The looming threat of the Death Busters seems like
nothing compared to the brewing storm between two teams of Sailor Senshi. Revealed as the Outer Senshi, Uranus and
Neptune declare they are not Usagi’s allies and don’t hesitate to attack her
and her friends. Meanwhile Chibiusa
forms a friendship with the kind but sickly Hotaru, whose Father might have a
close connection to the Death Busters.
Everything comes to a head when a showdown between two teams of Sailor
Senshi reveals the ultimate power of Sailor Moon…and Hotaru’s true destiny.
Its weird watching this penultimate chapter of Sailor
Moon Crystal and actually enjoying it more than ragging on it.
The first two seasons were so horrible in
their depictions of Usagi and the rest of the Senshi it was infuriating.
But Season Three’s strides to be better have
worked in its favor and there’s a noticeable difference in basically every
aspect of the show…well almost every aspect.
There are still drawbacks for cramming everything into a 13 episode run
and the show is trying to compensate, albeit not with much success.
Still, this is the first time I think I’ve
started a Crystal review and my blood isnt boiling.
Let’s see why that is.
If anyone remembers my review of Sailor Moon S back in
May 2023, I was not big on how the Outer Senshi were presented, or more
specifically Sailor Uranus and Neptune.
I hated how rude and arrogant they were around the Inner Senshi and
couldn’t stand them badmouthing and belitting Usagi, especially during the
Season Finale when they chastised Usagi just because she wouldn’t go through
with their plan to kill Sailor Saturn and she STILL saved the world.
One of my biggest wishes for Crystal was to
see this portrayed differently and better and low and behold, my wish has been
heard.
The duo still want the Senshi to
stay out of their way because they know they cant agree on how to handle
Hotaru.
However, they aren’t being total
jerks about it.
Haruka and Michiru
actually do realize that despite their different approaches to the Death
Busters, they do want to be allies with Usagi and the girls.
Probably my favorite moment from this set was
when Usagi transformed into her Queen Serenity mode and instead of being gawked
at and dismissed by Uranus and Neptune, the Outer Senshi bowed in respect to
their Queen and came clean about everything rather than holding out because
“We’re the best, you’re not our Queen and we don’t have to answer to you”.
THIS is what I’ve been looking for in Sailor
Moon Crystal all along: taking when didn’t work about the 90s series and making
it better, plus improving on what did work in the first place.
The entire Outer Senshi roster ended up making an
appearance in this set, and all together in a flashback.
Sailor Pluto made her triumphant return as
Setsuna Meioh, a sexy college student studying Particle Physics.
I loved her reunion with Chibiusa, finally
being able to hug her and see her in her Junior Senshi form as Chibimoon.
It’s a nice payoff after Chibiusa had
attained this form and tearfully couldn’t share it with her friend after Pluto
died.
Much of Pluto’s solo chats with
the Senshi in the original series are gone as she quickly links up with her
fellow Outer Senshis.
And yes, no
silhouettes or shadows, Sailor Saturn did appear in a flashback to show off her
awesome destructive power as she wiped out not just Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
but also Silver Millenium all at once, yikes.
I like that Hotaru’s darker side has been more present in her
appearances.
The poor girls fighting a
three way battle for her own soul between herself, Sailor Saturn and the latest
bad girl incarnation, Mistress 9.
When
Mistress 9 does peak out before her full appearance at the end of the set, I
got chills, Hotaru looked deranged and dangerous.
Obviously we’re still gonna see Saturn before
the series is done, but since Mistress 9 is the last major baddie of the season
who can make any kind of an impact, I hope she gets a memorable run.
The full arrival of the Outer Senshi laid out the mission
and direction for the rest of Crystal: find Hotaru Tomoe and kill her while
also stopping the Death Busters.
Naturally, this causing division between two teams of Sailor Senshi
hasn’t changed.
Like I said though,
theyre not making the Outers choose this lightly and they know the girls are
going to hate them for it.
So I guess it
makes sense that when the two teams end up in a Team Deathmatch courtesy of
some brainwashing on behalf of the last of the Witches 5, it’s not because the
Outers are acting stupid.
What action we
did get was pretty decent and it did highlight just how much faster and more
impressive the action has been overall in Season Three.
We’ve been getting a lot of combo attacks
from Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus, showing off a lot more teamwork than the
normal one at a time approach.
But the
best bit was seeing Ami leap out of a skyscraper, call out her transformation,
land in a pool and burst out ready to kick some serious ass, damn Ami has never
looked this bad ass and I love it.
(ok
that’s partly a lie, Ami’s always been awesome but the new animation really
lets her feel as unleashed as the others).
However, there are still things I need to pick apart
because this is Sailor Moon Crystal.
My
biggest gripe is Professor Tomoe.
Gone
is the psychotic, grinning genius with white shinning glasses working on
various side projects while cackling about his plans and instead he’s just a
regular, generic dark figure without any personality.
It’s why I hope Mistress 9 can make an
impression because NONE of the villains in Sailor Moon Crystal have been as
memorable as their 90s counterparts (sometimes even less so in the case of the
Witches 5 who aren’t Eudiel and Mimmete).
There’s little to no depth and little more for villains like Kaolinite
to just sit around and talk about their plans and how they haven’t been coming
to fruition (though I still enjoy watching Kaolinite just sit around cause God
she’s gorgeous).
My other major gripe
has to do with Uranus.
Again, she’s
better here than in Sailor Moon S but I still see a lot of Seiya Kou’s
character arc in her appearances.
Now
that she and Usagi know who each other are, Uranus apologizes for being forward
and flirty with her and…that’s it?
Was
this kind of needless character change necessary if it wasn’t going to go
anywhere?
They may call back to it for
some reason in the Series Finale but yeah, why doesn’t Uranus stick with
Michiru and leave the best romance in the series to Seiya when they arrive in
Sailor Moon Cosmos.
Wow, there was more praise in this review than any I’ve
done for Crystal yet.
Guess later is
better than never but we still need to see if the show can finish strong…and
even if it does, it’s still weighed down by the badness of Season One and Two
but depending on how things go, I might try to be more fair with the final
score.
The stage is teed up for a finale
that I’m actually invested in.
We’ll see
how Sailor Moon Crystal wraps everything up Next Monday right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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