Sailor Moon Crystal

Alright, I guess I really ought to talk about this one, as much as I really would love to avoid it.

Chances are, if you've been alive at any point in the past fifteen or so years, you've at least heard of Sailor Moon (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon).  It's one of the classic icons of anime, one of the most popular series worldwide, and put magical girls on the map.  In my life, Sailor Moon was enjoyed during its hayday by middle and high school girls.  That being said, I never drank from this particular punch bowl.  I was much more into Gundam, Dragon Ball, and Outlaw Star.  So Sailor Moon was largely lost on me during that time.

So, skip time forward, I'm in my twenties, and anime and manga is more readily accessible to anyone with reliable internet.  And the strangest thing happens. Sailor Moon starts trending with my friends on Facebook, and not just with late teenage and twenty-something girls, but with twenty-something guys, too.  It was the damndest thing and I couldn't really make heads or tails of it.

So, you can imagine the collective brick-shitting that the internet underwent when the series reboot, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystal, was announced.  Well, Sailor Moon Crystal is here at last, so I thought I'd take a look and see what all the fuss was about.

I'll save you from any unnecessary suspense: I was largely unimpressed with SMC.  It was just...exactly what I expected.  It followed the old magical girl setup.  Audience meets girl, Usagi Tsukino, an average middle school girl just going about her life.  She meets a handsome stranger and a magic talking cat, Luna, who gives her her mystic amulet and tells her that she has to fight evil.  There's also some mysterious evil master that's...doing devious things.

So, with the guidance of her talking head, Luna, Usagi transforms and fumbles her way through her first fight against some villain.  And there's Tuxedo Mask who...despite wearing literally the same clothes from earlier that day, still manages to hide his identity.  I know the whole superhero-domino-mask thing was never really plausible but...just damn.

I wasn't kidding about LITERALLY the same clothes...>__>;;

So the first episode is over and I'm left wondering what all the fuss was about.  I won't say that the first episode of SMC was bad, but it wasn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination.  So I figure I'm not going to be continuing, and then I see more of my friends giving rave reviews of episode 2.  So I thought I'd give it another shot, maybe episode 2 was where it really gets good.

Same result.  It was okay, but not something I'd write home about.  I tried, my friends, I really did, but I just can't see what all the hype is about.

The way I see it, it's probably something similar to what went on with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  That was another reboot of a show for little girls that twenty-something men lost their shit over that I just couldn't get into.  To be fair, though, I would pick Sailor Moon Crystal over My Little Pony in a heartbeat.  Good god, I would pick waterboarding over My Little Pony...or being in the room with a brony.

But I digress, Sailor Moon Crystal was alright.  It was good, but didn't blow me away.  It's had a major visual upgrade from the original, which is cool, though there were some CG segments that were a little heavy-handed from my perspective.

To put a finer point on it, I would recommend Sailor Moon Crystal to people who liked the original.  Unfortunately, like with Persona 4: The Golden Animation, those people don't really need me to tell them whether or not they should watch this show.  However, unlike P4:GA, Sailor Moon Crystal is a legitimate remake and covers all the information, so no one who is new to the series will feel left behind.

So, if you were ever into Sailor Moon, or ever WANTED to be into Sailor Moon, that I'm very pleased to say that SMC loses none of what made the original series what it was.