*SPOILERS*
If I had to name the two most influential animes of all time, I would go with Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. I accidentally typed Sailor Mono when writing that last sentence, which sounds like an anime I wouldn’t be interested in at all. Moving on, Sailor Moon Crystal is a reboot of Naoko Takeuchi’s original 1992 anime, Sailor Moon. For those of you who currently reside under a rock, Sailor Moon is based on the adventures of Usagi Tsukino, a clumsy 14-year-old crybaby, who can transform into Sailor Moon.
Can I just point out that I Google’d her name (for spelling purposes), and the first thing that came up in the smart search was Usagi Tsukino feet, and I thought to myself, “Man, there are some f—ed up people in the world.”
The debut episode started out as you would expect. Usagi is late for school and trips over every imaginable thing including, Luna, the talking cat. Everything seems a bit rushed, but to be fair, there was a lot of origin story that had to be crammed into a 22-minute episode. The reboot stays true to the manga in the sense that it’s not so over-the-top. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s more mature. The original Sailor Moon was full of streaming tears and other exaggerated emotions, whereas the reboot does not. The animation is beautiful, the lines are clean and the colors are vibrant. Every character’s eyes take up at least a third of their face. I’ve seen a lot of back-and-forth on the transformation scene, the jump from 2D-to-3D seemed to throw some viewers for a loop. Personally, I felt immersed in the transformation scene as opposed to distracted. To each their own.
There are a planned 26 episodes, airing on the first and third Saturday of each month. However, I doubt the outer planets will be introduced (uh-oh, did anyone break the new to Sailor Pluto?). But will they stop after 26 episodes, especially with the original 1992 Sailor Moon being released, uncut, alongside Crystal? Unlikely. Overall, I thought the reboot was true to the manga. I think the series is going to get better now that we’re through the origin episode.
What’s up with Tuxedo Mask’s outfit though?
Sailor Moon Crystal is produced by Toei Animation, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Naoko Takeuchi’s original series.
