M&M DreamWorks: Sailor Moon Crystal Spotlight: Act 19 Recap!

Continuing its routine, there is continuously less and less that can even be commented on in Act 19 of Sailor Moon Crystal.

A lot of stuff happened this week. Travelling to the future, the introduction of Sailor Pluto, Diana and King Endymion's first appearance. One would think there would be a ton to go through but unfortunately as these recaps are not really intended to analyze the plot like a new thing, there is in fact preciously little to do this time.

I think I have reached a point where I can sum up my thoughts on Sailor Moon Crystal's recent episode in just a few paragraphs unless I want to repeat myself over and over again how a longer run per arc would have done this adaption so much more good... But that's pointless and repetitive, so...

Technical Performance

It was... okay. The musical BGMs were decently used for the most part, so I can't really complain here.

I have some problems with that variation of Dead Scream as a close range attack but... Eh, at least it's better than Moon Princess Halation (not that this is hard to achieve).

Characters and Practical Performance

Changes were really minimal in this episode. At most some dialogue was rearranged, some cut (as per usual) but unlike in the episodes before nothing of really great importance was left out.

If I were to be nitpicking on a really deep level, I'd say that most of the small rearrangements often worked against the individual scenes. This was mostly felt in the scene at Mamoru's home where Usagi almost immediately descended into her jealousy mode. The manga had a bit of prelude to this, talking about Mamoru's birthday at all and the interaction didn't feel so abrupt and one-sided this way. Also Usagi's own thoughts that she should be worrying about other things (her Senshi) were also left out giving her nervous state at the moment less credit. This leaves Usagi as the overly-jealous girlfriend, getting riled up by a child. If anything this may have been the one thing I could really criticize... if I were to be nitpicking.

Really though... I've seen Sailor Moon Crystal murder scenes with bad decisions in regards to cuts and dialogue changes much worse than this. Most of the things in this episode are just a little awkward.

That being said, in the end I have to say it after all and am of the same mind as Rebecca on ANN is. This is the kind of episode where the tight pacing really hurts the experience. This works in a manga for the most part but there would have been so much more opportunities to expand on characters, revelations and whatnot. A lot happened in this episode and quite a bit more could have been done with it. However, this after all is what I deem pointless griping at this point. The amount of time just doesn't leave the possibility open anymore.

I liked the way Pluto was handled, both in voice acting, posture and all that. She pulls of the lonely, solitary guardian thing of rather well here. But that's honestly all I have to say on the subject. We didn't get to see much of her this episode to dedicate more than two or sentences to.

Conclusion

As such, thus concludes the shortest recap ever in this feature's history and I am not really sorry about it. No, I am really not. If Sailor Moon Crystal wishes to continue the same old, tried and not-so-well routine over and over again, I don't feel like harping on the same things over and over, especially at a point where hoping for a change is pointless since it's just not possible anymore. Maybe if we'll ever get to the next arc, the show will get a bigger budget, a more competent staff (almost any staff would be more competent at this point) and make the arc into a 26 episode run on its own on a weekly basis. And maybe if this happens I'll win the lottery, too.

Rating: 3.5/5