The long awaited Sailor Moon reboot Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal is finally out! I gotta admit, I haven’t watched the original in a long… long time. Therefore, from my perspective, I’m viewing this as part of the new audience.
In this 24-minute episode, we meet Usagi Tsukino, a middle school girl who stresses about having to go to class. Later, as she heads for school, she stumbles upon Luna, a black cat with a lunar shape on her forehead. After the encounter, she arrives to class to a very mad Haruna Sakurada, the English teacher, who holds up Usagi’s English exam with a big red “30” written on it. This later on results in her being kicked out of the house by her mother, Ikuko Tsukino, and teased by her younger brother, Shingo. The next day, she’s outside of a friend’s jewelry store and she accidentally hits a tall guy with her curled up English exam. He introduces himself as Mamoru Chiba (Tuxedo Mask) and it’s love at first sight cheesiness for about a minute (not that I’m complaining, it’s Sailor Moon after all). Back in her room, the black cat, Luna, reveals her ability to speak and hands Usagi a brooch. Which leads to, “Moon Prism Power, Make Up!” I’m indifferent about the animation used during her transformation, but it’s really not bothersome. I remember the original sequence and do prefer it though. Usagi runs to save her friend Naru Osaka, she gives herself the name Sailor Moon (help from Luna) and encounters her first foe, a Dark Kingdom minion (an ugly hag). After killing the minion with her Moon Tiara Boomerang, Sailor Moon runs outside and glares at Tuxedo Mask as he floats away into the sky (ahaaa). We catch a glimpse at Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury) at the end (she runs away as soon as it starts raining), and quick glimpses at Sailor Venus throughout the episode (as Sailor V). The episode was great. Although it felt rushed to give Usagi her lead qualities (abilities, etc), it was a great introduction to those barely tuning into this anime. It also felt like I was coming home from elementary school, happily switching the channel to this anime (the nostalgia feels, yes). Now this should be (I’m hoping, judging by its first episode) an anime that the current generation will grow up watching. You can now stream the full episode on Hulu, Crunchy Roll and NicoNico.
