Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 01 Discussion Post

[laceblade]

[In the future, I plan to post these way closer to the actual episode lol.]

What'd you think?

Comments

[laceblade]

I'm super disappointed by the lack of animation quality. It honestly makes this a little hard to watch for me, :/

[sarajayechan]

The animation and the designs were beautiful, in my opinion. Usagi's expressions remain as spot-on as the old anime and Mamoru looks positively gorgeous. The theme songs were great, too!

[tani]

I really liked it. I'm super-excited that things seem like they'll be moving faster in the original series, and I can't wait to see Sailor Mercury next episode. :D

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm thrilled with it.

I love the opening credits (Fighting Evil By Moonlight is still my favorite, but) and the glorious art in the placards/eyecatches. I love the watercolor-effects in the backgrounds.

And, probably most of all and I devoutly hope it continues, I love that they toned down the, ah, 'comedy' factor. I love that Usagi is a klutz, and a ditz, and terrible at school, but that this time the anime doesn't want me to be laughing at her instead of sympathizing with her.

Also I love the upped creep-factor on the youma, the obvious malicious evil, and I'm so very excited to see the next ep!

[katarik]

The animation sometimes veers into Uncanny Valley territory for me, and I'm not super-thrilled with the opening or ending credits (they're really pretty! I... liked the American dub opening a lot better), though I like this one better than Moonlight Densetsu.

However, I LOVED how they toned down the humiliation squick and turned up the creepy, and the placards are incredibly beautiful (I'm getting a strong Utena vibe, artistically), and I really like all the seiyuu thus far. My fiancee can't watch the original with me because she never saw it as a kid and has no nostalgia factor softening the humiliation squick moments all through the first half of season one, but this one she's enjoying thus far.

I love how they're emphasizing the past-life dreams angle this early, and that they're her dreams, too, not just Mamoru. I'm hoping they do more with Usagi/Mamoru than we saw with Serena/Darien -- I never really got why they were in love *as themselves*, you know? But that instant of connection, that 'I _know_ you' in that exchanged look but without anyone going drooly... I have hopes.

Overall, I don't super super love it, but I *really* like it.

[taichara]

That was sure a first manga chapter, alright --

Ehn, I'm undecided. There's something emotionless and wooden to the animation -- I'm sure the relative lack of expression is a factor -- and the designs in many cases just feel off. Also the animation quality in general, those zooms in on a bit of static art that even revealed lineart irregularities at least once were just painful. and I swear Seishirou Sakurazuka is cosplaying as Mamoru, speaking of design

On the other hand, the tiara toss didn't look as much like stock attack mode footage as I expected. Fewer stock attacks would make me very happy.

But yeh, right now I'm undecided leaning towards apathy. I'm glad we have a new version, but ... this is what we waited extra time for?

[alexseanchai]

Pretty animation. Less 'look she's nude' during the transformation scene, which is all to the good since she's fourteen. Ami! Still prefer the original.

[jeweledeyes]

I really liked the animation, which surprised me because I was expecting to hate it. I love the watercolor feel it has, it reminds me of Pretear (my favorite magical girl anime). I didn't love the way some of the characters' hair got bizarrely lightened (Ikuko and Haruna especially), and I don't really get why they did that, but otherwise I actually like this animation better than the original.

I don't really feel like I can comment too much on the plot because at this point, we've seen this particular storyline 875 times. I can't wait to see later episodes and see how it diverges. I did really like that Usagi was the one having past-life dreams. I also like the lyrics of the theme song, how it says, "We don't need boys to rescue us," etc. I have a feeling I will like this version better than the original (Japanese version, anyway). PGSM will of course always be my favorite, though ♥