The flaws of S season

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Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#1
S has a overall, darker and more mature tone and 10 senshi finally showed together, the Outers have amazing characterization. The main plotline is very intense. No wonder the popularity and view rating is so high. It's a great season overall no doubt.

However, some of the flaws are a bit obvious in my eyes so I won't put it above the first two, especially Classic.

1. Most of the Daimon are way too goofy. They look dumb and act silly compare to even most of the R monsters. These monsters just don't fit well with the serious tone. Monsters can be not so horrifying but still act as deadly dangerous enemies like the DD girls.


2. The Inner Four, despite having good individual episodes, have significantly less important roles compare to Classic and R. They even have to play the "victim and get beaten" role to show how good the Outers are. I understand they got less focus for the Outers, but they shouldn't be toned down to make the Outers awesome. Nearly everyone of them have crush on Haruka, even compete in the party to dance with her. It's a bit over the top in my opinion.

Also Michiru should have got more independent stuff to do.

This route has continued both in the manga and the anime.

3. The most important conflict obviously is not just about fighting the Deathbusters, but the different views of the Inners and the Outers on how to save the world throughout the season. It went to the climax when Hotaru showed up and her power revealed. I believe that's why the final fight spent so much time on Mistress 9/Hotaru's struggle but not the fight itself. It somehow made the final battle less epic due to less action and not showing Hotaru's full power.

Both sides have their reason and their limits as it was shown. The Inners are too nice and sometimes could get tricked. The Outers are too headstrong on themselves and their arrogance was used. But the conclusion was not well done. It should have been both realized their mistakes and learn from the others, instead of both going to a dead end. Haruka and Michiru got easily caught by Mistress 9 for going alone and Usagi giving the Holy Grail to Mistress 9. Her action did make Hotaru's awakening more convincing, but didn't resolve the struggle well enough.

It would have been much better if we saw Usagi's struggle, let her play a trick to see is Mistress 9 still her before giving the grail and let Haruka/Michiru chose to trust on others rather than the lonewolf route again. Then leave the rest of the finale into a epic battle like the manga.
 

usachan25

Luna Crescens
Aug 14, 2012
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#4
Of course it has flaws. Most of it is great, and 125 is a beautiful episode with great animation and that beautiful "Crisis make up!" scene, but I think you're kidding yourself if you don't think Sailor Saturn's awakening in the 90s anime is incredibly anticlimactic. She talks to Usagi for a minute and then disappears into Pharoh 90.... Is the bulk of the fandom really satisfied by this? 90s Sailor Moon S tends to be regarded as the holy grail (pun intended) of Sailor Moon, but I honestly don't know how anyone can look at Saturn's awakening in 90s S vs Crystal, and say S did it better.

Sorry if my tone is a little rough. I get tired of the Crystal bashing.
 

Maraviollantes

Sailor Moon fan #1
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Jan 3, 2006
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#5
I honestly don't know how anyone can look at Saturn's awakening in 90s S vs Crystal, and say S did it better.
90s' S did it better.

Nearly everyone of them have crush on Haruka, even compete in the party to dance with her. It's a bit over the top in my opinion.
Haruka drives an expensive sport car. That automatically ranks her as 10/10.
 
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Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#6
Of course it has flaws. Most of it is great, and 125 is a beautiful episode with great animation and that beautiful "Crisis make up!" scene, but I think you're kidding yourself if you don't think Sailor Saturn's awakening in the 90s anime is incredibly anticlimactic. She talks to Usagi for a minute and then disappears into Pharoh 90.... Is the bulk of the fandom really satisfied by this? 90s Sailor Moon S tends to be regarded as the holy grail (pun intended) of Sailor Moon, but I honestly don't know how anyone can look at Saturn's awakening in 90s S vs Crystal, and say S did it better.

Sorry if my tone is a little rough. I get tired of the Crystal bashing.
Because like I've said, to the writers, the main focus was about the Inner and the Outers' difference on their view. When Hotaru awoke it's over, the rest of it wasn't important to them. But they are not right keen on this.

I feel the writers really favor the Outers but could not let Usagi go wrong, so the conclusion was unsatisfying.
 

usachan25

Luna Crescens
Aug 14, 2012
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#9
I much prefer a fair critique for Crystal that acknowledges its positive and negative aspects.
True. Crystal definitely has flaws, particularly the delays in production. However, I think one think they got right was Saturn's awakening. In the 90s I was just left kind of like, that was it? There was a lot of build up for something that was just, okay.
 

Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#10
True. Crystal definitely has flaws, particularly the delays in production. However, I think one think they got right was Saturn's awakening. In the 90s I was just left kind of like, that was it? There was a lot of build up for something that was just, okay.
I think the 90s anime got right with Hotaru awake moment, she simply vanquished Mistress 9, but everything after she talked to Usagi was a bit weak.

There should have been something like the 10 senshi work together.
 

SILVER

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 7, 2014
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Dark Kingdom
#11
True. Crystal definitely has flaws, particularly the delays in production. However, I think one think they got right was Saturn's awakening. In the 90s I was just left kind of like, that was it? There was a lot of build up for something that was just, okay.
I thought that both were cool, but I definitely prefer the awakening of Saturn in Crystal rather than S. We even got a "transformation" sequence out of it, her purpose clearly stated and Pharaoh 90 realizing that SHE was the light that brought destruction, and not Sailor Moon, was so epic! That part was my favorite and I hadn't realized what Naoko was getting at by it when reading the manga lol.
 
Dec 7, 2009
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#12
Can we also criticize the goofy LOVELYYYYY heart smash sequence? XD

Great season, love it, but I'm still like wtf at that sequence everytime I see it lol. Even SuperS was less goofy with the stage out sequence which feels bizarre to say when comparing the two seasons.

It just feels very out of place in between the moral argument of whether or not it's okay to sacrifice someone for the greater good.
 

SILVER

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 7, 2014
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#13
Can we also criticize the goofy LOVELYYYYY heart smash sequence? XD

Great season, love it, but I'm still like wtf at that sequence everytime I see it lol. Even SuperS was less goofy with the stage out sequence which feels bizarre to say when comparing the two seasons.

It just feels very out of place in between the moral argument of whether or not it's okay to sacrifice someone for the greater good.
Lol the Heart Smash was SO cool to me -at least the animation for it! I think that Crystal's ribbon disintegrating thingy wasn't nearly as cool.

The SuperS sequence was kind of bad to me? I understand that they wanted to make a kaleidoscope effect but simply mirroring the same image once was a lame way to do it.
 
Dec 7, 2009
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#14
Out of an animation perspective the lovely sequence was better because it was well animated and more interesting than stage out, but when actually watching it I'm always like "oh god *facepalm*" and glad that no one else is in the room XD

Ah well, it's clear the team had fun drawing it :)
 
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Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#15
The biggest problem I've had with Crystal is Michiru's treatment, in S at least her characterization is well clear. Not to say the gorgeous looks and perfect VA. In Crystal she didn't really get much to do.

Also I really like Hotaru's plot with Chibiusa in S. Despite her plot as Saturn was too rushed.
 
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#16
True. Crystal definitely has flaws, particularly the delays in production. However, I think one think they got right was Saturn's awakening. In the 90s I was just left kind of like, that was it? There was a lot of build up for something that was just, okay.
There was also Saturn battling Pharoah 90.
 
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Masquerade

Solaris Luna
Nov 22, 2016
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#17
Pretty much every Sailor Moon finale after Classic was underwhelming. Lots of cool episodes leading to disappointing final battles. I honestly wish Junichi had been kept as overall director after the Hell Tree arc. Ikuhara pretty much destroyed everyone that wasn't Usagi and the Outers.
 

SILVER

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 7, 2014
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Dark Kingdom
#18
Pretty much every Sailor Moon finale after Classic was underwhelming. Lots of cool episodes leading to disappointing final battles. I honestly wish Junichi had been kept as overall director after the Hell Tree arc. Ikuhara pretty much destroyed everyone that wasn't Usagi and the Outers.
Thats debatable: Saturn and Pluto got shafted hard
 

Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#19
Pretty much every Sailor Moon finale after Classic was underwhelming. Lots of cool episodes leading to disappointing final battles. I honestly wish Junichi had been kept as overall director after the Hell Tree arc. Ikuhara pretty much destroyed everyone that wasn't Usagi and the Outers.
Yeah, the R movie has a good ending. S movie's final fight was fine. Anther Story also got a cool final fight.

Ikuhara focused too much on Haruka and the struggle between their idea of difference. Hotaru was good though.

S at least got the tight main plotline, he pretty much went completely lost in SuperS, focusing on random individuals instead of push for the main plotline and characters. I think he got some cool ideas, but doesn't fit well as the overall director.
 

Slowpokeking

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 1, 2020
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#20
Pretty much every Sailor Moon finale after Classic was underwhelming. Lots of cool episodes leading to disappointing final battles. I honestly wish Junichi had been kept as overall director after the Hell Tree arc. Ikuhara pretty much destroyed everyone that wasn't Usagi and the Outers.
The reason of these battle sucks also got to do with the writers tried too hard to tell some of their ideas/theme.

Sure a good final battle can't just have battle, but also development on characters/theme. However I think you should create a good battle first and insert/adjust it to add more.
 
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