First Impressions / Sailor Moon Crystal

「再会 -Endymion-」 (Saikai -Endymion-)
“Reunion -Endymion-“

A late post for Sailor Moon Crystal this week… but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t short of great developments either. I still think the series is focused too much on Usagi and her slight obsession with Mamoru, however there are still other events happening that make up for it. For one, I really like seeing a different side to Mamoru – frankly, it’s no secret that I love myself some bad boys. I can empathize with Usagi when she becomes pulled in by the brainwashed Mamoru because he’s just so different, yet he reminds you so much of who you love. You become so tunnel-visioned by how he looks that you give yourself excuses for his behaviors and creepy smiles. In many ways, I can understand why Usagi is so blindsided by his actions and even more so when Queen Beryl reveals that he is the one and only, Tuxedo Mask. He’s not an imposter or another henchman, but he’s the very same person that Usagi fell in love with. The past few episodes have pretty much reiterated Usagi’s love for Mamoru so often that I’ve started to get annoyed; but this episode puts her love to the test and yes – it’s cliché, but her reaction is reasonable. She doesn’t bawl like a crybaby anymore, and she’s becoming stronger every week. For these reasons, I still find myself more pleased than disappointed by Usagi’s recent development.

With all the revelations lately, I appreciate a slower episode to digest all that’s gone on. For one, the girls investigate a little further about the Excalibur-like sword that they picked up on the moon. What is it made out of? What is it capable of? And who wields it? Perhaps Tuxedo Mask… because I don’t see Venus taking it for herself. I also like how the side characters are still being used (while some new ones are introduced) since it gets kind of bland watching the same five cats and cat. Motoki played a much larger role in the original Sailor Moon series and since I like him, it doesn’t hurt to see him get more screen time. Nishimura Reika (Nakahara Mai) is also a new one, but she looks so familiar! I can’t place my thumb on who she was in the original series… maybe someone can help me out there. All these small additions make the series feel better-rounded and although they’re subtle expansions to the cast, it’s still better than the world revolving around the MCs and antagonist. I mean – they’re trying to save the world, it wouldn’t hurt to showcase some of those impacted by these battles.

In 2 weeks, we’ll finally get to see the finale for this first half of the series. ANN announced a while ago that there was a second season confirmed for Sailor Moon Crystal but I never even knew it was in question since… the series was confirmed to be 26 episodes when it first premiered. For people that were wondering why the show “missed a week”, it’s because Sailor Moon Crystal only airs on the first and third week of every month – therefore since November had 5 weeks, the fifth week aired nothing. Let it be noted that the animation for the transformations also got a lot better since the initial episodes! Yay! I’m very thankful that they’re finally putting more effort into making the show more pleasing to eye. Hopefully that means the Blu-Ray releases will be higher quality.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: #SailorMoonCrystal’s finale in 2 weeks?! Looking forward to it before the Christmas break =) The series is getting better each ep.

Full-length images: 16, 35.

 

Preview

17 Comments

  1. In the original series, Reika or “Rita” in the dub, was Motoki’s/”Andrew’s” girlfriend who left to study abroad in Africa, and was the reincarnation of one of the Seven Great Youma/”Seven Shadow Warriors” with the blue rainbow crystal. In the Super S arc, after she finished her studies in Africa, she ends up getting a scholarship to study in England for ten years and that episode was around Motoki coming to grips with it (Reika also being the victim-of-the-episode for her Dream Mirror).

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

  2. This anime is just… stabbing my heart one episode at a time. Every character is beautiful with utterly no personality. Meanwhile Usagi is just… I don’t know. I don’t know what to think anymore.

    Petit Orenji
    Reply

  3. To be precise, the finale of the Dark Kingdom arc will be covered by both ep. 12 and 13, and partly by ep. 14, which will also be the start of the Black Moon arc (aka the second season – hope we get to see a new OP and ED). To me, the biggest mystery that still remains, is how they’re going to incorporate the Four Kings into the story, as in the manga they’d all been killed off by now.

    kaguraa
    Reply

      1. Yeah, that’s what I think too, though I’m mostly concerned about how they’re even going to be crammed into the upcoming episodes when there’ll be so much important stuff already going on. I expect there’s going to be some kind of big showdown between them and the senshi, but I can’t really see where exactly it could fit into the story. But we’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t have high hopes in this regard and I even expect it to be underwhelming, to be honest. If I’m proven wrong, well, then all the better, I guess?

        kaguraa
        Reply

  6. Mamoru hurt a cat. Mind control or not, it will never be forgiven.
    Actually his whole behavior was so *obviously eeevil* that I found it hard to take him seriously. The creepy smiles, the over-the-top laughter… Ugh.

    The rest of the cast is finally getting some bits of personality (Makoto, Minako – the latter was somehow weird though). Rei apparently gets one “I sense evil” or one anatomically impossible attack per episode. Ami must be filthy rich to destroy diamond rings like that.

    I hope this is the last time we see full transformations for the (almost) whole group without a very good reason.

    Reite
    Reply

    1. The very good reason is the typical reason when you want to stretch out an episode (because of their STUPID 1 chapter per episode routine ¬¬). Just for wasting time.

      Oh, this series were going to be the best, and they use Extension as one of the worst fillers ever. As if we don’t have enough of this with Dragon Ball or more recently One Piece.

      For God’s sake, if you make a remake, DO IT RIGHT!!! >_<

      Nico
      Reply

      1. I think the actual reason for showing the full transformation sequences is that it’s basically the last time we will be seeing them as they are now. In the next arc all the girls will get new transformation items and most probably new, or at least changed, transformation sequences. So I guess it had less to do with wanting to stretch the episode, and more with wanting to show us the transformations in their full glory for one last time (I’m guessing they’ll probably want to show Jupiter’s in the next episode too).

        kaguraa
        Reply

  10. I respect Naoko TakeUchi for not caving into what the “fans” want instead doing what SHE wants with HER story. Too many modern anime now give into peer pressure from “fans” instead of sticking by what they originally envisioned. So what if the inner scouts get boyfriends? Why should that one plot point matter in the grand scheme of the story? Love and friendship can go hand in hand. This is why I prefer the 90’s magical girl genre it did it’s own thing it wasn’t trying to cash on in on what’s “in” at the moment.

    kasina
    Reply

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