So I finally watched both movies and I've gotta say I was extremely pleased and satsfied. Everythng was completely on point with the manga with no unneeded fluff, other than a few cut scenes here and there (I still miss the scene where Chibs is thinking about which Inner to talk about Helios with) this was basically as perfect a panel by panel adaptaton as we're gonna get. Which is what I was always hoping for wth Crystal. This is probably the best Crystal has ever been, especially animation wise, turning the Dream arc into two movies really did it wonders!
If I had any complaints it's probably that the 1st movie's pacing felt slightly choppier than the 2nd. I'm not so much complaining about the fast pace (it was always going to be like that since it's following the manga) but I'm not sure each girl's crisis flowed into each other as well as it could have. I realize technically nothing important got cut (Though I'm also a bit miffed they cut the scene hinting at Artemis's crush on Minako) but idk, I feel the first part would've worked better in episode format rather than as a movie. The 2nd movie was completely on point though pacing/flow wise.
Also disliked alot of the 90's pandering/callbacks such as reusing old 90's anime stock animation/footage and recyling songs such as Watashitachi Naritakute and Rakushiku Ikimasho, but I can be slightly more forgiving here considering they offset it with just as much original content.
And unfortunately I felt Saturn got shafted again transformation wise. Her first, true officiial henshin scene and that's all we got? Felt alot shorter compareed to the others.
But ultimately these are just nitpicks and I'm just pleased some of the best parts of the manga finally got animated after almost 30 years, can't wait for Stars now!
I watched part 1 while I was sleepless from waiting yesterday morning, and I had to stop halfway through Part 2, as the fast pace got to me and made me feel very tired. Went to sleep, woke up and now I've just watched both back to back, in japanese, and I just feel like crying - though the ending of Part 2 was a bit sudden, the "to be continued" was missed. Anyways, I love it!
These are the sorts of little expansions Crystal should’ve stuck with, not trying to shove a whole Senshi/Shittenou x 4 Miracle Romance within the limited span of only 13 episodes of you’re planning to do a strict manga adaptation.
Watched both parts this morning. Here are my thoughts that come to my mind right now summed up:
Both movies in general were great but far from perfect. I would give both of them a 7/10. Gotta recognise that I didnt enjoy them at the first viewing ( at the second viewing it got a bit better ) because of one single thing: Horrible peacing, lack of development and rushed scenes without giving characters time to breath and let the story assemble. I get that this is a 1/1 Manga adaptation but this has always been a big problem in Crystal and it has never been solved: what works in a manga doesnt translate well in motion if there is not a good peacing job behind. And this is a major problem to me and now with the Dream arc adaptation being turned into a 2 part 80 minute movies ( including credits which are 4 minute long in each part ) its even more noticeable. I’m glad these were made into movies cause you can see they are more consistent regarding animation quality and character designer drawing trough the scenes which was always a big problem of Crystal but now you can clearly see that these movies needed 10-15 minutes each part to give time to characters to interactuate to each other, to the introduction of villains and of course to the inner senshi awakement power scenes. Everything feels rushed, characters dont talk to each other about what happened and the relationship between all characters ( Chibiusa/Helios, Moon/Neherenia, Amazon Trio/Inner senshi ) lacks character development and screen time to build their relations. It seems that Toei just wanted 2 short movies and that was it. 75 minute time each ( both credits are about 4-5 min each ) and they didnt care much about the peacing. I feel sad for the director and writers that had to fit everything into this runtime. If they only had had some minutes added… movie would have been much better regarding characters portraits.
The problem with Crystal is that they are good adaptations of the original manga story but they are not good motion productions. Just because you copy and adapt almost 1:1 manga pages doesn’t mean that the production will be amazing if the original material is not well developed and needs writing work which is something that happens with Naoko Takeuchi’s work. She was never a good writer and Crystal doesnt fix this which it should. You can clearly see this in the “ final battle “ of the 2n movie againt Zirconia. Its chaotic as [BLEEP] as it is in the manga. They haven’t fixed anything. Characters come and go ( and don’t do much liker Inners and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto which are just in there standing ) trough scenes and do nothing. Just repetitive cheap talk trough some scenaries until the main protagonist gets the moment to shine and ends the enemy with one single shot. The whole battle is boring which is something that Sailor Moon should never let happen. Nehelenia doesn’t seem like a real threat at any moment because they didnt give her screen time to show its power.
POSITIVE:
- World’s shaking is the best attack of the movie clearly ( same with her Space Sword blaster which was already the best attack secuence of Season 3 ). Uranus looks great most of the time.
- Mercury has the best transformation secuence. It is pretty nice and has lots of new frames never seen before. Venus has some nice new frames too.
- Chibiusa looks great in the whole movie. All her close shots are amazing. Her eyes are so expressive and even she is too small for the movie ( in SuperS she was taller and her body didnt look as small ), she looks more teen in some scenes.
- Mamoru’s development is pretty great ( he looks fine too ) and finally this character is interesting for the first time and has some big importance in the story unlike the 90’s one which was basically a clown.
- Mars flame snipper is pretty beautiful along with Mercury’s aqua rhapsody. Venus Love and Beauty shock is ok too.
- Outer’s entrance is great with their bitchy phrases and they attitude. Pretty epic.
- Beggining of Part 2 in outers house. There’s time for the characters to interactuate to each other. Something the first part lacks with the Inners. Saturn’s development is great too.
- Mercury and Mars have the best awakening scenes. They are pretty dark and creepy too which I loved.
- Nice comedy moments at first part. Characters are really alive something that Crystal always lacked.
- Amazoness Quartet are very well portraited ( Palla Palla do all the stuff lol ). They are well drawn, they have lots of screen time with action, they are funny, evil… they have time to shine which is something that others characters haven’t had.
- Hawk’s eye rendition when Jupiter kills him has been a really nice added touch, very 90’s. I wish Crystal had more added scenes like this, specially with the Amazon Trio. They are just addings of seconds but they give depth to characters and make them more relatable to the viewer.
- Loved the background style of the first movie. Gave depth to the Juban district and some shots are really beautiful to look at.
- Saturn is the outer that has more character development and is well portrayed.
NEGATIVE:
- No opening or ending. Eternal marks a big inconsistency regarding this topic. All Crystal seasons have one opening and one ending ( Season 3 had 3 different endings ) and now Eternal wont have any. This will make the whole Crystal series be super inconsistent ( as if it wasnt already ). I wish they would had made at least one opening for both movies with the Tsukino Chainon song.
- They havent fixed some scenes where there are obvious mistakes and missing stuff. Moon’s choker is missing in one long shot ( when Chibiusa has that vision of her in Mercury’s house ) and also Mercury’s brooch during her Aqua Rhapsody is rounded instead Heart shaped in some very visible frames. This has been like this since the first trailer, fans told them trough social networks lots of times and they haven’t changed. Odd. Glad at least they fixed wrong backgrounds and stuff but they should have done more.
- Mars transformation secuence is pretty stiff and lacks frames to give here more natural movement. Season 3 one was better.
- Jupiter’s Oak Evolution is really cheap. Not the final energy shots which are ok but the coreography is cheap and it’s missing lots of frames from the original Super S attack. Same with the lack of shadowing on her body and fuku.
- Deep submerge is a mess. Drawing is so poor, it’s missing tons of frames and looks cheap as [BLEEP]. The final effects with the energy ball was great but the attack itself… cheap. Submarine reflection is better but it’s just a retrace of the Season 3 one.
- The soundtrack was used very poorly? You couldnt even hear it and It seemed very discret in the movie and repetitive. I want to hear the full soundtrack alone to know if there is a problem of the composer ( I dont think so cause I usually like his work ) or that they didnt use it right according to the scenes it had to be played. In Season 3 the music had much more presence and was well used to go along with the scenes to give them more depth.
- Overusing of the Georgeous Meditation stock attack secuence. Seriously… the secuence is already chaotic enough ( the coreography is a mess ) to have it like 7 times in the movies both together and individually? Like.. do real time attack damn, it’s the final battle and not the same cut frames again and over again with Chibiusa and Usagi individually. Very poor executed.
- Moon and Chibi Moon transformation is still very poor made being one of the worst of them all with all that frame lacking and poor animation. I mean… they are the main characters damn. Mercury’s one is so much better.
Better to be a straight panel by panel adaptation of the manga then whatever it was the Dark Kingdom arc of Crystal (and partly Black Moon) was trying to do. Naoko may not be the best writer when it comes to pacing and fleshing stuff out but she’s still a vastly better writer than Chiaki Kon.
But given that the Fan Corner answer explicitly says Queen Serenity, and given that we do see Queen Serenity in action in that chapter of the manga, it does seem that it was the OG Serenity to whom ESM was being compared and not the future Neo Queen Serenity.
...we may get a surprise announcement. They could have scheduled a June release of the eternal films to coincide with an announcement for Usagi's birthday..
's part.
