30 Day Sailor Moon meme...Day 8
Mar. 8th, 2011 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteIt's a little bit later than my usual posting for the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, brought to you by Sailor Failures on Tumblr, but that's because I have today off!
I've got lots to get done, so let's get this very interesting topic out of the way, shall we?
Beryl was a scary villain for a young girl like myself, but when you find out just why she partnered up with Metallia and ended up forming the Dark Kingdom, you've gotta think less of her. I mean, seriously? She was jealous that Endymion hooked up with Serenity instead of her? Love's a powerful emotion, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but jealousy is just...lame. The generals COULD be somewhat scary, especially in the anime when it seemed like their whole past as Endymion's guards was removed or glossed over, but the only fear-inducing general for me was Malachite/Kunzite.
If you want to include PGSM, then there's Mio Kuroki, who was just...annoying. As villains go, she's the thorn-in-the-side type, where I can imagine any of the Senshi secretly thinking "Didn't we destroy her LAST time?" Don't even get me started on her "fashion sense. Ugh! At least Beryl was a sexy villain (in PGSM, anyway)!
Following her, we've got Ail and Ann (and they're just misunderstood anime-only villains, so it's almost like they don't count at all!), the Black Moon, the Amazons (Trio, Quartet) with Nehelenia and Zirconia, and then, of course, Galaxia and Chaos!
I'd say of all the villains, the Black Moon clan is the most varied, because it's a whole mismatched "family" of people (I don't know how many of them are actually related; supposedly the Four Sisters are, as are Diamond and Sapphire, but the rest? Eh, not so much). I don't have a particular single person who's my favorite, but that's BECAUSE they're so varied. If you want someone ruthless, they've got that! If you want someone calculating, they've got that! The Black Moon clan really has villains of all stripes...again, in the anime-verse. In the manga, they were pretty short-lived villains, and there weren't any neat droids or anything, just black-suited creatures with weird white masks.
So Black Moon family for my favorite villains in the anime, but definitely Galaxia and Chaos for my favorite villains in the manga.
In the manga, the final arc of Sailor Moon has some pretty big surprises for heroes and villains alike. There's still the usual "chance for redemption" for the villains, and we get that for a few of them (more of them that the chance in the anime, but I don't know if that's ironic or par for the course, considering the anime also healed the Four Sisters, the Amazon Quartet, and Nehelenia...of them all, the only ones to get the same treatment in the manga was the Quartet).
But the one big, amazing surprise came...what, only 20 or so pages from the end? I don't want to say it, even though Sailor Moon's been over for ages, because there are some people I'm trying to get into the fandom/understand it, and this is such an amazing thing! But for those "in the know," it's the relationship between Chaos and Sailor Moon. The manga blew me away with that, and I much preferred the manga's way of handling it, even if it meant the new Sailor character for that short time also seemed a bit...odd? In the sense that she, being who she was, didn't seem like who she is.
Bwahaha, riddles! But again: folks who know the anime and the manga will know that the final arc has one very sharp difference there at the end, and I both like it very much and dislike it, but mainly like it for its originality.
So Chaos, definitely, for being...chaotic and full of surprises, and Galaxia for being its avatar, its stylish and badass Sailor Soldier and an incredible parallel to Sailor Moon after years of growth in the manga.
Oh, but wait, wait! There's a whole cadre of villains that I love that only appear in the Sailor Moon: Another Story RPG for SNES (which was translated by DeJap, which was how I was able to play it). Three cheers for Apsu and the Opposito Senshi! I like how Apsu recruited her minions without brainwashing or absolute destruction of their world as a technique. Of course, Apsu herself isn't exactly well-explained...I think...(I might need to replay the game now!), but the Opposito Senshi--Nergal, Nabu, Ishtar, Marduk, and Sin, along with her brother Anshar (holy crap I remembered them all without having to look them up!)-- are very well-developed, despite being parallels to Sailor Moon and the Senshi (and believe it or not, Shingo/Sammy, Usagi/Serena's younger brother). I say "despite," because usually when you have "opposites" for the Senshi, they have a lot in common with the Senshi in question, it's just a matter of "if this Senshi went to the dark side, they might do this..." kind of thing. I think Another Story had those parallel girls be different enough that they were enjoyable villains: scary, comedic, intriguing, and challenging!
Can you tell that I like (parenthetical asides)?
I've got lots to get done, so let's get this very interesting topic out of the way, shall we?
Beryl was a scary villain for a young girl like myself, but when you find out just why she partnered up with Metallia and ended up forming the Dark Kingdom, you've gotta think less of her. I mean, seriously? She was jealous that Endymion hooked up with Serenity instead of her? Love's a powerful emotion, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but jealousy is just...lame. The generals COULD be somewhat scary, especially in the anime when it seemed like their whole past as Endymion's guards was removed or glossed over, but the only fear-inducing general for me was Malachite/Kunzite.
If you want to include PGSM, then there's Mio Kuroki, who was just...annoying. As villains go, she's the thorn-in-the-side type, where I can imagine any of the Senshi secretly thinking "Didn't we destroy her LAST time?" Don't even get me started on her "fashion sense. Ugh! At least Beryl was a sexy villain (in PGSM, anyway)!
Following her, we've got Ail and Ann (and they're just misunderstood anime-only villains, so it's almost like they don't count at all!), the Black Moon, the Amazons (Trio, Quartet) with Nehelenia and Zirconia, and then, of course, Galaxia and Chaos!
I'd say of all the villains, the Black Moon clan is the most varied, because it's a whole mismatched "family" of people (I don't know how many of them are actually related; supposedly the Four Sisters are, as are Diamond and Sapphire, but the rest? Eh, not so much). I don't have a particular single person who's my favorite, but that's BECAUSE they're so varied. If you want someone ruthless, they've got that! If you want someone calculating, they've got that! The Black Moon clan really has villains of all stripes...again, in the anime-verse. In the manga, they were pretty short-lived villains, and there weren't any neat droids or anything, just black-suited creatures with weird white masks.
So Black Moon family for my favorite villains in the anime, but definitely Galaxia and Chaos for my favorite villains in the manga.
In the manga, the final arc of Sailor Moon has some pretty big surprises for heroes and villains alike. There's still the usual "chance for redemption" for the villains, and we get that for a few of them (more of them that the chance in the anime, but I don't know if that's ironic or par for the course, considering the anime also healed the Four Sisters, the Amazon Quartet, and Nehelenia...of them all, the only ones to get the same treatment in the manga was the Quartet).
But the one big, amazing surprise came...what, only 20 or so pages from the end? I don't want to say it, even though Sailor Moon's been over for ages, because there are some people I'm trying to get into the fandom/understand it, and this is such an amazing thing! But for those "in the know," it's the relationship between Chaos and Sailor Moon. The manga blew me away with that, and I much preferred the manga's way of handling it, even if it meant the new Sailor character for that short time also seemed a bit...odd? In the sense that she, being who she was, didn't seem like who she is.
Bwahaha, riddles! But again: folks who know the anime and the manga will know that the final arc has one very sharp difference there at the end, and I both like it very much and dislike it, but mainly like it for its originality.
So Chaos, definitely, for being...chaotic and full of surprises, and Galaxia for being its avatar, its stylish and badass Sailor Soldier and an incredible parallel to Sailor Moon after years of growth in the manga.
Oh, but wait, wait! There's a whole cadre of villains that I love that only appear in the Sailor Moon: Another Story RPG for SNES (which was translated by DeJap, which was how I was able to play it). Three cheers for Apsu and the Opposito Senshi! I like how Apsu recruited her minions without brainwashing or absolute destruction of their world as a technique. Of course, Apsu herself isn't exactly well-explained...I think...(I might need to replay the game now!), but the Opposito Senshi--Nergal, Nabu, Ishtar, Marduk, and Sin, along with her brother Anshar (holy crap I remembered them all without having to look them up!)-- are very well-developed, despite being parallels to Sailor Moon and the Senshi (and believe it or not, Shingo/Sammy, Usagi/Serena's younger brother). I say "despite," because usually when you have "opposites" for the Senshi, they have a lot in common with the Senshi in question, it's just a matter of "if this Senshi went to the dark side, they might do this..." kind of thing. I think Another Story had those parallel girls be different enough that they were enjoyable villains: scary, comedic, intriguing, and challenging!
Can you tell that I like (parenthetical asides)?
