Finished the movies today. My thoughts are mostly about the second film:
Finished both movies at last. I had some nitpicks here and there, mostly in terms of how they were kind of perfuctory imo in how they did adapted the visuals.
However, by the end I was teary eyed.
I particularly liked the beginning and end of the second film. There was a sense of bookending the story.
The first scene from the manga, original anime and almost the very first scene of Crystal starts with Usagi interacting with Ikuko before leaving the house. Part 2 started off with Usagi and Ikuko before Usagi leaves to go into outer space.
The penultimate scene of the film ends with the Tsukino family, in a recreation of a moment from the debut of Usagi. It felt very much like, look how far we have come.
In addiion, in my opinion, seeing the Tsukino family together one last time might've been Naoko paying tribute as Usagi was somewhat based upon herself and Usagi's family was based directly upon her own irl.
I also loved how the Movie did a bit of a Circle of Life in regards to Usagi's Moon family. ||We see QS in the Cauldron birthing Usagi. We see Sailor Cosmos (who IS Usagi) with a tiny ball of light implied by the end of the film to be Chibi-Usa. Its like a mother-daughter tradition. ||
Some interesting alterations from the manga:
- The movie is mostly unambiguous about who Sailor Cosmos is. She is Neo-Queen Serenity farther into the future, somewhat, implying she is NQS's Sailor form.
- Sailor Chaos is red not black and apparently has a monster army. I guess this makes more sense, I always presumed she was 1 by 1 killing everyone by herself.
- Sailir Chaos wrecked Crystal Tokyo as we see King Endymion, he even has medals on his jacket like Mamoru when he got married to emphasise the point. Again, seems to imply Cosmos is NQS transformed.
- Sailor Cosmos DID defeat Sailor Chaos and then went back in time. Every manga translation implies she couldn't defeat Sailor Chaos, hence she goes back in time. This is a major change to the lore. Although it is unclear if she was depressed after winning, regarding it as a pyric victory or if Chaos' army kept fighting.
- Guardian Cosmos' last dialogue was changed. In the manga she says all things are possible in the Gala y Cauldron. In the movie she says if Chaos returns she believes Sailor moon will defend everyone, corroborating the change that Cozmos DOES defeat Chaos
- The movie confirms that there was a timeskip after they were reborn. It wasnt that they woke up in bed together, that was a flash forward
- Queen Serenity was depressed when she birthed Usagi in the GC. That is not the case in the manga and sends my imagination running wild.
- Guardian cosmos when discussing QS birthing Usagi says that star had a similar shine to Usagi. It is ambiguous as to what she is talking about, she might just be conveying that the baby born in the cauldron WAS Usagi. But in the movie her dialogue is actually comparing Usagi to QS. Usagi has the same shine as her mother
- in Sailor cosmos' last moments we see a little glowing ball in her hand and see another one later during the wedding, when it enters Usagi. This implies we literally see chibiusa's star seed being birthed from the cauldron