Let's do a community Crystal rewatch

[JunoDX]

I agree with that hair flip frame.
I was waiting just to see that sequence in the first episode.

yeah the hairflip is nice.

there is something about those "SALE" wallscrolls in the background that annoys me.

And I do like elegant and beautiful, when it's well done. But I can't help, they managed to make Sailor Moon/Usagi look dull/stupid many times and I think it's the combination of those big empty eyes and the glossy lips.

 

[SailorSpySedna]

maybe the background was animated or they animated some minor elements, but the frames are still very static. they knew how to flesh the maximum out of a minimum.

I'm guessing they used speed lines there.

Those other three screenshots Crystal showed also look good, but when an in-between looks better than a key frame, something's wrong.

 

[Memelord_Yoshi]

That hair really reminds me of that other woman (forgot her name) who wore that horrible wig alongside Samantha Bee.

 

[sapphire91]

Act 2 Ami - Sailor Mercury
This episode had pretty bad animation errors on initial launch. They redraw a lot for the blu ray and it still leaves a lot to be desired, but despite that it is one of mu favourite Crystal episodes. I love the intro from Ami point of view, showing her solitude, the rumors and the whole contrast between Ami and Usagi in less than two minutes. Overall this episode explored her character wonderfully, showing her crave for friends, her kindness nobody but Usagi is initally able to see. I like the way they show Usagi's flaws in a rather subtle ways. Yes she is good and she hates seeing Ami alone, but she is realistic character that is not shy to show they have selfish motives as well(I will befriend her because she is nice, but she can also help me getting better scores on tests). Usagi was adorable in her nurse/ doctor outfit. The slight changes from the manga in the way Ami cherish her pen, even while brainwashed, the way she broke from the dase the moment she heard someone is calling her a friend. I was initially worried on Kanemoto's casting. All her roles I was familiar with were very childish, high pitched moe characters so I wasn't sure she fits. Until I heard her yelling "Yamete". This was great voice acting. I like how they referenced the supersonic attack and why it won't be used again. The youma design was also quite good. Then the episode actually had comedy. I esprcially loved the way Usagi cracked the disc just smashing on buttons randomly as well as the way Luna reacted. And now the things I don't like. The transformation. While Usagi's transformation has redeeming qualities like cool angels and choreography, Ami's transformation is very stiff and boring. Her introduction stock footage was ok but then the Quasimodo shot happened and it was never fixed. Then the omitted Sailor Moon kick attack. This was such a cool moment in the manga. While Tux saved Usagi, she was the one kicking the monster, while supported by him, showing them fighting together as equal. It was trated for sweeping moment of Usagi being held in her saviour arms in a cheesy old Disney fashion. But overall the episode was good and I know I will probably be bashed about it, but I prefer it over the 90s Ami introduction. It had great character moments and it was much more focused on Ami. And the interactions at the arcade were adorable. After the life action introsuction of Ami, this is my favourite take on this act.

 

[Zyvik]

This is one of the few episodes of Crystal that actually improves upon the manga. Ami's bond with Usagi is better developed and she actually gets to participate in the fight, while in the manga she just emerges from the fog in a sailor outfit at the end. But I still prefer how in the 90's version she was the only one who didn't get brainwashed.

 

[SailorSpySedna]

Act 2 Ami - Sailor Mercury
This episode had pretty bad animation errors on initial launch. They redraw a lot for the blu ray and it still leaves a lot to be desired, but despite that it is one of mu favourite Crystal episodes. I love the intro from Ami point of view, showing her solitude, the rumors and the whole contrast between Ami and Usagi in less than two minutes. Overall this episode explored her character wonderfully, showing her crave for friends, her kindness nobody but Usagi is initally able to see. I like the way they show Usagi's flaws in a rather subtle ways. Yes she is good and she hates seeing Ami alone, but she is realistic character that is not shy to show they have selfish motives as well(I will befriend her because she is nice, but she can also help me getting better scores on tests). Usagi was adorable in her nurse/ doctor outfit. The slight changes from the manga in the way Ami cherish her pen, even while brainwashed, the way she broke from the dase the moment she heard someone is calling her a friend. I was initially worried on Kanemoto's casting. All her roles I was familiar with were very childish, high pitched moe characters so I wasn't sure she fits. Until I heard her yelling "Yamete". This was great voice acting. I like how they referenced the supersonic attack and why it won't be used again. The youma design was also quite good. Then the episode actually had comedy. I esprcially loved the way Usagi cracked the disc just smashing on buttons randomly as well as the way Luna reacted. And now the things I don't like. The transformation. While Usagi's transformation has redeeming qualities like cool angels and choreography, Ami's transformation is very stiff and boring. Her introduction stock footage was ok but then the Quasimodo shot happened and it was never fixed. Then the omitted Sailor Moon kick attack. This was such a cool moment in the manga. While Tux saved Usagi, she was the one kicking the monster, while supported by him, showing them fighting together as equal. It was trated for sweeping moment of Usagi being held in her saviour arms in a cheesy old Disney fashion. But overall the episode was good and I know I will probably be bashed about it, but I prefer it over the 90s Ami introduction. It had great character moments and it was much more focused on Ami. And the interactions at the arcade were adorable. After the life action introsuction of Ami, this is my favourite take on this act.

Episode was fine in my opinion, but still had problems the worst part was seeing Ami get hypnotized when she wasn't in the manga/original anime (Crystal's first major screw up), that was not a good usage of her character and made it look bad, and this is where the animation started to get horrible, ugh...Kanemoto's Ami is fine, but I still prefer Aya's.

Ami's transformation, yes, it was horribly animated, very stiff and sloppy frame rate that made me feel nauseous, the "water" looked like blue Jello, and her "Aqua Mist" looked more like steam. Then again, later they turned it into a stupid water cannon when it's supposed to be mist.

Yeah, the 90's version one was the best. Sadly, not only was this the only episode in Crystal where Ami/Mercury was competent, the next act is where in my opinion, Crystal took a HUGE nosedive and never recovered.

 

[FloraKiraraHime]

@sapphire91 I loved your thoughts about episode 2.

 

[NJ_]

Sadly, not only was this the only episode in Crystal where Ami/Mercury was competent, the next act is where in my opinion, Crystal took a HUGE nosedive and never recovered.

 

[SailorSpySedna]

Yup. It literally burned (pun intended considering who came in the next episode).

 

[sapphire91]

Well, honestly for me episode 3 is fine with the redraws. The episode that really started the dawnfall was ep 6. But let's wait to go there.

 

[Star Angel Haruki]

Ep 3 is fine but you can tell they cut some corners and much went into making Akuryo Taisen look nice. The whole sequence looks nice but there were parts of this episode that looks awkward and needed to be redrawn.

 

[sapphire91]

Let's wait till next week to talk about it. For now please share thoughts on episode 2 for now.

 

[SailorSpySedna]

Anyway, back to episode 2, this was one of the highest points of the episode/Crystal in general:

In my opinion, I thought that in two episodes, the Sailor V game here was better than in the original anime, and I'll be honest, I actually want there to be an official sidescrolling action game like this with the Sailor Moon characters in it (the Inners, V, Outers, etc.), I mean, if AVGN adventures was released around the same time, proving the classic genre is still relevant and alive, why not do something like this with Sailor Moon, besides puzzle games? It doesn't necessarily have to follow the manga/anime, it could be its own original story/world. Don't want it to be a trainwreck like how La Luna Splende was though.

 

[MsImagination]

Episode was fine in my opinion, but still had problems the worst part was seeing Ami get hypnotized when she wasn't in the manga/original anime (Crystal's first major screw up), that was not a good usage of her character and made it look bad, and this is where the animation started to get horrible, ugh...Kanemoto's Ami is fine, but I still prefer Aya's.

Ami's transformation, yes, it was horribly animated, very stiff and sloppy frame rate that made me feel nauseous, the "water" looked like blue Jello, and her "Aqua Mist" looked more like steam. Then again, later they turned it into a stupid water cannon when it's supposed to be mist.

Yeah, the 90's version one was the best. Sadly, not only was this the only episode in Crystal where Ami/Mercury was competent, the next act is where in my opinion, Crystal took a HUGE nosedive and never recovered.

Okay whuy agree it would been better for her to not be brainwashed.I think they did improve the chapter making her transform,and doing something.

 

[sapphire91]

I don't min this change. For me it benefited the development. She was brainwashed, yet she was struggling to break it. I look at it this way. The idea behind Ami was loneliness, so she was put in a situation in which she felt precious enough to be safe an she found someone worth saving. Plus it showed her even stronger for breaking it and the whole "People don't need computers to study" in this day and age would have painted her in a light very different from genius.

 

[Crystal Moon]

I think the group making this episode can reach a fair quality.

80% of the scenes are so pretty and elegant. So I can give a conclusion that they were given very little of time so the first version of this episode was very very poor.

If they have enough time, they can make exploits, miracles.

However, I'm not a fan of those thick lines:

After all, they were unable to fix that infamous frame:

Forgot to fix?

 

[sapphire91]

For me the thing they really should have fixed was Mercury's pose. But we ended from this.....

To this. Whoever approved it for a stock footage especially should resign.

 

[SailorSpySedna]

Okay whuy agree it would been better for her to not be brainwashed.I think they did improve the chapter making her transform,and doing something.

Original anime did that just fine without needing to hypnotize Ami, though I hate to bring it up again (it's really hard not to compare those two)...same thing with the manga, it's implied Ami set off that fog once she transformed, we just don't see her and the fact she's a Sailor Soldier of the planet closest to the sun until the fog clears.

I think the group making this episode can reach a fair quality.

80% of the scenes are so pretty and elegant. So I can give a conclusion that they were given very little of time so the first version of this episode was very very poor.

Forgot to fix?

Though they didn't fix her eyes, at least Ami looks kinda pretty there as they actually drew her mouth and nose better. It's one of the only good changes though...

I don't think they had "very little time", remember, they had two weeks to make this. The original anime had only a week and its episode adaptation of Ami still looked better (though Ami at times had a case of "giraffe neck")...

 

[Crystal Moon]

I don't think they had "very little time", remember, they had two weeks to make this. The original anime had only a week and its episode adaptation of Ami still looked better (though Ami at times had a case of "giraffe neck")...

The fact that they aired an episode a week doesn't mean that everything was done within a week. That's why they had to spread the project to various teams so they could make many episodes simultaneously (so we had many different drawing styles). An episode could be done in a month or more. In the case of Crystal, I'm afraid they had much more less time because in many episodes, they hadn't enough material to make a preview (lacks of backgrounds, super ugly frames that would be fixed right away when the episode is released). When it came to season III, they did the project much more forward of the time. The series was aired in April and they already made to at least episode 6 in January. However, the last four episodes still had bad quality, awkward movements...

 

[MsImagination]

It takes like a month to make an episode. The 90 an anime didn't have a week. A lot the episodes probably were finish or close being finish before they air.