Interlude:
MANY SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL THOUGHTS THIS MORNING.
→ First off, I'd just like to say that the music for this series so far has been AWESOME.
→ However, pacing has been......????? At this point I really have no way of objectively thinking about how someone looking at it with fresh eyes might feel about it. I feel like there just hasn't been enough time or development for Usagi and Mamoru's relationship to really sink in, so The Big Reveal felt sort of... empty? But honestly I dunno, because I feel like SM Classic's version of this scene was really intense and emotional but then again I was a kid and I was experiencing it all for the first time. Also, SM Classic had literally twice as long to play around with these things so on that level I feel like comparing the two is unfair.
→ And on top of that, I feel like the love story of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion is just sort of... boring. UM I'M SO SORRY. Usako and Mamo-chan: 24/7 yes give it to me. Neo Queen Serenity and Neo King Endymion: Monday to Sunday every every every day. But this starcrossed lovers thing just doesn't do it for me, and if it does it for you then I apologize sincerely, but I also want to personally visit every single person who's watching Crystal as their introduction to Sailor Moon and sit down with them and hold their hand and look in their eyes and say, "I promise it gets more interesting than this."
→ Moving on.
→ A WILD GINZUISHOU APPEARS!!! How exciting eeee. I mean let's be real, when it really comes down to it, after Usagi the Ginzuishou might in fact be my favorite Sailor Moon character, haha. ON THAT NOTE: I really really love that when it appears, it causes the flowers to bloom -- that alone made me clutch my face -- but it ALSO gives Metallia energy!!!!! YOU GUYS. DON'T LET THAT GO OVER YOUR HEAD. THINK ABOUT IT. IT'S NOT LIKE IN SOME OTHER WORLDS WHERE THINGS HAVE INHERENTLY ~GOOD~ OR ~BAD~ ENERGY AND THINGS THAT HAVE ~GOOD~ ENERGY ARE HARMFUL TO THE ~BAD~ PEOPLE: NO, NO, THE GINZUISHOU DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE. IT GIVES POWER TO EVERYONE. LITERALLY EVERYONE. THAT'S WHY IT'S SO POWERFUL AND THAT'S WHY USAGI IS SO AMAZING IN THE WAYS SHE USES IT -- okay I'm stopping here before this turns into my dissertation about Crystal Tokyo, goodbye. (Sidenote: for the longest time during my original anime run, it sounded to me like they were saying "Mamoru-shi no Ginzuishou" and it made no sense to me and I thought it was some sort of wordplay and never ever saw anyone actually transliterate the entire title, just call it "The Ginzuishou" [as I do] or translate it as "Legendary" or "Illusionary" or w/e -- BUT NOW I UNDERSTAND THE "ILLUSIONARY" THING. MABOROSHI. MABOROSHI NO GINZUISHOU. YES. OKAY. GOT IT.)
→ I'm pretty sure that the little rainbow-colored fragments falling into Mamoru are manga-accurate but tbh I have no recollection of what happens to them from there, and that's exciting to me. Golden Crystal y/n???
→ Speaking of manga-accurate: I like all of the shots that were very clearly taken from manga frames! Sailor Venus looking up at Serenity and Tuxedo Kamen was the first one I noticed, but there were lots of others, including Super Formative Frame In Which Beryl Hovers In The Background While Kunzite Holds An Unconscious Tuxedo Kamen Princess-Style. I probably stared at that page for one million hours as a teenager, so. Anyway, I hope someone on Tumblr does a comparison post. :D
→ However, not sure how I feel about the way they're retelling the story of the battle between the Moon and Earth Kingdoms. ONE DAY? The entire war took place in ONE DAY?? Could that possibly be manga-accurate? Everything I know about the long-running distrust between the two kingdoms and the ongoing war that eventually led up to the attack on the Moon -- is that all fanon?? I just... like I said, the love story in specific is boring to me, but in general the Silver Millennium is really, really fascinating. I would take an eighteen-week course on the politics of that time period and a separate eighteen-week course comparing and contrasting Moon and Earth Kingdom cultures, soooo like the idea that Crystal might be grossly oversimplifying the entire thing is... unhappy-making. BUT I'm holding out hope that it'll turn out to be at least slightly more complex than "one day the people from Earth randomly decided to take over the Moon Kingdom, the end." I mean, it HAS to, right? With the Shitennou and Metallia and..... IT HAS TO.
→ Awwww Mamo-chan is in the Dark Kingdom now awww, awwwww, baby's first distress subplot. :'D Mamo-chan as the princess who constantly needs saving: FAVORITE.
→ I'm also extreeeeemely excited to see where they're going with the Shitennou. All but Kunzite are dead at this point in both the manga and in SM Classic, and in PGSM they're alive but........... but, well, it's PGSM and is essentially Its Own Thing, unfit for comparison to any and all other versions. So I'm really excited for a version that features living Shitennou and also IS NOT PGSM.
→ I've read a lot of commentary from people who are monumentally disappointed with the way Crystal is portraying Senshi friendships -- i.e. just sort of steamrolling over everything and concentrating way more on Usagi and Mamoru specifically instead of developing these unique and important relationships -- and I agree but I also feel like this episode is working overtime to remedy that!! Look how supportive of and in love with Usagi the Senshi are. ;____; That five-way hug at the end JUST ABOUT KILLED ME.
→ Finally: I am REALLY INTO all the ways this show is reminding us that Serenity =\= Usagi. It's not even an implication -- Usagi says it herself several times. "But I'm not a princess, I'm Tsukino Usagi," "I feel like I'm losing my identity," etc etc, and OF COURSE it's Rei-chan, who ... doesn't necessarily love Usagi more than anyone else but has a very particular and very fierce love for Usagi, who says GIRL, YOU ARE GOOD JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. YOU'RE NOT SERENITY AND THAT'S THE POINT. Because you're right as usual, Rei-chan! Usagi isn't Serenity, and that is the point!! I will refrain from launching into my spiel about the Ginzuishou but FOR REAL, one of the majorly important things about the entire story and mythos is that Usagi IS NOT Serenity and DOES NOT make the same decisions Serenity would have made. Even PGSM got that. In fact I would argue PGSM gets it more than any other version.
Crossposted here on Dreamwidth. You can comment there anonymously or using OpenID. ♥
→ First off, I'd just like to say that the music for this series so far has been AWESOME.
→ However, pacing has been......????? At this point I really have no way of objectively thinking about how someone looking at it with fresh eyes might feel about it. I feel like there just hasn't been enough time or development for Usagi and Mamoru's relationship to really sink in, so The Big Reveal felt sort of... empty? But honestly I dunno, because I feel like SM Classic's version of this scene was really intense and emotional but then again I was a kid and I was experiencing it all for the first time. Also, SM Classic had literally twice as long to play around with these things so on that level I feel like comparing the two is unfair.
→ And on top of that, I feel like the love story of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion is just sort of... boring. UM I'M SO SORRY. Usako and Mamo-chan: 24/7 yes give it to me. Neo Queen Serenity and Neo King Endymion: Monday to Sunday every every every day. But this starcrossed lovers thing just doesn't do it for me, and if it does it for you then I apologize sincerely, but I also want to personally visit every single person who's watching Crystal as their introduction to Sailor Moon and sit down with them and hold their hand and look in their eyes and say, "I promise it gets more interesting than this."
→ Moving on.
→ A WILD GINZUISHOU APPEARS!!! How exciting eeee. I mean let's be real, when it really comes down to it, after Usagi the Ginzuishou might in fact be my favorite Sailor Moon character, haha. ON THAT NOTE: I really really love that when it appears, it causes the flowers to bloom -- that alone made me clutch my face -- but it ALSO gives Metallia energy!!!!! YOU GUYS. DON'T LET THAT GO OVER YOUR HEAD. THINK ABOUT IT. IT'S NOT LIKE IN SOME OTHER WORLDS WHERE THINGS HAVE INHERENTLY ~GOOD~ OR ~BAD~ ENERGY AND THINGS THAT HAVE ~GOOD~ ENERGY ARE HARMFUL TO THE ~BAD~ PEOPLE: NO, NO, THE GINZUISHOU DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE. IT GIVES POWER TO EVERYONE. LITERALLY EVERYONE. THAT'S WHY IT'S SO POWERFUL AND THAT'S WHY USAGI IS SO AMAZING IN THE WAYS SHE USES IT -- okay I'm stopping here before this turns into my dissertation about Crystal Tokyo, goodbye. (Sidenote: for the longest time during my original anime run, it sounded to me like they were saying "Mamoru-shi no Ginzuishou" and it made no sense to me and I thought it was some sort of wordplay and never ever saw anyone actually transliterate the entire title, just call it "The Ginzuishou" [as I do] or translate it as "Legendary" or "Illusionary" or w/e -- BUT NOW I UNDERSTAND THE "ILLUSIONARY" THING. MABOROSHI. MABOROSHI NO GINZUISHOU. YES. OKAY. GOT IT.)
→ I'm pretty sure that the little rainbow-colored fragments falling into Mamoru are manga-accurate but tbh I have no recollection of what happens to them from there, and that's exciting to me. Golden Crystal y/n???
→ Speaking of manga-accurate: I like all of the shots that were very clearly taken from manga frames! Sailor Venus looking up at Serenity and Tuxedo Kamen was the first one I noticed, but there were lots of others, including Super Formative Frame In Which Beryl Hovers In The Background While Kunzite Holds An Unconscious Tuxedo Kamen Princess-Style. I probably stared at that page for one million hours as a teenager, so. Anyway, I hope someone on Tumblr does a comparison post. :D
→ However, not sure how I feel about the way they're retelling the story of the battle between the Moon and Earth Kingdoms. ONE DAY? The entire war took place in ONE DAY?? Could that possibly be manga-accurate? Everything I know about the long-running distrust between the two kingdoms and the ongoing war that eventually led up to the attack on the Moon -- is that all fanon?? I just... like I said, the love story in specific is boring to me, but in general the Silver Millennium is really, really fascinating. I would take an eighteen-week course on the politics of that time period and a separate eighteen-week course comparing and contrasting Moon and Earth Kingdom cultures, soooo like the idea that Crystal might be grossly oversimplifying the entire thing is... unhappy-making. BUT I'm holding out hope that it'll turn out to be at least slightly more complex than "one day the people from Earth randomly decided to take over the Moon Kingdom, the end." I mean, it HAS to, right? With the Shitennou and Metallia and..... IT HAS TO.
→ Awwww Mamo-chan is in the Dark Kingdom now awww, awwwww, baby's first distress subplot. :'D Mamo-chan as the princess who constantly needs saving: FAVORITE.
→ I'm also extreeeeemely excited to see where they're going with the Shitennou. All but Kunzite are dead at this point in both the manga and in SM Classic, and in PGSM they're alive but........... but, well, it's PGSM and is essentially Its Own Thing, unfit for comparison to any and all other versions. So I'm really excited for a version that features living Shitennou and also IS NOT PGSM.
→ I've read a lot of commentary from people who are monumentally disappointed with the way Crystal is portraying Senshi friendships -- i.e. just sort of steamrolling over everything and concentrating way more on Usagi and Mamoru specifically instead of developing these unique and important relationships -- and I agree but I also feel like this episode is working overtime to remedy that!! Look how supportive of and in love with Usagi the Senshi are. ;____; That five-way hug at the end JUST ABOUT KILLED ME.
→ Finally: I am REALLY INTO all the ways this show is reminding us that Serenity =\= Usagi. It's not even an implication -- Usagi says it herself several times. "But I'm not a princess, I'm Tsukino Usagi," "I feel like I'm losing my identity," etc etc, and OF COURSE it's Rei-chan, who ... doesn't necessarily love Usagi more than anyone else but has a very particular and very fierce love for Usagi, who says GIRL, YOU ARE GOOD JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. YOU'RE NOT SERENITY AND THAT'S THE POINT. Because you're right as usual, Rei-chan! Usagi isn't Serenity, and that is the point!! I will refrain from launching into my spiel about the Ginzuishou but FOR REAL, one of the majorly important things about the entire story and mythos is that Usagi IS NOT Serenity and DOES NOT make the same decisions Serenity would have made. Even PGSM got that. In fact I would argue PGSM gets it more than any other version.
Crossposted here on Dreamwidth. You can comment there anonymously or using OpenID. ♥