With Makoto now on the team as Sailor Jupiter, Sailor
Moon and friends stand stronger than ever before. However the battle with the Dark Kingdom
begins to hit too close to home for some.
Usagi tries to help Naru recover from Nephrite’s death with Ami and Rei
find those closest to them the targets of the Dark Kingdoms sinister
tactics. Meanwhile, Mamoru finds himself
spending more time with Usagi in unexpected ways. When he discovers his true identity, how will
this change things for the bickering duo?
Sailor Moon surprised me big time with todays set.
Previously with Jadeite and Nephrite’s arcs,
the settling in to new status quos meant familiar episode outlines that got
repetitive at worst, skippable at best.
The Zoisite arc, however, has stepped up to stand out in the best
possible ways, mostly by making each of Zoisite’s targets someone close to
Usagi and the girls and even those closest to them.
The end result is a bunch of really good
episodes.
Best yet, it was the more
lighthearted fare that ended up being the best entertainment.
Not only was the latter part of this set
funny, it also gave us good character building moments for our lovely
Senshi.
I know I said Monday’s set of
episodes might’ve been my favorite of the First Season so far.
Today’s set, however, is a rival for that
distinction.
I was happy to see that Naru hadn’t been totally
forgotten after Nephrite’s death.
It’d
be pretty easy to sideline her or even write her out of the show with Usagi
hanging around Ami, Rei and Makoto a lot more these days.
But Usagi hasn’t forgotten her best friend
and being there to try and cheer her up was one of many ways Usagi showed her
heart in its purest form: always there to mend hearts or spark
relationships…and rarely ever succeeding.
Umino saving Naru from a nearly fatal attack was a good moment too.
Got a feeling the show might try to push a
romance with these two and it’d be kind of welcome considering the only other
romantic moments thus far have involved Mamoru or Tuxedo Mask (one in the same,
I know)…and I don’t like Mamoru…like at all, but you know we’ll talk about that
later.
Motoki also got an episode
focused on him and it was probably one of my favorites.
For one, we saw that he had a cute girlfriend
and he revealed to Mamoru that he thinks of Usagi and Makoto as younger
sisters…which is totally an unintended jab at Mamoru for dating a MIDDLE SCHOOL
GIRL!!!!
Ahem, still, we got to see
Motoki as the amazing, better guy he’s always been.
He stepped in to protect his beloved
girlfriend from Zoisite’s attacks and had some fun comedic moments with Usagi
and Makoto, who were having their own friendly competition to see who could win
his heart, it was pretty funny stuff.
Love seemed to be in the air for everyone in this
set.
A brilliant student with a serious
crush on Ami found himself in the crosshairs of Zoisite, leading to some cute
moments between them, especially when Ryo revealed he knew Sailor Mercury was
Ami just by looking at her.
Adorable as
that is, it does raise a pretty big question.
Usagi and the others don’t undergo any major changes to their physical
appearances, they just transform into their Sailor Costumes.
Naru has seen Sailor Moon up close but she’s
never seemed to indicate she recognizes she’s Usagi.
Do the Senshi have like a perception filter
protecting their identities and the only way Ryo knew is because he has some
level of precognitive powers?
Meanwhile,
Rei finally found a guy her age (I think and hope), to crush on as Yuichiro
Yamada arrived at her shrine and immediately offered to become her Grandfathers
Apprentice after one glimpse of the beautiful shrine Maiden.
This is good on multiple levels.
A. Yuchiro isn’t Mamoru.
B. He’s a goof but has good insights and a
good heart.
C. He risked his life to
save Rei when her Grandfather was transformed into a Monster.
And D…well Rei kissed him on the cheek as a
thank you so there, better love interest material plain and simple.
Usagi found herself on her best ground so far as we saw
her acting pretty selfless in this set and even her crying seemed to be dialed
back a bit.
Not only did we have the
aforementioned being there for Naru, but her competition with Makoto for
Motoki’s affections was always in good fun and never malicious on eithers
end.
And she tried to play cupid in the
love affairs of both Ami and Rei…though Rei was a lot less receptive to Usagi’s
attempts but that’s par for the course with those two, hardly ever a chance for
Rei to tear into Usagi for doing something childish, no matter how good her
intentions.
Usagi even helped a shy
artist come out of her shell and reveal her identity to the world based on
Usagi’s praise alone.
Usagi can find the
good and true worth in just about everyone it seems.
She still has to work on herself a bit but
Usagi did take her first steps towards becoming the defacto leader of the
Sailor Senshi.
At first, it was Luna’s
idea to boost Usagi’s confidence but we saw as time went on, with Usagi being
more proactive in jumping into battle and how she will put the safety of her
friends above anything else, this was a smart move to make.
Naturally, Mamoru continues to be the sore spot I love to
rag on.
He criticized that
aforementioned artist, saying she could never make anyone happy if she herself
wasn’t happy.
The girl did a pretty damn
good drawing of you and Usagi you didn’t deserve, ass.
Of course, any time I see him walking around
with Rei I cringe hard.
Even Motoki
pointed out he’d never go out with a Middle School Girl, hence his sibling relationship
with Usagi and the girls.
It doesn’t
help his case that, as Tuxedo Mask, Mamoru wants to go against the Senshi and
collect the Rainbow Crystals to form the Legendary Silver Crystal on his own.
I don’t care about the cryptic visions he’s
been having about the Moon Princess, if he’s working against the Dark Kingdom,
the jerk shouldn’t be stingy.
Oh and he
has the nerve to call Makoto “Bigfoot” the way he calls Usagi “Bun Head”?
Makoto should kick his ass.
Another minor nitpick, I feel like Queen
Beryl is officially on expositional repeat at the beginning of every episode
and only changes her tune when it’s time to off a General who’s messed up about
a dozen times…kind of annoying.
This made me happy.
With the end of this set of episodes, we’ve had a full week of solid
Sailor Moon episodes.
Whereas Monday was
heavy on the drama with the death of Nephrite that broke Naru’s heart, today
saw things lighten up with recovery and refreshingly fun antics for Usagi, Ami,
Rei and Makoto.
Naru and Motoki got to
step into the spotlight for a bit and Usagi’s growth is more visible than
ever.
However…we are still short one
particular Senshi (and a Cat) and we’ve only got 16 episodes left to cover.
Those 16 episodes, by the way, are coming at
you fast Next Week as we count down to Otakon 2022 with back to back to back
reviews, leading to the Season Finale of Sailor Moon on Wednesday.
It’s all in a good place right now, I cant
wait to see what happens next.
See ya
Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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