A wild Time Lord appears!
The story moves forward a bit and then settles into its next mini-aRc as new (surprisingly likeable) villains take the stage and Chibiusa’s mysterious helper at last introduces herself. Also, cake! And really, what’s not to love about that?
And now for something completely different…
Yurikuma has been pretty much a nonstop bear-shock horror movie experience from the word “go,” and while I was starting to settle in to that experience and finding ways to not just analyze it, but also kind of like it, I do think that after the Mitsuko Madness of last week we were sorely in need of an episode that offered us a reprieve from the harsh angles, saturated colors, and unrelenting intensity of Arashigaoka Academy. Fortunately Ikuhara must have realized that himself, because this week takes us away from the main story almost entirely and delivers a lovely, melancholy, and at times pretty darn funny fairy tale.
Oh, and speaking of—Ikuhara included a fairy tale in an anime, you guys! Everybody do a shot!
Then grab a chaser and gather ‘round, boys and grrls. It’s story time at the Severance Court.
Everything’s comin’ up Rubeus!
While Episode 73 was pretty much just me shouting at Chibusa for 25 minutes, I kinda loved Episode 74, partly because we got us some fast-acting karma, but mostly because it did a good job of showing how much Usagi has matured since the series began—heck, it showed how much she’s matured since the end of Season 1, even. Sailor Moon’s character growth is enjoyably realistic, really: People still have their weaknesses and quirks, and they backslide from time to time, but overall these gals are growing up, and Usagi is a prime example of that.
So—who’s ready to shout at Chibusa and storm a spaceshaft with me?
The moment of truth.
I considered dragging out the tension like an extended drumroll (durarararara…), but instead, let’s spend the last half of the post talking references and the first half talking personal reaction, which is this: I’m sticking with Yurikuma Arashi. I wasn’t sure if I would last week, but this episode assuaged a lot of my fears and gave me hope (and some outright confirmation) that my initial readings of this show weren’t completely off the mark. There’s still plenty of time for Ikuhara to step on a land mine and blow this whole, crazy experiment to the Moon Kingdom, but it’s looking slightly less likely that that’s going to happen, at least.
Sailor Moon: Encouraging you to quit your crappy job since 1993!
No week with an Ami episode can ever be a bad week. Throw in some villain redemption and a climax revolving (literally) around a black muthafuggin hole, and we got ourselves a recipe for a good old-fashioned Sailor Moon Romp.
So let’s get right to it.
The Josei Next Door 