As much as I enjoyed the first two seasons of Sailor Moon, S was so far beyond anything the anime had done up to that point, both in terms of comedy and drama. It was a consistently strong season, with good pacing and a straight-forward plot. I knew without question that it was a great season of television. SuperS, on the other hand, is a lot more complicated. It does a lot right, but it also does a lot wrong. It's not just the most uneven season of Sailor Moon, it's one of the most uneven season of anything I've seen to date. It took as many steps forward as it did steps back, though I can't say it didn't take some bold swings, and thus, I have a lot to talk about here. Expect one of my longest reviews to date.
Most of the SuperS mostly involves Chibiusa having a dream of a Pegasus and trying to find him, all the while the evil Dead Moon Circus invades peoples' dreams in an effort to do the same. Up until the last few episodes, that's pretty much it as far as plot goes. There really isn't much more to the story, and much of this season is comprised of Monster Of The Week episodes. I'm split on this approach. On one hand, Sailor Moon's "filler" episodes are great for character development, and the return to a slice of life structure allows for minor characters who were neglected in late-season R and S to return. I also like that Chibiusa takes the lead this season. I've been getting a bit sick of Usagi hogging the spotlight so a brief change in protagonist was a pretty good call. And Chibi is a good choice, I really liked her in S, and this season does a good job of continuing her development. The comedy is really solid, the circus-themed Monster Of The Weeks are just as creative as they were in S, and the animation is quite possibly the best in the series to date, which just helps the comedy land even more.
On the other hand, the Pegasus hunt drags, and with the Outers gone, the Inners slightly sidelined, and a light-hearted tone akin to early Season 1, SuperS just feels like a step back in a lot of aspects. Even some of the characters feel like they've regressed, with Usagi probably getting the worst of this. She's always been a bit immature and jealous, but my god was Usagi flanderized to hell and back at times. If I had a nickel for every time Usagi accused Mamoru of cheating on her this season, I'd probably have a dollar. Actually, I'd probably have multiple dollars if you added together all of the cheating accusations. There are a lot of bad Out Of Character episodes that stick out as some of the worst of the series, with 133, 136, and 143 being so bad that I think it's for the best if I pretend they never actually happened. I also really dislike Chibiusa's relationship with Pegasus (aka Helios) that develops throughout the season. Between the age/species gap and Helios coming off as simultaneously creepy and very dull, I find their romance to be really uncomfortable, at least when it's not an absolute bore. I actually really like the idea of Chibiusa getting moments to reflect and be introspective, but geez, I'd rather she talk to a blank wall than the melodramatic expositor that is Helios.
Speaking of uncomfortable, let's talk about the Amazon Trio, the villains from the first half of the season. I'm mixed on the Amazon Trio, because I really like them as characters. Their bar banter every episode is so natural and fun, every single one of them gets a ton of depth and characterization, and their redemption in the last two episodes of the storyline is fantastic. However, the decision to frame their attempts at searching for Pegasus like they're sexually assaulting their victims is a really uncomfortable metaphor that feels really out of place in such an otherwise lighthearted season. This metaphor also makes the Trio come off as a lot more creepy, and makes it harder to sympathize with them for their eventual redemption. And that's not getting into the times the "victim" is a child (139 and 143 are the biggest ones) which just makes things worse.
But then there's Fish's Eye, the genderqueer character who appears as a girl when out in public. For a 90s show, Fish's androgyny and gender fluidity is super groundbreaking, especially it's treated as normal by pretty much everyone (Episode 140 is particularly ahead of its time). However, because of the aforementioned sexual assault metaphor, Fish gets dangerously close to falling right into the transphobic trope of "cross-dresser who preys on men". And that's not bringing up the aforementioned Episode 143 where Fish tries to invade the dreams of a kid and I'm sure you can see how offensive that is. Thankfully, aside from that fluke of an episode, I think Fish just manages to dodge that stereotype due to the fact that they're implied to actively enjoy cross-dressing, get genuinely attached to their "victims", and probably biggest of all, is the one to spearhead the Trio's redemption arc in the first place.
Once the Amazon Trio gets redeemed, the season starts to gain a bit more in the way of plot, as the chaotic and immature Amazoness Quartet takes the role of villain. Though they lack the banter, depth, or sheer unadulterated gender of the Trio, they're still pretty fun, as I like how much they shamelessly bully Zirconia as well as the fact that they don't need to assault people to look for Pegasus. They get a lot more time to interact with the Senshi too, and it's always a joy whenever it happens. We quickly learn the Quartet wants to remain children forever, which also opens up the show to some pretty interesting conversations on maturity and adulthood, especially considering the Senshi are continuing to get closer to starting high school. However, I do have a few gripes with the Quartet too, since their appearance does make Zirconia come off as a bit more incompetent for replacing the Trio with objectively worse workers (at least until we learn they were being used the whole time) as well as not telling them they didn't actually need to assault people this whole time (yeah, there's no excuse for that).
The final few episodes of SuperS are genuinely fantastic, feeling a lot more like S in terms of its writing. The characters (especially Usagi) have gone back to their pre-flanderized selves, and the storylines start to utilize all of the Senshi rather than just focus on Usagi and Chibiusa. But what really amps up the quality is the true villain of the season, Nehellenia, quite possibly the best thing about SuperS. As much as I don't care about Chibiusa and Pegasus's relationship, I very much care about Nehellenia's mature story about her quest for eternal beauty at the cost of loneliness and alienation (basically Queen Sectonia from Kirby, which I'm perfectly fine with). She's a fascinating antagonist who elevates the final stretch of episodes, so SuperS at least gets an ending on par with the first three seasons.
Highlights:
Storm Of Love (Episode 14): If Sailor Moon can feel like a magical girl sitcom sometimes, then this episode feels like it's right out of Frasier. Minako trying to date both Tiger and Hawk at the same time is a simple but very fun farce that makes for one of the most fun episodes in the show, and the Senshi watching from the sidelines just makes it better.
Shadow Of Evil (Episode 21): Sailor Moon is really good at making you feel bad for the villains in the course of a single episode, as Shadow Of Evil reveals some pretty tragic realities about the Amazon Trio that were foreshadowed really well. The Trio are actually animals given human form, which is why they can't dream, and watching Fish especially deal with that truth is pretty painful. It all sets the stage for...
Mirror Of Dreams (Episode 22): The Trio's fantastic redemption episode! Mirror Of Dreams was great, on par with the best S had to offer, from the cute scenes with Fish at Usagi's place, to the confrontation to Zirconia, to one of most unassumingly creepy MoTWs to date, to the emotional rollercoaster of an ending where Usagi and the Trio briefly die before coming back to life. I'm glad the Amazon Trio got a happy ending here, it's just a shame we don't get to see more of them post-redemption.
Chibi-Usa's Little Rhapsody Of Love/Dream To Be An Adult (Episode 32/33): Two of the best MoTW episodes in this season, mostly because of their fantastic character interactions. The former episode has some of the funniest gags since Storm Of Love (especially the "all white, long face" joke), and is quite possibly the only episode where Ami, Minako, and Chibiusa (three of my favorite characters) share a lengthy scene together. The latter episode has a lot of bonding moments between the Quartet and Senshi, allowing every character to have their time to shine, and has plenty of fascinating conversations about the Quartet's overarching conflict and theme. Both of these episodes are character-driven, and I kinda wish we had more like them if SuperS was to have so many filler episodes.
The Golden Crystal Appears (Episode 37): While plenty of Sailor Moon villains have been redeemed, I don't think a single one of them really deserved that redemption like the Amazoness Quartet did. At their worst, they were really just immature kids that never really had the chance to understand what they were doing wrong, so seeing them betray Nehellenia multiple times over the past few episodes and break their crystals allowing them to become adults felt very satisfying. Also, Chibiusa and Helios's confrontation with Nehellenia was surprisingly tense and actually made me genuinely care about those two, if anything for their survival.
Dreams Forever (Episode 39): As uneven as this season has been, its finale might just be one of Sailor Moon's best episodes to date, definitely its best animation. Similarly to S's climax, the final confrontation between Usagi and Nehellenia is entirely character-driven, as we learn about the latter's very tragic backstory. I love how Nehellenia isn't defeated here, per se, she gets what she wants. It's just that it's at the cost of eternal loneliness, and she's too angry to care. And that skydiving sequence is absolutely fantastic, one of the most beautiful scenes in the show so far.
As you can tell from my long review, SuperS is a bold and messy season, with a lot going on. However, it's so uneven that it's easily my least favorite. SuperS has its good elements, both of its main arcs get great final episodes, the antagonists (especially Fish's Eye and Nehellenia) are super fun and well-developed, Chibiusa proves she can be a really solid protagonist, the comedy is solid, and the animation is some of the best yet. However, the season suffers from a lack of plot especially in its first half, character regressions (Usagi) and exclusions (the Outers), an failed attempt at an emotional core surrounding a character I feel next to nothing for, and plenty of moments that just made me feel uncomfortable with their implications.
2/5 Stars
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