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The Rebirth of Sailor Moon Crystal

@Sailor Sedna:
Now that you mention it, I remember the scene with Nephrite. I'd forgotten about the R movie and Stars as well--it's been years since I've seen the movie, and Stars never stuck with me quite as much as the other seasons.

Also, fair warning, Ikuhara can be maddeningly vague and even a little trollish when he wants to be. Reading up on him may be a little frustrating. ^^;

Funny, I was just about to edit my post above to include the others, but then you asked! So, to answer your question:

Naoko Takeuchi's art style is beautiful in still frames and splash pages, and the 90s anime's art style is exactly what it needs to be for an anime--simple enough to animate, complex enough to convey meaning. I kinda' wish Ikuko Itoh had been the animation director for all the episodes, but that would've been too much for any one person to handle alone. I just really like her art style. >.>
(Luckily Princess Tutu exists to fill that void! )

I think Mamoru being a college student in a relationship with a 14-year-old girl was a little strange (why is he not interested in a girl closer to his age?) but as far as execution goes, there's nothing wrong with their relationship. It's just strange if you apply real-world logic to it.

Anime!Chibi Usa is much better in Japanese (compared to the old dub) and not always childish--her best character growth is in Sailor Moon Super S, after all--but I prefer the more mature attitude of Crystal!Chibi Usa.

Apart from that, I agree with all your other statements, so there's not much to say on that end. I think a mix between the Stars Arc (higher stakes, a better final battle) and Sailor Moon Stars (stronger character growth) is my ideal final season, but I'm not sure if we're going to get that.

Also, I want to point out that, even though I made that giant list of reasons why a manga fan would dislike or even hate the 90s anime, I don't necessarily agree with all of them, I'm just listing them. Frankly, I love the Doom Tree filler arc to pieces, Anime!Rei is a breath of fresh air once she stops stalking Mamoru, Sailor Moon S is better for its changes, and 200 episodes over 5 seasons gives a lot of wiggle room for much-needed character development, though I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for balking at watching all 200 episodes and just skipping a few here and there. But Usagi can be annoying sometimes and character growth is uneven and sometimes gets reset at the beginning of a season. As with most anime, there are things I like and things I dislike about it, and that's totally fine with me.


@Sailor Naruto:
Well, I was pulling from personal experience and conversations, so I'd hope it's at least a halfway decent list. Still, it's nice to have some validation from an actual manga fan.

I also tried to watch the new musicals and the live-action TV series, but I didn't get very far. There's definitely good things about them, but they both take a decent adjustment period.

2. God yes. I don't know if they intended to make her this way, but Rei is a serious B in the original anime. Almost like Regina George from Mean Girls. If anything she's a Mary Sue.
I also never really cared for how she's boy crazy like the rest of them, which is in stark contrast to her manga counterpart, who doesn't trust men and has no desire to date or get married.

4. Same with Usagi. In the manga she grew out of her crybaby attitude rather quickly. She's also a lot more capable and mature than her anime counterpart.

5. Why they felt the need to make Mamoru almost pedo like I'll never know or understand. A 20 year old college student? Dating a 14 year old junior high girl? Really? That's why I loved that Crystal restored him to his rightful 18 year old high school self. He's still a little older than her, but the age gap is no where near as extreme as it was in the 90s anime.

6. My God yes. Poor Mamoru cannot catch a break between bring virtually powerless and getting kidnapped and brainwashed left, right, upside down, and sideways. He's practically a wallflower most of the time. At least in the manga he had some powers aside from giving bad speeches and throwing roses.

These are pretty much my feelings. Well, I do feel that I dislike it at this point, there are way too many issues with the terrible writing, the contrived plot, Usagi's Mary Sue features and the lack of character development to say I'm just disappointed. I expected so much more for such a universally well-regarded and beloved franchise, especially with all the hype about "faithful adaptation". Sure this season looks much better than the previous two, but it still has too many glaring visual errors for it to be considered a complete improvement. I know this is Toei, but they can do so much better. They actually did Mononoke and Kyousougiga, and both are absolutely stunning pieces of animation and visuals (then again, they're both eons better than Sailor Moon). It's just tragic that even such a huge moneymaking franchise gets such a shitty treatment and that fans have to settle for it because "it could be so much worse".

I've already harped on the other thread about all the things that have disappointed me in Sailor Moon Crystal, so I won't repeat it here, but I share that sentiment about wondering whether to blame the source material or the adaptation. Or maybe the fans that kept it so hyped for so long, which made me expect much more than a shojo fantasy from the early 90's could've given me. Oh, but Magic Knight Rayearth was from the early 90s too and it's superior on all accounts. Takeuchi's fault it is.

Now, if Viz would just add more to the main dubbed series onto Hulu. Seriously, it's been 9 freaking months and "Crystal" is over with! Add more.

Now the manga is a pretty awesome read. I really enjoyed it, it was such a different and dark take on Sailor Moon. The art style was aesthetically pleasing inmho, and yeah Naoko wasn't such a great writer and the manga is riddled with flaws. Despite that it was entertaining and I fell in love with it (couldn't surpass my love for the 90s anime).

Now Sailor Moon kind of went off the radar for years and nearing the 20th anniversary we got a reprint of the manga and an announcement of Crystal. So everybody was pretty damn excited and hyped.

The show itself turned out to be a huge shitfest beyond regular shitfests. As someone who enjoyed the manga the adaptation of the first two arcs were awful. The art style wasn't remotely the same and the whole CGI and bland palette killed the show from the start. Little tidbits and comedic scenes were cut off and replaced with everything and anything to suck the soul of the show and the personality's of the senshi dry and to focus on the main love interest.

It followed the manga and deviated a little but it just sucked all the fun out. I came to the conclusion that either the manga can only be read-able or Toei can't adapt shit.

Season 3 came and it's light years ahead of the adaptation of the first two arcs. Although, the adaptation is still . . . pretty shakey. I've loved this season from the start and I'm still somewhat enjoying it, perhaps because it's just so much better than what we previously got. I still can't deny it comes with it's own issues.

Crystal as a whole so far has censored all blood and murder scenes and downplayed much of the violence. And I'm not trying to claim that Sailor Moon is ~dark~ and ~gorey~ it's still somewhat of a kids manga. But any of the scenes i anticipated to be animated were either cut or downplayed.

The monsters from Season 3 look like purple blobs of shit whereas in the manga they actually look like somewhat of a threat (they more like black oozing figures in the manga).

Nothing really has any weight to it and nothing feels at stake.

The issues you have with characterization and plot are still /somewhat/ in the manga. Fans have talked about these issues and flaws. Although, because it's a manga it's easy to overlook it. I feel like the animation just amplifies all these flaws and shoves them in your face. There's so many awkward and downright ugly shots in the anime. Some of which are a product of the anime itself or come from toei just not being able interpret some scenes into the animation (not gonna lie the manga can be very confusing at times).

I was really enjoying season 3, but the past few episodes just weren't so great.

I'm not saying the manga is perfection and can be enjoyed by all. I just find it much much better than the lackluster adaptation we've been given.

There are still many flaws occurring in the anime adaptation that can be blamed on Naoko. If you ever read the manga there still may be a chance you just won't like it.

That's fine! But as a Sailor Moon fan I'm not entirely happy with Crystal either. So I completely understand your gripe with it.

I still fail to fully understand why so some of you still watch Crystal if you have so many negative things to say.

I still fail to fully understand why so some of you still watch Crystal if you have so many negative things to say. I'm not trying to single anyone out or come off as rude, but if I had this many negative things to say about a show, I wouldn't bother to continue watching. But that's just my personality. I'm mean now we're criticizing Naoko's writing and talking about how flawed her work is? On top of saying how the 90s anime improved said flaws? I'm sorry but I think that's disrespectful. Even Naoko said she had distaste for the classic anime, particularly the fifth season. And a lot of fans felt the dissatisfaction she felt. Which is why a remake of Sailor Moon was so sought after. A lot of us, myself included, are very satisfied with how Crystal is. You have to look at the fact that the Sailor Moon manga is 20 plus years old, which means that Crystal is pulling from material thats 20 plus years old. And again, not trying to be rude, but I think some of you going into Crystal with otherworldly high expectations set yourselves up for failure. But that's just me take on things. Crystal is still far from perfect. And its true it doesn't match up to the glory of its predecessor, but as a remake of the manga I think it's just right.

Edit: There's were several times when Crystal almost made me pull my hair out from frustration. Particularly in the latter part of the first season. When spoiler[the part where Venus running Beryl through with the Holy sword was changed to Sailor Moon killing her by stabbing her necklace]. I mean seriously? Did that really just happen? I haven't felt anger at an anime like that in ages .

Dysflux wrote:

Now the manga is a pretty awesome read. I really enjoyed it, it was such a different and dark take on Sailor Moon. The art style was aesthetically pleasing inmho, and yeah Naoko wasn't such a great writer and the manga is riddled with flaws. Despite that it was entertaining and I fell in love with it (couldn't surpass my love for the 90s anime). Now Sailor Moon kind of went off the radar for years and nearing the 20th anniversary we got a reprint of the manga and an announcement of Crystal. So everybody was pretty damn excited and hyped. The show itself turned out to be a huge shitfest beyond regular shitfests. As someone who enjoyed the manga the adaptation of the first two arcs were awful. The art style wasn't remotely the same and the whole CGI and bland palette killed the show from the start. Little tidbits and comedic scenes were cut off and replaced with everything and anything to suck the soul of the show and the personality's of the senshi dry and to focus on the main love interest. It followed the manga and deviated a little but it just sucked all the fun out. I came to the conclusion that either the manga can only be read-able or Toei can't adapt shit. Season 3 came and it's light years ahead of the adaptation of the first two arcs. Although, the adaptation is still . . . pretty shakey. I've loved this season from the start and I'm still somewhat enjoying it, perhaps because it's just so much better than what we previously got. I still can't deny it comes with it's own issues. Crystal as a whole so far has censored all blood and murder scenes and downplayed much of the violence. And I'm not trying to claim that Sailor Moon is ~dark~ and ~gorey~ it's still somewhat of a kids manga. But any of the scenes i anticipated to be animated were either cut or downplayed. The monsters from Season 3 look like purple blobs of shit whereas in the manga they actually look like somewhat of a threat (they more like black oozing figures in the manga). Nothing really has any weight to it and nothing feels at stake. The issues you have with characterization and plot are still /somewhat/ in the manga. Fans have talked about these issues and flaws. Although, because it's a manga it's easy to overlook it. I feel like the animation just amplifies all these flaws and shoves them in your face. There's so many awkward and downright ugly shots in the anime. Some of which are a product of the anime itself or come from toei just not being able interpret some scenes into the animation (not gonna lie the manga can be very confusing at times). I was really enjoying season 3, but the past few episodes just weren't so great. I'm not saying the manga is perfection and can be enjoyed by all. I just find it much much better than the lackluster adaptation we've been given. There are still many flaws occurring in the anime adaptation that can be blamed on Naoko. If you ever read the manga there still may be a chance you just won't like it. That's fine! But as a Sailor Moon fan I'm not entirely happy with Crystal either. So I completely understand your gripe with it.

This pretty much describes how I feel about season 3 and Crystal as a whole though I was enjoying it way better than the first two seasons (I'm not the only one who thought the palette was bland, look at most of the backgrounds in season 1/2 during the battles), yes, seasons 1 and 2 were shitfests (and made me change my opinion on the Black Moon manga arc, I think that arc in the manga is horrible now) and don't forget how crappy the low quality art and animation were, with season 3 retaining a bit of that. One flaw it amplified was why power up the Inners if three of them are going to be captured for most of the arc and do nothing afterward?

The last three episodes before Saturn's weren't so great...I'd say the faults with the story though are more of Naoko/the manga's though, as Toei's doing a pretty good job adapting it, but a bit of too good a job. Most of the manga's flaws I can't even find in the original anime version, most likely because it improved upon it.

What I also find frustrating is some fans are thinking this is better than the 90's anime just because of one thing: Sailor Saturn. Why do I find this stupid? Because there's more to a series than just one character/a finale, there's characterization, story, pacing, and build-up, and it's like these people are just turning a blind eye to any flaw that season 3 has when in reality most of those elements have been flawed, and compared to the 90's anime version (which is still the superior version), S, here it's like Sailors Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Neptune matter so little to the story, the pacing feels rushed, especially with the identities revealed and the talismans...and the stakes felt higher in the 90's version also...I know that Saturn is loved and extremely popular among fans and they wanted to see Saturn in action again, but it's like they're just trying to make her seem like she's the end-all, be-all of this arc, which isn't right.

And yeah, downplaying the violence is stupid like they're trying to market it to kids, when Sailor Moon wasn't...

Kinda like what one person said on DenofGeek, if they're just animating the manga, I don't see the point...it's not bad, but it's not anything amazing, and honestly I think Crystal is probably just going to be remembered as "another Sailor Moon thing" and the first two seasons most likely will be dated, slip into deserved obscurity and be forgotten (dunno about season 3) unlike the original anime and manga which will stay classics, even if the latter's flawed.

SailorNaruto wrote:

I still fail to fully understand why so some of you still watch Crystal if you have so many negative things to say. I'm not trying to single anyone out or come off as rude, but if I had this many negative things to say about a show, I wouldn't bother to continue watching. But that's just my personality. I'm mean now we're criticizing Naoko's writing and talking about how flawed her work is? On top of saying how the 90s anime improved said flaws? I'm sorry but I think that's disrespectful. Even Naoko said she had distaste for the classic anime, particularly the fifth season. And a lot of fans felt the dissatisfaction she felt. Which is why a remake of Sailor Moon was so sought after. A lot of us, myself included, are very satisfied with how Crystal is. You have to look at the fact that the Sailor Moon manga is 20 plus years old, which means that Crystal is pulling from material thats 20 plus years old. And again, not trying to be rude, but I think some of you going into Crystal with otherworldly high expectations set yourselves up for failure. But that's just me take on things. Crystal is still far from perfect. And its true it doesn't match up to the glory of its predecessor, but as a remake of the manga I think it's just right. Edit: There's were several times when Crystal almost made me pull my hair out from frustration. Particularly in the latter part of the first season. When spoiler[the part where Venus running Beryl through with the Holy sword was changed to Sailor Moon killing her by stabbing her necklace]. I mean seriously? Did that really just happen? I haven't felt anger at an anime like that in ages .

Nobody is bad mouthing Naoko! Every single writer has flaws and every single work has flaws. I think it's perfectly fine and healthy to talk about these flaws at length. I apologize if I sounded disrespectful.

And I also think it's important to know that the manga was pretty rushed. At some point the manga and anime were simultaneously made. The reason we had 200 episodes is because the anime was ahead of Naoko's writing. She also never planned to make as many arcs as the manga ended up being.

I don't mean to say she's a bad writer. I meant more of she was a rushed writer. So it's inevitable that she'd have a few plot holes here and there. Regardless I still adore the manga and have no doubt in my mind if she was given more time It'd be a little more perfected.

Also from what I know Naoko didn't hate classic she was frustrated with a few changes they made (controversial male senshi), but I don't think she totally disliked the classic anime.

The classic anime had many flaws that is true! Many fans weren't satisfied with some of the changes or decisions made. However, I think the classic made up for those flaws with just about everything else in the anime (especially music).

And as to "I still fail to fully understand why so some of you still watch Crystal." Well! We love Sailor Moon and we want to see an adaptation it deserves. We're hopeful for improvements and we just want to see our favorite hero be relevant again.


And I don't think disappointment was due to high expectations. Sorry to be rude but as someone who frequently watches anime, I don't think Crystal reached even average expectations. I think season 3 is just about there.

I won't lie that I did have high expectations when the revival was first announced. Who wouldn't? Sailor Moon was such a classic and the manga offered a different story we weren't able to see animated.

Despite the flaws I don't blame the manga for this lackluster adaptation. I blame toei. I know animation doesn't work this way, but I assure you any other studio could have done Sailor Moon justice (I'd personally love to see Shaft, IG, Madhouse).

I'm sorry that you're overwhelmed with the negativity this show is receiving. You're enjoying Crystal and that's totally fine, you do you. Art and any form of media is subjective, and I respect that some people will like shows that I don't.

However I think there is truth in that Crystal was just underwhelming. Whether it's in numbers (Nico Nico Douga views) or yeah the overwhelming negativity this show is receiving.