Sailor Moon Crystal

Sniper Team 4

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Okay, I'd like to see what other people think about this new version. I'll go first, since it's my thread.

Honestly, I'm not caring for it. I enjoyed Sailor Moon growing up in the 90s, and while it was super campy and heavily edited, I had fun. I had heard rumors that it butchered the manga, but I didn't care. Then the manga came out and I wasn't impressed. In fact, I still haven't finished it to this day. I gave up once Stars started.

Anyway, when Crystal was announced, I was excited, but also worried. They said they were going to follow the manga more closely. And they did, which is where my dislike comes in. The other Scouts (yes, they will always be Scouts to me) were gutted in this new series. Rei may as well not even exist for all the screen time she gets. In the original anime, we got filler episodes which were a bit trying at times, but at least they showed the girls bonding. We got to know more about all of them and the show wasn't just about Usagi and her emotional issues with Mamoru. Usagi was a likeable character (for me) who was strong when she needed to be, and while she often daydreamed about Mamoru and love in general, that wasn't the sole driving force for her character. And she sure as hell didn't try to kill herself over a man a second time.

Crystal seems to have removed a lot of that. And don't even get me started on how she abandoned her friends (if you can even call them that, seeing as how little they've had a chance to interact) in the big fight and then tried to kill herself, despite the fact that the Earth was still very much in danger. I know that Crystal is following the manga much more closely, but I feel like it's missing what made the original anime so memorable for a lot of fans. If this is what Sailor Moon had been like originally, I can honestly say I don't think I would have watched more than an episode or two. Hopefully the next story arc will change my opinion.

Does anyone else feel the same? Like the other girls are just background characters and the show and story is focusing way too much on the love relationship? Or perhaps you enjoy this new series? I've already met a fan who said she finds it miles above the original. Anyway, what are your thoughts on it now that the first main villain is done?
 

StriderShinryu

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I pretty much agree with all of that, but would like to add that Crystal is also terribly paced and has sometimes shockingly poor production quality given the high profile of the property. If there's any anime that should have had a lot of money, if not necessarily care and attention, thrown towards it, it should have been Crystal and yet the visual aspects of the series range from mediocre to straight up awful.

If I didn't have a built up emotional and nostalgic connection to the property (due to the original anime series), I really doubt I'd still be watching it at this point.

Oh, and skewing so closely to the original manga meant my favourite story arc of the original anime (the Naru/Molly and Nephrite storyline) was completely non-existent.
 

Sniper Team 4

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StriderShinryu said:
I pretty much agree with all of that, but would like to add that Crystal is also terribly paced and has sometimes shockingly poor production quality given the high profile of the property. If there's any anime that should have had a lot of money, if not necessarily care and attention, thrown towards it, it should have been Crystal and yet the visual aspects of the series range from mediocre to straight up awful.

If I didn't have a built up emotional and nostalgic connection to the property (due to the original anime series), I really doubt I'd still be watching it at this point.

Oh, and skewing so closely to the original manga meant my favourite story arc of the original anime (the Naru/Molly and Nephrite storyline) was completely non-existent.
Agreed, agreed. My friend and I were really looking forward to seeing the new transformation animations, but they're just blah now. Using CGI to make them feels cheap, not to mention that they look pretty bad once they open their eyes. And Mako's chin. So...so pointy...
 

Fappy

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I watched the first episode back when it started airing and couldn't stand Usagi's voice. Holy crap was it whiny D:
 

Alcamonic

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Unfortunately I must agree with earlier comments on Crystal.

I wish they had kept the original series' style to the characters. These new one looks like barbie-dolls.
 

Queen Michael

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It's very much like the original manga. In all the bad ways.

The pacing is so-so. The characterization is superficial and one-dimensional. The plots are fulled with unexplained unlikeliness. Like when Tuxedo Kamen announces to the media that he's been committing crimes to get ahold of the Legendary Silver Crystal. They just share it on the news, even though for all they know he's just a prankster. And the public goes wild about it too.Just... Ugh. And then one of the Dark Kingdom guys gets invited to TV somehow, to talk about the crystal. Even though there is no reason at all for the public to take the Silver Crystal hooplah seriously. Ugh.

On the whole, though, it's an okay series. I like the art style.
 

murrow

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I agree with the OP in most things.

Personally, I didn't care for the original series when it first aired. I only grew to like it after I started dating a crazy No 1 fan. Still, what appealed to me in the show was the irreverence, the unintentional hilarity and the air-time given to the sidekicks. Sailor Moon wasn't a series that took itself seriously most of the time (I still grin remembering Tuxedo Mask driving the haunted bus to save the scouts). And the filler episodes focused on the supporting cast made all the difference, because, like in many children/teen anime, Usagi is much less interesting than the ensemble she puts together.

I do miss those things, because in some ways "Crystal" is just the opposite. But I must say I liked the more action-y direction taken with the fight scenes. It became more dynamic and fun to watch, and it's something I thought the original series lacked.

My biggest beef lies actually in the use of CGI. It's horribly conspicuous, and it gets to an all new low when it's applied to characters' faces. Getting a believable CGI face in anime, even if it's cell shaded, is quite hard to pull off, and I believed they should have stayed on the safer road.
 

Sniper Team 4

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voleary said:
But I must say I liked the more action-y direction taken with the fight scenes. It became more dynamic and fun to watch, and it's something I thought the original series lacked.

My biggest beef lies actually in the use of CGI. It's horribly conspicuous, and it gets to an all new low when it's applied to characters' faces. Getting a believable CGI face in anime, even if it's cell shaded, is quite hard to pull off, and I believed they should have stayed on the safer road.
See, that's one thing that I think this series could have blown the other one out of the water with. Anime techniques have come a long way since the original, so I was really hoping that the fight scenes would be dialed up. And they were. When Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter were fighting one of the Four Kings (Jadenite, I think), they were using brand new attacks and top notch animation style. It was epic.
The problem was that it lasted for all of ten seconds. Then it cut away to Usagi, and then when it came back, they were all down for the count. This happened every time it seemed like. I was super excited when the four Scouts were going up against the Four Kings, but they didn't do anything. They pleaded and then got the snot beat out of them. I wanted to see the fighting.

Totally agree on the CGI in terms of the faces. Mako's chin is just way too pointy.
 

[Kira Must Die]

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I've only seen the first two episodes, and came to the conclusion that Sailor Moon doesn't hold up very well, even with the modern make-over.

I was never a fan nor did I have any nostalgia for Sailor Moon, although I didn't have any hate towards it and have only seen bits of it here and there as a kid. I was more of a Card Captors guy. I did check out a few of the old show with the new dubbing. It has its charm, but like I said earlier, I don't think Sailor Moon holds up all that well these days, especially compared to some of the other shows I've seen from that time. From what I've seen of Crystal, it doesn't really do much to update or improve on it.
 

Sniper Team 4

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[Kira Must Die said:
]I've only seen the first two episodes, and came to the conclusion that Sailor Moon doesn't hold up very well, even with the modern make-over.

I was never a fan nor did I have any nostalgia for Sailor Moon, although I didn't have any hate towards it and have only seen bits of it here and there as a kid. I was more of a Card Captors guy. I did check out a few of the old show with the new dubbing. It has its charm, but like I said earlier, I don't think Sailor Moon holds up all that well these days, especially compared to some of the other shows I've seen from that time. From what I've seen of Crystal, it doesn't really do much to update or improve on it.
As much as it pains me, I can agree with you on that part. A lot of the drive for Crystal I think comes from hardcore fans, but if you didn't enjoy it growing up, it's painful to watch at parts. A friend at work asked me if she should watch it--either the original or Crystal--and I told her maybe. I explained that, at the time, Sailor Moon was groundbreaking on a lot of different levels, but compared to what is done today in anime, it hasn't aged well.

You're spot on with Crystal not doing much to update or improve it though.
 

Dr. Cakey

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We're still waiting on the "why" of Crystal's appalling...everything. You don't need a particularly keen eye to notice the art and animation in Crystal are both hideous and some of the worst, if not the worst, to come out of anime in 2014. On top of that it's by Toei Animation, who always have godawful CGI even by anime standards. The preliminary assessment, as far as I know (I am not watching Crystal and don't particular care about it), is that a bunch things went seriously wrong with its production. Also, Toei is just making too many shows at the moment. One thing we do know is that Crystal's animation is outsourced to hell and back. You're probably familiar with how some animation work in anime is often outsourced to Korea because it's cheaper (the downside being that you get junk which the home staff then needs to correct). Crystal is outsourced to the Philippines which - at the risk of disrespecting people who probably spend their entire professional lives being disrespected - is another rung down on the totem pole. As I recall, one of the Philippinese animators for Crystal showed up on Reddit, somewhat deservedly pissed at people criticizing the show, because his studio had been given far too little time to do their jobs (I don't think there was any verification on this, but it's reasonably likely that it was genuine).

That said, I watched some of the original (subbed) Sailor Moon over last summer (apparently ADV put out some subtitled Sailor Moon DVDs in the early 00's shortly before the anime bubble burst). I hadn't seen a single frame of Sailor Moon in any language before than and...that show is really good. I only watched about 12 episodes but that show is so fun and dopey and seriously clever I absolutely give it a thumbs-up even though I haven't actually gotten to the plot yet. At the risk of being one of those "more relevant than ever!" fucks they stick on the back of dystopian novels, I'd say Sailor Moon is at least as 'groundbreaking' today as it was in the 90's, though perhaps for entirely different reasons.
 

Kinokohatake

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Well I'm liking it. Then again I read the manga first. Kinda sad I won't get drunk ass Sailor Moon again though.
 

Kaimax

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Alcamonic said:
Unfortunately I must agree with earlier comments on Crystal.
I wish they had kept the original series' style to the characters. These new one looks like barbie-dolls.
Ironically "the original" was not the original, while this "new" one is actually adapting the original manga art style besides the Horrible CG.

And they should've just changed Usagi's Voice Actor like all of the other heroines. The original is just way to old now too voice a hyper klutz girl like Usagi.
 

Casual Shinji

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Fappy said:
I watched the first episode back when it started airing and couldn't stand Usagi's voice. Holy crap was it whiny D:
She also sounded like she was 40 trying to sound 14, which was probably the case since I remember hearing the original voice actress apparently reprising the role.

OT: I thought the original was pretty crap too, but it atleast had some charm to it what with it being old school handpainted cells, and the character designs being actually good.
inu-kun said:
If someone understand in the area, is CGI today this cheap to replace animations with it? I still remember Mirai Nikki's CGI cyborg dogs.
Yes it is.

Traditional animation takes a lot of time and money correctly redrawing the same character from different angles and in different stances over and over and over. With CGI you just have one computer generated character model to manipulate, and you can run a physics program to take care of hair and clothing. It's obviously a bit more complicated than that, and I'm not an expert, but that's about the gist of it.
 

Scarim Coral

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I only watched the first episode and I was competely put off with the animation style. Yes it is pretty much everyone are under the botox effect as in no expression from any of the characters at all!

Seriously, they even go out of their ways to not show any expression at all as I once saw this comparison stills shot and the scene with the mother seeing her fail score, in the first anime, she was angry while in Crystal, the note cover her angry reaction!
 

Queen Michael

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Casual Shinji said:
Oh, and skewing so closely to the original manga meant my favourite story arc of the original anime (the Naru/Molly and Nephrite storyline) was completely non-existent.
Preach. That storyline was the very first time I ever saw a cartoon being genuinely serious and mature. As in mature mature. Not blood and death mature.
 

Casual Shinji

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Queen Michael said:
Casual Shinji said:
Oh, and skewing so closely to the original manga meant my favourite story arc of the original anime (the Naru/Molly and Nephrite storyline) was completely non-existent.
Preach. That storyline was the very first time I ever saw a cartoon being genuinely serious and mature. As in mature mature. Not blood and death mature.
I always enjoy being quoted, even if if they're not mine. =D
 

Queen Michael

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StriderShinryu said:
Oh, and skewing so closely to the original manga meant my favourite story arc of the original anime (the Naru/Molly and Nephrite storyline) was completely non-existent.
Preach. That storyline was the very first time I ever saw a cartoon being genuinely serious and mature. As in mature mature. Not blood and death mature. That kind of tragic romance was one of the most moving things I've seen to this day. (The awesome Swedish voice acting helped.)