I really enjoyed the first ep! I love how Haruka and Michiru are drawn, and Chibiusa looks soooooo cute! I'm also glad there's an episode every week instead of every other week ♡

What was there not to love about this ep?
I loved the transformations.
I loved the attack sequences.
The animation was great, and I like the idea of splitting chapters into two eps, it won't seem as rushed.
I just love the character designs n the opening and endings just
I LOVED IT!

Oh yeah. The animation and art style has definitely improved from the first two seasons. No more CGI transformations! Also, THAT ENDING SONG. It's my jam!!!

Ah finally! I watched it Monday night and finally getting to post here.  I actually LIKED this episode. Yes, I saw a lot of issues with animation and various other things that bothered me but the improvements were enough for me to not actually be bothered by it.  Also, I like Michiru and Haruka's VAs. They are pretty good. The OP song has grown on me quite a bit now, while i don't think its the most fitting SM theme song, I'm enjoying it more. Annnd love the ending. Its so pretty.

east02west wrote:

Sure we got a bit of backstory hinting to the other two seasons, but the whole time I was sitting there wondering, why? 

This is cause it is following the manga to a T, which is something that bothers me (srsly I've read hte manga why do i have to read it again via this animation with exact dialogue) and this introduction scene is almost exact to what it is in the manga.

Eternal Knight wrote:

I'm in the "I'll keep watching even if I don't like it" wagon, so I didn't have any high expectations going in. The only thing that I truly found visually annoying were the skirts, mostly in the transformation sequence. They already had clothing problems in the last two, but it was not improved for this episode, it was worse.

I love the opening though it doesn't have the same energy, but I almost prefer this ending to the last ones. Mamoru is finally well-drawn, which is an improvement. They still have trouble with Usagi's hair. I think it's the one thing I'll always prefer from the 1992 anime. Her bangs in Crystal (all seasons) are distracting.

Omgosh yes. I agree with the bangs and teh skirt thing. EVERYONE'S bangs looked so lazily animated. It bothered me a lot. Srsly just add in like 3 or 4 more inbetween frames and they'd look so much better! A few other things, the noodly arms are still there. it looks so awkward. It fit better for the 3D sequences i actually kinda liked the 3D henshins... Venus's transformation was better 3D imo...

mangaka-chan wrote:

I like the OP after seeing it in the context of the episode. The song is also growing on me, though the lyrics don't make much sense to me...

I've only seen the translation from SMC and Viz but if you aren't understanding something it could possibly be in the fault of the translator....




Anyway, it felt like it had more effort put behind it and I will continue on with it and hope the episodes retain the same quality. ^_^

HNGHHHHH......GUYS, I AM SO PUMPED FOR THIS SEASON! Death Busters Merch Plzzzzz!

Here are my thoughts in no particular order. XD;

KAOLINITE. She looks so badass! *v* Although I know the character designs are supposed to follow the manga and I know that the following is going to sound like an ultra nerdy "Andi, only you would be bothered by this" thing to bring up, I can't help but feel kinda sad that Kaolinite doesn't have the zig-zaggy gray cataract thing going on with her eyes like in the 90s anime. I always found her 90s anime eyes really cool because

Spoiler:

Did anybody else notice that Haruka's Star Patch was missing the white infinity symbol and "MUGEN" text? That was literally the only thing that seriously bothered me about this episode. It was so distracting!

When the heck did Diana get there? xD I just binge-watched the first two seasons and don't remember her ever coming back with Chibi-Usa. Does this mean that they are treating Season three like it's own thing?

I'm in love with the backgrounds. They are gorgeous!

...And those character expressions! They look so adorable when they make all of those silly faces.

Haruka and Michiru. * 0 * They both look so elegant!

Loving the darker shades chosen for the Mugen Academy uniforms. They make things look so much less like Christmas. XD

I really like how they are splitting some of the episodes into parts, and I am excited to see how this will affect the flow of each event!

That ending theme!

Sailor Mercury wrote:

I guess it was more to show off all the new attacks and transformations since we were treated to like five whole minutes of it xD

Lmao. It was a good use of five minutes to make up for the CGI in the last two seasons. XD I really hope they don't end up doing this every episode though.

Addelyn wrote:

[*]I don't remember our area being called Omega area in the manga.

Me neither. I only remember it being called that in the musical.

Addelyn wrote:

[*]Still not 100% sure how I feel about the intro song xD I like the music, I like the animation but I'm not sure that it goes that well together. Although it's good to see subtitles for the song!

Agreed. Plus the tempo of the song makes it seem more like an ending theme than anything else, but I still enjoyed it. It saddened me that there were no villains represented in the opening animation. You would think that they'd at least include Kaolinite and Pharaoh 90. XD; Oh well!

Addelyn wrote:

[*]so far I am liking the animation a lot more than the previous version. Except for the cats I'm not sure about them lol

Lmao those cats though. I still haven't gotten used to the shape of their faces.

Addelyn wrote:

[*]The subtitles said its time to pick him up so are they using a male pronoun for Haruka? DO I NOW HAVE PROOF FOR MY GENDER FLUID HARUKA THEORY?
[*]LOOK MORE MALE GENDER THINGS
[*]Haruka also looks very male right now in civilian form. I'm liking that they're making more of an effort to do that.

lol Addy!

Addelyn wrote:

[*]I definitely like the transformation for Usagi better than the first 2 seasons. Just please don't try 3D again.

I am so glad that they decided to get rid of it. Everything transitions a lot better imo. XD When I first started watching Crystal initially, I didn't mind the 3D so much...UNTIL the characters jumped back and did their poses. That was when it looked so derpy unnatural to me, especially since their faces and poses were rarely consistent with the digitally drawn frames following the CGI segment.

Addelyn wrote:

I think overall it's shaping up to be pretty good. I hope that they deviate from the manga and do their own thing.

Same! Or at least deviate just enough so that it isn't like watching exactly what you saw in the panels and hearing word-for-word what you read as Small Lady mentioned.

I think some people mentioned that there was  bit of filler dialogue which was good. At least its  a small baby step in the right direction.

I forgot to say that I remember it being called the Omega area at some point in the manga. The Mugen Gakuen musical was (out of the old shows) the one that followed the manga the closest and I believe they got it from there.

obviously a lot of things are different. I don't remember her upgrading to Cosmic Power in the previous season so that kind of came out of nowhere for me. The new animation makes their faces really pale and it's almost bleached out to me. The new theme, I don't like. Moon Pride was really good. They should have stuck to that.

It's really not uncommon for anime's to have a new theme at the start of a new season. Not all of them are great.

SentinelOfSilence wrote:

obviously a lot of things are different. I don't remember her upgrading to Cosmic Power in the previous season so that kind of came out of nowhere for me.

IIRC at the end of the Black Moon Clan arc (in both manga and SMC) Neo Queen Serenity gives them power upgrades and Usagi the new wand and brooch, thus the new transformation.

Small Lady wrote:

SentinelOfSilence wrote:

obviously a lot of things are different. I don't remember her upgrading to Cosmic Power in the previous season so that kind of came out of nowhere for me.

IIRC at the end of the Black Moon Clan arc (in both manga and SMC) Neo Queen Serenity gives them power upgrades and Usagi the new wand and brooch, thus the new transformation.

I believe that happened as well.

Anyway I loved every aspect of this episode and felt it was vastly superior to the first two seasons of Crystal in nearly every way. They need to hurry up and release the full version of the new OP. I really don't want to wait until the end of the month for it.

Still quite upset about the new art style, not only is it unfitting to Sailor Moon and different from the manga one, its delightful elegance and sophistication, which are attributes to all Sailor Moon versions but especially to the manga, makes it have a feel of seeming somewhat... well, not very akin to the manga. Also the Outers, Haruka and Michiru especially, are highly elegant and sophisticated, so it takes away from that as well. And also takes away just the exquisite beauty of the former art style. :/ Anyhow, the episode was mostly fine, though I found it boring since not much happened. All the Inners having more dialogue and being focused on more was good and Haruka and Michiru are as always coolest, of course. And the animation was good as well.

Hi. I'm late to the party.

The animation this time around is vastly superior to the first two seasons. I love it. Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru all look amazing! I can't get over how great they look. Had me hooked from the start, though I suppose it helps the Infinity Arc is my favorite storyarc of Sailor Moon.