Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon S (Cloverway Dub): I can't decide, should this be a Monty Python joke or Indiana Jones joke?

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Makemake, Eris. Not counting moons and the sun, these are all the planets in our Solar system. I would include the moons here, but there are 194 formations scientists consider Natural Satellites in our Solar System. Many of these have connections to other factors of our lives in some form, from the five elements of Chinese astrology, depictions of alchemy, star signs of numerous cultures, I could go on but honestly nothing I could add here in regards to Saturn's death powers could top the number 1 reason why people remember this season. Welcome, to Sailor Moon S.

Ok, first things first, the new intro. This gives off the impression of this being a rush job in the dubbing process (wouldn't be surprised to be honest). It is the Japanese intro, using the English theme which doesn't match the new intros in terms of lyrics. I can't talk for the Japanese one though as while they use the same song, the lyrics are different between Japan and the West.

Like with those before it, S' story is based on an arc of the Manga, the Infinity Arc. Where the main scouts are preparing to go to High School... but that would be boring so a new villain comes to town in the form of the Death Busters, a group magical scientists (I think) looking to find three specific pure hearts to form the Holy Grail... yes, really. As a result, it is up to the five girls, Tuxedo Mask, and new Sailor Scouts in the form of Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Mini Moon and the kind of a mix between hero and villain thanks to body possession, Sailor Saturn. You'd think I'd have more to say on it as both Mini Moon and Saturn are little kids in the Scout uniforms, not to mention the implications of having a child around the age of 10 at most being possessed by demons, or that her powers all relate to death and destruction, but doing research on this to try and find an inspiration led to finding a site on a Saturn worshipping Death Cult that has something to do with the Illuminati. Nothing I say could top that. The most I could find was her scout symbol meaning lead in Alchemy (which is connected to Saturn) and the scythe of the Roman Gods. I don't think I should explain the connection scythes have with death.

Did the 8-year-old really need one of those costumes?

In regards to the story overall, aside from the Jump the shark moment where the villains want the cup Jesus drank out of during the Last Supper. It feels like a "been there, done that" story. Out of all three seasons so far, they can all be boiled down to "We need to harvest things to get the thing we really want", and to use that for 120 episodes, that gets really boring really quickly. While the new characters and especially the new villains, it's the overall structure I find boring to sit through again.

Now then... the elephant in the room... See, Sailor Moon S' English dub is rather infamous for one specific change it made. One that baffles me because of a number of other decisions. Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, and the changing of a Lesbian relationship into an uncomfortable "cousin" relationship where one is portrayed as more masculine when in civilian clothes while still being voiced by the same female voice actor, making the whole thing feel a lot more awkward then it should. Getting rid of the clear Lesbian relationship because this was the early 2000's and that was still a big no-no for television? Fine, I can live with that, I might not agree, but I can live with that. The problem does go back to what I brought up about the intro because that intro is a symptom of what's going on with Sailor Moon S' dub, it wasn't planned out and it's rushed. Yes, they changed it so that they are cousins in the dialogue, but they didn't bother to change the scenes the two of them have that show them as lovers. Combine that with moments earlier on where some of the girls somewhat fall in love with Uranus when they see her in more masculine clothes for day to day life, confusing her for a boy as a result, it just gets messy. The lesbian relationship isn't allowed, yet you make no attempt to hide it, turn one of the characters into a somewhat transexual character, and have 14 to 15-year-olds fall in love with her while she's in a relationship with her "cousin". Was that really the best idea?

The villain designs do at least have some variety to them. Weird, but a comic book kind of weird

One change from R to S is a new voice cast, and while some are solid, or even improvements, others like Serena herself... I am not a fan of Serena's new voice, it sounds a lot like an older woman trying to sound like a teenager and nothing against Linda Ballantyne for it, as I'm guessing this was a problem more with the direction she was given, rather than her skill as a voice actor. Visually, it's about the same as it was for the first two seasons, though there was an effort to make it more visually distinct, such as the Death Busters' hideout and vehicle deployment. It's a step up, but it's not a drastic step up compared to something like going from Digimon Adventure 02 to Digimon Tamers.

While the laziness of the dub at points is a big problem, the rest of it feels very "been there, done that". Throw in some crazy ideas like the Holy Grail, and what could have been a good show feels worse. This is the low point of the Marathon so far, but we're not done, because up next is Super S. On the toybox this week, a fembot you shouldn't mess with, Chromia.