Seeing as how it's been a couple of weeks since R ended, I figured it was time to revisit it, and finally give it my final thoughts.
So I guess there's really no time better than the present to get this over with, eh?
Well, according to the last time I did one of these for this series, the original run of this show, which got pretty good in its final episodes, wound up winning out with a D-. Far from being the best, but not quite the worst.
What is it about this show that makes it so damned popular, not just in the States, but also in its home country? I'm still baffled. I can only imagine it's because there was pretty much no other show like it at the time. There have been others since, but none near quite the scope that this one had.
Of course, those others have also been way better.
I feel that there's something to be said about quantity over quality. And that something has everything to do with why Sailor Moon R failed so god damned miserably in everything. But let's just get this out of the way and head into where they did make a few improvements...
Art & Animation
Considering where this show began, I have to admit that the animation did get a little bit better. There weren't quite so many moments of absolute WTF as there were in the first series, and it felt to me that the visual quality as a whole went up a bit - this is not only good, but also something to be expected of a show that spans nearly 90 episodes by the end.
Of course, they also failed to really innovate anything either. Reusing things, overuse of static images... while nothing truly offensive comes to mind, I feel that they could have done a lot more with what they had, and simply chose not to.
For this category, I'm giving them a straight up C- again. I'm feeling generous.
Story & Plot
The real bread and butter of this review. F. No no no wait. F-. It's just truly horrendous.
Okay so let's get this straight: After everybody loses their memories, they are magically reacquired in the first couple of episodes thereby totally negating all of that important stuff. Ali and En the aliens have been traveling from world to world feeding their stupid pet tree, but somehow don't really understand what it is that the tree is supposed to feed /on/. Plus, there are so many inconsistencies with the filler arc that you could drive a bus through all the plot holes. Like how Mercury is able to establish a pattern based on a singular event one episode, but then can't figure out where bad guys are going to strike next when they've already attacked six places in rapid succession.
Then we get to the REAL part of the series, the Chibi-usa arc and the time travel shenanigans.
I hate time travel. Because it is always used so poorly. But here's what I don't understand: This kid travels from the future back in the past, can't recognize her own god damned parents faces, or the fact that the guardians of Neo Crystal Tokyo are the Sailor Scouts. Then there's the whole time travel thing on the villains part too. Why bother going to the past to change the future? You would be negating yourself! There's so much simply wrong with this shit that it makes me rage like you wouldn't believe.
Then there's the whole part where the villains are all set up to basically screw one another over from the start. Who was supposed to be left to inhabit this barren planet exactly? Just the Prince and his brother I guess I dunno. And the whole thing with just wanting to live somewhere there are flowers? Shit man just go back to the past and then BAM YOU ARE IN A PLACE WHERE NO ONE JUDGES YOU AND FLOWERS EXIST ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE.
Needless to say, not a lot really makes much sense in this show. You would think that this eight year old girl would be able to remember her parents' faces. Or at least be able to go "wow, you look exactly like my mom and dad but younger, isn't that weird?" Nope. Not even. But the worst bit? Her actual father from the future is all 'oh yeah, I've been screwing with your minds in the past because I went through that and I wanted to make sure you treated her like shit the entire time.'
Way to be a real dick, Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask/Endymion. Seriously. You are a massive dick.
But mostly? I still don't understand what the villains were hoping to achieve. If their goal was to take over key locations in the city in the past, so that they would become points of power in the future, why was it their initial reaction was to be EVERYTHING EXCEPT SUBTLE?!
I've raged on about this long enough. It's time to move on.
Music & SFX
Not a lot changed between this series and the former. Pretty much all of the music is re-used, and there's no real evolution in terms of audio. I'm not sure what to say here. They did audio, and it was okay. Didn't make my ears bleed, but none of it was really memorable, so I'll just leave this one with a B+. Honestly, they should have at least tried throwing in some other new stuff.
Character Design & Theming
And now we come to the next mixed bag. The character designs for the main villains? Actually kind of awesome. The Phantom Sisters all had relatively unique personalities, as did Wiseman, Saphir, Dimande, and everyone else. The monster of the day however... not so much. In fact, most of them were downright terrible. There were one or two that stood out as being generally awesome but for the most part... they sucked.
This is the hardest part about watching this show, because you know that it's meant for kids, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. But on the other hand, it also needs to keep a consistent tone, and this is not a show that manages to do that. At all. It goes from being comically over the top and goofy to super serious, and not in a good way. The one-off monsters tend to be pretty lame, especially much later on in the series. I feel that this show tends to operate much better when they're facing off against the actual villains, rather than the lame minions that get constantly thrown their way.
Last time, I gave Sailor Moon a D+ for their efforts, but I'm afraid I have to lower it to just a flat D this time around. Lack of innovation with the monster of the day formula combined with some truly terrible choices means this section flops hard, despite having such a truly strong main villain cast.
All I'm saying is that it would be great if the monsters were actual monsters, not just 'bad guys that look like a human'. Is that asking too much?
Final Grade: F+
Let's face it. Sailor Moon R sucked. It tried very, very hard to capitalize on the success of its predecessor, and failed miserably. The "true final villain" was destroyed in a single episode, despite his claims of immortality, the storyline was pretty much crap, and with the exception of a few very interesting bits and legitimate words of wisdom spoken by the cast, it truly pales in comparison to the original.
That's a hard pill to swallow, unfortunately, especially for as much thought and effort that went into this story. The ending was anticlimactic, and failed to really deliver any sort of lasting impression, especially when they were basically beating us in the face with the secrets while laughing at you for not getting the joke when clearly you had identified the joke long before they started poking you with hints to the truth.
I will say though: I really did enjoy the Phantom Sisters. And the end with Saphir dying, that pretty much sucked. I felt kinda bad for the sisters, but at the same time, they also knew it was likely going to end that way. It's sad that this was the most touching moment of the series because I feel that if maybe they'd put that much care and attention into the rest of the show, it could truly have been an amazing show.
Note that I am not counting the actual final episode in this review. Because if that were the case I would be giving this show a straight up score of ZERO. Because WHO THE F**K DEDICATES AN ENTIRE EPISODE TO THE NEXT SERIES BUT DOESN'T ACTUALLY SHOW YOU ANYTHING?! HOLY F**K. I MEAN EVEN IN OTHER LONG SHOWS WHERE A FLASHBACK EPISODE NOW AND THEN IS NECESSARY, THIS IS A LITTLE BIT EXTREME.
So yeah. There you have it. Sailor Moon R. Done for good this time. I'm hoping the upward trend of S will continue to deliver actual quality, as it is showing a great deal of promise.
Still though... it's a lot to ask your viewers to slog through all of R when there's really not a lot of it worth watching.
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