Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 25-26

Hey, look at that–I love this show again.

As anyone who’s been following these posts knows, I spent much of the last cour becoming progressively more annoyed at Nephrite, High Lord of Blandsylvania, and what often felt like stagnating character arcs and relationships. I didn’t HATE it (and there were some episodes I quite enjoyed), but I wasn’t having nearly as much fun as I’d had during the first cour.

Of course, then last week’s two-part Feelsplosion happened, throwing my emotions into all kinds of turmoil, because dammit if I didn’t feel bad for Naru and even a little for Nephy, boring old bastard that he was. I got so tangled up in the short-lived romance that I was actually pretty sad by the end of Episode 26, and had forgotten one vital fact: Nephrite wasn’t our bad guy anymore. Zoisite was, which meant the show was all but guaranteed to get fun again.

And boy, did it ever. This week SM burst from its cocoon like a lame Metapod transforming into a badass Butterfree, complete with a neat premise, a fabulous villain, ridiculous monsters, a shiny Lovely Item, and a rockin’ addition to the Sailor Squad. It’s campy, hilarious, and awesome, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

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Rule of Three Review, Bubble Digest: Tokyo ESP, Magimoji Rurumo – Episodes 2-3

Pop goes the watchlist?

Both of these shows barely made the cut during Premiere Week, and they remained on my bubble after their second episode. This doesn’t usually bode well, and yet… well, I suppose there’s a reason we call it the “Three Episode Rule” and not the “Two Episode Rule,” after all. When all was said and done, one show jumped up my interest list while the other continued to hover in an uncertain gray area. Which is which, and how do we proceed from here? Your answers and more beneath the jump.

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Rule of Three Review, Boys’ Club Digest: Black Butler: Book of Circus, Love Stage!! – Episodes 2-3

Let’s hear it for the boys ♪ —Well, some of them, anyway…

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I decided to blog these shows together before I’d actually watched the third episodes, because I figured I could come on here and write a pair of shiny reviews about two male-led series with great humor and likable characters, but… well, things got more than a little unpleasant over on the Love Stage this week, so make that one shiny review and one review with a lot of upset tarnish all over its edges. Ravings and rantings below the jump.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 21-22

So when do Zoisite and his boyfriend get to take over as the Bad Guys, exactly?

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While there have been a few high points this arc, I noticed that I’ve enjoyed the last nine episodes quite a bit less than the first thirteen. There are some (pretty glaring) issues with the growing romance between Moonsagi and Tuxedo Mamoru that play into this, but I think the main problem here is that Nephertiti Nephrite is just so…

Well, if you’ve been reading my recaps (or if you read the ones in this post), you have a pretty good idea how I feel about him. I know Jadeite didn’t have much in the way of a personality, but his schemes were so elaborate (pet shops! amusement parks! buses to Hell!) that it made the story a lot more fun and the plots seem much less formulaic. I’d give Beryl’s right arm for a good old fashioned Love Boat of Death right about now.

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Rule of Three Review, Ladies’ Digest: Blue Spring Ride, HaNaYaMaTa – Episodes 2-3

Sometimes you don’t have to do anything new as long as you’re doing it well.

I don’t have a ton to say about either of these shows (although most of what I do have to say is positive), so it made sense to roll them into a digest. Hit the jump to spend some time with our lady-led Monday series.

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