Welcome back to more Sailor Moon reviews! So our three hapless horn-dog villains are still chasing after whichever Dream Mirror has Pegasus in it, but now… THINGS finally start to happen! Yeah, so Naoko Takeuchi probably added more information in the manga, so the poor writers finally had more stuff to go on and didn’t need so much filler. And so in this set of reviews, we finally say goodbye to the villainous “Generals” who were leading thus far, AND we say hello to the true Big Bad of Sailor Moon SuperS!
EPISODE #148:
The inevitable happens- Fish’s Eye gets a new target- MAMORU!! And this is said to be the “Last Chance” of the Amazon Trio. Usagi pointing out that Mamo has a fish tank in his room, and Minako’s teasing when she realizes that means Usagi’s BEEN THERE, is pretty fun. And Fish’s Eye dresses in drag and declares Usagi their “love rival” right to the girl’s face. Zirconia, meanwhile, finally has a real effect on the story, namedropping Queen Nehalennia, and speaking to the Amazoness Quartet when they’re in shadows. Fish’s Eye is staggered by Mamo’s insistence that he prefers Usagi “because of her dreams”, as the Trio don’t have any. This leads to Nehalennia’s ghostly image appearing and threatening them, and we find out what the Trio REALLY are- a cat, bird and fish, given human-esque forms!
The episode is less funny than you’d expect given the subject matter, as it’s more focused on Fish’s Eye being mortified and saddened at the Trio’s inability to dream, and Mamo lecturing “her” on the subject. Contrasting F-Eye’s sad reaction to Hawk’s look of concern, and Tiger’s “AGH I’M A CAT!?!” expression. Fish’s Eye is extremely upset that Mamo doesn’t have Pegasus in his dreams, and Sailors Moon & Chibi-Moon just… casually destroy the Lemures (who was just having them bounce on his trampoline). I mean, nobody even distracted him- they just got annoyed that Mamoru was being hurt and just hit the monster without a word.
In a cute bit at the end, Usagi comes off a dejected (human form) Fish’s Eye… and puts an umbrella over her in the rain, saying “you won’t be a very good love rival looking like THAT”. Once again, the innate kidness of the character abounds.
(First Appearance: Queen Nehalennia, The Amazoness Quartet- in shadows)
EPISODE #149:
A direct continuation of the last episode, Fish’s Eye is recovering at Usagi’s house, which leads to an odd conversation where Usagi is both helpful and kind, but also doing that “annoyed, snide tone” thing where she squints her eyes and lectures F.E. to “mind not calling him MAMO?”, given how that’s the kind of name-shortening used by lovers. However, Fish’s Eye not only picks up that Usagi is SAILOR MOON (from similar wording to Mamo being “the most handsome man in the universe” and “you have good taste”), but that Pegasus is in CHIBI-USA’s dreams! But when Fish’s Eye begs Madam Zirconia to ascertain whether or not the Trio will gain human-like dreams in addition to permanent human forms, he’s attacked, with Zirconia pointing out that “pawns like you should know your place!”. Hawk’s Eye is sent after Usagi (whom Zirconia mistakenly thinks is the host for Pegasus), but Fish’s Eye breaks away and teleports off, too.
Zirconia’s just like “Yeah, do what you want with ’em” to the Amazoness Quartet, one of whom summons a Lemures who attacks the Trio. But his attacks actually destroy Usagi’s DREAM MIRROR, an act which produces a shocking amount of grief from Fish’s Eye (“Oh no– her beautiful dreams!”, one of which he knows is her dream of being with Mamoru forever). Then the Lemures blasts at Fish’s Eye… and HAWK’S EYE gets in the way! A fatally-injured Hawk simply says that “it’s like Zirconia said- we’re expendable. I didn’t want the Trio to just be a big joke”. But the Lemures easily fends off the other two vengeful Trio members… so Fish’s Eye uses the magic orb that empowers the Trio to remake Sailor Moon’s Dream Mirror, bringing her back from the brink.
With the Lemures defeated by Sailors Moon & Chibi-Moon (with… almost zero struggle, given how the Trio used to harass the Sailors and this guy was just wrecking them), the Amazon Trio fades away… but are restored to living form and given Dream Mirrors by Pegasus, just as its time for them to leave the series. So once again, a group of villains are turned good by the end.
And thus we say goodbye to the Amazon Trio, who took up more than half of this season. They’re a… tricky group to assess. Largely meant for comedy, they were airheaded seducers who generally failed to even do THAT, and were usually only halfway capable fighters on their own, rarely taking on a full assembly of Sailors. It makes them come off as rather weak and pathetic, and I’m not really surprised that they’re not as well-remembered as any other generation’s villains, despite the humorous aspects.
EPISODE #150:
3/4 the way through the series, we’re finally introduced to our full assortment of villains- Queen Nehalennia shows her pale, sharp-toothed, beautiful self from behind a Mirror, and we also finally get a full short of the short, childlike Amazoness Quartet- CereCere, VesVes, JunJun, and PallaPalla- named for various Moons. And now we enter truly unexplored territory for me… I have NO IDEA what the personalities and fates of any of these new villains are like. I read bits and pieces of some of the Witches Five, and I knew how some of them died, and I knew some stuff about the Sailor Animamates. But the Amazoness Quartet? Nuthin’.
Queen Nehalennia explains to Zirconia that the Dream Mirror holding Pegasus will be gold in color (WHY DID THEY NOT KNOW THAT BEFORE IT WOULD HAVE SAVED SO MUCH TIME), and the Queen is now regularly speaking to her subordinate via some mirror that creepily shows her floating in an otherworldly realm. And she’s called “The True Moon Queen”. Translation: Naoko Takeuchi just wrote another informative chapter, so they have to change the show again. The Quartet first appear to taunt Chibi-Usa and her friend who’s name I always forget that it’s dumb to dream to grow into adulthood, as adults have no freedom. Oh, and now people in town know that the Dead Moon Circus (IT HAS A NAME NOW!) is a real thing, and everyone wants to visit it.
The Quartet waste time, rip on Zirconia’s age, and more, resulting in them getting yelled at. Seems like PallaPalla (the blue one) is a total ditz, referring to herself in the third person. And then VesVes (the most scantily clad one by far) ATTACKS ZIRCONIA for giving them orders, resulting in a big contest of energy attacks- the Quartet are tossed aside, sufficiently intimidated, but Zirconia confesses to herself that “if all four had attacked at once, I would have been in trouble!”.
In any case, they target Momo (oh right, that’s her name), we finally see all the Circus Backgrounders again, and the “Orb Shot” takes out Momo’s Dream Mirror, and a summoned Lemures, a snake monster with the head sticking out of a woman’s body, eats it! So that’s their new thing. Some REALLY ugly animation at weird angles (this is the “triangle eye” director again, but these are really distorted images of the girls, trying to look “artsy”) sees Chibi-Moon try to get Momo’s heart back, her getting tossed aside… and Mars just shooting Fire Soul (with a one-frame attack) at it and Sailor Moon killing it. Seriously? That GIANT MONSTER and it didn’t even attack anybody, and went down to a single hit? The first time we’ve gotten all five Sailors at once in an age and three of them just stand around? Sooooooooooo weird.
Fun Sad Trivia Fact: This episode features the last use of the “Fire Soul” attack.
(First Appearance: Queen Nehalennia, CereCere, VesVes, JunJun, PallaPalla, Orb Shot, Orb Attack)
And we’re done for the day! Adding five major new villains at once is a pretty big deal, especially as the previous three who were doing everything were done at the same time. Sailor Moon is now a very different show again, which can only help this slog of a season (as much as it’s been amusing thus far).
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