Oh jeez, I am so conflicted about this volume. Just like everyone else, I found some positives about it, but also there were some negatives that *really* creeped me TF out, or were just really irritating. WTH, let’s just roll with it:
The Positives:
- The artwork is still effing gorgeous. Ms. Takeuchi never fails on that score, and I continue to love the new artwork she made for the covers. *coos*
- Mamoru actually gets some powers. I watched the original DiC translation of the anime back as a tween/early teen, and one of my biggest peeves even then was that Mamoru (or Darien, as he was called in that version) was pretty much Usagi’s/Serena’s arm candy. The man threw roses at people, said a few inspirational or defiant words (depending on who he was talking to), and then pretty much jumped here and there to keep Sailor Moon from getting blasted to dust. Like, dude, you’re the fucking reincarnated Prince of Earth. Don’t tell me you don’t have abilities on par with the rest of the Senshi, if not Usagi herself. Of course, in subsequent translations, we did learn a little bit about his abilities, but my brain is still kind of imprinted on the DiC translation, which only ran through the first two seasons where his sole purpose was to make Usagi swoon and/or angst. But anyway, rant aside, I loved that Mamoru has the power of psychometry, can talk to his sort-of-dead Shitennou, culminating in an actual energy-based attack. Hooray for not making Mamoru useless! Very cool touch.
- Diana, the daughter of Luna and Artemis – ADORABLE KITTY IS ADORABLE!
- Venus kicking all kinds of ass and being the only one of the Inner Senshi who doesn’t get kidnapped and held prisoner.
- Sailor Pluto FTW! So freaking badass, and not to mention terrifying!
And then come…
The Negatives:
- OMFG. Crop circles? Alien abductions? UFOS? *facepalm* Damn, but I do not remember things being this cheesy.
- Chibi-Usa being 900 years old. I remember the first time I read a translation of the manga and being so intrigued by that little factoid (since it hadn’t made it into any of the anime I’d seen at that point). Now… um… Okay, I can get behind something stopping her from aging physically – that’s something that’s been done before. I refer you to Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, where there was the child-vampire Claudia, a human girl turned into a vampire as a young girl and who remained that age physically, never growing into a physical adult (or, if you’re like me and refuse to touch any of Anne Rice’s books anymore, just watch the movie). The idea that Chibi-Usa is 900 years old but still looks like a 5-year-old is not so far out there. What I can’t get around is that she is 900 years old and still *acts* like a 5-year-old. She’s lived her life all that time, right? She didn’t go into some kind of deep sleep like her mom did when she got crystal-fied. So how the hell did she not learn and grow from her experiences? How does she not have the mind of an adult trapped in the boy of a 5-year-old (which, tbh, is equally as horrifying, but still)? Has she essentially been in kindergarten for the past 900 years, never passing onto the next grade level?
- Usagi being jealous of a 5-year-old, and actually implying that Chibi-Usa wants to do grown up things with Mamoru. My god, but this whole thing just freaks me TF out like nobody’s business. The incest intimations here were so freaking creepy, and this is coming from someone who watched Game of Thrones. And that Usagi continued to be jealous and insecure over her relationship with Mamoru and his bond with Chibi-Usa was really wearing. We saw Usagi go through the whole uncertainty thing when Mamoru was brainwashed into being Queen Beryl’s flunky/possible boy-toy in the first season, being torn about his evilness vs. him being the guy who saved her and made her heart beat really *really* fast. It doesn’t seem necessary to have to revisit that kind of plotline again, particularly when tacking on the incestuous overtones. *shudders*
- Sailor Pluto. I mark her as a positive and a negative. I would absolutely *love* to go at least one season where someone isn’t suffering unrequited love for Mamoru. Or, in Demande’s case, suffering unrequited lust for Usagi and giving us those vaguely rapey hints. Ugh.
So yeah, I’m conflicted, and rather irked by a lot of what came up – and I do recall what is to come up next, since this volume concluded with Chibi-Usa’s abduction by the Wiseman. *sigh* Gotta get through it, and then we can get on to the next season where, IIRC, Chibi-Usa is slightly less irritating.