Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 2 Review

As mentioned last time here, the awakening of Sailor Mercury occurs. It’s a little disheartening that each episode is released every two weeks but I suppose it makes it that much more interesting for us fans.

This episode focused on Mizuno Ami’s isolation from her peers and of course, the sadness that comes with it. There are various times where it is mentioned she doesn’t have many friends and each time, it seems she hears these opinions which further bringing her morale down.

She’s definitely popular but of course, in a way which makes people jealous of her high IQ. These initial scenes build a foundation for Usagi’s and Ami’s meeting and blossoming friendship. From the get go, Ami notices Usagi, possibly due to her bubbly nature.

We are then introduced to Queen Beryl and the new layout of her dominion is quite nice. It looks like more than a dark pit from the original and now, more of a dark castle.

Returning to the city, Luna suspects Ami is one of the scouts. They become instant friends as in the series, she is the closest to Luna. Usagi wanted to be friends with her for somewhat selfish reasons – increasing grades and learning how to study.

But then it becomes a normal friendship with a trip to the arcade. There, Ami is able to gain respect of the gamers since she does extraordinarily well in the Sailor V game, earning a ‘pen’ (her transformation talisman) and Usagi wants one too, tampering with the machine until she gets the disguise pen.

In this episode, the main conflict is with Ami’s cram school – Crystal Seminar. It is computer based so the minion is able to draw energy. She has chosen Ami as her star pupil.

Usagi and Luna catch on to Ami's strange behaviour after inviting her to an ice cream outing and rush to save her with Usagi transforming into a doctor.

Once there, Usagi gets into trouble and Sailor Mercury is awakened. Naturally, Ami's transformation scene is shorter but the amusing part was that it looked like she was figure skating. 

The significant change here is the lack of attack sequence – when the scouts attack, it is instant. That may be because there was only a few minutes left before the end, indicating the show will be focusing more on character development than on battle time since the last two fights have been quite short.

After the help of Tuxedo Mask, Usagi and Ami become good friends with Ami wanting to know more. Usagi and Luna were Ami's first friends and now she's become a much happier individual.

Then we get a glimpse of Rei. So next time, the awakening of Sailor Mars!

The first episode served as a plot set up and there is a lot of ground to cover so I can see why (in comparison to Sword Art Online II, where the plot is really picking up after episode 3). The rest of the episodes to come indicate that they will focus on the characters themselves since we now know the mission, some of the baddies, etc.

With this episode, I felt the bond Usagi and Ami have and why Ami would be inclined to serve her once she awakens as the Princess – Usagi was the first to speak with her, breaking the barriers of Ami’s isolation.

Now I’m looking forward to seeing Rei’s characterization – will they keep the manga character or will they stick with the previous anime version?