Sailor Moon S Movie: Hearts in Ice

This movie centers on characters that are frankly usually ignored in the actual series; Luna and Artemis. Story: Ok I'll be honest, when I first watched this movie as a kid, the plotline concerning the scientists confused me. I wasn't too sure what their connection was to the movie's villain, or what was going on between the two of them. After watching it again when I was older, I finally slowly understood it. They seemed to mix up the timeline with the past and present, and it can get easy to mix them up. Other than that, the story consists mainly of Luna, and her feelings towards'stuck being only a cat'. I was disappointed; they didn't take this chance to explain more about both Luna and especially Artemis's past as the manga did, but overall it still was a pretty good plot even with our usual main characters not being seen as much. Art: Once again, the art is basic Sailor Moon style and there is nothing really that stands out. The ending scene is really nice to look at, especially the transformation sequence. Sound: Sound wasn't so much of a deal. Didn't have breakthrough songs, and the sounds of the Snow Dancers made my ears bleed. Character: I'm going to say it here and now. Luna's outcome at the end was the only reason I liked this movie. I cared little for the supporting characters, and the main characters were hardly present. Another good point was the outer scouts made a believable appearance in this movie with the absence of Saturn, who hadn't yet appeared in the series timeline. The movie even managed to squeeze in short moments between Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask and Mini Moon. Enjoyment: I liked the movie and thought it was cute to see Luna's outcome and Artemis acting adorable. I wouldn't say it's not necessary to watch because it does have some important scenes to see before getting into the SuperS season. Overall: A cute fluffy movie, but overall nothing huge.

The Sailor Moon S Movie has come a long way from the Sailor Moon R Movie. While that movie was also amazing in its own right, the Sailor Moon S Movie gives its own take on a brand new story that cuts ties with Sailor Moon S (the season) completely, rather than the R Movie's somewhat reliance on the premise of Ail and An to work. This is a good thing, as the star of this movie is actually Luna, who gets really great development. Off the bat, I'd like to say the idea of giving Luna character development is really interesting. While she was neverby any means a one-dimensional character, nor can I ever say she's been neglected during the series, her (and Artemis') screentime has been slowly dwindling and chipping away from relevance after the first season, as there wasn't much left in the plot for them to do. And it's fitting that in the way that Usagi's childlike and naive nature allowed her to find love in the first season, so too is it that Luna would fall in love with something equally taboo to Usagi's. While for Usagi, this was the case of an older man (though the actual degree of how "taboo" this was at least at the time is questionable), for Luna this tended to be the case for a human. Even though it does seem like a case of a missed opportunity to pair her with Artemis right off the bat, I think pairing Luna with a human actually works better for the movie's premise. Primarily, just like the human characters themselves, Luna seems to greatly care for the lives of people, perhaps moreso than the Sailor Senshi even, and she's obviously connected to the stars and astrology very heavily, which makes the premise a lot more appealing. Furthermore, the movie heavily discusses Luna's desire to be a human in a longing sense, which adds a really deep emotional value to the entire premise, as she wants to do so for selfless reasons. Even though Luna is the star of the movie, she eventually turns out to fight with NASA copilot Himeko, a character who I am unfortunately not a fan of, not even as Kakeru's love interest. In my perspective, throughout the film, Himeko comes across as rather one-dimensional, and only serves to exist as a counterpart and "foil" to Kakeru; the more grounding presence to the man lost in his daydreams and fantasies (of meeting Princess Kaguya.) Frankly, Himeko isn't all that interesting as a character either, which is unfortunate, as this is one of the movie's big selling points (that Kakeru loves Himeko truly, not Luna). Other than that, the use of Princess "Snow" Kaguya was really well thought-out, and I like her backstory a lot. Everyone also has a lot of beautiful designs and artwork in the movie, which clearly had much better production than the main series. One of the other unfortunate aspects is that Hotaru wasn't added to the plot; it does somewhat cheapen the finale to have only nine Sailor Senshi present, which is depressing. After all, as all three Outer Senshi are present, and Chibiusa was around even before this point, there's no real reason Hotaru should be missing. It's also not like they haven't taken liberties before, as Chibiusa had no real reason to be in the Sailor Moon R movie (at a point where she could also somehow fit into the main series, without taking some massive liberties), so it's incredibly disappointing that the "star" of the S SEASON was missing from her own season's movie. Overall, the Sailor Moon S Movie is really beautiful, and has a lot of the magic, mystery and awe that likely captivated fan's hearts as soon as they watched the series proper for the first time, and focuses on some really touching and caring scenes for characters that have gone less and less appreciated throughout the series. I wholeheartedly recommend this romantic movie.

Sailor Moon S:Hearts of Ice is without question the most well focused movies out of the 90s movie trilogy for many reasons that I can list. Story: A snowstorm hits Tokyo which in turn marks the return of an evil snow queen named Princess Snow Kaguya who wants to freeze the whole entire Earth into a frozen domain of her own choosing. The Sailor Guardians have to stop this new villain. Luna falls ill after getting lost, Luna is rescued by a kind-hearted but misunderstood astronomer, Kakeru, who happens to have the remaining shard of the crystal! Called into action to protect Luna and hernewfound crush, Sailor Moon and her team of Sailor Guardians are now the only hope the world has of avoiding an eternal Winter! Characters: Luna is the main focus of the movie and one of the most stand out characters of the plot. My favorite part is that she transforms into a beautiful human girl and flies around in space with Kakeru and made her wish. Animation: The animation is what you expect from a 90s Mahou Shoujo anime. Toei Animation aced up the animation and created the wonderful scenes of the movie. Sound: the original Japanese music is so stellar in this movie. The Viz redub has been my favorite dub of so far. The voice actors give it their all in the movie. The ones that stood out to me in this movie are Michelle Ruff as Luna and Melissa Fahn as Princess Snow Kaguya.