Tag: Junichi Satou

Super Recaps: Sailor Moon Episode 24 (Naru’s Tears: Nephrite Dies for Love)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 2 Comments

Sailor Moon and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Toei Animation and licensed by Viz Media

Episode directed by Junichi Satou and Takuya Igarashi

If the title wasn’t a good enough indication, this is gonna be the last time we see Nephrite.  Not only that, but it also kind of spoils HOW he’s gonna meet his end if the whole “dying for love” thing isn’t some red herring.  Still, there is potential here for a solid conclusion to this subplot that, despite my misgivings, is certainly an interesting diversion before we get back to the actual story line.  Will this be a satisfying way to capstone the end of Nephrite’s career, or will his tenure as the big bad guy fizzle out the way pretty much all of his evil schemes did?  Let’s find out!!

The episode begins with Naru and Usagi at nearby park; the former of which is still feeling distraught over the events of the last episode.  She now knows that Nephrite is a bad guy but has also bought into his (obviously phony) story about trying to quit the Evil Organization, so now she’s faced with the prospect of never seeing him again which… I guess would be a bad thing.  I won’t continue to drone on about how bad of a relationship they would end up have if they ACTUALLY got together and about how much of a manipulative prick Nephrite is, but it does make it hard for me to care whether or not they will be an OTP by the end of the episode.  Usagi, not feeling too different from what I’m feeling, has the problem of having to see her friend suffer over her current situation which means she’s feeling pretty bad about it herself but knows what the right move would be which is to keep them apart.

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“I’m sure he’s doing what’s best for you.”     “He didn’t even bother to send a good bye letter though!”     “A goodbye letter… that could work!”     “What was that Usagi?”     “Nothing!”

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Super Recaps: Sailor Moon Episode 14 (A New Enemy Appears: Nephrite’s Evil Crest)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 2 Comments

Sailor Moon and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Toei Animation and licensed by Viz Media

Episode directed by Junichi Satou

We’re back with the first episode of Leave it to Nephrite!  After the untimely demise of everyone’s favorite woman-hating boy in a man’s suit, the show now has the uphill battle of selling us on the guy who will take his place.  Sort of like how Spin City replaced Michael J Fox with Charlie Sheen and got canceled two seasons later.  Okay, bad example.  What about The Office?  They replaced Steve Carell with Ed Helms… and got canceled two seasons later.  Huh.  Well at least we know this show goes on for quite some time after Jadeite leaves, but can the Nephrite episodes hold a candle to the Jadeite ones or are we doomed to villains with diminishing returns for the next two hundred or so episodes?  Let’s find out!!

The episode begins on Nephrite’s first day as head of project management at Hell Corp and is giving Queen Beryl his latest proposal to acquire greater quantities of energy in the coming fiscal quarter.  Unlike Jadeite who took energy from as many people as possible, Nephrite’s plan is to pick one person and milk them for all their worth because the FIRST thing you learn about investing is to put all your eggs in one basket.  Apparently I’m not the only one taking the piss out of Nephrite’s scheme because Zoisite (another one of the Kings of Dark Kingdom) just floats off to the side and laughs at him.

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“Why don’t you put all your money in Facebook while you’re at it?  Oh, I am SO deliciously sardonic!!”

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Super Recaps: Sailor Moon Episode 8 (The Girl Genius Is a Monster: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 3 Comments

Sailor Moon and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Toei Animation and licensed by Viz Media

Episode directed by Junichi Satou

We’re back with another episode of Sailor Moon: The Full Screen Years!  Now the last episode was pretty much a disaster in my opinion, but then one before it was one of the better ones in no small part due to the interesting villain.  Things are about to change though as this episode will introduce us to Ami Mizuno, also known as Sailor Mercury.  Will this be a great introduction to the character, and how does it compare to what they did with this story in Sailor Moon Crystal?  Let’s find out!!

The episode begins, in the main office of Hell Corp (also known as Dark Kingdom) where the two senior managers of the organization determine what their strategy for evil will be in the coming work week.  They actually do come up with something quite dastardly (and a little too real) which is to exploit the public school system for profit!  THOSE BASTARDS!!

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“We’ll convince them that college is the most important thing to being a successful person, and then force them to run up incalculable amounts of debt at such a young age!!  MWA HA HA HA HA!!!”

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Super Recaps: Sailor Moon Episode 1 (The Crybaby: Usagi’s Beautiful Transformation)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 3 Comments

Sailor Moon and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Toei Animation and licensed by Viz Media

Episode directed by Junichi Satou

When I first started watching Sailor Moon Crystal, I vowed to not watch any of the original series or read the original manga while I was writing recaps for it.  I felt that I was in a unique situation where I had always wanted to give Sailor Moon a shot, but never got around to actually watching it which means I would be in a perfect position to WANT to like Sailor Moon Crystal without having the original to compare it against.  I think it ended up serving me well, not that reviews of comparison are bad, but I figured plenty of people were going to do that already and I wanted to see if it was any good from a newbie’s perspective. After a year of watching Sailor Moon Crystal though, the season has finally come to a close and I’m now gonna start watching the original series and giving you my thoughts on it!   To start with, let’s discuss which version of the show I’m watching.  I’ll be watching the modern dub of the series.  Not the original dub which many Sailor Moon fans started off with, and not the original Japanese sub with all the original content unperturbed.  From what I understand, the Viz Media dub is supposed to be an uncut and unedited version of the original Japanese version so I guess it’s the best of both worlds!  Still, I am gonna miss the fact that I won’t get to see the nineties special effects, the Sailor Moon Morals at the end of each episode, and that Luna won’t sound like an old lady.  Unfortunately, if this version DOES miss certain aspects of the original Japanese version, I won’t be able to spot it but that’s what the comments section is for!  So now that we got that out of the way, will Sailor Moon live up to the hype, or is it just another nostalgic property that’s not as good as people remember it!?  Let’s find out!!

The episode begins with our main character Usagi waking up late for school and having to rush through her morning routine.  Wait, isn’t this how EVERY magical girl show begins!?

“Are you going to be late AGAIN!?”     “I’ll try NOT to be!!”     “Well say hi to A-ko, Yohko, Ranma, and Madoka if you pass by them.”
“Are you going to be late AGAIN!?”     “I’ll try NOT to be!!”     “Well say hi to A-ko, Yohko, Ranma, and Madoka if you pass by them.”

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