The latest episode of Sailor Moon Crystal serves as the real testing point between whether or not fans of the original anime will take to this new adaptation. More so than any of the previous acts, the reveal of Sailor Mars differs greatly from the manga compared to how the 90’s series introduced the character, which means Crystal has inevitably followed suit. But with the differences in the way the story is told, this also leads to the Sailor Senshi’s greatest battle yet, as they come face to face with Jaedite, one if the Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom, which results in an exciting, if not flawed, half hour of television.
The episode opens with a warning from Queen Beryl, the Dark Kingdom’s apparent leader. Jaedite’s previous failures has her enraged, and puts the pressure on her subordinate to find both the legendary Silver Crystal and the mysterious princess, that she correctly speculates her enemies are also in pursuit of. So naturally, this leads to Jaedite saying “screw it”, with the elaborate plans and just decides to start kidnapping people en mass in hopes that someone in his giant people pile ends up being the person he’s looking for. Since dozens of people going missing all at once on a daily basis isn’t a typical occurrence in Japan, (though probably still not the weirdest), the mysterious vanishing bus that the victims were last seen on becomes the talk of the town. This leads to blame Rei, a mysterious shrine maiden with hidden powers, since one of the victims in particular was visiting her temple before boarding the bus. As you would expect, the incidents also draw the attention of Luna, Ami and Usagi, who begin their own investigation into the disappearances.
Now, while the plot shares some similarities with the way that the original, (the disappearing bus, Rei being suspected to be involved, her thinking Usagi was an evil spirit), the majority of the content derives greatly from that version, which may throw some nostalgic viewers off. Rei isn’t as bossy or antagonistic towards Usagi as before, and instead comes off as calm, compassionate and even tragic in her demeanor. Not to say that this more subdued take on the character doesn’t kick all kinds of ass, but we’ll come back to that in a bit.
But possibly overshadowing Rei’s debut was this week’s interaction between Mamoru and Usagi, which was all kinds of adorable. Finally introducing himself to her after three episodes of crazy random happenstances, their interactions are also far less antagonistic, leaning more towards a mutual attraction that neither can explain. But even more importantly, when Sailor Moon chases the demon bus into the Dark Kingdom, Tuxedo Mask not only sees her use her transformation pen, but catches Luna. Now that he’s heard the cat talk twice and saw her transform, he just has to know who she is. It will be interesting to see where their dynamic goes from here.
Once the episode shifts into the Dark Kingdom, that’s really when it becomes Mars’ time to shine. Due to Jaedite getting directly involved with the scheme of the episode, there was always a feeling that the episode was leading to a big showdown between him and the Senshi, and it delivered pretty well. The highlight of the entire fight was when Jaedite tried to freeze Rei with his ice beams after subduing Sailor Moon and Mercury, only for her to dispel his attack with her power, but this was BEFORE she became Sailor Mars. Talk about bad ass!
Once she does transform, her real power shines through. The battle doesn’t last much longer, leading to Jadeite being engulfed by her flames, where he meets his ultimate end… Or does he? In the manga, he’s burnt to ashes, leaving the enraged Nephrite, (who made his official debut in this episode alongside Zoicite), to pick up where his failed companion left off. But here, Jadeite obviously teleported out before he could be killed. What implications does this have for the story going forward? Will Nephrite still take over in the next act? And how will Queen Beryl react to this latest failure now that her subordinate isn’t a pile of ash? It’s deviations like this that will keep everyone on their toes, making me even more excited for Act IV.
And yet, while Sailor Mars shined through, Rei’s characterization came off as the weakest part of the episode, especially compared to previous acts. Like I mentioned in my review of Act II, the writers commendably found a way to drive the main story forward while squeezing in Ami’s background, motivations and tragedy as she was isolated from her peers. With Rei, the only things we learned about her are that she goes to a different school, she lives in a shrine and her powers are strong enough to render an attack from a powerful otherworldly general useless, but not strong enough to track missing children.
Oh, and did we mention that she’s beautiful? We should, since I think it was mentioned about seven times throughout the episode by three different characters. So much so, that Usagi deemed it necessary to stare at her on the bus, get off at her stop, and follow her home. Where I’m from, that would be a restraining order in the making. And while I appreciate the nod to Jadeite and Sailor Mars’ potential connection, I’m pretty sure contemplating your attraction to someone and touching their face while the person is unconscious is a big no no.
But the most ironic part is that Rei seems to be the victim of the majority of animation errors in this episode. For someone who’s so beautiful, she has the habit of making some really awkward faces.
With so many errors, they’re impossible to ignore. It’s unfortunate that they had to affect my favorite Senshi But hey, am I impartial, or what?
In the end, Act III creates plenty of anticipation for the following episode, namely with how the relationship between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask will proceed now that he essentially knows who she is, and what will happen with Jadeite, since the typical story has him dying at the hands of Mars’ attack. With that said, while enjoyable, Act III ends up being the weakest episode yet. If the series can get over this misstep and get back to the excellent characterization of its cast from the first two episodes while cutting back on the animation errors, we’ll be sure to be treated to an unpredictable adventure, even for longtime manga purists.
Final Score- 3.5/5