Sailor Moon S: The Movie

When an ailing Luna is rescued by a kind hearted scientist, Kakeru, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with a Human.  But Kakeru’s fate has suddenly become tied to a strange crystal from space, one that heralds the return of a powerful and dangerous enemy, Princess Snow Kaguya.  As an invasion of ice descends upon the planet, Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Senshi stand ready to defend the Earth from Kaguya’s never ending Winter.  Can the power of the Silver Crystal thaw a heart of ice and warm the heart of an unlikely romance for Luna?

Coming off the heels of the strongest TV Season yet and a pretty impressive feature film debut, my expectations were pretty high for the Sailor Moon S Movie.  After all, Sailor Moon R’s film showed how much higher the series could soar with a larger budget and it even did an amazing job of showing that a failed TV arc could have been done better.  Sailor Moon S: The Movie, dubbed “Hearts in Ice” when it was originally released in the States, has a strong premise and once again places the spotlight on a supporting character to great effect.  It’s too bad everything else can’t measure up.  From the lackluster Villainess to the recycled attack animations, this wasn’t the strongest sequel I’d hoped it would be.
 
The best parts of this movie are all on Luna and her one sided romance with the handsome scientist who saved his life.  Kakeru may have been quite kind to her but come on, does he have to be a jerk to his actual girlfriend?  Even if he is trying to push her away to pursue her dream and not have to worry about him, that coldness doesn’t make Kakeru as endearing (and it’s all him by the way, his little hissy fits aren’t courtesy of a certain Crystal maguffin in the movie). Still, where Kakeru fails to shine, Luna shines the brightest.    Luna acts less like the nagging mentor/sister figure to Usagi and gets to have her own emotional, romantic adventure.  Believe it or not, Luna is even cuter when she’s looking so happy and in love.  There are still those loveable bits of comic relief at Luna’s expense but her best moments are when she’s lamenting the love she cant have and being embraced by Usagi, her best friend who’s always there.  It’s those moments especially when you just wanna hug Luna as tightly as Usagi.  Special credit should go to Luna’s English Voice Actress, Michelle Ruff, who gives her best performance as Luna in this movie, able to stretch the characters emotional range and really make her the star of the entire movie.    If there’s one thing lacking in this tale it’s Artemis not having as much involvement as he should.  It’s brought up how he’s always been in love with Luna and I think that should’ve played a bigger part of the story as he feels more left out than he should.  (Though fans of the Ichigo/Rukia ship will be happy to hear Michelle Ruff and Johnny Yong Bosch acting all lovey dovey in a couple of cute moments).
 
The rest of the S Movie feels pretty by the numbers but without a lot of effort and care given to what makes Sailor Moon great.  Yes, it’s good to see the Senshi all fighting side by side and they all look amazing, as does the entire movie, the presentation is spot on.  But yeah, whereas the R Movie had the Inner Senshi feeling more free to move about on the big screen, S’s action isn’t very different from the TV Series.  The same attack animations are used and there’s little variety until the big showdown between Sailor Moon and Kaguya in the films climax.  There’s also the lack of a personal connection to the heroines that Fiore had with Mamoru in the R Movie.  Kaguya is one of the dullest and most one note one off baddies you could toss in, as generic as they come.  It makes the battle with her feel incredibly lacking in stakes, tension and visual awe because we’ve seen all of this done before and better.  As much as I hate to say it, the Season Finale of Sailor Moon S felt like more of an epic movie event than the actual S movie.
 
This might also be me nitpicking a little but unlike the R Movie, it was hard to deem where this film falls into the cannon of the TV Series or if it even does at all.  I can think of where it would fall into Sailor Moon S’s story but that would mean team dynamics and powers would be vastly different.  For one thing, the Outer Senshi and Inner Senshi would never be working this insync and there’s a comment Sailor Uranus says about wanting to keep Sailor Moon safe that she would never admit out loud in the TV Series.  There’s also the absence of Hotaru, who would have been just introduced by this point.  Honestly, I get why Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are in the movie but it’s more fanservice than anything else.  At least with Sailor Moon R: The Movie, the themes of dealing with loneliness and matters of the heart did tie in to the Inner Senshi with well done flashbacks, resulting in a more intimate and relatable story.  I guess in the end it really doesn’t matter and you can treat this movie like any other Shonen/Shoujo theatrical feature: it’s its own cannon, a one hour episode of the TV Series and don’t try to think too much.
 
Sailor Moon S: The Movie is a film that is working at half strength.  Granted that strength goes towards giving Luna a beautiful tale and a chance for Usagi’s loveable Cat Guardian to shine.  But the action and Villainess fall woefully short of the bar set by the Sailor Moon S series and Sailor Moon R: The Movie.  It just doesn’t measure up and isn’t the extra victory lap deserved after the shows strongest season thus far.  Here’s hoping the next and final theatrical outing for Usagi and company is a step up because I know they can do better. 
 
5/10
 
Well that’s it for now.  Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi will be return in September with Sailor Moon SuperS, followed right after by Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie, as our year long look at Sailor Moon continues right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.