Sailor Moon Crystal: Act 12 - Enemy, Queen Metalia - Review 

Sailor Moon Crystal: "Act 12 - Enemy, Queen Metalia" Review

With the first story arc of the series wrapping up, Act 12 set about resolving loose ends with not one but

major battles between the Sailor Guardians and the Dark Kingdom. While we were definitely treated to a couple of exciting moments (including a crazy cliffhanger!), budget constraints and too much plot exposition during battle resulted in a somewhat uneven episode. It was good, but not great.

Things got off to a promising start by setting up three major showdowns: Queen Beryl vs. the Sailor Guardians, Endymion vs. Sailor Moon, and The Guardians vs. the Four Heavenly Emperors. For me, the best fight was between Endymion and Sailor Moon. I felt Usagi’s pain as she struggled to break Queen Metalia’s control over Endymion, who is now fully indoctrinated into the Dark Kingdom cult. Ironically, Endymion/Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask has never looked stronger than as a villain. Thanks to Queen Metalia, he’s now able to wield some truly nasty power. And wield it he did.

It was unnerving watching him toss poor Usagi around like a ragdoll, then hold her at sword point in an effort to get her to spill the secrets of the Legendary Silver Crystal. Props to Usagi for not even flinching when a blade was just inches from her throat; it shows how far she’s come from the whiny crybaby in the first episode. I was surprised her attempt to win Endymion back by showing him his pocket watch didn’t work, but it made his obstinance even more heart wrenching. What could free him from Queen Metalia\'s evil clutches? The answer, of course, was something more

. That revelation set up one of the most shocking and gut-wrenching moments in the series. Seriously. My jaw hit the floor as I watched Usagi slash open Endymion\'s chest with a sword, then impale herself. If there was a candidate for craziest cliffhanger in a Sailor Moon episode, Usagi’s actions at the end of Act 12 would win by a mile.

Far less exciting was the battle between the Sailor Guardians and the Four Heavenly Emperors. I’d been looking forward to this battle for weeks, so it was incredibly unsatisfying that most of the action took place off screen. I’m not sure if that was due to budget constraints or what (there was a noticeable drop off in the animation quality this week), but it felt like half the battle was the Guardians coughing up dust from some unseen attack, while the other half was the girls trying to get the Emperors to remember their past lives. Great. Fantastic. We get it. You love the Four Emperors and want them back to normal. Can we get some more wall climbing and butt kicking please?

Even more frustrating was the sudden demise of the Emperors by Queen Metalia. I get that she no longer needed them once they’d regained their memories, but it felt strange to have them survive the show this long only to be swatted aside so abruptly. It would have been nice if they had at

had a brief reunion with the women they loved before being blasted to smithereens. That way the emotional impact of the Guardians losing them all over again would have been stronger.

If the fight between Endymion and Sailor Moon was satisfactory and the one between the Guardians and Four Heavenly Emperors was disappointing, then the battle with Queen Beryl was somewhere in between. There was too much plot exposition in this fight (seriously, why did Beryl stand there and let the girls yammer away instead of just killing them?), but there were also some really cool moments as well. My favorite was when Venus summoned the Holy Sword to cut her friends loose from Queen Beryl’s grip, then charged at her opponent like a boss. Her attack didn\'t exactly work, but it inspired Sailor Moon to pick up the sword and finish Beryl off, which I loved. (Incidentally, that\'s the same sword Usagi would end up stabbing herself and Endymion with later, making it a kind of weapon of mass destruction.)  I also appreciated how we got a bit more backstory on Queen Beryl in her last moments. Learning that she was in love with Endymion this whole time made her feel more like a person and less like a random super villain.

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All in all, Act 12 was a mixed bag of great and not-so-great moments. It could have definitely used less talk and more action, and I didn\'t like the visible drop in animation quality. Still, there were a few good moments sprinkled in, and the jaw-dropping cliffhanger involving Endymion and Sailor Moon raised the stakes for what will hopefully be an exciting grand finale.

Meghan Sullivan loves Sailor Moon, wrestling, pizza, and RPGs. You can follow her on Twitter at @Meghan_IGN and IGN at Meghan-IGN.

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Usagi and her friends struggle to defeat the Dark Kingdom in this uneven episode of Sailor Moon: Crystal.  RT

– Battles more tell than show.

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