[DreamSword]

Act 8

Raye and Lita don't get along.

The episode is interesting in many ways. Both in how it handles our two lead characters and in how it handles the message of independence.

While Serena would definitely prefer every get along, she's not actually a driving force that brings Raye and Lita together. It's something the two figure out themselves via finding some surprising common ground.

Connecting to that is even more of a shake up to how Raye is portrayed here when compared to her 90s anime version. Her grandpa? Not a thing. Instead, this Raye chose isolation due to her troubled relationship with her father. And Lita, also someone without a proper family, really empathizes with that.

As for the lesson of the episode, how it talked about independence vs community actually rather surprised me, given that from what I understand, Japanese society tends to be very community driven, with lone wolves looked down upon. Here though, the episode actually portrays both ideologies as something needed in order for people to grow. It's a rather refreshing take.

And on a total personal note, I was very happy to see how Jadeite was portrayed here. He's was an incredibly effective villain back in the 90s anime, and it was nice to see him going toe to toe with the Sailor Scouts without much issue during this episode's' climax. The show had me worried for a bit, given how his relationship with Beryl had been going up to now. I can only hope that Nephlite is done similar justice in the future, given he was my favorite of Queen Beryl's' generals back in the 90s.

Just a really well rounded package of an episode, this one.