Erin Watches Sera Myu, Stage 3 Part 1
Dec. 7th, 2010 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erinptah posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sailormoonThis stage (as categorized by Sera Myu Antics) only had three actual musicals, but with such long and tangled plots, not to mention a stack of extras as long as your arm, I'm going to break it up into two posts anyway.
These three myu make up a single continuity, but as usual, I watched and reacted to each one without knowing what was going to happen in the next one. Misconceptions are left in on purpose, so if you haven't seen the whole sequence for yourself, don't just take my word for any of it ^_^;
Last Dracul Jyokyoku
The opening of this one is absorbingly atmospheric: Usagi has nightmares, accented with dark lighting and fog machines. All the senshi get foreboding cameos, although we seem to have ditched the first myu's assertion that Usagi's dreams always come true. Unless Rei, Minako, and Makoto are really going to abandon Usagi and return to their home planets in some future installment.
(Speaking of the first myu...I kind of miss Luna and Artemis.)
That said, the prophecy that disaster will follow if Usagi transforms is used to great effect. She avoids becoming Sailor Moon in early scenes, and is later convinced that anything bad is her fault, to both comedic and dramatic effect.
We've been dumped in the middle of an alternate S season, in which Haruka and Michiru are already hanging out with Usagi's core group, while Chibiusa drops in early on (and, later, Hotaru seems to already know that she's Saturn). Professor Tomoe is running the show, but with a bunch of Dream Demons at his side, Chibiusa revealed to have the purest heart they're looking for, and Star Seeds explained to be the heart crystals of planets, it feels like they've grabbed elements from the subsequent arcs to flesh the story out.
In another nod to an earlier myu, Usagi and Mamoru get another gondola-based love scene...only this time Chibiusa floats by in a boat of her own, accompanied by Hotaru. (Shippers, take note!) The bad guys who attack are combining the imitating-other-things gag used by earlier minions and the "we want to be real humans!" motivation of the Amazon Trio. That said, their insistence on treating Tomoe like a father is pretty cute. Their eventual imitation-of-the-Outers scene is the funniest version I've seen.
Also, there is Dracula! He drops some tantalizing hints that Tomoe isn't human...or even more than beneath his notice...and ends up going after Chibiusa. I still haven't figured out exactly what their connection is (or WTF Dracula is doing in Japan in the first place) by the time the vampire cohort lures our heronies to their spooky castle, but they're so atmospheric, and so genuinely menacing when they square off against the Outers, that I find myself not minding.
I'm starting to feel like Ami's attempts to study in Germany are the equivalent of Wile E. Coyote's attempts to catch the Roadrunner. They happen every episode, they always backfire, and she keeps getting crushed under an anvil or blown up or kidnapped in the process. Mamoru also gets kidnapped and brainwashed - hands up if you're surprised! - although at least this is the first time he's been turned into a vampire in the process.
The vampire family drama, by contrast, is intriguing - and surprisingly subtle as it unfolds. The backstory of Tomoe's experiments is straightforward and sensible. The references to Carmilla and Samiel could have won my heart all on their own, as could the moment when one of the bad guys finally dispenses with all speechifying and pulls out a sword and stabs someone.
I really wish this hadn't cribbed so much from previous myu, because it makes it that much harder to decide whether this is my favorite so far of the originals or not. I mean...vampires! But the other one...pirates! Augh.
I think I'll hold off on judgment for now, and wait to see the next one.
Transylvania no Mori Kaiteiban
"I'm going to make my eyes like the Caucasians! Then I'll get all the boys!" Oh dear.
(Sidenote: The standard Transylvania no Mori is listed on the site, but there's no video to go with it, so I'm skipping straight to the kaiteiban.)
Rei's eye-widening plan involves the plant belladonna, which she got from a new local (evil?) store. The strict (evil?) chemistry teacher, Dr. Brinvilliers, explains that this was once used to hide a famous murder-by-poison. There's also a new (evil?) student, whose name Usagi warms to immediately, as it means "new moon."
The bad guys, once again, are vampires. I was having a hard time tracking their machinations at first, until it hit that this myu is a direct sequel to the previous one. Accordingly, some of the plot threads that felt dissatisfyingly dropped last time are being picked up again: in the center of the monsters is Dracul's daughter, reluctant dhampir Vampiru (well, there's a name that isn't ever going to get confusing). She's not thrilled about her destiny to become ruler of the vampires, but her companions are insisting that she needs to destroy the Ginzuishou.
Oh, and they're hanging out with the Amazoness Quartet (here referred to as the Sammael Quartet), as played by a group of adorable young girls in appropriately modest versions of their costumes. They're on a search for another kind of plant: mandragora, a root that takes human form. (A young mandrake appears as a recurring character, although his purpose among the ensemble of monsters isn't particularly wel-defined.) And the mysterious connection they feel to Chibiusa gets explored in a sequence of candy-sweet choruses.
The action kicks in when the Inners are studying chemistry together at the Hikawa Shrine, while the Outers and Mamoru hang around for no very clear reason besides moral support. In come the vampires; cue Sailor Mars' solo about how you don't mess with her shrine.
The senshi go looking for the old Dracul, to no avail: their enemy is his daughter, Bloody Dracul Vampiru. Time for a battle song by the Outers, followed by a solo for Sailor Jupiter. I'm liking this whole individual-battle-song idea, as well as the bad guys' eventual nuanced strategy: focus on taking out the powerful Uranus and Jupiter and the premonition-wielding Mars. (This sets up a heartstring-tugging scene later on where Neptune tries to reach the brainwashed Uranus.)
There's a biblical subtext going on here: one of the villains is "Lilith", another is "Cain", and an early scene establishes that Dracula is also known as "Abel". Speaking of the original Dracul, he's still around, though Vampiru doesn't know this, giving her a rich mine of angst...and eventually drawing her into an ambitious plan to resurrect her long-lost mother, a human whose own father killed her after finding out she was involved with a vampire. DRAMA. The poor dear. *pets*
In a remarkable coincidence, our heroines have flown off to Europe to accompany Michiru to a concert...and gotten stranded on a layover in Romania. Dr. Brinvilliers is also with them, and she just happens to live in the area, and of course the sailors' official guide just happens to have disappeared on them. What could possibly be shady about this?
When the creepy flasks from last time make a reappearance, and the senshi in close proximity can't transform, it's up to Sailor Venus - who apparently snuck off and transformed earlier - to come in and get her own solo. When she's finally overwhelmed, and Vampiru taunts her for her weakness, she comes back with "Vampires can't live without humans. Aren't you the weakest?" Pwn, set, and match.
An ensemble song gives us these quasi-Engrish phrases, declared by each senshi:
Real Justice: Moon
Genius the Veil: Mercury
Passion Flame: Mars
Hurricane Shout: Jupiter
Grace my Heart: Venus
My Deep Sea: Neptune
Rushing Wind: Uranus
Hades Impact: Pluto
Destruction: Saturn
In the midst of this, we get an all-too-brief introduction to a new senshi: Sailor Astarte, from the solar system's tenth planet, and wearing the fuku to match. She's the alter ego of the new student, but her backstory is never explored, as she quickly becomes the vessel for Cain to manifest. (So my guess of "evil" was about half right.) She's fully possessed a couple of scenes later, when everyone is gathered together for an expositionfest of epic proportions...cut short by, of all people, Sailor Mercury, who kicks off the battle with her own solo.
By contrast, the alternate continuity for JunJun, PallaPalla, CereCere, and VesVes is surprisingly satisfying. They were created in Tomoe's flasks while he had ChibiUsa kidnapped, making them linked to her soul even when in the possession of the bad guys. Towards they end they join the fight on her side, as a profoundly adorable version of the Sailor Quartetto, with attacks like "Pink Blaze Prism Kiss."
Can I declare that these two myu together are my favorite original? Neither single one hangs together as well on its own, but together they complement each other to form a coherent whole, bookended by the way Usagi's opening number in the last one is the song she uses to close this one.
These three myu make up a single continuity, but as usual, I watched and reacted to each one without knowing what was going to happen in the next one. Misconceptions are left in on purpose, so if you haven't seen the whole sequence for yourself, don't just take my word for any of it ^_^;
Last Dracul Jyokyoku
The opening of this one is absorbingly atmospheric: Usagi has nightmares, accented with dark lighting and fog machines. All the senshi get foreboding cameos, although we seem to have ditched the first myu's assertion that Usagi's dreams always come true. Unless Rei, Minako, and Makoto are really going to abandon Usagi and return to their home planets in some future installment.
(Speaking of the first myu...I kind of miss Luna and Artemis.)
That said, the prophecy that disaster will follow if Usagi transforms is used to great effect. She avoids becoming Sailor Moon in early scenes, and is later convinced that anything bad is her fault, to both comedic and dramatic effect.
We've been dumped in the middle of an alternate S season, in which Haruka and Michiru are already hanging out with Usagi's core group, while Chibiusa drops in early on (and, later, Hotaru seems to already know that she's Saturn). Professor Tomoe is running the show, but with a bunch of Dream Demons at his side, Chibiusa revealed to have the purest heart they're looking for, and Star Seeds explained to be the heart crystals of planets, it feels like they've grabbed elements from the subsequent arcs to flesh the story out.
In another nod to an earlier myu, Usagi and Mamoru get another gondola-based love scene...only this time Chibiusa floats by in a boat of her own, accompanied by Hotaru. (Shippers, take note!) The bad guys who attack are combining the imitating-other-things gag used by earlier minions and the "we want to be real humans!" motivation of the Amazon Trio. That said, their insistence on treating Tomoe like a father is pretty cute. Their eventual imitation-of-the-Outers scene is the funniest version I've seen.
Also, there is Dracula! He drops some tantalizing hints that Tomoe isn't human...or even more than beneath his notice...and ends up going after Chibiusa. I still haven't figured out exactly what their connection is (or WTF Dracula is doing in Japan in the first place) by the time the vampire cohort lures our heronies to their spooky castle, but they're so atmospheric, and so genuinely menacing when they square off against the Outers, that I find myself not minding.
I'm starting to feel like Ami's attempts to study in Germany are the equivalent of Wile E. Coyote's attempts to catch the Roadrunner. They happen every episode, they always backfire, and she keeps getting crushed under an anvil or blown up or kidnapped in the process. Mamoru also gets kidnapped and brainwashed - hands up if you're surprised! - although at least this is the first time he's been turned into a vampire in the process.
The vampire family drama, by contrast, is intriguing - and surprisingly subtle as it unfolds. The backstory of Tomoe's experiments is straightforward and sensible. The references to Carmilla and Samiel could have won my heart all on their own, as could the moment when one of the bad guys finally dispenses with all speechifying and pulls out a sword and stabs someone.
I really wish this hadn't cribbed so much from previous myu, because it makes it that much harder to decide whether this is my favorite so far of the originals or not. I mean...vampires! But the other one...pirates! Augh.
I think I'll hold off on judgment for now, and wait to see the next one.
Transylvania no Mori Kaiteiban
"I'm going to make my eyes like the Caucasians! Then I'll get all the boys!" Oh dear.
(Sidenote: The standard Transylvania no Mori is listed on the site, but there's no video to go with it, so I'm skipping straight to the kaiteiban.)
Rei's eye-widening plan involves the plant belladonna, which she got from a new local (evil?) store. The strict (evil?) chemistry teacher, Dr. Brinvilliers, explains that this was once used to hide a famous murder-by-poison. There's also a new (evil?) student, whose name Usagi warms to immediately, as it means "new moon."
The bad guys, once again, are vampires. I was having a hard time tracking their machinations at first, until it hit that this myu is a direct sequel to the previous one. Accordingly, some of the plot threads that felt dissatisfyingly dropped last time are being picked up again: in the center of the monsters is Dracul's daughter, reluctant dhampir Vampiru (well, there's a name that isn't ever going to get confusing). She's not thrilled about her destiny to become ruler of the vampires, but her companions are insisting that she needs to destroy the Ginzuishou.
Oh, and they're hanging out with the Amazoness Quartet (here referred to as the Sammael Quartet), as played by a group of adorable young girls in appropriately modest versions of their costumes. They're on a search for another kind of plant: mandragora, a root that takes human form. (A young mandrake appears as a recurring character, although his purpose among the ensemble of monsters isn't particularly wel-defined.) And the mysterious connection they feel to Chibiusa gets explored in a sequence of candy-sweet choruses.
The action kicks in when the Inners are studying chemistry together at the Hikawa Shrine, while the Outers and Mamoru hang around for no very clear reason besides moral support. In come the vampires; cue Sailor Mars' solo about how you don't mess with her shrine.
The senshi go looking for the old Dracul, to no avail: their enemy is his daughter, Bloody Dracul Vampiru. Time for a battle song by the Outers, followed by a solo for Sailor Jupiter. I'm liking this whole individual-battle-song idea, as well as the bad guys' eventual nuanced strategy: focus on taking out the powerful Uranus and Jupiter and the premonition-wielding Mars. (This sets up a heartstring-tugging scene later on where Neptune tries to reach the brainwashed Uranus.)
There's a biblical subtext going on here: one of the villains is "Lilith", another is "Cain", and an early scene establishes that Dracula is also known as "Abel". Speaking of the original Dracul, he's still around, though Vampiru doesn't know this, giving her a rich mine of angst...and eventually drawing her into an ambitious plan to resurrect her long-lost mother, a human whose own father killed her after finding out she was involved with a vampire. DRAMA. The poor dear. *pets*
In a remarkable coincidence, our heroines have flown off to Europe to accompany Michiru to a concert...and gotten stranded on a layover in Romania. Dr. Brinvilliers is also with them, and she just happens to live in the area, and of course the sailors' official guide just happens to have disappeared on them. What could possibly be shady about this?
When the creepy flasks from last time make a reappearance, and the senshi in close proximity can't transform, it's up to Sailor Venus - who apparently snuck off and transformed earlier - to come in and get her own solo. When she's finally overwhelmed, and Vampiru taunts her for her weakness, she comes back with "Vampires can't live without humans. Aren't you the weakest?" Pwn, set, and match.
An ensemble song gives us these quasi-Engrish phrases, declared by each senshi:
Real Justice: Moon
Genius the Veil: Mercury
Passion Flame: Mars
Hurricane Shout: Jupiter
Grace my Heart: Venus
My Deep Sea: Neptune
Rushing Wind: Uranus
Hades Impact: Pluto
Destruction: Saturn
In the midst of this, we get an all-too-brief introduction to a new senshi: Sailor Astarte, from the solar system's tenth planet, and wearing the fuku to match. She's the alter ego of the new student, but her backstory is never explored, as she quickly becomes the vessel for Cain to manifest. (So my guess of "evil" was about half right.) She's fully possessed a couple of scenes later, when everyone is gathered together for an expositionfest of epic proportions...cut short by, of all people, Sailor Mercury, who kicks off the battle with her own solo.
By contrast, the alternate continuity for JunJun, PallaPalla, CereCere, and VesVes is surprisingly satisfying. They were created in Tomoe's flasks while he had ChibiUsa kidnapped, making them linked to her soul even when in the possession of the bad guys. Towards they end they join the fight on her side, as a profoundly adorable version of the Sailor Quartetto, with attacks like "Pink Blaze Prism Kiss."
Can I declare that these two myu together are my favorite original? Neither single one hangs together as well on its own, but together they complement each other to form a coherent whole, bookended by the way Usagi's opening number in the last one is the song she uses to close this one.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 10:00 pm (UTC)I'm not sure which version I like more of Transylvania no Mori - the original or the kaiteban. Wait, is it the revision that has Vampiru biting Uranus? That version is my favorite.^^ I adore the Quartet in these musicals - very good use of children in a show (unlike the kittens in Kaguya, I think).
Are you going to watch Chou Wakusei Death Vulcan as well? It's meant to sort of tie up the arc, and the revue following it is very good.
Reading these makes me want to pop one in and watch, but I've got to grade, argh!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 03:22 am (UTC)I wish I'd been able to see both versions and compare them! As-is, the details are starting to go fuzzy. I think I remember Uranus getting bitten and Neptune talking her down, but I couldn't tell you where it was.
The Quartet is awesome. I like this canon for them so much better than either the anime or the manga.
Just finished watching Death Vulcan recently, so the next chunk of reactions will be up soon. The revue was gorgeous.
Ah, this time of year...the bane of teachers and students alike ^_^