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90& #39;s Sailor Moon is not something I expected to like nearly as much as I do. I& #39;m eleven episodes in and (despite several of those blending together in a way that I& #39;m sure many people would find annoying) it& #39;s been a fascinating watch.
It& #39;s well directed, the repeated animation feels VERY familiar, it& #39;s got a couple insert songs I enjoy, the performances are alright, I LOVE the character designs and all the different outfits (and expressions) everyone& #39;s worn... it& #39;s incredibly solid. Very well put together.
When I say the repeated animation is familiar, I mean that it& #39;s reminiscent of Revolutionary Girl Utena, who& #39;s director, Kunihiko Ikuhara, served as an episode director for this first season of SM and will take over as series director sometime in the second season.
And reminding me of Utena is a very good thing. I& #39;d say it& #39;s probably got my favorite visual style of any TV anime, including it& #39;s heavily repeated animation.
I& #39;ve gone into Sailor Moon fairly blind, and the extent of my knowledge comes via osmosis from just being a fan of anime and also being online. I know about how many guardians there are and that the two of them that are intimate aren& #39;t that way because they& #39;re related. That& #39;s it.
One of the reasons I decided to finally pick it up (after dropping it one episode in sometime in the early 2010& #39;s) was that the author of the manga, Naoko Takeuchi, is married to Yoshihiro Togashi, who made Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter.
Surely both of them have high enough standards that they wouldn& #39;t marry someone who can& #39;t write, right? Knowing that has also made me want to read the manga for SM and then HxH, just to see what (if any) influences Takeuchi has had on it. I promise I& #39;ll do it eventually.
That was only one reason, though. Another is as simple as that in the last few months I& #39;ve seen tons of screenshots of the series, all featuring great expressions and clothing. And yeah, so far there have been a number of very cute faces and outfits in the show, so that& #39;s cool.
I don& #39;t remember people ever talking about the main character, Usagi, so I& #39;ve been surprised at how much I actually like her and how she& #39;s been written. She& #39;s totally dependent on others, pretty shallow, dumb as a rock, is a coward and a crybaby, but is still somehow likable.
I think I& #39;ll chalk it up to the fact that those negative aspects seem to be treated as character flaws within in the show (save for the gym episode where EVERYONE is shallow) that she needs to overcome at some point. I don& #39;t think she will but hey that& #39;d be a nice surprise later.
I didn& #39;t really expect it, but she& #39;s given grief pretty often for that sort of thing, and it seems the only thing saving her in the beginning might just have been luck (and Tuxedo Mask, who also tells her to shut the fuck up and act).
She& #39;s been pretty complacent so far, which is understandable seeing as how her friend group has largely either encouraged or passively allowed her behavior and Ami isn& #39;t that concerned for her. I& #39;m interested in seeing how she acts now that Rei has been introduced, though.
I need to get acquainted more with Rei before I say anything crazy about her, but from the two episodes she& #39;s been in so far, I really like her. She and Usagi play off one another in a interesting way that results in Usagi (I think) trying to be more competent.
Rei isn& #39;t introduced as a rival, but her being highly offensive and fairly smart (at least enough so to sniff out Jadeite) turns her into one for Usagi, and it& #39;s neat to see. I& #39;m curious to see how relevant their rivalry is going forward.
Maybe the last thing I can think of for this thread is that I& #39;m super happy that the identity of Tuxedo Mask is not being treated as a mystery at fucking all, and that his counterpart seems so unimportant (at the moment) that I& #39;m not sure he& #39;s even gotten a name.
If it& #39;s ever revealed to Usagi or Rei that he and TuxMask are the same guy, I hope it& #39;s because Ami just casually points it out, like "oh, you guys couldn& #39;t tell it was him? He always hangs around the same places as the monsters and he& #39;s got the same hair." That& #39;d be good.
