lemke.harrison - 2014-10-30 03:20:25

[Old review is old.]

(This review proceeds from Sailor Moon, so start from the beginning if you haven’t already!)

The next set of challenges the Sailor Soldiers have to face is the arrival of a mysterious, pink-haired little girl named Chibi Usa. She claims to be the daughter of Usagi and Tuxedo Mask, who, it turns out, were the rulers of the futuristic moon kingdom that Luna was talking about. I left this part out of the first season review because of possible spoilers, but seeing as it continues to be a known factor in the story, I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Chibi Usa helps the soldiers battle and eventually becomes a Sailor Soldier herself. After some filler villains, the real antagonists try to control Chibi Usa for they own gain, and the Sailor Soldiers fight against it.

The main problem with this season is just how similar it is to the first one. First off, due to the events from season 1’s ending, we get to go through an extremely familiar process that was already done in the first part of the show. The first villains for about ten episodes were done as filler, and the big villains for the next part of the show ended up being extremely forgettable. For the most part, season 1 was forgettable too, but at least there were certain arcs and character developments that stuck with me. The shocking conclusion also left a memorable impression, compared to a relatively safe and forgettable ending for this season. So overall, Sailor Moon R is half filler, half forgettable.

We don’t get many new characters aside from Chibi Usa and (get this) Tuxedo Mask gets replaced by some arabian knight for the first part of the season, saves the Sailor Soldiers just like Tuxedo Mask…and then just turns back into Tuxedo Mask. I was deathly afraid that Chibi Usa would be even more annoying than Usagi, but somehow they were able to make her much more tolerable. She does whine at a few times, but they’re times where she doesn’t really know what she’s supposed to do, and to be fair, she’s a little kid! Usagi is on the verge of high school, yet somehow she’s even more whiney and incompetent than Chibi Usa, even though she’s the one that’s supposed to be growing and developing overtime (which still doesn’t happen in this season). Chibi Usa was able to get away with stuff like that because she was very young and it’s expected that she would act that way. The villain arc also makes her go through the great progression of wondering if she belongs with the others, if they will tolerate her, how she’s able to fit in between dimensions, and it actually makes her a more interesting character than Usagi. Infact, she’s about as interesting as the other soldiers in the show.

For the most part, the other characters remain unchanged, but every once and awhile an episode comes along to build them up some more and make them even more likable. Just when one soldier gets a ton of focus to get development, another one goes through some more events that make her more interesting, and it happens to all of the soldiers. It’s fun to see this group grown and get more and more entertaining as the show goes on. Now if only I could say the same about Usagi. Many more elements from the first season carry over to this one, like very slow progression of lot, Tuxedo Mask having to save anyone, all that stuff. After about 90 episodes of the same old song and dance, I began to wonder if the show would be able to somehow catch my interest as it went onto its third season. Ah, what a pleasant surprise that was...

(This review continues on to Sailor Moon S. My final score will be given at the review of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.)