Forum - View topicPretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal (ONA).
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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I liked it actually more than I expected. I didn't watch Sailor Moon growing up, except a random episode of the dub here and there so my first real experience with it was reading the manga of the recent Kodansha reissues. I thought the manga was enjoyable enough but I started taking it out of the library instead of buying it because it just wasn't a "must but title for me."
I was thinking of skipping the anime because I already saw the story in manga form and wasn't sure if I'd want to sit through it all again. But since I had nothing else to do Saturday morning I gave the first episode a go and found it extremely enjoyable. Someone said it felt dated. But I think that is what I like best about it. It feels like a classic shoujo story with female protagonists we no longer get. Usagi's character type, the sort of ditzy girl was never my favorite but at the same time I kind of feel nostalgic for that character type. And again I mean the type that showed up in shoujo stories not late night anime. It seems now adays series aimed at girls have all male casts and the series aimed at guys have the all the female casts. I know I am generalizing a bit but it is nice to have a series of all girls aimed at well girls even if technically it is an older series. As for the transformation sequence yeah that was a sour point. It's way too long. I guess it is okay for 1 episode but I hope they shorten it in subsequent episodes. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23833 |
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That was fun. As I said in an earlier post, I haven't watched any of the original SM material so this was my intro. I dug it. Unburdened by any expectations or nostalgia filters, I'm free to just accept it as it is.
I liked Usagi's voice. I can totally see how some people might find it irritating, but I thought it fits the character well. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
So her teacher spoiler[publicly humiliates her over her test scores, and her mother kicks her out for it], I am pretty sure both of those things count as abuse. She sleeps with bows in her hair, there is something incredibly whiny about her voice, she laughs spoiler[at cats with bald spots], and accepts spoiler[jewels from strange talking animals that seem desperate to meet her]. Oh, and her friend does not seem to realize that spoiler[her own mother suddenly knocking 90% off jewellery is something pretty frightening], and the spoiler[monster kept the mother it was pretending to be alive, but was going to kill the daughter]. Sailor Moon was never really a big thing in my childhood, I was much more likely to watch Cardcaptors, Pokémon, Digimon, or DBZ, I really have more experience with the Abridged series. I also don't really watch any children's magical girl shows, mostly just the gritty ones, and had no interest to watch the DBZ remakes, but I think that I might try to watch this for a bit longer. It is a part of the anime culture I have no experience in, and with the amount of noise over it I am interested. And I liked that transformation sequence, I know that it was gracious CGI, but it looked so pretty in my opinion. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13230 |
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It's been ages since I watched Sailor Moon so a lot of those trademark moments did strike the nostalgia cord for me. However, I don't quite remember, but... Was Usagi always that annoying? Her voice is a bit grating (Kotono Mitsuishi is too old to be forcing herself to sound like a 14 year old), but she's also way too irresponsible and whiny (I did laugh when her whining was weaponized, though). Obviously she's meant to grow out of it eventually, but still.
CG is totally unneeded but I guess that's how Toei rolls these days. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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It's much sooner than later, manga-wise. She's a crybaby for maybe three chapters and then she's done and starts kicking ass. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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That was another thing, spoiler[she broke all the glass in a jewellery store, all the windows and display cases]. I know it is something I am not meant to think too hard about, but I imagine spoiler[that would be incredibly expensive]. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Having been rewatching the original on Hulu the past few weeks, I can pick out the similarities and differences easily enough. Mamoru was not wearing a tuxedo when he first meets Usagi in daylight. Additionally, there wasn't a scene where spoiler[he looks at the jewelry store and comments that it may contain what he's looking for.] Usagi is first made aware of Sailor V by her friends in both the original and Crystal though.
Another difference I noticed is that in Crystal spoiler[Sailor Moon unintentionally saves herself when she starts crying and her earbun jewels amplify the sound.] In the original spoiler[Tuxedo Mask is the one to save her by throwing a rose.] The only thing Tuxedo Mask really does in Crystal is to encourage her. I think it's pretty cool that she saves herself in Crystal. Now I just need to go read the manga again. It's been a while. Overall, I loved the first episode of Crystal! I love the character designs, I thought the animation was good (having watched the transformation sequence a few times I'm getting used to the CGI), the opening is gorgeous, and... for probably the first time in my life... I actually think Mamoru looks mighty fine and attractive. I never much cared for him in the original (the manga was better, but still kinda eh). But in Crystal? Dayum. I love his eyes. In fact, I love all of the character's eyes, more so than the original. And it looks like we may possibly be getting Ami in the next episode! Yay! This is moving along nicely. Awesome come back for Sailor Moon. I'm looking forward to more! |
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victor viper
 Posts: 630 Location: The deep south |
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I found the first episode to be a little bit of a mixed bag, but it was certainly interesting.
Usagi does seem a little more grating in this incarnation (she derives spoiler[a power from whining? ]), but Usagi was a little bit whiny at the beginning of the series. Some of the animation was a little cheesy (like the planets at the beginning), but the transformation sequence was okay, and I like the fact that they kept some elements of Sailor Moon's transformation from the original. The shadowy villains and the "let's drain energy from the humans" theme is certainly vintage Sailor Moon, and I like the fact that it's implied that spoiler[Mercury will make her appearance in the next episode]. So, hopefully, the filler will be minimal in this go-round. The use of the shadow-play in the eyecatches was interesting, and that caused me to notice that the character designs definitely have an Utena-like quality to them. The music was a little bit of a mixed bag. I was hoping that they would use an update of Moonlight Densetsu as the opening, but no such luck. The opening and closing themes seemed merely okay to me, but maybe they'll grow on me. All in all, I found the first episode to be successful in reintroducing Sailor Moon to the next generation of fans. There are some nice nods to the original, and I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Considering that it's only 21 minutes of unique animation every two weeks, far more than every other studio for every single anime they work on, there's really little excuse this should not have been amazing other than lack of budget, talent, or care. I'm guessing all three to varying degrees. Not to say it's a complete disaster or anything, it's just nothing really special beyond being an updated Sailor Moon. Even if it's following the manga and the girls don't necessarily transform every episode, they'll at least do it several times over the 26 episodes, so why the CG there? That's the place where you should be splurging.
Anyway, where's the Best Girl Jupiter at? |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Man, it feels like 7:00 AM on a weekday morning in the summer of 1995. I've got my lemon popsicle and my mother isn't up yet, so let's watch some cartoons!
I enjoyed the first episode. It was very strange to hear Sailor Moon be called Usagi and speak in a high, screechy voice as well have a Luna who isn't British, to say nothing of my confusion as to just who the Hell Naru and Umino were. I really should know better and I don't really mind, but it's hard to shake them being flipping Molly and Melvin to me. I'm a little ambivalent about the computer animated transformation sequence. I mislike computer animation in anime on principle, but I like what it's trying to achieve. Has any series ever explained the motions that its characters go through during their transformations. Is all that elaborate choreography instinctual? I think that there's a missed comic opportunity here. The opening was pretty nice and I enjoyed the intercutting of badass action stuff into the relatively traditional shōjo imagery. I was also quite taken with some of the background artwork, which I thought was quite pretty. The animation seemed all right too; even nicely nuanced here and there. I don't have the strong memories of the earlier series that others might, but I recall enough to like some of the differences. Usagi seems to have a more distinct and varied personality than Serena did. I don't remember if the video game scene was in the earlier series or not, but it felt different from the monotonous lovesick crybaby dope that used to get on my nerves. I don't hold her emotional outburst during the first fight against her; it felt slightly abrupt to me, but felt like an appropriate and plausible reaction in such stressful circumstances. I hope that at some point, she kicks something other than a door and harder. And now the two week's of waiting commences and, sadly, unlike back in the day, there's no Animation Station to watch on the Sci-Fi Channel next.
Well, strictly speaking he's not wearing a tuxedo in this case either. Bro's rocking full white tie and before six too, which is rather gauche. Of course, nobody would really go for a character called Evening Tailcoat Mask. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Is it just me or do I see Utena in these drawings? I thought I would be the only one here that never watched Sailor Moon before and it makes me feel obscurely relieved to find out that many of us haven't. So for you old hands -- would watching PGSMC-2014 be sufficient to "know" SM or does we have homework to do? (It might be too early to answer this after one episode but I'd like to know anyway. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I'm strongly suspecting that Crystal will be following the manga's storyline closer than the original series would do, both because of the few small differences between it's first episode and the original anime's, and the fact that the mangaka has been pretty involved with promotion for Crystal when I know she wasn't too happy with some of the changes made in the first anime. So probably you can just watch this and have a complete story that is the most faithful adaptation.
Of course, how well you "know" Sailor Moon is going to depend on how long the anime goes. I'd be absolutely thrilled if it adaptated the entire manga but I'm not certain if that is in the cards at the moment. Also, if you like it, I would at very least recommend the adorableness that is the live action adaptation. I find this is actually the best version of Sailor Moon out there at the moment, at least as far as pacing goes (the original anime was full of filler while the manga tended to rush through things at the expense of character development for the supporting cast). |
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Crusher X303
 Posts: 122 Location: Glendora, California |
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That was a fun episode.
It was so long ago, but I vaguely remember watching the original when I was a kid in the mornings. So this show is going to have some good nostalgia to it. I think this is up there with one of the starting shows that got me watching anime in general... (it was either this or re-runs of Gen 1 Transformers) Even though I have seen the original... it was such a long time ago I don't think it will affect my enjoyment of this new version. I can't wait to see the next episode. |
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shamisen the great
 Posts: 658 Location: Oregon, USA |
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I just watched episode 1. While I enjoyed it, I was disappointed ( but not surprised) to see it was pretty much a scene for scene adaptation of the manga. Don't get me wrong I like the manga, but I was hoping to see a new take on the story. Seriously though, what were they thinking with the CGI transformation sequence. Since we are probably going to see it every episode ( and the other senshi later on) you would think they would try to make the scene look as good as possible. These are mostly just nit picks. It's still the story I know and love and the art is pretty. I have to admit I got a nostalgic thrill hearing Usagi recite her "In the name of the moon" lines. Kotono Mitsuishi has still got it.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Oh, the girls maybe. Not the guys though...I think the guys in Utena look REALLY weird....with those ridiculous broad shoulders and six-inch long nose bridges.... 
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