Sailor Moon Crystal - July 5 Premiere

[Eldariel]

Well, I used Google translate to read what it says, and I really hope I'm wrong about this, but the release date is January 2015.

Sounds completely inevitable, and expected. I was assuming they'd modify stuff about the manga and work the whole but it seems they're more or less just animating the manga. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing: Manga SuperS and Stars in particular are something I'm really looking forward to. It does leave some of the inconsistencies, weird foci and pacing issues from the manga intact. Classic in particular could've used a bit more fleshing out IMHO (hence all my gripes with this anime). But what's done is done; I guess now we're just to enjoy the ride.

[Shekinah]

Spoiler: Episode 10

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Ami talking about the moon's 28-day cycle, with ice cream advertised behind her, made me giggle. I know its immature, but with the Senshi being walking expositors and nothing else, I'll take what I can get.

Only five donuts and you think Usagi will share? That's cute, Ikuko.

Minako will always look awesome with a sword. No one can (or should) argue this.

Jadeite, Knight of Harmony! That is friggin' hilarious. My God, these titles... holy crap. This might actually help with my anxiety tonight. It's so ridiculous that I love it. I need to ask my DM if I can make my cleric the knight of sunshine and rainbows.

Wait, no he's a baron... the LORD of sunshine and rainbows! Someone help, I'm going to drive my DM crazy.

And then it gets to the shipping. I don't mind non-canon shipping, but Crystal did it. Minako not only confirmed it, she allowed the ****ennou to attack them because they used to be in love. I have a migraine now. Thanks, episode.

And then Sailor Moon went up to space and healed the planet. I can't even laugh at the sweater vest Mamoru wears at the end as "Endo." This episode broke me and I'm going to bed.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Spoiler

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Yeah, those titles were really stupid. "We're knights, really rich guys who carry swords! All our titles are overly sappy happy things!". Knights with virtuous titles are fine, knights whose titles are entirely things like "harmony and peace" aren't. They're warriors! They're leaders! Their titles don't exactly inspire confidence in crisis!

[Shekinah]

Spoiler

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Yeah, those titles were really stupid. "We're knights, really rich guys who carry swords! All our titles are overly sappy happy things!". Knights with virtuous titles are fine, knights whose titles are entirely things like "harmony and peace" aren't. They're warriors! They're leaders! Their titles don't exactly inspire confidence in crisis!

At least we didn't have a knight of puppies and candy floss.

[Sith_Happens]

Spoiler

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Yeah, those titles were really stupid. "We're knights, really rich guys who carry swords! All our titles are overly sappy happy things!". Knights with virtuous titles are fine, knights whose titles are entirely things like "harmony and peace" aren't. They're warriors! They're leaders! Their titles don't exactly inspire confidence in crisis!

Spoiler: Knights in Shining Armor

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I'm pretty sure the titles were meant to mirror those of the Senshi ("Guardian of love and justice," etc.).

On an unrelated note, Hulu's subtitles were full of translation errors this week for some reason.

[Eldariel]

At least we didn't have a knight of puppies and candy floss.

You sure? They haven't given Endymion a title yet.

[Shekinah]

You sure? They haven't given Endymion a title yet.

He's the knight of pastel colors and flowery speeches.

[Sith_Happens]

He's the knight of pastel colors and flowery speeches.

I believe you mean dramatic entrances and bridal carries.

[ryuplaneswalker]

The Knight of Bad Disguises and Weaponized Flora.

[Legato Endless]

Or to summarize:

The Knight of Brief Distractions.

[Shekinah]

Spoiler: Episode 11

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Usagi's dream was nice (and the crescent earth was very... Usagi).

Reika looks like Haruna's younger sister.

Surprised there's no mention of the senshi/****ennou pairing. It was the huge reveal last episode and nearly got them all killed. We're supposed to buy this immense emotional moment when the girls themselves act as though nothing happened at all. And it's not like there was no time to deal with that this episode. This episode had so much time to kill that it filled itself with slowed-down stock transformation sequences. I mean I know why it didn't; because Crystal's writing is abysmal and with the ****ennou dead in the manga, it has no reference point. Nobody is good enough at their craft to see how these events would ripple out from whatever specific plot point they're creating, but from the story perspective, it must be addressed. This is your plot point, Crystal, it's your responsibility to do something with it.

Rei exhibited signs of personality! And Minako was actually funny.

I'll spare everyone the rant about how diamonds don't work that way.

Mako calling Motoki "chan-oniisan" was pretty excellent. As was Reika's jealousy of "Endo" and Motoki.

It makes no sense why the ****ennou were not in the arcade. I think, again, it's just Crystal's creators not caring about how one thing changes everything. They didn't sit down and say "Let's see how this changes the story," they said "Let's make this change and keep everything the exact same." That is objectively bad writing. They're damaging characters (Venus especially) and creating plot holes. The ****ennou situation is entirely Crystal's making, and it's Crystal's responsibility to account for it.

I like the implications of it's okay for Mamoru to smack teenage girls around, but when he harms a cat? No way, that can't be Mamo-chan!

It looks like Beryl's staff has a strawberry on it. Now I really want some strawberry soda.

That's all I have to say about 11.

Spoiler: Episode 12

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Beryl blocking Mako's attack like it was nothing made me nervous. And really, Ami could have used Hyperspacial Sphere Generate a couple episodes ago. Would have been handy.

Beryl just stands there while the sword glows? No wonder she died, though it's still laughable that the ****ennou outlived Beryl.

Even better, Mamoru takes the sword, has a dramatic pause and then just takes off. I chuckled, though I probably shouldn't have.

I guess Mamoru being evil also gives him a thirty-foot arm. I know this is supposed to be dramatic, but I can't stop laughing at the animation.

"I wanna continue to live with you forever." This isn't a Disney movie! Well, okay, it has a princess and a prince falling in love with each other and an evil queen trying to stop it, but still.

The knights of two things are back! Everyone call yours! I am Shekinah, the Knight of Blue Skies and Walks Along the Beach! Oh, and I guess the Sailor Planet Attack isn't an attack anymore, or something. That's fun.

And then Metalia drops the equivalent of a dark energy anvil on them all! They didn't even get an epic boss fight! I was so sure they would be kept alive for the final battle, but then this! My God, that is hilarious! They just got the Wile E Coyote treatment as their deaths.

"Blaaaharhghaaaaaa." You said it, Metalia. This episode is more cheesy than a random Star Trek episode.

[Sith_Happens]

I, on the other hand, found this last episode to be genuinely good. Although that might partly be because about halfway through I randomly started imagining Usagi going "I BELIEVE IN THE MAMORU WHO BELIEVES IN ME." Or maybe that's just a symptom of what I liked about the episode in the first place, my thought process confuses the heck out of me sometimes.

The knights of two things are back! Everyone call yours! I am Shekinah, the Knight of Blue Skies and Walks Along the Beach!

I am Sith_Happens, Knight of Conquest and Destruction.

...Wait, that didn't work right.

Spoiler: Episode 12

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[I]And then Metalia drops the equivalent of a dark energy anvil on them all! They didn't even get an epic boss fight! I was so sure they would be kept alive for the final battle, but then this! My God, that is hilarious! They just got the Wile E Coyote treatment as their deaths.

Spoiler

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Isn't next episode the part where mass resurrection becomes Usagi's shtick? They'll be back.

[Mewtarthio]

Spoiler: Episode 12

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So, why doesn't Metallia just fire the crazy Instant Death Crater Beam at the Senshi? Or Usagi herself, for that matter?

[Mando Knight]

Spoiler: Episode 12

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So, why doesn't Metallia just fire the crazy Instant Death Crater Beam at the Senshi? Or Usagi herself, for that matter?

Spoiler

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Standard Evil Super Powers package. Comes with the need to make your opponent feel like they've been overpowered, rather than just simply overpowering them with an instant kill. Also the drawback that your instant-kill abilities only work when punishing your own lackeys.

[Eldariel]

Spoiler

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Standard Evil Super Powers package. Comes with the need to make your opponent feel like they've been overpowered, rather than just simply overpowering them with an instant kill. Also the drawback that your instant-kill abilities only work when punishing your own lackeys.

Spoiler

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Clearly the senshi would just deflect it while the Four Heavenly Kings were confused by having their brain anti-brainwashed. Besides, this happened once already and they charged Beryl and got re-brainwashed. They really are getting the stick this series.

[ryuplaneswalker]

First I call The Knight of Arrogance and Snark.

*gets handed a letter*

Hmm...positive traits.

WAIT! I am the Knight of Self Confidence and Wit. Yeah...that works *whistles innocently*


Also

Spoiler

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All I have to say about Sailor Moon attacking Evil Kamen with the holy sword of plotness

[Connery Voice]THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! [/Connery Voice]

[Shekinah]

Spoiler: Episode 13

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Moon Pride has some inappropriate timing here, considering the suicide.

Didn't want to come home to see the senshi give up on a fight. Why can't they channel their power like they did in the original series (particularly Sailor Moon S)?

The line about Usagi being their rising star makes me think of Stars. Probably not foreshadowing in the least, but eh.

Really hate the animation on the senshi when they have their sacrifice. Mako looks like she's passed out from too many drinks, Rei looks like she's trying to do a weird modeling pose, Minako looks like she's about to get up and become a zombie, and Ami looks like she just danced until she dropped. Not to mention the writing. Wasn't Usagi supposed to have killed herself? And then the watch saved her? Then the ****ennou show up as gems, but I thought they were crushed to death? What is going on here?

[Eldariel]

Spoiler: Episode 13

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Okay, so both Mamoru and Usagi were protected by their respective things but they still collapsed unconscious and Metallia left Mamoru and so on? That...doesn't really make an awful lot of sense, but okay. Senshi get two last stands and accomplish an awful little (of course I'm supposed to believe they woke up Moon inside Metallia but I posit she would've woken up anyways considering she was never hit by the sword in the first place).

Artemis teleports to the moon. Luna has a breakdown due to her Talking Cat-powers not being sufficient to protect the princess. Apparently the mere presence of the Ginzuishou inside Metallia empowers her and makes her gargantuan even if she can't use its powers/its powers are being used by Moon? Wait, didn't we have this same situation few episodes back? Why is there an episode 14?

Hm, no mass resurrection yet: curious.

[Sith_Happens]

THREAD HEALING ESCALATION!!!

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VILLAIN ERROR: INSUFFICIENT HAM

Seriously, I kept trying to get into the right mood for this whole "climax" thing but every time Metalia talked the only thing I could think to myself was "Really? That's the best you can do? Because I've heard ancient space demons during final battles for the fate of the world, and that is not what they sound like."

[Mando Knight]

THREAD HEALING ESCALATION!!!

Spoiler: Episodes 13 & 14

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VILLAIN ERROR: INSUFFICIENT HAM

Seriously, I kept trying to get into the right mood for this whole "climax" thing but every time Metalia talked the only thing I could think to myself was "Really? That's the best you can do? Because I've heard ancient space demons during final battles for the fate of the world, and that is not what they sound like."

Spoiler

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Honestly, if you're going to be ruining the Earth anyway, why not chew on all the scenery you can? It's a finale! The audience kinda expects a little

UNLIMITED...
BOMBASTIC!
VILLAINY!!!

at this point, so you might as well just go all out.

[Sith_Happens]

(Unspoilered along with my previous post because I realized it's hardly about the plot at all.)

Honestly, if you're going to be ruining the Earth anyway, why not chew on all the scenery you can? It's a finale! The audience kinda expects a little

UNLIMITED...
BOMBASTIC!
VILLAINY!!!

at this point, so you might as well just go all out.

On the bright side, these past two episodes (which I ended up watching back to back due to vacation) had a ludicrously high density of bits that made me imagine everyone saying "I believe in the [X] who believes in me," and even a bit of "Believe in the [me] who believes in you!" from Mamoru.

[Eldariel]

Spoiler: Episode 14

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Well, at least the tie-in into the second arc is more natural; probably because this time they didn't have to continue from an intended book end. Without the whole transmigration plot and everyone being revived, that skips most of the early nonsense in R. Gotta say, I was quite amused by Serenity's suggestion that Serenity become the queen of a kingdom with exactly zero inhabitants. Well, now that she made the obvious choice, I suppose Silver Millenium is kinda just hanging out there on the Moon? This never happened in the original manga continuum IIRC (though I've been proven to remember a lot of stuff wrong already) so it'll be interesting to see if they do anything with it.

[Nai_Calus]

Did everyone give up with Episode 15? XD

I'm only still watching this show at this point for snark value and to see how they handle Pluto. I'm re-watching the original anime on Hulu as well; and I've got to say, I like it a lot better.

Ep. 15:

Spoiler

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Rubeus looks weird. Demande's voice is a lot higher than his old one but still deeper than I'm used to from the musicals(Demande was played by a woman in those). Koan is nicely creepy but of course since we're following the manga she just dies right off. Bye! Creepy charred nun corpses. Still some derp, but the animation seems to be improved in 15.

Does it bother anyone else that while everyone else gets revived by the power of the Legendary Silver Plot Device, the Sh!tennou don't? Then again after their plot swerve with them and the senshi, that never got mentioned again and it would require the Inners to get character development, so...

I call Knight of Hope and Redemption while we're making fun of silly titles. Next time I play a Paladin I'm totally using that. (OK, I don't think I'll ever play a Paladin again, but if I did.)

[Shekinah]

I pretty much gave up after episode 14. Considering the rushed pace of it, the animation that focuses so much on beauty that it takes away character, and the pointless romance with the ****ennou, I just don't want to watch any more of it. I'd rather just read the manga and rewatch the series.

Viz needs to hurry up and release those DVDs already!

[JadedDM]

I'm still watching it. But I've more or less lost interest in it and probably won't keep up with it once this season ends.

[Sith_Happens]

On a different note, I just recently found out that Crystal is somehow only adapting one chapter per episode. Which means it'll have been just over two years by the time it finishes if it keeps airing semiweekly.

[Nai_Calus]

TBH, if Crystal tried to do more than one chapter per episode it'd be an even bigger disaster - As it is the pace means there's basically no time for character development or anything but filling in the lines.

Which makes the often-awful animation even more inexcusable, especially given that it's two weeks between episodes rather than the traditional one. The original managed to have mostly good, on-model animation at a much quicker pace for a longer period of time. (Stars and its spaghetti limbs perhaps aside.)

Crystal's biggest flaw, I think, is trying to exactly adapt the manga, often shot for shot. The pacing of manga does not work for anime and vice-versa. They aren't coming up with their own way of telling this story; so it feels strange. Then you get lazy things like not updating transformations - Two episodes into Sailor Moon's new power-up we're still using the original transformation but with the new brooch edited in. The very first time in R that Sailor Moon used her new transformation, we got a new sequence. :P

Hell, just look at the shading on Usagi's hand for Moon Prism Power, Make Up! in the original anime and Crystal. Crystal's hand looks lazy and the original actually looks better. To be fair, I hate Crystal's transformation and its weird spaghetti limbs.

People have complained about the original anime not following the manga and making changes, but to be honest, a lot of those changes were smart. You can debate the manga Dark Kingdom story being better, but there's no denying the pacing and storytelling of the last few episodes of Classic are fantastic and heart-rending, as opposed to Crystal's awkward pacing that still doesn't really accomplish much. When the Inners bite it one by one in Ep 45 of Classic, you're watching characters you've come to know and love sacrifice themselves for each other and the mission. They each get their moment, it's awesome, and Usagi's reactions are painful. Contrast Crystal, where people we barely know all die at once and nobody really cares. Ew.

Compare Crystal Usagi fawning over Mamoru and their Miraculous Romance and Being Together to the far more mature and strong Ep 46 Usagi who leaves a dead Mamoru behind, denying herself even a final kiss because the others died without getting to kiss the boys they liked, and manning up(Pardon the term) to go fight the ultimate evil alone.

Filler and changing things up made the original Sailor Moon anime an overall great show that is absolutely living up on re-watch to my nearly two decades of nostalgia for something that was awesome when I was a teenager. Very few things that were awesome when I was a teenager manage to stand up to the nostalgia goggles.

Crystal... Needs to get its act together, and its acts *not* together. Some acts need to be compressed, some need to be expanded. It's a mess as it is. Things need to change for the format and they aren't doing that, and the numbers people have pulled off the Japanese website for viewership show it - Between Episode 2 and Episode 14 they lost almost 70% of their Japanese viewership. (Episode 1 wasn't counted in the figures I saw because it was up for longer than the other episodes.)

[Eldariel]

Sadly I have to agree, instead of taking the decades of analysis and understanding of what works and what doesn't in the original anime & manga, Crystal throws it all to the wind and animates manga directly. While I do recall liking the manga, I always got the feeling that it didn't really spend a lot of time on character development and I feel that's something that would warrant being improved upon even in the manga, let alone the anime. Ultimately I still think the best version of the Sailor Moon story I've experienced is the live action show, which is kinda sad since I think the whole "live action"-aspect didn't really work that well and it got going really slow. Ah well.

[Nai_Calus]

Yeah. :/

I never managed to get into PGSM, but I wasn't fond of what I saw, and the whole princess sailor moon thing at the ending was just weird.

Oddly one of the best adaptions of Sailor Moon I've found to be the musicals. The original run, not the current one, unless Petit Etrangere REALLY improves over the drek that was La Reconquista. :P Haven't seen if I can dig up a fansub of it yet.

Oh well, kind of looking forward to next week. I hate Ami and I can't wait to see her get her ass kicked and kidnapped. ;P

[Nai_Calus]

Episode 16, Abduction: Sailor Mercury. Thoughts typed as I watch:

- Ah yes, the usual 'Usagi gets mad at ChibiUsa, who runs away'.

- Why do 'Mama' and 'Papa' keep getting subbed as 'mommy/mom' and 'daddy/dad' in this and the original anime? They're English loan words and mean the exact same thing. >_>;

- Who the heck has a house key that looks like ChibiUsa's time key? Mamo-chan no baka.

- When we first see Berthier her mouth looks like it's moving at the wrong angle across her face.

- It's nice to see Ami doing her water sensing thing, that was one thing I liked in the manga in this act.

- World's ugliest, wonkiest sweater over school uniform, followed by some really awkward-looking swimming, and a gratuitous shot of Usagi/Ami/Naru's crotches in swimsuits. Oh Crystal.

- Berthier's anti-peptalk is awesome. Suck it, Drekury.

- Only Usagi would cheer someone on loudly during a chess match. Oh Usagi. <3

- I think the music during Ami's comeback speech is the first time I've actually noticed the BGM in Crystal. Also, Ami's speech is slightly heartwarming, and probably would be coming from anyone else. I just really never liked Mercury. :P

- Oh look, an attack that gets used once and then never again. EltainElsa would be proud.

- All magic attacks should be performed by doing a handstand on one hand.

- Haha suck it Mercury.

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I think this was actually one of the better episodes of Crystal so far. We actually got some character development and Berthier was fun.