Sailor Moon Crystal Act 31, Sailor Pluto – Setsuna Meioh, review

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Adam

The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal aired on Japanese TV on Monday May 9th and is now available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. This week Sailor Pluto returns as Setsuna Meioh while Makoto faces off against an evil plant lady! Overall I thought this was a really great episode with fantastic animation, though I found some of the subtitles a bit distracting. There seemed to be some fairly basic grammatical errors or just sentences that weren’t written like people really talk.

The big thing this week of course is the return of Sailor Pluto. Throughout most of the episode Setsuna Meioh, Sailor Pluto’s civilian identity, doesn’t have any memory of being a Sailor Guardian. What exactly is going on here? The Sailor Pluto we saw in the future did not come from the present. While the Space-Time Corridor can be considered to exist outside of time in some sense, I always assumed that Sailor Pluto guarded it throughout time. So there should be a Sailor Pluto in the past, present and future, living through time. Which Sailor Pluto is this? We will get a bit of an explanation next week which really only raises more questions. I have a lot of thoughts on this but I will get into them in my Act 32 review.

Reika and Motoki show up again, as they’re going to school with Setsuna. The two are bickering and fighting a bit as Motoki has mentioned Makoto, one of the many young girls that comes into his arcade, and Reika doesn’t really appreciate this. Imagine how she’d feel if she watched the live action series! While on the train Motoki suggests going to have dinner near the Mugen Academy. Reika doesn’t want to because of the ominous clouds! Oddly when we see the buildings in the distance there does not appear to be any more clouds there than over the train the two are on, where it’s also raining. What?

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 31 - Chibiusa's hot teacher

Sailor Moon SuperS episode 135 - Kyuusuke, Chibiusa and Momoko badmouth Morino

Back at Chibiusa’s school we make an important discovery. Chibiusa and her friends have a hot teacher! Where did she come from? She looks nothing like this in the manga. In the anime we see their teacher in the Sailor Moon SuperS season, but this does not appear to be that same character. That character was struggling with aging while being single and Kyuusuke teased her for not being able to get a man. This teacher shouldn’t have any such problems! Meanwhile Kyuusuke is not subtle about his attraction to Chibiusa. As the class is encouraged to give the items they made to someone special, Kyuusuke choses to give his Sailor Moon pencil holder to Chibiusa. She misses the point obviously. Shouldn’t she be totally into this guy because he looks just like her father?

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 31 - A Brock looking guy who's into Makoto

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

Speaking of guys who look like fathers, who’s this guy who’s hitting on Makoto in the botanical gardens? He kind of looks like Brock from Pokémon. You know who else looks like Brock from Pokémon? Makoto’s Dad! If Chibiusa is any indication girls really dig guys who look just like their Dad so Makoto should be all over this dude! Instead she daydreams about her Sempai, who we learn is named Nichogi. This episode, and the manga equivalent, are the only time we hear his name which was never mentioned in the original Sailor Moon anime. He doesn’t look like Brock from Pokémon which just doesn’t make sense if Chibiusa, Freud and Jung are to be trusted and all things considered I don’t think they should be.

This week’s villain is Tellu of the Witches 5 who is posing as Ruru Teruno. She’s in charge of phys ed and the botanical gardens. What an odd combination of interests that also overlap with Makoto’s very specific mix of girly and tom boy tendencies. Her power level is 404, double that of last week’s villain, but because this manga is from the mid 90s it’s unlike it’s a reference to http code 404, page not found. Tellu has created the Tellun flower which is this evil flower which drains people’s energy, a plot not unlike that of the Sailor Moon R movie. The Tellun plant in bloom blankets the floor with pink flowers which looks a lot like the asteroid which was blanketed in Kissenian flowers in the film.

Lots of Hotaru going on this week as we see that girls are terrible to each other sometimes. The other students at her school comment about how weak she seems and that she wears long sleeves even in summer. A change that we saw last week was that Mugen Academy students were starting to wear different uniforms with short puffy sleeves over the longer sleeve versions we’d seen earlier, and that Hotaru continues to wear. Next week we will see just why it is that Hotaru wears long sleeves and stockings. She’s not just hiding scars but also something kind of evil as she gets upset at her classmates and crushes a metal pencil box in a frightening display.

Usagi starts to suspect Hotaru, as she’s the daughter of Professor Tomoe, and so she comes along with Chibiusa to visit her. If only Chibiusa had been honest and shared Hotaru’s secret that her father makes monsters we would be able to avoid a lot of this stuff but whatever. Usagi snoops around Hotaru’s house while Chibiusa helps her friend get her Silver Crystal fix at which point she once again shows signs of being some sort of evil being stuck inside the body of an innocent looking young girl.

Sailor Chibi Moon steps it up this week by finally getting her Moon Rod. She pleads to her mother to get a weapon and then Luna P turns into this item. I’m not sure her mother did this because I thought Luna P was more related to Sailor Pluto. So she uses this device to do her ridiculously sweet Pink Sugar Heart Attack move which is animated nearly identically to how it was in the manga.

Finally Sailor Pluto shows up with her Dead Screen attack killing Tellu, who somehow turned into a big monster, and saving the day. Unfortunately this appearance is not preceded by a transformation sequence. Based on what happens in the manga it is entirely possible that we won’t be seeing Sailor Pluto or Saturn transforming in this particular story arc, though we can hope that a minor change will allow them to transform on screen.

Next week Act 32, Infinity 6 – Three Soldiers. will give a bit of an explanation as to where and when Sailor Pluto came from. We’ll get some back story on the new Sailor Guardians and face off against the final members of the Witches 5.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this episode and the next episode preview for Act 32.

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Watch Sailor Moon Crystal Act 31, Sailor Pluto – Setsuna Meioh, May 9th at 10:30am Eastern Time

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Adam

The next new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will air tomorrow on Japanese TV and be available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu as early as 10:30am Eastern Time. This week on Act 31, Sailor Pluto – Setsuna Meioh, Sailor Pluto returns from the dead! Sailor Pluto didn’t die in the past though. The future version of Sailor Pluto died which makes we wonder if there are two Sailor Plutos hanging around right now or … or what?

This week Sailor Jupiter faces off against Tellu of the Witches 5 who fights with the help of evil plants!

Sailor Moon Crystal Act 30, Infinity 4 – Sailor Uranus – Haruka Tenoh – Sailor Neptune – Michiru Kaioh, Review

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Adam

The most recent episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available to view on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu. This week’s title is the longest to date as we get Sailor Moon Crystal Act 30, Infinity 4 – Sailor Uranus – Haruka Tenoh – Sailor Neptune – Michiru Kaioh. But is this the title? That is what the original manga chapter is called and from the title card appears to be the proper Japanese title but the Crunchyroll and Hulu subs and page titles call it “Episode 31 – Act.30 INFINITY 4 Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh – SAILOR URANUS, SAILOR NEPTUNE”. Why change the name like this? Seems an odd choice! This week we continue to deal with drama related to our new friends and Sailor Mercury faces off against Viluy of the Witches 5.

First things first, we have a new opening theme song. Somehow I didn’t realize we were getting it this week. This story arc will actually have three opening and three ending themes. These are the second batch. The opening theme song, In Love With the New Moon, is now sung by Mitsuko Horie who is best known as the voice of Sailor Galaxia. She also covered the Sailor Stars Song as part of the 20th Anniversary Album. It’s a bit odd to hear a slightly changed version of the theme song we’d just started to get used to. I tend to prefer the first version but I wonder if my feelings would change had I heard this one first. I guess we will be getting this version for another few weeks before it is replaced with the Momoiro Clover Z version of the song. They sang Moon Pride for the first two story arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal.

The new ending theme is Maiden’s Advice, sung by Misato Fukuen, the voice of Chibiusa. The ending theme is full of pink and Luna Ps as far as the eye can see. A big change from the last ending theme we had. This will eventually be replaced by Only Eternity Brings the Two Together, sung by Kenji Nojima, the voice of Tuxedo Mask. A CD single with the current opening and ending themes will be released on May 25th, after which I suspect we will be getting the third opening and closing.

As the episode begins it is immediately obvious that these new Sailor Guardians can’t be our friends. Prelude to drama! Sailor Uranus and Neptune straight up attack Sailor Moon and her friends because we sort of have the same mission but we aren’t friends so we just aren’t. In the process Chibiusa immediately betrays her promise to Haruka and Michiru by revealing that Sailor Neptune’s Mirror is a Talisman. Too bad she doesn’t share Hotaru’s secret and tell us who the big bad guy is but whatever we needed to make Ami work a bit this week anyway.

Another shared dream. This one shared by Mamoru and Usagi, who see the “Deity of Destruction”. The Messiah? Looks like Princess Serenity with a staff, maybe a glaive, to me. The two seem surprised to share a dream, even though this has been happening consistently for the past few episodes.

Usagi is chilling in the park and someone comes by from behind covering her eyes with a sort of “guess who” thing. I hate this game, especially when the person who plays it isn’t someone you play it with a lot. Guess right and it’s not a big deal. Guess wrong and it’s drama drama drama. So Usagi guesses Mamoru, which is odd since she recognizes that Haruka smells like Sailor Uranus. I guess she’s bad at this game too. At this point everyone seems to know who’s who and when Haruka gets close… Mamoru shows up!

The drama continues at Mamoru’s apartment and while things are tense Chibiusa crashes the party! She appears to be oblivious to the problem but we eventually learn that her and Diana are actually trying to get them to make up. Chibiusa’s makeup attempt includes making the Holy Grail! This is an odd thing. Chibiusa remembers seeing this item, which Sailor Moon used back in the day aka the future, in a painting in her mother’s room. So the Holy Grail that is made in this episode actually doesn’t exist yet! Mamoru looks up the Holy Grail in “An Encyclopedia of World History”. I don’t really think of the Holy Grail as being a historical object what with it in all likelihood never having actually existed, but whatever. It’s a show about magical girls.

Finally once Chibiusa and Diana are asleep Mamoru and Usagi have a little moment where they both admit to being jealous and then they probably have sex. But Chibiusa and Diana aren’t really sleeping so Chibiusa maybe sees her parents having sex. I guess it’s in Chibiusa’s best interest to encourage her parents to have sex because that’s how she’ll be made some day, unless human sexuality changes drastically in the next seven or so years.

On to part two which has almost nothing to do with the first half of the episode. Ami enrolls at Mugen Preparatory School, which is a sort of high school exam preraration school given at Mugen Academy but with a ton of students from others schools, hence the variety of uniforms. Ami is a genius, so it makes sense that she goes here, but she’s actually investigating too! She goes up to the 13th floor and sees a scale model of a galaxy. I say galaxy of course because I know that’s what it looks like. Yui Bido, actually Viluy of the Witches 5, refers to it as a scaled down universe, and states that it’s the Tau Star System. Let’s correct some confusing terminology here. The Universe is vast and contains at least a hundred billion galaxies. This model contains a single galaxy. This is hardly a scale model of any Universe as we know it. It’s also referred to as the Tau Star System. What exactly does this mean? A solar system is a star with planets and such around it. A star system can mean a few stars orbiting each other, such as a binary star system, but when you get to galaxy scale, containing hundreds of billions of stars, you don’t call things a star system anymore. So much to say, what we see about this thing contradicts the wildly varying things it’s called. It’s not that hard to get these things accurately, especially given Naoko Takeuchi’s interest in space. I’m sure this won’t get better as the story arc proceed and we learn more about the Tau Star System. Everything we know about physics also tells us that you can’t just scale something down like this. Is this galaxy made up of tiny stars with tiny planets around them filled with tiny people made up of tiny cells and tiny molecules made up of tiny atoms? Whatever. It’s a show about magical girls.

Ami starts to poke around. She throws a pen into a camera which is bad ass. She’s on the 13th floor. She sees a door that is labeled “Underground laboratory”. She’s on the 13th floor and sees a door that leads to a lab which is under the ground, generally accepted to be at floor one. In there she finds Daimons and the enemy shows up. She’s underground at this point. She runs to the nearest window and … she’s back on the 13th floor! What exactly is going on here with a dedicated stairwell that goes down 13 floors but doesn’t open up to any other floor? Is there some sort of portal through space that leads from one floor to another? Anyway Ami is totally bad ass again by jumping out the windows, diving into a pool and transforming while diving, emerging as Sailor Mercury. Pretty awesome. Reminds me a bit of Ami’s first transformation in the live action series which is done while she’s falling.

Sailor Mercury fights Viluy who fights with nano robots. Advanced technology which is basically a swarm of tiny robots all working in unison for something. For whatever reason the cloud of nanobots appears as formulae over Sailor Mercury. Why not? Sailor Uranus and Neptune appear and transform for the first time. The transformation sequences are brief and similar to those from the original Sailor Moon anime. After a few attacks magic beats technology yet again. Viluy’s power level was 202. I’m not sure how accurate this scale really is, but they keep using it. The page of the book which the Holy Grail appears on happens to be 202. What an odd reference.

Finally we see an old friend. Reika and Motoki are at the University and we see a new first year student, Setsuna Meioh. If the resemblance was not immediately obvious this is the civilian identity of Sailor Pluto, who died last season in the distant future.

Next week is Act 31, Sailor Pluto – Setsuna Meioh, in which we will see Sailor Pluto once again.

Keep reading for more screenshots from this episode and the preview for Act 31.

Continue reading →

Watch Sailor Moon Crystal Act 30, Infinity 4 – Sailor Uranus – Haruka Tenoh – Sailor Neptune – Michiru Kaioh, Monday May 2nd at 10:30am Eastern Time

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Adam

The next new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal airs on Japanese TV Monday May 2nd at 11pm Japan Standard Time and will be available to stream on Crunchyroll, Neon Alley and Hulu immediately afterwards, starting at 10:30am Eastern Time. Episodes are sometimes limited to Hulu Plus users at first but should be viewable on Neon Alley right away. I always watch the episodes on Crunchyroll myself because I’m Canadian and find the feed is of a better quality. Act 30, Infinity 4 – Sailor Uranus – Haruka Tenoh – Sailor Neptune – Michiru Kaioh has got to be the longest Sailor Moon Crystal episode title to date! The new Sailor Guardians have introduced themselves but we’re about to see that they’re not quite as friendly as we might have hoped.

As Mamoru and Usagi struggle with their relationship troubles we’ll be getting our first look at the Holy Grail, an item which is first seen as Chibiusa creates a replica of it based on what she’s seen in the future, even though it doesn’t exist yet. We’ll also be seeing an old friend we thought was dead!

The English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, is now available on Hulu

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Adam

The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now available to view on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week on Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, Chibiusa continues being the evil Black Lady. She has enslaved her father to make him her boyfriend!

With things getting real Sailor Pluto must abandon her post and to do so… she leaves Diana in charge. This update is being scheduled to be posted automatically while I’m on vacation in Italy. To do this I had to leave someone at my work in charge to cover my duties, and I was lucky to have someone well versed in my duties to do so. What exactly is part of Sailor Pluto’s job that Diana is able to do? Does she get paid for it? Oh well. At least we get a look at young Sailor Pluto this week!

Next week is Act 25, Showdown – Death Phantom. The season is almost done with just a couple of episodes left. Big changes are in store for Chibiusa!

Watch the English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, Friday April 22nd at 9pm Eastern Time

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Adam

The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be released on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday at 9pm Eastern Time. Act 24, Attack – Black Lady, continues with Chibiusa being Black Lady and making out with her dad.

We will get real cute moment with Sailor Pluto this week as we see a flashback to when she was young. Sailor Pluto will also give Diana a part time job which makes one wonder what her actual job is if a tiny kitten can do it.

The English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 21, Complication – Nemesis, is now available on Hulu

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Adam

The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is now online on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week on Act 21, Complication – Nemesis, Sailor Moon is kidnapped and held hostage by a completely inappropriate Prince Demande. He respects consent even less than Mamoru did! We’ve also got a bunch of tension between Sailor Pluto and King Endymion. She is Seiya to Mamoru’s Usagi if that makes any sense.

This week we got a look at evil Chibiusa. We see this in both the young and older version of her. We’ll see a bit more of her next week in Act 22, Hidden Agenda – Nemesis, but even then she’ll be somewhat obscured.

The English version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, is now available on Hulu

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Adam

The latest English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal to be added to Hulu and Neon Alley takes us to the future! Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, has the gang following Chibiusa to the 30th Century Crystal Tokyo and getting their lives threatened by Sailor Pluto in the process. Who does she report to anyway? I sort of assumed her boss was Neo Queen Serenity, who probably wouldn’t appreciate her employee killing her past self, but I guess these rules exist for a reason! Fans of the Pokémon anime will recognise Sailor Pluto’s English voice, Veronica Taylor, as Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum. Yes that’s right I’ve found another reason to bring up Pokémon. Sailor Pluto’s adult female voice actually sounds more like Ash’s Mom, Delia Ketchum. Does that make King Endymion Professor Oak?

We get to see Diana the kitten this week very briefly, though we won’t hear her talk until the next episode. One thing we also see but don’t totally see if Usagi and Mamoru having sex! This was hinted at heavily in the manga but in Sailor Moon Crystal not a lot is left to interpretation.

Next week is Act 20, Crystal Tokyo – King Endymion, has us actually hearing Diana’s voice, though we don’t yet know who will be voicing her. We’ll also see the purple version of Tuxedo Mask and get a bunch of backstory including who Chibiusa’s parents are! OMG who could it be?!

Watch the English dubbed version of Sailor Moon Crystal Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, Friday March 18th at 9pm Eastern Time

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Adam

The next English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be available this Friday on Hulu and Neon Alley. Act 19, Time Warp – Sailor Pluto, will be available at 9pm Eastern Daylight Time. Daylight Savings Time is in effect so if you’re lucky enough to live in an area that doesn’t celebrate, Sailor Moon Crystal may be released at a different time than you had been expecting it! This week we go to the future and on the way meet Sailor Pluto who pretty much wants to kill Sailor Moon. Sailor Pluto will be voiced by Veronica Taylor. Anime fans may know her best as the voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon! Also appearing in this episode is the adorable cat Diana, though I am not sure who will be performing her voice at this time and we won’t actually hear her speak until Act 20, unless there’s some unexpected ADR.

Fans of Usagi and Mamoru will be excited to see them have sex in this week’s episode! This was strongly hinted at in the manga but not at all subtle in Sailor Moon Crystal. We’ll see if the English dub tries to smooth over this sex scene or if they fully embrace it.

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes 170 and 171 are now available on Hulu

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Adam

The two latest episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars are now available on Hulu and Neon Alley. This week we get parts 4 and 5 of the 6 parts mini series that starts off this season. We have the Sailor Guardians split up into unlikely pairings as they are left to make due with what they have and fight Queen Nehelenia. This gives us interesting explorations of all of the Sailor Guardians. Next week this arc will wrap up and we will also see the first of the Three Light and the Sailor Starlights Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Healer and Sailor Star Maker.

Episode 170, Night of Destiny: The Sailor Guardians’ Ordeals, spends a nice amount of time having the gang prepare for battle. The girls are all together in civilian mode to talk about what to do about this whole problem of Mamoru getting kidnapped by Nehelenia and sucked into a world of mirrors. Usagi gets real upset and has an epic transformation into … Eternal Sailor Moon. Okay this is getting lame at this point. Eternal Sailor Moon is the new Super Sailor Moon. We need to stop making a big deal of it every time this transformation happens. This leaves the rest of the girls ready to transform and I know what you’re thinking! Will we finally see Sailor Saturn’s transformation sequence? No. Transformation is done off screen and the gang use Sailor Teleport to go after Usagi and save the day. Unfortunately as they are flying around they are broken up and left into a series of unusual pairings. Though most of the core group have been paired together with one another at some point in the series there has been very little one on one contact between the original Sailor Guardians and the newer ones. This next couple of episodes gives us a bit of that. First off we have Sailor Mercury and Sailor Uranus left in some sort of ancient ruins. When the two run we learn from Haruka that although she always thought Michiru was keeping up with her when they ran the truth is that Michiru was pacing herself. This is indicative of the power balance between the two. Haruka sees herself as leading in that relationship but Michiru is able to hold her own and is willing to let Haruka believe what she would like. There’s a nice flashback of Ami when she was a kid. She was basically terrible at basketball but after reading a bunch of books on strategy was able to help her team in other ways. This is indicative of her overall role in the group. Bubbles and other lame water based attacks aren’t beating the bad guys but Sailor Mercury is able to use her brain to save the day. She does so to find the source of the Nehelenia’s power. After the defeat the two are trapped in mirrors anyway. Next up is Sailor Mars and Neptune. I wasn’t crazy about this one. It’s insinuated right away that Sailor Neputune has a better power of prediction than Sailor Mars. All this time we see Rei as having a strong power but it is instantly neutered in this simple interaction where Sailor Neptune knows what’s right and Sailor Mars seems to be bluffing. To be continued…

Episode 171, For Love: the Endless Battle in the Dark World, continues where we left of fighting these evil Nehelenia monsters. Sailor Mars and Neptune quickly dispatch the one they are fighting but then inexplicably fall unconscious into a pond and are trapped in mirrors. What is the point of beating these things if they lose anyway? Defeating these Nehelenia clones seems roughly equivalent to being found innocent by a Quintesson. Next up is the unlikely paring of Sailor Venus and Sailor Pluto. They don’t fair so well. They fall into a chasm and Venus uses her Venus Love Me Chain as a rope to save both of them. The Nehelenia monster shows up and drops them in the ravine. Their fate is no different than that of their friends who beat their Nehelenia clones as they as well get stuck in mirrors. Oh well. Meanwhile Usagi marched through the snow to find a field of flowers which made her lose all memories. Sailor Jupiter shows up to save the day and takes a beating protecting Usagi. She loses her rose shaped earring in the process and this reminds Usagi of Tuxedo Mask’s roses. How lovely would it have been if Usagi had been reminded of her cherished friendship with Makoto instead but she is looking for her boyfriend and so this memory is what breaks the spell. She continues to march towards her destination on a giant stairway which is filled with thorny rose bushes. Back at the top of the tent we have the common pairing of Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn. Sailor Saturn means business as she threatens what seems to be the real Nehelenia with her Silence Glaive. To be continued…

Next week we will wrap up this Nehelenia story with a real high quality final episode. After that we are introduced to the Sailor Starlights at last!

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