The Problems with Sailor Stars

[_Alexander_]

Oh, how I love people who dislikes Stars. ^^

J/k, but seriously, Stars is the worst series in my opinion.
What I dislike:
- The Nehelenia-arc, I liked her story as it was. It became too goody-goody for my taste.
- The animation styles, the characters are too thin at times, they sometimes has huge eyes and just doesn't feel like they are the same character anymore. Also, the animation itself doesn't flow as well as before. Worst looking episode is episode 170, by Masahiro Ando, he has been horrible throug-out the series, but reached a whole new low here.
- The villains - no villain in Stars are remotely interesting to me. R had the best set of villains, you got to know them really well, unlike in Stars. They just exist, with no personality. The same goes for Galaxia, I don't know her at all, unlike Beryl, who was a great big villain.
- The Starlights, oh, how I hate them. They are pretty much the most boring thing about Sailor Moon. Even though they are on screen almost all the time, I never get to know them either. Seiya is an obnoxious girl/boy who falls in love with Usagi and actually expects that Usagi will love him too, at the worst period of time in her life.
- The pace, everything is so slow, the fillers has had problems since S, where they were still enjoyable thanks to Haruka and Michiru and the bonding between Chibi-Usa and Hotaru. I hate how the Galaxia-arc which spans over 28 episodes is so much slower than the first series which was 46 episodes. Sure, it was the beginning and new stuff came all the time, but Stars is the slowest series IMO.
- Predictability, it's a huge let-down for me. We KNOW Seiya and Usagi would never be a couple. They have devoted 4 series on telling Usagi and Mamoru's love for each other. We have seen their past selves, their future selves, their child. They would never fool us like that. Also, this far in the whole series, we knew that ordinary people wouldn't have the Star Seeds, it felt rather dull. Sure, the last 5 episodes weren't exactly predictable, but the rest IMO.
- The ending, it was a HUGE let-down. And I only mean episode 200, not the previous 4 eps. If someone killed all of my friends and the person I love, I would be furious, I would get hateful, I would try to kill the person who did it. Not try to convince the person that he/she's good. I know Usagi's policy has been not to kill anyone ever since R, but it was such a boring battle. Horribly animated too. The ONLY thing I like about the episode is the ending where she says her speech and kisses Mamoru.
- The characters, there's too many! Too many to just focus on Usagi and the Starlights. The Inners gets shunned, the Outers gets shunned, the side characters gets shunned. To me, the side characters in Sailor Moon is what's balancing the show. She was a young girl sho also had to fight monsters in the beginning, in Stars, she was just a soldier who happened to be a young girl. I miss Naru and Umino, I miss Motoki, I miss her interaction with her family (even though Ikuko is in Stars).

Yeah, I think this pretty much covers my problems with Stars. >_>

[rockable]

I do see your point about the Inners protecting the Starlights. Now that I think about it, it IS their duty to protect Usagi. You could call it touching that Mars is the one to protect Usagi, but it's sort of strange that the other three would momentarily abandon that duty to protect the Starlights. In all truth, they probably could have stood in front of Usagi and still managed to protect the Starlights from the attack. I believe the order in which they were situated was Mars in front, Moon behind her, the other three Inners behind Usagi, and then the Starlights on the ground behind them. However, I do disagree with your statement about Hotaru and Setsuna's deaths, but Tiff pretty much already explained that point. Oh but I did like Uranus and Neptune's deaths. That was really sad and touching.

Well, I can at least see Venus wanting to save Starhealer as they seemed to have feelings for each other. But why on earth would Jupiter want to die for Fighter, she barely ever interacted with her at all. She just happened to be the "leftover one", so she had to get killed for Fighter. Such lazy writing. It just annoyed me that Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako have sort of molded into one character and don't really have any fights and motivations of their own anymore. They all chase after the Starlights, they all occasionally say "Now, Sailor Moon!" and they all die. The end
Well, at least there's the whole idol thing with Minako, but does Rei actually do anything at all on her own in the entire series? Or Makoto?

And I forgot all about about Usagi's weird looking Eternal Sailormoon wings. x_x And her transformation and attack are wayy to long, they take up about half of each episode.

[Umino]

After rewatching Stars again, I was surprised I never noticed how neglected the Outers were.

People complain about their disappearance in SuperS, but they don't appear alot in Stars. After Nehelenia's defeat the four just fade into the background. Haruka and Michiru had a few appearances, mainly cameos. Setsuna randomly shows up for Chibi Chibi's debut, but not again until the finale. Then there's poor Hotaru, who doesn't show up until the finale!

And where are the Outers transformations? And how cheap were the animators with Saturn's Silent Wall attack?

[Cardcaptor Takato]

And is it just me or does Setsuna seem out of character in Sailor Stars? It's like in R and S she was a more solemn and serious character but then in that Chibi Chibi episode she was more of a comic relief character and seemed rather clueless and gullible.

[sailorperkytoot123]

After rewatching Stars again, I was surprised I never noticed how neglected the Outers were.

People complain about their disappearance in SuperS, but they don't appear alot in Stars. After Nehelenia's defeat the four just fade into the background. Haruka and Michiru had a few appearances, mainly cameos. Setsuna randomly shows up for Chibi Chibi's debut, but not again until the finale. Then there's poor Hotaru, who doesn't show up until the finale!

And where are the Outers transformations? And how cheap were the animators with Saturn's Silent Wall attack?

Actually Setsuna was also in the episode where she, Haruka, and Michiru keep trying to stop Usagi from seeing Seiya. Although I don't think she participates in the battle with the phage, she just stands there lookin' pretty with her Garnet Rod. But other than that you're right, they don't get much screentime, or at least not enough considering how important they are. Poor Saturn, never had a transformation or attack sequence...unless you count that one when she and Pluto arrive at the concert when Galaxia begins her attack. But that was taken from her intro in the second episode of Stars, so I don't count it.

[Umino]

And is it just me or does Setsuna seem out of character in Sailor Stars? It's like in R and S she was a more solemn and serious character but then in that Chibi Chibi episode she was more of a comic relief character and seemed rather clueless and gullible.

I don't think she was out of character. But they were certainly making fun of her serious personality (ala the Icecream scene).

I thought her whole appearance was random. It seems like she was only there to confirm Small Lady was the queen's only child.

[Dinozore]

It just annoyed me that Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako have sort of molded into one character and don't really have any fights and motivations of their own anymore.

That, I believe, started in SuperS (or late-ish S) and just got worse from there...

[rockable]

Indeed. For some reason, I always found the four of them more interesting than Usagi, so that kind of ruined the series for me. That's why I enjoy PGSM so much, they all have their own motivations and opinions about things there.

Not to mention the poor Outer Senshi. What exactly are they *doing* during the whole Starlights arc? They don't seem to really care that the others are fighting monsters, considering that they only bother to show up about three times in total.

[sailorperkytoot123]

Not to mention the poor Outer Senshi. What exactly are they *doing* during the whole Starlights arc? They don't seem to really care that the others are fighting monsters, considering that they only bother to show up about three times in total.

Oh I think Haruka and Michiru drop enough hints as to what they are doing....*sneaky laughter*

But in all seriousness, the small amount of screentime for the Outers will remain one of the main problems I have with Stars.

[rockable]

I can just see the scenario...

"Haruka, there's an enemy at Usagi's school. Shouldn't we...go to help out?"
"Aww, no..we always stand in the background anyway while Sailor Moon twirls her scepter around for three minutes. I know something MUCH more fun we could do...*naughty grin*"

Meanwhile, Setsuna is on a shopping spree and Hotaru is too busy admiring her lamp collection to care.

[sailorperkytoot123]

I remember the first time I saw the episode where everyone shows up at Usagi's house, when they find the cockroach in the kitchen. I was expecting Setsuna to show up because, by some mystic force of nature, I was able to recall that she has a fear of cockroaches. So I thought they would have her arrive and do something totally out of character, such as scream at the top of her lungs or run away. Ya know, something amusing.

[Iced_Cappucino]

The animation styles, the characters are too thin at times, they sometimes has huge eyes and just doesn't feel like they are the same character anymore. Also, the animation itself doesn't flow as well as before. Worst looking episode is episode 170, by Masahiro Ando, he has been horrible throug-out the series, but reached a whole new low here.

I just watched this episode and compared it to episode 169. The drawing style changes dramatically and the characters seem less cute. It makes your eyes feel sick.

I also disliked the fact the characters were too thin. In the episode where Usagi and Seiyaa are on a 'date' the wide shot of them walking makes Usagi look like a twig. I was like WTF!? Is she on the Atkins diet O_o

I kind of wish Usagi's Eternal Sailor Moon transformation was longer though, like in the first 4 seasons. I miss the ribbons.
And, as others have said, Chibi-Usa was given no dignity! They made a big fuss over Chibi-Usa's death in the Nehelania arc, where she disappeared (the death scene lacked music!) and then in the next episode she's vanished forever. You'd think after the trauma of seeing your future daughter die they'd have took the time to devote an episode to Usagi and Chibi-Usa's farewell.

[Cardcaptor Takato]

One thing I don't understand about Sailor Stars was what exactly happened in the ending to the Nehelenia arc? [spoiler]Did Usagi send Nehelina into an illusion or dream? Was she and her royal court reincarnated with the Silver Crystal? Or did Usagi send Nehelina back in time?[/spoiler]

[KKDW]

When I finally got around to watching Stars I was really looking forward to it, and then ended up rather dissapointed (at least until the last few episodes). For me there were two things I wasn't too keen on...
1: the 'monsters of the week', in fact over time and previous seasons this had started to really get on my nerves (mainly due to how stupid and annoying some of them where), in fact I rather liked the Nehelenia since it (mostly) didn't have ridiculous monsters of the week.
2: the outers doing practically nothing outside the Nehelenia arc and the last few episodes. This was mainly in the case of Sailor Saturn though as with this season I was looking forward to seeing her actually get involved in some action (as during S Saturn had become my favourite character...and was rather dissapointed when we didn't see the fight with Phaoroh 90) and Saturn didn't deliver.

I guess I should really read the manga.