The past, the princess, and the crystal are revealed.
What They Say:
“Act.9 SERENITY – PRINCESS -”
While trying to protect Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask loses consciousness. Out of sorrow, Sailor Moon awakens as Princess Serenity.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Tuxedo Mask takes the blow meant for Sailor Moon and falls in the shocked arms of his confused love. Usagi doesn’t take this well, and screams in despair. I haven’t exactly been thrilled with Kotono Mitsuishi’s performance up until now, but she’s finally back in form as Usagi. She handles all of the emotional scenes in this episode extremely well.
The situation breaks the last barrier keeping the past in check. Usagi transforms into the Moon Princess as Sailor Venus looses her disguise. The Silver Crystal emerges from a tear shed by Usagi and imparts some of itself to Tuxedo Mask, who is revealed to by Endymion, the Prince of Earth from the age of the Silver Millennium kingdom.
Queen Beryl and Kunzite use that moment to attack and snatch Tuxedo Mask away, mistakingly thinking that he has something to do with the crystal. Technically he does, but the crystal is still in the hands of Usagi. The team makes their escape to the hideout and Luna and Artemis fill in the missing gaps to the other guardians.
Usagi, who has all her memories back, spends most of the rest of the episode crying. I can’t really fault her, she’s basically dealing with memories of tragedy on top of more tragedy. Minako makes sure to let her know that she has all of them to lean on, but it’s not much consolation for her.
We see moments of the overthrow of the Silver Millenium. How Prince Endymion was stuck down by his own subjects, and one woman in particular, who were possessed by a dark force. The moon kingdom fell soon after. We don’t have all the details yet, that’s being saved for the next episode.
Usagi goes home and to bed, trying to forget, but she wakes up from a nightmare back in terrible shape mentally. The other guardians come to her house, and Usagi’s mother is in the dark as to what might be going on with her daughter or if there is a problem at all. (Way to be observant mom….) When the girls open the door they find Usagi with her hair even longer than it was to begin with, and Usagi in shock about that. It turns out being a reincarnated magical princess has some unusual side effects.
Finally, Luna and Artemis suggest they all take a field trip to the moon to learn about the full backstory. Usagi pulls it together with the comfort of her friends and agrees. To the moon!
In Summary:
After episodes of just going through the motions Sailor Moon Crystal finally gets to the heart of the matter and starts to shine on it’s own. The tragic backstories of reincarnated warriors of love and justice was always the more interesting part of the Sailor Moon story. The first arc of the Sailor Moon story really is just a romance, and if you didn’t realize it by now the show is going to hammer it on until you get it. The voice acting, the direction, everything steps it up to actually give this episode the impact it deserves. It’s just a shame it took nine episodes to get here.
Episode Grade: B +
Streamed by: Crunchyroll & Hulu
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.5, via Safari 7.0.6, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
