Fire and ice, let’s welcome Sailor Mars to the cast.
What They Say:
“Act.3 REI – SAILOR MARS -”
Disturbing rumors about the Sendaizakaue bus swirl all around Usagi. Amid the rumors, Usagi meets a beautiful shrine maiden with black hair named Rei Hino.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Usagi may not be itching for a battle against evil, but Ami seems thrilled with her newfound duties as a guardian of justice. Luna sets her guardians on their next tasks, to locate the Silver Crystal and the missing princess they’re supposed to serve.
Off in the dark dimension, or wherever it is that evil lurks, Queen Beryl is asking Jadeite why he’s failing at his mission. They too are after the Silver Crystal, and Nephrite and Zoisite are eager to take Jadeite’s place. He’s determined to take out the guardians, which means it’s time for a trap.
Yes, this is the demon bus episode. The hilarity of a bus with a route number of 666 is firmly intact, and it’s a pretty obvious ploy. I’d like to think Jadeite had a sense of humor, but we don’t get much development of the bad guys, or the good guys as of yet. Yeah, Ami is smart and Usagi is a slacker mess, so it’s time to bring in the cool and beautiful one.
The first thing Usagi does when she sets eyes on Rei Hino is stalk the poor girl because she’s pretty. I’m not sure what Usagi’s goal in meeting Rei was, but upon entering the shrine grounds she’s immediately attacked by Rei’s crows, Phobos and Deimos. (Who are important later in the manga, but I don’t think the adaptation will make it that far.) Clearly, something about Usagi must be off, but she can’t be evil…
While Rei suspects Usagi, the neighbors are suspecting Rei when a child goes missing. Clearly the spooky shrine maiden must have kidnapped the girl! Why these neighbors don’t go to the police is beyond me, and they should be hassling the bus service not the shrine it goes past.
Logic and reason don’t have much of a place in the Sailor Moon universe. Case in point, Usagi runs into Mamoru again and doesn’t recognize him as her tuxedo’d crush. At least this time he’s dressed normally. He catches her talking to Luna, once again. After asking him if he was a junior high student (no, he’s in high school) Usagi attempts to make small talk and ends up trying to hide behind Luna in embarrassment. Our heroine folks.
Jadeite’s plan to lure out the guardians works when he snatches Rei up and whisks her and a bus load of people off to the secret lair. There’s a bit of magical handwaving to explain how the guardians can just teleport around. There’s also new trinkets for the guardians, magical communicator watches because the evil dimension doesn’t have cell service.
Then we get the Sailor Mars transformation sequence. The fire effect actually doesn’t look too atrociously out of place, except for the brief moment after her shoes appear. However, there are quite a few moments during Mars’ speech and at other points during the episode where the animation slinks off into wonky territory. I’m not sure why the animators are having such a difficult time staying on model, maybe Toei is using this series as a training ground. Or maybe it’s all being outsourced to third party, either way it’s still disappointingly cheap looking when compared to other modern series.
To close the episode out, the guardians manage to defeat Jadeite without the use of stock animation attacks, and Mars is the one to deal the final blow. It’s unclear as to what Jadeite’s fate is, as it looks like he teleports and isn’t outright destroyed. There might be some villain shuffling taking place here to better develop the bad guys, or some really strange self-censoring. Rei is relieved to learn that she’s not the lone weirdo in the universe, and the trio returns to the real world with the hostages. All’s well that ends well.
Sailor Moon Crystal is keeping it’s one-one pacing with the manga it’s adapting, which is beginning to make many watching the show curious as to what is getting covered. At this pace, Crystal will most likely end up covering the first two arcs of the manga, which would involve material covered in the original animated series second season. It’ll probably be months before we get word either way on that front.
In Summary:
Sailor Moon Crystal continues on at a brisk pace. Shaky animation aside the episode was entertaining but not spectacular. The guardians now have three members on their team, and the next episode has the recruitment taking a break to try to make some headway on this whole Silver Crystal thing. Hopefully the show can loosen up and have a bit of fun with it.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.2, via Safari 7.0.4, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.