Because I am extremely lazy, this will sort of count as a review for me. Also, this post will contain
SPOILERS.
As I write this, we are 13 episodes into the 26 episode ONA remake of Naoko Takeuchi's precious shojo series, Sailor Moon Crystal. It was created in honor of the original series' 20th anniversary, (though the start dates aren't actually 20 years apart for either the manga or the anime) and so far, has been more of a bed of controversy than one would imagine. These 13 episodes encompass the "Dark Kingdom" arc, with the "Black Moon" arc to be covered in episodes 14-26. We were supposed to be 14 episodes in by this point, but episodes were delayed a week twice so far.
First and foremost, I WOULD NOT have gotten into this anime, had I known the episodes were supposed to be released every two weeks. Quite often the wait for the new episode has been painful, especially those two times where the wait was three weeks, not two. If I wanted to experience the true Sailor Moon story, I could have read the manga. I actually thought about doing that quite often. But, I guess there's some part of me that wished I could have experienced the Sailor Moon boom back in the 90s, and this is sort of my way of "making up for" the experience.
During the first few episodes, I was often smiling uncontrollably, because what was on the screen was really cute, if not a little stupid and superficial. I loved seeing each of the Sailor Guardians get their episode spotlight, although I thought the antagonists were a bit repetitive. However, looking back on the 13 episodes so far, the story came off to me as very cliche, because it borrows tropes and plot points that have been used time and time again, particularly ones involving romance, that came before and after Sailor Moon. Tragic lovers, love triangles, reincarnation, forbidden love, etc. The story was all right up until about episode 9, where the Sailor Senshi actually felt like they had different personalities and the plot actually stuck to the manga. But, the producers decided to deviate from the manga, and that's when the story really fell apart. Sure, this adaptation of the manga is much more faithful than the 90s series, but I am not fond of the changes that were made here, the most prominent change being the worst offense. In episode 12, Usagi uses the holy sword to kill Beryl. However, in the manga, it was Venus. My guess as to why this change was made was to make Usagi seem less useless. For every episode I was engaged and glad I was watching this anime, there was an episode that made me feel extremely unsatisfied and felt a bit angry that I would have to wait at least another two weeks for an episode. The best example I can give is episodes nine and ten. Episode nine just felt
so superficial,
while episode ten gave us a major plot point that actually surprised me. The pacing was fine in the beginning of the anime, but then things slowed down considerably, which is part of the reason a few of the episodes felt unsatisfying. So, overall, do not expect a good plot from this anime at all.
Usagi is not a good "strong shojo protagonist." I realize she does change a bit, but Usagi is just as much of a whiny crybaby relying on Mamoru to save her in episode 13 as she is in episode 1. Sure, people make the excuse that she's just a lovestruck 14-year-old girl, but it just feels like she's completely dependent on Mamoru to be there for her. The rest of the Sailor Senshi are better characters than our protagonist. Personally, my favorite is Ami, though Makoto is a close second. My problem with these four girls, however, is they seem to all be connected to Usagi, rather create this sort of web of friendship. Here, let me show you with diagrams.
This is the friendship web in Sailor Moon Crystal:
And this is what the friendship web
should look like.
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This problem becomes much more noticeable when Usagi doesn't care as much abut her friends as they do her. She expects them to help her, but she doesn't help them when Evil Mamoru was attacking them in episode 11. Heck, she even thought of "joining" him, and abandoning her friends. Mamoru Chiba started off as a fabulous, but adorkable male protagonist, and I finally felt that feeling plenty of girls felt when seeing him in the original series from the 90s. I was really, really liking him, (yes I think he's hot) but he just doesn't have that *heart* I've felt from better male characters. The villains are all very cliche, but I did not expect the plot twist regarding the four kings. That was without a doubt one of the highlights of this anime.
I do appreciate the cleaned-up artwork to Crystal in comparison to its 90's counterpart, but the manga, in my opinion, has the best artwork. However, countless people have pointed out art and animation missteps in the past 6 months, ranging from little tiny things to stupid shortcuts.
Up top is the original, on the bottom is Japan's Blu-Ray edit. *sigh*
I really don't know why anyone thought animating the transformation sequences in 3D was a good idea, because a) it's much more effort, and b) just doesn't look good compared to the rest of the show. I don't like how it makes the sailor fuku or their hair look like plastic.
I actually like the soundtrack to this anime. The soundtrack overall feel very classic, very fitting for a fantasy-romance anime. I actually appreciate this feeling,in comparison to the original anime's soundtrack. Some of my favorite tracks include the Moon Tiara Boomerang, and the *MOON PURISUMU PAWAAAA...MEIKUUUU APPUUU!* (I'm sorry I had to). The opening and ending themes are good, but not as iconic as the original Moonlight Densetsu.
The biggest point I'm trying to stress here is Sailor Moon Crystal doesn't stand up other shojo and magical girl anime, even to its original manga counterpart, because we've seen what's come since, and what it has inspired in the 20-something years since it first came out. The Rayearths, the PreCures, the Mew Mews, the Peaches, the Mermaids, the Sakuras, the Charas, the Utenas, heck, even the Madokas all have Sailor Moon influences within them. Before Sailor Moon, magical girls rarely teamed up super-sentai style, and didn't necessarily have to use their powers to fight evil. Sailor Moon paved the way for a lot of anime, we owe it that much, but it's just that the stuff that came after it is just better than the original by building on the original concept, and taking it to greater heights.
If I were to give a score to these 13 episodes, I would probably say around a
6/10, but I will not completely judge this anime before it has the chance to redeem itself. Do I recommend this anime? For now, no, mainly because of the two-week wait. But once it's done, I would probably recommend this to little girls who haven't really seen a whole lot of anime. All the hardcore Sailor Moon fans are already watching this, so there's really no one for me to recommend this to. If you want to experience the Sailor Moon story, go read the manga. You know what, I'm probably going to do that eventually.
If you wish to check out this series for yourself, you can do so legally on
Crunchyroll and
Hulu,
Cheers,
~Selena
Last Updated: 13 January 2015
Originally Published: 13 January 2015
