore you apart, why, uhm, didn't you just hover out of reach and go to pure ranged combat? Oh, oh! I remember now. Because it's totally dumb to give the heroines the power to fly and teleport at will unless they're constantly fighting enemies that can do the same, and then it just becomes a non-factor again. So we conveniently forget that they could just stay away when facing pure melee mobs.

They should probably learn to kite enemies at some point, or else they're going to have some problems in future raids.

Sailor Moon summons the Holy Grail, and apart from glowing nicely it also seems to be able to cast Dispel once per day. The 8 other Senshi pour their energy into the grail and Sailor Moon transforms into Super Sailor Moon. 

A flashback with Chibi-Usa and Neo-Queen Serenity confirms that she's sending Chibi-Usa back in the past to keep the timeline the way it is. She definitely remembers this from before. Oh boy Chibi-Usa, I hope you don't think too much about how much of an ice queen your mother can be.

Hotaru is on her hands and knees (still in her underwear), rocking back and forth, moaning and panting. Could you have drawn her seizure a bit less like that?

Pharao 90 shows up again. This one is two glowing eyes and a deep, resounding voice. I don't think I need to mention it, but I liked the cosmic horror silent Pharao 90 from S better.

We switch back to Hotaru who is now rocking up and down with a flushed face, still moaning and panting, while sitting on her heels. Except we really don't see her lower body. This keeps getting worse and worse. What the hell? Oh, looks like Mistress 9 woke up. No transformation yet, but that is clearly no longer poor, sickly Hotaru.

Super Sailor Moon vows to never be confused again (yeah right, the last time she vowed something was to never be tragic princess again, two episodes before her murder-suicide attempt) and blasts Cyprine and Ptilol apart with RAINBOW MOON HEART ACHE.

Usagi explains that the power of the Holy Grail is to cast Tenser's Transformation on her by drawing on the strength of everyone else around. The girls are flying to Haruka's now trashed apartment. Too bad, that stuff looked expensive. Haruka wonders how she's going to afford the repairs and new furniture.

Uhm. Hey, sell a helicopter? Minako wonders about the rent for a place like this. Yeah, not only you Minako. We do too. Haruka casually states that the rent for the place is a million yen per month. This is like what, 10k $. Seems reasonable. Makoto flat out asks where the hell they're getting the money from, Haruka tells them they got sponsorship deals. Okay.

Please make it stop. Please. Just... don't bother explaining anything if that's what you come up with, and don't draw attention to how ridiculous this is by having everyone ask and wonder about how expensive this stuff is.

The Outers explain how they've summoned Sailor Saturn after the fall of the Silver Millennium in the past to push the cosmic reset button, and that they fully plan to obliterare Hotaru Tomoe to seal Saturn once and for all.

Okay, that makes sense. But they've known about her for a while now apparently, why not blast her to bits before Sailor Moon shows up and can interfere? Oh, right, because otherwise no plot. Tks. Silly me.

Usagi refuses to accept that killing Hotaru is the answer and she says the first really sensible thing you can say in this time travel mess: Nothing bad is going to happen beause she's been to the future and she knows how it will turn out. Pluto knows that too, I guess. Good job Usagi. I fear the next confusion spell is going to hit you too.

The agrument ends with Princess Serenity ordering the Outer Senshi to not kill Hotaru, which they flat out refuse (nothing but respect for their queen, right? sorry, couldn't resist) telling her flat out that this is the reason they're never going to be friends or even allies. Pluto turns coldly turns away from a visibly bothered Chibi-Usa. They say they don't care if the others hate them for it, they'll defeat the Death Busters and kill Hotaru. And they leave.

Yeah look Outers, Cyprine - even before she split into Cyprine and Ptilol - handily handed you your asses on a silver platter. If the others don't show up and Sailor Moon summons the Holy Grail from wherever you'd already be dead. You're awfully big on the talk, but walking the walk? Yeah no. Geez.

Chibi-Moon runs off to Hotaru who just in time fully awakens and transforms into Mistress 9. She grabs Chibi-Moon, takes her Silver Crystal and apparently kills her in the process. I'm not too worried, people have a history of getting better in Sailor Moon. Yeah. 

Spoiler

Still not over the fact that Hotaru's seizure looks like a sex scene with only another person missing (or having her hands somewhere else).

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not quite, but close: it's because she's always confused, so it doesn't actually change anything for her. It's classic "weakness-becomes-a-strength" stuff, majestic!

Oh that is so clever, no wonder I missed it.

  

10 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

But I thought Confusion can't be made permanent? Usagi's behavior and D&D spells are making me confused now.

Maybe her brooch is a Cursed Brooch of Confusion?

Edited March 5, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

12 hours ago, majestic said:

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.

Yes, I'm actually joking and not really asking these questions. It is not suppose to be any different. Or maybe she really can't change the way she is.

Spoiler

Btw, strange that Saturn is not the time guardian. It would fit better. I even checked on Google and saw that Sailor Saturn is related to death, which would fit Pluto better. But whatever.

And Chibiusa wins by not recognizing three people who look exactly or almost exactly the same, Usagi, Sailor Moon and Neo Queen Serenity...

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[Bartimaeus]

LMAO

They actually did try to fully explain the detail about where their money comes from, exactly how I predicted they would because it'd be the stupidest thing possible to do? And it was...just as dumb as could be imagined? Absolutely incredible, top notch stuff.

@KaineParker I'm not certain about Confusion, but Feeblemind at the very least is permanent, .

Edited March 5, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I for one applaud the realism of SMC of showing how if teenage girls want to have helicopters and high-end apartments, they simply need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Taking advantage of plot holes in a fictional magical universe is just good life choices.

@BartimaeusBut that can be removed with Remove Curse, which seems to happen to Usagi every season.