Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS

Sailor Moon SuperS is one of the more interesting of the five total seasons of Sailor Moon (although the fifth season wasn't dubbed, I'm still not considering this the final season). To start, SuperS makes the rather daring decision to have a focus shift completely away from Usagi and the other Sailor Senshi and instead focus almost solely on Chibiusa. Now, I will say up front that this depends on your thoughts about Chibiusa; if you happened to find her unbearable in Sailor Moon R, then this review will be taken negatively. However, I will be addressing this from the perspective of a viewer who ... has at minimum, tolerated Chibiusa's antics up until this point.

As previously mentioned, the focus of SuperS is on Chibiusa, Sailor Moon's daughter. The season has a very strong emphasis on dreams in particular, with the hopes and dreams of other people being featured in almost every single episode of the season. While this is a good element to work with, the series simply doesn't utilize the tools at its disposal to get its message across in the way it wants. As a result, some of the messages in SuperS come across as having unfortunate implications; this is primarily due to the formula, which sometimes restricts the amount of development that can be focused into a character of the day. However, for the most part, dreams are shown in a realistic manner and, barring a few exceptionally bad episodes, the series has done well with having the Sailor Senshi help many of these people's dreams come to fruition. There actually is a wide diversity in the dreams of the people in the season, and we're shown that dreams can take different forms and are not always seen as literal; the monsters in the series and villain designs are also very unique, exaggerated, and vibrant with energy. What this creates is a situation where the lighter themes of "dreams" act as a sort of parallel to the Dead Moon Circus, which would symbolize nightmares.

This viewpoint works out quite well, as while the Dead Moon Circus would hardly be considered threatening (even in-universe), it fits well with the cold and detached view of adulthood that the Dead Moon Circus has. This also serves well as a parallel to the Sailor Senshi's own dreams of adulthood for various reasons (which have already been explored across the entire series), putting them at unintentional odds with the villains. The comedy and light-hearted moments (with the villains working for a literal circus) also works well, making their antics cartoony and exaggerated. Only a few instances go over the top and take this too far for the most part.

However, the Amazon Trio are somewhat too simplistic to work as villains despite this working to an extent. While they all have interesting dynamics, traits, and monsters, they are simply too one-dimensional to be serviceable to the plot, an issue made only more glaring by their prolonged duration on the season, taking up at minimum half of the entire series, over twice as long as the average Sailor Moon villain. This makes their antics, while enjoyable, become old fairly quickly, and the series struggles to find new ways to utilize them as it progresses. The Amazoness Quartet are fine villains; rather, they would be fine, but the series heavily underutilizes them, ironically; of the four Quartet members, only VesVes is utilized for the most part. As an example, CereCere only gets about two episodes as the primary focus villain, leaving the others severely underdeveloped aside from perhaps PallaPalla.

The primary flaw for SuperS is that the pacing is, unfortunately, unbearably slow. The Sailor Senshi do not receive power-ups until approximately 21 episodes into the 39 episode series. Keep in mind that this is especially crucial because they have not received power-up episodes since R two seasons ago, and their prolonged delay is unnecessary; the series has given them plenty of opportunities to upgrade, only to not use these. This is particularly glaring because the Sailor Senshi have an extraordinarily small role this season. The Inner Senshi have almost no unique role to play unless they are the focus of a particular episode, while the Outer Senshi are completely gone due to the events of Sailor Moon S, leaving the series rather bare of characters. This only reinforces the isolating, standalone focus on Chibiusa that some viewers cannot tolerate, which reinforces their views on the season.

Nehelenia's backstory is quite interesting and draws from various mythology and folklore, making her one of the best characters in the show to be developed. However, her character is hardly delved into in detail until the near-end, at which point the information given is not enough for her motives and backstory to be sympathized with, despite the fact that her themes of rejecting adulthood fit very well with the Dead Moon Circus. There are almost no attempts pre-Amazoness Quartet to flesh out either Zirconia or Nehelenia as villains, which doesn't help their characters much.

While Sailor Moon SuperS can be frustrating to some viewers, I think that the perspectives of dreams and adulthood the series has fits well with the overall theme of maturity that Sailor Moon as a whole has had since Sailor Moon R. Despite the fact that the Inner Senshi's lack of development is frustrating and that Nehelenia's origin is quite late, I found SuperS very entertaining with its combination of themes, comedy, and character development. This season is highly recommended as part of Sailor Moon. 8/10.

This won't be as long as my Sailor Moon first season review, and for good reason. This series pretty much follows the Pretty Guardian blueprint as every other season has, meaning there's not more to say other than: if you liked previous seasons, you'll probably like this one too. There's definitely a lot of filler and its not particularly revolutionary for the series as a whole, but, for me, it was certainly worth the watch. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of issues are in fact present, particularly from the few changes they did make.

I'm going to skip past any summary of ... the series with the assumption you've already read one elsewhere or have already seen this season. This season in particular starts out in one of the more unique ways that I've seen. The eclipse that our protagonists gather for is a fun concept that I enjoyed as a starter. An eclipse is the perfect metaphor for something both exciting and foreboding. It's something we all look forward to but is still an event that turns everything dark and used to scare ancient civilizations to death, like the Mayans.

The Pretty Guardians are up to their usual riff raff, which is nice in it's own way. Last season was full of incessant discussions regarding the end of the world and prophecies, so it was nice to see a return to a more slice of life theme.

The villains arrival during the eclipse was interesting for me to see and gave off an eerie vibe. However, the fact the ship the enemy arrives in is a circus tent was a bit of a let down, nothing says nonthreatening as a circus tent (assuming you're not afraid of clowns). Still, I liked how Usagi is the only one to notice their arrival but still brushes it off. Circus theme aside, the ship looming over the city is wonderful imagery and I liked the sheer scale of it all. Regarding the occupants within the ship, the villain trio, were unique as well. They were dressed pretty goofy and don't have any particularly threatening presence, but are fun and entertaining in their own way. We haven't seen anyone quite like them before, particularly their upbeat/positive attitudes. Either way, for what they sacrifice in intimidation they gain in likability. By the end of the series I actually was rooting for the 3 main baddies and even the girls that take their place.

One of my biggest annoyances this season was Chibiusa's overwhelming presence the entire season. First of all, they bait and switched us last season with a false farewell...I still don't understand why she came back to their timeline so quickly. Chibiusa, as important as she is to the series overall, is the character I dislike most, but ends up sharing the role of main protagonist with Usagi unfortunately. She was especially annoying in the second season when she first arrives...running away, stealing things, and putting everyone in danger (not to mention being the sole cause of her mother getting sealed away and the city being unable to defend itself). She's almost worse this season though, since she's more involved. I didn't have any issues for season 3, with her storyline and friendship with Sailor Saturn/Hotaru, but for some reason I really got tired of her voice by this season's finale. She's not a strong enough personality to carry this season and it ends up bringing this season as a whole down. What's more depressing is that the other guardians are put on the backburner so she gets more screen time. Personally I would rather more focal episodes with Rei or Ami than another episode where Chibiusa learns a valuable lesson and discusses it with Pegasus. One scen in particular really annoyed me: Usagi comes home to Chibiusa eating lemon pie. Of course the lemon pie ends up being Usagi's and yet Usagi is the one who ends up in trouble for getting mad she didn;t get a piece of pie...I would've been mad too! Later on in the series Chibiusa even makes a joke about eating the Dad and brothers piece of dessert then will blame it on Usagi...like really? What an awful child...she even laughs about it. Also, am I the only one who thought it strange for her to be attracted to a horse in essence? I like Pegasus and the mystery is interesting enough, but it was just strange and I didn't understand why they took it in that direction. Everything with her was time better spent with a more interesting/less annoying character. Again, why does Sailor Moon need her, a trainee, more than her own guardians...it was such a let down. Had she not had such a big role, I wouldn't have minded her presence, because the other elements of the series are so well done.

Pegasus is obviously the main focus of this series. I'm not sure why he is but it was interesting enough for me to keep watching. I really liked the abilities Pegasus gives Sailor Moon and the other Guardians. Sailor Moon's "wand gun" is a great concept and I enjoyed this ability more than any other in the series. On a personal note for this season, I was glad to see the other guardians switching back and forth between all of their abilities they've learned throughout the series rather than just using the one they learned that particular season only. The outfits don't change much but end up looking pretty cool when Sailor Moon acquires Pegasus' power, but I hated that they only changed temporarily! Why can't they at least keep the design regardless of the Pegasus powers being temporary, which also doesn't make sense. Either way I liked the design so much, I intend to purchase a figure with that exact design.

It may appear the things I mentioned liking and disliking this series were of little importance, but at this point in the series we, the viewers, have seen a lot...so it's the little things that make the biggest difference at this point. The change in formula to Chibi Moon playing a larger role rather than the Guardians, felt significant, as well as obnoxious. Same goes for outfit design or personality changes, by season 4 you have a rough idea of what you expect from the series so any change should be met with caution, otherwise you have a whole season plagued by the most annoying character and not enough involvement from the most beloved characters, bringing the series' overall enjoyment down. This is my lowest rated season so far, which is a shame because there was so much potential. I honestly enjoyed a lot of the concepts, but the few items I mentioned were enough to shift my perspective altogether. I've ordered season 5 with the VIZ dub so hopefully there are higher stakes and a better use of the characters and screen time.

I was very disappointed with this fourth season. I had been pleasantly surprised by the previous seasons, which managed to combine real depth in terms of storyline and themes with a light tone, but this season was really pointless and, in my opinion, a failure.
I understand the idea of making Chibi Moon, the child of the group, the protagonist to create a duality with Queen Nehelliena, who refuses to age, but it's very clumsy since the characters remain very simplistic and uninteresting to follow, unlike some of their predecessors. What's more, the season is far too long for what it's trying to tell, so we ... end up with a lot of episodes that are redundant and sometimes make the Sailors less endearing than they were before. I'm thinking of my favorite, Sailor Venus, who is severely damaged in this season.

In short, it's a laborious season that I'm keeping at average due to a few rare highlights and an idea that could have been better exploited, but I hope the last season will turn things around because my enthusiasm has severely waned.