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The Sailor Moon movies are a pretty mixed bag. The R movie was thin on story, though it did have some great visuals and a killer ending theme song. I can't stand Chibi-Usa, so you can probably imagine how I feel about the Super S movie.

In my opinion, the S movie stands head and shoulders above the other two in almost every way. I'm glad that the focus is on Luna instead of Usagi. Not that I dislike Usagi (quite the opposite), but we get plenty of her in the TV series, so it's nice to see something different. ... Also, they managed to fit quite a bit of stuff into a short running time without making it feel too rushed. The story isn't the most original or innovative, but it still hits all the right notes.

Speaking of hitting all the right notes, the best thing about this movie is the music! It uses all the various musical cues to great effect, without going too over-the-top. My favorite is the beautiful, heartbreaking theme used for Luna-- I cry when I listen to it. The music does a great job of punctuating and enhancing every scene and without it, I don't think I would have enjoyed this movie so much.

Voltes V has almost everything you could want in an anime. Cool mecha battles, sword fighting, outer space travel, likable characters, an engaging story and plenty of drama. I'm pretty new to super robot anime and I did not expect that the genre would have something this good to offer.

If you ask me, the best thing about this series is Prince Heinel and the story surrounding him. I can't say too much without spoiling the whole thing, but he's one of those villains that you can respect and even like. If you've seen a lot of anime, the "sympathetic ... villain" thing might seem a little cliche, but keep in mind that this was 30 years ago. Prince Heinel was one of the earlier examples of this kind of character.

Despite having a quick temper, he is loyal and forgiving to those who are loyal to him, and grants them many second chances. He is not treacherous or two-faced like many villains are, and has no tolerance for deceit or treachery. Surprisingly, he's a real patriot, and is ready to die for his home planet if need be. Oh, and he's far from painful to look at. Let's just say that he has a very nice character design. ^_~

Anyway, though this series was made in the 70s, the animation is not poor and is actually quite consistent, unlike a lot of other shows where the animation is really, really good at certain moments and poor the rest of the time. It shows its age only because of the art style (which I happen to be fond of anyway).

I found it interesting that there's one thing that this series does NOT have a lot of: romance. Frankly, even though I like romance, I found it refreshing that there wasn't any in Voltes V. It could have easily derailed the whole thing and I'm glad the writers decided to keep it at a minimum.

I haven't said much about the music of this series. I really only have one thing to say: the closing song could not be more appropriate or touching. It's become one of my favorite anime songs.

In closing, if you only see one 70s super robot series, make it Voltes V!