The Sailor Moon Eternal films are both streaming on Netflix worldwide, outside of Japan, and it’s been nearly six years since I’ve been able to do a review of Sailor Moon Crystal content! Here are my thoughts on the first of the two film. These are usually about 25% story recap, 70% silly observations and jokes and 5% actual review type thoughts.
As with the rest of the Sailor Moon Crystal series these movies are a very faithful adaptation of the manga source material. As Sailor Moon SuperS is the anime season that probably varies the most from the manga, fans will probably find the differences considerable while those who’ve read the manga will find this all very familiar. The main difference in this story would be the relative unimportance of the Amazon Trio who dominate the first half of the Sailor Moon SuperS season, acting as pick up artists for young women, older women and boys. In this film like with the manga they aren’t much more than monsters of the week. Easily discarded.
The movie isn’t billed as a Sailor Moon Crystal movie, though that’s obviously what it is. It isn’t really standalone. Fans of the Sailor Moon Crystal TV and web series will of course be happy to see this continuation of the story they’ve been following. I have to wonder how many fans of the old 90s anime will see these movies appear on Netflix and check them out without having much context. These aren’t anything like the Sailor Moon R, S and SuperS movies from the 90s, standalone stories with little connection to the TV series. That said these movies do present a single story arc which begins and ends with these films. Sure we may not know where Chibiusa comes from or how everyone got their powers but we can more or less follow the story of the Dream arc without needing that back story. Part 2 will have more issues here with the Infinity arc backstory for Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru being particularly important. It’s really mostly an issue of background on characters. One Letterboxd review, for example, asked if the child (Chibiusa) wants to boink (engage in sexual relations with) her dad (Mamoru). I think to anyone who’s familiar with either the original anime series or Sailor Moon Crystal this much, in less graphic terms, is pretty much assumed! So much to say it does seem that some people are coming into these movies fresh and these are the types of questions which must be coming up.
The film starts more or less where we left off. A roughly six month gap occurred during Act 38 and then, in an instant which lasted almost five years in the real world, the movie starts. It actually rewinds a bit and recaps a bit from Act 38 which wasn’t in the first Dreams manga arc. The gang are in the park to view an eclipse during which they see Pegasus. A note on casting here. While almost all of the Sailor Moon Eternal English voice cast are actors reprising their roles either from earlier seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal or the Sailor Moon SuperS dub of the original Sailor Moon anime the voice actor for Pegasus/Helios is a different actor. This wasn’t a huge surprise. Chris Niosi voiced Pegasus in Viz’s dub of the original Sailor Moon anime a few years ago. Since then he was target of some abuse allegations and, following his own admission of his role in such and other events, he was recast in many of the roles which he had been working on. Brian Beacock takes over as Helios in this series. Since the character did not previously appear in Sailor Moon Crystal this isn’t technically a recasting of the role however this is an outlier with most other actors returning. Brian Beacock previously voiced Ail/Seijurou in Viz’s dub of Sailor Moon R!
The girls find a couple of kaleidoscope toys which Mamoru is disappointed to have to buy. These are about $10 which is certainly more expensive than some cheap kaleidoscopes but considerably cheaper than the replica kaleidoscope toy which sells in Japan for roughly $300 US! I guess Mamoru got a real deal there, not to mention they end up being magical items. Not wanting to open up a rift in time and space in the middle of a crowded park the girls opt to spend the night at Mamoru’s, something which is hardly new to either of them. While going to bed Chibiusa and Usagi both wish they were the opposite’s age and if anyone of you grew up in the 80s and 90s I’m sure you’ve seen how this movie plays out!
Chibiusa protests going to bed. This is a habit I am very familiar with as I have two children, the oldest of which was conceived around the time of the last episode of Sailor Moon Crystal. No relation between those events. She asks Mamoru for a story saying that she used to get these from her parents back in the future. The examples she gives are stories about robots and vampires. Wow! Are these real stories??? I suppose technically the Droids from Sailor Moon R are like robots but I wouldn’t describe them as such and those come from the future. Vampires? In the manga we get a side story about a vampire girl named Lilica. It seems unlikely Chibiusa’s parents told her this story as it’s one that Chibiusa herself experienced, unless they’re really trying to mess her up by telling her stories about her own future which took place in their past. Time travel!
So Pegasus shows up looking for a maiden with beautiful dreams and a major plot point here is that we don’t really know if the Princess is Minako or Usagi. Sorry we don’t know if the maiden is Chibiusa or Usagi. At this point we think it’s Chibiusa. Pegasus appears with sound effects that seem right out of Sailor Moon SuperS! An odd choice.
The next morning there’s a tiger loose in the Juban shopping district. What an odd problem that does not on the surface appear to be related to any sort of evil villain at all. It’s been six months since the Death Busters were defeated and it’s evident that neither Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon or any other Sailor Guardians have transformed since. For some reason instead of leaving this escaped circus tiger problem to animal control or maybe the local police the girls decide that they should of course transform? Are they actually equipped to fight a tiger? If they happened upon a bank robbery would they just transform and take down the robbers? Does this mean that, to be consistent with their behaviour, they should monitor a police scanner and fight crimes like Batman? The whole situation seems odd. Anyway it doesn’t work since the grail isn’t around because Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto aren’t there. Luckily they get some new transformation broaches which is good because animal control still hasn’t shown up.
They transform into Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Chibi Moon right away. No two stages of transformation needed at this point. Convenient! They get a bunch of news toys. Chibi Moon gets a bell that makes the SuperS sound effect and they both have their $10 kaleidoscopes transform into Kaleidomoon scopes. They fight a could of the Amazoness Quartet, who unlike the Amazon Trio are the main villains of this story arc, and PallaPalla swaps their ages, with hilarious consequences!
I feel like the age swap, in the manga and in this movie, was oddly brief. It could be a major plot point with serious consequences. Instead it’s treated a bit as a joke and a bit of “be careful what you wish for” type wisdom which really is silly since people can’t wish for things. Mamoru and Usagi have this really weird moment where they express how awkward their age difference is. It seems there’s a limit to the age gap! Older Chibiusa seems to have some sort of revelation that she can’t hook up with her father. The two seem concerned and frustrated trying to find a solution which turns out to be … just transform again? Really no one tried this? So we’re okay with transforming to be scabs for animal control but when their fundamental ability to fight an active threat in town is in question they don’t even test their transformations? A bit weak! Seeing young Usagi is nice, though we will see her again later, and seeing not evil older Chibiusa is kind of cool.
Then things really start to seem like a series of episodes and we cut from one character’s story to another. The manga frequently does this in a number of arcs, having a story focus on a certain character. This works well when they are broken up into individual comic acts or TV episodes. In the movie however it’s very obvious that these are a number of stories stitched together. I appreciate the faithfulness to the source material but there is a down side. These aren’t totally contained, with the age swap story bleeding into the Ami’s family sucks story and such, but we can see the obvious separation.
First up is Sailor Mercury and her terrible parents! Ami’s mother works too hard and is never home. This isn’t totally horrible. One can hardly expect a single mother to quit her job so that she can spend more time with her daughter, who’s out studying and fighting crime most of the time anyway, but it does seem like Ami has a rough home life. Ami’s socially awkward mother happens to be the significantly better parent as her hippie father just took off for not so clear reasons, sent some divorce papers in the mail and doesn’t seem to want to have much to do with his daughter. He makes hollow gestures like sending her paintings of fish which does little to make up for his lack of support. Perhaps if he paid child support Ami’s mother wouldn’t have to work graveyard shifts most nights. Ami meets little fairy Mercury, learns a bit about herself and gets these little shoulder pads. Shoulder pads were bit in the 90s but in 2021 no one really has shoulder pads anymore.
Meanwhile Chibiusa has this whole weird thing with Pegasus who spends a lot less time under the pretence of being a horse in this continuity. We’re pretty late in Sailor Moon SuperS before we discover that this horse Pegasus is actually a dude named Helios but in this continuity we learn it pretty quickly. We don’t really think of him as Pegasus for long. We have the humourous scene where Chibiusa kisses a horse but then he turns into Helios. Whatever. At least she’s not making out with her dad again.
On to the next “episode” of our lives. It’s Rei’s turn! Her grandfather is sick and hot damn, he’s gorgeous! Fans of the original 90s Sailor Moon anime will recall Rei’s grandfather as a creepy old man who lusted after teenaged girls. Sailor Moon Eternal Rei’s grandfather, who looks somewhat like his manga counterpart, is a hunk! He has grey hair but still looks quite fit and youthful. I bet original anime Rei’s grandpa would have had more luck with the ladies if he looked like this! Someone has mentioned that he looks like Colonel Sanders in the parody dating sim I Love You, Colonel Sanders! and I think that fits perfectly. Superficial signs of age but still a youthful appearance. It’s like those men’s clothing catalogues that get young models with their hair died grey to wear their clothes.
Rei wanders into a house of mirrors and is really amazed that one of the mirrors isn’t reflecting an image. Is this really that weird? Isn’t that just like… a piece of glass? Or even a wall? Non reflective surfaces are by far the norm in the natural and unnatural world but Rei assumes this is… magic? Super weird.
We see a young and cute Rei meeting Phobos and Deimos for the first time. She can converse with them somehow and instantly knows their names. We get the humanoid Phobos and Deimos reveal which is something I’ve posted about extensively over the past six months but that still was considered enough of a spoiler that some dude on Twitter felt the need to publicly announce his unfollowing me for daring to reveal this 25 year old information. As I’d mentioned before there was always some confusion over the colours, which had been settled when the movies were released. As we see here Phobos is the fairy on the right, who is dressed in red, while Deimos is the one on the left, dressed in purple.
Young Rei is cute but child bride Rei with Tiger’s eye is super creepy. When PUA Tiger’s Eye in the anime goes after mostly teenaged girls it’s a bit weird but when he’s with a full on a child it’s about as awkward as Mamoru and young Usagi!
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Finally let me rant a bit about handedness, which will be coming back in the next film. Rei’s Mars Flame Sniper has her pulling back the arrow with her left hand. This is the left handed way to hold a bow. We see young Rei doing archery in this story and she pulls back the arrow with her right hand, the correct way for a right handed person. This seems like a mistake. What’s the issue here? Well it would go back to the 90s anime since many of the transformations and attacks in this movie are nearly identical to the ones we saw in Sailor Moon SuperS! Perhaps the person who animated that attack many years ago simply didn’t know much about archery.
 Sailor Moon Crystal Act 17 |
 Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 |
Makoto is the next to power up. The most notable change since the last Jupiter episode is the photo of her parents. We originally saw this during the Black Moon arc where I couldn’t help but notice that her late father looked suspiciously like Brock from Pokémon. We see this photo again but it’s changed slightly. The frame is different and though her mother and father are posed in the same way her father’s hair is evidently not Brock like at all and they aren’t wearing the same clothes. Why would Makoto have swapped out this photo with a nearly identical one? It’s not like it’s a new photo!
Hawk’s Eye has set up an herb shop which Makoto is drawn to. She gets slapped by her little fairy Sailor Jupiter thing and then gets a weird crown of oak leaves, which leads to her power up and shoulder pads. If they’d had acid washed jeans as part of their power ups do you think we’d still be using them as part of their uniforms in newer incarnations?
Meanwhile we learn more about Helios who comes from Elysion which I suspect could be in the Hollow Earth but I’ll discuss that more at length in my Part 2 review. Mamoru is sick, couching up blood. It’s a bit troubling to see characters with an infectious lung disease given the ongoing pandemic. This is all caused by magic since Mamoru has a black rose inside of him but that doesn’t really explain why others are catching this disease or why Mamoru seems to be the only one who remains sick.
Finally, Minako still doesn’t have her shoulder pads and for whatever reason all of the other girls sort of assume she should have them. This whole plot reminds me a bit of how in Sailor Moon S of the original anime Minako was the last to be targeted for her Pure Heart and she felt self conscious about it. A scene where Artemis is staring at Minako in the shower is cut down for the film. Originally Diana mentions the way he’s looking at her which upsets Luna. I suppose the film is trying to downplay the Artemis/Minako shipping.
Minako decides she wants to be an idol, which is the plot of another handful of original anime episodes, and this seems to be done via an MXC style competition which is extremely dangerous. Indeed Minako ends up falling to her death saved only by Artemis who turns human! This is one of the big spoilerish reveals of the movies! We’d seen Human Luna before but this is the first time we see animated Human Artemis! As a change from the manga we see the end of Minako’s story and her transformation and new attack. This moves the scenes showing us what has been going on with Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna to the second film.
Roll credits! I can’t read any of this but it’s worth noting that Moon Color Chainon, the theme song for Sailor Moon Eternal, plays here in the credits. I expected it would be the opening theme (and may even have claimed that it was) so I was a bit surprised to see these movies don’t have actual openings. Next is Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute or Wanting To Be Together With You which is a cover of the first ending theme for Sailor Moon SuperS, which seems fitting here. This particular version is performed by Sailor Moon veteran Yoko Ishida.
There’s a brief post credits scene which shows us Hotaru and gives us a hint at what we’ll see next!
All around I enjoyed the first film, despite some sort of odd pacing that isn’t really meant to be told in movie format. I might have preferred to see this as a series of episodes which would have had a slightly longer run time but perhaps the animation wouldn’t have been as good in that case. This movie looks great and is a considerable improvement on what we saw in the first 26 episodes. It’s very difficult for me to think of this as one single movie as I was able to, along with every else who first saw these films on Netflix, watch both parts at once. If I saw this in theatres would I have been annoyed at having to wait until the next part? I don’t know. In Japan the time between the two films was barely more than a month.
What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments! I’ll get to posting a Part 2 review at some point.
Keep reading for more screenshots from this film.
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Here are more stills from the upcoming Sailor Moon Eternal films including human Artemis, Phobos and Deimos -
Here are more images of from Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1
Mad respect if your kid was conceived while you and the missus were watching Sailor Moon. =P
Regarding Mars’ Flame Sniper, the dominant eye used in aiming does not have to be on the same side of the body as the dominant hand that draws the bowstring. This is especially true with firearm use, but also applies to archery and any kind of projectile throwing. I know this from personal experience at both civilian and military shooting ranges. (Google “eye dominance” for more details.)
There are a dozen other things I’d like to point out about your commentary, but I’m afraid Saint Fighter, Fransisca, and a few others have already discussed them to death in your last post. I’ll come back around later.
Interesting. So a right-handed person can be a left-hand-dominant archer? TIL
Darn it. So close to being first to post!
FYI: about Ami’s mother working graveyard shifts at the hospital, that’s what a lot of married doctors do in real life as well, at least in the US. Even if they don’t take extra shifts, they still need to take turns being on call overnight because hospitals operate 24/7. I have some doctor and pharmacist friends who have to do this. (I’m guessing from your comment that Canadian doctors have it easy with your fancy universal healthcare. I should be so lucky to emigrate to Canada one day.)
Based on Misato Fukuen’s comments released yesterday in promotion of the BR/DVD, the audio commentary will also feature Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (Helios’ VA). Her favorite highlights from Eternal were Nehelenia’s flashback scenes from the Silver Millennium and the final battle!
http://sailormoon-official.com/goods/bluraydvdcd/eternal_107.php
As for me, I liked the scene where Usagi-chawn unloads a bunch of food for Mommo-chawn at his apartment and then he tells her to go away =P Would have liked to see some of that food animated.
Even though his X-rays show a black spot over his lungs, the “black rose” is more symbolic than literal, I think.
Mamoru, Helios, Elysion, and Earth are all metaphysically bound to one another, so when one is damaged the others also suffer: this is why he’s the only one sick. I’m not sure which dub language you watched, but I thought Helios explained the whole thing very clearly in the Japanese audio track.
He also doesn’t understand why he’s sick or if he’s contagious, which is one of the reasons he keeps Usagi at arm’s length. What really needs an explanation is why Usagi starts coughing up black blood too later. But this is not an episode of Black Mirror, so no one really bothers to ask these types of questions.
I also thought that Mommo-chawn’s coughing scenes were nicely animated. Even though he spends most of both movies in his pajamjams slowly dying, I’d still swipe right on him. I see your fixation on sexy KFC grandpa (who is also sick), and I raise you one terminally ill Tuxedo Mask.
It’s been a long time since we’ve read any of your reviews, huh?
Wait…Phobos is the one in red?! Spoiler alert! Unfollowing!
But yeah, I agree with most of what you said. I really enjoy it, I thought it was (mostly) gorgeous and yes the pacing is weird…which honestly is an issue with Sailor Moon as a whole.
It would be nice to see them break these down into episodes with some extra scenes and animation. As much as I complain about deviation from the manga, I think like it sometimes works (like with Hawk’s Eye).
I don’t think pacing will ever be a fixable issue without inserting filler, but I agree with Adam that an episode series would probably have lower production values. No amount of quantity can fix quality issues.
The whole “Chibiusa wanting to bonk the hot teenage version of her dad” topic has already been broached to death during the Black Moon and Death Busters arc of both anime series, but I can see how some random person on the internet with no knowledge of the source material would make a big deal out of it.
It’s a pretty standard Electra complex that doesn’t have any real psychosexual overtones to speak of, and portrays an innocent stage in a father-daughter relationship that leads to Chibi-usa chasing after boys her own age.
From a very practical standpoint, Mamo-chawn is the only real dude at this point in the story who isn’t a unicorn priest. There are really no other male characters for the largely female cast to drool over (grandpa doesn’t count), so objectifying him at some point is a reasonable expectation. Heck, by the Stars arc, there aren’t any real guys at all left in the story. (See why the lesbian characters in this story are so happy?)
so my thoughts on part 1 stay basically the same for the whole arc, it could of done better if they would of broke up the stories into episodic sets as they wouldnt feel rushed and missing things at points, mercury harp missing a voice, the calidoscopes story just not there at all, how they go for not being able to transform to seconds later they go o we can transform now… i get the manga didnt do too much to change that but at least it makes a little more sense, moon had from what i get was the grails saying heres why you cant transform lets fix that, mercury getting her crystal and knowing just what to say and not even ask what or why she was getting her crystal, mars and her from what i understand was a typo in the manga which carried over to the movie but oddly works imho, mars just getting told heres your crystal and lets go, jupiter was a tiny bit more fleshed out, gets her oak leaves that talk in the manga… venus well theres issues there with the motw or is it of the 10 mins lol, now ive been reminded how the crystals get explained more in the stars arc but they needed to get told in the past 3 arcs what to yell when they want to turn into there sailors but here they dont need that info somehow??? also not sure if it was netflix (prolly) or the va but everyone couldnt say elysion to save anything it was almost like watching the dic dub of the silver crystal and we all know how laughable that was… chapter wise it does follow the manga mostly in tact panel for panel aside from the outers mini arc taking place b4 venus gets her crystal and kicking ass to get it handed to them all 30 seconds later which i get why they moved those 2 chapters semi , prolly to build more suspense hense the end credit scene with saturn, part 2 has more issues that i would love to debate once its posted
There is a key in the lower right-hand corner of your keyboard with a dot on it. It’s called a period.
An ellipsis is not a period.
But yes, the movie was so faithful to the manga that it even preserved some of the mistakes. That was kind of the whole point of Crystal/Eternal.
that is what happens to ones mind after working a 24 hour shift and hasnt had much sleep to boot, they go on a very long winded rant.
honestly tho am i wrong in my ideas as to what they were missing or carelessly left out to not make the part feel more like a functioning story and instead a broken panel per panel minus some word bubbles here and there?
i personally like Rei and her missed transformation error there as they made it work.
other issues i had were the inner senshi arent very good protectors of there princess if lets face it they get kidnapped in every arc basically aside from dark kingdom where they sacrifice themselves to save here which is what they should be doing hence protectors of there princess and future queen…
one would think after being captured by black moon that they would of learned there lesson but one can excuse when they got captured by the death busters that happens since they got separated…
but how they each fall so carelessly into these traps do they not have a communicator or a base of operations lol.
i get why it happens for the next arc but thats another rant of its own…
there i go again so going to finish this up as i could go on all day about it
The inner senshi can’t protect squat. They can’t even protect themselves half the time. And at this point in the story, they only exist to power up Sailor Moon, but that’s the trope. Notice how no one else got wings (because they’re all disposable).
The point of the story is that we’re stronger together than apart. Jeez you’re salty.
With the reductive thinking from comments like “the point of the story is that we’re stronger together than apart”, you could argue that ANY story is about friendship, smiles, rainbows, and teamwork.
God some people are basic. Do you even go to this school?
Do you even like this show? You certainly don’t like its fans or the discussion. Why are torturing yourself on a fan site?
What’s funny about the Dic dub is they kind of got it right the first time when they called it “Empyrean Silver Crystal”. It can mean “Heavenly”, “Holy”, or “Divine”, that sort of thing.
Maybe not the most accurate translation, but then, neither is the current “Legendary Silver Crystal” (which I get so tired of hearing…) and it doesn’t sound as odd as illusionary or phantom.
Then the Dic dub had to go and call it the Imperium Crystal, which gave it all sorts of strange connotations.
HARRY POTTER CRYSTAL POWER!
FYI, Daniel Radcliffe was in a movie called Imperium.
Luna: “You’re a Sailor, Usagi!”
Usagi: “I’m a nani?!”
“Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?”
– Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 13
Stop it Ron! Stoooop. !
… Ronald Weasley. It’s levioSAAAA!
*His upper lip curls up as he emphasizes.*
Makoto looks pretty in that midriff shirt.
FWIW, I thought fake child Rei with Tiger’s Eye was just the right amount of creepy. Ami getting pulled into a mirror was also a nod to some horror tropes. Not enough creepiness with the other vignettes.
A movie about nightmares needs more creepy. Will be adding this to my list of complaints.
A huge casting change between Crystal and Eternal was for Artemis (Yohei Oobayashi > Taishi Murata), though I’m pretty sure no one here noticed or cares.
大林洋平
Thanks. Hadn’t noticed.
Ami’s mother does work hard shifts but I don’t think they’re hurting for money. Ami’s mother seems to make more money than her father does. But despite that she may come from wealth or somehow got a huge divorce settlement as they live in a very upscale condo and Mrs. Mizuno owns quite a few diamond rings. One of which Minako accidentally destroys with her sword in the Dark Kingdom arc.
I believe MInako’s words were “filthy rich”:
https://www.tuxedounmasked.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/broken_ring.jpg
Haruka and Michiru are also fabulously well-off despite not having parents. The rarefied air that the characters breathe is likely inspired by Naoko Takeuchi’s own wealthy upbringing, as mentioned in interviews.
I would also point out that the magical shojo genre does not particularly lend itself to realistic portrayals of post-divorce finances or anything financially related, as the target audience is not old enough to understand or care.
That’s the website I got my info from. All of the main characters being middle class or upper class as well as nearly all of the villains being one dimensional are two of the few issues I have with the manga. While I love the manga, I found myself enjoying Codename: Sailor V a bit more because it leaned more on comedy and the villains in that series had a bit of a comical side like the villains did in the Sailor Moon anime.
Wow! I do know real kaleidoscopes are very costly. I was interested in buying one so I looked it up and the price tag is $1,346.17. Wow! That’s steep.
That’s nice. Someone doesn’t know how to use price sort.
Real handmade glass kaleidoscope costs less than $100 on both Etsy and Ebay.
The most voted scene from Eternal has been released as a promo vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGvGmBWK15c
A trailer for the “completion report” featurette from the BR/DVD has been released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83IKui4ilYY
It’s really just a post-kouhen press junket with all the principal female actors that aired publicly four months ago. I watched it a bunch of times when it first came out on YT. I haven’t seen a fansub, but it’s been a while so there might be one floating around. The last press junket on the BR/DVD should be the one with Helios/Endym/Moons.
Pinnable flair from SM store (basically stickers):
http://sailormoon-official.com/store/post_1001.php
Come on everyone! Naoko needs another new Ferrari for her fleet! Don’t be stingy! $6 for a mini sticker (plus shipping) isn’t that much! XD
I wonder if there’ll be an anime with the short side stories (including Rei and Minako’s School Battle)?
I hope so!
The “menu” for the 2021 Sailor Moon Annual Fan Meeting on 6/26 has been released:
http://sailormoon-official.com/information/usagi_birthday2021_1.php
Admission is 500円 for FC members and 2000円 to the general public (including overseas fans).
Thanks for writing out this review.
I watched the first part with the English dub and while I enjoyed it, there were some parts that stuck out. Fish Eye is no longer “Fish’s Eye” – which was how it was when Viz dubbed SuperS (same voice actor, though). They added honorifics… except for Mamoru’s nickname for Usagi, which is still “Usa” and consistent with Crystal Season 3, rather than “Usa-ko” like the dub for the original anime.
The voice direction for some characters is different, too, even though every actor (except Pegasus’, as mentioned, though his replacement does a good job) reprised their roles. Hawk’s Eye doesn’t have the drawl he had in the SuperS dub when he’s with his fellow trio members, for example – the change makes sense when he’s crossdressing. VesVes and JunJun didn’t sound quite right, either, to the point I assumed they had been recast before checking the cast list.
One thing I like a lot about the Viz dub is the fact that barring extreme circumstances, both the original anime and Crystal dubs use the same actors for the same roles. It makes for an interesting spin on character portrayals across shows, to say the least, but while it is comforting in a way, it can be disconcerting at times. In any case, the fact that both dubs started around the same time was pretty clever on Viz’s dub, or a great coincidence otherwise.
I think, for the most part, that the English dub cast does a lot better in Crystal than in the original.
Trailer of kouhen audio commentary is out with Fukuen/Nojima/Matsuoka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfbIfG7e-dU
Im not sure why people are confused about mars transformation scene. She clearly says mars star power and immediately after failing she says: why cant I transform did I use the wrong spell? And they show her being affected by the nightmares. So it is explained properly.
Looking back, I’m torn between what setting I enjoy more. Not that one is better than the other.
The manga often used real places in the backgrounds. The movie follows through with this. If you’re familiar with the area, you know the opening is in Ichinohashi Park, Chibiusa runs to Amishiro Park, and Minako runs off from the girls at the Kimi-chan statue. I’m sure there’s more that I don’t know.
The 90s anime has beautiful backdrops, the pastel colours made for a gorgeous world for magical girls to exist in. Crystal/Eternal is grounded, building an atmosphere where these girls are facing fantastical events in our real world. Neither is better, just different. I wonder what Japanese fans think about it,.
I like both and I also think the settings in each properly reflect the type of story they tell.
The classic series does have such gorgeous backdrops, something I didn’t properly appreciate as a kid and honestly didn’t fully appreciate until those lo-fi videos on Youtube that use the old series so often.
The backgrounds are well done in Eternal, also. There were times they almost felt real.
I’m pretty sure some of the backgrounds were just photographs with a filter in some spots.
Good point about the style matching the story. Reversing the backdrops would probably feel out of place. Each show reflects the decade it was made.
Artwork for the two DVD/BR discs, inserts, sleeves, and 2 soundtrack discs (there is no “drama collection”, Google Translate) has been released:
http://sailormoon-official.com/goods/bluraydvdcd/eternal_108.php
Look forward to Adam’s review in mid-July!
Thank you for staying on top of things for us.
My gentle uterus thanks you for being thankful.
Everything is actually just posts from the official sailor moon website (compatible with Google translate plugin):
http://sailormoon-official.com/
As expected, the trailer for the last featurette on Disc 2 has been released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KGzrgBFdJ8
Surprise! It’s another press junket, this time with Helios and Mommaroo-chawn (whose voice actor by the way says nothing of interest during this segment). There’s a joke about Chibi-usa’s parents being on stage with her boyfriend, and Matsuoka (Helios) has some shaky, sweaty moments–but other than that this was a pretty dull session.
What bothers me with some of these press conferences is that the organizers go through all this trouble to put up fiberglass shields between the actors on stage, then remove them for a final photoshoot where all the actors squeeze together unmasked. Like, why even bother pretending to give a sh*t about anti-corona measures when you can’t even follow through?
There’s also a different video clip each day of a different senshi as part of a countdown to 6/30.
公開記念舞台挨拶
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-06-21/netflix-streams-sailor-moon-crystal-on-july-1/.174249
That’s great! Watching these films has made me want to go back and see the Crystal seasons, so I’m looking forward to it now, thanks.
Watching it once was enough for me, so no thanks. And god knows the animation from S1 and S2 is still ass, no matter who licenses Crystal.
It would have benefitted as season 3 did with allowing the manga chapters to be a tv series to give a little more time to flesh out things a little. However, overall the movies were good. Just as I thought 26 to 30 episodes to flesh stories and characters out would have been nice each season what we got was good. They have reworked some things, but overall I believe part one was solid if a little too fast paced. I think allowing some more time as a tv series would have helped. I wish they put a little more effort into the transformation and attacks since they did not make this a tv series, we get mainly rehashed attacks and the only transformation that looks decent is sailor mercury. I think overall for an adaption of the manga the past two seasons have been much more successful while keeping the bits of humor present in the manga.
I think one reason the transformations and attacks looked so much better in the old anime is that they knew they’d be using these animations repeatedly for years and with Crystal/Eternal, the attacks might be seen once or twice and never again.
Haven’t watched it yet (I’d like to see them together), but I’ll toss out some thoughts based on your review.
Age swaps/body swaps are a dumb, overused gimmick and I’m glad not much time was wasted on this.
I’m pretty sure you’d expect a mirror to reflect something, right? But if they’re funhouse mirrors, I’d just assume it was a gimmick.
Chibi-Usa kissing a horse (even a magical, talking horse) is still ick, but at least he’s not creeping on her while she’s undressing. That scene in the original anime was just uncalled for.
Speaking of ick, is Rei really meant to be a child with Tiger’s Eye? I thought it was more of a chibi version of herself in the manga. She does look pretty young transforming, though, but I could say that for a lot of the senshi in these pics. Then again, they are 14 years old, so maybe now they look more like it?
I do like that Rei’s grandfather is 100% less of a shriveled old perverted creeper.
“Couching” up blood sounds really uncomfortable.
Minako’s ensemble in the manga was a lot prettier, but if you want to talk fashion disasters, just… Artemis… human Artemis. It’s like Naoko-sensei got super lazy. “Add a bunch of crescent moons, cut some holes here and there, throw in some weird strap things, and done!” I heard she can draw his cat form the fastest–five seconds–so maybe this is just an extension of that IDGAF attitude. It’s a shame, I like Artemis, but I just want to drag him clothes shopping, even though I really hate that.
At least he’s less of a perv here too. What was with all the animal characters falling for humans? Ew.
Speaking of animals, how can Crystal consistently mess up the cats this badly? They look so weird. How hard is it to draw a cat??
The pacing problems sound pretty much like I expected from them trying to cram an entire arc into two movies. Sigh.
Eager to see Hotaru and the Outer Senshi again.
I’d say one of my biggest complaints about Crystal is the blandness of the characters outside the main group (and some people would even debate that). Why does Naoko-sensei even bother to design such interesting characters when they’re just going to get killed off a couple pages/scenes later? Filler can be boring, but so are one-dimensional characters.
And the show is 90% less queer, too. Maybe some people don’t care, but it’s disappointing. I wish she had let Kunzite and Zoisite become a real couple after seeing their popularity with fans. Instead we got the pointless and insulting Senshi x Shitennou pairing (I will gripe about that until the day I did), Fish Eye is just a MotD (and why is Ami always paired with the femboys?), no ambiguously gay Fiore (I know, he was a movie only character), and while I’m in the minority of liking the Starlights as 100% female, I know a lot of trans/GNC people are gonna be disappointed if Stars gets made some time in the next 20 years.
I feel they ruined it I rewatched all the old ones a couple of months ago and loved it way funnier and the music was better I got bored so quick on the new ones and I tattoo the Sailor moon symbol on me so I am a huge fan but the new series and movie make me want to cover up the tattoo that’s how disappointed I am and I agree with the guy above the animals falling in love with humans is disgusting and what happens to all the lesbians and queer bad guys they made the show sailor Uranus and Neptune and Jupiter falling for Uranus they don’t do any of that and how Uranus had a thing for Sailor moon too this is a horrible way to bring back sailor moon.
leave what is good alone if you do not know how to make it better. the list can go on and on and on how bad I feel this is.
all they care about is how pretty it looks it seems I liked the story and music, not just care about how pretty everything look gets boring waiting for the waiting for the pretty transformations to end
This film sucked so bad. All it did was coast by on nostalgia. Everything was rushed and shallow as usual. I don’t think it even had a plot…
Also in Ami’s Story Ikuko Tsukino has been written out like Komaki from Fruits Basket (2019) this was due to her japanese VA Yuko Mizutani passing in 2016 and is it possible that Toei & Naoko decided not to recast her out of respect if so then Tara Platt-Lowenthal didn’t return to reprise her role because of Toei’s Rules.
They should have not used Chan or San or Akuryo-taisan in the English dub. It’s not fair!