Sailor Moon has been very influential

Now you may be thinking, "Why are are you making thar the title of a post as if it's even remotely controversial, of course a show that founded a Genre and was one of the 90s' big three was influential".  But I think Sailor Moon's influence is wide enough that it's still underappreciated, that it has had an influence on Anime that are not at all the kinds of shows you'd expect to have Sailor Moon homages in it.

Take for example my favorite Anime Noir.  Noir is a show about professional assassins, it's a fairly dark show inspired by Film Noir and Luc Besson films.  One of the pivotal pillars of the Girls With Guns genre.  Not a show you'd at all think would have any reason to make overt homages to a show made for little girls in the prior decade.

Well it has a meta reason, Mireille Bouquet is voiced in Japan by Kotono Mitsuishi the voice of Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon herself.  But she's had a very prolific career actually so I don't expect casting in-jokes to be part every Anime she's in.

Now I have a unique history with Anime, Sailor Moon is one of the few Anime I'd already partially watched even before I watched Noir.  But the emphasis there is on partially, I don't think I'd properly watched the actual first season finale of Sailor Moon till I was already using MAL.  And that's the thing, that first season finale has the Sailor Moon moment that I suspect Noir was referencing in it's penultimate episode.  So when I finally completed the Dark Kingdom saga, I watched a certain scene play and was instantly reminded of Noir. 

So since I'm talking about such late in the story developments, I have to put a Sailor Warning here before going further.

Spoiler Alert!!!

Both shows featured a gold stop watch that plays a melody as a recurring plot point.  In Sailor Moon the Melody is a scaled down version of the basic Melody of Moonlight Densetsu, in Noir it's composed by Yuki Kajiura, so both are very nice Melodies.

In both shows during  the episode in question the Love Interest of Kotono Mitsuishi's character is in a sort of Brain Washed Evil state and they have a fight of sorts.  But at the vital moment She used the Melody of that Stop Watch to snap them out of it.

There are differences in exactly how it plays out, but I feel the gist is the same, and it works in both.