I’ve got to think of a more creative name for my SMC posts… I still have a lot of thoughts on each act, thought! And here they are for act 12: Queen Metalia.
This week in character development…
This is becoming a regular thing. It was so nice to see Jupiter wake up from where she lay fallen and join the fray! It was nice to finally hear from Artemis too, but he’s still not being helpful.
Venus is being cool, finally. Her knowledge as a leader is useful and coming from a place of genuine helpfulness, not some leftover princess complex. It’s her idea to call forth the sword, which is a pretty neat power. Ami is apparently able to conjure a space-time bubble too, so that’s neat.
It was nice to see the group work together a lot in this act!
Baddies & battles…
Queen Beryl’s backstory isn’t terribly deep. She wanted Endymion; she didn’t get Endymion. Thanks to the space sword, which fills with the light of the Silver Crystal and looks less like the space sword from Avatar: the Last Air Bender, Queen Beryl is no more. Her power, borrowed from Queen Metalia, was housed in her necklace, which I was wondering if it were a necklace of some gnarly surface piercings. Anyway, Sailor Moon shattered that with the Holy Sword.
Metalia herself is kind of hilarious, thought. We’re seen her before, but the senshi really have not. She’s a floating mass of maroon with a mouth and eyes and her laugh sounds like she might vomit. It’s very fitting, but also makes me giggle.
& storyline…
The Holy Sword illuminates and reveals how to use the Silver Crystal to restore the Moon Kingdom… too cryptically for Sailor Moon, of course. Even with Beryl defeated, Metalia is still in control of Mamoru, and off they go to the ruins of the Moon Kingdom. Sailor Moon follows through the portal. The other Sailor Senshi are either really slow, or just don’t want to go through that portal, but they fly over in a bubble to help out. They end up fighting the Moonlight Knights, who I totally forgot were still alive. Their combined Sailor Planet Attack is enough to restore them. Sailor Moon, meanwhile, on the North Pole, has not had the same luck restoring Mamoru with a Moon Healing Escalation.
Call me crazy, but I just don’t feel that Sailor Moon was her strongest in this act. Her relationship with Mamoru is just not warranted at this point. In the original anime, we saw Usagi and Mamoru together all the time. Granted, I have legacy information of seeing that entire anime and here we are on Act 12, but I just don’t see why at this point Usagi would turn a sword on herself instead of facing a life without this man.
She does have a great moment before she stabs him. Even stabbing him was great, but pulling a Juliet?! I guess it sets up the next act, Reincarnation, well!
Hey guys, are we wrapping up the Arc next Act?
Sailor Moon Crystal thoughts: go!