Well isn’t this just confusing. The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, the 28th episode, is also called Act 27. Sailor Moon Crystal Act 27, Infinity 1 – Premonition – Second Part, is now available on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. This episode covers the second part of the manga chapter which is Act 27, and so in order to keep the numbering for future episodes, Act 27 is used for both parts. This will be a bit confusing in the future as the Act number for every episode will not accurately reflect how many episodes have been released to date. Crunchyroll, Hulu and Neon Alley all refer to it as Episode 28 – Act 27 … I will continue to refer to episodes as “Act XX” so it will be Act 28 next week, even though this is the 29th episode and some services may use 29 to refer to it.
Since this episode covers half an Act of the manga, the pacing is a bit off, but with two monster attacks in that original story it actually works decently. Overall this was another great episode full of lovely animation. I enjoy all of the cute animation things they’ve included which have super deformed characters and silly little things. These are often unrealistic such as Usagi pulling a hammer out of hammer space or Sailor Chibi Moon breaking the forth wall by blowing away a balloon which Sailor Moon pops up in.
There’s a massive Luna book in the Tsukino living room. What’s that about? I guess if I saw a book with a picture of a cat that looked just like mine on it I might buy it but I have a sort of generic looking black cat who is also named Luna. Coincidence? Of course not I named the cat after the Sailor Moon character.
A big change this week is this new fancy communicator that Mamoru has but absolutely refuses to use. First we see Mamoru on this ancient assed phone talking about his communicator, but not using it. It’s odd enough to see a man of Mamoru’s age and lack of family attachments not using a cell phone, but having him use a land line to refer to his communicator is absolutely absurd. Are there limited minutes on this thing? I don’t think it’s using the cell service of Tokyo. Pretty sure it’s being relayed through the massive super computer hidden under the arcade. Pretty sure these things can be used to do point to point or conference type calls as much as needed. Mamoru has no one in his home and given his willingness to divulge secret identities last week, it’s hardly a security concern to use the communicator which he’s openly wearing on his wrist as it’s designed for. In reality in 2016 he should have a cell phone and the communicators are not really something that needs to exist, but with this being such a faithful adaptation of the manga it’s not simply a case of upgrading a disk to a CD and a tape to a DVD when things are so closely tied into the story. This isn’t the live action series which beautifully adapted period relevant cell phone technology to suit the story after all. So Mamoru uses a lame phone and doesn’t really use his communicator like he should.
We get a decent look at the Witches 5 this week. They aren’t really supposed to be in it as much as they are. In the manga they don’t show up at the battle but then they needed to stretch out the battle with something. They’re supposed to show up one at a time starting with Eudial in the next Act. That seems to still be happening. Cyprine is shown but Ptilol is not. This may be because there are 6 members of the Witches 5 and showing them all makes their name seem stupid.
Chibiusa heads to the amusement park with her friends. Mamoru accompanies her and brings Asanuma along and how in love is this guy with Mamoru? Also in attendance are Chibiusa’s friends who are all basically slightly younger versions of characters we’ve seen elsewhere in the series. Kyuusuke, who we’ve seen before, is basically a small version of Mamoru. Chibiusa’s relationship with him isn’t that weird considering she’s totally made out with the fully adult version of her actual father. The Umino looking kid is Sorano. He also looks like Amano from the Sailor V comic. Speaking of originality, his name, Sorano, is like Hikaru Sorano, Minako’s Ami looking friend from Sailor V. I’m not sure what that other kid’s name is but he looks like a tiny Asanuma. Maybe he’s totally in love with Kyuusuke. Why not? I’m shipping those two.
Chibiusa loses her hat. This is a big deal because Ikuko Mama, who’s pretty much her 3rd most important mom, gave it to her. This hat travels really far, behind a massive building, and so far that Mamoru can’t follow. Chibiusa runs after it and Mamoru leaves immediately afterwards, but never quite manages to catch up. More than anyone needs to say about that later.
Usagi transforms into a student from Mugen Academy. Great plan! This school is huge, having student from all levels and with 60 floors! Somehow though she gets called out by a student that doesn’t recognize her. She must be really good with faces. Mugen Academy is a new school, but somehow one that has produced a great number of celebrities. I expect it didn’t actually spring up between seasons but I feel it can’t have produced that many important graduates in such a short time. The Daimon this week is a cat that really doesn’t seem to care about being turned into a monster. Classic cat!
Cue the transformation sequences. We did this last week. Stock footage has its cost savings purpose and when used properly it can look good and not be annoying. This week’s purely stock footage transformations, most of which we saw last week, ran from 13:55 to 18:22. That’s four and a half minutes of transforming and posing. The show is 24 minutes long with a minute long opening and ending. We don’t have time for this. This is excessive. I like what the new episodes are doing and the love improved animation but this is one aspect which I did not appreciate and I hope it is improved in the future. New here is only Sailor Chibi Moon’s transformation sequence which is cool if not kind of like the rest. She does a somewhat humorous “you have a small penis” pose with her fingers which I find funny but, given the wide variety of perversion on the Internet, I’m sure will actually be appreciated by someone out there.
Sailor Neptune and Uranus appear in this episode as cardboard cutouts. I felt like I was looking at frames of the manga. I get that they don’t really do much in this fight but they are so briefly shown in flashes that it’s a bit disappointing. Sailor Uranus in a mask and cape is cool though. Her gender is still ambiguous and Usagi seems to recognize her.
Hotaru is all over this episode. She doesn’t do a ton but it’s nice to see her and her wicked new hair cut. She seems to have changed the most of the new characters with just this. She seems to immediately discover everyone’s secret identities by asking “Who the hell are you?” and then Sailor Chibi Moon seems to think there’s no more reason to hide things. A funny exchange. Naturally we’ll be seeing a lot more of her as this season goes on because it’s not the original anime which downplayed everything about this character.
Enter Mamoru. Remember this guy? Yeah he just fails on every level in this episode. He ran after Chibiusa and her hat. Chibiusa is a child. He’s a grown man! He jogged in the original anime. This guy can’t keep up with a child and the wind. He even had an extra four and a half minutes to catch up while everyone was transforming and posing for the cat Daimon that didn’t really care about anything. If only Mamoru had some way to find out where everyone was! Oh right, he very specifically mentioned his communicator as a tool to keep in touch with Usagi at this exact time and he’s just not using it! Does this fossil from the 90s need a land line to stay in touch with his girlfriend? Maybe the girls should have started a fire and sent out some smoke signals so that Mamoru can keep up!
Next week is Act 28, Infinity 2 – Ripples, which is a confusing name for the 29th episode and 3rd part of the Infinity Arc but here we are. This episode will air next Monday, April 18th, and be available to stream at 10:30am Easter Time. The gang head out to a sort of school retreat by students of Mugen Academy where Eudial of the Witches 5, posing as a student, gets up to no good. She’s the paired Rei villain of this story arc, so it becomes a Rei episode! Since Act 27 Part 2 actually went a bit into the story of Act 28 it’s hard to tell where exactly this one will end. It should be easy enough to just wrap up the episode where the manga chapter does.
Good job if you made it this far. My review seems a bit more unhinged than usual this week. Keep reading for more screenshots from this episode and the next episode preview for Act 28.
Possibly Related Posts
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Sailor Moon Crystal Act 27, Infinity 1 – Premonition – First Part, review -
Sailor Moon Crystal Act 28, Infinity 1 – Premonition – The 2nd Part, will be available April 11th at 10:30am Eastern Time -
Sailor Moon Crystal Act 27, Infinity 1 – Premonition, will be released Monday April 4th! -
The Infinity arc of Sailor Moon Crystal will begin this April -
The Infinity Arc of Sailor Moon Crystal will have more than one episode per manga chapter
great review also i take it there be releasing a episode out one a week also cant remember this is sailor moon super right????
She will be Super later in the season. Yes the next episode is Monday. Good point I will make a note on the post.
I personally liked the review, especially Chibi-usa’s transformation (finally she has a proper one!). Though how is there a small penis joke? Maybe I’m just naive.
Yeah, Mamoru took way too long finding Chibiusa (who should’ve told him anyway about the hat so they could look together, because that’s the safe thing to do!), but this is an anime! Some things don’t make sense. If this was Fairy Tail, you probably wouldn’t question a thing, would you?
Probably. I’m picky like that…
I’m pretty sure she just touched her face, lol, and I guess the hand position could be imagined as that? Don’t know. I didn’t notice.
Yeah, she just touched her voice or we are just a little bit playful (spell green minded)
So maybe Usagi and Rei didn’t argue in this anime, but she and Chibiusa still do like they did in the original.
Like they do in the manga. Crystal is based off the manga, not the original anime. I don’t know why this is such a difficult concept.
You really need some dick or a lasagna. Every post you’ve ever made in this blog is either negative, rude, sarcastic, or combative.
… I’d like some dick and lasagna, if that’s cool.
Yes. Your total comes out to 53.82 (before tax) thank you.
I’ve got plenty of dick on hand, thanks, but it’s cute that you go right to that. I simply must not be getting enough sex if I’m not playing the “aww, we’re all just one fandom family” game.
I’m negative, rude, and sarcastic. What a terrible shame.
“I’ve got plenty of dick on hand…”
LOL.
John — Luke Yannuzzi is the guy who kept talking about two-piece swimsuits OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I think rudeness, negativity, and sarcasm are perfectly acceptable in this case. ♥
I’m really frustrated by the amount of time they spent on transformations and “I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for…” monologues. They could have used that time to further the plot or included some additional character development, but no. Four minutes wasted on the same footage we saw last week. The only reason I can come up with for them to do this is that they still needed to show Chibiusa’s transformation and monologue and it would have looked weird if they showed HER full transformation without showing everyone else’s too. I hope that, now that we’ve seen everyone’s full transformation sequences, they can shorten them for future episodes. As is, I feel like I got cheated out of half an episode. :/
I was also annoyed by the full transformations and speeches. They’re neat and all, but they take up too much time and, given that this is the second part of a two parter than already showed the same damn transformation/speech, it’s unnecessarily repetitive.
I compleatly agree althought the stock footage like atacks did bother me as well.
Yeah, The full transformation scenes is the only negative point of this episode.
If they plan to keep doing this in the future I hope they will follow the classic way and make the 4 senshi’s transformation into four panels scene.
I think the reason they showed them all again was because they needed to fill the timeslot. Everything, starting with Moon Spiral Heart Attack is actually the beginning of Act 28 in the manga.
I totally agree with you, guys… These four or five minutes of emptiness were such an annoying moment ! I try not to imagine what it will be when Pluto, Neptune and Uranus will enter the team…
But at least, let’s have fun with that
:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a4/8b/27/a48b27eb3980500111e652d350a75b89.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/bb/3a/36/bb3a360ce7558424c22f880615cd8266.jpg
But the rest of the episode was very cool
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The new transformations and speeches are great. I love them. And maybe it’s because I watched them a bazillion times between episodes, but I was pretty annoyed that they showed them all in full and wasted so much time.
Well, at least in most episodes after this the senshi are separated somewhat so they won’t be doing this anymore until near the end, I think.
I want to see Mars transform again with her awesome theme song from season 1. That song is the best.
As for cellphones, I can understand Mamoru not liking them. They are annoying…but they exist in this world…Michiru has one and the wrist band…I loved it…but use it, Mamoru!
He whines about being useless then takes literally all day to find his daughter even though he knows where she is.
Also, apparently Mugen is a giant building since just by running a bit around one side it went from noon to about 8-9pm for everyone.
“Also, apparently Mugen is a giant building since just by running a bit around one side it went from noon to about 8-9pm for everyone.”
LOL. Reading this sentence made my day, thank you
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You know Mamo-chan is not like the other people around him… they use cellphones, while he uses gemstones to communicate with his dead friends Ô_ô . So, I think we should forgive him, his psychological traumas made him act weird.
We talked about the waste of time for the transformations and speeches just above (see Mayuri’s post). You should see the pictures I posted, haha
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“So, I think we should forgive him, his psychological traumas made him act weird.”, sorry, my English is terrible here…
I wanted to write : “So I think we should forgive him, he must be acting weirdly because of all his psychological traumas.”
Actually, both are fine, Aurelia. I always forget English isn’t your first language until you mention it
Thank you Ashley for your clarifications, I couldn’t believe the first one was right, lol.
And I think I must take your words as a compliment
. But actually I still have to do a lot of efforts if I want to be totally bilingual in English, someday… maybe 
.
While the blog is detailed and interesting to read, it’s also extremely sad. Granted that most of the Sailor Moon are grown men and women (20s – 30) as we were all around 8 – 15 years old when the original show and manga came out, shit is being over analyzed. This is not a CSI Government tv show. This is an anime, a cartoon, a fucking kid’s shows. Over analyzing shit trying to find reasoning when most of the time there isn’t a logical explanation and it’s just shit to create a plot, it’s honestly pathetic. If you’re just having fun with it and cracking jokes, cool; but if you’re truly trying to find a logical explanation…
You sure went out of your way to complain a lot, Sparky. And with such seeming emotion, too. How odd.
Sounds to me like you are the one being over analytical, we’re just having fun…you are always so negative on here.
Did you want some of that lasagna and dick now, or later?
Lmao!
This is the guy who told another poster “You really need some dick or a lasagna. Every post you’ve ever made in this blog is either negative, rude, sarcastic, or combative.” Maybe he needs some dick lasagna, too, and he was just speaking from experience?
I really enjoy your reviews, great job
U r reading my mind I also think that the transformations and speeches are casting of time.
And I also find interesting they are not following the manga chapters exactly and that they are making their own beginnings and endings… I know it is only a speculation, but I think it is because they don’t want to add the “few weeks later” part of the last Infinity Arc manga chapter into the final episode so the Infinite Arc and Dream Arc won’t be connected directly
That might be interesting!
That actually scares me. To me that makes perfect sense and they might not be planning to do the Dream arc right away.
Anime is entirely different from Cartoons. They are not even on the same level. For the less knowledgeable, you can read here: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Anime_vs_Cartoon
Anime means “cartoon”. It’s a Japanese word used in Japanese to refer to cartoons. (All cartoons. No matter what they look like or where they were made.) In English we say “cartoon”. I don’t call an email a “courriel” just because it was written in French.
Also, the page you linked to illustrates the alleged difference between “anime” and “cartoon” by starting with a picture showing still images drawn on paper…. A still image drawn on paper that isn’t part of an animated sequence cannot be “anime”, even by the definition that page itself uses. hehe ♥
4 minutes did not pass while they all transformed. For us it was 4 minutes and some but for them it was only a few seconds. Time in the episode doesn’t tie in with real life. Like for example on the anime Dragon Ball Z, when Goku’s fighting Frieza on planet Namek it’s said the planet will blow up in 5 minutes, yet it takes tons of episodes after that’s said before the planet blows up.
That always drives me insane in anime when they do that! One Pice is also pretty notorious for it… “We have 10 seconds until the bomb goes off!” Three 23 minute episodes later…. “Now we only have 5 seconds! Oh my gosh, it’s taking me 20 seconds to say this, but we only have 5!!!”
But yeah, I know what you mean, on Sailor Moon I imagine they are all transforming simultaneously like they did in the Super S movie and it also probably happens almost instantaneously…sort of in an alternate space maybe.
The speeches though…I love them but was it really necessary to do that for a mindless monster?
I totally agree with you…
Never watched One Piece but it seems to be a figure of speech. Practice what you preach before calling people negative. Now here’s so dicksagna.
Please don’t confuse making fun of silly parts of an anime with personal attacks on people…there really isn’t much comparison to be found.
And you can keep your genital pasta since that seems to be your thing.
The worst example is on DBZ when they kept saying the planet Namek was going to blow up in five minutes and then it was still there 30 episodes later.
One of the ’90s S episodes has one character flash back to seeing another character transform, and it just looks like a brief blinding flash of light a la the ’70s “Wonder Woman” series.
Stephanie, he was making a joke. ♥ But over four minutes DID pass for people who watched the episode, and I think most people would agree that’s ridiculous.
If am the monster, I would have interrupted all that speeches and destroyed them all. LOL
That’s why I posted this picture yesterday
. Enjoy ! I love them so much so I post them again…
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/bb/3a/36/bb3a360ce7558424c22f880615cd8266.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a4/8b/27/a48b27eb3980500111e652d350a75b89.jpg
Is that Tuxedo Mask sitting around backstage during lots of the musicals waiting for his part to come up? Yup, I think it is.
Me too. XD But maybe it is a fan of speeches too…or was polite.
It would be really funny if there is a super deformed animation of the daimon listening to their speeches. ROFL
Look at the pictures Aurelia posted. The monsters don’t interrupt them during those parts because they’re busy trying to get a glimpse up their skirts. ♥
This does nothing for me, but I know some people *cough have a real hard on for this….. http://goboiano.com/list/4253-pokemon-x-sailor-moon-mashup-is-the-crossover-you-wish-was-real
That’s so cute!! I love the choices for Pokemon.
But you do know we’ll never hear the end of this now…
I love the sound of it. And I’m gonna make sure there will be a Pokemon/Sailor Moon anime crossover special to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Pokemon game.
I have cast suggestions for the Japanese cast:
Kotono Mitsuishi as Sailor Moon
Aya Hisakawa as Sailor Mercury
Michie Tomizawa as Sailor Mars
Emi Shinohara as Sailor Jupiter
Rica Fukami as Sailor Venus
Toru Furuya as Tuxedo Mask
Kae Araki as Sailor Chibi Moon
Keiko Han as Luna
Yasuhiro Takato as Artemis
Rica Matsumoto as Ash Ketchum
Mayumi Iizuka as Misty
Yuji Ueda as Brock
Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Megumi Hayashibara as Jessie
Shinichiro Miki as James
Inuko Inuyama as Meowth
And Sailor Moon will definitely be holding Ash Ketchum in her arms. I guarantee it.
I also have English cast suggestions for the Pokemon/Sailor Moon anime crossover special:
Stephanie Sheh as Sailor Moon
Kate Higgins as Sailor Mercury
Cristina Valenzuela as Sailor Mars
Amanda Celine Miller as Sailor Jupiter
Cherami Leigh as Sailor Venus
Robbie Daymond as Tuxedo Mask
Sandy Fox as Sailor Chibi Moon
Michelle Ruff as Luna
Johnny Yong Bosch as Artemis
Veronica Taylor as Ash Ketchum (hopefully)
Rachael Lillis as Misty, and Jessie (hopefully)
Eric Stuart as Brock, and Brock (hopefully)
Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Carter Cathcart as Meowth (since Maddie Blaustein passed away in 2008).
This was such a great episode. I am so excited for Monday.. I do however watch this at work. ^_^
In the next episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3, I wonder besides act 16 if Rei, Makoto, or Minako will wear two-piece swimsuits? And anyone don’t comment me about this.
If you don’t want replies, why post it?
Because I’m curious. That’s why.
LMMFAO.
This episode was great! I didn’t watch the whole thing but bits of it as usual but it was like the first episode of this season. Now there are some messed up frames I saw, but that fight scene? Pretty good! In the manga it didn’t exist, so this was an example of them adding to the manga something that adds to the story/character or in this case the battles. The battle was quick and boring in the manga here it is played up and very engaging. Even how they changed how chibi moon got hurt it really made her look like she has grown as a soldier. They also really brought alive the little comedy moments in the manga panels that they didn’t do in season 1 or 2. Not that they actually develop the characters or give them personality but at least it shows emotion from them that was lacking a bit previously. Not s fan of thick lines as open eyes even though they are closed, unless their eyes are actually closed. The hammer out of then air for me was a bit much in the comedy bit and so was chibimoon breathing air to push sailor moon bubble away but the bubble being moved away was kind of funny. I was hoping if they had to reanimate they would reanimate for Mercury “shine Aqua illusion” which is in the same level attack wise as the others or “shine snow illusion” to freeze the enemy. She creates a…mist? After two upgrades they decide Mercury’s best decision was to blind the daimon?
The awesomeness of act 27 being two parts is what leads me to really believe they needed double or triple the amount of episodes per season/story arc. I am a bit worried that the next few episodes won’t be able to keep up with how well executed these two episodes of act 27 have been. Sure it doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but with them constantly reusing the stock footage that is cutting into the time for the episode. Also it doesn’t give them much opportunity to add things to crystal that makes the episode more developed than the manga like the battle scenes or the witches 5 in this episode. I was so looking forward to character and story development when it was rumored to be 26 episodes this season or perhaps for each story arc moving forward. I guess that would be unfair to the other seasons/story arcs of crystal since they didn’t do that to begin with, but it worries me will they be able to deliver in the episodes past these two. Now the next episode gets the benefit of having about ten pages or so already animated in this episode, but will it be that easy moving forward? I guess the real test is episode 4 or 5 or 6 depending on where they decide to end the episode next week.
The biggest issue for me is plot holes I felt they should have fixed that was badly done in the manga and sometimes in the 90’s anime is them transforming in front of people. Sailor moon is scared hotaru will find out their identity when she transformed right in front of the arcade right on the street. They didn’t even try to transform in the alley or something. Then there is the fact of the police never trying to see what is wrong with the monsters or help people or news reporters reporting on the situation. Even more ridiculous is how most people seem don’t seem worried at all that monsters are roaming and there have been several students who got turned into monsters. Except for when the monster appeared on the streets overall the population was a bit too calm in the series even in season 1 and 2. It’s like the whole population is just thinking oh well just death and monsters.
Omg again and again we can read your meaningless words about the amount of episodes… Can u just stop to spam this site? Nobody is interested! There won’t be more episodes, there won’t be more character development, there won’t be more plot development, try to live with that
Love it when someone takes the time to complain that “Nobody is interested!” in the things someone else posts. Welcome to the Internet.
(Unless “Emily” is actually the database that holds the comments for this blog and she’s tired of being filled up with silly messages about a cartoon?)