Sailor Moon Crystal: Season III

Episode 31

And the Most Awesome Transformation of the Week prize goes to…Sailor Mercury! Given that this is the episode where we finally see MICHIRU and Haruka transform into Sailors Neptune and Uranus, that's a high bar, even if the two Outer Senshi's transformation sequences aren't particularly exciting, it's still the first time we've seen them in Sailor Moon Crystal. But Ami tops them both by not only escaping from Viluy, this week's Witches 5 villain, but then by jumping out the 13th story window and transforming midair before hitting the swimming pool and rising out of it as Sailor Mercury. Not only did that take a lot of guts on Ami's part, it also mixed things up nicely and prevented a transformation chain the likes of which we saw used as padding in earlier episodes. Plus she jumped off a building to transform. I've only ever seen Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne's Maron/Jeanne do that before.

This is definitely a packed episode, cramming in the confirmations of Haruka and MICHIRU's sailor identities, the introduction of both the Holy Grail and Setsuna, a little adorable matchmaking on Chibi-Usa's part, and some gender politics, and while it doesn't always handle everything as smoothly as it could, it still does a better job than last week's episode in terms of emphasis. While I would have liked to see more of the Mercury/Viluy fight and perhaps a bit less of Usagi and Mamoru's couple problems, I also don't feel as if one was favored over the other, and making sure that Usagi and Mamoru remain a united front is important, especially since Chibi-Usa's existence hinges on it. It also leads into Haruka's response to Usagi's question about gender identity – “Does it matter if I'm a girl or a boy?” While we still don't know for certain if Haruka is gender fluid, this answer would seem to imply that, and ultimately in the long run it doesn't matter for Haruka's role in the story. The source manga really doesn't go much beyond this point in terms of how Haruka identifies, and it will be interesting to see if the anime decides to, as there is arguably more opportunity in 2016 to explore it than there was in the 1990s.

Haruka is clearly a conflicted character in general, as we can see in Sailor Uranus' protestations that she and Neptune are not Sailor Moon's comrades-in-arms, but they both repeatedly show up to save the Inner Senshi. This particular time can't be misconstrued, as Haruka and MICHIRU deliberately follow Ami when they see that Viluy has her, then transform in front of the group to put down Viluy and the daimons when Mars' Snake Fire and Jupiter's Coconut Cyclone don't quite do the trick. They may claim to have no intentions of working with Sailor Moon and her group, but they clearly do have interest in the idea. This is likely to be tied up in the question of the talismans, two of which have now been identified: Neptune's mirror and Uranus' sword.

These are clearly representative of the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan, the sword of valor (Kusanagi), the mirror of virtue (yata no kagami), and the jewel of benevolence (yasakani no magatama). Tied to Shinto practice, the real-life existence of these treasures is uncertain, but they are held to be so sacred that only the Emperor and special priests are allowed to see them, which ties in with the series' own mythos of Neo Queen Serenity (and plain old Queen Serenity before her) as holy chosen rulers. While the addition of the Holy Grail to the mix confuses things in terms of which mythologies are being borrowed from (the Grail is tied to Christian legend), it also adds to the idea of a divinely chosen ruler, one who has the ultimate right of heaven to reign. Whether or not they are ready to admit it, Sailors Uranus and Neptune are clearly on the same side as Sailor Moon and the Inner Senshi, and for those who haven't read the manga, it should be interesting to see how Sailor Pluto's reintroduction changes their feelings, given that she's worked with Sailor Moon before and already has a relationship with Chibi-Usa.

As a final note, this week's episode brings us a new version of the opening theme (which isn't quite as enjoyable) and a brand new ending theme featuring Chibi-Usa and some random male backup singers. This is simultaneously tooth-rottingly cute and kind of creepy with the deep male vocals, but if you like to sing along, good news: both songs now have romaji.

While Sailor Moon Crystal still can't quite decide how much story to put in each episode, this is still a pretty good one. It has enough interesting and important moments to keep things moving without overloading any of them too badly, and while it might have been nice to see a slightly different balance of elements, at least it doesn't feel as choppy as last week, putting the show back on the right track.

Rating: B

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Season III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, Viz.com and Hulu.