In making the ultimate sacrifice to save Usagi, Mamoru
falls under the sway of the Dark Kingdom.
With their final battle close at hand, Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto and
Minako travel to the Moon, where the remains of the Moon Kingdom stand. But the truth about their past isnt the only
thing waiting for them. The Sailor
Senshi find themselves facing off one more time with Queen Beryl and her Four
Kings. What’s worse, Mamoru has also
become one of their most powerful warriors.
Can Usagi keep history from repeating herself and save the world, her
friends and her love?
There were a number of times watching this final act in
the First Season of Sailor Moon Crystal where I couldn’t help but groan and
proclaim, “OH FOR F***s SAKE!!!”
Things
have not been good for this reboot for several episodes and believe it or not,
it hasn’t gotten any better.
Any praise
I had for certain things earlier on were so far from my mind here.
Instead of an epic final battle to rival the
ending of the original series First Season, we get a depressing and infuriating
finale on par with that of the end of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.
And when much of my criticism rests with the
star of the show herself, you know something is very, very wrong but cause it’s
not impossible but it is very difficult for me to give Usagi a hard time.
But here we are.
Let’s start with Minako.
Remember when I was kind of impressed with her more serious
introduction, that it seemed the show might do her right with some much needed
early direction and a more clearly defined role as veteran Senshi?
Yeah, you can toss that praise in the
trash.
Minako is now less the girl with
the most experience as a Senshi and now the Queen of Exposition.
So much of her dialogue sounds like someones
reading off a Wiki page, especially her recap of the tragic romance between
Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion and the Fall of the Moon Kingdom.
This could have easily been given to Queen
Serenity when the girls met her on the Moon as she goes into her own separate
account of the same events.
But no,
Minako has to have her exposition dump moment because otherwise she’d be in the
same state she was in the original series: just kind of there.
You know what though?
I miss that Minako, the fun loving, ditzy,
boy crazy ball of energy even if she didn’t have a true character arc until the
last season of the original Anime.
Honestly, that wasn’t the last time I was yearning for the good old days
of sitting through a 200 episode series instead of this botched rush job.
Next up is the Four Kings.
Last time I hinted that the show was teeing
them up for a big reveal that I knew I was going to hate: well tee off time was
here.
Turns out, Jadite, Nephrite,
Zoicite and Kunzite used to be Endymion’s equivalent of the Sailor Senshi on
Earth AND they also just happened to be the love interests of the Senshi.
Why is this a thing?
It’s even more mind boggling because none of
the girls remember these guys from their past life.
Only Minako does, because again Exposition
Queen.
Her attempts to get through to
Kunzite made me roll my eyes.
Maybe if
we’d seen them encounter each other in a flashback during Minako’s Sailor V
days, maybe I could buy them as a pairing.
But then why pair up Rei, Ami and Mako with the other three?
To not have them feel so left out?
If this is why the Four Kings were all being
kept alive instead of being offed one after the other by Beryl or the Senshi
then wow what a waste of time this little forced revelation was (they don’t
even survive the final battle and I doubt the girls or the show will be losing
much sleep over them…also, seeing Rei, Ami and Mako weep over the guys they
barely knew once theyd been killed off is one of my least favorite moments of
the Season Finale).
And now, for easily the worst part of this trainwreck of
a Season Finale: Usagi and Mamoru.
I
already talked about how quickly the two were pushed together without much
resistance or pause for concern.
Crystal
has, up until now, treated Sailor Moon’s flagship romance as a true fairy tale
affair, just without the magic it thinks it has.
Well the finale flips the fairy tale on its
head and changes things up to a more…tragic state of affairs.
In fact, the show goes full on Romeo and
Juliet with Usagi and Mamoru not once but twice (once in a flashback to the
Moon Kingdom and the second in the present when Usagi kills herself rather than
live in a world without Mamoru).
That
latter part almost made me scream in fury.
Usagi Tsukino is romantic through and through.
But even after she lost her friends (several
times) and even Mamoru, she never gave up hope and just laid down and died in
the original series.
The end of the 90s
Anime First Season basically completed Usagi’s evolution from constant crybaby
to perfectly capable Superheroine and Champion.
Here, Crystal does the unthinkable and turns one of Anime’s most beloved
and iconic Magical Girls into a shell of what she normally is.
This is an Usagi who gives up multiple times
rather than hold onto hope that somehow, everything will work out.
Even if she somehow pulled out the win in the
end, I cant say that was my Usagi Tsukino I was watching on screen.
My Usagi is way better than this.
I’m not done with Mamoru btw.
The boring block of wood with no character or
urgency was turned into a psychotic maniac by Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia and
set upon the Senshi.
Everytime there was
a close up on his “evil” grin, Mamoru was begging to be punched.
It’s hard to believe that while he was a
villain for a much shorter time compared to the original Anime, Mamoru was even
more despicable.
And you can argue all
you want about the brainwashing.
If he
was that deeply in love with Usagi, we’d see some signs that he was fighting it
his own way rather than us just watching him brutally attack her and her
friends.
Instead he just looks excited
to inflict pain on her or anyone…Jesus this guy is messed up.
Mamoru was already a douchebag to begin with
before but THIS is the guy Usagi would rather die over than live without?
God Crystal somehow made this “romance” even
worse than before.
Probably the only praise I’m willing to give these six
episodes are a couple of scenes.
The
first is when the girls visit Usagi and her hair has grown to Rapunzel level
lengths because of her exposure to the Silver Crystal.
Seeing Ami, Rei, Mako and Minako all tend to
her, cutting and brushing Usagi’s signature doo back to it’s normal form is a
moment this season needed more of: the girls just hanging out like this, not
just pilled around an arcade machine or Luna’s secret command center discussing
danger and missions.
The second is
seeing Usagi take down Queen Beryl with a sword she received from the
Moon.
Beryl didn’t really amount to much
in the end, just like everyone else in this series so far.
Still, it was somehow cool to see Sailor Moon
use a sword to fell an opponent, it’s honestly probably the most bad ass thing
she does in the entire finale really.
Sailor Moon Crystal’s First Season ends on a pretty bad
note.
Whereas Season One of the 90s
Anime ended triumphantly with heartbreaking sacrifices and an exceptional
showcase of Usagi’s indomitable spirit, Crystal reduces Usagi to a blubbering
mess who cant do anything without Mamoru (or against him when he’s attacking
her and her friends).
It was so hard
watching the Sailor Senshi being treated so poorly I couldn’t believe I was
hating watching Sailor Moon again for the first time since Sailor Moon SuperS.
To make matters worse, Chibiusa does appear
briefly to segue us into the next arc…and given how poorly Crystal’s handled
everyone else so far I feel like even one of my favorite characters from the
original series isnt going to be safe from some good old character
assassination.
One arc down, two more to
go.
But hey, at least they’re skipping
the Doom Tree right?
Let’s see if Sailor
Moon Crystal can redeem itself from this debacle when we return to it on Friday
right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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