This week on Sailor Moon SuperS we are introduced to the Amazoness Quartet as episodes 150 and 151 are added to Hulu and Neon Alley. First the Dead Moon Circus, which arrived in town over 20 episodes ago, arrives in town? and then Ami has an Internet romance with a young musician.

Episode 150, The Amazoness: Nightmare from Behind the Mirrors, introduces us to the Amazoness Quartet. Last week I mentioned that not much had happened this season and this episode reminds us of that. There is a circus in town! The Dead Moon Circus. That damned tent showed up out of nowhere during the eclipse in episode 128 and we’re only now getting around to addressing it? Nehelenia, this season’s main villain, is seen only briefly in a mirror at the beginning of this episode. Better late than never! I am kind of joking when I say that nothing has happened yet this season, but the Korean dub actually skipped everything up to this episode and just had to insert something about the Super transformations into the fight to make it all make sense. Anyway, the Amazoness Quartet are kind of cool. CereCere, VesVes, JunJun and PallaPalla are terribly behaved young girls. They not only argue with Zirconia but CereCere tries to actually fight her, which only ends because Zirconia turns out to be more powerful. As villains they are less objectionable than sleazy pick up artists and seem to fit with the whole circus theme more as they do acrobatics. The target this week is Momoko. Again. But there isn’t much focus on her as she just sort of tags along with the gang to go to the circus. The Amazoness Quartet aren’t quite as invasive in getting the Mirror of Dreams from their targets as they do so by knocking a pool ball into them, usually after doing some sort of elaborate trick shot. The episode closes with the Amazoness Quartet getting massaged which is a testament to their slacker attitudes.

Episode 151, True Power Explodes: Ami’s Melody of the Heart, is the episode where we see Ami naked. Ami was chilling on the Internet before it was cool! Remember that this episode was released nearly 20 years ago, in November of 1995. The Internet wasn’t what it is today back then. Ami is downloading music on a computer network almost 4 years before Napster! She downloaded some music by user N. T. and is so into him that she’s writing poetry inspired by his music. Ami meets up with N. T. who is actually Toshiyuki Nishino, a young piano player who, much to Ami’s disappointment, has a girlfriend named Kyouko! Note that the initials N. T. apply because in Japanese the family name comes before the given name when stated, so he would be Nishino Toshiyuki. Then we get into this whole Ami powering up to Sailor Mercury thing. During the fight we cut to a scene with a fully naked Ami which should make some fans happy. She talks to Sailor Mercury, which is odd since Ami and Sailor Mercury are never before shown as being different people, and this causes her to do some kind of awakening. Why are we doing this? Pegasus powered everyone up a bunch of episodes ago. Now we are making every character do some sort of episode centred on them so that they can embrace their new powers. Another sign that we could have completely skipped the first half of the season and just started with episode 150 and using these sort of special episodes as reasons to power everyone up one at a time. Perhaps Ami just talks to herself because she has no family, as we learn briefly about her dead beat father who isn’t around and sends her a painting.

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The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS, episodes 134 and 135, have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week we get a couple of episodes focusing on some artists first as Makoto’s friend writes a novel about Pegasus and next as Chibiusa deals with a teacher who’s lost her groove.

Episode 134, Makoto’s Friendship: The Girl Who Admired Pegasus, has the Sailor Guardians excited about a new book release by a local writer. As the gang are ready to get autographs we once again see that Rei takes her autographs seriously, bringing three copies of the book to get signed. We previously learned about this obsession way back in episode 21 when she brought a bunch of autograph paper to the animation studio working on the Sailor V movie. The book, which is all about Pegasus, was written by author Tomoko Takase who turns out to be Makoto’s friend. Who knew the Sailor Guardians had friends who weren’t each other? The girls have always been presented as having been lonely prior to encountering Usagi. In a flashback we see that Makoto and Tomoko befriended each other while Makoto was at her old school so this is prior to us seeing her in the series. Her relationship with Tomoko began somewhat like her relationship with Usagi had, as she help protect her from a bunch of bullies, which leads her to read the story she’s writing. I guess Makoto didn’t remember having dreamed of Pegasus as a child at this point, something we later learn all of the Sailor Guardians did but mostly forgot. Tomoko has lost her motivation after seeing a boy she likes with a girlfriend. Chibiusa is shocked at the book, as it’s all about Pegasus who comes and fights with her and sometimes shows up by her bedside, and tells Tomoko about it. Tomoko is targeted and in the ensuing fight sees Pegasus which helps her get her groove back.

Episode 135, Connecting Hearts: Chibi-Usa and Pegasus, is not the most feminist episode. Chibiusa and her friends are painting in a park, and Chibiusa is all about doing crazy crap. She has a moustache, because she thinks artists should have moustaches, which doesn’t say much for female artists! She also draws Pegasus into the landscape because she’s a free thinking hippie who can’t follow the assignment. Her teacher, Morino Sensei, is not happy about this one bit and threatens to fail her for it. Kyuusuke gives Morino a bit of trouble mocking her singleness and blaming her stubbornness for not having a man. Harsh criticism from a little runt. Momoko also appears here and we see that her hair colour has somehow changed from a natural brown to a less normal looking purple. She still has normal looking hair when compared to her friend! When Usagi and Chibiusa run into Morino this triggers and unusual parental reaction in Usagi, who otherwise usually does no such thing. This whole exchange is quite humorous. Ultimately Morino is targeted by Tiger’s Eye, which would make her his oldest target to date. In the final scene of the episode we get a sort of weird scene in which Chibiusa changes in front of Pegasus which makes him blush, insinuating there is some sort of attraction there not typical of a human/horse relationship. There seems to be more to this winged horse than meets the eye!

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The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal was released on Saturday March 21st on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Niconico. This week we have Act 18, Invasion – Sailor Venus, which as the title suggests focuses on Sailor Venus as she faces off against Calaveras, the final remaining Ayakashi Sister.

Things are getting pretty bad at this point! Sailor Mercury, Mars and Jupiter have all been kidnapped in standard character order so we focus on Minako, Sailor Venus this week! The Ayakashi Sisters have mostly been killed as well leaving only Calaveras. In her first scene we get a hint at a relationship between Rubeus and herself as he kisses her on the neck. She’s obviously upset over the death of her sisters as she summons their ghosts, doing channeling which is kind of her shtick. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from readers who don’t like my criticism of pseudoscience in my reviews. Indeed I’m not about to discount the magic and time travel aspects of the show but when the characters present pseudoscientific beliefs such as this week’s channelling as being true, I feel I must point out that such things are not legit. This is especially true this season as there is an obvious recurring theme with the Black Moon Clan reveling in pseudoscience which some believe to be true, as opposed to the general fantastic nature of the show which is obviously science fiction.

Calaveras does a public channeling of Rubeus, showing the future, but does she even need to do this? We see that she does actually have channelling powers but the people of Tokyo don’t really know this. She claims to have knowledge of the future because of this but that’s simply because she is from the future. Much like Koan’s ability to see the future could have been made up, so could have Calaveras. But the point of the show is not that the enemy is pretending to have great powers. They happen to actually have some and convince the world as such, while still relying on subterfuge.

Chibiusa’s friend Momoko is introduced this week. Her hair colour in the original anime was first brown and later purple. Here we see her with bright red almost pink hair. Though the manga is mostly black and white Momoko is shown to have bright red hair when presented in colour making this her correct hair colour. The rest of her image is a bit odd. She is given a thin waist and breasts, which is not fitting with a character that is meant to be Chibiusa’s class mate.

Naru and Umino appear in this act. While the original manga had a “video” mentioned it was not actually shown. It is assumed this was a VHS tape or less likely a laser disk as DVD did not exist in the early 90s. A DVD is seen once again in Sailor Moon Crystal, updating the technology of the show for 2015 standards but still not embracing Blu-Ray for whatever reason. Naru reveals that she knows that something is up with Usagi and her friends, hinting that she either suspects she is Sailor Moon or is otherwise involved. It’s nice to see this friendship continue despite Usagi spending so much time with her more super powered friends and her new boyfriend.

When watching the DVD we get a look at the computers at the school. These are clearly Windows PC type computers. In the past in the series it was all macs, with the tablets having what appeared to be a mix between iOS, Apple’s handheld OS, and Mac OS, the full fledge OS for Mac desktops and laptops. This does not have any of the Apple look to it. The desktop folders look like Windows folders, the S shaped icon is similar to the Internet Explorer E. There are icons matching the My Computer, My Network Places and Recycle Bin icons. The Media Player app showing the video looks like Windows Media Player, complete with the menu options, controls and window borders. The only thing which is out of place is the Opera icon on the task bar. Who uses Opera anymore? Just like with the DVDs the Opera web browser is something that is still around but certainly obsolete by anyone who cares about technology!

The Shitennou finally reappear in this episode! Fans of the original Anime would expect them to be confined to the first season but like with the manga Sailor Moon Crystal is not done with them. Mamoru still has the stones that represent the four Shitennou and he uses them to channel their ghosts, similar to the way Calaveras does with her sisters. He consults them about what’s going on as they are once again shown to be sympathetic heroes, loyal to Mamoru, not the villains they were when working for the Dark Kingdom.

Sailor Venus uses her Rolling Heart Vibration attack in this episode. In the manga she used this against Tuxedo Mask but in Sailor Moon Crystal this is the first time she uses it. Sailor Moon also uses her Moon Tiara Boomerang attack again. This did not occur in the manga. Artemis also gets some action this week as he is seen taking out a cameraman!

Tuxedo Mask is the one to get a new power in this episode as he gets his first attack Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber. As he does this he shoots a kind of energy from his hands. Why not smoke? The term smoking here does not refer to actual smoke. It’s a reference “smoking”, the French term for Tuxedo. As a French Canadian this term is not one I would use but I was exposed to it reading the French translations of the Sailor Moon manga which was my first exposure to the books. One thing to note about Tuxedo Mask in this episode is that he is no longer wearing his hat. If the manga is any indication he will not be bringing his hat to the future and so we won’t be seeing it again in the series. Tuxedo Mask in the original anime wore his hat consistently when in costume but in the Manga he wears it less and eventually stops wearing it altogether.

Chibiusa is a bit of a brat in this one. She steals Sailor Moon’s transformation item, the Crystal Star, because she wants the Silver Crystal. Usagi is mad at her naturally but when Chibiusa is in danger she is quick to defend her. This is a perfect illustration of Usagi and Chibiusa’s relationship. They get on each other’s nerves and are usually at odds with each other but when it really counts they do care for each other. Chibiusa returns Usagi’s broach, allowing her to transform. She then mentions that she took it because she want to take it to the future to save her mother. She mentions that she knows that a Silver Crystal out of it’s time period will not work but she still needs to try. Why does she think this? Clearly the Silver Crystal of the future works in the past or there would be no Sailor Chibi Moon! But that’s a story for another day.

Next time on April 4th is Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto. Indeed, we will be seeing Sailor Pluto for the first time! We will have the team heading to 30th century Crystal Tokyo in the hopes of helping out Chibiusa’s mother.

Chibiusa’s shirt gate continues! In the next episode preview we see Chibiusa in both her blue uniform, which she brought from the future, and her white uniform, which she gets in the past. The scene with the white uniform looks like some of the flashbacks we’ve seen. Chibiusa didn’t have her white uniform back in 30th century Crystal Tokyo so what is going on here? This doesn’t necessarily need to be a problem. The blue uniform could be a flashback to Chibiusa arriving and the white could be what she’s wearing when she arrives in the 30th century as it’s the uniform she wears to the future in the manga, and what she is wearing at the end of act 18.

Keep reading for more images from this episode and the next episode preview.

The latest episodes of Sailor Moon R have been added to Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we very slowly make the decision to go to the future as Chibiusa decides to go back to Crystal Tokyo and then we take an entire episode to chill in limbo trying to get there.

Episode 81, The Dark Gate Is Completed? the Targeted Elementary School, introduces us to Chibiusa’s school friends Momoko and Kyuusuke. Momoko is presented as Chibiusa’s good friend, as she will be later in the series. Kyuusuke is kind of along for the ride and will later be seen as having a crush on Momoko. We haven’t gotten much of a look at her circle of friends outside of the main characters from the show but it would seem that part of Chibiusa’s plan to get the Silver Crystal and save the future involves enrolling in the local school and attending each day. We learn in a bit of a flashback to Chibiusa’s first day at school that Kyuusuke gave her the nickname of Chibiusa while teasing her for being small. Chibi is a slang term to mean small person or small child in Japan, so this fits. The Usa part is simply short for Usagi, the name which she got from her mother, whoever that will turn out to be. Esmeraude has filled Chibiusa’s school with evil energy, causing children to hilariously attack each other. This brings us to our villains Chiral and Achiral. These two appear as members of the Black Moon Clan in the manga. Sailor Moon kills them with her Moon Princess Halation which would, if they are humans, be the only people she kills in the entire season. While Sailor Moon kills many Droids she has a great record when it comes to humans this season. She heals the Ayakashi Sisters one by one. For liability purposes it is fire and less so Esmeraude that kills Rubeus. Without getting into spoilers Esmeraude is not technically killed as a human and then Saphir and Demande do not die by Sailor Moon’s hand. So what are these characters? They have gems on them which indicates that they may be Droids, but are not clearly referred to as such in the episode and we do not see them created or get turned into a pile of ash like other Droids. I pondered this question for years until finally I saw the Sailor Moon R Memorial. The Memorials are single season summaries narrated by Luna which were released on video. In the Sailor Moon R Memorial all of the season’s Droids are listed including, as the caption in the image below shows, Droid Chiral and Achiral. Indeed, Sailor Moon’s hands remain unsullied by murder for the Sailor Moon R season! As the episode wraps up Chibiusa decides it’s time to go back to the future and save her family.

Episode 82, Journey to the Future: Battle in the Space-Time Corridor, covers our long trip to the future! I remember how excited I was, back in the 90s, having waited so long for new episodes and watching VHS fan subs of Sailor Moon R. I just wanted to see them get to the future already! How exciting that we are finally going, and we spend a whole damned episode just traveling through time! Chibiusa has finally decided to bring the Sailor Team and Tuxedo Mask to the future with her to rescue her mother with the help of the Key of Space-Time. This doesn’t go as smoothly as one would hope. First things first, we see Sailor Pluto! While she had a decent part in the Black Moon arc of the manga Sailor Pluto doesn’t get much attention during this season of the anime, as her appearance is limited to what we saw in a dream and her protecting the Space-Time Door. She tries to attack Sailor Moon, not recognizing her, but stops when Chibiusa interjects. Sailor Pluto sort of exists outside of time so it’s not really clear how old she is or just what time she comes from or goes to, but it doesn’t really matter in this season’s context as she just exists in this vortex which is between time. What follows is a lengthy walk through the Space-Time Corridor where it’s terribly important not to let go of your partner’s hand, only that is exactly what happens. Chibiusa sees a familiar looking face in her mother who turns out to be a Droid. The monster is killed and everything is great until they get to the other side of the corridor. It turns out that really terrible view of Crystal Tokyo we saw in Chibiusa’s dream was actually incredibly accurate. The future really sucks and everything is really wrecked. More on that next week when we actually get to spend a little time in the future!

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