Figured that so long as I'm prodding the idea of watching Fist of the North Star again, I might as well have another look at Sailor Moon.

Credit is due to @swabl for reminding me about it.

I did give it a whirl in 2013, but kind of bounced off it.

Well, if you apply the UK humanities marking scale, 30 is…no, nope, still bad.

I hope I never have to wear full white tie, it looks like a lot of work.

I realise this episode's been picked over many times by finer minds than mine.

So no doubt others have pointed out that this skeletal structure is atypical.

Second ep in some ways reminds of things I didn't like about this show.

On the other hand, its version of urban streetlight-twilight is good.

[mysterious lady flips tarot card revealing a dude who looks exactly like me being possessed by an infernal, energy-sapping force]
Me: is that good

[Since Eas-ter is approaching I will permit myself to mention that I liked it when they partly built a whole show round the fortune-teller.]

I get that this is a silly, out-of-bounds question as far as the show's concerned, but

Who the hell spares the time to deliver cutting remarks to teenagers while on their way to the kind of event that requires black tie?

I have to go out in black tie twenty-five times a year minimum, yet, oddly, I'm never tempted to start dropping sick burns on passers-by.

I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT times when precipitation is highly likely.

This one-off character is played by Norio Wakamoto, and—bonus—this is old enough that he's playing a character other than himself.

(I also like Wakamoto playing Wakamoto, but variety's nice.)

(This episode's a banger, but more on that later when I've properly finished watching it.)

Ep 6 is what I remember wishing the show was more often: more energetic, more coherently committed to one light horror idea.

In and of itself, it's very good fun.

I haven't seen much late-twentieth-century tokusatsu but I feel like this lair would fit right into that context.

The Jetavana Temple bells
Toll the passing of all things;
The good ep does not long endure,
The weak one rising in its turn.

Every communal-level happening in Sailor Moon so far, great or small, is an evil plot. This Jadeite fellow has strong Golgom energy.

I've only watched eight episodes yet I already want to apply the phrase 'long-suffering' to Usagi's mum.

Good /lord/.

For the impact frame collection.

Do you remember the ep of Kamen Rider Black in which they fight on top of a giant Dali clock in another dimension?

And they'd built a whole set for it, and the clock hands moved, and the hands were actually lethally sharp blades.

And by the end Black had broken off one of the clock hands and was fending the monster off with it?

Anyway, that was good.

I think I've got it, they represent the three aspects of humanity—reason, spirit, and screaming.

Okay, this ep was a bit more fun.

Impact frames for the collection.

Maybe fewer of this chap's introduction shots should look like they've come from a vampire film. Maybe.

Wish the show more looked like this more often.

Going to sue myself for whiplash after going from Army of Shadows last night to this this morning.

Why's this show so interested in romance?

I mean, I guess I see why. But it is dull.

This is old-fashioned fashion, all right.

I had grasped that Usagi's a disaster, but I'm concerned to learn that she's not the only one.

I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT the arcade.

The themes in this whole stretch of episodes have irritated me a bit.

Wikipedia tells me that the NHS owns more than a tenth of the world's remaining operative pagers.

(And that they announced a phase-out last year—but I doubt they've gotten round to it yet…)

Very good monster design and concept in this one.

What if, though, they were Gundam pilots?

Timely.

Summer. Is there anything this colour palette can't enhance? Probably not.

This sort of thing is why I don't go to the beach. I once spent two months in Greece and didn't go to the beach at all.

Anyway, one of the more solid episodes.

Please, someone help her.

The volume bar… is rabbits…

What is this ancient technology.

In a different context—in a different show—Mamoru's scary, fractured amnesia would garner its full measure of sympathy.

In /this/ show… well, like, maybe don't kiss the middle-schooler when she's drunk? Cripes.

'…au jour dit, inexorablement, ils seront réunis dans le cercle rouge.'

No, don't invite the middle-schooler out for coffee with your bro! Good grief. This would be unacceptable even if it was tea.

Same sound effect as the Shizuma Drive.

This continues to serve as a top-tier lair. One thing this show can't be faulted for is its lair content.

More impact frames.

A good touch here: whoever drew this carefully had Makoto's gaze track the smear itself in each frame.

I feel like there's a lot more of this kind of silliness per minute in this show than is normal. Could be wrong.

Effects like these moving rings were often animated in over live-action footage in old tokusatsu too.

They're one place where anime & live action are especially close.

I'm glad it's rapidly established that Makoto's also a disaster.

This tweet should probably be threaded in. https://twitter.com/buildknuckle/status/1249362275066150912

As I was saying, these brief, well-constructed interludes of Mamoru being deeply troubled are strong stuff, in and of themselves.

I think this monster's based on a terrible pun? He possesses a priest, id est 牧師, 'bokushi'.

(I neither speak Japanese nor read any of its writing systems, so I say this under correction.)

in the same spirit: sailor tomb

I suspect Anglophone audiences can be a bit thrown when a show of this ilk has a toy which is named using the English word 'stick'.

'Stick' is about as far from grandeur as English can get: Old English etymology, monosyllabic, usually learned in childhood.

English would prefer wand, or (better) staff or sceptre, I suspect.

Incidentally the Oxford English Dictionary entry for 'stick' as a noun mentions eels much more than you'd guess.

As you can see, Anglo-Norman French and Latin-as-used-in-England adopted 'stick' as a loanword for the unit eels were counted in.

This exemplifies the way many loanwords narrow in meaning when borrowed—like how English 'anime' has a narrower sense than Japanese 'anime'.

Anyway, very good closing shot for this ep, conveying a rare moment of reflection from Usagi.

Ah, burgers. Remember them?

If you were one of my students, young man, you would be in SO MUCH decanal hot water.