‘Sailor Moon Crystal’ is a faithful, action-packed relaunch of the franchise

After watching the first two episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal the one thing that stands out about the updated art are the eyes. Each character sports incredibly large “anime eyes,” even larger than I would normally expect to find in an anime series. Having not really seen any newer anime series, I can’t really compare the art to any other show, but there are some angles where the eyes make the face look odd because of the proportions.

But I digress.

After watching the first two episodes it is clear that the new series is doing very well in faithfully following the original plot of the manga series, first with the dialogue and the actual sequence of events, and then with the actual character design. The original anime seemed to want to flesh out the seasons by adding more subplots and filler episodes, quite possibly wanting to give all the characters time to develop organically, but it seems that with the new series it’s following the manga act by act, which is interesting because the show is indeed going to move at a faster pace than the original anime (The original anime’s first season had 46 episodes, whereas Sailor Moon Crystal is going to have 26) which could be a good thing or a bad thing since in the manga I felt that the character development was done well, but that is to be determined in Sailor Moon Crystal.

Sailor Moon Crystal also sports the original manga’s Attack Phrases, such as Sailor Moon’s “Moon Tiara Boomerang” instead of the original anime’s “Moon Tiara Action”, and Sailor Mercury’s “Mercury Aqua Mist” instead of the original anime’s “Shabon Spray”.

While not having much to say since the series is at such an early stage, the only con I have against the series is the misuse or abuse of CGI. I honestly wish they just stuck to the 2D animation, even if they chose to very purposefully sprinkle some 3D into some spots, but the way they use CGI during the transformation sequences makes me cringe. The transformation sequences could have been absolutely beautiful if just done in 2D, since I am a very big fan of how the transformation sequences are choreographed, but I honestly feel like the CGI takes you out of the show and it’s incredibly distracting and, if I may, ugly.

When all is said and done I highly recommend the new series to those who are fans of the Sailor Moon franchise in general and those of you who just enjoy fun, action packed, story packed series. Hopefully the series will continue to impress, even with the CGI moments, as we look forward to Act Three two Saturdays from now!