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Sailor Moon R
This season debuted on June 26, 1993 and lasted until
March 12, 1994. It was announced as part of the previous Sailor Moon R
season. By itself, it's 30 episodes. Sandwiched with the previous R Arc, it's
43 episodes. The "R" in this half of the arc stands for
"Romance" since the romance of Usagi and Mamoru is ripped apart,
put back together, and finally solidified with the knowledge that they are
supposed to marry in the future and have Chibiusa. Toei's animators had previously discussed killing off
Mamoru once and for all in season one, but when Naoko Takeuchi produced
sketches of his future daughter Chibiusa, they knew he had to stay alive. The
animators did not like adding him to the episodes, and they hated Chibiusa
more, specifically when it came to figuring out how to draw all that pink
hair. In retaliation, from this point forward, most episodes involving
Chibiusa featured her being abused far more than she is in the manga. Chibiusa at first was not a well liked character among
fans, but after she became Black Lady, her popularity soared. When Toei and
Kodansha both saw her popularity rise up, they began putting together a new
merchandise line for young girls, specifically around Chibiusa, in an attempt
to hook families with younger viewers. However they still kept strong with
mature subject matter. As of 2011, all products for Chibiusa are aimed only
at an adult and teen market in Japan and in North America. At the end of the Black Moon Arc of the manga, Sailor
Pluto dies, but comes back during the following Arc. Here however, her role
is reduced to just a few scenes, and she is never seen in combat or in harm's
way. And while this season pulled a few concepts from the manga, it did omit
an important character. Diana originally debuts during this Arc, but she is
wholly omitted from the anime without explanation. Also missing are Kotono
and Asanuma, who played minor roles early in the manga. Another change saw
King Endymion force Mamoru to break up with Usagi, in order to test their
bond. In the manga, King Endymion is not nearly this much of a jerk. In the manga, Sailor Moon gets the Cutie Moon Rod, when
her power joins with Tuxedo Mask's power, creating it. Here, Usagi has had
the weapon since the Hell Tree Arc, as Queen Serenity dropped it on her. Probably the biggest change involves the Black Moon/Four
Specter Sisters. In the manga and in Crystal, the ladies are pure evil, and
are killed in the order of Koan, Beruche, Petz and Calaveras. Calaveras in
the manga seems to have a slight romantic past with Rubeus, who playfully
kisses her shoulder. Here however, Koan is the only one showing romantic
interest in Rubeus, but is shot down by his horrible attitude. Rubeus also
tries to make Koan commit suicide, something he never did in the manga. Koan,
Beruche, Calaveras and Petz are all healed by Sailor Moon in this order, and
the four sisters open up a makeup boutique and live normal lives. They are last
seen in episode 86, when Saphir spends the night at their apartment. It's
here that we learn Petz is Saphir's ex-girlfriend, who Saphir dumped shortly
before the takeover of Crystal Tokyo. Aside from this episode, where Petz
begs Saphir to stay with her, Petz spends the whole season despising all men. Another change was around Saphir and Demande. In the
manga, the two have little love for each other, and Demande is never
compassionate, he is responsible for Saphir's death. While here, Demande is more
sensitive and Saphir looks up to him. Wiseman kills Saphir, and in a twisted
scene in episode 87, Toei's writers actually makes Sailor Moon feel
compassion for Demande and try to reconcile with him, just three episodes
after he kidnapped her, redressed her and tried his best at sexually
assaulting her. In the manga, Sailor Moon has no feelings at all for the very
rapey Demande. Another change is about Crystal Tokyo itself. In the
Manga, King Endymion states that Usagi became Neo Queen Serenity around the
same time she gave birth to Chibiusa at age 22. Crystal Tokyo was built
around this time as well, sometime around the year 2002, though the exact
year wasn't printed. In this anime however, King Endymion states that the
world just went to an ice sleep for a long, long time, and then Sailor Moon
became Neo Queen Serenity and magically woke everybody up. One point of controversy was around Chibiusa's age, as
Toei's writers and animators could not decide on what to do with her. In the
manga, Chibiusa is over 900 years old, as stated by her father, King
Endymion, but she is trapped in the body of a six year old, because her
growth, both physically and Sailor Senshi wise, is stunted. Chibiusa's age
ranges from 900 to 901 in all Sera Myu plays about this season. However, Toei
Animation never gave her an age at any point during the 1990's. Adding to the
controversy, Chibiusa is said to be in kindergarten in some merchandise and
in first grade everywhere else. More confusing is that Toei never decided on
a size for her, so in some episodes, she looks five or six years old, and in
others she looks like a toddler. In her debut episode, she is seen turning
Luna-P into a baby bottle full of milk that was tainted with a sleeping
potion. Even at the end of this arc, Chibiusa's age is still in question. In
the R movie, she is shown briefly dressed like a four or five year old, and
then in her usual blue uniform. But in episode 88, she is seen in her uniform
and as Princess Lady Serenity, both in the body of a six year old. Yet in the
manga, as she returns to a more childlike state from being Black Lady, her
body does not go all the way back to her six year old stage. She instead has
the body of an eight year old, but with developed breasts. This is the same
form Kousagi takes in Parallel Sailormoon, showing that everyone develops
early in Sailormoon. The ending to this arc is a little different from the
manga. In the manga, Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon defeat Wiseman in the
future, while in this anime, Wiseman is defeated by Neo Queen Serenity and
Princess Lady Serenity in the 20th century. Disney, DiC's parent company, had originally thought of
doing a live action movie, which would have incorporated both Queen Beryl and
Chibiusa. Chibiusa would have been retconned as Usagi's sister or cousin, and
would have been cast as a blonde, while Ami would have been cast with black
hair, as Disney felt the Technicolor hair colors of blue and pink were
inappropriate and imitative behavior. They were also uncomfortable showing a
child actress with pink hair. But by the time the episodes hit syndication,
Disney dropped all plans for a movie. By this point, only Gina Davis had been
cast as Queen Beryl. The original script and all related material are
currently listed as "lost" with little else known. While the Disney movie fell through, one fragment of
"what might have been" still exists. In 1997, 3VR produced it's
only Sailor Moon game, known as The 3D Adventures of Sailor
Moon. In the game, you play as a "Sailor Scout" in training,
who is trying to recover the transformational items of Sailor Mercury, Mars,
Venus and Jupiter, and the Crescent Moon Wand/Moon Stick, which have all been
stolen by Queen Beryl. In this universe, Chibiusa is already a part of your
team, however instead of being 901 years old as she is in the manga, she
appears at age 6. The concept of Chibiusa/Rini being that young was actually
one of the ideas floating around at Disney during the time the movie was in
the conceptual stage. It was the very first game released in North America to
tie together the first and second season, and the only one released in the US
in the 90's to feature Chibiusa. Out of this season, DiC only skipped episode 67. Some have
said Toei never sent the episode along. Some say it was skipped because it's
a filler episode. Most know DiC had issues with a few of the scenes with
Chibiusa and the dinosaur and Chibiusa being inside of an active volcano.
While DiC edited this season slightly less, some edits were made due to
violence and nudity. This was the final season to use Sailor SayS segments,
and by the final episodes of R, DiC would either recycle SayS segments from
the previous season, or omit the segment altogether. Some names were Americanized this season. Esmeraude became
Emerald. Saphir became Sapphire. Demande became Prince Diamond. These three
names were based off of their costume jewelry. Rubeus retained his name,
however it was often misspelled on merchandise. Koan became Catzy, due to her
cat like hair. Beruche became Birdy. Petz became Prisma, after the staff she
uses before she turns good. Calaveras became Avery. Momoko became Melissa,
and would end up changing names each season. Luna-P became Luna Ball in the
first batch of episodes, and then Luna Sphere. The Black Moon was lumped
together with the previous two seasons' villains as "The Negaverse"
likely because in the manga, Wiseman and Metallia are technically siblings
and hail from Chaos. Kyusuke was almost totally edited out, save for one
scene, and was not named. The Cutie Moon Rod became the Moon Scepter. Moon Princess
Halation became Moon Scepter Activation until the final 18 episodes, when it
became Moon Scepter Elimination. Shine Aqua Illusion would not be heard until
late in the season. Until then, it became Mercury Ice Storm Blast. Burning
Mandala became Mars Celestial Fire Surround. Sparkling Wide Pressure would
not be used until just before the Scouts head to the future. Until this
point, it was Jupiter Thunderclap Zap. Venus Love-Me Chain became Venus Love
Chain Encircle. Between the show and the movie, several more, very odd name
changes took place. "Fire Soul" which was "Mars Fire
Ignite" in the DiC show became "Mars Fireballs Flash".
"Supreme Thunder" which was "Jupiter Thunder Crash" in
the DiC show became "Supreme Thunder Crash". "Moon Princess
Halation" which had been "Moon Scepter Activation" and
"Moon Scepter Elimination" in the DiC dub became "Moon
Princess Elimination" in the R movie. The biggest name change involves Chibiusa. When she
debuts, her name was Rini, which is both short for Serena, in turn short for
Serenity, but like Chibiusa is also Japanese for Small or Little Bunny. When
she transforms into Black Lady however, DiC changed the name to Wicked Lady.
This was done to avoid a scandal with the NAACP. DiC originally produced 65 episodes, spanning season one
through the first part of this Arc. But by the time the last episode had hit
syndication, Disney had started to cut funding to DiC. The Program Exchange
later funded the dubbing and editing of the last 18 episodes, however, until
1999, only one episode out of the remaining 18 had made it to syndication. Cartoon Network picked up the rights to the original 65
episode package, and had begun airing the show on it's Toonami block on June
4, 1997. The following year, Cartoon Network ran ads, touting that 17
"lost" episodes would air on Toonami. During that first run, all 18
episodes aired on Toonami, with the 18th episode being shown silently.
The last episode was never advertised, because it's largely a clip show, but
it's also the very first time Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Professor Tomoe
and Kaolinite are shown, along with the Daimon eggs. This was the final season DiC was a part of, excluding the
movies. Cloverway would later dub S and SuperS, while both DiC and Cloverway
did utilize Optimum Productions to handle the dubbing and sound of each
episode. Episode 89 would be the final episode aimed at a 2-11 year old crowd
in the US, as Cloverway aimed their edits at ages 11-16. While the girls were still being called Sailor Scouts for
most of the dub, occasionally Tuxedo Mask would call them Sailor Soldiers.
This stems from their original title as Sailor Senshi, which can be translated
as Sailor Warriors, Soldiers or Guardians. This is the only season ADV ever dropped a subtitled
episode in. ADV had gotten the rights to release SD prints of the first and
second seasons onto DVD in an uncensored, Japanese only format. But when Toei
sent over Sailormoon R, episode 67 was missing. For years, it was thought of
as either an oversight, or because the episode was the lowest rated of the
entire series, and Toei did not want to release it. Very few Sailormoon fans
had seen it LEGALLY, until December 29, 2014, when Viz Media released the
lost episode to Hulu and Neon Alley, for the first time ever in HD. This is the first season to include more than five Sailor
Senshi/Guardians. Chibiusa does not transform in this season, but she later
becomes Sailor Chibi Moon. Sailor Pluto appears several times in this season,
while Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are shown briefly in the shadows in
episode 89. Tuxedo Mask/Sir Moonlight Knight is counted as two Sailor Senshi
in one by Naoko Takeuchi, who has gone on record to say he counts as Sailor
Earth and Sailor Sun. Adding Tuxedo Mask, Chibiusa and the three shown Outer
Sailor Senshi, the official Guardian count for this season is 10. If we are
looking at Sailor Suited transformed Guardians only, then the count is 8,
since Tuxedo Mask is never shown in a Sailor suit, and Chibiusa did not
transform this season. The R movie in Japan was preceded by a 25 minute short. In
the short, Chibiusa and Usagi are listening to a couple of girls on their
lunch, talk about which Sailor Senshi is their favorite. Usagi and Chibiusa
then go over clips from the first and second seasons, with Chibiusa teasing
Usagi about being a klutz. The short was cut out of the Pioneer release of
the uncut, subtitled and edited-dubbed version of the R movie. The short
takes place sometime before the R movie, but after the Black Moon Arc. The R movie is somewhat seen as a way to tie both R Arcs
together as one season, since it takes place right after Chibiusa has stopped
being Black Lady, but before she returns home for good, and because Fiore is
rumored to be the long lost brother of Ali and En. The film would take place
sometime before the final 10 minutes of episode 88. Some have speculated that Fiore could possibly be from the
future via a rip in space, and may be Ali and En's son as well, but since the
movie is only one hour long, there was never enough time to explore this or
the brother idea, so Fiore exists solely as a wandering alien without a home.
The brother theory holds up more, due to the timing the Hell Tree gave when
talking about the loss of her other children. |
Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Special Movie
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