Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth 1, review

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - The Witches 6

The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal aired on Japanese TV Monday May 30th at 11pm Japan Standard Time. Shortly afterwards, starting at 10:30am Eastern Time, it was available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth, has Chibiusa dead and the gang reluctantly fighting to save her.

First off we have a new opening theme. Once again it’s In Love With the New Moon but this time sung by Momoiro Clover Z. They sang Moon Pride, the opening theme for the first two story arcs. This version is fine but I prefer the first version by Etsuko Yakushimaru. Not sure I have much else to say about that. Momoiro Clover Z seems like a perfectly mediocre J-Pop band.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Chibiusa is dead

Chibiusa is dead. The day fans have been waiting for since the 90s is here! With her soul ripped out, Chibiusa’s body dies. The doctor announces quite clearly that she went through cardiac arrest and then passed away. All hope is not lost though, as Mamoru is able to keep her alive through some sort of healing touch. It’s as if he’s able to keep her blood pulsing with his heart which only makes sense considering he has magic healing powers. In the manga he mentions that her body is so small that supporting her is easy, but in Sailor Moon Crystal we get the impression that this is draining on him.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Usagi and Chibiusa

Usagi is heartbroken by this, and really feels as if Chibiusa is dead. What option is there to save her? Well they just need to kill Hotaru! Actually they don’t have to kill anyone, they just need need to defeat Mistress 9. Not every enemy needs to be killed when they’re defeated! Oh right this is the manga version where Sailor Moon kills pretty much anyone. Original anime Sailor Moon seems to win over and heal more villains. Anyway the trolley problem is a bit different now. Instead of kill Hotaru vs. the world it’s Hotaru vs. Chibiusa vs. the world. And now the trolley has run over Chibiusa and is heading towards the world and pulling the lever will make it roll back in time, bringing Chibiusa back to life and then killing Hotaru. I’m not sure I want to attempt to illustrate that. So much to say despite hesitation everyone, including Mamoru, supports the idea of moving forward and trying to get Chibiusa’s soul back.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Hotaru stuck in some vines

The whole thorn thing seems to be new to Sailor Moon Crystal. There are thorns around the building at Mugen Academy which makes it seem something like when the Makaiju grew all over the apartment building in Sailor Moon R. There are thorns and roses all around the lobby. What’s more Hotaru’s soul, which we see occasionally inside of Mistress 9, is held down by thorns. The manga doesn’t have this level of thorniness, and Hotaru is just seen sort of floating around in nothingness. This is a sort of physical visualization of the way she’s restricted inside of Mistress 9. All this really means is that Hotaru is still alive, so there’s still hope.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Eudial seduces Sailor Mars

The Witches 5 return and now there are 6. Everyone seems to be getting a dream of something they would like. Sailor Mars sees a version of Eudial which pretty much just want to make out with her. She pins her down holding her hand and seems to want to kiss her. Did I ever mention that Eudial is my favourite of the Witches 5 and that Sailor Mars is my favourite Sailor Guardian? I’m totally shipping these two. The rest of the gang are presented with predictable things. Sailor Mercury sees a powerful artificial intelligence supercomputer, which is cool but probably nothing compared to the supercomputer on the Moon which has the consciousness of Queen Serenity uploaded to it. Sailor Venus holds a microphone for a while but doesn’t actually sing, which is disappointing. Sailor Jupiter likes flowers. The recurring theme is making them all want to quit being Sailor Guardians.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Chibiusa tries to kill Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon gets a whopper of a dream. Chibiusa tries to choke and kill her! This is fake, unlike the time Chibiusa tried to shoot her in the head! This really is a great episode for Chibiusa haters! Sailor Moon doesn’t buy it though.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Kaolinite is a monster

Turns out Kaolinite is actually a monster! This is not in the manga and new to Sailor Moon Crystal. She transforms into this weird kind of Daimon who the Sailor Guardians quickly dispose of. We see a couple of new attacks with Sailor Neptune’s Submarine Reflection, which is awesome, and Sailor Pluto’s Chronos Typhoon, which is completely disappointing.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - The Silver Crystal of the future

To wrap up the episode Mistress 9 eats the Chibiusa’s Silver Crystal! How terrible! Does she even know that Chibiusa’s soul is in there? Good news for Hotaru though. She’ll have some company inside of Mistress 9.

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 ending theme - Mamoru in a wet shirt

Next is the new ending theme, Only Eternity Brings the Two Together, sung by Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. This ending theme contains wet shirt Mamoru which I find looks like something out Yaoi fan art. I guess some readers will appreciate this!

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 35 Preview - Hotaru protecting Chibiusa

Next week is Sailor Moon Crystal Act 35, Infinity 9 – Infinite Labyrinth 2. Mistress 9 has reunited Chibiusa and Hotaru inside her being. Isn’t that great! Even in death these two good friends can hang around together! We’ll also see naked Usagi in this episode if that’s something that interests you.

Keep reading for more images of this episode and the next episode preview for Act 35.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Infinity 8 - Infinite Labyrinth 1

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - The cats mourn the death of Chibiusa

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Sailor Moon and Uranus

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Mistress 9

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Building covered in vines

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Wax versions of the Witches 5

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Cyrprine and Ptilol

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - AI Supercomputer

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Sailor Venus sings

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Sailor Jupiter loves flowers

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Sailor Guardians in wax

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Submarine reflection

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34 - Kaolinite is a monster

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 ending theme - Tuxedo Mask

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 ending theme - Tuxedo Mask

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 35 Preview - Usagi

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 35 Preview - Mistress 9

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52 thoughts on “Sailor Moon Crystal Act 34, Infinity 8 – Infinite Labyrinth 1, review

  1. I enjoyed the episode as a whole, but the subtitles were a mess. I suppose it’s to be expected since the episodes are being uploaded only 30 minutes after airing in Japan. I wish they’d take some extra time to proofread lol. “I stop you!” “We have to get Chibiusa’s soul back sooner she dies.”

    I found it interesting how the Inner Senshi saw what they wanted most, but Sailor Moon saw her worst fears. I’m just surprised that she was the only one who tried to break out of the spell. As usual, the Inners are useless haha.

    I liked the ending song itself, but seeing Tux dance in and out of the spotlight was hilariously weird. Who comes up with this stuff?

  2. I liked this episode despite subtitle issues, but I thought that the doctor at the beginning of the episode should’ve at least tried to revive Chibiusa. Unless that kid’s got a DNR (not likely, considering her age), they should’ve at least broken out the paddles and tried to shock her heartbeat back. And after her “death”, did anybody in the hospital actually say a word to Mamoru about taking a corpse out without a body bag, let alone permission to take the body out?

    And remind me, what happened to Kaolinite in the manga? It’s been a couple of years, so I don’t really remember. Did she just use dark magic and Sailor Moon killed her? Or is my memory really that bad?

  3. You didn’t mention the animation quality being the worst we’ve seen this season! A lot of odd faces, specially in the hospital scene and most of mamo as well. Not to mention in the scene where Usagi runs to hug Uranus, you can see her hand literally going through Uranus’ arm if you pause it right. In the manga Kaolinite also transforms into a daimon, but it’s killed pretty much instantly, at least here in Crystal they let her put up a fight substaining the Inners’ attacks. I really hope the animation gets corrected and improved in the home video releases like previous season. If not, it will be very disappointing.

  4. I am actually waiting for Hotaru and Chibiusa to be in the nude but I as per the screencap, it will be a modest scene.

  5. I’ll always be bitter that we didn’t get to see Eudial’s daimon form (which vaguely resembles Medusa) in Crystal, but at least we got to see Tellu and Kaolinite’s daimon forms (not that we can easily tell what either of them are supposed to be in the manga. Crystal did a decent job of filling in the details we couldn’t make out). What do you suppose would be the daimon forms for Mimete, Viluy, and Cyprine/Ptilol?

    • Yeah, Eudial’s looked dope and honestly the best. Telu’s was cool and fitting, decently scary, but Kaolinite’s was trash, absolute trash. She looked fucking dumb with her tongue sticking out like that, and the inconsistency or red hair then white hair, seemed lazy.

      On a side note, I think it’s hilarious that they gave her the subtitles of “Take this” when she shoots out the laser out of her eyes, cause she literally does not speak lol instead she just makes a daimon noise. Was the actor supposed to say something then or?

      I honestly wished we would have seen Kaolinite in action, in her bad bitch form. At least something, shit!

      • I think the change in Daimon-Kaolinite’s coloring is the result of a visual effect they put in for Rainbow Moon Heartache, rather than an actual error.

        You can barely hear it, but she is saying “Kurae!” (or however it’s written) when she shoots the eye beams. Plus it can be assumed Toei is using the script when they write the subtitles.

        I do agree that I wish we saw her in action more before she transformed. Ah well.

  6. You know what really fucking bugs me? The animation of Sailor Neptune’s hair when she shoots out Submarine Reflection. It gets smaller when she shoots. It bugs the fuck outta me. Ok, I’m done. Nice review sir.

    Also, is Cyprine level 999 because she has Ptilol’s energy/level inside of her, meaning is Cyrpine truly level 499.5? Regardless, she’s still stronger than Telu level 440, so when Cyprine makes those allegations and remarks of being the strongest of Witches 5, she was not lying huh?

  7. Another thing! No one has caught or mentioned this at all, and trust me, I watch most of the Youtube reactors and/or reviewers out there, I read a lot of the reviews, and not a single soul mentioned how Kaolinite’s fucking hair turned fucking white when she was about to die via Rainbow Moon Heartache. Boom! No one caught this, seriously? She had red hair human and daimon form, and only that scene (which is reference above on the blog, last picture) shows her with white hair. Fucking really, Toei? This scares me for future episodes.

    • I think Kaolinite’s hair being white in that particular scene must have been because of the bright shinning light/flash that comes from Sailor Moon’s attack going towards her.

    • I agree with Mikebscuz i noticed that to and i thought that its because of the brightnes and maybe they wanted to make her look dramatic cuz look how in detailed shes drawed when shes before sailormoon kills her you and you can see how bright is sailormoons attack because of kaolinites bodys reflection so i think because of the brightnes and that she looks much cooler(or should i say much creepier)with white and i think i like that

      • I am so sorry for my bad writting but my phone keeps changing the words that i write and i dont know how to fix this shit so if anybody knows how to fix this please tell me cuz im sick of it

  8. Kaori was actually the real Dr Tomoe’s assisstant before the invasion of the Death Busters and actually a decent person, her origin of being a daimon ist new.

  9. This episode was okay. Animation quality and model design quality has not improved since last episode. Neptune’s hair length is very inconsistent especially with the previous episode which made it very long and here her hair is very long again. I wish the outers would wear something different in their civilian clothes. They could have drawn something different. Uranus is always wearing the leather blazer, Pluto always looks like she is working in a office, and Neptune always looks like she’s going to play tennis. At least the inner se shi got to wear hoodies and change up their civilian outfits. More importantly what is with the doctor or even the hospital just letting usagi and mamoru take chibiusa home when she is basically dead? It is not realistic I mean it happened in the manga which most of the time doesn’t make sense. Also no police or people in Tokyo care that the Mugen school is wrapped in some weird vines or whatever apparently.

    I have to say I wish we got to see Pluto transform. I know it never happened in the manga, but with Chronos Typhoon basically being a redraw of dead scream I would have enjoyed pluto’s transformation. The Chronos typhoon was not as epic as submarine reflection. The attack animation didn’t look that different from dead scream and the effect it had was very bland. This is why I would have liked them using The outer soldiers’ other attacks deep submerge and etc. I know hey used the wind from dead scream because I read some where that is the wind of the underworld in Japanese culture or something, but using a redraw animation of dead scream and not even bothering to come up with something new is what is disappointing.

    The battle was okay, not bad. Too bad not enough of the outer soldiers fighting and not enough fight scenes in general. Yet again rainbow moon heart ache took out the enemy and the attack is already boring to see since it shares the same animation as spiral moon heart attack.

    • Regarding Neptune’s hair from previous episode – Neptune had long hair in the Silver Milenium flashbacks because she was 22 at the time which is the older a Sailor Senshi can get, versus real time we see in the Infinity arc, she is 16. I’m saying this because she had normal length hair during he apartment scene and the rooftop and it was only extremely long during the flashback.

      I completely agree with the outfits. While Haruka’s is super dope, it’s honestly overdone. It’s been what 3-4 days? Did she not shower or change? Same with the other two girls. While I love Haruka’s and Setsuna’s design, I hate Michiru’s. It looked lazy and blah.

  10. Awful episode. Once again Crystal manages to make the poor Inners look like worthless jokes. Even their attacks have long since stopped doing anything to the enemy.

    And once again it’s Usagi’s beloved Mamoru who breaks her out of the spell. While her so called ‘friends’ just give up on her with zero resistance. Not to mention how utterly shallow the temptations where, (especially Makoto’s).
    All just so the Outers could swoop in and look badass.

    How anyone can call this vomit good just baffles me. Everything is just so half-baked and lazily executed.

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