AKA: 劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンCosmos; Gekijouban Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Genre: Magical girl

Length: Movie, 2 episodes, 80 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on Netflix.

Content Rating: PG-13 (Violence, mature content.)

Related Series: TV series: Sailor Moon; Sailor Moon R; Sailor Moon S; Sailor Moon Super S; Sailor Stars; Sailor Moon Crystal. Movies: Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose; Sailor Moon S The Movie: Hearts in Ice; Sailor Moon Super S The Movie: Black Dream Hole; Sailor

Also Recommended: Tiger and Bunny; Re: CREATORS; Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars

Notes: Based on "Sailor Moon Stars" manga by Naoko Takeuchi.

Rating:

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos: The Movie

Synopsis

In this new adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Stars manga, someone is destroying everyone Usagi holds dear, but she vows to recover them.

Review

WARNING: SPOILERS!!! We're going to be doing quite a bit of comparison/contrast between this new Sailor Stars adaptation (which we will call Stars II) and the 1990's "original" anime adaptation (which we'll call Stars I).

Before we go there, though, I'd like to point out why there was never a dubbed version of Stars released at the time in the U.S. In a word: homophobia. While there were plenty of gay characters in Sailor Moon, there was then (and alas, still IS, maybe even MORE now; I live in Florida, you know) a fear that letting kids see gay characters would "turn them gay". The English dubs of the original series seasons before Stars were able to get around this by simply making one member of a male gay couple female (a genderfluid character, Fish Eye in Super S, was handled this way too), or, in the case of Sailors Uranus and Neptune, who were very much lovers in the original Japanese version, the dub made them "cousins". But Stars presented a more intractable problem: it was VISUALLY obvious that the Starlights were male in their street identities, but female in their Sailor Warrior forms. Obviously trans characters being “beyond the pale”, the Stars series never made it here in dubbed form for the afternoon "kiddie hours".

Now, if you look at the Stars reviews on THEM, you'll appreciate that the Stars season was the weakest of the series (though Super S really wasn't so hot either), so maybe the loss wasn't so great for U.S. audiences. I'm going to take a pretty deep dive here, since the appearance of this new Stars adaptation (remember, Stars II in my nomenclature) permits a lot of analysis.

Back in the 1990s, there were problems presented by the awkward anime adaptation of the preceding Super S storyline. After a bloated story (due to the expansion of the role of the Amazon Trio, who were only bit players in the manga), things careened to an unsatisfactory (and very non-canonical) season ending.

So Stars I (the 1990s version) started with a 6-episode "fix" of its leftover Super S problem, immediately resurrecting the villain it had just defeated. It's never really a good idea to immediately bring back the just-defeated (it's comparable to following one Death Star with another one), but in its defense I thought those 6 episodes had quite a bit going for them: some good foreshadowing for once; Uranus and Neptune on the same page with the other girls, for once (in the anime adaptation, they never were before, or after); and a neat (even philosophical!) ending. Though when the Starlights came on stage things kind of went to pot; and that's the point where the Stars manga (and Stars II) begins. And now, the comparisons:

In Stars I, Mamoru gets on a plane to the U.S., and, while promising to contact Usagi, never does. And she just suffers in silence, thinking he no longer cares about her. This passivity was incredibly grating, especially since late-stage Usagi was otherwise much more assertive than she originally was. Besides, the disappearance of a plane catches everyone's attention- especially if they had friends/loved ones on flights in that direction.

Stars II ameliorates this a bit. There was not a plane crash/disappearance. In fact, Usagi witnessed what happened to Mamoru, but that memory is being repressed, either by her own psyche or the artifice of another, so her head's a muddle. (OK, MORE of a muddle than it usually was. By the way, who puts postcards in envelopes?)

In Stars I, Uranus and Neptune betray their own compatriots, once again out of "duty". (This was a "thing" with them in the 1990's anime, but I thought it only worked well in the S series.) In Stars II, as in the manga, there's no betrayal; the same fate is meted out to all. After so consciously being portrayed as "elegant" in the S series, it was a pleasant surprise to see Michiru, in Stars II, have giddy schoolgirl moments about a boy band, just like everyone else. (Haruka remains as dour as ever, though.)

Well, the Starlights ARE that boy band. (I guess boy bands were particularly popular when Naoko Takeuchi composed the manga.) The Starlights' mission focus, to use their songs to find their Princess (their Usagi equivalent) was, if I'm remembering this correctly, emphasized more in Stars I than in Stars II. As for Chibi Chibi, the mysterious little girl, I also preferred Stars I's explanation of HER true identity. (Stars II is a bit confusing here.) While all the Starlights could be pretty obnoxious in Stars I, in Stars II only Yaten is. Seiya (Star Fighter) is, in both versions, kind of a Mamoru stand-in.

I don't remember if Stars I had an equivalent scene to the Stars II one where Usagi, faced with just the countenances of Mamoru and her friends, refuses to act, even though common sense, AND the members of her team, ALL tell her these are illusions created by the villainess of the piece. (She travels to the showdown with a definite "B" team comprised of the Starlights, Chibi-Usa, and the Asteroids, Chibi-Usa's guardians (formerly the Amazoness Quartet).

Alas, much that was bad in Stars I is STILL bad in Stars II, namely:

(1) The attack names, which are ridiculous. ("Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss" for Sailor Moon; the Starlights have such gems as "Star Sensitive Inferno" and "Star Gentle Uterus".)

(2) The Sailor Warriors created by the villainess, Galaxia, besides having stupid "metal" names ("Sailor Aluminum Siren", "Sailor Tin Nyanko") are mostly more-than-usually incompetent minions. Galaxia herself usually has to show up to do the blasting.

(3) Most of all, it's still an exercise in extended cruelty, as Usagi's friends and loved ones are turned to dust. I know, I know, Usagi's powers are more in resolve, and perseverance, rather than in offensive combat, but her apparent powerlessness here doesn't make this any easier to watch. (As I've said before, I'm really not much of a fan of nihilism.)

(4) Chaos, the "final boss" here, is awfully reminiscent of a lot of other Sailor Moon Final Bosses; I was particularly reminded of Death Phantom.

I was delighted to hear "Moonlight Romance" again, and see the girls ascending to the heavens again, in the opener of the first film comprising Stars II; but less delighted with the appearance of the Sailor Stars theme at the beginning of the second film. (I always wondered if changing the series' opening theme was part of the jinx on Stars.)

With THIS one, the Sailor Moon Eternal movie, and the Crystal series, I believe the remaking of Sailor Moon is now complete. Unfortunately, the new version of Stars, like the old version, is really only FOR Sailor Moon completists.

This version of Stars versus the other one? Pretty much a wash, really. This version is more handsomely produced (really, maybe a little OVERPRODUCED), and corrects (or at least ameliorates) a couple of the previous Stars' annoyances; but I thought the old version explained a couple of things better, and, most of all, Stars II lacks (because it didn't NEED it) that 6-episode mini-arc in Stars I that, even though it was an interpolation, I found to be solid storytelling. BOTH versions still suffer from being relentlessly downbeat, with Sailor Moon helpless to protect everyone from annihilation. What's clear, in the end, is that, to rearrange a Shakespearean quote, the faults in the Stars lie with both the adapters, AND Naoko Takeuchi's original story. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Said to be theatrically rated PG-13, but Netflix-rated TV-14. For the violence, of course. "Dusting" people IS pretty disturbing to watch. Also, Mamoru and Usagi share a bed together, and (we can infer, from a statement she makes) might have done more than JUST share a bed.