OSMSSR: Episode 128 - Meeting of Fate! The Night Where a Pegasus Flies

No, I'm not deleting those black rectangles on the sides. Ah, the bane of not viewing stuff in widescreen.

So the episode begins like a lot of episodes in a lot of shows. With a drop of water falling into a pool of still water which creates ripples. Ooh, artsy. Apparently this is because the "forest is crying". Don't worry, it's not going to be one of THOSE shows. These words are being spoken by Pegasus, who is (*gasp*) a winged flying horse! Though we're not supposed to realize this yet, he's telepathically calling out to Chibiusa. This is a very atmospheric scene with some nice imagery, which has become more a less a staple at this point. One thing that is often said in favor of this season is that the animation is really good, and it is.

Hey, who inserted the subtitles of Lolita in this episode?

Meanwhile, at the Tsukinos' residence, Chibiusa is asleep, hacing a strange dream. That dream is, of course, coming from Pegasus, who is residing in Vincent van Gogh's version of Fern Gully. As Chibiusa approaches Pegasus, she wears her Princess Serenity dress and wonders if Pegasus is the one who called for her. Because Pegasi are known to be capable of human speech. Either way, Pegasus tells her to keep this meeting a secret. Yeah, a vital and important secret is something I'd entrust to a six-year-old.

Chibiusa's dreams are getting a little fuzzy in picture quality.

Chibiusa wakes up to Usagi's impatient face, telling her to wake up, as everyone has left for an event without them. The event in question is a viewing of a solar eclipse, for which everyone has gathered at a field, and everyone is so excited that they are staying absolutely still and not moving a muscle. The Game Center Crown arcade attendant Motoki Furuhata and his sister Unazuki are there too, because naturally kids wouldn't want to go to an arcade when a once-in-a-lifetime event such as this is occurring. Remember, this was the 90's, when kids still were expected to give a shit about stuff like this. Everyone takes a minute to explain in their unique way what a solar eclipse is, so as to increase the show's level of educational value. Of course, Usagi mentions that it will be dark and scary, to which Rei responds by asking Usagi why she is spreading lies. What, that an eclipse will be dark? Since when is that a lie?

This is your brain on the Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon. Is it worth it?

Usagi goes on, not getting that she had said something mistaken, which everyone is shocked at. The joke here is that Usagi really believes that the eclipse is scary and stuff. Which would work if she had explicitly stated that she believed monsters and spirits and stuff came out from the eclipse, but all she said was that it would be dark. Which is true. So the joke fails. I don't speak Japanese, so maybe they did account for this in the original, so I'm going to have to pin the blame on Sailor Moon Center for this one.

Usagi's right ear was feeling camera shy that day.

While Chibiusa is musing about Pegasus, Unazuki notices her contemplating and wonders if she's thinking about a boy. Get used to this, because in this show, EVERYTHING boils down to guy troubles. Especially in this season. Motoki responds by mentioning how Unazuki herself seems to be coming home from work lately, to which everyone huddles around her instead. Again, expect to see this often.

Ladies and gentleman, the original Photoshop effect!

So the eclipse is starting, and nearly a whole minute of screen time is spent on people looking up towards the sky to witness the event. And they're not moving a muscle while doing it, as usual. While the eclipse is actually happening, a big circus tent floats down into the city, with some random dramatic lightning occurring to set the mood. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen during an eclipse, but I'm not a meteorologist, so I can't judge.

Mary Poppins gets her darker and edgier Tim Burton reboot.

Somehow, when everyone is leaving, Usagi is the only one who notices the circus tent, and wonders if "that was there before". It seems Usagi has short-term memory loss or something, because that tent is the only thing in Tokyo that the artists bothered to color in, so it would be pretty easy to see that the tent was NOT there before.

The rejected Chrono Trigger enemies.

In the circus, a bunch of weird creatures are prancing around, delighted that the humans of Tokyo did not notice their arrival. They surmise that it is because humans are superficial and don't care about what is happening beyond the walls of their bedrooms that they were able to sneak in. Suddenly, the fact that monster attacks never get reported on the news in this show makes much more sense. The monster designs on these guys are just flat out weird. Most of this scene is spent panning over these circus freaks doing various random circus acts, showing off their bizzare shapes and forms, which reminds me of the establishing bar scene in Star Wars. Needless to say, I like this scene a lot.

Anyone could do a dance on that hair!

The party is interrupted by Zirconia, the leader of this circle of freaks. Her first words? "Now, time has finally come to take over this world." Whoah, I thought they were going to go around serving hot chocolate to people! To accomplish this never-attempted-before task, Zirconia enlists the help of our first miniboss squad of the season, the Amazon Trio, consisting of Tiger's Eye, Fisheye, and Hawk's Eye. As is usual for this show, they are all extremely pretty men. So pretty that many a male fan has fallen victim to their absurdly bishonen charms. Not since Zoicite have we had to constantly double check our own sexuality so many times.

Every time this image is seen a member of the Westboro Baptist Church dies.

What follows is the usual huge exposition fest. Basically, the Trio has look inside people's dreams to search for Pegasus, who can only survive on planet Earth by hiding in beautiful dreams. As always, the first half or so of a season is spent with the villains looking for some Macguffin item, which in this case is Pegasus himself. Except we kind of already know whose dreams he's hiding in, taking away from some of the suspense. Not that minor characters ever had whatever item the villains were searching for anyway, but still.

All this is followed by a commercial break. So, to reiterate, what has happened so far in the first half is, the villains have arrived, and stated that they want Pegasus. And that's about it. For comparison's sake, by the time the commercial break happened in season three's premiere, we had already seen imagery foreshadowing events to come in the future, established the villains and what they wanted, and had Rei attacked by a monster. One episode in, and already we see what people mean when they characterize this season as "slow".

Not a rejected Chrono Trigger enemy.

After the commercials, we come to the first bar scene of the season. The Amazon Trio often discussed what they were going to do in their attempts to catch Pegasus at this random bar location, and this was where most of their typical character interactions took place. In the first few episodes it was pretty nice, but after a while it really dragged, especially since the writers quickly ran out of things to do with these guys. And they're the ones who we have to watch for the majority of the season. Joy. 

Anyway, we establish the type of relationship that these guys have. Basically, Tiger's Eye usually goes for younger girls (exactly how young can be fairly controversial due to cultural differences), Hawk's Eye typically goes for older women, and since Fisheye is gay, he typically goes for guys disguised as a woman (and I must say, he passes as a woman better than most actual women). In other words, they go for people they like based on appearance, rather than any actual examination of their dreams. Throughout it all, they constantly bicker and criticize each others' tastes. It gets old after a while.

The bright smile of a waitress who just discovered freecreditreport.com

So Tiger's Eye's first target is Unazuki. Cut to an amusing scene of Unazuki serving drinks to Usagi and Chibiusa. Here, Unazuki clears up that she likes a boy, but he is not her boyfriend. Chibiusa then goes on a speech about how girls don't always have to wait for a guy to come to them, and that they can take action as well. Usagi responds, "You've been reading Mama's mature novels without her permission again, haven't you?" Classic.

As it turns out, it was Mako from The Legend of Korra  pictured in that necklace.

That night, on the bus home from work, Tiger's Eye is present in his civilian disguise. He uses his Amazon magic to steal Unazuki's wallet, and pretends to have found it after she supposedly dropped it. When they get off the bus (how coincidental that the gorgeous man who returned Unazuki's wallet gets off at the same stop as her), Tiger's Eye says some bullshit about how they were destined to meet and can't go their separate ways after this. Get used to this, because this is how the Amazon Trio uses their magic powers.

Meanwhile, Chibiusa and Usagi are out walking later than they probably should be, with Chibiusa asking if there is a forest in Tokyo. It's Tokyo, so of course the thought of anything that isn't urban and artificial being present is brushed off as silly. It's really damn good for Unazuki that Chibiusa told Usagi to come out at night just to ask a supposedly rhetorical question so that they can conveniently be there to come to Unazuki's rescue. Now that's destiny for you.

Do I even have to explain what's wrong with this image?

Tiger's Eye then turns to his true form (by which I mean he instantly changes his clothes), and then tells Unazuki that he's "not anyone suspicious". From the fabulous outfit he's wearing, I seriously have to wonder what he means by "suspicious". Chibiusa and Usagi see this, of course, and are about to transform. But mercifully, their transformation is off-screen, and instead we get to see Tiger's Eye trap Unazuki on a knife-throwing board and prepare to violate her private dream space. Maybe I could have worded that better.

Spinal Tap finds inspiration for their Smell the Glove cover.

Of course, before he can look through Unazuki's dreams (no, "dreams" is not a euphemism here), Tiger's Eye is interrupted by Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon, who give their usual "in the name of the moon" speech. So Tiger's Eye calls upon the first of this season's mooks, the Lemures. This first one is Karakuriko, a living puppet. Since the evil villain base is a circus tent, the Lemures are mostly circus-themed. How Usagi never figures out that the strange circus tent she saw is the secret villain lair, I can't explain with words other than she's Usagi, just accept it.

Now there's a girl who could expand her waist a few inches.

Karakuriko fights both the Sailor Senshi by splitting her body in two and fighting Moon using her upper body and Chibi Moon with her legs and torso. That's pretty damn cool. Like just about all the seasons, the monsters here are pretty hit-and-miss for me, so I'm glad we at least start with a good one. Karakuriko hangs Sailor Moon in the air with her hands, and her head tries to stab her with her tongue, which is a sword. No complaints here, this is an awesome monster!

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Sailor Senshi?

Of course, when the situation seems bleak, who should show up but Tuxedo Kamen, who promptly dispatches the head using a well-thrown rose. As usual, he gives a long, cheesy speech about how much it sucks to be evil (and given how idealistic this show is, he's right). Tiger's Eye is annoyed, because a handsome guy in a suit is pretty stiff competition when it comes to getting women, showing once again Tiger's Eye's dutiful priorities. 

After a brief still image fight with Tiger's Eye, Tuxedo Kamen manages to knock his whip into a nearby tree. Because Tuxedo's shadow is also on that same tree, the whip traps Tuxedo Kamen's shadow and he can't move. So Tuxedo Kamen's intervention accomplished nothing. You're going to tire of me using the phrase "as usual", I know it.

Sailor Moon: making rape PG since 1995

Meanwhile, Chibiusa is... still trying to get out of being entangled by Karakuriko's legs. Yeah. So Tiger's Eye FINALLY looks inside Unazuki's dream mirror, and finds that Pegasus isn't there. So Unazuki's beautiful dream was to have a guy ask her out? The villains always mention how there are only a handful of people with beautiful dreams, but knowing that, I don't believe it at all.

Also making the image of a hand protruding from between the legs PG since 1995.

So that Pegasus can't escape into anyone else's beautiful dreams (even though he stays inside Chibiusa's the entire time, making that policy pointless), all with beautiful dreams must be killed. So Tiger's Eye leaves the rest to Karakuriko. The seemingly hopeless situation gets Chibiusa to resort to begging for deus ex powers. This is NOT as usual, because that is normally Usagi's job. So Pegasus comes out from hiding and gives both Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon the ability to change into Super Sailors, as well as a new Stock Footage attack item.

Also making female empowerment PG since 1995... oh, wait.

So Super Sailor Moon uses the first Stock Footage Attack of the season, which is... just pointing the wand thing she got from Pegasus and yelling "HA!" Now that's gotta be a record for how little run time the attack takes up. The weird thing is, every time a Lemure gets defeated in this season, a still image of it is shown, to which it is heard shouting, "Stage Out!" and then the still image crumples up into a billion glass shards. Basically, it's really vague what actually happens to these guys when they die. Moving on.

So the attack transfers the monsters to the M78 Nebula?

So Tiger's Eye leaves, and everything is back to normal. Unazuki is unconscious, but alive. Chibiusa remembers that Pegasus asked her to keep their meeting a secret, and so when Usagi asks her if she knows about what just happened, she denies it. I've always said dramatic irony was a bitch, and no where will this concept prove more true than in the following episodes to come.

So that was Episode 128. So how was the first episode of Sailor Moon Super S? Well, when I first saw it, I thought it was as dull as dishwater. I still do, in fact, but I did enjoy the scenes between Usagi, Chibiusa, and Unazuki more this time around. To be fair, part of my feelings about this episode stem from the last season opening being so damn fantastic that there was just no way this one could live up to it. But, ultimately, looking back, as much as I tried to like this episode, there's just too little going on to really sustain a twenty minute runtime. The Amazon Trio fail to make a decent first impression as the first Miniboss Squad, and they will remain some of the weaker villains of the series throughout the rest of their tenure. Almost no interaction happens between the Sailor Senshi outside of Usagi and Chibiusa, and in fact Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon are the only Senshi who even appear, which is beyond disappointing in a show about friendship and teamwork. Besides, it was the main characters' interactions that made the show fun in the first three seasons, and to see some of my favorites barely get any screentime is an injustice. Overall, it seems these crucial parts of the show's success are tossed aside for the Pegasus plot, which in itself isn't even as interesting as the plots that came before. While in the last few season finales actually were filled with moments building up events that were to come in the future, and treated them as important, this one feels like it wanted to get the Pegasus scenes out of the way, so the rest feels like a generic filler episode, which will dominate the season in the days to come. The result feels hollow in comparison to what came before. But that said, this is only the first episode, and we have yet to really see how things develop (or rather don't develop).

So, on that note, I'll see you next week for Episode 129: Super Transformations Again! Pegasus' Power.

Hey, at least the ending theme is nice, although why Chibiusa is the one featured there and not Usagi is a question I will never be able to answer.