Sailor Moon Crystal - Acts 27-28 Episode Reviews

Even though I didn't like the first season of Sailor Moon Crystal, I did enjoy the second one and happy they made a third one with Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. Here are reviews to the first 3 acts available on Hulu.

Act 27 Infinity 1 Premonition (First Part)

The episode begins talking about guardian stars and their light and the Taioron Crystal. That a sacred place is theirs, of the Death Busters. We see Pharaoh 90's eyes and see Kaolinite is talking. We then see Hotaru sleeping in bed and having a dream about the main guardians and Princess Serenity dying, then three soldiers in the dark, saying light guided by three Talismans.  Mamoru also had a premonition dream. Then we see Rei by the fire, having a vision as well. Usagi has a dream of her wedding with Mamoru. She wakes up, Chibi-Usa is having breakfast when she hears news about a monster they suspect is reversion. Chibi-Usa wonder if it is a monster. 

Usagi meets up late with Mamoru and Chibi-Usa joins in as well, stopping their morning kiss. Diana greets Mamoru. Chibi-Usa gives Usagi her lunch. Usagi explains Chibi-Usa is her daughter from the future they have to train as a Sailor Guardian. Chibi-Usa leaves with her friends. Usagi has the Black Moon drama is forgotten like a dream. Usagi and Mamoru are about to kiss when he remembers his premonition and he leaves. Usagi has anxiety and it is her mission. We then see Michiru swimming in her pool. She calls for her helicopter. A car races through a track. Haruka is the driver and the helicopter comes for him, it is late. They refer to Haruka as a boy. 

People talk about Michiru being a violinist and the two are a couple, going to Mugen Academy. Usagi and Naru-chan enter the arcade and meet the others. Usagi re-introduces everyone to the audience. Minako wants to play a racing game. Usagi sits and they do a battle lap and put helmets on. Makoto goes against Usagi. Usagi gets advice from Haruka and takes the advice. People take notice and talk about how Haruka is a professional driver. Usagi goes rather fast and crashes, game over. Naru and Minako check on Usagi. Usagi takes the helmet off. Haruka tells her she has talent.

Meanwhile Michiru and Mamoru bump into each other and she drops her mirror. She says his eyes are noble and if he was a prince in a previous life. He asks her how she can say that. She explains the mirror sees previous lives. Haruka calls Usagi 'bun-head' and leaves while the girls gush over 'him.' Haruka walks in on Michiru and she walks over to her. Haruka says Usagi is like a child. Usagi comes out next to Mamoru and watch the two walk away. Later, the six walk in the street. Naru tells Usagi she thinks Haruka is famous. Ami remembers the uniforms are from Mugen Academy. Umino shows up and talks about the school, Minako says famous people and geniuses go there.

A spore hits an Mugen Academy student and becomes a tick-like monster. Mamoru takes care of Naru and Umino and the girls transform (the Inner Senshi say "____ Planet Power" like the manga). The girls do their speeches. Mercury checks out that there is a girl inside the monster. Mars does her exorcism but doesn't work. Venus does Wink Chain Sword attack and Jupiter does Coconut Cyclone. An egg comes out of the girl and the monster is gone. Venus feels like she is being watched. Sailor Moon thinks that her brooch reacted. She sees Haruka and Michiru from far. In the computer base, they talk about the monsters and that the girl was from Mugen Academy. Minako says they have to investigate the academy. 

Review:

I am not sure yet if Haruka is meant to be male in this incarnation. In the manga, she was female but they used male pronouns. They definitely let Haruka and Michiru be more affectionate with each other. The opening and ending sure has Haruka and Mirchiru all over and even in the eye catchers (before the commercials). I liked the idea about the duo when I first heard of them, but when I saw the original anime, all they did was say that the Inner Senshi were lame and didn't do anything other than that. Here we see Sailor Uranus with a mask, just like Sailor V and Tuxedo Kamen. Rei is mean to Usagi, there is more anime cuteness, similar to the original anime. I'm not sure about Hotaru and Chibi-Usa naked in the opening sequence. 

Act 28 Infinity 1 Premonition (Second Part)

Usagi arrives home late, saying she ate at Mako's. Chibi-Usa is going to a fair with Mamoru and it makes Usagi jealous. Usagi's mom breaks them apart. Usagi wants to go to the park but Mamoru reminds her she has to research Mugen Academy with the girls. He has a Tuxedo Kamen communicator too. At the base, the cats talk about the three areas that make a triangle, that is a real city Sankaksu. Back at Kaolinte's forest, she wants to target the five Sailor Guardians, she assigns the Witches 5 to it. They want to be given the title of magus. They will get power form the Taioron Crystal. They must gather hosts. Eudial says to leave it to them.

The next morning, the five girls are in front of the three buildings that Rei says has a bad aura and Ami says have strange energy. Minako feels as if someone is watching them again. Meanwhile, Asanuma and Mamoru chaperone the kids. Mamoru buys juice for the classmates of Chibi-Usa, who looses her hat in a rollercoaster. She goes after the hat and leaves her friend. The girl tells Mamoru who freaks out and leaves the kids with Asanuma. Chibi-Usa ends up at Mugen Academy. Usagi uses her Luna Pen and transforms into a Mugen Academy student and enters by herself. The sun goes down. Usagi hears Michiru's violin music, so does everyone else around like Chibi-Usa and Mamoru. Usagi finds Michiru. Haruka arrives in front of the four girls. Michiru says Usagi is fearless and that the place is dangerous and this will be her ruin. Haruka tells the others to go, that if they get in her way, there will be no mercy. 

A student calls Usagi out and she runs away. Usagi thinks back to Michiru, saying her body went into shock and Michiru can be an enemy. Chibi-Usa finds her hat and finds she is near the Tomoe lab and bumps into Hotaru, who seems to be hurting. She says it happens a lot. Usagi finds the two. Eudial makes a cat into a monster and Usagi and Chibi-Usa run away. They bump into the four girls. They reunite. Neptune and Uranus watch. The six transform and do their roll call speeches. Hotaru saw this. Mercury scans the monster and sees it has dangerous claws. 

The Witches 5 appear. Mercury does her Aqua Mist and Mars does Burning Mandala and hit the monster. The monster tries biting the two Sailor Moons and they run away. Chibi-Usa protects Hotaru. Jupiter does Sparkling Wide Pressure. Venus does Love-Me Chain and the monster falls. Sailor Moon uses her rod and destroys the monster with Moon Spiral Heart Attack. The egg is removed from the cat, shocking the five Guardians. The Witches 5 disappear. Mamory reunites with the Guardians. Hotaru continues suffering and asks who is Chibi-Moon. Sailor Moon freaks out about the identities. Chibi-Moon introduces herself and the Sailor Guardians.

Chibi-Usa has a injury and Hotaru heals it. Hotaru says it freaks people out. Mars, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Chibi-Moon and Mamoru see Uranus and Neptune and they leave. Uranus takes off her mask. Sailor Moon says they look like Sailor Guardians. 

Review:

I think this episode was clumsily written like the first season, everything was placed like kids blocks. Hotaru just so happened to be outside of the school. The fair just so happened to be near the school. And Usagi doesn't get in trouble with the school. Also Michiru's dialogue is strange. Also Kaolinite's hideout kind of looks like Queen Beryl's from season 1 of Crystal. I do like that the Witches 5 are actually witches and not scientists like in Sailor Moon S. 

Act 28 Infinity 2 Ripples

Hotaru collapses and is attended to by Kaolinite and reprimanded by Hotaru. Professor Tomoe comes and tells Hotaru to be nice to her as she took care of her since her mom died. Hotaru says she kisses up to her dad and doesn't care she is his assistant. She leaves. Professor admits he spoiled her.  Hotaru is sleeping and Progessor comes to her asking about the medicine, she says it doesn't work. He gives her a crystal amulet that will protect her. 

She thinks back to his touch, that his hand is cold. She holds the crystal in her hand, saying the pain disappeared. She says she never had attacks like this before and wonders how long she has. At the computer base, the cats and senshi talk about Uranus and Neptune. Usagi wonders why they haven't come forward. Mamoru wonders if they are enemies. Luna shows them pictures of Michiru and Haruka, being people of interest. Minako wonders why they were mean. Chibi-Usa is sad, she is thinking about Hotaru. 

Usagi thinks back to Hotaru and wonders about her healing power. Back in Kaolinite's temple, she says the power of Sailor Moon is similar to the Taioron Crystal and she knows Hotaru witness the senshi fighting the monster. Kaolinite wants to get that power, which might bring destruction to them. She dips a water crystal in a fountain and is told of three lights, they say to awaken the three tailsmans. Mamoru wakes up to this message as well. Kaolinite's message is stopped. Mamoru awakes and looks out the window with Usagi and Chibi-Usa sleeping in bed. 

The next morning, Michiru was going to do a reading on her mirror but it was interrupted. Haruka hugs her from behind. She says what they are doing probably is meaningless. Michiru says it is too late, the gears of fate are turning, a new awakening is coming. They face each other, close together and Michiru says they must get the tailsmans. In a bookstore, Mamoru reads up on the professor and is found out by Michiru, who says Tomoe was expelled from academic work long ago because Mugen Academy is into sorcery. A girl confronts Michiru, saying she is a fan and wants an autograph because she is a violinist. Michiru gives Mamoru two tickets to her next concert. Usagi sees them together and is jealous. Usagi thinks she is Sailor Neptune. She runs into the arcade and is stopped by Haruka, who looks like Sailor Uranus, she asks her and she laughs it off. Usagi thinks she is a boy and that it is ridiculous. 

Mako is planning Rei's birthday party and finds out Rei is in a temple in the mountains training. Kaolinite calls Eudial to be in charge o the next mission, who transforms into a academy student. Rei is mediating under a waterfall (which Kaolinite detects near Eidual) when Rei gets the message about the three tailsmans. Mako comes and interrupts Rei's thoughts. The girls have all come and give them presents and Mako gives Rei a birthday cake she made. Mako notices Mugen Academy is there and wonders if Rei knew and she said it was half-the reason she came in. Mako asks why she didn't tell her and she said she wasn't sure about the hunch and didn't want Usagi involved. They go to the camp after hearing shouting and Mako does a judo match with Haruka (who munches bumping into Usagi) and loses. The girls reprimand Haruka for beating up a girl, she says the gender doesn't matter. 

 

Haruka says how can they protect their love ones like that. Eudial screams at the five and they run off. At night, Makoto and Rei go into the forest and find Eudial doing a ceremony to new students around a bonfire. The kids are like zombies. A star appears in the fire and then on their foreheads. Their energy is transferred into the fire. Mars and Jupiter transform and do their speeches. Eudial shows her true form and introduces herself. Mars does Mars Snake Fire. Fire gets thrown at them. Usagi and the others see the explosions and join in. Mercury does her Aqua Mist and saves Mars and Jupiter. Moon does her Moon Spiral Heart Attack and destroys Eudial. The kids faint. The Witches 5 are on the roof and disappear. Mars tells the others they are called Death Busters. They see Sailor Uranus in the air. Moon runs after her, and catches up to her, Uranus kisses Moon on the lips. 

Review:

There sure is ripples in this episode. I like how the gang go to another location like in the original anime. Season 2 had no time for that. The kiss at the end shocked me, as I haven't read the manga but it was indeed in the manga. I find it interesting that in the succeeding manga years, the rivals for Usagi's affection have been girls like Haruka and Seiya. Anyway, I liked this episode. It felt longer than the others and felt more cinematic and had scope.