Is SMC really that similar to the manga?

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Starlight

Aurorae Lunares
May 31, 2009
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Tankei Kingdom, Kinmoku
#1
I've been hearing by a lot of people, mostly from Crystal fans, that SMC is exactly like the manga, only animated. Upon inspection though, a lot of elements from the manga were changed or eliminated, much to Crystal's detriment. To understand better what I mean, check out this blog that offers examples and analysis.

What do you think?
 

SILVER

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 7, 2014
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Dark Kingdom
#2
Sailor Starlight said:
I've been hearing by a lot of people, mostly from Crystal fans, that SMC is exactly like the manga, only animated. Upon inspection though, a lot of elements from the manga were changed or eliminated, much to Crystal's detriment. To understand better what I mean, check out this blog that offers examples and analysis.

What do you think?
Did these people not watch the show, or...?
Because within the first 3 minutes there's already a new scene added lol.

This isn't anything new, since changes have been present within minutes of the show's first episode and its regarded as a closer adaptation than the old one.
I don't think that people claiming it to be an exact copy actually exists.
 
Jul 31, 2012
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#3
I don't think so, but it does have important moments from the manga animated that weren't done so in the 90s anime. It is also more faithful to certain event, items and attacks.

Things that were changed like for example, Mars killing Jaedite in the manga, coming close to it in Crystal and then you have the 90s, which replaced Jaedite, with the bus youma, since it dies just about the exact way Jaedite did in the manga.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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#5
Yes it is really THAT similar to the manga.

Although since the whole story has been established, some scenes are more fleshed out to link the Senshi with their past lives for the better (i.e: Moon and the Inners having visions of the Silver Millenium with their first meeting with Serenity) or the worst (The Shittenou being re-brainwashed and killed by Metalia).

It is definitely not a carbon copy of the manga but more like a modern adaptation of the story.
 

JayD22460

Aurorae Lunares
Dec 20, 2011
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New York
#6
Your subject asks "Is SMC really that similar to the manga?" but the first line of your post reads: "I've been hearing by a lot of people, mostly from Crystal fans, that SMC is exactly like the manga, only animated."

Your subject line does not match what you are trying to say in this topic.

I don't think many Crystal fans claim it is "exactly" like the manga; or if they are, they are obviously using hyperbole.

An inability to identify hyperbole or exaggeration can mean many things, but you seem like an intelligent person, so I can only conclude that you are being willfully ignorant in order to prove a point.

Crystal fans are not saying it is "exactly" like the manga, but rather, we are saying that it is closer to the manga than the 90s version.

Regardless of your opinion on the quality of Crystal, the fact that Crystal is a very close adaptation of the Sailor Moon manga is undeniable and indisputable.

This thread doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than to stir up anti-Crystal sentiment.

Next!
 
Aug 27, 2012
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Cuddling With Ami-Chan!
#7
yes and no, yes its similar but the art style in the manga is far superior to Crystals in every way possible and with the exception of the Dark Kingdom Arc the Characters had good development (I blame Miss Takeuchi's director for Rushing her)
 
Jul 5, 2009
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#8
Ryo Urawa said:
yes and no, yes its similar but the art style in the manga is far superior to Crystals in every way possible and with the exception of the Dark Kingdom Arc the Characters had good development (I blame Miss Takeuchi's director for Rushing her)
It was a bad idea putting S1 and S2 together. :dead:
 

Neon Genesis

Solaris Luna
Oct 31, 2015
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#9
As someone who is a fan of Crystal, I don't know any Crystal fan who would argue that Crystal is an exact copy of the manga. What most Crystal fans would say is that Crystal is more faithful to the manga than the 90s anime but I doubt anyone would say it's exactly the same. One can argue about the quality of the execution but I don't think even most critics of Crystal would really dispute the adaptation's faithfulness to the manga. I would compare the accuracy of Crystal to the first two Harry Potter movies. Even with those movies, they do make some changes to the source material, either for the sake of cutting for time or just to take creative liberties to make the scene work in a different medium, but they still largely follow the books very faithfully and even use most of the same dialog from the books. Besides the romantic subplot of the Generals, I think the only other big changes is changing it so Sailor Moon uses the sword against Beryl instead of Venus, changing so they kill Beryl by breaking her necklace instead of stabbing her, cutting out Grandpa Hino and Unazuki, cutting out Motoki finding out the Inners' secret identities, and cutting out some extra scenes about Mamoru's powers in the Black Moon arc.

Again, we can dispute how well these changes were executed, but these are the same types of changes the first two Harry Potter movies make where some alterations are made to make the plot more streamlined for an adaptation, but it doesn't effect the overall plot in a radical way like the 90s anime did. Most of the examples this blog cite seem like minor nitpicks that are typical of what you will find in most book to screen adaptations that still strive for book accuracy. I feel like there are better examples the author could have used like I mentioned above instead of nitpicking about Usagi's ketchup or something to make a stronger case. But I get the feeling the author is merely trying to score points against other fans that disagree with their opinion about Crystal and not trying to understand how book to screen adaptations actually work. But setting up a strawman argument and nitpicking about ketchup isn't really helping their case.
 

Seira Hazuki

Solaris Luna
Jan 17, 2007
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#11
SMC is incredibly similar to the manga. It is by far the closest adaptation to it. I don't think there's really much to argue there.

I think there can be a broader discussion in terms of 'faithfulness' which is a bit more subjective for each person. For example, it's fascinating to me that fans of the first two seasons claim that Season 3 isn't accurate to the manga and call it an attempt to become the '90s anime, when aside from the '90s homages, that season had the least changes to the manga story and characters. And even with the style change, there are so many recreations of manga panels. On the flip side, Season 3 fans argue that S1/S2 are not faithful to the manga despite the story still being virtually identical... Even some of the changes they didn't like, such as the lack of humor, was brought back in Season 2.

It just goes to show you how many different interpretations the manga has had. Despite it being illustrated, it's still a lot like a textual novel where people have their own 'vision' of the story in their minds. You set the pace with reading it, you fill in the blanks in your head and you essentially direct each scene and how the characters' voices sound. And I don't think any person who is a serious fan of the manga can claim that Crystal played each scene EXACTLY how they imagined it when they first read the comic.

This is part of the reason why there's so many conflicting, even contradictory, reactions towards Crystal, including from super fans of the manga (I'm assuming that blog that was linked is a fan of the manga since they're doing something so tedious comparing each scene panel by panel). Essentially, you're not directly seeing Naoko's vision unfold onscreen, you are watching a director's (whether it's Kon or Sakai) interpretation of Naoko's vision. Quality of the animation, direction and pacing is a huge part of it too, but I think there's a lot to be said about how people interpret the manga and how Crystal matches each person's vision of it. It's a lot more nuanced than just 90s anime fans vs. manga fans which all of these discussions end up boiling down to.
 

SILVER

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 7, 2014
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Dark Kingdom
#12
John said:
Your subject asks "Is SMC really that similar to the manga?" but the first line of your post reads: "I've been hearing by a lot of people, mostly from Crystal fans, that SMC is exactly like the manga, only animated."

Your subject line does not match what you are trying to say in this topic.

I don't think many Crystal fans claim it is "exactly" like the manga; or if they are, they are obviously using hyperbole.

An inability to identify hyperbole or exaggeration can mean many things, but you seem like an intelligent person, so I can only conclude that you are being willfully ignorant in order to prove a point.

Crystal fans are not saying it is "exactly" like the manga, but rather, we are saying that it is closer to the manga than the 90s version.

Regardless of your opinion on the quality of Crystal, the fact that Crystal is a very close adaptation of the Sailor Moon manga is undeniable and indisputable.

This thread doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than to stir up anti-Crystal sentiment.


Next!
I'm happy that people aren't feeding into this, but I had the same thought. Its an established pattern in OP's post.
 
Jul 11, 2013
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#13
rgveda99 said:
Ryo Urawa said:
yes and no, yes its similar but the art style in the manga is far superior to Crystals in every way possible and with the exception of the Dark Kingdom Arc the Characters had good development (I blame Miss Takeuchi's director for Rushing her)
It was a bad idea putting S1 and S2 together. :dead:
I think they had the reason to put 2 seasons together.

Arc 1 of manga has 14 acts, Arc 2 has 12.

But in anime industry, each season must have 12 or 13 acts.

It would be ridiculous to end a season at the scene "I will seal you for good" and put and end there.

So the combination of 2 arc, with 13 x 2 episodes is a good idea.

In Japan, the opening of season 2 is Act 14 (The Final Battle), not Act 15 (Invasion -Sailor Mars-). While Act 14 is still the Dark Kingdom arc in manga.
 

MariaTenebre

Systema Solare
Jul 22, 2009
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#14
MementoNepenthe said:
The manga is amazing and Crystal is struggle mediocre at best, so... :mischief:
Sadly I tend to agree. Crystal is not without it's charm and there are things I like about it but it simply wasn't what I wanted in a new anime and in many cases was executed poorly.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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#15
MementoNepenthe said:
The manga is amazing and Crystal is struggle mediocre at best, so... :mischief:
I absolutely hate the first act of the manga... the pacing is terrible, there is very little time for the reader to connect with the characters (aside from Usagi and Mamoru). However, the remaining arcs are excellent, and the "Stars" arc, particularly, was, in my opinion, brilliantly written and illustrated... much better than what TOEI gave us in the 90's.
 

MariaTenebre

Systema Solare
Jul 22, 2009
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#16
Clow said:
MementoNepenthe said:
The manga is amazing and Crystal is struggle mediocre at best, so... :mischief:
I absolutely hate the first act of the manga... the pacing is terrible, there is very little time for the reader to connect with the characters (aside from Usagi and Mamoru). However, the remaining arcs are excellent, and the "Stars" arc, particularly, was, in my opinion, brilliantly written and illustrated... much better than what TOEI gave us in the 90's.
Yeah Dream and Stars both were definitely better then what the 90s offered us. However I will say while most things I tend to prefer in the manga in these last two arcs. However in the 90s anime I did like the fact that the Amazon Trio survived and were fleshed out, I liked Queen Nehellenia's anime backstory better and I also liked Sailor Galaxia's backstory better as opposed to her emo rage child story from the manga.
 
Aug 27, 2012
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Cuddling With Ami-Chan!
#17
^^^I also want to point out that Crystal removed entire plot points and characters that were present in the manga like Rei's Dad and Grandpa for example (we never did get Rei's backstory in Crystal)
 
#18
MariaTenebre said:
MementoNepenthe said:
The manga is amazing and Crystal is struggle mediocre at best, so... :mischief:
Sadly I tend to agree. Crystal is not without it's charm and there are things I like about it but it simply wasn't what I wanted in a new anime and in many cases was executed poorly.
I agree as well. Crystal does have good things about it, which I like.
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#19
Ryo Urawa said:
^^^I also want to point out that Crystal removed entire plot points and characters that were present in the manga like Rei's Dad and Grandpa for example (we never did get Rei's backstory in Crystal)
In fairness her parents were never mentioned in the 90s anime either, but it was weird and disappointing that Crystal ignored them and her grandfather as well. (Not to mention Unazuki!)
 

JayD22460

Aurorae Lunares
Dec 20, 2011
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#20
MementoNepenthe said:
Ryo Urawa said:
^^^I also want to point out that Crystal removed entire plot points and characters that were present in the manga like Rei's Dad and Grandpa for example (we never did get Rei's backstory in Crystal)
In fairness her parents were never mentioned in the 90s anime either, but it was weird and disappointing that Crystal ignored them and her grandfather as well. (Not to mention Unazuki!)
As much as I love Crystal, it's gonna be weird that the crows will be introduced either in Dream or Stars without us having seen them already...

I love the manga and as much as I like Crystal, I do feel that it pales in comparison; however, for simply being very true to the manga, I do have to give Crystal some credit. The 90s anime is very near to my heart but I've always wanted to see Dream and Stars adapted in animation. While I enjoyed SuperS and Sailor Stars for their own merits, I'm really looking forward to the Crystal adaptations simply because it's going to be basically following the manga. Removing minor characters here and there is disappointing but it doesn't even begin to compare to what SuperS did with Dream, for example.