That cat came from the moon!
What They Say:
“Act. 6 Tuxedo Mask”
Tuxedo Mask has been reported to have committed many crimes to obtain the “Legendary Silver Crystal”. Luna and others are convinced he’s the enemy, but Usagi can’t believe it.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Blink and you’ll miss that the last shot of the opening sequence this week has been updated. Yup, Sailor Moon has a new toy to fight evil, and Luna finally tells her guardians everything she knows about their fight against evil. Maybe she should have told them sooner.
Tuxedo Mask reaches out to the public to announce that his petty crime spree is to find the Legendary Silver Crystal. The press is intrigued! Wait…. what crime spree? Who cares, this is all very fascinating! So fascinating it catches the attention of Zoisite who hatches his own plan to use humans to find the crystal. Those plans also include magical cross-dressing and his own TV broadcast.
Usagi is as rash in her behavior as she ever was, refusing to believe her knight in dry-cleaned armor might be a bad guy. So she runs off into the night while the rest of the guardians head off to the TV station to confront evil. Way to go Usagi.
She collapses on a sidewalk as the city is drained of energy, but her stalker isn’t far behind to catch her when she falls. What follows is a scene with the most atrocious, half-assed elevator sounding music in the entire series. Simply terrible, it sounds like their trapped in a supermarket and not having a dramatic romantic confrontation on a sidewalk.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang is off confronting Zoisite on the roof of the TV station. This series did away with stock footage attacks, so we get the guardians flinging fire, lightning, and water at Zoisite. This actually makes them look more powerful than in previous adaptations. Mercury even gets a good hit in on Zoisite! Unfortunately, he’s able to throw back his own attacks and take everyone down for the count.
Things get worse when Queen Beryl decides to descend and take out the guardians herself. This is the first look the guardians get at their enemy from the Dark Kingdom, as they lie prone on the rooftop.
At this point it’s time for a pep talk. Usagi realizes she’s not really the leader type, and doesn’t know what good her magic powers would be against the ultimate evil. Moonlight and a magic tiara certainly don’t hold up to fire or lightning. Tuxedo Mask points out that she has leader qualities in the way that she brings everyone together. Pep talk over, she takes off to fight evil.
I guess I overestimated Usagi’s powers of perception in thinking she must have already realized that he knew who she was in civilian form. Did she really never stop to wonder at that? He showed up at her house!
Sometimes I think the director and storyboard artists forget to properly assess logic when scripting out scenes in this series. Luna barely panics when it looks like most of her team is about to be killed off. Characters are flying through the air with no explanation. Just how did Sailor Moon get up to the roof? Where was she just prior to that scene? Don’t think about logistics, space and time mean nothing to the sailor guardians.
City saved and populace healed, Sailor Moon returns to earth and collapses from the effort of returning the city to normal. Once again Tuxedo Mask is there to catch her when she falls. The next time Usagi wakes up she’s back in her civilian attire…. in someone else’s bed! Mamoru took her back to his bachelor pad, rather than her own home. Sailor V watched him carry her off though, so if she was in danger V would have saved her right? Yeah sure.
Just a reminder, Usagi is 14 years old.
In Summary:
There’s a lot happening in this episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. The guardians now know exactly what they’re up against. Usagi is preoccupied with Tuxedo Mask to the point of distraction, which isn’t a great place to be if your the protector of earth. We get a tone of exposition dumped on us from Luna, from the bad guys, and from Tuxedo Mask next episode according to the preview. Usagi might just have what it takes to be a leader, if only she’d gain some confidence that didn’t need cajoling every time the bad guys show up.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll, Hulu
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.4, via Safari 7.0.6, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.