Now... Sailor Moon, I'll admit is NOT the easiest thing to get into. There are numerous holes in it... but there's some point, different for everyone where it stops mattering and you realise that its PROBABLY the best thing to be invented ever in the history of everything. o_o Now let's here what was your exact turning point:

ANIME:

This was the first version I saw...I would like to say from the first moment I was hooked, but in all honesty, I just found it /good/ not amazing. But then there was Zoisite's arc which REALLY started picking up the series for me, it got better and better and then *BAM* episode 34 "The Sparkling Ginzuishou! The Moon Princess Appears!" it was just so amazing to me @_@ I don't know maybe it was the song "Maboroshi no Ginzuishou" but since then I haven't looked back. I watched the episodes again and I loved them better the second time!!

MANGA:

This was the easiest version to get into for me. I mean right from the get-go I was hooked for this version... I think it was opening it that did it for me :3

PGSM:

The third version I got into... hm, this one took a while, I was quite apprehensive about the special effects... But when Makoto came into the series, it took a whole other road from the manga and anime and the storytelling and emotions of the actresses was just so great, they were just really belieable. So what if it was cheesy. and of course "Kirari* Sailor Dream" and "C'est La Vie" always help

MUSICALS:

This was /definitely/ the hardest for me. I was extremely weary about the costumes and the special effects. I watched the first musical, Gaiden Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen... it was okay. It wasn't bad, the acting was okay. The songs "Natsu wo Shimashou Vacation" "Namikimichi no Koi" "Onnanoko no Shinsou" "Sailor War" "Saikyou no Couple Gundan" and of course "La Soldier" I liked alot, I also loved the portrayal of Haruna... but still it wasn't QUITE enough. I watched the second "Usagi Ai no Senshi e no Michi" and there was the song "Talisman wo Sagase" well this is not one of my favourite songs, and goes into the bottom 30... but i was SO impressed with Keiko Hanayama's portrayal of Kaolinite, I mean I didn't like Kaolinite much in any version but I LOVED this Kaolinite. And as odd as it sounds, this was definitely how I got in. She was crazy, evil, mischievous, frightening, mountains, witty, funny, good and singing and lovable all at the same time XD and since then I've come to really appreciate the first musical, particularly for Nana Suzuki's heartfelt performance! and I've loved every myu since... I was worried that Sailor Stars started to decline the quality. But Eien Densetsu was even more amazing than I could have imagined!

ANOTHER STORY:

Video games are EXTREMELY difficult for me, so I had to cheat. I really enjoyed the storytelling in this game... but it was just really hard. What really sold me was the Guardian Senshi solo parts of the game. A Swiss man falling for Ami who has to push him away for her mission (and Ryo apparently)... Rei getting confused at people who look like Jadeite... Makoto having to deal with a strange Romeo & Juliet-esque family fued in a Canadian Woods and of course, Minako running away from a mob of Turkish Men XD

Anime was the very first version I got into! I must admit even today, I have a hard time getting more interested in any other versions thought manga is almost equal to me.

First reason being the useless extended moment in useless anime moments that got me attached to every character which I thought were sometimes too short in manga version.

Of course, romance between Mamoru and Usagi was much more appreciable in manga version. I hate the way they sorta destroyed it in the anime version and it got me frustrated so many times.

for me the musicals were incredibly easy to get into but the manga was the hardest. I think it's because I don't like how in my head the characters speak the English translation and so can't help but try to translate it back into Japanese which doesn't work because it's too hard O_O

anime:I saw the anime first and I was hooked like that! As a kid I loved watching superheros and other cartoons so it was it was easy for me to get into.

manga: As for the manga it took we awhile to get into. I got a copy of a volume before S came to America and it had Uranus and Neptune in it so I was confuse to who they were. I think got vol 7 of the mixx release? That was my first manga so I didn't know you were suppose to start at number one XD I then bought some more volumes and I was still confuse because the story was different from anime and it had fast pace. I didn't like it. When I got older I found translations online I read it and I liked it. I still like the anime better though.

PGSM: It took me a few episodes to get into. I really watched the series just for laughs because of the transformations and fight scenes remind of power rangers. As I got further into the series I liked they relationships between the characters. There were a few plot points that bothered me like Minako having that illness.

Musicals: I watched the first one and I was like meh. I thought it was cheesy and then I tried watching the second and I couldn't finish it. I just thought it was so cheesy so I stopped watching the musicals. Maybe I'll give it another try?

I guess the musicals aren't for everyone X3 some of them are alot darker. The Dracul Series for example are a little too dark and its actually a little bit frightening =\ and the Kaguya Island musicals are a nice balance between cheesy and serious. I feel that the whole concept of sailor moon is cheesy to begin with some I've never been able to understand what the difference is. I actually find more problems with the anime than the other three versions but i guess its just me. For me it goes Musicals > Manga > PGSM > Anime

For me it's anime>manga>PGSM. I didn't put the musicals in because I don't think that's fair because only watched the first one and the part of the second one.

ANIME

Oh well since the anime is my first exposure, then that is was got me hooked. I remember catching one episode when i was really little (maybe 7 or 8?) before it aired on Cartoon Network here in the US. Then i never saw it again, until one of my Jr high friends (which makes me about 11/12) was like "COME OVER AND WATCH THESE CARTOONS WITH ME". And I did. And I just got so INSANELY hooked on it. It was my first exposure to Toonami too and I got into a variety of other shows, but Sailor Moon was THE show for me. I don't even remember what episode it was that we watched. It was just so awesome for me. Girl superheros...that I could relate too...AMAZING TRANSFORMATIONS. HOT GUYS. WHAT. Yeeeeah. Then I would always get on the computers in the library at school in the mornings and do searches on Yahoo for Sailor Moon fansites. ^^ Ah the memories. I read about how censored it was in the US and read up on the Japanese version, maybe being able to find a clip of the show here or there (there was no such thing as torrents or youtube back then!). Then my mom got me the movies!! And then the R movie uncut with subtitles!! MOON REVENGE BECAME THE MOST AMAZING SONG EVER. Srsly. Then when I was like 15 or 16 (whenever ADV released the uncute 1st and 2nd seasons boxset), I got the first season boxset and I marathoned the crap out of it. Finally being able to watch it all, uncute, subtitled, and seeing the final episodes of the first season. Aw man, it was just a beautiful thing to behold. XD

MANGA

And on to the manga, well I was just getting into manga then. I also really like Pokemon, so my mom had been buying me the thin comics for me. I then noticed that Barnes & Noble carried manga and thats when I saw it...the first volume of Sailor Moon. I think I nearly lost my mind.... I was like "THERE IS A COMIC VERSION OF THIS WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN". I'm not even joking. from there the manga engaged me so much with its beautiful art and I became very inspired to draw and make art and draw Sailor Moon ALL THE TIME. I read those books so much. The ones that didn't fall apart because of hte crappy glue quality got messed up from me reading them bunches. XD I even read them in the bath tub! And I collected them as often as I could afford them or my mom was willing to buy them... I had to finish reading them by borrowing from friends because they eventually went out of print. I was very sad.

PGSM

So for PGSM, it was coming out when I was still in high school. I had started downloading it and really enjoyed it, despite its corniness and cheesyness...because come on...you are a hypocrite if you say PGSM is cheesy but the anime is not. -_- It took me a while to watch all of PGSM, but I eventually did and rather enjoyed it. Not as memorable as the anime and manga were for me, but I still really liked it. I've been meaning to rewatch it lately, but just haven't had the chance to. Though when I do, I will do so through Miss Dream's fansubs of it!


MYUs

So for Myu, I had been only exposed to some readings on the internet and a few pictures of it. I was always slight interested in what it was all about, but never knew much about it or where to start. So one day, about a year ago, I just youtubed it. And man, its so awesome! I love the songs and the dancing the alternate telling of the well known SM storylines... I'm still fairly new to the musicals, but so far they haven't disappointed me! I even rather enjoyed the first musical even though its meh in costumes and wigs compared to the later ones. XD


And thats all for my long ranty time.

If you focus on Nana Suzuki / Sailor Venus's story and acting on the first musical. Its actually shockingly heartrending. I was crying the other day because of it.

When I was little and the show first came out I thought it was the best thing EVER! My mom didn't like me watching it though, so I didn't get to watch it too much. When I got to high school I went on a nastalgia kick and rewatched Sailor Moon. That is when I got extremely hooked and an uber fan!

When I discovered Sailor Moon, looked it up on Wikipedia, and was like, Wow. This sounds really interesting. Then, I started reading the mnaga last February and was like, THIS IS SO GOOD.

For me it was anime, then the manga. I can't remember what actually hooked me to it though. I just remember watching it on Cartoon Network(when they still had Toonami) and it was on right before dinner-I was 8th grade when it first started showing and I would do my latchhook "homework" while watching it. I also like PGSM-but I wish I had DVDs that actually worked on a DVD player instead of just the CD's that only in the PC computer. I haven't been as hooked on the Myu's.

I am only into the anime. I think it was just the basic format: girls who use magic to fight villains, romance, astrology, reincarnation, talking cats.
Astrologically, all their powers make sense except Mercury's. I'm confused about that because Virgo is not a water sign and the planet has nothing to do with water either.

In Japanese, Mercury is called "suisei" which literally means "water star". That's where the water comes from ^_^

nekosenshi wrote:

I am only into the anime. I think it was just the basic format: girls who use magic to fight villains, romance, astrology, reincarnation, talking cats.
Astrologically, all their powers make sense except Mercury's. I'm confused about that because Virgo is not a water sign and the planet has nothing to do with water either.

You should check out the other versions, especially the manga. You won't regret it.

I really don't remember!!! I just remember being obsessed and not being able to get enough. once a day on toonami wasn't enough, then i stumbled upon the manga at barnes and noble........

FOR AS BIG A DIEHARD AS I AM, I'M TERRIBLE AT REMEMBERING WHAT STARTED IT HAHAHAHAHA

I was actually poking around on Crunchyroll when I came across SMC. Then i started reading the manga and watching the original, but when i really started getting into SMC i was like "WOAH THIS IS THE BEST"

I got hooked on the Anime first because of Mars' transformation. When I saw it, my mind was blown! Literally what went in my head was, "THIS GIRL IS ON FIREEEE! ITS SO KEWL!" After finishing the anime, I went straight for the Manga for the sole reason of seeing Naoko's beautiful art style! So, I guess the art is what got me into Sailor Moon, since I like to be a visual sort of person.

Sailor Moon was the easiest thing ever to get into. Which can seem surprising perhaps considering the plot holes, the crappy effects, some crappy choice when it comes to the dubs (I won't get into that here) and others, but really it was one of the only anime / etc that I know that uses easily everything interesting in light stories.

I don't have big reasons to watch everything actually, but here mine anyway:

Anime:
I got hooked... very slowly mostly because getting into the action took too many episodes (what in heaven seemed like a good idea in stretching the senshi encounters to 30-40 episodes? it was way too long for me). But Zoisite and Kunzite teamwork was interesting and I soon accepted all the weird stuff happening. Everyone was psychologically interesting (including the senshi) and there were many psychological conflicts. That and I love that type of silly humor.

PGSM:
Zoisite got me hooked. Fortunately, he arrived at the end of the sixth episode and I was happy to continue throughout the whole thing. What I love of PGSM also is that their hair ARE DIFFERENT from their senshi appearances which made it harder for others to recognize them (which is also more logical).

Sera Myu:
I debuted with La Reconquista and fortunately immediately liked it (I'm already a fan of musicals in general so yeah). After watching Petite Étrangère, I went on and watched every older Sera Myu. As for those, I'm not sorry to say that Hikari Ono got me to watch the entire thing as well as the first stage Tuxedo Kamen and MC Fly/Tiger's Eye/Gille de Rais/etc. It's bad apparently to watch things for actors, but that's what makes me discover stuff so I don't care. It's all a talented bunch of crazies and though I have trouble with the last musicals of the fourth western stage, I have no regrets about watching them all.

Crystal:
The Shitennou made me stay and the fact they were a team. They weren't kill off immediately or separately so it made me appreciate that. And it wasn't as long as the 90s anime, so there was no exhaustion from watching 200 inside a month.

Manga:
I'm still not sure if I'll be hooked. I'll read it all only because it's Sailor Moon, but I need to read it from Arc 1 instead of randomly picking a book... So for now that's all.

First episode of the 90s one. Not even kidding. And this was further enforced with the episode about the smooth jazz guy getting attacked by a vampire monster. I said to myself "yes, this is a good show."

Sailor Moon hooked me when I really young, because of it's colors and it's magical aspect. Though, what kept me, and what keeps pulling me back is the drama, and the depth of it's characters. My family always told me that Sailor Moon was for children, and was stupid, but I've always stuck by the fact that it has very inspirational and deep characters that keep it going.

The original anime reeled me in, and the manga and musicals held me. Some years ago I was hooked on the songs Fire and La Soldier, and some others. Good stuff, those musicals.

Nowadays, Crystal is my main draw, and it pulled me back in some time ago. I love so many aspects of this series.

There really wasn't a turning point as such. I saw the very first episode of the English dub at around 1995 or so and I was instantly in love with the anime. The characters and the story were very entertaining and unique for me.
As unusual as it might sound the anime alone was enough to keep my interest in Sailor Moon the whole time. Ten years ago a work friend of my sister's once lent us her full collection of Sailor Moon DVDs and we binged watched the whole thing over a couple of weeks. I made her a thank you fanart of Sailor Jupiter, her favorite guardian. Nowadays thanks to Crystal I'm watching both Viz animes and I'm loving both canons.

I think this is the only franchise that I've ever dug into in such detail.

Anime
When I first saw it, the hook was really the unique hero team with different colored outfits and different types of attacks. Not to mentioned being named after planets, which appealed to my love of astronomy and made me curious about other planet Senshi (I was only up to R, and at the time, no Outer Senshi, except Pluto, who I forgot about frequently). Then I fell for the plot and characters and stuck by it.

Manga
Years after the last Cloverway dub episode, I discovered the manga and I was curious about it and how it could differ from the anime. I fell in love with the in-depth plot, and I gained a huge respect for Usagi in the manga (while making me see anime Usagi as a little shallow in compare), plus I really enjoyed how involve Tuxedo Mask was in both the fights and in Usagi's life. While the villains aren't as developed in manga, I did feel like i learned more of the Senshi themselves, even if it was limited to one chap, per arc.

PGSM
I am currently trying to get through it. It is good after getting through the first few episodes, I'm just really occupied, so I'm moving slowly. But I do feel a slight hybrid of manga and anime in it which I enjoy, but it is still its own incarnation.

Crystal
More accurate animated version of the manga is what hooked me. Some parts I liked, others I thought they could do better. But I stuck around for Infinity, which impressed me with the new animation, not to mention that one episode displayed scenes almost exactly as I pictured in manga, so kudos.

Sera Myu
Not seen yet. Planning on seeing after PGSM, if only to gain more knowledge of the franchise in its entirety.

In order of experience...

 ----- Anime:

There was a gradual process to me getting interested- I saw a tiny bit on Toonami as a kid and was mostly confused but thought it was kind of interesting, then I head the song "Yume Miru Dakeja Dame" on the internet (this was in 2002) and thought it was amazing (and I still do), and heard stories about the show and thought it sounded intriguing, and I managed to see the first episode  subtitled, and then years and years later I started watching the show proper from the beginning with subtitles. And in the long run, I love every season of it!

But.... the single shining moment when I said, "This is my life now"?

Episode 23, when Naru tries to block the Moon Tiara, and then when Nephrite responds to the youma Yasha later in that scene. Or the entire second half of the following episode, 24. (Honorable mention for Episode 26 when Umino runs in during the fight at the graveyard, too.) It probably hit me harder than normal because of some real life experiences it called to mind, but even so. I couldn't not watch another 176 episodes of this show (and explore the rest of the franchise) after that. ^_^


----- Manga:

While I was getting into the anime, I also tried the manga. I'm still working on the Mugen/Infinity arc right now (it's my next thing to finish reading and I've been super slow about it).

I really liked the scenes where Kunzite remembers what happened to the Shitennou, and I like the scenes with Minako and the sword, and the thing with the Shitennou stones with Mamoru afterwards, and the scene where Diana takes over for Sailor Pluto.

But to be honest, I'm still trying to get fully into this version properly, in more than a "oh that's a neat concept on this one scene/page" kinda level (and imagining crazy-gluing those concepts into the anime continuity); all the characters just get so much less time to develop that it's hard to get attached and comfortable.

Ramble about why spoiler-tagged for length and off-topicness:

Spoiler:

All that said, I did really enjoy Codename Sailor V (which has a lot more breathing room for character development, Minako and Artemis are pretty great), especially once the Kaitou Ace story got going.


----- Videogames:

Panic in Nakayoshi World for Super Famicom is strangely fascinating and comforting to me even though it's so simple, I keep coming back to play it again and listening to the music. I also like Sailor Moon S Kurukkurin For Super Famicom.


----- Crystal:
I've only seen season 1. It's alright. Not as much to say about it though. "I'm Going Down" is a really nice image song they made for it though, I really like that.


As for stuff I haven't seen...

Spoiler:

I wanna comment on a few things since you had questions about Myu and PGSM towards the end but first things first

Mitsukara wrote:

But.... the single shining moment when I said, "This is my life now"?

Bahahaha this line.

Mitsukara wrote:

Episode 23, when Naru tries to block the Moon Tiara, and then when Nephrite responds to the youma Yasha later in that scene. Or the entire second half of the following episode, 24. (Honorable mention for Episode 26 when Umino runs in during the fight at the graveyard, too.) It probably hit me harder than normal because of some real life experiences it called to mind, but even so. I couldn't not watch another 176 episodes of this show (and explore the rest of the franchise) after that. ^_^

Asides from a handful of others and the finale, this is probably one of my favorite episodes of the first season. It's just so dramatic and heart wrenching, just a fantastic plot for Nephrite and Naru!!


Not gunna comment much on the manga cause my experience was a bit different since I actually hadn't watched the entirety of the anime when I read the manga so I don't have such a disparaging relationship with it. However your statement of it being the seed of the franchise is very accurate. Pretty much all other versions of SM (save SMC since its just an adaptation) take the manga's core and expand on it greatly.

For video games, you should try out Another Story if you haven't! I haven't actially finished the game but the story is good and if you play with a ROM you can just fast forward through all the grindy stuff you gotta do lol. It's worth it for the story for me. It blends anime and manga canon which is nice and even has a theme song with lyrics written by Naoko. Annnnd iirc, Naoko had a bit of involvement when it came to the story? Don't quote me on that though.


Now to get to the nitty gritty.

Mitsukara wrote:

As for stuff I haven't seen...

Spoiler:

Pretty much what you are assuming is correct, it is essentially a new take on the Dark Kingdom arc of Sailor Moon. That said, despite the costuming changes and such..it is an absolute fantastic take on the DK arc. It turns some magical girl story tropes on their head and add their twists and turns. The best part is each character gets amazing character development and since you liked that aspect of the anime, I think you'll appreciate that in PGSM. Even Makoto gets good character development beyond "i'm a tomboy who really likes feminine things and obsessed with my old crush". While the changes are quite starkingly different especially when compared to both anime and manga, imo it is the best version of the Dark Kingdom arc story and I highly recommend it to every SM fan to give it a chance.

Mitsukara wrote:

Spoiler:

To answer your points:

1. The music IS good, well at least to me it is. There's a few songs that I rank kinda low but for the most part everything is timeless and well written. The music is composed by Akiko Kosaka which if you enjoyed Moon Revenge from the R movie and Tuxedo Mirage, the S ending theme, you've already enjoyed some of her work!  In the old Myu (not the ones that started for the 20th anniversary), I don't find the songs to be as cheesy as a traditional Western musicals but the shows I find are more like plays with songs that express the feelings and emotions of hte characters rather than just singing the plot along.

2. The first one IS quite low-budget and awkward (though I find I can enjoy it regardless). This was the very first musical show set as sort of a sequel to the first season of the anime but not regarding the R season at all. It came into production with the anime only having been on air for less than a year, if i'm remembering my dates correctly. However, the musicals became insanely popular in Japan and you will see how they improve over time and get bigger budgets as the costuming, wig and staging improve.

3. To be honest, its half probably to do with the first musical (they probably weren't that popular) and half with the fact that I think its hard to add them as characters to a show like this. I don't think the budget really served to have puppets and I just don't see them fitting into the stories as they are written. Part of me does wish they had fit them in somehow, maybe in Stars with their human forms?? It probably would've been too many characters on stage at tha tpoint though. There's already 10 Sailor Soldiers plus Tux!

4. In some sense, yes. Though I don't find them to be super big on the comic relief save for maybe in Eien Densetsu where it was mostly due to the antics of the actors and their characters being written more for them in some sense. The musicals rehash the Senshi x Shitennou plot a good bit but its not done too obnoxiously, imo. I find they have the biggest and more explored role in Starlights Ryuusei Densetsu and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin. Tomoe's only really in three musicals and one of them it's not really Tomoe anyway...though a bit complicated to try to explain here. xD

5. The first stage of the musicals, the ones that ran from the first one to Eien Densetsu (essentially the first 5 years of musicals), for the most part was based on the anime. Due to the anime running at the same time as the musicals, they often would try to avoid spoiling upcoming characters hence why they would have original characters in place of where ones should be. I believe this is the case with the Animates for the first two Stars based musicals. In the last Stars based shows (Starlights Ryuusei Densetsu and Kakyuu-ouhi), they added Aluminum Siren and Lead Crow and there are no Myu only animamates. TBH its been a while since I watched them so I don't really remember how Iron Mouse's personaly is. xD

6. YES Dracul IS totally crazy and out there but it is oh so deliciously good and confusing and fun. XD

Brit-chan wrote:

Not gunna comment much on the manga cause my experience was a bit different since I actually hadn't watched the entirety of the anime when I read the manga so I don't have such a disparaging relationship with it. However your statement of it being the seed of the franchise is very accurate. Pretty much all other versions of SM (save SMC since its just an adaptation) take the manga's core and expand on it greatly.

I apologize if I was a bit too hard on it. I do think it's got a lot of good things about it, and I actually do still like it, but I've been very spoiled by the qualities I loved about the anime to the point where it's hard not to compare. I still want to read the whole thing and I think I may appreciate it more if I take more time out for it and get my head in the right place about how to take it in on it's own.

One thing I failed to mention is that the art is pretty great, and while I like a few things about the anime's art style in some cases, it pretty much reuses (or sometimes simplifies) the manga's character designs verbatim. I love the extra little personal details like Sailor Venus wearing her chain as a belt, too, and just in general I like everyone having more of their own little touches, so between that and things like the Shitennou backstory not being explained as well and other ideas I mentioned before, the anime definitely failed to capture some of the manga's strengths. To expand my earlier metaphor, those are the seeds that didn't get to bloom that time, I suppose?
PGSM is definitely on my to-do list, too. Though my to do list is dauntingly long (especially considering all the non-SM stuff I want to do.) As far as taking in new (to me) SM material I'm thinking about trying to do it in this approximate order:

1. Finish watching the Sailor Moon PC engine game translations that were recently posted on youtube (it's a visual novel heavily steeped in the anime production with the voice actors from the show, and it's about the Shitennou and Beryl being resurrected in between the Makaiju arc and Black Moon arc! I don't think it was considered "canon", and the translations on the videos is a little iffy and they advance the text really slow so it takes a while to watch, but it definitely is relevant to my obsessions).
   
2. Alternate finishing the Manga and Sailor Moon: Another Story . (To answer your question, I have played it a little but it was a long time ago and I kept getting lost and confused, I managed to wander off on the bus when I was probably not supposed to and ran around Mugen Academy with nothing to do at the beginning of the game and stuff. The story definitely intrigues me but I had trouble getting into the gameplay even though I like Dragon Quest and some of the Final Fantasy games, mostly just because exploring was confusing to me. I might also watch a Let's Play video but I haven't found one where they talk to all the NPCs that they can so I feel like I'm missing stuff to try it that way, so I should really give it another go on my own.)
   
3. Catch up on Crystal (after the manga.) 
   
4. Try PGSM.
   
5. Try some Musicals, probably sampling the beginnings of different eras and arcs to get a feel for each.
   
   

Finishing my own anime-based fanfic-fancomic comes somewhere between 0 and 3 probably maybe hopefully??

Reading other people's fanworks can plug in pretty much anywhere, though I'm waiting to read Mangaka-chan's manga sequel story until I've finished reading the manga itself.

Quote :

The music is composed by Akiko Kosaka which if you enjoyed Moon Revenge from the R movie and Tuxedo Mirage, the S ending theme, you've already enjoyed some of her work!

Those songs are both excellent! I'm not sure I've heard any song from the anime that I didn't like at least a little bit ^^

Is the SMAS theme song you're referring to "Sunshine Moonlight"? I've heard that one. It was alright, but I liked the various BGM music from the game a lot more (I've heard the whole soundtrack I think, and also the Another Story Game Music Collection orchestrated versions which are excellent). I'm also a big fan of most of Arisawa Takanori's background music. Sailor Moon in general has a lot of good music, Crystal even has a couple great ones that I've heard so far. I don't think I've heard any of them music from PGSM though, so I have no idea what that's like.

Quote :

The first one IS quite low-budget and awkward (though I find I can enjoy it regardless). This was the very first musical show set as sort of a sequel to the first season of the anime but not regarding the R season at all. It came into production with the anime only having been on air for less than a year, if i'm remembering my dates correctly.

I am naturally a bit curious as to how much that one ties into said anime continuity (if Zoisite and Kunzite do anything romantic towards each other, etc). It's strange because from the plot synopsis I've heard it doesn't sound like they would, since it involves the Sen\Shi pairings, and I don't think Naru and Umino appear or anything like that (or if they do it's not in a major way?), but it's hard to get a feel for without knowing all the details.

Quote :

maybe in Stars with their human forms?? It probably would've been too many characters on stage at that point though. There's already 10 Sailor Soldiers but Tux!

Yeah, even the anime had problems juggling it's own cast and that's with drawings. When you're talking about dancing on a stage... I can see where that could get problematic, or at least detract from the framing of the story by turning it into a crowd. Though the human forms would be cool to include. That's another manga thing the anime missed out on, was Artemis' human form ever appearing (or Diana's).

Quote :

The musicals rehash the Senshi x Shitennou plot a good bit but its not done too obnoxiously, imo.

Actually, much as I favor the anime, Crystal season 1 left me wishing for a more fleshed-out take on how the Sen\Shi pairings were supposed to work, like what kind of personal chemistry they would have with one another. I'm not really an exclusive "One True Pairing" type (even in my own real life marriage, we're polyamorous XD) so I like the idea of Sen\Shi done well, and it could still give the Shitennou some useful dramatic meat of overcoming their servitude to Beryl\etc to do something heroic. So that might be cool?

Quote :

I find they have the biggest and more explored role in Starlights Ryuusei Densetsu and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin.

It also still intrigues me that Sailor Stars characters are interacting with Dark Kingdom characters at all, so that's enough to pique my curiosity a bit. ^_^

[qote]Tomoe's only really in three musicals and one of them it's not really Tomoe anyway... though a bit complicated to try to explain here. xD[/quote]

Fair enough XD I suppose my bigger question is, does he spend any one story being in his own right mind? (The anime never gave him much time to do that.)

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The first stage of the musicals, the ones that ran from the first one to Eien Densetsu (essentially the first 5 years of musicals), for the most part was based on the anime. Due to the anime running at the same time as the musicals, they often would try to avoid spoiling upcoming characters hence why they would have original characters in place of where ones should be.

Oh goodness. So the manga ran, then the anime tried to adapt elements from the manga but they weren't all decided at the time of production so they were stalling for time, then the musicals were basing elements on the anime but not able to run ahead of them so THEY were stalling for time\coming up with workarounds? What crazy refractive storytelling that must've been to work on XD But I bet it led to even more totally new things in effect, like this "MC Fly" or whatever other weirdness.

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I believe this is the case with the Animates for the first two Stars based musicals. In the last Stars based shows (Starlights Ryuusei Densetsu and Kakyuu-ouhi), they added Aluminum Siren and Lead Crow and there are no Myu only animamates. TBH its been a while since I watched them so I don't really remember how Iron Mouse's personaly is. xD

That's okay. Incidentally though, do you remember if Siren and Crow do their whole friendly thing where Siren follows crow around like a lost puppy and Crow constantly chides her about being rivals, or is that an anime-only thing?

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YES Dracul IS totally crazy and out there but it is oh so deliciously good and confusing and fun. XD

Everyone I've heard talking about it seems fond of it so far.

For me it was like...

Anime
Talking cats. I saw my sister watching a show and it had talking cats so I had to watch. Sometimes I think I like sailor moon for another reasons but then the cats talk, or use a computer, and I'm like man this is the best show ever and this is exactly why I watch it.

Manga
For me in general, I typically prefer the manga of a story to the anime, and they're faster to read anyways. For me, getting into the manga was a matter of learning more about the series. At that point I'd only watched the dub (plus the subs for Stars), and reading the manga was just another step in absorbing everything sailor moon (after which came the subtitled version)

PGSM
For me, the biggest thing I was excited about in PGSM was that the girls looked normal in their civilian form. It seems like a small thing but in my eyes it made PGSM like a real-world Sailor Moon! So for me that was the initial hook, and then the girls' characterizations captured my heart, as well as the new take on the shitennou.

Musicals
I was hooked on the musicals before I even watched any of them. While I knew plenty of the songs, the biggest one was probably Koi no Senshi ja Irarenai. I had the words and the dance moves memorized years before I'd ever seen a musical, haha! By the time I got around to watching the musicals, I'd been listening to the music for years, so the excitement of that (along with my general love for cheesy stuff) meant I never had a problem loving the musicals, even with their lack of talking cats. usually.


Also, to answer some of your questions,

While almost all of the musicals involving the shitennou pair them with the senshi, the first musical additionally makes references to Nephrite and Naru's relationship, Zoisite and Kunzite's relationship, and even to one of Minako's flings in the Sailor V manga. It's nothing big though, just slight nods.

Professor Tomoe usually follows pretty closely to his manga counterpart, in my opinion, though I don't quite remember how he acts in the first stage... And yeah, then there's the whole Dracul arc Tomoe.

Crow and Seiren don't really have much going on in Starlights or Kakyuu-Ouhi, but in the newest musical, Le Mouvement Final, they do interact a bit more. Iron Mouse is very entertaining in LMF as well, she gets a lot of good scenes!

I'll add in my own fondness for the Dracul arc myself. Kaguya arc is better tho!