REAl Crystal bashers go way too far

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sapphire91

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Jul 6, 2018
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#1
I have been called a Crystal basher by people on occasion. If being a basher means to criticize a work of art that you care for and point out flaws then I guess I am guilty. But with the recent news about Toei coproducing the show I have seen some actual bashing in oter sites and just couldn't stop myself. People that know absolutely nothing on anike industry talk like experts on how poor Crystal performed in Japan.

1) Myth - Crystal 1 and 2 sold badly, say bashers. For anime to be considered a success when it comes to selling, it should go over 1000 units sold in the forst two weeks of release. Crystal 1 and 2 started woth about 3000, and the last volume still sold about 1200 units in its first week. This is good, considerig the fact that most shows sell 100-300 units, especially in the shoujo genre. Yes there are some smashing shouen hits that sell much better, but Crystal 1 and 2 passed the bar for a selling product.

2) Myth 2 Season 3 had poor ratings in Japan, so Toei couldn't secure tie slot and opted for a movie (or a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend which sister'husband 10th cousin live i Japan tod me)
Well, this is beyod speculation. It is true that season 3 didn't sell as well as s1 and 2, with 500-300 units in te forst week. These are not poor sells lreally, they are normal anime sell numbers in Japan. Unlike in the USA where ratings are disclosed to public, Japan never show this data, so nobody's 50th cousin that lives in Japan could know the ratings for the show. I guess the asuptions of low ratings coes for sells. Let's get Chihaya Furu an anime that despite selling like under 100 units is still being produced, spannig multiple seasons. Sells don't really correspond with ratings as shows like Pretty Cure that are among the most watched stuff on TV sell little to no when it comes to dvd and blu ray.
3 while not a myth this really frustrates me. People are gloating that Naoko is supervisig the project only because they hope it fails so they can finally bash on her. I cannot believe somebody could hate the creator of a product they say they love.
 
Oct 11, 2003
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#2
Theres been a LOT of hot air about the Crystal Movies floating around off what is so far very little information.

All we've had is a very short trailer with no proper animation and just character designs and an empty official site.

Yet look how many pages it's generated of forum discussion ? Seems a bit OTT for me - I'd rather be focussing on actual near short term events. I know there are lots of old time musical fans knocking around and yet the Akiko Kosaka Concert has generated very little reaction from what I've seen in spite of some big name favourites appearing...
 
Likes: Starlight
Aug 18, 2011
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#3
Thank you Sapphire for at least being objective in your approach and realizing that from a business perspective, Crystal wasn't a failure, despite your personal feelings. Personally, I love Crystal. I think it's a much more superior adaption to the 90's anime. Despite auguring with the purists that put the original on a pedestal because of nostalgia, I have been critical of Crystal. It's far from a perfect adaption. To be fair to the SM community as a whole I think the more vicious and vile "haters" of Crystal are the minority.
 

yaya_ikuto

Lumen Cinererum
Jan 16, 2018
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#4
Thank you Sapphire for at least being objective in your approach and realizing that from a business perspective, Crystal wasn't a failure, despite your personal feelings. Personally, I love Crystal. I think it's a much more superior adaption to the 90's anime. Despite auguring with the purists that put the original on a pedestal because of nostalgia, I have been critical of Crystal. It's far from a perfect adaption. To be fair to the SM community as a whole I think the more vicious and vile "haters" of Crystal are the minority.
i think the same as you, i love crystal too i saw the bad things but i still like crystal more, i want something more like the manga than how the 90s anime did,
the only issue is, if was good why toei is using the designer of the old anime?
mh i think it will be better to talk about the new seiyus or the bad guys designs
 
Jul 11, 2013
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#5
i think the same as you, i love crystal too i saw the bad things but i still like crystal more, i want something more like the manga than how the 90s anime did,
the only issue is, if was good why toei is using the designer of the old anime?
mh i think it will be better to talk about the new seiyus or the bad guys designs
I can read Japanese and what I could tell is that the majority of Japanese fans are happy when the new design is similar to the 90's anime.
 

sapphire91

Stella Nova
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#6
I speak a bit of Japanese as well and yes people are happy with the new design indeed, from what I have seen. While people in Japan were not crazy about previous designs, the show itself might gave not been a hit but when it comes to sells and income it was a success, modest, but far from the fluke some claim. As for Season 3 ratings nobody could tell anything about them as this sort of information is not disclosed. From what I have seen people in Japan are not as concerned and disappointed by Deen being involved.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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#7
Well... people have been bashing Crystal for years now. There are TUMBLR pages dedicated to bashing Crystal. The Internet is inundated with GIFs and memes bashing Crystal. Nothing new here, really. But it is interesting to observe how people's opinions diverge: (1) it is TOEI's fault or (2) no, it is Naoko's fault.

My thoughts (since we have this thread):

(1) Naoko is the creator of Sailor Moon, but I think that TOEI co-created Sailor Moon. TOEI approached Naoko and said "hey, let's make an anime," and it is due to TOEI that the 90's anime was so popular. I think TOEI, Junichi Sato, Ikuhara, and others deserves credit for the creation and popularity of Sailor Moon as much as Naoko does. Thus, I view TOEI as the co-creator.

(2) I have read that TOEI has partnered with a studio to make the new movies. I think that TOEI didn't give "Crystal" the treatment that it deserved. "Sailor Moon" is as popular or more popular than "Cardcaptor Sakura," so I definitely wonder WHY TOEI didn't partner with TV NIHON to create an anime with the same high production values as the recent "Cardcaptor Sakura" sequel.

(3) At times I wonder what TOEI was thinking. There was so much miscommunication and mismanagement. Prior to the release of episode 1, they made announcements, there were delays, and when the anime finally aired we realized that the episodes were pretty much being made each week prior to their airing. So the entire campaign and production of Crystal felt deplorable.
 

NJ_

Gurges Ater
Oct 31, 2009
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#8
(2) I have read that TOEI has partnered with a studio to make the new movies. I think that TOEI didn't give "Crystal" the treatment that it deserved. "Sailor Moon" is as popular or more popular than "Cardcaptor Sakura," so I definitely wonder WHY TOEI didn't partner with TV NIHON to create an anime with the same high production values as the recent "Cardcaptor Sakura" sequel.
Because they're not an animation studio, they're a fansub group.:rofl:
 

sapphire91

Stella Nova
Jul 6, 2018
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#9
Honestly, I do not find Clear Card Season a high production value show, it was done with much more care, true, but it was nothing amazing when it comes to animation, it was mediocre. The only reason TOEI are co-producing the films is probably because they have too much stuff going on. For me the only difference is that they are using a Japanese studio, instead of the hole bunch of small unknown studios they used in the past. Deen are not one of the best studios out there, but compared to the previously used Toei Philippines. Buyu, Studio Mew etc they are much better and more experienced. Really depends on people involved rather than the studio itself. Plus Toei are co-producing it and it is not like Saintia Shou, where Toei completely left Gonzo doing it entirely. My initial reaction to Deen was oh, god no, but the I realized it is the same situation as before with Toei outsourcing, but to a big company, rather than in-betweeners and nobody known freelancers.
 
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yaya_ikuto

Lumen Cinererum
Jan 16, 2018
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#11
Well... people have been bashing Crystal for years now. There are TUMBLR pages dedicated to bashing Crystal. The Internet is inundated with GIFs and memes bashing Crystal. Nothing new here, really. But it is interesting to observe how people's opinions diverge: (1) it is TOEI's fault or (2) no, it is Naoko's fault.

My thoughts (since we have this thread):

(1) Naoko is the creator of Sailor Moon, but I think that TOEI co-created Sailor Moon. TOEI approached Naoko and said "hey, let's make an anime," and it is due to TOEI that the 90's anime was so popular. I think TOEI, Junichi Sato, Ikuhara, and others deserves credit for the creation and popularity of Sailor Moon as much as Naoko does. Thus, I view TOEI as the co-creator.

(2) I have read that TOEI has partnered with a studio to make the new movies. I think that TOEI didn't give "Crystal" the treatment that it deserved. "Sailor Moon" is as popular or more popular than "Cardcaptor Sakura," so I definitely wonder WHY TOEI didn't partner with TV NIHON to create an anime with the same high production values as the recent "Cardcaptor Sakura" sequel.

(3) At times I wonder what TOEI was thinking. There was so much miscommunication and mismanagement. Prior to the release of episode 1, they made announcements, there were delays, and when the anime finally aired we realized that the episodes were pretty much being made each week prior to their airing. So the entire campaign and production of Crystal felt deplorable.
1. so is was true or not that in japan was more popular the manga than the 90s anime?
2. mh i dont know how contracts are made in japan and wasent that great the new sakura anime well have some bad things
3 this one is most of toei fault, well it pass the time and what give us with some bad drawings well i like the designs but yeah what they do well
 

sapphire91

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#12
The manga was not more popular than the anime in Japan. They both were popular and te anime was of course more accessible to younger audence and was a commercial success. Then SuperS happened and ratigs dropped. Toei ended te arc abruptly, started Stars ad canged most of te staff. Despite that the raitigs didnt raise much. The manga, however never suffered drop in readership and was cosistently popular with each arc.
 

Maraviollantes

Sailor Moon fan #1
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Jan 3, 2006
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#16
Last time I checked she was never credited for supervision of Season 1, 2 and 3.
Why, last time I checked, I didn't find any reliable sources confirming she ever bothered to watch Crystal at all, to say nothing of production supervision. :mameshiba:
 
May 18, 2016
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#18
In my eyes, anything could be a financial success and still be bad. Power Rangers Super Megaforce, for example. From my experience, Crystal seems to have been a success financially for seasons 1-2, but not a huge hit from a lot of people I've talked to, they, along with me, intensely dislike those seasons.

And Naoko's completely blame-free in this situation.
 
Likes: blondibear_17
Jul 11, 2013
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#19
About the infamous hideous frames. This is my theory: They were not done by the animators, but by people from other department (for example: coloring department). Please remember that they need a dump video, adding times so they could dub the voice and add the background music as soon as possible. Due to the strict schedule, the animators couldn't finish the whole episode, and they had to fill it with all they had. So what were shown on Niconico were pretty much the draft ones.
 

sapphire91

Stella Nova
Jul 6, 2018
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#20
In my eyes, anything could be a financial success and still be bad. Power Rangers Super Megaforce, for example. From my experience, Crystal seems to have been a success financially for seasons 1-2, but not a huge hit from a lot of people I've talked to, they, along with me, intensely dislike those seasons.

And Naoko's completely blame-free in this situation.
Yes, the whole point I wanted to make is good or bad, it was not a failure commercially and financially, because I have seen people claiming it sold so bad and ratings were so low that couldn't secure broadcast on TV and came up with films... These people are ignoring the fact that something with such a low ratings they claim it had would never continue in any format (as well as the fact S1 and 2 blu rays in Japan made it to the top 20 Orecon chart for the month of release as far as I remember each one of them and numbers were revealed) . Toei are just following a trend and Sailor Moon is the franchise to milk for both theatrical release as well as a separate dvd/blu ray release in other countries. Plus movies sell better in general and the format is lucrative.Naoko cannot be blamed for the animation problems and budget, she was just the original creator and gave her consent for a new anime, but Kodansha were the ones in the production committee, co-funding the project.


As for the bad frames, these same bad animators were drawing for Season 3, but because the on model designs were quite derpy it is less noticeable Still you can trace them if you watch close enough
 
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