It’s not stupid, he’s just remarkably intuitive when it come to the minds of teenage girls
If you follow my tumblr at all, you’d probably know I spent the last week of my Christmas break shotgunning like 50 episodes of Sailor Moon. It seems like the general theme of all the Malachite episodes was like “hey, let’s just set up a booth and say we’re giving free cookies to Moon Princesses” and then brainwashed bad guy Tuxedo Mask would be all “that’s stupid, you’re stupid” but then the plan would TOTALLY AND FLAWLESSLY FOOL THE SAILOR SCOUTS. He had the dumbest plan, but arguably the best record for very nearly exterminating the heroes, considering the only reason they escaped was because brainwashed Tuxedo mask kept breaking ranks and rescuing them (before angrily reminding them that he’s a bad guy who doesn’t like them)
Apparently this is my 150th comic. It’d be really cool if I could have got it up on time to celebrate but holy shit am I ever getting hammered with work from all directions this week. So if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna go sleep for an hour before I go to my real job.
Congrats on the 150th comic. Love your work. Thank you.
Simply excellent XD
I also asked myself how on Earth could those plans work… And it is not even the “unspoken plan guarantee” thing!
I always wonder why the plan wasn’t “get gun, shot the bitch”. Seemed like that could of work. But maybe I am oversimplifying.
That was actually tried, it doesn’t work. Just because they look like ordinary girls in school girl outfits doesn’t mean they’re not much tougher than the average girl. Hell, most of the monsters they fight hit them with attacks that do far more damage than a bullet would, and that rarely even causes them noticable injuries.
I thought they only had enhanced abilities (durability being key here) after changing into the Sailor Scoot outfits. Is that not the way it worked within the logic of the show?
They did, but one of the big sticking points was that the big bads never knew who the Sailor Senshi really were.
If a villain ever figured out who they were IRL, they were summarily killed, usually by their own superiors/teammates before the information could be passed along. See Jedite, Eugiel, and Nephlite, to name a few.
Sorry for the late reply. But… given that there Sailor Scoot outfits did absolutely nothing to hide there identities, how is it no one could put together who they were?
magic
It was covered in episode 31, they actually DO look different, they just look the same to us.
So the outfits are like Clark Kent glasses?
And/or it’s like the infamous transformation sequences: it’s actually stated at least once that they are /all/ transforming at the same speed Tuxedo Mask does (which is, in fact, /bam transformed/). The long sequences are only something people on this side of the fourth wall see.
(Although, on the flip side, I’m pretty sure Chibi, at least, got attacked mid-transformation once…)
this is only tangentially related, but I liked how in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha you actually get to see how the villains see them transforming once, and Nanoha barely escapes getting hit by a giant laser.
(this happens in the 2nd series and only once)
…anyway, as my point got lost from my mind while writing that before I hit submit, it’s possible that ‘in universe’ the appearance change is more drastic than shown ‘in media’.
Either that or there’s a S.E.P.-field like effect protecting their identities. (Something adopted by Shadowjack’s interpretation of the series.)
could be like in the live action pgsm in which they even changes the color of their eyes and drastic changes to hair color an style, or it’s the myst like in percy jackson
I say, just steal a suitcase nuke from the Russians, which seems totally possible for this guy, and kill ’em all, because he already knows what town they live in. They would never see it coming, and anyone left in the crater alive you just hit at full force, and be done with it.
It works magically in the same principle as the Green Lanterns of DC Comics. To us, the outside viewers, they look the same, but there’s a glamor over their faces that makes them look different to other people. A person looking at a Sailor Senshi or Green Lantern sees a vague, non-descript face that they could not pick out of a line-up.
“Why don’t you just shoot them” was actually DONE at one point. By…Eudial, I think, to Sailors Uranus and Neptune.
With AUTOCANNONS.
End result: Guns run out of ammo, Sailors regen health, Eudial flees.
(And gets Klingon Promotion’d in the course of her escape.)
Was this how they made it in the dub? I lost interest in SM before the third season was picked up, so I’m mostly familiar with the original through fansubs. In the Japanese Eudial’s not killed by another villian, she’s straight-up murdered by Usagi. No superpowers, no transformation, nothing. Civilian!SailorMoon just shoves that b!tch right off a ledge. It was badass, and one of the defining points of the whole series.
You’re thinking of two different things. Usagi does shove Eudial into a pit at around that point — but she survives that in both versions. Eudial’s actual death comes in the next episode, when she’s driving away from her defeat, only to find Mimette’s sabotaged her car by cutting out the brake pedal. (The dub’s only change here was to say the brake pedal was destroyed by acid snails.)
Gilligan Cut principle.
If a person points out how unlikely it is for a stupid plan to actually succeed, it increases the chances of that plan succeeding.
Oh god this is one of the most…I will say it…EPIC panels! hahahaha! Classic! Love it :D
Dammit, you know the rules! Put a dollar in the jar now please
Sadly that’s entirely accurate -laughs-
Congrats on 150 comics! Here’s to the next 150!
Also, agreed on Sailor Moon. The only thing more ridiculous was “MOON PRINCESS….PENETRATION!” I’m not sure if that’s a direct translation and the Japanese was that bad, or if someone in the localization department thought it would be hilarious.
Gratz for a 150 great quality comics. also Thank you for a 150 great quality comics ^_^. it is an honor to re and re-read( x4 at the very least) and love it even more.
I could’ve sworn it was supposed to be Halation. Or was that a different thing entirely?
Also, Star Gentle Uterus.
STAR SENSITIB INFERRRNO!
I mean, srsly, how can an inferno be sensitive? Does it get mad, run up to its room, slam the door, and listen to Linkin Park at full blast?
Yes. It has a serious problem and needs your support.
It’s because of that stupid serious laser. So meeeeean and seeeeerious all the time!
It was in fact “Halation”.
However the U.S. dub of SM was /horrendous/ in many ways, both in bad translations, and in outright butchery (1. ending of season one; 2. “Talent”; 3. “Cousins”.)
Hey, Talent and Cousins were HILARIOUS. I almost think they were getting crap past the radar with those two examples because NO ONE I know ever thought that talent meant anything other than boobs and Cousins was anything other than innuendo.
True. I’m sure Joel, Tom and Crow would especially agree. (And ESPECIALLY Crow!)
…and, come to think of it, both of those HAD to be the designated-by-the-censors people rebelling. Seeing as in the first they /added/ a certain sound effect, and in the second…well.
(Also: “Milkshake”.)
While the season one ending was certainly better in the original I wouldn’t call the english dub of it bad. Anyone with half a brain can tell the scouts are still dieing, and in fact it seems like they’re dieing and Beryl is stealing their souls, and with the more violent parts cut out some of their battles seem MORE impressive…well, okay only Mars where she seems to nuke that last two DD Girls and herself in one blast. Plus the music was better for the final battle in the dub, Cary On was a lot more final battle than the shows’ theme song. Other than that, Jupiter seems a little less badass, Venus is about equal, only Mercury goes out without a fight in the dub.
I think the best/worst Sailormoon related attack has got to be “Star Gentle Uterus” not kidding, that Sailor Star Maker uses. I love the series and it was my intro anime. But there is so much amazingly bad in the series, it’s fantastic.
There’s actually a consistent line of logic behind that. According to Sailor Star Fighter, stars are very different in the Sailormoon universe.
In addition to the giant mass of incandescent gas that they are in the real world, a star is also the focal point and net sum of the power and will of the people that live around it. That means to Make a star you have to Make people…which still works exactly like it does in our universe.
Always liked MOON… SPIRAL…HEART… ATTACK!! *Sailor Moon clutches her heart, spirals, dies*
Actually, this seems to be a pattern for a lot of children’s shows. Bad guy makes stupid plan (it’s almost never pointed out that it’s stupid), good guy(s) fall(s) for stupid plan, and either break out flawlessly, are saved by deus ex machina, or they die, but those really aren’t kids shows.
If a plan is Stupid but the good guy falls for it,its not stupid.
Or maybe we’re dealing with epically naïve heroes (deposits a quarter into the Epic Jar). Apparently naiveté doesn’t matter when you’re that good, or lucky, or skilled, or powerful, or whatever all of those show’s heroes were. It also happens in more adult things, like The Dark Tower (Tull. Seriously, freaking Tull) or Robin Hood (I think they cover that below).
And the heroes were definitely, definitely naïve! I’m pretty sure that Sailor Moon, at least, is only 14 years old in the show and I don’t think her friends and teammates are much older. Before the whole “now it is time to fight evil” thing I don’t think any of them had had anything really out of the ordinary happen in their lives; they had no life experience or frame of reference for the stuff that the bad guys pulled and frankly they seemed more concerned with other stuff happening in their lives most of the time.
I think of how easy it is to convince my Sailor Moon-aged younger sibling of silly falsehoods and I think of Sailor Moon and I shudder at how close her world must have come to destruction so many times. So it’s sure lucky she had awesome deus ex machina powers and friendship on her side!
The plan is still stupid, and the good guy is an idiot. I mean seriously, “intelligent” is not the word you usually use to describe main characters. “Brave” or “kind-hearted” doesn’t magically equal as smart.
LOL
Google reader only shows the text, not the comic, so I was really confused about how the two elements of the title could possibly be related until I read the comic :P
I LOVE the way you drew Malachite/Kunzite’s nose.
Malachite was the best of the Series 1 Sailor Moon villains.
So I only read about half of the second paragraph, and thought “isn’t getting hammered a very good definition of how to celebrate?”
Guess that goes to show, abandoning paragraphs halfway through leads to terrible reading comprehension.
I always wondered why they never caught on that anything “Moon Princess” related wasn’t blatantly suspicious. Oh, sailor scouts, I do so love you but you’re so frustratingly dumb.
Also, I love Sailor Moon in your style. I think it looks better.
It does look better. It’s something I noticed during the Bishounen-disease arc; Coelasquid can draw humans that are pretty as pie, just gorgeous–but their faces still look active and alive, and they are still powerfully expressive.
especially considering Amy is supposed to have an IQ of like 300.
Something to do with High School, I think. I really messes up your priorities.
I’ve always found that the scale of brilliance to plain old horse sense is a sliding one.
I’ve never watched the show – don’t all the other scouts have titles with planets in them? But they’re supposed to all be from the moon anyway? What is up with that?
They’re all princesses of their own respective planets, but the moon is like intergalactic UN HQ.
Don’t ask me why Earth’s moon is the centre of moving and shaking in the universe.
They have the best waterslides.
I suspect the fact that the Moon Princess is far stronger than anybody else might be the in-universe CAUSE of her being the politically strongest, rather than an effect, if one were to go back enough generations.
I think it was because they had the best technology and (I shit you not) ice skating rinks. I remember reading something like that in an interview.
I guess that’s more rational than them all being there for the cheese.
Were the names of all the others came from was by Humans and the play is on the fact that humans Landed on the moon.
Look out for the Sheriff of Nottingham!
Oh well, I guess I don’t get to be the first one to point out Robin Hood.
Is Robin Hood a teenage girl?
Well it’s hard to blame Robin Hood for falling for that one considering that was the first time the trick was ever used… why must history always fall by the wayside?!
Robin Hood had the decency to know it was a trap. What he didn’t have was the self-control to resist springing it. Pride goeth before an epic sword fight.
The Scouts’ main issue was that they were a bunch of teenagers. So, looking forward to Viz’s remake?
Poor Jadeite was just an entrepreneur. Every time he tried to start a new business it would be popular until out of the blue when the Sailor Scouts would roll up and smash the place. He likely couldn’t afford to pay them protection money.
Dude. True story.
Someone needs to write that as a fanfic.
Holy shit, it’s pretty much what I’ve been thinking from time to time too. And wondering how the hell nobody recognised them when they were transformed, they looked pretty much the same…
Either way, as a hardcore Sailor Moon-fan I can barely wait to see it in colour…I’d kill to have it as a print too…
The Tiaras were the anime version of Clark Kent’s Glasses, only backwards
Venus mentions in her second episode that they all actually look different when they’re transformed. We just don’t get to see the difference.
They looked different because of the costume change and being aged up to 18ish, according to some production notes. “They look the same, but they’re too old.”
Ever read All-Star Superman? While talking to Lois, Clark takes his glasses off, pulls open his shirt to show his Superman outfit, and flat-out tells her that he’s Superman. Her response? She doesn’t believe him, and thinks that Superman is doing a spot-on Clark Kent impression. She doesn’t even believe it when he starts explaining, in perfect detail, how he managed to pull off the “Clark and Superman in the same place” stunts.
Sometimes people just don’t want to believe the obvious.
LOLOL WHAT HAHAHA
Out of curiosity, was this before or after the episodes wherein the boys had a sex-change every time they had to save the day?
Way, way before.
Kunzite/Malachite was in season one. The Sailor Starlights were with the whole Galaxia storyline in season five.
It’s called Magical Girl, and by god, it’s going to be Magical Girls!
In the manga the Starlights are actually girls pretending to be a male idol band to find their princess by basically stealing the hearts of teenaged girls (like until they find their princess’ heart or something)? Idk if the anime just decided to make them dudes that turned into girls for mysterious reasons or if it’s only in the English dub (which I suspect as my best mate watched it in Spanish as a kid and he thought that they were girls disguised as guys) where because of the whole “there will be no homosexuals in this anime, kthanx” ethos of the English dub a romantic relationship between Usagi/Serena and fem!Seiya would be a big no-no. Interestingly in the manga Uranus can change between a man/woman as s/he pleases and the “cousins” have a biologically theirs kid together, so maybe the translators got confused with that?
Zoisite on the other hand was turned into a girl for the English dub… cos, yeah, no gay here AT ALL, no siree bob, what anime were you watching? Sailor Moon? Nope that’s deffinately not full of them there gays, uh-uh. That pure confused me as a kid cos I was all like “but that’s deffinately a dude, why do they keep reffering to him as ‘she’? Sure he’s got a girly voice and a ponytail, but all the Generals look like they should be in a hair metal band so I don’t get it…”
GAWD, I know waaaaaaaaaay to much about Sailor Moon’s gender-swapping antics. I could probably write an essay about it… lol.
The transsexual Starlights are part of the original anime. I’m given to understand that they switched the Starlights to guys that turned into girls because lesbians are traditionally less acceptable than gay men in Japan, and so portraying them in a kids show would’ve been controversial. Then again, they didn’t edit the relationship between Haruka and Michiru at all, so then maybe it was because they were pretending to be men (aka sexism), but again, they showed Haruka unedited =x
Also, Uranus could not change her gender at will, but she had a very androgynous look, so how people viewed her gender would depend greatly on what she was wearing. If she dressed more feminine, they would see a bad-ass chick, and if she dressed masculine they’d see a pretty man.
Zoisite was totally just homophobia on our part.
It’s been a looooooooong time since I read the manga, so I probably got confused about Uranus.
That “There, you see!?” expression in the last panel really sets it home for me.
Oh lord yes. That is the best “I told you she was an idiot” face ever.
haha I got to say, I dig your art interpretation of the sailor scouts.
I like it especially because its like what I can guess Commanders daughter will look like in the future.
You don`t need to guess. it was already shown back in the early strips.
Grats on getting me to go through the whole archive again.
Ditto, but I believe they’re referring to the the distant spacefuture, in which she’s mostly covered in Distant Spacefuture Fasion.
This is the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time. Probably because of his face in the last panel.
Too bad for them, Sailor Pyramid Head is going to win, no contest
Now I really want to see that in the next comic!!
Only because she brutally mutilated the other contestants.
Exactly, that’s what we need to see in the next one.
The only thing that would be more effective than that would be to stage a ” Best Moon Princess gets caught by the villan Contes t”.
And not even Amy would be able to see it is a trap because well… THEY ARE ATENTION HORDING GIRL TEENAGERS !!!
YES! I love you… :D And Malachite is right, dude. Though giving away free cookies means he’d get a crap ton of Moon Princesses. But then all he has to do is CAPTURE THEM ALL and make them break! He’ll find the real deal eventually. :P Tuxedo Mask just wanted to be a snob. The simplest plans tend to work. Admittedly, stupid ones shouldn’t but… it’s teenage girls! They aren’t that hard to manipulate.
Man, he should have been cooperating with the Ice King. Something to do with all the leftover Princesses.
Happy sesquicentennial! Always glad when the little orange radar informs me a new comic is up… (though for whatever reason that seems to be slightly delayed form the rest of the general populace.) _ All the best with your work, remember, when life wants to hammer you, act like a an anvil, not a nail.
Thanks for letting my Sailor Moon Fan-heart beat again <3
SPOILER ALERT: Princess Luna wins the competition.
I was going to make the same joke…
I was thinking the exact same thing. That would be hilarious just for all the WTF? going on.
Luna is best moon princess.
I never watched that much Sailor Moon, but I ended up watching the Mermaid Melody series when I was into cute and campy anime, and boy this plot structure sounds familiar. Though at least it sounds like Malachite came pretty close to sealing the deal – the Mermaid villains spent a lot of time coming up with elaborate ruses to draw the mermaids out, but almost never had any plan for what to do next besides jump out and say, “I have you now!” before being banished again.
You know who should appear in this comic? Captain America. I bet he’d get along super great with the Commander. Honestly, what Cap does in the Avengers comic is pretty similar to what the Commander does in this.
Though it would also be funny if they totally rubbed each other the wrong way and everyone is all “wtf why aren’t you guys the bestest friends ever?”
No….just no….captain america is one of the most boring Comic heroes. Hellboy would be a better choice,he is much more manly anyway.
^^^ Agreed.
i believe hellboy has already made an appearance, albeit a small one. back when they were hotboxing a room with cigars, if memory serves me right
I doubt he’d appear much; he’s very well adjusted compared to the usual crowd.
Of all the comic characters to get along with the commander, I’d think it would be Midnighter. Black ops training, married family man with a kid, not above ripping out the spines of his enemies and once traveled back in time to kick Hitler in the balls.
1. God, this strip is just so fucking dead on. One of my “favorites” is when they have a plan to lure the senshi out with an ice skating competition because the Moon Princess was a great ice skater (Buh?). The clincher is when the contest only accepts girls in groups of five. The ONLY time I’ve ever seen that “girls only in groups” rule implemented in the real world is Ladies’ night at a bar, and that’s to get horny dudes to buy drinks for the massive swaths of ladies (which makes lots of fiscal sense for bar owners). FUCK the Sailor girls were stupid. And having watched 4 out of 5 seasons, they never get smarter.
2. When did I miss that art on Tumblr? GODDAMN. Poster that.
3. I notice that comic of yours is lacking some color. And I might know a certain short, brown woman with more time than sense who might be good at coloring stuff–mumblemumblemumble…
Srsly. I don’t get how Usagi could be two steps away from roadkill while walking in a straight line with no cars around, and yet pull off those crazy transformation and attack dances and be awesome at sports. Being clutzy must be the most convincing disguise EVAR.
It works for Superman, and he even uses his powers every so often while in the Clark Kent persona.
People think it’s the glasses, but it’s really a combination of the glasses, slouched posture, and being really, really good at acting like a bumbling idiot. But mostly it’s the bumbling idiot part.
I don’t understand how anybody bought Clark Kent was a bumbling dork despite being the size of two linebackers strapped together. Seriously, you don’t get that big without working out and eating LOTS of raw eggs.
Frank Quietly (I think?) did a good job of combining poor posture with baggy clothes to make Clark Kent look chubby and diminutive. Which was interesting, because I’ve never seen an artist take that approach before but it’s probably the most believable. It’s not hard for a really barrel-chested guy to look out of shape in unflattering clothes, and no one would expect a timid fat kid to be Superman.
it was also canon for a while that he used some sort of unconscious super-hypnosis to make people forget about how similar-looking Superman and Clark Kent were. Super-hypnosis that worked through the TV as well.
The Silver Age was really, really weird.
He was from a farm. You expect farm boys to be sort of buff from the farmwork.
Usagi was really klutzy while Sailor Moon was really nimble and dancey because…I don’t really know. I never followed Sailor Moon for its impeccable writing and story logistics.
If in doubt, the answer is MAGIC! (mothafunters)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqqB8NjcKJU
[Warning video has a bad word in it, so NSFW]
The expression in the last panel totally made me spit out my lunch, and it’s all your fault, Coelasquid!
on her behalf, you`re welcome ^_^
on her behalf( or at least id like to believe so), you`re welcome ^_^
This reminds me that I actually know things about Sailor Moon. This makes me feel dirty… and not in a good way.
Anyone catch the Sailor Moon Abridged episodes on Youtube? Those were hilarious when they got into their stride. All fear Rei, the satan worshipper.
Nope, but you’ve sparked my interest.
Once Rei joins the cast the series is absolutely hillarious. Sadly they’re only doing one more episode, ending with the conclusion of the Doom Tree story.
All I know is I was reading the speech bubbles in the abridged version voices.
Glad I wasn’t the only one. :P
YuGiOh the Abridged Series is a laugh riot. It’s nearly 60 episodes and counting, and is both on YouTube and on yugiohtheabridgedseries.com
Kelly, you do great work! Thanks for sticking with it and making it all the way to 150. It couldn’t have been easy! Reading this comic really makes my week.
“Let’s make a plan that’s ridiculously dumb and simple yet unbelievably effective.”
Well, maybe they’re falling in the traps on purpose, out of pity for the villain who tries soo hard for such poor result.
Hooray~! 150th strip!! XD & that Sailor Moon references? I love it! Yep, i grew up watching that anime, altho i’m a boy ^^;;
Just remember when coloring this that Rei goes to a Catholic school, and therefore has different colors on her outfit.
Are you sure it’s Rei? I was never good at Sailor Moon trivia, but it doesn’t make sense to me to make the one girl in team who’s known for being shintoist go to catholic school.
But if we want to get into details, then Rei and Minako go to different schools than the rest and Makoto wears a different uniform due to problems with size.
Rei did indeed go to a catholic all-girls school, due to her estranged father. She’s the only one that continues to have a different uniform throughout the entire series, as well – everyone else ends up going to the same high school while she’s still in the catholic school. They were probably thinking of the identical late-series uniforms, as opposed to the four different early-series ones.
I think catholic schools might be regarded a bit differently over in Japan? I’m not totally sure, but I knew a guy who was a headmaster at this Japanese school that I think was a catholic one set up after the war for Americans abroad to send their kids too, but nowadays people send their kids there more to up their English language skills than for any kind of religious reason. I’m not sure if that’s a common thing or not.
You’re pretty much spot on. Not to mention that it is a good display of wealth, and that Japanese culture is not so rigid with its religious mixing up as the West is in general. There’s a phrase that the average Japanese person is “Shinto when they’re born, Christian when they’re married, Buddhist when they die.” It’s really just not as big of a deal!
The more you know *shooting star*
I just remembered one really cool thing about Sailor Moon anime that is still unusual in animation: when not in uniforms, the cast had whole wardrobes of different outfits!
Mrs Takeuchi kept close attention to characters having individual styles in manga, but someone took extra effort to translate it to animated series (albeit Haruka’s taste became noticeably less feminine). Kudos to them. I hope remake will keep it that way.
To be fair to Sailor Moon, during those episode she was trying to debrainwash Tuxedo Mask so walking into traps was a good way to encounter him.
And some of Malecite’s plans were just generic things like skiing and skating. Though I will admitt I loved his Princess school plan, since he knew the real Sailor Moon would FAIL the class. XD
If I wanted to notpick I’d point out that Queen Beryl and her generals never knew who the Sailor Scouts were so if they could do this they wouldn’t need to set a trap and could just steal the crystal at any time and kill her off. Whicvh makes the stupid trap funnier.
The title you won for winning the skiing contest was literally “Moon Princess”.
Well, yes, but it’s still much more subtle than the Princess School.
Every contest should reward the winner as “Moon Princess.”
I would watch a Mr. Universe contest rebranded “Mr. Moon Princess”.
I would as well, but only for the ensuing hilarity and drinking game.
Jesus Christ. That fourth panel is just killing me! Talk about nailing and emotion…
[smirks] It’s beyond me why those guys never did it like this
1. Deploy two monsters. One would be the Monster of the Week while the other would be hiding in shadows.
2 Monster of the Week starts causing havoc, Sailor Soldiers appear and take him out
3. Shadow Monster observes Sailor Soldiers from safe distance and follows them back home to learn their identities.
4. Take out each Sailor Soldier individually with superior numbers.
But it’s a Shoujo Manga so I probably shouldn’t expect tactical thinking or common sense…
You nailed it!
I just realized something scary… what if Arcueid Brunestud appears on that contest O_o
She fails, of course. World-ending alien vampire descendant of the Moon she might be, but her princessy skills are about as bad as Usagi’s :D
Hell, that was the basic recipe for pretty much every episode.
1. Sailor Scouts encounter Villain of the Week, usually via trap.
2. Tuxedo Mask AKA Moonlight Knight saves their collective asses
3. Sailor Moon uses broken OHKO magic that she should’ve broken out a helluva lot sooner.
4. PFFFFFFT
5. Romance only slightly better than Twilight
I loved the series, but DAMN.
If you think about it, typical Shoujo manga isn’t much better than Twilight.
the point is that it IS better, even if just slightly
But then they made the Twilight Shoujo manga so…yeah shoujo isn’t much better anymore.
Actually, her attacks aren’t one hit kills, when she uses them too early they don’t work. It’s happened before, it’s why she doesn’t just do that.
Like Timemonkey said, her attacks aren’t one hit ko – they’re more of a finisher when the enemy’s HP is low. Which is one of the reasons she needs the other scouts to fight with her.
Oh goodness. I have the live series from when it aired.
This is what happens when you try to use pampered nobles as your military force.
Just because they have magical superpowered jewelry souls doesn’t mean you don’t need to actually give them training in how to think tactically.
Wut.
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched the anime, but the Senshi are actually pretty competent in the original manga. Their past selves were raised to be Princess Serenity’s guardian soldiers, and Luna does train them in the present.
A general rule of thumb: if you’re falling into traps this obvious, you either need better tactical ability, or need to hand command over to somebody else.
They keep doing it in later seasons, too, albeit not as often. Especially regarding attractive males.
That’s why I always thought the dub having Rei trying to take over early on was perfectly justified. Serena was an idiot that walked into obvious trap after obvious trap.
In the manga they also don’t fall into these sort of stupid traps. Generally they get attacked by the villains directly, and manage to either kill them or get captured by them.
Right. The re-translated manga has 12 volumes. The anime has 200. The writers had to think up tons of monsters-of-the-week and plots to go with it. They did not do so well.
Also, when they did walk into traps in the manga, they often knew it was one but wanted to confront the enemy anyway.
URGH! God, I love the way you draw super-expressive faces! Every time I look at that last panel I giggle like a lunatic
It’s marvelously expressive. I’d need to write three paragraphs just to describe the thoughts he’s probably having.
Omg I need a print of this. Why don’t you sell prints?! LET ME GIVE YOU MONEY!!!
I just want to second this. And third this. And so on. There have been several that I would love to put on my wall beside my Dr. McNinja Lumberjacks-Punching-Dinosaurs prints. They would complement one another so beautifully . . .
Alright…I’m here, bored, and I just read through every comic in this series.
Thanks for giving me a ton of laughs though :)
Seriously, I really enjoyed myself.
The power up sequence or incantation was the only thing that cracked me up. I mean, “I’ LL PUNISH YOU IN THE NAME OF LOVE!!” And the henshins (transformations)… let’s not get there…
Salior Pyramid Head!!!
I am reminded of how completely unfit I am to write for the teenage girls in my comic.
This totally made my day. I never expected to see Sailor Moon stuff here. Happy 150! A pleasure to experience this and hope the next 150 is just as great if not greater!
By the way… Malachite = the best *Nods*
Ahhh, the classic “Ackbar” plot…
Oh, that facial expression in the last panel. It’s just glorious reaction face gold.
This makes me wonder what schemes the villains would have came up with if that American live action had gone through.
I just felt a horrible chill with that thought.
Be glad someone like 4Kids never brought over Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Yes, Japan did a live-action). *shudders* Almost needed to brain bleach myself there for a moment.
I’m not sure they’d ever bother with a live action show. The dubbing would be a nightmare, everythign would sound horrible if they tried to match mouth movements and ignoring mouth movements would be too distracting. They’d be more likjely to do their own. Which could ahve been really good or really bad dependong on how harsh the standards they had to adhere to were.
Last panel’s face is my favorite thing ever. EVER.
In my experience, any idea, no matter how stupid, usually works when it is preceded by “You know what, screw it.”
You know what, this is my exact problem with Mermaid Melody too. >.<
Congrats on 150! I have enjoyed every single comic even if I don't know the characters in it, and I know I will continue to enjoy in the future. Never change.
This whole comic is awesome, but this Sailor Moon comic, omg… Malachite’s expression is perfect. Love it. Thank you for it.
Ohh, so Tuxedo Mask is a Sailor Moon character. I was wondering who he was, since Ray from Rooster Teeth’s Minecraft character is supposed to be a facsimile of Tuxedo.
I never read this comic before until today, but you now have a new fan.
I am pleasantly surprised that many people are using English version’s names, in spite of the comic avoiding mentioning a specific version.
Congratulations on 150!
In the American dub, Malachite was the same character who declared, “Shouldn’t matter HOW I do it, so long as I get it done.” And these exact plans prove he wasn’t kidding about that.
I love how you draw the girls!
Excuse me miss Colasquid, But today is my 21st birthday and I was curious as to what Commander’s drink of choice was? I may want to replicate this just to be a bit more manly.
His face in the last panel is priceless
Extra points for the faces of the Sailor Scouts, and the way the clothing actually looks like fabric with a body underneath.
(the generic triangle-head thing in the series was always kind of offputting)
I miss sailor moon
heres my question for the sailor moon villan if there such idiots why on earth cant he beat them ?
They have the silver crystal and there’s five of them. In the season finale they do beat them, four scouts killed in action and Moon suicides to take out Beryl. They just manage to get a surprsie resurection because Moon released so much power from the crystal.
Congrats on the 150th comic! Awesome to have been following it this long from seeing you start! Keep up the awesome work! (both with the comic and with your actual work!)
This is hilarious even if (like me) you’ve never watched Sailor Moon. I love the body language in the second and fourth panels especially.
Really good comic, and one that does make you think “how dumb can these Sailor Soldiers actually be?” Very, as it turns out, 8-)
well looks like i just got a crash course in sailor moon. All I knew before was that the original Japanese version was never intended for kids. The only reason I knew that much was because my sword dealer got a pissed off call from his sister after he picked it up as a present for his niece.
Oh, yes indeed. It actually holds up surprisingly well, the odd effectiveness of Ackbar plots notwithstanding. ;)
Reading the “Shadowjack Watches Sailor Moon” series on rpg.net is highly reccomended.
Actually pretty sure IN JAPAN it’s a kids series. Different standards man…Better ones if ya ask me.
To be fair, didn’t most of these plans fail because they had no idea what they were looking for and always picked the wrong chick? “For best moon princess, we elect serenas non-superpowered classmate…again.”
A part of me wonders if the plans were dumb on purpose just so he could see what he could get away with before they actually started figuring them out.
Except they never figured them out. So he just kept lowering the bar further and further…
GZ for your 150th comic ^.^
I never thought you would do another Bishie-comic though.
Sailor Moon meets Twilight. That Is All.
Not gonna lie: one of the chief reasons (though not the only one) that I love this comic is for the way you draw the expressions on these guys. The last panel had me in giggles.
……wait, this just hit me while I was reading my previous comments, if they CAN spy on them in this version then why do they need to draw her out at all? They already know where she is!
That’s pretty much how I remember it.
Ami and Makoto are hotter than that. You didn’t draw them right. Otherwise this is pretty much the best comic ever.
I like how your style of Sailor Moon characters makes them look more Japanese than the…actual show made in Japan… haha!
of course, japanese don’t realize that they have small eyes. to them, we (caucasian americans) look like we have huge eyes, nose, are very loud and rude.
All of my love right now. All of it. You’re amazing.
Commenting to let you know that, despite having read multitudes of comics over the last 15 years, this is now my undisputed choise for favorite comic of all time (overall, because how could I pick just one of your installments when there have been so many epic ones -oops there’s one for the jar).
and I typoed choice*
I love you forever for this comic. I’m HUGE Sailor Moon fan/nerd, and this made my day! <3 <3 <3
I believe Commander Badass would win with his “Moon Tiara Magic” he used against Gackt.
You know, i think that in all the episodes I saw on TV she only uses the tiara one or two times. Always wondered why.
Anyone else read Tuxedo Mask’s lines with a stereotypical “Gay” lisp?
i may be late in reply, haven’t bother to check previous posts to see if this question has already been asked and answer not sure if you’ll notice, but.
when you say shotgunning 50+ episodes of sailor moon, i hope you weren’t watching the 50+ episodes in their english rendition. if so i would highly suggest watching them in thir JP (english) subtitles fan translation (if any) cause the enlish rendition has been horribly butchered beyond comparison from their “original” contents.
but like i said, its only a “suggestion”
Wow, that’s kind of a rude and elitist first impression to make.
Sure I was watching them in English, I can’t read subtitles while I work. But I’ve seen them in their original Japanese before and you know what? It’s uh, virtually the exact same experience. Some genders were switched, sure, but changing the pronouns they use on Zoicite or Fisheye doesn’t do anything that being told “hey you know that character used to be a dude, right?” can’t. It’s still a bland monster of the day formula where every character spends two thirds of the episode putting on superhero clothes and launching attacks at the bad guy du jour with all of forty minutes of actual plot per season. The whole cousins thing? Well, those two are pretty obviously a couple in body language and action, at that point the “cousins” thing just seems like a running joke of some lame coverup they think they’re fooling people with. That big fight against Queen Beryl that everyone says was butchered, look, if you can’t tell those characters are actually getting killed, you’re five years old (which was probably the point of the edits).
I already responded to folks whining about the dub on tumblr, so I’ll just repost this summary of my first experience as a little fourteen year old watching Japanese Sailor Moon for the first time;
“I think the Movie with Fiore was my first experience watching the show uncut, because everybody told me it was SUCH A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE. I think the biggest alteration was a line where in the English version they’re sitting around a table saying something like “So Darian and Fiore were friends?” but in the Japanese version the line is more like “Were Mamo-Chan and Fiore that kind of friend?” and in the context of a story where the villain is relentlessly trying to kidnap the hero’s boyfriend and kill her so he can have her man all to himself, it’s not that hard to figure out what’s going on without a character flat-out saying “I think that dude is mad crushing on your boyfriend, Sailor Moon”. The plot is still “alien dude has an unhealthy obsession with Tuxedo mask, gets duped by a plant monster, Sailor moon and friends spend ten minutes transforming and then one-hit-KO all the monsters, alien dude realizes he dun did a bad thing and floats off as a little… bubble… kid… ghost…. thing… or something” and the only major difference was I couldn’t doodle while I watched it.”
So yeah, you know, go ahead and prefer the unedited subs all you want, but there’s no need to talk down to people watching it in English because it’s really not nearly as different as people like to pretend it is.
I was gonna say that the manga was a totally different experience…but then again, i don’t remeber the anime that well.
I know this is old, but no it’s really not. If you have two merge two episodes into one because of the amount of cuts you’re making makes them unable to stand alone, it’s really not the same experiance.
well yeah, he did win the heart of one after all.
oh and did anyone notice his shoulder thingies looked like eggs in the show…YOU CANNOT UNSEE
Could you make the Commander meet with Baird from Gears Of War? They look so similar .3.
Big fan of your comics, congratulations.
Anyone else think that princess Luna would come to that contest too.
“but there’s no need to talk down to people watching it in English”
now, where in my post did i talk down to people watching it in english :/
sorry if i came off a bit “rude” and “elitist” wasn’t trying to come off as such. i was merely making a suggestion. but i guess i came about saying it in the wrong way.
I dunno. Sounds legit to me.
That’s pretty much how you summarise that arc.
Heh, trust the gay guy to get into the girls’ heads… Sorry, Endo, you’re just too straight to understand. XD
lol bulge
IRL the only people who think that that how teenage girl’s think are idiot T.V. producers.
I never knew i needed this.
I watched all the Sailor Moon episodes a couple of years ago, literally spent my days in my room watching subbed episodes. And at the time I never really thought how ridiculously easy it was to trap the Sailor Scouts. xD
Seriously, you would have thought that by the 50th time falling for some silly plan, they’d have gotten wise to the whole thing. Still, love the comic!
For anybody wondering, this comic is referencing episode 38 of the first Sailor Moon season. It’s so accurate, it hurts.
But this is your real job :|