Sailor Moon manga or anime

[The Count]

Well... If Emerald is to meet the same fate as Rubius eventually, my suspicion would be it'd be Sapphire's turn to do battle with the Scouts of the past. Unless some other gemstone-named general asserts their claim to take up the fight.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Well wait and see when all is revealed Ed. I guarantee you're gonna absolutely love it.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Sorry to disappoint you Ed but I haven't had time to begin watching disc 13 yet. I thought I'd better bump it up since it was beginning to slip away.
But I will watch more very soon now and I promise the commentaries will continue.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Okay I have watched the latest disc in its entirety. A change of the usual in presentation. Up until now the Sailor Moon dvds have all had 6 episodes on them but the 13th disc has only 5 episodes. I shall probably take my commentary a little at a time as I think about what to say about the relevant events.

Well for starters in the first two episodes Emerald has failed in her plans yet again. She loses another assistant in the first episode and in the second she has two assistants. A brother team named Doom and Gloom and each brother has a separate wedge to cultivate of his very own. The brothers get people at the school little Rini is attending to violently fight with each other and the wedges actually do grow very, very huge with all the negative energy they are infusing them which delights Emerald. Things take a very interesting turn though when Doom and Gloom attack Rini with the Scouts and a friend of Rini's gets in the way of their shocking zap. She had been under their spell and tried to attack Rini at the moment the brothers shot at her. She isn't seriously hurt though she is knocked out. Rini is so furious at seeing her friend hurt that she generates such awesome power and zaps the twins forcing them to retreat. Back in the future the Wiseman senses what has just happened and tells Prince Diamond they should use Rini's power to their advantage. If they can somehow get ahold of her and brainwash her over to their side they can increase their strength, he explains convincing the Prince.
Meanwhile Sailor Moon meets Doom and Gloom in battle shortly afterwards and terminates them both and as usual the wedges which were growing into giants explode as well. Emerald re-appears and prepares to blast the scouts when Diamond telepathically stops her commanding her to return to the future for they are changing their strategy. Reluctantly she departs defiantly laughing at the Scouts telling them she will be back to get them later on.
Even though Prince Diamond doesn't coldly kill Emerald for failure the way Queen Beryl used to do I told my friend I think he really told her how bad she was as Rubeous, in his own sort of way. And he said he thought so too.
The epilogue of that episode sets the stage for the other three on the disc. Rini says she really wants to return to the future to save her mother and asks if Sailor Moon, the other Scouts, Tuxedo Mask and even Luna and Artemis will all go back with her to help. They all solemnly promise and Rini is so delighted. So it's onto the rest of the storyline thus far.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I thought I'd start a new post for the rest of the disc.
Everybody has gathered together and Rini has used her magic time travel key pleading with it to work this time and send her and all her friends back to the future. And it does succeed. They all travel to their first port of call, the door to time, where they meet Sailor Pluto. She and Rini are so happy to see each other and she opens the door bidding them good luck. When asked can't she accompany them she says No. It is her appointed task to keep guarding the door to time forever and they leave her as they all hold hands and enter the time stream, the cats holding onto Tuxedo Masks arm and shoulder. Luna says she's heard Serena's mother, Queen Serenity talk about Sailor Pluto. A mysterious person, given the lonely job of staying by the door to time. They're all very priveleged to have met her. People seldom do.
While travelling through the time warp they run into another minion of Prince Diamond. Very powerful, but by co-operating they are able to dispatch her and finally arrive in the future to find Earth a barren wasteland.
While they are searching around a figure resembling Tuxedo Mask approaches them. He introduces himself as King of the Earth and Darian's future self. It turns out he's a holographic image as the real king is in hiding. He explains that the earth was plagued by a catastrophe that froze it in ice and everybody alive at the time was suspended in dormancy sleeping until the 30th century when Serena's future self somehow awakened and used the magic Imperium Crystal to un-freeze the earth and awaken everybody else. Then she and Darian were married and became King and Queen of the world. Furthermore Rini is their daughter. All this is mind-boggling to Serena and Darian.
Darian's future self, or the King as he is always referred to admits that he was the one who gave both of them their dreams warning them to stay away from each other as a test of how strongly devoted they were for the sake of their hopes of beating Prince Diamond in their own time and they are pleased to be told they pass the test. Yes I told my friend it is weak logic story-wise, but who ever said a fantasy had to be logical?
The followers of Prince Diamond were originally members of the happy kingdom on earth who were banished for rebellion against their sovereigns and they were able to return for revenge when the Silver Crystal mysteriously disappeared from the palace. Without its magic protection the invasion was a disaster. Everybody including the queen is asleep again except for the king and the other four Scouts future selves who are fastened to a power rod utilising their combined strength to keep the enemy at bay while the kingdom sleeps. Serena attempts to awaken her future self with her own Silver Crystal but it doesn't work.
Earlier she had actually been captured by Prince Diamond and she couldn't use it to transform while he had changed her into the splitting likeness of the queen he has his heart set upon claiming for himself. He attempted to hypnotize Serena into loving him but Tuxedo Mask tracked them down and rescued her. The Prince was side-tracked by a mysterious gale blowing in his face while they made their escape. Emerald is seen outside as they race off. She did that to allow them to get away apparently for she fancies Prince Diamond and is bitter that he wants to win Sailor Moon to his heart. Sapphire makes this clear by admonishing her but he won't report her because he says he wishes she'd forget about the Prince and give him a chance for he has true feelings for her. She laughs at his admission and calls him poor little Sapphire.

Anyway when Sailor Moon fails to wake her mother Rini runs away crying. Tuxedo Mask tells the scouts to leave her alone for she been through so much and she's perfectly safe inside the castle area. But he under-estimates the danger for The Wiseman himself finds Rini on a swing in the castle grounds crying and immobilizes her when she tries to run away. Probing into her mind he discovers her secret guilty memory. She was naughty and snuck into the room where her mother and father kept the Silver Crystal inside a glass case. She wasn't allowed to touch it but she just wanted to hold it a moment and to her horror it vanished into thin air. Playing with her mind he implants images of the Scouts and her mother pointing fingers at her and screaming it's all her fault that this disaster has come upon them. He casually appeals to her senses telling her how unkind they all are. If she will but come with him he can help make them realize that she only made a simple mistake. His brainwashing wins and she gives him her hand and they disappear together.

Sapphire is fearful that the Prince is going to jeopardize their chances of success with his mad infatuation with their enemy Sailor Moon and mentions it to Emerald. He's also dubious of the Wiseman's egging on of Prince Diamond over bringing Rini to their side. He feels they should have a better plan for their conquest. She promises to speak to the Wiseman about these concerns but when she goes to see him he side-steps the purpose of her visit and says he can see her future in his crystal ball. Her attention is captivated as he says he sees her as Queen Emerald ruling with Prince Diamond through the power of the Dark Crystal. She is so vain and ambitious she demands this power from the Dark Crystal and the Wiseman bestows it. But to Emerald's horror when it enters her body it transforms her into an enormous dragon that the Wiseman sends out to attack the Scouts at the palace. When they see it coming they all fight, including Tuxedo Mask and they weaken the dragon enabling Sailor Moon to destroy it with her Moon Sceptre. After the Dragon is dead the King tells them all that Rini has disappeared.

Back in his chamber The Wiseman is saying to himself "Good riddance to Emerald. And very soon Sapphire and Diamond will be joining her. I won't need them any longer. I'll have enough power and nothing, nobody will be able to stop me." As he laughs we can hear Rini also laughing though we cannot see her anywhere.

My friend was completely taken aback to hear the Wiseman say that. He thought that he was truly in league with Prince Diamond and that he would reward him handsomely for his collaboration. What can he possibly stand to gain by betraying the Prince? That was the big question on which disc 13 ended. So next we had our final disc number 14 where the answer would be revealed.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Incidentally before I begin the review for disc 14, I thought I'd share that the three story-arches remind me a little about the Indiana Jones trilogy.

What I mean is that just as the Nazis appear as the bad guys in the first and third installments so we have had a mafia-like society under Queen Beryl in the first story-arch and a different sort of mafia structure with unusual plot twists in the third story-arch. And the second story-arch with just the strange alien couple is as unique from the others as the second Indiana Jones movie is from the others.
My friend said he probably wouldn't think of them in those exact terms as he finds it hard to think of Prince Diamond's conspiracy as another "mafia" by the style of it and I said that's okay. We all look at things differently.

Of course however you look at it the comparison with Indiana Jones does fall apart in that there is no actual continuity between Raiders, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade. They are set in 1936, 1935 and 1938 respectively whereas the Sailor Moon trilogy are proper sequels to each other.

Anyway I thought you might find that some interesting food for thought and next time I shall be ready to post my reviews on the conclusion of the third story-arch.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Disc 14 has only 5 episodes on it just like disc 13.
I've seen two of them and the story is really getting intriguing.

The Wiseman has been successfully brainwashing young Rini into believing that nobody loves her. He probes into her mind hypnotically distorting her memories so that she thinks her mother and father are cold, un-caring parents and that her friends the Scouts are no better. The worst trick of all is to make her think they were too busy to care about her birthday.
Having turned her twisted and bitter he uses the power of the Dark Crystal to advance her age to young womanhood and names her Wicked Lady.
He presents her to Prince Diamond and says she will be a great ally to them. They must go back into the past and plant a portion of the Dark Crystal in the middle of the city. As their crystal in the future transforms energy to the crystal in the past it will grow larger and infect the city until it is subdued with negative energy. Thus the Prince will conquer the past and the future will be under his domination as well. This pleases Prince Diamond but after Wiseman and Wicked Lady have departed Sapphire appears and tells the Prince he doesn't think the Wiseman should be trusted. He says he thinks he deceived Emerald by coaxing her into some sort of weird experiment that brought about her death but Prince Diamond won't listen. He says it's worth the sacrifice of losing one of their own if it means getting revenge upon the people of Earth who banished them to this distant place where they met the Wiseman many years ago. They owe their power to him. It's because of him that they're so close to acheiving their goal so he won't hear any more criticism aimed at the Wiseman. With that Prince Diamond goes back into the past with Wicked Lady and plants the crystal.

Sailor Pluto tells all the goodies that Rini has been taken back into the past by the enemy and they've changed her somehow. That's all she can tell them and they all head home quickly when Pluto opens the door to time for them. By the time they arrive back the crystal is enormous and they meet Wicked Lady. The Prince has apparently gone back to the future leaving her to meet the Scouts. When she takes out her favourite ball that resembles Luna's head and fondles it they recognize her as Rini and they fight against her magic attacks. Sailor Moon eventually uses the power of her Imperium Crystal to heal her brainwashing and it starts to succeed. Wicked Lady remembers that they hadn't really ignored her birthday. They gave her a surprise party. But the Wiseman appears in a holographic image and counter-acts the healing telling her not to be deceived by lies and illusions. She succumbs to him and departs saying that she'll be back to settle matters. Everybody is very worried for her.

Meanwhile back in the future Sapphire is eavesdropping upon the Wiseman and overhears him talking to himself about how he'll soon get rid of that sap Prince Diamond when the Dark Crystal generates enough energy in the past to bring forth his Master, the Doom Phantom. When he comes forth he will spread his dark power over the entire universe and wipe out all traces of earth and the other worlds. Life will be totally extinguished in the name of the Doom Phantom. Hearing this Sapphire runs to the Dark Crystal and removes the control chip cutting off the flow of energy, but Wiseman had sensed somebody moving away and fights Sapphire. He teleports himself to the past though he was badly wounded and eventually collapses. When he awakens he finds himself in bed and Prisma sitting nearby. She and her sisters had found him and carried him to their home. Outside the bedroom door Katzi and Bertie are worried Sapphire may have come to execute them as traitors but Avery says they shouldn't worry and just leave them alone for awhile for at one time Prisma and Sapphire were in love. Indeed they are rekindling their old flame as they talk about how he notices she has changed since Sailor Moon healed her of all her negativity and she testifies as to how happy she and her sisters are to have renounced their evil ways. Finally he tells her he must try to warn Prince Diamond. She pleads with him not to go but he says he must for Prince Diamond is his own big brother and he can't sit back and let the Wiseman destroy him. If she were in his position and one of her sisters was in danger, she'd feel the same wouldn't she? She sadly agrees and he gives her his jacket to give back to him when he returns as a pledge.
When he leaves she asks Katzi to call the Scouts and ask them to help protect Sapphire and so she does.
Sapphire tries to contact Diamond but he's interrupted by Wicked Lady who attacks him but the scouts show up and take her attention away from Sapphire allowing him to address his brother who is floating up in the air above him. Diamond demands to know why Sapphire has betrayed him. Sapphire says he would never betray his own brother. He has to tell him something very important.
A short distance away Wicked Lady almost gets the upper hand over the scouts when Tuxedo Mask appears and halts her attack with a rose (what else would you expect ) and he calls out to Prince Diamond that if he really trusts his brother he had better listen to what he has to tell him for his own good. The Prince says okay and asks Sapphire what is the urgent matter. But suddenly and blast of negative energy shoots down from further above surrounding Sapphire. Diamond turns around and orders Wiseman to stop, but Wiseman says even if he is his brother they must punish traitors and silences Sapphire with an even stronger blast as he tries to tell Diamond to ask Wiseman about the Doom Phantom. He levitates the stoltn computer chip for the Dark Crystal out of Sapphires' pocket and grabs it saying "Come. We must get the crystal in operation again. Forget about that traitor. He got what was coming to him." He disappears along with Wicked Lady as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask run up to the body regretting that they were too far away to intervene. The other scouts show grief and Sailor Moon cries "Sapphire. Hold on. You can't leave Prisma. You can't." But he is tragically dead and Diamond slowly approaches. The others move aside allowing him to bend down and pick up his brother's body in his arms. Prince Diamond cries for a moment, then he grits his teeth and says bitterly, "Wiseman." Then he turns and dematerializes with his brother's corpse.
Back at the sister's home Prisma seems to instinctively sense that Sapphire is never coming back and clutches his jacket tightly to her saying, "Sapphire, where-ever you are, you'll live inside my heart forever. I'll always remember that smile you gave me. Too bad it was your last."

 

[MartyMuppets]

But suddenly a blast of negative energy shoots down from further above surrounding Sapphire. Diamond turns around and orders Wiseman to stop, but Wiseman says even if he is his brother they must punish traitors and silences Sapphire with an even stronger blast as he tries to tell Diamond to ask Wiseman about the Doom Phantom. He levitates the stolen computer chip for the Dark Crystal out of Sapphires' pocket and grabs it

There were a couple of spelling errors I just had to fix up in this quote

 

[MartyMuppets]

I pointed out to my friend a couple of interesting points.

First of all there is a definite pattern contained within the Sailor Moon trilogy.
In the first story-arch there was Queen Beryl with the Negaforce.
In the second story-arch there was Alan and Anne with the Doomtree.
And now towards the very end of the third story-arch there has been The Wiseman with the Doom Phantom, though we were unaware of it till now.
Also it's interesting that the fact that Sapphire and the Prince were supposed to be brothers was concealed until just before Sapphire's tragic end. And between Prisma's grief and the grief of the Prince himself it is certainly the saddest moment of the saga since Molly lost her dear new friend Neflite way back in disc 4.
My friend was very curious as to how the last portion was going to turn out and he did of course. I shall explain that fersure the next time I'm ready to post in this cool thread.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Okay here's the conclusion of the third story-arch.
Since the Dark Crystal was made operational again in the future the one set up in the past has grown really huge and powerful terrorizing and worrying all the people of the city.
Wiseman tells Prince Diamond it is time to go back and unleash the Dark Crystal's power. The Prince is angry with him for disobeying his command and destroying his brother. He tells him that even if Sapphire was a traitor the decision to execute him was not Wiseman's to make and after the conquest is complete he will answer for his insubordination. The Wiseman chortles to himself knowing that he has the power to wipe out the foolish Prince anytime.

Meanwhile back in the past Tuxedo Mask has entered the Dark Crystal to try to find a way to destroy it. The Scouts all bust inside after him later on and a trap door opens and closes under Moon's feet cutting her off from all the others. She finds herself in a chamber with Prince Diamond who tries to hypnotize her into declaring love for him again. Her strong will resists his mind games and she appeals to his reasoning about how his poor brother tried to warn him about the influence the Wiseman is putting upon him when he was silenced forever. She says she has four good friends (the sisters) who used to work for his cause, who have found how wonderful living in peace and harmony instead of making war upon the earth is. Prince Diamond remembers what became of his beloved brother and finally begins to question the Wiseman.
Wiseman turns up and tells the Prince she is lying to him, but he says he isn't deceived anymore. The Wiseman says it doesn't matter. He has generated enough energy through the Dark Crystal to unleash the Doom Phantom and doesn't need Diamond anymore. Diamond now realized Sapphire was right all along and duels with Wiseman to avenge his death and also Emerald's. During the battle Wiseman attempts to blast Sailor Moon but the Prince protects her taking the deadly attack and wounded zaps the Wiseman blasting him into little pieces leaving his cloak and crystal ball. Prince Diamond slowly dies in Sailor Moon's arms expressing bitter regret over his actions. All he wanted was for his people to be able to leave their realm of banishment and live on the beautiful planet earth once again but he became too twisted up with desires of hatred and revenge. How he wishes he had the time to mend his ways and learn what Katzi and her sisters have come to learn. He says in effect that maybe all of us, Rubeous, Emerald and all the others Sailor Moon had killed in battle, may have been able to live in peace with her people of the earth Kingdom. Sailor Moon cries for him as he departs and he tells her she has a good heart. Unbeknowst to either of them the pieces of the Wiseman have been slowly fusing themselves together again. Perhaps the Doom Phantom was using his own diabolical power to resurrect his own servant and just as Diamond expires, he attacks her again but is deflected by a rose from Tuxedo Mask and the other Scouts appear a split second after his arrival. The Wiseman mocks them saying there's nothing they can do and Wicked Lady appears to do battle with them.
They all attempt to reason with her again but she won't listen. The Wiseman speaks against their words of love. Finally Sailor Moon uses the power of her Imperium Silver Crystal to transform herself into the exact image of her future self, Neo-Serenity, Queen of Earth. The sight of her shocks some sense into Wicked Lady and she closes her ears to the Wiseman. She realizes that she truly is loved and embraces Serenity and Tuxedo Mask. There is a brilliant flash of light and Wicked Lady turns back into sweet little Rini.
The Wiseman cries it is no consequence anyway since his master the Doom Phantom has now been unleashed and has taken up residence inside his body. Using him as a vessel the Doom Phantom will completely eradicate all life throughout the universe. Sailor Moon, still in the form of her future self vows to defeat them totally and fights with the power of the Silver Crystal. The Doom Phantom is too strong for her though she fights valiently. Rini starts to cry and one of her teardrops turns into another Silver Crystal. Rini realizes that when she touched the Crystal in the future and it vanished it went inside her body and only came out just now. Tuxedo Mask is reluctant to let her fight at first but he realizes they need to combine the Crystals of the Past and Future's power and so Rini transforms into a little princess and fights by her mother's side. The other Scouts add their power too and between them all they are able to obliterate the Wiseman and the Doom Phantom for good along with the Dark Crystal.
Afterwards it's time for everybody to say good-bye to Rini. Serena finds it the hardest of all and cries as she cuddles with her. Rini says "Thank you for everything, mummy." Then she uses the time key to go back home to the future. Serena reckons it's good-bye then. Darian puts his hand on her shoulder comfortingly and reminds her that they will see her again. In the future.
The story ends with Rini arriving back in the 30th century and re-uniting with the future-selves of the Scouts and her parents. Neo-Queen Serenity hugs her saying, "You have helped to save our world. Welcome home darling."

This isn't really the end of the series strictly. The fifth episode on the final disc consiste of bits and pieces of all three story-arches with the Scouts voices-over remarking upon their past battles and also debating whether Serena should still be the leader or if another one of them should better qualify. In the end they agree that Serena should stay leader and they should prepare to fight a new possible enemy that one of them has apparently seen in a dream. Also another one claims to have seen two more Sailor Scouts who ran away like lightning before she could address them. Maybe they'll be new allies. Sailor Pluto could have let them into their past through the door to time.
However Dic declined to go on to dub this fourth story-arch into English and a different company, Cloverway, eventually did so. I've asked at my comics shop if there are any plans to release the Cloverway dub and they've promised to keep checking their catalogues for me.
For the record my episode reference book says even though they are not identified as such the two scouts who cameo in this unique episode are Sailors Neptune and Uranus.
So unless I can get more dvds one day I have to consider my reviews as they stand, finished.

So if you Ed, or anybody else care to ask me questions I will be happy to supply some answers at my leisure.