Monday saw us pass the ending of the first of three arcs
covered in Sailor Moon Crystal and, yeah I am not gonna sugar coat it, it’s
been pretty bad. The beginning had
promise, I wont deny that. But the
further we got into Season One, the more the problems began to grow and by the
time we got to the end of it, I came to a terrible realization: Sailor Moon
SuperS was no longer the worst thing to happen to Sailor Moon. Incase you need a refresher, Sailor Moon
SuperS is the Fourth Season of the original 90s Sailor Moon Anime and widely
considered the weakest of the original run.
I couldn’t agree more with that as I gave it by far the lowest score of
any season during my coverage of the series in 2023. So how is it that the Sailor Moon reboots
first adventure messed things up even worse than the season that featured the
Amazon Trio? Hate to do a Top 5 list
like this so early into my Extended Summer Series Review but this begs
discussion. These are my Top 5 Reasons
Sailor Moon Crystal (Season One) is worse than Sailor Moon SuperS.
Anyone who was excited for the return of Usagi and
friends was probably scratching their heads when they first saw the Crystal
Character Designs.
Everyone looks about
as tall as Jupiter and much thinner than their 90s counterparts.
The actual animation is trying to be too
shiny to be appealing when hand drawn animation is still doing wonders for
Dragon Ball and One Piece.
And don’t get
me started on the horrific 3DCG transformation sequences.
For all of SuperS faults, its animation is
still consistent with the rest of the 90s series, so at least it looks
familiar.
The scary thing is that while
the art style might put off potential viewers at first glance, the further you
get into the First Season is when you realize that the animation might be the
least offensive thing about it.
#4-The Tone
A couple of years before Crystal debuted, Puella Magi
Madoka Magica took the Anime world by storm with is beautifully tragic
deconstructions of the Magical Girl genre.
, Crystal seems determined to ape Madoka Magica’s approach rather than
attempt to replicate and update what made the 90s Anime so fun and exciting to
begin with.
Love is a tragedy, character
moods are all set to serious, and everything just feels generally gloomy all
the time.
The 90s Anime has a far better
balance of serious and feel good fun, knowing when it needed to make your heart
cry but also remember to be fun and silly too.
Sadly, SuperS took the latter part a bit too far, basically becoming a
near season long parody of Sailor Moon.
The Senshi became terrible at their jobs (the menacing tower with a
Circus tent on top wasn’t a tip off that might be the main villains HQ guys?
Come on) and every encounter with the Dead Moon Circus felt the need to inject
some Looney Tunes zaniness into the mix.
It made me groan a lot but you know what?
It almost becomes so bad it’s good when
compared to Crystal’s depressing and way too serious attitude.
#3-The Four Kings
The Four Kings who serve as Queen Beryls Generals:
Jadite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite all return from the 90s Anime to torment
the Senshi in their first outings.
However, Crystal does something kind of stupid with them and decides to
rewrite their origins so that they’re Mamoru’s former Guardians and the love
interests of the Sailor Senshi in their past life.
Most of that is a last minute addition that
goes nowhere and robs the Four Kings of the menace they brought in their 90s
debut.
SuperS still has the worst
villains in the franchise, the Amazon Trio: evil Alien Circus performers who
need to be on a freaking watch list.
But
the Season does make up for them in the back half with the way more fun and
interesting Amazoness Quartet.
Cant wait
to see how Crystal, or rather Sailor Moon Eternal, possibly screw them up too
if it keeps up the terrible track record set by Season One.
#2-The Season Finale
Everything wrong with Crystal’s First Season comes to a
head in the last six episodes.
The super
bad ass end of Season One of the 90s Anime with Usagi and the spirits of her
fallen comerades conquering their foes once and for all is replaced with Usagi
basically saying she cant do much without Mamoru and even kills herself because
she cant live without him.
Honestly that
alone might’ve been the last straw for me and Crystal’s eternal tragic
motif.
Now Sailor Moon SuperS has a
surprisingly pretty damn good finale, presenting us with one of the best
Villainesses of the series finally stepping in to face the Senshi and really
challenge Usagi on a personal level.
Considering it took almost 40 episodes of pain and suffering to get
there, the SuperS Finale really doesn’t deserve to be as good as it is, but it
is.
It made me nervous but anxious for
its cliffhanger ending to be resolved at the beginning of Sailor Stars…while I
really have a bad feeling about how Crystal is about to screw over the Black
Moon Clan Arc in Season Two.
#1-Usagi
Oh my poor, poor, poor girl. To its credit, a lot of what makes Usagi so
great is here throughout Crystal, especially when it comes to how well she
forms her friendships with the other Senshi.
It’s when it comes to Mamoru that Usagi unravels from a Middle School
crybaby slowly evolving into a true superheroine into a easily broken lovelorn
schoolgirl who can do nothing when Mamoru is brainwashed, gives up multiple
times during her battle with Queen Metalia (until Mamoru motivates her, instead
of her best friends), and that aforementioned Romeo and Juliet move. The fact that Usagi would even do that last
part straight up pisses me off to no end.
So yeah, I’ll take the more parody prone version we got of Usagi in
SuperS, even if it is taking several major steps backwards with her character
progression. Somehow seeing Usagi dress
up as a red ninja to spy on Rei while Mamoru is staying at her place feels more
in line with her character than the tragic heroine who never really rises to
her potential without her boring love interest to bolster her on.
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