Sailor Moon Mondays: Sailor Moon S: Episode 124:
Now that we have reached the crescendo of the endgame, all episodes automatically are of the highest recommendation to watch. Indeed with Mistress 9 awakened she outlines her purpose, to bring her mistress the evil alien spirit Pharoah 90, who incidentally has a name right out of an 1995 AOL Chatroom, to Earth and allow the Tau Star System to reign. All that is needed is the Holy Grail, which is serving as an odd stand in McGuffin for the Silver Crystal and its limitless power. At any rate the ensuing power surge activates the rest of the Daimon Eggs and it turns out Tomoe had a shit ton of eggs lying around as we get the endless voluble masses that endeavor to keep the Inner Guardians occupied while Sailor Moon is grabbed quite violently into the lair.
Meanwhile the Outer Guardians are trying to access the base by helicopter but they encounter too much resistance and we get into the first of many controversial plot points raised as Sailor Pluto stops time, and in doing so has committed the ultimate taboo and is basically sacrificing herself in order to save Hakura and Michiru and get them to the endgame. If this sounds familiar, you probably just got down watching Sailor Moon Crystal and indeed we have her heroic sacrifice from the previous arc integrated here for little describable reason.This is something that actually has very profound implications the reverberate throughout the entire series and would not be the last time this would happen this season.
Indeed it happens again this episode as Uranus and Neptune face off against Tomoe and TOEI being TOEI they changed this encounter a great deal and the upshot is the talisman weapons are now active and Tomoe is free of Daimon influence and is alive, this is something that just flat out comes back to bit this series in the ass down the line. The episode reaches its conclusion with Mistress 9 ready for a showdown, the Outer ready to see their mission through to the end and Sailor Moon standing in between unsure how to properly resolve the situation.
Sailor Moon Mondays: Sailor Moon S: Episode 125:
Picking up where we left off we were in the middle of the grand confrontation between Mistress 9 and Sailor Moon and the Outers and then a philosophy class breaks out as the Outers are captured and used as bargaining chips as is Professor Tomoe. The Outers as still ready as ever to sacrifice everything to prevent the destruction of the world but they just do not understand the ideology of Sailor Moon. They do not understand that Sailor Moon sees such sacrifices as unacceptable, that as the great protector of the Earth she must do better, be better then allowing lives to be given away so cheaply. Such idealism never really clicked with this anime incarnation of Hakura and Michiru and I have never liked that, more on that next week and in the future.
Anyway, since Sailor Moon is a hero she gives away the Holy Grail so that nobody dies and it is used to summon Pharaoh 90. I will say it right here I have always found Pharaoh 90 to be the lamest of all of the final bosses that show up in this series, even in the manga I was never impressed with Pharaoh 90 the way I was with Wiseman and others. When it seems that the prophecy is about to come true, Mistress 90 is ripped apart by the awakening of Sailor Saturn, the guardian of death and rebirth. After handing ChibiUsa her pure heart back Saturn returns to use her demonstrable powers to destroy Pharoah 90 at the cost of her life. Going back to what I said, Sailor Moon still finds this idea beyond abhorrent and breaks down under the sheer weight of helplessness in one of the emotional scenes of the series.
It is the same emotion that resonates with the rest of the guardians, including out favorite extremists and allows for the true birth of the true Messiah, Super Sailor Moon who now has the power and the capabilities to save Hotaru. Indeed she marches into the edifice of Pharaoh 90 and defeats the abomination and heads out carrying an infant Hotaru, which is about as inexplicable here as it was in the manga. Well, maybe not because the 1990a anime series never really got the fact that the Guardians have certain abilities that i will touch upon in a later season. Anyway, the day is saved and next week we close out Sailor Moon S.