Review: Sailor Moon Crystal, Episode 32: INFINITY 5 Setsuna Meioh – SAILOR PLUTO

Screenshot taken from: http://www.crunchyroll.com/sailor-moon-crystal/episode-32-act31-infinity-5-setsuna-meioh-sailor-pluto-709627

Review:

Setsuna Meioh is further introduced in this episode–her identity as Sailor Pluto pretty obvious to anyone who has followed the show since the beginning (or the Sailor Moon franchise in general). Still, this fact is not revealed until later on. Meanwhile, Makoto is participating in her botany club and finds out about a new plant called a “Tellun” that is developed by Mugen Academy and doesn’t require any water to live. Intrigued, Makoto ends up buying one of the plants, only to find out that it is indeed evil when Minako visits and the two pass out, waking up to find all of Makoto’s other plants dead while the Tellun is in full bloom. This leads to a clash between the Senshi and a member of the Witches 5 that quickly takes a turn for the worse… until Sailor Pluto shows up to effortlessly finish off the foe.

First things first: you would think that, by now, the Senshi would have learned not to trust anything with “Mugen” in its name or anything tied to Mugen Academy. The previous episode established that Mugen Academy was the enemy’s base of operation, so there is something of a plot hole in the fact that Makoto would buy a plant produced by the Mugen association without any suspicion or hesitancy. What’s more, the surprise that she exhibits at discovering the plant’s diabolical nature is almost laughable because, again, she should have been able to see this coming the second that she discovered the plant was tied to Mugen Academy. On the other hand, we finally see the enemy presenting the Senshi with unbeatable odds for once, and the sheer difference in power between the Outer Senshi and the Inner Senshi is fully realized. Of course, we know that this will inevitably change at some point, when Sailor Moon ultimately obtains some new power that allows her to completely obliterate her foes.

Overall, the series just feels as if it’s moving too fast. Granted, at the beginning of this season, I commended what felt like a slower pace and then lamented that pace by the second episode; now, however, it feels as if the anime is just careening through its plot and missing plenty of opportunities to really develop its individual characters. Yet, even in this midst of this, we also see what the series could do with plot development when we see the interactions between Chibi-usa and Hotaru. The funny thing is, these observations don’t inhibit my enjoyment of the show while I’m watching it. It is only when I sit down and apply some level of analyzation to the show that I begin to pick apart and acknowledge its weaknesses. Perhaps that’s a sign that Sailor Moon Crystal is best treated as something of a “popcorn flick” rather than the kind of deep story that we’d expect from other series.

A Christian Perspective:

I don’t have a specific verse in mind, but you could probably look at just about any verse on using wisdom and have it apply. I already touched on this in the review, but the biggest thing that stuck out to me was the foolishness displayed by Makoto’s decision to buy the Tellun plant. The Senshi have spent the entire season thus far investigating, suspecting, and ultimately uncovering Mugen Academy’s connection to the Death Busters, yet Makoto didn’t even so much as pause to consider that the Tellun plant being produced by something tied to the Mugen brand might be a part of the enemy’s strategy. While it’s true that the “how” of applying wisdom may not always be clear, this time around it should have been pretty obvious. It would have been a different story if Makoto had bought the plant to investigate it because she was suspicious, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

I’ll just say this: if you have a reason to suspect that something is dangerous, physically or spiritually, please be wise and approach it with that knowledge, or avoid it altogether if possible.

Content Guide:

Language: 1 “d*mn”

Alcohol/Drug Use: None

Nudity/Sex/Fanservice: Cleavage; Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru are shown naked from a distance (Barbie doll-level nudity, and Setsuna is mostly obscured by sheets); Sailor Senshi transformation sequences

Violence: The Senshi trade blows with an enemy; Pluto essentially blows up Tellun

Blood/Gore: None

Other: Magical nature of Senshi’s attacks