 Now this took me a while to watch - 8 discs, 42 episodes, 2 distinct
story arcs, and more repetitions of "Moon Crystal Power! Make up!" than
any sane guy should have to listen to. And yet this show takes most of
the blame for my anime addiction. Go figure... ^^;
First thing you should know, is that there's an episode missing from
this set - #67, the (infamous?) Chibi-usa & the Dinosaurs ep. To be
honest, all you're really missing is the episode's gratuitous swimsuit
shots (it's this season's beach episode). Speculation is that it was
removed at SM creator Naoko Takeuchi's insistence on grounds of
really not being up to standard. For the curious, there's a detailed
write-up of the episode on Hitoshi Doi's site.
For what it's worth, I wouldn't see this as a reason to skip the set,
but fans can be strange or principled people sometimes...
Doom Tree Arc
A 13-episode mini-story following the Senshi's encounters with Ali
& En, 2 aliens who have come to Earth seeking energy to sustain the
Doom Tree, a mysterious tree from which they in turn draw their
life-energy. Using Ali's Cardians, they come up with a number of
typically Sailor Moon-style plots to steal energy from Earth's inhabitants, only to be foiled by the Senshi at every turn.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I enjoyed the Doom Tree stories better than the main Dark Moon arc of SMR.
It isn't quite as heavy on the moralising & angst as the rest of
the series and has some great comedy moments (Mamoru & Usagi
babysitting, for a start, and the Snow White episode). That said, Ali
& En are little-league by the standards of SM bad guys, so it's understandable they couldn't make a full series out of them. Good stuff, though.
Dark Moon Clan Arc
From their home on the 10th planet, Nemesis, the Dark Moon Clan have
invaded the Earth of the future. Knowing that the Silver Crystal is a
threat to them, they send some of their clan back to the past to
recover the Crystal from the Rabbit - a young girl, daughter of the
future Queen, who they think has the crystal. The Rabbit, aka Usagi,
runs into Mamoru & our Usagi almost as soon as she arrives, and
quickly becomes a feature of their everyday lives. Now know as
Chibi-usa ("Little Usagi") to avoid confusion, it's up to the Senshi to
protect her from the Dark Moon Clan & save the Earth of the future.
More bad guys than you can shake a stick at, here, and a few noticable changes to SM introduced as well - most noticeably Chibi-Usa, who is either the evil pink spore (according to Project CURE (Chibi-Usa is Really Evil)), or the cutest thing ever seen in anime. I'll leave you to look at the pros and cons and figure it out for yourself. I just think she looks damn good as Black Lady.
There's also the new reluctance on the part of Sailor Moon & co to actually kill
the badguys - something they didn't have any qualms about back in
season 1. Here, while the Droids get dusted on a regular basis, the
emphasis on the members of the Dark Moon clan is more on getting them
to become useful members of 20th Century society. While baddies do die,
it's at the hands of each other and not of the Senshi.
Pet hates for the season: there's time travel involved, so expect
the usual plotholes that come with the territory, and Mamoru's
treatment of Usagi throughout most of the series leaves a lot to be
desired. On the good side, there's not as much filler here as there was
in Season 1 - with the Doom Tree story having taken a chunk out
of the episode count, there's less time to play around with & more
dealing with the actual story. It still takes a while to get where it's
going, but it's enjoyable to watch it get there. The ending isn't quite
the emotional trip that Usagi's battle with Queen Beryl was, but it's
hard to compete with "everyone dies", really.
Sailor Moon R is 10 years old now, and the picture &
sound quality here leaves a lot to be desired by modern standards. Fans
of modern CGI-laden shows may well be put off by how it looks - but to
be fair, they aren't the target audience. This set is aimed squarely at
the large chunk of fandom who came to anime through dubbed Sailor Moon on after-school television, and want to relive that part of their lives, or see how the show was meant
to be seen. It's also an opportunity to replace those VKLL fansubs we
all have lying around in one form or another... If you fall into either
of those categories, then this can't be recommended enough. |
