Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 Review

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Princess Sailor Guardians

Sailor Moon Eternal Parts 1 and 2 are both currently streaming on Netflix. This is my review for the second film. You can also read my Part 1 review which was posted last month. I always used to put episode reviews for Sailor Moon Crystal up within a few days of their release but the nature of these movies means that reviewing them is a bit more work! I call this a review even though it’s really more of a vague recap with random commentary and a sprinkling of what might be considered a review.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka and Michiru with baby Hotaru

Part 1 ended on a cliffhanger. Not literally. If it followed the manga more closely it would have ended on a literal cliffhanger as Minako was hanging off of a cliff but stories were moved around to make things fit into movies a bit better. The conclusion to the whole Minako and Human Artemis thing was moved into Part 1 instead of taking place after we get a look at what’s going on with Hotaru and her three moms, which is really where this movie starts off. For the most part, like all of Sailor Moon Crystal, this movie is fairly faithful to the manga source material which it was based on.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka and Michiru

Last time we saw Hotaru she was a baby being whisked away by Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. We finally see what they’ve been up to, starting with Haruka and Michiru. If I can take issue with the dub for a moment! There’s a character which, referencing Haruka, says that “He’s such a hottie”. Now I know Japanese doesn’t tend to use gender specific pronouns so this is likely not a terribly literal translation. I also understand that there being some confusion over Haruka’s gender makes sense and is a common theme in the series but are we really going to just pretend that Haruka is not very clearly dressed unambiguously as a woman in this scene? I’m not sure what this was all about.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Setsuna's left hand

Left handed mouse

Back at the house Setsuna is using a left handed mouse. What’s this? Is she actually left handed? I didn’t know this! While looking into this I found an article from Tuxedo Unmasked which mentions that Sailor Pluto may be left handed as she usually holds her Garnet Rod in her left hand. This article also goes into some detail about whether or not Rei is left handed, something I mentioned in my Part 1 review. So she’s left handed? Not likely. The only reason we see her left hand on the mouse is because the movie wants to show us her ring which is on her left hand and this is a convenient way to do so. Have you ever tried to use a mouse with your off hand? It’s very awkward. What’s my evidence suggesting that Setsuna isn’t actually left handed? In a scene a bit later in the film she’s back to using a mouse with her right hand. Ambidextrous? Seems like her handedness is whatever suits the needs of the shot!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Setsuna is now right handed

Right handed mouse

While Setsuna is browsing an article about the eclipse we see a date! 2016-03-28 or March 28th 2016. I will assume this isn’t the actual date of the eclipse but rather the date on which the article was published. This fits with the date seen in Part 1 where Chibiusa circles April 1st as her date to return to the 30th century. An article about the April 1st eclipse coming out some four days before makes perfect sense. Any problems with this? Well April 1st 2016 was a Friday in the real world and according to Chibiusa’s calendar it was a Thursday. There was also no solar eclipse on April 1st 2016. There was a total solar eclipse on March 9th of 2016 and Japan wasn’t the best place to see it from. So why would the story take place five years in the past? This would probably be because the last new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal we got was on June 27th 2016. Since the series started airing on July 5th 2014 this makes the first few seasons take place within a few years. A six month passage of time since the eclipse is suggested at one point during this film so most of it takes place in late 2016. Most manga arcs seem to take place over about year which could put the Dream arc around 2017 if the events of the first season really are to take place in 2014. If they take place in 2013, when the show was originally meant to start, things line up pretty well. So much to say with a five year gap between Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 and the Sailor Moon Eternal films we can hardly just say it’s 2021 and expect it to make sense that everyone’s just starting high school so the 2016 date seems to work.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka, Michiru and Hotaru

The big thing for the start of the film is fast aging Hotaru. This is something we see at the start of SailorStars in the original Sailor Moon anime. All of this growth occurred over a six month period and we get a sense of how quick it has been when Haruka mistakenly thinks they need diapers for their fast aging daughter. Hotaru is spouting out odd poetry and making faithful models of the solar system where events up to those taking place in the present play out in super speed. This makes me wonder just how accurate these are. If individual people are recreated in this model do those people experience joy and pain? Does Hotaru recreate every act of suffering in the history of our planet on a whim in her living room? Does this include the death of her mother as well as her father’s painful memories of it? Alternatively if the exact same information patterns of someone’s life are run over and over again are those actual new experiences or just the one experience? Is there a subjective feeling experienced more than once? The whole thing might be very unethical depending on one’s perspective on these issues.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Sailor Saturn transforms

So! Hotaru gets old and gives everyone their Sailor Crystals avoiding the requirement of a handful more individual stories in which they learn something about themselves and get their shoulder pad upgrades. Hotaru basically gives them all the upgrades herself. How convenient. Most importantly… a Sailor Saturn transformation sequence! Sailor Saturn had a transformation sequence in season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal but it was a bit different. This one is shorter but a bit more consistent with other transformations. Since Sailor Saturn never did transform in the original Sailor Moon anime it’s always nice to see a transformation sequence. She did have an original anime style transformation sequence as part of a Sailor Saturn game but this was never seen in the TV series or movies.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Two glass shards

Two shards

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Zirconia picks up one glass shard

One shard

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Zirconia with two glass shards

Two shards again

Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn show up to save the day and everyone is back together again! This doesn’t last long, sadly. Later Zirconia dispatches the Amazoness Quartet and then traps Sailor Chibi Moon and Saturn into shards of a mirror. She then picks up one piece of the mirror and then somehow has two in her hands. What’s going on here? Infuriating! This scene is brief but it’s great seeing Sailor Saturn in action since she’s so neglected in the original Sailor Moon anime. The scene of her and Chibi Moon in the circus tent is similar to their scenes in the early part of Sailor Stars when they fight Nehelenia. In a way the first six episodes of Sailor Stars are a more faithful adaptation of the dream arc than all of Sailor Moon SuperS.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Young Usagi and Mamoru

We see a young Usagi and Mamoru, which is odd since we sort of already got a fairly extensive look at young Usagi earlier. They turn young in real life and then have a dream where they’re both young which makes me wonder why their real selves needed to even be made young in the first place. How do their dream selves know that their bodies are young? Shouldn’t there be some dysmorphia going on? Regardless, seeing young Usagi and Mamoru in domestic bliss is incredibly cute. What I enjoy about this scene is how similar it is to a major plot point in the Sailor Moon SuperS film. Usagi is in a dream world with Mamoru and questions his unwavering devotion to her. While in the SuperS film this is what she uses to break out of The Matrix, here it’s just a curiosity. Basically Mamoru states that his dream is to live with Usagi and she questions his other dreams like being a doctor. It’s worth noting that many other elements from this arc, like the young versions of so many characters, are also seen in the Sailor Moon SuperS film at many points. While on the surface the movie has nearly nothing to do with the Dream arc of the manga and the SuperS season of the original anime, there are in fact many similarities. These are not likely all intended. Unless some advanced knowledge of one work or another was planned the timelines simply don’t add up. This particular manga story with young Usagi and Mamoru came out in Nakayoshi in December of 1995, the same month in which the SuperS film was released. Since both a manga and animated film take months or longer to go from story to release, these particular similarities seem to be coincidence.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Elysion

Usagi and Mamoru are now with Helios in Elysion and the whole being young thing wasn’t any sort of lasting problem. What is this place? In mythology the similarly named Elysium is the afterlife. Here Elysion, which is a unique name in Sailor Moon, is another world that seems to be somewhat parallel to the Earth. An analog to it as Helios is himself tied to the Earth and the Golden Crystal. More specifically I wonder just where it is. It is suggested that Elysium is within the Earth somehow and there are references to “the surface”. I wonder if Elysium is compatible with the idea of The Hollow Earth. This is an idea of a world deep beneath the surface of the Earth. Though specifics vary the concept is that the Earth itself is a hollow shell and that within that shell there is a whole other ecosystem where “down” is actually towards the outside of the Earth. I tried hard to see indications that Elysion had a normal sky. We don’t see any stars from it. We don’t see the sun even though late in the story there is light coming from the sky. The Hollow Earth is often described as having a small sun at the center of the Earth. The Moon is seen in the sky in that we can see the eclipse from Elysion, but it isn’t clear if the Moon itself is actually visible. Keep in mind this is one of my own pet theories about Elysion and isn’t necessarily intended in either the manga or Sailor Moon Eternal films, but I wonder if this is a kind of pseudoscientific belief that Naoko Takeuchi was into along with all the weird stuff from the Black Moon arc.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Princess Small Lady Serenity

We do this weird thing where we pretend that the maiden that Helios is looking for isn’t Chibiusa and it’s all very silly. He sees this image of a clearly pink haired woman who looks more or less like an older Chibiusa who asks him to find the Golden Crystal. She’s called “Princess Lady Serenity”. He acts as if this is Sailor Moon which makes Chibiusa quite upset, even though she clearly still has Helios’s affection.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Elysion

All this time Mamoru is just walking around in his dress shirt. Why do we pretend these dress shirts are the most comfortable thing? He gives them out to all the ladies who sleep over. Chibiusa sleeps in one during Part 1 and when he’s sick in bed this seems to be his sleepwear of choice. I often wear shirts of this type for work but I’ll generally put a t-shirt on when I’m at home relaxing, especially if I’m sick and bedridden. This would be a believable “I was out doing stuff and then I came home and untucked my shirt so it’s my after hours casual mode” but he’s been bedridden for a while now and the last time he was out was for the eclipse, as far as we can tell, when he wasn’t wearing his tuxedo (which has a ruffled shirt) but a grey dress shirt and vest. Am I to believe that he took off his grey dress shirt and put on a white dress shirt to climb into bed? This really makes no sense and is probably the biggest plot whole in the movie.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Maenads

The shrine in Elysion is guarded by the Maenads who have hair just like Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon which back in the day would have been like both Queen and Princess Serenity. I guess this really was the style at the time? What a strange coincidence that reincarnated Usagi happened to chose a very similar yet impractical and almost never seen hair style.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Nehelenia and Zirconia

So there’s some fighting which is actually the bulk of the movie. I don’t have a ton to say about this. Almost all of the attacks are so similar to the original Sailor Moon anime that I wonder if they were traced. Helios dies in a non permanent death which is actually fairly common for Sailor Moon but I don’t for a moment think it’s a real thing. Does anyone cry for Helios? Of course he’ll be fine.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Queen Serenity and baby Princess Serenity

We then see an interesting scene which is the birth of Princess Serenity. This scene reminds me a lot of the birth of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. In Sleeping Beauty we have Maleficent, the only one not invited, showing up to celebrate the Princess’s birth only to end up cursing the child to eternal sleep after pricking herself on a spinning wheel needle. Similarly Nehelenia was the only one not invited after Princess Serenity’s birth. Once she shows up an uncharacteristically unkind Queen Serenity, along with the Sailor Guardians, disparage her and tell her she isn’t welcome. She ends up cursing Silver Millennium saying it will fall. This of course does end up happening in the distant past. I wonder if any inspiration occurred between these. One noticeable thing here is that Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus are all significantly older than the newborn Princess Serenity. Though their ages aren’t specified they speak well, are fairly tall for children and seem ready to fight. I’d guess they are about 6 or 7 here. Princess Serenity appears to be an adolescent in the first story arc. She is arguably slightly older than the 14 year old Usagi who notices physical changes in herself when turning into the Princess. This would put the other Sailor Guardians at over 20 in those flashbacks, though they all appear to be more or less the same age. In the Amour Eternal musical when we see the birth of Princess Serenity the age difference is even greater as the Sailor Guardians are shown to be their fully adolescent ages at that point, similar to their ages in the modern times story of that musical. We know that in Crystal Tokyo adults done age, which include Sailor Moon eternally being in her early 20s, but is there a reason to have people frozen in adolescence in Silver Millennium?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Queen Serenity defeats Queen Nehelenia

I think if original anime Sailor Moon had been in her mother’s place when Nehelenia showed up she could have found a way to make peace or may even have invited her in the first place. The manga version of Sailor Moon does more killing of villains and less winning them over. Remember that anime Sailor Moon ended up having compassion for Nehelenia after all of the harm she did to her and her friends! Queen Serenity with her blank reflectionless eyes doesn’t seem to have any of that attitude when she seals away Queen Nehelenia.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Kissing is the cure to whatever weird lung black rose thing was going on

Once the Moon Effect character song kicks in the movie is really reaching the climax! A lot of this was released in a very spoiler filled music video! This song features vocals by the actors playing all ten of the Sailor Guardians and is included on the “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Character Song Collection Eternal Collection” album. Though Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon are still afflicted with the disease which has black roses on their lungs it seems the resolution to this is… to kiss! Everything is fine now! Great!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Human Artemis, Diana and Luna

Did you like Human Artemis? Did you enjoy Human Luna (in the first season)? Well how about human version of the whole cat family including Diana! This is a big deal as this is the first time we see all of the cats in human form in any anime series!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss

Next up is Eternal everybody! There’s a new Holy Grail and then Sailor Moon becomes Eternal Sailor Moon, hence the name of the movies, but beyond that all of the other Sailor Guardians also get upgraded to their Eternal forms which means those little bubble shoulder pad things which is something we never saw in the original Sailor Moon anime! Sailor Moon finally does her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss and saves the day! The eclipse, which we can kind of see even though we’re kind of inside the earth, is finally over which is arguably the end of a very long period which only took place over the course of a few minutes, the length of time an eclipse usually lasts for. There isn’t any clear agreement of this but by that timeline the events of this film actually take place within the same day.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Chibi Moon kisses Helios

Turns out Helios isn’t dead and Sailor Chibi Moon (Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon) kisses him while he sleeps. Do we want to dig up the whole kissing a sleeping person lacks consent discourse again? In this particular case since Helios had previously expressed his interest in Chibiusa when he kissed her in the first film I think that makes this whole situation less of a concern than when Tuxedo Mask did it in the first story arc. The best kept secret of the films, that Chibiusa is actually the one Helios has been looking for, is revealed! She becomes Princess Lady Serenity and gets her Pink Moon Crystal!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion

Eternal Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask now becomes Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion for the first time without some influence from the future. Everyone gets their lovely princess dresses back and there was much rejoicing.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - The Sailor Quartet

Sailor Saturn still has the Amazoness Quartet balls. When these four are revived they are the Sailor Quartet! Sailor Cere, Sailor Palas, Sailor Juno and Sailor Vesta are all named after the same celestial objects they had identified with originally but now it makes a bit more sense why! They are Sailor Guardians who’s duty it is to protect Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon or rather Princess Lady Serenity and not related directly to Sailor Moon or Neo Queen Serenity. It’s really fun to see the Sailor Quartet! Sadly they aren’t around for long as they claim that they should be asleep in the jungle so they take off. Why does this matter? You’re here! Let’s get the gang together! Chibiusa should only be a twinkle in Mamoru’s eye but she’s around and actively involved in the fight so who’s to say that the Amazoness Quartet are better off chilling in a jungle somewhere? My two dream concepts for new Sailor Moon series would be a Codename: Sailor V series and some sort of future Sailor Guardian series with Chibi Moon, the Sailor Quartet and maybe Helios fighting some evil and perhaps traveling through time to do it! I won’t hold my breath for that.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Pegasus and Helios

Now Helios is there with Pegasus which makes me wonder how this is even possible! Aren’t they kind of the same being? In the original Sailor Moon anime they certainly were, with Pegasus being his name rather than a descriptor of the kind of horse he is, but it seems they are different entities. Kind of weird!

Well the movie pretty much wraps up with a bunch of people going on their way. What we don’t see in the Netflix version is a message saying “To be continued” but this is on the Japanese Blu-ray and it seems like it was in the version shown in theatres in Japan. Why remove this from the Netflix version? No idea! I hope we don’t have to wait quite as many years to get a Stars arc of Sailor Moon Crystal as we did for Sailor Moon Eternal!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Helios and Pegasus

The credits are fairly unremarkable. I can’t read any of that! We have a couple of songs here. The first is Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for the Sailor Moon Eternal films. This is actually the first time we hear it in this movie since it doesn’t have an intro like the 90s films did! After this we have the new version of “Rashiku” Ikumasho (I’ll Go As Myself) by Anza! Anza was the first actress to portray Sailor Moon in the Sailor Moon musicals and continued to do so for five years. This song was originally the second ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS, the original adaptation of the Dreams arc of the Sailor Moon manga, which makes it a fitting song to end the final movie with.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Nehelenia is defeated

All in all I found Part 2 to be a good movie. It wasn’t as obviously episodic as Part 1 where you could easily see the breaks between manga chapters. That said there isn’t really as much going on with this film which mostly centers on the big battles with Zirconia and Nehelenia.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka, Setsuna, Michiru, Hotaru, Chibiusa, Rei, Makoto, Ami and Minako

More generally the Sailor Moon Eternal films just look fantastic. The designs are great and since these movies are shorter than full seasons the animation is better and there seems to have been more time and money dedicated to every minute of this film compared to earlier seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal. We can only hope the Stars arc will look as good, though I’m hoping for a return to a series for that season or that if it will be movies that they make three of them! We shall see.

What did you think of this second film? Let us know in the comments!

Keep reading for more screenshots of the film.

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Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 review

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - The Amazoness Quartet

The Sailor Moon Eternal films are both streaming on Netflix worldwide, outside of Japan, and it’s been nearly six years since I’ve been able to do a review of Sailor Moon Crystal content! Here are my thoughts on the first of the two film. These are usually about 25% story recap, 70% silly observations and jokes and 5% actual review type thoughts.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - The Amazon Trio

As with the rest of the Sailor Moon Crystal series these movies are a very faithful adaptation of the manga source material. As Sailor Moon SuperS is the anime season that probably varies the most from the manga, fans will probably find the differences considerable while those who’ve read the manga will find this all very familiar. The main difference in this story would be the relative unimportance of the Amazon Trio who dominate the first half of the Sailor Moon SuperS season, acting as pick up artists for young women, older women and boys. In this film like with the manga they aren’t much more than monsters of the week. Easily discarded.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru's green jacket

The movie isn’t billed as a Sailor Moon Crystal movie, though that’s obviously what it is. It isn’t really standalone. Fans of the Sailor Moon Crystal TV and web series will of course be happy to see this continuation of the story they’ve been following. I have to wonder how many fans of the old 90s anime will see these movies appear on Netflix and check them out without having much context. These aren’t anything like the Sailor Moon R, S and SuperS movies from the 90s, standalone stories with little connection to the TV series. That said these movies do present a single story arc which begins and ends with these films. Sure we may not know where Chibiusa comes from or how everyone got their powers but we can more or less follow the story of the Dream arc without needing that back story. Part 2 will have more issues here with the Infinity arc backstory for Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru being particularly important. It’s really mostly an issue of background on characters. One Letterboxd review, for example, asked if the child (Chibiusa) wants to boink (engage in sexual relations with) her dad (Mamoru). I think to anyone who’s familiar with either the original anime series or Sailor Moon Crystal this much, in less graphic terms, is pretty much assumed! So much to say it does seem that some people are coming into these movies fresh and these are the types of questions which must be coming up.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Usagi watches the eclipse

The film starts more or less where we left off. A roughly six month gap occurred during Act 38 and then, in an instant which lasted almost five years in the real world, the movie starts. It actually rewinds a bit and recaps a bit from Act 38 which wasn’t in the first Dreams manga arc. The gang are in the park to view an eclipse during which they see Pegasus. A note on casting here. While almost all of the Sailor Moon Eternal English voice cast are actors reprising their roles either from earlier seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal or the Sailor Moon SuperS dub of the original Sailor Moon anime the voice actor for Pegasus/Helios is a different actor. This wasn’t a huge surprise. Chris Niosi voiced Pegasus in Viz’s dub of the original Sailor Moon anime a few years ago. Since then he was target of some abuse allegations and, following his own admission of his role in such and other events, he was recast in many of the roles which he had been working on. Brian Beacock takes over as Helios in this series. Since the character did not previously appear in Sailor Moon Crystal this isn’t technically a recasting of the role however this is an outlier with most other actors returning. Brian Beacock previously voiced Ail/Seijurou in Viz’s dub of Sailor Moon R!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru, Chibiusa and Usagi in bed

The girls find a couple of kaleidoscope toys which Mamoru is disappointed to have to buy. These are about $10 which is certainly more expensive than some cheap kaleidoscopes but considerably cheaper than the replica kaleidoscope toy which sells in Japan for roughly $300 US! I guess Mamoru got a real deal there, not to mention they end up being magical items. Not wanting to open up a rift in time and space in the middle of a crowded park the girls opt to spend the night at Mamoru’s, something which is hardly new to either of them. While going to bed Chibiusa and Usagi both wish they were the opposite’s age and if anyone of you grew up in the 80s and 90s I’m sure you’ve seen how this movie plays out!

Sailor Moon SuperS Special - Lilica Hubert

Chibiusa protests going to bed. This is a habit I am very familiar with as I have two children, the oldest of which was conceived around the time of the last episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. No relation between those events. She asks Mamoru for a story saying that she used to get these from her parents back in the future. The examples she gives are stories about robots and vampires. Wow! Are these real stories??? I suppose technically the Droids from Sailor Moon R are like robots but I wouldn’t describe them as such and those come from the future. Vampires? In the manga we get a side story about a vampire girl named Lilica. It seems unlikely Chibiusa’s parents told her this story as it’s one that Chibiusa herself experienced, unless they’re really trying to mess her up by telling her stories about her own future which took place in their past. Time travel!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Chibiusa wakes up

So Pegasus shows up looking for a maiden with beautiful dreams and a major plot point here is that we don’t really know if the Princess is Minako or Usagi. Sorry we don’t know if the maiden is Chibiusa or Usagi. At this point we think it’s Chibiusa. Pegasus appears with sound effects that seem right out of Sailor Moon SuperS! An odd choice.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Usagi and Chibiusa encounter a tiger

The next morning there’s a tiger loose in the Juban shopping district. What an odd problem that does not on the surface appear to be related to any sort of evil villain at all. It’s been six months since the Death Busters were defeated and it’s evident that neither Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon or any other Sailor Guardians have transformed since. For some reason instead of leaving this escaped circus tiger problem to animal control or maybe the local police the girls decide that they should of course transform? Are they actually equipped to fight a tiger? If they happened upon a bank robbery would they just transform and take down the robbers? Does this mean that, to be consistent with their behaviour, they should monitor a police scanner and fight crimes like Batman? The whole situation seems odd. Anyway it doesn’t work since the grail isn’t around because Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto aren’t there. Luckily they get some new transformation broaches which is good because animal control still hasn’t shown up.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and Small Usagi

They transform into Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon right away. No two stages of transformation needed at this point. Convenient! They get a bunch of news toys. Chibi Moon gets a bell that makes the SuperS sound effect and they both have their $10 kaleidoscopes transform into Kaleidomoon scopes. They fight a could of the Amazoness Quartet, who unlike the Amazon Trio are the main villains of this story arc, and PallaPalla swaps their ages, with hilarious consequences!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Small Usagi and Big Chibiusa

I feel like the age swap, in the manga and in this movie, was oddly brief. It could be a major plot point with serious consequences. Instead it’s treated a bit as a joke and a bit of “be careful what you wish for” type wisdom which really is silly since people can’t wish for things. Mamoru and Usagi have this really weird moment where they express how awkward their age difference is. It seems there’s a limit to the age gap! Older Chibiusa seems to have some sort of revelation that she can’t hook up with her father. The two seem concerned and frustrated trying to find a solution which turns out to be … just transform again? Really no one tried this? So we’re okay with transforming to be scabs for animal control but when their fundamental ability to fight an active threat in town is in question they don’t even test their transformations? A bit weak! Seeing young Usagi is nice, though we will see her again later, and seeing not evil older Chibiusa is kind of cool.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Big Chibiusa and young Usagi

Then things really start to seem like a series of episodes and we cut from one character’s story to another. The manga frequently does this in a number of arcs, having a story focus on a certain character. This works well when they are broken up into individual comic acts or TV episodes. In the movie however it’s very obvious that these are a number of stories stitched together. I appreciate the faithfulness to the source material but there is a down side. These aren’t totally contained, with the age swap story bleeding into the Ami’s family sucks story and such, but we can see the obvious separation.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Ami's parents

First up is Sailor Mercury and her terrible parents! Ami’s mother works too hard and is never home. This isn’t totally horrible. One can hardly expect a single mother to quit her job so that she can spend more time with her daughter, who’s out studying and fighting crime most of the time anyway, but it does seem like Ami has a rough home life. Ami’s socially awkward mother happens to be the significantly better parent as her hippie father just took off for not so clear reasons, sent some divorce papers in the mail and doesn’t seem to want to have much to do with his daughter. He makes hollow gestures like sending her paintings of fish which does little to make up for his lack of support. Perhaps if he paid child support Ami’s mother wouldn’t have to work graveyard shifts most nights. Ami meets little fairy Mercury, learns a bit about herself and gets these little shoulder pads. Shoulder pads were bit in the 90s but in 2021 no one really has shoulder pads anymore.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Pegasus kisses Chibiusa

Meanwhile Chibiusa has this whole weird thing with Pegasus who spends a lot less time under the pretence of being a horse in this continuity. We’re pretty late in Sailor Moon SuperS before we discover that this horse Pegasus is actually a dude named Helios but in this continuity we learn it pretty quickly. We don’t really think of him as Pegasus for long. We have the humourous scene where Chibiusa kisses a horse but then he turns into Helios. Whatever. At least she’s not making out with her dad again.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei's sexy grandpa

On to the next “episode” of our lives. It’s Rei’s turn! Her grandfather is sick and hot damn, he’s gorgeous! Fans of the original 90s Sailor Moon anime will recall Rei’s grandfather as a creepy old man who lusted after teenaged girls. Sailor Moon Eternal Rei’s grandfather, who looks somewhat like his manga counterpart, is a hunk! He has grey hair but still looks quite fit and youthful. I bet original anime Rei’s grandpa would have had more luck with the ladies if he looked like this! Someone has mentioned that he looks like Colonel Sanders in the parody dating sim I Love You, Colonel Sanders! and I think that fits perfectly. Superficial signs of age but still a youthful appearance. It’s like those men’s clothing catalogues that get young models with their hair died grey to wear their clothes.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - A mirror that doesn't reflect

Rei wanders into a house of mirrors and is really amazed that one of the mirrors isn’t reflecting an image. Is this really that weird? Isn’t that just like… a piece of glass? Or even a wall? Non reflective surfaces are by far the norm in the natural and unnatural world but Rei assumes this is… magic? Super weird.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Deimos and Phobos

We see a young and cute Rei meeting Phobos and Deimos for the first time. She can converse with them somehow and instantly knows their names. We get the humanoid Phobos and Deimos reveal which is something I’ve posted about extensively over the past six months but that still was considered enough of a spoiler that some dude on Twitter felt the need to publicly announce his unfollowing me for daring to reveal this 25 year old information. As I’d mentioned before there was always some confusion over the colours, which had been settled when the movies were released. As we see here Phobos is the fairy on the right, who is dressed in red, while Deimos is the one on the left, dressed in purple.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei and Tiger's Eye

Young Rei is cute but child bride Rei with Tiger’s eye is super creepy. When PUA Tiger’s Eye in the anime goes after mostly teenaged girls it’s a bit weird but when he’s with a full on a child it’s about as awkward as Mamoru and young Usagi!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Rei uses a bow right handed Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mars Flame Sniper

Finally let me rant a bit about handedness, which will be coming back in the next film. Rei’s Mars Flame Sniper has her pulling back the arrow with her left hand. This is the left handed way to hold a bow. We see young Rei doing archery in this story and she pulls back the arrow with her right hand, the correct way for a right handed person. This seems like a mistake. What’s the issue here? Well it would go back to the 90s anime since many of the transformations and attacks in this movie are nearly identical to the ones we saw in Sailor Moon SuperS! Perhaps the person who animated that attack many years ago simply didn’t know much about archery.

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 17 - Makoto's father was Brock from Pokémon

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 17

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Makoto's parents

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1

Makoto is the next to power up. The most notable change since the last Jupiter episode is the photo of her parents. We originally saw this during the Black Moon arc where I couldn’t help but notice that her late father looked suspiciously like Brock from Pokémon. We see this photo again but it’s changed slightly. The frame is different and though her mother and father are posed in the same way her father’s hair is evidently not Brock like at all and they aren’t wearing the same clothes. Why would Makoto have swapped out this photo with a nearly identical one? It’s not like it’s a new photo!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Sailor Jupiter slaps Makoto

Hawk’s Eye has set up an herb shop which Makoto is drawn to. She gets slapped by her little fairy Sailor Jupiter thing and then gets a weird crown of oak leaves, which leads to her power up and shoulder pads. If they’d had acid washed jeans as part of their power ups do you think we’d still be using them as part of their uniforms in newer incarnations?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Mamoru coughs

Meanwhile we learn more about Helios who comes from Elysion which I suspect could be in the Hollow Earth but I’ll discuss that more at length in my Part 2 review. Mamoru is sick, couching up blood. It’s a bit troubling to see characters with an infectious lung disease given the ongoing pandemic. This is all caused by magic since Mamoru has a black rose inside of him but that doesn’t really explain why others are catching this disease or why Mamoru seems to be the only one who remains sick.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Artemis gazes at Minako lovingly

Finally, Minako still doesn’t have her shoulder pads and for whatever reason all of the other girls sort of assume she should have them. This whole plot reminds me a bit of how in Sailor Moon S of the original anime Minako was the last to be targeted for her Pure Heart and she felt self conscious about it. A scene where Artemis is staring at Minako in the shower is cut down for the film. Originally Diana mentions the way he’s looking at her which upsets Luna. I suppose the film is trying to downplay the Artemis/Minako shipping.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Human Artemis

Minako decides she wants to be an idol, which is the plot of another handful of original anime episodes, and this seems to be done via an MXC style competition which is extremely dangerous. Indeed Minako ends up falling to her death saved only by Artemis who turns human! This is one of the big spoilerish reveals of the movies! We’d seen Human Luna before but this is the first time we see animated Human Artemis! As a change from the manga we see the end of Minako’s story and her transformation and new attack. This moves the scenes showing us what has been going on with Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna to the second film.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Human Artemis and Sailor Venus

Roll credits! I can’t read any of this but it’s worth noting that Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for Sailor Moon Eternal, plays here in the credits. I expected it would be the opening theme (and may even have claimed that it was) so I was a bit surprised to see these movies don’t have actual openings. Next is Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute or Wanting To Be Together With You which is a cover of the first ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS, which seems fitting here. This particular version is performed by Sailor Moon veteran Yoko Ishida.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Hotaru

There’s a brief post credits scene which shows us Hotaru and gives us a hint at what we’ll see next!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 - Ami, Rei and Makoto

All around I enjoyed the first film, despite some sort of odd pacing that isn’t really meant to be told in movie format. I might have preferred to see this as a series of episodes which would have had a slightly longer run time but perhaps the animation wouldn’t have been as good in that case. This movie looks great and is a considerable improvement on what we saw in the first 26 episodes. It’s very difficult for me to think of this as one single movie as I was able to, along with every else who first saw these films on Netflix, watch both parts at once. If I saw this in theatres would I have been annoyed at having to wait until the next part? I don’t know. In Japan the time between the two films was barely more than a month.

What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments! I’ll get to posting a Part 2 review at some point.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this film.

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Check out the poster and trailer for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 featuring Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn as well as Eternal Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Poster

With the Japanese theatrical release of the first Sailor Moon Eternal film coming tomorrow, on January 8th, we have gotten a poster and trailer for Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 which will be released on February 11th! While most of the recent teasers we’ve been getting lately have included a mix of new and old footage this trailer is packed with new stuff we hadn’t seen before. The first half focuses on Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn which suggests quite strongly that most of their part will be confined to this second film. Check out the trailer on YouTube which is embedded below.

There’s obviously a lot going on here and that story again seems to be closely following the events of the Sailor Moon manga, as the rest of Sailor Moon Crystal had and the first film also appears to be doing. We see super fast aging Hotaru becoming Sailor Saturn, Helios facing off against Nehelenia, the Amazoness Quartet, the Sailor Guardians in their princess dresses though only from the shoulders up, Chibi Moon kissing Helios back and a whole lot of very dramatic posing! I sure can’t wait to see both of these films!

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Eternal Sailor Moon

The trailer briefly shows us Eternal Sailor Moon though the poster itself also features this form of Sailor Moon quite prominently along with the Eternal forms of all of the other Sailor Guardians, something which we never saw in the original Sailor Moon anime.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Haruka

Based on everything we’ve seen it seems that Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 will tell the story of the Sailor Moon manga’s Act 39 to 43, ending with Minako hanging from a ledge and staring at Artemis, a clip we’ve seen in a Part 1 trailer, while Part 2 will tell the story of Acts 44 to 49, starting with us catching up with Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru, which we see scenes from in this trailer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see minor changes to allow for Human Artemis to appear briefly at the end of Part 1 or perhaps to see a brief glimpse of Hotaru and her three parents as a post credits type scene. I guess we’ll know soon!

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Rei

We still don’t know when these movies will be released outside of Japan! There has been strong evidence that they will be streamed on Netflix at some point, but no official announcement has been made.

Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 - Hotaru and Sailor Saturn

What can we do but wait? Well you could get caught up with the series before the films are released by using the Amazon links below or streaming the episodes on Crunchyroll or Hulu in the US or on Tubi in Canada. Alternatively you can read the Dream Arc of the manga which these movies are based on. The Dream Arc is contained in volumes 7 and 8 which collect Acts 39 through 49.


Keep reading for many more screenshots from this trailer. Which is your favourite part?

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Watch a roundtable discussion with the voices of the Amazoness Quartet from the Sailor Moon Eternal films

Sailor Moon Eternal - Amazoness Quartet Roundtable Discussion - CereCere, VesVes, PallaPalla and JunJun

This past weekend the Cinema Today YouTube Channel posted a roundtable discussion featuring the voice actors of the Amazoness Quartet from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films. This included a number of new images of the Amazoness Quartet from the films which we had not seen before! I know what you’re thinking. There is no table, round or otherwise. I’ll chalk that up to an odd translation as the original term does not appear to reference an actual table. You can watch the 23 minute video below.

This video features Yuko Hara as JunJun, Reina Ueda as CereCere, Sumire Morohoshi as PallaPalla and Rie Takahashi as VesVes. The footage is entirely in Japanese, so fans who can’t speak the language probably won’t follow much of the conversation. What do you think of these new images? Which is your favourite?

Sailor Moon Eternal - Amazoness Quartet Roundtable Discussion - Yuko Hara, Reina Ueda, Sumire Morohoshi and Rie Takahashi

The first Sailor Moon Eternal film will be released on January 8th in theatres in Japan with the second part coming on February 11th. Though we haven’t gotten any official confirmation of a release outside of Japan it seems likely that the movies will be streaming on Netflix at an undetermined date.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Amazoness Quartet Roundtable Discussion - PallaPalla

Keep reading for more screenshots from this video.

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New Sailor Moon Eternal stills from Lawson include another look at the Amazoness Quartet!

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - The Amazoness Quartet

With the January 8th release of first Sailor Moon Eternal film fast approaching we have some new stills which were released as part of another campaign by Lawson convenience stores in Japan. These stills can be purchased for a few dollars from Lawson print shops, like some we posted about earlier. As with the last batch the stills released are a mix of things we’ve seen before and some new stuff! The most exciting of the new images is a shot of the Amazoness Quartet, shown above. There are a number of others, which I will post below.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Super Sailor Moon

Super Sailor Chibi Moon and Super Sailor Moon during their transformation sequence.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Moon

Super Sailor Moon posing.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Chibi Moon

Super Sailor Chibi Moon posing.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Moon

Super Sailor Moon with her Moon Kaleidoscope.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Chibi Moon

Super Sailor Chibi Moon with her Chibi Moon Kaleidoscope.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Mercury

Super Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Mars

Super Sailor Mars.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Jupiter

Super Sailor Jupiter.

Sailor Moon Eternal stills - Super Sailor Venus

Super Sailor Venus.

What do you think of these new stills? Which is your favourite?

Check out the designs and voices of the Amazoness Quartet from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films!

Sailor Moon Eternal - The Amazoness Quartet

The Sailor Moon official site has been updated with images and the voice cast of the Amazoness Quartet from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films! Though we don’t know exactly how the two films will be broken up I would assume these characters would mostly feature in the second film, coming out February 11th in Japan, and perhaps appear only briefly in the first film which will be in Japanese theatres January 8th. The Amazoness Quartet are part of the Dead Moon Circus and include CereCere, PallaPalla, JunJun and VesVes, all of which are named after asteroids or dwarf planets in our solar system. I certainly hope we’ll also get a look at the Sailor Quartet at the end of the second film!

Sailor Moon Eternal - Reina Ueda as CereCere

CereCere will be voiced by Reina Ueda, a voice actress who’s appeared in a number of anime and video games including the voice of Mallow in Pokémon: Sun & Moon anime.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Sumire Morohoshi as PallaPalla

PallaPalla is voiced by Sumire Morohoshi, a singer and voice actress who’s performed many roles including Acerola from the Pokémon: Sun & Moon anime and Nina from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Yuko Hara as JunJun

JunJun is voiced by Yuko Hara, a voice actress who’s done a number of anime series including small parts in Ghost in the Shell Arise and Akari Acura in Chaika the Coffin Princess.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Rie Takahashi as VesVes

VesVes is voiced by Rie Takahashi, a voice actress and singer who has appeared in many anime series and video games including Mirai Asahina aka Cure Miracle, the main character in Witchy PreCure!

What do you think of these new designs? Are you a fan of any other roles that these actresses have done?

Karyn Dwyer, the voice of BesuBesu of the Amazoness Quartet, dies at age 43

Karyn Dwyer

Actress Karyn Dwyer who provided the voice of BesuBesu or VesVes of the Amazoness Quartet in the original English dub of Sailor Moon, died last week on September 25th. Born in Newfoundland Karyn Dwyer starred in many TV series and movies which were filmed in Canada. She lived in Toronto where she worked on Sailor Moon. She is well known for her starring role in the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 160 - The Amazoness Quartet

VesVes, named after the asteroid Vesta, went by the name BesuBesu in the English dub which Karyn Dwyer voiced the character in. My deepest condolences to Karyn Dwyer’s friends and family. Her contribution to Sailor Moon will be remembered with fondness by her fans.

Source: Pop Goes The News

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - The Amazoness Quartet stuck in mirrors

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 164 and 165 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 164 - Nehelenia takes the Golden Crystal

Sailor Moon SuperS is nearly over with the two latest episodes which were just added to Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get episodes 164 and 165, after which there will be only one episode left. This focuses a lot on the Amazoness Quartet, who redeem themselves yet again, as the final confrontation between Nehelenia, Helios and the Sailor Guardians takes place.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 164 - The Amazoness Quartet meet Nehelenia

Episode 164, The Golden Crystal Appears: Nehelenia’s Magic, finally gives us some background on the Amazoness Quartet. We see them playing innocently in the forest of Elysion. They don’t seem the least bit mischievous, but instead seem to be getting along. They fall upon a mirror in which Nehelenia is trapped. She gives them magical powers which are houses in magic spheres and uses them to escape. All said the Amazoness Quartet are innocent pawns in this whole game. Ultimately they destroy those orbs to sacrifice their own power to save themselves and turn on Nehelenia. The manga actually has them becoming Sailor Guardians to protect Chibiusa as she is to follow her mother once her reign of terror is over some 900 years later. None of this is really dealt with in the anime. Stuff goes bad at this point. Nehelenia retrieves the Golden Mirror from Sailor Chibi Moon, which we kind of already did, and she finally gets her hands on the Golden Crystal. She exits this mirror world she inhabits and by doing so destroys Ziriconia. It’s never clearly indicated but Ziriconia seems to be some sort of copy or puppet of Nehelenia. Nehelenia is kept forever young in the mirror but we will later see how old she actually is and Ziriconia appear to look as she would if she continued to age outside of this mirror.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 165 - Sailor Chibi Moon is dead

Episode 165, When the Crystal Shines: The Beautiful Power of Dreams, is sort of the epic ending of the battle, though there will be one more episode of Sailor Moon SuperS to follow it. All hope seem lost as Sailor Planet Attack doesn’t cut it and Sailor Chibi Moon appears to be dead. Luckily the Amazoness Quartet have turned on Nehelenia and swap out the Golden Crystal for a pineapple. Hilarity ensures when this is discovered and the Golden Crystal is given to Sailor Moon, who is unable to use it to defeat Nehelenia. Sailor Chibi Moon has a plan! She uses the Golden Crystal to talk to all of the innocent children and ask them to save the Earth from this evil. She pleads to them to say “Moon Crisis Power” and they do, like a bunch of zombies, which removes the shadow from the Earth and saves the day. Hooray!

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 165 - The Golden Crystal is a pineapple

Only one episode of Sailor Moon SuperS remains. We will get that next week along with the first episode of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, seen for the first time in the United States!

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 165 - Sailor Chibi Moon and The Golden Crystal

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Sailor Moon SuperS episode 165 - Moon Crisis Make Up!

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 162 and 163 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - Nehelenia

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week with episodes 162 and 163 we have some very story rich episodes that delve into the origins of Queen Nehelenia, the Dead Moon Circus, Elysion, Helios and all that stuff as the Golden Mirror is revealed and the Sailor Guardians are captured.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 162 - Elysion being destroyed

Episode 162, The Source of Darkness: Dead Moon Circus, gives us some backstory we’ve been waiting for. Pegasus does a bit of exposition and explains that the Dead Moon Circus and Nehelenia destroyed Elysion, his home, looking for the Golden Crystal which is actually his horn. The Golden Crystal is this all powerful thing that can destroy planets and cause all sorts of problems if someone evil gets it. Sound familiar? There are vines starting to grow around the city and as we’ve seen, Mamoru is dying. The girls fight their way past a bunch of Lemures to get into the tent. Finally the Golden Mirror, and therefore the person who’s dream Pegasus was hiding in, is revealed to be Chibiusa! We pretty much knew this and Fish Eye told us straight up in case there was any confusion. Sailor Chibi Moon gets her Golden Mirror removed and tries to put it back in with no success. To be continued.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 162 - Sailor Chibi Moon and her Golden Mirror

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - Nehelenia on the Dead Moon

Episode 163, Labyrinth of Mirrors: Chibi Moon Captured, gives us even more backstory than the last episode! We get the scoop on Queen Nehelenia. Back in the day she observed the White Moon from… another Moon? Wait what? Now we know that there is just one Moon around the Earth so what exactly is going on here? Are we to believe that there used to be a second Moon or is it just that this second Moon is somehow not visible to us because it’s like… Dark? It’s best not to try to tease out the astronomical implications of this. A large Moon sized object rotating around the Earth would be very detectable not only because of its gravitational effects on objects in our system but also because of its ability to mask other objects, such as stars. The Dead Moon is sort of like the Moon when it is eclipsing the Sun, but showing it as a second celestial body is a bit odd. Anyway Nehelenia is into Helios and covets his Goidlen Crystal, but she’s evil so that doesn’t work out. Elysion is shown to have architecture reminiscent of ancient Greece, not unlike that seen in Silver Millennium, though the timeline is not specifically stated. Nehelenia has Chibiusa captured and tied up so the Amazoness Quartet, who can’t manage to obey anyone for long, bust her out by replacing her with a rag doll. They try to put a bridle on Pegasus to tame him as a pet, but this causes him to start a massive fire and all sorts of bad things happen. Meanwhile the Sailor Guardians are seduced with mirror like copies of themselves that are really Ziriconia. How fitting since she’s sort of like a mirror version of Nehelenia. The Amazoness Quartet get busted too and are themselves stuck in mirrors. Looks like everyone is trapped and all hope is lost!

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - Swapping a Sailor Chibi Moon doll for Sailor Chibi Moon

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Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - Elysion

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - The Amazoness Quartet stuck in mirrors

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 163 - Two Sailor Moons

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 162 - Tuxedo Mask dying

Sailor Moon SuperS episodes 160 and 161 are now available on Hulu

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 160 - Minako, PallaPalla and Usagi

We’re starting to wrap up Sailor Moon SuperS with this week’s new additions to Hulu and Neon Alley. Today we get episodes 160 and 161 which focus on the Amazoness Quartet. It’s a bit difficult to say when a Sailor Moon episode is fully standalone or part of an arc of episodes. Episode 160 has its own contained story but episode 161 ends in a bit of a cliffhanger which is why I’ve always considered it to be the first of a six part season finale for Sailor Moon SuperS. Yes that’s right. Sailor Stars is only 3 weeks away! If all continues at the rate it has we should be seeing the first episode of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars on Monday December 14th. If they play only the final episode of Sailor Moon SuperS that day we will get Sailor Star on December 21st.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 160 - CereCere, VesVes and JunJun

Episode 160, Dream to Be an Adult: the Amazoness’ Confusion, has the Sailor Guardians and the Amazoness Quartet getting along. The girls are setting up for a coming of age ceremony as they wear tags saying “20 age”. What is this? It’s a Japanese holiday called “Coming of Age Day” which celebrates a person coming into the age of majority, 20 years old. It’s sort of like an older Bar Mitzvah. Until 2000 the day was celebrated on January 15th. This episode aired on January 20th 1996, the Saturday following that year’s Coming of Age Day. How topical! The gang is setting things up and the Amazoness Quartet come along to help. This launches them into some deep questions about whether or not it’s good to become an adult. All of the girls here are under the age of majority, with the Sailor Guardians being around 15 years old and the Amazoness Quartet girls being somewhere between that age and Chibiusa’s age, ignoring of course that Chibiusa is over 900 in the manga. They clearly identify as children in most respects with their love of play. Perhaps in 1996 this was more of a question as adults of older generations more commonly abandoned the joys of youth as they graduated to adulthood. As a 37 year old Sailor Moon fan myself it’s easy to say there are many adults, including those who are reading this site most likely, who still find time and a place in their hearts to pursue interests which are more commonly aimed towards children. Peter Pan syndrome is much less of a taboo as adult toy collecting, comic book reading, video game playing and other such interests are common for mainstream adults. This episode’s Lemures, BiriBiri Yarou, is a large catfish that somewhat resembles Pac Man as he swims around in the air eating Dream Mirrors like little pellets of fish food.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 160 - The Amazoness Quartet

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 161 - The Dead Moon Circus Tent

Episode 161, Terror in Motion: The Dark Queen’s Evil Hand, is a somewhat slow paced episode. The main things that happens here is that there are a bunch of spider webs. There are not only spider webs around houses and trees and such but they seem to cover the sky itself. I’m reminded of the old 60s Spider-Man cartoon where Spider-Man would be swinging from webs that anchored high above him as the tops of buildings were clearly seen in the background. What, I wondered, were these webs sticking to? Perhaps the clouds? It’s nonsense but what else is up there for the webs to stick to? Whatever it is, that is the same thing that this week’s spider webs are attached to. As the webs get more and more prominent the sun gets darker and darker which is hurting Mamoru. The gang head to the Dead Moon Circus tent because after a season of this we’re finally putting two and two together and suspecting this thing. They find the Amazoness Quartet with tons of bodies and Dream Mirrors in a pretty creepy sight. Finally there’s a surprise eclipse which blocks out the sun which makes us wonder just what was the point of all of these spider webs anyway? The webbing was blocking out the sun but an eclipse does a much better job of that. This is having quite a toll on Mamoru who is very sensitive to negative impacts to the Earth. I wonder if Mamoru will sweat more and more as global warming slowly heats our planet. I guess we all will! As a bit of a cliffhanger in the final scene Pegasus shows up to tell us all that things are getting real.

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 161 - The Amazoness Quartet killing people

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Sailor Moon SuperS episode 161 - Tuxedo Mask sick

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 161 - Pegasus appears