Dear Readers and Sailor Moon fans, our year long look at
the original Sailor Moon Anime is about to continue again. This Friday, we kick off the 4th
Chapter of Usagi Tsukino’s 90s adventures with Sailor Moon SuperS. And while I haven’t exactly heard good things
about this upcoming season, it does have a steep challenge ahead considering
where we left things back in May, aka at arguably the high point of the series
so far. Sailor Moon S set a whole new
standard for the franchise with some of the strongest storytelling and
character work for our five main heroines and especially Chibiusa. It wasn’t perfect and my displeasure with the
character arcs, or lack thereof, of Sailor Uranus and Neptune is well
documented. And while that might come up
here and there, we’re not here to talk about what didn’t work about Season
Three, but what worked best. So once again,
before we begin SuperS, let’s look back at my picks for the Top 5 Sailor Moon S
Moments and celebrate the season that showed Usagi and the others prove beyond
the shadow of a doubt they are more than worthy of their status as Legends.
#5-Chibiusa calls out Pluto The friendship between Chibiusa and Sailor Pluto is one
of the most genuine and precious in the entire series.
Late Season Three put that friendship to the
test when Chibiusa discovered that her new best friend, Hotaru, was actually
the very feared Sailor Saturn.
Naturally,
Usagi’s daughter from the future wants to keep Hotaru safe and doesn’t understand
why she has to die to save everyone.
Pluto finds herself torn between one of her more important friendships
and her duty to her fellow Outer Senshi.
Personally, Setsuna was more than happy to share intel with Usagi and
the others compared to Haruku and Michiru so I don’t understand her mindset
completely.
But yeah, when Chibiusa finally
called out Setsuna on this double standard, it hurt to watch.
I love both of these characters but this was
an eye opening venting Setsuna needed to hear in order to remind her sometimes
standing by comrades isn’t as important as those closest to her heart and later
she’d risk her life to protect Chibiusa from the Witches 5, regardless of
whether or not Chibiusa was still mad at her.
#4-Eudial-The Opposite of Uranus and Neptune (aka fun
and effective)
The Villains of Sailor Moon S were a mixed bag.
While Professor Tomoe’s dark humor was a nice
change of pace from the super serious likes of Queen Beryl and Prince Demande, his
Lieutenants, the Witches 5, never reached the heights of the amazing Spectre
Sisters from Sailor Moon R.
However, one
stood out in all of the best possible ways.
Eudial was the first of the Witches 5 introduced and she set quite a
high bar.
Not only did she properly research
her targets, she was also plenty extra in everything she did, such as racing in
a drift car Initial D style to her location of choice, popping up out of
nowhere like she had a series of Batman esque underground tunnels for her
ride.
Best yet, Eudial would totally
pull a Uranus and Neptune and leave her Monsters to do whatever if a Pure Heart
Crystal wasn’t involved, likely going to get pampered or shopping.
Eudial was pure fun as a baddie and none of
her fellow Witches 5 ever lived up to her villainous antics.
#3-Minako-Maniac with a Pure Heart
Poor Minako.
Out of
the five core Senshi, she’s the only one who I feel hasn’t gotten a proper
character arc.
Usagi, Rei, Ami, Makoto,
they’ve all got arcs of their own but Minako…is kind of just there and in the
prelude to one of the biggest episodes of Season Three, this got highlighted in
a hilariously twisted way.
With all of
the girls being targeted for their Pure Heart Crystals except for her, Minako believes
she doesn’t have a pure heart.
So she
goes out of her way to do good deeds to get herself purposefully targeted just
to prove her fears wrong.
It’s crazy enough
to begin with but nothing tops Minako’s crystal floating in her hands…and then
she starts laughing almost maniacally and running off in pure joy.
Mind you, normally when someone is relieved
of their Pure Heart Crystal, even for a few seconds, they look like theyre at
deaths door.
Not Minako (not right away
really).
She’s as happy as can be…and
its weird to say this is probably my favorite moment for her in the entire
three seasons I’ve watched so far.
#2-Sailor Saturn Finally Arrives
After half a season of build up and tons of smack talk
from the Outer Senshi about how dangerous and terrifying she is, Sailor Saturn emerges
in the final battle against Pharoh 90 and…is actually pretty chill.
I’m not sure if it was because Usagi managed
to get through to her or Uranus and Neptune were blowing her monstrous image
wayyyy out or proportion.
But for a Senshi
who’s the closest to a weapon of mass intergalactic destruction (borderline
that of a Halo ring), Saturn speaks with the calm and soothing nature of one of
the most caring people you’ll ever meet.
While her appearance is criminally brief and her big battle with Pharoh
90, eventually joined by Usagi, isn’t show because that would be too awesome,
Saturn’s first appearance is a great moment for the Season, showing that Usagi’s
hard work to save Hotaru and the World without sacrificing either really paid
off.
Also, any chance to see Uranus and
Neptune proven wrong about anything is a bonus.
#1-STFU and Bow Down to your Queen
For an entire season, I watched Sailor Uranus and Neptune
belittle and chastise Usagi and the rest of the Senshi for being too naieve and
not possessing the will and drive to save the world.
For an entire season I watched them leave the
Senshi to fend for themselves because small matters weren’t their concern.
By the end of the season I was freaking sick
of it and then they had to take it a step further and criticize Usagi’s
decision to save Hotaru in the final battle with Pharoh 90.
Honestly, Usagi didn’t have anything to prove
to these two sore losers who were just pissed they didn’t get to have their
cake and eat it too.
Still, she accepted
a 2v1 challenge and while Usagi had a couple of trip ups, she still came out on
top at the end.
At one point Usagi even
told them mid fight calmly to stay down…how is that not the F*** Yeah moment I’ve
waited for all season long.
Uranus and
Neptune may be the Senshi’s seniors but by fights end, even Usagi made them bow
to their true Queen…God I hope they actually get some character development in
Sailor Stars.
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