This was one of my most anticipated episodes, and in many ways, not only was I not let down, but it exceeded expectations.  But rest assured, in a few ways I was let down due to some… questionable direction choices.

First off, let me just say I apologize for not having this up earlier.  My schedule gets screwed up when HorribleSubs doesn’t upload while I’m actually watching the episode.  Also, I think the episode was up on Crunchy quite some time before the regular time.  Which is slightly cruel because we have to wait 3 WEEKS for the next episode.  So it makes the wait that much longer.

One of the scenes I was looking forward to most was Venus pulling out the Holy Blade.  There’s not much else to say about it; it was pretty much on point.

The entire flashback scene was pretty much narrated by Queen Serenity and went by a lot faster than I was expecting.  I thought we would have a more in-depth flashback that would take a majority of the episode, but the whole thing was done in just most of the first half.  On the other hand, it FELT like it took a lot more time.

The second part of the episode was about the past lives of the Shitennou, which was something that should have been revealed in the previous episode.  At the very least, I think it should have been half and half.  All four of them should have seen Endymion and gotten flashes of their previous lives.  So basically what happened, just more.  But honestly, up to the part where they regain their memories and get re-brainwashed by Beryl, I’m okay with.  It’s the part where Venus spills the beans that I’m disappointed with.

Up until that moment, the Senshi/Shitennou pairing was done the way it should have been.  There were minor hints during the major fights against each of the Shitennou, and then we got eased into the Shitennou being Endymion’s knights.  And then we got this seemingly climactic battle where the Senshi and Shitennou fight against each other while paired off with their counterparts.  THAT was hype.  But the very moment Venus put an end to the action and told everyone “Girls, we used to be in love with these guys a long time ago!”  well, that’s when the direction took a horrible misstep.  The battle should have gone on much longer, and the Senshi should have had glimpses of the Shitennou.  It should have been a dragged-out, tragic affair.  But then Venus had to go and spell everything out, so instead of being shown that it’s tragic, we’re just shouted at that it’s tragic.

The second major misstep of the episode in my opinion was the scene where Usagi flies into space to perform Moon Healing Escalation.

First of all, notice that Usagi delivers an energy attack before she does so.  You might think that it’s Moon Tiara Boomerang… but she has no tiara.  So… WTF did she throw?

Second, I was looking forward to seeing Usagi fly into space on her own and was glad it happened… but in the manga, it was an act of desperation and almost hysterics, as Usagi wanted to force Kunzite to tell her where Endymion is.  It was honestly one of the more heartbreaking moments in the manga, and it’s pretty much ignored in Crystal.  Granted, it was also the moment Kunzite died, but there were other ways this could have gone.

Third… WTF was the Sailor Planet Attack supposed to accomplish?  It was supposed to be a powerful attack that completely vaporized Kunzite, while simultaneously showing that Sailor Moon was OP since she tanked it without putting up a barrier.  In this episode, it’s treated as a kind of purifying attack… that didn’t quite work.  It boggles the mind that the Senshi got their basic attacks buffed to high heaven, but the SAILOR PLANET ATTACK seemed practically pathetic.

Not that this was particularly BAD, but like I said – disappointing.

Hilariously, a significant part of the next episode preview shows Venus doing her post-transformation speech, basically hyping the fact that she’ll finally do her proper transformation in the next episode.  Okay.

Overall, damn good episode with only a couple of minor animation missteps  Now that the damage has been done regarding the Senshi/Shitennou storyline, let’s at least see where the changes take us and if they can make up for it.