Sailor Moon- Series Overview

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Davies
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Davies »

Jabroniville wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2019 10:14 am Did Rei apologize for saying those hurtful things?).
... does that sound even remotely plausible when you ask it?
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Davies wrote: Wed Aug 28, 2019 12:36 am
Jabroniville wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2019 10:14 am Did Rei apologize for saying those hurtful things?).
... does that sound even remotely plausible when you ask it?
To anyone OTHER than Usagi, I can imagine her suddenly becoming apologetic at the end :). She did at least feel bad the kid overheard, lol.
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #153: We take a break from "New Powers!" episodes to get a Palla-Palla episode! Here, the Quartet are again scolded for not getting their work done, but even ZIRCON can't bring up any potential targets! Palla-Palla, childish as usual, is playing dolls and getting mocked for it... until she cures a girl doll's toothache by ripping off her head, disturbing everyone ("She may actually be dangerous..."). Zirconia, finding her easily moved, convinces her to try to find targets, so she recreates her Dentist Playset by growing via her "Evanescence Orb", and animating the dolls to be dental workers. Then she throws out some magic sugar to give kids everywhere cavities. And of course Usagi gets some too, because she eats just as much sweet stuff as anybody and also skips brushing to "keep the flavor".

Both Usagi AND Mamoru blush at the hottie dentists, which is a bit dumb- they're sacrificing character arcs (Mamo isn't even attracted to a gender-bent Fish's Eye for God's sake! And FE got EVERYBODY!) for the sake of one-off jokes, and then Mamoru's uncharacteristically planning his apology. However, he realizes something's up when the hundreds who went into the office never come out, and actually uses his POWERS on the dentists, blasting them with a storm of rose petals! However, Palla-Palla one-shots him with the giant ball she balances on, and goes "Palla-Palla doesn't like you. So die!" with an innocent smile on her face. Her Lemures attacks the invading Sailors, promising to drill down their teeth with her weird tail/drill, and their sheer terror lets out... the SONIC CRY ATTACK!!! Holy shit, I haven't seen that in eons! And so the entire building crumbles before the area-attack onslaught, and the Lemures is easily killed. This cures all the children of their cavities... except Usagi, because she authentically eats like shit and is lazy about brushing.

Very goofy episode- though their dental anxiety being played for a gag is good, I'm not generally a fan of the "Non-stop wacky" stuff, especially as this is the most juvenile of the seasons of the show.

(Monster Powers: Throwing Drills- Multiattack, Drill Tail)

(First Appearance: Evanescence Orb)
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MarvelLion
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by MarvelLion »

I could be misremembering, but wasn't the final joke of that episode that Usagi still had all of her cavities, that they had nothing to do with Palla-Palla's sugar and were caused by her bad diet and poor brushing habits?
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

MarvelLion wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 1:21 pm I could be misremembering, but wasn't the final joke of that episode that Usagi still had all of her cavities, that they had nothing to do with Palla-Palla's sugar and were caused by her bad diet and poor brushing habits?
haha, yes, that was a funny bit, too :). I should add that in.
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »


Episode #154:
And now it's FINALLY Venus and Jupiter's turns to get their new pow--- wait. You mean to tell me they have to SHARE A FOCUS EPISODE AGAIN?!?!? They've DONE THIS BEFORE! Like... they're getting brand-new powers and we're meant to see further aspects of their characters, and they have to SHARE? Keep in mind how much filler this show's already had- they couldn't have sacrificed one of these other episodes to give more to Makoto or Minako? JESUS, PRODUCERS!!

ANYWAYS... So Chibi-Usa's old pre-school is holding a fundraising bazaar, and it turns out their old Principal is a hottie, so the girls are all "YES, LET'S HELP!". Especially an excited Minako and a blushing, starry-eyed Mako- Artemis's "Good grief..." reaction is perfect. Mako shows a lot of chemistry with him at first, causing Minako to delve right into absurdity, going all "you like kids? Well I was thinking of having three, but if a husband like you wanted to make a baseball team..." (!!), boasting about how much she loves kids, which is the perfect time for the old trope, Mina Hates Little Boys, to rear its ugly head, as she freaks out on a little snot for drawing on her.

However, Minako ruins the nice teddy bear Mako was making in a fit of rage, chasing after that kid again, and a furious Mako declares "We're through!", shocking everyone present. Minako blows it off and decides she'll win the principal's attention through SINGING (poor Artemis...), and Cere-Cere makes her presence felt via a literal red carpet. This all leads to Minako's "concert" getting put down by the kids, sending her off crying- Artemis convinces Mako to be the one to talk her down, to which she kind of just sighs and goes along with it, to his joy. But that turns into a different kind of squabble, with Minako confessing that her Idol dreams are too far away, while Mako's simple dreams of domestic bliss and being a florist are "easy" and within reach- Mako ends up being pissed at the concept that she doesn't have to work as hard, given all she put into those dreams, and it turns into another fight... and of course Artemis is the one being yelled at when he tries to intervene.

Cere-Cere gets literally about two or three lines of dialogue before attacking, and her Lemures, a slot machine tulip monster (yes) throws the Sailors into a giant venus fly trap. Mako & Minako are trapped by vines, but Artemis tosses them their transformation wands, and the power of their upcoming new abilities burns the vines off, allowing them to finally debut new powers- the Venus Love & Beauty Shock (a spinning heart) knocks around the entire Amazoness Quartet (who assembled to yell at Cere-Cera for using sleep powder on them earlier), while the Jupiter Oak Evolution (multiple petal/energy blasts while spinning like a ballerina) blows away the fly trap. We end things with Minako sweetly stitching together the ruined bear and trying to blow it off as nothing, which kind of makes amends (it helps that their bonds are strong enough that a fight like that isn't really a permanent thing), and the bratty kid buys it... and it turns out that the principal is his father (a smug Chibi-Usa just goes "I never recall saying he was single"), drawing the expected reaction from the two heroines of the day.

I liked the nature of the fight in this one- the debate over achievable dreams was actually a good one, and Mako had good reason to be pissed at Minako dismissing her dreams as easier because they were simpler ("I had to work HARD to get this good!"). And I liked how the severity of their fight really didn't mean much, and Mako was quick to agree to go and help Minako when she ran off crying. The General, Lemures and new powers all had to share the spotlight, though, meaning all of them meant little.

(Monster Powers: Balls for tripping)

(First Appearance: Jupiter Oak Evolution, Venus Love & Beauty Shock)
Jabroniville
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #155: Now Chibi-Usa's class is having a "Sports Day" (totally a thing in Japan- sort of like a meet for all the students to engage in sporting events), and she can't vault, so the group decides to teach her how. Jun-Jun targets Kyusuke, that green-haired friend of Chibi-Usa's... who is terrified of the vault ever since a failure in school. She teaches him at the same time, actually doing a solid job of it, despite shaming his cowardice- she creates the illusion of a BEAR to get him to finally leap over it, and when she sees his happiness, she sorta congratulates him... and then transforms and tries to kill him anyways. We get ALL the Sailors transforming at once, implying this episode ran short (it's like when The Simpsons shows the full "Circus Opening"), and with a "SAILORRRRR... SOLDIERRRRRRRRRR!" song that I don't recall hearing before. Was this the debut of it, or am I just now noticing?

The Lemures is so fast it avoids all their attacks easily (Mars Flame Sniper actually gets blown back into Rei!), but Chibi-Moon... vaults over him, thus knocking him down and letting Sailor Moon finish him off. Sure glad Sailor Venus & Jupiter had to share a focus episode for this one.

(Monster Powers: Extremely fast flight via tail, flyby attacks)
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #156: The target's now a street artist who does paintings of people, though often finds himself going unpaid because he's a bit TOO accurate with his likenesses, and people get offended. He offers to paint Usagi for free, since she defended him to a cruel client, but he passed out in mid-drawing due to hunger! The sympathetic bun-heads bring him to their house and cook (well, burn) him a meal, to which he's eternally grateful, but then he's taken by CereCere's sob story about wanting her portrait done. The best part is the Sailors deciding to get THEIR portraits done, and Rei of course being furious that he's not there, and ultra-conceited about how drawing a beautiful woman like her would be a gift.

The artist is lured away by CereCere, who of COURSE dislikes her portrait- he insists "I won't paint lies", but she breaks him with her argument that all artists need wealthy patrons and should do as they're told- he paints the extra-pretty picture she wants, but feels sick about it, and is immediately attacked. But both she and the Lemures find his Dream Mirror ugly, and fight over the Lemures eating it... so the Sailors just summon Pegasus and nuke the monster of the week right away. See- they fill so much space with the story sometimes that there's no reason for the monster to be a thing. Rei finally gets her portrait done... and of course starts whining and wanting him to "do it right!". Not a bad episode, more about artistic integrity than the usual goofiness, and so jampacked that the Monster Fight portion was ignored entirely, but I'm still not feeling the Amazoness Quartet.

(Monster Powers: NOPE)
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #157: YAY MORE CHIBI-USA AND HER FRIENDS! Or dreamer is now a weird inventor who wants to build his own flying bicycle. Kyusuke at first makes fun of him, but as the kid struggles and the Moonie Gang gets involved, he offers to help. The kid at first wants to go it alone out of pride and self-reliance ("it's MY dream! Leave me alone!"), Kyusuke chides him by pointing out the Wright Brothers worked together on their airplanes and couldn't do it by themselves, and this gets the kid to accept help. Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa is concerned with the notion of friendship and telling each other everything, as Pegasus hasn't explained much of his nature to her yet. And when she rebuffs his "I'm sorry, I can't tell you" stuff, he disappears on her. Unable to comprehend why, especially as Usagi & Mamoru share everything, she slowly realizes things when she goes off on Usagi, all "I don't have to tell you everythi-- oh.".

Before the kid can even take flight, VesVes attacks with a Lemures with an elephant for a chest. Sailors Mars & Mercury actually combine their Final Attacks into an arrow swirling with blue energy, but they can't capitalize because Chibi-Moon doesn't feel she deserves to summon Pegasus! Sailor Moon saves her from the monster and tells her to have more faith in herself, echoing Pegasus's plea to "have faith in me", and sure enough, he's re-summoned. Kyusuke and the kid who's name I never bothered to learn (I mean, come on, it's like three minutes on this kid and then it's a "Chibi-Usa Episode") finally catch the air, and everyone is amazed and revels in the moment, ignorant of any child endangerment laws.

Not the worst episode- the dreamer's plight is only barely linked to the core plot, which is Chibi-Usa being upset over Pegasus still having secrets, when she has kept nothing from him. Ultimately, she has to have faith in him.

(Monster Powers: Winged Flight, Tusks)
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #158: haha, Chibi-Usa has a DOLL of Mamoru- that's adorbz. Anyways, here she's full of ennui over her age, watching a world of older people (like Usagi & Mamoru) kissing each other. Meanwhile, PallaPalla does a puppet show for a bunch of kids, and it's a fantasy tale featuring the deaths of all the cast members- "And so everyone died happily ever after!", and knocks out all their Dream Mirrors at once when they heckle how her story lacked foreshadowing and had an ending that came out of nowhere. That lures in the Sailors Moon, which get into an argument about selfish dreams so badly that PallaPalla punishes them with "Opposite Orb", thus SWITCHING THEIR AGES. Sailor Moon is enraged, while Chibi-Usa just stares at her new gigantic boobs and shapely butt (... oh Japan- never stop being weird). How is this episode not more of a meme with the fandom? Because it came out so late?

In any case, they're shocked when the "Twinkle Yell" can NO LONGER SUMMON PEGASUS, but the other Sailors arrive to chase away Palla-Palla. Everyone plotzes when they realize what happened, and Mamoru's face when he sees Busty Daughter and Toddler Girlfriend is pretty hilarious, but things turn serious again when Chibi-Usa finds that she can't even TALK to Pegasus, and begins crying. After some more "Hey look at her giant boobs!" gags, she enters an unsettling dreamworld where she sees horses crumble to dust, and Pegasus admits that he can't see her because he's a weird pedocorn who's only attracted to little gir-- I mean, he "the light of your dreams was no longer reaching me".

He tells her that he's from a world called Elysion, in the Dream World, and offers to take her there. She happily agrees and gets flown in... but is horrified to see a bleak wasteland- Elysion has been devastated by the arrival of beings from the "Dead Moon" (I think that's the first time they used the name on-screen). Elysion was given power by the beautiful dreams from Earth, but the Dead Moon destroyed it in their searching for the Golden Crystal. Pegasus, a boy with a horn on his forehead, was captured by Queen Nehelennia, but the "last light for me to cling to", the beautiful dream of Chibi-Usa, allowed him to transform himself into a winged pegasus, and he broke free, escaping into her dream. When he implores her to find her light again, as the Dead Moon has "cast a shadow" over her true dream by granting her simple wish to be an adult, and so she leaps forward while the show's ending theme plays, transforming back into a child, and getting a kiss from the boy-form of Pegasus. The boy calls himself "Helios", and says his mission is to oversee Earth and guard its dreams.

Finally reverted to their true forms, both Sailors arrive with their buddies to stop another PallaPalla attack. And of course, because all six of them are present, they're hard to beat- the Lemures's multi-candy blast multiplies against all their blasts, but Mercury's Aqua Rhapsody this time freezes them (last time IT was a blast, too!). Kinda funny how most of their powers have already been shown as ineffective in their second appearances, though.

Some phenomenal music in this one- both the "Dream World" music and the "Elysion in devastation" music were terrific, and the animation was similarly great. Getting some backstory, as much as it was predictable, was nice, as was the notion of Pegasus actually looking like a boy around Chibi-Usa's age so that it's not so... weird.

(First Appearance: Helios)

(Monster Powers: Multiattack Candy Blast)
Jabroniville
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #159: Most of the first half is spent with Chibi-Usa & Pegasus running off in their "Dream World" and being in love and stuff, while Queen Nehalennia lectures Zirconia one more time about losing her patience... and we see that Helios's body is, in fact, still in the possession of the Queen- only his ESSENCE has disappeared. The Sailor Gang figuring out that Chibi-Usa has a boyfriend is pretty funny, with Jupiter assuming he's an older man (projecting), Venus being conniving and mischievous about it, and Ami being kind of nervous at everyone's reactions.

Rei & Mako blushing with intensity as they try to give Chibi-Usa love advice is amazing, especially as they keep bickering because Mako won't stop suggesting it's an older boy. And then when Chibi-Usa suggests she's not after a "person", Minako takes this to mean she's two-timing, but her description of a long face has Ami thinking she's talking about a "horseface" and won't finish it ("I can't say it. It's too vulgar"- the dub changes it to "jackass", too). So now it's MAMORU's turn to get it out of her, but the girls follow them to a fancy restaurant, then start shoving the expensive scenery around to find a good hiding spot to do some listening. And then when they mistake some rand-o for Chibi-Usa's love, he's attacked by JunJun, and they girls cut their Sailor-Promos about how she's interfering with Chibi-Usa's "first love"! Then the ridiculous carp-costumed Lemures comes out, he smashes up the pier, and Tuxedo Mask provides the instant distraction for him to get wrecked. Chibi-Usa FINALLY snaps at everyone for being so dumb, then demands to keep the boy on her mind a secret.

Funny episode- super half-assed fight sequence, as is becoming usual.

(Monster Powers: Swimming, Crushing Strength)
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #160: And now it's the Amazoness Quartet's turn for some Character Development, as they scope out a "Coming Of Age Ceremony" where the Moonies are also helping out, and kind of find it fun and bond with the main cast, everyone kind of showing off some skills (the Quartet are proud of their athletic skill, but Ami's got the brains, Mako the strength, and Rei the... flower design?). But on the day of the show, they're mortified to learn of the dreams of the cast, who all want to become adults- Usagi to get married, Ami becoming a doctor, Mako running a cake shop, Minako an idol, and Rei a career woman. The Quartet are like "WTF? WORKING!?!" and blow off such dumb dreams, especially ones that involve helping others. Most of the girls are shocked, but naturally Rei's gotta go "why, YOU..." and roll up her fist.

In any case, the Quartet attacks everyone present in the auditorium, thinking that "adult dreams suck" because nobody has a golden mirror. Their Lemures overeats on mirrors and shorts out, so the Quartet are left fighting the Sailors- and they don't do particularly well, either! One-on-one, the Sailors kind of hand them their asses at first- a rarity for this show. But they surround Moon & Chibi-Moon, and are about to use their Orbs... but Tuxedo Mask arrives to disarm them, and Sailor Moon finishes off the Lemures (who literally just wakes up to get killed). Then the cast hilariously goes all "HEY WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE FOUR KIDS?" after four villainesses attack everyone at the very place those four kids were at... and Queen Nehalennia decides it's time to get her own hands dirty.

Not a bad episode- one that actually gives more characterization to the supporting cast, and even re-establishes the Quartet's whole "Always remember not to forget- a child's dream is a dream you should never get" (or "a dream of dreams" in the original subtitles).

(Monster Powers: Flight, Large Catfish Lower Body)
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Davies
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Davies »

At least they didn't say it was a dream within a dream.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
Jabroniville
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #161: And finally, with one disc left to go in Sailor Moon SuperS, we get the "Shit Is Starting To Get Real" sign. Queen Nehallenia decides to ENTER OUR UNIVERSE, but shrinks back from its light. She declares death to the land of the "White Moon", and soon spiderwebs begin appearing all over Tokyo, and the sky grows dark in the middle of day. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now the entire world is covered in spiderwebs, and Pegasus is like "K gotta go BYE", saying he needs to find the person who can use the Golden Crystal (?? that's a thing, now? The thing they've been talking about this whole time and JUST NOW it's mentioned that like, only one person can use it?). In any case, Chibi-Usa REFUSES to let him go, tearfully holding on and remind him of his promise to stay with her as long as she believes in him.

Meanwhile, the Amazoness Quartet are gathering Dream Mirrors, and finally reveal their identities to the Sailors. Hilariously, they have the EXACT SAME HAIR in their secret IDs, so it's a little bizarre than Sailor Moon wouldn't recognize the only person on Earth with CereCere's hair loops. But then, the show was always really weird for Villain Secret IDs. The Sailors then do their own transformations, shocking the Quartet, and now it's a FIGHT! Except the Quartet easily takes the lead, and Zirconia calls them back before things really get going. And then the Sailors are all "Well let's go kick their asses!" at the foot of the Dead Moon Circus... and Pegasus appears and says "No, don't fight them just yet". CLIFFHANGER THAT IS ALSO AN ANTICLIMAX!
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Re: Sailor Moon- Series Overview

Post by Jabroniville »

Episode #162: So Pegasus now explains himself- the Dead Moon can't be beaten by brute force, and they're monsters created from dreams discarded from people who've forgotten what it means to dream (... okay?). These discarded dreams will always allow the Dead Moon to exist. As Priest of Elysion, Helios kept them at bay using the power of beautiful dreams, but now their barrier has weakened thanks to Queen Nehalennia, and they need the Golden Crystal to re-seal her. But they still can't find the person who has the ability to unleash the power of the Crystal- Helios suspected Chibi-Moon was the one, but she apparently is not (this better not be another "She isn't/OH WAIT NO SHE IS" thing). And Tuxedo Mask is dying of chest pains, as the spiderwebs are eating away at the Earth, his Guardian Planet- I think that's the first time he's more or less been referred to as the guardian/senshi of Earth after all this time. The Sailors mournfully leave him at his apartment to go and face the villains, while he compliments his Usako's strength, and Sailor Mars has a nice bit where she acknowledges the couple need a moment.

The Dead Moon Circus characters all move about an oddly-empty Tokyo (are only the Sailors willing to go outside now?), and the Quartet arrives and challenges the Sailors. And then an odd scene, as for once in the series, the "Background Faces" in the crowd actually do stuff, as the lesser Sailors get to look cool wiping them out with their new attacks. The girls all realize now that they've seen Pegasus in their own dreams as small children, and Chibi-Moon confesses she's spoken to Pegasus many times, so now that cat's out of the bag. And then the Quartet gets upgraded power from Queen Nehalennia (they are MUCH kinder to her than "Granny Zirconia"), and one blast from JunJun's new exploding balls nearly kills Jupiter. The girls get trapped in a snare (duh), but Chibi-Moon summons Pegasus (alerting the Queen to her possibly being his carrier), and Sailor Moon fires Moon Gorgeous Meditation... but ZIRCONIA blocks it!

Zirconia taunts the Sailors, and points out the truth that Pegasus is just an illusion, and resides within the Golden Mirror... and blasts Zircon out like the "Orb Shot", blasting out Chibi-Moon's Dream Mirror... revealing its gold color! It looks rather plain to be honest- I was expecting a lot of shimmer and sparkle, ya know? In any case, Chibi-Moon puts her own Mirror back in (why does no one else do that?), but is trapped within a mirror by Zirconia, and it's TO BE CONTINUED!

Pretty big episode in this one, as the game changes completely, even though we've still got like four episodes left in the season.
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