Shoujo Manga Book Club discussion

Sailor Moon Crystal is now available on Hulu, CrunchyRoll, and Niconico.

Who's watching it? What do you guys think? Talk about it here!

So far I've watched the first two episodes and I like it.

There's not much that's different.

I like the art, but I don't like the art.

The inconsistency between transformation and regular art is annoying. The flowing hair and long limbs is supposed to be one of the trademarks about the new animation and episode two had a lot of blocky hair. Usagi's hair was pretty sold and her buns were two circles on her head for quite a bit of it.

I still don't like Sailor Moon's transformation, which is sad because her's has ALWAYS been my favorite. Ami's was pretty, apparently whoever did the transformation CG really liked Ami.

I think in terms of characters is shaping up quite well. I'm excited about the interaction between them and I really like Mamoru/Tuxedo Kamen and any scenes he appears in.

I'm with you on the art and the transformations. I can't stand CG for the most part, and while Ami's was better than Usagi's, the CG still made me cringe (though not nearly as badly as at Usagi's).

I'm glad liked that episode two fixed the expressions. First episode, all of Usagi's expressions were exactly the same regardless of emotion. Episode two it was good to be able to tell everyone's emotions apart.

I'm liking story so far. I'm hoping that, with the more condensed story, we'll get to see the outer senshi this season.

LOVED Mars' transformation. The fire looked AWESOME in CG (and if they did awkward CG on Rei's body, it was a lot harder to see).

So... did Jadeite croak at the end of that? It looked to me like he just ran away. :\

I am wacthing this every other Saturday and I am loving it, but I love everything Sailor Moon. I really like the interations between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo mask. I think Ami's transformation has been my favorite so far. Mars' was really good too. I cannot wait for Jupiter!

I could never choose between the sailor scouts. If I had to pick a favorite my respose would always be dependent on the day....I love them all!

Sailor V's appeared. :) From the preview, it looks like her transformation's the only one different from the original anime one. Kinda happy about this, since her original wasn't all that spectacular in comparison to everyone else's.

I feel weird saying this, but though Sailor Moon Crystal is fun, I prefer the original. I miss all of the weird filler episodes! I haven't watched the Sailor V episode yet, though, and have heard it's pretty good. Maybe that will change my mind a bit.

Out of all of the episodes so far, I think I like the Sailor V episode the least. I am not sure why. I think I am compairing it to the episode before it. I really enjoyed that one.

I'm with you on that, Allison! I like the new one well enough, but the old one has a special place in my heart that the new couldn't possibly fill.

I'm actually kind of sad that this isn't my first Sailor Moon.

If it makes sense, it's because I like it, but I don't know if I only like it because I love Sailor Moon and it's all nostalgia. There's no something new and different. I KNOW who's who and what's going to happen.

To be perfectly honest, the Sailor V episode 8 was the first one that I actually really felt that press of time that I had to wait two weeks before I could see the next episode.


The best thing about the Serenity episode was Mitsuishi Kotono. I liked her voice for Sailor Moon originally, but I don't think she ever showed the level of just shear anguish and heartache that she managed in this one.

I really FELT the horror behind it, where ultimately, she's a 14 year old girl and the stuff that's happening is BAD. I think that's something the manga showcased the most in the Stars part, where they lost that we are the strongest, we fight and ultimately we win.

I was reading some reviews of the episodes and the one I was reading the person was upset because Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter didn't have separate personalities in Crystal like the first anime.

But I feel that it's not that they have separate personalities, it's that while this is who they are and what they do, it's not ultimately the only thing in their lives. They all have their own dreams and goals and they haven't given up on them, it's just not important in the story.

I think that's something that came across to me in the manga, but didn't in the original anime. The anime made it seem like the only thing they had to live for was Usagi. She was ultimately the ONLY thing that mattered. While in the manga I felt that ultimately they were all friends, and they all had their own path.



Honestly, I think the reason why I liked the PGSM live action Sailor Moon was because it was different. Yes, the first episode is universally the same. Wake up late, mad at her mom for not waking her up, finding a cat, failing a test, meeting Mamoru for the first time and being teased, cat finds her, Naru is in trouble. It's the same in every incarnation of Sailor Moon.

What I liked about PGSM is there were questions, they did things differently and they gave the characters personality and life OUTSIDE of the Princess.

Because, to me, Usagi has always been about fighting and protecting so that everyone can lead an ordinary life, not so they can give up their lives and hopes and dreams so that they can worship at the shrine of Princess Serenity.

In PGSM, Makoto grew stronger because she realized she was meant to be alone to protect the princess. But then she found out, and Usagi helped her with that, that she was actually stronger because she was NOT alone. And she didn't deserve to be.

Minako did not join up and suddenly become everyone's friend. She was abrupt and harsh. She knew everything and to her, the rest of the girls were hanging on to a life that wasn't theirs. She wanted them to remember so they could be soldiers and do what they were meant to do.

The episode where she goes to have surgery and doesn't make it and Mars finds out and just destroys the enemy because she's so pissed and sad? That was a great moment.


It was a doubly great moment because it wasn't expected.

I think Crystal might actually suffer from it's closeness to the manga. The scenes are almost identical. And I do mean identical.

I read the manga again, after watching the Serenity episode and I almost wish I hadn't. I was aware of scenes that came straight out of the manga, but I wasn't really aware of just how STRAIGHT out of the manga they were, or really, just how many of them there are.

Just the part in Serenity at the beginning where we pan up from the side of Venus's face to show Sailor Moon with the dying Tuxedo mask, straight from the manga.

When Mamoru remembers, the whole thing with Serenity, straight from the manga. Even where he is Endymion reborn as Mamoru and it shows both of them with Mamoru having a jacket over his shoulder, that's a straight shot from the manga.

That's really why I wonder if this had been my FIRST Sailor Moon, would I like it as much as I do? And then I wonder if I'd watched this first, if I would have made it through all 200 episodes specials and movies of the original?

Just saw this, but apparently they've edited and changed the show for Blu Ray release. Most of it is good, some of it I don't like..

http://i.imgur.com/fdLxlQR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YgRMjq3.jpg

This one is my favorite because they really cleaned up the horrible face drawings and eye placement in this episode.

http://i.imgur.com/j5xD7Zn.jpg

I'm glad they fixed the faces. They made the expressions too subtle for a lot of things, which made it look like they weren't showing emotion in their faces (my biggest complaint about the early episodes especially). It looks like they fixed the spacing and line thickness most of all, which really helps.

You can really see the expression tweaks in Luna's face in that first image you posted.

I tried 1 episode but just didn't like it. Usagi's voice actress (who was the original) just was trying too hard and it came over forced and squeaky. I think it would have been better if she (just like all of the cast) had been replaced with a new voice actress.
Also add to that the horrendous animation at times, I was just laughing at it. Same goes for various other things. So yeah, no thank you.

I will just stick to loving the manga and the first anime series (and movies).

I think part of the problem with the voice in the first episode is that she was overcompensating. Usagi had almost no expressions, and so all emotion had to be shown through voice and voice alone.

Will agree on the animation at times. Especially the CG transformations. Just because the CG model can bend that way doesn't mean a person can...

I agree on you with that, it is a shame though that they did it like this, especially since the voice actress is so well known throughout the community.

Oh God, CG transformations, I was laughing so hard at those. I call them Noodle Figures. I think it would have better had they stuck with just animating it. Since seriously 3d noodle figures are just bad.
I also agree with that last part of your message. :)

I like the CG effects, but the people just don't look right. If they had mixed 2D and 3D, it probably would have looked better. You know, 2D people and make the ribbons and the element effects 3D. That would have looked super magical!

Not sure if anyone reads Otaku USA, but the December issue has a review for Sailor Moon Crystal. Basically they say it's fantastic and flawed. In other words, what everyone's been saying all along lol

Selena wrote: "Not sure if anyone reads Otaku USA, but the December issue has a review for Sailor Moon Crystal. Basically they say it's fantastic and flawed. In other words, what everyone's been saying all along lol"

I might go check that out, since I haven't read that magazine for a bit and know where I can get it. After playing catch-up tonight, though, I'm leaning more towards flawed. I can't put my finger on it, but something just seems missing in Sailor Moon Crystal- not missing from the Sailor Moon-ness of it all, but from the storytelling itself. It's done perfectly, but at the same time, it seems so dedicated to capturing the manga that it lacks something crucial to telling a story on screen. Again, though, I just can't figure out what it is. I still have fun watching it, and am even a defender of the art style at this point, but it feels off.

Then again, it doesn't help that the subtitles Hulu had on episode 10 were really poorly written.

Ha ha, the subtitles aren't from Hulu. Those are the subtitles put on there by the Japanese company for the world-wide simulcasting. That's why they're probably a bit weird or poorly written (I mean, "energies"? Really?). They're better than some subs (I got a DVD from Japan with English subtitles that could only be described as "Engrish" once), but you can tell it's someone who probably majored in English in college and doesn't have a grasp on colloquial English. ...I'm sure they think the same of us making Japanese subtitles, lol

I know a fansub group had a whole thing about all the flaws in the first episode translation-wise which was really fascinating. I didn't catch all of them myself, but I had caught a few. Let me ask my friend who showed me it if he can find that post again so I can share.

Found the blog post: http://notredrevie.ws/2014/07/05/tran...

...Actually, this would fix all my problems with the series. It eliminates the sort-of deadness I think the show is suffering from, the cleaned up translation the fan subbers provide, I mean. That's so disappointing!