Sailor Moon Crystal ep 15 [ Nostalgia bomb ahoy ouch ]

Today in Sailor Moon Crystal marked the Black Moon Arc’s opening and I’m going into this one completely blind. Actually, all I remember about the Black Moon arc was the nostalgia it granted me and I never really expanded on it, it’s both a blur and gives me chills, and add on that they left some of these things out in the original anime until a Season later and you’ve really got some of the Sailor Moon S feelings going on. So I feel both inclined to love this arc and absolutely terrified because I have absolutely no idea where it’s going or what it’s doing.

The focus of the beginning of this episode rests on two things: First, the little girl who is known as Usagi, Chibi-Usa, wants the Legendary Silver Crystal. She is also incredibly lonely and won’t speak to Usagi, who also seems to irrationally dislike her because of their first meeting. The two have tension everywhere as Chibi-Usa uses a strange technique to hypnotize Usagi’s family into letting her stay there, and no one is quite sure what this girl really wants.

The second is on the presence of the new enemy. We see right away a group of four who are after well…what do you think they’re after? At this point I’m sick of everyone talking about the Legendary Silver Crystal. It even sounds like the actors are tired of saying that set of words. Well, to emphasize their presence, we find that Rei is having visions and circumstances are leading her towards the villains themselves, and when it all comes crashing down shit gets real bad fast.

I must reiterate that the star wands are my favorite transformation sticks and Sailor Moon getting her new power up was also a lot for me, I own the Cutie Moon Rod myself so seeing it in the anime was epic. I kind of like the new origin better, being a product of their love, and in general I appreciate why they got their power upgrades a lot more than normal, kind of makes sense with that fancy new palace upgrade guys. What really sent me into overdrive however is OH SHIT MARS GOT KIDNAPPED

I guess the manga really does introduce a lot of ‘kidnapping’ if you think about it. If this arc has kidnapping it also means the next arc has (a distinct) kidnapping and then would the next one count or is that just death? Sailor Moon has a lot of loved ones to hold captive and the way the preview sounds does this mean the entire arc is watching the senshi get kidnapped? I’m anxious and I already want them to be freed. As anyone who even knows of the series I also don’t want to deal with how awkward the wait for Chibi-Usa’s identity will be. Come on guys. It’s yo baby.

It’s yo baby. that’s it.

Downsides of the episode; the tension is already going to frustrate me, dammit. Operation Re-cruit will get rid of the Senshi likely in short order, and that’ll result in pairing stuff which will result in more fandom bickering which has nothing to do with but Usagi will also be devastated to lose her friends and it will suck! Gah! Not to mention I’m sorry but no: Never, ever, will the 3-d transformations be good. They are subpar at best and will never be fun or entertaining to watch, they require a lot of effort to sit through or to even say you like them.

But with the new episode visuals, the new theme, the important additions to the story, the continued fantastic portrayal of friendship as well as a romance that was shafted before, it’s safe to say Crystal continues it’s trend of reminding the anime world why Sailor Moon has always been a classic, and let’s keep it that way!

 

Oki