Usagi faces overwhelming pressure on two fronts: her own
tragic origins as the Princess of the Moon Kingdom and the fact that her
beloved Mamoru has ended up in the hands of the enemy. Turned to the side of darkness, Tuxedo Mask
becomes a new foe for the Senshi to contend with. Knowing that the pressure is mounting, Ami,
Rei, Makoto and Minako do everything in their power to keep Usagi’s spirits
up. All the while the Dark Kingdom
prepares for their endgame and Queen Beryl is ready to finish the Sailor Senshi
off once and for all.
Ok so, let me make sure I’ve got this straight.
Usagi’s just been revealed as the long lost
Moon Princess.
Mamoru is her Earth
Prince love Endymion (the heck is it with that name?).
Usagi’s got the Silver Crystal.
Zoisite’s dead and Kunzite stands poised to
be the most powerful the girls have faced so far before Queen Beryl.
Oh and Mamoru’s been captured and has been
corrupted by the Dark Kingdom to be Beryl’s errand boy.
Right, I think that’s everything and that’s a
lot.
You’d think this means that this is
it.
All we need is a little more
backstory from Luna and Artemis and then BAM we’re good to go for a Season Finale.
So why the heck did we spend most of this
penultimate set of episodes back in the early days of Season One, filled with
recycled story structure, frustrating characters and a severe lack of
progression?
Plus, newcomer Sailor Venus
still hasn’t gotten any episodes to herself, she’s kind of just around at this
point.
Look, there’s some good to be
found in these episodes, I promise.
But
overall, I feel like what we got today isn’t what we should be getting at this
point in the Season.
Let me break down
why I think that is.
Last time, Usagi was pretty crushed by all the revelations
about her and Mamoru’s past and seemed to want to just give up being Sailor
Moon if it meant no one else got hurt.
Her resolve seemed to strengthen at the end but I knew that was too easy
of a turn around.
And yeah, Usagi got an
episode to be sad and mourn the capture of Tuxedo Mask, which was necessary I
think.
Usagi’s grown since the shows
beginning but she’s still a 14 year old girl.
She can take a minute to process.
Now, Minako taking Usagi to get her hair done as a way of cheering her
up…yeahhhhhh ok that’s fine but it was here that early Season One returned with
a vengeance.
I’ll talk more about that
in a second but as far as Usagi is concerned, all she needed to see was the
Tuxedo Mask was ok and she was back to her normal airheaded self…even though
he’s trying super hard to be a bad guy (and failing, more on that you know it’s
coming).
I don’t wanna see Usagi beaten
down so badly her more comical traits are sacrificed.
But I don’t know, I feel like there was a
fair bit of denial going on with her in this set.
And the show seemed to acquiesce to that,
trying to bring the show back to a familiar status quo of Monster of the Week
and plots we’ve seen done more than a fair few times by now.
I’m not saying Usagi should be
miserable.
But the story really needed
to move her along, not take a big step backwards.
I did this back with Jadeite and Nephrite but I think
I’ll use this bit again.
Here’s the
general outline of at least three out of the five episodes in this set: Kunzite
and Mamoru (should I be calling him Endymion in this state…guess I should),
both come up with hair brained schemes to lure out Sailor Moon and try to
capture her and the Silver Crystal; at some point Endymion becomes Tuxedo Mask
and aids Sailor Moon in some way while swearing he’s gonna take her crystal
eventually and that he isn’t a good guy anymore; Monster of the Week appears
(often mistaking everyone else for Sailor Moon except for Sailor Moon herself);
fight scene; Monster Purified; Plot Advancement minimal.
So Kunzite’s schtick is going to be going
directly after Sailor Moon and her Silver Crystal while competing with Endymion
because for some reason the latter is Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia’s
favorite.
I harped on this last time but
lest we forget: Kunzite is mad powerful and doesn’t really need Monsters to do
his dirty work.
And yet, he’s been
regulated to stupid sub boss sending Monsters…and not telling them what Sailor
Moon looks like (Shouldn’t the Dark Kingdom know that much by now?).
All that menace built up in the last set is
pretty much nowhere to be found and his rivalry with Endymion feels
petty…mostly because good guy or bad guy, Mamoru is always a douche.
Oh and Kunzite, while I hate giving advice to
the bad guys um, hear me out, “TELL YOUR MONSTERS SO THEY STOP MISTAKING
EVERYONE ELSE FOR SAILOR MOON CAUSE THEYRE ALL MORE TALENTED THAN USAGI!!!!”
Speaking of: Mamoru/Endymion the Bad Guy…but is he
though?
Beryl claims the Dark Kingdom
brainwashing worked but like I said, the guys always been super jerkish so is
there a difference?
In attitude,
no.
In practice…a little.
Endymion doesn’t want civilian casualties in
his battles, to the point where he even aids Sailor Moon in helping her heal
Monsters and returning them to Human form cause we’re sticking with that plot
device from Zoisite’s era.
And while he
boasts and broods and poses, rarely does Endymion actually engage the Senshi
directly.
To quote The Princess Bride,
Endymion is basically the Dread Pirate Roberts to the Senshi’s Wesley, "Good
night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the
morning."
I think Endymion is so
full of crap and is playing Beryl and Metalia’s clear crush on him to his
advantage, to be on the side of bad to keep watching out for Sailor Moon and
the others while trying to end the Dark Kingdom his own way.
Really, dude should not be as active as he is
given how many times he’s directly interfered with a Monsters attempts to kill
Sailor Moon.
Beryl’s crush on Endymion
could very well be her one weakness in the battle to come.
All of this being said, some of these stand alone returns
to form were fun.
It’s funny we had two
winter sport themed episodes back to back but it did allow two of the shows
best characters to get stand out moments: Rei and Mako.
Rei’s always been my favorite character (her
dating Mamoru not withstanding) and I think the series did more to delve into
her psyche following Mamoru’s big reveal than it did with Usagi. In fact, the
reveal gave Rei a moment alone with Usagi to tell her she has permission to go
get the man she used to crush on and that she has her back.
Rei’s freaking awesome and it was cool to see
Yuichiro return and again risk his life for Rei, earning him another kiss
(granted he was KO’d for this one, still, lucky guy).
Meanwhile, Mako showcased excellent talent on
the ice as a figure skater, which according to Artemis and Luna, she was in her
past life.
It’s not quite Yuri on Ice
but the Mako skating scenes were very beautiful and its always fun to see her
get an episodes attention…until it falls to Usagi to jump in and save the day
but that’s just how things go.
However,
poor Ami hasn’t had an episode in a bit and I hope she does get one in the last
set.
As for Minako…she’s just
there.
I know she’s a popular character
but we haven’t really gotten an episode to get to know her or her exposition
machine Artemis.
The most I can tell you
about Minako is that she has a penchant for misquoting famous quotes from
history…and Ami is the one to usually correct her…that’s it.
Ami’s a brainiac, Rei a Priestess, and Mako a
gamer and extraordinary cook.
Who is
Minako and what makes her so special beyond being Sailor Venus?
I mean this was the girl who was a Senshi
since before any of the others and yet she’s shown up and fallen in line pretty
quickly.
Granted, that can be blamed on
bringing her in so late in the Season.
Idk, seeing Minako around with little character or background irks me,
sorry to say but it does.
But ok guys, we have six episodes left.
It’s time to leave the stand alone misadventures
behind and move to the endgame.
Is Usagi
ready to take on Queen Beryl and her remaining upper echelon foes?
Can she save Mamoru as well as the world?
I guess in hindsight, these look backs on the
early days of Sailor Moon storytelling might not be so bad…cause who knows how
heavy the finale might be.
Well find out
tomorrow when we at last get to the Season Finale of Sailor Moon, right here at
the Gundam Anime Corner.
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