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Why Sailor Moon Crystal Isn't a Total Disaster


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Lili-Hime



Joined: 05 Jun 2014
Posts: 569
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 2:46 am Reply with quote
H. Guderian wrote:
If you really find the difference between old Sailor Moon and new, it was that the Directors, Junichi Sato, and Kunihiko Ikuhara, are really good at what they do.

I couldn't agree more! Very Happy The level of talent working on the original was just leagues ahead of those working on Crystal, at least in the direction and writing departments. Don't forget about Takuya Igarashi!! He stepped in for Ikuhara and did Stars... he later went on to do Soul Eater, Ouran, and Star Driver. Not bad at all!

H. Guderian wrote:

All signs point to middle/upper management lacking in ability or effort to get a competent show out...
Every step forward was met with a Police Water Cannon blast backwards. A legendary pillar of the 1990's should have a sequel somewhere in that ballpark, like the Yamato remake.


This. This is why people get upset about SMC. Sailor Moon was as much as cultural phenomenon as Dragonball was around the world. We expected to at least have a higher budget and TV airings....

Instead TOEI pushed merch at us for two years, made a TON of cash, and then put the bare minimum effort and money into SMC. It wasn't on TV. It aired online only... every 2-3 weeks... worked on by animators as an after hours side project. That's kind of insulting. Sailor Moon deserved better. It'd be like if rebuild of Evangelion was a visual novel or something. Yeah people who weren't hyped for the new series aren't gonna feel that sting as bad but there's no denying this was a cynical cash grab for TOEI.
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Red Fox of Fire



Joined: 24 Jan 2010
Posts: 345
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 3:06 am Reply with quote
I keep seeing comparisons between old and new as justification for why Crystal is awful, and even when people go away from direct comparisons, they still have typically seen both. Well, I haven't seen a minute of old Sailor Moon, only Crystal, so with absolutely no bias to my opinion...it's crap. Dropped halfway.

Two more things:
-I don't see how art being closer to the manga makes it better. It can, if the manga art is better than the original anime art, but given the problems with Crystal's art, well...
-Maybe I've been missing something, but while I can't say if he's more or less "human" than in the original anime, I still found Mamoru a pretty terribly-integrated character. If this is better than the old Mamoru, I don't want to see that.

And the #1 reason I dropped Crystal is Moon's voice. It's good for one thing: I can point here whenever someone says Japanese voice actors always sound better.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 3:40 am Reply with quote
Red Fox of Fire wrote:
And the #1 reason I dropped Crystal is Moon's voice. It's good for one thing: I can point here whenever someone says Japanese voice actors always sound better.

It's the same voice as the original anime, just that the voice actress is 20 years older. Unless you watched the English dub, in which case... no comment.
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kasumicc



Joined: 05 Jul 2007
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 6:46 am Reply with quote
People who point SMC as a cashgrab and act as if it wasn't the same for the original anime... Sailor Moon has always been about the cash, for Toei (and maybe Kodansha, even). It's a well known story that the original anime was meant to finish with the very first season, which is why the ending had everybody reborn with no memories. But when they saw just how many toys they were selling, they greenlighted a second season (and then had to give everybody their memories back, lol). The same is true for the manga; Naoko herself wrote on the author notes that it was her editor, who suggested writing a second arc featuring Usagi's daughter.
So yeah, it's always been about the merchandise, sorry to say. That's why I think Toei couldn't care less about how many discs are sold; they knew that just by releasing a series with a barebones budget, the money would still come in through merchandise.

Having said all of that, though, I'll say it over and over again: I don't think it's the technical issues what really drives people to dislike Crystal (which I don't think it's THAT hard to overlook; we've had plenty of series with "quality" animation, and many of them still went on to become juggernauts). No, I think it's the fact that it follows the manga (and quite faithfully, if you ask me). For many years, there's been a VERY vocal portion of the Sailor Moon fandom claiming that the manga is superior than the original anime. I could never agree to it; while I still enjoy the manga and there are legitimately good things on it, I also find it to be quite flawed. The manga was never a masterpiece to begin. However, I still went on to watch and ultimately enjoy SMC, because I already knew what to expect in terms of plot.

So, I think SMC ended highlighting all of the manga flaws, that's the problem. And a problem that was pretty hard to avoid without heavily altering the original story so... Not much can be done about it. I do find interesting though how manga fans still insist on the manga being soooooo much better than SMC, while I don't...really see it.
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Sacto0562



Joined: 12 Jun 2010
Posts: 288
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 6:53 am Reply with quote
I do agree that Chibi-Usa is WAY less annoying a character in the Crystal series than the original R season.

Well, that does explain why I really liked Chibi-Usa in the original S season--maybe the producers at Toei Animation at the time got too many complaints about Chibi-Usa and they decided to make her far less annoying. In fact, I really liked Chibi-Usa in the S season, especially once she strikes up her friendship with Hotaru Tomoe.
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Sunny milk



Joined: 22 Jan 2014
Posts: 695
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 7:08 am Reply with quote
Also gotta point out that despite characters like Chibi Usa are really not liked in the wester audience, she was always one of the most popular and loved character among the japanese fans.
She was memorable and one of the prime example for why the proverb "the more spoiled and selfish a child, the cuter she is" exists in Japan.

So saying that Toei received many complaints about her and such is kind of silly.
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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 7:34 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Does it live up to your expectations as a Sailor Moon fan, or is it just a monument to unfulfilled potential?

I've never seen Sailor Moon, though I read the first arc of the manga and was pretty unimpressed. I can't say I'm finding SMX halfway competent, but more very vague, bland and boring. I don't think it's terrible, and ratings of 1/10 are just silly when things like Mars of Destruction and Infinite Stratos exist, but I do think it's a poor show, certainly below average.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 7:40 am Reply with quote
Perhaps, but it makes more sense to me that Chibi-usa is a brat. She's what... 6?
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:38 am Reply with quote
Sunny milk wrote:
Also gotta point out that despite characters like Chibi Usa are really not liked in the wester audience, she was always one of the most popular and loved character among the japanese fans.
She was memorable and one of the prime example for why the proverb "the more spoiled and selfish a child, the cuter she is" exists in Japan.


Most of the legendary "I hate the Pink Spore!" sentiment in the US--which name even comes from the DiC dub--can usually be traced back to the horrendously adult "bratty" voice Reenie had in the 90's dub.
Unfortunately, the one joke the dubbers had for the R series didn't quite work when she had to be the "good" Chibi-Usa in the Cloverway SuperS dub.

The original Kae Araki voice is just Japanese-cute and bratty enough to be a thorn in Usagi's side, and to be the stubborn Scrappy-Doo to Usagi's occasional cold feet in battle.


Last edited by EricJ2 on Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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Kusachiho



Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:52 am Reply with quote
The thing that made me sad about Crystal was how the pre-release interviews with Takeuchi made it sound like this was going to be a complete re-tool of the manga, and that the story was going to be 'complete' with elements that she hadn't been able to put into the original manga. An overall story rehaul and extra story? Awesome!

...Then it turned out to be an almost 1:1 copy of the manga, no development for any of the inner senshi except for Usagi, oh and btw everyone was in love with the Shitennou for five seconds before forgetting about it. That sure is some extra story right there.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4369
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 9:17 am Reply with quote
KaiserNeko wrote:


At least some of the changes the original anime made were fascinating and engaging, i.e. Nephrite’s relation with Naru, Kunzite’s relationship with Zoisite, the humor (while repetitive) being cheerful, engaging, and warm, the death of the Sailor Guardians AND Mamoru, leading up to the final climactic battle with Beryl. Here, the changes are minute, but insulting and largely unnecessary. But that’s the first and last I’ll talk about the original series.


well its definitely what i liked about the 90's version. especially the relationship with nephrite and naru. however fans shouldnt gripe about crystal considering this series is what naoko wanted in the first place. and the reason why she gave this series her blessing. and which is that she wants crystal to be for the 90 SM like what FMA:Brotherhood was for the first FMA series.that is complete and faithful adaptation of the manga which is what crystal is.

Quote:
In contrast, Crystal's Mamoru is sixteen to Usagi's fourteen, instantly making him less of a creeper.
well not exactly. for one thing no one really had a problem with their relationship in the 90's TV series. even though he was a college student while usagi was in middle school.

also in the manga (tokyopop version) he was a college student too. but then again considering that the tokyopop versions when they had the manga are as inaccurate as hell and have yet to get the new more accurate versions, it might be possible that the ages for them are the same in the crystal series.
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 9:27 am Reply with quote
kasumicc wrote:
People who point SMC as a cashgrab and act as if it wasn't the same for the original anime

There is MILES of distance between "show that sells toys" (like Gi Joe, He-Man, Transformers and yes original Sailor Moon) and "crass attempt to cash in on nostalgia" (which is Sailor Moon Crystal). To me, SMC is like the knock-off, direct-to-disc animated movies you can find at Walmart for $1 (or so) that look terrible but were obviously made to sell to families that want something cheap for their kids who liked that one Disney movie, things like these:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55270/20-mockbusters-you-might-confuse-real-movie
(I think my favorite is Chop Kick Panda)
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:24 am Reply with quote
Cutiebunny wrote:
The Sailor Moon R movie plot was (Ikuhara's) own work too. That's why it's so bizarre.


I'd always thought it was because they did the features halfway during the season, and had to use the villain/canon from the first-half story arc if they used them at all.
Which, in R's case, would suggest that Fiore is another lost orphan of Ali & An's planet--which he certainly resembles and also why he uses plants as his attack--but was never allowed to be specifically mentioned.

(As for his ambiguously-gay dependent "friendship" on Mamoru, which even Usagi misinterprets....THAT sounds like Ikuhara. Rolling Eyes )
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Animeking1108



Joined: 26 Apr 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:46 am Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
kasumicc wrote:
People who point SMC as a cashgrab and act as if it wasn't the same for the original anime

There is MILES of distance between "show that sells toys" (like Gi Joe, He-Man, Transformers and yes original Sailor Moon) and "crass attempt to cash in on nostalgia" (which is Sailor Moon Crystal). To me, SMC is like the knock-off, direct-to-disc animated movies you can find at Walmart for $1 (or so) that look terrible but were obviously made to sell to families that want something cheap for their kids who liked that one Disney movie, things like these:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55270/20-mockbusters-you-might-confuse-real-movie
(I think my favorite is Chop Kick Panda)


Your argument sounds like "the one I watched first did the crappy thing better."
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:54 am Reply with quote
Animeking1108 wrote:
Your argument sounds like "the one I watched first did the crappy thing better."


Sounds like you think "The original series was commercial, but Crystal is art" Laughing
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