The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon S were added to Hulu and Neon Alley this morning. This week with episodes 118 and 119 we once again spend a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with the mysterious Hotaru as Sailor Saturn is finally revealed, but not actually seen.
Episode 118, Battle Inside the Demonic Space: The Sailor Guardians’ Gamble, teaches us to be superstitious about cards! In a world of magic wielding girls this is not that odd. For whatever reason the Joker is considered a bad omen as Hotaru seems to keep ending up with it in a game which is something like Old Maid. Here the Joker looks like Death which is fitting for Hotaru. Mimete puts far too many games into the Daimon making machine which causes a weird rip in space causing their house to turn into something like a TARDIS, with doors and openings leading to random places. When a lion comes out of a desk one can’t help but think of Narnia, a whole world accessible through a wardrobe. When the Sailor Guardians come to help Chibiusa, they run into Professor Tomoe. He tries to hide his reaction to seeing the Sailor Guardians, but shouldn’t an average person be quite taken aback by this kind of sight? They have no idea he’s the evil boss but he knows they’re a thorn in his side but is dependant on them to save his daughter! All goes decently well because Hotaru doesn’t pick the Joker, which is somehow important.
Episode 119, The Messiah of Silence Awakens? Stars of Destiny, finally stops jerking us around about the true identity of Hotaru. Hints have been dropped pretty heavily to show us that she is the Messiash of Silence who will bring about destruction but here we get better confirmation and learn that she is also Sailor Saturn. Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto see that the way to avoid the end of the world is killing Hotaru. Naturally the other Sailor Guardians are not totally on board with this. This poses and interesting moral question which is at the heart of the Sailor Moon S series. Is a single person’s life worth sacrificing to save many, in this case around 6 billion? We previously asked it when we considered the lives of the Talisman carriers. For Sailor Uranus and Neptune that answer was yes, as they were ready to sacrifice the lives of others, and ultimately their own, to do what they thought would save the world. Ultimately that sacrifice was unnecessary. Here we have a completely innocent girl, with no control over the evil which lurks inside her, and killing her seems to be the solution to saving the world. Is it “right” to kill her? Is it right to push a man on the tracks to stop a trolley which would otherwise kill five? People have debated these questions for years without coming to any consensus. Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto ascribe to a utilitarian philosophy which prioritizes the well being of the rest of the planet over a single life. Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Guardians feel that no life is worth sacrificing though they are not accepting the fate of the world, simply hoping for an alternative in which no one dies. We’ll have a number of episodes to continue to weigh this moral question.
In this episode we see Hotaru in her school uniform, which we’ve not seen much of to date, insinuating she does not spend a lot of time at school due to her illness. There is also a shot of the planet Saturn that is show which includes Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. A bit of a goof up in the animation department.
Support the site by buying Viz’s dubbed and subbed episodes of Sailor Moon on DVD or Blu-Ray using the links below:
