So I thought I couldn't love villains more than I loved the Death Busters, with their insane blend of magic and jank-ass analog technology, their goofy demons and the hilarious backstabbery of the Witches 5, the utterly perfect gags with the Professor. I figured that had to be the peak of villainy in the show, and I was set to be disappointed.
I was so wrong.
Just the mere premise of the Dead Moon Circus is crazy on it's own, but the way they are handled is just so excellent. Their weird powers and theatrics are fantastic. The current miniboss squad of proto-PUA assholes drinking at the bar, picking targets and commiserating about their failures is easily the best villain dynamic yet, and they all have such excellently characterized personalities.
And their monsters are great! Weird as fuck, but not as flat-out cheesy as the Death Buster demons were. And that doll was legit pretty creepy.
This is gonna be a great season. I can't wait to watch more.
Just finished re-watching the first season. I forgot how emotional those last episodes were. Reminded me a little of how I felt when I watched Gall Force:Eternal Story for the first time.
I forgot how overwrought the whole thing was. Happy that Hulu is now up to R, which is a higher quality show. Eagerly waiting for S, but enjoying this, too.
I forgot how overwrought the whole thing was. Happy that Hulu is now up to R, which is a higher quality show. Eagerly waiting for S, but enjoying this, too.
Hulu is up to R already? I gotta catch up. I'm still chillin' with Nephrite.
The SuperS episode where the two PUA jackass dudes target Minako for their dream bullshit is the funniest episode of the show yet. The look on their faces after they take a look at her dream is just priceless.
So my Viz DVD set arrived four days ahead of the official release date, and I eagerly popped in the first disc to check out a few episodes of the new dub (which I hadn't heard in full yet, since no Hulus in Canada). I still can't get over how perfect Stephanie Sheh is as Usagi. She really does sound like a younger, American-er Kotono Mitsuishi. *_* Really, all the voices in this new dub sound great, not counting some of the random derp extras, and even most of them aren't bad.
Most unexpected thing that makes me laugh out loud every time though: they've dubbed the eyecatches. THE EYECATCHES. The ones for season 1 sound weird and forced enough in Japanese, let alone in English. I just can't get over the mental image of all the dub actors trying to go "SAILOR MOON!" in their most forced kids television voices ever. And having to do it enough times to get multiple takes for multiple versions of it. I just. I can't. pffffffffffffft they didn't even have to dub the freaking eyecatches and it's so awkwardly beautiful I don't even xDDD
But yeah this is sounding almost on par with the original Japanese in terms of performance quality so far. I am very impressed. This is the dub I wish I'd grown up with. Hoping this keeps up as all the other major characters are introduced.
I need to go find out where to buy those DVDs. I tried searching on Amazon a week or two ago and couldn't figure out which were the new ones. I guess I'm old and stupid.
EDIT - found it. $53 for 23 episodes in HD. I dunno. That's kinda hard to justify for me. Hulu is slowly publishing the dubs. I may just go there for them for now.
Last time I was on Hulu I couldn't find the dubs. I can't find anything online that says they've taken the dubs off the service though.
Hulu never put up the dub because it wasn't ready yet. It's sub-only right now.
That's interesting, as I watched up to episode 16 of Sailor Moon dubbed on Hulu a month or so ago... It's in my Hulu history and everything. Did myself, my friends and my partner all have a mass hallucination where we thought we were watching a dub but it was actually the sub?
The dubs were up alongside the subs up to ep 23, I think, just a month ago. I haven't looked recently. They were lagging the subs and so we were watching the subs. But they were definitely there. Can't look from where I'm at.
It was an emotional roller coaster, I'll say that. An IRC channel I'm on was treated to my increasingly intoxicated ranting as I got deeper and deeper into it and the feels piled up.
I got really, really emotionally invested in these characters. Probably more than I have for anything I've ever watched. So what happens to them in those last episodes fucked me up.
Had a dream of a live action Sailor Moon where she was battling ISIS/ISIL. It ended up the girl we were rescuing ended up getting caught by ISIS as we fled. The main villain/head of ISIS was an evil version of Moonlight Knight and he ended up beheading the girl we tried to rescue.
The dream ended with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask fleeing and looking back at the dead girl while evil Moonlight Knight says to himself, "I vow to end the words of Moon Prism Power Make Up".
I think my allergies have gotten me to dream some of the funkiest shit these last few days.
Nice! are you watching with subtitles or the new dub? I have some issues with the new dub, but that's the only way I can get my niece to watch sailor moon lol.
Man, I know R can be a bit rough but like, I cannot imagine skipping it at this point. It's where Crystal Tokyo is! Crystal Tokyo!
Besides, I'm on the fence as to if it's R or SuperS that is the weaker season. R drags like a motherfucker and doesn't have the polish of the later seasons, but SuperS has some seriously weak writing in many places, is often thematically dissonant with the core of the show, and doesn't do a very good job walking the line between "the actions of the villains are genuinely uncomfortable to witness" and "this show is genuinely getting kind of uncomfortable to watch." The second half is generally better than the first and it leads into an incredible arc at the beginning of Stars, but I really feel they lost the thread with the Amazon Trio and they put that damn horse in way too much a position of power.
Protip: Your creepy date-rapist team are probably not the guys you want to center a redemption arc on.
That said, there is a super compelling bit of fanon that the entire arc takes place inside a collective dream/hallucination, which ties in nicely with a lot of the themes and explains a ton about the season (why nobody is ever in school, why the seasons abruptly change at the end, why Chibiusa can do what she does at the end, and most importantly, why the season ends on a sunny day in the same park it starts, with everyone wearing the same clothes.) The idea that the eclipse marks the start of nightmare where hideous circus creatures and proto-PUA assholes wander the street forcing themselves into people's minds is so awesome I have trouble seeing it any other way.
That said, there is a super compelling bit of fanon that the entire arc takes place inside a collective dream/hallucination, which ties in nicely with a lot of the themes and explains a ton about the season (why nobody is ever in school, why the seasons abruptly change at the end, why Chibiusa can do what she does at the end, and most importantly, why the season ends on a sunny day in the same park it starts, with everyone wearing the same clothes.) The idea that the eclipse marks the start of nightmare where hideous circus creatures and proto-PUA assholes wander the street forcing themselves into people's minds is so awesome I have trouble seeing it any other way.
I'm not convinced, on the grounds that there's one of these for every single show ever, they always explain everything perfectly and neatly. Hell, there's usually multiple versions per property, to explain away the things people don't like.
I'm not convinced, on the grounds that there's one of these for every single show ever, they always explain everything perfectly and neatly. Hell, there's usually multiple versions per property, to explain away the things people don't like.
I get what you mean (fuck the Indoctrination Theory) but what makes this one compelling to me is that the entire arc is actually about dreams and nightmares in the first place, it requires only one assumption, and without it, the show's timeline gets kinda fucked. Lemme break it down.
There's some debate as to the timescale of Classic and R, if the first year repeats or not (ie: if Usagi's final wish just wiped memories or if we were getting some time travel dealies going on), but in any case Classic and R together represent roughly a year. Then, S season occurs during December and January, because the senshi are studying for their high school entry exams. Theoretically, SuperS takes place during the following summer (the first episode makes a big deal out of the season), and then Stars starts during the fall of that year (when everyone starts their first year of high school, and Chibiusa's "summer vacation" into the past ends.)
Here's where the problem is. The first half of SuperS totally takes place during the summer... but doesn't end there. A plot point of the end arc episodes is everyone being weirded out by the spiderwebs that ought not be appearing... because it's winter now. Somehow, six months have passed... and nobody has started school...
The season ends in the same park it started, on a bright summer day, with everyone is wearing the same clothes.
If you take it at face value, SuperS means that everyone took a year off before heading to high school. But if the entire season takes place in a prison of the mind thrown up by the Dead Moon Circus, aka the folks who are all about perception, illusion, and dreams...
Hence, the person with the most power over the dream is Chibiusa, who is guarding Pegasus, a representative of dreams on the side of good.
The theory also provides a lot of explanations for the kind of stuff the season focused on. No wonder every victim of the week was seeing faeries and pegasus everywhere; it was part of the dream logic. No wonder Usagi's power couldn't take out the Remless; her power isn't real here, she needs to go through Chibiusa, who is chilling with the fuckin' Prince of Dreams himself. No wonder Chibiusa could call on everyone in the world to clap their hands and believe in the magic horse; they were all sharing a dream and this was some lucid dreaming biz. No wonder Usagi and Chibiusa fell for like twenty years during the finale.
And holy crap but it makes the villains a lot scarier (and these are already some pretty rad, if unbelievably creepy, villains.) Suddenly, the celebration of our circus-freak baddies at the end, about how nobody noticed, isn't just about the circus tent. Nobody has noticed they're not in Kansas anymore.
Comments
I was so wrong.
Just the mere premise of the Dead Moon Circus is crazy on it's own, but the way they are handled is just so excellent. Their weird powers and theatrics are fantastic. The current miniboss squad of proto-PUA assholes drinking at the bar, picking targets and commiserating about their failures is easily the best villain dynamic yet, and they all have such excellently characterized personalities.
And their monsters are great! Weird as fuck, but not as flat-out cheesy as the Death Buster demons were. And that doll was legit pretty creepy.
This is gonna be a great season. I can't wait to watch more.
Most unexpected thing that makes me laugh out loud every time though: they've dubbed the eyecatches. THE EYECATCHES. The ones for season 1 sound weird and forced enough in Japanese, let alone in English. I just can't get over the mental image of all the dub actors trying to go "SAILOR MOON!" in their most forced kids television voices ever. And having to do it enough times to get multiple takes for multiple versions of it. I just. I can't. pffffffffffffft they didn't even have to dub the freaking eyecatches and it's so awkwardly beautiful I don't even xDDD
But yeah this is sounding almost on par with the original Japanese in terms of performance quality so far. I am very impressed. This is the dub I wish I'd grown up with. Hoping this keeps up as all the other major characters are introduced.
EDIT - found it. $53 for 23 episodes in HD. I dunno. That's kinda hard to justify for me. Hulu is slowly publishing the dubs. I may just go there for them for now.
I don't like the new Luna VA.
I basically couldn't stop giggling like an idiot through this entire video.
"sailormoonbelieveinyourself!!!"
"...kay!"
I would watch this over actual Sailor Moon Crystal any day
I ended up pretty much marathoning the last ten episodes.
I... don't have the capacity to feel anything more right now.
Good fucking god.
Fuck this magnificent show.
???
I got really, really emotionally invested in these characters. Probably more than I have for anything I've ever watched. So what happens to them in those last episodes fucked me up.
To paraphrase Dave Riley, I felt all the emojis.
The dream ended with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask fleeing and looking back at the dead girl while evil Moonlight Knight says to himself, "I vow to end the words of Moon Prism Power Make Up".
I think my allergies have gotten me to dream some of the funkiest shit these last few days.
Besides, I'm on the fence as to if it's R or SuperS that is the weaker season. R drags like a motherfucker and doesn't have the polish of the later seasons, but SuperS has some seriously weak writing in many places, is often thematically dissonant with the core of the show, and doesn't do a very good job walking the line between "the actions of the villains are genuinely uncomfortable to witness" and "this show is genuinely getting kind of uncomfortable to watch." The second half is generally better than the first and it leads into an incredible arc at the beginning of Stars, but I really feel they lost the thread with the Amazon Trio and they put that damn horse in way too much a position of power.
Protip: Your creepy date-rapist team are probably not the guys you want to center a redemption arc on.
That said, there is a super compelling bit of fanon that the entire arc takes place inside a collective dream/hallucination, which ties in nicely with a lot of the themes and explains a ton about the season (why nobody is ever in school, why the seasons abruptly change at the end, why Chibiusa can do what she does at the end, and most importantly, why the season ends on a sunny day in the same park it starts, with everyone wearing the same clothes.) The idea that the eclipse marks the start of nightmare where hideous circus creatures and proto-PUA assholes wander the street forcing themselves into people's minds is so awesome I have trouble seeing it any other way.
There's some debate as to the timescale of Classic and R, if the first year repeats or not (ie: if Usagi's final wish just wiped memories or if we were getting some time travel dealies going on), but in any case Classic and R together represent roughly a year. Then, S season occurs during December and January, because the senshi are studying for their high school entry exams. Theoretically, SuperS takes place during the following summer (the first episode makes a big deal out of the season), and then Stars starts during the fall of that year (when everyone starts their first year of high school, and Chibiusa's "summer vacation" into the past ends.)
Here's where the problem is. The first half of SuperS totally takes place during the summer... but doesn't end there. A plot point of the end arc episodes is everyone being weirded out by the spiderwebs that ought not be appearing... because it's winter now. Somehow, six months have passed... and nobody has started school...
The season ends in the same park it started, on a bright summer day, with everyone is wearing the same clothes.
If you take it at face value, SuperS means that everyone took a year off before heading to high school. But if the entire season takes place in a prison of the mind thrown up by the Dead Moon Circus, aka the folks who are all about perception, illusion, and dreams...
Hence, the person with the most power over the dream is Chibiusa, who is guarding Pegasus, a representative of dreams on the side of good.
The theory also provides a lot of explanations for the kind of stuff the season focused on. No wonder every victim of the week was seeing faeries and pegasus everywhere; it was part of the dream logic. No wonder Usagi's power couldn't take out the Remless; her power isn't real here, she needs to go through Chibiusa, who is chilling with the fuckin' Prince of Dreams himself. No wonder Chibiusa could call on everyone in the world to clap their hands and believe in the magic horse; they were all sharing a dream and this was some lucid dreaming biz. No wonder Usagi and Chibiusa fell for like twenty years during the finale.
And holy crap but it makes the villains a lot scarier (and these are already some pretty rad, if unbelievably creepy, villains.) Suddenly, the celebration of our circus-freak baddies at the end, about how nobody noticed, isn't just about the circus tent. Nobody has noticed they're not in Kansas anymore.