Is Toei regretting Crystal's initial concept?

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Aug 16, 2016
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#21
Actually, from what I know, Toei animation never really wanted to do Sailormoon Crystal true to the manga, they wanted to make a new version of sailormoon (reboot or sequel with a new generation), back then, Precure serie was still not release in west and was in downfall, So Sailormoon could have been a good successor to Precure.
And Saint seiya just receivea sequel using this concept(Omega), so the project was to make sailormoon crystal something really new.
But Naoko Takeuchi was against this idea a make clear the only project she was ok was a faithful adaptation of the manga.

But Toei animation never believed in this(the 2 first season were just a web serie with no budget and very poor planning)

They tried to save the disaster that was these 2 season with Precure stat, some good action and good planning but it was still a failure.

Actually, I think Toei just search to not lose money
 
Jul 31, 2012
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#23
Someone's post has me thinking if Naoko actually wants to even do anything new with SM. She guards it well as any creator should their child.

I've always been curious to know what she thinks of Pretty Cure in general though. She probably doesn't want her series to become like that. Haha.

Though, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be slightly interested in a season on another planet with another group of Senshi or at least just a little more in-depth coverage of the Sailor Wars though or a new Sailor Wars saga.
 

Zyvik

Lumen Cinererum
Oct 26, 2014
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#25
I doubt that they're regretting it. Their goal was to make something that would require the least amount of effort possible. Replicating a hugely popular story was perfect for them. The problem is, they botched it from the get go with that godawful season 1. If they're regretting anything at all then it's the execution, not the concept itself, but I seriously doubt they care enough even for that.
 

Clow

Quasar
Jul 29, 2012
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#26
I thought season 3 was definitely an improvement over the past seasons and I greatly enjoyed it, but the score... yes, it feels like church music. If you can't compose a good score or if you recycle old scores, why not to just bring back the score from the 90's anime?
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#27
I love the music for Crystal, it's one of my favorite aspects of the series, BUT I agree it's incredibly disappointing/pathetic/lazy that the composer is basically just reusing music he wrote for other series. Still, I think that style of music suits Sailor Moon.
 
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NJ_

Gurges Ater
Oct 31, 2009
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#28
If you can't compose a good score or if you recycle old scores, why not to just bring back the score from the 90's anime?
Probably legal issues because they went with a different company for video & soundtrack distribution (and Myu co-production) than the ones they used for the 90s anime, the older Myus and PGSM. Also some of the 90s soundtracks got re-released by the previous company during Crystal S1-2's run so that hasn't changed.
 

Serena-Hime

Luna Crescens
Sep 14, 2017
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#29
Idk if they regret it, but I'll perpetually feel secondhand embarrassment over how much of a disaster it was, everything seemed like such an afterthought. I don't like the s1/2 character designs, and even though people will say up and down how much they look like the Manga I just don't see it. For one, Naoko's artwork even within SM is inconsistent as hell. The artbook pictures and the actual manga panels have a lot of differences in style imo, such as how the panels have more range in expression and the artwork is usually very blank-faced like fashion photos, which I imagine was the point- and as a result of s1 and 2 clearly trying to emulate that style , which they did poorly, they look mediocre and have very limited expression, sacrificing that in order to make them all look like models.

I'm not incredibly happy with the S3 designs- for one I can't help but look at SSM's fuku and think ''What the hell happened'', it looks so droopy and lumpy (especially in the transformation sequence) and the shoulder 'wings' fall so flat, while the manga and 90's anime seems more structured and magical. It also really bothers me that Saturn's skirt is so weirdly long in comparison to the rest- especially with her boots, sleeves and gloves which are already bigger by design, the skirt really throws off the proportions to me.

But altogether, the S3 designs work better in animation than the rest, have more emotion and look more similar to Naoko's recent artwork (even moreso in the updated s3 designs that they use for merch) and it's the only Crystal season I've watched multiple times, it's not perfect (Usagi looks real weird in a few parts of the last episodes) but it's solidly 'fine' to me.

Similarly to 1 and 2, the BIGGEST drawback of Crystal is that throughout all of it, they keep recycling the transformation and attack sequences of the 90's anime. My favorite attacks of s3 are the ones that are entirely new, and my favorite parts of the transformation sequences are the parts that were altered and extended from the 90's version. I want something NEW. The transformations in the manga are shorter but seem really powerful to me, like the way they throw up their brooches/pens, cross their arms and shout their transformation phrases! I think they would look SO good with more detail in animation. I do like that s1 and 2 featured less stock footage, I like seeing them attack in real-time and I want more of that.



My opinion is that they should spend maybe a year of hard, serious planning and designing, come up with character designs that fit both the manga and 90's anime to attract both fanbases, pacing, etc, good funding and make two movies for EACH season- maybe one season per year, so two movies per year. Literally scrap everything and start all over. I'd rather wait five years for an entire movie series of the manga instead of the ridiculously inconsistent and mediocre mess we have right now. If the Dream and Stars movies are good.. well that's great but that still means there's three garbage arcs before it, making it incomplete to me.

Maybe make short films of the short-stories between films, and when it's all done, make an anime for Sailor V.

But we all know that's never going to happen.
 
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Rika-Chicchi

Staff member
Site Admin
May 7, 2009
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#30
My opinion is that they should spend maybe a year of hard, serious planning and designing, come up with character designs that fit both the manga and 90's anime to attract both fanbases, pacing, etc, good funding and make two movies for EACH season- maybe one season per year, so two movies per year. Literally scrap everything and start all over. I'd rather wait five years for an entire movie series of the manga instead of the ridiculously inconsistent and mediocre mess we have right now. If the Dream and Stars movies are good.. well that's great but that still means there's three garbage arcs before it, making it incomplete to me.
What if the movies were also garbage, then the whole Crystal project would be consistent & complete. :lol:
 

Neon Genesis

Solaris Luna
Oct 31, 2015
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#32
Toei has always stated in interviews they wanted Crystal to be the type of show that mothers who grew up with the original could share it with their daughters, so it's always been their goal from the start to appeal to nostalgia while also being a new adaptation of the manga for a new audience. We've seen subtle call backs to the 90s anime from day one with the casting of Kotono Mitsuishi as Usagi and I remember a lot of early news articles reporting that Tohru Furuya was originally supposed to come back as Tuxedo Mask. Season one and two kept references to the 90s anime with the transformation and I will punish you scenes. Season two brought back more of the goofy faces and 90s style stock attack footage and this was done to an even greater extreme in season three. So doing this combination of a faithful adaptation of the manga with 90s anime nostalgia fanservice has always been Toei's goal from the start.
 
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Aug 16, 2016
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#36
I've always been curious to know what she thinks of Pretty Cure in general though. She probably doesn't want her series to become like that. Haha.
It's sad because most of the Precure season are better than sailormoon(actually, most of the magical girl are better than sailormoon, I love sailormoon character and some mature theme of the serie, but the slice of life part in the anime are just bad and too much present and the manga is just like Dragonball Super manga, it's just a promotional manga, the character are not deep and everythining is going too fast.

Sailormoon is like Saint seiya, it's a precursor of the magical sentai but the title was surpassed by most of his successor (Magic knight rayearth, Precure, Doremi, WITCH, Shugo chara) and the title is lacking compared to oldschool magical girl who have far better slice of life and character telling.

And some titles like Sakura and Princess Tutu are just so good than nothing can beat them
 

kamil88

Lumen Cinererum
Jun 30, 2013
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#37
While im happy Toei learned teir mistake with S1/S2, im afraid it might be too late for Crystal, S3 was, in my opinion, much closer to manga, and more enjoyable show overall, sadly, it sold poorly, i hope movies will do better
 
Jul 11, 2013
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#38
I think the reason for the bad sales of SMC3 is
1) Those who admired the mature style of S1-2 decided to drop after episode 26 (because they kept purchasing DVDs until volume 13, who didn't like the mature style already dropped it after volume 1).
2) S3 couldn't appeal the fan of the old series, although many people said that they would prefer S3, but it was obviously that the people coming back were much fewer than who wanted to run away. Even the cheaper price didn't arouse their interest. (If they decided not to buy because of no fixed sequences, the sales of the first disc of S3 should have been higher than the other two. So the fact that there is no fixed frames is not the explanation for the low sale).
 
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SailorSugababe

Aurorae Lunares
Sep 8, 2011
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#39
The sales arent very surprising given that S3 releases just didnt have all the extras and limited editions from previous seasons. Also S1-2 had a pretty big drop in sales where first volume had like 5k sales and the final ones 2.5k or less. When S3 lost all the extras no wonder the sales dropped even more. If anything it was Toei showing they have no big interest/faith in SM Crystal physical sales otherwise they'd release 6 volumes with extras instead of 3 without anything
 
Aug 16, 2016
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#40
I think the reason for the bad sales of SMC3 is
1) Those who admired the mature style of S1-2 decided to drop after episode 26 (because they kept purchasing DVDs until volume 13, who didn't like the mature style already dropped it after volume 1).
2) S3 couldn't appeal the fan of the old series, although many people said that they would prefer S3, but it was obviously that the people coming back were much fewer than who wanted to run away. Even the cheaper price didn't arouse their interest. (If they decided not to buy because of no fixed sequences, the sales of the first disc of S3 should have been higher than the other two. So the fact that there is no fixed frames is not the explanation for the low sale).
I think the reason are more simple, the 2 first season were just a web serie(don't forget that, in japan Web series don't get many viewers) and it was know the DVD/bluray would include many visual correction.

For the season 3,The anime was aired on TV who have much more visibility and as the graphic were already excellent, the people didn't need a DVD reworked version(they just have to record it at TV).

The third season also suffered from the bad reputation of the 2 first (it's like Dragonball Super, the animation is bas only during the 40 first episodes, but dues to the bad reputation of the beginning of the serie, everybody think the whole serie have animation problems) and some people don' even try it.

edit:
Yes, like SailorSugababe said, the lack of limited content was very important too.

because the third season was acclamed from most of the critics even in japan, far better than the first
 
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