Chibiusa continues to enjoy her newly formed friendship
with Hotaru and the girls welcome her into their group as well. But disaster always seems to strike when
Hotaru is around and it isn’t a coincidence.
It isn’t just that she’s the daughter of the leader of the Death Busters,
Professor Souichi Tomoe. If the symbol
on her forehead is to be believed, Hotaru might be another long lost Sailor
Senshi and not just any Senshi…but the most powerful and dangerous of them
all. Between this shocking reveal and
the continued danger posed by the Outer Senshi and the Death Busters, Sailor
Moons battle for the planet just got a lot more hectic.
At last we’ve come to the beginning of the end of Sailor
Moon S and I’m not ready for this season to be done at all.
Only six episodes remain after this set but
this season has been such a fun watch, despite my frustrations with the biggest
draw of the Season, Sailor Uranus and Neptune.
Things have only gotten better with Chibiusa getting a new friend to
hang around and develop a genuine bond with, which has done wonders to advance
her already well rounded character.
This
penultimate set of episodes continued to advance Chibiusa’s potentially doomed
friendship with Hotaru while also clearing the board of another of the Witches
5 in preparation for next weeks sure to be epic finale.
Let’s break it all down, shall we?
Chibiusa and Hotaru’s friendship has been one of, if not
the best, highlights of Sailor Moon S.
We rarely got to see Chibiusa interact with anyone outside of Usagi and
the others, or at least with kids more her age.
Hotaru has been a welcome change to that, even if she is a bit
older.
This set of episodes had the pair
hanging out a lot, either together or with Usagi close by because she doesn’t
have anything better to do than keep an eye on her future daughter.
Much like her future Mommy, Chibiusa is able
to instill Hotaru with a confidence the poor girl has lacked due to her health
and a negative mindset that makes her believe she’s a living bad luck
charm.
Her friendship with Chibiusa
seems to give Hotaru much needed strength and be a bit more outgoing,
especially when it comes to backtalking Kaori (Kaolinite’s clone or whatever,
her true identity is still undetermined).
Hotaru’s rising confidence in herself even played a role in helping the
Sailor Senshi defeat one of the more fun Daimon’s of the season.
Seeing Hotaru so happy with Chibiusa makes what’s coming
soon all the more heartbreaking as we learn more about who she really is.
To make a long story short: Hotaru IS Sailor
Saturn, a Senshi so powerful she could end worlds with a swing of her cool
looking glaive.
Poor Rei even found
herself cut down in a very violent and bloody fashion by her in her continued
visions of doom.
Even though we haven’t
seen Hotaru in full Sailor Senshi form yet (saving that for the finale I
guess), her Akira/Testuo powers were on full display as she froze Daimons with
a glare and even caused one to hide in pure fear of her aura.
It would have been cool to see her kill a
Daimon with these powers but again it’s rare anyone but Sailor Moon gets the
finishing blow in.
Sailor Saturn is such
bad news that the Outer Senshi didn’t hesitate to try and kill Hotaru with a
combined attack, which is definitely going to make relations between them and
Usagi’s group more strained than ever.
Poor Chibiusa even angrily told off Pluto for being so violent toward
her friend and blamed her for Hotaru suddenly vanishing.
I hate seeing Chibiusa so broken up and angry
with Pluto but it’s not like the Outer Senshi haven’t had this outburst coming
for a long time.
While Haruka and Michiru were content to sit on the
sidelines and observe for a huge chunk of this set, Setsuna continued to prove
that while she is their ally she’s willing to be a bit more forthcoming with
intel for Usagi and the others.
Setsuna
both confirmed Rei’s visions and revealed the existence of the Mugen Academy,
the alleged base of operations for the Death Busters.
I chuckled a bit when she called it a “School
for Gifted Youngsters”, considering another popular comic school has the same
tagline (COUGH, COUGH X-MEN, COUGH).
Setsuna being more willing to share with the group brings with it an
emotional tether Haruka and Michiru have been lacking all season.
Setsuna does confirm the need to kill Hotaru
to prevent Sailor Saturns return and that is why the Outer Senshi didn’t want
to involve the Inner Senshi.
Yet while
Setsuna feels this is the best way, it has put her at odds with Usagi’s group
and especially Chibiusa and she isn’t 100% ok with this, even with the greater
good at stake.
It’s a far cry from
Haruka, who really needed to be punched when she was ok with leaving Hotaru and
Chibiusa to be lost in Hotaru’s home when it was turned into a Dimensional Fun
House.
I’m getting sick of the Outer
Senshi’s inability to grow as characters cause they’ve been so freaking
stagnant.
At least Setsuna shows the
last thing she wants to do is lose the friendship of her “Small Lady”.
Also wow, the Outer Senshi were being
incredibly lazy this set.
Except for
their attempt to assassinate Hotaru, they just stood around doing absolutely
nothing during any battle scene.
If
theyre gonna be like that, why have them in an episode at all?
To be honest, I am very surprised Mimete lasted as long
as she did.
Like her predecessor’s she’s
failed every single engagement against the Senshi but her penchant for letting
her fan girl-isms dictate who to go after seemed at odds with her duties to
Tomoe and the Witches 4, now Witches 3 I guess.
I got the distinct feeling that Tomoe had a bit of a creepy crush on her
(Mimete might not be the best henchwoman but she is pretty cute), which would
explain why she kept getting multiple chances.
Her demise was pretty chilling, once again another Witches 5 member
takes out one of their own.
And, much
like Eudial before her, Mimete was powerless to stop her own death, these girls
are more ruthless at taking out each other more than they are at dealing with
the Senshi.
But yeah, the Witches 5 are
now down to three and with only 6 episodes left in the Season, I don’t think
we’re gonna get to spend that much time with them.
Yeah, while Eudial was fun and entertaining,
the Witches 5 are definitely not the deeply developed group that was Sailor
Moon R’s Spectre Sisters.
Ok I have to
admit, I haven’t talked much about Professor Tomoe but I really should because
the dude might be creepy when he’s in Evil Professor Mode but holy crap is he
funny. His mannerisms, that creepy as
hell grin and the little side experiments, work outs, cooking and just general
tomfoolery he gets up to, the guy is way more active a big bad than others have
been in the past. He doesn’t just sit in
a chair and he actually provides some dark humor…and he’s apparently a bit of a
pervert too as he spies on Mimete and the Witches 4 playing Twister…before he
decides to join in the game after Mimete heads out on a mission. One of the best moments from this set comes
when he encounters the Sailor Senshi when the inside of his house becomes a
dimensional shifting mess. At first he fears
they’ve discovered who he is but when that isn’t the case and the Senshi teleport
in to save Hotaru and Chibiusa, he just chills out on his front steps eating
recently bought snacks, wont lie I cant see Queen Beryl or Prince Demande being
so chill and laid back. Also bonus point
to him for being a fan of David Bowie and quoting “Star Man.”
With 7 episodes
left, there’s still a lot of ground to cover for Sailor Moon S. What was the entity that saved Hotaru and her
Dad from that very Evangelion inspired accident (mind you Sailor Moon S was
airing the year before Neon Genesis Evangelion debuted but still)? Will the Witches 3 band together to take a
shot at the Senshi? What’s this Pharoh
90 Tomoe has been speaking to? Will
Hotaru fight for the world or destroy it when her Sailor Saturn persona comes
out to play? And will Uranus and Neptune
grow the Hell up and accept help from Sailor Moon and the others when its time
to save the world? We might not be
losing Senshi left and right in the Arctic or fighting in the future but I’m
pretty excited to see how this Season wraps up.
The thrill ride that is Sailor Moon S concludes This Friday right here
at the Gundam Anime Corner. Be ready for
anything Sailor Moon fans.
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