Sometimes I feel like I’m playing Russian Roulette with this season.

Every week I wonder if I’m going to get good SuperS or UGH SuperS, or maybe just plain old meh SuperS. It’s a gamble, and if I lose, the price is… well, a few grouchy words and a large red hand print on my forehead, mostly. It’s a low-stakes game. In some ways I’m grateful for it—I’ve given up on there ever being any plot this season, so the sliding scale of quality keeps things exciting, at least—but I do miss the days when I could just sit down and feel confident that something fun and/or emotional was going to happen.

This week was… not great. It wasn’t even table-flip-worthy, just one-part forgettable and one-part unpleasant. But, on the plus side, it means the word count is a lot shorter, too! So take solace in that, I s’pose. Then hit the jump for a lady who deserves better, and a Fish of whom I expected better.

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Psst, Sailor Moon. Your talent is showing.

These episodes are great examples of how exceptional directors can elevate throwaway or even downright poor material, taking a pair of one-off episodes and filling them with visually exciting shots, angles, sight gags, and character animation. The Showrunners of Sailor Moon Past and Future have pretty much always been around to direct individual episodes, but here we get a back-to-back pair that stand out from the recent run and do a nice job highlighting each person’s strengths.

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When in doubt, write an Ami episode!

Two-thirds of the way through Sailor Moon and I feel confident declaring that it is scientifically impossible to have a bad Ami episode. I’ve come to terms with the fact that she is not the main character, and I enjoy the other scouts an awful lot, but Ami episodes just have a certain… thoughtful kindness to them that I appreciate, I s’pose, a cozy confidence that our temporary main character is self-aware enough to recognize her problems and work to solve them. And coming off last week’s rough ride, we really needed the smooth, steady hand of an Ami-driven episode again.

Oh, also, it involves cars. In case my subtle metaphors didn’t give that away.

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Well, those sure were a pair of episodes.

I puttered around for a while to avoid writing this, partly because I’m still coming off the high of Wednesday’s exquisite My Love Story, but mostly because I… er… see, for the first time in a while, Sailor Moon was just plain Not Good. One episode was all right, but the other was… well, my comments are ranty, and I don’t enjoy writing like that. I suspect most people don’t enjoy reading it. But here we are with Usagi behaving like a brat and Grandpa catcalling and Rei dropping some truly awful dialogue and I… I just…

But! I solemnly swore to Newbie Recap my way through each and every episode, and so Newbie Recap I shall.

I’m keeping multiple tables nearby for ease of flipping, though.

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Home is where the art is.

Given the rumored kerfuffle going on behind the scenes during this season (the studio pushing for one kind of show, Ikuhara for another), a part of me wonders if these two episodes didn’t have their basis in some real-life frustrations. It’s artists’ week here on SuperS, and it’s all about finding the courage to create and share those works with others—and to do what feels right to you, The Artist, regardless of what The Authority says you “can” or “can’t” do with your landscape paintings.

So suck on that, Toei Animation.

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True to its circus motifs, SuperS is performing a delicate balancing act.

There is something decidedly odd about the tone of this season. It’s not bad, it’s just sort of… dissonant, I guess? There’s a lightheartedness to it that’s tremendously entertaining, an immaturity to the characters that doesn’t quite gel with the big strides they made last season, a beauty that shades its best moments in wistfulness, and a darkness to the overtones and imagery that’s at times downright uncomfortable. Put simply, the mood is all over the map, fluctuating as much as its main character’s mental state.

And when I say “main character,” I’m not talking about Usagi. No, SuperS has shifted its focus to Chibiusa, a notion that would’ve sent me running for the hills 60 episodes ago but doesn’t much bother me right now. (Although I sure hope we get some decent Moonie episodes along the way, too.) So what we’re seeing, I think, is a world reflecting its character’s psychology.

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Cirque du Ombre: It’s fun for the whole family!

SuperS feels strangely like a throwback to the most entertaining episodes of the first season, and while I suppose that could be considered jarring or even a step back in terms of plot/maturity level, I’m apparently having a lot of fun with it given the sheer amount of words I’ve written, snickered, and snarked about it below. So in the interest of keeping everyone’s eyes from glazing over, I’ll skip out on any in-depth opening chatter and let the recaps do the talking this week.

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It’s ‘bout to get Sailor Moon SuperSurreal up in here.

The comments after last week’s S finale were almost entirely about how divisive this new season is among fans, which oddly enough made me even MORE stoked to watch it. Where will I fall on the SuperScale? Will I enjoy this arc warts and all? Or despise it with the fires of a thousand suns?

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