F.S.' Playground

After watching most of the snippets of the arc I could find on Youtube, here are my few cents:

Haruka's new voice... The longer I listen to it, the less I like it. It's not the voice in general which I dislike, but it's frustrating to hear it from Haruka's mouth since it absolutely doesn't fit the androgynous Haruka in SM Crystal. The Haruka in the old anime was usually dressed in "male" clothes whenever she didn't transform, but her voice was so pleasantly androgynous that it worked for both Uranus and Haruka. This new very male and rather rough voice doesn't manage to convey her feminine side, and it doesn't sound good when she screams but just hoarse and rough. It's a shame since Haruka's voice was one of my favourite voices in the old anime. Maybe the new one wouldn't bother me as much if the old one hadn't been so attractive.

I also miss Haruka's teal eyes. The greenish blue really suited her and brought out her blonde hair while the steel-grey eyes look rather nondescript on her face. The only thing which was well-done was her random switching between being feminine and masculine. It was less jarring than I thought as long as I don't hear her new voice.

The transformation music of the Outers is rather forgettable compared to the old tune. While the transformations are more or less the same, they simply don't make an impact with the new music. I like the lack of pale lipstick (that part always annoyed me in the old version), and the sparkles work well here since they are less overdone as in Sailor Moon's transformation, but the only transformation which looked really impressive was Saturn's.

I'm torn when it comes to the Usagi/Mamoru relationship. They are said to have a more mature and deeper relationship in the manga than in the anime. But while I find Mamoru in both versions rather boring in combination with Usagi, the Mamoru in the old anime, as bookish and nerdy as he could be sometimes, is still more real than the very gentlemanly, perfect Mamoru in Crystal. There are small endearing scenes whenever they sulk at each other, but whenever they make up, they are so extremely sappy and stupid together that I can't help but wish that they will sulk at each other again.

Haruka and Usagi, on the other hand, are rather interesting and look really good with each other, and I can't help but get the feeling that this version of Haruka and this version of Usagi would be a much more fascinating couple than the Mamoru-Usagi couple although Haruka/Michiru still wins.

The Crystal Tokyo and the Moon Kingdom in SM Crystal, which is true to the manga, is even more sterile than in the old anime. Not only Pluto has to guard the kingdom for an eternity at the Time Gate or on her planet but also Haruka and Michiru, who are supposed to be destined lovers. Since they only see each other when the world ends, when the grail appears and Saturn awakes, it's a curse which no one deserves, and they haven't done anything to be punished like that. (Since it always struck me as odd that they didn't rebel in the manga but seemed oddly content with their fate, I wrote the "Lover of no fixed abode" parody years ago, in which both Haruka and Michiru rebelled against destiny and were punished by the Queen.)

All in all, Saturn is the real winner of the new anime while Haruka and Michiru, who is rather forgettable in the new version (although I'm looking forward to her scene with Yaten and the trashy lipstick in Stars), totally lost to their alter egos in the old anime version. Hotaru is the only character who has gained depth and whose transformations and attacks have been improved in SM Crystal. Haruka and Michiru's marriage sans papers is also dwarfed by the emotional bond between Hotaru and Chibiusa at the end of the arc.

If Crystal continues with the Dream and Stars arc, we're going to get a more mysterious and darker Seiya Kou, who resembles the serious Star Fighter more than the cheery, talkative Seiya Kou in the original anime. I don't know how I feel about it since I liked how much Seiya brightened up whenever he forgot about "work". Sadly, Seiya's seiyuu has already died, and I really hope that they cast someone else who has a wide range of expression and can change their voice well instead of spoiling it like they did in Haruka's case.

The new version of Yaten will most probably be more talkative and also meaner than the anime version (picking on Michiru just because she tried out a lipstick he found ugly, for instance). Although it doesn't bother me, I hope that they get his and Taiki's seiyuu for the remake. And I'm looking forward to the Haruka-Seiya dynamic, which is rather interesting since Seiya admires her and obviously likes her in the beginning while she mistrusts him and dislikes him for stealing her limelight as the star athlete. I also hope that they keep the gender switching aspect of the old anime and the male version of the Three Lights since we already have Haruka as a crossdresser and I liked the gender switch transformation of the Starlights.

Alright, the preview is out and I couldn't resist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DBdV2r9FDM&ebc=ANyPxKqPCa-U-ICnCFwp_NxiJ_fKqqn16CISA5uaUKB8KIhSJQHLyl87W59q2c9qOCBhx9ZsEF0S

Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiL05_gvRak (Hotaru-Chibiusa fans (Claude, I'm looking at you) will love this).
First Ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu6m5mAe5CI (which is an ultimate tribute to the Haruka-Michiru couple. I like it although the music is nice but not very impressive.)

The designs of the Inner senshi are much, much better than in the previous seasons of Crystal although the sparkly transformations still hurt my eyes. (But I remember I hated the double-Usagi's transformations in the original anime as well. It seems that Sailor transformations are simply not my cup of tea although I loved Haruka's World Shaking attack.) I really dislike the new fluffy hair at the back of all the short-haired character's heads (Ami, Mamoru, Motoki) and, consequently, hate Haruka's hair as well. Her hair in the original anime was so nice to look at. Why didn't they keep that? Her present hair doesn't even look like the manga version. It has something very Utena-esque to it (just as the sharp angles of the faces), which I don't really mind but which looks overdone when the hair is fluffed out like that). Also, while I like the new seiyuu's voice, I desperately miss Megumi Ogata, Haruka's old voice. (I'm afraid I will feel the same in the fifth season if they really intend to remake Sailor Stars. Since Seiya's seiyuu has already died, I'll have to make do with the replacement, which will be difficult since Shiho Niiyama was so great at changing her tone of voice and I loved how Seiya's, Yaten's, and Taiki's voices sounded when they sang or talked at the same time. They were so distinctly different from each other and complemented each other so well. I also miss the music of the original series since nothing which I've heard in Crystal comes even close apart from the theme which appeared when Minako made her entrance. But I'm making an effort to watch the new version with an open mind).

Michiru is absolutely gorgeous, though (despite the emaciated look all the girls got since Crystal as if the original anime hadn't made them thin enough), and the new design suits her very much, just as her hair, which is longer than in the original anime. She is the perfect mix of gentleness and wickedness, and I like the detail in the ending when Uranus and Neptune look into each other's eyes and Michiru gazes directly into Haruka's eyes while Haruka gazes down to her but also slightly past her (or rather through her; also, Haruka doesn't blush). I don't know if it's intentional but it matches the couple's dynamic in the manga, in which Michiru is devoted to Haruka but Haruka--the elusive Wind--always stays unreachable, unhappy, and intensely attracted to Usagi's happy nature although she is possessive about Michiru, her supposedly "true love". Their relationship seems very open and slightly unbalanced although they are a very committed couple just like they are in the anime. (Seriously, who would ever get the idea to exchange Michiru for an airhead as Usagi? You only want her because you can't have her, Haruka...)

I dislike the frequent pink blush on the girls' cheeks whenever they flush, but I'm happy that the partnership between Michiru and Haruka has been kept intact. It would have been horrible if they had changed that.) Also, there is a slight Hotaru-Chibiusa which resembles their intense, almost romantic friendship in the manga and in the original anime. I also appreciate the fact that Haruka's height has been kept as well. In the original anime, her height changed all the time (fluctuating between Makoto's and Mamoru's, which is distracting). Edit: They have also changed Haruka's eye colour from the original anime's cold blue/turquoise/sea-green into a clear blue, which I don't mind although I liked her teal/turquoise eyes.

Anyhow, I'm watching this in the hope that it's not as bad as the previous Sailor Moon Crystal episodes. Plot-wise, it's very close to the manga again, and I don't know if it's a good thing since it's hard to feel anything for the characters if the plot moves so fast. But this time, I'm content with the look of the first episode of the Infinity Arc and hope that the plot won't be so bad that it's unwatchable like it was with the first seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal.

Edit: I've forgotten to mention something I prefer in the new version of the anime: Haruka's Space Sword looks so much better now, not like the machete-like Space Sword she had in the old version.

Now that I've watched enough more of the new Sailor Moon series, here are my thoughts about it:

Let's start with the good things first. The voices were well-chosen and the voice actors were good. While the girls sound too child-like for my taste, that's how female teenage voices in Japan sound most of the time so I won't complain. I like how the Sailors work as a team so that it's not only Usagi who always finishes the youma, and I love the fact that there are no fillers at all so that the plot moves pretty fast and that, while the new anime follows the manga closely, there are deviations from the manga which seem very promising, for example the interactions between the bad guys. It seems we get to see more of them as a (dysfunctional) team and more of the implied relationships between them and Sailor Moon's crew. I'm looking forward to that.

( Now to the not-so-good things )