Sailor Moon Forum

She calls it "bakemono", which actually translates to "monster".

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R

Episode Forty-Eight (R02): "For Love and Justice! Sailor Soldiers Once Again"



This episode focuses on the inevitable bringing back the memories of the other Soldiers. They and Naru are invited to audition for a role on a television drama, which is taken over by Ail and An. The girls, with the exception of Naru, are able to fight the Cardian long enough for Usagi to wander into the audition room. After realizing the Moon Stick is gone, Usagi fails to fight against the Cardian and Luna returns the memories of each Soldier. The Soldiers defeat the Cardian with their respective attacks and that's that.

Meanwhile, Usagi seems to have acquainted herself with "Ginga", but they are only friendly to each other when they are fighting for the same cause: Mamoru. Speaking of Mamoru, he hasn't gotten his memories back yet so he doesn't love Usagi. And Usagi has a reason for loving him now instead of that habit she has with boys. So hopefully he will get said memories back soon. Or not. I really don't care for romantic elements all that much anyway.

My prediction regarding the musical aspect seems to be progressing at a rate much faster than I anticipated. New music has mostly taken over already, with a few classic exceptions that, well, I don't want to see gone. But will they be replaced eventually as well...?

Once again, straight to the point. There were no random episodes focusing on solely Usagi like in the first series. And good thing, because that would not be necessary and frankly it would be boring.

Oh, and Naru reminds me of Krillin now. She's the target for every possibly bad thing. "Why only me?"

Overall, A- Episode. Can't wait to see more!

Trust me, that ain't gonna last.

There's a term for that. She's "Youma bait".

PM time again.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R

Episode Forty-Nine (R03): "For Whom is the White Rose? Enter the Knight of the Moonlight"



This episode focuses on Makoto and her giving back to her childhood friend, who was attacked by a Cardian and sent to the hospital. Later the Soldiers face of against the Cardian, only to be assisted by the so-called "Knight of the Moonlight" (Sailor Moon suspects him to be Endymion, and she is correct). They end up beating it, and everything is all nifty-dandy from there.

The title seems to put emphasis on something that did not concern the main plot, although it was an important scene. The first line should have been "The Strength of Makoto's Friendship!" instead of "For Whom is the White Rose?", because by now it is clear to us who it is for.

I found this episode to be pretty emotional and all at the beginning. Makoto seems to really care for this boy, and that "we have a connection that is even stronger than love" line was really something to think about.

And here we go again with the "random mini-stories" again. Though I don't know how important the "Knight of the Moonlight" thing is.

Overall, B Episode. Can't wait to see more!

And we finally see her sempai onscreen via the flashback.

Think of it as their friendship being so close that they see each other like brother and sister (despite this guy having never been seen or mentioned before, heh ).

He was one of the most interesting one-hit wonder characters.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R

Episode Fifty (R04): "Usagi's Crisis! The Tiara Does Not Work"



This episode focuses on a mishap at the virtual reality arcade where Ail and An set up a plan to steal energy. Disguised as their "Ginga" counterparts, they entered for a round of the game with Mamoru and Usagi. During the course of this, the plan is unleashed, and it is later revealed that Mamoru is not the Knight of the Moonlight. Toru Furuya did a nice job of making his voice deeper for the Knight.

Once again, I have problems with the title. It addresses an issue that was revealed much later in the episode (around seventeen minutes in). Therefore the title is misleading, inevitably making you assume that was what the episode would focus on the entire way through. But, no, that was not even part of the main plot; the Soldiers still were able to defeat the Cardian without the tiara. However it is probably an important point. But I just don't think such a small trifle was important enough to be featured in an episode title where it did not focus on that aspect at all with the exception of a mere few seconds.

Shingo and Usagi's father were actually very much active in this episode, and it was nice to see them back in action after that "family trip" episode. And although Usagi's mother was not active, we still saw here quite a bit more than we usually get to.

This was a sole Usagi episode. Haven't seen that in a while, and it really annoyed me how the Soldiers come in at the last minute to save Sailor Moon. They were shown in line before this, but that was it. None of them had very many lines either.

Overall, B Episode. Can't wait to see more!

And with this, we get our first good look at the "love square" between Usagi, Mamoru, Seijuurou, and Natsumi.

So, he isn't Mamoru/Endymion after all. Hmmm...

Dude, you are preaching to the choir on this.

I liked this too. Seeing Kenji actually try to put up a fight against the Cardian, as well as seeing all of the main three males in Usagi's life at this point (Shingo, Kenji, and Mamoru) interacting together in the same scene.

At least they still broke the tradition of them weakening the enemy only for Moon to make the final killing blow. It's nice to see someone other than Moon destroying the monster of the day.

This is the first time I will ever read and watch Sailor Moon! Right now am torrenting both the anime and manga. Mind if I joined once the downloads are finished?

Yeah, go ahead. And feel free to use this thread for your own reviews if you wish. I don't mind.

wow your fast Goten!! i'm glad your enjoying it!

R is deff a fun season! (I wonder which season will be your fav?)

Also, what are your general thoughts and observations so far, now that you're 1/4 of the way through the series(excluding the movies and specials)?

So far overall the series didn't really have a linear storyline with the exception of some episodes. That bugs me because I'm used to anime having a story instead of random mini-stories like this. I find said stories ranging from humorous to entertaining to plain boring and stupid at times.

The main point of the series thus far is definitely the friendship among the Soldiers and using their teamwork to blow through obstacles and enemies. That point is a great one since the Soldiers don't get along sometimes (Rei and Usagi being prime examples) and they must learn to settle differences and fight for a common goal.

You didn't consider the search for the princess and the Silver Crystal to be a linear storyline? o_O What about when Mamoru was brainwashed? Or the Rainbow Crystals arc?

I think you're referring to the monster-of-the-day format. There's a larger, linear story, but it's told in a MotD format.

In any case, you're going to get more focus on season-long story arcs soon enough.

I'm saying that in most cases, the next episode does not start where the previous left off. That, to me, is a linear storyline. Sailor Moon's goes all over the place with the Monster of the Day format.

*scratches head* I don't think I know of any anime off the top of my head where the next episode starts exactly where the previous one left off. Could you give a few examples?

What you're thinking of is serialization. When a show is in a serialized format, each episode starts rights where the previous left off, and end right where the next one will begin.

Outside of multi-parters, this show uses an episodic format.

Dragon Ball Z.

You can also add in Saint Seiya as list of anime that starts off from where the last episode ended.

Well as for the reptitive Monster of the Day formula, thats really a convention of the Magical Girl Genre. I'm currently watching Cutie Honey(which is often argued having created the Magical Girl) , and it uses that same format where the next episode doesn't continue from where the last one left off.

To sum it up, Magical Girl as a whole is a genre that uses episodic pacing.

I just noticed that Goten hasn't said anything about the new visuals to the opening, or the new ending song/sequence, for R.

Oh, well, I guess in lieu of an episode review, I guess I'll share my thoughts on them.

First of all I liked the visuals on the second version of the opening more. They were more colorful. I love the sound effects on the title card, though. For whatever reason.

And now I guess it's a tradtion to make a really simple ending. It has the same background all the way through and depicted Usagi performing the same animation, like the second ending (though the animation changed toward the end). The song, "Maidens' Policy", is nice, much better than "Princess Moon", in my opinion, and I look forward to hearing it.

And sorry for no review. I am currently incapable.

Yeah, but not every single episode is like that. Several, yes, but the hundreds of episodes of Dragon Ball Z don't form a single, unbroken chain of events.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon has episodes like that as well, though they're usually reserved for multi-parters or season finales. Off the top of my head, Episodes 29 to 31, 45 to 46, 52 to 53, 73 to 74, 82 to 85, 87 to 88, 101 to 102, 110 to 111, 123 to 125, 148 to 149, 161 to 166, 170 to 172, and 193 to 200 are all in "serialized" format.

Of course not all of them are, but the VAST majority are. The only examples I can think of to where it doesn't do that are the first episodes of new arcs.

Also, I liked DBZ's recaps for every episode. Sailor Moon doesn't have those generally because of the episodic format.

They played around with this during the first season, but largely abandoned it about halfway through.

One thing you'll notice is that the third season will be the least episodic in the sense that most episodes actually advance the plot a bit, while the fourth will have insane amounts of filler.

Oh, before you get to the next episode, what did you think of Kae Araki's brief take as the voice of Usagi/Sailor Moon (you just wrapped up her last episode, she's been voicing her sine ep. 44)? I always like reading opinions regarding that change. Some people think they sound exactly the same, and some (such as myself) hear a LOT of differences between Usagi's two Japanese VAs, and find the finale for Season 1 a tad jarring because of the temporary change in voice. I'm just wondering what your opinion was!

They do not sound the same, but I think Araki did a fantastic job. At first she was a little shaky, but she soon got the voice down and was able to portray Usagi very, very well.

It's so nice to see your reviews of seeing these episodes for the first time!

I am currently watching Sailor Moon in uncut/subbed form for the first time myself, and it's really interesting to compare it to my memories of the DiC dub. Maybe I'll join you when you get to episodes I'm on!

I usualy go at a speed at one episode per day, so at this pace would I be able to catch up to you? Or would I have to go faster?

Honestly not sure -- I definitely am not watching one episode per day, but when I do watch I normally watch more than one at once. I'll check next time to see what episode number I am on! Sometimes I watch them more than once before moving on because my husband is watching them with me at nighttime, so if he fell asleep I'll re-watch the one he missed before moving forward, or something.

Once zombi reveals her location in the series I will see what I can do to pick up the pace if needed.

Reviews shall continue tomorrow, so don't fret. I'm not leaving again.