Sailor Moon Art Director motifs

[Talentless Fool]

I really like the animation style of the Ending - it really fits with the pure shoujo aesthetic they were going for (which they completely forgot btw except for the eyecatches on SMC3).
They kept focusing so much on the character design that they completely went over the fact that the CD is only the frosting and not the cake...

As for the Moon Pride video, it's cool.
Noticeably, you'll see for all of the exclusive footage (not including the CGI henshins and scenes from the Opening), the design is different from Sakou's - the faces are younger, the eyes brighter and more expressive, the hair style, the bodies are not the anorexic Tyra Banks wannabe mess of the setteis...

But man, they were really gunning hard for Sailor Moon Crystal to be a Saint Seiya-like in it's message via this video;
Young, brave girls ready to sacrifice their lives in the name of their friendship and love for humankind amidst all of the tragedies that befall over them, forsaking love

.... Basically the spirit of the Classic finale.

Instead we got:
Usagi: MAMO-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Also, who's in love with me this season? )
All of the others: Okaaaaay, girls gather around... time to pull out our stock footage and miss for the 999999th time... *snore*
That's our cue: 'Usagi-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!!!' 'Purincesuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!'

Reminds me of that Godawaful scene of World of Winx of the girls doing a cat walk in the streets of Paris

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

The Moon Pride AMV is probably the only memorable thing of the entire Crysternal project.

 

[Clow]

Who did the animation and direction for the Moon Pride AVM. It looks different than season 1 and 2.

Crystal should have had the same quality as the music video, but TOEI treated Sailor Moon very poorly at the time.

Quite frankly, I believe the music video looks good because TOEI was in no position to make Momoiro Clover Z look bad.

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

Quite frankly, I believe the music video looks good because TOEI was in no position to make Momoiro Clover Z look bad.

But was in a good position to make Takeuchi look bad?

 

[Clow]

But was in a good position to make Takeuchi look bad?

TOEI did turn her beloved manga into an ONA series.

I wasn’t a fan of Crystal back in the day, I stopped watching it.

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

But was in a good position to make Takeuchi look bad?

TOEI did turn her beloved manga into an ONA series.

So, that's it.

 

[Talentless Fool]

Ikuko Itoh being the Queen of composition
https://flic.kr/p/2piaYCk
The best illustration of the entire franchise for me, I love everything in this;
Usagi's ghost-like figure spreading butterflies,
Haruka's gorgeous side profile,
Michiru looking sassy and classy,
Setsuna's slight over the top camera angle looking all distant and refined,
Hotaru, looking slightly older, with an expression of melancholy.

The lineart is so crisp, detailed and perfect

This is also, in my opinion, Ikuko Itoh's art at it's penultimate.
It has this perfect shoujo aesthetic and softness to it, while being rounder and 'gentler'.
I really like the LD covers of SuperS but I'll never appreciate that she suddenly felt the urge to replicate Takeuchi's style in the manga pages with the more juvenile vibe the characters got...
In the SuperS finale, she forsake most of those Takeuchi features though

Man, I wished Crystermos' covers were this cool.

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

^ The LD jacket arts of S are always superb, such as this Saturn one:

https://auctions.c.yimg.jp/images.a...e60/i-img1200x1200-1693854636paxzqg161634.jpg

 

[Talentless Fool]

Going back to Sakou vs Takahashi and how supposedly Sakou's style was more difficult because it was more angular...
No, it wasn't...

https://flic.kr/p/2pigcYg Her setteis are a mess!
Sometimes the faces are angular, sometimes rounder, sometimes curvier...
No wonder no one knew how to 'draw' this art style because it has no logic!
(Which again reminds me of how Sakou, herself, was shocked that she got the job when she was convinced she flunked the interview...)

Takahashi's designs, on the other side, are actually more angular
https://flic.kr/p/2pigd1f

 

[Memelord_Yoshi]

Her setteis are a mess!
Sometimes the faces are angular, sometimes rounder, sometimes curvier...
No wonder no one knew how to 'draw' this art style because it has no logic!
(Which again reminds me of how Sakou, herself, was shocked that she got the job when she was convinced she flunked the interview...)

 

[Talentless Fool]

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

That's a pretty angular one - quite fit for teaching trigonometry in junior highs.

 

[Flame of Hikari]

It's not faithful to Takeuchi's art style. Where is the awful anatomy?

Tadano's style in 2023 is better

 

[Lady Pen]

Going back to Sakou vs Takahashi and how supposedly Sakou's style was more difficult because it was more angular...
No, it wasn't...

https://flic.kr/p/2pigcYg Her setteis are a mess!
Sometimes the faces are angular, sometimes rounder, sometimes curvier...
No wonder no one knew how to 'draw' this art style because it has no logic!
(Which again reminds me of how Sakou, herself, was shocked that she got the job when she was convinced she flunked the interview...)

Takahashi's designs, on the other side, are actually more angular
https://flic.kr/p/2pigd1f

Yes but you know Takeuchi's fans....give them lipsticks, lots of strands of hair, long legs and arms and they'll think it's faithful to Naoko's art style.

Tadano's style in 2023 is better

I think Itoh animating Tadano's designs was the best style and so similar to the manga. For example, ep. 18, 24, 31, 37, 45, 68, 55, etc. Tadano's was close in static pictures, like the Yumemi Yumeno art.

 

[Memelord_Yoshi]

Yes but you know Takeuchi's fans....give them lipsticks, lots of strands of hair, long legs and arms and they'll think it's faithful to Naoko's art style.

 

[Talentless Fool]

I think Itoh animating Tadano's designs was the best style and so similar to the manga. For example, ep. 18, 24, 31, 37, 45, 68, 55, etc. Tadano's was close in static pictures, like the Yumemi Yumeno art.

I REALLY LOVE Tadano's work on the Classic season; her episodes are some of my favorites of all!
And that Yumemi art!

If you take a look at her setteis, they are actually quite close and faithful in spirit to Takeuchi's style of that time.
https://flic.kr/p/2piyJhG
Ep.17 is one of my favorite Sailor Moon episodes and favorite anime episodes in general.
https://flic.kr/p/2pirUR3 https://flic.kr/p/2pixuXA
I love Itoh's style but on some days I fantasize how Sailor Moon would have looked had Tadano stayed...
https://flic.kr/p/2pixuXq Her old school vibe has a definite charm to it, that's precisely why the R movie is such eye candy material.

And this shot!
It is much more refined and elegant than anything Sakou tried to do and much more expressive that the design Tadano gave us for Etermos...
https://flic.kr/p/2oEXckT You can actually see the animator in charge of the Cosmos' Inners speech tried to gear back to this style of Tadano's and the girls looked DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

Season 1 Ikuko hits different.

I had no idea Ikuko drew this [supposedly]
I keep forgetting how tall Ryo is compared to the other girls. I keep imagining them around the same height.​

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

Also yeah there's something I find charming about Tadano's illustrations as well. [if these are hers]

I really like the way she does Mamoru [possibly my favorite Mamoru]

I want to find more of her poster images but all the one's I see are either low quality or small.

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

Sailor Moon S: Kotaete Moon Call. Who did that episode/game? I thought it looked really cute.

​

 

[Masquerade]

Who did the animation and direction for the Moon Pride AVM. It looks different than season 1 and 2.

Is there a chart of differences between Crystal directors [if it has multiple].

If we take our time to look, we'll see there were already red flags in the MV. When the inners are attacking, the frames are just not there. Sailor Muhrs even almost makes a cameo..