Sailor Moon Crystal review: episode 23

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**SPOILERS**

Episode 23: Covert Maneuvers – Wiseman

Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto, and the other Scouts stand on the edge of the Space-Time storm. Sailor Moon wants to go into it to find Tuxedo Kamen. Pluto warns that it’s too dangerous, but seeing the determined expressions of all the Scouts, she gives in.

Just then, Luna P, Chibi-Usa’s cat head toy, falls from above. She’s damaged and her eyes are all swirly. Then Sailor Moon faints, so they end up not going into the storm.

Elsewhere, Prince Diamond and Sapphir wake up in a cavern, and who’s there?

BLACK LADYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

(She doesn’t introduce herself as Black Lady until the end of the episode, but I can’t keep calling her Evil Chibi-Usa the whole time – too much typing!)

She took Diamond and Sapphir to the Chamber of Darkness to save them from the fires sweeping the surface of Nemesis – its planetary reactor was disrupted by Sailor Moon’s energy in episode 22.

Now she takes them to a “contorted space” created by Wiseman – a sort of in-between space where Wiseman has a “castle” – it’s just a hunk of rock floating around.

Diamond, recognizing Black Lady as Chibi Usa, is immediately suspicious of both her and the fact that Wiseman has this secret castle.

She gleefully tells him that Wiseman killed Rubeus when he tried to run away from the planetary reactor. Angered at the murder of his ally, Diamond demands Wiseman explain himself. Wiseman zaps Diamond and Sapphir, bending them to his will. He’s going to give them more power now that they’re semi-brainwashed.

Wiseman reveals that he has the (future) Legendary Silver Crystal, but he can’t use it. Black Lady says that only Neo Queen Serenity can use it, and she has a plan to lure her out – she’ll launch another huge black crystal at Earth. She’ll also kidnap Sailor Moon and the (present) Silver Crystal, which was the crystal that disrupted the planetary reactor.

Sapphir, upset, points out that another Black Crystal attack on Earth will surely destroy the planet, but Black Lady just ain’t give a damn – she’s gonna wreak vengeance on her mom and play with her new boy-toy… brainwashed Tuxedo Mask.

Yup.

Let’s just sit with this for a moment. This is Chibi Usa kissing her sixteen-year-old father. This is not right. It’s also not really necessary. We already knew that Chibi Usa had jealousy problems (which she obviously gets from her mother) – this was demonstrated in episode 21 when she was upset that shut-in Sailor Pluto was talking with King Endymion. So to have her pawing a brainwashed Tuxedo Kamen just seems superfluous.

I guess having Tuxedo Kamen in Black Lady’s clutches ups the ante for Sailor Moon, but she needs to get Chibi-Usa back from Wiseman’s clutches, and also there’s the whole saving the world thing. Saving the world in the present and the future!

Back to the plot – Usagi wakes up at home, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Although she’s glad the Scouts are together again, she misses Chibi-Usa and Mamoru and swears get them back.

I had a dream and you were there, and you, and you!

In the future, King Endymion visits sleeping Neo Queen Serenity and asks her why she won’t wake up. Diana comes in and tells him that the queen is healing herself inside the Crystal, biding her time, and will emerge when she is needed most.

Oh my gawd that little kitty face >w<

In the present, Usagi says goodbye to her friends at sunset. A Time Key drops out of no where and suddenly the whole world shifts – Usagi and the girls feel a deep shock.

Using the Time Key, they go to the future and discover something terrible. Black Lady indeed launched a second Black Crystal at future Earth.

She goes into the Crystal Palace and says “hi” to her sleeping mother. King Endymion comes in and is understandably disturbed to see his daughter as an adult and, you know, evil.

Sailor Moon runs in and Black Lady grabs her brooch! But in a flash, she disappears from the Palace – the queen transported her outside, and she can’t get back in. (It was awesome.)

Once everyone runs outside, Black Lady introduces herself as Queen of Darkness and Queen of Nemesis. Yikes.

I’m looking forward to

• Sailor Pluto has to do some fighting sometime soon, right?

Note:
I noticed the directing in this episode more so than usual, especially how Black Lady is presented visually. Her hair is usually always moving (must be a power that Wiseman gave her, hee hee), and she looks dramatic all the time.

Magical hair swirly powers

Black Lady artfully framed by a Black Crystal