Sailor Moon Crystal ep 24 [ She ain’t little no more ]

Jesus Christ, if there’s one thing this arc of the anime really did it’s show us one thing: Apparently Usagi’s bashfully innocent and graceful sex appeal combined with Mamoru’s bishounen and mixed in with an extra dose of the Hot Topic clearance section creates a very sexy aged up little girl and I am not okay with this. God damn lunch room hormones, I saw you give Chibi-Usa that burrito Wiseman.

Jokes aside, I love this episode. Generally speaking for a nostalgic overly critical fangirl every episode of Crystal has been one I approve of. Actually, the ones that should have made most people who found it to be unpleasant were the ones I didn’t enjoy for the magical kidnapping bs, but that makes me think something. In a 26 episode Series (with a part 2 coming directly after) how is devoting the original recruitment episodes, and then a second set of development episodes the next season to the Senshi somehow underdeveloping them?

If anything, one thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth every Crystal episode is the research you do into it. Everywhere you go is negativity. I’m the asshole who jumped on it for being every two weeks and having poor animation despite budget issues and I was the tamest of them all, but with 8 (minimal) episodes devoted to the Senshi individually, I’m beginning to grow a little confused. The more content and moved by Sailor Moon Crystal I become, the more the fandom seems to grow restless. This episode really drew into Chibi-Usa feels and developed Usagi into a real character, but it’s still that way.

Well, my input is simple: Crystal is equal and at times superior to the original. For being a 200 episode series, the original failed to do something key: Make Usagi grow. Every season was the same, about 30-40 episodes of Usagi being a ditz, petty, clingy, angry, and then a season finale where she got over it and then…poof. She was back to being ditzy, petty, clingy, angry- and when finally she became genuinely interested in Mamoru in the final season (when he was away), it was because that was how the manga was written and that was her ‘destiny’.

Usagi is a teenage girl, but in Crystal she is actually growing up. Don’t get me wrong, next season you can anticipate both screams of PERFECTION, SLAY, GET IT MESSIAH OF SILENCE, and WHERE THE FUCK ARE HEART CRYSTALS? WHY AREN’T THEY TESTING THE IMPORTANCE OF EACH SENSHI’S PURE HEART CRYSTALS? WHY DO DIS TO ME? And the original definitely had more time to develop the senshi, but it never properly developed the three main cast.

My original favorite was Jupiter, but Crystal has made me dead set love Usagi. I also genuinely believe she is a girl in love. You know what this episode cements, that I never quite believed in the original except for maybe the ending of Super S? Usagi loves Chibi-Usa. Somewhere in her bratty, naive, clingy demeanor is the future Neo-Queen Serenity who loves Chibi-Usa and genuinely believes her to be family. I was moved, as I tend to be by Crystal.

What sucks about this negativity is this is what we were begging for. Like it or not, Sailor Moon Crystal is exactly what says on the tin. It is not that far from the manga and religiously does it’s best to represent the original source material. I doubt Naoko wanted to create a secondary version of the original anime because it was just completely contradictory. Of course we can’t have all brand new *filler* episodes devoted to content that never really existed. Of course Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami got different types of content: they were made up versions the anime had to clarify. Literally, they all had new love interests, some had new personalities, the villains always targeted them in every arc even in ways the manga did not have, and some of them were even pretend stand in love triangle decoy rivals for Mamoru’s love. That’s tons of content that doesn’t exist because it was made up for the original. (And let’s be for real, the original Sailor Moon Arc that was worse in Crystal was actually that way in the manga, sooo..)

How can this episode work if the original is taken into account? Honestly in the original Usagi never so purely, naively, stupidly loved Mamoru. She was a teenage girl who found him kind of annoying until ‘destiny’ was revealed and she realized he was her lust object Tuxedo Mask. But seeing her in Crystal’s episode 24 say ‘Hey I was incredibly hurtful and possessive, people are not objects and you can’t hoard their love’ was so fucking moving. ‘People are not objects.’ Sailor Moon Crystal continues to hit home the original messages of the manga. You can be beautiful, and a woman, in many different ways. You can love people and not hoard them. Loving people doesn’t mean they’ll love you back. Forcing someone to love you is wrong. Treating people like objects is wrong. Crystal is all about love and the Sailor Senshi go out of their way in this episode once again to blindly love Usagi and protect her from all harm. She isn’t just Sailor Moon, she is Usagi, and they don’t let anyone hurt her.

I’m going to go crazy if I continue to bring up the negativity surrounding Crystal, but in two episodes at the Season finale I’ll probably write some sort of finale thing. This episode was so creepy at times, for instance I don’t care if Chibi-Usa doesn’t view Mamoru as her father from the future that’s still fucking creepy, but it was full of surprises. Demande snapping was absolutely fantastic and seeing another season where the villains are once again used, manipulated, and humanized is refreshing. In the original the villains were just kind of. . .villainy.

I will say: I love the original and in the end, I view them expressly as equals. But both of these series have master cliffhanger moments. I seriously want to punch the person behind Crystal right now, this was sincerely the worst cliffhanger in 24 episodes so far. Be prepared though, as I’ve finally caught up to the content I know about, this is definitely about to be tearjerker land. I don’t want to two weeks to come, pretty sure my heart is about to break. And is anyone else losing their shit that soon we will see the outer Senshi? The second season is supposed to be airing this summer as well, and I’m hoping for the best. Can anyone say, ROBOTIC HOTARU?THE OUTER SENSHI FAMILY? EVERYTHING WILL BE BEAUTIFUL IN S, PEOPLE, CAN YOU NOT SEE THE BEAUTY AS IT APPEARS BEFORE US? (As long as it’s actually going to air and not European Toei being a stupid.)

Cough, anyway, Crystal gets better and better and this week is no exception. The finale spread over the next one is sure to be brutal…brace yourselves.

Oki