I'm back. Well, sort of. Actually, I withdraw my "back-ness" until I've written something. Or at least until I've actually spoken to anyone online again.

BTW, there are spoilers further down the line. I'm telling you this now because "***SPOILER***" followed by 37 little stars or dashes in a horizontal line annoys me.

Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone. I'm sick as a dog, so I'll be spending the next three days lying on my futon and hallucinating slightly. And wondering what the hell I left on the company answering machine when I called in sick to work...

I know I said I still had a sore throat and that I wanted to rest my voice, but god knows what else I rambled on about.

So, in conclusion, people who aren't morning persons to begin with should not be expected to call in sick to work before 6 AM, especially if they have a fever.

All right, spoilers ahoy.

For some reason, on Wednesday I decided to spend $30 on Sailor Moon Stars manga, even though I have been resisting buying the first SuperS DVD for months.

I don't want to be one of those people who storms through the internet saying that some people's favorite characters are hella lame with multiple exclamation points...

...but it's my site, my editorial page, and it really doesn't look like anyone's been here in months.

And I honestly can't see what the fascination is with the Starlights. Don't get me wrong, they were a great idea in the abstract--three pop idols who turn into leather clad women when they transform? That spells comedy gold!

Then, I read Stars. And I no longer feel any impatience about when the anime's going to get over here.

Don't get me wrong--it wasn't bad. It's just that, well, everybody dies. Which is, admittedly, a mainstay of every Sailor Moon story arc, but in Stars, almost everybody's dead by chapter 3.

Which leaves us with the Starlights...

I'm willing to accept this "every planet has its own sailor" thing. Perfectly willing. It's just that why are they all called "Sailor [Planet]" when the ones from our solar system are the only ones in actual sailor suits?

But that's not even a real issue. The real issue is, the anime Starlights must be amazing because the manga ones bored me. Here's what I could figure out:

First, there's Seiya, the one who a large number of people say should take Serena away from Darien. Yeah...about that...Seiya seems to have a thing for her, but it's probably just because s/he misses her own princess. And any attraction Serena has for Seiya is based on the fact that Seiya is in a boy band singing touching love songs.

So, Seiya seems to be the one who contemplates things and checks out Serena. Oh, s/he likes football too.

Yaten is the obnoxious, bitchy one.

Taiki is...actually, I have no idea. He likes computers and beats Ami's test scores.

I also have no idea what happens at the end of Stars. (to be honest, I had to read the end of SuperS three times to figure out what had happened. I understood the anime...) I get that everybody dies, but are the reborn in the present? When do they all go to the 30th century? In fact, how does that 30th century thing work anyway?