Why Sailor Moon R Beats The Crystal Version

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Yamoon

Aurorae Lunares
Jul 17, 2006
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#21
You really think they would’ve killed her off? Despite being one of the hated characters?
Who speak about killing her off... the turning back to good of Chibi Usa in the manga or in Crystal has much more sense than in R.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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#23
R was great at developing the villains especially the 4 sisters (with a well-written redemption arc) but for me, the climactic ending is so much better in the manga. There were high stakes and big conflicts. The one that stood out to me the most and made me fall in love with the character was Pluto's duty at the gate vs her desire to battle with the Sailor Senshi and protect the future. Her death is the catalyst to Black Lady's transformation to Super Chibi Moon was well done because their relationship was an ongoing development throughout the arc. In fact their relationship was the reason ChibiUsa transformed to Black Lady in the first place and to have it come full circle with ChibiUsa breaking from her mind control is so poetic.

Sure... you can argue that it did happen in the 90's anime too but with NQS in Pluto's place of being the catalyst ... but I do feel like the manga/Crystal did somewhat utilise it secondary cast well (other than the Inners of course).
 
Jun 17, 2019
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#24
the second season of 90s anime is the worst imo.
Worse than SuperS and Stars? Nah, at least it still had some of the best villains in the series to make up for some of it's stupider changes from the manga. Plus it's actual plot was still quite coherent and I've gotta admit, it might have the best pacing out of the entire 90's anime. (I noticed there's barely any VOTD, no episode really feels like "filler" and the focus is always put on Chibiusa, the Senshi and the villains where it belongs.)
 
May 18, 2016
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#25
In my honest and very sadly unpopular opinion, the Black Moon manga arc aged like milk and eggs, and I feel its flaws, compared to the anime version, far outweigh its virtues, like what is the point of giving the four Inners their Star Power ups, if three of them are going to be captured for half of the arc and the fourth basically does nothing (all four didn't even do anything of significance in that manga arc)? Plus Saphir goes from saying Usagi was blameless but then tried to kill her, what?

The manga version did give :setsuna: and :diana: better roles though, and :chibiusa:'s backstory wasn't too bad.
 
Likes: julayla
Jun 17, 2019
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#26
In my honest and very sadly unpopular opinion, the Black Moon manga arc aged like milk and eggs, and I feel its flaws, compared to the anime version, far outweigh its virtues, like what is the point of giving the four Inners their Star Power ups, if three of them are going to be captured for half of the arc and the fourth basically does nothing (all four didn't even do anything of significance in that manga arc)? Plus Saphir goes from saying Usagi was blameless but then tried to kill her, what?

The manga version did give :setsuna: and :diana: better roles though, and :chibiusa:'s backstory wasn't too bad.
I'm not sure how you can say R's plot and characterization of the mains (Usagi, Chibi-Usa, Pluto and Mamoru in particular) is better than the Black Moon arc, compared to the manga's epic finale and how Chibi-Usa was characterized R definitely falls flat. The manga also has much better lore on Crystal Tokyo and Death Phantom/Nemesis (though I will admit, Crystal Tokyo forming due to Usagi unfreezing an ice age was pretty cool, but other than that they never give anymore details)

You're right about Saphir though, as I've said numerous times R's portrayal of the villains is the only thing it has over it's Manga counterpart. I always like to say you watch R for the villains and read the Black Moon arc/or watch Crystal Black Moon for the plot and characterization of our heroes.
 
Jan 14, 2021
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#27
But the inner senshi are absent for almost the entirety of the arc, Venus... Gets not captured by Calaveras and... Well that's about it. She might as well have stayed at home for all she ends up contributing to the arc. And then finally the inners are so useless that NSQ tells them to not even bother going to help Sailor Moon destroy Death Phantom, the nine year old will fill in for all four of them just fine and then some.
 

Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#28
In my honest and very sadly unpopular opinion, the Black Moon manga arc aged like milk and eggs, and I feel its flaws, compared to the anime version, far outweigh its virtues, like what is the point of giving the four Inners their Star Power ups, if three of them are going to be captured for half of the arc and the fourth basically does nothing (all four didn't even do anything of significance in that manga arc)? Plus Saphir goes from saying Usagi was blameless but then tried to kill her, what?

The manga version did give :setsuna: and :diana: better roles though, and :chibiusa:'s backstory wasn't too bad.
Yeah, Saphir's character was simply butchered, Demande's ending could also have been better.
 

sunray

Luna Nova
Sep 16, 2020
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#29
i mean yeah it sucks the inners don't do a whole lot in the manga but i think usagi's, mamoru's, and especially chibi-usa's and pluto's more then make up for it and is much more interesting then what the anime did with it's cast.
 

Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#30
I'm not sure how you can say R's plot and characterization of the mains (Usagi, Chibi-Usa, Pluto and Mamoru in particular) is better than the Black Moon arc, compared to the manga's epic finale and how Chibi-Usa was characterized R definitely falls flat. The manga also has much better lore on Crystal Tokyo and Death Phantom/Nemesis (though I will admit, Crystal Tokyo forming due to Usagi unfreezing an ice age was pretty cool, but other than that they never give anymore details)

You're right about Saphir though, as I've said numerous times R's portrayal of the villains is the only thing it has over it's Manga counterpart. I always like to say you watch R for the villains and read the Black Moon arc/or watch Crystal Black Moon for the plot and characterization of our heroes.
I don't think the manga's finale was great, the fight against Death Phantom was also weak, the climax was about Demande and Pluto stopping time.

But the fight after it was quite down.

And the fight against the sisters and the UFO fight in the anime were also good.
 
May 18, 2016
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#31
I don't think the manga's finale was great, the fight against Death Phantom was also weak, the climax was about Demande and Pluto stopping time.

But the fight after it was quite down.

And the fight against the sisters and the UFO fight in the anime were also good.
Had the Inners been involved, like attack Death Phantom or lend their power to Moon and Chibi-Usa, then it would have been good.
 
Likes: julayla
#32
Worse than SuperS and Stars? Nah, at least it still had some of the best villains in the series to make up for some of it's stupider changes from the manga. Plus it's actual plot was still quite coherent and I've gotta admit, it might have the best pacing out of the entire 90's anime. (I noticed there's barely any VOTD, no episode really feels like "filler" and the focus is always put on Chibiusa, the Senshi and the villains where it belongs.)
I concur!
 

Yamoon

Aurorae Lunares
Jul 17, 2006
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#33
Well the “ice frozen” plot in the R anime was quite stupid.
The final battle is not really the point of this season in the manga, it’s more about Chibiusa becoming finally a Senshi. So much better than the end of the R anime where The last battle is nothing memorable specially in most international version where they took out “La Soldier”.
 
Jun 17, 2019
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#34
Well the “ice frozen” plot in the R anime was quite stupid.
The final battle is not really the point of this season in the manga, it’s more about Chibiusa becoming finally a Senshi. So much better than the end of the R anime where The last battle is nothing memorable specially in most international version where they took out “La Soldier”.
Yeah the BMC finale in the manga easily trumps R, like it's not even a contest. Talk about anti-climactic how that final battle with Wiseman/Death Phantom felt after coming off the heels of the amazing Classic finale. (Honestly the best finale out of the entire 90's anime imo)


Had the Inners been involved, like attack Death Phantom or lend their power to Moon and Chibi-Usa, then it would have been good.
The Inners being underutilized is definitely a weak point of the manga's Black Moon arc along with it's villains, everything else about that arc is great though, it's the arc where Usagi undergoes the most character development other than Stars in the manga.


I don't think the manga's finale was great, the fight against Death Phantom was also weak, the climax was about Demande and Pluto stopping time.

But the fight after it was quite down.
Usagi and Mamoru were trapped on a whole ass different planet though (Nemesis) and actually duke it out with an actual planet instead of just some hooded skeleton. Plus Chibi-Usa managed to overcome her insecurites and turned back by finally awakening as a Senshi. I don't know about you but that's *way* more interesting to me then the showdown taking place in the same old ass, boring location that is Earth against the same, standard humanoid boring villain with barely any lore or background to him other than just "evil." I mean come on, Sailor Moon is a sci-fi/space themed centered Magical Girl series and yet it's only in the manga where they make good use of this setting and actually have the girls go into Space multiple times. Meanwhile the 90's anime heavily underutilizes this theme and the only time we get any space battles/final showdowns are in the movies, talk about a let down.

Say what you will about the manga, but it's epicness and scale is something the 90's anime was never able to match.
 
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