First Impression – Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal III

Gosh, who could these new characters be?

Well, I never finished blogging the last seasons of Crystal, but with my favourite characters from the franchise coming up (and also the one arc where Mamoru isn’t hypnotized and brought to the evil side), I figured I should see what this new season is like.

So there’s a new overlord in space who is going to ruin things on Earth and such. There was a lot of new jargon used in terms of what they want, who they are, and of course the new monsters are named something new, but all you really need to know is that they’re evil. The first episode seemed more interested in exposition than doing the whole monster of the week thing, which was nice (though basically what the previous seasons of Crystal were doing anyways). It was basically recap and set up for the next arc that’s about to happen. The next episode felt really nostalgic of the original Sailor Moon anime, with the more comedic chase scenes during the battle, the backgrounds seem more similar to what they used in the original, and the attack animation pretty much being reanimations of the original (plus the sound effects sounded pretty familiar). I honestly can’t remember what went on in the last seasons battle-wise, but this seemed more memorable just because of the nostalgia involved. They definitely added that in too, since the manga’s version of the battle was basically just Usagi pulling out her rod and using her attack.  I always found the short chase scenes in the original kind of tedious, even if they were short, just due to how silly they were, but at least here, it’s memorable because it’s drawing from the 90’s anime.

This was both kind of new, but not really. However, wow the art and animation have improved. And the transformation sequences aren’t in CG anymore! Hooray!!! I can’t remember if there were sound effects in the other seasons (though there probably were), but it’s really entertaining to listen to as well. There were still weird hands and whatnot throughout the episodes since Takeuchi’s art is probably pretty hard to animate, but it looked so much better than the previous seasons of Crystal looked. I wonder if this is because of the change in staff, or because of the insane amount of merch that they’ve been selling paying off. Maybe a bit of both.

The two new mysterious characters from Mugen certainly are mysterious. …Though it’s pretty obvious from everything shown in the episode that they’re going to be new sailor senshi. The changes in seiyuu were interesting, since Haruka sounds super masculine now. Hell, if they didn’t show her in a skirt after transforming, she could totally pass for your average male anime character voiced by a woman. …And her seiyuu does a better job at sounding male than most female seiyuu that voice men. Maybe this voice will sound weird when the reveal happens that she is female, but it’s interesting for now.

As for Michiru, her new seiyuu is fine? It reflects her character pretty well as far as I’m concerned. I’m looking forward to seeing their transformation sequences animated, as well as the short delve into the yuri genre that these two characters (and all of the other females who can appreciate their good looks) bring into Sailor Moon. I guess Chibiusa and the mysterious new girl also have that sense to them, after showing the healing power of female bonding (plus they’re naked together in the opening). But anyways, the new senshi have a more ominous sense to them, since all of the foreshadowing so far is about destruction. Sure, the foreshadowing in Sailor Moon is pretty much always about destruction, but this time, there are team mates involved.

Behold, the true power of yuri.

I really like the opening song, and the ending with the duet between Michiru and Haruka’s seiyuu is cool too. …I have to admit that Chiaki Kon’s work here as a director isn’t bad. Though this seemed to follow the manga pretty closely and threw in some of the quirky things the original anime had, so maybe this is another case of the source material being good reflecting in the anime. Though overall, this new series seems like it will do better than the last director produced. The added nostalgia seems really smart, since I’m sure that’s what a lot of fans wanted when the remake of Sailor Moon was first announced. …So you win for now, Chiaki Kon. But I’ll be sitting and expecting another Arcana Famiglia or Devils and Realist 13th episode which included the exact same poorly animated attack sequence 3 times like they thought no one would notice or care. But I noticed. I cared.

It’s very important that Mamoru gets cute, colour coordinated accessories too.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.