Tag Archives: Magical Girl

Woops! This is definitely an old drawing of me...but I still stand by it!

Woops! This is definitely an old drawing of me…but I still stand by it!

Crystal

Part of me feels as if the initial Sailor Moon craze has died down a bit – so I am even more sorry for the delay on these posts! The good news is, however, that I have plenty of material to catch up on. Again, the point of these segments is to simply look at the differences between each episode of the new release of Sailor Moon Crystal and the original adaptation of Sailor Moon. I originally wanted to go through and do EVERY episode…but then I remembered how long the original show ended up being. I am going to review the first arch at least and if I like where it is going I will go further with the reviews! But for now, we’ll start with episode 2…

In this episode we meet Sailor Mercury! It is very clear to me already that they are speeding the story up as opposed to the original, where you meet Mercury in episode 8. I actually don’t mind this so much. The viewer gets the idea that Sailor Moon, while the leader of the team, cannot defeat everything all on her own. It builds off the idea of togetherness and team work which is a really great model for girls (and even women) to see and put into practice. Not that every woman on earth needs to rely on someone else all the time, but we are all part of a team in one way or another, I think.

When Ami Mizuno is first introduced the only thing we know about her is that she has good grades. The best grades even, in the whole school. This leads to the other kids assuming that she has little to no friends because she is only ever seen studying, even on her lunch break during the day. When we catch up with Usagi and her friends they are chatting about how all Ami does is study, goes to cram school after school ends, and how her mother is a talented doctor. They all go on to assume that her family is loaded, puts her in the best cram school that money has to offer and that must be the reason for her expertise. Instead of making assumptions Usagi just listens and waits to figure out who Ami is for herself. This is a very interesting and good thing about her as a character. Most kids of that age (15-18) usually take the words of friends as fact, so for her to do some of her own investigation seems to make a strong trait. When they do eventually meet up, thanks to Luna who had been scouting her, Ami is immediately accepted by Usagi and they become fast friends. I also think that this is a good lesson to teach girls and women alike. I feel as though we’ve all been taught somehow to label each other or silently judge from afar, when in reality we could meet our new best friend if we’d just be open to it. 

 It was made very apparent that Luna’s “Secret Base” was actually in the basement or some hidden room in the arcade that Usagi would frequent. In this incarnation you just find her in some top secret facility. Again with the telling and not showing. It’s not the biggest deal in the world but I found it kind of fun to find out exactly where she ended up going to report back every night. 

The episode’s climax is Usagi trying to fight the Demon (controlled by Jadeite) to free Ami and the other kids who have been brainwashed at cram school. She can’t do it on her own and Ami transforms into Sailor Mercury! I think I said it in our last Sailor Moon post…but I REALLY dislike the cgi transformation sequence. I think it looks incredibly tacky and I don’t see the need for it. Yuck…but that’s besides the point. This episode was a good introduction for Ami and Sailor Mercury and it’s refreshing to see that we didn’t have to wait for seven episodes to pass before doing so.

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There has been a lot of buzz about Sailor Moon Crystal, the newest installment in the Sailor Moon franchise. Naturally when the show aired, we both had to watch it, and we naturally had a lot to say.

sailormoon

If you aren’t a huge Sailor Moon fan, let us explain something about this review.Many people know that in the 90s there was a cartoon called Sailor Moon. It featured teenage girls fighting crime and spawned a resurgence of “magical girl” themed animes. But the show was based on a manga series, named Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon (translating to Pretty Soldier/Guardian Sailor Moon). The story has been reimagined several times, starting as a manga, animated series, musical, and a live action TV series (with a puppet cat).

So what is Sailor Moon Crystal then? 22 years after the first series debuted, the story went under a facelift. The show isn’t a continuation, or re-imagination of Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon Crystal follows the same base storyline as the original animated series – but claims to follow the manga much more closely. But this incarnation uses new animation techniques to appeal to a new young audience. This happens often, just think about My Little Ponies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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