The Sailor Moon Reboot Universe: A War Veteran's Memories
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
As someone who loves and appreciates art, I just. I can't with Crystal/Crystal Season 3/ Eternal/ Cosmos anymore. The Moonie community has been failed time and time again by Toei. From animation to animation change, the quality of SMC/III/E/C continues to be lackluster because Toei refuses to give the project the attention it deserves, and pay their animators. As Sailor Moon Cosmos draws ever nearer, (ye gods), I would love for you to partake in my little Sailor Moon Crystal Failures Recap Sampler Platter, as we share in the succulent delights of generic animation, terrible character designs, and empty animated eyes.
Sailor Moon Chrysler:
Ok, so in Crystal we see an attempt at Naoko Takeuchi’s manga artstyle. There are some difficulties here though. We all know the Crystal song and dance- Web series budget, overworked and underpaid Filipino animators, Toei being the worst, etc etc. But hot take? At least they tried *something* original.
I mean, this doesn’t look Amazing. The shading on the hair is bland, the face lacks the elasticity and expression of the manga, there is very little detail, ya know. But it’s something newish! With the proper budget, this style could look immaculate, and in some shots it do:
Gorgeous shot, detail, 15/10, no notes. For the majority of the show though? Mmmmm. 4/10? 3.5/10?
SMC: World War III:
Although Toes gave SMC3 the semblance of a budget and moved it to TV broadcast, they also changed the character designs to be. Well.
They look very Pretty Cure.
And look, I adore Pretty Cure, ok? I am consuming Hirogaru Sky content on my TL like a queen ant consuming food from worker ants. I am Just as invested in my son Cure Wing as all you other magical girl ne'er-do-wells. But the style of Pretty Cure does not suit the Sailor Moon manga style-some would say it is diametrically opposed to it in many ways.
Look at the gorgeous flowing hair, delicate linework, transparent effects.
Now, the criminal on trial:
Overly cutsiefied proportions and faces, thick, (by comparison), linework, far too much shine effect on the hair and eyes, zero amounts of ethereal beauty, and also Mercury’s AWOL eye.
UGHHHHH.
Considering how iconic Sailor Moon is, and how fucking POPULAR IT IS, JESUS ON THE CROSS TOEI WHAT IS THE MISCOMMUNICATION HERE?
And I know that discourse about the SMC animation is a bit, shall we say, expected, but I needed this little refresher to make my point.
Sailor Moon Cosmos/ Eternal is not an improvement, and just continued neglect on Toei’s part to get literally any part of this project right.
CosTernal:
Ok, so, when we first got the character designs for eternal in 2019, I was skeptical. The return of Kazuko Tadano, an excellent animator on the original 90’s Sailor Moon anime originally heartened me, and then:
They just look kind of??? Cheap?? None of their poses are particularly eye-catching, the proportions look Very strange (Mars’s legs are broken, wtf is Jupiter’s knee, Venus’s left arm is Way too short, Moon’s right foot is missing, etc), and the faces just look. A bit dead inside. Moon and Moon Jr are the only ones with *expressive* expressions; the other girls just have these flat smiles, with Jupiter/Mars having the same mouth, as do Venus/Mercury.
This was official art, after years of silence, from a renowned animator.
What the Fuck.
The style is still lacking that singular SM manga flair, and just looks like the 90’s designs with the actual heart of the characters removed. It was deeply frustrating to me as a long time Sailor Moon fan.
The animation in the actual movies wasn’t much better-nothing stand out, nothing even close to the lovely ethereal style of the manga.
One more time for the people in the back, bad proportions, zero detail, empty eyes, personality-less Senshi, can I get an Amen?
The Present:
Sailor Moon Cosmos parts 1 and 2 are scheduled to be in theaters this summer, and from the looks of the promotional images we’ve received so far, they don’t appear to be an improvement:
Another piece of official promotional material that’s off model, (what is happening with her head? Her hands????), and uninteresting. Sailor Moon, sitting on a roof, in front of Tokyo skyscrapers. Very hecking original and cool, very interesting, much creative. Its composition is off, but more importantly, it lacks the Rizz one would expect from an official Sailor Moon poster. Take a look at these from the 90’s anime:
Dynamic, interesting poses, great composition, stunning colors, consistent art quality. A tall order, huh?
The most recent poster we got is slightly, better but not much:
At least there is some pizazz, but the stale air remains. This looks like *generic movie poster here*, like
*characters posed in front of Bad Guy, looking Determined and Angry*.
Final Thoughts:
I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade; if you are genuinely earnest and excited for Sailor Moon Cosmos, I hope it blows your socks off bestie. If you loved the animation for or just the Sailor Moon Reboot Universe in general, that’s amazing! Please keep enjoying it, and let it make your life a little better.
Personally, though, I just can’t get over the disappointment. An amazing, universally beloved franchise with this much room for creativity only comes once in a while. Imagine if we had gotten a reimagining of the Sailor Moon story, a la PGSM, or Sera Myu? What if Toei had given the project CardCaptor Sakura: Clear Card levels of love and budget. Instead, we were given half-assed animation and designs, with little story to go with it, (that’s another post though).
If you were wondering why the new reboot was rubbing you the wrong way, or didn’t have the words to describe your nagging doubts, I hope this helped! If any Sailor Moon fan found this worthy and informative, I did what I meant to do. Sailor Moon Crystal/Season III/ Eternal/ Cosmos is nice in sentiment, but in practice Toei continues to lure fans with the promise of quality Sailor Moon animated content, only to provide next to nothing, and screw their animators over in the process!
However much of a blow-hard I sounded in my screed though, I am actually not too worried. The Sailor Moon fandom is uniquely creative and amazing- we continue to make our own art, animations and contributions to the lore- all without exploiting workers! Sailor Moon Crystal was a disappointing project, and Cosmos is a lackluster end, but I’ve got all the Moon content I need right here.
Sarada ba!
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