Sailor Moon SuperS Episode 01 - The Night Where a Pegasus Flies

You know, it of course occurs to me that I may have made a slight error in my estimation of post counts.

For you see, while today is in fact the technical 300th post (a hefty milestone I might add), there are several of these posts which are not, in fact, content posts, but rather they are, how do we say, lapses in judgment in their non-anime-relatedness.

Which means those don't count.

Of course, this also means that Final Reviews may or may not also count, which will also conflagrate the strange, warpiness inherent in the nature of these posts and their counting. Which is just a fancy way of saying that I've seriously miscounted somewhere.

And speaking of warping things (see what I did there), it's time to begin the long trip down the road called Sailor Stars. (Nice save brah.) I get this strange feeling that this may be the beginning of a steep decline, but seeing as how the last season ended, at least I'm coming into this one with zero expectations?

Let's do this.

Ah yes, we're right back into the episode overviews. Some pretty looking dude and a marionette are up to no good, so it's time for....

THE CLASSIC SAILOR MOON INTRO?!

HOLY F**K WE HAVE WINGED UNICORNS PEOPLE.

This new intro is something. Hot DAMN. But it starts off with that familiar bell toll, and showcases something I'm surprised hasn't managed to come up before now.

D'awwww.

With one little added surprise bundle of joy.

... oh hell.

The villains this time seem themed around some kind of carnival thing, which is pretty darn sinister I guess. Also Chibi-MOon gets a bell to ring or something? Crap. At least Sailor Moon looks to be getting an actual weapon this time around, so we'll see how that goes for her.

Gotta admit, this is kind of photogenic.

Ah Tokyo. How much we missed you. Or didn't. There's some water dropping, a field of crystals, and some dude telling us the forest is crying.

Oh hell are we getting all environmentalist already?

Okay dude, fine. You get a pass on this one.

Then we're in space, and there's some voice asking to be answered I guess? We just started this season and already we've entered a really strange place.

Uhhh...

Turns out, it's a cloud with rays of light, from which... something emerges.

IT IS THE PHYSICAL FORM OF LISA FRANK!

Dear GOD is this Lisa Frank as f**k! It's got bright colors, stars, a pink hue, and EVERYTHING IS GLOWING. Also, THAT IS A WINGED UNICORN. YOU DO NOT GET ANY MORE LISA FRANK THAN THIS WITHOUT RESORTING TO STYLIZED ANIMALS, AND I GET THE FEELING THAT IS NEXT.

Cue that new title slide!

That is not a pegasus.

We return to Tokyo, where we hear a horse whinnying and Chibi-usa's window GLOWING.

Also some Lisa Frank Visits Tokyo shit.

So now this little girl finds herself wandering the empty streets of the city in her PJs, wondering who the hell is calling out to her. She finds herself in some fairy tale forest, where she meets the winged beast pictured earlier, and she starts blushing and shit because THAT is the normal reaction, and not going "holy hell THAT IS A WINGED F***ING UNICORN".

Given that this is most likely a dream of course, this seems
like an entirely rational action.

Then she becomes PRINCESS CHIBI-USA. Which is weird because she's never worn this outfit ever I don't think. But the mysterious horse-voice goes 'uh so yeah don't tell anyone' and then Usagi is all "the hell are you doing."

Turns out they are late to something, which is never a surprise with this crew.

It's a shame the show can't do the same.

So Usagi rips off the kid's clothes which serves as a convenient wipe to another scene at the park, where some other people are chatting up a storm!

Remember this guy? Turns out Mako is crushing on him
for some weird reason. Worse choices out there I suppose.

Turns out today something that never really happens is about to occur! But what is it?

Just call it an eclipse okay? It's a goddamn eclipse.

Today is going to see a total eclipse (of the heart~). Also, some other girl who seems vaguely familiar seems to be saying things to Chibi-usa.

Wait who are you? You are not the redhead I was expecting.

Usagi makes another language pun, people call her out on it, and she is embarrassed. Or more confused because uh... y'know.

That moment when you realize the future is f***ed.

The clouds begin to clear however, and people look up at the sky expectantly, which is a good time for us to have a flashback about that dream while that red haired girl asks what's up with Chibi-usa.

Seriously, who is that again? Oh right, Motoki's sister. Jesus, when was the last time we saw her? Were they ever really this close to begin with? Oh who cares, they're probably going to vanish again in the next two episodes.

But then Mamoru is all "put on your cool shades" and everyone begins staring at the sun. Despite there being no moon out. And then EVERYTHING GOES DARK. DUN DUN DUUUUN.

Not really, but okay.

Dark evil clouds rumble, and something falls from the sky! What is it?

Oh no. No no no no. No my friends. That joke is too easy.

And then something explodes I guess and the sun comes back out and everyone can now go back to their normal lives.

Their absolutely normal, every day lives.

Usagi notices the weird thing, but then her friends threaten to leave her behind so she goes running off, and the rest of town just seems okay with this weird circus tent floating above.

Inside? Well...

Nope... not gonna say it I'm not gonna say it I'm not gonna...

Nope, you can't make me.

NO. YOU CANNOT. I REFUSE.

This is a regular freak show, for sure.

I'm still not saying it though. I HAVE INTEGRITY DAMN IT.

It's a regular circus of weirdos. But even they have to answer to somebody, and soon the ringmaster himself appears. Or herself? Hard to tell.

Holy shit, is that Baba Yaga?!

So whoever that is summons the Amazon Trio. Who are stylish as f**k. I mean appearing in rings of fire, water, and earth awesome.

Now if only they had wind instead of water they could've joined a totally sweet band and made some sweet sweet jams. Bah! So their names are Tigers Eye, Fish Eye, and Hawks Eye. Some truly original names, but turns out this dude in charge is named Master Zirconia, so... y'know. All things being equal, I think names are kind of the weakest link here.

Their style more than makes up for all that shit though.

Turns out some 'dude' escaped so the big cheese wants them to find this dude, and deal with him. And of course in order to do that...

Wait, you mean you have a clearly defined goal? Okay.

Zirconia has some really wicked finger action going on, but he explains that this mysterious 'he' is going to lose energy and die quickly in the material world. But that's why he will need to inhabit someone's dreams to survive. So their first task is to find people, and start rooting around their dreams until they find him.

It is, admittedly, a pretty tall order, and the big cheese actually acknowledges this, but he feels like his minions are up to the task.

At least that narrows down the field I guess.

Off with you, minions, fly off into a commercial break! For justice! Or whatever the opposite of that is. Injustice? Something like that. Also somebody get me a slice of cheesecake while you're out! I have a hankering for cheesecake.

Not featured: My goddamned cheesecake.

We finally do return, of course, and when we do, our new favorite trio is sitting in a bar lounge, just causally chilling out.

It's even got that sweet sweet lounge music too.

They're looking at pictures of all kinds of cute girls, and can't figure out which one to start with. They talk about how weird some of their preferences are (without actually telling us what they ARE), and Tigers Eye settles on one he really digs.

GEE WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

So now we're at the fruit parlor where she works, and just so happens to be serving Usagi and future daughter, astonished that Usagi would be asking about "how things are going" with "that boyfriend your brother mentioned the other day".

I find this far more disturbing than I probably should.
Though... can you blame me?

But frankly, one is just as bad as the other is.

Doesn't bother asking, just grabs and goes "ooh wow!"

They fight and stuff and cars pass outside, and girl is all 'nope he's not my boyfriend even though I wish he was and boy it would be great if we were destined to be together and shit' and then Chibi-usa says some... kind of surprising things for a kid her age? How old is she anyways? I'm still fuzzy on whether she's actually nine or if she's actually like 400 years old.

Yes, I'm sure you... have plenty of... experience with this?

Even Usagi seems a little bit... y'know. Concerned.

The joke here is figuring out which 'mama' she's referring to.

Now we're on a bus. And there's a pretty dude sitting there, and he makes a wallet appear in his hand. So that he can return it to the red-haired sister, and immediately starts laying the charm on her. He was super lucky to have found her lucky wallet like that, and boy, what a shame it would be to simply part ways here already. Now Chibi-usa is out and about on her own, but not quite on her own, since she dragged Usagi around to talk about her hallucinogenic fever dreams.

I think someone needs to see a doctor.

Then ther's a scream of course, and turns out Tigers Eye just couldn't hold back anymore.

*insert facepalm here*

The girls show up on the scene, decide they need to transform, and our villain proves to be really damn stylish. He counts up to three and next thing you know a mirror appears out of the girl's chest, and holy shit this is a man who gets RESULTS. He lets us know that the mirrors contain her dreams, but suddenly HOLD ON EVIL-DOER, FOR THE HEROES ARE NOW ON THE SCENE.

Y'know, for love and justice and all that good stuff.

They have new pos music, and we find out that chick isn't asleep, just... chained up.

Then he summons a marionette because, y'know, what else are ya gonna do?

At least this one makes sense.

He calls this thing a Remless, but her name is Karakuriko. Which is pretty cool. He refers to the heroes as 'pumpkins' for some reason, and we also discover that this doll has no torso. Weird.

I love the design overall though. I hope the rest of the season
is like this.

Fighting something that has no distinct body can be pretty difficult, as the hands and legs and even the head attack on their own! A sword-spitting Marionette head, but this is quickly ended because Tuxedo Mask shows up and smacks her with a rose.

Literally smacks her, doesn't throw it like a dart, it just whops her upside the head which breaks her concentration.

He makes a speech of course because, y'know. He's gotta have a speech now and again too.

So sayeth the womanizer himself.

Tigers Eye and Tuxedo Mask decide to go at it, and turns out Tuxedo Mask wins. Or does he? Oh no, dude's whip wrapped his shadow to a tree, and now he can't move. Welp. Things look bad, but Tigers Eye takes a peer into a girl's dreams.

This may be the coolest goddamn concept this show has
done to date. Seriously.

He has himself a good laugh, and pulls out because the guy he was looking for wasn't in there, and it's kind of a shame but now he has to kill her anyways because that's just how ju- I mean evil dudes have to do things.

Things look bad for the heroes, and Chibi Moon asks for help, which is then answered by a literal light from the heavens, turning into... THE SOUL OF LISA FRANK. Whot ransforms our heroes because, y'know. SUPER SAILOR MOON TIME.

Oh and here have a real damn weapon for once.

Sailor Moon has no clue what's going on, but decides screwit, she's gonna do whatever it is she does all over this evil monster.

Really? That's the new exit catchphrase? Man, I kinda preferred
being Lovely'd, that shit was hilarious to say at least.

The monster vanishes into broken shards fo glass, Tigers Eye ollies the f**k out, and Pegasus sticks around for a little bit. Hopefully not so he can challenge them all to a game of cards though, I hope.

But then he vanishes and they're all back to normal, and their friend will be fine. The sky glows a bit however, and we see Chibi-usa remembering that dream again and going "well damn that wasn't a dream at all" and promptly tells her mom-sis that she knows nothing, and the episode ends.

The credits this time involve Chibi-usa sitting on a hilltop overlooking the city while she contemplates life.

We also see some overlays of her transformed and Pegasus, but nothing too exciting here. It also only takes up the lower half of the screen, whiel the credits roll across the top for some bizarre reason.

Seriously, nothing to write home about here.

And that... is the end of that.

Okay. Color me impressed. You have my full attention Sailor Moon. You've got a strong damn start, so don't screw it up this time. You've managed to use the first episode to establish new baddies, their motivations, clearly defined goals, AND a pretty bitchin' gimmick for them to roll with.

Not to mention monsters of the day with themes that actually make sense!

Do not f**k this up. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO REDEEM YOURSELF. TO TAKE YOUR PLACE AS A TRUE LEGENDARY ANIME.

As opposed to a legendary pile of shit.

Let's hope this trend continues.