From: paradoxtxs@yahoo.com   
      
   And here we end Sailor Moon Classic.   
      
   The things I liked:   
      
   The focus on the inner senshi.  From here on in, there's almost always a   
   distraction, either Chibi-Usa, or the Outers, or the Starlights, and   
   while Usagi always gets plenty of screen time, it gets increasingly hard   
   to get the foucs on these four girls, who are some of the most endearing   
   and entertaining characters I've ever encountered in an anime.   
      
   Usagi v Mamoru.  Okay, the whole adversarial thing has been done to   
   death across all sorts of series, but these two are actually quite fun   
   about it, particularly when Motoki is caught in the middle.  Their   
   relationship grows and matures, but it's never quite as entertaining as   
   it is right here.   
      
   The side characters.  Motoki, Yuichiro, Urawa, Naru, Shingo, even...   
   *shudder*  Umino.  While yes, most of them do appear in later seasons,   
   it's with increasingly dimishing frequency.   
      
   The things I disliked:   
      
   The pacing.  Honestly, you could probably see seven episodes and get the   
   entire plot.  Nine or ten if you wanted to know where Sailor ____ came   
   from.  The rest of it, while not bad, was complete and utter fluff.  And   
   almost all the actual information came in right at the end, after 40   
   episodes of virtually nothing at all.  Later seasons don't get too much   
   better about the useless episodes, but they will do a bit better about   
   spacing out the bits of plot information.   
      
   The closing animations.  The songs weren't too bad, but especially that   
   second one of the dancing princess was just a wee bit creepy.   
      
   Closing thoughts:   
      
   On Usagi - It's interesting to watch Usagi through this all.  As much as   
   she seems a static character, never really changing, when the coward   
   from the first few episodes stands up and stares down Beryl, it doesn't   
   seem like a sudden turnabout, and it's only then that you realize how   
   she has been growing.   
      
   On Ami - Okay, my favorite character, I admit it.  Brilliant, quirky,   
   shy and adorable.  There's a lot of things not said with her, which just   
   begs the imagination to cut loose and look for hidden meaning.  ^_^   
      
   On Rei - I came away from this with much more respect for this   
   character.  The dub did terrible things to her, but seeing her in a more   
   natural light, she's far, far more likeable.   
      
   On Makoto - I liked seeing these earliest episodes of her, because it   
   gives such insight into why she is the way she is.   
      
   On Minako - Well, the dub Minako has been compared on numerous   
   occassions to a potted plant, so this was an eye opening experience.   
   Early Minako seems a much darker, melancholy creature than she is later   
   seasons.  She's still isolated, and carrying the weight of her time as   
   Sailor V, and it shows.   
      
   On the Ami/Mako theory - I came into it laughingly, and found surprising   
   evidence to support that there's at least possibly something going on   
   here.  No idea what, but that many odd reactions aren't just   
   coincidence.  Will be fun to watch in later seasons for more.   
      
   On what's to come - I only hope that Ail and Ann are improved by going   
   from dub to sub as much as Rei was.  I remember absolutely loathing   
   those characters.   
      
   SK   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)