Glad to hear it. 
Let's go!
-Episode 188 - Invitation to Terror: Usagi's Night Flight-
Interesting... I always found the episodes with the senshi's cover blown to do a good job of shaking up the formula. Interested in seeing where this goes.
(Venus) "Could it be Chibi-Chibi came to give us (atashi-tachi) give us this power?"
I wish! No upgrades for you.
Siren seems very confident in her plan. And I see Nyanko lurking in the shadows... That doesn't bode well. Usually the next general-type only shows up once someone's slated to die soon...
It's funny to see Usagi freaking out over wanting to be on the plane, but uh, did the team forget or just rewrite Makoto here? She's supposed to be afraid of planes after the loss of her parents, right? She doesn't seem to mind anymore. I'd chock it up to the fangirl overwhelming any phobias, but it feels like another instance of the writers forgetting their own characters' backgrounds...
Oh, WHY do the bad guys always overthink this? You went through the trouble of delivering a handwritten letter directly to Usagi's address and didn't think to just wait around and take her out there? I mean, trapping her on a plane in the air DOES seem like a good way of keeping her from fighting back, but you could literally just sneak up on Usagi whenever. Sound asleep in her bed. Sigh.
It was a clever way to save some frames, sure, but I thought it was cute seeing the finished product of their performance in the Mars-centric episode here. A little continuity never hurts.
Seiren's putting the passengers to sleep? How kind. Considering Galaxia intends to take over the whole universe and all, it's rather considerate of her to give everybody a calm nap instead of just killing them all.
Awww, Seiya. Protecting their little bun-head like they promised.
YEAH! Crank that OST! I love the Starlights' theme. And it's kind of cool seeing their original transformations used as a shortened version here so they can get on with the story while still having their moment in the spotlight.
Can someone tell me what the lyric song is that played when the Inners are transforming? I like it.
Thank goodness they had their fight on an old-school plane on a premium floor. These days it's so cramped it'd be even worse than when they were all crammed into Usagi's living room.
I have to wonder... are the Inners just seriously going into overkill on the 'Galactica Tsunami' here, or despite its goofy appearance, is she still attacking with some oomph?
The frame of Galaxia holding out her hand to attack Siren is gorgeous. I wonder if anyone is lucky enough to own the cel.
Oof. Siren's death is pretty intense. We've seen baddies get killed by their own often enough, but the suspensful leadup of her screaming and looking at her braces in horror is actually pretty horrifying. I imagine kids were genuinely scared of Galaxia at that point in the original airing. (Also Kikuko Inoue [Siren] is amazing and that helps to really sell the scene)
I'm not sure what the main feeling is behind the Inners and Starlights staring at each other so intently at the end. Are they upset because the Starlights are technically invaders? Or is it because the secret-identity-gender thing is such a shock? Both? I dunno.
Episode score: 9.5/10. Genuinely solid episode. Animation was great throughout, no nonsense fluff-filler, every senshi present got to actually do something, and major plot developments happened. Nice one.
-Episode 189 - Duty or Friendship: Conflict Between the Sailor Guardians -
Let me take this moment to say that using the episode previews as Usagi's letters to Mamo is really cute and clever.
Venus: "But what a shock! To think that the Three Lights were actually girls! I guess this means that my love life is officially over!"
They're acknowledging that the Three Lights (not the Starlights) are girls... so... does that mean they're basically just using a disguise wand-like ability here to change their physical form? I've heard of the story where Naoko wasn't happy with how they handled the Starlights being men, but this seems to contradict that. Are they dudes or not?!
Jupiter (in response): "Yeah, but Taiki is still Taiki, so we can still hang out with them like always, right?"
Jupiter has prior experience with getting mixed up-romanticish feelings for Haruka, so leave it to her to be the most chill one of the bunch about this revelation. Seriously, even in this day and age, that's a good response to finding out someone isn't the gender you expected/thought.
Man, all the Starlights sans Seiya are genuinely so cold-hearted. They shared both their senshi and non-senshi lives together and yet Taiki and Yaten really couldn't care less about their well-being. 100% committed to being Princessu-simps. What was their plan? Find Kakyuu and then flee the planet and hide for the rest of their existence from Galaxia?
Galaxia: I sense a huge wave of energy coming from the third planet of the solar system.
Uh, yeah, there's like, *squint* 13 different Sailor Senshi there? No wonder...
New generals are always so willing to talk smack before they ever step foot on the battlefield in SM. You'll be in trouble soon enough I'm sure, Nyanko...
Aww, Rei's doing fortune telling! I don't know why they decided to put her in a sort of middle-eastern-inspired garb, but it sort of reads like a callback to her in SM:R (manga arc) when she was fortune telling at the school.
It took Rei a while to figure out that was Seiya sitting in front of her. Because he's wearing... sunglasses? Yeesh. No wonder it's so easy to keep a secret identity in the SM universe.
Aww, Rei. She can be so sweet with Usagi sometimes.
Uggggh. Yaten and Taiki are like overly aggressive dogs the moment Seiya starts speaking to Usagi at the radio show. The way they're glaring around the room at the mere mention of moonlight... calm down, y'all.
GEEZ why are the Starlights SO ANNOYING about Usagi? Taiki and Yaten are utterly single-minded. Seiya and Usagi are having a simple conversation and they lose their damn minds. And then the "This has nothing to do with you!" from Yaten to Usagi? Uh, pretty sure it does, bro. What, do you own Seiya?
Yikes. Crow's first Phage is actually a bit scary. Seiya and the Inners would have lost their damn minds if they'd come out there to find Sailor Moon sliced into ribbons by this guy.
*Random Thought* Sailor Moon is like a caster/mage in a standard video game party composition. The others are technically weaker than her, but she needs time and safety in order to perform her attack/damage spike. Without their protection, she's squishy and vulnerable and would likely get taken out before she could do anything. */Random Thought*
Aww, poor Seiya. Protecting Usagi and getting hurt.
EXCUSE ME? "Every bad thing that's happened to us"?! All they've done since you idiots have shown is up is try to clean up the messes you've made by drawing Galaxia's attention to the planet. Losing your own princess, failing to find her, being willing to kill humans instead of asking for help - that's YOUR doing.
Taiki and Yaten suck. They're willing to blame anyone but themselves for their problems. They say Seiya's to blame, then Seiya tries to save Usagi without transforming because they wouldn't let him. Now he's hurt and they're saying it's Moon's fault! He probably could have countered/tanked that if you'd let the poor guy transform!
Maybe Kakyuu is hiding from these idiots more than she is Galaxia.
Episode score: 7.5/10. I like the plot progression here, and it's nice to get some actual character development with Usagi and Seiya. But watching this one was infuriating because of the Starlights. I'd always heard a lot of distaste for Yaten and Taiki in the fan community, but I had no idea it would get this bad.
Let's go!
-Episode 188 - Invitation to Terror: Usagi's Night Flight-
Interesting... I always found the episodes with the senshi's cover blown to do a good job of shaking up the formula. Interested in seeing where this goes.
(Venus) "Could it be Chibi-Chibi came to give us (atashi-tachi) give us this power?"
I wish! No upgrades for you.
Siren seems very confident in her plan. And I see Nyanko lurking in the shadows... That doesn't bode well. Usually the next general-type only shows up once someone's slated to die soon...
It's funny to see Usagi freaking out over wanting to be on the plane, but uh, did the team forget or just rewrite Makoto here? She's supposed to be afraid of planes after the loss of her parents, right? She doesn't seem to mind anymore. I'd chock it up to the fangirl overwhelming any phobias, but it feels like another instance of the writers forgetting their own characters' backgrounds...
Oh, WHY do the bad guys always overthink this? You went through the trouble of delivering a handwritten letter directly to Usagi's address and didn't think to just wait around and take her out there? I mean, trapping her on a plane in the air DOES seem like a good way of keeping her from fighting back, but you could literally just sneak up on Usagi whenever. Sound asleep in her bed. Sigh.
It was a clever way to save some frames, sure, but I thought it was cute seeing the finished product of their performance in the Mars-centric episode here. A little continuity never hurts.
Seiren's putting the passengers to sleep? How kind. Considering Galaxia intends to take over the whole universe and all, it's rather considerate of her to give everybody a calm nap instead of just killing them all.
Awww, Seiya. Protecting their little bun-head like they promised.
YEAH! Crank that OST! I love the Starlights' theme. And it's kind of cool seeing their original transformations used as a shortened version here so they can get on with the story while still having their moment in the spotlight.
Can someone tell me what the lyric song is that played when the Inners are transforming? I like it.
Thank goodness they had their fight on an old-school plane on a premium floor. These days it's so cramped it'd be even worse than when they were all crammed into Usagi's living room.
I have to wonder... are the Inners just seriously going into overkill on the 'Galactica Tsunami' here, or despite its goofy appearance, is she still attacking with some oomph?
The frame of Galaxia holding out her hand to attack Siren is gorgeous. I wonder if anyone is lucky enough to own the cel.
Oof. Siren's death is pretty intense. We've seen baddies get killed by their own often enough, but the suspensful leadup of her screaming and looking at her braces in horror is actually pretty horrifying. I imagine kids were genuinely scared of Galaxia at that point in the original airing. (Also Kikuko Inoue [Siren] is amazing and that helps to really sell the scene)
I'm not sure what the main feeling is behind the Inners and Starlights staring at each other so intently at the end. Are they upset because the Starlights are technically invaders? Or is it because the secret-identity-gender thing is such a shock? Both? I dunno.
Episode score: 9.5/10. Genuinely solid episode. Animation was great throughout, no nonsense fluff-filler, every senshi present got to actually do something, and major plot developments happened. Nice one.
-Episode 189 - Duty or Friendship: Conflict Between the Sailor Guardians -
Let me take this moment to say that using the episode previews as Usagi's letters to Mamo is really cute and clever.
Venus: "But what a shock! To think that the Three Lights were actually girls! I guess this means that my love life is officially over!"
They're acknowledging that the Three Lights (not the Starlights) are girls... so... does that mean they're basically just using a disguise wand-like ability here to change their physical form? I've heard of the story where Naoko wasn't happy with how they handled the Starlights being men, but this seems to contradict that. Are they dudes or not?!
Jupiter (in response): "Yeah, but Taiki is still Taiki, so we can still hang out with them like always, right?"
Jupiter has prior experience with getting mixed up-romanticish feelings for Haruka, so leave it to her to be the most chill one of the bunch about this revelation. Seriously, even in this day and age, that's a good response to finding out someone isn't the gender you expected/thought.
Man, all the Starlights sans Seiya are genuinely so cold-hearted. They shared both their senshi and non-senshi lives together and yet Taiki and Yaten really couldn't care less about their well-being. 100% committed to being Princessu-simps. What was their plan? Find Kakyuu and then flee the planet and hide for the rest of their existence from Galaxia?
Galaxia: I sense a huge wave of energy coming from the third planet of the solar system.
Uh, yeah, there's like, *squint* 13 different Sailor Senshi there? No wonder...
New generals are always so willing to talk smack before they ever step foot on the battlefield in SM. You'll be in trouble soon enough I'm sure, Nyanko...
Aww, Rei's doing fortune telling! I don't know why they decided to put her in a sort of middle-eastern-inspired garb, but it sort of reads like a callback to her in SM:R (manga arc) when she was fortune telling at the school.
It took Rei a while to figure out that was Seiya sitting in front of her. Because he's wearing... sunglasses? Yeesh. No wonder it's so easy to keep a secret identity in the SM universe.
Aww, Rei. She can be so sweet with Usagi sometimes.
Uggggh. Yaten and Taiki are like overly aggressive dogs the moment Seiya starts speaking to Usagi at the radio show. The way they're glaring around the room at the mere mention of moonlight... calm down, y'all.
GEEZ why are the Starlights SO ANNOYING about Usagi? Taiki and Yaten are utterly single-minded. Seiya and Usagi are having a simple conversation and they lose their damn minds. And then the "This has nothing to do with you!" from Yaten to Usagi? Uh, pretty sure it does, bro. What, do you own Seiya?
Yikes. Crow's first Phage is actually a bit scary. Seiya and the Inners would have lost their damn minds if they'd come out there to find Sailor Moon sliced into ribbons by this guy.
*Random Thought* Sailor Moon is like a caster/mage in a standard video game party composition. The others are technically weaker than her, but she needs time and safety in order to perform her attack/damage spike. Without their protection, she's squishy and vulnerable and would likely get taken out before she could do anything. */Random Thought*
Aww, poor Seiya. Protecting Usagi and getting hurt.
EXCUSE ME? "Every bad thing that's happened to us"?! All they've done since you idiots have shown is up is try to clean up the messes you've made by drawing Galaxia's attention to the planet. Losing your own princess, failing to find her, being willing to kill humans instead of asking for help - that's YOUR doing.
Taiki and Yaten suck. They're willing to blame anyone but themselves for their problems. They say Seiya's to blame, then Seiya tries to save Usagi without transforming because they wouldn't let him. Now he's hurt and they're saying it's Moon's fault! He probably could have countered/tanked that if you'd let the poor guy transform!
Maybe Kakyuu is hiding from these idiots more than she is Galaxia.
Episode score: 7.5/10. I like the plot progression here, and it's nice to get some actual character development with Usagi and Seiya. But watching this one was infuriating because of the Starlights. I'd always heard a lot of distaste for Yaten and Taiki in the fan community, but I had no idea it would get this bad.
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Nothing is quite as exciting as forcing a musical performer to work so hard that they faint on stage and stir up everyone into a panic! ^^
