Minako’s latest idol turns out to be one of the Witches 5!

ThisSailor Moon Crystalreview contains spoilers.

This is not a plot you could believably execute with Ami, Rei, or Makoto.

I like that we get to see Minako be the absolute freak that she is.

You know, its never really acknowledged in-universe, but Minako is kind of unstable.

If I knew her in real life, I would venture to guess bipolar.

Theres a reason why in the more dystopianSailor Moonfanfiction, Venus tends to go completely insane.

Theres certainly precedent for it.

Here its pretty harmless and actually kind of cute.

Plus, we got a shout-out to her Sailor V days.

This subplot worked very well.

This is a super-sweet friendship that is frankly better developed than the friendships between the Inners.

ANY of the Inners.

Besides that, the plot just unfolded so well.

Everything was motivated and segued beautifully into one another.

Hotaru is touched Chibi went to the trouble and invites her in.

They talk about the concealing nature of Hotarus clothing, which leads to some slick exposition on Hotarus accident.

By the end of this sequence, I genuinely believed these girls had become friends.

Talk about a missed opportunity.

We dont see her interact with the students.

We dont see her working her plan.

Thats literally all we see of Mimete before she fights the Senshi.

We dont get any sense of her personality, because she doesnt really have one.

The Witches 5 inCrystalare just so bland and forgettable.

And thats the orange one.

And the green one.

Ask me about their personalities?

Eudial was cocky and easily irritated.

Mimete was a cute fangirl whose obsession with celebrities could get really scary really fast.

Sure, the Ayakashi Sisters from last season were similarly one-dimensional.

They had only the shallowest characterization, but at least we got to see them at work.

We saw Berthier participate in the chess competition, trying to psych out our heroes.

They werent the most memorable characters on the block, but at least they earned their climactic battles.

To Mimetes credit, however, the actual fight between her and the Senshi was pretty good.

Over a little quickly, but at least it was dynamic.

Maybe wed have time for more extensive battle sequences or character scenes if we cut out some other stuff.

You know, like the thrice-redundant regurgitation of names and information.

Like, can we stop repeating the same thing that was just said?

I dont need exposition delivered in triplicate.

The first few minutes of this episode are just repeating the same shit over and over.

We just saw that scene.

We just saw it.

We dont need to flashback to something that was said thirty seconds ago.

Weve also got to slog through even more of Usagis foundless jealousy.

Girl, I know youre fourteen and all, but Jesus Christ!

Hes yours, okay?

Get a fucking grip, because this shit is getting tedious.

And certainly in real life people dont always learn their lessons.

They backslide and repeat mistakes and take a long time to outgrow their flawed behavior.

It held my attention, it had some good moments, and it had one hell of a finish.

Holy crap, the official intro of Uranus and Neptune was freaking epic.

I got goose bumps.

The moment was well played.

This could be a problem, but might not.

I have a surprising amount of faith.

The two were not flirting, were barely even talking.

What kind of cue was Uranus acting on?

Hmm, well, Ive got to run.

I know Haruka is a little flirtatious and more than a little presumptuous, but this wasnt merely forward.

And I just dont know what Naokos intent here was.

Especially now in an era when two girls kissing on TV is anything but a shocking, risky choice.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5