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In sharp contrast to Sailormoon S, where we had to wait
until nearly the end of the season to see him, today's episode opens right
away with Master Pharaoh 90, having a good kvetch behind a lush little pond
area he's built. He relays to Kaolinite that he's having nightmarish visions
about three lights (no, not the Starlights) coming to destroy everything he's
currently building. He also relays to her that the tri-building area where
Mugen is has energy very similar to his home of the Tau system, and that the
three energies have something similar to his Taioron crystal.
Get a good look at that crystal. It'll be important later on. He tells her a
new light will soon awaken, and he wants Kaolinite to prevent that, so he
doesn't get killed.
Far away, Hotaru is having a nightmare. The voice of Sailor Saturn is telling
her to awaken, and warning her that the three lights (no, not Seiya) will
bring about the start of her doom. She has nightmares of everyone dying
during the Silver Millennium, and then sees a flash of three newer Sailor
Guardians.
So after the opening credits, Hotaru jolts awake, but so does Mamoru, who is
having the same nightmare as Hotaru.
Across town, Rei is also getting the same, creepy visions.
But completely out of sync is Usagi, fast asleep and with her odangoes out of
her hair. She's having a sweet dream about a wedding inside a lush church…
But soon, the alarm goes off. Ikuko calls out to Usagi, KNOWING both she and
the alarm are WAY past late.
Okay, you can say Usagi needs to quit sleeping through the alarm, and she
needs to learn to set the damn thing earlier. Fine, I get it. But for fuck's
sakes, Ikuko!! If you KNOW what time your kids need to be up to get to
school, WHY do you always wait until it's too late to tall Usagi up?? Are you
TRYING to ensure your kid doesn't make it? I'm sorry, there's a difference
between a lapse in judgement and just lazy parenting. This is the third
season, Ikuko. Get it together!
I'm loving the manga-style bunny heads. Lessee. What's for breakfast? Um..
One sunny side up egg, two cherry tomatoes, two Chibi-Chibi sized pieces of
bread, a cup of milk and (next picture) a slice of toast with jam…………. Um…
wow. Thanks for the snack, Ikuko. Look bitch. I can tell by your daughter
having her own damn chandelier that you're nowhere near broke. Are you TRYING
to starve Usagi, Chibiusa and Shingo?? No fucking wonder the poor girl lost
weight since the 90's season, her mom's been starving her!! Ikuko, if you can't
be bothered to get your kid up, then at least get your lazy ass back in the
kitchen and finish making the rest of breakfast.
And while we're at it, TEACH CHIBIUSA HOW TO EAT TOAST!! Do you WANT jelly
all over your fingers, kid?? Bad enough when you were Black Lady, you
couldn't figure out lipstick, and now this?? You're 901 and a half years old.
ACT LIKE IT!!
Because you don't TEACH, bitch!!
And that's no way to talk to your 14 and a half year old mother, Chibiusa.
Chibiusa and Diana overhear the morning news. Apparently people are randomly
turning into monsters, known as "Reversions". The theory is that
they're reverting to a state prior to becoming human. To me? This looks more
like they're becoming creepy bug-snake-demons, but I bet some of you are
calling them Daimons.
Kenji is just having coffee for breakfast. There's a few more calories in
that than what Ikuko's cooking. Well Usagi and Chibiusa realize it's time for
school, so they head out. Usagi ends up being late (GEE who's fault is that?)
and Mamoru scolds her. Usagi tries to playfully apologize and lead him to a
good morning kiss.
But not learning her THAT IS YOUR DAD lesson from last season, in pops
Chibiusa to spoil the moment.
She brings her mom her lunch, and then scolds her for not eating breakfast,
reminding her that she NEEDS TO EAT MORE.
You know, I have to say this, they really made Chibiusa more adorable this
season. Don't get me wrong, she was unbelievably adorable in the last few
acts, but today, I just want to pinch her cheeks. Hard to believe that was
Black Lady like two episodes ago, right?
It looks like Chibiusa's charm has hit Usagi after all though, as Usagi's
"mom gene" kicks in and she starts giving the viewing audience a
recap of who the pink spore is and why she's living in the past again. Awwwwwwwwww ♥
But it is after eight, so Momo and … and um… her friend pop by.
Yeah, even Chibiusa doesn't care what the kid's name is. Well with Chibiusa
and Diana off, Usagi goes for that kiss again, but Mamoru has a flashback to
this morning's nightmare, and backs off. And then this scene happens.
Don't you just want to hug Usagi? Seriously, this poor kid goes through so
much. She decides this is pretty much her fate, and I just want to pat her on
the head. Well as Usagi nips off to school, we see Michiru swimming in her
apartment. She makes a phone call to her personal pilot to get the chopper
ready, because it's time for she and Haruka to go to school. Yeah, when I was
her age, I had a bus pass. These two? Private helicopters.
Yeah, these are NOT the poor kids. Also, take note. Haruka is referred to as
a "he" today. This will go back and forth for a while.
Oh, and Haruka is a 16 year old race car driver. Remember this image, it'll
be back later.
And her own groupies.
And this needs to be addressed right now. In both the original anime and in
Crystal, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna all have the last names of Tenoh, Kaioh
and Meioh. In the Tokyopop print of the manga, it was Ten'oh, Kai'oh and
Mei'oh and in the Kodansha print of the manga, it's TenÔ, KaiÔ and MeiÔ. It's
all accurate, just different spellings. For subtitles however, Tenoh, Kaioh
and Meioh just saves everybody time.
Oh, and were you afraid Crystal would be as subtle as Sailor Moon S about
Haruka and Michiru's relationship? Well stop worrying. Because they're
screaming it from the rooftops this season.
Haruka and Michiru know something is up, but they put on a brave face. We
then cut to later in the day, where Usagi and Naru arrive at the Crown Game
Center and greet Motoki. We then see some adorable shots of the Inner
Guardians as Usagi re-introduces each girl to the viewer.
D'awwwwwww they're so adorable! When did everybody
get so cute?
Wait, is Minako playing a SPEED RACER game?? Not sure if Tatsunoko
gave their blessing on this or not.
Usagi says the game is called "Battle Lap" but the sides say
"SPEED RACER" so I wonder if this will change on the Blu-ray?
And what's with the bloody game behind her?
Usagi is not comfortable playing the CGI game, so Haruka gives her some
pointers from across the room.
Haruka compliments Usagi, making her blush. Outside, Mamoru bumps into
Michiru. She looks in her mirror and says this:
Oh…. Oh wow. It took Usagi like several episodes to figure out his identity.
You like know immediately. O.o Sugoi……
Haruka pats Usagi on the head and goes outside to retrieve her girlfriend. By
the way. Minako is pretty cool about letting all types of people make money
off of her image like that.
Haruka has all the girls a flutter, as she fetches Michiru. We then see the
new eyecatches that are pretty cool.
Naru, Makoto and Minako are completely in love with Haruka. Ami mentions that
Haruka's uniform belongs to Mugen.
Usagi has never heard of it, so out of nowhere and as creepy as possible,
Umino pops up to blab about the school.
Isn't it funny? In the original anime, they made Umino out to seem like this
hapless loser with a heart of gold. But in Crystal? Nope. He's just annoying.
Minako adds that Mugen Academy is home to Olympic athletes and all types of
celebrity students.
Is anybody else loving Usagi's expression here? Well I guess it's just me,
because Rei isn't all that interested. In fact, returning to her original
manga and Sailor Moon R/S/SuperS/Sailor StarS roots, Rei is back to picking
on Usagi.
WOW!! Harsh much? Where did this even come from, you guys? Usagi literally
said NOTHING to provoke this!
Oh hey! Remember a little while ago I told you to remember the shot of Haruka
at the track? Well there it is, in the new magazine!
Yes DiC fans. They actually do shop at the mall again. Just like in the
1990's. ♥
But just as some Mugen girls walk by, Usagi's brooch starts flashing.
A dark egg comes from the sky and implants itself into one of the girls,
turning her into the most SCARY ASS MONSTER we've seen in a long time!!
Nope, fuck this!
Totally forgetting that their secret identities are supposed to be… um… a
SECRET, Mamoru yells at Usagi to transform while he escorts Naru and Umino
away.
But it's chill. We're cool like dat.
Everyone has NEW transformations that combine the R and last season
transformations, while Moon's borrows from S but is largely brand new. And
for the first time ever, Jupiter's ass is not seen. (Sorry perverts. There's
always Disturbing
Facts for you.) But the silhouettes are more revealing.
Each girl gives their speech before battle.
The monster is uninspired, but as he lunges, Sailor Mercury finds that the
human girl is still alive inside of the monster, turning this into a rescue
mission.
Sailor Mars acts first, using Aku Ryu Tai San
This has no effect, so Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter decide to handle this
themselves. Venus hits first with Wink Chain Sword.
This holds the Reversion steady while Sailor Jupiter kills him with the most
bad ass Jupiter Coconut Cyclone ever!
The monster dies and the egg inside the girl evaporates as Sailor Jupiter
calls on the on-lookers to call an ambulance.
Sailor Venus looks around, knowing someone other than a regular civilian was
watching, but she can't figure out who.
Back at Crown's basement, Luna and Artemis try to find more information, but
the girls figure out by themselves that Mugen is linked with the Reversions,
they're creepy, suspicious and need to be checked out.
Oh my God, I LOVE this so much!! If took them forever to get this far in
Sailormoon S! Couldn't you just hug them? Well now we wait for part two.
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BONUS!!
The new design is all about coming full circle for
Toei Animation, and Magical Girl/Shoujo fans are eating this up. For
starters, the new drawings are overseen by the same staff responsible for
PreCure/Pretty Cure, the Toei-made meta-series that was meant to replace
Sailor Moon after Sailor StarS ended in 1997. Funny thing is, every other
season of Pretty Cure/PreCure has had characters with items, eyes and hair
like several Sailor Moon characters, and now Sailor Moon is styled to look
like her replacements. The director from this season worked on DokiDoki
PreCure and Suite PreCure, both of which bear striking similarities to this
episode.
 
But of course the BIG thing
is Haruka and Michiru's rocking new ending. Aside from having a kick-ass new
song, the ending sequence where the girls are caressing each other over a bed
of roses comes from Utena. And now for a story.
 
Once upon a time, Kunihiko Ikuhara was working on Sailor Moon SuperS though
a company called Be-Papas, a small company Toei was using to help with the
in-between cels for SuperS. Ikuhara also helped write several episodes
between S and SuperS and was in line to work on a SuperS movie. After
development was complete on the SuperS special, which has a segment where
Michiru and Haruka have to fight off a rogue Remliss, Ikuhara got an idea for
a movie about the two girls in a land full of roses, inspired by Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles anime and manga
series. There would have been two versions of Pegasus (or two relatives for
Helios if we're going to be direct here) and the plot would center around
Michiru being kidnapped, put into a deep sleep and Haruka having to save her
before the end of the world. Concept ideas were trippy, psychedelic and
WEIRD. While Toei kept the "Sleeping Beauty" concept for Chibiusa's
kidnapping in the final script, they rejected every last thing Ikuhara
suggested. So he formed his own team with budding Shoujo manga-ka Chiho Saito ~ also from Be-Papas ~ and they created
Utena. Minus the extra Pegasus twins, the entire rejected story ended up
being turned into the Utena movie, but with Haruka and Michiru replaced with
all new characters. 20 years later, Toei pays homage to Utena by drawing a
new ending for Haruka and Michiru, totally copying the iconic image, as if to
say "Hey Ikuhara-san? Remember when we said your idea was shitty 20
years ago? Our bad!"
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First
time series returns to an all hand-drawn format. First apperance of Haruka,
Michiru, Master Pharoh 90, Kaolinite, Hotaru and Mugen High students. First
time usagi uses Moon Cosmic Power. First time Venus uses Wink Chain Sword.
The
new opening features Chibiusa, Usagi and Hotaru nude!
Act
27
Follow
me back to the Battle Record!
Follow
me to the next episode!
Follow
me back to the last episode!
Follow me back to Moon Sisters!