Hi guys!
I've been reading the manga lately for the first time. Haven't watched the Anime yet. I will, I swear. I've always wanted to know this franchise and understand why it's so famous and why it has caught a lot of hearts around the world. So I decided to start with the original comic.
Before I began reading the manga I got info about it and read some opinions from the fandom. Many of them have something in common: The Dream saga is the best out of the rest of the series and far better than its animated adaptation (again, I don't know, I haven't seen it).
While it's true that the manga gets better with each passing saga (Dark Kingdom arc was a potential cult magical girls manga with a chaotic final battle, Black Moon arc was a mess and Infinity arc got a solid story and structure), I found the fourth arc disappointing.
Maybe it's because I barely know this franchise and I'm missing something but:
1. Why did Ami, Makoto and Rei remember a conversation with Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru respectively that never took place? The pace of the Infinity arc story never gave space for these conversations and interactions to happen.
2. One of the praises of this saga is the great character development of the supporting cast. But what I saw was how the bad psychological depiction kept going. The Inner Senshi dreamt about being a soldier, protecting their princess and saving the world rather than dreaming as human beings. The author kept treating these characters as a piece or a tool to move the story, like something disposable, also maintaining that cold Princess - slave relationship forged in their previous lives.
3. Another aspect that gets a lot of praise is the human forms of Rei's crows and the cats. It's fine. But why now? I mean, the author had 3 previous arcs to do so. As a reader I need an explanation.
Again, they've got the ability to turn into humans, but why now? Because potatoes? To move the story? A convenient plot device? It's ok... but not good, and doesn't benefit the narrative.
4. Who's Zirconia? Suddenly she disappeared and in the final battle Nehellenia turned into her? Nehellenia is Zirconia? It's not clear.
5. The enemy is boring. I know, almost all the enemies in Sailor Moon are boring. But at least former antagonists like Tomoe or Demande had different motivations than being a Beryl rip-off. Nehellenia just came from the dark side, therefore she is evil. That's all.
6. The final battle. It is not better than the previous ones. It's confusing like the others. The author cannot draw, she's not a good manga artist and the battles and actions scenes are her weak point. But the thing is she filled pages and pages showing us the Senshis becoming princesses all of a sudden? Why now? Why do they have castles now? I'm reading the Stars arc and they don't use them, apart from Uranus team. They've suddenly got little guardians to..... fill blank pages and panels. There's no reason or an explanation to be princesses and have palaces and guardians. Why? To be simple batteries and recharge Sailor Moon with new powers? Not good writing. And Mamoru... why could Mamoru get his crystal out of his body at will? There was no a painful process like Sailor Moon o Chibi Moon had to go through to obtain the silver crystal. He found out the golden crystal was in his body and in the final pages got it out easily.
Do everybody love this arc in response to the extreme hate towards Sailor Moon SuperS (thanks Wikipedia!)?
I think, as a reader, it's as simple as the rest of the arcs. Not the worst, Stars arc deserves that category, but I reckon it is inferior to Infinity. I may be wrong!
I've been reading the manga lately for the first time. Haven't watched the Anime yet. I will, I swear. I've always wanted to know this franchise and understand why it's so famous and why it has caught a lot of hearts around the world. So I decided to start with the original comic.
Before I began reading the manga I got info about it and read some opinions from the fandom. Many of them have something in common: The Dream saga is the best out of the rest of the series and far better than its animated adaptation (again, I don't know, I haven't seen it).
While it's true that the manga gets better with each passing saga (Dark Kingdom arc was a potential cult magical girls manga with a chaotic final battle, Black Moon arc was a mess and Infinity arc got a solid story and structure), I found the fourth arc disappointing.
Maybe it's because I barely know this franchise and I'm missing something but:
1. Why did Ami, Makoto and Rei remember a conversation with Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru respectively that never took place? The pace of the Infinity arc story never gave space for these conversations and interactions to happen.
2. One of the praises of this saga is the great character development of the supporting cast. But what I saw was how the bad psychological depiction kept going. The Inner Senshi dreamt about being a soldier, protecting their princess and saving the world rather than dreaming as human beings. The author kept treating these characters as a piece or a tool to move the story, like something disposable, also maintaining that cold Princess - slave relationship forged in their previous lives.
3. Another aspect that gets a lot of praise is the human forms of Rei's crows and the cats. It's fine. But why now? I mean, the author had 3 previous arcs to do so. As a reader I need an explanation.
Again, they've got the ability to turn into humans, but why now? Because potatoes? To move the story? A convenient plot device? It's ok... but not good, and doesn't benefit the narrative.
4. Who's Zirconia? Suddenly she disappeared and in the final battle Nehellenia turned into her? Nehellenia is Zirconia? It's not clear.
5. The enemy is boring. I know, almost all the enemies in Sailor Moon are boring. But at least former antagonists like Tomoe or Demande had different motivations than being a Beryl rip-off. Nehellenia just came from the dark side, therefore she is evil. That's all.
6. The final battle. It is not better than the previous ones. It's confusing like the others. The author cannot draw, she's not a good manga artist and the battles and actions scenes are her weak point. But the thing is she filled pages and pages showing us the Senshis becoming princesses all of a sudden? Why now? Why do they have castles now? I'm reading the Stars arc and they don't use them, apart from Uranus team. They've suddenly got little guardians to..... fill blank pages and panels. There's no reason or an explanation to be princesses and have palaces and guardians. Why? To be simple batteries and recharge Sailor Moon with new powers? Not good writing. And Mamoru... why could Mamoru get his crystal out of his body at will? There was no a painful process like Sailor Moon o Chibi Moon had to go through to obtain the silver crystal. He found out the golden crystal was in his body and in the final pages got it out easily.
Do everybody love this arc in response to the extreme hate towards Sailor Moon SuperS (thanks Wikipedia!)?
I think, as a reader, it's as simple as the rest of the arcs. Not the worst, Stars arc deserves that category, but I reckon it is inferior to Infinity. I may be wrong!
