#takeuchi criticism

[dead-salmon]

I did 100% mean to send that to you. What happened was seeing so many of Nasu and Takeuchi's decisions lined up made me realize wow, these two literally never get told no except Nasu from Sakurai every once in a blue moon. Its literally two yesmen acting like we have consulted the team on this one when the team is the two of them.

well yeah, that's practically the issue in whole. look, nasu and takeuchi singlehandedly caused type moon to exist, i'm not against them having a big influence on the directions their games and stories take. they are the creators after all.

the issue is in my opinion that they have way too much influence, specifically takeuchi

this is me going on on a tangent so apologies anon, if you want the entire rant it's under the cut

but basically tl;dr: nasu and takeuchi fail to realise that type moon is a way bigger company than just the two of them. and since no one (fans or tm members) really directly opposes their whims they get to continue doing whatever they want, even if it directly goes against their writers and fanbases wishes.

just to recall, some of the worst tm decisions were caused by what? takeuchis whims (and nasu's, but mainly takeuchi). wu zetian as a child? takeuchi wanted it. young moriarty in traum? takeuchi wanted it. summer beast eresh for anniversary, ciel for summer? takeuchi&nasu wanted it ("thought it fit better"). aesc as anniversary unit? takeuchi wanted it. lb6 summer? nasu & takeuchi wanted it. oh and if we get camazotz? well, takeuchi wants it.

the issue isn't even that they indulge in what they like, it's that they don't give a single fuck about their actual fanbase or writers goals (and why should they, they get money and praise either way most of the time).

type moon grew into quite the company, fgo is unironically one of genshins/honkais best gacha competitors despite it's outdated playstyle. however as you put it, "the team is the two of them". nasu and takeuchi seemingly forget that type moon isn't just nasu and takeuchi anymore, but many writers, developers, artists and a big fanbase alltogether

in regards to your previous ask, if anything that shows to me that nasu is a pretty happy dude. he earns a lot of money, gets admired&praised by many people, is famous in the vn scene w/o anyone knowing his real identity. he gets to do whatever he and his bestie want without too much pushback and gets to see whatever he wants to happen in fate's stories.

hell, we only got fate/samurai remnant because the guy in charge fangirled over nasu and musashi hard enough to convince nasu to let them make a game. and even then, nasu had to "lay down the groundworks" before the actual writers team could write f/sr.

-> since in nasu's mind, tm lore is at such a level that outsiders would have to make way too much research to create actual new stories. (read both of this in an interview translation, i can find them again but it'd take a bit) imo it's a little arrogant, sure tm lore is very extensive but you don't need to know every single piece of it's lore for one story. but that's just my opinion.

so in conclusion: yeah, i entirely agree with you. since they get to do whatever they want and get money for it, of course they continue doing whatever they want. gotta hand it to sakurai for trying to push back a little though. and i wonder how much longer they get to do that. type moon's biggest winning quality has always been their loyal fanbase, supporting them so much so that fgo as a gacha gets to keep up with hoyoverse gachas of all things. and said loyal fanbase seems to slowly get more frustrated too with each whimsical decision

[kiwikipedia]

Fate can be something that is so incredibly infuriating but also so, so incredibly deep and touching to the point of tears because of the mastery in the storytelling and life in characters and the artistic portrayals and these are things that can and should exist simultaneously

[shinneth]

My souring sentiments on Sailor Moon's manga

It'll be a surprise to no one who knows me even remotely that Sailor Moon was my everything back in my childhood. From the age of 9, I was utterly obsessed with it.

That was just a couple of years shy of 30 years ago.

Since then, I've often revisited the series. I watched the entirety of the Viz dub of the classic anime; all 200 episodes.

And I loved it all the same, if not more so than before. Because now I have context for why exactly the anime was the way it was, including its gradual diversion from the manga source material. And I respect the hell out of the staff who poured their life into this work, while concurrently running with the manga and doing whatever it could to not completely outpace it in the narrative.

Are there a lot of fillers in the OG anime? Yes. Too many? Well, not so from a functional standpoint (this show had to run weekly for 5 years), but there are definitely some fillers you could skip and miss nothing in doing so.

But a story like Sailor Moon honestly needed some breathing room in order to properly flesh out the cast.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action reimagining of the show, was phenomenal back then (despite looking low-budget even by 2003 standards), and having re-watched the whole series recently, I can safely say PGSM more than holds up and deserves way more love and respect than it gets. It's THE perfect example of reimagining the story of Sailor Moon while still respecting its roots and maintaining the soul of the franchise.

Which is exactly why I couldn't stand Sailor Moon Crystal. We knew from the off that it was supposed to be completely faithful to the manga, but one look through @crystalvsmanga will show you Crystal took shitloads of "creative liberties", and the amount of changes I could dare to call "good"? I could count them on one hand.

The animation is low-hanging fruit, because everyone and their dog knows how godawful it was for the first two story arcs. But more than that, I actually loathed the general art design. Yukie Sakou's style DID NOT closely resemble Naoko Takeuchi's. People kept saying it, but I couldn't really see it. The eyes especially are a far cry from Takeuchi's style. And Sakou's style did NOT facilitate the OTT cartoony expressions that were definitely present in Takeuchi's manga; everyone looked so goddamn soulless, like overly-expensive porcelain dolls.

My biggest gripe with Crystal was the story, of course. While a great deal came from just being from the manga (which I'll get to in a bit), the changes they made went a long way to actively make the manga's story worse. My main takeaway from Crystal S1-2 is that it took itself waaaaay too seriously.

That being said, I did like Crystal's third season a lot better BECAUSE Chiaki Kon had way more competence and held a lot more respect for Sailor Moon. Like, my god, for once it felt like there was a soul in this show! It can actually take the piss every now and then!

Some silly things kinda broke my immersion (such as the Senshi just being able to fuckin' fly and Chibi-Moon in particular was literally sky-stepping), but most of that can be blamed on the source material it was adapting. While I was fine with Crystal3, I definitely didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as Sailor Moon S. Outside of Hotaru/Sailor Saturn having more of a presence, there wasn't really much in Crystal's take on Infinity that I liked better than S.

But most of that comes down to the fact that I liked S more than manga's Infinity arc to begin with.

Which is a good segue to talk about the manga proper.

I have not yet watched Eternal or Cosmos. the movies that adapted the last two manga arcs, but it'd be redundant since I know ahead of time what they're going to be about, and so far I haven't heard about any of them deviating from the source material, so it'd be moot to talk about them even if I had watched.

When I first got my hands on the manga, which was when I was around 12-13 and thus got the crappy MiXxZine translations, I was fine enough with it. Thought it was too fast-paced and didn't care for 99% of the villains being one-and-done jobbers, but I was also reading it with my impressions of the 90's anime characters still intact. I was reading the manga like an extension of the anime, rather than the other way around.

It wasn't until many years later when I grew older, when the manga was properly translated, when I acquired the wisdom my teenaged-ass self lacked, and learned to look at the manga as a completely separate entity that I started to see the cracks in the manga's narrative.

Further rereads have left me in something of a mindfuck, as I experienced the manga the proper way. And I realized:

The more I read the manga, the more I disliked it.

The manga is lauded for having an infinitely better depiction of Mamoru, as well as his ~Miracle Romance~ with Usagi.

Objectively, the manga definitely spends lots more time giving UsaMamo attention as a couple than any other aspect of the story...

I'd say they're also more developed as individuals in the manga too, but usually the beats, uh...

... let's say they usually ring hollow, when these two (and sometimes their daughter) are the only ones who consistently get shit done across the series. Hell, on the rare occasion that the Inner Senshi weren't rendered into street pizza, Neo Queen Serenity basically told them to fuck off and let her daughter, past self, and past hubby take on motherfucking DEATH PHANTOM/NEMESIS BY THEMSELVES.

It's likely because my first exposure to Sailor Moon was via the 90s anime, which had more of a focus on friendship and comradery between Usagi and her friends than it did her romance with Mamoru. I mean, romance was DEFINITELY a prominent thing even in that iteration of the story, but that wasn't where my interest lied. I was, am currently, and always will be more interested in Usagi's galpals than I'll ever be interested in her love life.

And, well, I'm sure this qualifies as a hot take, but...

This one moment with Usagi and Mamoru in the elevator (hell, their interaction across this entire episode was great) resonated with me far more than any ultra-romantic declarations of eternal devotion that Usagi and Mamoru kept regurgitating at each other in the manga.

Granted, the manga had a FEW moments early on where their dynamic was more playful, but they were pretty much confined to the early chapters and this element of their chemistry pretty much died not long after this.

Some say 90s anime Mamoru was far too mean-spirited in his teasing of Usagi. And I mean, sure, he was kind of a douche at times, but he usually got some karmic blowback from it (I remember one time he made Usagi cry without even really meaning to, and she cried so loud in public that randos nearby were giving Mamoru the evil-eye or a scolding). But honestly, after R, Mamoru kinda became a bland, generic love interest, just as he almost always was in the manga. The only difference was that anime Mamoru was never granted powers that were literally equal to Usagi's. The manga gave him a GOLDEN FUCKING CRYSTAL.

There was that infamous break-up arc in R that, yes, was shitty in concept and execution. But if I had anything positive to say about it, it at least shook up the status quo. It didn't make him immediately fall into the bland, generic love interest he would soon become. And it gave us some of the most emotionally-charged Usagi moments in the entire anime.

Conversely, in the manga, we had THIS shit for our UsaMamo "drama":

(the former incident with Usagi literally accusing her boyfriend of falling in love with a kid, by the way, happened while MOST OF HER FRIENDS WERE KIDNAPPED BY THE ENEMY AND COULD'VE BEEN DEAD FOR ALL SHE KNEW AND YET SHE FUCKING HAD TIME FOR THIS STUPID SHIT)

Everything seemed to revolve around Usagi and Mamoru (sometimes Chibiusa too). It lowkey came off that way at times even in the 90s anime, but in the manga or Crystal? You'd be hard-pressed to find the girls engaging in their stated hobbies at most points in time, because they're usually all together and talking about their prince and princess.

Hell, even Haruka - Sailor Uranus herself - seemed much more interested in Usagi than she ever did in Michiru, her actual girlfriend.

So... am I just missing something? I've seen people say that as they grow older, they prefer the manga/Crystal to the 90s anime. But I've never seen anyone other than myself express the opposite sentiment.

But it's true - unless I completely leave my brain at the door, I have a hard time enjoying the manga for what it is. The characters I'm most interested in or attached to quickly get swept aside for the characters I have the least interest in. No more does that ring true than the Stars arc of the manga, where Naoko Takeuchi basically speedruns killing off literally the entire cast until Sailor Moon's the only one left standing. Most characters don't even get to go out in a blaze of glory or anything - it's got nothing on the finale of the 90s anime's first season in that regard. If you're lucky, you'll get a single panel where your entire existence is ripped to shreds - but sometimes you'll be killed literally off-screen!!

There's a number of questionable manga-exclusive aspects that rubbed me the wrong way as well, such as poor Sailor Pluto being assigned as a child to guard the Door of Time in complete and total solitude. While I appreciate more Silver Millennium lore that the manga provided (the anime hardly mentioned it past the first arc), it was more than a little uncomfortable knowing the OG Queen Serenity conscripted the Inner Senshi as small children to become Princess Serenity's guardians. Really casts Queen Serenity and her Moon Kingdom in a much darker light - like maybe Queen Beryl and Queen Nehelenia had a point in trying to take them down (though the manga I believe retcons all past villains as incarnations of Chaos, so that arguably removes all prior villains' agency?). Lots of little things that I didn't think twice about, but now that I look at them again, I'm wondering WTF Naoko Takeuchi was thinking.

Though I don't want to be too hard on her. Poor girl was working under stress far longer than she'd planned to (she'd intended on ending the story either by the Dark Kingdom or Black Moon arc), so it's no surprise there's a lot of clunk and clutter in the narrative.

I often wondered if Naoko Takeuchi really wanted to make Sailor Moon with a Super Sentai-esque setup in the first place. After all, her first big hit was Sailor V, which was exclusively Minako and Artemis fighting evil with Minako having her own masked love interest she ended up being at odds with and he eventually died. With a scant few secondary characters here and there.

It led to me thinking about what Sailor Moon would be like if Naoko kept the cast to a more Sailor V-like size. That, perhaps, the Sailor Moon she really wanted to make would be quite a different beast from how we know it to be today.

So this lengthy diatribe about my personal conflicts with my waning fondness for the manga versus my strengthened love for the OG anime and live-action show was actually a preamble to a bizarre AU I wrote an outline for over a year ago but never posted in public. I had considered posting it to Sailor Moon's Reddit back then, but I (probably wisely) held off, as my musing went way off the rails.

But I figured now's a good time as any to share it here, at least. Though it'll need to be its own post since I wrote so goddamn much in this post alone, wow.

On that note, I'll end with this: The only iteration of UsaMamo that I unironically enjoyed and rooted for is...

[typemoonconfessions]

[quercus-queer]

So Inside Job is a satirical adult comedy series that includes antisemitic conspiracies among the many conspiracies they mock.

People don’t grasp satire and ask something akin to “is this antisemitic? this seems a little weird, I’ve only watched a few episodes though.” (Generally unharmful, good opportunity to learn satire in new ways, just someone trying to be aware)

People respond with something along the lines of “it’s satire they’re mocking these conspiracies like everything else, you know it’s Alex Hirsch right?” And also calling ppl stupid for not grasping satire and being unaware a Jewish person is involved.

People eventually say “Why does everyone give Alex Hirsch credit for Inside Job, it’s misogynistic/racist cuz it’s Shion Takeuchi’s show, give credit where credit is due.”

Go back to Step 1 and repeat

And this cycle got me thinking… is Alex Hirsch the only Jewish person involved in writing or show running? If so that IS weird especially if ur gonna include certain conspiracies.

I’m not going to figure out if there are Jewish people involved on the show but if you feel threatened/defensive enough to say “it can’t be antisemitic because this guy is Jewish” instead of briefly explaining how it’s satire then you should be figuring that out? Idk it’s just a strange response.

[fgocriticisms]

[fallloverfic]

Sailor Cosmos is so beautiful properly animated after over 20 years T-T I cry for my queen in joy

[eos70]

You know? For as much "Curse you Takeuchi" and "Takeuchi is at it again" I hear, I rarely hear everyone give him his flowers for his dreamy and downright gorgeous shading. I do think he has a samefacing issue but he so frequently puts out works with jawdropping color pallets and scene composition that draws the eye to his characters so well.

[silvermoon424]

This person is so confidently incorrect it almost gave me an aneurysm.

The Sailor Senshi's outfits are NOT based on a school uniform fetish, holy fuck. Naoko Takeuchi based the Senshi's costumes on sailor uniforms because they're what actual Japanese middle school girls wear. She wanted to give girls a set of heroines who looked like them, and from everything I've heard Japanese girls were indeed thrilled by the Sailor Senshi's fuku.

Btw, this comment is from the notoriously bad Nostalgia Critic review on Sailor Moon, and it doesn't surprise me that people are echoing the points Doug made about "sexualization" in the comments. Just because y'all can't look at 15-year-olds in short skirts without fetishizing and slut-shaming them doesn't mean that was Naoko Takeuchi's intention, nor does it mean that Sailor Moon fans (who are predominately female/queer btw) fetishize the Senshi either.

I'm really trying to not give stupid people attention but I just had to rant about this, lol.

[demifiendrsa]

Amazon Prime Video has announced that it is producing a six-episode live-action series based on SEGA / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon (titled Ryū ga Gotoku in Japan and initially titled Yakuza in the West) game series titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku ~Beyond the Game~ in Japan). The episodes will debut on Amazon Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories in two batches on October 25, 2024 and November 1, 2024.

Overview

■ About

The series is a live-action adaptation with an original story based on SEGA’s global hit game franchise, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Directed by the critically acclaimed Masaharu Take, the series will feature Ryoma Takeuchi as the lead character, Kazuma Kiryu. Like a Dragon: Yakuza is the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members in Japan enjoy savings, convenience, and entertainment, all in a single membership.

Released in 2005 by SEGA, the Yakuza game series was positioned as an entertaining game for adults, which found massive fanfare amongst its target audience. The series depicts the lives of fierce yet passionate gangsters and people living in a huge entertainment district, Kamurocho, a fictional district modeled after the violent Shinjuku ward’s Kabukichō, that acts as the backdrop of the gameplay. Like a Dragon: Yakuza showcases modern Japan and the dramatic stories of these intense characters, such as the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, that games in the past have not been able to explore. The much-loved game has captured the attention and hearts of fans not only in Japan but also internationally and will now be adapted, developed, and streamed worldwide on Prime Video.

In 1995 and 2005, spanning across two time-periods, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an original crime-suspense-action series, follows the life, childhood friends, and repercussions of the decisions of Kazuma Kiryu, a fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity.

■ Cast and Staff Comments

Ryoma Takeuchi, Kazuma Kiryu Actor

“I am truly honored to be given the opportunity to play the role of Kazuma Kiryu, a beloved character and the game series. I strongly felt that I was willing to put my life on the line. Audience will enjoy the show’s human drama and conflict that unfolds around Kazuma Kiryu. Moreover, please take a look Kiryu’s intense fighting scenes with the Dragon tattoo on his back.”

Masaharu Take, Director

“I have poured out my heart, soul, and the experience that I have garnered over 35 years into Like a Dragon: Yakuza. The unbridled passion, talent, and countless hours of efforts from the entire team have helped bring this spectacular story to life in the form of a riveting series that will be launched this year, the year of the dragon. Please look forward to Kazuma Kiryu, played by Ryoma Takeuchi.”

James Farrell, Head of International Originals, Amazon MGM Studios

“We are thrilled and extremely excited to announce the Amazon Original action-drama Like a Dragon: Yakuza, based on the popular Japanese game series. The unfettered appeal for Japanese content from within Japan and other parts of the world has been growing exponentially. While Prime Video Japan continues to offer a variety of content across genres, adapting an internationally popular game franchise that has such deep resonance and layered characters presents a unique charm and makes for an extremely compelling watch. We are committed to augmenting our content library and are confident that Like a Dragon: Yakuza will strike a chord with audiences all over the world.”

Masayoshi Yokoyama, Producer and Studio Head, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

“Since the day I first put pen to paper on the original Yakuza‘s script, I’ve never once thought about revisiting any of my work on the series. It’s because I understand all too well the challenges and hardships that come with remaking a finished title. However, if I were ever sent to the past through some kind of cosmic joke, this is the experience I’d want to create. If I had to go through the wringer anyhow, I’d want to make the most engaging versions of Kamurochō and Kazuma Kiryu I could—and this show has it all. There is no question that Prime Video’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza will become another landmark release for the Like a Dragon series. While the games let you experience their world through the subjective lens, this adaptation will be the ultimately objective way to enjoy the show. I have no doubt that fans of the series will be drawn to how it brings the games to life and adds new surprises. Newcomers, I’m sure will find themselves invested simply in the gritty realism of the show. If anything, I’d love to watch this version alongside audiences all around the world—experiencing all of its intensity and soaking in every single second.”

[zeravmeta]

long winded whining underneath

saw that post abt the saberfaces and like while I can understand the point in like, a billion dollar company reusing a design/design element might not appear favorable and it isn't even that wrong to say they are squeezing their cash cow flagship character i fundamentally disagree because thats like the equivalent of complaining about jojo having every protagonist with a name that can be shortened to jojo or final fantasy always having reused monsters like bahamut

and this isnt even a "oh saber is good i swear!" type thing but like. fate's been around for almost two decades now and has had tons of media made with plenty of recurring motifs and thematics that are acknowledged by the writers who are incredibly vocal fans of the series so if you're going into a long established franchise and complaining about long standing injokes and long standing patterns it comes across less as poining out the flaws in a billion dollar company and more like you just dont like that you didnt get it at first? takeuchi samefaceness isnt a problem unique to takeuchi and there are thousands of artists who have the same issue and even then a bunch of the saberfaces werent even drawn by takeuchi at first (nero was wada and jeanne & mordred was konoe) so them playing off the saberface jokes with designs isnt even that agregious because even if they have similar colors you'd have to be reading it in bad faith to say that the fgo artoria and fgo jeannes takeuchi designs are the exact same. an artist can have a style to how they draw their characters and just because there is overlap does not automatically equate that to having lazy designs.

more than anything saberfacing is part of nasuverse iconography, when a character is a saberface it isnt just about selling the design it is in fact an intentional design choice that tells you about the themeing of the character. im not going to say that nasuverse lore is sacred because it definitely isnt and they are in fact just doing what they think is cool but when you have nasu literally adding a chapter for limbo because he thought hasendows design was so beautiful it shouldn't be limited to a single appearance and then had that expanded into one of the more popular story chapters that tells you that these are creators who do pay attention to the designs that go into their characters. the same applies to chica umenos oberon, to wada and redrops designs and so many more, they absolutely care about the art that goes into their series.

I'm not gonna tell you that you must absolutely do your homework to enjoy any piece of fate media we are all free to do literally whatever we want forever and -clenches fist- you can also enjoy it in any type of way even in a surface level way. but when you acknowledge that a series is long standing with deeper themes acknowledged by its long standing playerbase and that the writers have so much passion for their own work (for better or worse, again nasuverse is absolutely not immune to criticism), saying that it comes across as disingenuous to have a recurring character design injoke because its heavily popular now despite not being popular once upon a time in itself comes across as disingenuous. nasuverse stuff being born of niche doujin circles and still being in touch with those roots isnt some kind of disqualification of the existence of saberfaces or the reasons behind them. when we ask you to read fate stay night its literally because we want you to enjoy it More so that you can, in fact, understand why saberface is a thing to begin with. being a popular franchise nowadays doesnt remove any of that charm unless you're specifically ignoring them. we literally have bbs profile in fgo say 'if you want to understand her deal and the deal of other similar characters read fate extra ccc' (bb herself being a sakuraface) so like theyre fully forward about the most accessible entrypoint into the franchise having a ton of history behind it

[dead-salmon]

It is kind of impressive how Sakurai has the courage to say no to Nasu. Like I know he is the father (the first one) of type-moon but is everyone really that scared of saying no to him.

imo it's less being scared and more japanese work culture and admiration.

the reason why most people work for type moon/create works for tm is because they're fans of the series (think f/sr being created). most people would shy away from pushing back against the creator of 1. a big franchise and 2. a big franchise they're themselves a big fan of

and japanese work culture is known for being absolutely horrid and kind of "never oppose your boss, don't talk back at higher ups", so that contributing factor doesn't help

still even moreso props to sakurai, i enjoyed id and it's nice to see someone at least try to kind of push back

[kursed-arcana]

Sailor Moon Cosmos Review

“We’re all lonely stars searching for companionship.

Each and everyone of us carries a star deep within our hearts”

Like most fans I’ve been waiting for most of my life for Sailor moon to get a proper adaptation, and like the rest of crystal, this is not it. Just like eternal, this suffers from the worst flaws of crystal, amplified by a ridiculously short run time. Again instead of prioritizing manga content we are plagued by cheap senseless fanservice and references to the past series. There are few meaningful additions to the story which honestly is a travesty considering how vague parts of the ending are even in manga form. For a franchise as popular worldwide as Sailor moon to be done such a disservice, what does that mean for the future of anime as a whole?

Let’s start with some surface level criticism. We get cheap and lazy references to the old anime like Mamo’s clothing in the airport scene, the outer guardians finally get their final attacks animated only to be done the disservice of changing them into energy balls like the the old anime and crystal did for their initial attacks, and while I was prepared to complain about the iconic transformation sequences and attack animations cutting into the shockingly short runtime, the anime actually plaid those moments on double time (praise Neo Queen Serenity, we need the runtime for everything else). However back to criticism. Instead of Sailor Venus’s love and galaxia shock being animated with the stars and galaxy beads from the manga we get the same generic stock animation. Toei has once again proved they don’t know how to handle this cash cow of a franchise beyond cheap lazy tricks to appeal to basic nostalgia. Toei I promise you, it’s worth putting in some effort. If you used your collective intelligence you’d realize you could have sold proplicas of the new attack. But hey what do I know, I mean you couldn’t even be bothered to animate that the inner guardians now have physical objects for their weapons like the outer cast. God forbid we reinstate more of the world building you scrapped in eternal. Let’s just let Toei continue to pop out proplicas mainly for the 90s version of everything.

What’s good? The nostalgia of course. That’s literally the most effort they put into this. I’ve been endlessly obsessed with the opening animations since they got added to YouTube last year and they are still flawlessly done. The new vocals are fantastic and the visuals do an excellent job of foreshadowing the plot. The best part of oppening one is the future fading away in front of Chibiusa, and opening two’s highlight is of course the Sailor Galaxia and Kakyuu moment, as well as the galaxy cauldron being shown in the beginning.

Their fantastic visuals show toei knows what fans love, and yet why did they put so little effort into adapting the content itself? It’s honestly just as fascinating as it is rage enducing. For a series as world renowned, and with a company created by Takeuchi to protect it how could things be done so lazily? It’s 2024, this fandom has survived and thrived for over 3 decades, we jump at all content and all merch. Do better Toei, we may be simps, but we want effort.

With the preamble done, let’s dive in

Questions and uncertainties have plagued the fandom since the manga ended decades ago. Do we learn more about Sailor Cosmos and her war against Chaos? No time for that. Do we learn the fates of Usagi’s family and our beloved feline friends? Thank Neo Queen Serenity yes. Do we get an additional glimpse into the future to see for certain if Chibiusa ever reunites with Helios after their promise? Lol of course not. That would be ground breaking amd meaningful and we have to save time for what was originally cheap filler tin the 90s, the Iconic transformations and stock footage attacks that were done so lazily for the movie.

At the very least between all the cuts I get to see my beloved Asanuma one last time. He may have suffered having his scenes cut in early seasons but it’s refreshing to see him one last time. For those who don’t remember him, he is Mamo’s underclassmen, a boy with a crush on Mako and one of the few civilians trusted with their secret. A true shame that like most civilian side characters he fell out of focus as the plot got heavier and thicker with supernatural threats. It was my hope this movie would resolve some of the dropped plotlines of the series like Mako x Asanuma, but alas no time for that or any reveals for the side cast. But think of how nice it would have been for Mamo to actually be shown interacting with guy friends instead of the girls the whole time. Asanuma was truly a delight and good ally for him.

Now I need to give credit where credit is due. Despite the cuts and break neck pace, it expanded on several thing people have complained about for years. Naru is shown for the first time since the infinity arc and we thankfully know she went to high-school with the girls and see her eating with Usagi, Haruka and Michirru. Honestly no notes on that. We get the Starlights putting up a fight before they die unlike the manga where they’re attacked while unconscious. Now Toei, I’m giving you praise for this, but you ruined it by not giving them and Kakyuu a proper send off at the end. They earned it, they fought hard to bring peace and deserved to receive a proper goodbye before disappearing back to their home planet.

We also get a rather awkward (yet also refreshing) scene where Usagi returns home at the end and see Shingo for the first time in years! Even better, we get confirmation her whole family and the cats survived / got revived. Now the edgy subset of the fandom can finally shut up and accept reality, cause Cosmos knows the rest of us are tired of those inane questions popping up monthly. We needed more of this, the story is designed to be expanded on in adaptations, not have content skipped. And it’s nice to see Shoujo Queen Takeuchi sensei managed to get some brief complaints people have had resolved. Now let the next reboot do better Queen, your fandom needs you!

Let’s keep the praise going, the character models are even more perfect then they were in eternal. Sailor Cosmos is especially gorgeous. And we even are treated to a new character design, we get a proper look at Sailor Chaos for the first time ever! And Takeuchi slayed it with the medusa inspiration for her. Let’s talk transformation sequences next. The starlights get underwhelming references to their old sequences, Cosmos and chibi chibi get scraps, Kakyuu faired slightly better then the starlights but nothing spectacular. Sailor Quartet? Nothing at all. Sailor moon herself though got more then one transformation. The first referenced stars, even used the locket and the second one is absolutely brilliant. It’s full of references to past 90s ones. My favorite part by far is the feathers making her skirt like the S transformation with the heart. But guess who finally got the solid gold treatment transformation wise? My girl Chibiusa. It’s flawless. Cute and feminine and 100% her. We even get a new adorable emblem (Maybe locket). A+ work. 100% makes up for her only having a short one in the 90s (with the exception of the movie), a horrible one in crystal 2 and 3z and the same joined sequence in eternal as supers. This was worth the wait, too bad Saturn didn’t get that effort for her transformation in eternal. We waited 30 years and got scraps with that one.

Now the songs are on point. I praise the new oppening and endings elsewhere, but the new version of the 3 lights song (search for your love) is also excellent. And what’s more, we get the adorable marriage song to close the series, and a phenomenal new piece in moon flower. A beautiful song written as if Sailor moon is singing it to chibi chibi. It captured the theme of the movie and conveys it beautifully.

At its core, this story arc is about stripping away everything that gives Usagi her strength and seeing what happens when she is forced into an unthinkable despair. Her love, friends, family, her child and the promised future our all mercilessly destroyed in front of her eyes. But what is on the other side of despair? For Usagi, it’s still hope and compassion. She does not give into despair, she rises above her losses and overcomes her pain, showing mercy to her enemies and accepting that her actions may not be the best path forward for the world, but having faith that she can overcome any obstacle. Sailor Cosmos, her future self, the guardian who failed to stop chaos and lost hope, even has her passion reignited, she takes Usagi’s strength and accepts that she wasn’t wrong to make the choice she did. With this newfound resolve, she decides to continue her never ending war against Chaos, no matter the pain it brings her.

I think it’s important to point out that Cosmos and Chaos are the 2 states of the universe in Greek mythology. Chaos is the absence of life in the universe, a state of void and indistinguishable matter, while Cosmos is the presence of order in the universe or the universe itself. While Sailor Galaxia strived to be the strongest sailor in the Galaxy these two primordial forces of good and evil are the real deal. I encourage casual fans to look up various names you may not recognize so you can truly appreciate the lore. Some members of the Shadow Galactic Empire are also references to the mythologies that helped inspire this beloved series.

Lets talk about the end. We see a beautiful moment in time, the wedding day for Usagi and Mamo, as well as the day that Chibiusa is conceived. We end with her gaining everything she desired and close on this bittersweet ending with a closing monologue by Mamo. His words hang over visuals of their past and present meetings, as well as their future together. A truly flawless moment thatreally hammers home that this is the end while also setting up Sailor Moon’s future as Sailor Comos. Mamo can see visions of the future, his closing monologue about her living on beyond everyone else’s lifespan is a fact that we see with Sailor Cosmos.” Sailor Moon you will without a doubt live on forever. You are the most beautiful star and you will shine brightly until the end of time.” A bittersweet prophecy to close our beloved series.

10/10 would still recommend. When you wait most of your life to see some of your favorite moments on screen, you’re sadly forced to take what you can get and enjoy the ride despite the faults. I still recommend this train wreck of a movie to any Sailor moon fan who treasures the manga’s impeccable and breathtaking story, and for those who have never read it, please no the content is far superior in manga form. The story still moves at a fast pace. But it’s slow as hell compared to the movies. The characters, dialogue and world building is phenomenal in manga form, you can get so much out of each panel and it’s a shame that once again, instead of expanding on the fantastic lore, we’re plagued with an adaptation the cuts content. Each chapter of the manga is packed with dialogue and content because it was designed to move rapidly, so the anime which was always just a short ways behind, would have a lot to work with. I encourage you all to imagine what we could have had if crystal and the movies that followed were given adequate runtime, to not only fully adapt the content of each chapter, but expand on it in meaningful ways. While the first season of crystal did toy with this idea, it didn’t implement it well and wasn’t given enough runtime to do it without cuts and several meandering questionable changes. It’s a shame instead of improving from there we just got worse, cutting just as much content and barely adding scraps, even in the grand finale.

Hopefully in the future we are given a truly excellent reboot of the main series that doesn’t start off as a cheap cash grab and end as a decent yet disappointing adaptation overall. However in the meantime, I’ll settle for an adaptation of the iconic Prequel that started it all Codename Sailor V, or even a season adapting the collection of side stories. Get on it Toei, you know you want more of our money.

Stray notes for those who want more

The body horror is censored as expected. So the deaths are less impactful

Sadly Chibi Moon and the Sailor quartet get minimal screen time just like in the manga. While their 2 iconic attacks are shown, they’re done in a minimalistic way with very little fanfare. They are cute like the girls but should have been so much more considering these are their joint attacks and they only ones we will see from them. Like at least make pink ladies freezing kiss pink. Amazoness arrow was actually really cute and really them though.

Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne get a slightly more detailed flashback where we see their plants fully.

Honestly it fills me with rage that eternal movies were such a mediocre adaptation of my favorite arc. The dream arc solves many of the complaints people had about the manga, by expanding the lore around the guardians and highlighting each of them and their pasts. It’s truly a beautiful arc that sets up Cosmos, and despite taking years for it to release, it didn’t receive half the effort that Cosmos received. Cosmos proves that they could have done a beautiful job with eternal despite its ridiculously short runtime and cut content. While Cosmos had slightly more chapters to adapt, it feels like significantly less content was cutz plus it had some brief additions.

One more eternal complaint. They skipped the full backstories of the castles in eternal, but they get one line here by Pluto explaining their origin as gifts from Queen Serenity. It may be included at last, but that doesn’t make them skipping them or the power guardians explanation in eternal less infuriating.

As an English dub watcher, got to point out that they couldn’t even be bother to get Asanuma’s original va back for this. Always nice when they put no effort into consistency. To further illustrate just how lazy some casting choices continue to be even here at the end, They have Amalee play heavy metal Papillion, most likely for the sole reason that her vtuber persona is butterfly themed. If that’s all it takes. To get a role these days then I don’t even know what to say. But good for her.

And with that I’m done. If you want more sassy complaints or praise, feel free to send me a message. I love talking Sailor Moon.

And remember, Sailor moon says "the Moonlight is a messenger of love"

[themattress]

Posting here due to having talked about this very subject recently (manga vs. anime).

I basically think that this guy is way off in a lot of his critiques, notably:

- Criticizing the monster-of-the-week structure for the anime in favor of the manga's plot!plot!plot! pacing. I feel like that sort of pacing works fine for a monthly (not even weekly) manga, but not so much for an anime with this concept. Toei actually approached Naoko Takeuchi with the suggestion to do Sailor Moon (a tokusatsu series) based on her earlier Codename Sailor V work, which actually had a monster-of-the-week structure, so honestly the anime's style of pacing was ironically more what the Sailor Moon concept was tailored around than the manga! It also allows the world and characters to be more fleshed out than in the manga, which always had difficulty in that area especially for side characters and villains.

- His criticism of Usagi and Rei was totally off-base. He was correct in how Usagi's constant regressions as the anime went on did her no favors, but she was fine to start with. Her freezing up and giving into despair over her friends' deaths in the first anime season's climax isn't any less weak than her attempting suicide over Mamoru's death which would leave her friends at the mercy of Metalia in the first manga arc's climax. Rei's personality change in the anime was for the better, IMO, and her dynamic with Usagi may have been overplayed at times but I never got the impression they legitimately hated each other nor did I get the impression it was sexism on the male writers' parts. Vitriolic Best Buds is a legitimate thing.

- While I also don't much care how Usagi and Mamoru's romance develops in the anime compared to the manga (and I absolutely hate the pointless age gap the anime added between them), I have to defend Mamoru from his accusation that he was hypocritical to give righteous speeches as Tuxedo Mask yet be an asshole as a civilian. Unlike in the manga, Tuxedo Mask was initially a split personality from Mamoru. He didn't know he was Tuxedo Mask at first, the two didn't get integrated until he got ahold of a Rainbow Crystal in Episode 26. After that, he actually began treating Usagi with more kindness. He was too proud to just apologize and still tried to act stand-offish, but he clearly didn't have it in him to be a complete jerk anymore and was actually fond of her now. The romance still pulls too abrupt a 180 given that Usagi doesn't soften on him until Episode 34, and even then not on the level justifiable enough for love, but the fact remains that Mamoru did straighten out his act after integrating with the Tuxedo Mask persona (which is good since he really was insufferable beforehand).

- The Dark Kingdom was superior in the anime, period. Yes, it was a bigger threat in the manga, but being threatening doesn't always equate to being interesting. He has a point that Queen Beryl is more interesting in the manga than in the anime and I do wish the anime had included more of that stuff rather than just allude to it, but I still say she's stronger as the Big Bad than just as Metalia's chief pawn. Metalia is boring; she's made of evil and does evil because she's evil and can't be anything else. Beryl actually has a motivation, and one that is directly tied with the main heroine and her romantic interest. That's why it's more satisfying to see her infused with Metalia as the Final Boss instead of just her as the third-to-last Boss.

- Lastly, he got the Silver Crystal thing wrong. The Rainbow Crystals are shards of the physical Silver Crystal, but what gives it its power, its spiritual essence, is still Usagi's soul. That's why they couldn't just be merged into the Silver Crystal even after Kunzite had all seven. That only happened when the tear from Usagi, with all the feelings of her soul, was added. The Silver Crystal is thus linked with her soul and is still its manifestation, as seen in the R movie where she dies when its shattered but when she is restored to life it is repaired.

Things I agree with: axing Princess Serenity's suicide was a good choice, the stretch of episodes with Evil Tuxedo Mask were dumb, the changes in powers for the girls and Tuxedo Mask was stupid and pointless, Minako's character regression across the anime was annoying and kind of disrespectful when you really think about it, Yuichiro should've amounted to more, the age change and adaptational jerkassery of Mamoru was terrible, Jadeite's sudden misogyny in his final episode was really fucking weird, the scene where Artemis is "revealed" as Luna's contact makes no sense and should've been cut, Usagi's suicide in the original manga and Crystal did her character a grave disservice, and the Shitennou's adaptational expansion in Crystal was utterly botched and ended laughably.

[takiisieju]

Sailor Naoko and Sailor Sun for "Sailor Manga-ka Naoko Takeuchi".

Have to use Sailor Sun bc copyright.

The first exam on this book is tomorrow and I hope I won't cry after my teacher's criticisms again.

taglist: @roofgeese@poisonedtruth @theelderhazelnut @scentedcandleibex @spacestephh

[shuttershocky]

Every criticism anyone's had for Takeuchi's FGO art is neatly explained by the fact it's the first time we've seen his art not made exclusively for Nasu.

So that's why the spark is gone...