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Sailor Moon Sailor StarS
This was the final season of Sailormoon for the 1992-1997
series. By itself, this Arc makes 28 episodes. If you add in the previous
six, you get 34. This season ran from May 11, 1996 to February 8, 1997. This is the first season to completely run without
Chibiusa or Luna-P. Chibiusa only appears in a dream sequence and in a
picture Usagi gazes into, though the picture erases her sometime after
Mamoru's plane explodes. Chibiusa, Diana and Luna-P return to the 30th
Century off screen, prior to episode 173. For the first time since Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Senshi are
shown transformed in something other than a Sailor Fuku. The Starlights wear
leather, dominatrix gear when transformed. If we add in the Animamates, most
of them also wear sexy lingerie or short dresses, in place of the traditional
costume. Even in the manga, the omitted from television Sailor Senshi also
wear non-Sailor uniforms. Chi, Lethe and Mnemosyne wear Greek inspired
dresses, while Phi wears a pantsuit. Heavy Metal Papillion wears sexy lingerie
and Sailor Cosmos wears a Sailor dress and cape. Chibiusa and Hotaru's age comes into question here. In the
manga by this point, Hotaru looks like her old self at 12 or 13, albeit shorter
now, as her original body had been surgically altered by her father to appear
older. Chronologically, she should be roughly 13 going on 14. Chibiusa
attends the 3rd grade with her. Chibiusa turns 903 years old, but
has the body of a 13 year old. Here however, Toei has made Chibiusa look
about 9 or 10, and Hotaru look about 8 or 9, depending on the scene. She only
has a few scenes with her appropriate 12 year old face. This season is so radically different from the manga, most
fans consider it it's very own series. At this point, Toei Animation and
Naoko Takeuchi had a falling out, and the company was impatient, and did not
want to wait for Takeuchi-san to finish writing the story for this Arc. So,
they decided to make up a new story without her input at all. The same time,
they pulled the same stunt on Akira Toriyama, who had ended Dragonball Z in
1995. They were not happy with his decision to return to work on Dr. Slump
and Dragon Quest, so they took the liberty of making their own series called
Dragonball GT. Both manga-ka were enraged, but not as much as their fans, who
felt Toei didn't care about them enough to stick to the original principals
of either series. Initially, both shows had respectable ratings, but ratings
on both nosedived as fans grew agitated with Toei's output. Toei did however influence how Seiya, Taiki and Yaten
would look. Originally, Takeuchi-san drew all three with short hair. Toei did
not want this look, as they had already licensed Bandai to make dolls of the
trio with long hair, hoping to win back female fans who had lost interest
last season. As a compromise, Naoko added long rattails to all three. The
horrendous rattail, which even in japan by this time was starting to go out
in popularity, is seen by some fans as a middle finger to Toei, especially
when it comes to Yaten, who now has the longest mullet in the series. The manga did not end until March of 1997, one whole month
after the final episode of Sailor StarS aired. As such, many story elements
were dropped from the final anime. Sailor Lethe, Mnemosyne, Heavy Metal Papillion, Phi, Chi,
and the "true" Star Sailor Senshi of Sailor Chu, Mau, Mermaid and
Coronis were all omitted. Also omitted was "Fatty Mask", Chibiusa's
friend Ruruna, and Naru's baby sister Naruru, who until this point had not
appeared before. In this anime, Princess Kakyuu is only seen for a few
episodes, and is physically weak. She is killed by Galaxia. In the manga
however, she transforms into Sailor Kakyuu, and has several attacks. She is
killed by Sailor Chi. She's only seen briefly as somewhat weak, because by
the time Chibi Chibi finds her, she has just barely survived a fight with Galaxia,
which resulted in her husband being killed and her planet destroyed. One controversial change surrounds Chibi Chibi. In the
manga, Chibi Chibi has disguised herself as a rambunctious two year old with
a stunted vocabulary. Her true identity is Sailor Cosmos, an alternate,
future universe form of Sailor Moon. She comes from an alternate universe, in
which Usagi runs away from the final battle with Chaos, and as a result,
watches everything except herself die. In this anime however, Chibi Chibi is
the living embodiment of Sailor Galaxia's Starseed. She exists, because at
one point, Sailor Galaxia was a true Sailor Senshi, who absorbed Chaos in a
desperate attempt to seal him. As a result, she forced out her Starseed,
which became Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon. The name Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon has a
slightly different origin. In the manga, Eternal Sailor Moon at first
addresses her as Sailor Chibi Chibi, then asks her if "Moon" should
be added, because she does not know if Chibi Chibi is her daughter or granddaughter.
In this anime however, Eternal Sailor Moon just blurts out "Sailor Chibi
Chibi Moon" without thinking about who the kid really is. Sailor Cosmos
is but isn't seen in episode 200. We see a silhouette of an adult Chibi
Chibi, transformed. The costume is similar to Sailor Cosmos, but features
different shoes. The ending is drastically different as well. In the manga,
everyone except for Sailor Moon, Chibi Chibi, Kakyuu and the Starlights is
killed, so the team travels to the end of the universe to confront Sailor
Galaxia. As they travel, the Starlights are killed, and Chibi Moon returns
with the Amazoness Quartet to help. Kakyuu is killed by Sailor Chi. Once at Galaxia's
castle, which is overlooking the Cauldron, the reanimated bodies of Tuxedo
Mask and the Inner and Outer Senshi attack Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon, and
Chibi Moon starts to figure out that Chibi Chibi is her mother, but before
she can say anything, Tuxedo Mask falls into the Cauldron, and Chibiusa is
put out of existence. Eventually, Galaxia dies when she tries to reach for
Sailor Moon, but is disintegrated alive from Sailor Moon's natural, peaceful
energy. Chibi Chibi reveals herself to be Sailor Cosmos. Sailor Moon falls
into the Cauldron, taking Chaos with her. Sailor Ceres figures out that Usagi
and Cosmos are the same person, and after telling her story, Cosmos sends the
four girls back to the 30th Century. Inside the Cauldron, everyone
is resurrected, and Chibiusa appears with wings, and says her final goodbyes
before returning to the 30th Century. Cosmos's Starseed appears as
guardian Cosmos, and tells of how Queen Serenity once appeared here, pregnant
with Princess Serenity. Usagi chooses for everyone to pick up their lives
where they left off and continue "as they were" and everyone is
sent home. Usagi and Mamoru have sex, and Usagi can see an image of Crystal
Tokyo being built. The two get married, and at the wedding, Usagi informs
Mamoru that she's pregnant with Chibiusa. Mamoru remarks that new Sailor
Senshi will be born, but Usagi will remain his shining star. In this anime
however, the season ends where everyone dies except the Sailor Senshi, then
one by one, the Inners are killed off. Uranus and Neptune join Galaxia's team
and kill Pluto and Saturn, then Galaxia kills them when Uranus turns on
Galaxia. Galaxia kills Usagi, but Chibi Chibi prays for Usagi, resulting in
Usagi coming back to life as Princess Serenity. Chibi Chibi becomes a living
sword (WHAT??) but is broken when Serenity refuses to fight Galaxia, who by
now has fused with Chaos to become Sailor Chaos. (EXCUSE ME??) Chibi Chibi
dies, and Usagi turns naked. (What the flying fuck??) Usagi still refuses to
fight, and instead heals Galaxia, forcing Chaos to disperse. The two girls
stand naked in the sky, and Galaxia promises to restore to life everyone
whose Starseeds she took. After she leaves, Mamoru comes back to life as
Prince Endymion, and is led back to Usagi by a resurrected Chibi Chibi, while
the other Sailor Senshi also return to life. Kakyuu is restored, and the
Starlights bid their farewells and return to outer space. This season featured a strong array of nudity, violence,
death and people wearing S&M costumes. Due to this, Cartoon Network
wanted nothing to do with this season at all. When Cloverway tried to get the
rights to the season, they did ask if Cartoon Network would at least air a
slightly edited version on Toonami's Midnight Run, since Cloverway knew the
run was going to turn into what is now Adult Swim. The network again refused,
as they did not want to jeopardize putting a then edited for tweens show onto
an adult block, for fear of backlash. This is ironic, as the same adult block
has since aired Dragonball Z Kai, which is a re-edit of Dragonball Z, which
originally aired censored after Sailor Moon on the same block. Other shows
Cartoon Network originally aired for kids that they later put onto Adult
Swim's block or Adult Swim's Toonami include Voltron, Dragonball Z, DragonBall
GT, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Big O and Gundam Wing, the latter three of
which actually helped launch Toonami Midnight Run with a replay of season one
of Sailor Moon, and eventually started Adult Swim, making Cartoon Network's
argument moot and foolish. It didn't matter however, as Toei pulled the plug
on Cloverway getting anymore episodes. Irwin Toys planned to make a toyline for this season. On
their website, they had bios available for Chibi Chibi and Princess Kakyuu,
the latter of whom was renamed "Princess Fireball" but the company
went bankrupt before producing a prototype. Viz Media is the only company in the US to officially have
the rights to this season, however fans and bootleggers alike have made their
own "DiC style edits" to the show, as there was a rumor that after
Cloverway lost the show, DiC would return to pick it up. This never came to
be, as DiC had financial problems, and would eventually be bought out by
Cookie Jar. DiC did however use a few screenshots from select episodes for a
few trading cards. Doing an eBay search will occasionally produce a "RiRi"
doll. These bootlegs stem from the rumor that if DiC or Cloverway had gotten
the series, Chibi Chibi would become RiRi and Sailor Mini Mini Moon, in honor
of Chibiusa. Adding together Kakyuu, Tuxedo Mask, the Starlights and
Chibi Chibi to the original cast, the total for official Guardians for this
season is 16. If we throw in the Animamates that were shown for this season,
the number goes up to 21. If we count adult Chibi Chibi/Sailor Cosmos and
Sailor Chaos as two separate entities, then it jumps to 23. If the manga-only
Animamates were added, this number goes to 28, and then if you add the
Amazoness Quartet, the number goes to 32. Adding Mermaid, Coronis, Chu and
Mau would have made this jump to a whopping 36 Sailor Guardians, the largest
amount of Sailor Senshi in any given arc. |
Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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