Ok, so I finally saw the movies!
The good:
The music
Finally a breath of fresh air! I had forgotten how much a good track can elevate a scene and embellish the immersion.
Good choice for the oriental style tracks for Kakyuu and Galaxia as well as the Henshin themes referencing the 90s ones are a welcomed present.
It's kinda a pity though that there wasn't an acoustic version of Seiya's Ginga Ichibun (doesn't she sing it on the piano in the manga?) and of course a Todokanu Omoi reprise (could it be because PHS is considered retro?).
The art & animation
It's hands down the best the Crystermos adaptation has looked.
The 1st Part actually has a lot of really good shots, most of them being head shots or bust tops and the line art is really beautiful in a lot of scenes.
Part 2 gets a considerable downgrade for it's first half but the quality picks up for the rest of the movie.
Kotono's delivery
THE MASTERPIECE of Kotono's work on the franchise!
I can't believe that Usagi was actually bearable considering she is so obnoxious for this whole arc!
She nailed so many scenes - when she loses her memories under the river and asks Lethe why she wants to kill her, her voice breaking Therapy Kiss when she kills the Evil Senshis and so much more.
Tomoya's direction
He was the MVP here!
A lot of scenes are really well done and are very interesting to look at. A lot of times, I was greatly reminded of the Tellu episode.
The hand painted watercolor style backgrounds really made everything look more lively.
The ending
I truly loved the ending, it was really good.
Animation-wise, screenplay, music - I truly felt a pinch in my heart.
And yes, even if the wedding scene is
ri-di-cu-lous, the Wedding Song helped save it.
The awkward:
The Evil Senshi
I'm sorry but that's the ugliest part of the movie.
I said before when we had only the teaser and I'll say it again, the Senshi looking like evil onee-sama yanderes is underwhelming. It was so much better in the manga where they actually looked menacing, evil and maniacal.
Also, the abuse of stock footage; it's like Tomoya watched one of those Inner vs Outer Senshi Sailor Dome Battles on Youtube and called it a day.
It was so ridiculous to see Sailor Moon blocking literally everything with pretty much ease, however I do like that she struggled with the Love & Beauty Shock while in the manga she blocks it single-handedly.
The part when Usagi flies all around Galaxia's palace to evade her projectiles is one of the best moments of the movie and honestly, instead of putting the budget in numerous underwhelming stocks and 2 Openings, they should have hired a talented battle storyboard artist to show a marvelous fight.
Usagi is called numerous times the most powerful Senshi in the universe.
The Solar System Senshi are likewise called the most powerful Senshi of the universe (yes, I know don't laugh).
This is supposedly the battle between the most powerful Senshis that have ever lived and it's the most boring thing of the whole Cosmos films, be it on the art or animation.
The tone
The comedic scenes feel so out of place.
While they were Ok at the start of the movie, I don't think I liked any of the second one.
For me, the parting of Usagi and her mother is completely ruined - instead of being a powerful emotional scene and showing Usagi hugging tightly her mother, there are... laughs?
The scene of Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Chibi is also dragged on too much for me.
The bad:
The pacing
It's all over the place and I sincerely didn't feel anything when any of the characters died. It's so quick yet instead of focusing on the dying characters we focus on Usagi and how she is shocked...
I know it's the Usagi show but dude at least in their moment of dying, let these poor girls shine...
There's really no immersion because there's no time for that.
The only time when I actually felt any shock was when poor Guardian Pluto was killed; it's so merciless (and it actually reminded me of the DBZ/Saint Seiya Toei Matsuri movies in which characters would get one-shot in the most shocking way) and the scene jumping immediately to Hotaru silently teleporting really carried the urgency of the situation.
However the whole Outers' scene was also very confusing; they kept shifting in between the trio and Nyanko at the school yet they occur at 2 different times - one at night, the other during the whole of the middle of the day... it's just feels amateurish.
The plot (and it's holes)
Additional notes:
Galaxia:
Galaxia felt like a flip-flopper during the whole movies.
At times, I did see the complex character people have always talked about; this jaded, lonely and battered Senshi who feinting to want to conquer the Galaxy was in fact, unbeknownst to herself, on a suicide mission to end the battle of light and dark.
Then, at times she is just
dumb...
Galaxia: I'm gonna babble loud and clear how I plan to kill Chaos
Chaos appears
Galaxia: Oh! Chaos-sama! Look! I bought you -
Galaxia gets yeeted
Galaxia:
Naze, watashi ga...
Then for most of the times she is just Usagi's yandere girlfriend.
The message:
The thing that intrigued me the most throughout the 2nd Part was the message the story was trying to convey.
In her dying moments, Kakyuu prays for a time when the battle between light and dark ceases to exist and that they (Sailor Senshis) can have a peaceful life.
Lethe & Mnemosyne have a similar speech condemning their suffering onto Usagi's light and Chaos.
Similarly, for all of the Animamates, the concept of being a Senshi was what led to all of their bloodshed.
Even in Eternal, we see that the Inners & Outers have to renounce any peace because they are a Sailor Senshi.
For several times, Usagi is blamed as the source of everything because she is in possession of the Silver Crystal.
Being a Sailor Senshi is a miserable existence and everyone, except Usagi of course, has had nothing but pain and suffering in the end.
Being born as a Senshi is synonymous to a life of tragedies and loss and that is what seems to be the point of the movie.
Usagi however prefers to embrace the good while Galaxia embraces the bad.
Even Galaxia herself comments on this and laughs at the faint concept of life because Senshi will always be reborn.
They can be given birth as easily as it is to kill them so life has little importance to her.
Later on, at one point even Usagi seems to have made her peace with her destiny - there is life and death, joy and pain, light and darkness.
In the end, Usagi sacrifices herself calling on to all of the Senshi of the universe slumbering into the Cauldron as well as to her fallen comrades to lend her their strength so that she can extinct Chaos.
It's all of the Senshi that exist vs Chaos and I really like it.
Yet, after her sacrifice she is given the easy choice to return home along with all of her friends... It's just feels anticlimactic.
Furthermore, before we all thought that Cosmos was from the far, far future and thus even if Usagi gets the perfect (and selfish) ending, it's OK, the girls will eventually lead a happy and peaceful life.
But no, that's not the case, like Kakyuu, Lethe and Galaxia lamented on, in the end because of Chaos who is attracted to Usagi's light, more death and tragedies will occur.
So what was the point of everyone commenting on how the battle of light and darkness should be stopped?
I would have preferred that Usagi made a deal with the Cauldron - she destroys her Silver Crystal and shares her light to the still budding Star Seeds so that they'll too have the same strength to embrace hope as her.
With her death and sacrifice, even though Chaos will eventually be reborn, it will never become as strong and dangerous as the Silver Crystal will never exist - light and darkness are equivalent, without an infinite light there won't be an infinite darkness either.
Of course, Chibi-Usa wouldn't exist and neither would Cosmos' devastated future.
In exchange, she requests her friends are sent back home without their Sailor Crystals instead of being reincarnated as new people; everyone finally gets to have a normal life and decide of their own path in life liberated from the shackles of being a Sailor Senshi and Usagi truly becomes the messiah who saved the Galaxy, a fact known only to her few comrades.
A bittersweet ending.
Also, Usagi calling Minako Mina-P is the most ridiculous thing I could have heard