Sailor Moon: Saving the world and interfering in the love-life of a child, all in the same episode!
Welcome back! When last we left off, Pegasus revealed that he’s actually Helios, the guardian of the Dream World, where all of mankind’s dreams reside. And he resembles a young-ish boy, making his relationship with Chibi-Usa slightly less weird!
Meanwhile, Queen Nehalennia still wants control over his Golden Crystal, while she has Helios’s real body trapped with her in a dark mirror. The Amazoness Quartet are still charged with finding the “Golden Mirror” that contains him, but we’ve known all along it’s Chibi-Usa. Read on!
EPISODE #159:
Most of the first half is spent with Chibi-Usa & Pegasus running off in their “Dream World” and being in love and stuff, while Queen Nehalennia lectures Zirconia one more time about losing her patience… and we see that Helios’s body is, in fact, still in the possession of the Queen- only his ESSENCE has disappeared. The Sailor Gang figuring out that Chibi-Usa has a boyfriend is pretty funny, with Jupiter assuming he’s an older man (projecting), Venus being conniving and mischievous about it, and Ami being kind of nervous at everyone’s reactions.
The gang stealthily spying on Mamoru & Chibi-Usa’s private conversation.
Rei & Mako blushing with intensity as they try to give Chibi-Usa love advice is amazing, especially as they keep bickering because Mako won’t stop suggesting it’s an older boy. And then when Chibi-Usa suggests she’s not after a “person”, Minako takes this to mean she’s two-timing, but her description of a long face has Ami thinking she’s talking about a “horseface” and won’t finish it (“I can’t say it. It’s too vulgar”- the dub changes it to “jackass”, too). So now it’s MAMORU’s turn to get the truth out of her, but the girls follow them to a fancy restaurant, then start shoving the expensive scenery around to find a good hiding spot to do some listening. And then when they mistake some rand-o for Chibi-Usa’s love, he’s attacked by JunJun, and they girls cut their Sailor-Promos about how she’s interfering with Chibi-Usa’s “first love”!
Today’s Monster of the Week.
Then the ridiculous carp-costumed Lemures comes out, he smashes up the pier, and Tuxedo Mask provides the instant distraction for him to get wrecked. Chibi-Usa FINALLY snaps at everyone for being so dumb, then demands to keep the boy on her mind a secret.
Funny episode- super half-assed fight sequence, as is becoming usual.
EPISODE #160:
And now it’s the Amazoness Quartet’s turn for some Character Development, as they scope out a “Coming Of Age Ceremony” where the Moonies are also helping out, and kind of find it fun and bond with the main cast, everyone kind of showing off some skills (the Quartet are proud of their athletic skill, but Ami’s got the brains, Mako the strength, and Rei the… flower design?). But on the day of the show, they’re mortified to learn of the dreams of the cast, who all want to become adults- Usagi to get married, Ami becoming a doctor, Mako running a cake shop, Minako an idol, and Rei a career woman. The Quartet are like “WTF? WORKING!?!” and blow off such dumb dreams, especially ones that involve helping others. Most of the girls are shocked, but naturally Rei’s gotta go “why, YOU…” and roll up her fist to punch some jerks.
In any case, the Quartet attacks everyone present in the auditorium, thinking that “adult dreams suck” because nobody has a golden mirror. Their Lemures overeats on mirrors and shorts out, so the Quartet are left fighting the Sailors- and they don’t do particularly well, either! One-on-one, the Sailors kind of hand them their asses at first- a rarity for this show. But they surround Moon & Chibi-Moon, and are about to use their Orbs… but Tuxedo Mask arrives to disarm them, and Sailor Moon finishes off the Lemures (who literally just wakes up to get killed). Then the cast hilariously goes all “HEY WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE FOUR KIDS?” after four villainesses attack everyone at the very place those four kids were at… and Queen Nehalennia decides it’s time to get her own hands dirty.
Not a bad episode- one that actually gives more characterization to the supporting cast, and even re-establishes the Quartet’s whole “Always remember not to forget- a child’s dream is a dream you should never get” (or “a dream of dreams” in the original subtitles).
Spider-Webs appearing all over the city befuddles Usagi, and concerns Ami.
EPISODE #161:
And finally, with one disc left to go in Sailor Moon SuperS, we get the “Shit Is Starting To Get Real” sign. Queen Nehallenia decides to ENTER OUR UNIVERSE, but shrinks back from its light. She declares death to the land of the “White Moon”, and soon spiderwebs begin appearing all over Tokyo, and the sky grows dark in the middle of day. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now the entire world is covered in spiderwebs, and Pegasus is like “K gotta go BYE”, saying he needs to find the person who can use the Golden Crystal (?? that’s a thing, now? The thing they’ve been talking about this whole time and JUST NOW it’s mentioned that like, only one person can use it?). In any case, Chibi-Usa REFUSES to let him go, tearfully holding on and remind him of his promise to stay with her as long as she believes in him.
Meanwhile, the Amazoness Quartet are gathering Dream Mirrors, and finally reveal their identities to the Sailors. Hilariously, they have the EXACT SAME HAIR in their secret IDs, so it’s a little bizarre than Sailor Moon wouldn’t recognize the only person on Earth with CereCere’s hair loops. But then, the show was always really weird for Villain Secret IDs. The Sailors then do their own transformations, shocking the Quartet, and now it’s a FIGHT! Except the Quartet easily takes the lead, and Zirconia calls them back before things really get going. And then the Sailors are all “Well let’s go kick their asses!” at the foot of the Dead Moon Circus… and Pegasus appears and says “No, don’t fight them just yet”. CLIFFHANGER THAT IS ALSO AN ANTICLIMAX!
Nehalennia breaks through her mirror trap as we FINALLY move the plot along.
EPISODE #162:
So Pegasus now explains himself- the Dead Moon can’t be beaten by brute force, and they’re monsters created from dreams discarded from people who’ve forgotten what it means to dream (… okay?). These discarded dreams will always allow the Dead Moon to exist. As Priest of Elysion, Helios kept them at bay using the power of beautiful dreams, but now their barrier has weakened thanks to Queen Nehalennia, and they need the Golden Crystal to re-seal her. But they still can’t find the person who has the ability to unleash the power of the Crystal- Helios suspected Chibi-Moon was the one, but she apparently is not (this better not be another “She isn’t/OH WAIT NO SHE IS” thing). And Tuxedo Mask is dying of chest pains, as the spiderwebs are eating away at the Earth, his Guardian Planet- I think that’s the first time he’s more or less been referred to as the guardian/senshi of Earth after all this time. The Sailors mournfully leave him at his apartment to go and face the villains, while he compliments his Usako’s strength, and Sailor Mars has a nice bit where she acknowledges the couple need a moment.
The Dead Moon Circus characters all move about an oddly-empty Tokyo (are only the Sailors willing to go outside now?), and the Quartet arrives and challenges the Sailors. And then an odd scene, as for once in the series, the “Background Faces” in the Circus crowd scenes actually do stuff, as the lesser Sailors get to look cool wiping them out with their new attacks. The girls all realize now that they’ve seen Pegasus in their own dreams as small children, and Chibi-Moon confesses she’s spoken to Pegasus many times, so now that cat’s out of the bag. And then the Quartet gets upgraded power from Queen Nehalennia (they are MUCH kinder to her than “Granny Zirconia”), and one blast from JunJun’s new exploding balls nearly kills Jupiter. The girls get trapped in a snare (duh), but Chibi-Moon summons Pegasus (alerting the Queen to her possibly being his carrier), and Sailor Moon fires Moon Gorgeous Meditation… but ZIRCONIA blocks it!
Zirconia taunts the Sailors, and points out the truth that Pegasus is just an illusion, and resides within the Golden Mirror… and blasts Zircon out like the “Orb Shot”, blasting out Chibi-Moon’s Dream Mirror… revealing its gold color! It looks rather plain to be honest- I was expecting a lot of shimmer and sparkle, ya know? In any case, Chibi-Moon puts her own Mirror back in (why does no one else do that?), but is trapped within a mirror by Zirconia, and it’s TO BE CONTINUED!
Pretty big episode in this one, as the game changes completely, even though we’ve still got like four episodes left in the season.
And this is our last use of “Moon Gorgeous Meditation” for the series, too.
And we’re done! Next up– the Season Final of Sailor Moon SuperS! aka “the Season Finale we re-did later because we didn’t like how this one went!”
SWO Productions 