Sailor Moon S Episode 37 - A New Life! Time for Separation of the Destined Stars

Man, if things go according to plan, Monday we will be seeing the end of yet another series. And since we're almost finished with Daimidaler, I have to say I'm a bit concerned at the pickings being perhaps a little slim around here.

I'm sure I'll find something though. I always seem to.

One more episode after this one. However will this wrap up, I wonder? And will it somehow be an improvement from last season? Let's dive right in folks and see what's in store for us today.

According to the episode preview, for some reason everyone is fighting again. Oh the drama. Cue intro.

They begin today's episode by reminding us about what happened last episode, with Super Sailor Moon going into that black orb thing and all that good fun stuff. It's not just a reminder, they're just straight up playing the footage from the end of the last ep.

But I'm willing to give them a little leeway. Sure, it's the end of the series, but on the other hand, it's also the end of the series. Sort of.

I, for one, am willing to let this go. Even if it does eat up like the first two minutes of run time, where they didn't have to edit an actual thing. This is the only time I'm going to let them slide with this, however. They do that shit again next episode, and I'm going to have to deduct some serious points for lazy.

This image is part of why I'm letting them slide.

I really, really like the image they're presenting here. It's not that they are trying to grimdark or superhardcore up the show here. Well, maybe they are, but at least this is to an acceptable degree. The main character has just gone and done something heroic, and admittedly while she did it with nothing more than the pure goodness in her heart, it presented it in such a way that frankly, I can't help but be okay with. Because it's not something she was able to do up until the most desperate moment. And even then, she failed at it the first few times.

It's the kind of thing where the hero looks at you, and is willing to make a great personal sacrifice in order to do what is the right thing. I've spent a lot of time yelling and screaming about what an utterly horrible, despicable, and downright unworthy heroine Usagi has portrayed for pretty much this entire show. But here, it's like she's almost managed to redeem herself, but not by growing up, but simply accepting that she really has to do something - anything - to try and make everything she's done up to this point right.

Yeah, so she almost accidentally ended the entire world. Yeah, so she kind of handed over the MacGuffin to the badguys that let them just about destroy the universe. And sure, it's pretty much her entire fault that the villains were able to get as far as they did.

... y'know come to think of it, given how much destruction was caused, I'm really not so sure that this is as acceptable an outcome as the show makes it out to be. But I will say I like the idea of her personal sacrifice, so at least her suddenly getting the grail isn't complete bullshit.

Just... a little bullshit I guess.

Anyways she falls to her knees, Uranus and Neptune run over to her, and the other girls look on as they pull themselves up from the rubble going "oh damn son".

At some point between though, the baby vanishes and we get a title slide. Oh snap.

Now it is morning over at Mamoru's place, and Chibi-usa wakes up to see the entire time looking down over her as she wakes up, totally not dead, and asking where her friend is.

She immediately thinks her pal is dead, and given the last time she saw her, she was a ghost, she can be forgiven for thinking this. They explain that Sailor Moon totally saved the girl, but they just uh, have no clue where she's at.

So now she's back at 'home' where she goes to school with her other friends that totally aren't Hotaru, and pretends that everything is just great.

Usagi has a talk with the cats about how Chibiusa is working hard or whatever, and how Pluto is missing too. But it's okay or something, things will be okay right? They'll totally see Hotaru again somewhere.

Cut to...

A FIEEEEELD TRIP.

Chibi-usa's class is on a field trip. She remembers some things, they pass Haruka's car, which serves as a great segue where we see Michiru feeding a baby as the totes platonic girl couple has dinner in some super fancy place.

SUPER PLATONIC. Also, they neglect the part where they
basically kidnapped a baby but that's cool.

Oh but suddenly they have to... say goodbye or something? Then drive somewhere super duper fast. There's a cruise liner or something. Oh wait, it's a flashback of all the great times they had as Sailor Scouts. And not so great times.

They wind up at a hospital where a nurse says hi to some dude in a wheelchair.

Wow. Dude... survived that explosion. Impressive.

The baby is handed over to her actual dad, who recognizes her as Hotaru, and a narrator - yes a narrator - tells us about how in addition to being 'sick' (which is Japanese for BROKE A BUNCH OF BONES), dude has some 'mental trauma'.

Oh yeah, and the 'narrator' turns out to be some doctor, but it's presented more as narration than anything since not a single lip flaps the entire time.

Really, anybody could be saying it. But it's mostly a
narrator because that's ALWAYS the narrator voice they're using.

He goes on to say that yadda yadda dude can return to society but he doesn't remember the last few years boo hoo guess that exonerates him from all of his CRIMES AGAINST THE UNIVERSE.

Sure, he was possessed, but do you seriously think the public is gonna give a shit about that?

Being reunited with his daughter is pretty picturesque, and as Haruka and Michiru look into each other's longing (yet still platonic) eyes, they say they have 'one more duty' left.

DUN DUN DUUUN.

Transition to that field trip where everyone is having fun not being animated. At all. Chibiusa is riding a bike, physics has taken a field trip as well, and everyone's all 'you doing alright girl?' and she's all 'hells yeah I'm great srsly look at physics not giving two shits about how great I feel'.

But seriously, physics is on a field trip here.

Her hat goes flying off, so she stops to go grab it when suddenly GLOWY SHIT. Oh hey there Sailor Pluto's Ghost. She's come to say 'great job with that whole almost dying thing, seriously congratulations are in order for that'.

Oh yeah and also I am dead. BLARGH!

Chibi-usa is now upset because everyone is gone. Hotaru is missing, and Pluto is also gone. But then Pluto explains all the BS about how Hotaru has been reincarnated, so it's all good. Then she says they'll meet again some day and vanishes because I guess being an immortal timelord makes you totally a dick still.

Oh and then she just happens to stumble across Hotaru's dad and a baby and puts it all together, presumably during the commercial break they just sprung on us.

After the break she still hasn't put it together, but dad gives her hat back and the baby is all "OH HEY LOOK AT THIS PERSON I TOTALLY WANT TO HOLD HANDS WITH THEM AND LAUGH."

Then he's all "THIS IS HOTARU" and Chibi-usa remembers that shit she was just told, and a nurse calls out to him and says he needs to go back. So he runs off, Chibi-usa has her hat, and everything was great I guess.

Meanwhile, there's still a gigantic f***ing crater in the middle of Tokyo.

How it managed to fill up with water is anybody's guess though.

Dramatic music plays, and those other girls are all doing scanning stuff, and discover some secret underground shit. Turns out that other dimension is gone or whatever, but Ami seems okay with this result. I guess none of them got the memo that Hotaru is actually still alive somewhere? But Usagi is bummed anyways.

But then the cats spy Haruka's car, and decide something must be up. Now a girl is playing the violin because that's what Michiru always does for some reason, and they stand above the wreckage because they're great big dicks. Haruka throws a rock at Usagi because she's a bitch, and suddenly everybody is all angry.

What, NOW you're going to get all angry because she saved
the world exactly like she said she was gonna?

So they're projecting their own inability to cope with the fact that in the end Usagi was right onto the fact that Usagi took some seriously questionable risks, and even if things turned out 'okay' in the end, she still almost destroyed the entire world. So now they have to fight or whatever.

"Sure, you saved the world, and turned out to be the Messiah
we were looking for the entire time, BUT WE HATE YOU."

Oh and they're all "you have no right to be the future queen" and that makes Usagi all pouty and stuff. Because I'm sure that being a QUEEN is all about 'right'. Pretty sure that stuff was always historically determined by birth, not by actual virtue of worth? That's kind of how monarchy works here.

So the other girls want to maybe get involved but Makoto... stops them? Or something? And says something about how they're just thick-skulled girls or whatever? I guess they are just not ever going to acknowledge they might have a point.

Or that, I don't know, their attempts would create a time paradox? I mean, it's kind of necessary for her to be the future queen for any of this stuff to have happened. But who cares about science stuff, IT IS TIME TO GET YOUR MAGICAL GIRL FIGHT ON.

Frankly, this makes me not like Neptune and Uranus that much anymore because up until now they had pretty good motivations for doing what they do, but now? They're just not giving a shit. Everybody transforms, as much time as humanly possible is spent on all of this, and Usagi is the only one not getting her magical girl on, instead calling for everyone to stop?

But who cares the magic is already doing its thing.

Really, that's your entire reason for wanting to fight?

Usagi says, once more, she really doesn't want people fighting because it's dumb, and the other two are all "pfft what a dork", and she's all "yeah, okay, I'm everything they say I am, but I don't think I'm wrong. Also, Saturn is one of us so it's not cool for us to throw her under a bus."

So she calls for everyone to de-transform, and Uranus and Neptune are all "nope, gotta MAKE US."

... wait, did they seriously just say "if you don't beat us up, we'll never be friends"?

God, this makes me appreciate Nanoha way more now, because that was basically her thing entirely. But Usagi is all "FINE. IMMA BEAT YOUR ASS" and transforms, much to the pleasure of those two unruly dissidents. Then the fighting happens. Some tidals waves and earch shattering kabooms happen, and Sailor Moon goes down. But then, TUXEDO MASK stops her friends from helping because, uh, y'know. He's kind of a dick still.

So Sailor Moon gets up, and the girls say some mean-spirited shit to her face.

I think I see where you're going here but seriously you're really
being complete dicks about this whole thing.

Then Sailor Moon stands up and is all "dudes de-transform."

So they hit her again, or try to because she dodges, then does some super bad-ass ninja fippiness and basically keeps asking Uranus to stop while she tries to get the shit beat out of her. Then Neptune grabs her from behind, Uranus runs over to 'finish the job', and then Sailor Moon decides, enough of this shit, glows and lets the two slam into each other.

Then stands over them, they go down on one knee and basically accept her as being the future queen. Their job here is kinda over because their mission is over? Also you are the true Messiah because y'know.

They walk off and don't explain anything and are kind of glad, and comment that they were also 'saved' by Sailor Moon, who asks if Hotaru is actually alive somewhere. This doesn't actually get confirmed but whatever, Chibi-usa goes home, and the girl couple drives off across a bridge away from a sunset the end.

... now hold on here. Why does this episode exist? What, exactly, did it establish that was not already established by the last episode?

Not a god damned thing.

You are disappointing me here. And given the ending of today's episode, I have some serious misgivings about the FINAL final episode. Which better NOT BE ANOTHER GODDAMN CLIP SHOW.

Watch them somehow manage to undo everything great they managed to accomplish this series. Just watch 'em.

Son of a bitch.