I decided over the weekend to binge the ENTIRE Crystal series and see how it holds up as one giant entity. It was long but I made it through.....though I cant anymore Serena/Sailor Moon as an individual for awhile. She's babied, fawned over, Mary-sued far to often. he one thing I will give this franchise is the command center being very consistent across all of them.
It was also painful because as I was writing up my thoughts majority of it got deleted and I didnt have the will power to try to fully re-type my thoughts.
Season 1 -
I love the OG s1 but watching this back again...idk it just felt like forever to end and it was only 13 episodes lol. The animation is still wonky and everything moves so fast that its hard to feel any emotional connection to any of it. Plus side is the slight deviations they took from the manga even if some were ridiculous (like the Inners needing to be told to fight by their dead ex-boyfriends)
Season 2 -
a slight upgrade from Season 1, though a downgrade in taking deviations from the manga.
While we start with my least favorite part of the franchise (taking out the Inners within 5 minute of the season) it was nice that we at least changed it up a little with Mars being the first one taken out. I always love seeing Venus step up and embrace her more serious side so her being the only Inner to survive was something I can accept.
Yes its from the manga but you KNOW THE ENTIRE STORY so having NQS grant everyone "Planet" powers was just a bad look considering what we grow through the next two seasons. 900 years in the future and NQS seems weaker than her present day counterpart. Black Lady arc just doesnt hit the same as i but t does in the OG (as most things do). Rini leaving at the end of the season only to be back a minute later....would've worked HAD she aged up some.
Season 3 -
Starts off creepily enough. It's a real shame that we dont get more dynamic battles throughout the series like we get in the first episode. Mercury analyses the situation, Jupiter/Venus are able to take care of the creature themselves and save the innocent. I seriously cant with taking half an episode to transform though....these episodes arent that long. Some of the attacks, especially when we first get the Outers - they're so fast and "instant". So many characters get focus if they are Outers or the villains, it is beyond refreshing. Though we spent nearly 6mins during the finale going over the same exact thing that we ended the previous episode on. Its almost as if they couldnt find a way to give us new content and saved every penny they could. Overall its the strongest season of Crystal.
Stray thoughts:
It's funny...they have Serena feeling so guilty that Diamond kissed her when she has a boyfriend but Uranus kisses her and it just leaves her speechless.Binging back2back definitely makes it VERY exhausting to see everyone obsessed with her. All I want to do when she is constantly crying over something
But the great thing about S3 is that everyone seems rather useful and isnt taken out by the enemy. Even though they werent themselves and it turned into a Moon-family save the day as usual.....it was still fun to see the very little screentime they gave to the Inners/Outers fighting. I could take an entire episode of the Inners vs. The Outers.
3x08 is basically just saying the same three things over again lol. They really drive home the "guardian of the destruction" and "the 3 talismans". If you took a shot for everytime they say "Saturn" "Guardian of Destruction" and "3 talismans" you'd probably be dead.
I love how Viluy is literally genetically born with her hat on.
I'm pretty sure that Uranus+leather is my sexuality.
Look...on one hand it is nice that MiniMoon isnt totally useless and is able to deal a pretty killer blow to the phantom monster guy even though the Inners were...useless with their 4x Combo attack....you can never top this
I seriously cant that they wasted so much time on Moon/Mini Moon powering up across two episodes...we ended 3x11 with them powering up and the whole "she desires....to be STRONG!" by Tuxedo and then we open 3x12 with "she desires...TO BE STRONG" by Artemis.
Season 4 -
Now we get into movie territory or roughly 6episodes worth of content. While the animation is stronger, now we get into the OVERTLY BRIGHT lighting.
"Season 4" isnt THE WORST but with only 2hrs to tell a story, a lot can get lost in translation and sadly overall a lot of what the characters go through just feel useless. It is a step down from Season 3. It is VERY heavy handed in Rini taking over lead duties with Moon/Tuxedo. The real annoying thing about this season/movie is that it takes 21mins until the Inners show up and that isnt even to fight. Its just in their civilian modes. Once they all do get their bits which was refreshing to get away from the Moon fam.....they get powerups only....to get captured and need the Outers to save them in pt.2. Which opening with the Outers is a great way to recover from what we had to open with in Pt.1. Saturn reawakening, power up everyone, and having a new mission statement was much needed.
The best part of films are the flashbacks. I will always take more Silver Millenium content, it has so much potential for storylines that it is a shame that it isnt explored more. The Inners being older than Princess Serenity is also interesting....especially since they were already trained to battle. Brings into question why they arent more effective.....which at the end of the film....everyone's goes into Eternal Mode and..... why are we doing 2 power-ups within 1 movie series? It is just to much and makes the entire first film rather useless.
Stray thoughts:
We had questionable dialogue:
Pegasus: "RIni, shout my name and yell Twinkle Yell"
"Princess Mars, here is your Mars Crystal"
"The mars crystal"
"My Mars Crystal"
"Mars Crystal Power!"
Rini keeps giving us hope that she will disappear and we weresoclose but no....DMC just HAD to stop her.
And just like that....the moonies get yet another power upgrade for no good reason whatsoever only to get a 2nd power up in pt.2....this film a doing everything twice...i dont get it (I know why but still)
Knowing what we know about Pegasus...one would think that since he is more Earth based and part of Endymions kingdom that he would help strengthen him/Rini while leaving Serena out of it.
Getting into Ami's inner jealousy is great and if only it could've been explored more and seeing her mom was great.
I question why the Maidens wear the Serenity hairstyle and why Helios thinks that the Silver Crystal was Princess Serenitys back in the day when it wasn't.....ALso interesting that a far future Rini is the one who kind of summons him.
It was really ballsy to have Nehelenia fully appear with 30minutes left in the film. Her belief that she is the true Queen of this solar system had plenty that could've been explored.
The Sailor Quartet is great and it is interesting that the Inners came before Serenity but they arent able to come before Rini and train. They are just in an internal slumber waiting to come about. One would think that they are essentially the Inners guardians that they would kind of "gift" to Rini.
Season 5 -
Stars at its core is a great story with great characters but poor execution with A LOT of repetitive dialogue (Sailor Mars is from Mars? Sailor Jupitier is from Jupiter?) and A LOT of exposition. We do not need this much, even as a child I didnt need this much. Lead Crow having to reiterate everything was ridiculous. If this wasnt so strictly beholden to adapted the Manga as closely to page as possible a lot could've been condensed. Characters erased, characters/motivations merged (Lethe/Mnemosyne merging with Phi/Chi).
Random thoughts I had throughout:
It was also painful because as I was writing up my thoughts majority of it got deleted and I didnt have the will power to try to fully re-type my thoughts.
Season 1 -
I love the OG s1 but watching this back again...idk it just felt like forever to end and it was only 13 episodes lol. The animation is still wonky and everything moves so fast that its hard to feel any emotional connection to any of it. Plus side is the slight deviations they took from the manga even if some were ridiculous (like the Inners needing to be told to fight by their dead ex-boyfriends)
Season 2 -
a slight upgrade from Season 1, though a downgrade in taking deviations from the manga.
While we start with my least favorite part of the franchise (taking out the Inners within 5 minute of the season) it was nice that we at least changed it up a little with Mars being the first one taken out. I always love seeing Venus step up and embrace her more serious side so her being the only Inner to survive was something I can accept.
Yes its from the manga but you KNOW THE ENTIRE STORY so having NQS grant everyone "Planet" powers was just a bad look considering what we grow through the next two seasons. 900 years in the future and NQS seems weaker than her present day counterpart. Black Lady arc just doesnt hit the same as i but t does in the OG (as most things do). Rini leaving at the end of the season only to be back a minute later....would've worked HAD she aged up some.
Season 3 -
Starts off creepily enough. It's a real shame that we dont get more dynamic battles throughout the series like we get in the first episode. Mercury analyses the situation, Jupiter/Venus are able to take care of the creature themselves and save the innocent. I seriously cant with taking half an episode to transform though....these episodes arent that long. Some of the attacks, especially when we first get the Outers - they're so fast and "instant". So many characters get focus if they are Outers or the villains, it is beyond refreshing. Though we spent nearly 6mins during the finale going over the same exact thing that we ended the previous episode on. Its almost as if they couldnt find a way to give us new content and saved every penny they could. Overall its the strongest season of Crystal.
Stray thoughts:
It's funny...they have Serena feeling so guilty that Diamond kissed her when she has a boyfriend but Uranus kisses her and it just leaves her speechless.Binging back2back definitely makes it VERY exhausting to see everyone obsessed with her. All I want to do when she is constantly crying over something
But the great thing about S3 is that everyone seems rather useful and isnt taken out by the enemy. Even though they werent themselves and it turned into a Moon-family save the day as usual.....it was still fun to see the very little screentime they gave to the Inners/Outers fighting. I could take an entire episode of the Inners vs. The Outers.
3x08 is basically just saying the same three things over again lol. They really drive home the "guardian of the destruction" and "the 3 talismans". If you took a shot for everytime they say "Saturn" "Guardian of Destruction" and "3 talismans" you'd probably be dead.
I love how Viluy is literally genetically born with her hat on.
I'm pretty sure that Uranus+leather is my sexuality.
Look...on one hand it is nice that MiniMoon isnt totally useless and is able to deal a pretty killer blow to the phantom monster guy even though the Inners were...useless with their 4x Combo attack....you can never top this
I seriously cant that they wasted so much time on Moon/Mini Moon powering up across two episodes...we ended 3x11 with them powering up and the whole "she desires....to be STRONG!" by Tuxedo and then we open 3x12 with "she desires...TO BE STRONG" by Artemis.
Season 4 -
Now we get into movie territory or roughly 6episodes worth of content. While the animation is stronger, now we get into the OVERTLY BRIGHT lighting.
"Season 4" isnt THE WORST but with only 2hrs to tell a story, a lot can get lost in translation and sadly overall a lot of what the characters go through just feel useless. It is a step down from Season 3. It is VERY heavy handed in Rini taking over lead duties with Moon/Tuxedo. The real annoying thing about this season/movie is that it takes 21mins until the Inners show up and that isnt even to fight. Its just in their civilian modes. Once they all do get their bits which was refreshing to get away from the Moon fam.....they get powerups only....to get captured and need the Outers to save them in pt.2. Which opening with the Outers is a great way to recover from what we had to open with in Pt.1. Saturn reawakening, power up everyone, and having a new mission statement was much needed.
The best part of films are the flashbacks. I will always take more Silver Millenium content, it has so much potential for storylines that it is a shame that it isnt explored more. The Inners being older than Princess Serenity is also interesting....especially since they were already trained to battle. Brings into question why they arent more effective.....which at the end of the film....everyone's goes into Eternal Mode and..... why are we doing 2 power-ups within 1 movie series? It is just to much and makes the entire first film rather useless.
Stray thoughts:
We had questionable dialogue:
Pegasus: "RIni, shout my name and yell Twinkle Yell"
"Princess Mars, here is your Mars Crystal"
"The mars crystal"
"My Mars Crystal"
"Mars Crystal Power!"
Rini keeps giving us hope that she will disappear and we weresoclose but no....DMC just HAD to stop her.
And just like that....the moonies get yet another power upgrade for no good reason whatsoever only to get a 2nd power up in pt.2....this film a doing everything twice...i dont get it (I know why but still)
Knowing what we know about Pegasus...one would think that since he is more Earth based and part of Endymions kingdom that he would help strengthen him/Rini while leaving Serena out of it.
Getting into Ami's inner jealousy is great and if only it could've been explored more and seeing her mom was great.
I question why the Maidens wear the Serenity hairstyle and why Helios thinks that the Silver Crystal was Princess Serenitys back in the day when it wasn't.....ALso interesting that a far future Rini is the one who kind of summons him.
It was really ballsy to have Nehelenia fully appear with 30minutes left in the film. Her belief that she is the true Queen of this solar system had plenty that could've been explored.
The Sailor Quartet is great and it is interesting that the Inners came before Serenity but they arent able to come before Rini and train. They are just in an internal slumber waiting to come about. One would think that they are essentially the Inners guardians that they would kind of "gift" to Rini.
Season 5 -
Stars at its core is a great story with great characters but poor execution with A LOT of repetitive dialogue (Sailor Mars is from Mars? Sailor Jupitier is from Jupiter?) and A LOT of exposition. We do not need this much, even as a child I didnt need this much. Lead Crow having to reiterate everything was ridiculous. If this wasnt so strictly beholden to adapted the Manga as closely to page as possible a lot could've been condensed. Characters erased, characters/motivations merged (Lethe/Mnemosyne merging with Phi/Chi).
Random thoughts I had throughout:
- It starts off the best probably due to the fact that we are able to catch up with almost everyone. It is weird that Haruka/Michiru, esp Mich are in highschool and excited about it....what grade were they supposed to be in when they went to Muguan? The Inners are in their 2nd year of high school so....I always put them at the same age as Darien.
- After so many mentions of it...Rini is FINALLY GONE and it feels so good. If only it happened an entire season earlier. But just as soon as we get rid of her....another cutesy baby had to come in the form of ChibiChibi. Even though she turns out to be Cosmos/Alt future Serenity....the franchise wasted to much valuable time bringing in cute kids to take up screen time.
- This film gives us whiplash as we just jump into it with Ironmouse attacking less than 15mins into the film where we literally have 11 Senshi part of the fight. Compare that to S4 pt.1 where it takes 21mins for the Inners to show up (as civilians) and even longer before they see some action. (part of my thoughts/review accidently got deleted so.....this was not fun to put back together) It takes roughly 30mins into pt.1 before Mercury/Jupiter are taken out and from there it just feels weird how life just goes on. We get Mina/Rei already back to being boy crazy....though it only lasts a minute because after that they feel the need to toughen up against the Starlights and act as if protecting Princess Serenity fulfills them.
- What I will say is nice - Haruka/Michiru finally meeting people who can match them in all of their talents is a nice sense of change....if only the same couldve be said for Mina/Lita/Serena who are just their usual fangirl selves.....who dont they fangirl over?
- Even though I dont need more of her....it is nice to see some type of life in the future and them hanging with people. Even seeing Serenity be stern was refreshing. Though I give MiniMoon this....she has the most real line in this movie surprisingly with "if we dont kill them, they'll kill us" as she's about to run into battle. That was real and very mature.
- Luna/Artemis have so much to answer for....how they are so surprised at everything all these years only to be from outside the galaxy themselves!?! Knowing that there are other Senshi throughout the galaxy???
- Why do the Starlights need wings to play to the outer planets?
- It never made sense as to why Saturn was shown to be SOOO POWERFUL in S3 and even last season. She's able to bring about rebirth. give power-ups but somehow she is nothing against Galaxia.
- Lethe/Mnemosyne were great but like a lot of things in this film - worthless. Just characters to add to the bodycount.
- I dont even understand how the Starlights died when all the Phi/Chi did was redirect their attacks.
- I think the biggest WTF moment is the fact that the Amazon Quartet are able to take out Sailor HMP indicating that they may be more powerful than the Inners or Starlights which would be crazy.
- The whole Chaos/Moon/Siblings thing is interesting enough until you think about how we are shown Queen Serenity showing up with a Starseed at the cauldron which we know is Princess Serenity whose Starseed wasnt the Silver Crystal because it was an entire separate entity until she was rebirthed. Who REALLY is QS that she is able to exist before everything else exists and somehow is able to take the purest light of the cauldron and seemingly shape it into the SIlver Crystal and pass it onto her daughter.
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Manga Usagi: "You'll be one of my bridesmaids, friend #2. Make sure you wear something less pretty than me...friend #1 is going to be wearing a pad on her head. Do better."
even actually CUTE when she tries to cheer Usagi up when she is sad. I NEVER used to think this kid was cute....but her friendship with Hotaru was really really cute. Ngl.
