Sailor Moon Crystal Act 1 – Roses, Sparkles & Awesome

The beautiful manga…

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is not the first anime I ever saw (I think that honor goes to Project Ako) but it is the anime that got me into anime. For quite awhile I fully subscribed to the term ‘otaku,’ going to anime conventions, cosplaying, writing fanfic, being a member of my hometown’s only anime club, etc. I loved anime and watched hundreds of hours of all types and genres of shows.

Eventually a lot of things drew me away from anime, the biggest being gaming (my WoW addiction supplanted pretty much everything I did for a few years), but I’ve never stopped liking anime and adoring Sailor Moon more than most other shows. So when it was announced that the Sailor Moon anime was getting rebooted in honor of the property’s 20th anniversary, I was, to put it lightly, pretty fucking stoked.

The original Sailor Moon anime was 200 episodes and ran from 1992 to 1997, spanning 5 series: Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS and Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars, plus 3 animated movies. There was also a long running series of stage musicals known as Sera Myu and a one series live action series.

…and the anime, had some artistic differences, you could say.

The anime is a bit of a bone of contention with Sailor Moon fans – most of us love it because it’s what introduced us to Sailor Moon (or even just anime in general), but it’s just not really all that great of a show. The majority of the 200 episodes are monster-of-the-week filler episodes, there’s an anime-only story arc that’s just bad (the Dooooom Treeeee) and worst of all, it differs greatly from Naoko Takeuchi’s amazing manga, which was aimed at teenage girls, whereas the anime was more for preteens.

So when word came that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot, was going to base itself off the manga, rather than the original anime, I was even more stoked.

Sailor Moon Crystal is premiering concurrently in Japan and America, with it showing up at about 3am every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month. The first episode premiered last Saturday and you’d better believe I was up early to watch it. It’s being released in the States via Hulu, Cruchyroll and NicoNico from Viz Media.

Get used to seeing that expression on her face.

Act I: Usagi – Sailor Moon is a very basic introduction to our heroine, Usagi Tsukino, and details her discovering a talking cat, Luna, who gives her a magical broach that allows her to transform into the Guardian of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon. We’re also introduced to shadowy villains and the monster they summon, Usagi’s friends (who will soon take an even further seat back as supporting cast), and a guy who wears a tuxedo in the afternoon who is hunting for a “Legendary Silver Crystal.” TOTALLY UNRELATED, OF COURSE, we also meet the rogue Tuxedo Mask, who shows up to encourage Sailor Moon to fight a monster draining young girls of their energy via cursed jewelry.

Plotwise, this is…well, it’s the first episode of Sailor Moon. This plot has been done in the manga, the anime and the live action series, and it’s essentially the same each time, with no major diversions. There are a few small details that do make it make it more manga-like, such as the title of the episode and the glimpse of Ami Mizuno, a.k.a. Sailor Mercury, at the end of the episode.

Plot aside, there is a ton of newness in Act 1. I’m doing my best to see past my nostalgia and form opinions based on quality, but it’s difficult – even if the original anime wasn’t the best, it was incredibly formative to a whole generation of manga/anime creators and burgeoning fans.

I definitely shouted “OSHIOKIYO!” at this part, to the sleepy surprise of my roommates.

New Opening Theme

“Moon Pride” isn’t terrible, for J-pop. My problem with it as an opening theme is that it’s very generic and feels like any other anime opening from this modern age. In direct comparison, it’s no “Moonlight Densetsu,” which is an iconic opening theme either in English or Japanese. I was hoping against hope they’d just do an updated version of it (also known as “Moonlight Legend” and “SHE IS THE ONE CALLED SAILOR MOON”) and they didn’t, but “Moon Pride” really is okay. Maybe it’ll grow on me? The opening credits themselves are pretty generic but also just plain pretty, and features each of the inner senshi, so I have no complaints.

New Closing Theme

Loved it so hard. “Moon Rainbow” is pretty much perfect for the genre and show. Plus the animated sequence is lovely, even if it looks like Princess Serenity’s hair is three miles long. But you know what? That’s goddamn shoujo anime. Deal with it.

New Transformation Sequence

It’s pretty and it’s sparkly and it’s got way too much bad CGI. This is Sailor Moon, guys, one of the most popular and profitable series in anime history. You’d think some better effects could be afforded. I was mercilessly teased by saying I preferred the old henshin sequence to the new, but I do think that the sequence from 1992 works better than Crystal’s.

New Voice Acting

The only VA to return from the original anime to Crystal is Usagi’s VA, Kotono Mitsuishi. The rest of the cast is brand new. Now, I grew up watching the terrible terrible DiC dub, so I’m not as intimately familiar with the Japanese seiyuu as I could be, but I sure did listen to a lot of Peach Hips (the recording group made up of the Sailor Moon VAs). I’m not sure about the voice acting so far – Naru’s voice was grating and Luna’s gave me some serious whiplash, but maybe that’s just because I’m so used to her being a stately lady?

New Animation

Some Western fans used to think the show took place in Paris because preteens hadn’t read enough CLAMP to know what the Tokyo Tower is.

asdfasdfasdf yes. The new character designs with a style so much closer to Takeuchi’s, the fluid motion, the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Tokyo backgrounds, it’s just so perfect. There’s a scene in which Sailor Moon stands before the evening Tokyo skyline, pining after Tuxedo Mask was so beautifully drawn and colored that I thought it was a manga still at first.

Overall, I really really enjoyed the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. It was great to see new Sailor Moon and I’m eagerly waiting for more episodes. It’s a glorious mix of nostalgia and a modern sensibility that I really hope will draw in new fans. Sailor Moon might not be as subversive as other modern magical girl shows, but it is a trope-maker and genre definer that really deserves its place in anime history.

Stray Thoughts:

– Totally adoring the art nouveau-style eye-catches. They obviously remind me a ton of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which I found to be an amusing meta moment, since Utena was made by the producers of the original Sailor Moon anime who were severely limited during production. Also, they’re so so so so pretty.

– I can’t get over how perfectly shoujo this show is. Flowery frames when new characters are introduced! Jewelry! Intricate hair! SCHOOL UNIFORMS EVERYWHERE. Tonally, this show has hit the nail on the bedazzled head.

– God how is Tuxedo Mask’s tophat even dumber now? It got bigger and floppier and stupider. And take off those terrible sunglasses, Mamoru, you’re not fooling anybody.

Seriously dude, see a decent habberdasher.