Sailor Moon manga or anime

[MartyMuppets]

Rei is her Japanese name. The name given her in the dub is Raye. And her surname is mentioned once in the series I have as Hino (Heeno)

More comments coming soon.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Okay disc 2 is over and so are the first three episodes on disc 3.

Still no sign of the other girls and Neflite is still losing his helpers. Tuxedo Mask doesn't necessarily appear in every episode but he does turn up conveniently to save the scouts if they are trapped without being able to help themselves. Amazing how it always works that way in fantasy

That lady Zoicite appears in the last two episodes I've seen to taunt Neflite some more, but he's so sure he'll win eventually. Queen Beryl appears less frequently leaving her responses to Neflite's failures up to the imagination. This is probably meant to avoid the story becoming far too repetitive.

Luna the cat has stated the importance of locating the lost Moon Princess as part of the Sailor Scouts mission and there have been subtil hints that Sailor Moon may be the Princess herself, but of course nothing has been made obvious. We see how silly Raye can be in certain different ways from Serena. My friend agreed with me that Amy's sensibleness balances out the other two's foolishness. And finally it was about this time that it dawned on him that there were two cats appearing at the end of the opening credits with the five girls. A white one in addition to Luna. So he was starting to wonder about the white cat as well as the other two girls. He still had a lot of questions to be answered and he had to keep watching in order to obtain them. So more comments when I see the second half of disc 3

 

[MartyMuppets]

Disc 3 is now over.

Neflite attempts to trap Sailor Moon by sending invitations to all the girls in Serena's school in Tuxedo Mask's name asking to meet them Friday night at the shopping mall after hours. Serena is hurt and decides to go early to find out what is going on. So does Molly Baker, a close school friend of Serena. Molly suspects that Maxfield Stanton may have sent the invitations because he likes tuxedoes and she feels kinda attracted to him. Actually Neflite calls himself Maxfield Stanton as an alias while he mixes with humans selecting his victims. Neflite, disguised as Tuxedo, accuses Molly of being Sailor Moon and sucks up all the energy of her feelings of love for him. Sailor Moon turns up along with the real Tuxedo Mask and the other two scouts eventually and Neflite is defeated though Queen Beryl is pleased with the love energy he brings back. The woman Zoicite is displeased that Beryl doesn't punish Neflite for failing to catch Sailor Moon and backs off in fear when the Queen threatens to treat her like Jeddite. My friend said he thinks that Zoicite wants Neflite's job.
Other points of interest: Halfway through the episode Darien collapses in the streets in apparent agony and changes into Tuxedo Mask. So I remarked to my friend everybody now knows his true identity as far as the viewing audience is concerned.
Serena's schoolteacher, Miss Haruna, was asked to be chaperone to all the girls. And she wasn't happy about having to spend her Friday night like that. Imagine how furious she must have felt to arrive at the scheduled time with everybody else and find the place deserted.

In one of the other two episodes the three Scouts are up against a pair of twins whom Neflite has trained to use the same attacks as the Scouts themselves. However because they won't co-operate and argue about who should finish them off, the Scouts are able to work together and finish them off instead.
In the last episode of disc 3 we learn that Darien doesn't seem to understand who he is but he seems to be bound by destiny to help the Scouts with their mission and to protect Sailor Moon especially. It turns out he's having dreams about him being romantically involved with some princess who looks very much like Serena. The hints and implications are great though we still have no idea about the exact connection between them.

My friend had been wondering for awhile at first if Molly may be one of the other Sailor Scouts un-knowingly but by the end of this dvd he was sure she was not, for he noticed that she looks nothing like any of the girls in the opening after watching it several times over. The Scout team has been a trio for quite awhile. He was eagerly anticipating the appearance of the next girl. And so we went on to disc 4.

Stay tuned for more comments.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I have commenced disc 4 and comments will come when I've watched a little bit more.
For now I thought I'd make an observation and I've partly mentioned this before in the earlier posts of this thread.
I noted to my friend the contrast between the baddies.
The primary minions of the Negaverse mob such as Jeddite and Neflite are essentially human.
The secondary minions often are very frightening in appearance being best described as ghastly monsters. And many of them have been terminated thus depleting the strength of the enemy's power.
Queen Beryl herself can be said to be humanoid, with her pointed ears, snake-like fangs and wicked-looking talons for fingernails.
Little children would no doubt find Sailor Moon scary, but it's really harmless family entertainment on the whole.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I've watched episodes 19 and 20 at the start of disc 4.
This is perhaps the most intriguing part of the story of all.
In these stories the Scouts are getting very worried about Serena's friend Molly. She's dangerously obsessed with Maxfield Stanton and they want to warn her somehow that he's really the wicked Neflite.
Neflite appears to be using Molly's misguided affections to try to locate the Imperium Silver Crystal for Queen Beryl and jealous Zoicite wants to beat him to it. She seeks the guidance of a man named Malachite, with whom she appears to have a romantical relationship and they send a servant named Yasha to spy on Neflite.
As it turns out Neflite lures Molly to his side and tries to manipulate her. Sailor Moon attempts to destroy him with her tiara throw, but Molly stands in the way and to everybody's relief Sailor Moon succeeds in halting her tiara inches from contact with Molly.
When Yasha suddenly attacks Molly, Neflite defends her. During the combat Sailor Moon destroys Yasha from behind and Neflite leaves Molly unconscious with the Scouts who are amazed that he should choose to save her.
In the second episode Neflite is still trying to use Molly. So it seems.
But when Zoicite sends three minions to kidnap Molly and blackmail Neflite into giving up his power he goes to her rescue and frees Molly in a fight. Though he doesn't kill any of her captors. Big mistake in the light of what happens eventually. Zoicite and the minions track him down at the park with Molly at night and Neflite is fatally wounded. Zoicite gets away though her three helpers are destroyed by the Scouts who suddenly show up. Nothing can be done to save Neflite however and he says good-bye to Molly, turning into bubbles in her arms that rise up into the night sky. Molly wails bitterly and the Scouts are also crying.

My friend was amazed. He told me he had thought Neflite really was only taking advantage of poor Molly to serve Queen Beryl's cause. But it turned out to be something far deeper and heart-felt than that in the end. A bad character became good before he died through the affections of a young teenage-girl. Incredibly tragic. The ending just about brings tears to your eyes.
And like my friend pointed out if he had gone the same way as his predecessor it would be just the same thing over and over, so they had to come up with something different.
So now the questions he had were: What direction would Queen Beryl take in her conquest plans now? How would poor Molly cope with her grief and loss? And when would the other two girls finally appear? And also the mysterious white cat?

 

[The Count]

Aw... Come on Marty... You can't leave us hanging like that. Post commentary for the next episodes ASAP please.

 

[Kiki]

Thank you vair vair much for all the episode guides Marty! That's it- I havta watch s'more Sailor Moon when I get the chance!

 

[MartyMuppets]

I shall definitely get back to watching Sailor Moon tomorrow. My comments shall continue and I'm delighted they are being enjoyed.

 

[The Count]

Aw... We have to wait for more commentaries? Well, just hope they get posted as soon as you can Marty.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I watched the next three episodes tonight and some new developments have taken place.

For starters, we see Queen Beryl communicating for the first time with an apparently invisible entity whom she calls the Negaforce. This strange being apparently has been feeding off what little energy Beryl's minions manage to successfully bring back in order to gain strength to help Beryl conquer earth.
It informs Beryl that she should begin searching for the 7 Rainbow Crystals in which the 7 Dark Shadows are imprisoned. Beryl is very pleased about this and explains to Zoicite about how Serenity, Queen of the Moon Kingdom had managed to imprison the Negaverse's best warriors, the Shadows into the Imperium Silver Crystal just before her kingdom was destroyed and sent it into outer space where it somehow shattered into 7 Crystals each with one Shadow inside them. They made their way to earth and were re-born inside people who un-knowingly carry them inside their bodies.
Zoicite is given the task of locating and retrieving them. She is given a charm to reveal the carriers one by one to her and she swears she will not fail.

Also a new girl named Lita transfers to Serena's school and becomes friends with her. She's tough and knows how to use karate. When Zoicite shows up and extracts the first Rainbow Crystal the young man who had it inside him turns into a monster. Lita, who has happened to follow the young man around getting acquainted with him (he reminds her of her ex-boyfriend) is discovered by Luna to be Sailor Jupiter and once she has her powers she assists Sailor Moon. (Mercury and Mars are not present) Since the monster is an innocent man transformed Luna gives Sailor Moon the Crescent Moon Wand that can magically break the transformation and restore the Crystal carriers back to themselves. She does save the victim but Zoicite gets away, with the first Crystal.

In the following episode Molly is grieving terribly for Neflite and Serena tries to cheer her up along with a boy named Melvin, who has appeared in several episodes before but this is his first more major role. They take Molly for a walk but when they pass the graveyard she starts to cry again and noticing a priest strolling among the tombstones goes to talk to him for some comfort regarding her loss. While the priest is counselling her Zoicite shows up. It turns out the priest is the second Crystal carrier and when she plucks it from him Serena, who has snuck away from Melvin, transforms and with the help of Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask, is able to change the priest back to normal. To Zoicite's anger, Tuxedo Mask manages to claim the second Crystal and takes it away with him. He has been having more dreams about the mysterious Moon Princess begging him to locate the Silver Crystal so that they can be together again. At home staring at the Crystal he claimed he realizes that he has been changing to Tuxedo Mask and going to help the Scouts without even knowing it. Now he knows his identity he needs to figure out who the princess in his dreams is.
BTW At one point during the battle Molly is attacked by the monstrous priest and Melvin appears to quickly tackle her to the ground out of the path of the blow. She is so grateful to him that it helps her get over the worst of her loss. She declares that Neflite lives in her heart along with all of her special friends.

In the third episode Zoicite goes after a boy named Greg who has a crush on Amy. He has the un-canny ability to predict the future and knows he is a Crystal carrier.
When Zoicite attacks him he resists as hard as he can but eventually even he succumbs. He has previously been with Amy in her Sailor Mercury persona, told her everything and pleaded with her to destroy him when he becomes a monster. She is aghast about the idea and when he is transformed swears to save him instead.
Greg actually briefly attacks Zoicite defiantly causing her to miss getting hold of the crystal removed from him and the Scouts get ahold of it when they restore Greg to normal.
Zoicite is not pleased for she knows Queen Beryl won't like missing the Crystals.
Tuxedo Mask is nearby and decides to leave the third Crystal with the Scouts for now.
Unfortunately Greg has to leave town because of his dad's job but Amy gives him a nice photo of her when they say good-bye at the train station.

So out of the 7 Rainbow Crystals so far the score tallies even:
1 to the Negaverse
1 to Tuxedo Mask
1 to the Scouts

I shall update the scores when I review the next episodes.

This'll make you happy Ed. And also Katie.
Anybody else out there been following my commentaries?