Should you watch this, Wiki this or wait for the recap? Wait for the recap.
As Sailor Moon recovers from the trauma of losing both Tuxedo Mask and Chibiusa, the Black Lady makes her appearance to both Prince Demando and Sapphire, bringing them deep into the bowels of Nemesis to meet Wiseman. The Black Moon Family begins the final phase of their invasion by sending a second Malefic Black Crystal monolith to 30th Century Earth – with Black Lady leading the charge! Can a powerless Sailor Moon stop Black Lady’s plans?
“Covert Maneuvers –Wiseman–” is the twenty third episode of the first season of Sailor Moon Crystal. It’s Japanese anime and I watched it with English subtitles (I don’t speak Japanese, though I would like to at some point). This episode continues the second story arc and features the first full appearance of Black Lady.
“Covert Maneuvers –Wiseman–” is a bit of a letdown after the high of the previous episode. While we get to see Black Lady at last, she doesn’t actually do anything besides some support/utility powers and some physical lunges. The thing is that the episode was playing it up towards a confrontation between Black Lady and Sailor Moon, so it’s disappointing to see that the actual conflict was only going to happen in the next episode.
Highlights
Black Lady
We get to see Black Lady! Finally. After being teased in the previous episode, we finally see the dark, angry side of Chibiusa come to the fore in the form of the Black Lady, which is a perverted granting of her deepest, darkest wishes. But we see her vulnerability when she trembles at her angry rant against the Silver Millennium, giving us hope that deep down, it’s still Chibiusa inside (and her innocence has not been lost).
Wiseman’s plotting
Wiseman’s brainwashing of the two Black Moon brothers finally show that he has been the puppet master all this while. Despite his apparent passiveness, he’s actually quite powerful, as seen in his hypnotic abilities, giving us a hint of how formidable he is. This also foreshadows the final battle that is to come, and how much power Sailor Moon will require to defeat him.
Letdowns
No action
There’s no fighting in this episode! Sure, we get to see the Sailors transform, but beyond that there’s no action. The closest we come to that is maybe some blasting by Wiseman (but that doesn’t really count, does it?) and some indirect defenses (teleportation, to be precise). The good guys and antagonists face each other but hardly come to blows, and one of the fun things about Sailor Moon is watching them throw colourful magical nukes at each other, isn’t it?
Too much talking
There’s nothing wrong with dialogue, but it presents information that we have already deduced for ourselves. There’s really no need to have Sailor Moon collapse and then come back to the future – just a line or two about her convalescence would have been enough. There are way too many talking heads in this episode, leading to a very slow pace and no real advancement of the plot.
Protagonists are ineffective
Sailor Moon and King Endymion are the chief offenders here. Sailor Moon just collapses or looks helpless, without being proactive about her situation. King Endymion emphasises that he is just a virtual projection, so he can’t do anything either (even though he assisted in Tuxedo Mask’s La Smoking Bomber in an earlier episode, oddly). This just makes them ineffective, which is a very bad light to cast your protagonists in.
“Covert Maneuvers –Wiseman–” isn’t the greatest of episodes, since it has so few plot points that you could pretty much watch next episode’s recap to figure out what happened. Skip this one and go on to the next three – that’ll be a much better use of your time.
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