Episode 8: Sailor V- Minako (aka senshi of awesomness)

The long awaited episode (for me) has finally arrived. However, due to a number of extenuating circumstances, I was late in watching this episode.

Anyway, this episode focuses on the apperance of Minako Aino, aka Sailor V, aka Sailor Venus. True to the manga version, Sailor Venus is in possession of all her memories from her past life. The others have yet to have their memories completely unsealed and Minako keeps it a secret.

She also tells the senshi that she is Princess Serenity and knows where the silver crystal is. Now, Sailor Moon fans know that this is a lie, but in the manga Venus does lie about her position and what she knows in order to buy time. Her goal is to protect the real princess and defeat the enemy before all hell breaks loose.

I love Sailor Venus because she is the most mature of all the senshi, having more experience fighting the Dark Kingdom as Sailor V. However, when Sailor Moon awakens, she goes into a hiatus state and tries to coach the senshi from afar through the game at Crown. In this episode you get to really see Minako's determination.

Minako's transformation is also quite nice. Like Sailor Mars, the use of orange and more flesh similar tones keeps the 3D animation for looking too awkward. We get a beautiful ribbon themed transformation. However, we are deprived of her intro speech. I wanted to see it, but when going against a guy like Kunzite, it's best to just get down to business. We do, however get a chance to see one of the few de-transformation sequences when Venus reveals her identity.

We also get ANOTHER glimpse at the past relationships between the senshi and the generals as Minako pleads to Kunzite to cease his actions, claiming that what his is now is not his true self. Kunzite pauses for a just a moment before Queen Beryl telepathically urges him to get on with attacking Sailor Venus.  It's fantastic seeing Venus distressed over fighting Kunzite, who, in theory, was her love interest in her past life.

It's also interesting to know that Minako is aware of all the members of the Dark Kingdom due to having all her memories. Even Artimis confesses to Luna that there is a part of her memories that were sealed in order to ease the burden of her mission. This small detail was never really explored in the original animation.

Speaking of past lives, we also get a nice dream sequence of the battle that took place during the fall of the Silver Millennium. Usually, we just get glimpses of the aftermath, but in this episode we get a cryptic escort fight sequence. I liked the dark tones of purple, black, grey, and red, making everything look twisted and dangerous.

There isn't much more to emphasize on, plot wise, for this episode. We see that with Sailor V's declaration, she becomes the target of the Dark Moon Kingdom. Kunzite offers his services as he, I feel, is more ruthless than the other generals.

In fact, he threatens to kill everyone on Tokyo if Sailor Venus doesn't come to the Tokyo Tower and hand over the crystal. He then causes a massive blackout and energy drain on the city.

Kunzite is a total BAMF as he sits in his little green bubble, waiting with a painfully board expression on his face. He's unfazed by the senshi's attacks and lets loose the full force of his powers.

Sailor Venus uses her crescent boomerang as her main weapon. I'm waiting for her to use the chain around her waist in the next fight.


A few more up sides to this episode is that you get to see a stong and more composed Sailor Moon. She handles meeting Mamoru with some feminine finesse and recovers quickly from yet another near death experience. She appears strong and in control, which is something Tuxedo Mask comments on, saying "You're strong today."

We also get to see -spoiler- Usagi and Mamoru's first kiss.

Now, I have made it no secret that I am not fond of Usagi's character, however, I always felt that Naoko had a knack for making the relationship between Usagi and Mamoru feel sweet. And this kiss, indeed, did feel very sweet between them. Especially since they didn't linger afterwards, ignoring the immediate danger before them, like in the last episode where it seemed like everyone was just waiting around for them to finish their romantic monologue.

Okay... now for the cons of this episode. Well, they're not really cons. More like oddities and concerns.

As I had stated before, by following the manga, there is a chance that we will be seeing less of the other senshi as the series continues as Sailor Moon will always be the main focus. You can see the other senshi fading into their support rolls.

Second thing. When did Jupiter gain power over gravity? There is a scene where she is clearly using her powers to fly the senshi to the top of the Tokyo Tower, which is REALLY tall btw (I was there just last September). Did I miss that somewhere?

I have few gripes beyond that.

The episode ends in a cliff hanger after Tuxedo Mask uses his body to shield Sailor Moon form a deadly attack. This is very similar to the original animation where Tuxedo Mask receives a death blow after he and Sailor Moon escape an elevator at the... Hummm Tokyo Tower, If I remember correctly.

I can't compare the relationship development in the original animation to Sailor Moon Crystal. It would be unfair to both series as they are approaching this subplot in two completely different manners. Lets just say that I felt more in the 90s version than I do with this one.