Sailor Moon Crystal (Episode 1: Usagi - Sailor Moon - review)

(Sailor Moon Crystal opening title)

So over the last few months there has been a lot of hype and buzz over the new Sailor Moon, myself being one of the many on the hype train. There were a lot of rumours as to if it was going to be a new series or a remake of the original, which in turn created a lot of new fan art appearing all over the internet. I ended up tuning in a few hours after it had aired (due to working whilst it aired), so I was a little tired the first time I watched it since it was around 1am. I decided half a week later to watch it again when I had the time so I could start on this review. Obviously still being so early in the series I'll do another review down the track to see if my expectations and feelings towards the remake have changed or if they remain the same.

Let's start with the opening theme. Both the original Japanese and English dubbed version of the opening theme back in the 90's were very catchy, so much so that I still sing both of them to this day. The new opening for Crystal is very catchy also. Crystals theme is so catchy that I can see myself singing it in the future.

During the second watch through I decided to screen snap a couple images for this post, nothing major to spoil any plots, however if you've seen the original Japanese version of Sailor Moon it's not too much different other than art style.

The art cards that they display during act changes, during the mid episode change over and at the end of the episode are rather beautiful. I snapped a couple for examples. They are so simple, yet very detailed and the artist has done an amazing job. Here are a few of the examples for episode 1:

(Act 1 Art Card)

 (Mid episode change over Art Card 1)

(Mid episode change over Art Card 2)

(Episode 1 End Art Card)

A number of people bought up the issue after seeing a few sneak peaks of the series that the legs were way too long. I didn't actually see any of the images that they were referring to until I watched the first episode. Most of the time the leg to body ratio isn't too bad, however there are some instances where the legs are just not proportionate at all. Example:

(Usagi standing out the front of her class room after being punished for getting to school late)

As you can see, her legs appear to be at least 5 times the length of her torso. To me it's not a huge issue, but can get annoying sometimes when her height seems to vary. I know many have an issue with it and others don't care, no-one is right and no-one is wrong. Each to their own as they say. Everyone is going to have different opinions on things and I'm curious to what everyone else's opinions are. Do you like the longer legs? Do you think they are too long? Please feel free to comment on this below, and comment on any other things that you saw or thought about in relation to the first episode :)

As for the art style of the new series, I'm a bit unsure of how I feel. I loved the art of the old series, but at the same time still loving the updated feel to the new series (mostly). To me, Crystal is great, they have done an amazing job on making it look modern, however in some instances the faces look a little off. Most of the time, let's say 99%, the faces look perfectly normal (just a little getting use to of the new art style which will obviously come with time), however there are  a few instances that the faces look just off. It's hard to explain it, but mostly the faces look too close together, or too small, or even that most of the features are incredibly small compared to they eyes. It's an easy thing to over look. As I stated before that most of the time it's perfectly normal looking. Here are a few snaps from Sailor Moon Crystal of the new art style.

And a few more photo spams of Sailor Moon/Usagi and Tuxedo Mask meeting in episode 1, plus a couple extra Tuxedo Mask pictures:

(Tuxedo Mask looking as handsome as I remember)

As for Sailor Moons new outfit, I like the updated version of it except for the new tiaras. I very much prefer the old style looking tiaras compared to the new ones. The new ones to me just seem too small and in some frames don't look to be equal in shape and in some areas look misshapen. Again not a huge issue, which in time I'll get use to and not even care about any more. The added touch of the blinking red lights on her hair buns is a great idea. Absolutely love it. The broach on the front of the bow I'm not much of a fan of. Just another one of the things where I prefer the original over the remake. You'll also tend to notice through out the episode that Usagi's hair changes length. Sometimes it's to her feet, other times it's to her knees.

All in all, I loved it. I'm excited to watch more episodes, but hate the fact that it's not airing weekly and will be airing fortnightly instead. There was a real nostalgic feel to it that reminded me so much of when I was younger and would wake up early before school to catch it on the early morning cartoon programmes. I'm looking forward to where it goes and see how closely it follows the original series/manga. I'd rate the art a 9/10 and the episode as a whole a 9.5/10.

To all the Moonies out there, happy viewing!