Watching Crystal for the first time

[Hadibou]

We are coming to the end of Crystal s1-2 !

Act 25

• Let’s address one question: I’m sorry but lot of pretty hear flowing =/= good animation quality. Nonetheless there are indeed some nice shots in this episode, I won’t deny it.
• Queen Serenity is prettier in this shot than she will eve be, including in Eternal

• PLUTO IS MOE !! (weirdly people scream about the supposedly moe art style for s3 but don't see any problem with that kind or screenshot for s2 hehe)

• IS IT YOU, LELOUCH from Code Geass ???

• Usagi is more crying for Pluto than she did for the inners in season 1, and she only saw her for like… 3 times.
• Always liked this shot, it’s off model but I could have lived with that design

• Chibiusa’s silhouette in that tear / crystal is really pretty. But why did they pour so much time / budget in such a short sequence while the rest of the season is such a mess ? Questionable usage of their ressources...
• There is more budget in that Chibi Moon henshin than in the whole season. I'm unsure that it was a good idea to keep that weird end pose by the way
• So Chibi Moon talks to Pluto while she just killed her some seconds ago ? She kinda forgot she killed her some seconds ago ? Selective memory I guess
• Now Princess Halation works, against Wiseman, while it didn’t when they first came to the future. No explanation ?
• Inners using their attack against Wiseman. People always praise S1-2 with their « real time attacks », but not only they weren’t that many seen, and the few we got were not really pretty
• Diamand being toasted by Wiseman, not too far from the 90’s version with Saphir
• Overusing textures in order to hide poor quality art, they tell you to avoid that at all cost in every first day of CGI class.

Act 26

• I like Takahashi in S3 but he really did poorly on this episode.
• They never really got right Crystal Tokyo atmosphere, there is no coherence in lights, luminosity is all weird everywhere
• Why does NQS recognize Chibi Moon as her daughter ? Pluto didn’t recognize Moon when they traveled past while she is the former past of her Queen…
• « You tried to steal my man, here is your reward bitch have a good sleep »

• By the way NQS gives a time key to Chibiusa to travel to Nemesis, how did she get it ? Did she just steal it from Pluto dead body ? This is savage
• And anyway Nemesis isn’t lost in time but just very far from the Earth so why would they need a time key ?? And Chibi Moon doesn’t seem to use it since she is somewhat summoned by Moon and tux kissing ? No sense at all…
• This « in the name of the moon… » sequence by Chibi Moon is one of the worst sequence I’ve ever seen in this reboot. How... Why...
• NQS gives new planetary power… It's weird that Naoko didn’t design new wands for inner from this season. She could just let Bandai design things and include them in her manga, unless they already knew inners wouldn't upgrade to Planet Power in the next season ?
• So NQS can’t meet her former self… but well anyway she does. I’m not saying I don’t like this scene but Naoko is strong at breaking rules she established like 2 pages before (see Pluto’s taboo)
• Supposedly this episode was corrected by Sakou but I don’t recognize her style anywhere

CRYSTAL S1-2 RECAP

• Anyway it’s arc 2 ’s end. Animation wise, it was a bit better than the first season, Takahashi doing some episodes surely helped because even if his style is bland, at least it doesn’t change mid episode. Some pretty shots by Iwata here and there but they are so much different than the rest of the series to the point they seem from another series.
• Story wise, it was more entertaining than the first arc (I can’t stand anymore DK arc honestly). But the whole time travel concept was probably too much ambitious and would create some weird situations later. It’s not something that Takeuchi should have touched until she would progress as a writer because it takes some planning to create something coherent and she was lacking time for her story, being forced with this 1 year / 1 arc system.
• I’m going to review S3 now, indeed it’s my favorite arc and it somewhat saved this reboot for me so it’s going to be hard to be unbiased but I will try my best.
• Let’s finally talk a bit about the Japanese BRD sets since it gave me a chance to look at booklets and covers after so many years. I dislike most of the covers since it seems that Sakou completely dropped the ball from almost the beginning (the Mars one, really...), but I still enjoy this last volume cover (mainly the 4 inners, MoonS are weird).
  
  
  
• It’s a shame that the anime is so cheap because the whole BRD packaging was pretty, I liked the boxes and all the charms in each box are quite cute. Supposedly vol 1 and 13 were music boxes when they were released but mine don’t work anymore. There are for vol 1 and 13 booklets with storyboard for the opening and all henshin, it’s fun to see that the series title wasn’t yet fixed since the handwriting talks about « shin sailor moon ». Talking about the booklets, I don’t know if interviews were translated in the various international releases ?

 

[Talentless Fool]

I suppose they renewed contracts year by year since they didn't think the series would have great success on the long term ? But yeah she should have never accepted to be trapped in that one year / one arc thing because it led her to burnout and resentment against the whole industry lol

Well, Sailor Moon from the beginning was not a typical manga. Toei basically commissioned it from Takeuchi when they noticed Sailor V's potential. So it also heavily depended on whether the anime was successful or not, afterall Sailor Moon after Dark Kingdom continued because of the anime not because the manga was particularly successful.
Shoujo manga were roughly only 3-5 vols long (and are generally still this length except for the successful ones) so the length of each arc was not something out of the ordinary for a shoujo manga.
Sailor Moon manga was more akin to the Yu-Gi-Oh! spin-offs' manga adaptation - the anime is the main center of attraction that serves as a glorified pub spot for selling merchandising while the manga focuses on a single arc taking only the base characters and taking it into a generally darker route, lasting for a limited number of volumes.
Then, again, I don't understand why Takeuchi simply didn't focus each arc on a few characters like for example - a 2nd arc being Rei's arc and focusing the attention on her, finally giving her a concrete role in the story instead of everything being about her self-insert, Sailor Moon Jesus and trying to 'handle' 10 main characters over 12 chapters.

We always talk about how Takeuchi couldn't end the manga when she wanted and how she was forced to continue - well that's the case for every mangaka! That's just the way the industry works unless you publish your own manga by yourself.
Whether a manga continues or not depends ultimately solely on the publishers' wishes.
Mangakas DO get burnouts, yes, and they DO take their well deserved rest. Some take a few months, some take 1-2 years, some take a little more than that but they still come back with a new manga (especially if they are still young).
Nobody becomes a mangaka to get rich or for the fame but because that person has a genuine love for writing and a passion for drawing manga.
Which, in hindsight, I don't understand what people claim by saying manga was Takeuchi's passion when she hasn't held her pen for years now.
I doubt Takeuchi is some Einstein genius who over the years has secretly written and drawn tons of works but is too much of a perfectionist to publish them

Again it's such a good idea ! The human Luna cameo at the end of S1 made me hope they would do this kind of thing but I suppose the shitstorm they got with the Shitenno changes afraid them to do more edition (or Takeuchi asked to stop to enhances her already perfect work hehe).

Considering over the last 20 years, she has re-released her work WITHOUT CHANGES for 4 times now makes me think indeed she views her work as perfect. I want to be proven wrong, honestly, but she never gives me anything to think otherwise

I'm happy that you talk about the french version because I watched some parts of Eternal movies in french recently and I saw some weird mistakes (Chibi Moon saying "Carillon de cristal action" in order to transform in the last battle scene is one of them). When I will reach the Eternal part, I plan to look at the movie in full french so I can talk about this, it somewhat gives the feeling to look at something new ^^; Another think that I will talk about later is that when you listen to the dialogues, straightly taken from the manga, in your mothertongue, it's just... really different, it sound ridiculous sometimes because you can tell it was not done to be listened but read. And it's harder to notice if you listen in another language than yours I believe.

The French version was a mess! The attacks were left untranslated and retained their (very) bad 90s translations... It's a pity when for example Moon's nonsensical Stars' attacks are given excellent translations in Kaze's dub that actually make sense!
World Shaking could have been 'Impact Fracassant'
Deep Submerge could have been 'Submersion Abyssale'
Dead Scream could have been 'Cri de Lamentations' and so on and so on.

The biggest blunder is during the Princess scene where Chibi-Usa goes 'Kaleidoscope Lunaireee!!!' - wtf how did that even made it to the final cut????
But yes overall the dub is more a transliteration instead of an adaptation...
The scene where the girls invoke their Castle powers could have been super badass in French (especially since French is such a rich language with royalty vocabulary deep in it's roots) - they could have done really cool stuff instead of leaving the Castle as in the Japanese version instead of using the term 'chateau'... (Naoko-hime - if really the rumors that she's behind all of these stupid dub choices are true - just go and have a break of the Kit Kat and watch some afternoon J-Drama or something...)

It could have gone something like this:
J'en appelle a toi, Château Mariner de Mercure!
Réponds a mon appelle, O Château Phobos Deimos sur Mars!
Viens m’épauler, Château Io de Jupiter!
Viens a mon secours, Château Magellan sur Venus!
Soulève toi des sables de Uranus, O Château Miranda!
Surgis des profondeurs de Neptune et rugis, Château Triton!
Renais des confins du temps, Château Charon de Pluton!
Et toi, O Château Titan oublié de Saturne, entends mon appel!

... But no we have to have strict boriness...

I have to recheck if the JP dialogue is as clunky since it's taken right from the manga but I remember that the one thing I was surprised about was that everyone was calling Minako - Mina now...
I was like WHAT? DID I MISS AN EPISODE???
Japanese people rarely give other people nicknames. In the 90s anime, only Artemis calls Minako as such and now while in the previous arc, everyone was calling her Minako-chan, now it's Mina???
It's like Takeuchi is trying to show that the friendship of the girls runs really deep, even deeper than that of the 90s but shows no proof of that.
Again, it's stuff like this that show how much of an amateur narrator Takeuchi can be - she has a narrative in her mind but she fails to realize that it's her job to show and present this narrative to the reader instead she thinks the readers are on the same wavelength as her - the typical error of the writer beginner.

Actually, Naoko didn't complain so much about the 90's show. It's the english-speaking part of the fandom that has been spreading those rumours over the years. In her recent interviews she has criticised a lot the manga and how ugly it is and she's very surprised people still loves it. She's aware that the Sailor Moon manga hasn't got the artistic level of the 70's shoujo, that she can't draw and also that she constantly abused screentones and GC.

The thing is, if she thinks her manga is trash, why hasn't she redrawn most of it and included more panels and pages in the last 15 years? She's lazy.

I remember you said it's from her interview promoting Eternal but are these her true opinions or the typical Japanese 'langue de bois' - 'My work is so bad and not deserving of such honor, how can people bestow so much importance upon little old me? Anyways go see the movie so that I can get moneeeey!'

I've said before that the Shinsoban (because of it's corrections - regardless are they satisfactory or not) deserves of it's existence.
The Kanzenban (literally Perfect Edition), I'll give it to her, an anniversary edition for die-hard fans.
But the Bunkoban? The All-Color Edition? The inevitable A4 All-Color Sailor Moon LaCherie Edition? All of which have no new content AT ALL?

Was it only when she was in charge of Eternal that Kon made her realize how bad her work was (which is very unlikely)? Has she been a literal Princess to only realize it now?
She could have stopped after the Kanzenban but no.
So either she's extremely lazy and completely out of touch with reality or she knows what she's doing and doesn't mind preying on gullible fans who are so hypnotized by her that they'll buy anything she pumps out...

We are coming to the end of Crystal s1-2 !

• Queen Serenity is prettier in this shot than she will eve be, including in Eternal

QUEEN!!!
I LOVE YOUR HAIR!!!

• PLUTO IS MOE !! (weirdly people scream about the supposedly moe art style for s3 but don't see any problem with that kind or screenshot for s2 hehe)

Peasant! Sakou's Art Style is matuhhrrrezzzz!!!

She pretty here

• « You tried to steal my man, here is your reward bitch have a good sleep »

NQS would be best friends with Brenda

It’s not something that Takeuchi should have touched until she would progress as a writer because it takes some planning to create something coherent and she was lacking time for her story, being forced with this 1 year / 1 arc system.

Naoko somewhere right now...

Chibi-Moon bootzzzz are so good!

 

[Clow]

Queen Serenity is supposed to have eyes that look like glass beads, according to Naoko’s notes and sketches.

I vastly prefer that shot of her in S2, but Eternal got it “right.”

 

[Lady Pen]

Well, Sailor Moon from the beginning was not a typical manga. Toei basically commissioned it from Takeuchi when they noticed Sailor V's potential. So it also heavily depended on whether the anime was successful or not, afterall Sailor Moon after Dark Kingdom continued because of the anime not because the manga was particularly successful.

Talentless, PLEASE!!!!!! Someone is going to log in to say we're rewriting history!!!

I remember you said it's from her interview promoting Eternal but are these her true opinions or the typical Japanese 'langue de bois' - 'My work is so bad and not deserving of such honor, how can people bestow so much importance upon little old me? Anyways go see the movie so that I can get moneeeey!'

I don't know. But I prefer to believe what she says in a interview (except Osano.... he earns his salary by saying how great the manga is) than the manga fans who always twist her words.

I've said before that the Shinsoban (because of it's corrections - regardless are they satisfactory or not) deserves of it's existence.
The Kanzenban (literally Perfect Edition), I'll give it to her, an anniversary edition for die-hard fans.
But the Bunkoban? The All-Color Edition? The inevitable A4 All-Color Sailor Moon LaCherie Edition? All of which have no new content AT ALL?

Was it only when she was in charge of Eternal that Kon made her realize how bad her work was (which is very unlikely)? Has she been a literal Princess to only realize it now?
She could have stopped after the Kanzenban but no.
So either she's extremely lazy and completely out of touch with reality or she knows what she's doing and doesn't mind preying on gullible fans who are so hypnotized by her that they'll buy anything she pumps out...

The Shinsoban's replacing the first edition, so yeah, I agree this is the standard edition nowadays and I think it's enough.

My opinion about the rest of the editions:

Kanzenban: It's a rip-off. Kanzenbans normally has bonus material and it's an edition for the Shonen Jump series that have real colour pages, even an entire chapter in colour. Shoujo series only have ONE colour page. only ONE, IF they're popular. So, to me the Eternal Edition is just the Shinsoban in A5 size, new covers, and a few illustrations in colour you've already seen on the web. It wasn't necessary. Think about it. It would've been better to release a couple of artbooks with all of those illustrations plus new ones and that is it.

Bunkoban: You know what?? I think this edition exists because they wanted to release a new and cheaper/standard version in the english-speaking countries to replace the bad translated Shinsoban. I don't think international publishers are interested in this edition.

All-Colour Edition: Another rip-off. The colouring is lackluster (the Act 1 presentation in the 2016 museum was much MUCH BETTER and was worth it), Kodansha employers (Not Takeuchi) just colour in the screentones by using Photoshop. Awful.
As the rest of the Colour editions.... they're NOT the original. Most people prefer b&w mangas. Moreover, the painting makes Takeuchi's flaws stand out. So, what's the point? Easy. They need another edition to sell the rights overseas for the 35th anniversary. Just wait till Kodansha USA is done with the bunkoban......

 

[Talentless Fool]

Talentless, PLEASE!!!!!! Someone is going to log in to say we're rewriting history!!!

Oh my...

All-Colour Edition: Another rip-off. The colouring is lackluster (the Act 1 presentation in the 2016 museum was much MUCH BETTER and was worth it), Kodansha employers (Not Takeuchi) just colour in the screentones by using Photoshop. Awful.
As the rest of the Colour editions.... they're NOT the original. Most people prefer b&w mangas. Moreover, the painting makes Takeuchi's flaws stand out. So, what's the point? Easy. They need another edition to sell the rights overseas for the 35th anniversary. Just wait till Kodansha USA is done with the bunkoban......

Ya know... Kurumada's Next Dimension was published in FULL COLOR during 2006 in the magazine that ran it and it was considered a huge honor.
So huge that apparently, the other mangakas complained and ND returned to B&W and had to wait for the release in tankobon for the chapters to be in full color.
I wonder if it's from there that she got her full color idea.
But yes, regardless, re-releasing endlessly the manga in a new edition is the only way in Takeuchi's mind for her manga to stay relevant since she refuses to allow any spin-off by another mangaka nor wants to write anything herself.

And from what I've seen, the 'Color' edition is really poor looking - it reminds me of those mid to late 2000s fan color edits you'd see on the credits of fanscanlations.
This is what a true modern full color edition looks like.
https://flic.kr/p/2oyQVyY
https://flic.kr/p/2oyWaZT
https://flic.kr/p/2oyTSXP

 

[JunoDX]

Chibimoon‘s henshin was partially recycled from Cure Ace.

 

[Lady Pen]

Oh my...

Ya know... Kurumada's Next Dimension was published in FULL COLOR during 2006 in the magazine that ran it and it was considered a huge honor.
So huge that apparently, the other mangakas complained and ND returned to B&W and had to wait for the release in tankobon for the chapters to be in full color.
I wonder if it's from there that she got her full color idea.
But yes, regardless, re-releasing endlessly the manga in a new edition is the only way in Takeuchi's mind for her manga to stay relevant since she refuses to allow any spin-off by another mangaka nor wants to write anything herself.

And from what I've seen, the 'Color' edition is really poor looking - it reminds me of those mid to late 2000s fan color edits you'd see on the credits of fanscanlations.
This is what a true modern full color edition looks like.
https://flic.kr/p/2oyQVyY
https://flic.kr/p/2oyWaZT
https://flic.kr/p/2oyTSXP

Actually the Colour editions, like Kanzenbans, were only for the Shonen Jump series. The colouring of those mangas like One Piece or Dragon Ball are quite decent. And those pages you've posted are beautiful.
As you said, the Sailor Moon one is naff. It looks like a fan edit, anyone with some Photoshop basic skills can do it. Kodansha's workers are just painting with the airbrush over the screentones and adjusting the opacity of the layers. That's why a few days ago I said Crystermos looks more like a true colour manga than the official edition itself.

As for the Eternal Edition, I don't know if you agree with me, it's more like an Aizoban without collector items than a Kanzenban. Or the Shinsouban in A5. But you know.... marketing!! The Kanzenban term is popular in the west, so....

 

[Tsundereshipper]

Actually, Naoko didn't complain so much about the 90's show. It's the english-speaking part of the fandom that has been spreading those rumours over the years. In her recent interviews she has criticised a lot the manga and how ugly it is and she's very surprised people still loves it.

If this is the case then why the f*ck is she constantly pushing and shilling it onto the fandom and insisted on Crystal being a (almost) 1:1 adaptation instead of an expansion?

 

[Talentless Fool]

Actually the Colour editions, like Kanzenbans, were only for the Shonen Jump series. The colouring of those mangas like One Piece or Dragon Ball are quite decent. And those pages you've posted are beautiful.
As you said, the Sailor Moon one is naff. It looks like a fan edit, anyone with some Photoshop basic skills can do it. Kodansha's workers are just painting with the airbrush over the screentones and adjusting the opacity of the layers. That's why a few days ago I said Crystermos looks more like a true colour manga than the official edition itself.

As for the Eternal Edition, I don't know if you agree with me, it's more like an Aizoban without collector items than a Kanzenban. Or the Shinsouban in A5. But you know.... marketing!! The Kanzenban term is popular in the west, so....

Moreover the 'colored' pages of Shounen Jump's old mangas have actually mostly red copic color shading on them for whole chapters rather than being 'fully' colored.
The pages I've posted are from Okada's Saint Seiya Ep.G from back in 2005-6 I think. These chapters were included as bonus chapters of 6-8 pages or so at the beginning of each tankobon. The 2nd image for example is not from a 2 page spread but... a 4 page one!
When people say Takeuchi is a great artist or a hardworker, they really haven't had much experience in reading other mangas, have they?

Color mangas are not really a thing in Japan. The only ones I know are from the Saint Seiya series - Next Dimension & G. Assassin/Requiem that are published in full color. There might be other mangas or one-shots from popular mangakas but it's very rare.
It's mostly webtoon style like mangas that are under the Comico label that can be full color (I haven't really read them so I'm not sure).

But going back to Sailor Moon, what is so special about the manga that it deserves a full-color edition?
Likewise for the Kanzenban edition, what is so special about Takeuchi's art that it deserves a A5 format?
Okada's art, for example, is so detailed and full of postures and cinematographic sceneries all over that a manga like that deserves a bigger format for the reader to appreciate the work better yet Okada's work is in the traditional pocket manga format.
What makes Takeuchi's unfinished manga panels so special? I don't know.

 

[kasumigenx]

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Fruits Basket has been published in full color but only digitally, I remember reading the colored Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne manga.

 

[Lady Pen]

If this is the case then why the f*ck is she constantly pushing and shilling it onto the fandom and insisted on Crystal being a (almost) 1:1 adaptation instead of an expansion?

That's something someone will have to ask her. I only write here what I read in the magazines. In one of her latest interviews (Da Vinci... I guess?) she praises how the villains are treated in the 90's series for example.

But going back to Sailor Moon, what is so special about the manga that it deserves a full-color edition?
Likewise for the Kanzenban edition, what is so special about Takeuchi's art that it deserves a A5 format?
Okada's art, for example, is so detailed and full of postures and cinematographic sceneries all over that a manga like that deserves a bigger format for the reader to appreciate the work better yet Okada's work is in the traditional pocket manga format.
What makes Takeuchi's unfinished manga panels so special? I don't know.

It seems Sailor Moon is now the manga with more editions in the market. More than the most popular manga titles. Isn't it suspicious?

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

• « You tried to steal my man, here is your reward bitch have a good sleep »

That reminded me of this
[replace old man w/ old woman]

 

[Starlight]

I remember you said it's from her interview promoting Eternal but are these her true opinions or the typical Japanese 'langue de bois' - 'My work is so bad and not deserving of such honor, how can people bestow so much importance upon little old me? Anyways go see the movie so that I can get moneeeey!'

That's the impression I get too; that's she's simply feigning humility.

That's something someone will have to ask her. I only write here what I read in the magazines. In one of her latest interviews (Da Vinci... I guess?) she praises how the villains are treated in the 90's series for example.

I think her feelings towards the original anime are complicated. On one hand, she appreciates it because it was what made her a success and Sailor Moon a household name. I'm sure it was exciting for her to have her ideas get turned into an anime for the first time and receive so much attention and love because of it. On the other hand, she was indeed upset with some of the changes they made, got frustrated with her limited input on the show and ultimately grew resentful of it. She never understood that was how things worked in the industry at the time and that her level of involvement, albeit limited, was actually uncharacteristic of anime productions. It really boils down to her being a control freak, having an inflated ego and narcissistic tendencies. She overestimates her own abilities, talent, and judgement and that is reflected both in her artistic work and though her business practices. After she formed PNP and got the rights to the original anime resulting in her becoming the czar of the franchise, there was no one left to give her pushback on anything.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Fruits Basket has been published in full color but only digitally, I remember reading the colored Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne manga.

Sugar Sugar Rune received the color treatment too.

 

[Tsundereshipper]

she praises how the villains are treated in the 90's series for example.

She liked the way the villains were done? I thought she was seething cause Ikuhara made a good percentage of her male villains gay. (See also her reaction to Fiore who wasn’t even her character)

 

[kasumigenx]

I think her feelings towards the original anime are complicated. On one hand, she appreciates it because it was what made her a success and Sailor Moon a household name. I'm sure it was exciting for her to have her ideas get turned into an anime for the first time and receive so much attention and love because of it. On the other hand, she was indeed upset with some of the changes they made, got frustrated with her limited input on the show and ultimately grew resentful of it. She never understood that was how things worked in the industry at the time and that her level of involvement, albeit limited, was actually uncharacteristic of anime productions. It really boils down to her being a control freak, having an inflated ego and narcissistic tendencies. She overestimates her own abilities, talent, and judgement and that is reflected both in her artistic work and though her business practices. After she formed PNP and got the rights to the original anime resulting in her becoming the czar of the franchise, there was no one left to give her pushback on anything.
.

I actually doubt a Manga-based Remake of Sailor Moon would ever happen if Sailor Stars was not a victim of Executive Meddling, the fans, and TOEI would not want it even if Takeuchi wants it.

 

[Lady Pen]

She liked the way the villains were done? I thought she was seething cause Ikuhara made a good percentage of her male villains gay.

According to the Da Vinci interview, yes.

(See also her reaction to Fiore who wasn’t even her character)

You see? That's something I was talking about before: Rumours.

We don't know whether she likes Fiore, because her complaints towards the R film were all about not being involved in the production.

I don't remember if it's in the same interview or it's in another one given in the 2010's, she says her mother Ikuko raised her to respect all kinds of love. But it's true that if you read her mangas (not only SM) you'll see she's pro-lesbian but makes fun of gay males and transvestites.

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

[SuperS]

Spoiler: show

SuperS [Tl;DR at bottom]

• This may surprise you but my second favorite season of the 90s anime.
• As I said I was very impatient my first watch through of Sailor Moon so this DEFINITELY wasn't my favorite.
• I was SO ready for it to be over. It took so long I didn't even care about any of the details by the end.
• However, I did find it funny & could identify what episodes I like & on a third watch through I watched 4 episodes a day as mentioned here but a bit different: Remodeling Supers | Sailor Moon x Suburban Senshi Forums (sailormoonforum.com) [my first thread/post ] [TL;DR I loved it now]
• I enjoy most of the plot relevant episodes & if I simply wanted to, I could just watch an episode i found really interesting/funny.
• Plus there's the extra materials like the specials and movie.
• The Amazon trio aren't my favorite villains [I think] but I liked their animalistic qualities [for instance Hawks eye mentioning he can't see well in the movie theater] and I like the concept of their arc about them turning human [ie giving up their predatory animalistic ways ....... unless that's a misinterpretation]
• I liked how the Ost that season felt the most diverse.
• I honestly don't mind so that didn't bother me. Nor did the Outer's not being mostly absent even though I REALLY enjoyed them in S.
• Since I don't feel the need to be invested in the drama Its easier for me to just jump into any random episode. I also don't really think much of Chibiusa x Helios [Although from what I hear that's a whole can of worms ]
• It felt the most magical of the seasons and there were several scenes that stood out to me that I can't stop thinking about for whatever reason.
  
  
• Also, this season gives me the most to think about like: if you changed "X" would ppl like SuperS more, the theories [like "Dream theory" for example], certain interpretations of how mirrors work, "what happened to Nehelania" [although that goes into Stars if anything], etc.
• Not really important but Chibiusa's scream in this part terrifies me:
  
  
• Also, this may be a coping mechanism, but I just find it HILARIOUS how SO MANY things could go wrong at once giving ppl the reactions they had w/ the season. If anyone hates the season, I don't blame them at all. It used to be my least favorite season after all . But the fact it became my second favorite season [if not tied w/ Season 1] makes it feel special to me for some reason.

TL;DR: Bless this mess. 2nd favorite

• I guess SuperS is the season I have the most complicated feelings for. [This review may need a extra]
• I remember my very first reaction to the first episode being "Oh .......ok........I guess we're doing this now." [that wasn't exactly a bad thing]
• 
  
• Getting straight into it. My biggest problem was how long it took w/o much happening [also how uncomfortable some parts were like.... seriously] Going back over it thankfully I don't have a problem with MOST of the episodes. And a large portion of them had me WANTING to rewatch them for whatever reason.
• Some complaints I still have are I can't COMPLETELY wrap my head around falling in love w/ Helios before she knew he was a human and The Inners episodes for me didn't feel as strong as S's [I still really enjoyed them though]
• The Amazon Trio may be my favorite group of villains. For what I remember, the first time I didn't really care too much for them. Looking at it again I enjoyed about every scene they were in. I liked their fun dynamics and interactions.
• 
  
  
• I thought it was interesting Fisheye was basically male "Siren" [don't they appear attractive to sailors [men] and lure them into traps.]
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• Usagi helping Fisheye may be one of my favorite moments in the whole series
• I remember the Amazon Quartet feeling pretty same-ish to me. Looking at it again......... They still kinda do. But I found them more entertaining apart.
• I always liked Palla Palla. I thought she was funny. Plus, she's a f*cking sadist!
• Jun Jun seemed a teensy bit more understanding/empathetic. She was the first one to consider Chibiusa trying to help Pegasus. I also thought it was interesting she legitimately tried putting effort into helping Kyusuke.
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• She even looks back at him after she takes his dream mirror like she feels a little bad about it.
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• I didn't get THAT much from Ves Ves and Cere Cere but I still found them funny when they were apart from the others.
• 
  Their outfits do make me uncomfortable tho.
• This season has many of my favorite monster battles. Like all three of the Ball/Balloon family, PerroPerro and ManeMane
• I'm gonna completely steal from that other person's review again because this might take WAY too long If I tried putting it into my own words. Remember the "For me" and "In my opinion" thing
• Spoiler: show

  "SuperS is notoriously polarizing, and it’s easy to see why. On the one hand, it dropped its outer guardians; put greater focus on Chibiusa (who personally hasn’t bothered me since R, but first impressions die hard, I s’pose); contained a metric ton of one-off characters and plot-free episodes; used a “guest protagonist” who never really developed a proper personality; and fluctuated wildly in terms of quality character writing."
  Spoiler: show

  
  [*]"But on the other hand, it contained some of the show’s most stylized visual motifs; easily the most entertainingly designed and choreographed monster battles (which helped keep the filler fun, particularly in the early going); a greater willingness to explore our protagonists’ pettier flaws......."
  [*]"the most compelling antagonists in both Nehelenia and the Amazon Trio (whose redemption arc remains the emotional highlight of the season for me); and a thematic through-line about beauty, growth & change, and the price of “eternity” that was on par with S‘s meditation on death and rebirth."
  [*]"Did it drag badly in the middle? Yes, to the point where if I was recommending this season to someone, I’d probably cut out some episodes just to help them get through the midway slump. Did it also feature some of the show’s lowest points? It sure did......"
  [*]"And yet, for all that, it also featured some of Sailor Moon‘s funniest moments, most memorable scenes, and ambitious story arcs. More importantly, it allowed our cast to address their fears about adulthood, stew in the nostalgia (and selfishness) of their childhood, and come out the other side ready for the next step in their lives. The shift from child to young adult is full of growing pains as we fluctuate between self-centeredness and self-awareness, immaturity and empathy. Perhaps it’s fitting that the scouts’ stories this season—and SuperS as a whole—mirrored this process, too."
  [*]"For all its inconsistency, I’m mighty fond of its ideas, villains, and art design, and I’m even starting to cozy up to the way it wrote the central cast, allowing them to backslide the way actual people often do in the midst of major change and growth."
  TLDR [Their overview] (personally Classic is my favorite finale but she has her reasons)
  [*]"While SuperS featured some of SM’s most maddening episodes and a loooong stretch where nothing plot-related happened, it also had the best Big Bad, best minions, best visual motifs, best monster battles, best finale, and an excellent exploration of adolescence, change, and the price of eternity. It was also, I think, my favorite season to write about, because there was so much going on (both positive and negative). I appreciated SuperS‘s willingness to do something different than what had come before, even if it didn’t always succeed; and it pretty much always evoked some kind of emotion out of me, even if it wasn’t always a positive one. I’ll take that over a season that leaves me cold any day of the week."
  

Spoiler: show

Will probably add more in edit

 

[Tsundereshipper]

[also how uncomfortable some parts were like.... seriously]

Would you agree with the opinion that SuperS is the most sexually charged and risqué season overall?

Some complaints I still have are I can't COMPLETELY wrap my head around falling in love w/ Helios before she knew he was a human and The Inners episodes for me didn't feel as strong as S's [I still really enjoyed them though]

It was probably meant to be some overcomplicated Ikuhara metaphor for how Chibi-Usa isn’t ready for mature romantic love or to lose her innocence yet but yeahh considering the subject matter it definitely should’ve been made clearer.

Then again this is the girl who also has the hots for her own dad so is falling for a horse really such a big leap for her?

 

[YuYu Yuichiro]

Would you agree with the opinion that SuperS is the most sexually charged and risqué season overall?

Honestly, I dunno. But I probably could be convinced

Spoiler: show

 

[Onuzim Ima]

*Takes a sip* (Another Anime Subtitle referencing DAT famous Star Wars Quote)

@YuYu Yuichiro Could you be so kind and add where it came from? Just to be on the safe side. It's also not really hard to put these Paragraphs into actual Quote Tags. Like

Spoiler: show

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