Sailor Moon Crystal Act.1 & Act.2 — Let’s Get Hyped

As a rather closeted fan of the original Sailor Moon back in the 1990s, I never felt myself able to openly enjoy it. Back then, if a family member caught me watching, and my little sister wasn’t around, I’d have to come up with an excuse for why I was watching a show about girls. My quick excuse was the girls were cute. The adult asking said question would just scratch their head, shrug, and walk off. When my Dragonball Z-loving friends started trash-talking the show, I either kept quiet or pointed out how we were clearly just jealous of Tuxedo Mask. Most of the time, they agreed.

Nowadays, however, I don’t really give a damn about what people will say when I mention that I think Sailor Moon is a pretty awesome show.

So when I heard about Sailor Moon’s reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal, I was rather excited. I had grown up and was in a better place mentally. I was hoping for the show to have sort of grown up with me—not in the same way Madoka Magica was a grown-up twist on magical girls, but as something fresh and new again.

Going in with these commentaries, we need to be aware of a few things. For instance, the tropes we will undoubtedly see in Sailor Moon Crystal were popularized by the original Sailor Moon in the first place. It would not be fair to simply knock points against Sailor Moon Crystal for using them. Sure, we can do that to another magical girl anime, but not this one. It would be like criticizing Final Fantasy X HD for using the Sphere Grid. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be FFX; it’d be a whole new game.

The second, and probably most difficult, is that this is a modern reboot. Things were different, animation-wise, in the early 1990s. Trends were different. Technology was different. Unlike the tropes, this we can criticize, since these are actual changes happening to the anime. Using FFX HD again as an example, it would make more sense to criticize the changes made to the soundtrack, as it has the potential to change the whole tone of a scene or area. What are these trend-driven changes going to mean for us, the viewers, and the show itself?

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Sailor Moon Crystal Act.1 and Act.2. If you don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading. You have been warned.

Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get to the actual episode commentaries!