GAROBEN
ガロベン · Garoben
“Why do apples fall from trees?”
– Garoben to Sailor Moon
The wait is over; more Sailor Senshi are finally showing up in the anime! And along with Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury comes the enemy who spurred the Senshi of Water’s awakening. That Yōma in question, however, is not exactly what we saw in the manga; Jadeite’s latest minion got a makeover that continues the anime’s trend of monstrous women.
WHEN AND WHERE
Japanese cram school culture is touched on in the eighth episode, The Girl Genius Is a Yōma: The Brainwashing Cram School of Horror. One of Usagi’s classmates, the insular Ami Mizuno, attends Crystal Seminar after school, and it’s there that she attracts the attention of the Dark Kingdom as well as Luna and Usagi. The Crystal Seminar students are given unique study aids via diskettes (Crystal Disks), however, Ami would rather work without them. This choice later pays off once the teacher, really a Yōma, exposes herself and starts harvesting the other students’ energy.
ETYMOLOGY
It’s another instance of straightforward naming here; Garoben’s name is a play on the Japanese word for someone who studies hard: gariben (ガリ勉). The minor character Gariben, from Doraemon, probably isn’t an inspiration here, seeing as a gariben is a common, if not overused, character type in both manga and anime.
DESIGN
In the manga, the Yōma changes more subtly in physical form, while still giving her face a sinister complexion to match whatever skin is visible beneath her teacher attire. Whereas in the anime, Garoben’s transformation is taken a few steps further as the Yōma turns into a hulking, sinewy, and rather red monster from hell. She may have even been one of the tallest Yōma, given how she stood several heads above Ami in their scenes together.
For now, the anime holds up its usual approach of uglifying beautiful women as they reveal their true and hideous Yōma forms. Soon enough, though, the Yōma would stay reasonably attractive as they shed their disguises, and even give the Sailor Senshi a run for their money in the looks department. Meanwhile, Garoben cast off the sexy teacher image posthaste and bared an austere, ghastly appearance that seems fitting for a student’s exaggerated sketch of a harsh cram-school teacher.
THE BATTLE
From bombarding her opponents with the most potentially paper-cutting study sheets, to Videodrome-ing her whole left arm into an organic battle axe, Garoben wasn’t short on abilities. She also wasn’t as simply brutish as the Yōma that came before her; she showed intelligence as she quizzed Sailor Moon, then punished her for her ignorance. That sense of sadism increased once Garoben tried to hack up the only pupil not affected by the Crystal Disks.
The downside of adding more Sailor Senshi to the mix was the anime’s growing reliance on formula during fights. There was less resourceful behavior, on Sailor Moon’s part, once she was aided by more than a rose-throwing stranger in a cape. Before the real firepower arrived, however, there was just Sailor Mercury and her bubbles.
The Sailor Moon fandom loves to deride Bubble Spray, because it is objectively weaker and less damaging than Fire Soul and whatnot, but without it, some of the battles might not have been won. At least not by the Senshi. Over time, it’s apparent how beneficial those magic bubbles turned out, and here they do what they do best; they gave Sailor Moon ample opportunity to collect herself and then take aim. And later on, the genius Mercury figured out how to compensate for Bubble Spray’s shortcomings.
EPILOGUE
The manga’s fans should especially enjoy this episode; more or less it followed the source material. The anime’s improvements would primarily include the enemy’s upgraded appearance and performance; Garoben is intimidating and less easy to defeat.
Sailor Moon lost a bit of that early-days charm as the Sailor Team grew, but I’d be remiss to say this next chapter in the series isn’t exciting. This is also where the anime was working out the kinks in its system and becoming less restricted by the manga. Not knowing what was entirely in store was all part of the fun. 🌙
Tales from the Paulside 
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