The Makai Tree is on the verge of death. With time running out, Ail and Ann set their
sights on Sailor Moon herself to finish restoring their dying tree to its
former glory. But when their separate
feelings for Usagi and Mamoru come into conflict with their mission, will Ail
and Ann be truly committed to their nefarious goal? As the Makai Tree unleashes its monstrous
might on the city, the Sailor Senshi prepare for their final battle with the
twins. Will their newfound powers be
enough to stop Ail and An and will Usagi finally be able to get through to
Mamoru, whose memories still remain locked away? And what of the Moonlight Knight, will his
origins and mysterious connection to Mamoru be revealed as well?
So…let me get this straight.
The Makai Tree has been sentient this entire
time and has been trying to tell Ail and An that it didn’t need human energy to
thrive…all it needed was for them to truly fall in love and everything would’ve
been fine?
Wow, with a revelation like
that, it only makes this Arc feel like more of a waste of time than it already
was.
And the sad thing is, there have
been bits of good stuff here and there and some of that stems from this closing
set of episodes for this Arc.
I guess
I’ll touch on that first before putting this chapter to rest before hopefully
getting into the good stuff at last in our next review.
But first, the Makai Tree Arc conclusion.
The set started off well enough with an actual fun filler
episode where the girls were all competing with each other to be Snow White in
Mamoru’s play.
Usagi and An both wanted
the role to get a shot at kissing Mamoru but everyone else had their own
reasons too: Rei and Minako for the stardom; Ami wants to help but doesn’t want
memorizing lines to get in the way of studying…and Mako wants the role because
she thinks she’s the sexiest (seriously, she brags about her chest size
compared to the others).
Its fun to see
the girls get into spats like this every once in a while and they even end up
turning one of their usual end episode fights into an all out theatrical
performance when they announce themselves and their special qualities before a
crowd (Rei really loves her high heels btw).
It is sad that only Rei and Ami get actual attacks in before Usagi
finishes off the Cardian…which only gets let loose because Ail is upset he
wasn’t the Prince in the play.
Good
stuff.
We also got some nice moments between Usagi and An, who
has always been my favorite between the two main villains of this Arc.
Yes, she has a pretty hot character design
but I like that she was an actual civilian rival for Usagi (have to fault their
taste in men though, don’t worry the Mamoru bashing is coming as always).
Their shared detention episode, however,
showed that despite their fieirce competition for Mamoru, Usagi is willing to
be quite friendly to An, even worried about her when An appears sick (she was
super low on energy).
I feel like when
it comes to An, this Arc missed chances to have more moments like this, where
she actually warmed up to Usagi a little and saw that no matter how much hell
she put the clumsy girl through in their alter egos, Usagi never really hated
her, even when An tried to take her guy.
Usagi may be an idiot at times but she has a good heart and I can never
fault her for that.
Ok, now that I’ve talked about that, let’s talk about the
Arc Finale and the mess it turned out to be.
So, for over 11 episodes we’ve watched Ail and An endlessly repeat their
same mission of summoning monsters and gathering energy for the Makai Tree and
only NOW do they realize their efforts aren’t working.
In fact the Makai Tree gets so bad that Ail
actually has trouble commanding a Cardian in one episode.
Finally, desperate and totally shaken by the
obvious truth that Usagi and Mamoru wont hook up with them, Ail and An finally
get serious and manage to wreck just about everyone, showing just how powerful
a menace they couldve actually been this entire Arc…and then…ugh…the truth
comes out.
Ail begins to feel actual
love seeing Usagi and Mamoru risk their lives to protect one another.
Then the Makai Tree goes crazy and kills An
(accidentally? I’ll come back to that).
And finally, the Makai Tree actually speaks, revealing itself as a
sentient being and divuldges its backstory: It was responsible for giving birth
to Ail and An’s people and they lived together in peace until they began
fighting over each other for the Makai Tree’s energy.
An and Ail were the last ones standing and
had to survive on their own with the tree without knowing what love meant…when
they were clearly in love with one another but hold that thought.
In the end, the Makai Tree didn’t need human
energy to survive.
It needed…love.
Sigh…again, let me get this straight.
This entire 12 episode Arc couldve been
completed in less than 6 episodes if Ail and An had just attended Usagi’s
school as two unrelated students so they could still be romantically involved,
still had their competition for Usagi and Mamoru but eventually get pushed
together by Usagi and the Senshi and THAT would have solved the Makai Tree’s
issues?
Its just…wow really?
This whole matter couldve been solved with a
few sessions of freaking couples counseling.
The Makai Tree Arc has felt like a giant waste of time, an excuse to pad
out the series runtime until the Manga was far enough along that new material
could be adapted.
But this resolution is
just silly and such an enormous…well I should say it’s a letdown but that
implies I had any expectations.
I’m
surprised I liked a couple of episodes in this Arc at all.
But, ugh whatever, the Makai Tree gets healed
and brings An back to life Dark Crystal style and the pair head off into the
galaxy more in love than ever to raise their new tree seedling together…can we
finally move on?
Well not quite yet. I toldja we’d get
back to Mamoru and there’s still the matter of the Inspirational Motivation
Speaker…er Moonlight Knight that needs to be wrapped up. Yes, he is Mamoru and it’s strange having
seen Marvel’s Moon Knight how much of another missed opportunity this was. Apaprently, Mr. Knight was the manifestation
of Mamoru’s deep desire to protect Usagi, even though his memories of her and
the battle with the Dark Kingdom had all been wiped. That’s literally why he always showed up,
tossed a white rose, gave a speech about believing in oneself and then
disappeared, it's exactly what Mamoru did as Tuxedo Mask in the bulk of Season
One. How much more interesting could
this have been if Mamoru’s memories were fighting within him to get out? Part of him wanting to forget but the other
wanting to keep protecting Usagi and thus he develops a split personality
subplot where Moonlight Knight would take over when battles popped up and
Mamoru would have no memory of the battles themselves? Also the whole Moonlight Knight backstory is
literally like a minute long before he disappears presumably for good…not
presumably, if Mamoru has his memories totally restored there’s no way he’s not
returning as Tuxedo Mask.
Ugh…boy. This Arc
could have worked if it was half the length and didn’t have such a
disappointment of an ending. I’ve always
known most Filler Arcs get a bad rep for ruining the pacing of any Shonen or
Shojo Anime, I’ve watched all of Dragon Ball Z to know that much. But this was painful because it was
repetitive, didn’t deliver on any real potential and generally felt
uncecessary. This could have been a
movie in between Seasons a la Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. But whatever, the Makai Tree Arc is done and
we can move onto bigger and hopefully better things…and Chibiusa is coming too…and
now I’m worried again. Anyway, the main
story of Sailor Moon continues in our next review of Sailor Moon R, This Friday
right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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