Sailor Moon S, le film

This is a good, solid dose of typical Sailor Moon fun, with the appearances by the Outer Senshi, the smooth animation, and the sweet plotline revolving around Luna's love for an astronomer making this especially good. Kudos to the very slick music and the directing as well. Senshi die-hards need not hesitate, and for others, this is a very good way to sample some of the brilliant Sailor Moon series. My only regret is that the manga version is streets ahead of this.

An astromer named Kakeru witnesses a comet around the moon which releases a crystal that he finds, unaware the comet is the avatar of malicious snow witch Princess Snow Kaguya. As Usagi, Chibi-Usa, and the other Sailor Guardians enjoy their winter break, Luna finds herself having caught a cold. As Luna attempts to go home she collapses and is nearly killed by a car but is rescued by Kakeru who also nurses her back to health. Luna develops feelings of unrequited love not only due to being a cat, but also Kakeru's estranged girlfriend Himeko who finds it challenging to stay by him due to his ridiculed theories of a kingdom having once been on the moon. Unbeknownst to Kakeru, the crystal he recovered is draining his energy and is being sought after by Princess Snow Kaguya for her ultimate plan of freezing the entire Earth into silence.

While Sailor Moon R: The Movie was successful, Sailor Moon creator, Naoko Takeuchi was reportedly dissatisfied with the end result of R: The Movie and took a much more involved approach to the follow-up Sailor Moon S: The Movie, basing the premise upon her side story written for the manga and Takeuchi even traveled to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of space shuttle Columbia as part of her research. Takeuchi was reportedly far more please with the end result of Sailor Moon S: The Movie, and rightly so because it does everything Sailor Moon R: The Movie tried to do, but so much better.

What makes Sailor Moon S: The Movie work so well is in its emotional core of Luna's love for Kakeru. The scenes where she falls for Kakeru are engrossing and when Luna frets over Kakeru's deteriorating health it's quite heart wrenching. There's both a sweetness and element of heartbreak to the story that strikes all the right notes as the movie and the audience know this is a love that can never be and it's handled very well with both the highs and the lows eliciting that emotional resonance that was missing (or at best very diluted) from the previous film. Much like Sailor Moon R: The Movie this is a standalone story that doesn't require in depth knowledge to enjoy it, but unlike Sailor Moon R: The Movie it doesn't seem like it has the same continuity gaffes as that film (except maybe the Outer Guardians, but they're not front and center so it's forgivable).

The action is still on point, keeping the visual polish from the previous film, but also making the stakes more heavy and global with Princess Snow Kaguya's plan to freeze the Earth treated with more urgency and investment. I think that this is a really strong showcase of all the best aspects of Sailor Moon with the romantic aspects, action, and even the humor (particularly a scene involving a Santa Claus display) being very much on point.

Sailor Moon S: The Movie is a welcome addition to the franchise being a strong self-contained story that plays to its strengths. With emotional weight from Luna's relationship with Kakeru and suitably heavy stakes from Princess Snow Kaguya, there's something that pretty much every Sailor Moon fan will be able to appreciate be they franchise veterans from the syndicated Dic dub or franchise newcomers spoiled by Viz.

The trouble with most movies derived from a TV show are they don't always stand on their own, most of the time it just feels like their branching off from their source. This film I really love because it did what I felt "Sailor Moon R the movie" didn't really do which was stand as it's own movie.

Based off of a mini arc from the comic series, what really makes this film and story unique is the fact that it's not about Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon and the rest are practically second string characters. Even it's plot and the action going on really by it's nature is just a sugar coated topping. It was really focused on one unlikely character Luna. The Luna character was always just a mentor or narrative device in the series, in this story we actually get to see her become a real character.

I even like the other characters two that aren't regular characters of the series. Kakura and Himako both of them are not cliché generic characters which is a fundamental problem most TV shows have, but they do feel like just that people. Himako despite not seeing her much in the movie we can see is beautiful (she could almost be Setsuna/Sailor Pluto's sister), has a sweet persona, is a person of science that believe in the facts and does have aspirations mainly of being with Kakura forever. Kakura is an astronomer whom believes and is fascinated with things that science hasn't touched upon he also has aspirations as well. I do like some of the interaction between the two you do get a sense of history along with certain things he says about her but their relationship is not on stable ground which I'll get to latter. Artimis is good despite also being in the film for very little time but you do feel for him as we see he has feeling for Luna that are beyond friendship.

You really feels a strong sense of pathos for Luna because her feelings for the man Kakara are very human. Even though he talks to her about certain things that she shares the same interest unfortunately she is unable to talk back to him even though she want to, nor really have a physical presence to him as a regular human would because after all she is a cat. Like with the angels from "Wings of Desire" they can observe mortals, but can never touch or be seen.

There is a parallel going on with all four of them. Kakara and Himako it's both a physical and personal distance, both of them have been apart for a long while so it's understandable why Kakara would be a little embittered but just simply in what ideologies they believe in. For Luna it's obvious she want a way to be with Kakara physically. Artimis it's to simply come out with how he feels about Luna and be more than friends.

There's is a bit of a universal sensibility from one standpoint those who have a relationship with someone from a certain business that requires a lot of time or travel, or someone in the military that has to go on a tour of duty, on another standpoint it's the common dilemma of having feelings for another person but not finding the guts to express them. The common theme in all this is all about distance, how truly hard it is to be close when miles or even mere steps away. This is something I can relate to because there was a girl I had feelings for but didn't have the guts to tell her.

This makes the romance all the more enduring, you not just want the right people to get together but you want them to somehow close the distance and the only way to do that is to reach out to each other, by it's nature it's really easy it only looks hard the only thing blocking them is them. And the ending really gave me a good feeling at the end which is something I don't get enough.

No one is alone forever once you close the distance.

Rating: 3 and a half stars

This is a wonderful story. It is the best of the three BSSM movies. It's better though, if you watch it in Japanese. The dub is soooooooooo annoying (esp the cut type)! In English the voices all sound so whiney. Plus, they're almost always SCREAMING! It's really good and really touching and if you're emotional -like me- it will probably make you cry in a few parts the first couple times you watch it. If you get the DVD, it has some special features. Like removable subtitles and a English/Japanese language selection. It also has a still shots gallery. Oh! And the song at the end,Moonlight Destiny is so beautiful. Luna is the leading character in this movie and that's really flipping the script.

This movie was fabulous! Its like the manga short story and also have new parts! Was because!