Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars have managed
to defeat Queen Beryl’s General Jadeite.
But their victory is short lived as two more appear to take his place:
Nephrite and Zoisite. And these two
aren’t above playing dirty, looking to strike at two of Sailor Moons soft
points. First, Nephrite discovers he’s
become the object of Usagi’s Best Friend, Naru’s affections. Then there’s Sailor Moons secret guardian,
Tuxedo Mask. Will Usagi’s growing love
for her champion lead to her downfall when Nephrite and Zoisite use it to their
advantage to set a deadly trap for the Moon Heroine?
We’ve reached the point of Sailor Moon I’ve been kind of
dreading.
For a series that clocks in at
a grand total of 200 episodes across 5 Seasons, there’s bound to be a ton of
the bane of any Anime’s existence, especially Shonen and Shoujo Anime: Filler,
lot’s and lot’s of filler.
Some Anime
like Naruto and Bleach have season long filler arcs that pause entire shows to
fill time, mostly because the Anime has caught up to the Manga.
Nowadays, shows like My Hero Academia and
Attack on Titan pause their runs entirely, taking a year off to develop future
seasons while the Manga gets further ahead.
It’s a risk cutting into whatever momentum an Anime gains right out the
gate but the end results speak for themselves: more faithful adaptations of the
source Manga without a lot of fluff throughout (there are some but not 30
episode long arcs).
One could say that
the Sailor Moon Reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal, followed this same example with
three seasons covering the first three major arcs of the Manga.
But we’re not here to talk about Sailor Moon
Crystal (not yet anyway, God only knows when that might come around).
We’re here to talk about Sailor Moon Season
1.
And yeah…this was arguably the
weakest of the four episode sets so far because of the repetitive formula and
not a lot of progression on the main story front.
I hope I’m not saying that about future
episodes down the line but who knows, let’s get to these first.
The typical flow of each episode in this set:
Introduction of a major event or a key player with major dreams and ambitons,
Nephrite reads the stars and discovers said Key Player and enacts a curse on
them, curse grows into a Monster and steals Key Players energy, fight scene,
the end.
Each episode has it’s own
moments of good sprinkled throughout but for the most part, it’s all copy and
paste with very little variation outside of the Monsters themselves.
In truth, of the five episodes in this set,
only one really matters to moving the main plot along and the other provides
the most unique experience for the Sailor Senshi so far…but its hindered by one
of the most annoying elements in the series being dialed up to 11…that being
Usagi’s grating crying.
If you hate the
fact that this girl can find any moment to break down and cry then the Beach
episode is a freaking endurance test that might make you want to watch the
episode on mute.
In fact, major cudos
should go to Stephanie Sheh, who’s doing Usagi’s voice in this dub.
This is Spike Spencer levels of commitment
she’s bringing to all the things that make Usagi kind of a pain when she isn’t
showing growth as Sailor Moon herself.
It’s not her fault Usagi can break out into tears every five seconds,
it’s the Animes fault.
Anyway, yeah the Beach episode features the girls taking
on a Monster not related to the Dark Kingdom: an actual Ghost summoned by a
young psychic girl who’s father is pushing her too hard.
It’s a heck of a concept to introduce but I’m
glad it shows Usagi, Ami and Rei are willing to jump into any danger against
any enemy and Luna isn’t holding them to strictly dealing with Dark Kingdom
matters.
As for the main plot, Nephrite
and Naru being core components continues to shine.
Naturally, Nephrite is pure evil and isn’t hesitating
to use Naru’s feelings for him against her.
Poor girl, almost makes me wish Naru did turn out to be a Sailor Senshi
so she can fight alongside her best friend and get some payback on
Nephrite.
On the plus side, Usagi did
step up a few times, actually doing more than just shooting her Tiara at
enemies.
She was more physical, more
determined, especially when it came to protecting Naru from Nephrite.
She’s using flying kicks and punches and even
uses her smarts to use a Monsters power against it to free Ami and Rei from a
trap.
It really is good stuff…then Usagi
starts wailing again and it continues to become less endearing and more
grating.
The Monsters of Sailor Moon continue to be a high point
and this set of episodes continued that trend.
The animators must’ve had a blast making some truly scary foes to
challenge the Senshi but MVP goes to the Doll Monster.
Not only was it scary to see the Dolls
created by the love interest of Shingo (Usagi’s kid brother), but the Final
Boss was the stuff of freaking nightmares.
Even the Shadow Demon Monster that Kid Psychic summoned in the Beach
Episode was pretty chilling.
That said,
the Monsters are all coming from Nephrite’s chosen targets, when their energy
is at their peak, and the source of their change is connected to a key item in
their personal lives..
Is it just me or should
it be easy for Usagi, Rei, Ami and Luna to spot one of these targets because of
the radical change in personality. Usually it’s someone super kind to a fault
suddenly becoming a nasty piece of work, i.e. a Photographer with a good eye
for beautiful shots suddenly becoming obsessed with getting photos of girls in
swimsuts.
Just saying, the second the
Senshi sense something out of place, they should jump into action.
Lastly for this set it’s time to talk about Mamoru some
more.
Yeah, his asshat streak hasn’t
ended but we got some nuggets of new intel on the guy, mostly pertaining to his
connection to Tuxedo Mask.
Turns out,
MAMORU IS TUXEDO MASK!!!...what a shock.
No seriously, even if you haven’t seen Sailor Moon before it’s hardly a
surprising reveal.
What is surprising
about it is that Mamoru doesn’t seem to become Tuxedo Mask by choice.
I somehow doubt he’s even aware of what’s
going on when he’s in that particular state.
Makes you wonder how he got those powers in the first place, how long he’s
had them, and if he has another end goal besides always showing up to be a Deus
Ex Machina for Sailor Moon.
But this is
also Mamoru and I can never miss a moment to call him on his bull.
Leave it to the shallow jerk to be confused
about why he and Usagi always get into a fight when they meet…ITS MOSTLY YOUR
FAULT JERK FACE!!!!
Also, I guess he’s
officially dating Rei now as we see them at the Doll Show together…ewwwwwww I
don’t like that at all.
Even if he’s
humoring her, Mamoru should put a stop to that asap and Rei, come on, you’re my
favorite character but this is a major flaw in your character…other than being
selfish and trying to use Usagi’s mom to make you a wedding dress for a
competition.
Guess I had a mix of positive and negative things to say
in this review.
Doesn’t change the fact
that a lot of this set can probably be skipped over save for Naru almost ending
up in Nephrite’s clutches.
But yeah,
repetitive storylines, no new Sailor Senshi, very little new information about
the main goals of the Villains or Luna’s grand mission.
I’m not saying all filler is bad, some can be
fun.
But when it goes on for more than
one or two episodes, it can hurt series momentum.
Here’s hoping Sailor Moon recovers a little
bit from this distraction when we come back to it on Monday right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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