SuperS centers heavily on Chibi-usa and the Sailor Team. A new enemy, the Dead Moon Circus, has now appeared. Their motive is to find the Golden Dream Mirror that would be used to rule the world. To do this, the enemy attacks innocent victims for their Dream Mirrors and test their energy. Chibi-usa also has a new ally on her side, Pegasus. This season also sees the Sailor Senshi obtaining new powers.
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Comentários
catalinabella
I am about to give a positive review to the least-liked season of Sailor Moon. No, I am not smoking anything and I did not just escape from a mental facility. I truly love this arc, and watch it frequently. Story: The story is, I'll grant not as involved as the other arcs. And the fact that we know Chibi Usa has Pegasus right off the bat kills some of the suspense. SuperS is often criticized for being too light and cutesy. But even though most of the episodes are filler, as with the rest of Sailor Moon, they are rarely boring. It is lighter,but we just had S, arguably the darkest season in the series, and we're about to get into Stars, which is also very heavy on the angst. SuperS is a welcome intermission. Some of the episodes are very funny, such as when Usagi stalks Rei and Mamoru as the red ninja of love, or when Minako dates two of the villains simultaneously. I also like that it focuses on Chibi Usa, she really comes into her own. She also gets her own romance with Helios, which I think is the sweetest relationship in all of Sailor Moon.
Art: I'm not a big art person. The art is I think better than the earlier seasons, but it's Sailor Moon. You don't watch it for it's animation merit.
Sound: The Japanese voices are wonderful as always. The English is...yeah. Though I will say Helios' dub voice is really sexy. The score is top-notch, I think SuperS has the best music. Lots of new pieces.
Character: The Inners all develop a bit, Usagi really doesn't but oh well. Chibi Usa is the one who goes through the most change, SuperS for her is like what Classic was for Usagi. And um, there's Helios, who is awesome!
Enjoyment: It's fun to watch, really. I swear.
Overall: I wish this season wasn't written off so much. It has some wonderful qualities. I never tire of it. I highly recommend you at least give it a try!
mizugazipan
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor S is with little argument, the worst season of Sailormoon. Some may point to the Doom Tree (Season R, part I) as the worst, but we must all remember that the anime was an unexpected hit. The Doom Tree season was a placeholder while they made the actual serialization of the manga arcs. So, its forgivable. SuperS however cannot be forgiven because its had all the resources of a popular anime and still let down fans. While the manga of the SuperS arc gave Chiba Mamoru his due spotlight, the anime version utterly refuses him of this. Chiba Mamoru is once again leftto linger in the background of every story (virtually absent in the Star season to come) while Chibi-Usa is given yet again way too much screen time.
The SuperS anime focuses on Chibi-Usa, as if an entire S season of her friendship with Tomoe Hotaru wasn't enough. Unless you love Chibi-Usa (to DEATH) this may not bother you. Just warning, almost every episode has Chibi-Usa piping in it.
The art value changes randomly throughout this series. Some episodes are of excellent quality but many of them revert back to the cheap animation of Sailormoon R (part I, Doom Tree).
As for sound, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is consistant in its good soundtrack, but this season offers almost nothing new.
When it comes to Character Development, an Inner Senshi may have one episode them seems to be about them (namely, when Tiger-eye, Hawk-eye or Fish-eye persues them) but otherwise such expectations go unfulfilled.
The Enjoyment level is Poor due to all the reasons listed above. I for one hate Chibi-Usa and find the entire series grating, frustrating and poor quality. Overall, however, there is some goodness to be gleaned, like the progression of Sailormoon's powers as well as the Inner Senshi and the knowledge that we won't have to put up with Chibi-usa anymore in Stars.
RICEA42991
If you're a Mini Moon/ Chibi-Usa fan, you'll absolutely love this season Story: One thing that annoyed me about this season, is also an annoying point that the anime did to the first, and Stars seasons. They left out a lot of important manga plot elements. It would have been a much more worthy season if had shown those details instead of leaving them out. It was a cute season, regardless. Art: I absolutely love how they made Pegasus look artistically. Every one of his appearances had a magical essence to it, so art-wise this season was pretty good. Sound: No big deal in sound either in thisseason. No groundbreaking music, a lot of soft melodies were played throughout most of it, so it had a serene feel to it. Not horrible, but not amazing either. The voices though of Pegasus and Nehenlenia were top-notch.
Character: Although I'm not much of a Mini Moon fan, the new character of Pegasus/Helios was a great addition, and actually made me like Mini Moon's character more. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask were hilarious acting as parents, but other than that, the main leads weren't exactly main in this season. It's all about Mini Moon this time.
Enjoyment: I can't say I wasn't disappointed. I would have loved if this season were more like the manga's story-line instead of just Mini Moon being the main focus. Tuxedo Mask's origin story was prominent in the manga, instead it was only referenced in this the anime season. The same applies to the quartet villains, who also didn't get their origin or outcome in the anime explained.
Overall: This season wasn't the absolute best season, but still it's worth watching for it's cute scenes, and romance.
ktulu007
I've done a lot of reviews online over the years. Most have been anime but I've also looked at comics like Civil War, live action TV shows like the First Doctor from Doctor Who, Films like DEBS, cartoons like Spectacular Spider-man and even video games like Miitopia. I've reviewed some of the worst anime out there, some of the most generic and some of the best. All from a wide variety of genres. And now, I'm reviewing anime number 400. With every hundredth review, I've had a tradition of looking at the next instalment of the Sailor Moon franchise. We've looked at the first series,R, S and, now it's time for a look at SuperS. Who knows, maybe I'll be going long enough to get to the controversial Crystal series. But we'll worry about that when we get to it.
Story:
We open with our pretty sailor-suited soldiers observing an eclipse. Unbeknownst to them, but knownst to us, a group of villains called the Dead Moon Circus use the eclipse to enter their lovely Japanese town. Their mission is to find the person with a beautiful dream that Pegasus is hiding inside. From there, we get the usual Sailor Moon formula. Ordinary people are threatened by monsters, the soldiers power up and drive the menaces back all while getting steadily closer to the mastermind behind it all.
I don't have any real issues with the Sailor Moon formula. Having a monster of the weak set up works when you've got media aimed for younger audiences, which this is. It's not like they're stupid enough to put monster of the weak episodes in something for older teenagers or adults. Only someone truly brain dead would do that. That being said, there is one element to the narrative I have a serious problem with. And that is the attempted romance betwixt Chibi-Usa and Pegasus. And it's not just that he spends most of the series as an alicorn. That is part of it, but the bigger issue is that he's thousands of years old and she's a grade school kid. It would be like if the esteemed Princess Celestia was trying to put the moves on Pumpkin Cake. It's beyond creepy and no one ever acknowledges it. Mamoru will speak out when he thinks she's interested in a significantly older human, but is surprisingly taciturn when it comes to the paedophile Pegasus. I mean, yes he's also older than Usagi to a degree where he should not be dating her but at least they have the whole reincarnated ongoing love story thing to somewhat excuse it. As opposed to Pegasus who is just a wannabe child molester.
That whole really terrible romance aside, the series does have a lot to like. There are some really strong episodes that let the other soldiers besides Usagi and Chibi-Usa have a taste of the spotlight. The series is also pretty good about giving the victim characters a sense of personality. There are exceptions, particularly towards the end where entire groups are getting checked. But it is mostly a strong point for the series. The handling of the dream motif is also quite interesting. They explore the dreams of our heroines and they use the villains to illustrate what happens with corrupted dreams, how lost people get without dreams and the danger of having a selfish, impossible dream. The series also has a pretty strong sense of humour, like the rest of the franchise.
Characters:
Our main heroines all get their chances to shine and exploring their dreams does help flesh out and further their characters. Then we have the antagonists. That's another strength of the series, the way the antagonists are fleshed out. Some of them are quite sympathetic even the big bad Nehelenia who's pretty pitiable when it comes right down to it. Honestly, I think these are the best antagonists we've seen in the franchise thus far. Finally, we have Helios or as I like to call him, the worst part of this entire franchise. No, seriously. There's nothing in any of the other series we've looked at that's worse than mister ancient but young looking paedophile. And, sorry to spoil it, but I know there's nothing in Stars that's worse than him. The interactions that don't involve him are pretty strong. I like the way the series develops the familial bond betwixt Usagi and Chibi-Usa and I like the way the sailor soldiers interact with the Amazoness Quartet. Those are the two strongest interactions in the series.
Art:
Yeah, the artwork continues to be rather dated but fine looking. One thing I really like in this series are the monster designs and the whole atmosphere you get in the Dead Moon Circus. The performers have interesting and varied looks. But, like every part of the franchise, you can expect a lot of stock footage and long transformation sequences. You can also expect the occasionally bizarre facial expression.
Sound:
Our all star cast returns. We get strong performances from Mitsuishi Kotono, Fukami Rica, Tomizawa Michie, Shinohara Emi, Hisakawa Aya & Araki Kae. We also get some great acting from our secondary cast. One in particular I want to talk about is Ishida Akira. Almost three years ago I reviewed the OVA, Ice. In that series Ishida Akira voiced a woman and gave a terrible performance,sounding completely masculine. This series lets us confirm for absolute certain that that was the director's fault. In SuperS, Ishida voices the trans-woman Fish Eye and he sounds really feminine doing it. They don't even use the shitty old joke where his voice turns super masculine at times. It's feminine throughout. Arisawa Takanori's soundtrack is nicely done. Even if the franchise has been using the same opening theme tune for every series.
Ho-yay:
This one dials back the les-yay quite a bit. There's an episode where a young girl starts admiring Rei in a way that comes across as more than friendly. We also get to see Ami dance with Makoto. That's something.
Final Thoughts:
Honestly, I seriously considered going as low as a 6 for this one. Solely because of Pegasus. Like I said, worst thing in this entire franchise. However, I'm going to go a bit higher because the antagonists are really well done and there are plenty of other strong factors in the series. It's still the weakest instalment of the franchise thus far but I would still say it's enjoyable and pretty good. So, my final rating is going to be a 7/10. Next week, Uchuu Kaizoku Mito no Daibouken.
A big thank you to everyone who's been a regular reader. I appreciate all of you whether you generally agree with my assessments or not.
GarlandReese
There's an old saying; "Everyone likes ice cream. But you don't like it when someone shoves it into you by the gallon." I like Sailor Moon. I think it's campy and cliche, but in a positive and charming way. And for three seasons, the formulaic magical girl show retained it's charm. But, then comes Season 4 aka "Sailor Moon SuperS"... The same old gimmick applies here. Bunch of goofy, colorful bad guys show up trying to collect items to reach an item that will have dire consequences for the Earth. And it's up to the Sailor Scouts to save the day! And off we go onanother 40-ish episode grind through the bad guy chain of command before reaching our final battle. New transformation sequences, attacks, and the addition of new powers for the intrepid band of do good gals does not make up for a story that lacks anything new or even remotely innovative. Nor does any slight improvement in the art department.
That is not to say this is a "bad" season per se, it is a standard installment. The new bad guys featured certainly stand out as a colorful bunch. But, their character arcs are not too different from some of the antagonists of the past. And therefore the attempts to surprise the viewer only succeed in being no surprise at all. And before you know it, the season is over. I was left feeling disappointed and underwhelmed, but what was I to expect from a cash cow of a franchise? You don't mess with success. Mediocrity is better than total failure, I suppose. 5/10. Check it out. Cheers!
Galactic_Kitten
I am in agreement with most people, that SuperS is the worst season of Sailor Moon, period. I realise they are trying to "lighten the mood" so to speak after the dark S season, however it's too light. And basing the season around the series' most annoying character doesn't help. I will admit that the animation is much improved from the season's before, but that doesn't save it. SuperS in the manga is much more serious, and the outer senshi take a huge role in it. The anime presents the outer senshi usually as supporting characters, whereas the manga treats them as main characters. Neherenia ismuch darker, and a lot more is explained about the meaning of the golden crystal. While I find ALL of the manga arcs to be stronger than their anime counterparts, SuperS is the most butchered of them all.
mistressmadi
This might be biased, but this is my favorite season of the show. For some odd reason, this season is the most memorable season from this anime to me. I remember Pegasus so much. The humor and the characters was what made me love this season so much. If you want to rewatch a season, I would suggest this one. The whole dream mirror arc was interesting to me. Each episode had such a powerful meaning and impact on me as a child, that I think I still take it to heart to this day for these meanings. The character development between rini and serena/usagi reallyshows a lot throughout this season, so I would suggest watching this season.
CureMALlard
I am well aware that this season is the weakest of the Sailor Moon series, but in my honest opinion, it isn't horrible or great, but just a fine season with a few good episodes here and there. The story here is pretty simple, but it's nothing too groundbreaking for Sailor Moon standards. The big bad of the season mainly just wants to not be ugly and that's her only motivation. It's does have some stakes, but it's pretty straightforward to comprehend. As with all Sailor Moon seasons, the art design is well made and shows that the Toei animators working on the series had comea long way from the first season. Beautifully detailed backgrounds, character emotions and expressions, and a bunch of great scenes, this season excels in improving the previous seasons' animation, with it's own flair to make it stand out.
Notable with Sailor Moon is the soundtrack. Some tracks have been reused from previous seasons, but there is still a healthy amount of new tracks that are good to listen to, such as the first and second endings.
*SPOILERS*
For this season, Chibiusa's the main star here as well as Pegasus. This all depends on weather or not you like Chibiusa as this season has a lot of cute written all over it so it might ruin your chances of liking this show if you don't like either of these two things. But even with Chibiusa, and to an extent Usagi, being the main focus, the other Sailor Senshi still got their moments to shine so they're not completely in the background and the villains are pretty decent. The Trio has their moments but the Quartet being involved is when the series really started to find it's footing.
My overall enjoyment for SuperS is that it's ok, but nothing too special. Most of the time it's just Chibiusa and Usagi saving the day and that it gotten a bit boring after while, even with the Sailor Senshi being present. Great episodes are there but you have to go trough the cute and sweet episodes to get to them. As I said before, if you don't like Chibiusa or cuteness in general, then this season isn't something you want to spend too much time on.
Overall, my thoughts on SuperS, as I said before, is that it's pretty meh. While there are a handful of episodes that I consider good, maybe even classics, most of these episodes tend to focus on just Chibiusa and Usagi most of the time, which gotten pretty stale in the first half of the season. The second half does pick up from these issues, but it's not enough to give this season no more than a 5 for me. It's definitely not a bad season by any means, but I can see why a lot of fans considers this the weakest of a fantastic series.
miafey
i did something i typically hate to do during shows. skipped episodes. i usually even hate skipping fillers most the time. but god most the episodes were so,,, irritating to watch. usually i like seeing the bonding with the girls or usagi/mamo but this whole damn season revolves around chibusa. it was so frustrating to watch her basically replace usagi as the main character and see practically everything focused on her. and that weird romance thing with pegasus/helios. who the hell thought that was a good idea 😭 anyways as much as i enjoyed the rest of the show this made me want to throwmy phone against the wall
Mistraal
If you don't like Chibi-Usa just stay away. You really won't miss much. They get new attacks and new wands. Just go straight to Stars, which was amazing. I'm of the opinion that the creators of this anime royally messed up when they attempted to have 2 main female characters in a shojo anime. I am not saying that Nakoto messed up the manga. From what I've read and understood the Chibi-Usa(s) presented in the anime and the manga could pass for different people. The way Chibi-Usa is implemented in the anime however is just intolerable in my opinion. It's not a good ideato present a main character (Usagi) and have the audience watch her grow and change and become attached and then essentially "replace" her with a new model. The arc may as well be called "Sailor Moon Super Chibi-Usa character development." That and she still hasn't really gotten over that Lolita thing with her dad. It's not cute. Luckily, she ends up falling for a horse instead..
Just....go watch Stars.
Sound and animation is good, aside from those random episodes where Masahiro Ando was the art director. I tend to skip his episodes if I can if it's not too plot relevant. He's the one that draws then all undefined and way too round.
Story is...honestly it's bad and full of filler. And when you finally reach the meat of the plot it's about a girl falling in love with a pony and...just....no. It still has that magic of Sailor Moon in it somehow though and that makes it bearable.
Characters...anyone who appeared in the first season was fine then and is fine now. Everyone else needs work.
moonkingdomify
This is the fourth season of Sailor Moon, and this was probably the worst adapted of all of them. The bad. The first bit of badness that came out of this was the lack of urgency in this season as compared to the dark moon circus arc in the manga. It was a darker season, but again, compared to the respective manga arc, it was like a walk in a park full of roses without thorns. Where as in the manga we get a look into the psyche of all of the Sailor Senshi. Ami feeling feeling that she'll never meet the standard of excellence thathe mother reached. Makoto feeling that she wasn't marriage material because of her short temper and strong attitude. Minako feeling that all she had was her showmanship and looks, making the most upbeat and happy characters one of the most depressed in the actual series, this was something that third season of the anime did much better in one episode than I think Naoko Takeuchi did in a couple chapters. Rei feeling that she had no redeeming qualities over the others. They took these things away from the series and made it so that the villains would just attack people and look into their dreams to find somebody with Helios in their dreams. Which would have been proven redundant in the manga as Helios had already been caught and was being held by the main villain. Another thing that kind of pissed me off was that they spent more time paying attention to the amazon trio (fish eye, hawk eye, and tiger eye) instead of the characters that would become semi important in the final chapters of the manga, the amazoness quartet (VesVes, CereCere, JunJun, and PallaPalla). In fact they ruined the character of PallaPalla by making her too childish just based off of appearance and a small bit of attitude from the manga, this is a process commonly know as flanderization, and this season has a lot of it. It took it back to the first season, but made it worse by also flanderizing all of the main characters, rather than just Usagi. Some of the plot points were taken from the manga, Usagi and Chibiusa switching ages for instance, but they handled that much better and even referenced a character from two arcs ago in the manga. They handled the execution so poorly in this adaption that they had to finish the arc in the fifth season, Sailor Stars. This season also ends without the main villain losing, just going away for a bit.
The good. Well, the normal things, they kept the opening theme from the other 3 seasons, which I enjoyed. The art direction was also pretty good in this one, so that's a plus.
Final Verdict:
I would suggest watching this as it has plot relevance to the fifth season, which I will definitely be suggesting. So watch it if you want to understand some of the plots in the fifth season.
4.8/10
PokeFan2112
Though a pretty good season as a whole, a big step down from past seasons of the show. One of the main things dragging it down is the much higher concentration on romance. I really don't like romance plots, and while the show did a good job of mostly confining the romance-centered episodes to fillers earlier, here romantic plots are prominent in most episodes, especially with the Amazon Trio's constant flirting with the characters of the day, and I didn't enjoy them at all. As well, compared to earlier seasons the plots were less interesting and more slow. Many episodes spent the first 10-15 minutes withslice-of-life or romance stuff, with the Monster of the Week stuff only happening at the end, and I didn't really enjoy that.
Yet, despite all that, most of the episodes were at least decent (though few rose above "good"). The main overarching plot was very cool as usual, and most episodes were interesting for at least half. As well, the humor of the show was more prominent than before and worked well, many otherwise boring episodes were lifted up just by how funny they were. The action scenes were their usual high quality and the animation looked great. And there was some great emotional moments at the end.
And despite the weaknesses the show still managed to pull off some great episodes, such as the final episode of the Amazon Trio arc, and most of the ending episodes (though they weren't up to the standard of the amazing climaxes of past seasons).
Overall, weaker than the others but still fine. People who liked the first three seasons will probably like this, but proceed with caution.
Animelover875
Sailor Moon SuperS is one of the more interesting of the five total seasons of Sailor Moon (although the fifth season wasn't dubbed, I'm still not considering this the final season). To start, SuperS makes the rather daring decision to have a focus shift completely away from Usagi and the other Sailor Senshi and instead focus almost solely on Chibiusa. Now, I will say up front that this depends on your thoughts about Chibiusa; if you happened to find her unbearable in Sailor Moon R, then this review will be taken negatively. However, I will be addressing this from the perspective of a viewer whohas at minimum, tolerated Chibiusa's antics up until this point.
As previously mentioned, the focus of SuperS is on Chibiusa, Sailor Moon's daughter. The season has a very strong emphasis on dreams in particular, with the hopes and dreams of other people being featured in almost every single episode of the season. While this is a good element to work with, the series simply doesn't utilize the tools at its disposal to get its message across in the way it wants. As a result, some of the messages in SuperS come across as having unfortunate implications; this is primarily due to the formula, which sometimes restricts the amount of development that can be focused into a character of the day. However, for the most part, dreams are shown in a realistic manner and, barring a few exceptionally bad episodes, the series has done well with having the Sailor Senshi help many of these people's dreams come to fruition. There actually is a wide diversity in the dreams of the people in the season, and we're shown that dreams can take different forms and are not always seen as literal; the monsters in the series and villain designs are also very unique, exaggerated, and vibrant with energy. What this creates is a situation where the lighter themes of "dreams" act as a sort of parallel to the Dead Moon Circus, which would symbolize nightmares.
This viewpoint works out quite well, as while the Dead Moon Circus would hardly be considered threatening (even in-universe), it fits well with the cold and detached view of adulthood that the Dead Moon Circus has. This also serves well as a parallel to the Sailor Senshi's own dreams of adulthood for various reasons (which have already been explored across the entire series), putting them at unintentional odds with the villains. The comedy and light-hearted moments (with the villains working for a literal circus) also works well, making their antics cartoony and exaggerated. Only a few instances go over the top and take this too far for the most part.
However, the Amazon Trio are somewhat too simplistic to work as villains despite this working to an extent. While they all have interesting dynamics, traits, and monsters, they are simply too one-dimensional to be serviceable to the plot, an issue made only more glaring by their prolonged duration on the season, taking up at minimum half of the entire series, over twice as long as the average Sailor Moon villain. This makes their antics, while enjoyable, become old fairly quickly, and the series struggles to find new ways to utilize them as it progresses. The Amazoness Quartet are fine villains; rather, they would be fine, but the series heavily underutilizes them, ironically; of the four Quartet members, only VesVes is utilized for the most part. As an example, CereCere only gets about two episodes as the primary focus villain, leaving the others severely underdeveloped aside from perhaps PallaPalla.
The primary flaw for SuperS is that the pacing is, unfortunately, unbearably slow. The Sailor Senshi do not receive power-ups until approximately 21 episodes into the 39 episode series. Keep in mind that this is especially crucial because they have not received power-up episodes since R two seasons ago, and their prolonged delay is unnecessary; the series has given them plenty of opportunities to upgrade, only to not use these. This is particularly glaring because the Sailor Senshi have an extraordinarily small role this season. The Inner Senshi have almost no unique role to play unless they are the focus of a particular episode, while the Outer Senshi are completely gone due to the events of Sailor Moon S, leaving the series rather bare of characters. This only reinforces the isolating, standalone focus on Chibiusa that some viewers cannot tolerate, which reinforces their views on the season.
Nehelenia's backstory is quite interesting and draws from various mythology and folklore, making her one of the best characters in the show to be developed. However, her character is hardly delved into in detail until the near-end, at which point the information given is not enough for her motives and backstory to be sympathized with, despite the fact that her themes of rejecting adulthood fit very well with the Dead Moon Circus. There are almost no attempts pre-Amazoness Quartet to flesh out either Zirconia or Nehelenia as villains, which doesn't help their characters much.
While Sailor Moon SuperS can be frustrating to some viewers, I think that the perspectives of dreams and adulthood the series has fits well with the overall theme of maturity that Sailor Moon as a whole has had since Sailor Moon R. Despite the fact that the Inner Senshi's lack of development is frustrating and that Nehelenia's origin is quite late, I found SuperS very entertaining with its combination of themes, comedy, and character development. This season is highly recommended as part of Sailor Moon. 8/10.
audioxtc
This won't be as long as my Sailor Moon first season review, and for good reason. This series pretty much follows the Pretty Guardian blueprint as every other season has, meaning there's not more to say other than: if you liked previous seasons, you'll probably like this one too. There's definitely a lot of filler and its not particularly revolutionary for the series as a whole, but, for me, it was certainly worth the watch. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of issues are in fact present, particularly from the few changes they did make. I'm going to skip past any summary ofthe series with the assumption you've already read one elsewhere or have already seen this season. This season in particular starts out in one of the more unique ways that I've seen. The eclipse that our protagonists gather for is a fun concept that I enjoyed as a starter. An eclipse is the perfect metaphor for something both exciting and foreboding. It's something we all look forward to but is still an event that turns everything dark and used to scare ancient civilizations to death, like the Mayans.
The Pretty Guardians are up to their usual riff raff, which is nice in it's own way. Last season was full of incessant discussions regarding the end of the world and prophecies, so it was nice to see a return to a more slice of life theme.
The villains arrival during the eclipse was interesting for me to see and gave off an eerie vibe. However, the fact the ship the enemy arrives in is a circus tent was a bit of a let down, nothing says nonthreatening as a circus tent (assuming you're not afraid of clowns). Still, I liked how Usagi is the only one to notice their arrival but still brushes it off. Circus theme aside, the ship looming over the city is wonderful imagery and I liked the sheer scale of it all. Regarding the occupants within the ship, the villain trio, were unique as well. They were dressed pretty goofy and don't have any particularly threatening presence, but are fun and entertaining in their own way. We haven't seen anyone quite like them before, particularly their upbeat/positive attitudes. Either way, for what they sacrifice in intimidation they gain in likability. By the end of the series I actually was rooting for the 3 main baddies and even the girls that take their place.
One of my biggest annoyances this season was Chibiusa's overwhelming presence the entire season. First of all, they bait and switched us last season with a false farewell...I still don't understand why she came back to their timeline so quickly. Chibiusa, as important as she is to the series overall, is the character I dislike most, but ends up sharing the role of main protagonist with Usagi unfortunately. She was especially annoying in the second season when she first arrives...running away, stealing things, and putting everyone in danger (not to mention being the sole cause of her mother getting sealed away and the city being unable to defend itself). She's almost worse this season though, since she's more involved. I didn't have any issues for season 3, with her storyline and friendship with Sailor Saturn/Hotaru, but for some reason I really got tired of her voice by this season's finale. She's not a strong enough personality to carry this season and it ends up bringing this season as a whole down. What's more depressing is that the other guardians are put on the backburner so she gets more screen time. Personally I would rather more focal episodes with Rei or Ami than another episode where Chibiusa learns a valuable lesson and discusses it with Pegasus. One scen in particular really annoyed me: Usagi comes home to Chibiusa eating lemon pie. Of course the lemon pie ends up being Usagi's and yet Usagi is the one who ends up in trouble for getting mad she didn;t get a piece of pie...I would've been mad too! Later on in the series Chibiusa even makes a joke about eating the Dad and brothers piece of dessert then will blame it on Usagi...like really? What an awful child...she even laughs about it. Also, am I the only one who thought it strange for her to be attracted to a horse in essence? I like Pegasus and the mystery is interesting enough, but it was just strange and I didn't understand why they took it in that direction. Everything with her was time better spent with a more interesting/less annoying character. Again, why does Sailor Moon need her, a trainee, more than her own guardians...it was such a let down. Had she not had such a big role, I wouldn't have minded her presence, because the other elements of the series are so well done.
Pegasus is obviously the main focus of this series. I'm not sure why he is but it was interesting enough for me to keep watching. I really liked the abilities Pegasus gives Sailor Moon and the other Guardians. Sailor Moon's "wand gun" is a great concept and I enjoyed this ability more than any other in the series. On a personal note for this season, I was glad to see the other guardians switching back and forth between all of their abilities they've learned throughout the series rather than just using the one they learned that particular season only. The outfits don't change much but end up looking pretty cool when Sailor Moon acquires Pegasus' power, but I hated that they only changed temporarily! Why can't they at least keep the design regardless of the Pegasus powers being temporary, which also doesn't make sense. Either way I liked the design so much, I intend to purchase a figure with that exact design.
It may appear the things I mentioned liking and disliking this series were of little importance, but at this point in the series we, the viewers, have seen a lot...so it's the little things that make the biggest difference at this point. The change in formula to Chibi Moon playing a larger role rather than the Guardians, felt significant, as well as obnoxious. Same goes for outfit design or personality changes, by season 4 you have a rough idea of what you expect from the series so any change should be met with caution, otherwise you have a whole season plagued by the most annoying character and not enough involvement from the most beloved characters, bringing the series' overall enjoyment down. This is my lowest rated season so far, which is a shame because there was so much potential. I honestly enjoyed a lot of the concepts, but the few items I mentioned were enough to shift my perspective altogether. I've ordered season 5 with the VIZ dub so hopefully there are higher stakes and a better use of the characters and screen time.
