|
The
episode begins with a recap from last week's show. No new footage was added
there, but the opening has changed.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
So you've probably noticed that with each group of episodes, more of their
attacks made their way into the intro. This week, we got back the pretty
opening music from episode one (of this season) while Sailor Saturn has been
added to the group shot AT LAST.
Sailor Saturn smiles, knowing she is killing Master Pharaoh 90 very, very
slowly. And you know what? Good for her. This is closure for Hotaru.
You know something? For being a creepy, murderous 12 year old…… Sailor Saturn
is actually adorable in this shot.
Everyone has stopped crying, but they're doing that after cry thing. You
know, you've done it. Where you're officially out of tears, but the sniveling
"snif snif uuuugh" feeling is still
there, and you're just quiet for a few minutes? Yeah, it's like the dry heave
of crying. While the other Guardians are covering their faces and looking disappointed
however, Tuxedo Mask is legit traumatized. Like assuming he survives this
episode, he's looking at a few good therapy sessions.
Super Sailor Chibi Moon screams out for her mother again, this time, popping
Super Sailor Moon awake! Her brooch opens, revealing the crystal and the theme
song plays LOUD. That's her mommy alarm BTW.
Sailor Mars orders everyone to look up, as Super Sailor Moon starts using the
Holy Grail at it's fullest, blasting her way out.
The general reaction of most.
The cats zoom in on the monitor to reveal Super Sailor Moon is alive and
well. …… Because nobody could figure out the fact that if she was dead,
Chibiusa would have ceased to exist.
D'awwwwwww Chibiusa-chan missed her mommy.
Everyone whose names are not Tuxedo Mask or Sailor Saturn suddenly become
Super Sailor Guardians too!
Check under your seat!
As the song wraps up, Super Sailor Moon kneels on a rock, still pretty dazed
from having been inside of Master Pharaoh 90 since last episode.
Master Pharaoh 90 turns gray. He realizes he is dying, so he asks Sailor
Saturn to at least return him to the Tau system before he dies.
Sailor Saturn might be enjoying this a little too much……… maybe not.
Sailor Saturn proclaims herself the guide to death as she stabs 90 again from
the inside out.
The girls start to figure out that Sailor Saturn will grant 90's wish of
sending him to the Tau system to die, but they realize she's going with him.
The outers start to feel that nagging sense of "we screwed up"
again.
Sailor Saturn says that she is the Guardian of death, but her job is to clear
away the death to make way for rebirth, and that because Super Sailor Moon
released the Holy Grail inside of 90, it gave her the ability to get him off
this planet and save the Earth. In short, SHE WAS NEVER HERE TO DESTROY EARTH
AT ALL meaning that the Outers royally fucked up, jumped the gun, and almost
killed the very tween that was put here to SAVE this planet from the thing
that would have actually destroyed it. Way to go, guys, your score for doing
the right thing ON TIME is exactly 0-2. Apologize.
Sailor Saturn also says that (shock and awe) Super Sailor Moon is the one who
will initiate the rebirth that's about to happen, and that it's always been
her destiny to rule and protect Earth. If I was Chibiusa right now, I'd be
like "Well duh" at this point.
It's a shame Sailor Pluto never got a regular transformation this season, but
as an apology, she gets a new attack. At the request of Sailor Saturn, she
performs the taboo attack Dark Dome Close, sealing off the Tau System, ending
it's timeline and thus, killing everyone inside.
As 90 and Saturn are sucked up into the time door for the Tau system, Super
Sailor Chibi Moon screams out for Saturn. Saturn smiles, and the two have a
quick montage of Hotaru's friendship with Chibiusa and her spirit's death,
just as the door swallows Saturn.
Similar to the deaths from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon episode 45, we get a
"You is dead" white screen of Saturn.
Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon cry, knowing Saturn and Hotaru
are once again 100% dead. A purple light (Hotaru's soul droppings??) falls
onto Moon's hand, turning her into Neo Queen Serenity.
Neo Queen Serenity uses her wand to erase the destruction of all the
buildings from the last few episodes.
As the sun rises and we realize everybody missed their curfew, Tuxedo Mask
discovers that the Messiah he saw in his dreams was Serenity, and that she
wasn't here to destroy the Earth after all. Not very bright, now is he? Sailor
Moon is the Messiah. I can already hear the Christian coalitions having a
group conniption fit. It's the 90's all over again. Aaaaaah
♥
A cross appears in the sky, then shoots down an energy beam. From that beam,
Super Sailor Chibi Moon hears a baby crying.
LOOK AT THE FLUFFY HEAD!!
The fluffy head turns out to be Hotaru, who has been reincarnated as a little
baby with Mamoru's hair.
To make up for that whole "we tried to kill you" thing, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto decide to adopt Hotaru. Considering that two of the three
are still in high school, I'm impressed.
neo Queen Serenity returns to being Super Sailor Moon again, and the Inners
and Tuxedo Mask greet the Outers again.
Sailor Uranus tells the others that they are moving away to raise Hotaru.
Sailor Pluto promises Super Sailor Chibi Moon that they will meet again very
soon.
Pluto confirms that from now on, everybody is friends, so no more of this
dissention crap.
Neptune tells Chibi Moon that they love her. D'awwww.
She gives Super Sailor Chibi Moon her mirror as a promise that this separation
is temporary.
She promises they will return once Chibiusa is stronger. Hear that? Hop to
it, Pinky!
The Outers leave stylishly as the Inners look to the sky. We also get a new
eyecatch of the Outers.
After the break, we skip ahead a few months. Usagi, Rei, Ami, Minako and
Makoto are all in high school now, and we hear Chibiusa read off a letter to
her parents, promising to come home on April 1st. Ami has a new
tablet BTW.
It's March, so the Cherry Blossom Trees (Sakura) are in full bloom. Chibiusa
also has a new school uniform.
Chibiusa wants to know where Usagi is, so Makoto calls out to her.
Usagi gets everyone into a group shot.
Usagi is thrilled to have made it to high school ON TIME with everybody.
Usagi-chan, we are too. And trust me. Your parents must be thrilled.
Although, Rei-Chan goes to a Catholic school even though she's a Shinto
priestess, so no new uniform for you. Sorry.
Usagi and Makoto are celebrating getting into High School.
But Chibiusa points out that her mother still can't write in Kanji and she
wonders if the Silver Crystal got her mother in.
Rei thinks it was a grading error.
Ami thinks desperation played a role in getting Usagi into high school.
Minako says she's happy to have been transferred to Usagi's class… so she'll
have a friend to fail with. OUCH!!
Rei wants to join the archery club, Makoto is joining cooking, Minako is
joining volleyball and will resume trying to become an idol, Ami is joining
the computer club, while Usagi wants to join the manga club.
She's doing this just to read manga for free.
Mamoru arrives to pick Usagi, Diana and Chibiusa up. (He's officially in
college now.) Usagi reminds everyone that Chibiusa is supposed to go back to
the future.
After everyone says goodbye to Chibiusa, the family goes for a little walk.
Mamoru asks Diana to come back again with Chibiusa, and Usagi asks where
Diana's parents are. Diana informs them that Luna and Artemis can't bring
themselves to say goodbye and are at the command center.
As they walk, a ton of people appear. Mamoru muses that today is the day of a
solar eclipse and that he's happy to see this with Usagi and Chibiusa. A man
hands them each a special visor to watch the moon pass over the sun safely,
and the trio look up.
Suddenly, Chibiusa starts hearing a bell chime.
Usagi can faintly hear it, but not as loud as Chibiusa. They both turn around
and….
We get the old ending??
|
|
BONUS!!
I bet you thought you had to wait until Sailor StarS
to get this shot.
  
Toei has made some
alterations with the girls entering High School. In the 90's anime, we had to
wait an entire season before the girls got their new uniforms, while in
Crystal, the girls have red bows instead of blue, but enter the next grade on
time.
In case you're curious, no, Rei didn't get left back
a year. At the T.A. Private Girls Academy, the middle school and high school
uniforms are the same.
Another note, when this part of the manga first came
over, Tokyopop split it, so that this segment appeared before Act 39. For
years, Moonies thought that this was the start of Act 39, but it's just the
second half of Act 38. Tokyopop split the arc to sell the SuperS graphic
novels earlier, as the SuperS manga was already running in Smile magazine at
the time. We actually didn't start getting the S manga from them until midway
through their run of SuperS. This was all done to coincide with the SuperS
movie, which DiC and Optimum had edited already and was shipping to Cartoon
Network. A similar problem had appeared years earlier when they first cut up
the tankobon (graphic novels) for Sailor Moon,
splitting Act 38 in half, but this was all corrected during the 2000's
reprints through Kodansha.
 
Oh and have you noticed?
Diana's collar is lavender. This is a nod to SuperS. In the original 90's
anime, Diana did not appear until SuperS and when she did debut, she was
lavender. This is because Luna appears purple by this point, and purple and
white make lavender. Luna is a black cat in the original manga, so in both
Crystal and the manga, Diana is grey. Both anime series have her eyes match
Chibiusa's coloring. In SuperS, Diana has red eyes to match Chibiusa's eyes,
while in Crystal, her eyes are more pinkish, matching Chibiusa's overall
color.
Toei didn't specify anything
about the next season at the time this episode aired, but with the Dream Arc
play having posters appear and the SuperS themed figures that started to go
into pre-order in the weeks before the season finale aired, it's a pretty
safe bet that Pegasus is on his way. (Usagi, where is your bow?)
 
Also, for as iconic as this
image was for Sailormoon S, I'm glad the more manga-accurate end of the
battle took place. The girls are in much healthier shape and have a MUCH
better grasp of unity than they ever did here. Also, we don't have that
confusion over sending Hotaru to live with her dad anymore….. because he's
dead. When Setsuna takes her back in Sailor StarS, we are kinda left hanging
on what happens to him after the fact, though the general assumption is that
he is dead, because when Hotaru starts regaining her memories, she starts
crying at an image of him falling. Also, they didn't kill Pluto again. Big
improvement over S. Also, I like Crystal and the manga, where the Outers go
away to raise Hotaru for a bit, rather than have Michiru and Haruka just well…
bitch off I guess.
|
First
apperance of Super Sailor Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and
Pluto. First apperance of Dark Dome Close. First apperance of the Dream Arc
and the new school uniforms. Mamoru officially enters college.
Usagi's
celebration scene is too cute and funny!
Act
38
Follow
me back to the Battle Record!
Follow
me to the Dream Arc!
Follow
me back to the last episode!
Follow me back to Moon Sisters!