Animation Sailor Moon: Crystal

[Manic]

There's probably something on TV Tropes about this, but the Black Moon is following an age-old cliche of villains capturing heroes for no particular reason instead of just killing them.

I guess there's a chance they're planning on holding the other sailors hostage in exchange for the Rabbit and the Silver Crystal from the future, but this seems like an overly elaborate Plan A.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Supreme Thunder Dragon is one of my favorite attacks. So sad they only showed it once!

The animation in Sparking Wide Pressure is awesome. I've always been a fan of Jupiter's combat face. Fierce.

I want to say that I remember her using SWP sort of like World Shaking in an episode....which means she can use it to help the situation depending on whats going on.

 

[doink]

A little bit. Not nearly enough to make amends for The Dark Kingdom Arc, to be honest. The show still has a lot of problems.

Basically this though I liked the past 3 eps more than the finale of the Dark Kingdom arc...

Anyway I thought I'd show off my (very small) Sailor Moon collection here.

I'm collecting the "kanzenban" ("complete edition") of the manga that came out last year in Japan. These are big volumes with great paper quality and color splash pages, as well as new cover art by Takeuchi Naoko which you can see here. The "kanzenban" edition is 10 volumes (and also 2 volumes of Codename: Sailor V), I have vols. 1-4. 1-2 is the Dark Kingdom arc and 3-4 is Black Moon.

Next to it is the Viz Blu-ray boxset of season 1. I preordered both parts from rightstuf.com so I got the bonus items like the medallion and the set of character pictures. My S.H. Figuarts figure of Sailor Moon is also displayed.

I just got the Figuarts for Sailor Jupiter and Venus today, they're not displayed yet...my birthday was on the 1st and I got a ton of amazon gift cards so I thought I'd put them to use and order the Figuarts for the rest of the inner senshi. Mercury and Mars are coming soon~

My complete set of the Kodansha USA translated manga along with a vintage Sailor Moon piggy bank.

Plushies of Sailor Moon and Chibi-Moon.

On the left: A deluxe volume of the "Kaguya-hime no Koibito/Princess Kaguya's Lover" side-story from the manga, which the S movie was based on. This volume was published around the time the S movie came out in Japan.
On the right: An official guide to Sailor Moon R.

And finally I have some old figurines of Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus that came with trading cards, but they're pretty worn-out and not in great condition.

I also used to have a couple volumes of the old TokyoPop translation of the manga (as well as a couple chapters printed in American comic format), as well as the dubbed R, S and SuperS movies and subbed R movie on VHS...and the Lunarock CD.

 

[Leenie]

Basically this though I liked the past 3 eps more than the finale of the Dark Kingdom arc...

Anyway I thought I'd show off my (very small) Sailor Moon collection here.

Spoiler

I'm collecting the "kanzenban" ("complete edition") of the manga that came out last year in Japan. These are big volumes with great paper quality and color splash pages, as well as new cover art by Takeuchi Naoko which you can see here. The "kanzenban" edition is 10 volumes (and also 2 volumes of Codename: Sailor V), I have vols. 1-4. 1-2 is the Dark Kingdom arc and 3-4 is Black Moon.

Next to it is the Viz Blu-ray boxset of season 1. I preordered both parts from rightstuf.com so I got the bonus items like the medallion and the set of character pictures. My S.H. Figuarts figure of Sailor Moon is also displayed.

I just got the Figuarts for Sailor Jupiter and Venus today, they're not displayed yet...my birthday was on the 1st and I got a ton of amazon gift cards so I thought I'd put them to use and order the Figuarts for the rest of the inner senshi. Mercury and Mars are coming soon~

My complete set of the Kodansha USA translated manga along with a vintage Sailor Moon piggy bank.

Plushies of Sailor Moon and Chibi-Moon.

On the left: A deluxe volume of the "Kaguya-hime no Koibito/Princess Kaguya's Lover" side-story from the manga, which the S movie was based on. This volume was published around the time the S movie came out in Japan.
On the right: An official guide to Sailor Moon R.

And finally I have some old figurines of Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus that came with trading cards, but they're pretty worn-out and not in great condition.

I also used to have a couple volumes of the old TokyoPop translation of the manga (as well as a couple chapters printed in American comic format), as well as the dubbed R, S and SuperS movies and subbed R movie on VHS...and the Lunarock CD.

Your collection is awesome! The Figuarts are some of my all-time favorite Sailor Moon items ever. They're such great figures, and a collector's dream come true.

The new kanzenbans of the manga look awesome, from what I've heard and seen. I am very tempted to get them at some point, but we shall see. The covers are gorgeous though!

Also, I really need to get the new English translation of the manga. I've been selling a lot of my older Sailor Moon items, and I ended up selling all of my Tokyopop mangas last month. I don't own any Sailor Moon manga at this time! Haha.

 

[Leenie]

Act 18 ...

The Inner Senshi are completely useless in this show. It sucks, and it really irritates me to the point where I'm loathing Sailor Moon Crystal.

That's all I got right now. I'm so annoyed.

 

[Manic]

The fact that nobody but Moon gets to do anything (okay, Tuxedo Mask had a great moment in this episode) makes me want to go read the Black Moon arc of the manga. Were the rest of the sailors originally written so damned powerless against the Ayakashi Sisters?

On the plus side, Venus didn't get kidnapped. Apart from her non-fight against Calaveras, she was doing a great job for most of the episode.

 

[doink]

SMR Part 1 comes out July 14th!

 

[Primal Slayer]

I really wish they would change up the covers a little.

Mexico has more interesting cases

 

[Leenie]

The Talk Boxes are pretty cool, but I actually like the simplicity of the Viz boxes. They look "clean."

Honestly, though ... I'm just happy that Viz is following a uniform pattern with their boxed sets. So much nicer than having so many different looking DVDs with the previous North American releases ...

 

[Leenie]

Act 19 is out now, and it is my favorite episode of the Black Moon Arc so far ... But that doesn't mean too much (since my expectations and excitement for Crystal have plummeted over the past few months).

Pros:
-Pluto. She's pretty badass in this episode. Her moment with Chibi-Usa was adorable as well.

-One of the Inner Senshi actually did something of worth today. Venus helped kill the twins. It was a super-quick moment, but considering how horribly Crystal has treated the Inner Senshi, I'll take whatever tiny victory I can get. Go Venus!

-I'm really digging Esmeraude's voice actress. She's really good.

-The pacing in this episode was pretty good.

-The episode was overall fun, especially in the second half of the episode.

Cons:
-I hate Wiseman's voice. It's ridiculous. The voice actor really needs to tone it down a notch.

-Mamoru is kind of creepy in this show, not gonna lie. Maybe it's just the animation or the writing in general, but I think he comes across as a bit of a creeper. When he was talking to Chibi-Usa, the animation turned him into a silhouette. It was super-awkward and weird. And while the dynamic of Usagi being jealous of Chibi-Usa has always been weird in Sailor Moon, it really escalated in this episode. The conversation between Usagi and Mamoru was weird and not cute at all. In the original anime, it came across as Usagi getting jealous of Chibi-Usa because she was taking time with Mamoru away from her (and at the end of the R Season, Wiseman shows Black Lady kissing Mamoru to imply that Usagi is jealous for those weird reasons, in attempt to prove that Usagi is more concerned with her relationship than her daughter or friends). In this episode of Crystal, she specifically says she's jealous because of romantic reasons. And then after that awkward conversation, it's implied that Usagi and Mamoru have sexytimes on the floor (like they did in the manga). Weird, weird, weird.

-What the heck was up with the frames whenever Usagi made a funny face in this episode? It was giving me nostalgia for the DiC 90's dub ... And not in a good way.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Just watched it and it was definitely one of the better episodes. The animation was refreshing and I wish that's how it was throughout the entire series. Only two major gripes were that weird static thing that happened when Darien was looking at Serena, that was just weird. And how Deadly Scream kind of sucked, the attacks just haven't been that great in Crystal. But everything else was really good. Queen Serenity looked on point.

I think the whole point of Wisemans voice is to throw Diamond and the audience off until he reveals himself to the be the true bid bad.

 

[Manic]

Yeah, I like that Wiseman sounds so silly. He doesn't want anyone to know he's the most powerful and manipulative mofo in the room, so he just comes off as a wacky old man in a cloak who happens to dish out good advice to Demande.

Usagi's jealousy of Chibi-Usa has always bothered me, even in the old anime. Chibi-Usa is what, 5-8 years old? And Mamoru is like 18? I always took his behavior as his paternal instinct kicking in (even though he didn't know who Chibi-Usa was yet), so his affection for her never bothered me-- not even in this anime. Usagi, on the other hand, is ridiculously insecure. I get the impression that if Mamoru had a sister, Usagi would freak out at her too.

Generally speaking, Usagi and Mamoru's relationship has always been kind of weird to me. They don't strike me as being particularly compatible in the present day. If those two didn't have memories of being madly in love with one another when they were two completely different people in the past, I don't think they'd work at all. But that's just me.

I won't comment on Usagi and Mamoru possibly maybe sleeping together in this episode. We don't know if it really was just a kiss and her spending the night or if sex was involved. Also, I don't know how Japanese culture treats issues of sex, or how they view relationships between two people who are around 14 and 18 years old.

 

[Loki882]

Well the whole "break-up" plot in the old anime didn't work either. One, it came out of freaking nowhere, and two, he handled it in pretty much the dumbest/most unreasonable way possible. And there was no good reason for it other than "drrraammaa."

Personally, I'm just waiting for Uranus and Neptune to show up. They're awesome.

 

[Loki882]

Yeah, I like that Wiseman sounds so silly. He doesn't want anyone to know he's the most powerful and manipulative mofo in the room, so he just comes off as a wacky old man in a cloak who happens to dish out good advice to Demande.

Usagi's jealousy of Chibi-Usa has always bothered me, even in the old anime. Chibi-Usa is what, 5-8 years old? And Mamoru is like 18? I always took his behavior as his paternal instinct kicking in (even though he didn't know who Chibi-Usa was yet), so his affection for her never bothered me-- not even in this anime. Usagi, on the other hand, is ridiculously insecure. I get the impression that if Mamoru had a sister, Usagi would freak out at her too.

Generally speaking, Usagi and Mamoru's relationship has always been kind of weird to me. They don't strike me as being particularly compatible in the present day. If those two didn't have memories of being madly in love with one another when they were two completely different people in the past, I don't think they'd work at all. But that's just me.

I won't comment on Usagi and Mamoru possibly maybe sleeping together in this episode. We don't know if it really was just a kiss and her spending the night or if sex was involved. Also, I don't know how Japanese culture treats issues of sex, or how they view relationships between two people who are around 14 and 18 years old.

I think that the Japanese are more ok with it than in the West. The national legal age of consent in Japan is lower than in the US, and there have certainly been enough anime with this kind of age gap, but it's not treated as a big deal. There was one that I heard about awhile back where the guy was 27 and the girl 15, but the age difference wasn't really an issue at all in-universe.

 

[Havok83]

Its been weeks yet none of the Scout's families or even the school seem to acknowledge that the girls have up and disappeared off the face of the earth. Seriously why is there no investigation or this being made into a big deal?

Pluto trying to kill Moon, Venus and TM was so over the top and ridiculous. I guess kill first, get answers later

 

[Leenie]

Usagi's jealousy of Chibi-Usa has always bothered me, even in the old anime. Chibi-Usa is what, 5-8 years old? And Mamoru is like 18? I always took his behavior as his paternal instinct kicking in (even though he didn't know who Chibi-Usa was yet), so his affection for her never bothered me-- not even in this anime. Usagi, on the other hand, is ridiculously insecure. I get the impression that if Mamoru had a sister, Usagi would freak out at her too.

Generally speaking, Usagi and Mamoru's relationship has always been kind of weird to me. They don't strike me as being particularly compatible in the present day. If those two didn't have memories of being madly in love with one another when they were two completely different people in the past, I don't think they'd work at all. But that's just me.

I won't comment on Usagi and Mamoru possibly maybe sleeping together in this episode. We don't know if it really was just a kiss and her spending the night or if sex was involved. Also, I don't know how Japanese culture treats issues of sex, or how they view relationships between two people who are around 14 and 18 years old.

I feel like that 90's anime presented the dynamic between Usagi and Chibi-Usa a lot better. At this point in the 90's anime, Usagi was showing signs of a protective, maternal instinct for Chibi-Usa (as reluctant as she was about it, it was still very much present). That made her jealousy towards Chibi-Usa seem a lot more like "Hey, this brat is taking my time with Mamo-Chan away from me, and she's copying me with the hair! I don't like that she acts like me, either! But because of that, I can relate to her in a way ..."

In Crystal, the dynamic comes across as "Hey, this girl is the reason why some of my friends are missing AND I'm very jealous of her because I think my boyfriend is attracted to her." I haven't seen any signs of a maternal instinct at all in Crystal so far, and that's a big problem for me. In all fairness to Crystal, though, I think Usagi is a lot brattier and more self-centered in the manga anyway. I don't find her to be nearly as likable as she is in the 90's anime.

In terms of Usagi and Mamoru's intimate relationship, it's implied quite a few times in the manga that they sleep together. I'm pretty sure that the legal age of consent in Japan is 13, so I guess this is a case of a different culture not "translating" very well to a Western culture. The quick scene on the floor in Crystal would have been much less awkward to watch if it had not come across as Mamoru trying to prove to Usagi that he isn't attracted to a child ... I remember this scene being pretty similar in the manga, but much less awkward. That's because a big part of the discussion was that Usagi was worried about Chibi-Usa replacing her in a sense that Mamoru was more invested in her well-being, and then Mamoru said some things about how he is always concerned about Usagi's well-being and that she is still his #1 priority. The dialogue in this Crystal episode was a big issue here, since it was very specific about Usagi viewing Chibi-Usa as a romantic rival.

This is more of a side note, but since we are on the topic of Usagi and Mamoru's "Miracle Romance," my favorite version of their relationship is undoubtedly the live action drama from 2003. I think that version of their relationship is easily the most realistic; they're depicted as an underdog couple that makes the audience root for them. Even after they're together (and even engaged to be married), they get into couples arguments and they have to compromise with each other a lot. It's actually really adorable. My second favorite version of their relationship is probably the 90's anime, simply because they had a "Beauty & The Beast" thing going on; that they didn't get along well at all at first, and then they fall in love as they get to understand each other. In the manga (and especially in Crystal), the attraction and romance starts immediately. It moves along too fast for me to really be that invested.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I really hope the writer are clever enough to include Uranus/Neptune/Saturn in the future whenever we see the entire team of the future.

 

[Leenie]

I really hope the writer are clever enough to include Uranus/Neptune/Saturn in the future whenever we see the entire team of the future.

I would hope so.

The writers were clever enough to tease Human Luna at us, after all ...

 

[Manic]

It's interesting how so many of the problems with this anime seem to come from them following the manga so closely.

 

[Leenie]

It's interesting how so many of the problems with this anime seem to come from them following the manga so closely.

Sadly, it's true. I think I would be more forgiving if the show still included the cooler and more brutal aspects of the manga, like Venus impaling Queen Beryl. The show follows the manga so closely at times, and then it neuters all of the cool stuff from the manga; the more memorable stuff.

Sometimes, things on paper don't translate as well on screen. I think that Sailor Moon Crystal is an example of this. Using the manga as your storyboard may not have been the best option. Then again, while I have always enjoyed the manga, I don't have the love for it as I do the 90's anime. Especially in the final story arc of the manga, I felt that the story suffered from too many characters and too much exposition (which I why I totally find the Sailor Stars anime to be vastly superior to the manga, which seems to be an unpopular opinion nowadays). If Crystal ever gets to Stars, I expect it to be a hot mess.

Also, the shoddy animation and the forgettable music/soundtrack isn't helping the naysayers change their minds either. The fans were promised so much more than what has actually been given. And considering the amazing work that Toei Animation has been doing with other magical girl shows like PreCure, it's really sad to see how Sailor Moon is being treated right now. On top of all of that, another popular Toei anime that caters to the nostalgia crowd, Dragon Ball Z, is getting A++ treatment with the new movies (which have beautiful animation, original stories, and a lot more effort being put into them). It's really frustrating to see stuff like this as a Sailor Moon fan.

On the plus side, though, I'll be saving a LOT of money now because I have no interest in buying the Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-Rays. My wallet is very happy about this.

 

[Loki882]

Well to be fair, they seem to be either removing (or at least minimizing) the best parts of the manga. From what I remember, even though the manga was still more Usagi-centric than the 90's show, the others still had distinct personalities and got stuff to do. In this show, they're so bland/generic/underdeveloped that they don't really stand out. A lot of the interesting stuff that the other's got to do in the manga isn't present in this show, or is barely there.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The writers seem to want to make this strictly the Sailor Moon show. Which is why I already need a new show ASAP.

 

[Leenie]

In case anyone is interested, VizMedia has posted several episodes of their Sailor Moon R English dub on Hulu and Neon Alley.

All of the Doom Tree/Makaiju Arc is there, plus the first episode of Chibi-Usa.

 

[Leenie]

Well, Act 20 came out today.

Overall? This was actually a pretty darn good episode. I don't have too much to complain about, honestly. It's the best episode Crystal has had in quite a long time, in my opinion. Most of the episodes have ranged from mediocre to terrible, but I thought this episode was legitimately good.

Pros:
-It was very well-paced today, probably because they fit quite a bit of story and development into this episode. It went by fast, but in a good way.

-Pluto! Even though we all know she doesn't get a lot of screen time, we got to see some big character development from her. I really love her friendship with Chibi-Usa, and I really liked the not-so-subtle hinting at Pluto's feelings for King Endymion.

-Diana is so effing adorable. Enough said.

-I thought that the action was pretty well-done in this episode, though it went by quickly. Esmeraude's additional powers that Wiseman gave to her were creepy.

-Venus has proven herself to be quite useful in these past couple of episodes, which makes me happy. I'm pro anything that makes any of the Inner Senshi look good.

Cons:
-When King Endymion was describing Crystal Tokyo and how people age there, I think the show missed an opportunity to talk about Chibi-Usa's actual age (she's 900 years-old in the manga and her body does not age, hence the name "Small Lady"). Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm pretty sure this is the point where the manga does the age reveal.

-Usagi and Mamoru are annoying. Mamoru was a jerk by telling Usagi sternly that only he will take care of his daughter, and Usagi is being stupid by being so jealous (in a really weird way) towards Chibi-Usa. Usagi does have a point when she said to herself that she was hurt about Mamoru dismissing the thought of the BOTH of them taking care of their daughter. Whatever, I think they're both stupid. I'm at a point where I couldn't care less about their "Miracle Romance." Crystal is easily my least favorite interpretation of Usagi in general. I don't find her to be very likable.

 

[Havok83]

-When King Endymion was describing Crystal Tokyo and how people age there, I think the show missed an opportunity to talk about Chibi-Usa's actual age (she's 900 years-old in the manga and her body does not age, hence the name "Small Lady"). Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm pretty sure this is the point where the manga does the age reveal.
(

If she is 900 then why does she act like an immature child and why do people baby her? If her growth is stunted bc of the effects of the crystal, she should still be an adult at 900 so knowing this the dynamics between how she acts and how the people from the future treat her, just seems off

Probably too much for a show like this, but with people pretty much having immortality, it made me think, how the heck do they deal with overcrowding in this world?