Watching Crystal for the first time

Clow · Mar 20, 2023

ACT 3 [I'll squeeze in a third today]

Has anyone noticed how ..... obtuse Usagi's reactions to the girls were when she first met them.
How sweet of Jadeite to reveal his name and organization. Really helping the cause.
Impressive, Sailor Moon can have casual conversation while being loudly blasted near the face w/ wet ice magic. #Skills
I actually like Rei's transformation in this. Not COMPLETELY sure about the poses, but the transformation itself, really nice.
Is "Moon Tiara Boomerang" recycled? It's fine if it is, just asking?
"Evil Spirit, be exorcized." I've heard the Viz dub for Crystal had her say "Evil Spirits begone". Did they swap the two for the 90s [sub] and Crystal [dub]?
First finding Queen Beryl somehow in PGSM, now finding the way back home from some type of dimension[I think] Rei's just an expert with these shortcuts I tell you!

Yes, there is stock/recycled footage.

I love Rei’s transformation music.

Lady Pen · Mar 20, 2023

It doesn't matter which version is the good one. The "fixed" version has NO animation either, just the characters having a "prettier" face...sometimes. :roll:

Hadibou · Mar 20, 2023

Clow said:

I liked the Moon Tiara Action sequencer (or whatever was the name in Crystal), it was nicely drawn, even if it was inspired from the OG anime. I rather get one overused stock footage with nice animation than several « real time attacks » with poor animation (looking at you Rolling Heart Vibration lol).

Star Angel Haruki · Mar 20, 2023

several « real time attacks » with poor animation "that also repeatedly fail against the enemy"

Masquerade · Mar 20, 2023

Stars also annoys me because of stiff animation. It's boring to look at characters who seem to not move.

YuYu Yuichiro · Mar 20, 2023

Masquerade said:

Atleast we got this.

Clow · Mar 20, 2023

So you’ve got to understand that TOEI almost completely messed up was not kind to Crystal. Many songs composed for the show were not used.

Rei got her own transformation music, but the other senshi didn’t. I believe this should be Sailor Venus’s transformation theme:

Being a manga purist, though, Crystal is still my favorite version.

YuYu Yuichiro · Mar 20, 2023

ACT 4

Where's Luna keeping these files? It doesn't look like the arcade.
OMG Masquerade It's an episode about you! I bet you feel so honored!
Motoki: She looks just like you Usagi. [=]
YouTube's ads are wild.
Tuxedo Mask's afraid of cats it seems.
Usagi got a new tiara.[I didn't even know she lost it] YAY!
I looked up Umino without glasses. For some reason he's also muscular
Tuxedo Mask consensually kisses Usagi.
:GET AWAY FROM HER!!!
I didn't really care about this episode that much in the original either. I only like the abridged version with Moooolllyyyyy
Since I don't have much to talk about, Their transformations thus far.
: the leg thing looks weird. Everything else... I can deal with.
: the water physics are.... a bit strange too look at. The body's movements them self I'm fine with.
: I actually like hers. Pretty nice [IMO]
In the 90s Its probably just me but I actually thought it was neat how in their 1st transformations the specific way their symbols came off of the pens and how they lead directly to the actual transformation instead of flashing to white

Memelord_Yoshi · Mar 20, 2023

YuYu Yuichiro said:

Yeah. I love there's animation continuity between them.
Sadly they were cost cutting (probably due to deadlines) with :minako:

's first henshin sequence.

YuYu Yuichiro · Mar 20, 2023

ACT 5

Is Umino on his knees or is he just much shorter that I remember?
HEY, I consistently liked the colors for once! Point for Crystal regarding colors!
I really hope eventually some background characters come by and say "OMG, Isn't that the robbable bank that's robbable. I've heard it's been robbed recently."
So, you don't have to press the communicator thing to call the other..... That could be a problem.
Mako's so cute!
Some of the actions pretty nice in this one.
Sailor Moon has a touching speech. [Sadly, I don't think I'm destined to be w/ anyone though ]
I like the beginning of Jupiter's transformation w/ that powerful thunder sound. The rest is alright too [not sure about the face in some poses tho]
Wait, why did Tuxedo Mask get Usagi up?
I might actually rewatch this one later!

Clow · Mar 20, 2023

You are very lucky.

Back in the day, TOEI made us wait 2-3 weeks for each episode. :purpleghost:

I remember staying awake until midnight to watch each episode of Crystal.

Eventually, I got tired of the ONA format and gave up completely.

I only gave Crystal a chance again in 2020, and, to much of my surprise, I loved the show. It felt nice binge-watching the episodes without interruptions.

And, yeah, although there was more division back then than there it is today, the Sailor Jupiter episode seemed to please fans.

Masquerade · Mar 21, 2023

YuYu Yuichiro said:

Yeah, it's the name of the manga chapter as well and I always liked Naoko's "name giving." Gurl is creative. :cool:

Lady Pen · Mar 21, 2023

Masquerade said:

Wh...what?

How dare you?!

JunoDX · Mar 21, 2023

Act 4 and 5 were the peak of S01, episode 8 is nice as well. But then…

I wonder if Crystal would suck less if it actually was animated gorgeously.

Hadibou · Mar 21, 2023

JunoDX said:

Yes totally, I wasn’t expecting something interesting considering I already knew the manga but I wanted Crystal to be at least pretty. I’m not even asking for characters to move in each shot, even still frames but pretty are fine with me.
Useless to say that I was disappointed lol

Masquerade · Mar 21, 2023

Lady Pen said:

Stars sucks animation-wise. Outside the Neherenia miniarc, most action-packed episodes relied on some of the worst animators the 90s anime had to offer, because conciliating action and good animation apparently wasn't a thing allowed by the budget.
SuperS sucked big time, but it had interesting real-time attacks and action.
TL; DR: The Dream and Stars arc are and always will be the ugly duckling of SM animations. :mudkip:

Lady Pen · Mar 21, 2023

Masquerade said:

Ah, ok, you're comparing it to the previous seasons of the 90's show. I thought you were bringing Stars's animation up to Crystal's level quality.

Only the episode 181 has more animation than the entire reboot.

Masquerade · Mar 21, 2023

Lady Pen said:

Crystal III has good animation for a magical girl show and I feel its the closest this reboot came to do SM justice. Some episodes are lackluster and it overuses stock footage, but I have nothing to complain other than the fact aesthetic pages can't use its frames. People like to trashtalk it because it's not their favorite character design, but unlike Eternal, it actually feels like it had a budget for character movement

The rest is trash and I can't disagree.

YuYu Yuichiro · Mar 21, 2023

ACT 6

Alright so not only is this the farthest I watched Crystal from those first 2 attempts. This is where Clow said I should start noticing *major* differences in events. Let's see where this goes!
Wow, that army's taking their time! Practically walking. [That's probably how it's supposed to be I don't know about battle]
.....[you all know what I'm talking about]
Alright, so the base is below the arcade.
Usagi's running looks odd to me.
Luna knows Zoicite's name.

[also just remembered they introduced themselves for some reason a few episodes back ]
Usagi suddenly gets tired from searching for the Silver Crystal [meth] as I've heard she did in the manga running awkwardly, poor girl needs to practice more cardio like me.
Aw CRAP Queen Beryl used photoshop transform! They're doomed! Its over!
"Triumph of Woke Gravity". Oil on canvas. 2014. Author unknown. * [from another thread] *
Usagi wakes up in Mamoru's home.
I am intrigued to see where this goes. This is the farthest I've gotten.