Sailor Moon Season 2a Scorecard

If last season was a good sitcom, this is when Sailor Moon becomes a good Magical Girl show also. There is still the “Monster of the Week” formula, but less repetition. Sometimes, not every Sailor is there at the start. And they even make jokes about how there is not enough time for a catchphrase.

Naoko Takeuchi only ever intended to make one book of the manga, and by proxy one season of the show. However, the continued popularity of the manga meant the Sailors had to be reassembled somehow and the show would continue. The first arc is not in the manga at all, but still fun to watch. The alien lovers are comical and despite their witty banter do pose a real threat, making for both funny and tragic moments. The final ending is one of the most poignant and gripping moments in the series.   

The second season serves to fix characters and develop more of the side cast. Now, Sailor Moon is not always the central focus, meaning her friends can get the spotlight too. We had Minako and Mako feud about guys, Ami threatening to leave the show, general cast scuffles. Now, it’s an ensemble show rather than just the Usagi Show. This works great because now you can pick a Sailor to follow. And if you don’t like one, you can wait for another to be the star next time. And they all “level up” and gain new moves and looks in due time. So unlike some other anime, everyone on the team is on about equal footing and does something to contribute to the story progress (rectifying one problem I had with Digimon, unfortunately)

This season includes the Black Moon Arc, one of the greatest storylines in all of anime. A mysterious little girl comes into Usagi’s life, and the Black Moon Clan knows more than the protagonists do about her. Their conflicts escalate and lead to some of the strangest moments in the series. We had glimmers of this in the late first-half, with each Sailor facing a conflict individually to take them down, though the best is about to get started! But this all transpires in the second half of this season. Just you wait…

Part 2 comes out tomorrow…