Anime: Emotions on a Rollercoaster

[HoonDing]

'Chibusa' means breast

[majestic]

More Steven Universe
 

Spoiler

 

Steven bubbled a gem and tried to befriend the centipede thing from earlier this season.

I'm not entirely certain why Pearl is freaking out this much over the centipede. They let Steven keep a rosé colored magic lion with teleportation abilities, but a small little acid spewing centipede is suddenly an issue?

Maybe I'm missing some information yet, but that seemed odd.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Skipping the assault scenes and the fights seems to be a really good idea. Maybe I'll do just that if I ever rewatch Sailor Moon again. Tha way the only thing left that's really terrible is how out of character the girls sometimes are. Eh, and the whole Chibi-Usa and Usagi are siamese twins thing. What the hell made them link their transformation and attack sequences like that. Gah!

Regardless of the new focus of the show, studio interference or no, that was a bad idea from start to finish. Why would you ever limit your creative freedom like that?

Throw in Mamoru with those two, and it literally just about brings out the worst in all three characters. Terrible idea...and it's off the heels of S where it seemed like Usagi and Chibi-Usa had finally come to a bit of a mother-daughter understanding, and Chibi-Usa had finally figured some things out. Sometimes, you still see hints of that understanding, but it's too rare by far, and them being openly adversarial is many times more frequent.

(e): You ninja-ed me with the SU post: I...can't say anything, .

Edited March 18, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Throw in Mamoru with those two, and it literally just about brings out the worst in all three characters. Terrible idea...and it's off the heels of S where it seemed like Usagi and Chibi-Usa had finally come to a bit of a mother-daughter understanding, and Chibi-Usa had finally figured some things out. Sometimes, you still see hints of that understanding, but it's too rare by far, and them being openly adversarial is many times more frequent.

Yes, the worst part is that SuperS throws out the character growth of S. From R to S it was somewhat natural. Chibi-Usa began as an annoyance to Usagi, then when she left they shared this great moment with each other, then she comes back in S, Usagi sometimes treats her as an annoying little sister, less than her daughter, but in the end they really worked everything out...

...and then SuperS happens. Suddenly we're back to early R, except all these characters now know who they are in relation to each other.

Speaking briefly about the 30 page essay:
 

Spoiler

Thought a bit more about these comments that state "the manga version is better!" because I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone could come to that conclusion.

In the anime, Usagi says: "If a soldier's pride means hurting each other, then I don't want it." at the end after Galaxia shatters Hope in its sword form. Galaxia at this point thinks she's won, because hope is destroyed. Usagi apologizes to Chibi-Chibi as she fades away.

I think it's that scene that confuses most viewers who think the manga version of this is better in the form of Chibi-Chibi being Sailor Moon from the distant future coming back to prevent a really bad future from happening (great plot device there Ms. Takeuchi, really original after R / Black Moon). Yes, the sword version of hope is broken, but Usagi never wanted this kind of hope anyway, she rejects fighting as a way to resolve conflict and only fights when she absolutely has to*.

I'm not even sure she apologizes to Chibi-Chibi because the sword is broken and she thinks she's lost, instead, she apologizes because she doesn't want to - or cannot - use the sword like Chibi-Chibi wanted, because before transforming into the sword, Chibi-Chibi said "Please restore hope to the galaxy by using this sword." This makes even more sense when you think about how Chibi-Chibi is Sailor Galaxia's Star Seed. Galaxia is a soldier, and her essence would have a soldier's wish.

Insofar I can understand how one would maybe prefer the manga version. It's easier to understand and doesn't require interpretation at all (even though I think the imagery used is enough, but then again, I also thought the spiritual focus of Lost and it's obsession with dharma was enough to make clear what was supposed to have happened in that finale and that clearly wasn't the case**).

For prefering the Saturday morning cartoon villain version of Galaxia I can't come up with any decent reason. I don't mind villains with simple motivations, but if there are better ones available, why prefer a basic one?

* Sure she destroys a host of monsters over the course of the show, but never actual human beings (not directly, anyway). Not even the cat that turns out to be one of the seven great Youma.

**Not understanding the finale and not liking it - two different pair of shoes. Lost certainly doesn't have a good ending by any means, but it's not bad because it isn't understandable. Right, I know TV Tropes thinks that understanding what happens requires a college level course on ancient religion and gnosticism, but eh... that's way overblown.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): You ninja-ed me with the SU post: I...can't say anything, .

 

Spoiler

I'm guessing that has something to do with Pearl saying that Rose also tried to heal the monsters but never managed. So Lion is either not a gem, or not a corrupted gem, or whatever else that may or may not be. Maybe. I'll just keep watching.

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Who even has the patience to sit through the manga to figure out if it was written better? Honestly, it's so dull, .

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

12 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Who even has the patience to sit through the manga to figure out if it was written better? Honestly, it's so dull, .

If @majestic can watch Star Trek Discovery for three seasons, reading manga is nothing.

[Bartimaeus]

Okay, but hypothetically speaking, if you were the type of person that can't watch Star Trek Discovery for three minutes, where does that leave you?

[majestic]

8 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, but hypothetically speaking, if you were the type of person that can't watch Star Trek Discovery for three minutes, where does that leave you?

Most likely unable to get through that manga. Theoretically you could try to get through one episode of Crystal (not the first one though, that's too similar to the 90ies anime), then you'd know if you can stomach the manga.

  

14 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

If @majestic can watch Star Trek Discovery for three seasons, reading manga is nothing.

I might have been Dak'kon in a prior life. Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

Edited March 18, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, but hypothetically speaking, if you were the type of person that can't watch Star Trek Discovery for three minutes, where does that leave you?

With time on your hands to read or watch something better.

[InsaneCommander]

Episode 20:

 

Spoiler

 

If it was bad nobody addressed the abuse every episode, now it is even worse. Makoto had real feelings and was assaulted in front of her friends. Yet nobody talked to her about it later. And she just forgot about it immediately, telling Natsumi that she wanted to go to another party. Great character development!

 

Well, to be fair, there was one minor acknowledgement of what happened: the drop in the head when Makoto said she wanted to go to another party.

 

 

The ballet instructor was good, Makoto and Ami are now the best dancers in Tokyo!

 

I thought they would do like the third witch in S and try to attack several victims at once. I expected multiple mirrors in front of all those poor girls and maybe Makoto would come in the middle of it and end up fighting Tiger Guy. Not sure if he assaulted any other girl though.

 

Btw, it seemed he started to have feelings for Makoto and when Creepyfish appeared he just forgot about it. And the teaser for the next episode has Creepyfish in love with Mamoru…

 

 

[InsaneCommander]

@Bartimaeus@majestic Exactly, in the end of S Usagi and Chibiusa were starting to have a better relationship and now Usagi looks more immature than Chibiusa.

@ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP

Spoiler

I started calling him Pedasus in the previous page, but you and your fiance beat me to it. Pedosus it is!

 

[majestic]

@InsaneCommander
 

Spoiler

 

Honestly I'd say that Tiger's-Eye really just assaulted each and every girl, although not neccesarily all at once. It took him the entire day, after all.

And yes, I wish there would be the odd episode or two dealing with the fallout, especially after episode 20. That must have hurt Makoto more than her usual falling in love again with the next guy that's been going on in the earlier seasons. It's not completely out of character for her to just go to the next party, but this was way different than hearing "I'm not interested!" or "I don't want freakishly tall girls." and whatever else she might have been told in the past.

Minor spoiler, you'll be there soon:

Spoiler

I'm still angry that these three f*cks get to live with Creepasus. It fits the creepy horse's character to give shelter to serial rapists, but still, why? Why? Why, SuperS, why?

 

 

[InsaneCommander]

Well, that is actually one of the good things about this season, I guess.
 

Spoiler

 

If Tiger guy was abusing all those girls, at least we didn't get to see it. And notice Creepyfish was there too, talking about the handsome boys interested in him. Something could have hapened there too and we were not forced to watch it.

The Creeptastic 4 then. What a wonderful place the Crystal forest must be. And if they reinforce each other's behavior, it will only get worse.

 

 

[majestic]

Managed to watch one more episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. At this rate, I'll be done with SU, JoJo's and CCS some time in the next decade. Stupid work. I should quit and dedicate my life to the writing of anime essays.
 

Spoiler

 

Anyway, this one has Yukito (the best "friend" of Sakura's brother Toya and Sakura's crush) look at Toya's watch like this:

Yeah. Called it.

I've got to admit that this is a first though, I never guessed a character's sexual orientation based on their voice actor alone before. Heh.

 

  

5 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Well, that is actually one of the good things about this season, I guess.
 

  Hide contents

 

If Tiger guy was abusing all those girls, at least we didn't get to see it. And notice Creepyfish was there too, talking about the handsome boys interested in him. Something could have hapened there too and we were not forced to watch it.

The Creeptastic 4 then. What a wonderful place the Crystal forest must be. And if they reinforce each other's behavior, it will only get worse.

 

 

 

Spoiler

No, it's not as bad as that. They just become lights in his forest hovering over the lake and never ever appear again. It's still more than they deserve.

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

Episode 21:

 

Spoiler

The one episode Usagi’s jealousness was necessary and she left Mamoru alone. Twice. However, when she came, she actually praised Creepfish’s taste.

 

Episode 22:

 

Spoiler

The redemption of the villains would have worked if they had not done something so evil for 20 episodes.

In their new form they will have to limit themselves to voyeuriusm.

 

Episode 23:

 

Spoiler

And… the new enemy girls have a crush on Pedosus. Or at least one has. Maybe that is the true objective of Nehelenia too, something to do with Pedosus. And they all laugh maniacally like the professor. Maybe they are relatives to the daimon that was possessing him.

 

Episode 24: the piano guy. Not memorable.

 

Episode 25:

 

Spoiler

Not exactly Sailor Chibi Mars, like I predicted, but almost that. So who is next? Chibiusa’s brother, Tuxedo Chibi Mask?

 

The new villains

 

Spoiler

Are lazy. They even came together in their first episode, but only one did anything useful. VesVes called the star-eyed girl a child, but they are the same height. How old are these girls? I hope they are done with the creepy stuff. I know that is not the case with Chibiusa, but still, maybe with the villains.

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

It seems I have been passed.

[Bartimaeus]

I initially read that as "It seems I have passed". Thought you must've watched a really bad episode.

@InsaneCommander You mentioned earlier about how when people, particularly the girls, are assaulted, nobody...really talks about it. I also thought this was really skeevy - one of them gets horrifically violated in an obviously traumatic manner, and then...nobody talks about it, it's like it never happened? What?

[InsaneCommander]

The more you think about it, the less sense it makes.
 

Spoiler

 

Every single person attacked seems to be suffering, so it can't just be shock, it must be either extremely painful, traumatic or both. Nobody shows any amount of resistance and many pass out, including Mamoru, that must be in good shape since he is frequently involved in battles. And if it requires mental resistance, then someone would stand out right?

Perhaps it is just too embarrassing to be discussed?

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

That's a terrible lesson to take away from it too, though, .

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's a terrible lesson to take away from it too, though, .

Indeed it is. I mean it's clear, I think, to each of us that real life sexual assault victims are often too embarrassed to talk about it (not only women, but men too, let alone go to the police or any other authority). It's bad not doing that on the show, especially since it is already a vehicle for empowerment. I still don't think an analogy like this works in the framework of Sailor Moon given the target audience of SuperS, at least not with the dream assault scenes, but the behaviour of the three is bad enough on its own to merit discussion and better framing that simply isn't there.

Factor into that how it is resolved and it gets even worse. When the characters are random one-offs at least it makes a certain amount of "sense" to not spend more time exploring it, but it happens to every main character except Chibi-Usa (and no, I'm not sorry for spoiling that, she gets at least that lucky, and it should be really obvious that the villains won't be finding Pedosus the Alicorn until the very end of the season).

So yes, they should really talk to each other about it, and it should have happened way less often.

[Bartimaeus]

11 minutes ago, majestic said:

it should be really obvious that the villains won't be finding Pedosus the Alicorn until the very end of the season

Okay, but the key thing is they do find and kill him, right? Right? That's a thing that happens? RIGHT?

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, but the key thing is they do find and kill him, right? Right? That's a thing that happens? RIGHT?

Spoiler!

Spoiler

You jest, but in a way they do. Pegasus is just a projection of Helios. The real Helios has a horn too, and Nehelenia rubs on it to make the Golden Crystal appear.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Alright...here we go. Episode 145 (I'm trusting that majestic's numbers for them are correct because otherwise I don't know what I'm on):

Spoiler

The girls keep meeting at this restaurant to chit-chat this season. It's a little Seinfeld-esque: it's like their designated area to talk about silly stuff, . I think S did a sort of similar thing with them frequently meeting to study at Rei's Hikawa Shrine, but that didn't feel quite so out of place.

Oh lord, this is a Fishcreep episode - I did not need to see him in the ballet outfit. Wait, all the other girls are going to take this class instead of this being yet another Usagi and Chibi-Usa episode, woo! Minako has a really interesting hair style I've never seen before in my life - probably a result of her long hair and trying to get it into a vaguely ballet-ready style without cutting it.

NO. THE SHOW DID NOT JUST USE THE H&M LOVE THEME MUSICAL CUE FOR FISHCREEP. IT DID NOT. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I wish they'd inexplicably gave Fishcreep like a super deep and manly voice, instead of this weird raspy and kind of vaguely androgynous one. I know it fits his character better, but it would've been funnier the other way.

You know what's crazier than our heroes being too brain-dead to recognize the fact that it's the same villains appearing over and over in like the most minimal of disguises? The fact that the VILLAINS are also too braindead to realize that they've run into this same group of girls over a dozen times now, all coinciding with ALSO then immediately running into their doppelganger Sailor Guardians. It's like everyone has amnesia.

The first half of this episode was pretty good (although I kind of expected at least ONE of the girls to be good at it - they've all done ice-skating, skiing, dancing, etc. before, and usually at least one person is good at it), but the second half lost me for a bit - too many of these episodes focus too much on the villains for too long. The minion was kind of funny, though, especially when:

"I, Tuxedo Mask, will never forgive you!"
"Your name's Torpedo Ass?"

Episde 146:

Spoiler

Why is it that Chibi-Usa and Usagi fighting over anything that isn't Mamoru is usually so funny, but doing the same exact crap over Mamoru immediately becomes so not funny? Them screaming at each other for literally about 10 seconds straight reminded me of the Koume and Kotake screaming at each other in Ocarina of Time.

This princess lady is a bit of a weirdo. ...Bird Brain actually saved her from a legitimately deranged man, and she beat him for his troubles, and then the other man beat him again. Improvement, folks! Who did you say was the least worst out of these three, @majestic? Fish Eye is very obviously the worst, but I can't decide who's better out of the other two.

Hey, Usagi didn't freak the hell out when she saw Mamoru talking with another woman. Aaand here comes the mind violation...SKEEEEEP

"Remember what you did to my older brother?"
"Uh...kind of?"

That's basically how I would feel if somebody asked me about most any Sailor Moon minion...except for this season, since I've missed some of them entirely. Although this ball thingy is weird enough that I can't see forgetting it... OH MAN, she ignored and ran right over Tuxedo Mask's rose in the middle of his speech!

Kind of an off-kilter but pretty good episode - for SuperS, anyways.

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Episde 146:

  Hide contents

Why is it that Chibi-Usa and Usagi fighting over anything that isn't Mamoru is usually so funny, but doing the same exact crap over Mamoru immediately becomes so not funny? Them screaming at each other for literally about 10 seconds straight reminded me of the Koume and Kotake screaming at each other in Ocarina of Time.

This princess lady is a bit of a weirdo. ...Bird Brain actually saved her from a legitimately deranged man, and she beat him for his troubles, and then the other man beat him again. Improvement, folks! Who did you say was the least worst out of these three, @majestic? Fish Eye is very obviously the worst, but I can't decide who's better out of the other two.

Hey, Usagi didn't freak the hell out when she saw Mamoru talking with another woman. Aaand here comes the mind violation...SKEEEEEP

"Remember what you did to my older brother?"
"Uh...kind of?"

That's basically how I would feel if somebody asked me about most any Sailor Moon minion...except for this season, since I've missed some of them entirely. Although this ball thingy is weird enough that I can't see forgetting it... OH MAN, she ignored and ran right over Tuxedo Mask's rose in the middle of his speech!

Kind of an off-kilter but pretty good episode - for SuperS, anyways.

 

Hey, don't stop now, next up is the torture porn episode. And make sure you watch the rape scene in full just to properly hate Tiger's-Eye.

Spoiler

No, honestly, really. Makoto's expressions during the scene are heartbreaking.

Oh, and about your comment:
 

Spoiler

 

That ball thing is from the episode where Chibi-Usa was wondering if she ever will be born. I called it one of the funnier monsters in the season, and ya all agreed it was pretty forgetable. The only other thing I found memorable was the nutcracker doll from the ballet episode and the weird thing from the little kid wants to be a swordfigter episode, but that one was SO FAR OUT that I honestly don't know if it even should be considered part of Sailor Moon. That one was really made by an alien (and written by someone who only made one episode)

If I had to pick one I'd say Hawk-Eye is the "least" worst of these. He never assaults children, unlike Tiger's-Eye and Fish-Eye. I was less creeped out by Fish-Eye than you guys, but then that episode where he wants the 12 year old boy to score a goal inside him happened and I was, no, thanks, go die in a fire. Or get yourself eaten by Diana. Tiger's-Eye also assaults ever last of my friends the Sailor Senshi and all of the recurring side characters as well.

That leaves Hawk-Eye. But he can die in a fire too. Seriously. The actual answer is none of these. They're like all the worst, even though that's impossible.

 

 

edit:

Now that I think of it, you all watched the princess episode and none of you mentioned falling off the chair laughing when Luna is totally defeated by Diana saying that Mamoru likes to skip stuffy ceremonies when he's king. Was that not nearly as funny as I remember it being, or is that just me being weird again?

Edited March 19, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

@majestic It was funny. I usually forget to mention some things, like what @Bartimaeusmentioned above: the H&M theme used for Fish. Why?????