The Sailor Moon manga is often criticized for its fast pace. Villains are introduced and killed off in rapid succession and the core cast barely has time to live before another critical situation demands their attention. For the most part, I agree. Some antagonists truly do only get a small number of pages before they get their comeuppance. And given how creative Naoko Takeuchi’s character designs are, it’s a shame to see them go so soon – especially if they barely showcased their personalities. As for the issue of pacing, it’s true that the manga speeds through the five arcs and the daily lives of the senshi aren’t given much attention.

These criticisms of the manga come about due to the fact that the 90s anime adaptation chose to flesh out antagonists and focus much more on the daily lives of the protagonists. The difference between anime and manga in these areas is admittedly pretty big. The anime needed to pad out the seasons and these two things were the easiest to make use of. Most of the time it worked well, and at its best these changes are able to compliment the core plot of the respective season and flesh out a story that was already good in the manga. At its worst, it looks like Sailor Moon SuperS.

The problem with SuperS is not that it focuses on Chibiusa in and of itself – something I initially thought was the issue for most of its critics. The manga arc – Dream – also focuses a lot on Chibiusa. The real problem is that SuperS is a failure of adaptation at its core. The story of the Dream arc relies heavily on three major things. Firstly, the character development of Usagi, Mamoru and Chibiusa thus far. Second, the introduction of lore directly related to Mamoru and Chibiusa. And lastly, the profound impact that the outer senshi have on the other sailor senshi. SuperS fails to include all three of these things, but it still does the fleshing out of minor antagonists and focus on daily lives that classic always did before. Sure, it’s cool to see a more fleshed out Amazon Trio and their redemption is earned, but how does it serve the overarching narrative? Well...it doesn’t. Once we move on to the Amazoness Quartet it feels more like the Trio should have left earlier – their redemption could have been achieved with less episodes, anyways. But then the filler episodes that do focus on the Quartet are some of the weakest filler classic Sailor Moon has ever had. And worse still, none of it serves the Quartet as characters. Since the Quartet don’t have the same role in the plot or the lore as they do in the manga, they basically fizzle out at the end of the season, since the last five episodes cram in as much of the plot as possible before a contrived and unfinished conclusion. So much so that SuperS’ main villain, Queen Nehelenia, had to wait until the beginning of Sailor Stars in order to get a satisfying conclusion to her character. And speaking of Sailor Stars, that’s the next time you’ll be seeing the outer senshi, as they are nowhere to be seen in this season (aside from a single UraNep episode in the SuperS Specials) even though they had big roles in the manga. A baffling decision, given how popular Uranus and Neptune are and how important Pluto and Saturn are to Chibiusa.

Classic Sailor Moon is so often praised for its use of filler – but it’s not always worth praising. In the previous season a balance was struck between fleshing out character in filler while also paying attention to the actual plot of the manga. And while Sailor Moon S certainly took some liberties with the plot it was adapting, SuperS ignores it until the final hour. Many people – myself included – take issue with how Helios and his relationship with Chibiusa is portrayed. The issue would not really exist if Chibiusa got to see Helios’ true form earlier, like in the manga, but SuperS keeps us waiting on that reveal for far too long. Furthermore, SuperS suffers from classic Sailor Moon’s neglect of both Chibiusa and Mamoru’s character since their introduction. Chibiusa being a child for 900 years, and her massive anxiety surrounding that, is never addressed. So much of Mamoru’s particular abilities and role in the team is completely ignored. Maybe this wasn’t a problem they could have foreseen as the anime and manga were being released close together, but if they had included more details of Mamoru’s actual powers from the start, they would not have found themselves in a situation where they are unable to adapt major plot points of the Dream arc because Mamoru’s powers and role are directly tied to Helios. SuperS was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and instead of figuring out how to adapt the plot as accurately as possible given the circumstances, it instead puts all of its focus on stuff that really isn't as important.

The worst parts of previous Sailor Moon seasons aren’t things that were adapted from the manga, but things that were added in place of stuff that the anime chose to ignore. If you want an example of this, just look at the difference in Sailor Pluto's role in the Black Moon arc VS her role in Sailor Moon R. When classic Sailor Moon is at its best, it’s when it makes good use of filler and/or an inability to do an important thing the same way as it happened in the manga. A perfect example of this is episode 109 (found in Sailor Moon S), which combined a character focus on Minako and important identity reveals. It’s an extremely memorable episode that, while the events never occurred in the manga, was still successful in fleshing out character, exploring minor antagonists and moving the plot forward. It was a successful way to get around being unable to reveal the senshi’s identities the same way it happened in the manga. SuperS has none of these kinds of episodes. Its best filler are high in comedy and slice of life, but are still disappointing when you consider that literally none of it is serving the broader storyline, ever.

With all that being said, where does SuperS succeed? With this, it’s all in the aesthetics. SuperS had an amazing score, great art direction, and wonderful cinematography. It makes full use of the Dead Moon Circus and Dream Mirrors to craft an identity that sets itself apart thematically from previous seasons in a good way. There’s also a lot of great comedy, par for the course in classic Sailor Moon. But even if you aren’t meticulously noticing differences from the manga, there isn’t nearly enough done to make the plot of Sailor Moon SuperS stand on its own.

Because I’m a huge fan of Sailor Moon in general, and SuperS doesn’t detract from the Sailor Moon “experience”, the lowest score I could personally give it is a 7.5/10; my rating is an 8. But for those of you who are watching all 200 episodes of classic Sailor Moon as simply another anime to watch, SuperS probably deserves no more than a 7.