At last, the final battle has come. The Mugen Academy. Doctor Souichi Tomoe. His daughter, Hotaru. The mysterious Mistress 9 and Pharoh 90. The war against the Death Busters reaches its
dramatic climax as Rei’s apocalyptic premonition closes in. As the Senshi prepare to hold back the end of
the world, Usagi faces her most dangerous challenge yet. Lives are on the line and not every Senshi
will make it out of this battle alive.
And when Sailor Saturn fully awakens, will she help Sailor Moon save the
world…or destroy it?
Season Finales for Sailor Moon have always been mega
events, a perfect culmination of everything the series has been building
towards that also offers solid bookmarks for some character arcs and
conclusions for others.
The Finale of
Sailor Moon S went above the usual fare and offered a very dark and apocalyptic
setup in more ways than one.
While of
course things turned out ok, the build up to and during the last battle with
the Death Busters was pretty chilling thanks to some nightmarish atmosphere and
some of the most maniacal villains yet.
This was a pretty big finale, even I didn’t realize that in my attempt
to round the numbers to every 5 episodes or so that I gave myself 7 episodes to
look at…and honestly three of them couldve been omitted.
Point is, there’s a lot to go through
here.
So how was Usagi and the girls
third turn at saving the world?
Before we could have the Senshi take on the possessed
Hotaru and Professor Tomoe, we had to clear the board of the rest of the
Witches 5.
This meant that, unlike
Eudial and Mimete, the three remaining members each got just one single episode
to themselves and none of them were really that memorable character wise.
Evil plot wise, they did do away with Daimons
in favor of gathering Pure Heart Crystals en masse, so that was certainly a
change of pace.
Really though, Tellu,
Viluy and Cyprine got no time to stand out like their other two former
teammates and could have all been dealt with in a single episode.
It makes me wonder why there was even a
Witches 5 to begin with.
Kaolinite and
Eudial could have served as the two big Lieutenants for Tomoe, maybe Mimete too
even if she wasn’t my favorite.
So there
wasn’t a need for such a large grouping of Villainesses when the last batch
barely had anything to offer to the Season, they were utterly forgettable.
I did enjoy the battle against Cyprine though
as it showed the Senshi relying on more than Sailor Moons finishing move to
beat her, the show needs to do this more often.
Oh and all that build up to Kaolinite officially confirmed as back, yeah
that went nowhere either.
While she did
get a sexy new outfit, she was taken out in the blink of an eye, rather
unceremoniously really.
Much of the Finale centered on the battle for Hotaru, who
found herself at war with two other personalities trying to take over.
One was the Death Buster within her, the
official Messiah of Silence aka Mistress 9.
And the other was the long awaited Sailor Saturn.
Poor Hotaru got put through the ringer as the
incredibly nasty Mistress 9 gave her little chance to fight back and spat out
pretty demented dialogue believing she’d won the very moment she took full
control from Hotaru.
It wasn’t helped
that Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were determined to stop at nothing to
kill her in order to save the world.
On
top of all of this, Chibiusa found her Heart Crystal being taken and used as
the key to awaken Mistress 9, meaning part of Hotaru’s consciousness played a
hand in hurting her best friend.
If
anyone deserved a happy ending in Sailor Moon S, it was Hotaru.
Thankfully she got it.
Sailor Saturn looked quite bad ass with her
glaive and she turned out to be not as terrible as the Outer Senshi made her
out to be, granted they had Hotaru’s friendships with Chibiusa and Usagi to
thank for that (more on Usagi’s direct role later).
I wish we could have seen Saturn’s big battle
within Pharoh 90, I bet visually it was incredible.
And despite her thinking this would see the
end of her, Hotaru ended up getting reborn as the most adorable little tyke who
clearly recognized Chibiusa when she ran into her and her Dad (who also
thankfully survived albeit a bit worse for wear).
Seeing as how Sailor Saturn does make an
appearance in Sailor Stars, how Hotaru gets aged to her proper age remains a
mystery I look forward to seeing.
As I said above, the final battle with the Death Busters
was dark and on an apocalyptic scale.
Everything had a black and dark colored tint about it, even the students
of Mugen Academy were greyed out and were moving like brainwashed zombies.
And when Mistress 9 and Pharoh 90 got
involved, Hell came with them.
You had a
blood red Akira death ball ready to explode and the Sailor Senshi trying
deperatley to hold back a wall of Monsters determined to get into the city and
wipe everything out.
All of this while
Usagi was trying as hard as she could to get through to Hotaru and getting
absolutely wrecked.
Usagi was at her
best once again in this finale.
But
while her final charge against Pharoh 90 was a highlight, probably the best and
most dramatic moment of the Season for me was seeing her crying out and wailing
to try and transform into Super Sailor Moon because she couldn’t accept Sailor
Saturn sacrificing herself to save them all.
This also comes after Uranus and Neptune flat out berated and damned
Sailor Moon for letting Mistress 9 run amok and potentially doom the
planet.
Against the apocalypse and her
closed minded upper classwomen being overly critical, Usagi stood tall and
managed to attain Super Sailor Moon status and save the freaking world.
As she descended from the sky with baby
Hotaru in hand, you could see this was a hard earned victory (although Usagi
was so out of it I don’t think she realized she’d saved Hotaru).
Considering what followed, if Usagi hasn’t
earned your respect by the end of Sailor Moon S, when she should’ve had it
already, why are you watching this show?
Hooooookay.
Let’s
get to it.
Sailor Uranus and Neptune
quickly devolved from sexy, bad ass newcomers to my major source of headaches
this season and the finale found them still stationary in their philosophy and
mindset towards the Senshi and especially Usagi.
And you could say that they just wanted to
test Usagi after the end of Pharoh 90 but personally I was sick and tired of
listening to them chastise Usagi.
Yes,
Usagi took a risk with the world but it paid off.
The world is still in one piece, Hotaru is
safe, everyone wins…except Uranus and Neptune because they didn’t get to kill
something and save the world their way.
And even after a whole season of arrogance thrown her way, Usagi still
doesn’t want the Outer Senshi and Inner Senshi fighting.
Regardless, it was sooooo satisfying to see
Usagi accept Uranus and Neptunes challenge and come out on top.
They dared Usagi to cry like a baby, Usagi
simply and calmly told them to stand down.
In the end, Usagi managed to have the pair incapacitate each other with
their own attack and they bowed in acceptance of their future Queen.
So do these two actually get better as the series
goes on?
Do they grow and become
likeable? A friend of mine told me that they didn’t enjoy Uranus and Neptunes
depiction in this Anime compared to the Manga and Sailor Moon Crystal.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who shares that
sentiment about them being needlessly cold and unlikeable in this Season.
I’m actually a little more miffed that Sailor Pluto
didn’t have a large role to play in the final battle.
After risking her life to protect Chibiusa
from Tellu, Pluto ends up using her power to stop time to give Uranus and
Neptune a chance to get into Mugen Academy.
Pluto has stood leagues above her fellow Outer Senshi for not keeping
Usagi and the others in the dark and actually being nice to them, especially to
Chibiusa (the moment when her spirit form told Chibiusa she wished she could
hug her for doing such a good job was pretty touching).
Even though she remains teammates with Uranus
and Neptune, Pluto’s always seemed more willing to be more open minded.
She deserved to do more in the finale rather
than be the reason Uranus and Neptune got to get to Mistress 9, get captured
and talk smack about Usagi after they defeated Professor Tomoe.
Were it up to me, Pluto couldve still gone
down fighting but not for them.
Why not
have her risk her life to protect Chibiusa, maybe even have a battle with
Kaolinite and sacrifice herself to take her down?
Pluto deserves better, that’s all I’m saying.
Surprisingly, the actual Season Finale is centered on
Chibiusa.
This is much better than the
clipshow/sneak peak that closed out Sailor Moon R, thankfully.
While the drama of Chibiusa going back to the
future, when she wouldn’t be gone long, might’ve been a bit forced, same with
the last die hard Daimon battle, the emotions were there.
Seeing Chibiusa dwell on the idea of leaving
the past behind and returning to the future and not wanting to go home was good
stuff.
While this is her family in both
time periods, the past has had such an important impact on Chibiusa.
Her moments with Usagi were beautiful, showing
that beyond their sibling-like bickering, they love each other very much and
are better people for being in each others lives.
We even got another nice nod to the beautiful
friendship that is Usagi and Rei, best of the besties.
But yeah, Chibiusa isn’t going anywhere and
is will continue her training…her Mom just wanted her to come home for a quick
visit, that’s all.
Oh and more Neo Queen
Usagi notes, still looking like they were written by a kid in grade school,
hilarious.
Alright, time for Final Thoughts.
Sailor Moon S has had the best story of the
three Seasons so far and was bolstered by bigger stakes, darker villains and
new characters who helped established favorites grow while emerging as their
own memorable addition to the franchise.
Usagi, Rei, Ami, Mako and Chibiusa were all great as usual, Minako is
still the odd one out but she had her moments.
The Death Busters didn’t need as many sub villains but some like
Professor Tomoe and Eudial were incredibly funny and entertaining, providing a
break from more traditional Sailor Moon Villains we’ve seen.
While their popularity and importance is
undeinable, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were a huge pain for me this
season thanks to their holier than thou attitude and constant belittling of Sailor
Moon and the others for having something called “a heart”.
Hotaru faired much better as she became more
confident around Chibiusa and gave Chibiusa herself someone special to fight
for.
The extra chilling and forboading atmosphere
of the Season Finale accentuated how dark everything had gotten by the end,
providing the series with its most important and emotion packed battle to
date.
Really, Uranus and Neptune’s
“We’re better than all of you combined” attitude aside, I loved going through
Sailor Moon S and even most of the stand alone filler episodes weren’t bad
because they advanced character arcs and were generally fun watches.
The bar has been set for the other two
seasons to come as Sailor Moon S is currently the pique of the Sailor Moon TV
Anime for me.
I’m ready to keep going
cause this was a helluva ride and, like it’s two preceding seasons, I cant wait
to see what trouble Usagi and the girls get into next.
Sailor Moon S gets an 8.5/10
Before we put the pause on our year long look at Sailor
Moon, Monday we close out Sailor Moon S proper with a look at
Sailor Moon S:
The Movie.
Will it be as good as the
Sailor Moon R movie?
We’ll see.
As for the Fourth Season of Sailor Moon,
Sailor
Moon SuperS, that arrives in September, right here at the Gundam Anime
Corner.
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