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「誘拐 –SAILOR MERCURY–」 (Yuukai –SAILOR MERCURY–)
“Abduction – SAILOR MERCURY-“
The first arc of Sailor Moon Crystal felt incredibly fast in its initial 5-ish episodes because you’re introduced to a new girl every week (or every two weeks). Some action here, some new powers there and the story quickly develops into a monster-of-the-day episodic show. However, it starts to deviate from that formula soon enough and then we got into this one-month long drag of defeating Queen Metalia in its final stretch. I think that one-month final battle just took too long that I forgot how quickly the rest of the anime actually progresses. These sisters are getting written off like nothing and compared to the original series where these girls were given a second chance at life, I feel kind of cheated out of that development. However, one of the greatest things about this new arc is that we don’t have to familiarize ourselves with new characters. We already know who the Sailor Scouts are and this allows the audience to dedicate more of their attention to the new villains and Chibi Usa.
This arc is turning out surprisingly better than I anticipated; especially with Chibi Usa whom I’ve been on the fence about. She played quite an obnoxious role in the original series, but this remake portrays her more like a lost child rather than a stubborn one. She behaves more like a girl her age; longing to see her parents again, lost on a planet which she knows nothing about and then there’s Usagi who doesn’t treat her all that well. I definitely feel bad for her and I have a different impression of her character now. I used to think that Mamoru was just going soft on her and she deserved to be left out in the rain for the way she treated Usagi… but Chibi Usa has not done anything wrong and she’s simply frightened of the people chasing her. Usagi still has a lot of growing up to do and although I see why she’s mad and scared, she’s supposed to be a role model for her “daughter”. Rather than apologizing or explaining herself, she distances herself from both her boyfriend and Chibi Usa; whom probably needs her the most right now. I think Mamoru is a good boyfriend and Usagi shouldn’t continue to push people away like that, especially when everyone else is in the same position she is.
Another Sailor Scout lost to the Dark Moon this week and this time it’s Ami. I found her episode explored more about her past and actually showed how much she grew since she met Usagi; but I can’t say the same about Mars’ centric episode last time. I like how they played up Ami’s past with her father and even showed her competing in a Chess match against Berthier (Kasahara Rumi). Baby Ami was drawn quite unproportionately though so even though she looked adorable, she looked so awkward. The story even demonstrated just how key Ami’s role was in the entire arc because she alone understood who they wanted to capture – Chibi Usa. We’ll have to wait and see just how far the Dark Moon gets and how Sailor Moon is going to rescue everyone. Sailor Jupiter is next and I would like to see an expansion of her love story told, but it’ll be a bittersweet story knowing that she’ll likely be abducted too. Boo to all the cliffhangers these days.
Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: Little Ami is so cute… except her face looks so unproportionate and awkwardly drawn. sigh* Toei. #SailorMoonCrystal. That’s pretty much the biggest point I had to make in this episode.
Preview
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As for Sailor Mars/Rei’s backstory (which I agree there was none of in the previous episode), I really hope they’ll make an OAV of the special chapter called “Casablanca Memory”, which is solely dedicated to Rei’s background, family matters, relationships.. basically all those things that never made it to the old anime.
Well, old anime Rei is quite different from the original, she was closer to Minako or Usagi than the ojou-sama she was originally. A story that sad wouldn’t fit her, they could have done it changing some things but probably that would have ruined it.
Not lipstick, but we are so use to seeing non coloured lips now in animation it just read like lipstick! Shoujo was all over the light rosy lips on girls coming out of the 80’d. 😉
Mars doesn’t really have much of a “story” compared to Mercury or Jupiter. I don’t know much about Venus either because her episode didn’t really talk about her family life. I doubt they’ll make a special OVA just for Mars or anything but it’d be nice if future episodes spent just a little more time on each of them =X SMC isn’t supposed to be incredibly deep or anything, but it’s better just series of events happening one after another.
The thing is, Mars has much more of a backstory in this one special chapter than Mercury and Jupiter combined, so it’s all the question of whether it’ll ever get animated at all, in a form of an OVA, a special episode or whatever. As for Venus, it’s another case altogether, as she has three full volumes dedicated to her adventures as Sailor V (that include some bits of her family life), but if anything has a chance of getting an anime adaptation, I bet on Mars’ special chapter (though I don’t keep my hopes up for this either).
I could say this was one of the better episodes. There was a lot of history to Ami that I didn’t know about and I liked how it provided more depth to her character. I agree with you, Cherrie, that I don’t have many issues with Chibi Usa’s personality in this series, but I am concerned by how much lipstick they put on her. Fortunately, this episode seemed to have toned it down otherwise she looked like those unfortunate celebrity children who are forced to wear ridiculous clothing and heavy make-up. And another thing I would point out was Usagi’s crotch shot in her swim suit. It didn’t look like a girl’s private area. Seriously, Toei!!!
I did not notice the amount of lipstick on her =X but I don’t think it’s on purpose that they’re wearing make-up in Sailor Moon lol. I think it’s just character designs and how the author chose to draw them back then – the heavy “eyeliner” and mascara and small lips is all part of her design.
I do appreciate it as a style and it is fine in manga form, but when transferred to anime it looks blatantly like lipstick, I suppose it’s the medium, and because Chibi Usa looks much younger in the anime than in the manga it’s quite glaring actually.
“last time, in the walking head…”
It’s her weapon of choice in all sitations. Headbang FTW.
*situations
“Sailor Moon Crystal is turning out to be surprisingly fast-paced now, and that’s necessarily a bad thing.”
Might want to insert a “not” into that sentence 🙂
LOL! Thanks =)
I WANT A SAILOR JUPITER SPIN-OFF, TOEI!! DAMMIT, SHE’S UNDERRATED!!
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
What, I don’t remember this.^
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
Usagi has her hair braided.
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
Don’t leave out the fun.
https://randomc.net/image/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal/Sailor%20Moon%20Crystal%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
That’s just cute. I remember this part.
About the eye on the forehead, he did have it in the original anime and I think he used it to manipulate Sailor Moon.
sailor moon is an example on how to do a little girl character right, instead of making chibiusa a walking fetish like most creators do now takeuchi made her how a real kid would act that age in her shoes.