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「敵 -Queen Metaria-」 (Teki -Queen Metaria-)
“Enemy -Queen Metaria-“
This episode did not turn out the way I thought it would – it was better. I thought the episode was going to feature the finale between Queen Beryl and the Sailor Scouts, but it turns out that it’s the battle between Queen Metalia and Sailor Moon that really matters. I shouldn’t have assumed that everything was going to be tied out neatly in one episode. Instead, Queen Beryl turns out to be a much deeper character than just a plain villain being controlled by Queen Metalia. I never imagined that she could’ve been a human in love with Endymion; this wasn’t covered in the original anime. Although it’s a brief flashback, I think it explains why she’s so attached to Mamoru and all her creepy caresses. It doesn’t justify anything because she dies almost immediately afterwards, but it does make me pity her even for an instant. Queen Beryl had her own agenda and it gives her a separate identity from Queen Metalia; which in this case, is a good thing so she’s not just blending in as a middle henchmen.
Speaking of henchmen, the Four Kings reappear again… if only for a brief few minutes. It was a little lacklustre to say the least because their short screen time did absolutely nothing for me. I hear from the comments that they’re not even supposed to live this long in the manga, so why did the anime keep them around to just kill them off again? If anything, it’s just to develop the Sailor Soldiers a bit more, but they’re really not necessary. That’s one side plot that was interesting, but nothing came out of it and it feels like wasted potential. The Four Kings and their relationship with the Sailor Soldiers were already explained a few episodes back and revisiting it, didn’t really explain any more than it already had.
Normally I hate anime that feature solutions due to “the power of love” or random deux ex machina endings just to tie things off. However I’ll make an exception for Sailor Moon Crystal because this is the very essence of the show. It bothers me that Usagi would go to such lengths for Mamoru even though the guy clearly doesn’t remember anything and wants to literally kill you! However, these are the key aspects of the show that I would’ve loved as a younger girl so I won’t get too hung up on that. I never expected that Usagi would sacrifice herself AND kill Mamoru off at the same time, but these are the scenes that I’ve been waiting to see. Something that will totally change my perception of the show and hopefully go against the cliché of shoujo magical girl anime. Killing yourself and your significant other – I think that would constitute as going outside the box. It reminds me more and more of Romeo and Juliet as the story goes, but that’s one tragic love story that I love seeing over and over again. I can’t wait to see how next week will play out the finale.
Author’s Note: Apologies for the late post! I have a million and one excuses but the main one is that I’ve been away on vacation visiting a fellow writer and simply just enjoying some “me” time. Normally I try and post even while on trips, however everyone needs a break, especially during the holiday season so forgive me! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and great Boxing Day regardless. Thanks for putting up with my tardiness and I’ll see you all next week for the finale of this first arc!
Preview
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The only complaint I have about the episode is how the generals went out. I was hoping there would be a lot more to them, like perhaps Mamoru would regain his memory, Metalia would try to kill him in a similar way, and then they would sacrifice themselves to protect him as was their oath.
Instead, they get their memories back and before anything else can happen, Metalia is pretty much all, “LOL NOPE!”, then *ZAP!* gone, just like that. Not even injured bodies left for the Senshi to start to weep over before moving on.
“I’m sick and tired of you being brainwashed”. It’s about high time she said that to Mamoru.
It’s true that the way the Four Kings went down was pretty anticlimatic, but then again, it was to be expected, if they were to stick to the one chapter per episode formula – there was simply no time to do anything more with them.
Other than that, they’ve changed a few details from the manga. It was supposed to be Venus who killed Queen Beryl, not Usagi; not to mention that in the manga Beryl dies after being pierced through by the sword, whereas in Crystal it’s enough to just destroy her necklace. The same thing happens with Mamoru – in the manga Usagi pushes the blade right into him, while here she slashes him across the chest. I’m really starting to wonder what’s the deal with the censorship nowadays, especially when the scenes of Serenity and Usagi’s suicides were left as they were in the manga. So it’s okay to show it when a person kills themselves, but impaling other people onto a sword is a no-go?
One last thing that I was personally looking forward to, but didn’t get – Venus’ manga-original attack, Rolling Heart Vibration’, was sadly cut out.
Generally, the episode has been criticized pretty badly, especially by the manga readers who didn’t like the changes, or by the anime-only viewers who were expecting Usagi to un-brainwash Mamoru with the power of love, so it’s kind of refreshing to see that you actually enjoyed it.
Wow… did not expect anyone to be able to find anyone who enjoyed this episode… o_O Good for you!
Negative opinion incoming! I’d like to ask those who defend SMC and see nothing wrong with it to not get offended. I don’t deny you your opinion- I’m glad you enjoy it, although I can’t understand why you do (please tell me your secret!). I would love to enjoy it too… but I didn’t. Please remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
It’s the worst this adaption has slapped fans in the face with yet, although you could say it’s just the culmination of all the horrid decisions of the first eleven episodes and not technically worse.
I couldn’t find a single thing I liked in this episode. I tried, I really did. But it was just godawful. Even with previous sub-standard episodes there was always something that was a bit positive. Even during MUHRS episode.
But this… this was insulting. The way the Generals were suddenly nuked with that completely obvious lead-up to the act… “Venus..” “Kunzite..” BOOM (lol!), leaving the girls perfectly fine- why not kill them all?, the way they all wailed in synch, that laughably awkwardly choreographed suicide scene, Beryl’s absurd, cartoony hair action, Usagi killstealing from Venus.. to name just a few idiotic things that made this the least enjoyable episode yet.
Not to mention that I hoped they would forgo this sad, tired Romeo&Juliet suicide for something more acceptable and in-line with the theme they sometimes pretended to set, but never actually followed through with. Not only is it outdated and absurd, it is weak and completely goes against certain things they threw in: Usagi’s determination to never be a tragic princess ever again. Not being dependent on men? What happened to that? Way I see it, everyone in this show has been made to find a man to cling to, logic be darned.
I hate Twilight. If I wanted weak-willed, codependent females, I’d pick up a Meyer book. Not a show that tells the seemingly bare-faced lie that they “fight their own fights and don’t need a prince”. Sigh.
But I am also one of those who understand Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy, an example of what not to do, of destructive juvenile infatuation and I think Romeo isn’t a great person. I never interpreted it as a love story at all. It reads like a cautionary tale to me and that their decision to die was a bad thing to do, not romantic or adorable or whatever. Or something to be imitated in a romantic context… cringe.
I suppose people who interpreted R&J as a tragic, romantic love story will also enjoy this :/ But I just don’t see it.
Forgive me my ranting it’s just….
This has gone from THE show to be excited about and anticipate to one huge, painful disappointment. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was looking forward to this show so much, waiting to hear the tiniest bit of information, getting super excited at every tweet from them…
Years of waiting and this is all we get. Shoddy, inept writing and awful, careless visuals to go with it.
I have never been so emotionally invested and so sorely disappointed in an anime show.
The only good thing about this garbage can of a show is the OST, though. It’s pretty good. Nothing to write home about probably, but quite decent.
It seems to roughly tell the tale I thought we’d get, rather than the thing we did get.
Glad there is at least someone who liked this, though. 🙂
“Everyone in this show has been made to find a man to cling to, logic be darned.” Excuse me, what? Who else besides Usagi has found a man? Did I miss something? The four Generals are now all dead with no chance of coming back and even the fact that they supposedly were Senshi’s love interests in their previous lives does not automatically mean the same would happen in the current timeline IF they were spared (which they were not, so everything stays in the realm of ‘what ifs’ anyway). The scene between the Generals and the Senshi is hardly romantic or maybe you didn’t notice how the Senshi were constantly bringing up the ‘mission’ and the ‘person to protect’ (Endymion) and the fact that the Generals have been brainwashed and are not their true selves, but not even a word about love, romance or how they used to be lovers or anything. It was all about their respective missions and the people they’re supposed to serve/protect. Love is hardly a priority for them at this point. ‘They all wailed in synch’.. well yes, maybe it’s because the four decent men they tried their hardest to bring back from the dark side (and succeeded), have been reduced to dust like a trash right before their eyes? Maybe it was more a wail of frustration and disbelief than that of mourning their past lovers? So no, the only love story is the one between Usagi and Mamoru and maybe Venus/Kunzite if you squint hard enough. I can’t believe I even need to explain this to anyone.
As for Usagi, she may’ve had every intention of not being a tragic princess ever again, but at the end of the day, she’s still an overemotional 14 year old girl that dreams of a prince and a fairytale love. Is it this hard to grasp that the things might’ve become a little too much for her to bear? She was told that the power of Silver Crystal depends on her heart, but the power of love turns out to be not enough to even bring her lover back to her. He stands there in front of her, backed up by the evil incarnate ready to destroy the world – is it really that hard to believe she’s desperate and doesn’t know what else to do? In the first place, the killing and suicide scene IS supposed to be seen in a negative light (and not romantic), as the one in which Usagi reaches her lowest of low, but at the same time, it’ll also be a starting point for her, because she’ll have to get back on her feet again and change herself, and ultimately, find the strength within herself that’ll help her become the heroine who slays evil and saves the world.
So yeah, I’m not trying to convince anyone that Crystal is without a fault or anything, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to analyze things a bit more and to think about why they’re presented the way they are instead of just hating at everything blindly.
@Kaguraa:
Wait, which one is it?
Were they
a) all about the mission and Endymion (whut) and their Princess with their own love interests not being a priority or
b) trying their hardest to bring back their men from the dark side?
And are you actually denying that they added Shitennou x Senshi and denying any romantic notions were not just implied, but spelled out?
If so, that has to be one of the weirdest defenses of SMC I’ve read to date. That’s a whole new level of delusional. Sorry, it doesn’t make any sense.
Just because it happens to not have worked out for whatever reason, means they did not give the senshi love interests?
—
And er, no… the suicide is never portrayed in the right light. There are never any repercussions for it. No one calls her actions out as silly, rash, selfish, you name it.
At best, people cry about how sad, oh no, miracuru romansu, how tragic, how sweet, tru wuv.
At worst, it is shown as romantic and tragic.
That’s the problem. Not so much that she did it, but that it comes entirely without repercussions. It’s just “what you do”. Can’t have your man? Better stab yourself. After all, life couldn’t possibly be worth living without your miracle romance. After all, you totally don’t have friends, family and protectors who would be devastated by your decision. Why care about the other people in your life you supposedly love, your bf is all that matters, right? -__-
This is never brought up. No one, not ever, not once points this out as rock bottom for her character. It’s swept under the rock for the sake of miracle romance.
And fyi: being critical, having objections and concerns is hardly the same as “blind hate”. It’s perfectly fine to be critical about something, especially if you can say exactly what bothers you.
You are free to disagree, however illogical your reasons may be. But people are entitled to their opinions 🙂
Haha, idiot.
Generals: No bodies, no death scream, still speaking after the explosion = still alive.
I personally liked the episode. Didn’t find anything wrong with it.
I wish I could enjoy this series, but I can’t. Everyone is so focused on ‘MIRACLE ROMANCE’ and only acting on things because of their past lives. Past episode 6, I never get that feeling of friendship the girls had like in the manga or even the 90s anime. Usagi is always concerned over Mamoru. I feel like a lot of the friendships are forced mainly because they knew she was the princess they were sworn to protect. I guess maybe this strengthened their bond, but it didn’t seem to have that same impact the first series did.
Why did they cry over the generals deaths? They shared maybe all of 4 sentences with them. But, because the POWER OF PAST LIVES deems that they must be sad and cry for their lost loves. Girl power? More like ‘Everyone except sailor moon is knocked unconscious every other episode.’
The animation is still pretty abysmal. They are ahead of schedule now and yet the quality of this series is appalling. The show deserves quality animation, like Yuki Yunna or Wixoss, two other magical girl type shows that had some dark moments.
And dont get me started on Mars. She’s become a useless background character instead of the one who has premonitions and acts on them rather than ignore it until a problem arises. (And Rei didn’t like men, for reasons explained in a side story, yet she cried over Jadeite? Okay.)
I wish I could be like people who dont see the flaws that I see and enjoy it, but I stick through it, hoping it will get better.
I’d choose the imperfect animation of SMC every day over the lifeless moeblobs of character designs in Yuuki Yuuna or Wixoss. Guess it all comes down to taste in the end.
The characters in Yuuki Yuuna and Wixoss have more depth to them than these failed imitations of Sailor Moon characters that Crystal is trying to present. Beyond the abysmal animation, the characters have become the low point of Crystal while they were the high point in the original series.
Wow, I am surprised that the public opinion on this episode is so varied. I personally really liked it. After watching it, I had to call up all of my Sailor Moon watching buddies 10++ years ago to tell them to watch this reboot. This is why.
1. Four generals scene.
During my youthful days, I would always wonder why the inner sailor scouts were always left with the “lesser par” love interest and that Sailor Moon was the only one that had a chance at love with a true equal. I truly wished that they would one day find a strong love interest that would complement them and add to their character. Here, we ‘sort of’ have it. While I wished that more time was spent showing the inner sailor scouts’ past lives than just Sailor Moon, the subtle forgotten romance angle still moved me. For instance, when Jadeite first looked upon Sailor Mars her beauty shook his inner core for a reason that was at that time unknown to him. Also the whole, “Kunzite…. Venus” scene moved me, even if it was a second. It was so tragic that the love of their lives finally remembered them only to be erased seconds later. Needless to say, I was screaming “Noooo” at the screen during that part.
2. Sailor Moons Suicide “Again”
After learning about Sailor Moon’s Romeo and Juliet esque suicide scene from her past, I was again shocked that it was going to repeat itself in this episode, especially after the death of Beryl and the 4 Kings. I felt really shocked and depressed after that, but that does not mean it wasn’t a good scene.
3. Darker themes
I really like the darker aspect of this reboot compared to the 90s version. It can both bring in younger audiences and the older Sailor moon fans. Usagi isn’t as annoying as the 90s title (even though she still is obsessively dependent on Mamo-chan). I like the fact that I am not watching goofy filler episodes and that the story is mature enough for me to enjoy at my current age.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the season, my biggest gripe was the (*cue captain obvious) pacing and the development of the other inner sailor scouts (besides sailor moon). The pacing was too fast (especially in this episode) and I wished that I got to know more about the other sailor soldiers. In fact I still remember the 90s series devoting much more time to the development of each sailor scout in the first season. Hopefully this will change later on.
Overall, this was a great mid season finale. Can’t wait for the second half!
You know how a lot of people were worried about them making Sailor Moon all “mo~e” and stuff? This kind of feels like a “de-mo~efication” of it. It’s gone from being an entertaining and amusing shoujo anime, to being a shoujo anime.
Additional shoujo anime staples include:
Higher emphasis on bishie romance. It was cool with Usagi and Mamoru, that was cute and Mamoru was kind of a dick in the original, making him more endearing as a character rather than a generic bishie character. All of the Sailor Scouts being destined for a bunch of snobby dudes.
All of the dynamics between the main characters (the female characters) are lost. No more arguments between Usagi and Rei and the like. Usagi while being less amusing as a character, feels much more co-dependent and annoying this time around. For all of the “we don’t need men” this thing is pushing, it sure doesn’t seem to be acting on the whole powerful woman message.
It’s the same thing that’s happened to PreCure, it’s no longer about what girls can do with their power and friendship together. It’s about what relationship obstacles girls overcome to get the guy while their friends aren’t too pissed from being electrocuted and pummeled because they have a bishie too.
Mahou Shoujo is best when the romance is left out, Sailor Moon was an exception because at least the original incarnation of Chiba Mamoru was somewhat realistic in personality, and was the only token romance in the show short of 1-shot characters who never show up again.
It irks me that they messed it up this bad, hopefully they won’t give Chibiusa some random shota or bishie in some “I don’t want to go back to the future if it means I have to leave you, wahh codependance.” subplot.
As for the darker themes that some people are bringing up… did you even watch Sailor Moon?
It’s a case where you can say “Everyone dies, the end.” and be pretty close to right about that. They didn’t die in “oh, I fell off a cliff” they died by being impaled and such. Darker themes… jeez.
To add, I was wrong. They didn’t mess it up this bad, this is what Sailor Moon was like I guess, I never bothered reading the manga. I guess it shows how much of a good job they did on the original anime.
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
This is a good scene.
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
The last time I remember seeing Sailor Moon holding a sword was really that “last” episode.
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
For someone who is scared of pain, Usagi doesn’t hesitate to stab herself and twice for that matter you’d think she’d be scared to die even. I don’t know if I’d call that recklessly stupid or a bold move.
I’ll be honest, it’s been years since I read the manga and I forgot how silly it was in some parts. It worked for the manga, but seeing it in (bad) animation is just reinforcing how goofy some of the story really is.
Anyone who isn’t professing their undying love for this show is being downvoted to oblivion and that’s largely because mostly only hardcore fans of the manga are still watching. If it had been a different studio’s project, it could have perhaps taken the middle ground between the two fanbases. But now, we have this.
Whatever this is
Idiot 2.0
This anime is so romantic and drama! lol I can’t wait to see the finale episodes of this arc. and also excited to see chibi moon in the next arc 🙂
I never agreed when was Venus killing Beryl in manga. BUT. After see that part of the manga a little more, I arrive to a logic conclusion. Sailor Venus killed Beryl with the help of Sailor Moon. Oh, yes it is! Do you remember when Venus called for the sword and she couldn´t carry it at first because it was to much heavy? Then Sailor Moon was being suffocated by Beryl´s hair and she says ” It´s so painful. But I can´t die yet. Not here!” And then she says ” Mamoru I can´t die before I get you back”. And then the silver crystal begins to shine in reaction to Sailor Moon´s wishes. And because of that wish, Sailor Venus won strength to hold the sword and kill Beryl. What it means that, thanks to Sailor Moon´s wishes she could gave Venus the power to kill Beryl, indirectly. It makes sense, since the silver crystal shined in that moment. And it was Sailor Moon who made the sword shine, because the sword it would shine when the silver crystal begins to react to the wishes of who will someday become queen, like it was said in manga. It wasn´t because Venus killed Beryl. So, Sailor Moon, indirectly, helped Venus to kill Beryl. But is funny because noone sees that detail. But I still say that Sailor Moon was more inteligent and strategic than Venus when she called her friends to defead Beryl together. And stop saying that Sailor Moon stole Venus moment. She didn´t read her own manga to know that she was stealing the glory of someone. So stop with that, who says that.