Um… wow.  Where do I begin?

I guess I’d like to start with applauding the direction for handling something that was neglected before: showing the stakes.  For some reason, the series tended to shy away from showing citizen deaths.  Y’know, people being electrocuted by broken power lines, people having their life force sucked out of their bodies and decaying into husks… It was nice to see people turning on each other and becoming mindless beasts.

I also want to commend the art.  It really was amazing throughout the episode.  The animation, however… ugh.  Quick, bizarre cuts everywhere, still pans everywhere, skipped frames everywhere, those infamous “WE HAVE TO ZOOM IN ON FACES TO AVOID DRAWING DETAILS” moments, and the climax of the episode was utterly ruined by THIS:

and ESPECIALLY THIS:

I went and captured this sequence frame by frame in preparation for making that gif, then deleted all but two images because THERE WERE ONLY TWO UNIQUE FRAMES IN THAT BATON TWIRL.

Now, let’s touch upon the plot hole in the room: WHEN THE HELL DID MAMORU PICK UP THE SHITENNOU’S STONES?

Y’see, in the manga, those stones were what remained after they died, and Mamoru picked them up.  But in SMC, they didn’t die until near the end.  Their stones were visible when the Senshi were fighting them.  They were killed while Mamoru was still brainwashed and fighting Usagi.  At no point did he have the opportunity to pick up those stones.  What, did Metalia have the courtesy to pick the stones up and slip them into Mamoru’s pocket?  Because remember, those stones had to have been there BEFORE Usagi slashed him with the sword.  At least the scene itself was done well… even if it made no sense for it to happen like that.

Finally, I just want to say that this episode was repetitive as fuck.  It felt like the Senshi did the same thing over and over and over again.  They scream (Planet) Power and perform an attack, they get almost killed, they talk about Usagi, they do an attack, they get almost killed, they talk about Usagi… It was just frustrating.

Well, anyway, it’s two weeks until the finale of the Dark Kingdom arc.  Which means I have to wait a full month to see the new opening.