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Sailor Moon Sailor StarS
This six episode arc counts as the first six of the Sailor
StarS season, and as it's own mini-series. Many fans count this as the final
"true" six of SuperS, as the episodes focus on Queen Nepherenia, making
her the only main villain with a link to the Chaos family tree to exist
beyond one season. At just six episodes, it's not considered long enough to
be it's own season. If it was, it would be the shortest. The mini series ran
from March 9, 1996 to May 4, 1996. Picking up from SuperS, Nepherenia breaks her own Dream
Mirror when she sees that Usagi and Chibiusa survived the fall. This flies in
the face of the Dream Mirror mythos, as a broken Dream Mirror usually means
it's holder dies. Here, Nepherenia does just fine. Asanuma appears briefly, trying to get Mamoru out of his
apartment. This is his only appearance in the 1990's anime. Asanuma was
featured quite a bit in the manga, and debuted early into the Black Moon arc
of Sailor Moon Crystal. Nepherenia's story changes here. Now instead of Helios,
she does want to marry Prince Endymion after all, because she realizes that
if Mamoru is not with Usagi at a certain time, Chibiusa will cease to be. The
time for Chibiusa to be created must be coming up, because she fades in and
out of existence for all six episodes. This plays into how the manga ends
with Usagi getting pregnant with Chibiusa just before her wedding. Keep in
mind, the future world by this point has changed drastically, as Mamoru and
Usagi are brought closer together than their future selves were. When King
Endymion first tells the story in the manga, he claims he married Usagi at
21, and Chibiusa was born when Usagi was 22. But in the manga, Usagi marries
at 16. Even in the anime, Usagi is ecstatic to turn 16, because she's now at
the legal age to marry Mamoru, and it's brought up in the first episode of
this mini series. Nepherenia is not killed here. Instead she is healed, and
somehow returned as a child to her kingdom, miraculously restored. In the
manga, she becomes Zirconia and is killed violently. This miniseries marks the first time the Outer Sailor
Senshi were seen together since S, while Uranus and Neptune did appear in one
special together, and Pluto had joined them for the SuperS movie. Picking up
from the manga, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna have adopted Hotaru as their
daughter, however the reasons why have changed. In the Death Busters Arc of
the manga, right after Hotaru is reborn, the trio automatically adopt her,
because her father has been killed, and she has no other family to go to.
They vow to raise her to be a proper Sailor Senshi this time. In this anime
however, Setsuna kidnaps Hotaru from her father, who is living at a mental
ward. He is never seen nor heard from again, and there is never an explanation
given for why Setsuna is alive again after the events from S. Setsuna was
also alive for the SuperS movie, again without explanation. The trio again
adopt Hotaru, and they are raising her to be a regular girl. Just like in the
manga, Hotaru ends up awakening their Super transformations, so they can go
save Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. This is the first time Usagi becomes Eternal Sailor Moon
in the anime, while in the manga, she became Eternal Sailor Moon during the
end fight for the Dream Arc. No other Sailor Senshi becomes Eternal in the
anime, though the whole team did in the manga. Chibiusa and Hotaru's age comes into question here. In the
manga by this point, Hotaru looks like her old self at 12 or 13, albeit shorter
now, as her original body had been surgically altered by her father to appear
older. Chronologically, she should be roughly 13 going on 14. Chibiusa
attends the 3rd grade with her. Chibiusa turns 903 years old, but
has the body of a 13 year old. Here however, Toei has made the girls look 10
for most scenes, although when Hotaru gets her tween body back, she is shown
briefly with developed breasts, like a 13 or 14 year old. Viz Media is the only company to gain the US rights to
these episodes. Cloverway did try to obtain the rights to them, but Toei
refused due to not being happy with their handling of S and SuperS, despite
the fact that Cloverway/CWI was in fact a subsidiary of Toei. The company was
folded not long after losing the deal. While negotiations were ongoing,
Cartoon Network had already decided to skip Sailor StarS due to it's sexual
and graphic content. Even in this block of six episodes, there is an excess
amount of nudity when compared to previous installments. Curiously, during the second and third airing of SuperS on
Cartoon Network, part of the first episode in this arc was silently spliced
into the final SuperS episode, with a voice for Galaxia already chosen. This
spliced episode does not appear on official Pioneer/Geneon DVD or VHS
releases, and neither Cloverway nor Cartoon Network ever commented on the
lost splice. Also curious, while DiC never got the rights to this
season, a screenshot of Chibiusa and Diana when they try to leave for the 30th
Century was used for DiC's trading cards. Diana was not named on the card,
despite retaining her name for the DiC dub of the SuperS movie. Irwin toys did have a section of their website saved for
Sailor StarS, but went bankrupt before they could produce a prototype. With Sailor Saturn, there are 10 Sailor Senshi officially
featured. Adding Tuxedo Mask makes 11. Adding Galaxia as an unofficial Sailor
Senshi makes 12. |
Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6
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