It’s not *quite* what I hoped, but the continued quality of the entire series is so generally elevated over…well, everything…that I’m inclined to be forgiving. ^_^

We’ve met Hotaru, and had some time with Kaolinite, yay! Eudial, you came and went and we hardly knew ye, but I can’t wait to spend time with you in the original anime.

I hope you all enjoyed the most crowded secluded mountains ever and this:

And this:

And then we got this:

And then we wrap up with this:

Which is about as good as it’s going to ever get in Sailor Moon.

So one more grin-making episode of what is turning out to be a really lovely season.

Ratings:

Overall – 9 Better than I expected, not *quite* what I hoped

Now that we’ve established that when pandering is for us, it doesn’t suck after all, we can settle in and watch the rest of the story develop! ^_^

I’m not going to mince words here – I grinned like a loon through the whole episode. ^_^

Here’s a few things of note.

Let’s start with the eternal message against fandelusion: Remember, the story and dialogue are known quantities, so arguing about wanting something that won’t happen is not something that I’ll waste time doing.

As in the manga, as far as we know in this first episode Tenoh Haruka is a boy. And it it is as a boy that the girls of Mugen Gakuen think he and Michiru make a great couple. This will play out a little longer in this version than it did in the original anime.

I absolutely loved, with all my love, a few of the individual scenes which strongly echoed their analogs back in the original series. I chalk this up once again to the director, who I just feel really gives a hoot. These scenes made me sincerely happy.

Voice actresses Minagawa Junko and Ohara Sayaka as Michiru and Haruka were lovely. I’m completely satisfied with them in the roles.

We only had a teeny taste of Kaolinite and Hotaru, that left us wanting more.

I have only one complaint and while it is not minor, it’s not anything that will change. I find the transformation scenes to be drawn rather unfortunately out of proportion. As those are scenes that will be played repeatedly, and are animated early on, I honestly feel that they ought to be the best possible animation that can be done. Attacks too. In Season 3, the attacks looks fine, but the transformations are a hot mess. It’s a shame, but we’ll live.

My final note is that I’ve already really come to love the ED. It checks off all the “songs by/about Haruka /Michiru” list items: Use of their names, mentions of wind and ocean, mirror and sword, eternity, moon. Check, check, check. Good song. ^_^

Can’t really do ratings after 1 episode, but who am I fooling? It’s a 10, because. ^_^

You can watch this season free and legally on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Nico Nico Douga, the latter, subtitled in 10 languages with global access, so go watch it!

At last, we have enough information to piece the story together in Sailor Moon R Season 2 Part 2, Disk 3. And immediately upon doing so, the final battle is upon us. So, in time-honored tradition, I would like to digress completely to discuss Chibi-Usa and Sialor Pluto.

First, let us discuss Chibi-Usa. She is a near millennium-old 5 year old. This is a critical piece to understanding the things that go on on “R”. Children are pretty basic animals. They get how training works and then they turn it around on you. I throw this binky and start to cry, you retrieve the binky. I cry, you feed me, I cry, you change a diaper. This makes sense. And because most children exist in a bubble of one, they don’t really consider that their experiences are not utterly normal. So, when Small Lady cries and no one picks her up, this is a frankly shocking change to her life. She has no idea that this is normal or that being self-reliant is a thing. Like so many humans (often much older than 5) she presumes that the general is personal, so when her friends aren’t there for her, she imagines the worst.

All of this is not beside the point – it is the point. She cannot grow up until she has to grow up. And the worst part about this has to be that both Serenity and Endymion know all this and they have to let it happen. And that is the big UGH of the series.

Which brings me to Sailor Pluto. There are literally two things she may not do – open the Doors of Time and stop time, and in both anime and manga version, she does both. Worse, she knows she’s going to do both because she’s already done them when we meet her for the first time. I mean, how *annoying* is that?

So is Pluto the worst Senshi or are the rules idiotic? Obviously, the rules are idiotic. We can see that right away, because the rule “Don’t open the Doors of Time” clearly don’t apply to the Royal Family, so it now becomes “Don’t open the Doors of Time to anyone but us and anyone we bring with us” and BAM! security is breached. And “You may not stop Time or you will die” makes perfect sense, except she doesn’t. And remember, we first meet her 1000 years in the future when she has *already* done these things…and there she is. If the conundrum around Chibi-Usa is ugh, then this one is argh. ^_^;

But all of this resolves when it turns out, as we and Saphir suspected, that Dimande is an idiot. And Serenity, joined by Princess Small Lady (as opposed to Chibi Moon in the manga) defeat the Wiseman as we had no doubt they would.

I had become somewhat complacent about the quality in this remastered version of the 90s series, so upon completion, I pulled out the Pioneer (remember them? they became Geneon, then pulled out of the US completely) edition of the Sailor Moon R Movie. Holy crap do the Viz disks look a million times better. Color, quality, sound all better. So, once again folks complaining about the visuals – the remastered version is *way* better.

Viz will be putting out the R movie, so if you haven’t yet seen it, you should. It’s 1) surprisingly gay (Minako says in the background that there are two guys at her school that “are that way” and another major plot point, I’ll keep for a later review) and 2) has an awesome end scene in which we see “Moon Revenge” sung to it’s best advantage. (Another song I jog to, so it is constantly in my ears. It’s a damn fine song.)

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7 In the end it actually makes sense
Characters – 7 In the end, only Saphir has a lick of sense
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 7 I’m a sucker for “La Soldier.”

I’m really glad to have watched all of “R” and I am SO ready for “S”! The little clippy/trailer episode only made me want it more. ^_^ Ogata Megumi plays young Mamoru in the “R” movie, as well. I am on tenterhooks for the big “S” rewatch. Back in the old days we watched the entire series in one day by skipping the OP/EDs and all the henshin and attacks after watching them once through. It’s a testament to how much I like “S” that I didn’t hate it with a passion after that marathon. ^_^

Once again, many thanks to Viz for the chance to engage in all this fannishness!