TASKSHEET FOR MOVIE REVIEW

MOVIE TITLE: SAILOR MOON

DIRECTOR: KUNIHIKO IKUHARA

1. Briefly describe the setting of the movie, that is the location and the era
when the story happened

Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon) is an ordinary 8th grade schoolgirl who, one day on her
way to school, saves a cat with a crescent moon on its forehead. At home,
depressed after having failed a test, Usagi meets the cat again in her room. The cat,
amazingly, can talk, and she introduces herself as Luna. Luna gives the dubious
Usagi the ability to transform into Sailormoon, the pretty sailor suited soldier of
justice.

Sailormoon faces the Dark Kingdom, an enemy group that wants to take over the
Earth. The Dark Kingdom consists of Queen Metallia, Queen Beryl, and the four
generals: Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Kunzite. Sailormoon's mission is to protect
the world while finding the Moon Princess whom she is sworn to protect. She finds
allies in Tuxedo Kamen, a mysterious masked man who assists her in her fights but
has his own agenda (and whom Usagi/Sailormoon has a huge crush on), and the
other Sailor Senshi that she gradually discovers in four other girls: Mizuno
Ami/Mercury, Hino Rei/Mars,Kino Makoto/Jupiter, and Aino Minako/Venus.

Usagi's main relationship crisis throughout the season consists of her problems
with Chiba Mamoru, an attractive but annoying college student who constantly
teases her. He is really Tuxedo Kamen, but he (and the Sailor Senshi) don't discover
this fact until much later.

The Dark Kingdom's first job is to gain energy for Metallia by draining the life forces
of humans. Later on, however, they begin to look for the ginzuishou ("mystical silver
crystal"). Eventually this leads them to go after the seven rainbow crystals sealed
inside seven people who were originally the Dark Kingdom's seven original youma.
When brought together, the rainbow crystals create the ginzuishou. Thus the new
priority of the Sailor Senshi is to find the seven rainbow crystals before the Dark
Kingdom does. The Dark Kingdom, the Sailor Senshi, and Tuxedo Kamen all vie for
the crystals. Eventually because of the crystals, Usagi and Mamoru discover each
other's identities when they are trapped together by Zoicite. Usagi is the true
Princess of the Moon, and Mamoru is her lover, Prince Endymion of Earth. Usagi
receives the ginzuishou, but Mamoru is kidnapped and brainwashed by the Dark
Kingdom.

After a whole bunch of filler episodes in which the Dark Kingdom and evil Prince
Endymion/Tuxedo Kamen try to get Sailormoon to hand over the ginzuishou, Usagi,
Ami, Rei, Minako, and Makoto must confront the Dark Kingdom, learning about their
pasts on the moon in the process. In episode 45, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus
all die trying to protect Sailormoon. In episode 46, Mamoru, as evil Prince Endymion,
tries to kill Sailormoon, but before he can finally do so, Sailormoon revives his
memories. Mamoru then dies trying to save Sailormoon from Queen Beryl.
Sailormoon then defeats Beryl and Metallia as Princess Serenity using the
ginzuishou and the other Sailor Senshi's powers, then dies, since that is the
consequence of using the full power of the ginzuishou. Usagi's last wish is to live a
normal life as a normal girl, so her wish is granted, and at the end of the episode, all
the girls and Mamoru come back to life without their memories.

2. Name and describe of 4 main characters in the movie

i- Mizuno Ami / Sailormercury

Ami is a genius with a rumored IQ of 300. She studies all the time, and in S she is
rather obsessed with getting everyone to study for the entrance exams Japanese
students must take to enter high school. She always brings a book everywhere to
study, even to concerts and stuff. She has problems with love letters, and in the
SuperS movie special ("Ami-chan's First Love") when she gets one, she breaks out
into hives.

She first transfers to Juuban Junior High School and joins a cramming computer
class, which is really a plot of the Dark Kingdom. Unfortunately for her, the teacher
takes a liking to her. In other words she's basically a victim of a crazed youma.
Fortunately Usagi rescues her, though actually Usagi comes to punish her for
working with the Dark Kingdom, and then Ami does some rescuing herself when
Luna throws her henshin stick at her, and she becomes Sailormercury.
Her family is extremely rich. Ami lives with her mother in an expensive apartment
complex since her parents are divorced. Her mother is a busy doctor, whom Ami
admires deeply (she wants to be a doctor like her mom when she grows up), and her
father is a traveling painter. Gradually throughout the series, she becomes less
introverted and more interested in things outside the realm of school and studying; in
SailorStars, idol chasing is a trait that she manages to pick up.

ii-Hino Rei / Sailormars

Rei is a headstrong girl with a major temper. She's devoutly Shinto, and therefore
has powers that relate to that religion, such as receiving visions and being able to
"read" fires. She lives with her old, hentai grandfather in the Hikawa Jinja ("jinja"
meaning "shrine"). Some of Rei's other interests outside of her Shinto life are
composing songs and singing, proving that she is musically inclined (though this is
really only addressed in one R episode). Rei attends TA Private Girls' School, which
is a Catholic girls-only school. The other girls at TA worship her, even though oddly
enough, she is also rejected as being a weird shrine maiden with strange powers.

Rei becomes first involved with Usagi and Ami when buses leaving the shrine
reportedly vanish mysteriously, leading worried parents to believe that the weird
family in charge of the shrine has kidnapped their children. Jadeite, in disguise,
works at the shrine and is the one who is responsible for the students'
disappearances. When Rei confronts him, he sends her to some hole in space (or
whatever) where he has kept all the other buses. Usagi arrives at the same place
when she manages to grab hold of a bus being sucked into a portal. While there,
Luna sees the sign of Mars on Rei's forehead glow as she is being held by a youma.
After Sailormoon frees Rei, Luna she gives Rei her henshin stick. Rei then
transforms, becoming Sailormars, and she destroys the youma of the day with her
"Fire Soul". Afterwards, she joins the Sailor Senshi.

iii- Kino Makoto / Sailorjupiter

Makoto, or Mako-chan, as everyone calls her, has a pretty tragic childhood. She
lives alone in an apartment because her parents were killed in an airplane crash,
hence her trouble with airplanes. She had problems in her old school and left, and
rumors were spread about her beating up a kid, so no one would be her friend...
Except Usagi, who is attracted to her bento lunch and is impressed by her strength,
cooking skills, and cuteness, so they become fast friends.

Usagi takes Makoto to the video arcade after meeting her when school is over for the
day. While there, Makoto sees a boy, Joe, who is extremely talented at the UFO
catcher game, winning anything he wants. Makoto thinks him to be like her senpai,
so she immediately thinks he's cute. She therefore follows him when he leaves. Joe
is one of the seven original youma of the Dark Kingdom, and when Zoicite attacks
him for his rainbow crystal, Makoto defends Joe. Joe is considerably callous to
Makoto, saying he doesn't like how she's so tall and unfeminine, and he admits to
her that he has a special telekinetic power that enables him to cheat at the UFO
catching. Zoicite attacks once more, and Joe flees, and Makoto, in anger at his
comments about her, chases after.

Zoicite takes Joe's crystal, and he turns into a youma. The youma goes after Makoto,
but Sailormoon intervenes, though somehow she manages to be caught by the
enemy. Luna, at this point, gives Makoto her henshin stick after seeing the sign of
Jupiter flash on Mako's forehead. The brunette then transforms and saves
Sailormoon, thus joining the Sailor Team as the fourth senshi.

iv- Aino Minako / Sailorvenus

Minako goes to a different junior high school from the other Inner Senshi, but in
SailorStars, she attends Juuban High School with them. Her guardian cat is Artemis.
She's like Usagi--well, they could be twins. They look almost exactly alike, except
that her hair color is a shade different, and they have many moments throughout SM
when they do exactly the same things. For example, in the first seasons,the skating
episode, when they convince the others to go skating with them. Also when they
stalk Haruka in S, for most of the episode they copy each other...

Minako was the first Sailor Senshi, becoming Sailor V after meeting Artemis. She
fought villains there as V, and she was friends with Alan and Katarina, a police
officer, while living in England. However, she fell in love with Alan, but both Alan and
Katarina thought of her as only a child, and they fell in love with each other. When V
and Katarina were investigating a warehouse, a grenade exploded inside, and
Katarina thought Minako was killed. It was then as V watched Katarina and Alan
embrace that she realized they were in love, and so she left, leaving them to think
her dead. She returned to Japan and became Sailorvenus, joining the rest of the
Inner Senshi.

3. Did you like the movie? Explain why.

I loved this movie so much, it is because the moral value that they had in the story is
all about justice how to make world is a better place to live with harmony. Besides
that it also showed us how to build our love with all of people in this world not only on
our love one but also the society and animals that we have to take care and give
responsible to make this world wonderful. And the most important thing that make
me fall in love with this movie is the strength of women and beautiful side of women
not only showed on Usagi and her team heart but also how they wear their costume
and make up, their personality shine brightly through their value.

4. Write a 100-word review of te movie

The Sailormoon movie is a fun, it slightly childish romance movie, which had all the elements
to make a successful magical girl show without being stereotypical. Seeing a group of 14-
year-old girls go into battle with ridiculously altered versions of their school uniforms was
both charming and hilarious. The animation quality was surprisingly good for early '90s TV
animation, though not the best. The Japanese soundtrack was catchy and captured the
mood perfectly. It even had a neat story to boot, alluding to past lives and reasons behind
their reincarnations. Even then, I don't think anything could have prepared us all, and
especially Takeuchi Naoko, for the impending blitzkrieg that this series would become.

Sailormoon truly has something for everyone. It has exciting fight scenes for the action fan,
just enough romance, and truly memorable characters you come to care for very deeply.
What makes this show such a standout is that it originally focused more on the characters
themselves than on the obligatory Monster-of-the-Week. Specifically the character of Usagi.

Usagi was NOT your standard magical girl. In most previous magical girl shows before, the
heroine was given magical powers, but primarily told to have fun with them, and do as they
please, which was why in so many of those shows, they would transform into models and
idol singers. They got to live out their dreams. For Usagi, it is a dream deferred. In modern
Japanese society, young people are told to shut up, study, take their tests, and get a good
job. You can worry about dreaming only after you've settled down, have a set career, and
made your fortune. Usagi wants nothing more than to hang out at the video arcade with her
friends and flirt with cute guys, like any young girl would. Yet now, she now has this familiar
nagging her to be a better fighter, telling her the fate of the world rests on her shoulders. She
is being forced to grow up when she should be revelling in her childhood. What Japanese
child, or any teenager for that matter, -wouldn't- relate to that? By the end of Sailor Moon R,
she was rewarded for toughing it out ... the world was saved and her dream came true. She
was allowed to be young forever with the one she loved, and not be denied a family in the
process. And the story should have ended there.

But unfortunately for Usagi, and the rest of us, it didn't.

By the end of R, Sailor Moon had become such a huge hit, and nobody wanted it to end.
Fans and producers alike wanted more adventures. So then came Sailor Moon S, which
introduced the "Outer Senshi", as well as more villains for her and her friends to fight. While
still fun, it was starting to deviate from the story of Usagi, and focused more on the weekly
villain. It was starting to stretch itself too thin. SuperS tried to set up a continuation of the
heritage based, not on Usagi, but her future daughter, Chibi-Usa (Little Usagi), but it fell
quickly into the formula of magical girl show as previously known. Chibi-Usa seemed less to
be training for the future, but blowing off steam by adventuring because she thought the
peaceful future was boring. The franchise was obviously faltering, so the producers decided
to do a total makeover of the series. Thus, we have Sailor Stars, which not only reinvented
the entire purpose of Sailor Moon, alienating the Japanese fandom, but revealed Usagi
wasn't the main focus of the series after all, but Sailor Galaxia. Not to mention the gender-
shifting Sailor Stars themselves, who according to previous storylines, should never have
existed anyway. This was the end for the TV series but the marketing blitz continued
elsewhere.

Sailor Moon is one of the better series to come out of Japan in the last decade. It truly
deserves its popularity. It appeals on such a wide level that a family can sit down to watch
the show, and all can find something to enjoy in it. Although the music in the North American
dub is flat, unoriginal, and basically standard kiddie fare (read HOKEY), and the
cringeworthy "Sailor Says" segments seem to be conjured out from nowhere to pass the
show off as educational, it is educational, but through the interactions between the
characters rather than a 30-second blurb about crossing the street without looking. At its
heart, Sailormoon is the story of a girl striving for the balance between duty and life itself. But
it loses itself in the process. The real tragedy of Usagi is that, quite possibly, her fans love
her too much. The series is suffering backlash it really doesn't deserve, because the quality
of the later series really does not compare to the first two seasons. And limiting anime
fandom to only this show, as so many Moonies do, is a disservice to the entire medium.
Sailormoon is not the be-all, end-all of anime, as so many want to believe