Tag: sailor moon crystal

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

So. My problem with this episode (and what’s shaping into my problem with Crystal as a whole).

So, in the manga, there’s not that giant interlude of Tuxedo Mask trying to fight Zoicite. He can’t even get to the fight because of a barrier. And clearly Crystal had some time to fill, as this is a fast paced chapter, and they chose to fill it by having that super pointless fight.

Which is a bad choice in my eyes for a lot of reasons.

Like, okay, let’s say they want to keep the focus on UsaMamo, since that seems to be what Crystal wants to do. You know what would have been interesting? IF TUXEDO MASK COULD NOT HELP USAGI AT ALL AND HAD TO DEAL WITH THAT. Like there are so many ways that could be interesting. He could feel super helpless. He could bash himself against the barrier screaming her name. He could have a hint of a flashback to the fact that he (via their relationship) essentially caused the downfall of her kingdom and her death. And then we could switch to Usagi seeing him, and not wanting to die with him thinking it’s his fault (and then we could have her also think about the others, but that’s a different nitpick). But like, it could have done SO MUCH to actually establish his character beyond the frankly creepy stuff Crystal has been having him do.

(The moment where he stops her to give her his bag did not work for me here. It did in the manga, but the pacing felt super off and too slow to be cute here.)

And if they didn’t want to go that route for whatever reason, THEY COULD GIVE MORE TIME TO THE INNERS. The really puzzling thing to me is that Crystal!Inners have less personality than their manga counterparts, and Crystal keeps choosing to not do anything about it. And it bother me because there’s so many scenes that are slower paced than they need to be (see the scene in Mamoru’s room, where there’s just so many empty beats, or the everyone-repeats-what-Luna-just-said scene in last episode), so clearly Crystal is trying to fill time. So why are they not filling time with character work. 

I mean, a couple thirty second scenes of Mako and Ami talking while walking to school, and Rei getting pissed about something, or just all of them interacting in a context that has nothing to do with Luna or their mission would do SO MUCH. 

(Also just like. How about we also get Usagi really really caring for the inners along with Mamoru? She keeps only getting power from Mamoru and I love that she can draw strength from him, but hey how about her actual guardians too.)

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

luna-whiskers:

sdklr:

Can we take a moment to talk about this frame? Not the animation — which unfortunately reached its apogee of hilariousness right at that exact moment — I mean the image itself. Though I despair of Crystal’s Shitennou developing personalities, Queen Beryl continues to surprise me. She doubts. She speculates. And she shows up on the battlefield and bears Zoisite away in her arms.

Indeed, it’s her relationship to the Four — epitomized in this frame — that’s been, for me at least, the most interesting aspect of Crystal’s take on the Dark Kingdom. While heavily influenced by the manga (with perhaps a whiff of PGSM), there’s an innocence to Beryl’s interactions with the Shitennou that seems new. If I were to find a word to describe her manner toward them, it would be… maternal.  They’re like a brood to her. She scolds them, she orders them about, but she does so without malice. She expects great things of them, as any mother would of her sons. And they — or at least Zoisite — defend her without hesitation.

And then we get this remarkable frame of Beryl carrying Zoisite into a hole in the sky. The image is dripping with allusion: the maternal figure cradling a young man’s limp body; the sky opening above them into what would seem like heaven. This is a dark Pietà, no mistake, and Beryl is its Madonna.

Yes! It is fascinating to me how Beryl is so different in each medium, and the biggest difference is in how she treats her Shitennou. Manga Beryl did not seem to care one way or the other about them, classic anime Beryl was ready to kill them at the slightest infraction. PGSM Beryl had different rules for each of them, giving more leeway to the ones who worked better without oversight, but also quick to punish with pain.

This is something we’ve never seen before. A Beryl who cares about her Shitennou. Who actually fights to protect them. Whose response to failure is the chiding of a student who messed up instead of a soldier who deserves punishment.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

elle-lavender:

The changes in SMC Act 5 were great for the most, and made sense. Many of the moments added strengthened Usagi and Makoto’s relationship, while padding out scenes that felt rushed in the manga.

But the changes in Act 6 made very little since, like Usagi hesitating to transform in front of Mamoru after she pretty much admitted that she was Sailor Moon. I don’t know what happened in the last episode, but the writing was sloppier than usual. 

This! As much as everyone was disappointed with the lack of Groom!Usagi and stuff, it was really clear things like that were sacrificed and/or replaced for a stronger whole, and the episode was incredibly solid. The story was tight and every moment did something. Act 5 was already likely to be my favorite act, but if I try and be objective I still think it’s Crystal’s best work so far.

And 6… there isn’t much for me to add to what you said, except that it’s also loose and slow and honestly a little boring. The events don’t seem to connect in any definite sense (even within single scenes! *points to your example*).

But the more I think about it, the more I think Act 6 will be a one off. Thinking of the Dark Kingdom arc, Act 6 is probably the least important act. Even for Mamoru fans, Act 7 is when the important stuff gets revealed. So maybe (hopefully) the writers just couldn’t be bothered with this episode because they were ready to write more pressing scenes, or figured if they could be lazy once, now was the time, or something which is still bad for them to do, but doesn’t mean that we should expect this quality in the future.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

redundantthinking:

okay fucking no sailor moon fandom

the fact that if she was awake Usagi would be okay with it is A MUTE POINT

BECAUSE

OH GUESS WHAT 

SHE’S NOT AWAKE BOTH TIMES

THEREFORE CAN NOT CONSENT

CAN NOT SAY ‘GO FOR IT’

CAN NOT DO ANYTHING THAT SAYS SHE’S APART OF THIS EXCHANGE

THEREFORE IT’S WRONG

NO IT DOESN’T MATTER IF SHE’S LIKE ‘SO WARM’ IN HER SLEEP

MAMORU SHOULDN’T BE KISSING SLEEPING GIRLS

NO ‘BUTS’ NO ‘WELLS’ NO ‘BUT THE PAST’

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