Have you ever been so loyal to a brand you were willing to love it and appreciate the hard work put into it despite its flaws? Have you ever been rewarded for that faith and patience with something amazing and perfect, as if your support and continued devotion to the brand helped create a better piece because you were willing to support the source material? That is Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 for me. Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 is so absolutely beautiful that it feels just like everything a Sailor Moon fan could hope for- and I encourage anyone who disliked the first two seasons of Crystal to give this new one a chance!
If you watched the original anime you’ll know that Witches 5 was portrayed a bit differently than it was in the manga or Crystal. Similar to the previous seasons the main bad guy of the moment would go to face the Sailor Senshi, lose repeatedly, then be replaced. Witches 5 if true to the content might have a similar feeling, but is in no way the same. Before, Kaolinite was essentially equal to the Witches. Now, Kaolinite is their boss and not just the flavor of the moment to challenge the Sailor Senshi. I have to admit given that I have very little context of the manga for this arc I can’t go into explicit comparison, but seeing Kaolinite and an actual motivation for these villains made me more interested in them as characters.
Most of what happens this episode revolves around the mysterious Mugen Academy and ChibiUsa meeting a mysterious girl. While Usagi travels through Mugen Academy alone with her disguise pen, ChibiUsa loses her hat and ends up walking around the exact same area. While Usagi and the Senshi run into Michiru and Haruka respectively, ChibiUsa finds a girl suffering in pain on the outside of the building. Michiru and Haruka very sternly warn the girls, in their own separate and special ways, to butt out of the things they’re doing. ChibiUsa however is brushed off by the person she runs into, only for a Daimon to appear meant to take out the Guardians.
The episode features several minutes of transformations but this one I have to say is not new. They did it in Crystal and more importantly, the original. They did eventually learn to condense the transformations and put them on the same screen but I can’t blame the company for using the transformations so frequently because that’s frankly half the appeal to a younger audience. I can tell you right now as a little girl I loved watching every second of those repeating transformation scenes and absolutely hated when they cut them down, so it feels true to the spirit of the show that they are so prominent in every episode and while it is time consuming I can’t ask for it to be taken out with good faith to the idea of the show. On that note, MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK OH MY GOD MY FAVORITE ATTACK SO BEAUTIFUL BEST ANIMATION OH MY GOD IT’S SO PERFECTION FUDSHGKLJDFGHJDKFGLJKDSGRIOUSE
ChibiUsa’s new friend is a very important character I don’t feel right talking about until her name is revealed, but anyone who knows the show knows why she is relevant. Then again if you watch the opening it’s very clear this character is important and why, but I know basically everything about Sailor Moon and you might not, so just watch and wait! Furthermore, how amazing is it that we no longer have to wait two weeks in between episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal? The previous season of Sailor Moon Crystal took over a year to cover despite being only 26 episodes! Now we get the awesome joy of continuing this amazing new iteration at a much quicker pace.
Also, come on, how good does it feel to have someone recognize another Sailor Senshi they’ve met in person despite the transformation? We all thought it for years. Admittedly I loved the ‘revelation’ in the original but. . . it was obvious! Until next time.
Oki
I love your Sailor Moon reviews. <3