Thought About All the Seasons....

[Venombabe]

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A very small degree of hope


I had a thought as I tried to go to sleep last night. During the first and second season (1st - Negaverse-Allan/Ann, 2nd - Rini) it's all about protecting the past/present and the future. Then the last 3 seasons are about killing. Ever notice that?

During the S season, they say that people can't live without their Pure Heart Crystals. In SuperS, I think the way it went was if they broke a Dream Mirror, it would leave the person to live their life like a zombie (but I didn't get to watch much of SuperS, just read the manga). Then in Stars, if a person's Star Seed is taken, they die (demonstrated in both the manga and anime).

What do you all think?


is sufficient to cause the birth of love
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[mistress_hydro]

eh, maybe they just wanted a sudden change in pace??  

[HunterJumperLuvr]

I agree with Hydro, the series started to get very slow after a while, but then it kinda also got repetitive. So maybe they changed things up for pace.  

[Ravenmichiru]

I think a lot of it has to do with the depth the series takes on. Usagi herself grows and changes and the "evil" she faces becomes that much stronger.

I guess by the end, she just has so much more to lose.  

[NichiTsukinoko]

I have to agree with Venombabe. It does seem like the focus of the meaning behind why they fight kinda got lost after the second season. I was much more into watching season one and two because it felt like there was more of a story.

Unfortunately with the introduction of the outer scouts It became like a contest of which inner and outer senshi can we have compete with each other while battling the minion of the week.

And SuperS was so poorly dubbed that I can't really enjoy watching it. I've forced myself to sit through it once. I own it on dvd. From what I remember of it, There was pegasus and the dream mirrors. I think they tried to have more of a story in SuperS than they had in S but it wasn't as strong, I feel as the stories in season 1 and 2. The battles weren't all that interesting to watch in SuperS. At least not for me.

I'm still trying to watch Stars. The Japanese voices make it very very difficult for me though.

They may have been trying to go for a change of pace. I just think maybe it was the wrong pace for that particular franchise. But then, I've been hoping someday there will be a new anime for Sailor Moon that strictly follows the manga and is a mini-series, like Ultimate Helsing did.  

[Ryuondo]

Well, if you think about it, it's pretty self explanatory. The past, present, and future are only available to those who are still alive. If their life is snuffed out, everything else is meaningless. It ups the stakes. It gives them more reason to fight. They're darker seasons.  

[Venombabe]

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A very small degree of hope


...I don't think some of you are getting my point. What I mean is that it seems that the seasons are pure killing, though it's not that obvious (seems that Tsukinoko gets my drift though).

Yes, if their life is gone, nothing matters, BUT think about other shows you've watched/are a fan of. Aren't they a mixture of one of "point a" and "point b"? YES. Things in other anime shows become darker and more evil, but still have something in them to keep you interested.


is sufficient to cause the birth of love
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[NichiTsukinoko]

I do get your point. smile

Shows like Cowboy Be-bob, Ghost in the Shell, Wolf's Rain: all have a darkness to them. violence, murder, betrayal, evil. But they also have a story, character development, and some sort of theme that makes you think. Excluding Stars, which as I said, I haven't finished, the seasons after 1 and 2 didn't really have a theme. If they did it was obvious and not really thought provoking. There wasn't really any new character development of any of the characters, good or evil. No more story to them than a two player fighting game has. etc.  

[Venombabe]

NichiTsukinoko

I do get your point. smile

Shows like Cowboy Be-bob, Ghost in the Shell, Wolf's Rain: all have a darkness to them. violence, murder, betrayal, evil. But they also have a story, character development, and some sort of theme that makes you think. Excluding Stars, which as I said, I haven't finished, the seasons after 1 and 2 didn't really have a theme. If they did it was obvious and not really thought provoking. There wasn't really any new character development of any of the characters, good or evil. No more story to them than a two player fighting game has. etc.

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A very small degree of hope


That's kinda what I think. The manga had much better thoughts and hell, even deep philosophy at times. When they developed the later seasons, they didn't do so well with those parts >_> Or at least the dubbing


is sufficient to cause the birth of love
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[NichiTsukinoko]

too true! the dubbing was especially bad.

I get the feeling that they felt that the concepts in the manga were to complex for their key demographic so they dumbed it down to be essentially, animated power rangers.  

[jenfuu]

I cant watch the dubbs. Yes i watched them when i was younger, now i can only watch it in the japanese version. You really lose a lot when they translated it. In order to keep it for a younger audience, and able to be shown, i feel like they took way too much out. In essence they took out the heart of what Sailor Moon was, and with each progressive season it got worse and worse.

But if you are able to watch it in the japanese, it is much better. Though i havent had the chance to read the manga yet...  

[Nightshade247]

to me when i watched all of the seasons i saw different things that were clearly stated as "beautiful". One was changings of the future, two was that if u didnt have a pure heart, wats there to live for, three was if u have beautiful dreams hold on to them and never let them go. the star seeds ... well i need more information but i think u get my point.  

[NichiTsukinoko]

I can't watch them in Japanese. The voices drive me crazy. I have partial hearing loss anyway, so there are certain notes common in japanese voices that I just can't hear. Beyond that because I can only hear some of the high notes that seem to be common in Japanese female voices, Most of the voices sound the same to me and it makes it hard for me to follow, even with subtitles. It may have been easier for me to note the subtle differences in the voices if my audial range was better.

Night Shade: While the things in the different seasons that you feel were beautiful would be good themes: ie protecting the future, having a pure heart, beautiful dreams, etc the execution of getting those themes across was poorly done, which is basically what V-Babe and I have been trying to say. Rather than having those themes brought out in an artistic, beautiful, and thought provoking way, it was stated in a speech by Sailor Moon or one of the other characters just before a**-kicking, killing and mayham took place. Perhaps sometimes afterwords while the group of sailor scouts was sitting at the table at Rei's house eating pizza.

Those themes you mentioned were not executed as well as they could have been. The series as it progressed after seasons 2 becomes more childish and obvious as it goes on, despite the fact that the characters are getting older and experiencing tougher choices. The theme is preached but not put into practice. Instead the offending villian is either killed or converted after the glorious, "What you're doing is wrong!" speech.  

[NichiTsukinoko]

It's really not much different that if you were playing as Chun-Li in Street Fighter, you have a little mini speech or statement from both characters about their motivations, Chun-Li fighting for justice and say Bison-who kidnapped her father- talking about how he will win because he is powerful. then there is a battle. Then the winner-for sake of argument, we'll say Chun-Li- Says something like "In the end justice will always triumph" or something equally cheesy. That's basically the format of the later Sailor Moon seasons.

Sailor Moon: Stop right there! You can't just go around steeling people's dreams! They are what makes each one of us special! In the name of the Moon I will punish you!

Tiger Eye: You Sailor Dweebs are anoying. Here battle my minion instead.

*Battle engages, possibly ending with a typical "Moon Healing..." attack*

Sailor Moon: Gosh I'm glad everything's back to normal and so and so got their beautiful dream back. Let's go and get something to eat. I'm so hungry. Darien! Buy me an Ice Cream!

etc. Mind you this is just a for instance. without me getting up out of bed and popping a disk in from that series I can't give you a verbatim conversation. but it generally goes something along those lines.  

[jenfuu]

You actually have to look past all that. In each season, beneath the filler stuff of the fighting...there is growth, and some movement to the story. Not every episode, but some of them.