So last night I hunkered down and watched my first full Myu.  I saw recommendations not to start with the first one, but I obstinately did.  I figured, if I can deal with the cheese in the first one, the others should be no problem at all. Right?  Right?

Anyway, it was kinda cheesy, but I still liked it a bunch.  The video I found had a little 'behind-the-scenes' bit first, and that was very nice.  The actresses - especially Anza as Usagi -  were mostly able to get into their parts pretty well.  It's too bad most of the inners had practically no lines.  The actress for Jupiter looked promising, for instance, but was almost always in the figurative (and literal) shadows.  The most disappointing thing for me was that the ending was basically exactly the same as season one of the anime.

Various specific notes: 

• Ms. Haruna dancing with the girls was one of those "Oh my gosh, I can't believe they did this" moments.  If it didn't end up being a Youma, it would be plain weird.  
  
• Sera Myu Tuxedo Mask is OP.
  
• Luna's lecture to Artemis got old fast.  Granted, they wanted to drive a point home for a generally young audience, but they kept driving it... and driving it... then repeat again...
  
• Perhaps my favorite comical moment": "Saito-kun. Reversed, it's Kunzite. I am Kun-sai-to. I LOL'ed.
  

I wouldn't be able to tell you without rewatching what my favorite song or dance was, but I can tell you that all day long my mind's musical track has been playing:
"La la la la la la, SEA! SEA! SEA!
La la la la la la, SEA! SEA! SEA!
La la la la la la, SEA! SEA! SEA!
La la la la la la, SEA! SEA! SEA!
La la la la la la, SEA! SEA! SEA!
Bakeishon!"

While it's definitely not my favorite, Gaiden was my first show as well and I love it a lot!!! But if you can handle that cheesiness and love it, you should love the others as well!!! 

The Saitou-kun joke is one of my favorite jokes in all of myu and I'm glad u appreciate it as well. 

and nooooooo now i have the sea sea sea~ stuck in my head as wellllllll

i love Christmas tree beryl

Oh yaaaay! Im glad you're diving into them AND actually enjoyed this one! I find fans either like it or not. There's sometimes in between but its generally one or the other. xD

For me, it's personally pretty good story wise. I particularly like the scenes where the Inner Senshi face off with each Shittenou. Minako's was just T___T

As far as mirroring the 1st season, I think that was done in away to keep it familiar but not? Like this is the only musical that actually acts as a continuation from the anime, but I guess treated more as an AU sort of sequel to the first season? Also, I think even though the R season was airing around the time (or about the air??), I think they didn't want to do anything about that because it makes more sense starting with the first arc?

Also, one thing you'll notice in future First Stage shows is that they tend to leave out characters and plots from the season the show is based on and thats mostly because of hte anime airing at the same time and them not wanting to jump ahead of it.