Sailor Moon SuperS

Bishoujo senshi Sailor Moon SuperS; animated fantasy / drama / comedy series, Japan, 1995; D: Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Takuya Igarashi, Harume Kosaka, S: Kotono Mitsuishi, Kae Araki, Rica Fukami, Aya Hisakawa, Michie Tomizawa, Emi Shinohara, Akira Ishida, Toru Furuya, Ryotaro Okiayu

Sailor Moon and the other senshi have to fight with the new enemies, the Dead Moon Circus, that steal people’s dreams for their boss Queen Nehelenia, who already consumed all the dreams of her servants to keep herself young, and now wants to break into Earth to continue consuming said energy at the expense of humans. At the same time, Chibiusa is visited by the vision of the talking Pegasus, in reality Helios, the guardian of Elysion, who tells her that his physical body is trapped in the dream and persecuted by Nehelnia. Sailor Moon and the senshi manage to save Pegasus and the world.

Tied with “Sailor Moon” Super S season there lies an interesting trivia: the Super S manga is considered to be the best season among the fans, while the Super S anime is considered to be the worst. That’s pretty unfair because even though the manga was absolutely fantastic and superior, the anime still has quite a substantial amount of virtues that are so conveniently forgotten, especially in the beautiful art and style that are again very polished and improved compared to the first two seasons. It is another shining season, just different, with numerous virtues, stemming from a blend of irresistible characters, outstanding imagination and fascinating stylizations: for instance, episode no. 140 is fabulous for several moments, including the scene where Fisheye becomes fashion designer’s Yushiki Usui's inspiration, with an aesthetic close-up image of Fisheye walking and appearing on the upside down sunglasses of Yushiki's head hanging from a chair, and while posing as a model, Fisheye gets accidentally stabbed by a needle of a tailor woman, becomes furious and rips his clothes off, remaining there with his bare chest even though he always dressed as a woman in all episodes. Not to mention the sweet detail where Usui finds his inspiration for new dresses in Sailor Moon’s outfit. Regarding no. 151: the tadpole-shaped lemure that attacks composer Toshiyuki seems as if it came from Fellini's "Satyricon", but the scene where a naked Ami is walking inside the painting of her father and talking with her alter ego Sailor Mercury, is something for the gallery of poetry that causes a short circuit in your brain center for beauty—both the painting and herself are her father's creation, as much as Mercury is her character addition, and all form her personality.  

Who can seriously claim that episode 141, where Minako leaves Hawkeye alone with some old lady in the cinema in order to go with Tiger-eye for a “double date”, isn’t hilarious, or that episode 144, where Shingo blushes and leaves the beach because Ami woke up “love feelings for an older girl”, isn’t the sweetest thing? Episode 148, where Fisheye falls in love with Mamoru, and just stays sitting on the bench in the rain after he didn’t show any interest, while Usagi shows up and offers Fisheye her home for comfort, is so beautifully simple it melts you away. How often do you get a chance to see a villain fall in love with his enemy? The Amazon Quartet, though, is a poor replacement for the Trio, and their segment is one of the reasons why this season is on such a poor voice: at least 7 episodes were throw-away material while the too bizarre ideas and embarrassing Lemures were quite questionable. Still, Fisheye is the 2nd best villain, while the finale is the 2nd best ending in any “Sailor Moon” season, only behind “Stars”—the almost 6-minute sequence of Sailor Moon falling seemingly two miles from the sky has such virtuoso creativity that it is unthinkable in most animated shows. Also, the complaint that Chibiusa took over the leading role in the season doesn’t hold up, since out of the whole 38 episodes she is the center in only 15 of them. The main villain Nehelenia is a triple symbol for the ostrich effect, self-delusional solipsism and vampire-style exploitation of narcissism which eats its own supporters, but her consumption of her servants' dreams could also be an allegory of resources depletion of a country, which then in turns attacks other countries to survive. Dreams here could be a symbol for freedom, which Nehelenia as a dictator tries to suck out from everyone: because if you cannot even dream about what you wish, what are you? The rape parable for the violent dream mirror penetration by the villains is really sneaky, some images seem as if they are made by Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte in a romantic version, while the authors deserve to be acclaimed for, despite all flaws, trying to craft something so dreamy and experimental that it remolds your mind. You need to experience this anime yourself: watching "Sailor Moon" will expand your happiness from Mercury to Pluto.

 
Grade:+++