Anime - A Rollercoaster of Emotion

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Don't know whom that is, but it got a burst of laughter from me, .

Good.

Almost finished with R, unless something else drops I probably will binge Sailor Moon S because it looks like I'm going to be locked down until the artic blast is over with.

Generally I think R does somethings better than s1, but I really wish they cut down on Usagi vs Chibi-Usa or Mamo-chan being a **** and gave more time to the other Sailors. From what I've been told by you guys S is a lot better in this regard......but afterwards I'll have to deal with shapeshifting aliens and/or amnesia along with some very creepy stuff that ranges from sexual assault to pedophilia. I'm considering just dropping Super S tbh.

Edited February 14, 2021 by KaineParker

[Bartimaeus]

46 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I started watching Sailor Moon. Just finished the first episode.

Hope you enjoy it - what did you think of the first episode?

46 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Good.

Almost finished with R, unless something else drops I probably will binge Sailor Moon S because it looks like I'm going to be locked down until the artic blast is over with.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Generally I think R does somethings better than s1, but I really wish they cut down on Usagi vs Chibi-Usa or Mamo-chan being a **** and gave more time to the other Sailors. From what I've been told by you guys S is a lot better in this regard......but afterwards I'll have to deal with shapeshifting aliens and/or amnesia along with some very creepy stuff that ranges from sexual assault to pedophilia. I'm considering just dropping Super S tbh.

Literally all three things you just listed are improved on in S, IMO.

Yeah, it's going to be, uh, interesting to try to watch SuperS. I can only really start passing judgement once I've actually started watching it, though. Kind of preparing to be traumatized at this point, really.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Hope you enjoy it - what did you think of the first episode?

Literally all three things you just listed are improved on in S, IMO.

Yeah, it's going to be, uh, interesting to try to watch SuperS. I can only really start passing judgement once I've actually started watching it, though. Kind of preparing to be traumatized at this point, really.

Yeah, yall have been singing the praises for S so much I'm really excited for it. majestic does have me dreading Super S tho.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I started watching Sailor Moon. Just finished the first episode.

Let us know what you think, and don't worry, we're not going to hate you (much) if you don't like it.

I'm really curious to see how you all will react to SuperS, so don't skip. At least try the first episode, it has enough of both major creep factors. It doesn't even start out that bad, because the initial episodes accompanying the creep factors are quite decent. It just goes down the crapper really quickly.

Spoiler

Maybe you'll just see the Chibi-Usa romance arc as what it was supposed to be, an innocent romance between a nine year old girl and her magical pony. I am honestly trying to state this in the  most innocent way possible and it doesn't work, does it? Chibi-Usa has no business falling in love with a horse. Not that kind of love. No. 

Did I mention that at some point she sees other horses, is happy about that, and holds a carrot to the head of one of them and wonders about Pegasus for a bit? I'm sure Freud would have to say something about the phallic representation of a Unicorn horn in this case.

Nothing says "I wish you had a horn to rub" like this one.

edit: And there is LOADS AND LOADS AND LOADS of Usagi fighting with Chibi-Usa in SuperS. It's half the season, at least, and half of THAT is fighting over who gets Mamo-Chan.

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Very minor Sailor Stars spoiler:

Spoiler

Minako now goes to the same school as Usagi, and guess what happens in the third episode? We see both of them running because they're too late... again. Such a minor thing to cause such a big grin. Some time later Usagi writes Mamoru a love letter completely in hiragana, and while Minako and Makoto moon over the decaration of love, Ami asks her why she's not writing kanji, after all she studied so hard for the entrance exam... feels like I'm finally home again.

Not that Sailor Stars is without its own set of issues, but we'll come to that later. For now I'm content. Ah, with how little you're happy after that SuperS train wreck.

And... we get another ridiculous Sailor Moon attack. Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, just in case you thought Rainbow Moon Heart Ache was weird.

Edited February 14, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

I'm liking the sound of Sailor Stars a lot more already, .

[InsaneCommander]

16 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Hope you enjoy it - what did you think of the first episode?

I liked it. Silly and very funny.

And I already knew the opening and theme songs in my mind. I didn't watch Sailor Moon when it first aired, but I must have watched whatever animes aired before and/or after it back in the day. It was probably Dragonball, which was really frustating to watch because they aired like this:

Episodes 1-60.

1-120.

1-180.

...

It took forever to finish this one. I remember the tension everytime they finished one of these sequences. Would they continue? Or would they start all over again lol.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I liked it. Silly and very funny.

Off to a good start then.

Sailor Stars minor spoiler, part 2:
 

Spoiler

 

There's a boy group in the show now. Makes sense when you think back to this being the mid 90ies, still, feels somewhat outdated now. Minako, being the cray cray she is, lures one of the boys to a secluded area of school where Usagi is waiting to take pictures of the two to sell to the yellow press (and get some public exposure for her own carreer).

Usagi becomes so engrossed in taking pictures hat she leaves the bush she's hiding in to get a better view.

Minako and Usagi doing dumb stuff could easily fill its own show. I want that, not Sailor Moon Crystal.

 

Character art spoiler:
 

Spoiler

 

I don't know if any one of you looked at any Sailor Stars pictures perhaps, but the Sailor Starlights' design is rather, ahem, different. They're three, I'm not exactly certain if they're transsexual, because they're clearly male as civilians and female when transformed, Sailor Senshi wearing headsets and, well, no better way to put it, patent leather bondage gear consisting of hot pants, a leather bra, leather gloves and overknee boots.

You know what bothered Naoko Takeuchi about the anime version? That they were men in civilian life. She didn't like the sex change because it contradicted her, uhm, canon rules for Sailor Senshi (and the canon in this series is just about anything that she wanted to have in there whenever it was needed, Sailor Moon isn't exactly a masterpiece of world design - it doesn't need to be either). In the manga they're just crossdressing women, but to be honest, I find the idea with them changing their sex during transformation much more interesting (and spoiler: nothing really comes of it anyway).

Sailor Star Maker's attack is called Sailor Gentle Uterus, by the way. Yeah. I've tried coming up with what that name... how... why, but I can't. Sure, she is called Sailor Star Maker and that may imply giving birth, but that attack is clearly a violent discharge of energy. The implications are disturbing, no matter how you want to spin this. So, just... just so you guys know that she's also got a few loose marbles rolling around.

Can't blame any of the men involved in the anime for this weird stuff. They may like pantsu too much (in this season it's Makoto who gets the fall over foward treatment), but these three are all hers, in terms of design.

Picture in another spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Just finished R.

Spoiler

So like the last finale Usagi transforms into Serenity again to shoot love energy at the final villain, who is named Death Phantom and only reveals himself right at the end, but this time she's joined by Chibi-Usa who had the silver crystal in her all along. On top of that, the last episode is a clip show which isn't great at all.

 

[majestic]

Well, KaineParker's post pre-empted my edit, so here goes a whole new post:

I've also seen reviews of the show that suggest there are people on the planet who unironically think that the first season's villains are more interesting than Sailor Moon S' (I'd say you're hard pressed to make a case for R, but that can be made, theoretically, depending on what you like in your villains), and there are also people who think SuperS is better than S.

Spoiler

 

The defenders of the latter often argue that Haruka and Michiru are Mary Sues. It's really hard to argue against that, I mean, look at any "Is my character a Mary Sue checkbox list" and you can probably check every item that is not related to looks (it is an anime, after all).

It's also not necessary to argue against it, to be honest. Their superheroic level talents and powers aren't distracting as much as they serve as a yardstick for everyone else to measure up against, and their presence is there to provide impetus and maintain forward momentum for the story, main (and some side, right Umino?) character's growth and as a basis for a central thematic conflict outside the regular good vs. evil battle that serves as a backdrop for every season of Sailor Moon.

If there's something that S does wrong, then it is perhaps giving the new character a little bit too much screen time, but that's a very fine line to walk when you introduce new characters to an existing setting. You need to highlight them enough to make watchers care, but not enough for them to completely take over.

Spoiler

S fails a bit in that regard with Sailor Saturn. She gets a lot of filler screentime that the writers probably had to put in there until Naoko Takeuchi finished the storyline in some way.

 

26 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Just finished R.

  Hide contents

So like the last finale Usagi transforms into Serenity again to shoot love energy at the final villain, who is named Death Phantom and only reveals himself right at the end, but this time she's joined by Chibi-Usa who had the silver crystal in her all along. On top of that, the last episode is a clip show which isn't great at all.

 

Warning: Mild spoilers regarding KP's point here. Don't blame me if you look.
 

Spoiler

 

There is always a mysterious something behind the villains. The first season at least played fair insofar as it was always about reviving Queen Metalia. You could argue that SuperS does it a bit better because the reveal happens somewhere between halfway and two thirds into the season, instead of at the very last moment, but I don't want to acknowledge that SuperS did anything better. That would be like if Loki and Bartleby had managed to receive their plenary indulgence. Existence would simply end.

Movies spoilers:

Spoiler

Shooting silver crystal love energy at the villain is also the way the R and S movies end.

 

Manga spoiler:

Spoiler

The manga does a one up and introduces a mysterious, all controlling evil force that was behind EVERY other arc's mysterious behind the scenes evil force at the very end, and it ends with Sailor Cosmos being Eternal Sailor Moon's ultimate form from the future (i.e. Sailor Moon eventually becomes Sailor Cosmos). So, uhm, yeah. 

Edit:

Oh, and that clip show was super confusing. They all talked over each other and very fast and the subtitles didn't show who was saying what, so it all came out a jumbled mess most of the time.

Edited February 15, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Replies to Majestic (1st) and Kaine (2nd), spoilered for InsaneCommander's innocent eyes:

Spoiler

 

3 hours ago, majestic said:

Minako, being the cray cray she is, lures one of the boys to a secluded area

Uh...

3 hours ago, majestic said:

of school where Usagi is waiting to take pictures of the two to sell to the yellow press (and get some public exposure for her own carreer)

Oh, phew, that could've ended much worse. I mean, I know this is Sailor Moon, but Minako *was* pretty unhinged in S...

3 hours ago, majestic said:

Minako and Usagi doing dumb stuff could easily fill its own show. I want that, not Sailor Moon Crystal.

I mean, I want that even in regular Sailor Moon, never mind Crystal! You'd think that crap would lose its charm after a while, but it doesn't!

Dear lord @ those Sailor Stars designs. Alright, so that's a thing. ...Although, actually, I was looking at the manga at first, it looks a little less insane for the actual anime...I think. It's still not, uh, my favorite, though.

 

Spoiler

I wasn't too big on how the ending of R was handled. Death Phantom was an even crappier villain than Queen Beryl in my opinion (he basically comes out of nowhere, his name and design are absolute trash, he barely ever does anything himself...at least the VA for Beryl did a good job, she was always around in some way or another, had good art design, and had a bigger lore reason for existing). The whole Chibi-Usa corruption plot also felt...very underdeveloped and artificial, a lot like how Mamoru being an absolute tosser throughout the entire season did. Still lots of great stuff in that season, but its running main plot line left a lot to be desired towards the end.

 

[majestic]

I said before that Sailor Stars has its own set of issues. You may have noticed it is the one season I've barely talked about an I can barely go an hour or two without posting about Sailor Moon ever since I started this rewatch (and even before that when it was just @Bartimaeus watching).

That is because I find it incredibly difficult to talk about. By any "objective" means, this should be anyone's second least favorite season. It is better than SuperS, but what isn't? The very core of its problems lies at the structure, pacing, and the storyline that is derivative to the point of being almost a carbon copy. It also has a set of villains that make Queen Beryl and Jadeite look interesting, and more characters than the writers could give a decent amount of screentime to with "only" 34 episodes.

But... what does that actually matter? Does anyone watch this show for its overall plot? There is but a brief moment in Sailor Moon S where the plot becomes interesting enough to even care about being spoiled about what happens, otherwise it is just there to serve as a backdrop for the characters to interact, and Sailor Stars isn't half bad in that regard. In fact, it's pretty good, just in a different way. In the way that SuperS should have been, continuing somewhat neatly from Sailor Moon S.

I'm really looking forward to your comments on the last two seasons. As much as I've complained about SuperS, I didn't actually hate it. I just enjoyed it a lot less than the 127 episodes before that, but I'm hard pressed to come up with an equally sharp drop in enjoyment in other shows. Andromeda comes to mind after they fired the creative staff and made Kevin Sorbo the executive producer (although watching Hercules in Space had its own schlocky charm).

Edited February 15, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I've learned to pretty much not care about the main plot at all for this show (although as you said, S definitely got me a little more interested compared to the other seasons, especially since it was more good-character-driven and less neurotic-villains-driven...plus, The Professor is actually a pretty funny dude - still as ineffective as ever, of course, but definitely funnier and more personable).

I've been forced to watch Sailor Speed (uh, what I've been calling Speed Racer because I have too much Sailor Moon on the brain) the last couple of days instead, so no progress made unfortunately. And on that note, Speed Racer has been...uh, not very good, but "not very good" in a sort of funny "what the absolute hell is wrong with this show" sort of way, so it remains entertaining. Well, until this last episode that we watched, episode 5, which was so unforgivably and inexplicably terrible, absolutely nothing happened the entire episode...until there were only literally about 2 minutes left in the episode and like a hundred freaking goons on motorcycles (each individual goon had their own motorcycle) all came pouring out of one single flying helicopter (yes, just one, and yes, it was currently flying) one-by-one and literally started bouncing off of mountain-sides and crap while landing. I think my brain broke because I just started absolutely howling with laughter, and I really didn't stop laughing for like literally another ten minutes after it ended. It was like a programming error, where a value gets so low and then gets decremented past its minimum and then loops around to the maximum - the episode was so unbelievably awful and somehow managed to get just a little bit more awful and suddenly became the funniest thing I'd ever seen.

 

[majestic]

There's one thing about Sailor Stars that I find exceedingly strange now that I can properly recognize it (past me was only vaguely aware of the reference at the time).
 

Spoiler

 

The minor villains in this season don't just teleport or drive away like in the others, they enter a phone booth and it disappears with them. I'm uncertain if that is supposed to be a reference to Doctor Who or Bill & Ted - which in itself was probably inspired by Doctor Who.

 

Music usage:

Spoiler

One episode makes heavy use of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 (also known as Funeral March). That episode is hilarious on many levels, but it is really strange to see such a recognizable piece of classical music show up, and there's some Beethoven in the episode too.

And speaking of references, the first episode of the 10th season of the new Doctor Who drew some of its imagery from Sailor Stars' opening filler story. Or at least there's an awful lot of coincidences to go around if that wasn't inspired in any way.

This is fun.

Edited February 16, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

More Sailor Stars spoilers. Read at your own risk.
 

Spoiler

 

Mamoru leaves early in the season to study a semester in the US and is consequently attacked in-flight by Sailor Galaxia, which is the reason why Usagi doesn't hear anything from him even though she writes daily letters to him.

When Seiya Kou, who is essentially the Robbie Williams of the Three Lights, accidentially runs into Usagi she does what she does best. She's completely clueless and ignores him, which of course immediately makes him attracted her (which teenage girl doesn't want Robbie Williams, after all). This leads to the girls and the Three Lights becoming friends and having many a hilarious adventure together, sometimes focusing on Seiya's attempts to flirt with Usagi. Minako is trying to flirt with any of them, and none of them really care, even Ami fangirls around, although she's really shy about it. Rei is strangely subdued (well, Minako gets her part back in this season, more or less) and Makoto... is Makoto.

She once gets to go on a cooking show with one of the Three Lights (Taiki Kou) and is so nervous that she doesn't find the the eggs necessary for the cake and accidentially pushes them off the table, Usagi somehow catches them and takes that as a hint to simply insert herself into the cooking show in an attempt to help Makoto.

Seiya is not just flirting because he feels like it, because we see him really care for Usagi, and he gets really angry at Mamoru douchewaffling Usagi by not calling or writing. Except this is the first time in the history of the anime it isn't his fault.

This is one thing where the season could have had a more interesting arc. It's really good fun - there's an episode where Seiya spends some time at Usagi's home while her parents are gone with almost every character in the season showing up at her place to make sure that nothing untowards happens. Seiya once comes close to her in that episode trying to tell her that he's really Sailor Star Fighter, but Usagi freaks out because Luna told her that Seiya will try to get into her pants.

But that's all there is to it. It's just fun. It could have been more. Imagine someone had told Usagi that Mamoru never reached the US, surely SOMEONE must be missing him. There could have been some real tension in these scenes then. To be honest, it is just as well that she doesn't know. Poor girl's been through enough, right?

 

All issues aside, I love Sailor Stars more than I should, and it really helps that all the filler episodes are like 95% character interactions with the obligatory fight at the end often lasting only two minutes. There are some details in the animation that show just how much of the creative team was changed for Sailor Stars (or probably fired over that SuperS train wreck, who knows), and there are a few things that probably won't even crop up in the dub.

Like Sailor Moon calling Sailor Venus "Venus-chan" after 178 or so episodes of simply yelling Venus! when she gets hit by an enemy like she usually does (edit: although I am not completely certain if that actually applies to Sailor Moon, but none of the other girls use honorifics to address each other when transformed).
 

Spoiler

 

Haruka becoming jealous because Michiru talks to Seiya was also really weird, but they immediately hate each other's guts from the moment they meet as Star Fighter/Uranus anyway. That feels a little forced.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler spoiler for a character in Sailor Stars spoiler:

Spoiler

 

Spoil!

Spoiler

Little Hotaru seeing Haruka and calling her Haruka-papa had me laughing for a good while.

Spoiler

Hotaru turns full mysterious waif in this season, but she barely shows up anyway.

 

 

 

 

But I'm good. I hope everyone will be too.

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Spoiler

>he gets really angry at Mamoru douchewaffling Usagi by not calling or writing. Except this is the first time in the history of the anime it isn't his fault.

tbf it's probably still his fault someway somehow

 

...Episode 23:

"Get a grip!", Usagi, the pot, said to Minako, the kettle.

"There he is! Oh, he's so hot! Alright, before I remove your pure heart and kill you, you have to try these cakes I made!" Alright, so this lady is actually legitimately insane - should be good. These other ladies just stomped her cakes - who're the villains in this episode, again? ...Okay, yeah, this lady is nuts.

Okay, so Sailor Suicide stinks - let's just eject her straight into the sun before this gets any worse. And Sailor Pluto is a little bit weird and scary, but that's cool with me.

"Wyatt Earp might forgive you...but we won't be that generous!" In what universe do you know whom Wyatt Earp is, Usagi? And Usagi's attacks just get worse and worse over time - her Destructo Disc is still her best attack.

(e): Holy crap, it's The Professor in the flesh...or rather the light. ...He looks better in the dark, .

 

...Episode 24:

While I don't really care for Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting over Mamoru (...who would? Ick, Chibi-Usa!), them fighting over their weird mother/daughter dynamic on the other hand is usually pretty good. Also, whoa, Kaolinite is actually still alive! Or...a zombie, or a clone, or a robot, or a robot clone zombie or something! ...Maybe there's hope for Eudial after all? Didn't really sound like it, since her own coven abandoned and assassinated her (as opposed to Kaolinite being The Professor's own in-house girl that simply mysteriously fell to her apparent doom), but you never know!

"She tagged along because she thought I had a date with a hot boy!" lmao, Chibi-Usa can be great sometimes

Ms. SS needs to become a strong and empowered lady quick here, this girl stinks yo - about the only likable thing about her so far is she finds Chibi-Usa and Usagi fighting to be charming for reasons unknown (family being able to be themselves and still love each other? idk, too early for me to tell what she wants/values).

Seems like Uranus and Neptune are sadly getting Mamoru syndrome, and how fitting they tried to rope him into it, too - oh wow, except he said "screw that" and stood up for them, well color me surprised and impressed, Mamoru, I didn't know you had it in you my boy!

 

...Episode 25:

Witches 4 on the door with the 4 taped on, that was a great little detail. I'm pretty sure this Mimete girl is going to be redeemed or something, there's no way they can just kill off someone this silly, lazy, and crazy, right? Also, she keeps selecting famous people for her targets, she's not even doing any real research! Good lord, Eudial was so much more dedicated to the cause (hell, she's the one that finally figured out who the proper targets were in the first place!). And while I was writing this, I was wondering why the heck the camera was focusing so hard on Minako while everyone else besides her was talking around the TV. Just about missed a great moment there - another bulletin point for the "Minako is insane" list! And her casual and unjustified physical abuse of Artemis gets another entry as well...

Did The Professor and Mimete seriously just get the special Haruka and Michiru love theme music cue played for them? ...My brain just about broke. You can't do that, show, you just can't! You've already used it inappropriately for meme purposes before, but this is a step too far! ...And Mimete further gets the Sailor Moon theme and background? Alright, well, yeah, that just about seals it - she's a hundred percent getting redeemed, . ...And yet, she's still daydreaming about The Professor too? She's demented.

"If you're chosen for the part, and the director invites you to dinner...what would you do?" Uh, I need an adult? That was creepy.

Oh my gosh, Eudial's memorial photo and flowers, .

lmao, well that went somewhere I didn't expect! The entire way this episode ended was brilliant.

I saw this frame and had to go back and pause it:

Truly the face of a teen idol-to-be!

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Got power back and can't sleep so of course I'm watching Sailor Moon. So far S seems to be more animated, which I really like, and the bad guy looks like he'll be ****ing crazy which is an improvement over the last few who had no personality to speak of.

Minako punching Artemis was great

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

  Hide contents

>he gets really angry at Mamoru douchewaffling Usagi by not calling or writing. Except this is the first time in the history of the anime it isn't his fault.

tbf it's probably still his fault someway somehow

 

...Episode 23:

"Get a grip!", Usagi, the pot, said to Minako, the kettle.

"There he is! Oh, he's so hot! Alright, before I remove your pure heart and kill you, you have to try these cakes I made!" Alright, so this lady is actually legitimately insane - should be good. These other ladies just stomped her cakes - who're the villains in this episode, again? ...Okay, yeah, this lady is nuts.

Okay, so Sailor Suicide stinks - let's just eject her straight into the sun before this gets any worse. And Sailor Pluto is a little bit weird and scary, but that's cool with me.

"Wyatt Earp might forgive you...but we won't be that generous!" In what universe do you know whom Wyatt Earp is, Usagi? And Usagi's attacks just get worse and worse over time - her Destructo Disc is still her best attack.

(e): Holy crap, it's The Professor in the flesh...or rather the light. ...He looks better in the dark, .

 

...Episode 24:

While I don't really care for Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting over Mamoru (...who would? Ick, Chibi-Usa!), them fighting over their weird mother/daughter dynamic on the other hand is usually pretty good. Also, whoa, Kaolinite is actually still alive! Or...a zombie, or a clone, or a robot, or a robot clone zombie or something! ...Maybe there's hope for Eudial after all? Didn't really sound like it, since her own coven abandoned and assassinated her (as opposed to Kaolinite being The Professor's own in-house girl that simply mysteriously fell to her apparent doom), but you never know!

"She tagged along because she thought I had a date with a hot boy!" lmao, Chibi-Usa can be great sometimes

Ms. SS needs to become a strong and empowered lady quick here, this girl stinks yo - about the only likable thing about her so far is she finds Chibi-Usa and Usagi fighting to be charming for reasons unknown (family being able to be themselves and still love each other? idk, too early for me to tell what she wants/values).

Seems like Uranus and Neptune are sadly getting Mamoru syndrome, and how fitting they tried to rope him into it, too - oh wow, except he said "screw that" and stood up for them, well color me surprised and impressed, Mamoru, I didn't know you had it in you my boy!

 

...Episode 25:

Witches 4 on the door with the 4 taped on, that was a great little detail. I'm pretty sure this Mimete girl is going to be redeemed or something, there's no way they can just kill off someone this silly, lazy, and crazy, right? Also, she keeps selecting famous people for her targets, she's not even doing any real research! Good lord, Eudial was so much more dedicated to the cause (hell, she's the one that finally figured out who the proper targets were in the first place!). And while I was writing this, I was wondering why the heck the camera was focusing so hard on Minako while everyone else besides her was talking around the TV. Just about missed a great moment there - another bulletin point for the "Minako is insane" list! And her casual and unjustified physical abuse of Artemis gets another entry as well...

Did The Professor and Mimete seriously just get the special Haruka and Michiru love theme music cue played for them? ...My brain just about broke. You can't do that, show, you just can't! You've already used it inappropriately for meme purposes before, but this is a step too far! ...And Mimete further gets the Sailor Moon theme and background? Alright, well, yeah, that just about seals it - she's a hundred percent getting redeemed, . ...And yet, she's still daydreaming about The Professor too? She's demented.

"If you're chosen for the part, and the director invites you to dinner...what would you do?" Uh, I need an adult? That was creepy.

Oh my gosh, Eudial's memorial photo and flowers, .

lmao, well that went somewhere I didn't expect! The entire way this episode ended was brilliant.

I saw this frame and had to go back and pause it:

Truly the face of a teen idol-to-be!

 

Spoiler

 

I'm glad you like Mimet for the time being, I found her mildly irritating and a bit of a step down from Eugeal/Eudial. You're now entering a phase of Sailor Moon S that feels a bit draggy. Lots of time will be spent on the Chibi-Usa/Hotaru gurlmance (or whatever it is you call bromance for girls ). It does have a payoff in the end, but it isn't as interesting or funny as other parts of the season.

Also... I'm not entirely surprised you don't like Hotaru. She's probably the most anime character in the anime in the sense that she wouldn't be out of place in any other setting, unlike the rest of the girls. For me, well, give me ANY Broken Bird/Woobie character and I'm immediately good. Poor Hotaru, it'll be all right.

To be fair to poor Hotaru, it probably does a number on your mind when you're that young and supposed to bring about an extinction level event. I mean, at this point in time you're not supposed to know that she's Sailor Saturn* yet (silly spoilers, probably my fault for mentioning it a while back!), just that the Professor keeps her in a really creepy room at home where she sometimes talks in a weird voice about bringing about Silence (or whatever it is called in the english dub) and needing energy/pure heart crystals to awaken fully.

At one point she completely emos out:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Her manga counterpart was arguably worse where she actuallly was a cyborg at this point in time, with mechanical limbs. Yes, really. It's... weird.

 

edit: *) Plus one who is not familiar with what Saturn stands for in astrology wouldn't know what to do with that information anyway. It's supposed to represent endings and new beginnings, a destructive force that isn't necessarily bad in the way that it ends one thing to make place for another. Hum, astrology... so much hokum.

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

I love this so much. Can't help it.
 

Spoiler

 

Minako's fantasies are just awesome.

The episode begins with the girls trying to do something without Usagi. Ami and Makoto are talking to each other on the way to school when Usagi strangely turns up on time, and Minako comes running yelling about her ticket to... something. Ami and Makoto are put out and Minako can't believe Usagi is on time for the first time ever and says "You're up early" and Usagi replies "I think I can smell a secret in my sleep."

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

11 hours ago, KaineParker said:

Got power back and can't sleep so of course I'm watching Sailor Moon. So far S seems to be more animated, which I really like, and the bad guy looks like he'll be ****ing crazy which is an improvement over the last few who had no personality to speak of.

 

  Hide contents

Minako punching Artemis was great

 

Yeah, he's...something alright.

Spoiler

I wish I had kept track of the amount of times I've seen Minako abuse Artemis. I'm sure it must be at least a half-dozen times now. She's a bad crazy cat lady! She's also not that great with humans either - it's a bit of a wonder that she's supposed to be the goddess of love.

@majestic

Spoiler

Hotaru is the one that wouldn't be out of place in any other setting relative to the other girls? Well, I'm not sure that I can agree with that, but I don't watch other anime, so... It's still called "The Silence" in the English dub.

Mimete is very different from most the other mid-level villains, so that's probably why I'm more okay with her. Not being nearly as flat or serious about her job is a welcome change of pace (she's more like one of the Spectre Sisters, whom I also liked). She has a bit of an odd and extremely high-pitched voice in the English dub, which I thought would've annoyed me, but they've done enough silly stuff with her that I've already gotten over it.

 

[InsaneCommander]

Watched until episode 5.

Some hilarious moments, especially with the poor teacher at school.

And Tuxedo Mask is not nearly as useless as his meme implies.

Edited February 17, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[Bartimaeus]

Well...if enemies weren't constantly surprised and distracted by his roses most of the time (as opposed to, you know, just ignoring them because they're freaking roses), he'd be a hell of a lot more ineffective, .

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

34 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well...if enemies weren't constantly surprised and distracted by his roses most of the time (as opposed to, you know, just ignoring them because they're freaking roses), he'd be a hell of a lot more ineffective, .

They're special Momo-Roses.

[majestic]

Enemies just dread being kissed by a rose.

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Hotaru is the one that wouldn't be out of place in any other setting relative to the other girls? Well, I'm not sure that I can agree with that, but I don't watch other anime, so... It's still called "The Silence" in the English dub.

Mimete is very different from most the other mid-level villains, so that's probably why I'm more okay with her. Not being nearly as flat or serious about her job is a welcome change of pace (she's more like one of the Spectre Sisters, whom I also liked). She has a bit of an odd and extremely high-pitched voice in the English dub, which I thought would've annoyed me, but they've done enough silly stuff with her that I've already gotten over it.

 

 

Spoilered for KP/IC benefit:

Spoiler

Switch her to Japanese for a bit. She's incredibly shrill there too. 

Spoilers regarding a certain character in Sailor Moon S.

Spoiler

 

You mentioned having an aversion to anime, and I presumed from there that comes from common tropes used, the character design and the animation style, i.e. everything that makes anime so typically anime (and Japenese, I guess). Correct me if I'm wrong. It's been known to happen.

Sailor Moon's pretty mild when it comes to these. There's a host of tropes that you can usually associate with anime characters that have Japanese names. I'm not sure how familiar you are with them, I mentioned Rei being a mild tsundere before, a combination of tsuntsun, i.e. irritable and dererere (lovestruck/sweet). Now that's not necessarily only an anime trope (well, what is) but it shows up really often in anime. 

In a show about five magical girls you could expect at least one of them going full tsundere for the entire run. Rei does a bit of that towards Usagi and Yuichiro, but not to the point where it is her whole personality. There's barely any creepy Yandere (yanderu + deredere = batsh*t insane + lovestruck) type character, except perhaps Mimet. And even that is really mild. Eh, that list can go on for while, but you get the idea.

The artstyle is slightly different, but that is more of a "feel" than anything concrete and is really just related to the zero budget the show had while still having to come out with an episode a week. Sure the animators still did the typical anime super exaggeration of emotions and body language, particularily with Usagi, but for the others except Rei it is usually very restrained, only some enlarged eyes and some blushing. Look at Ami when she's embarrassed:

Compare that to anime that didn't have a shoestring budget (or later built upon that artstyle).

And now compare both to how Hotaru looks:

While her looks and artstyle sure fit within Sailor Moon's minimalistic framework, it is much closer to other anime. She also comes with a full gothic queen getup, i.e. primary black secondary purple color scheme (or vice versa) and a very typical haircut for this sort of character.

From now on, this post is dark and full of spoilers, you might want to go back to this once you're done with Sailor Moon S.

Spoiler

 

Finally there is what Hotaru represents. She is...

• Professor Tomoe's daughter
• The reincarnation of Sailor Saturn, the Solider of Ruin
• Spoiler

  Host to Daimon Mistress 9, the Messiah of Silence, spawn of an Eldritch Space Horror

  

   

• Powerful enough to destroy a planet but only when sacrificing her own life
• Mysterious Waif (well, only comes into full effect in Sailor Stars)
• Woobie
• Broken Bird
• A complete emo

To does feel a bit like the writers and animators attempted to funnel everything "anime" that could not be done for budget, time and source material constraints with the other characters, into Hotaru Tomoe.

 

You not liking her all that much makes a decent amount of sense. Let me know if that changes at some point, or if I just spent an hour on making a post that I pulled completele our of my arse. Now that would be something... huh.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by majestic