Anime - coasting on emotion rollers

[majestic]

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic

Lindsay Ellis: Yeah, I watched some of that yesterday, but not all of it. Half because it's ludicrously long (nearly two hours!), half because it was just really sad and depressing and none of it should've been anything that ever needed to be said online and she doesn't owe any explanation to either the right-wing diet Nazis (as she calls them) or the left-wing virtue signalers/tail-devourers on Twitter...or anybody else.

In case you haven't gotten to the trigger warning point yet, consider skipping it when she gives the timecode.

Mini-spoiler (also trigger warning, of a sort):

Spoiler

The only thing worse than watching Tiger's-Eye is someone you like recounting real life Tiger's-Eye experiences on camera because the Twatter mob bullied her over false accusations of making light of sexual asault. It' not that her talking about it makes it so bad, it's the REASON why makes one so intensly angry. 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

SU episode 7

American male Usagi finds his Mamo-chan and loses his funky flow.

[Bartimaeus]

Or maybe Steven was Mamoru all along, while Connie is actually Usagi?

LE: That was pretty brutal. At least it got a little lighter towards the end. Don't do social media, kids.

Episode 17, the beach episode:

Spoiler

Guess we're doing something different here - the guy gets his Star Seed corrupted at the very beginning long before the Sailor Guardians show up. Apparently, he also traumatized Rei as a child with his perfectionist rage...actually, with that creepy smile of his directed towards kid Rei, he's traumatizing me a little too.

Beach episode, power rangers, zombies...wait a minute - these THREE power rangers better not be the Sailor Starlights! ...Yep, of course they are - what are pop stars doing power ranger bits for?

Whoa, Usagi's got mad gains - just picked up and chucked Seiya from a completely disadvantageous lower position.

In other news, I haven't really been too fond of Chibi-Chibi being added to the cast. Still trying to figure out why she's here, can only assume it's something to do with Mamoru or Chibi-Usa...or something, I don't know. Also, am hoping that Chibi-Usa comes back at some point this season, especially seeing as her goodbye was completely skipped over after Nehellenia's defeat.

Episode 18:

Spoiler

Minako just had the cruelest chuckling I've ever heard from her after saying Usagi was going to die.

"You can't keep a girl waiting forever, you know." This line from Seiya really confused me for a moment - I genuinely thought he was talking about himself, which really creeped me out with the angry way he said it...and then I realized that no, he was saying it because he's mad at Mamoru for keeping USAGI waiting. Phew, way less creepy.

Luna SOUNDS like she's thinking when she's telling Usagi to be careful and that the situation isn't good...but her lips are moving while she's saying it. Good thing nobody ever seems to hear the cats when it'd be inconvenient for the story.

Alright, stop the show. Turn it off, this is too much. Okay...okay. I can do this. I'm a mildly adult-like person. I can handle this, I can get through this. Okay...okay.

I'm not sure if I'm eyes-completely-covered Usagi or black-holes-for-eyes-through-fingers Ami here.

...What is going on in this episode? Chibi-Chibi watching some movie where a lady's about to get murdered, Luna's just given up and completely zoned out, scary ****roaches, Ami is completely repulsed by Usagi (also apparently she really gets into card games), and for some reason, now they all look like this!

So Michiru and Haruka's car happened to break down in front of Usagi's house (oh dear lord, this is going to get so much worse), but when Michiru points out that it's Usagi's house, the subtitles say she merely said "wait, isn't this that girl's house?". "That girl"? THAT GIRL? Well, the English dub thankfully corrected it to "Isn't that Usagi's house?", because wow, that is just beyond insulting, Michiru, and seems completely unlike her. Oh, also, interestingly, Taiki told Yaten to "ignore him" in the subtitle, but the English changed it to "ignore her", . AND THERE'S EVEN MORE PEOPLE HERE? WHO ELSE IS LEFT?

Oh, just a random TV crew for a cooking show. Well, alright then. Usagi breaking stuff left and right with her ridiculous wings, even during the stock footage...

Well, that was probably the wackiest Sailor Moon episode yet. And everyone transforming inside USAGI'S HOME WHILE THEY'RE ALL THERE and somehow STILL not being able to figure it out. The monster being finished off with just a single half-hearted punch...

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Or maybe Steven was Mamoru all along, while Connie is actually Usagi?

Maybe, but so far only Steven can eat like Usagi.

[Bartimaeus]

Heh, you've got me there.

Spoiler

Well, that, and Steven's personality is like ~90% Usagi and was quite literally probably designed after her, what with the show creator, Rebecca Sugar, being an ultra-omega Sailor Moon turbo-nerd.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Heh, you've got me there.

  Reveal hidden contents

Well, that, and Steven's personality is like ~90% Usagi and was quite literally probably designed after her, what with the show creator, Rebecca Sugar, being an ultra-omega Sailor Moon turbo-nerd.

 

Maybe Connie will start throwing books when Steven gets in trouble and tell him to use his shield.

And I watched a lot, just finished 11.

Edited April 16, 2021 by ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP

[Bartimaeus]

man don't leave us hanging, start writing those spoiler blocks for each and every episode smh my head

Fine, I'll help you out and do it for you. Okay, what do we got here...Serious Steven:

Spoiler

This is an interesting enough episode, but not particularly the most pleasant episode to sit through for the first time since Steven's unable to really handle himself - this episode almost turned off someone I know from watching any more, so I kind of always associate negative feelings with it as a result. Actually, this is all I wanted to say, you don't need to write blocks for each and every episode obviously, .

 

[InsaneCommander]

I watched two more episodes of Madoka.
 

Spoiler

 

I was wondering if it was all a mass hallucination because they were doing drugs... until Mami died.

I imagine Madoka will bring her back with her wish. If it actually works. Mami's was to be able to take care of herself and it didn't seem to help her much.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

8 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

man don't leave us hanging, start writing those spoiler blocks for each and every episode smh my head

I'll try.

7 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I watched two more episodes of Madoka.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I was wondering if it was all a mass hallucination because they were doing drugs... until Mami died.

I imagine Madoka will bring her back with her wish. If it actually works. Mami's was to be able to take care of herself and it didn't seem to help her much.

 

 

Oh man you're going to be surprised. 

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Well, that was probably the wackiest Sailor Moon episode yet. And everyone transforming inside USAGI'S HOME WHILE THEY'RE ALL THERE and somehow STILL not being able to figure it out. The monster being finished off with just a single half-hearted punch...

 

Welcome to Sailor Stars and have a nice day!
 

Spoiler

 

Episodes like this one are the reason why I thought all this fun (and ridiculous) stuff is more intentional than usual, as you've said there's been some playing with self-awareness in all the seasons so far (well maybe not in SuperS), but there's really no way they couldn't figure out what was going on in this one. No way. And the fight scene where everyone is stuck because there are way too many people in one place, and yes, the fight being over after a small sidepunch.

Under normal circumstances the episode would make me complain about the many contrivances necessary to get everyone into the house. From the girls and Yaten and Taiki showing up, to Haruka's and Michiru's car conveniently breaking down in front of Usagi's home, to the reality cooking show crew being the target of the week coming to visit them... and all of that happening on the exact day where Usagi is alone at home with Seiya, and still completely oblivious to what he really wants?

But no! This is really just great fun, and who cares about all the ridiculous stuff that's necessary for it to happen. I like that episode in the same way I enjoyed The Big Lebowski even though I usually don't care for films like that, regardless of whether they're comedic or not (e.g. I'm very indiffernet and leaning towards mild dislike when it comes to films like Pulp Fiction).

And Seiya... well... he really is angry because Mamoru is behaving like a complete douchewaffle to someone he really cares for (and for once it is not Mamoru's fault, how about that?).

Speaking of the Three Lights being Power Rangers, going from your comments on Diablo I'm guessing you're at least 10 years younger than I am and didn't really fully experience the boy band craze of the early/mid 90ies. Although I guess the Beatles in the 60ies could also serve as an example. It was perfectly normal for them to show up everywhere as promotion, from soaps to cooking shows to the occasional movie cameo. Granted, the contrivance that they're always around our heroines is there, but that's... a given for Sailor Moon anyway. The whole world apparently consists of only one district in Tokyo after all.

I think I mentioned this part as being one thing of Sailor Moon that didn't age well. It made sense in the context of its time (it was way worse in real life, there were girls committing suicide over Take That disbanding), but it looks really weird nowadays.

 

 

12 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I watched two more episodes of Madoka.
 

  Hide contents

 

I was wondering if it was all a mass hallucination because they were doing drugs... until Mami died.

I imagine Madoka will bring her back with her wish. If it actually works. Mami's was to be able to take care of herself and it didn't seem to help her much.

 

 

It's all fun and games until...

Spoiler

Someone's head gets bitten off, huh? Such a fun little shock, right?

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

6 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Oh man you're going to be surprised. 

BIG MADOKA SPOILER DON'T CLICK IF YOU'RE @Bartimaeus AND STILL WANT TO WATCH IT! (heh)

Spoiler

 

 

[majestic]

I also just looked at a few screencaps from the first 11 episodes on the Steven Universe wiki, wow I already forgot how rough the animation was at first. That gets so much better later.

[InsaneCommander]

I definitelly didn't expect that to happen.

I'll watch more episodes today.
 

Spoiler

 

Interesting that the enemies look pretty harmless, even scared like these guys:

Until you shoot them in the head:

And wtf is this?

Anyway, probably too soon to make assumptions.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I definitelly didn't expect that to happen

It really goes places.

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I definitelly didn't expect that to happen.

I'll watch more episodes today.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Interesting that the enemies look pretty harmless, even scared like these guys:

Until you shoot them in the head:

And wtf is this?

Anyway, probably too soon to make assumptions.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

The names of the witches are all German, there's lots of German writing in the show, and the art style of the labyrinth sequences is at least in part based on German Expressionism, while the paper cut animation style itself was influenced by early Russian and Czech animation. As a whole it's like a Dadaist collage.

Either that, or the artists were on a bad LSD trip once and simply drew their experiences. Take your pick.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

36 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

It really goes places.

Yes.

Spoiler

Specially after Mami talked about not being alone anymore.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

12 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Yes.

  Reveal hidden contents

Specially after Mami talked about not being alone anymore.

 

That's certainly one way to go about it.

I think I'm at 17 of Steven Universe. It's hard to do it by episode because they're short and because sometimes nothing much happens and sometimes a lot happens. I really like Pearl and Garnet while Amethyst is currently the bottom. Maybe it's because she's like a more magical adult Steven and gets similar gags as him.

Edited April 16, 2021 by ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

I think I'm at 17 of Steven Universe. It's hard to do it by episode because they're short and because sometimes nothing much happens and sometimes a lot happens. I really like Pearl and Garnet while Amethyst is currently the bottom. Maybe it's because she's like a more magical adult Steven and gets similar gags as him.

I initially felt the same way you did. She gets better. She's still my least favorite of the four, but... it's a lot less clear cut than it was in the first season.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I hope so. It's not that I hate her, I just don't think she's been the highlight of any particular scene or episode.

[InsaneCommander]

Madoke 5 and 6:

Spoiler

 

Homura is actually really nice with Madoka. She genuinely wants to keep Madoka out of the witch/magical girl mess. Being rude sometimes could be just to serve that purpose.

 

So Kyubey eats the Witch things? Based on what Sakura said, he would benefit from letting the witches (familiars?) kill people.

 

Homura has and has not a contract with Kyubey. What could this mean? Maybe she made a conditional wish that has not been granted yet.

 

She also knew something that would happen in the future and knew Sakura (who didn’t know her, but asked if they had met before, showing that was her impression). But Homura is an “irregular that others have been talking about”. And she knew about the empty body, unlike Sakura. She knows a lot, but nobody knows her. That looks like time travel.

 

Edit: I'll have to rewatch to see what happened to Mami's gem. She, the real she, could still be around.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I initially felt the same way you did. She gets better. She's still my least favorite of the four, but... it's a lot less clear cut than it was in the first season.

She ended up supplanting Garnet for second favorite for me. Pearl, of course, is Pearl.

Edited April 17, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

She ended up supplanting Garnet for second favorite for me. Pearl, of course, is Pearl.

That makes sense.

SU spoilers:
 

Spoiler

 

For a while I wondered why you didn't seem to place Amethyst higher while we talked about initial gem impressions, given your love for Minako. I thought they were somewhat similar... until they suddenly weren't any more, because while Amethyst and Minako may be both be goofballs, Amethyst is such in order to cope, because thinks she is broken and inadequate compared to everyone else and later learns to accept being different (together with Steven).

Minako has major issues reconciling her hopes, dreams and wishes for life with her duties - she's the one of the group whose interests and dreams are almost completely incompatible with being a Guardian. She's a regular fun and outgoing person (modeled after the sign her guardian planet rules - libra - although her sense of justice and distanced judgement is almost entirely limited to her Guardian persona) and she doesn't cope as much as sometimes becomes obsessive, almost deranged in pursuit of proving something, like being someone worth targetting, someone worth being loved or someone who can help their friends if they're sick (oh boy did that almost all of that go wrong).

Good thing Sailor Stars has a really nice episode coming up for her.

I was looking for a spoilerish YT clip because that episode has a really nice scene between Minako and Usagi (and in part between her and the other girls except Rei, because different school), and YouTube saw it fit to give me Usagi's breakdown after Mamoru breaks up with her as search result. Thanks YouTube, because I needed that.

Seeing that scene made me wish Stars had more consistently good animation. I still like it, even though it's different, but there was something about Ms. Ito's work that was just fantastic. It's just when Stars' animation is bad, then it's SuperS episode #4 level bad. Well, maybe not quite. But almost.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

That makes sense.

SU spoilers:
 

  Hide contents

 

For a while I wondered why you didn't seem to place Amethyst higher while we talked about initial gem impressions, given your love for Minako. I thought they were somewhat similar... until they suddenly weren't any more, because while Amethyst and Minako may be both be goofballs, Amethyst is such in order to cope, because thinks she is broken and inadequate compared to everyone else and later learns to accept being different (together with Steven).

Minako has major issues reconciling her hopes, dreams and wishes for life with her duties - she's the one of the group whose interests and dreams are almost completely incompatible with being a Guardian. She's a regular fun and outgoing person (modeled after the sign her guardian planet rules - libra - although her sense of justice and distanced judgement is almost entirely limited to her Guardian persona) and she doesn't cope as much as sometimes becomes obsessive, almost deranged in pursuit of proving something, like being someone worth targetting, someone worth being loved or someone who can help their friends if they're sick (oh boy did that almost all of that go wrong).

Good thing Sailor Stars has a really nice episode coming up for her.

I was looking for a spoilerish YT clip because that episode has a really nice scene between Minako and Usagi (and in part between her and the other girls except Rei, because different school), and YouTube saw it fit to give me Usagi's breakdown after Mamoru breaks up with her as search result. Thanks YouTube, because I needed that.

Seeing that scene made me wish Stars had more consistently good animation. I still like it, even though it's different, but there was something about Ms. Ito's work that was just fantastic. It's just when Stars' animation is bad, then it's SuperS episode #4 level bad. Well, maybe not quite. But almost.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Tonally, Amethyst also just didn't fit in with the other two - for good reasons, it turned out. Who you are in what context matters, and the way I initially saw it, all three Crystal Gems were supposed to be Steven's guardians, so that's the way I examined and related to them. Garnet seemed to fulfill a sort of wise, open-minded, and uber stable guardian role that would always intelligently advise as well as give time and importance to what Steven said and felt, especially in situations where the other two wouldn't. Pearl, of course, was the smothering overprotective mother type...with plenty of interesting hinted-at secrets and instabilities going on under the surface. So...where did that leave Amethyst? Oh...I guess she's the "fun" one, where she treats Steven more like a little buddy than someone she's supposed to be a guardian or role model for. Again, turns out there were some real good reasons for that (also at one point, I think during The Test, she even says out loud that she knows she's a bad influence for him!). The first season focuses mainly on Pearl and only gives Amethyst a smaller, more subtle amount of development (with the exception of the Pegasus episode and to a smaller degree the Little Butler episode - the former explains why she doesn't really carry herself around like the other two Crystal Gems as well as some of her main insecurities that make it so she hasn't been able to 'grow up', the latter doesn't really change anything about her as much as it explains even more of what's wrong with her and the way she relates to the others), and it isn't really until the second season and beyond that you see her character (and thus role) begin to appreciably change. It doesn't help that in general (both in real life as well as in media), I rather tend to dislike "the fun one"s (whether they're dads, moms, uncles, aunts, older siblings, whatever) - combine all that with her being kind of a gross slob at first, and man, she was a tough cookie.

In contrast, Minako is just one of five very silly teenage girls, and her (or the others) being a Sailor Guardian isn't even usually the lens I look at her through, because really, being a Sailor Guardian is more just a job that they're all forced to do in service of the plot while attempting to live normal teenage girl lives. So Minako is actually exactly where she should be - it's Usagi that is really the screw-up for a long while, particularly in regards to Chibi-Usa. I could somewhat forgive her in R, I could totally forgive it in S because they actually properly developed and ironed it (and more) out in S instead of ignoring or letting it fester...and then we have SuperS, where Usagi became such a parasite on the show that there were times I actually hated her (and she was by far my least favorite of the six during SuperS) due to how she was acting both towards Chibi-Usa as well as everyone in general. I'm basically pretending SuperS didn't happen, though - which also means Minako didn't treat Makoto like complete garbage, Makoto didn't yell at and berate her friend for no good reason, Chibi-Usa didn't have an entire season-long romance with a horse that was its own kind of parasite on the show while also being a complete waste of time seeing as it didn't even go anywhere (thankfully - but still a complete waste of time), etc. So really, that works out. But anyways, yeah, context of your character matters, and Amethyst's initially appeared to be totally incongruous until we learned more.

Regarding animation, I think it doesn't help that I'm watching Sailor Stars from a bluray source - I hate upscaled crap, and this is no exception. The problems this aesthetic has are only magnified at a blown up 1080p.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

Episode 19:

Spoiler

They had a pop song at the beginning here that legitimately sounded like a relatively competent pop song for the era. The lady that's helping the sick girl, Misa, looks a lot like a Makoto deadringer, it was a little confusing.

This was such an incredibly melodramatic and silly episode without any particularly fun stuff that I shouldn't have cared about, but somehow it was actually pretty good.

Episode 20:

Spoiler

Nobody seems to really care or think about Chibi-Chibi just being there. Guess it's because she's not really doing anything and is mostly keeping to herself - Chibi-Usa made a hell of a lot more waves when she arrived, that's for sure.

*ominous drums* "WELCOME BACK, I HAVE BEEN AWAITING YOUR RETURN." Okay, that aside - seriously, what's wrong with your face?!

Remember when you used to look like this, Momma Ikuko? I remember.

Admittedly, she basically looked like a blue-haired Rei here, but okay, even in SuperS's sharper more differenter style:

What the heck happened, Sailor Stars? Your colors are bad and your shapes are bad...and you should feel bad!

"USAGI, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YA BIG DUMMY!" Gosh, I love Rei - the way she said this was so perfect.

Uh...Minako, falling in love with older men is more Makoto's thing...just saying. And you can't even say "oh, she's probably just gold-digging" - she went crazy for his eyebrows of all things!

These two new villains have been really weird so far - we're not spending basically any time at all on them. Nezu didn't have the most time compared to lower level villains in previous seasons either, but this is on an entirely different level. Oh, also, this episode is reaaaaally making it clear how little the writers of this season care about the fights - S had meme battles, but the ones from this season have almost *all* been memes.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

 

  Hide contents

Tonally, Amethyst also just didn't fit in with the other two - for good reasons, it turned out. Who you are in what context matters, and the way I initially saw it, all three Crystal Gems were supposed to be Steven's guardians, so that's the way I examined and related to them. Garnet seemed to fulfill a sort of wise, open-minded, and uber stable guardian role that would always intelligently advise as well as give time and importance to what Steven said and felt, especially in situations where the other two wouldn't. Pearl, of course, was the smothering overprotective mother type...with plenty of interesting hinted-at secrets and instabilities going on under the surface. So...where did that leave Amethyst? Oh...I guess she's the "fun" one, where she treats Steven more like a little buddy than someone she's supposed to be a guardian or role model for. Again, turns out there were some real good reasons for that (also at one point, I think during The Test, she even says out loud that she knows she's a bad influence for him!). The first season focuses mainly on Pearl and only gives Amethyst a smaller, more subtle amount of development (with the exception of the Pegasus episode and to a smaller degree the Little Butler episode - the former explains why she doesn't really carry herself around like the other two Crystal Gems as well as some of her main insecurities that make it so she hasn't been able to 'grow up', the latter doesn't really change anything about her as much as it explains even more of what's wrong with her and the way she relates to the others), and it isn't really until the second season and beyond that you see her character (and thus role) begin to appreciably change. It doesn't help that in general (both in real life as well as in media), I rather tend to dislike "the fun one"s (whether they're dads, moms, uncles, aunts, older siblings, whatever) - combine all that with her being kind of a gross slob at first, and man, she was a tough cookie.

In contrast, Minako is just one of five very silly teenage girls, and her (or the others) being a Sailor Guardian isn't even usually the lens I look at her through, because really, being a Sailor Guardian is more just a job that they're all forced to do in service of the plot while attempting to live normal teenage girl lives. So Minako is actually exactly where she should be - it's Usagi that is really the screw-up for a long while, particularly in regards to Chibi-Usa. I could somewhat forgive her in R, I could totally forgive it in S because they actually properly developed and ironed it (and more) out in S instead of ignoring or letting it fester...and then we have SuperS, where Usagi became such a parasite on the show that there were times I actually hated her (and she was by far my least favorite of the six during SuperS) due to how she was acting both towards Chibi-Usa as well as everyone in general. I'm basically pretending SuperS didn't happen, though - which also means Minako didn't treat Makoto like complete garbage, Makoto didn't yell at and berate her friend for no good reason, Chibi-Usa didn't have an entire season-long romance with a horse that was its own kind of parasite on the show while also being a complete waste of time seeing as it didn't even go anywhere (thankfully - but still a complete waste of time), etc. So really, that works out. But anyways, yeah, context of your character matters, and Amethyst's initially appeared to be totally incongruous until we learned more.

Regarding animation, I think it doesn't help that I'm watching Sailor Stars from a bluray source - I hate upscaled crap, and this is no exception. The problems this aesthetic has are only magnified at a blown up 1080p.

 

 

More SU-ish spoilers:
 

Spoiler

 

Hm, see, I never stopped to consider Garnet or Amethyst to be guardians for Steven. Pearl was that for me, because she really is an overbearing, smothering mother type. Garnet... I liked Garnet, but initially, before we learn why that happens, the seemingly random way she sometimes relented and gave in to Steven's ridiculous shenanigans was so at odds with any guardian role that I didn't even consider it. In fact, I got way too hung up on looking for more clues that she really is a fusion. I was also suitably surprised that Pearl and Amethyst were later talking about Garnet being their sensible leader type, when in fact the only one of the group that was consistently sensible was Pearl. But that cleared up pretty good.

Funny that, I'm randomly either really good at guessing (althought that's not guessing if it is properly set up, is it?) these sort of plot twists and sometimes - but much less often - completely oblivious. It doesn't ruin the fun of plot twists for me because I get an immense sense of satisfaction from having known something before it happens. See, I figured out Garnet was a fusion, but I was really surprised that Yoshimo really was a plant. It was so painfully obvious that I expected a subversion that never came.

My initial dislike, or better, indifference to Amethyst stemmed from a similar point of view as yours, just relating to her role in the gems, not as a guardian for Steven. It made no sense at all for me that the others would put up with her nonsense. She constantly makes a mess of things, complicates missions and seems to take nothing as serious as it should be - and it has been like that for some 6000 odd years? So how did that never turn into a huge mess of infighting afer Rose disappeared? They often, and rightfully, don't want to take Steven on missions, but they put up with Amethyst, who is definitely not a little boy.

With regards to the girls, especially Usagi, when I first watched Sailor Moon I... didn't really like her. She was there, yes, but all the focus on her took time away from the really interesting characters. I also really hated Chibi-Usa, which I said more often now than Makoto was dumped by boys (erm... going by the Viz dub rain scene, anyway ), and that everything in R seemingly revolved around the two of them. I felt a lot of sympathy for her because she got treated so badly by Mamoru, but not enough to really appreciate her.

I remember the episode in S where she came back and I yelled at the TV beause dear god, why did you bring her back? WHSY? But hey, turned out that everything was better in S, even Chibi-Usa and her mother.

There's also the fact that Usagi is someone who I could absolutely not relate to or understand with 15/16. She's a nice, normal girl with friends at school who doesn't get treated terribly or even teased for having bad grades, outside of her mother and Mamoru, and she gets the best gift in the world - to be special in a good way, one that makes other people adore you instead of treat you with derision and violence. So screw you Usagi for not wanting it.

Obviously that's different for me now. I can relate to her not wanting any responsibilities, much less at 14, but that's still the only thing in her life I can really relate to, but by now I can empathize with her a lot more, and the hidden insecurities that she carries around that come out in full force during Mamoru's breakup with her, where she even tells him that she's going to study harder if that's what his problem is. Poor girl thinks she's too stupid and not sophisticated enough for Mr. Prince Endymion.

I felt bad for her having to go through this the first time around, so the show was really good at making me care about things that I usually wouldn't have, but Usagi remained problematic for me for a while yet.

And... that segues terribly to SuperS where all of that comes true. Dear lord, this season is such a mess that I really just don't consider it canon. It doesn't just regress Usagi, she's worse than in the first season. In contrast, by making arguably making Chibi-Usa our point of view character for this season, it becomes even worse when the nine-year-old on the show is more sensible, calm and responsible than her much older mother-to-be.

Never mind the tonal whiplash, the abuse allegory and Pegasus most of all, whom at least I think was NEVER intended to be a vehicle for creepy pedophile coding. What I hated about SuperS was how the characters behaved in ways that made no sense. I still find it odd that I have barely any memories of SuperS from the first time I saw it, it's possible that I missed large portions of it.

Sometimes I wonder if SuperS was supposed to be Chibi-Usa's point of view, warped by her childlike and childish perception of reality and Usagi. That would explain how her horse romance is framed in such an innocent manner even though it literally ticks off every single pedophile warning sign on the planet and why the assault allegory is properly framed as horrible (unless Chibi-Usa is around to witness it, in which case it becomes super silly, like Hawk's-Eye assaulting Ikuko).

It doesn't work entirely becaus Ami is still suddenly working on a car while she really should be nerding out on the internet like she later does. It's also certainly not intentional, just incidental, and nothing else than another coping mechanism... and I prefer pretending it never happened. Or maybe only the first and the last few episodes did, and I missed the middle part where the girls help Unazuki to deal with what happened to her. The joy of headcanon, it can be whatever you want.

Speaking of the animation, the somewhat blurry DVD images from the German Stars DVDs certainly helps, weird as that might sound. It... washes out all the scenes that have these ridiculously sharp outlines. It's sometimes really jarring because not every scene has them, and it varies within the same episode. Not sure why or how that happened.

The worst switch happens in the last episode, where you go from having this super moody, very soft and almost dreamlike scene on the high school roof and then it cuts to the last scenes being drawn... incredibly sharp, with no dream like quality at all, with the more or less ridiculous looks of the characters that these scenes always come with, and it hits Usagi out of all people. Meh.

 

 

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

 

They had a pop song at the beginning here that legitimately sounded like a relatively competent pop song for the era. The lady that's helping the sick girl, Misa, looks a lot like a Makoto deadringer, it was a little confusing.

This was such an incredibly melodramatic and silly episode without any particularly fun stuff that I shouldn't have cared about, but somehow it was actually pretty good.

 

 

Strange feeling, huh? When even the more serious melodrama episodes suddenly are good.

Spoiler

The character interactions here are great - Usagi running off to organize a make-a-wish sort of meeting between Misa and Taiki (risking him becoming annoyed at her even more - which he promptly does) because Ami is worried about her. I'd need to rewatch Sailor Moon S to make a proper statement, but outside of her more or less telling Ami that she's a dear friend to her and that she loves her, this might be the first time she's really shown it. Outside of them having each other's backs in fights, of course.

 

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

 

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Nobody seems to really care or think about Chibi-Chibi just being there. Guess it's because she's not really doing anything and is mostly keeping to herself - Chibi-Usa made a hell of a lot more waves when she arrived, that's for sure.

*ominous drums* "WELCOME BACK, I HAVE BEEN AWAITING YOUR RETURN." Okay, that aside - seriously, what's wrong with your face?!

Spoiler

 

Ikuko probably looked like Rei with a different hair-color in the early seasons because that's probably just what happened. If you want to see something fun, go back to the first episode of the first season and pause when Usagi's in class. Outside of Naru and Umino, EVERYONE looks the same. They're litteraly the same drawing copied several times.

This was another episode with a season one callback. House of sweets? Granted, that was a long time ago, episode 11, but heh. The one with the super creepy doll youma.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by majestic