Sailor Moon SuperS Episode 22 - Mirror of Dreams! Amazon's Final Stage

I begin writing this at a rather fortuitous time. Why, you ask? Because Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 was just teased.

All in all, I am definitely excited for it. Seriously, I know a lot of people hate Crystal, but it is, in my opinion, much, much better at almost everything than the original was. I've said it before, but all of my gripes with Sailor Moon have been fixed with Crystal. Now, that's not to say it's perfect mind you - I'm not a huge fan of the CGI transformations, but I understand why they did it - but for the most part, I give it a solid pass and a hearty recommendation.

So wouldn't you know it, it's about that time I ought to be watching the original series, right? Enough shitposting on Twitter, I have real work to do!

Today we begin with... wait, not a preview, but... a review of last episode?! Holy shit.

What show am I watching? Oh wait, I forgot, we're at the end of the traditional season mark. So they're moving into the Final Boss territory! Only they're not because we've still got another dozen or so episodes left to go. Roll the intro, because we have some actually interesting show to get through, for once!

It's kind of sad that the slog through all of the crap this show has thrown at me is worth it for these few moments of complete clarity.

We begin where last we left off: with Usagi and Fish Eye in the rain. Which I kind of adore. But then we see the fire eye bat thing fly off and oh shit, you know it's done got REAL up in here suddenly. So very real, they hit us with the title card for this episode. That's pretty real.

So now Fish Eye is over at Usagi's place, and we see the person we always wanted Usagi to be - the person she was always meant to be: A kind, unselfish person who genuinely cares for others, regardless of how well she might know them.

It is such a welcome departure from her usual bitchiness that
I find it hard NOT to applaud her for finally living up to
the standards everyone else set for her.

Fish Eye just kind of sits there, and Usagi hands him a towel and he's like "crap you don't even know I'm a dude" and she all just asks how old he is, not knowing he's not a chick, but that's cool. It's time for some tea? Usagi keeps asking questions, and Fish Eye finally talks.

It is genuinely kind of sad to see Fish Eye so broken like this.

Don't worry though, Usagi manages to completely ruin the moment by putting on her bitchface as soon as it is revealed that Fish Eye talked with Mamoru again.

Seriously, you would think that, as a future space princess, she
might be LESS CONCERNED with what her man is doing.
Then again, with how all the other ladies look at him...

Fish Eye falls quiet again, until he mentions how much he envies Usagi for actually being a complete person with dreams and aspirations and all that goodness. But hey, have some tea, it'll make you forget about all of those existential quandaries you've been facing!

Or you could ask about her dreams, that's fine too I guess.

Someone forgets that you LITERALLY MET LIKE A DAY AGO.

Then Fish Eye realizes the both of them have literally been sitting in front of a picture of Usagi and Mamoru and then everyone takes a moment to stare at it before Fish Eye is like "oh  I guess you have a point".

So clearly, Usagi's dream is to hang out with her man, and that's why he just isn't interested in him, and Usagi once more ruins the moment of living up to her potential by basically being a possessive squirrel.

Why a squirrel? You ever try to take a nut from one?

Then she takes the time to lay down the law.

How the f**k do you go from giving a guy hope to wrecking
his shit like this? Cripes man. I mean, I get it, but that's
pretty f***ing savage if you ask me.

But Usagi says something about the most handsome man in the world, and Fish Eye finally gets it. He has literally been staring his enemy in the face this entire time, and it is only NOW that he recognizes there's a reason those two look awful damned similar.

DRAMATIC PIANO CRASH.

Then Usagi's mom asks her kid to do some errands, and Usagi's like "yo, wait here, when I get back we're gonna hash some shit out" and leaves Fish eye to admire that photo and try not to freak out. If this girl has a lot of dreams, well, maybe that's why she's so strong or something?

Oh but LOOK. THERE IS ALSO THAT PINK HAIRED ONE. And she goes upstairs to talk to her magical winged horse with a horn while just within earshot of Fish Eye. Because convenience! And suddenly Fish Eye is like "CARRIER HAS ARRIVED".

TARGET ACQUIRED.

Fish Eye has no idea what to do now. It's like a dog that chases cars - he's got no idea what to do with it now that he's caught it.

This amuses me way more than it should.

Now he knows who is carrying Pegasus, and he can totally make this work. He just needs to get the girl. Or that horn. Or both? He turns into a creepy fish guy, and just as he's about to step up, Usagi returns from her errand. Whereupon Usagi's mom is like "oh, didn't that other kid go with you?"

Ratchet up that dramatic tension, awww yeah!

As usual, Usagi is unconcerned, and returns to her room to sort things out with her 'rival'. It's still raining out, and now her room is empty. Huh.

Time to report to Baba Yaga that they finally found the thing.

Except that Fish Eye is keeping quiet for some weird reason? See, Fish Eye just wants to know one little thing first.

I feel genuinely bad for this guy.

Fish Eye explains that, even if they did the thing, and were allowed to remain as they are, it wouldn't actually make them human, now would it? They'd still just be shadows pretending at being human, without their own dreams and aspirations. Or would they? He wants to know.

But Mama Yaga has had enough of this shit and begins some straight up Darth Vader shit by choking the life out of Fish Eye, and reminds everyone just who is really the boss. But hey, it's not like she actually needed to be told, since her bird, Zircon (holy shit, it's had a name this entire time?!) saw everything anyways, so whatever.

Then it reveals the target - or not the target, since it focuses on Usagi. Fish Eye tries to say Usagi isn't the one, but who's gonna listen to him now? Hawk Eye gets sent out to deal with this shit, while she takes the time to remind them of their own impending mortality.

Hawk boy goes out, and the other one gets told to watch over the fish. But then Fish Eye escapes and Tiger gives flight, and we hear that giggling from up above and she's like "fiiiiiiiine".

"Anything to stop that infernal giggling!!"

We see some shadows with some balls and a blue one flies up and bounces on the ground, before... uh, going into some kind of clown hat that vanishes? Commercial break?

Commercial break.

After commercial break, it turns out that Chibi-usa is... missing. So Usagi has gathered the team to figure out where she might have gone. Or she's worried about Fish Eye? I'm not sure. The context is kind of confusing if I'm honest.

The context seems to indicate they mean Chibi-usa. So that's what I'm going with, even though Usagi does the flashback of Fish Eye sitting on a bench thing. Turns out, they are looking for Chibi-usa, but she's also worried about that other girl too. That girl whose name she doesn't even know and isn't even a girl.

Now the others are like "wait, would the brat even come over here?" and Usagi's like "uuhh no?" and Rei is all "WHY THE HELL ARE WE EVEN HERE THEN?!" and the others can't help but kind of agree that this is all just a glorious waste of their time. Time to split up the group then!

Usagi is off on her own, and Hawk Eye shows up and is like "hey we totally have never met before and stuff but I've just got to ask you a question girl who is alone in a park in the middle of the night."

Damn dude, that's pretty harsh.

But then he's like "eh f**k the disguise" and puts her up on a board. Mirror comes out, screams occur, and she doesn't pass out. But Fish Eye shows up and is like "DUDE SERIOUSLY IT ISN'T HER. ALSO THAT IS SAILOR MOON YOU F***ING CLOD."

And everyone collectively shits their pants. And Hawk's Eye goes to have a look but then the monster of the day shows up.

At which point literally everyone went "what the shit?"

This guy's name? "Mister Magic Pierrot". That's not even a translation, that's his actual name. Dude bounces out of the hole, butt-bombs Hawk's Eye out of the way, and has himself a look inside the mirror.

He doesn't find what he's looking for, and now the Trio wants to know just what the hell is going on. Who is this guy, and what's he doing getting all up in their business?

He's the kind of guy who casually tells physics to go away.

Oh and he calls the Trio 'unnecessary' and asks them to take a look into his magic hat.

I'm sure everyone will fall for that one.

He then shoots out a spade symbol at them, which takes out a chunk of the ground. Just because!

Clearly, he is not all that good at his job.

This might be the most man-tastic that Fish Eye has ever looked.

Dude continues to tell physics to leave him alone as he floats around, and informs the Trio that uh, yeah, they're not really needed any more so he's just gonna have to get rid of them. Nothing personal, of course! In a surprising twist, however, he shoots another spade, and it shatters Usagi's dream mirror.

I'm no expert but that doesn't seem good.

Oh. Uh. Shit?

Then Fish Eye freaks out, Usagi falls to the ground, and he's all "oh shit her dreams have literally been shattered".

Fish Eye is next on the chopping block but Hawk's Eye takes the blow instead.

"I literally have no idea why I did this and immediately regret
everything...."

Tiger's Eye tries desperately not to freak out, but Hawk boy isn't done yet, and shoots a gout of flame that gets eaten by the hat before passing out. And hey, he gets a touching death scene, right? He just wanted all of them to be human, because y'know, that'd be swell? But he hands his heart crystal thing over to Fish Eye and falls silent.

Well, damn. Now the cat clown laughs and the others are mad so they get into a fight with a demon thing they can't possibly hope to defeat because they are just too weak.

So what now? Your attacks are useless and he's just like "lol you suck". But Fish Eye stares into the heart crystal thing, and Fish Eye reveals to Tiger's Eye that he really did find Pegasus, and wasn't talking shit about that. Maybe they still have a shot at being human. But not while that dude is around, so if it's cool with him, Fish Eye would like to use the sphere thing?

"Considering how easily she always beat OUR asses,
she has a better chance that we do."

Then they show us the shot of Usagi's lifeless eyes, which is made even creepier by the fact that she's not actually dead.

There is just something deeply unsettling about this.

They agree to do whatever, and Tiger's Eye is like "hopefully we get reincarnated as people" and Fish Eye pulls out Chibi-usa from hammer space, which confuses the heck out of Pierrot. Also, Tiger's Eye is like "MAKING A WISH YEAAAAH!"

The power of horse Jesus compels you!

Chibi-usa wakes up, Usagi's heart mirror is put back together and returned, her eyes become normal again, and tells them HURRY UP AND WIN THE DAY ALREADY. Then the sphere shatters and they fall to the ground and those girls are like "SHIT BETTER TRANSFORM".

One stock transformation sequence later, and Pierrot is starting to have just enough of this shit.

DESTROY ALL THE THINGS!

He whips out his hat but then Mars shows up with a fire thing and those other girls are like "HEY WE ARE OUT OF TIME SO DO YOUR STUPID THING" and so the small one rings a bell and a horse shows up with some magical wish granting and you know the rest.

It's seriously depressing that the other girls only show up as goddamned cameos anymore.

Monster defeated, the ball rolls out of the hat and vanishes, and now everyone are looking down at their enemies and ask why they bothered to save them.

"Also, our boss is kind of a dick, so screw her."

Usagi realizes that Fish Eye was... Fish Eye all along! And then they turn back into, uh.

Oh. Oh man. Fish Eye really is screwed here.

Everyone is like "whoa shit" but then Pegasus is like "MY HORN IS MAGIIIIIIC ALSO THEY ARE NOW HUMANS WITH HEART MIRRORS AND SHIT YEAAAAH".

I love how Hawk's Eye is like "WILL THINGS PLEASE
STOP EXPLODING OUT OF MY CHEST?!"

Now they're all humans! But then they turn into... magic balls? And go into their mirrors? And Pegasus is all "these Totally Human Souls will be Totally Fine Now, I Promise."

Forgive me if I'm not completely sold on this magical horse Jesus.

Now we're back at the Carvinal of Dark Dreams and Baba Yaga is like "ugh. You're already f***ing up. Well, whatever, my old minions are dead now so it's upt o you" and we STILL don't get to see them out of the shadows.

Then Pegasus is all guiding some souls because he is seriously kind of scary powerful.

"Mostly because I say so and you no longer have any choice."

Also he says that some day, this 'dark forest will regain it's light'. Foreshadowing much? Ha ha ha clever joke end of episode.

Honestly, they could have set this stuff up fifteen episodes ago, and I'd have been perfectly happy. But instead they opted for other non-plot related things and now are going "okay this show won't go on forever so we should probably focus on ending it now".

Overall, still better than usual. I love when this show starts trying to take itself a little more seriously, and if the entire show were as consistent as this one was...

Well, this blog wouldn't exist.