Welcome back to Mooniversity, our column for everything “Sailor Moon.” Having revisited all five seasons of the 1990s anime, we’re now going to take a look at the three theatrical films released during the show’s second, third and fourth years. Although they’re all standalone adventures, they share the titles of the concurrent seasons for promotional reasons. They are, as follows:
– Sailor Moon R: The Movie (1993, directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara), subtitled Promise of the Rose on the Pioneer Entertainment dub in 2000. The film introduces an alien called Fiore, who befriended Mamoru when they were children, and is now in thrall to the evil Xenian Flower. When he decides to take Mamoru to his homeworld, the five Guardians are forced to pursue him into space.
– Sailor Moon S: The Movie (1994, dir. Hiroki Shibata), subtitled Hearts in Ice on Pioneer’s 2000 dub. The first film based directly on the manga, this adapts the holiday special ‘The Lover of Princess Kaguya,’ where Luna falls in love with astronomer Kakeru, and Snow Queen Kaguya comes to conquer Earth.
– Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie (1995, dir. Hiroki Shibata), subtitled The Nine Sailor Guardians Unite! Miracle of the Black Dream Hole in Japan, and simply as Black Dream Hole by Pioneer in 2000. Here, Chibiusa is one of countless children kidnapped by Queen Badiane to absorb their dream energy, and the Guardians (except Saturn, who’s still a baby) team up with the fairy Perle to rescue them.
The first major quality of the movies is the sheer joy of getting to watch the ’90s anime in true high-definition: the animation is so crisp, you can almost smell the acetate of the cels they were xeroxed and painted on. They’re precious windows into how fluid and luminous the TV show’s characters and lighting could’ve been on a similar budget, while still possessing the earthiness of an artist’s work that imbues older anime with much more personality than many of their recent counterparts. It’s especially great to see higher quality versions of the series’ attacks and transformations, which makes it all the more of a shame we didn’t get a Sailor Stars movie for its new characters, or an appearance from Saturn.
The second major thing about this not-a-trilogy is that they’re very short, running roughly only 60 mins each! Tellingly, the first movie was paired with the short Make Up! Sailor Guardians, which acted as a recap of the show up until that point, while the third was fronted by Ami’s First Love (based on the ‘Entrance Exam Wars’ manga of the same name), bumping both to about 75 mins. (The second movie wound up being a severe case of middle-child syndrome apparently.) They all end fairly hurriedly after their respective climaxes, which is fair given kids would see the characters again the following week, but it does leave you feeling pretty wistful afterwards, especially since no one ever brings up the events of the movies on the show.
Which leads us to the next most notable aspect of these films, which is how they don’t appear to be in-continuity with the show. R and S aren’t especially egregious in this regard, but director Kunihiko Ikuhara was on record as saying the former was a “renewal” (ie. reboot) of the Makai Tree arc from the second season – it’s why the movie is so visually similar, with its emphasis on plant imagery, as well as Fiore’s resemblance to the characters Ail and An. (Ail and Fiore are even voiced by the same actor, Hikaru Midorikawa, in the Japanese audio.)
The S movie is a bit odd in the show’s context, given the tensions between the Inner Guardians and Uranus & Neptune there, but since it’s set during the holidays, it’s understandable things would be less intense between them. It’s SuperS that blatantly ignores the series, as Pluto is present when she’s supposed to be dead; moreover, it strains credulity that two evil queens (Badiane and Nehelenia) who harness dream energy would attack the same year, and that Chibiusa would form a bond with Perle — another light-haired boy dressed in white — at the same time she’s becoming involved with Helios.
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So which one is the best? Fans often recommend the R movie as an introduction for newcomers to the main five Guardians, Mamoru and Chibiusa, and with good reason: the climax of the film, where Usagi and friends stop an asteroid from falling to Earth to the tune of “Moon Revenge,” is a spellbinding and emotional sequence where all of the Guardians reflect on the joy their princess has brought into their lives – it is easily one of the best moments in the whole franchise. There’s also a lovely revelation that Usagi met Mamoru as a child after his parents’ accident, and a unique gay subtext to Fiore’s preoccupation with him.
However, I probably like the SuperS movie most of the three: it’s always fun to see the Inner and Outer Guardians team up, and the premise as a whole is a great spin on the legend of the Pied Piper. (I especially love the cheerfully eerie track sung by the sleepwalking kids, “Poupelin’s Flute and the Children.”) Badiane, who was designed by Naoko Takeuchi, is as imposing and majestic as any of the queens from the manga, and it was sweet to see the main five as kids during the credits. Perhaps it’s because of how weak the SuperS season was, but it feels like a far more worthwhile exploration of the themes from the manga equivalent, for which I’m thankful.
As for the S movie, much like its source material, it’s not especially memorable, despite the sequence where Human Luna and Kakeru go dancing in the stars, and the yuletide setting. However, there’s a fantastic moment invented for the Viz Media dub, during the scene when Tuxedo Mask throws a spinning top at one of Kaguya’s goons, where he exclaims “L’chaim!” To whoever working on the dub decided that, thank you: Mamoru making a dreidel joke is absolutely the coolest thing he’s ever done.
See you next time for a wider look at Americanizing the anime: and yes, that includes the so-called Saban Moon.
