Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 26 Review
Oct. 24th, 2009 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria‘Usagi is the Real Princesss’
Hottie Of the Week: Makoto and Usagi both of whom I thought looked excellent.
Best Shibby Moment: I really liked his last scene with Hina and how he reacted. I especially loved him calling out to her, as she walked away, that she was important to him.
Funniest Moment: Beryl’s indignation that the senshi dared to deceive her as to who the princess was really amused me. …oh! And Serenity and Endymion frolicking through a field, hand-in-hand was really amusing in a different way.
Cutest Moment: “But Usagi being the princess is just a bit surprising. Doesn’t Venus seem more suitable?” – Rei, grinning. Aww! I love Rei teasing Usagi. I loved seeing her so free and happy when usually she’s so serious. I also really loved Venus’s bow to Usagi before she turned to leave.
Saddest Moment: Usagi’s expression when she heard that Mamoru was going to be leaving in two days.
WTF of the Week: The momentary appearance of the Mystical Silver Crystal apparently helping Metallia by giving it energy… what? How exactly does that work?
Best Senshi Moment: Tie:
1) Makoto trying to force Usagi to go to the airport to see Mamoru. Makoto hates Mamoru (in both his forms), has been the most vocally opposed to Usagi associating with him and she is the one who has been with Usagi over the last acts as all the drama in the Usagi/Mamoru’s relationship has played out. Of all the senshi she is the one who best knows what has been happening and how Usagi feels. And even through her dislike of Mamoru Makoto always has Usagi’s back and she really shows that here with her pushing Usagi to go to the airport. I love that.
2) Usagi refusing to leave Makoto to fight to go after Mamoru contrasting sharply with her doing exactly that a couple acts ago (and to Jupiter then too). I just love Moon refusing the second time to leave Jupiter on her own.
Best Senshi Interaction: Makoto/Usagi.
+ I find it interesting how Artemis states that ‘they’ woke Usagi as a senshi because they needed her to fight. That doesn’t make much sense to me. That was just putting her in more danger, not to mention giving the Dark Kingdom a reason to pay attention to her. I always assumed that Luna, whose memory was spotty, had woken Usagi on her own not actually knowing that she wasn’t a senshi and I think everything that has happened previously upholds that view of the situation.
+ “Be sure to teach the princess properly. Try to revive her memory. That’s your specialty right? Your memory is clear now, right? Up till now I’ve tried to limit your knowledge. I’m sorry.” – Artemis. I don’t like how this was stated. I don’t know though if it’s really what he said or if there are some translation issues. It came off less that Artemis knew that Luna didn’t remember and so was careful to not reveal more than she knew and more like he was purposefully trying to make sure to keep her in the dark. This in turn made me dislike the tone he takes with her even more – telling her what to do, like he was the one in charge. It irritated me. Personally I’m choosing the former view – him waiting for her to remember naturally – as my canon.
+ The back story we’re given to everyone’s past life and what exactly happened is not working for me. Now a lot of it is the same as the previous versions and so the issues there have always been in the story – if Serenity/Endymion’s love was forbidden on both sides then how exactly did they manage to carry on their affair, let alone meet, for example – but this version seems to be a bit different which is where my main issue comes up. Luna tells the senshi that the Moon Kingdom and Earth Kingdom began to fight and then the Earth was taken over by an evil force and eventually the Moon Kingdom fell… and wait a minute, don’t they have that a little mixed up? Because what I’m getting here was that a war started between the Moon and Earth, over Serenity and Endymion falling in love, before the Dark Kingdom made an appearance. Is that right? But… no. That doesn’t make much sense. Why would Moon and Earth fight over that if there wasn’t the Dark Kingdom pushing the Earth? Why would Queen Serenity apparently lose it like that? This part of the story does not work for me. Even if the two kingdoms had very strained relations I can’t see it devolving into outright war because Serenity and Endymion fell in love without the Dark Kingdom being involved somehow. It just seems silly to me.
+ “The princess and the prince’s love can only bode ill. In our past lives... It was said that [their love] was the reason the Moon and the Earth fell.” - Luna
“That's what I don’t get. Why would a planet be destroyed over something like that?” – Makoto
Exactly. Thank you, Makoto! This continues to make no sense. Maybe in the end it will but at the moment it has me shaking my head. I would think the Moon and Earth falling would have a lot more to do with a war and the Dark Kingdom then two people falling in love. The fact that we apparently need Serenity and/or Endymion’s memories in order to understand why they’re to blame also doesn’t make sense since the senshi and the cats (and the Shitennou) were all there as well and presumably would know what the hell happened too if they’d just remember.
+ I really liked how they finished with the Hina storyline. I liked that she does have pride in herself. I like that in the end she was unwilling to settle for the man she loves being with her out of obligation while only caring for her and being in love with someone else. I liked that she laid it all out, that she said no, that she didn’t get angry at him over it, didn’t yell or accuse him of anything. She just handled everything with such class. I loved the final scene of her – calling back “I know” when he tells her she is important to him, with a little wave but not looking back. I felt so sorry for her – she manages not to cry but you can see the tears, and the determination and sorrow, on her face. It would be really nice to see her again. Her line about her not wanting Mamoru in Japan did again bring to mind the possibility that she was trying to keep him and Usagi apart but based on what we see of her I don’t think she is the type of person to do that. I find myself wondering about her decision not to go study overseas. I mean that is a huge life changing decision for her and on her part it would have made a lot more sense for her to choose to go, so why didn’t she? Was she only going originally because of Mamoru?
+ Having the original ‘wth?!’ reaction to the SS Tambourines out of the way I find that I don’t hate them like I did before. I’m just kind of eh. I just find them really unnecessary. I mean, I guess if Moon gets to have toys (her wand, staff) then why can’t the other Senshi, right? Except they don’t actually need them. And on a meta level it’s very obvious that their existence is a marketing ploy to sell more stuff to people which really annoys me.
Hottie Of the Week: Makoto and Usagi both of whom I thought looked excellent.
Best Shibby Moment: I really liked his last scene with Hina and how he reacted. I especially loved him calling out to her, as she walked away, that she was important to him.
Funniest Moment: Beryl’s indignation that the senshi dared to deceive her as to who the princess was really amused me. …oh! And Serenity and Endymion frolicking through a field, hand-in-hand was really amusing in a different way.
Cutest Moment: “But Usagi being the princess is just a bit surprising. Doesn’t Venus seem more suitable?” – Rei, grinning. Aww! I love Rei teasing Usagi. I loved seeing her so free and happy when usually she’s so serious. I also really loved Venus’s bow to Usagi before she turned to leave.
Saddest Moment: Usagi’s expression when she heard that Mamoru was going to be leaving in two days.
WTF of the Week: The momentary appearance of the Mystical Silver Crystal apparently helping Metallia by giving it energy… what? How exactly does that work?
Best Senshi Moment: Tie:
1) Makoto trying to force Usagi to go to the airport to see Mamoru. Makoto hates Mamoru (in both his forms), has been the most vocally opposed to Usagi associating with him and she is the one who has been with Usagi over the last acts as all the drama in the Usagi/Mamoru’s relationship has played out. Of all the senshi she is the one who best knows what has been happening and how Usagi feels. And even through her dislike of Mamoru Makoto always has Usagi’s back and she really shows that here with her pushing Usagi to go to the airport. I love that.
2) Usagi refusing to leave Makoto to fight to go after Mamoru contrasting sharply with her doing exactly that a couple acts ago (and to Jupiter then too). I just love Moon refusing the second time to leave Jupiter on her own.
Best Senshi Interaction: Makoto/Usagi.
+ I find it interesting how Artemis states that ‘they’ woke Usagi as a senshi because they needed her to fight. That doesn’t make much sense to me. That was just putting her in more danger, not to mention giving the Dark Kingdom a reason to pay attention to her. I always assumed that Luna, whose memory was spotty, had woken Usagi on her own not actually knowing that she wasn’t a senshi and I think everything that has happened previously upholds that view of the situation.
+ “Be sure to teach the princess properly. Try to revive her memory. That’s your specialty right? Your memory is clear now, right? Up till now I’ve tried to limit your knowledge. I’m sorry.” – Artemis. I don’t like how this was stated. I don’t know though if it’s really what he said or if there are some translation issues. It came off less that Artemis knew that Luna didn’t remember and so was careful to not reveal more than she knew and more like he was purposefully trying to make sure to keep her in the dark. This in turn made me dislike the tone he takes with her even more – telling her what to do, like he was the one in charge. It irritated me. Personally I’m choosing the former view – him waiting for her to remember naturally – as my canon.
+ The back story we’re given to everyone’s past life and what exactly happened is not working for me. Now a lot of it is the same as the previous versions and so the issues there have always been in the story – if Serenity/Endymion’s love was forbidden on both sides then how exactly did they manage to carry on their affair, let alone meet, for example – but this version seems to be a bit different which is where my main issue comes up. Luna tells the senshi that the Moon Kingdom and Earth Kingdom began to fight and then the Earth was taken over by an evil force and eventually the Moon Kingdom fell… and wait a minute, don’t they have that a little mixed up? Because what I’m getting here was that a war started between the Moon and Earth, over Serenity and Endymion falling in love, before the Dark Kingdom made an appearance. Is that right? But… no. That doesn’t make much sense. Why would Moon and Earth fight over that if there wasn’t the Dark Kingdom pushing the Earth? Why would Queen Serenity apparently lose it like that? This part of the story does not work for me. Even if the two kingdoms had very strained relations I can’t see it devolving into outright war because Serenity and Endymion fell in love without the Dark Kingdom being involved somehow. It just seems silly to me.
+ “The princess and the prince’s love can only bode ill. In our past lives... It was said that [their love] was the reason the Moon and the Earth fell.” - Luna
“That's what I don’t get. Why would a planet be destroyed over something like that?” – Makoto
Exactly. Thank you, Makoto! This continues to make no sense. Maybe in the end it will but at the moment it has me shaking my head. I would think the Moon and Earth falling would have a lot more to do with a war and the Dark Kingdom then two people falling in love. The fact that we apparently need Serenity and/or Endymion’s memories in order to understand why they’re to blame also doesn’t make sense since the senshi and the cats (and the Shitennou) were all there as well and presumably would know what the hell happened too if they’d just remember.
+ I really liked how they finished with the Hina storyline. I liked that she does have pride in herself. I like that in the end she was unwilling to settle for the man she loves being with her out of obligation while only caring for her and being in love with someone else. I liked that she laid it all out, that she said no, that she didn’t get angry at him over it, didn’t yell or accuse him of anything. She just handled everything with such class. I loved the final scene of her – calling back “I know” when he tells her she is important to him, with a little wave but not looking back. I felt so sorry for her – she manages not to cry but you can see the tears, and the determination and sorrow, on her face. It would be really nice to see her again. Her line about her not wanting Mamoru in Japan did again bring to mind the possibility that she was trying to keep him and Usagi apart but based on what we see of her I don’t think she is the type of person to do that. I find myself wondering about her decision not to go study overseas. I mean that is a huge life changing decision for her and on her part it would have made a lot more sense for her to choose to go, so why didn’t she? Was she only going originally because of Mamoru?
+ Having the original ‘wth?!’ reaction to the SS Tambourines out of the way I find that I don’t hate them like I did before. I’m just kind of eh. I just find them really unnecessary. I mean, I guess if Moon gets to have toys (her wand, staff) then why can’t the other Senshi, right? Except they don’t actually need them. And on a meta level it’s very obvious that their existence is a marketing ploy to sell more stuff to people which really annoys me.
