I may be in the minority, but I felt like this episode was slightly mediocre, while I do love this season far better than the first two.
The animation and art was impressive like always for season 3 (I did like the shots of Ami standing under the Mugen Academy and the lampposts on the road, and that scene with Usagi and Haruka looked like a nice watercolor painting). There were some good parts, like Usagi and Mamoru helping Chibi-Usa make the grail, which showed how much their family is growing, Ami sneaking into Mugen Academy and her transformation in the pool was cool, and so was Uranus' Space Sword Blaster, which looked like it had 90's World Shakings as projectiles, that was awesome. Vilyui was also pretty cool, and I liked her Mosaic Buster with the Periodic Table Element symbols on it, though it looks more like some mini shield, and I miss her snarky side from the 90's anime. And as one user said, at least we're now past the awful and pointless Haruka x Usagi and Michiru x Mamoru thing, which actually came to a good end here and seeing Usagi and Mamoru talk and kiss was nice, they've improved greatly over their season 1 and 2 selves. I also did love the new version of the theme and it sounds way better, love Mitsuko Horie singing it. Uranus and Neptune's transformations were also awesome, though they were nowhere near as awesome as the 90's anime version. That's it for the good points.
Unfortunately for the negatives, I'm sorry, but I've got a good amount. To start off, I think the battle scene here was adapted more poorly, rather than successfully, from the manga. Minus the thing with her sneaking into the Academy and letting the girls know it was the enemy, just as I feared from the preview, Sailor Mercury was completely useless in this episode, just having her attack fail and then get hit and become helpless during the Mosaic Buster attack and fall unconscious for the rest of the episode, it made her look weak. At least in the manga, it looks like Mercury hit Vilyui and hurt her with her Mercury Aqua Mirage, and in the 90's anime, Mercury not only froze Vilyui's nano-robots with her Shine Aqua Illusion, but also was able to attempt to resist them, and only fell to her knees and was able to get up later (and saved Haruka and Michiru who later helped return the favor). Some people have said it was to show how smart Vilyui was, and while I do agree on that, and see Mars and Jupiter helping out as sort of returning the favor, when you consider Mercury's battle record overall in Crystal, and consider that she was greatly underused in this manga arc compared to Sailor Moon S (and no, it's not out of nostalgia and I'm not trying to sound biased)......
Secondly would be Uranus and Neptune here, to me anyway. Them attacking the Inners at the beginning (while I did love that rocking violin music) is yet another reason why I don't like the Outers in the manga version of the Infinity Arc. Also, they never said they were their enemies in the manga, minus later when they said that they could be considered that for spoiler[ attempting to kill Hotaru.] Why the hell would Chibi-Usa just assume that they're not "bad people" when they just suddenly attack her and the others (and seeing what looked like blood in the manga made it even worse) even after they gave her a helicopter ride, and has assaulted Usagi TWICE (sexually and with World Shaking)? Yeah, I'm not buying it.
Not to mention the Outers getting their identity revealed felt rushed (along with the discovery of the talismans too), but they made Haruka's uncomfortable "I may take advantage of you" line even worse by her saying "I'll grab and eat you," especially when you consider what the word "eat" could also mean..it's really creepy as fuck!
Why the FUCK does anyone find Haruka's flirting like that charming (and they were using smiles as if they liked it)? It's creepy and how would anyone like Haruka doing that to Usagi? If someone did that to me, I'd punch them and call the police and/or get a restraining order!! That may be just me though.
Plus IMO, the whole thing with Usagi somehow feeling Haruka's pain of wanting to say something to her, never made any sense to me. Once again, I think it's a flaw the manga has that the 90's anime somehow never had in my eyes: things sometimes come out of nowhere in a way where it's hard to understand what's going on.
Sailor Neptune was underused once again...she didn't do anything except assault the Inners' ears here. Why have a character if you're not going to do much or anything with them? At least she was used better in the original anime...which portrayed her relationship with Haruka better. And I noticed this in the next episode too, it's always Haruka, Haruka, Haruka! I mean, I love Haruka and Michiru, but give us focus on Michiru too!
But like what one person said, at least we're past that whole flirting thingy that ended up going nowhere.
Third, the new Chibi-Usa ending is crap. It's too bright and happy for an arc like this one.
Fourth, unlike the other past episodes, where I got that awesome Sailor Moon feeling with the action and such, here the fight scene was just lackluster and rushed, and I didn't feel all awesome and excited. Even when I read it in the manga, it felt awesome and cool. I think it's because, in my opinion, once again, it's sticking too close too the manga, and just because that pacing worked in the manga doesn't mean it'll work here. And I'm sorry, but the fighting scene was just done better in the 90's anime, not just because of the action and such, but also because we got to see Ami stand up against Haruka and Michiru, and a sad way to see Vilyui die without knowing love...
I give it a 3/5. It could have been better and needed adjustments. |