Sailor Moon Crystal: Episodes 19-26 (Review)

Keeping my promise from three months ago, I am reviewing the final 8 episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, but since I'm covering eight episodes, I will be making a brief summary of what happened in the episodes.

WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

From where the story left off in episode 18, episode 19 starts off the part of the second arc that I personally call "The Battle in the Future," which exactly happens when the Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, and Chibi-Usa go to the future with the help of Sailor Pluto. In this future, the citizens of Crystal Tokyo are in a deep sleep (including Neo-Queen Serenity). When they reach the castle, they meet up with a spiritual projection of King Endymion, and he reveals that Chibi-Usa is Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask's future daughter. Of course, at several moments of the story, the Black Moon Clan would attempt to attack the kingdom (even going so far as capturing Sailor Moon herself). Soon, the worst happens when Wiseman captures Chibi-Usa, and turns her into Black Lady. Afterwards, Black Lady captures Tuxedo Mask, and hypnotizes him to attack Sailor Moon. However, this all changes when Prince Demande (of the Black Moon Clan) gets his hands on the Legendary Silver Crystal of the Past and the Future, and tries to put them together before Sailor Pluto sacrifices her life to stop him. Her death causes Black Lady to change back into Chibi-Usa. However, it's revealed that her power has finally awaken, and she becomes a Sailor Guardian (Sailor Chibi Moon). Then, Wiseman reveals his his final form, Death Phantom, and takes both Sailor Moon and Tuxedo mask to Nemesis. At that moment, both Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion awaken to tell Chibi-Usa to help both Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask defeat Death Phantom once and for all. When she finally finds them, the three of them obliterate Death Phantom and Crystal Tokyo returns back to its original glory. Soon, the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask return back to the past, and Chibi-Usa returns to Crystal Tokyo...until Neo-Queen Serenity sends her back to be trained in the ways of a Sailor Guardian by Sailor Moon.

From what I watched, the story remained pretty faithful to the manga just like the other episodes did. Of course, I have to admit that I really enjoyed this anime, even though it's unknown right now if there will be a continuation anime based on the later arcs. I hope this does happen one day, but we may have to wait and see until then.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episodes 15-16 (Review)

Well, a new arc started at the end of episode 14, and things are about to get intense for the Sailor Guardians.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

At the end of Episode 14, we are introduced to a new character: a pink-haired girl who fell from the sky who claims her name is Usagi. Just as things get weird, the girl pulls a gun on Usagi, and demands her to give her the "Legendary Silver Crystal." Soon, she pulls the trigger, and a plunger dart hits Usagi's forehead as Mamoru pulls the girl away. Finally, the girl runs off right before Usagi and Mamoru look for her. They eventually find her at a playground where they give her the name, Chibi-Usa. Afterwards, as they arrive at Usagi's house, Chibi-Usa pulls out her iconic Luna P ball, and hypnotizes Usagi's parents and brother. Of course, this leads to Luna wondering about Chibi-Usa, while Usagi assumes that she's an enemy.

Meanwhile, Rei discovers that there is a new threat: The Black Moon Clan. Afterwards, it is revealed that the Black Moon Clan is after what they call "The Rabbit." Soon, they begin to kidnap any Sailor Guardian that gets in the way. First up is Rei. She was captured at her school fair after Koan (one of the Black Moon Clan's Specter Sisters) used her never-ending blue flame on her as the other Sailor Guardians watch in horror while Rubeus (the leader) takes her away. They soon find out that Chibi-Usa was watching in the shadows all along, and she eventually heads to Mamoru's house with Luna following her. Mamoru realizes that she is full of fear for some particular reason, and he helps cheer her up. As this goes on, Chibi-Usa reveals that her actual name is Small-Lady after her Luna P ball repeats it a couple of time. The following morning, Mamoru brings Chibi-Usa back to Usagi's house, and he assures her along with Luna that she is not an enemy.

Soon, it is revealed that the Black Moon Clan's next kidnapping target is Ami. They send another Specter Sister, Berthier, to challenge Ami to a chess game, but gives her a choice to give up "The Rabbit" (which the Sailor Guardians think is a reference to Usagi). However, Ami wins the game before she is captured in a water sphere, and taken away by Rubeus right after Berthier's defeat.

What will happen next? Guess we'll have to see next month for episodes 17 and 18.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 13-14 (Review)

Well, the final battle between the Sailor Moon and the evil Queen Metalia happened this month, and all I have to say was "It was intense."

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

It all starts with a recap of Usagi making the choice of taking her life along with a possessed Mamoru, and the Legendary Silver Crystal grows and covers both of their bodies. After Queen Metalia takes the crystal for herself, the remaining Sailor Guardians start their battle against her on Earth, and both Luna and Artemis go to the Chamber of Prayer after arriving on the moon. However, the Sailor Guardians are defeated, and Luna starts to pray for Usagi. Meanwhile, Usagi wakes up inside Metalia (realizing that both her and Mamoru are not dead) and the Crystal reveals its powers to Usagi. She then escapes from inside Metalia with a now awaken Mamoru, and even Mamoru gets one final visit with the spirits of the Four Kings. Finally, Usagi uses the Crystal's powers to defeat Metalia once and for all, with a little help from Luna's prayers. With Metalia finally defeated, Usagi wakes up to find Mamoru checking on her, and they kiss. Soon, Luna calls for Usagi to return to the moon, but she finds out that her brooch was damaged when she defeated Metalia. However, she uses the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal to return to the moon to receive a new brooch from the spirit of Queen Serenity, and she heals the Earth from the darkness that remained from Metalia. The Sailor Guardians are reunited with Serenity, and everything is back to normal....right?

Oh, wait. I forgot that we're only halfway through the series. So, at the end of episode 14, we are introduced to a new character, a pink-haired little girl who fell from the sky who calls herself "Usagi." And, she is looking for the Legendary Silver Crystal. This is going to be interesting.

From what I saw, these two episodes were pretty faithful to the events of the manga, especially the introduction of a new character. Well, all I have to say is that the story isn't over yet, my fair readers. Looks like we are going into another story arc.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episodes 11-12 (Review)

Well, this month, audience saw a complete twist to the story which resulted in emotional moments that the Sailor Guardians faced.

WARNING! THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS!

We last left off seeing that Mamoru is now under the control of Queen Beryl, and now, he's going by his original incarnation's name, Endymion. Plus, with Queen Beryl controlling the strings, he is after the Legendary Silver Crystal, and he has even brain-washed Motoki, who works at the arcade. Soon, the Sailor Guardians are up against him, and Usagi being reluctant to fight him. Then, Queen Beryl comes in and reveals the true villain to the Guardians: Queen Metalia. However, before she can escape with Mamoru, Queen Beryl is finally killed off, and Usagi follows Mamoru into the Dark Kingdom. The four other guardians follow suit, but they are greeted by the Four Kings. However, the guardians are able to purify them before Queen Metalia finishes them off for good for disobeying her orders. Afterwards, Usagi makes the most difficult decision to help bring Mamoru back to his senses, which may cost her life to do.

Besides changing the manga's story by having the Four Kings remain as long as they did in this reboot, there were some alterations and cuts made to have the story give the story a bit more flow in the show's case. However, this leaves the question, what will happen now? Well, with the New Year coming in a couple of days, we won't have that long to wait.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 6-8 (Review)

Since I last left off on Episode 5 and made a difficult decision to delay reviews of Episode 6 and 7 until Episode 8 was released, there was beginning tension towards Tuxedo Mask by Luna, and Sailor Moon was then chosen to lead the Sailor Senshi. So, instead of separating each episode into short paragraphs, I will combine the aspects of all three episodes into one.

WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

We begin when Luna and the Sailor Senshi start to suspect Tuxedo Mask of being an enemy instead of an ally. However, Usagi still has feeling towards Tuxedo Mask, even though she still doesn't know who he is yet. Meanwhile, Mamoru is still trying to find out the secret of the Legendary Silver Crystal. It isn't until the Dark Kingdom attacks the city through the process of mind-control like they did in several of the previous episodes. Soon, a battle between the Dark Kingdom and the Sailor Senshi commences, and at the right moment, Tuxedo Mask comes in to help Sailor Moon. After Usagi faints from exhaustion, Mamoru takes her to his apartment where she wakes up in his bed with him looking at her from the doorway. It's at this moment that Usagi finds out that the man who always picked on her since the first episode is none other than her ally. Mamoru reveals to Usagi that he has been alone most of his life after his parents died in a car accident. He survived the crash but lost his memory, and he has recently been getting dreams about getting the Legendary Silver Crystal. He believes that it would help him regain his memories of who he once was. Afterwards, Usagi leaves but realises that she accidentally took a pocket watch that belonged to Mamoru. She soon meets up with the other Sailor Senshi, who find out that there is a DVD store that are renting out DVDs commanding people to capture Sailor Moon. Of course, the Dark Kingdom end up having another battle with the Sailor Senshi after they cure the citizens from the effects of the DVDs. However, another surprise comes when Sailor V comes in to assist them with their battle. Sailor V reveals that she is none other than the missing princess that the Sailor Senshi has been looking for, and they all meet up after she reveals that her other identity is Minako Aino and reveals that she also has Artemis, a white talking cat, to aid her. After a while, Usagi runs into Mamoru again and informs him about the pocket watch, but he tells her to keep it since she's keeping his Tuxedo Mask identity a secret. Luna also ends up running into Artemis, and he reveals that Mamoru is actually very important for their mission. Soon, the Dark Kingdom return again, and another battle commences that ends up leading another turn of events.

As much as I continue watching the series, the more I enjoy it, but these several episodes has their own changes along with them. Several things were cut from the manga, and another huge change comes around when it comes to Minako being a character that wants to do stuff by herself (which is never seen in Chapter 8 of the manga). From this point on, it looks like that there will be some major stuff to be revealed.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 5 (Review)

That time has come again, and a brand new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal was posted yesterday on Hulu. Of course, we were introduced to Makoto Kino, who is also known as Sailor Jupiter in the series.

In the manga, she was indeed introduced in the 5th chapter, but her first appearance in the original anime adaptation wasn't until episode 25. However, since the new anime is closely based on the manga, introducing her as soon as possible was indeed the best choice.

For the details of the episode itself, much of the chapter is adapted pretty well, but it did go through several changes and additions like episode 2 did. However, I did like some of the explanations that where in the additional flashback scenes which helped describe Makoto's character a little bit more than it did in the manga (which was described by her briefly at the end of the chapter). But, many of the characteristics of Makoto felt like they were very good in a lot of ways as well as her moments as Sailor Jupiter. Along with the brief glimpses of Tuxedo Mask, still making him a mysterious character as usual in this part of the series is very fitting.

Of course, the episode's ending brings along a new type of responsibility for the Sailor Guardians, which we will probably see in the next episode.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 4 (Review)

Last time, on the Team AnimeManga blog, the third episode of the Sailor Moon Crystal was reviewed, and now...the fourth episode.

For the first three episodes, we were introduced to much of the main characters, but for this episode, which is based on the fourth chapter of the original manga, we ended up taking a break to go to a fancy ball. I'm not kidding. Act 4: Masquerade Dance Party (aka Episode Four) is one of those moments in the original manga where it slowed the story down a bit, and how Toei Animation adapted this chapter in the reboot is a bit amazing.

For starters, there was little omitted content, but there was a good amount of additions which actually explained some of the story that wasn't well explained in the original chapter. Of course, the ball scenes were, in my opinion, beautifully animated. In the end, the episode ended with a mysterious side note, and a sneak peak for the next episode.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Fist of the North Star: A Review

For many years, Toei Animation tend to create some amazing anime based off of popular manga series like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, and One Piece. Along with these, there is one that I really like due to its story and characters, and the anime I am talking about is Fist of the North Star.

Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) was adapted from the manga series of the same name written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara, and it is famous for its ultra-violent story based around Kenshiro, who is the successor of the Hokuto Shinken technique. The manga itself was presented in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1983 to 1988, and the series was given its own anime in 1984. This particular anime would include both Hokuto no Ken and its anime sequel, Hokuto no Ken 2, spanning the anime into a total of 152 episodes. The both parts of the anime series and the 1986 anime film was directed by Toyoo Ashida, who directed the anime film adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D.

Hokuto no Ken is separated in four arcs that are based off of the first 136 chapters of the manga. In the first arc, we are instantly introduced to Kenshiro, who is on a quest to rescue his fiancee, Yuria, from his former friend, Shin. We are also introduced to the two young companions that follow him throughout his journey: Bat (who is a troublemaker) and Rin (who loves and cares for Ken ever since he saved her life in the first episode). During the series, we meet other characters such as Rei (who uses a technique known as Nanto Suichoken), Mamiya, Toki (one of Kenshiro's adopted brothers), and Raoh (who will become the main antagonist for the series).

The sequel anime, Hokuto no Ken 2, is based of chapters 137 to 210 of the manga, and starts off after a time skip from the events of the final fight in the previous series. Together, Kenshiro, Bat, and Rin must fight against a corrupted ruler, and Kenshiro then returns to the land that he was born in to save Rin once again. This part of the series was much shorter since it was only based on two arcs from the manga, and the rest of the manga was never adapted into any other anime series.

I really enjoyed the first part of the anime series, but I did get bored while watching the sequel as it felt like (without giving away too many spoilers) it was repeating the formula of the first series. However, I highly recommend this particular anime series, and I am planning on reviewing the 1986 animated film when the time comes.

The Fist of the North Star anime series is currently available on DVD from Discotek Media.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Where In The USA Is The Sailor Moon Anime?

On July 6, 2012, it was announced that the Sailor Moon series would be getting a new anime series, and it would contain a new theme song performed by Momoiro Clover Z. Sailor Moon fans eagerly waited for the new anime to come, but it was delayed multiple times. Recently, on January 9th, it was finally announced that the new Sailor Moon anime would premiere this July, and that Toei Animation was going to be "adapting Naoko Takeuchi's original manga and starting from scratch again." Fans got excited again, and many of them now patiently wait for the premiere episode on Niconico.

This would probably be the first time that North American fans of the series would be able to watch their favorite magical girl team beat intergalactic villains on an instant online stream that would be subtitled in multiple languages. However, many of the fans in the U.S. still remember back in 1995 when the first Sailor Moon anime premiered on television, and even though the show was completely edited for content, it was still enjoyable for the American fans. But, it wasn't until after 2000 when the uncut episodes started appearing on DVD. Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R was released in two subtitled-only season box sets by ADV Films, and both Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS was released on bilingual DVD sets by Pioneer (now Geneon Universal Entertainment). Sailor Stars, the fifth entry to the anime series, never came to the U.S. due to the amount of content that would've been considered objectionable to television audiences at the time. Sadly, the DVDs became out of print after both ADV Films and Pioneer allowed the rights to expire around 2004 and 2005. The box sets are now very rare to get, and if anyone finds them for sale on sites like Amazon, they would be expensive to get (both new and used).

For the past decade, other American anime distribution companies, like FUNimation, have been trying to get the rights to the series, but sadly, no company owns the North American rights to the Sailor Moon anime as of now. However, in 2011, Kodansha USA re-released the first volume of the Sailor Moon manga, along with the first volume of Codename: Sailor V (the predecessor of Sailor Moon) on September 13th. This seemed like a sign to fans that Sailor Moon was making a big comeback to the U.S., but after all the manga was released, there was still no sign of the Sailor Moon anime until the news of the previously mentioned reboot.

In my opinion, as both an anime fan and a Sailor Moon fan, if there was possibly any company to get the rights from Toei, it would probably be either Sentai Filmworks or Discotek Media. However, I was able to get the first two uncut season box sets of Sailor Moon on DVD (after I spent a total of $296.46 to get them). Of course, I had to go through the existing flaws in the Sailor Moon R box set since an episode was missing, and the audio in the beginning of one of the episodes had some of the English dub soundtrack on it. Hopefully, since the recent announcement of the reboot, the Sailor Moon anime will finally make a comeback to the U.S., and the episodes could be enjoyed again by the American Sailor Moon fan base once again.

Written by Nolan Schmidt