Jake and Amir Review and Top 10 Episodes

 

Ten years ago the original Jake and Amir series ended. A staple of internet comedy in that era, Jake and Amir if you aren't aware has a very basic concept. Jake is a relatively normal guy who sits at work across from his co-worker Amir, who is a weird guy, usually Amir agitates or unsettling Jake with his antics or eccentricities. Despite this it became an absolutely beloved series that lasted basically for 8 years and 800 two to five minute episodes. 

Because of how long the series lasted it definitely morphed a lot in style though a popular way of dividing it is into three eras based on the two times that Jake and Amir moved offices, the first time in March in 2010 and the second time in in January of 2014. I think a good way to do this is to briefly talk about my thoughts on each of these three eras, before giving my thoughts on the series as a whole and my top 10 episodes.

2007 to 2010 or Early Jake and Amir I know has probably the most vocal fanbase but personally I definitely find it the weakest era. Very early on it wasn't even meant to be a web series. For the most part it's just that for 2007 and sometimes in 2008 the episodes would be too simple, basically containing one joke each per episode rather then layering on the absurdity as later episodes are wont to do. There are things I do like about this era though. Starting in 2008 and really by 2009 the episodes would start resembling what they would be later. Hebrew and Thai Menu are both episodes I really like and they're both from 2009. This was the era of multi part episodes. Outside of Girlfriend and the Finale, Jake and Amir didn't tend to do longer arcs after the early part, but as early as 2007 with Lyrics Jake and Amir was doing multiparters and by 2008 they were doing four part arcs with the Florida arc. 

My favorite thing about this period of Jake and Amir though is the heart. Jake and Amir occasionally do wholesome moments however they work by far the best here. This is because Jake and Amir were still relatively grounded here. By late in the series Jake has commented on wishing Amir would die enough times Amir even comments on it, so when Jake decides to move across the country for Amir it feels inconsistent. Plus in later Jake and Amir they'd have a tender moment only to immediately follow with a joke mocking it. This kind of whiplash humor I get the idea for but it really takes it out of the moment. This was broadly Jake and Amir at their most grounded when Amir wasn't a chaotic reality-warping psychopath but was a weird co-worker and Jake the confused annoyed straight man. That leads to the moments like in Sick Day 3, Decision, and Brother 4 to come off as so much more genuine. 

2010 through 2013 or Middle Jake and Amir seems to be the most popular time for Jake and I would definitely concur. It's the longest period and has the most memes to come from it. Jake and Amir's voices both as characters and as writers came more into focus, with longer episodes that contained a faster pace and more jokes. Jake was given more dimensionality shifting from just a very average everyman straight man to Amir's antics, to someone desperate for popularity and praise, a representation not of just the status quo but of people chasing the status quo. This was good I think as it allowed him more versatility as a character. Amir became more exaggerated going from just a wacky and dim-witted co-worker to a chaotic mixture of sociopathy, lunacy, and obsession. This was a mixed blessing as it allowed jokes around him to go to further extremes but also meant it was harder to have any kind of human moment with him that was believable. 

Outside of the duo, the world of Jake and Amir definitely opened up. There were less arcs, but far more callbacks and episodes that referenced or sequeled-past episodes. This was when the girlfriend arc and Fired, the Jake and Amir 30 minute movie came out. This was also when a ton of characters were added into Jake an Amir's world. While some of these characters had rather basic jokes like Mike Fink who's entire joke is that Amir for some reason thinks he's Shia LeBeouf, the addition of more recurring cast allowed for more versatility. 

I broadly agree this is the best period of Jake and Amir where everything felt both iconic and free, where Jake and Amir could have an ep about anything, expand the world in any direction, and still have it feel recognizably Jake and Amir due to the chemistry between the main duo. 

2014 to 2015 marks Late Jake and Amir. While this stretch has a lot in common with Mid Jake and Amir there was a more notable sense that it was getting tired, something lampshaded in their videos ("POSTER Ideas don't you think we're scraping the bottom of the barrel.") The shortest period, this part still has great eps. The Finale are broadly all good eps, and Stock Market is a fantastic episode. However the series was sorta faced with two options neither of which were great, that being continue on the same as they were and letting it feel stale, or to keep exaggerating making it more and more of a cartoon, and episodes from this period broadly do one or the other I think tending towards the latter. The most wacky ideas in the series like them living in a muffin or Amir castrating himself without any pain whatsoever or randomly having two hot girls dance in his laundry room because "I'm a promoter." 

What I will say about this era is when it's on, it is really on. The timing and back and forth between Jake and Amir is never sharper then in the good episodes of this period. Tinder, Stock Market, Multiple Parts of the Finale, and DJ Business are all eps I at least considered for the Top 10. There are more individual episodes in this much shorter Late Jake and Amir that I rewatch regularly then Early Jake and Amir, however it comes with the fact that there are episodes of Late Jake and Amir like Copier that I don't have any desire to ever watch again. 

In terms of my general thoughts on the series as a whole, I like Jake and Amir a lot obviously. It's difficult for me to describe why something is funny very well outside of just saying that the series has great writing and chemistry between the titular duo. However if I was to try and describe what's funny about it, Jake and Amir's writing has a particular way of laying multiple absurdities in a short space to create something of a rhythm of absurdity. Whereas a stereotypical joke relies on one level of unexpected subversion Jake and Amir jokes often have multiple levels of absurdity within the same space either from unexplained details or Amir missing the point. Take for example a fairly normal exchange from "Fur" :

"You know there's a dead iguana in your pocket."

"Or am I just happy to see you?"

"It's a dead iguana."

"I'm also happy to see you!"

Here you can see how the series layers numerous layers and even types of absurdity into seven seconds such as Amir comically missing the point, using an expression wrong, and having a dead iguana in his pocket while protesting animal cruelty. This multiple layers of absurdity is really common in Jake and Amir and creates more unpredictability which engages the brain more then is typical. Jake and Amir filters this through a lot of different styles including Amir style, with a little bit of salt. The universal application of this style of comedy allows for the series to have a cohesive feel regardless of the topic it's being applied to. There is a reason that you can speak in Jake and Amir "style" quotes even if they are not directly jokes from the series, because the style of Jake and Amir writing is very iconic. I like how they can use it to apply to many different types of comedy from their usual straight man and weirdo routine, to ones where Jake is also a strange character of a different sort, to physical comedy, to videos where only one of them speaks (common when they are relaying a story of what insane thing Amir did recently) or not at all on rare occasions, to videos that include more characters such as the table reads and meetings episodes. Best of all there are some episodes that are Amir Style, a LOT of salt. 

However not all of the styles works. There are a few different types of Jake and Amirs that don't work for me albeit exceptionally rare. The most difficult for me by far are the gross out eps. I'm fairly disgust sensitive and Jake and Amir can definitely get gross with vomit or blood. It's not at common but about 1% of the episodes are hard for me to watch because of it. Second some of the side  characters are more of a hinderance to the series then a help. Will's character starts and ends with "eats his own feces", which is quite probably the worst joke in the series. Murph's bullying of Jake is often not very funny to me as it's mostly too in-line with real bullying and only makes me feel bad for Jake. Rarer then both of these of these Jake and Amir will occasionally soapbox about a social issue. It's maybe a half dozen eps in the series at most and earlier on they had a bit more self-awareness about it (How do you know so much? / Easy it's not hard to stay informed, you read an hour a day / How do you ACTUALLY know? / ...Daily Show, watch the Colbert Report.)  I even usually agree with them. I still don't find them very funny. These three styles of episodes are all very rare, each like 1% of the series or less so they're not that big a deal, but I'm not really a fan. Also some episodes are made "Amir Style" AKA No salt at all and those aren't very Taupe. 

The vast majority of the episodes are good. Like I said the amount of episodes I don't like are maybe a 1-4% percent, and even if some of the earlier episodes are boring or some of the latter episodes are too exaggerated, I would estimate that I at least enjoy 90-95% of their videos, and I would say that a substantial fraction are great.  My favorite style is definitely the standard Jake and Amir at their desks doing a back and forth but most alternate styles like relaying events prior, scrolls eps, Doobs eps, Ben Schwartz Eps, all make for their own fun breaks to the style. I think Jake and Amir is almost perfectly designed to appeal to a internet era audience with episodes that are short and which encourage replay view due to the density of absurdity per minute.

I'd like to humbly present my personal top 10 Jake and Amir episodes, might be a bit of a weird list for anyone else but I hope you enjoy:

One Almond: 

What is it that makes Jake and Amir: One Almond...heh... perfect? This is one of the most iconic episodes of Jake and Amir with some of the most well known jokes in the series. (It not only has the prior line but it has the response (Nothing, it's bad/Don't just say *perfect imitation* it's bad) Amir's confusion over what an almond is, 0 billion or 0 dollars question as well as subtler absurdities like "how much would you pay for courtside seats to the Yankees." It also has the joke I think anyone's who has been in the fandom any amount of times where they actually bought the one almond domain name and have kept it up for how long which honestly by itself makes me wanna put it on the list for how much they're putting into this joke. 

9: Breakfast

This episode has Jake come into find Amir with a ton of leftover breakfast. This ep has my single favorite joke in the series in it where Amir talking about grabbing a waitress arm and demanding in a serious voice that he wants one of everything leading to him saying "She takes me at face value because, duality of man or whatever..." A lot of Jake and Amir jokes have layers, but this joke has like 10 layers and genuinely keeps me up at night thinking about it. This episode also has Amir's very inconsistent style which is another joke I really like. The rest of the episode is fine, my only real complaint is that this episode is way too salty, I mean it's practically Amir style. 

8: Ace and Jocelyn 9

Ace and Jocelyn is a subseries in Jake and Amir where Amir pretends they are astronaut accounts from Outer Space and misinterprets everything happening to fit that narrative. In this one Amir catches Jake masturbating in an embarrassing fashion and blackmails him to go along with it. The humor of this mostly comes from Jake trying to spin Amir's deranged fantasy into one that is more reasonable by spinning it into the fantasy. I do wish it was a bit more of a playful back and forth as Amir just shuts down everything Jake says immediately but it's still really funny seeing Jake attempt to maneuver this deranged fantasy world of Amir's.

7: Brother Part 4

This episode is the conclusion to the Brother Arc where Jake's brother comes in and basically manipulates him out of all his money while Amir tries to warn Jake, disbelieving Amir for all the things he's done. This ep in particular takes place after Jake had his money stolen by his brother. Jake tries to save face while Amir comforts him without acknowledge it in some of the best writing in the entire series, both clearly knowing each other knows but not talking about it so that Jake can save face. A list like this you wanna put the emotional eps but I limited it to one cause it felt wrong to fill the list with them. When moments like this happen in latter eps, they tend to subvert it with a joke at the end which I don't really like, feeling like it saps both of their potency. Sick Day has a few great moments like that, Jake consoling Amir before leaving or hugging him when he returns, but they're emotionally simple. This scene is complex, it has the two characters in a place they usually aren't, Jake vulnerable and Amir consoling in a way that feels still in character for both and is honestly really touching. It even has a funny bit at the end without taking from it as we see Jake's brother get his just desserts when the foreign girl he was trying to bring over for himself steals the money from him and leaves him with nothing. 

6: Finale Part 5

Like with the emotional eps, I also wanted to put a part from the Finale in this one. It was a hard one but for pure nostalgia I went with Part 5. This has the final Mickey and Doobs sections, both of which were good enough that I considered episodes about them for this list and while neither is the BEST section of that type, they're both pretty good. It has the return of old CH stars Sarah and Streeter as well as the Eater Piefell Joke. It had a bunch of references to things from across the series, I mean each part of the Finale can be seen as a conclusion to one part of Jake and Amir, I think Part 5 is definitely the goodbye to the cast of characters built up over 8 years.

5: Celebrity Date

Some eps are Douchebag Jake eps where Jake and his obsessive insecure need to seem cool is the weird one. I am less a fan of the full reversal where Amir is relatively normal but the eps they are both kind of off, especially the ones where Jake is normal at first then transitions during the ep are always good ones for me. I considered both Rap Teacher and Screenplay for that exact reason but Celebrity Date I think is my favorite example. This ep has Amir get the phone number of Jaime Lee Curtis and talk about his need to start dating her to get an in with Hollywood with Jake switching to a needy desire to make her his wife himself. This has a pretty funny exchange even before the switch though it's after Jake goes Douchebag Jake that this ep is filled with some great back and forth. This ep has one of the best lines in the series with Jake pantsing Amir over for the phone number while proclaiming "All's BARE in SHOVE and floor." 

4: Stock Market

In this ep Amir is a stock market advisor at his desk. This ep is another great one for wordplay as well as the best Mickey ep as Amir advises Mickey on stocks. A line I will always remember from it "It doesn't matter to me which one of my clients is making that cheese Mickey, cause I'm still eating crackers like we're putting on the Ritz, Mickey!" just numerous lines like that with several layers. This ep is a great combination of that plus non-sequiters like "What Happened" *sarcastically* "Ba-na-na!" "Bad job mocking me you think I said 'banana'?" or Minnie (No Way! Mickey's married to Minne) actually knowing who did sys-ops for Maersk. I honestly don't know what else to say about this ep cause it's just really memorably funny. 

3: Bus

In this ep Jake and Amir are taking the bus back after got them kicked off the subway with his usual antics. This ep has my favorite description of Amir "A mix between Che Guevara, Bam Margera, and Dom Irrera" a line I think about constantly as being witty, surprisingly accurate, and also captivating. There is a ton of good gags this ep including maybe the single most influential exchange on my way of speaking in any Jake and Amir (It was a goof/You're a goof/EXCUSE ME, I have very thick skin but that was a low blow! / ... you're a goof?/ENOUGH!) I am constantly calling bad things goofs as a way of comedically unselling them, pretending it's a hard hitting insult. This ep has a ton of memorable parts, "there's anthrax on this train take off all your clothes" "I'm part of the 69%", "How can you start chants this easily" I really wanted to put it higher, it's just that everything this high is great, and Bus is just a touch unfocused to be higher.

2: Explanation:

In Explanation Amir is trying to explain to Jake what happened to his new X-Box. I said Bus is maybe the most influential to my humor and the reason I said maybe is cause explanation also exists. The ep has the Byron Murphy bit, the random "I'm GAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" and a line that is in the same league as "duality of man or whatever" with Amir getting to the end of the story and saying "So then I walk in, like a hero or whatever, and..." showing him smashing with a bat. It's a hilarious anticlimax to whole story set up with a fantastic line that adds numerous more layers of absurdity in such a simple line. This episode is great from start to finish and my only problem with is that it's a short episode being 75 seconds when most eps are 2-4 minutes long. 

1: Blowing Up

This episode doesn't get talked about nearly enough, to me this is exactly what I want from the series. So in this ep Jake and Amir are working on a script but Amir keeps getting called into the other rooms and having increasing dramatic breakdowns on the phone. I can't sing this episode's praises enough. The thing I love about Jake and Amir's writing style is the way layers of absurdity causes your brain to try and fill in the blanks for how this works and Amir's insane yelling on the phone does that three times, giving you just enough information that your mind races to try and figure out what happens. When he yells "YOU ARE NOT GETTING A DIME OF THIS MONEY, NOT ONE DIME! UNDERSTOOD I HAVE KILLED BEFORE, I WILL KILL AGAIN, THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE." it's not that my brain is trying to figure out what actually happens, it's that it's given just information that I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into the insane world of Amir. This ep incorporates a surprisingly high amount of types of humor in such a specific concept and the ending is actually one that manages to be both funny and kinda sweet. Jake has been trying to ask if Amir is alright and saying he can do this himself with Amir brushing it off but after the third Amir is like "Uhhh, hey I'm gonna have to cut out a little bit early..." and Jake immediately being like "yeah that's fine." Like it's both funny in how obvious Jake was going to allow it and yet nice in how he does actually want better for Amir. This episode is just everything I like in Jake and Amir in 150 seconds. It's got layers of absurdity, multiple types of comedy, sudden shifts between casualness and intensity, the exact type of dynamic I imagine between the two, and it's lowkey one of Amir's best performances in the entire series. 

Jake and Amir-verse Strategy Guide

 

How to be OP in the Jake and Amir-verse

Human Tier:

This is the tier for almost all the characters in the series save one. Characters in this tier range from Human Level to Wall Level in Power, scaling from Jake being able to inconsistently physically engage with Amir as well as having several kilojoule feats himself more notably throwing a pencil through Amir's neck and making breaking Amir's ribs with a clean break in one shot. He also claimed to be able to hit by a bus with no visible damage though it's very possible given his character that this was a lie to seem cool. Jake works out but he's clearly not superhuman in strength, with stronger characters able to bully him easily. In terms of speed the characters are human speed. 

The most important character on this tier by far is Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz or "Jake." Jake is the straight man to Amir's antics and usually doesn't have abilities. However that's only usually. Jake has also shown fourth wall awareness on several instances and high endurance to the point that when his tongue was kicked off he was able to crawl around in agony. He has shown extreme malleability as well able to live inside of a muffin in one of the most blatantly cartoonish things happening in the late series and in the very first episode in a bit of early installment weirdness he seemed to have the ability to slow Amir down in time. 

Jake and Amir has had a large cast of semi-recurring over the years, many of whom have gimmicks although these are rarely anything combat relevant such as Sam Reich Amir's old buddy obsessed with him who ended up their boss, Sarah Schneider Jake's crush, Emily Wayne Dolphin Murph's insane girlfriend, and their long suffering co-worker Pat Cassels. Somewhat more relevant are there are several characters with some manipulation ability including Pat who was able to fool the entire office save for Amir. Jake's brother Kumal was another manipulatoe who scammed Jake. Probably the most notable is the antagonist of Fired, their movie, Alan Avery who is a criminal that embezzled thousands from Collegehumor and took brief control of the company. 

There are also some characters with actual abilities. Physically Murph is one of their co-workers who is easily enraged especially when his girlfriend Emily is involved and is the physically strongest cast member, able to easily overpower and bully Jake regularly. Murph has also shown teleportation as when Jake fell backwards in a trust fall Murph just appeared behind him proclaiming that "I will ALWAYS catch you."

There's a dozen identical characters played by Ben Schwartz often mistaken for each other, a few of which have demonstrated powers. Cherry Dude is the real estate agent who sold Jake and Amir the muffin house and likely can fit into a muffin himself, having the same malleability as Jake and Amir. Both Charles Crushtooth the Milkman and the Doctor have shown the ability to teleport to the point that Jake when looking right at Charles thought he was the same as the Doctor who teleported into his exact spot. Sulu Candles is a movie usher who has shown hammerspace able to make objects appear. Ben Schwartz shows up in the finale and demonstrated the ability to somehow play a song with audio from Jake and Amir's life that he wasn't there. Finally while not an ability per se, Jope the Private Eye regularly uses Chloroform to knock people out. 

Probably the biggest conventional threat in this tier however is Amir's rival who often changes his name, with his final name as of the finale being "Cock Smoke Dingleberry Tiny Penis All Male Orgy Fudge Out of a Hole into My Own Mouth Anthony Smith!" or Amir calls him "Smitty" and he's more commonly referred to... Doobs. Doobs is clearly meant to be a parallel to Amir and while he's only in 6 episodes it's likely he would have many of the same abilities. If you think he has the same as Amir he'd be in the higher tier, but going just off the abilities he's shown in his episodes, he's demonstrated hammerspace able to change clothing in a cut like Amir, social influencing able to successfully propose to Jake's date who was in love with Amir just to spite them, minor spacetime hax able to make a 3.5 hour movie take 4 hours and teleport a small distance from the stage to the audience, and most impressively his precog which allowed him to RSVP to an intervention once year in advance before it was planned. 

There is one more character who MIGHT change the tactic needed entirely, that being Lerona. Lerona was a girl who was Amir's girlfriend for a few days and Jake's for a few minutes before dying. She actually returned as a ghost. She can turn invisible though she oddly might not be intangible. Amir punched her and Lerona said "We're not transparent you know, it really hurt." I don't know if she just misspoke but it obviously really changes the tactics needed if one of the characters is incorporeal. 

So what possible counters can you use? So this verse's power is fairly low for its tier, and even for its tier lacks in offensive hax basically only having Jope's chloroform and Doobs' supernatural charisma meaning a character who is high in the power level would be very difficult for them to put down. Defensively their only known abilities are superhuman endurance, extreme malleability on the parts of Jake and Cherry Dude, and the possible intangibility of Lerona. The last may or may not exist and the former two can be gotten around via using a non-bludging weapon and hitting a vital area from something piercing like a sword/gun or something exotic like fire. 

What the verse has is a lot of forms of spacetime hax from Jake and Doobs able to slow events down, numerous characters able to teleport themselves or objects, and most impressively Doobs' precog. The former while fairly rare for this power level, are relatively lowkey spacetime manipulation. Likewise all of these are activated abilities including Doob's precog as Doobs very regularly gets surprised even by people outside Amir. This leads me to think stealth would do well, much as Amir sometimes does. Having a minor spacetime hax can sort of be equivocated to having a small speed advantage which is something that can be countered by having a high degree of skill or intelligence, with this verse being relatively tame in intelligence feats and having almost no combat skill feat. 

This is good because another really basic strategy that would likely work well is the manipulator strategy. There are roughly two kinds of Jake and Amir characters, relatively serious and not prone to being manipulated but without powers, the straight men, and the wacky characters that actually do strange power type things like the above. This means a fighter of this tier who is also a potent manipulator can either overpower or trick anyone in the tier. Doobs is the most potent threat of the tier having the only sensory ability (activated precog), one of the only two offensive haxes (supernatural charisma), and the most versatile arsenal. That said Amir regularly mentally beats and enrages Doobs just by calling him a lame silly name. 

So who could use as a counter? One idea would be

Askeladd from Vinland Saga. 

Askeladd like a lot of Vinland Saga characters has strength and durability feats evoking the Viking Eddas with Askeladd being able to cleave a man in two including his metal helmet which is a more impressive feat of a strength by a good margin then the feats of the tier who mostly can just break bones. He is also at the same level as Thorfinn who was able to at least harm Thorkell with weapons even if Thorkell is clearly much stronger then both of them and Thorkell is one of the strongest characters in the verse able to bulldoze houses and throw boulders to sink ships. Askeladd would use his own viking armor and sword and could maybe withstand a serious hit from Thorkell or injure him which would be well above anything the Jake and Amir verse could do in raw power, aided by his endurance which is high enough that even strikes to his heart region don't stop him. While still human in speed he is able to fight Thorfinn who can blitz most viking warriors, showing superiority to most warriors in speed and putting him faster then the tier as well. Murph is maybe the physically strongest of the tier, and Askeladd lowballed is on his level in strength and durability, let alone Askeladd's advantages of speed, skill, and equipment. 

However Askeladd in particular is known for his mental stats for which he is compared to a snake. He has over 40 years of political manipulation learning to read people and turn them to his side, even pirates and raiders as well as enemies. He would find it very easy to manipulate all the very exaggerated personalities of the Jake and Amir verse to his side. He also is a highly skilled swordsman, able to fight multiple swordsman at once which is a master tier skill feat and could likely avoid Jope trying to use chloroform on him which is one of the few ways that they would be able to do anything to him. While there are characters here with powers unlike he'd ever seen, mostly minor space and time manipulation, I think Askeladd could very well adapt given his speed and much higher mental stats advantages, along with the fact that the sword is just a very good weapon for fighting a teleporting enemy since it can make broad swings and the entire length of the weapon is lethal even for the characters with malleability like Jake or Cherry Dude. 

Obviously the biggest threat in the tier is Doobs due to his precog and his own supernatural charisma which is maybe the only weapon the tier would have to get through Askeladd's defenses however in a direct fight Askeladd is faster and far more likely to try to manipulate Doobs at first then the other way around with Doobs as well as just being able to stab Doobs with his sword. Doobs only really wins if his precog warns him of the fight and he acts uncharacteristically rationally. But for another counter you could use

Verminous Skumm from Captain Planet

Skumm is a Chemical Mutated Rat who is considered a major physical threat to the Planeteers. The Planeteers have numerous upper end wall level feats such as Wheeler kicking down a metal door and Linka being caught in an explosion, along with upper end human speed feats, giving Skumm a broad stat advantage. He naturally wields his tail, claws, and teeth as weapons the latter of which are piercing weapons that could bypass Jake and Cherry's malleability, without even getting into his powers. Chloroform is highly unlikely to work given Skumm's extreme chemical resistance and the hood he wears over his head and he can likely resist Doob's charisma as he is considered the second most evil character in the series after Zarm, enough to resist Ma-Ti's power of Heart which can control emotions. 

Skumm is a mutated rat who seeks to spread sickness and does so from the shadows, naturally using stealth and manipulation to spread urban decay. He can telepathically command rats, a swarm of toxic rats being one of the most dangerous animals in the real world to humans like comprises this verse and which at human speed nobody in the tier has a good counter to. His plans usually involve spreading illness via disease ridden biologically engineered objects like food, something that Amir has done to the office before in episodes like Bagels to devastating effect. Outside of physical disease, he also attempts to spread emotional disease and decay in the form of bigotry, his psychological manipulation being incredibly potent in a verse as emotionally unstable as this. 

All of this is without talking about his ring. Skumm eventually becomes one of the five ring bearers to summon Captain Pollution. Skumm's is the Toxics Ring that is able to summon toxins. Against a verse of humans with normal biology this would be a devastating biological attack meaning it really doesn't matter if he's attacked by everyone in the tier at once. Even Jope's basic chloroform works on Jake, Amir and Jope himself, let alone whatever super toxins Skumm uses. The only downside is that Skumm does not seem to have any particular way of effecting Ghosts so if Lerona really is intangible, she might pose a problem to him. For the best counter, I would suggest

Jessamy from Changeling: The Dreaming

Jessamy's stats aren't given but she would have stats at least on par with the weakest other Changelings. This means she should scale to Wall Level, higher into it then anyone in the verse, from a few feats like Hopscotch, a basic 1 Dot Cantrip that doesn't improve durability allowing Changelings to jump on top of buildings. This would likely require between 20 to 50 Kilojoules whereas this tier at best downscales from Amir being 10 to 30 Kilojoules, and falling from a building gave Amir a bloodied mouth while any random Changeling can tank using Hopscotch. Jessamy as a Changeling fights using Chimerical Combat, basically combat on the imaginary plane the way children do but with the ability to cause real effects. This would easily allow her to hit Lerona and can mitigate the malleability of Jake and Cherry as she can simply say a stick she is holding is actually s sharp sword.

Jessamy is a Sidhe, the royals of the Changeling world who's birthright ability is her passive supernatural charisma that gets people to do what she wants. This is similar to what Doobs and Amir can do, except Jessamy does it passively before someone like Doobs would even think to try her. It wouldn't even work if he tried as the Sidhe can regularly resist each others' manipulations. Chloroform might work except Jessamy is a Sidhe of House Ailil, the Unseelie House of Spies and Deception. Jessamy despite her innocent princess facade is a potent manipulator spy who can evade the best mundane detectives notice let alone Jope, who's a comically inept private eye. The only one who could resist Jessamy's supernatural charisma is Jake who can resist Amir's, but not only is Jessamy likely as strong as Murph who regularly bullies Jake from strength alone, but Jake is also highly psychologically vulnerable to trying to impress pretty girls like Jessamy like a much saner version of Amir's friend Cheryl. House Ailil is known for its stealth and manipulation which would be the strategy most likely to work here. 

All of this is without even going into her Noble Arts. While hers aren't known, it's likely this would give her a level of versatility and hax similar to Doobs. A single dot of Soothsay would give her a precog that is nearly on Doob's level. A single dot of Chicanery allows one to disappear into darkness. And if she has noble Arts, something like a single Dot in Chronos is roughly comparable to the time manipulation of Jake or Doobs. She doesn't need these abilities but her likely abilities would be the ones that are strong in the verse. Fae do have some particularly strong weakness to cold iron but no one in this tier even uses weapons let alone cold iron weapons. They are also weak to Banality, especially Sidhe who's fraility is a higher weakness to banality. However no one in Jake and Amir except Jake ever reacts to Amir's abilities as strange, only as annoying, meaning that the verse outside Jake would have very low banality, allowing Jessamy to function normally. And with Jake Jessamy can defeat him just by acting sweet and then beating him. 

Wall Tier:

The Top Tier of the verse is Amir Valerie Blumenfeld, easily the character who's shown the most feats and abilities by a wide margin and probably the top tier of the verse. Amir not only scales to the above wall level feats but in Hotel Room fell out of a hotel window for multiple seconds in nothing but a towel and only got a bloodied mouth, a feat of likely between around 13 to 30 Kilojoules, in the wall level range. That level of power isn't different from where the prior tier was, but what IS different is speed. One of Amir's two most used powers are his freakishly fast speeds, able to regularly change what he's wearing or do other acts in the matter of a jump cut before anyone can react. Amir regularly travels distances that would that would take many minutes to do in seconds including traveling from Jake's home to the office in 6 seconds, gone from McDonalds to the office in seconds, and went from his desk to Forever 21 and back before Jake could react. This would suggest speeds hundreds of times faster then normal humans if not higher, which would give him supersonic or hypersonic speed, speeds that are actually rather hard to match in this tier. 

Amir has a lot of abilities, somewhat inconsistently. Defensively, Amir has the same malleability that Jake and Cherry Dude does, has numerous superhuman endurance feats including castrating himself without pain, a regen factor strong enough to regenerate his tongue being kicked off in one day and use of his legs in one day, as well as the best stealth of any named character in the verse he uses to mess with other characters such as pulling Jake's genitals out of his pants without him noticing. 

Offensively Amir has an extremely broken supernatural charisma that lets him basically brainwash entire crowds and even seemingly affect the metafictional editor of Jake and Amir which is possibly the source of his inconsistent powers. Amir has also had numerous weapons including multiple guns and knives capable of cutting him alongside others he can pull out at any time with his hammerspace, the  other of his most commonly used abilities. Outside of that he was able to physically hurt Lerona suggesting he may be able to hit astral plane entities and in the finale he was able to telekinetically choke Doobs to Death through a pre-recorded message showing the ability to affect someone through technology into the past as well as telekinetically.

Amir also has numerous other potent abilities. He can teleport, possibly as far as to California from New York, and he regularly shows precog that can show things that will happen a day in advance. He also has shown fourth wall awareness on many occasions. He also has a lot of more minor abilities such as minor heat emanation and voice mimicry. 

From a vs standpoint Amir has high speed for his tier and access to pretty strong abilities for a wall level of character however countering him isn't impossible in part due to his many weaknesses. Amir's abilities are very inconsistent potentially because they might come from influencing the editor. While hammerspace and enhanced speed are pretty consistent, many of his abilities are seemingly contradicted such as him getting hurt by comically weak things and while he has precog, he also regularly gets surprised. Similarly while he can control people with his charisma, he is usually hated as an annoyance and menace by his coworkers showing this is an ability Amir has to actively being using and is not passive. This seems to me the best strategy would be an ambush type strategy which conveniently gets around Amir's very high speed, someone that can win stealthily and quickly. 

Amir also has two more prominent weakness vs-wise. One is his lack of intelligence. Amir varies in intelligence from literally animal tier to actually pretty devious, but most of the time he is very unintelligent not just in lack of knowledge about the world but lacking in critical thinking skills and judgement. The other is that he's very easily afraid. While blunt trauma doesn't seem to scare him, he fled and hid from a thunderstorm, he yelled in terror when he saw himself in a very basic ghost Halloween costume, and once gave a homeless man thousands of dollars because the man told Amir he was the boogeyman and to give him all his cash or the man would boogey him. 

All this leads me to believe that a good strategy would be something like a ghost. While Amir can still effect them physically, it's not cheating, the combination of stealth, being spooky, and often physical body ignoring hax make them extremely well suited for beating someone like Amir, especially if they are relatively clever about it. That said pretty much any kind of scary monster of similar stats that uses an ambush strategy would do well, especially if they have some way of bypassing Amir's physical defenses. 

Stray from Champions Online

Stray is a Level 9 Minion and while he would have nebulous scaling, he should be above Tutorial (About Levels 1 to 5) Champions. These Champions can bullet-time as well as scale above normal peak humans in the verse who can themselves bullet-time meaning should be pretty solidly supersonic, around Amir in speed. They can also pulverize large piece of rubble trapping people and use lampposts as weapons, suggesting wall level power on par or surpassing Amir. 

Stray is a Ghost Dog from the Old Western Turn of Burnside raised by Talisman to guard it. As a viciously angry Ghost Dog, Stray would basically combine Amir's fears of ghosts with his fear of Rotem, terrifying him and keeping from acting strategically. Champions Online ghosts can teleport and levitate meaning he should be able to pretty easily follow a fleeing Amir unless you think Amir's teleport range is much farther, though given he is likely to use a normal animal ambush tactic this is unlikely to work. Even if you gave Amir time to work he has basically nothing that works on a ghost other then hitting it which is unlikely to help much and social influencing which is unlikely to work on a dog that can't actually understand his language. 

The only real weakness to this strategy is that Stray doesn't have any kind of offensive hax and would just have to kill Amir by tearing at him a bunch. While this is likely to work on a panicked Amir, given Amir's regen and endurance it may actually take a sec that could allow Amir to flee if you think he has Country Scale Teleportation. For a character that can kill Amir a lot quicker you could use

DemiMeramon from Digimon

DemiMeramon is a Baby Digimon and scales to the other feats of other Baby Digimon including destroying trees and blocks of ice, wall level feats broadly comparable to Amir. Speedwise Baby Digimon's speed is unclear, but they should downscale to a fraction of the speed of Rookie Digimon, who are able to lightning-time. This would make them high end Hypersonic which is at the top of the speed category that Amir is near the low end of, giving DemiMeramon a pretty substantial speed advantage over Amir. 

DemiMeramon is a Fiery Ghost Digimon. Just its presence would terrify Amir and instantly break his resolve. Attempting to strike it would also be a bad idea for obvious reasons. Attacking with fire also bypasses Amir's defenses. Amir might be highly malleable and able to regen the use of his legs over a night, but fire just giving him severe burns isn't the kind of thing he's ever shown the ability to regenerate. Even if he teleports away, if he's on fire, he will still be on fire wherever he teleports, and Amir is very likely not knowledgeable enough to know how to put himself out. DemiMeramon doesn't need to ambush given he actually has the speed advantage though he does do that as well for added bonus, and DemiMeramon's weakness to cold and water is unlikely to come up as Amir has no obvious way to take advantage of that weakness. 

The only thing that might be a problem is that Digimon are all data, and Amir does have technopathy. I don't think this would be a problem for DemiMeramon given Digimon regularly get into data absorbing battles and can't one-shot either, along with DemiMeramon's overwhelming offenses of being ghostly, speed, etc. but if you want the best counter to Amir I would recommended

The Ghost Fisherman from I know what you did Last Summer

in terms of stats the Ghost Fisherman not only scales above the original Fisherman who withstood a car crash without injury as well as scales above Barry who was hit through a wall by a car crash, as well as smashed through a solid wooden trap door. Ghost Fisherman can also basically tank shotgun rounds. All this easily puts him in the wall level range, likely above Amir. In terms of speed Ghost Fisherman has a feat of sending fifty text messages of "I know what you did last summer" at the same time. That's 350 words in total sent in a second or two. At an average human typing speed of 40 words per MINUTE this could very likely put Ghost Fisherman in the same speed tier as Amir from being several hundred times faster then a normal human when sound is roughly 100x faster. 

The Ghost Fisherman has traits of both zombie and ghost, actually being closer to the Celtic Revenant then anything. However Amir can hit ghosts fine, that wasn't why a ghost would be helpful, it's the terror caused by seeing a "ghost" and needless to say the Ghost Fisherman would absolutely terrify Amir. The Ghost Fisherman is known for stalking victims who got away with murder and slowly causing terror in them through inducing nightmares and other supernatural atmospheric effects before attacking them. Amir and Sam in the Florida multi-parter offhandedly mention murdering someone meaning he is the type of target the Ghost Fisherman would go after. 

In actual combat, the Ghost Fisherman has better stats by far then Amir in pretty much all regards, fighting numerous opponents at once, smart enough to hack into machinery prior to getting powers, and his undead body having functionally infinite stamina. Amir might have better range but with both able to teleport this is not very important. The Fisherman uses for offense his famous hook. Not only does he target the vital organs which would bypass Amir's malleability and regen, but if Amir tried to teleport away, something a terrified Amir is unlikely to do, the Fisherman would be teleported with him so long as his hook is in him. Even if he's not connected to him at that moment the Fisherman is adapt at just continually stalking his target Revenant style. The only thing Amir could try to do is use his charisma to try and win the Ghost Fisherman over but not only is that something he's extremely unlikely to do against a ghost but Ghost Fisherman is a supernatural force of vengance unlike anything in the Jake and Amir-verse that it's unlikely to work on. Even if it did, Amir can't maintain his control very long and he has no way of doing permanent damage to the Ghost Fisherman who has functionally infinite stamina and a regen factor to return from being thrown into a wood chipper.


And that's how to be OP in the Jake and Amir Verse. Happy April First

Toei Sailor Moon Review

Recently I completed re-watching the Toei Sailor Moon, this making it I believe the fifth time I watched the series completely. To mark this event I wanted to review the series. Toei Sailor Moon is a series that draws more polarizing feelings from me then any series: The only series who's best matches the Sailor Moon Manga, my favorite series of all series, yet who's worst is painful to me in a way few other series can match. As such I thought I'd make three blogs to express my feelings about this series: one to go over what I don't like about the series, one to go over what I like about this series, and then finally one to express my feelings towards the series as a whole.

I'll start by saying that no other series gets as polarizing feelings from me as Toei Sailor Moon. Toei Sailor Moon at its best is genuinely on par with the best of any other series I've ever seen. On the other hand while its worst is not on par with the worst I've ever seen, it is on par with the worst I've ever seen from series I actually LIKE. Part of this is just that it's a fairly lengthy series at 200 episodes long, however that's not all of it. Pretty Cure is several times larger but I definitely don't think has this level of variance. I definitely think my favorite episode of Sailor Moon is better then my favorite episode of Pretty Cure, though I also think at the same time that Pretty Cure's worst episode is better then Sailor Moon's worst episode. 

Overall though I would say that Sailor Moon is a great series. To try to give a decent idea of how much, I would say I have seen around 100 Magical Girl series, counting franchises like PreCure or Puella Magi as 1 each. Not counting other Sailor Moon series, if I were to rank all of them, Sailor Moon would easily be in my Top 10 and probably in my Top 5. My guess is it would be somewhere in the range of #6 to #3, with maybe a little wiggle room on either end. You could say this is nostalgia, and it is obviously true Toei Sailor Moon has had a huge influence on me. That said it certainly isn't entirely nostalgia, as I also rank very highly Magical Girl series that I saw as a late to adult and don't rate very highly some series that I have nostalgia for. I am obviously not claiming to be unbiased here, only that there is a reason Sailor Moon captured my interest and has remained an interest when other series failed to do so. 

If I was to describe what makes Toei Sailor Moon in one world it would probably be versatility. The Toei Sailor Moon series is a very broad series with a lot of tones and styles. It can vary a lot from comedic to serious, wholesome to edgy, slice of life to eldritch horror, sometimes within the same episode. More then that however it actually succeeds at least a good amount at all of these. Sailor Moon can be really funny or heartbreakingly sad, elegantly beautiful or a silly cartoon. Combined with the fact that it combines so many different interests and subject matters and it's not a surprise it got such a large fandom. There's a good chance regardless of what interests you, you'll find something to enjoy in Sailor Moon, and just anecdotally I've found there's a large variance in the kind of person who is a fan of Toei Sailor Moon, because why someone likes it can be radically different from person to person. My least favorite episode is one that a lot of people really love. Meanwhile one of my closest friends couldn't stand my second favorite episode in the series. There's a large swath of the fandom that watches the series as a slice of life anime, yet I who doesn't really like slice of life still finds plenty to enjoy in the series. There are plenty of other great Magical Girls but when you compare any of them to Toei Sailor Moon, they're more... specifically good, they're more good at doing a specific thing, and even if they do it better then Toei Sailor Moon, no series does as many things as Toei Sailor Moon. 

The flipside of this is the  series' inconsistency. Sailor Moon is as you might guess from the above description, not a very consistent series. I mean this both in a general quality sort of way as well as a more specific type of series type of way. To get to the stuff you want to see in this series, you're probably going to have get through at least some stuff that you find boring or distasteful. I for instance find the jokes poking at Usagi to be pretty unpleasant and I find a decent amount of the filler, monster/victim of the week type stuff to be rather dull. I am willing to get through that stuff to get to the material I like but it's certainly not my wish. I've said before that if you could somehow make the Top 120-150 episodes, somewhere in that range, of Toei Sailor Moon its own series, it would not only easily be my favorite Magical Girl Anime, but it would be my favorite anime of all time and one of Top 5 series. 

To get into more specific thoughts I am going to go over each arc of the series briefly and my thoughts on them. The Sailor Moon Manga has 5 arcs, on average 12 chapters each. The Toei Anime in comparison has at least 17 arcs on average ~9-12 episodes each. The count isn't quite exact because you could count the finale of each series as their own arc, or you could count them as part of the last arc, or something else entirely. I don't usually count them as arcs, but I will go over them as well.

The Jadeite Arc (1-13) is a pretty good example of the series consistency problem. Of its 13 episodes I would say I enjoy 8 (1, 3, 6, 8-12), but on the other hand it has Episode 4, quite possibly the worst episode in the series, and the other 5 episodes (2, 5, 7, 13) I feel more neutral or mixed on. That's a a pretty good record and I really like the string of characters once Ami and Rei get introduced between Episodes 8 and 12, though the better episodes clustered later can make the start feel slow. The early eps with just Usagi and Luna are rather hit and miss, even if Episode 6 is a banger episode. Jadeite is a very generic Shojo villain, a misogynistic cold pretty boy, though as a starter villain works well enough. 

The Nephrite Arc (14-26) has a really good finale, though I don't know if I consider it an improvement over the Jadeite Arc. Nephrite is a more unique villain, especially near the end where he basically starts the Toei Anime's redemption theme. A lot of the eps prior to the finale I feel more neutral on then the high points of the prior arc. There are some better episodes here, but for comparison my second favorite ep this arc is the Masquerade Ball Ep, an adaption of one of my bottom two chapters of the manga, whereas my second favorite Jadeite Ep is probably the first episode which is an adaption of a chapter around the middle of my manga chapters ranking. 

The Zoisite Arc (27-34) has a similar level of consistency to the Nephrite Arc but a higher overall average and I think is a notable step up from the prior two arcs. Zoisite is a much more fun villain to me, the including of three sides trying ot get the Rainbow Crystals, allows for more momentum in the story even if marginal, and the episodes in general I think are of a higher average quality. I really like the first two episodes of the arc, which introduce Makoto and are about resolving Naru's grief at Nephrite's death respectively.  This Arc adds Makoto at the front end and Minako at the back end, and while I do love all the Senshi, I do have a preference for Makoto and Minako more then Ami and Rei, if not by a huge margin. The ending of the arc is also pretty iconic so that's nice. I'm not that big a fan of 29 (The episode of Usagi and Makoto chasing Motoki) or 32 (The Tuxedo Umino episode) but things like 27 (The first Urawa episode), and 32 (The Luna kitty chaos episode) make up for it pretty well in my mind.

The Kunzite Arc (35-44) is one of my top 3 arcs in the series, even if its consistency is not as high as the Nephrite or Zoisite Arc. This arc I think is really underappreciated. Having two competing villains in Kunzite and Dark Endymion is a fun dynamic, especially as Kunzite is my favorite of the Heavenly Kings, being somehow both super theatrical and over the top yet also kinda snarky and genre savy. This arc has Episode 44, one of my top 5 episodes in the entire series, as well as bunch of other episodes I really like. Of the ten episodes, I really enjoy about 7 of them (35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44) including one of my top 5 episodes, another honorable mention, the Lake Youma Episode, the episode the Senshi pretend to fight, the second Urawa ep, etc. Even 2 of the other 3 eps are pretty good. The only one I don't like is the Minako backstory ep that has both Usagi and Minako out of character and has a contrived plot, though even it is far from Classic's worst. 

The Season 1 Finale (45-46) are my favorite episodes of the series and some of my favorite episodes of any series, with 46 being outright my favorite episode of any show. They're also the heart and soul of not just the series but the entire genre in my opinion. So needless to say I am a fan. 

The Makaiju Arc (49-59) is a pretty massive step down. Granted almost anything would be after the amazing stretch of 12 episodes prior, but I think the Makaiju Arc is worse then any arc in Classic. There are some good parts of it usually having to do with the Inner Senshi. You've got Rei and Makoto fighting a Cardian before getting their powers back, Makoto beating up Falion despite being weak from blood loss, Rei's really good character exploration episode, the argument about who should be Snow White, etc. That said the overarching elements of the plot I think are just poor. I don't like the Alien Pair, I think they are vastly less sympathetic then the arc presents them as and they're not fun to see interact with others as their entire shtick is pining for Usagi and Mamoru and getting jealous about the other other doing so hypocritically. The Moonlight Knight thing just feels dumb and like an attempt to try and recapture the dynamic of Season 1, as well as outright lies to the viewer about him not being Mamoru, and Usagi losing her powers with her confidence before getting them back feels half-backed taking place over only 3 episodes and having a major unexplained deus ex machina with her going inside the Silver Crystal to get new powers from the ghost of Queen Serenity? 

The Rubeus/Ayakashi Arc (60-74) is my most disliked arc in the series, and a major reason R is my most disliked season. The primary reason is the breakup arc which is my least favorite thing in the entire franchise for a LOT of reasons I go into my worst episodes ranking. Even outside that though I don't like this arc very much. Rubeus and the Ayakashi Sisters aren't very interesting to me seeing a group of four sisters being catty to me each other while fighting over a guy who is emotionally manipulating them. It's unpleasant and doesn't have much depth. Of the good eps this arc there's like four of fifteen, the two parter finale is pretty good, the Koan redemption ep (70) and the big Guardians vs Ayakashi fight (68). That said while some of the other eps are more in the middle this episode has 5 of the 20 episodes I don't like including the infamous dinosaur episode, the first Makoto/Minako fight episode both of which I really don't like, the grandpa wrestling ep where Grandpa Hino is a creep, the really boring curry shopping episode, and of course the breakup episode. Chibiusa being much more bratty then her Manga counterpart also doesn't help.

The Demande Arc (75-87) is pretty easily my favorite Arc in R. I still have problems with it usually in the form of missed potential as I think the Black Lady plotine where she turns evil due to a dumb misunderstanding and Usagi being kidnapped and rescued from being kissed by Demande are more missed potential then things I disliked, being substantially less interesting then their manga counterparts where Chibiusa turned to Black Lady as part of a frustration for not aging for 900 years and Demande forcing himself on Usagi, but her refusing to let that mean anything to her before rescuing herself. On the other hand this is the only R Arc I'd put on the same level as Classic's. The breakup arc ends right near the beginning and the villains are overall more engaging to me. Esmeraude is a fun villain from 75-81 with several really good eps like the ep they go into Chibiusa's mind, the Nurse Mina ep, and the Ami insecurity ep. Most of the eps after that this arc are pretty good but not amazing except 86, the Saphir ep which is one of the best episodes in R. 

The R Finale (88-89) is mixed. 88 is good. Of its three sections the Black Lady section is okay, and the other two are great including the final fight with Wiseman and the emotional Chibiusa returning to the future section. 89 however is a clipshow ep, and even for clipshow eps, it's pretty lazy. So you know. 

The Kaorinite Arc (90-102) is a massive step up. Immediately you can feel the difference with 90's tone and atmosphere with Rei's dark visions of the world ending in 90. This arc is primarily about introducing Haruka and Michiru, contrasting the Outer Senshi and their philosophy with the Inner Senshi and its absolutely excellent. Episodes 92 and 93 are devoted to introducing each individually and both are great. 96 and 97 are about a personal conflict Makoto and Ami are having, conflicting them with Haruka and Michiru respectively. All four are great, especially 92 and 97. Minako has her own really cool exploration ep in 100 that is also an allusion to one of Naoko's ol favorite series. 90 and 91 are a really good introduction to the season's themes an atmosphere an 102 is a fantastic climax that was on my best episodes list. Kaorinite is the most underrated villain in the series for me, I really like her design and her relationship with Professor Tomoe. The only ep this arc I don't really like that much is 101 which is the first part of the two-part finale as it feels like Usagi is out of character this ep. 

The Eudial Arc (103-111) is one of my top 3 arcs in the series. It has everything good about the Kaorinite Arc including one of the best villains in the series is Eudial, but also adds a much stronger sense forward momentum and plot as well as an even higher quality string of episodes. of the 9 episodes, 4 of them were in my top 30 episodes, of which 2 were top 10 including one in the top 5. The only ep that's even kinda meh 107 which is the Chibiusa art class episode. The first ep this arc brings back Chibiusa and has a ton of hilarious antics. The next two eps are both pretty fun too, 108 being the tea ceremony ep and 109 being the Makoto training episode, both of which have some pretty cool parts. 108 is another famously fun and funny ep with the party in English which has all the memes associated with it and is just a really fun time. This arc has 106, the Haruka/Michiru backstory, and then the super strong string of eps 109-111 which is one of the best strings of episodes in any magical girl series I've ever seen. Dramatic, Funny, Beautiful, Fast-Paced, Introspective, Shocking, it's got it all. 

The Mimete Arc (112-120) is a bit of a come down, more comparable to the Kaorinite Arc. Mimete is a more annoying villain then the either of the prior ones, things get a lot more episodic and slow paced, and the Outers' shtick starts getting a bit more repetitive. On the other hand this arc introduces Hotaru and her friendship with Chibiusa, both of which are fantastic developments for the series. Hotaru has been one of my favorite characters since childhood, and her friendship with Chibiusa is both adorable and gives Chibiusa a really good role in the series. The best episodes this arc are the ones that focus on Hotaru, 112, 113, 115, and 119. The Ikasaman ep, 118 is also pretty fun in a wacky what the hell kinda way. 

The Mistress 9 Arc (121-125) involves a few more episode Witch episodes. I like Tellu's a good amount actually mostly we get to see more Pluto and I want more Pluto. Viluy's is not that great tbh and Cyprine's is kinda in the middle. The actual climax of the season 124-125 is broadly good, though I have my problems with it. In particular I think a lot of the things they added that were from the manga were done substantially worse then the manga including the Pluto sacrifice, Hotaru giving Chibiusa's Soul back, and the fight with Pharaoh 90. On the other hand the things that were actually unique to the anime are really great. Everything between Moon and Haruka/Michiru and them angry at her for her idealism seemingly dooming the world before finally beginning to believe in her after seeing the strength of her conviction letting her create a miracle, that's all great. And the Tomoe/Hotaru stuff is also really sweet, even if it unfortunately causes a plot problem later. 

S also has two episodes at the end both of which are kinda mixed. With 126 I do appreciate the idea of the Moon vs Uranus/Neptune fight defeating them by not fighting though I think it could have been made stronger and the part where Pluto's ghost returns two episodes after she sacrificed herself to tell Chibiusa she'd see Hotaru again immediately before she sees Hotaru again... kinda dumb and time-wastey. 127 is them saying goodbye to Chibiusa again but they already played this card in Episode 88 plus they spend the entire ep focused on Chibiusa leaving and then she doesn't actually leave so it feels kinda pointless. 

The Amazon Trio Arc (128-149) is the longest arc in the anime and it really doesn't need to be. It's the least popular arc and I am inclined to agree it's broadly not very good. This is primarily a combination of the writing being made much more childish and meaner, making the Senshi especially Usagi look worse to try and make Chibiusa the protagonist of the season seem smarter by comparison. It also has the Helios romance which is substantially more troublesome then the manga, and a LOT of filler. Like this arc has 5 plot episodes in 22 total episodes. On the other hand this arc and season in general does definitely have a contingent of fans and I can kinda see it. This arc can be funny and if you're not as bothered by its weaknesses some pretty good emotional moments. 140 and 141, the Fashion Designer Ep and the Minako Two-Timing ep are both pretty funny, 132 is a pretty good about Usagi and Mamoru's relationship, 144 which is about Shingo's crush on Ami is pretty sweet, 147 has the famous Ami dancing with Makoto bit, and the two part finale is pretty good. On the other hand this arc has five of my Bottom 20 episodes (133, 139, 142, 143, and 145), 143 and 145 in particular  (The Shotacon Fish-Eye and the Ballet Ep) are both bottom 10 eps for me. Even a lot of the other eps have the overall problems of the arc such as 138 which would otherwise be a very normal Sailor Moon ep about Ami helping a car mechanic that randomly decides to add in jokes about Usagi being "fat."

The Amazoness Quartet Arc (150-160) is a pretty substantial step up from the prior arc. It does have another two bottom 10 eps for me in 154 (the second Makoto/Minako fight ep) and 157 (the ep that teaches children to try to fly on their bikes and to trust strangers who don't want people to tell on them), the latter of which is a bottom 3 for me which extra hurts as it's half the length of the prior arc. With that said, the average quality of the ep is substantially higher. 152, 156, 159, and 160 are all eps I like pretty clearly including a really good Rei ep, the Senshi/Quartet ep that is really important for the Quartet's characters and themes, a really interesting ep about a starving artist and appreciating authenticity and gratitude, and a funny ep of the Senshi trying to figure out Chibi-usa's crush. A lot of others are mostly good with one of SuperS problems like 153, the dentist ep which outside of Usagi being written as particularly childish is fun, or 151 which is a pretty good Ami exploration ep. The Quartet are pretty well deserved for being fan favorite villains.

For some reason SuperS and Stars have really long endings compared to the first 3 seasons and could well be counted as arcs themselves. The SuperS Finale (161-166) is actually really good with 166 being probably my favorite SuperS being thematically really rich and reflecting Ikuhara's style well in his final ep. There's also in general a lot of fun in the SuperS finale from the mirrors part meant to reflect the Senshi's insecurities or the Quartet's redemption. On the other hand the writing can be quite childish much like a lot of SuperS with things like characters just stating the moral or Nehelenia betraying the Quartet and loudly declaring it to them so that they know it wasn't just Zirconia. 

The Nehelenia Arc at the start of Stars (167-172) is my favorite arc in the Toei anime. Despite being one of the two "filler" arcs, it's actually the one I feel is closest to the manga as there are no monsters of the week, it's fast paced without any ep being "filler", it's got a darker more atmosphere feel and so on. Every ep is at least good and the last three episodes are all top 30 eps for me, with the penultimate being top 10 and the final being top 3. I love the overarching themes about love and isolation which are my favorite themes in fiction, I love that they played around with the Senshi putting them in different pairs then usual and seeing what happened. And the last ep means so much to me as it expresses the Anime's theme in a way that clicked with me better then anything else in the entire series. This arc really pushes back on the faults of the prior season, immediately showing that this is going to be avoid the childishness and random meanness of the last season, and while Stars has its own problems, it does stick to that. Also while again Stars does have its own problems... it's not really in this arc. This arc is the pinnacle of Toei Sailor Moon, and it's what I would want from this series.

The Iron Mouse Arc (173-181) really shows why Stars in particular is so polarizing for me. Stars to me has three parts. I do love the writing on the Inner Senshi this season a lot, it's maybe my favorite season for their characterization, and for the most part I also really love the writing on the Outer Senshi. This arc really shows both those. The Inner Senshi are a lot of fun this arc and yet also really supportive of each other. I love the gag in 181 where Minako tries and fails to invite one of the Starlights to an adult movie making Usagi all shocked and Makoto innocently say she'd go with Minako instead. I also really love the villains this season. Iron Mouse is a lot of fun and Galaxia makes for a really cool final villain for the series. With that said, I don't like the Starlights. I felt pretty neutral on them as a child and my opinion has only really soured with time. They're also at their absolute worst this arc, or at least Seiya and Taiki are. Seiya repeatedly ignores Usagi's boundaries in a way that's supposed to be funny, and I find super distasteful. Meanwhile Taiki is a cartoon caricature of cold "logic" that A: doesn't belong in this series and B: only ever causes problems. The rest of the arc is great, I love the Inners this season, Mamoru basically proposes to Usagi 173 in a scene that always makes me tear up, Iron Mouse is really funny like in 178 where she is super impatient during Usagi's pre-battle speech and is mad she's not listening to her before just leaving. It's just that the Starlights are such a large part of this arc and season and I don't like them.

The Aluminum Seiren Arc (182-188) I think is a step up from the Iron Mouse Arc. Seiren and Lead Crow are both good villains, probably on par with Iron Mouse and they have a fun dynamic where Lead Crow thinks they're rivals but Aluminem Seiren is too spacy to notice, with Crow doing all her work for her. Chibi-Chibi is also a nice addition, being sweet and fun. 182, 184, and 186 (The Moon and Pluto vs Seiren and Lead Crow ep, the ep where everyone crashes at Usagi's house, and the ep they follow Chibi-Chibi around) are all fun episodes with the middle being on my top 10 list. The other 4 are mostly kinda middle of the road eps. The Starlights temper down a lot and I dislike them a lot less, however they also get even more screentime relatively speaking meaning we get less fun stuff from the Sol Senshi. Things like the ep with the Monster Movie or the Sports Ep are things I found entertaining enough as a child but now as an adult who's seen a million things like that I just feel kinda numb to them. 

The Tin Nyanko Arc (189-194) I feel pretty similarly about. I don't like Tin Nyanko as much as Alumium Seiren and she doesn't have nearly as a fun as dynamic with her as Seiren didn't but for the most part the eps are kinda middle of the road, mostly cause of how much they focus on the Starlights. I will say once again I love the Guardian Senshi this arc and how much faith they constantly show in Usagi and her ideals. Episode 194 is definitely my favorite episode of this arc and has a lot of great stuff from the Inners like Minako accidentally suspecting Tin Nyanko in disguise exactly right several times, or Rei running across the city in a cartoon dust cloud to get to Usagi when Usagi blows the danger whistle. That episode is also good thematically, as it starts showing how Usagi has tried to take all the burden on herself which obviously mirrors Toei Galaxia. 

The Stars Finale (195-200) is interesting to talk about. Because I think it has really great plot and themes but is let down by the pacing. This is 3 amazing episodes stretched into like 6 episodes. I can tell how there's a lot of great scenes in the Stars finale and there are from the contrast of the Inners and Outers pre-battle talk before going to face Galaxia, Uranus and Neptune's death mirror their hands scene from 110 an a ton of stuff from 200 which is great thematic stuff and very emotionally resonating. On the hand the Uranus and Neptune false betrayal goes on for an entire episode and almost nothing happens in 199. Episode 200 is still wonderful and top 10 episodes for me, but still.

Going into a more general overarching analysis Toei Sailor Moon is a series that I think has a lot of highs an a lot of lows. If you're someone like me you'll probably find the repetitive slice of life angle to be a bit tedious though the emotional and atmospheric richness of the good episodes to more then make up for it. You'll also probably find at least a few things that bother you about it, as it is a long series and by this point 30-35 years old, but if you don't find at least a few things in it emotionally stirring I have to imagine you have a heart of stone. 

From the way I describe it, you may be wondering if there is any consistent across the entire series outside a few specific characters. If we're talking about literally all 200 episodes then probably not, including things like the clipshow episode, the only thing consistent thing is Usagi Tsukino herself. That said if we're talking about in terms of vast majority of the episodes then there are some things I think are very distinctively the 90s anime.

Sailor Moon is an adolescent fantasy, a fantasy for the younger girls about what being older would be like, for teen girls to imagine actually being the girl they would want to be. It is a fantasy of being able to transform into an idealized feminine figure who is beautiful and strong, who has intense and world changing romances, a community of friends and companions all distinctly awesome in their own way, of one's responsibilities mattering to the cosmic extent and being able to achieve them. How one relates to this series can sometimes be a picture of how one relates to that time in their life. In my own life, my teenage years brought me a series of physical and emotional challenges that were relatively harder then any other period and I had to rise to meet them. It was a bitter pleasure and in some ways I think that is what I see reflected in Toei Sailor Moon most. I see all the challenges and emotions I had growing up, I remember both the pains and unfairness and I see the ways and emotional catharsis of having overcome them.

Toei Sailor Moon is by far the most popular Magical Girl series to ever be made and I don't think it's even really close. I see a lot of similarities in the success of Toei Sailor Moon and the success of something like Spider-Man. Spider-Man took the superhero fantasy of being a nigh-perfect masculine ideal of the superhero and asked "what if the superhero was just a normal teen?" Sailor Moon took the Magical Girl fantasy of being something like what society wants girls to be and asked "What if the Magical Girl was just a normal teen?" Both series emphasize to a large part a civilian cast, are criticized for being hard on their protagonist (Spider-Man much more so admittingly), and one of the most centers of appeal it seems to me is just the idea of "what if you were the hero?"

I hope it's clear that I really do care about this series and this franchise. I both love and hate Toei Sailor Moon depending on when in the series it is, but more then anything I care about it. It is a series that pulls a lot of emotions from me. If I have to explain why and why it does to so many people, it is the first series I was able to see myself in, see both who I was and wanted to be. The things about it that hurt, hurt because it feels like it's targeting me, and the things that are beautiful feel like it's reflecting part of my personal story. 

Similarly on a meta level Toei Sailor Moon was the first series to show me what I wanted out of fiction as I felt both the things I liked and didn't like in its vast expansive. It is a series of paradoxes that form a single complex expanse that is like the Moon that has many faces, some of which will feel warm and touching, some of which will feel cold and distant. Because ultimately even for its genre or the other versions of the same story, Toei Sailor Moon is a series about the Human Heart in all its complexities which can be joyful, painful, or peaceful, but I will always find it beautiful. 

The Best Episodes of Toei Sailor Moon

 Recently I completed re-watching the Toei Sailor Moon, this making it I believe the fifth time I watched the series completely. To mark this event I wanted to review the series. Toei Sailor Moon is a series that draws more polarizing feelings from me then any series: The only series who's best matches the Sailor Moon Manga, my favorite series of all series, yet who's worst is painful to me in a way few other series can match. As such I thought I'd make three blogs to express my feelings about this series: one to go over what I don't like about the series, one to go over what I like about this series, and then finally one to express my feelings towards the series as a whole.

After watching the series I attempted to rank the 200 episodes. It was a difficult experience, and many episodes were interchangeable, but a general picture began to develop. Of those 200 episodes, there were around 20 episodes or 10% of the series I had negative feelings towards. There were around 30 episodes I felt mixed or neutral on. There was around 120 episodes, the meat of the show, that I liked divided roughly evenly between episodes I liked moderately and episodes I liked a lot. Finally there was around 30 episodes I fully loved. 

That means that around 90 episodes, or almost half the entire series are episodes I either really liked or outright loved. Most of the time if I saw two episodes, one of them was an episode that I thoroughly enjoyed myself on. For a 200 episode series that's amazing for me. And it's not like the other was usually negative. 150 episodes I enjoyed, not even overall mixed or neutral, but I overall enjoyed. Given how I tend to feel neutral about most things, that's a pretty huge margin. 3 out of every 4 eps I enjoyed and most of the rest were ones that I could take or leave. 

I'll be honest when I go back and rewatch, it does hold up better then I think it's going to. I went into this thinking most of the time every two eps I'd probably feel positive about one and feel neutral about the other but the proportions were much more tilted in the positive direction. What I expected was more the case in R and SuperS, the seasons I liked least. 

What makes a Toei Sailor Moon ep good? Well it's a mixture of things I like from the Sailor Moon Franchise and things I like about the Toei Sailor Moon anime in particular. They're also harder to put into words then things I dislike but to do my best the things I like from a Toei Sailor Moon episode:

-Uplifting Spirit: The hardest reason to describe is also the most quintessentially Toei Sailor Moon. All versions of Sailor Moon have a good amount of darkness and angst born in part from the series 90s root as well as a sense of tragedy. And while I enjoy all this, the Toei Sailor Moon is the version that best encapsulates the opposite joy as well. In most episodes this comes through in the series being the most comedic and lighthearted version but in the series more serious eps it comes across in the series being the most optimistic about human nature and the bonds between people. The series has more focus on redemption then any other version and its best it captures the magic of believing in things like redemption and friendship. Most of my Top 30 have something uplifting in it, a positive message or a wholesomeness to it. 

-Fun Villains: More then any other Sailor Moon save maybe PGSM, Toei Sailor Moon focuses on having the villains having a lot of characterization. But while PGSM this was done more tragically and realistically, the Toei Anime does it exaggeratedly and bombastically for fun. Very often how good a stretch of the series correlates to how much you like villains of that section including all levels of Monsters of the Week, Minibosses, and Big Bads. While the Manga for instance the villains are complete monsters representing the opposite ideals of the Sailor Senshi, in the Toei Anime they are treated as having more human personalities for humor and sometimes so you will want to see them redeemed. 

-Mythic Iconicness. The Toei Sailor Moon Anime is the most influential Magical Girl series of all time, no competition and part of it is the cosmic mythological scope. The Sailor Senshi are classic 90s girl power. I can enjoy the eps that are more taking the piss out of them comedically, but my favorites tend to be the ones that present them as super cool with super dramatic conflict, or have that sense of being something iconic and influential. For instance I really like the R ep where the Sailor Senshi fight Jakoku, the Shinigami Droid, and part of it is that seeing Sailor Moon defeat Death is such a cool mythic imagery. 

-Depth: Something common to all the versions of Sailor Moon but Sailor Moon is the kinda series where it draws essays and essays of words just thinking about me. I think in part this is because the creators of Sailor Moon consistently seem to want to draw inspiration from tons and tons of sources. Takeuchi wanted to do with the manga, Sato, Ikuhara, and Igarashi all wanted to with the anime, and every subsequent version also seemed to want to. Everything in Sailor Moon is an ocean of references and atmosphere drawing on other inspirations. My favorite episodes of Sailor Moon are all things I want to yammer on and on about because there's so much thoughts they draw out from me. 

Honorable Mentions:

Episode 1: So this episode can get overlooked when talking about the best episodes of the series but this episode is really really important and slightly awes me every time just for how iconic it is. This episode is Legendary, it is the most seen and referenced episode of any Magical Series without exception. It is the birth of the Modern Magical Girl. It is the blueprint for how every Magical Girl series after it would be made. The aesthetic style, the shift from a glossy relaxing vibe to suddenly dark and foreboding, the mixture of childishness with hints of raciness and adult seriousness... this episode is so iconically perfect I can't not put it on here. Usagi's transformation literally and metaphorically is the major character arc of the series and seeing it start here along is always captivating. Somehing else to note is that it's actually rather similar to the Manga with one notable change I don't like (I don't like how it doesn't have Usagi rush into battle despite being scared for Naru) and 1 I do like (the way she saves Luna from some children outside of randomly stepping on her.)

Episode 12: This is the Cruise Ep with Thetis. This ep is to me the platonic ideal of the Sailor Moon filler eps, maybe not the absolute best depending on what you count, but everything a Sailor Moon filler ep should be. Thetis is my favorite monster of the week, having a cool underplayed but evocative design, an actual motivation, her own fun minions, and a place in the worldbuilding. The Senshi all have fun interactions with each other including scenes of just Ami and Rei which is rarer. There's fun situational comedy, fun physical comedy. There's also tension in that Jadeite knows this is a desperate gamble to keep Beryl from killing him, and Thetis is far more vicious then normal doing things like immediately charging Sailor Moon through a window after her pre-battle speech.

Episode 24: Nephrite's Death. The ep that really begins the anime's differentiation from the manga and its unique identity more interested in redemption as a theme. This ep has a weird shift in reputation where back in the day I remember it being basically universally praised and only recently have I seen people be more critical to it and while I can see where they're coming from, seeing Nephrite's slow realization that he does care about this innocent girl that loves him, that he's willing to risk everything for her remains compelling to me. Nephrite's death and Naru's pained reaction is when the series begins to develop in its emotional gravitas, and it also has an underratedly cool fight scene between Nephrite and the plant Youma of Zoisite.

Episode 25: The first ep of Zoisite's Arc and Makoto's introduction. While the ending of Nephrite's arc is great, the Zoisite Arc is more consistent and this ep does a great job of starting, mostly from the introduction of Makoto. Makoto is maybe the one Senshi I like even more in the anime then in the manga, she's constantly doing cool stuff and this ep is a great showcase where she actually gets the better of Zoisite in a physical fight before becoming a Senshi and then picks up and lifts one of the Seven Great Youma to help Sailor Moon again before even transforming for the first time. Yet despite being the girl who saves Usagi from bullying she is emotionally vulnerable due to her self-consciousness, all of which compounds to make such a sympathetic character. Starting Zoisite's arc, introducing the Seven Great Youma an the Moon Stick, Makoto's first ep, this has so much important things happening and so much energy.

Episode 38: This is the skiing ep where the girls are invited by Yuuchiro to his fancy lodge in the mountains and enter a princess skiing contest. Kunzite has always been my favorite of the Heavenly Kings and this ep is a great example why. He's so theatrical and vaguely genre-savvy like when he tells the youma that the girls will coincidentally be here because they're ALWAYS here. But the main reason I like this ep is that it is the epilogue to the Brief Toei subplot of Mamoru dating Rei. Going into why I like it is somewhat personal but Usagi and Rei talk about having shared feelings for the same man and this sort of wholesome downright loving bond between the two girls refusing to fight or be jealous over a man but to support each other was new to me at the time and it helped shape some ideals I have about love. 

Episode 70: The Koan Redemption Episode: I am not broadly a fan of R's middle arc with the Ayakashi Sisters and Rubeus but it does have one fantastic ep here. This ep is a very emotional ep for people because it's about escaping the bonds of being emotionally abused and used to find a better life and is the first time the redemption theme of the anime was used well. Koan is manipulated by Rubeus and when she fails breaks her heart and demands she sacrifice herself to kill the Senshi. Wakana Yamazaki's voice acting for Koan's despair is heart-wrenching and the catharsis of her redemption is arguably more emotional then any other redemption in the series. 

Episode 75: An episode I never see enough love for. This is the ep where they go into Chibiusa's mind and fight the Grim Reaper Droid. This ep remembers Chibiusa's trauma from seeing her home bombed and destroyed and represents it in the figure of Death. Jakoku is an imposing and creepy Droid and his invincibility in Chibiusa's mind is a compelling depiction of Chibiusa's fear that Death is unstoppable. And the climax where Sailor Moon is holding Chibiusa asking her to trust Sailor Moon, and Chibiusa's belief in Sailor Moon to defeat Death itself, it's a vibe the Toei Anime doesn't usually go for that works really well. It's beautiful, it's metal, it's Sailor Moon being the mythic messianic figure she is meant to be. It's the moment Chibiusa begins to believe Sailor Moon can save them. 

Episode 78: The Nurse Venus ep. After Season 1 I don't think Minako has a bad focus ep, she's such a fun personality and this episode has her trying to take care of the other Senshi while they are sick from a sickness Droid and cartoonishly messing it up. There's not much else to say other then it's really funny and Minako is so fun and compelling in it even as she causes a real mess for the others in just how genuine she is. 

Episode 86: The Death of Saphir. This is the ep where Saphir finds out Wiseman's plot and leaves to avoid being killed before willingly returning to try and warn his brother. This is the ep that has a lot of great moments for the villains and former villains of R. We see the result of the Ayakashi's redemption as they help Saphir when he is wounded, Petz and Saphir sharing feelings even as she know he is doomed by his love, we see Saphir go to his death to warn Demande, and we see Demande finally begin to realize the Wiseman is not to be trusted, bristling with a cold anger as he holds the dead body of his brother. This ep even has some cool eldritch horror type stuff as Wiseman invokes Death Phantom seeking to bring about his coming into the universe to bring it to nothingness. 

Episode 88: The Climax of R. It's a good finale broadly. The Black Lady stuff in the Toei version is pretty meh to me, but the other two thirds of the ep I really enjoy. One part is the battle with Death Phantom and I think the reveal that the Silver Crystal was absorbed into Chibiusa's body and was released via her tears was actually a really great addition that works really well with what was established in the first arc and one of my favorite scenes in R, possibly my absolute favorite, is Chibiusa's goodbye to the senshi and the heartwarming reconciliation between her and Usagi followed by her finally being able to return to her mother. Maternal love type stuff in general kinda hits me hard.

Episode 92: This is the ep that basically introduces the character of Haruka Tenoh and has Usagi and Minako follow her around crushing on her all episode. If you're also a queer girl from this time period you probably have a lot of fondness for this ep. It was a great introduction to Haruka's character, and the scene of Haruka calling Usagi "Kitten" is burned into my mind for particular reasons. The Outers particularly in S are one of the single most popular parts of the series and it's super easy to see why. 

Episode 97: This is the ep where Ami is afraid that the she's only valued for studied and gets into swimming contests with Michiru, holding herself back because she's afraid of competition. This episode is one of the best character studies of the Guardian Senshi in the Toei Anime. Ami was the most popular Senshi when it was coming up and this episode really showcases why, as she is extremely easy to find yourself in within this ep, particularly if you're the sort likely to be watching, and she's very easy to root for. The episode can be heartwrenching as Usagi tells Ami how she's more then just her mind, that she's a wonderful person and the next minute can be really funny with one of the goofiest monsters of the week in the series. 

Episode 102: This is the second part of the Usagi's birthday two parter that ends the Kaorinite arc. While I don't like the first half that much, this episode is fantastic. It has the extremely memorable gag of after Usagi being kidnapped Minako using her disguise power to pretend to be Sailor Moon and it has the the first time Usagi talks with HaruMichi about the clash of their ideals, Usagi's idealism vs their cynicism.  it has the reveal of another layer of Haruka's character as she helps defeat Kaorinite with a really cool sequence of using the winds of her World Shaking attack to reflect the attack and for that matter it has one of the coolest Kaorinite sections ever, Kaorinite being maybe the most underrated villain in the entire series for me. This episode is awesome.

Episode 111: The final episode of the Eudial Arc, this ep has a lot to it. This is the episode that first has Usagi turn into Super Sailor Moon and reveals herself as the Messiah, a scene that has a really beautiful symbolism to it. This episode's contrast with the ep right before it if you watch them together is hilarious but also meaningful, going from the incredibly deep and heavy episode 110 to the silly antics of the Inners with Moon playing leapfrog to get across a sticky ground using them is really funny and yet also speaks to the difference in their worldview. As a child I also really admired Sailor Moon in these eps, her dedication that even after getting blasted by Eudial's flamebuster she still pushes herself to beat Eudial to the Holy Grail and fulfills the double meaning of her name Usagi by winning with a leap. 

Episode 115: This ep is about Hotaru and showcases the paradox. Hotaru is the bearer of Mistress 9, the powerful alien who will bring about the end of the world as well as Sailor Saturn, the messiah of silence who's awakening the Outers are terrified of. However Hotaru herself is just a lonely and timid girl, modest and this episode shows incredibly physically frail, hospitalized for regular seizures. I LOVE Hotaru and have since I was her age. I suffered from similar seizures as her and I found it incredibly powerful to see a girl like her depicted, frail externally but with an inner strength no one knew about. 

Episode 125: The S Finale, I this would be in most Moonies top ten episodes, and I get it. This episode shows the depth of Usagi's conviction as she averts the end of the world with the awakening of Saturn but even that isn't enough as Hotaru plans to sacrifice herself, desperately pounding the ground with a desire to save everyone, willing a miracle into existence from the unity of the Sailor Senshi's hearts. It's great symbolism, Hotaru's defeat of Mistress 9 is one of my favorite moments in S, her relationship with Professor Tomoe is wonderful. I think most people would question this ep not be in my top 10 more then why I like it. It very well could be in my Top 10 at some points, but I do have some faults with it, particularly and I hate to be THAT kind of fan, but in comparison to the manga version. I miss the wonderful Chibiusa/Hotaru conversation as Hotaru returns her (Chibiusa is unconscious int his version), the fight with Mistress 9 is heavily abridged and the fight with Pharaoh 90 happens entirely off screen. I don't know if this is unfair, and I do still love this ep but wouldn't put it top 10 at the moment, though I have in prior rankings. 

Episode 141: This is the S ep where Minako two-timers Hawk's Eye and Tiger's Eye and this is another ep like the Nurse Mina where it's really just Minako is super funny and fun to watch. I love how she actually breaks out of her dream mirror stealing board and gets angry at THEM for lying to her even as she was two-timing them before making them run away with her attack. She's also so deliciously over the top when she says stuff like "Being this beautiful is a curse." SuperS has a LOT of filler eps, but this is probably my favorite. 

Episode 166: The Climax of SuperS and Ikuhara's last ep, this ep is so atmospheric and artsy and I really love that vibe. We get Nehelenia's backstory and the explanation for the Dead Moon Circus' philosophy of eternal stillness and youth with Nehelenia's terror at growing old. More then that we have easily my favorite scene of SuperS, Usagi awakening Chibiusa. While it doesn't make literal sense, the symbolic sense is so beautiful to me. All the Arc long the question has been why grow older? The Quartet want to remain children forever to have no responsibility, Nehelenia wants to stay young to retain her beauty. But as Usagi pleads with Chibiusa to open her eyes and save them, she says she wants them to grow older together. The true reason to age and grow is to develop with people to grow in connection which is especially heartwarming for me when put in the context of a Mother and Daughter relationship like this. 

Episode 170: You could include every single episode of the 6 episode Nehelenia Arc at the start of Stars up here. That Nehelenia Arc is my favorite arc in the entire Toei Anime, and I really enjoy every episode in it. Sailor Moon as a franchise has a tendency to stick characters in usual interactions, but this arc mixes up the interactions with things like Ami and Haruka having to work together and they make for a really fun pair being so opponent in temperament, aided by Haruka being at one her most over the top points ("if you're not attacking, you're defending) compared to Ami's patient strategy. The way Ami figures out Nehelenia isn't really there is genuinely really cool (she notices Nehelenia's hair isn't blowing in the wind) and we get the first of the Rei/Michiru interaction this ep which is even better. 

Episode 173: This is the first episode of the Iron Mouse Arc where Mamoru leaves to go to college. So the Inners have some pretty funny interactions this ep when they're trying to cheer Usagi up and they're all jumping up and Usagi is embarrassed about. It also has Iron Mouse and Stars while a polarizing season has some really fun villains. But there are the two big reasons I love this episode. First of all you have Luna actually being supportive and acknowledging Usagi's growth which if you haven't experienced the last 172 episodes of Toei Luna being the worst and constantly tearing at Usagi's self-confidence you can't appreciate how big that is. And after that we get the airport scene where Mamoru basically proposes to Usagi, and as a huge fan of this pairing since I was four years old it always moves me to my tears. 

Top 10:

10: Episode 184: Episode 184 is the ep where there's a criminal on the loose and a procession of events leads to everyone in the extended cast being in Usagi's house at one time. This episode I think is probably the funniest episode in the entire series and as Toei Sailor Moon is a lot more of a comedy then other versions of Sailor Moon, that's actually quite an achievement. The thing about its comedy though is that it's comedy that is joking around with the tropes of Sailor Moon which is the kind of comedy that you only get if you've watched 183 episodes before this but if you HAVE makes it hilarious.

There's so many great scenes in this ep and everyone in the cast gets to have funny memorable parts like when Usagi is trying to do her pre-battle speech but is carefully slinking around to not knock things over with her oversized Eternal Wings or when Aluminum Seiren is distraught at Uranus and Neptunes' arrival not because they are more enemies but because they're standing on the table, making fun of how they in S would just appear somewhere elevated for theatrics, or how the Inners wonder if Haruka hates men which she denies and Michiru clarifies in a conspiratorial whisper that Haruka just hates popular men, and the Senshi all nod like "that makes sense" making Haruka mad. I could literally just keep listing off jokes here from the surface level goofy like the Senshi yelling in terror over a cockroach to jokes that would take an hour to fully unwrap  like the aforementioned standing on the table bit and the Outers subsequent embarrassment. Even the Starlights who I'm normally not a fan of are pretty goo this episode. Seiya keeps trying to tell Usagi that she's Sailor Star Fighter, yet Usagi keeps thinking Seiya is trying to proposition her instead, which is amusing. This episode is a real treat for sticking with a series for so long. 

9: Episode 109: I said 184 is probably the funniest ep because 109 exists and if 109 is not as funny as 184, it's VERY close and 109 has other advantages besides. Episode 109 is the episode where Minako wants to prove she has a Pure Heart Crystal since she's the only one who hasn't had heart crystal stolen, this leads to Minako having her heart crystal removed but actually derailing the usual plot by stealing her own heart crystal and running off with it leading to a chase in which the Outers and Inners discover each others identities. Minako is the joy she always is this episode, incredibly funny yet also sympathetic and compelling in her insane drive to the show that she is a pure hearted, and it leads to hilariously twisting the usual tropes. Like there's this one gag where she leaves Haruka and Michiru and it does their usual elegant exit music only for her to quickly come back and give them a crane game toy she won to show how selfless she is, and then it plays the elegant exit music while panning onto the toy. 

This episode is really funny and it also has a bunch of other great things about it. First of all if it's your first time watching it's surprising, because it seems like a normal episodic one where it's Minako's turn to get her heart crystal stolen but Minako in every version of Sailor Moon mucks up the formula every arc with her antics and it leads to actual plot progression. Eudial is great this ep and it has the legend Doorknober herself, a daimon with the fearsome ability to open and close any door. Doorknober is one of the best Monsters of the Week in the series for how funny she is being forced to fight by Eudial to her dismay despite not having any combat abilities, probably my second favorite MotW after Thetis. And the funny here also has some real heart behind it. Usagi absolutely doesn't want Minako to be targeted at any one point violently starts shaking begging her to stop and her exaggerations and the suddenness mames it funny, yet the hyperbole also shows just how much she wants to save Minako is. And Minako's drive to show that she's a good person, while funny, is also pretty compelling because Minako is probably the Senshi would most worry about that. 

8: Episode 171: Like I said, all six episodes of the Nehelenia Arc at the start of Stars are up there for me. This episode is the penultimate episode of that arc and it has three sections all of which I really love. First you have the Rei/Michiru section. Like I said this arc does a great job giving unique character interactions. Rei and Michiru have a little interaction in the manga but despite being the two psychic Senshi they are rarely seen interacting. Despite that it works super well, as while they are both psychic the two are vastly different level of confidence in their psychic abilities and have completely opposite dispositions in general, Rei being fiery and blustery, while Michiru cool and composed, and the layers Michiru uses to build Rei up this ep in order to fight Nehelenia is great fun.

Then we have the Minako/Setsuna section and I can't imagine a more opposite pair of Senshi save maybe Ami/Haruka from the prior ep. Setsuna here is doing the Outers shtick of sacrifice for the greater good, being a lawful good trying to sacrifice herself so that Mina can go rescue the princess. But Mina has two sides to her: the goofy antics girl she pretends to be and the badass idealistic team leader on the inside and she shows them both off in a display that manages to save both of them, amusing and cool at the same time. 

And then of course you have the heartwrenching section where Makoto defends Usagi's prone hypnotized body from Nehelenia herself, first judo flipping her like a badass. Makoto defending Usagi's merit as a person and being heartbroken at the thought that Nehelenia might never have had someone like Usagi is a great character for Makoto showing her ability to empathize and means alot to me as someone who relates to Usagi a lot and the scene of her taking attack after attack from Nehelenia, shielding Usagi with her own body... nothing express Makoto's relationship to her princess. It is simpler then any other pair of Senshis' interactions, Usagi shows Makoto unconditional love, so Makoto now has unconditional devotion to her princess to the end. And it ends with Makoto's rose earring falling and waking Usagi as it reminds her of Mamoru's roses which... such a clever trick, both been in the show since Season 1. 

7: Episode 200: The Final episode of the anime. I do have some critiques of the Stars Finale in general, namely that it's around 6 episodes when it has the content for like 3, that said it's not really a problem with this episode specifically, this episode is pretty well paced and the content is phenomenal. Much of the plot of Stars is about having the trust in people to be able to share your burdens with them. It's what the Outers and the Starlights both don't understand, both think they have to deal with their burdens by themselves. It's what Galaxia tried to do with Chaos, seal it within her to save the galaxy, and it's Usagi's plot this season as she tries to be strong the way she thinks people want/need her to be. Having the final episode be a redemption episode focused around that theme was a really good way to end the season, and as a series finale it has a very beautiful underlying message. The conflict ends with Usagi returning Chaos to the hearts of every person asking Galaxia to trust in people to do the right thing. It's a theme that I really enjoy, it reminds me of the Magic Knight Rayearth ending where the Pillar System is removed so that the world is determined by everyone's' wills together rather then just the Will of just the Pillar as well as the ending of the 2017 Wonder Woman film where Diana expresses that she can't just kill evil because good vs evil is a battle within the human heart and only love can save the world. Both of these are things I also love for similar reasons.

Beyond that there's a lot else great about this episode. Usagi's strongest form being her angel form completely lacking in weapons and armor and the way Galaxia's will breaking is expressed by her sword shattering, the expression of violence and force being overcome by love and compassion is really beautiful. The ending sequence is one that very effectively tugs the ol heartstrings. There's plenty of other times this episode makes me emotional. Off hand when all the Senshi return alive to Usagi and when she finally sees Mamochan again and he tells her it's all over. I also absolutely LOVE the two callbacks to prior episodes this episode makes. There's one to Episode 46 where Usagi says she believes in the world her friends died to protect but this time Usagi also adds to the end that she still believes in that spark of goodness in Galaxia's heart, representing the growth of Usagi's love and trust over the series going from to loving her friends, to the world, and now in the final extent even to her enemies. And the last line of the episode is Usagi reiterating her opening narration from episode 1 but slightly altered that gives me chills every time. In episode 1 she says "I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm 14 years old and Second Year Middle School. I'm clumsy and a bit of a crybaby. That's about it." whereas in episode 200 she says "I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm 16 years old and First Year High School. I'm clumsy and a bit of a crybaby..." before conspiratorially saying "But secretly... I'm the Sailor Suited Soldier of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon" Ah I love it so much, it's so evocative of what I love about this franchise, the way a person can have an inner world, an inner strength, an inner heroism you'd never see. 

6: Episode 106: The Haruka/Michiru backstory. I've made it no secret I don't really like filler, and that the Manga is my favorite series. Yet this episode that's technically "filler", is an episode who's details I always imagine are from the Manga because of how right they feel. Sailor Moon is a series aimed at young girls, yet for anyone who's actually seen it, it's difficult to dismiss it as wholly childish because it has episodes like this, who's artistry and maturity are self-evident. 

This episode paints a picture of two young women given a terrifying duty in ominous dreams. They act opposite showing their opposite persona: the airy and ever elusive Haruka running from it, represented by her ever running and driving trying to leave the painful world behind it, an the perfect young lady, the artist and musician Michiru who lets it consume her, expressing her pain in her beautiful art. Both on top of the world, both secretly hurting inside, they are so opposite yet bound together in a secret understanding no one else can understand. This episode focuses on the two themes that mean more to me then any other: Love and Loneliness. 

The progression of the Outers this episode is an amazing beautiful dance evoking as it is meant to the play of the wind whipping up the waves. Michiru wants Haruka to fight as a Senshi by her side but is unwilling, unable to admit how much she needs her and though Haruka knows the truth she runs in fear of being crushed and bound by destiny. Yet it is paradoxically only in that moment when Michiru is in danger that they paradoxically reach their limits, Michiru begging Haruka not to take up this painful duty, not to trap herself because she doesn't want Haruka to bear this pain that Haruka accepts it fully unwilling, unable to run from Michiru needing her. This episode is absolutely beautiful and an expression of the love between the Outers and the nature of love and loneliness, when it feels like only one person in the world understands you, shares in your world. 

5: Episode 44: Kunzite's final episode and the Moon Kingdom backstory episode. This episode has very special meaning for me in particular. This was the first Sailor Moon episode I ever saw at age four, and it blew my little mind. It's a strange episode to start on because it spoils the entire first season, yet it was just what I needed to instantly fall in love with the series. Until this point the content I had seen were very safe, edgeless. Sailor Moon was different. Talking about what this episode meant to me then and what it means to me now are different but harder to separate fully. This episode shows the conflict between the Sailor Senshi, these cool magical superheroes that were girls like me, battling an evil knight fighting for the scary Dark Kingdom. I love the girls and they immediately had such an impression on me with how cool they seemed and I loved Kunzite for some of the reasons I do now, the way he is so over the top and a dramatic dark warrior of the Dark Kingdom. 

This episode shows the beautiful utopian Moon Kingdom, enchanting and otherworldly, and its princess who fell in love with the Prince of the Earth. I can say honestly that seeing them together stirred the first romantic feelings I had ever felt, the way she presses into him, how she trusts herself entirely to him while he holds her tight made me want to trust all of myself to someone. The tragedy of the Moon Kingdom while I've seen similar things now was something that blew my mind as a child in how deep it felt, how intense it felt, how real it felt. This wasn't a safe world where everyone who was good got along, where no one ever suffered any permanent damage. The Moon Kingdom was a beautiful world and it was destroyed and the Queen gave her life to save the princess. I couldn't phrase it well then but it impacted me greatly, the weight of the tragedy and the meaning in the Queen giving her life for her daughter, expressing how beautiful one's life is, how many people before you gave everything they had to give you life. And then Sailor Moon had to fight the champion of that kingdom that destroyed it. Kunzite felt like an unstoppable monster the way he tears through the Senshi but Sailor Moon stood against him and knocked back his attack, defeating him. 

This episode changed my world, it shaped what I understood Sailor Moon to be and what I wanted out of the stories I consumed. And to be honest it is a niche that I've never seen another series perfectly fill. I love Pretty Cure but Pretty Cure and a lot of magical girl series made in Sailor Moon's wake are... safe in a way. They have magical worlds that are "destroyed" but get restored at the end without any major consequence. I love Puella Magi but a lot of these Dark Magical Girl series act like you're better of not becoming a Magical Girl despite monsters and the darkness they represent killing loads of people. Sailor Moon taught me as a young child a truth about the world. That the world has a lot of darkness in it, real horrific things. That it killed people that came before you, good and strong people. But that you can and you have to stand up against it, that you have a power inside you strong enough to fight it. It told me, a nervous young girl that I could fight against the darkness that I was afraid of, and even win. That to me is core to what I love about this franchise. 

4: Episode 110: I've actually seen recently a bit of a surge of people who don't like this episode, primarily for people who don't like Haruka and Michiru in it. I kinda get it, but that's crazy to me. This is the famous episode where Haruka and Michiru die against Eudial revealing that they had two of the Talismans the whole time. Haruka and Michiru are heartbreaking this episode and this episode has many of their most famous lines. Haruka saying these hands are dirty and Michiru saying she'd always love Haruka's hand for instance. The part that always kills me is at the start when Michiru is listening to the ocean and Haruka says playfully "no fair going to a world I can't follow...." followed at the end when Michiru is dead and Haruka before shooting herself with Eudial's heart crystal removal gun repeats "no fair Michiru, going to a world I can't follow..." referring I think Haruka thinking of Michiru going off to Heaven where she will never go. That part always makes me cry and be like "That's not fair Ikuhara!!!" It just breaks my heart so much Haruka's loneliness at having the one person in the world who understood her, someone whom they saw the hidden beauty in,  disappeared from the world.

The usual complaint is that they forcibly take brooch so she can't transform. However I feel like this is misunderstood. Haruka and Michiru hate their duty, suffer being Sailor Senshi. In their minds, this cruel act is the ultimate mercy, taking the burden from Usagi's shoulders. But of course Usagi goes there to try and help them because powers or no, she is driven by love. This in my mind is why Haruka sees Usagi as the messiah the next ep, because Usagi takes on the burden that crushes them willingly. This is the difference I think between laboring out of obligation, out of duty, and laboring out of love. Fundamentally this episode shows that the Outers for their cold philosophy of sacrifice are not hypocrites, and would just as easily give up their own lives to save the world. 

This episode also demonstrates the sheer versatility of Sailor Moon as a franchise. It has some classic Ikuhara humor mostly to do with Eudial with this being my favorite of her roles. It has stuff like sending a threatening message on the answering machine to the Outers only to get cut off for time and starting the next message angry at it, or the way she has this giant piano there she pretends to play dramatically only for it to be revealed to be a recording. On the other hand it also has what I think is the darkest scene in the entire franchise, Haruka shooting herself. It's a science-fantasy gun that shoots out one's heart crystal. However contextually, it kills people. This is genuinely Haruka killing herself to follow Michiru into the afterlife by shooting herself. This episode can continue both extremes because it is the most complex characters in the Toei Anime at their best, expressing the cold world of sacrifice and loneliness.

3: Episode 172: The final episode of the Nehelenia Arc at the start of Stars, this episode is hard to fully talk about without fully going into a difficult time in my life but I will do my best. Sailor Moon was already my favorite series when I saw this episode but this was the episode that made Sailor Moon herself my favorite character. Over the course of this arc we've seen constantly the Senshi are able to succeed in ways Nehelenia can't understand because the Senshi love each other whereas Nehelenia doesn't understand love. This episode takes it to two further extent. First with the conflict between Sailor Saturn and Nehelenia where Saturn prepares to sacrifice herself to use the Silence to kill Nehelenia, an action so alien to Nehelenia that she thinks Saturn hates Nehelenia hates her so much she'd kill them both to be rid of her, the Silence actually terrifying Nehelenia until Chibi-Moon stops Saturn. Then there is the Usagi interaction where despite Nehelenia do everything she can to torture Usagi, when Usagi hears Nehelenia's backstory, she is unable to stop Usagi from loving her. This culminates in Usagi offering to sacrifice herself to save Nehelenia, an action that shatters Nehelenia's worldview and allows Usagi to save them both. 

As a child my favorite characters weren't complex. I liked characters who were like me and were cool. I thought it was so cool seeing Saturn, frail otherworldly Hotaru, threatening the scary evil queen. But I was surprised that Saturn's silence was stopped. And then when Usagi saves her, even as a kid even if I couldn't explain it eloquently, I understood what the series was being telling me, that there's something greater then defeating your enemy and saving everyone else, but saving everyone. That the greatest victory was found in love. I had such admiration for Usagi. Every character I had ever seen followed some kind of logic in how they acted: they acted cruel when they were enemies or had cruel things happened to them, they acted nicely when they were friends or had good things happen to them. But Usagi's love wasn't logical like that. It didn't matter how Nehelenia was her enemy or how she tortured Usagi, she still cared about Nehelenia. She didn't cause conflict, she dissolved conflict. That's what a hero was. That was the kind of love I wanted to have. 

As I've grown I've come to see this episode in more context, but my love for it has only grown. Without going into too much details, there was a time in my life when I was very hard on myself, when I felt very lonely. The message of unconditional love resonated strongly with me and this episode in particular when Usagi says that if she was trapped alone like Nehelenia would act out like her, helped me start to show myself more compassion.

2: Episode 45: I don't think I need to tell you which ep this is but it's the ep that the Guardian Senshi die in battle against the DD Girls, the ep that traumatized a generation of children, and maybe the single most popular episode in the Sailor Moon Fandom. Beryl is getting close to fully awakening Metaria, who's presence is causing dangerous planetary effects and sunspots to begin to consume the Sun. The Guardian Senshi launch an invasion on the entrance to the Dark Kingdom and fall in battle one at a time. 

This episode was a huge shock to everyone when it came down. The Magical Girl was an emblem of society's ideal for femininity, an expression of our hope for the next generation of young women. Seeing the Sailor Senshi, the cool superhero magical girls die, even if it was obvious they'd be resurrected, was something I don't think people were ready for. What makes it far more impactful was how the Senshi die. Each Sailor Senshi dies in a Heroic Sacrifice that matches her nature, Sailor Jupiter is first when they manipulate her soft heart by showing Motoki, her crush as an illusion, and then dies protecting the others, using her lightning in close range to kill two of the DD Girls. She is the Guardian of Protection and there was no way any of the others could ever die so long as she was there because she'd always protect them. Sailor Mercury the intellectual who is always trying to teach her friends, strategically sacrifices herself by standing alone, rational yet loving, cool-y outwitting them to get in close before crushing their illusion gem, sacrificing herself to open her friends eyes to truth. Sailor Venus dies pushing Sailor Moon out of the way of a sneak attack by the enemy, before firing her laser into one's head at close range. Sailor V was the decoy for Sailor Moon, always silently protecting her, I have no doubt tricksy Mina could have evaded them forever, but she was always secretly protecting Usagi, willing to throw herself into her place in a stray moment. Sailor Mars puts on a brave face despite knowing she's going to her death, because her hysterical weeping princess needs something to believe in. So she puts on her strong face, confidently facing death with a strong heart, saving Usagi and destroying the last two enemies. I can go into each much more, but each Senshi's death is an expression of her in a way so much more evocative then most of these types of scenes. 

We see Usagi break down more and more as her friends die one by one, and I am with there, this episode destroys me emotionally. But it does that by showing just why each of the Senshi is amazing and wonderful. Each of the Guardian Senshi is an expression of her own form of heroism, a type of personality shown in its noblest. For a sensitive young girl like Usagi, the Guardians are each a kind of older sister, an ideal of strength and heroism aspire to. I love the Senshi, and this episode is the heart of why. They taught me in four beautiful pictures what love and heroism looks like. They taught me strength the same way they did Usagi. This episode trusts its viewers, young girls. It asked us if we were willing to engage with the idea of war and death, of the type of friendship and love where you'd give everything for the people you love. I am an adult now, who deals with this world that can sometimes seem dark and scary but the spirits of the Guardian Senshi linger in the strength I learned from this ep, just as the end of the episode shows their spirits driving Usagi on, past the existential despair at their death she would have thought was invincible. 

1: Episode 46: The final ep of Season 1. Like a fish swimming in the ocean, this episode is not valued enough in my opinion because it is taken for granted and we live in a world post its existence. This episode is a tier beyond every ep mentioned prior. It is not just my favorite episode in this series, it's not just my favorite episode in an anime, but my favorite episode of any television show that I've ever seen. That's not to say it is the most perfect episode, a few episodes have less flaws, there are a couple emotional beats that don't work for me, such as the infamous ending where time is reset with the Senshi not remembering anything that happened. I get what they were referencing in the Magical Girl Tradition. I still don't really like it. That said the quality of a work is not seen in its lack of flaws in my opinion, but the proportionality of its goodness compared to its flaws, and this episode has the biggest strengths of the series. 

This episode can be divided into two segments. The first segments involves Sailor Moon's confrontation with Dark Endymion and Queen Beryl. This is the culmination of one of the most famous plotlines in the genre and is such a beautiful representative of what the genre represents, to the point of becoming a trope in the genre. Sailor Moon tries to use her magic to purify Dark Endymion but can't and is attacked him as she pleads. In desperation she tries to attack him back, but this too fails and only makes him angrier. This is so important to understanding her for the rest of the series, that she has tried the way of force, and found it incapable. So as Beryl commands Dark Endymion to kill and he raises her blade, Usagi gambles it on a plea, showing Endymion the locket representing their love, restoring him to his senses, his love for her defeating Beryl. There's so much wrapped up in this. It's the feminine desire for a redemptive love that can save a good soul in darkness seamlessly integrated with a fantasy superhero story, it's the magical girl ideals of belief in people and in miracles, and about the triumph of love as a form of conflict resolution over force and violence. This scene is so influential because it tapped into something deep in the psyche of its viewers, speaking of an impossible inevitability, something beautiful about believing that love can overcome violence and malevolence. And this is the lesser of the two parts for me. 

The dying Beryl merges with Metaria, emerging as a towering monster, that causes the Sun and sky to be engulfed in darkness, that drains the energy of the world so all lights go out, shrouding Earth and Heaven in darkness. People chide Usagi for being a coward and crybaby, yet here facing that darkness that drives the greatest minds mad with terror, she walks out with determination. Super-Beryl and Sailor Moon begin their battle, Sailor Moon's heart pushing through her magic against the impossible threat put before her. Beryl asks mockingly what she still believes in. Love? Friendship? The Bonds between People? But Sailor Moon says she isn't fighting for abstract ideals like those but for this world that her friends died to protect, calling to my mind the moment in Act 59 where Sailor Moon admits she never really fought for love and justice but her friends, the embodied good. To give her the push in power she needs the spirits of her friends appear, holding onto the wand, her burden, helping her and giving her the final burst of power she needs. I've seen a LOT of Magical Girl series, but if anything is the heart of the genre, the central point, it's this moment. I can trace everything prior back to Sally's intro proclaiming "with mysterious powers she fills the city with dreams and laughter" as leading up to this moment, and I can show how almost every Magical Girl ending regardless of tone from PreCure to Puella Magi has reiterated on this theme and expanded from this ending. 

It is an expression of the way someone, especially a young woman, can be more then herself but the bearer of the dreams, the ideals, the very spirits of her community. How her loving heart can bring people together accomplishing the impossible, creating miracles. It is an expression of the most beautiful thing in the entire world to me, the miraculous way love surpasses death and evil. And for me personally, it was the first time seeing outside me those nameless feelings inside me I didn't know how to express, guiding me to know what things I would search for artistically. 

The things I love about Toei Sailor Moon are pretty well represented in these ten episodes. I would divide the things I love about Toei Sailor Moon into two categories: things I love about Sailor Moon as a franchise that also apply to the Toei anime, and things I love about the Toei Anime specifically. In the former case Sailor Moon as a general property has a special place in the heart for way it shaped me growing up, I love the characters, with every Senshi being genuinely strong enough to star in their own series. I love the artistry and depth in everything, the way everything seems to have more layers, the way the best episodes invite you to talk and think about them over and over. I love the girl power element, the way it created a universe for young girls to be the hero based on characteristically feminine traits as sources of power. For things I love about the Toei anime in particular, I think it is both iconic yet versatile. Toei Sailor Moon encompasses a wide variety of tones from grandiose serious to goofy, fom atmospheres ranging from very dark to very light, from genres ranging from slice to life to eldritch horror, Despite this it remains the most iconic Magical Girl series that somehow retains a clear identity and sense of self throughout. It also has perhaps the most indepth relations between the Senshi as well as the best overall villains in the entire franchise, though PGSM can give it a run for its money. I associate it so strongly with my adolescence when I first sat down and purposefully watched the entire thing from front to back. Those were days when I began to discover the world was so much deeper then I thought, when I began to construct my own identity and preferences as I searched for the transcendental beauty I longed for. They were the days when I found who I was, who I wanted to be, and the path I wanted to walk and Toei Sailor Moon helped guide that path.