REVIEW: Sailor Moon Crystal 36
This week’s episode is full of developments, if you count a bunch of monologues as development. It is also full of bad decisions: some are made in-episode and some references from past events. An internal conflict within Mistress 9 and a little self-realization on Usagi's end make it worth watching.
The better parts of the episode focus on Hotaru and Chibiusa, who are both struggling, bonding, and causing Mistress 9 a whole bunch of trouble. Mistress 9 seems surprised and disturbed that her body is being controlled by someone else, which is funny because just two episodes ago she did the same thing to Hotaru. Hotaru is holding back the power of the Silver Crystal through sheer force of will, and is protecting Chibiusa like she was her daughter. All of this beautiful relationship development is occurring as the two are more or less parasitic souls floating around in Mistress 9’s body.
Meanwhile, the non-parasitic Senshi make the brilliant choice to split up and search the decrepit Academy, with the Inner Senshi checking the upper levels and Usagi and the Outer Senshi checking out the basement because Crystal is apparently now a horror film and not a magical girl show. After the embarrassing failure of the Inner Senshi to survive more than five minutes on their own in the last episode, I found this to be one of the worst decisions made in this episode. They clearly cannot handle themselves against these villains and it is well known by now that the Outer Senshi have much stronger powers and weapons. I see the logic in keeping Usagi with the more powerful girls, but why not have, say, Pluto go upstairs with the Inner Senshi just in case?
But I shouldn’t judge Venus and Co. so harshly: after all, the Outer Senshi make the second worst decision in-episode by choosing to use the elevator in a haunted building. But this serves as an important moment of growth for Usagi. She feels scared, vulnerable, and very unsure of herself and her abilities. The Outer Senshi reassure her, explaining that simply knowing of her existence has helped them survive through the millennia. While their stories are moving and beneficial to Usagi, I found them very tragic. It helped to put into context the suffering and loneliness the Outer Senshi feel while they each stand all alone on their own planet, light years away from society and happiness. Their dark, solitary past lives have very much influenced their personalities, making them much harder and more mature than the Inner Senshi.
The parade of bad decisions is not yet over: Dr. Tomoe and his assistant Kaolinite give us the worst previously-made decisions of the night, and Hotaru finds out all the horrible things he did to her body. We basically learn that Dr. Tomoe was never exactly a “good” guy; he teetered on the line of evil and flipped right over into villain territory after a convenient visit by Master Pharoah 90…during the middle of Hotaru’s surgery. Apparently not caring about the sanitary conditions that may be imposed by having a nurse infected with an evil egg by a pair of glowing eyes during a surgery, Dr. Tomoe and Kaolinite both happily give into villainy.
Now, I love this Sailor Moon arc, but it is in spite of and not because of plot flaws like these. I blame both Takeuchi and the studio for this. The Crystal writing staff has shown in the past that they aren’t afraid to make some plot adjustments, and Takuechi’s original backstory was weak. However, while the manga vaguely implies that the above incident may have happened during Hotaru’s surgery, Crystal just runs with it, creating their own awkwardly handled scene.
I feel like the nonsensical backstory does downplay some of the more tragic elements of what happens later in the episode: namely, Dr. Tomoe gleefully transforming into the human-Daimon hybrid Germatoid. Usagi hesitates in fighting him, risking Uranus’ life. Ultimately Usagi has to choose to kill Hotaru’s father to save Uranus. Hotaru gives him a final farewell, which Usagi senses before her powers suddenly deactivate. Unsurprisingly, Super Sailor Moon loses her powers because the Inner Senshi have been disabled. The episode ends right as Mistress 9 destroys the Academy building, ready to cause chaos.
Despite some bad decisions, this was not a bad episode in any sense. It pushed the story to where it needs to go while also providing some much-needed (albeit silly) background on Dr. Tomoe and Kaolinite. It also serves as a proper build-up to next week’s episode, which will have a lot of Hotaru-centered action.
