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anyone whose name didn’t begin with Sailor or Tuxedo) remained rather static and one-note, often being disposed of before they could develop in any significant way. Nearly every member of the supporting cast (i.e. She pretty much defined someone when they were introduced in the manga, and they tended not change much. For all her big picture vision, Naoko Takeuchi was not the best when it came to character development. There are other unfortunate implications of taking things back to the source material. I can’t help but feel that without the funny faces and the crybaby fountains, Usagi is just a blander character. And sure, the style of Sailor Moon Crystal is much more graceful, but it feels like something is missing. It’s ironic that coming to Sailor Moon as a teenager, I found all the SD (super deformed) depictions of the characters and the little cartoony pop-ups within the frame irritating, and now having grown up with Sailor Moon as it was, I feel the absence of all that schtick rather acutely. Which brings me to my next point: the humor.
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I just don’t like how it spells everything out from the very first scene, though I will admit that Usagi’s second past life dream sequence in the episode getting mixed up with a video game and then Luna was a nice way to keep things light. In fact, it opens the episode, which I will admit makes for a stronger opening than a girl waking up in the morning. We get Usagi experiencing one of my favorite tropes, the past life dream. There was still a chance Usagi could have been a red herring. Sure, in the ’90s anime, it was pretty clear from the moment we saw Princess Serenity’s silhouette in Mamoru’s dreams, but there was still some wiggle room for it to have been the twin sister of Usagi’s past life or maybe just a popular hairstyle of the era.
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Same thing with Usagi’s past life identity. I mean, sure, in the original anime, it wasn’t too hard to figure out Tuxedo Mask’s identity if you were paying attention, but it wasn’t baldly obvious. And then Tuxedo Mask shows up there later. The first time we meet Mamoru, he’s in a Tuxedo and we’re hearing his thoughts about looking for the Mystical Silver Crystal and how it might be at Osa*P, Naru’s mom’s store. All the plot twists are telegraphed at the first available opportunity. And while that’s a good thing in the “filler” department, let’s just say Naoko-sama was not the best when it came to suspense or mystery. Well, true to its promise, this anime does go back to its manga roots. She goes home, gets crap for her shitty test score, is given her brooch by Luna, becomes Sailor Moon, and saves Naru with a little encouragement by Tuxedo Mask. She happens upon Luna and helps her out, gets chewed out by her teacher for being late and flunking her English test, goes to Naru’s mom’s jewelry store, then the arcade, and then runs into Mamoru, who picks on her a little. Usagi is a klutz who oversleeps and is late for school. The outline of the story itself is the same. It’s a small touch that accomplishes the goal of updating the story without violating it. She’s now a contemporary mom in a shirt and pants. At the same time, we see her mother, Ikuko, still wearing an apron, an obvious tell of her domesticity and status as a homemaker, but gone is the 1950’s-style retro dress she wore in almost every scene in which she appeared. Seeing Usagi in a video arcade didn’t break my suspension of disbelief for a second. What we really craved was something timeless, and that’s something that Sailor Moon Crystal definitely accomplishes by taking the franchise back to its roots while still making subtle updates. Once time marched on and those trends went out of style, all the emphasis on how MODERN! an interpretation Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon was ended up seeming dated at best and pandering at worst.
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Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon‘s mission statement of updating everything to match the current teen trends of 2003 really only serviced it positively in, well, 2003. When tweaking it, it really becomes a case of “less is more.”Īs the premiere of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon showed us, too liberal an interpretation of the text, while somewhat refreshing in the moment, ends up becoming rather off-putting upon repeat viewings. Much like with Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, there isn’t much room to deviate from that origin story without veering into the realm of blasphemy, so this story is pretty much the same opening chapter depicted in every other iteration of Sailor Moon. So, it’s finally here, and after all the anticipation, did the premiere of Sailor Moon Crystal live up to its hype? Mainly yes, with a side of no.