CJ’s Anime Review Vlogs – Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3, Episode 5

My Final Thoughts on Sailor Moon Crystal

I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, dear readers. Well, not exactly all things, but it could be the end for Sailor Moon Crystal as we know it.

The fate of the show stands upon the edge of a knife. The Sailor Moon community has been through this before with the end of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon back in the early 2000’s which promised something more after a short break, but never did. I agree with most fans that this reboot has about a fifty percent chance of coming back. I personally see the most obvious signs in the merchandise. Sailor Moon figures and collectibles are selling extremely well… but most of it is based on the old anime, not this new one. Honestly, I’m not really for or against Crystal coming back. It’ll just make me more annoyed with ignorant fans toting it around as the greatest adaptation of franchise, but it would also end a lot of discussion too if it went away. Neither situation is good, at least for me.

Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 16 Review

Did I accidentally get warped to another dimension where Sailor Moon Crystal is a decent anime?

It’s hard to believe that this is the same series that we’ve been experiencing all this time. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The animation is still incredibly wonky and it’s hard to tell where characters are in relation with each other. Aside from that thought, I really enjoyed this episode. Why’s that?

Let’s talk character development, shall we?

The Best and Worst Sailor Moon Manga Arcs – Part 2

It’s been too long since I’ve written about Sailor Moon! Oh, I kid. Unless any relevant information crops up in the next few weeks, I don’t plan on talking about the series beyond my Sailor Moon Crystal reviews. To end our current obsession with Sailor Moon, I’m going to finish this pair of articles, whose subject is near to my heart. I’ve said before on Our Inked Obsession that Sailor Moon was the series that got me interested in manga. It’s not a perfect story, but it’s one that has remained relevant to this day, in my opinion because of its incredibly loyal fanbase.

Last time, I spoke my thoughts on the lesser three of the five arcs. If you want to read my opinion on those, click here. With that out of the way, here’s the best two Sailor Moon arcs!

Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 4 Review

They did it! They finally did it! It’s an adequate episode!

Our time with Sailor Moon Crystal has been an interesting one, hasn’t it? After two years of anxious anticipation, it was revealed that the new anime wasn’t the God sent adaptation we were hoping for. Back in my speculation blog, I predicted that if Sailor Moon Crystal stuck too close to the manga, it would end up being an inferior product of it. I ended up being right, but there was one thing I was wrong about.

I initially thought that Toei Animation was styling the characters in hopes of appealing to a new demographic. The character designs reminded me of something out of Precure or other modern magical girl anime. Now I realize that they were merely meant to reflect the style of the manga. Unfortunately, it seems Naoko Takeuchi’s style doesn’t work too well in animation. The more I see of Sailor Moon Crystal, the more I appreciate the old anime. Making the Sailor Scouts, for lack of better words, stubbier and shorter made them easier to animate. Ultimately, they made them more relatable too. I’ve mentioned before on this site that the Sailor Moon manga is paced on emotion, rather than logic. Takeuchi’s design works because it’s never needed to see how Sailor Moon moves within her own universe. There’s no need to explain why she’s flying through the air or kicking an opponent. In animation, we see every frame of her actions, which makes Takeuchi’s design fall apart, seeing the characters’ rather deformed and elongated bodies twist and turn unnaturally.

The Best and Worst Sailor Moon Manga Arcs – Part 1

With all the recent hype, I’ve been thinking a lot about Sailor Moon, mostly about how close Sailor Moon Crystal is to the manga version. Unlike most manga, the Sailor Moon manga came out around the same time as the original anime. In some arcs, the anime proceeded the manga, so it can be classified as the original story and not at the same time. What is certain is that mangaka Naoko Takeuchi and her team came up with the original ideas and concepts behind the characters we know and love, so the manga is likely the definitive version of the story.

The manga will no doubt be replicated in this new anime for better or worse. We haven’t had any news yet of a second season or future installments for Sailor Moon Crystal, but this current season is likely going to be successful so I doubt Toei Animation will hesitate to cash in on other story lines as well. From what I’ve seen so far, I at least enjoy the subtle changes made to the material and I hope they keep it up to differentiate the new anime from the manga.

So I’ve been thinking, what are the best arcs in the Sailor Moon manga? Unlike many shonen these days, Sailor Moon only has five arcs, with an astoundingly short average of about ten monthly chapters each (about 40 pages or so). Since there’s so little story, I can easily rank the arcs from worst to best and analyze them all critically. I’m not going to be talking about the original anime versions of these arcs, since I haven’t nearly seen enough of it to give it a fair opinion. (though that might be saved for a future article). I may make a few comparisons to content I’ve seen, but only to point out trivia. Also, please keep in mind that I am open to criticism myself. If you think one of these arcs is better deserving of praise, please let me know in the comments. I already know many Sailor Moon fans will disagree with my worst choice and that’s perfectly cool. Without varying opinions in the fandom, there’s little room for interesting discussion and no room for us to grow.

There will be spoilers for each arc’s analysis, though I will keep the spoilers contained within their respective sections. So if you’re interested in my opinion on Black Moon, but don’t want to be spoiled for Infinity, don’t fret!

With that said, let’s get started… in the name of the moon!… or something.

Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 2 Review

The second episode of Sailor Moon Crystal is finally here! Having to wait two weeks for every new episode is going to be a test of will. After what I’ve seen this week, I think I can endure it. This isn’t to say that this episode was bad, but it confirmed many of my hopes and fears for this new adaptation.

Seeing as this one was mostly about Sailor Mercury, I feel there’s no better time to talk about the scout of exams or bubbles or mist or whatever she is. Back when I first started watching Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury was my favorite. But she was a lot of my friends’ favorite.

Sailor Mercury wasn’t just popular among our group. While we bickered and fought at the chance to play pretend as her, at the same time there was probably a similar group of school children in Japan, arguing about who was going to be Sailor Mercury in their imaginary games. You see, I attended a private school that was incredibly similar to Japanese schooling. It was very odd, but I always found my school experiences to be more like Azumanga Daioh than any American cartoon. We wore uniforms, remained in the same classroom for nearly every class and, most importantly, were focused in higher education.

Sailor Moon Crystal Announcements and Speculation

There’s a new episode of The Powerpuff Girls coming out? Wait, what year is it? Is it the late 90’s? It must be, because there’s a new Sailor Moon anime coming out too! Did I become a time traveler?

Seriously though! There’s a brand new Sailor Moon anime adaptation coming out, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the series. It will stream worldwide in several different languages July 5, 2014. For now, we still don’t know terribly much about this new adaptation, but my hope is that it runs somewhere between 26 to 52 episodes. I couldn’t bring myself to watch 200 episodes of the original show, so I certainly won’t do the same for the new one.

It’s no secret I’m still passionate about the manga version of Sailor Moon. As I’ve grown older, it’s earned my respect as being unapologetic for its cheesy, but constructive themes of love, friendship and perseverance. I’ve never been much of a fan of the anime, because of personal reasons. As I grew older, it became easier and easier for me to spot edits and censorship in localized anime. Manga back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s typically wasn’t censored, so I was able to experience Sailor Moon better in its original context. Admittedly, this fascination with the manga version also likely lead to my obsession with manga today, but that’s a whole other story for another time.