Sailor Moon Crystallizes

So I just spent a good deal of my morning this Monday April 4th 2016 watching 3 episodes of the Sailor Moon franchise.

First were the 3rd and 2nd to last episodes of Sailor Stars, which I've been following since Hulu started it's actual story-line, but did watch the Nehelena episodes first.

They were both really good, It's hard to imagine I was once an immature punk who kinda denied the fact that I liked this show for more then looking at the Heroines.  Back then I didn't even know Stars existed, but still.

Spoiler ahead.  Skip to the next Bold line if you haven't seen them.

For the big reveal at the end of 198.  I went into this knowing a few basic things already, one being what it's villain is called.  So I honestly hadn't even noticed that they hadn't called her a "Sailor" before this point.

I had thought to myself watching these two episodes "we've seen other people jump in-front of Usagi to shield her form approaching danger repeatedly, I'd like to see her do it for a change" and then BOOM!!! it happens, perfect timing.

I also thought pretty quickly that Sailor Galaxia's fall was kind of like Anakin Skywalker's, she couldn't handle loss.  Some of the Prequel haters might respond to that here with "that's how Lucas should have done it" so which I will say ____ you.  In general the motive for falling is part of what the haters hate, they talk about wanting a generic slow ends justifies the means gray area pushing power corrupts message, even though that would utterly contradict the entire premise of how they tired to turn Luke.  For all the ways Luke's journey was different, that flaw he absolutely shared, it's what lured him to Cloud City.

Spoilers stopped for now.

And then as soon I'd finished those I saw the first episode of seasons 3 of Crystal was up.

Now I agree with a lot of the popular criticisms of the first two seasons of Crystal.  I'd said before I felt the lack of filler was a problem.  I hated the as Manga mimicking as much as possible art style which also keeps me from getting into Hellsing Ultimate.   And I agree with Vraik's argument for why the Anime changes to the Dark Kingdom story-line were improvements.

But I still enjoyed Crystal a decent amount, and I don't think anyone hated the theme song, Moon Pride.

Sailor Moon S was my favorite season of the old Anime as I've said before.  Even so I feel even though I haven't actually read the Manga that from what I know the extent to which the Anime changes were improvement kind of decreases as it goes on.  One of my few complaints about S was that it takes so long to meet the character the whole story is kind of about, and I'd been assured in the Manga Hotaru does show up sooner.

Then the early glimpses showed evidence of improving the art style, much less Manga bound.  So I awaited with high hopes.

And unlike Batman V Superman those hopes were not let down at all, it was an awesome episode.

Spoilers below again.

We don't have a formal introduction to Hotaru yet, but she was there right at the start.

And the new Theme Song is pretty rockin too.  And it's animation and the transformation scenes both show signs of now desiring to directly homage the old Anime.

And I was not expecting based on what I'd been told about the Manga to see Naru, Umio and Motoki still around.  I was quite pleased.

Spoiler over.

It was fast paced, but this time didn't seem to be at the expense of indulging in the characters.  It was a fun half hour of Anime.  I recommend even people who hated Crystal before give it a try.

I may keep sharing my thoughts here every week.  If you want to enjoy some good Racaps of Stars I recommend joseinnextdoor.  She hasn't gotten to these episodes yet, it should be up Friday.  Actually she's done the entire old Anime as Hulu's put them up, but I've only consistently followed Stars.