Furious at the continuous failures of the Spectre
Sisters, Rubeus finds himself needing to step in and handle the destruction of
Chibiusa and the Silver Crystal personally.
When another failed attempt to return to the future results in the
capture of the Sailor Senshi, Chibiusa must take responsibility for her
selfishness and join Usagi in a desperate attempt to save their friends. High above the Earth, Sailor Moon and
Chibiusa faces Rubeus in an intense final battle. But even if they defeat him, the Black Moon
Clan is far from finished and a new wave of their best stands ready to succeed
where Rubeus fails. And who is this
beautiful and ethereal new Guardian who has been speaking to Chibiusa from the
future?
The first half of this set involved wrapping up the
character arcs for the rest of the Spectre Sisters. I was happy to see Koan hanging out with the
girls and not just being pushed to the wayside as the story continued…no that
kind of came later but gimme a sec on that.
One by one, the siblings found their way to the side of good and it was
a mix of the ever important inspirational message from the Sailor Senshi AND
their converted sisters too. Koan played
a major role in helping Berthier get through her grief of being cast out by
Rubeus and her older sisters and in turn, they came to the aid of Calaveras and
Petz, even when the latter was so overcome with rage thanks to an evil inducing
scepter that she tried to kill all three of her sisters at once. Still, it was more than just the Senshi’s
message of the week that won them over, it was their bond and learning from
their mistakes that saved their lives, something that echoes with another
character but I’ll get to that. I don’t
know how much more of a role the Spectre Sisters will play now that theyre all
human and running a boutique shop together.
But if this is the end of their little arc, it’s a good ending and its
good to get a happy ending for the villains unlike their all male team Dark
Kingdom counterparts in Season One.
With the Spectres good guys now, Rubeus had to get off
his butt and do his own dirty work.
Sadly, this was helped along by Chibiusa discovering that Usagi and the
girls were Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi.
Feeling she’d been deceived, she stole the Silver Crystal and tried to
go back home to the future. This
resulted in the Senshi getting captured and Usagi crushed by not being to help
that she almost slapped Chibiusa. I’m
not about Usagi getting physical but she had a right to be angry. Even if she is just a kid, Chibiusa’s refusal
to trust Usagi and the others led to the girls getting captured and Usagi not
being able to join the fight because Chibiusa refused to give the Silver
Crystal back. Heck, one of the best
scenes from this set involved Usagi venting to Luna and Artemis how part of her
didn’t want to help Chibiusa after the stunt she pulled…but in the end she
always will because Usagi is awesome and will never be that selfish when the
chips are down. Also “I guess my crying days
are over”. Nah, you’ve matured Usagi but
I think those days are far from done…in a good way for comedic purposes. Back to Chibiusa, most of this felt like such
a huge step backwards after the progress she made last time…but even she had to
admit her mistakes and she owned up to them, standing united with Usagi against
Rubeus and even helping to save the day, good kid.
The fight with Rubeus was rough on Usagi but solid. He probably wouldn’t’ve been able to walk
through the Senshi so easily if Usagi had been there and they didn’t need to
protect Chibiusa. But that did give us
an excuse to move the fight to his giant spaceship in Earth orbit. I like that Usagi tried to use deception
against him first, claiming Chibiusa was her cousin and not “The Rabbit” the
Black Moon Clan’s been hunting. But that
could only get her so far and soon, the fight was on. Rubeus even altered the gravity to try and
crush Usagi, but she rose to the challenge, literally. It was like watching Goku or Vegeta train in
10x normal gravity in Dragon Ball Z and seeing them overcome it. Usagi has gotten so much stronger and this
was such a bad ass way to show it. And,
like I said, Chibiusa didn’t run and hide for this fight and she managed to
provide a big opening for Usagi to score a winning blow against Rubeus. This
was a great fight and to make it even sweeter, Rubeus was left behind on his
own crumbling vessel but his soon to be successor, Esmeraude. To see Rubeus treated just as coldly as he
had to the Spectre Sisters…Karma is such a cruel mistress but man was this a
fitting end for the jerk.
While we did get glimpses of the next wave of Black Moon
Clan villains, including the presumed head honcho, Prince Demande, the last
episode of this set found Chibiusa somehow fall into a coma off screen and the
Senshi had to enter her mind, Inception style, to figure out how to wake her
up. This episode was kind of
problematic. I like that Usagi and the
others got to see a glimpse of Chibiusa’s home and how bad things are and the
Grim Reaper dream invader they had to fight was pretty chilling. But having to work with a Chibiusa who didn’t
know them felt unnecessary after everything they’d gone through in the last two
episodes. Don’t get me wrong, when Usagi
and Chibiusa actually get along, its inspiringly good stuff, it just felt too
soon to retread it. Also, we got the
first official appearance of the latest Senshi, Sailor Pluto, who’s also the
“Puu” Chibiusa (or Small Lady as shes really named) has been speaking
with. Pluto’s got a stunningly gorgeous
design but she doesn’t really do much besides speak briefly with Chibiusa and
the Senshi. I’m sure we’ll see more of
her down the line but it would’ve been fun to see her somehow join the girls on
the trip into Chibiusa’s subconscious.
Not a lot of Mamoru bashing for once since he didn’t have
a huge role in this set and he was the one to actually start asking Chibiusa to
start giving some freaking answers already.
Other odds and ends, hmm. Besides
Demande we got to meet Esmeraude and Sapphire, the top two of Demande’s forces,
unless someone else gets introduced.
Like Pluto, Esmeraude has a nice design and looks to be a strong follow
up to the Spectre Sisters. Plus she left
Rubeus to Karma and that’s a good first impression in my book. Sapphire could be a bit more interesting
since he’s Demande’s brother and he doesn’t think the Black Moon needs to
bother with the past as their chief weapon, the Malefic Black Crystal, seems
powerful enough to destroy Crystal Tokyo.
I guess that’s supposed to be the Silver Crystal’s evil counterpart but
I’m more interested in this disagreement between brothers and where that could
lead. According to the Wiseman, though,
the Silver Crystal poses a threat no matter what so it has to be eliminated in
the past. Which begs the question, if
that is Usagi in the future, why doesn’t she have the Silver Crystal and why
did Chibiusa have to come back to get it in the first place?
Well that wraps the first half of the Black Moon Clan Arc
and Sailor Moon R is in a pretty good place at this point, finally living up to
the potential of a solid sophomore season.
The first set of enemies is off the board and another stands ready to
take their place. Usagi and Chibiusa are
finally on decent terms and the girls have a bit more of an idea of the mission
they have now: somehow get to the future and save Chibiusa’s Mom and Crystal
Tokyo. All in all, this season just got
really good and I hope the last 14 episodes keep up the good work. See you Next Monday for more Sailor Moon R,
right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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