Sailor Moon S Episode 36 - A Bright Shooting Star! Saturn, and the Messiah

I have been very extremely dead as of lately. And I don't necessarily mean that figuratively either, the last few weeks have been absolutely horrible for me. I've spent most of the last three weeks wondering if I might, in fact, be in the process of dying.

Fortunately, the doctors seem to think that I am not, in fact, dying, and that's always a plus. And for the first time all year, I actually seem to be getting some of that energy I have been desperately missing.

Now, I don't really want to make any promises I can't keep - I've got enough crap on this blog I have yet to actually go through. Remember that crappy PI movie I talked about watching? I still have yet to follow through on that. Then there's Daimidaler, which is begging to be finished. So I'm going to be taking things slowly, working on new content as I am able, and hoping I don't keel over in the process.

Which might be a feat in itself, given some of the shit I force myself to sit through.

Let's watch some Sailor Moon eh?

Today's episode, according to the preview, is all about how anyone can become a Messiah. Or a soldier. Or... a soldier... messiah?

I'm beginning to suspect they may be getting just a little heavy-handed with some of these themes. Roll intro.

We begin today's episode with... um. Y'know, I'm not quite sure what this thing is supposed to be if I'm totally honest.

Maybe it's some sort of nouveau art thing?

Also, I would just like to point out that of all the words the built-in spell-checker does NOT recognize, nouveau is one of them. Who knew?

So it starts with Hotaru saying sorry, and Mistress 9 is all "oh good that bitch is finally gone from my mind" and we jump straight into a title. Hot damn.

I can't shake the feeling she'll be back, of course...

So Sailor Moon is all "no Hotaru!" and Uranus and Neptune are like "she isn't Hotaru anymore" and... sweet Jesus.

Good god, this is getting pretty grim. Just straight up saying
"That bitch is dead".

It may seem like a little thing to nitpick about but, holy crap. You just straight up said "yeah, that girl is dead now." That's... something.

Of course Sailor Moon doesn't want to accept this, and we get reminded that Pharoah 90 is on his way, and at this point they're just waiting for the Grail. So Uranus and Neptune go to wreck some shit, not caring that Sailor Moon is in the way, and not considering for a moment that she might, I don't know, get caught in the crossfire. Which she does, and she winds up getting slapped into an evil possessed girl.

Oh right, she has the Grail. I somehow get the feeling those two didn't think this through very well, which is hilarious given that one of them IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FREAKING PSYCHIC.

But now Uranus and Neptune be wrapped up in a bunch of hair, which... winds up being... the knees of... some big statue thing?

As cool as this is... what the hell just happened?

Which leads me to another thing that's just Japanese as hell in regards to final bosses of sorts.

The Lunar series is especially guilty of this, but so is Xenogears.
I seem to recall this being a trope, but I can't think of any other
examples off the top of my head.

So the Mistress makes Sailor Moon a deal. Hand over the grail, and she won't choke the ever-loving shit out of those other two girls. Seems like a legit deal.

They try to put on the brave faces, of course, saying that she'd better not hand over that damn thing or they will never forgive her. Though, all signs point to everyone dying anyways if she does hand it over so...

Sailor Moon decides to make with the glowy hands, and who should come stumbling down the hallway but lovable scamp?

Sup dad.

He shows up just in time to stumble into the room, moving towards what's left of his daughter, telling her how all of this is completely his fault. Of course since she's Mistress 9, the shits she is giving are pretty close to zero.

"Ew. Dad, stop it, you're embarrassing me in front of my enemies."

Then she slaps him back, chokes him with some hair, and that really makes Sailor Moon upset.

Meanwhile outside, the girls are continuing to hold back the evil purple influence from expanding.

Then we cut back inside where Hotaru speaks as she watches her father get the life choked out of him. He gets released, falls to the ground, and even those other two girls get freed as the villainess begins to literally fight against herself for control over her body.

I love some of her absolutely insane expressions in this episode.

Seriously, I absolutely love her expressions. They range from creepy as hell to just plain crazy.

Like this one from a few minutes ago. Beautiful.

In fact, ALL of the expressions in this episode are really well done, way better than usual. It's like they're on top fo their game for a change, which is a great change of pace. Mistress 9 falls to the ground, and Uranus tells her to finish the job, but she refuses - Hotaru is, in fact, still alive, and she will be damned if she's going to let anyone tell her she cannot save that girl.

Because let's face it, that's just not how Sailor Moon does things.

Hotaru's dad crawls over to comfort his daughter, who says something about how if she doesn't have the grail something something. Which... makes Usagi blush...?

... I'm really not sure this is the appropriate reaction here.

Mistress 9 does some more freaking out, and Sailor Moon whips out the Grail, thinking that this is going to help things. Also, a reminder that she's not the freaking Messiah so what the hell does she even think she is doing anyways.

But she looks at it this way: Hotaru is still alive. And she cannot for the life of her justify killing the life of one completely innocent girl in order to save the world. Because that is just not right with her.

Which, is arguably a pretty damn good case to make for a Messiah if you ask me.

So now that it's materialized, she hands it over to Hotaru's dad, who asks to take care of it for his daughter's sake. Because he's sort of dedicated the last several years of his life searching for the damn thing, he hands it over much to the anger of Neptune and Uranus.

But as soon as the girl grabs onto it, everyone gets knocked back, Mistress 9 laughs and takes control, and offers to let Sailor Moon become a Daimon when Pharoah 90 shows up.

Also, more totally awesome facial expressions as Sailor Moon calls out for Hotaru.

And this isn't the only one either.

God these are so good.

But Sailor Moon stands the woman down, saying that she's not going to let her do as she pleases. Hotaru is still in there somewhere, and she will totally stand up against all this shit because that's what she always winds up doing.

The villain explains that the Grail is the purest of hearts so really, what does she hope to accomplish at this point? It's basically Victory Assured at this point, right? Job well done everyone can go home?

I mean, to fight against something like that...

Thanks for letting us know. BRB.

Clearly there's no way Sailor Moon can win, the grail is put into the machine, dark energy goes flying out, and someone gets a little bit... um, boob-bitey with Jupiter.

Not even going to think about how many doujins THIS spawned.

The building explodes, the grail shatters into pieces, and the end is nigh or something. Pharoah 90 is on his way I guess. Energy is just flying out all over the place and Uranus and Neptune are all "okay seriously we told you this shit was gonna happen, you see what happens when you're stupidly idealistic?"

Which makes sense, I'm really not going to fault them here because blind idealism without any regard for the consequences can be pretty dumb. But hey, Sailor Moon wouldn't be who she is if she didn't try to do something, and so she uses her Moon Cosmic Power against the oncoming evil eldritch god.

Which we now see actually has tentacles in space.

But then it eye blasts here, and Mistress 9 is all "lol you can't even second transform" and immediately gets blasted by her boss, just because.

Y'know who stands up to that shit though?

Sailor Moon. Coming in to save the mother f***ing day yeah.

She manages to keep the dad and what's left of Hotaru safe from the blast. Somehow. Things are looking really grim, which means it's time for a commercial break!

Afterwards, the end of the world is night. The Sailor Scouts are having a hard time keeping back the evil energy, and shit just explodes all over as their barrier is finally broken, leaving them broken messes themselves.

And then the dark mass in the middle stops glowing, and slowly starts to expand as dear ol' dad has a father-daughter pow-wow right in the midst of all this chaos. It seems like a good time for it.

Hotaru isn't in control of her body, but she says she needs to save Chibi-usa. Y'know she did kind of devour her best friend's heart after all. But her dad has no idea what to do, and isn't really sure how to help her. He laments about the days lost once more. You know, back before the giant lab explosion, back when Hotaru was cute as shit. THEY WERE THE PERFECT FAMILY.

Eventually, Hotaru opens her eyes, and seems to regain control over her body, all to the shock and amazement of literally everyone, but then Mistress 9 refuses to relinquish control, and starts getting all violent and pissy again.

Meanwhile, giant evil barrier is expanding, someone should probably do something about it.

But Hotaru continues struggling for control of her body, and eventually says screw you, imma take back my body, and her entire body vanishes in a Sailro Saturn symbol, appearing before Chibi-usa and Mamoru to say, hey, things are gonna be okay. Don't mind that I'm just a ghost, things are gonna be just fine.

Don't ask questions, just accept the gift from the ghost girl.

Chibi-usa gets her heart back, Saturn thanks her friend and fades from view, and the bad guy is on his way. Things look pretty grim and shit as everything starts to break apart around everyone at the center of this mess, and the Silence cometh.

That dream everyone's been having is now coming true, and Uranus and Neptune ask Sailor Moon if she's satisfied with the results.

But hey, it's not quite over just yet. Sailor Saturn finally shows up in true physical form, thanking her for all of her help. And now it's come down to her to fix this mess. Which is good, because she's kind of known for accidentally entire universes. In fact, wasn't that the reason nobody wanted her power to awaken in the first place?

She plans to basically dive into the heart of the badguy, and blow him the f**k up. It's a simple, yet totally effective plan. Sailor Moon wants to go with, but Saturn basically shuts that down by saying maybe if she were Super Sailor Moon, that could happen. But now that Pharoah 90 has the grail? Well, all bets are pretty much off.

Besides, Saturn is known for being a literal planet-cracker, so it's probably for the best that she handle this one by herself.

Of course, she'll kill herself in the process but hey, such is her duty and all that.

Also, she has a giant can opener.

Seriously you have no idea how long I've wanted to say that.

Off into the ether Saturn goes, and everyone else is left behind to watch the fireworks. Sailor Moon doesn't want to accept this of course, and tries to jump in after her, which fails. So then she tries to Super Trainsform... and fails because no grail. Which starts pissing her off so she tries it again. And again. And again. Giving up isn't exactly her strongest suit, and Uranus and Neptune watch as she loses her shit.

Meanwhile, those other four girls can tell their friend really needs help, and everyone's tiara's start glowing, which actually makes the next transformation totally poignant.

Because now we see why they call this shit Crisis Make Up. Because things have literally gotten so bad, they need something of this level to fix it.

Sailor Moon sprouts technicolor butterfly wings, and attempts to fly into the depths of hell itself with tears in her eyes because that's just how she do. Meanwhile, the dark energy on this side seems to go away, and the world seems... peaceful.

Uranus and Neptune just kind of stand there, dumbfounded, and remember Pluto's parting words. If you meet the real Messiah...

Then there's some sparkly mess in the sky, and everyone looks up going "okay everything hurts what is that mess?"

That mess being, of course, a trail of technicolor butterflies moving down to the ground to become Super Sailor Moon. Who is not alone.

Don't know about you guys, but I've seen some shit today.

Then the trail of glittery butterflies heads off to the moon, leaving them there, and everyone can't help but stare in awe going "oh shit" as we fade into the credits.

... so, I don't exactly have any issues with the episode itself here, but I do have an issue here.

THERE ARE STILL TWO MORE EPISODES. WHAT IN THE HELL! This is the perfect place to end the series really. Okay sure, maybe one episode is required for an epilogue, but seriously? This makes for a pretty good finale here!

I worry about the fate of this series, because honestly, they could have just wrapped it up here and I would have been happy.

Two episodes is a lot of time to royally f**k up all the awesome they've done in the last few episodes.