The three Talismans are brought together, revealing the
Holy Grail and granting Usagi a new form: Super Sailor Moon. Despite this revelation, Haruka and Michiru
still refuse to work together with the Senshi.
What’s more, the newly returned Sailor Pluto stands with her fellow
Outer Senshi, furthering the divide between the two teams. Meanwhile, Chibiusa meets a kind but sickly
girl named Hotaru Tomoe and a friendship soon blossoms. Little does the girl know, her new best
friend actually has very close ties to the leader of the Death Busters
themselves.
If Sailor Moon S
has demonstrated anything thus far it’s that it’s been learning and heeding the
lessons of its previous two seasons.
This third outing for the Senshi has been the strongest so far and every
set of episodes continues to cement that claim, hardly a dud of an episode in
the bunch. Character work still needs…well work, especially when it comes to
the increasingly frustrating Sailor Uranus and Neptune, who refuse to grow and
change their minds about Usagi and the others even after they saved their lives
big time. Overall though, Sailor Moon S
has been excellent and now that we’ve crossed the midpoint of the Season, new
changes to the status quo have come as well, mostly for the better. Before we get into all of that though, let’s
pick up where that amazingly dark cliffhanger left us on Friday.
Fear not, it
didn’t take long for Uranus and Neptune to be fully restored, with Sailor
Pluto, back in full effect this time, separating their Heart Crystals from
their Talismans and putting them back into their bodies, no harm no foul (wow,
see what happens when you open your mind to anything except the worst case
scenario, Ladies?). In the battle
against Eudial, Usagi managed to grab the mythical Holy Grail and get a brand
new upgrade. I joked in Sailor Moon R
how Usagi had to have Saiyan blood in her veins to withstand Rubeus’ heavy
gravity attacks. But now, she can
officially transform into “Super Sailor Moon” when doused in the Holy
Grail. This comes with a cute new Super
look for her and she was able to stop Eudial’s flame attack with one hand, very
Super Saiyan Goku of her. However, there
are some drawbacks. For one thing,
Usagi’s normal finishing move will no longer work on Daimons unless she’s in
Super Mode and after she uses her new Super Powers, it depletes her and leaves
her in a weakened state. I’m sure it’s
something she’ll have to work at but after not having a Talisman in her purest
of hearts and getting back talked constantly by the Outer Senshi, Usagi was due
a reward for continuing to be awesome, especially when she literally ran
through the fire and the flames to snag the Holy Grail.
Eudial finally
met her end too, but not by the hands of the Senshi a la Kaolinite (more on her
in a sec). The other members of the
Witches 5 (now Witches 4), specifically new replacement Mimete, sabotaged
Eudial’s car, sending the over the top baddie out in a dark yet fittingly over
the top fashion, honestly it was pretty brutal by Sailor Moon standards. Unfortunately, Eudial’s entertaining amount
of extra when it came to her wicked plans and how she carried them out doesn’t
translate to Mimete, who’s presented as a fangirl obsessed with every hot
actor, singer and celebrity and would rather date them than steal their Heart
Crystals. I’m a little surprised she’s
still around by the end of this set, especially since there are three other
witches who need to appear in full.
Whereas Eudial was fun as heck, especially in how she flat out abandoned
her Monsters to go shopping when a Talisman wasn’t around, Mimete just comes off
as whiny and annoying and step down from villains that have come before.
However, there is
a villain who is teased constantly in this set who would dwarf every baddie
before now and set a new high bar for Big Bads for Sailor Moon to come. And that is…a sickly girl who has become
Chibiusa’s new best friend. Hotaru seems
cute and nice and her scenes with Chibiusa are a highlight. There’s a very genuine and cute instant bond
between them and its just nice to see Chibiusa happy and making a major
difference in the life of a girl who is living a secret cursed life even she
isn’t aware of. It’s kind of obvious
though that Hotaru’s “Other Half” is a creepy as heck little girl sitting on a
throne of toys kind of like the titular Akira in the Akira Manga. Shrouded in darkness (to hide that its Hotaru
im sure) and desperate for Heart Crystals, the Messiah of Silence continues the
creepy trend the villains have been on this season, though she isn’t cracking
dark and twisted jokes like the Professor…who is revealed to be none other than
Hotaru’s father, Professor Souichi Tomoe.
Oh and Kaolinite’s back. I don’t
know if she’s a clone or if it’s the original Kaolinite who somehow survived
her battle with the Senshi. All I know
is that she’s still assisting the Professor and Hotaru flat out hates her, like
ready to unleash Tetsuo levels of power against her at any moment (I’m gonna be
making a lot of Akira references at Hotaru’s expense, I apologize).
After most of a
Season of Uranus and Neptune being totally cold and dismissive towards Usagi
and the girls, having Sailor Pluto back, er, sorry, Setsuna, was very
welcome. Unlike her fellow Outer Senshi,
Setsuna has no problem sitting down with the others to fill in a few details
and even spend some time with Chibiusa (lest we forget the two of them were
friends long before now). I do sort of
get why she feels duty bound to side with Uranus and Neptune on their mission
but at least Pluto seems more willing to help Sailor Moon when the need calls
for it. As for Uranus and Neptune,
seriously, how thick headed can these two be?
Even after their mission to find the Holy Grail is complete, they refuse
to team up with the others because A. They’d apparently just get in the way and
B. the rather childish mindset of “This is our mess, we’ll clean it up.” How much more do Usagi and the others have to
do to prove they can stand with these two in battle before Uranus and Neptune
actually accept them? You know, for all
their claiming theyre older and more mature, these two really are the most
immature characters in Sailor Moon and it speaks volumes when the youngest of
the cast if way more reliable and good hearted than they are (Chibiusa you
keeping being as awesome as your Mom).
I think that
about wraps it up for this set of episodes.
Usagi’s now a Sailor Moon Super Saiyan, Uranus and Neptune are still
stubborn to the point of infurity, Sailor Pluto is back and as fine as ever and
Chibiusa has befriended the embodiment of the harbinger of the apocalypse. There’s a lot of ground to cover and only two
reviews left in this stellar and wildly entertaining season. HOWEVER, we’ll be taking a mini break on Friday
so I can review something related to the upcoming Fast and the Furious sequel,
Fast X. The penultimate chapter of
Sailor Moon S begins Next Monday, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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