WARNING: The following article contains SPOILERS for Sailor Moon Crystal Acts 12, 13, and 14. If you don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading. You have been warned.
Well it has been a while since I got an episode commentary on Sailor Moon Crystal out. While I am sure none of you want to hear me ramble on about everything that has happened since then, I will say one thing that probably affected this. Admittedly, part of it was just that I did not find acts 12, 13, and 14 to be all that entertaining. I initially thought that it may have just been due to a lack of motivation or that I was just too stressed out. However, the more I thought about it, I realized it was just that these episodes were… kinda boring. I found myself not really caring about what was going on and I just did not have much motivation to continue. I should also mention that it has been quite a while since I saw episode 12, so my memory is kinda fuzzy there.
Episode 12 basically had Mamoru/Endymion/Tuxedo Mask (I put all those there because this series cannot decide what to call him and just kinda switches between the three names) fight against Usagi due to her being brainwashed by Queen Metalia. Eventually, they vanquish Queen Beryl in a rather anticlimactic fashion and try to restore Mamoru to normal afterwards. Unfortunately they fail to bring him back, so Usagi just cuts him with the holy sword they just used on Beryl. Afterwards, Usagi pulls a Romeo and Juliet and kills herself because of what happened to Mamoru.
If you are thinking the same thing I did, then you probably think the twist is a bit rushed. From what we saw of the series, Usagi and Mamoru spent very little time together onscreen. I can assume that having someone save your life multiple times would be a fair excuse, but I would think there is a bit more to love than that. I initially didn’t think too much of the love story because there was more of a focus on the action. However, when you have the main character kill herself out of the blue over a romance we know little about, it is hard to really be emotionally invested. It is also horribly out of place to just have this thrown in there, especially seeing as how Usagi just gets brought back via magical dues ex machina anyway.
In episode 13, we have a rather bland and drawn out fight sequence against Queen Metalia. I will just come out and say that it was way too early to reveal Metalia at this point. The plot of the series up to this point has basically been like a typical JRPG. There was a lot of build up in terms of the hero discovering her past, recruiting new allies, and trying to pursue the main villain. However, it feels more like 70% of the plot was skipped right over and they just went straight to Metalia. She should have been this powerful foe that was built up to over the course of the series; instead she is just kinda thrown out there with no sense of build up or intimidation.
Anyway, there are also several problems with the battle itself. The first of these is how bland and generic Metalia’s design is. She looks like a very uninteresting Giygas wannabe who is barely threatening in any way. The second problem is that there is hardly a fight scene in and of itself. All that happens is that the rest the sailor scouts revive Usagi with the power of love and friendship, and Usagi seals Metalia using the legendary silver crystal. The battle is literally over five minutes into episode 14. One can argue that the series isn’t over yet so it is okay to rush the Metalia Arc. However, one would have to ask why we would even have this arc in the first place? Queen Metalia has been foreshadowed since the beginning of the series; yet when you confront her, it is barely even a fight.
After Queen Metalia is defeated, Usagi is told by Luna that she will be the new queen. Predictably, Usagi declines and decides to return to earth instead. Afterwards, everything is back to normal and she and Mamoru (who was also brought back through plot convenience, which made that entire sequence pointless) are about to kiss, only for them to be interpreted by a pink haired girl falling from the sky. After that, the pink haired girl proclaims that she is Usagi’s magical girlfriend and she gains a harem. Nah, just kidding, she actually reveals that her name is Usagi and pulls a gun on the regular Usagi. Afterwards, the episode ends on a cliffhanger.
I will admit that I am curious to see how the plot continues from here on. However, I cannot help but think of how dull the supposed final battle was. There was no reason for Metalia to be thrown under the bus so quickly with so little buildup.
I will clarify that there are a few reasons why I didn’t cover episodes 15-17 yet. Aside from just making things easier on myself, I mainly decided to focus on just these three just because I felt it would make more sense to stick to one arc.
As for my overall opinion, none of these episodes are terrible by any means. However, they were not really interesting either. They were not merely disappointing due to not living up to expectations; they were just boring in general. It was clear that there was an attempt to build up tension during these episodes, but I just could not get into what was going on. Obviously, I still plan to watch the series seeing as how one bad arc does not mean a bad series, (although even if didn’t I kinda have to since I committed to this) and the end of it means a fresh start. However, let us just be hopeful that Sailor Moon Crystal doesn’t repeat the same mistakes.
Sailor Moon Crystal is simulcast on Crunchyroll every first and third Saturday of the month at 3:00 AM PDT for both premium and free users.
