Monday, June 15, 2009

Number 3 Mr. McGee!

And here's Round 3 coming up...

Mysterious Sleeping Illness! Protect the Girls' Hearts in Love

Pre-eyecatcher:
-Man, third episode and Beryl's already impatient. Thus begins the "oh, I'll get her time, I promise!" routine for the next 10 episodes. I can hardly wait for the hilariousness...
-Thinking about it, the whole "Midnight Zero" program sounds like something out of a desperate hotline. And with that, I don't think programs like that won't exist in today's world.
-Well, I enjoyed Haruna's sudden happiness (and close up out of nowhere). You know, I'm starting to realize that while they're "comedy relief", I'm enjoying and laughing much more with the supporting characters than Usagi in these early episodes. That's a bad sign, and I'm talking "Porky's Duck Hunt" bad.
-H'okay, that toast thing was weirdly funny.
-Heh, only in a cartoon when a teacher being funny can happen. Seriously though, Haruna is probably the second funniest character on the show so far. HUGE shame we never see her post-R, becuase she would have fitted SuperS so perfectly.
-Now here's something a forum pointed out. Check out the crowd scene after Hatuna went to sleep Do you see an old man there? If yes, congratulation, you just found one of the most bizarre faces in a crowd shot in this show. Can the rest of the show top that?
-I'm not quite sure if there was a purpose of that Luna scene. Only thing I got out of it was facial expressions.
-Hm, is it just me, or does Flau's human form look like Lindsey Naegle from "The Simpsons"? Maybe it because if the hair and they're executive, or something.

-Laughing at Usagi after some joke he made? Wow, Mamoru sure was a jerk in these episodes. I could never picture his post-R character this much as an asshole. And yet, I can't help but find that enduring. If only we DID see this part of his character in the not too distance future.
-Well, the pen thing on Usagi and the facial expression after she gives up is pretty chuckle worthy.
-Man, the animation poses are all over the place. One minute we get Usagi with shadows, and in the next, we get an slightly off model Usagi (and not the good kind either).

Example of being off-model:
Post-eyecatcher
-Not only do I find it silly that Usagi began her slumber like the way it did, but it's also silly that no one tried to wake her up by screaming and calling for help quickly. Then again, that's up to interpretation, since I have no bloody idea what happened after she slept.
-Say, where's Motoki? Doesn't Usagi love him too? Or is the dream not all that appears?
-NOTE: Tuxedo Mask's eye were closed when he reveled himself in the dream. Of course, we all know who he is, but I wanted to point that out. Could be useful one day.
-Well, Jadeite's scene had "plot exposition" written all over it. Really now, I think Flau knows the plan.
-First appearance of the Disguise Pen. Not much to report on the sequence itself, other than this. Was Usagi being naked in that sequence really necessary guys?
-I'm surprised they actually cut the pre-"Moon Tiara Action" stuff. I'm guessing they ran out of time to include that. Either way, it's a good thing.
-Again, nice that she's getting stronger by the episode. Ditto on the character development.
-Was that Tuxedo Mask laughing in the foreground? If it is, there's the "Unintentionally Funny Moment" award for this episode.
-There's that sitcomish ending thing again. But at lest Haruna gave us one last funny moment.
Overall: Despite my "nitpicking", this episode was little better than the last two episodes. The plot was more interesting then usual, but the characterizations are still uninteresting, and the animation wasn't up to par as usual. Again, it's the funny moments/ jokes that'll be remembered from this one. So yeah, chalk up another mediocre SM episode folks! (three down, four to go)

Fun fact: Apparently, according to ANN, the animation director on this and episode 8 (Ami's debut), Kunihiko Natsume, would later go on to become one of the animation director for the eighth Pokemon/Pocket Monsters movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, aka, the Pokemon movie that everybody/most fans loves. What he did, no clue.

All SM images are from "the oracle". If I claim these pictures for myself, I'm a idiot.

2 comments:

Debbie Anne said...

If the characterization and character design seems flat or inconsistent in a lot of these early shows, it could be due to the fact that Toei was making these at about the same time as the manga was being printed (which also accounts for all the filler episodes until Naoko Takeuchi came up with more plot points). Unlike a lot of anime series, it is fairly obvious that there were three or four different teams of directors and animators drawing these shows as well.

Blamspam said...

If you've ever heard the "Delilah" show on a light radio station at night, it is just like Midnight Zero. Ridiculous.

I liked the Disguise Pen. No clue why they dropped it completely.