The Death Busters arc is now on TV again, so let's revisit its stage incarnations!
The Good:
The Death Busters' costumes are spot on.
Nakamura Ruria plays Hotaru very well with just the right amount of creepiness.
Inami Tomoko's Mistress 9 is a great blend of elegant, powerful, and terrifying.
Marina and Kenji are cute together (even if their duet is super cheesy).
Nao Yuuka bring their A game and are, as always, fabulous together as Uranus and Neptune.
The script blends elements of the manga and anime quite well.
The Bad:
The Hoshinos are entirely superfluous. You can cut them out of the show and lose nothing. The biggest problem with their inclusion is that their presence lessens the impact of Mistress 9's defeat, because the way the scene is scripted implies that their deaths are the last straw for Hotaru, rather than her father's.
Hotaru and Chibi-Usa's friendship isn't developed very much, which is a big missed opportunity that weakens both of their characters.
I do not like Watanabe Mai as Sailor Jupiter.
The Meh:
Saturn doesn't live up to the in-universe hype. Ruria's voice is not suited to "The World Died Out", which doesn't help.
There's a noticeable missed opportunity to have the Sailor Senshi fight each other during the labyrinth segment (it's set up, but very quickly thrown away).
The use of "Koi no Senshi" during the final battle is, well, meh. The audience involvement feels out of place.
The Kaiteiban: This is one of the unusual instances in which I don't like the Kaiteiban more than the original. The new Ura Nep actresses don't have anywhere near the amount of chemistry that their predecessors did, and the show's focus on their characters puts that front and center. Shirota Yu, the new Tuxedo Mask, is cute, but he sings way too softly and doesn't have much presence. "Pinky Typhoon" is a jarring tonal shift that does not work for the final battle. Kaolinite does get a neat song to herself, so that's there. The rest of the Outer Senshi join in on "The World Died Out" to help on the low notes, but the four of them don't blend well, and Ruria still doesn't sound all that great.
Final Thoughts: The strength of an Infinity Arc adaptation depends on the strength of Hotaru/Mistress 9/Saturn, and this show manages to do two out of three well. There are some strong performances here, and it's definitely worth watching the original to see Nao Yuuka in a show that spends time on their characters. There are quite a few missed opportunities, which is unfortunate when one considers that the writers had several years of hindsight to draw on when it came to telling the story and developing the characters effectively. All in all, Mugen Gakuen is an okay adaptation of the Death Busters arc.
Mugen Gakuen - Mistress Labyrinth
The Death Busters arc is now on TV again, so let's revisit its stage incarnations!
The Good:
The Bad:
The Meh:
The Kaiteiban: This is one of the unusual instances in which I don't like the Kaiteiban more than the original. The new Ura Nep actresses don't have anywhere near the amount of chemistry that their predecessors did, and the show's focus on their characters puts that front and center. Shirota Yu, the new Tuxedo Mask, is cute, but he sings way too softly and doesn't have much presence. "Pinky Typhoon" is a jarring tonal shift that does not work for the final battle. Kaolinite does get a neat song to herself, so that's there. The rest of the Outer Senshi join in on "The World Died Out" to help on the low notes, but the four of them don't blend well, and Ruria still doesn't sound all that great.
Final Thoughts: The strength of an Infinity Arc adaptation depends on the strength of Hotaru/Mistress 9/Saturn, and this show manages to do two out of three well. There are some strong performances here, and it's definitely worth watching the original to see Nao Yuuka in a show that spends time on their characters. There are quite a few missed opportunities, which is unfortunate when one considers that the writers had several years of hindsight to draw on when it came to telling the story and developing the characters effectively. All in all, Mugen Gakuen is an okay adaptation of the Death Busters arc.