Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 13-14 (Review)

Well, the final battle between the Sailor Moon and the evil Queen Metalia happened this month, and all I have to say was "It was intense."

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

It all starts with a recap of Usagi making the choice of taking her life along with a possessed Mamoru, and the Legendary Silver Crystal grows and covers both of their bodies. After Queen Metalia takes the crystal for herself, the remaining Sailor Guardians start their battle against her on Earth, and both Luna and Artemis go to the Chamber of Prayer after arriving on the moon. However, the Sailor Guardians are defeated, and Luna starts to pray for Usagi. Meanwhile, Usagi wakes up inside Metalia (realizing that both her and Mamoru are not dead) and the Crystal reveals its powers to Usagi. She then escapes from inside Metalia with a now awaken Mamoru, and even Mamoru gets one final visit with the spirits of the Four Kings. Finally, Usagi uses the Crystal's powers to defeat Metalia once and for all, with a little help from Luna's prayers. With Metalia finally defeated, Usagi wakes up to find Mamoru checking on her, and they kiss. Soon, Luna calls for Usagi to return to the moon, but she finds out that her brooch was damaged when she defeated Metalia. However, she uses the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal to return to the moon to receive a new brooch from the spirit of Queen Serenity, and she heals the Earth from the darkness that remained from Metalia. The Sailor Guardians are reunited with Serenity, and everything is back to normal....right?

Oh, wait. I forgot that we're only halfway through the series. So, at the end of episode 14, we are introduced to a new character, a pink-haired little girl who fell from the sky who calls herself "Usagi." And, she is looking for the Legendary Silver Crystal. This is going to be interesting.

From what I saw, these two episodes were pretty faithful to the events of the manga, especially the introduction of a new character. Well, all I have to say is that the story isn't over yet, my fair readers. Looks like we are going into another story arc.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episodes 11-12 (Review)

Well, this month, audience saw a complete twist to the story which resulted in emotional moments that the Sailor Guardians faced.

WARNING! THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS!

We last left off seeing that Mamoru is now under the control of Queen Beryl, and now, he's going by his original incarnation's name, Endymion. Plus, with Queen Beryl controlling the strings, he is after the Legendary Silver Crystal, and he has even brain-washed Motoki, who works at the arcade. Soon, the Sailor Guardians are up against him, and Usagi being reluctant to fight him. Then, Queen Beryl comes in and reveals the true villain to the Guardians: Queen Metalia. However, before she can escape with Mamoru, Queen Beryl is finally killed off, and Usagi follows Mamoru into the Dark Kingdom. The four other guardians follow suit, but they are greeted by the Four Kings. However, the guardians are able to purify them before Queen Metalia finishes them off for good for disobeying her orders. Afterwards, Usagi makes the most difficult decision to help bring Mamoru back to his senses, which may cost her life to do.

Besides changing the manga's story by having the Four Kings remain as long as they did in this reboot, there were some alterations and cuts made to have the story give the story a bit more flow in the show's case. However, this leaves the question, what will happen now? Well, with the New Year coming in a couple of days, we won't have that long to wait.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episodes 9-10 (Review)

After a pretty dramatic cliffhanger at the end of episode 8, the Sailor Guardians face some big revealing information within both episodes nine and ten, and if you are a hardcore Sailor Moon fan, then you already know what the big reveal is.

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

As we begin episode nine, we start off by recapping the end of episode eight where Tuxedo Mask is hit by a energy blast. Believing that he's dead, Usagi begins to cry out, until...

Yep. Her powers turns her into Princess Serenity, and one of her tears turns into the "Legendary Silver Crystal." Also, Sailor V's crescent symbol on her forehead turns into the Venus symbol. The Princess's memories re-awakens in Usagi as she sees the flashbacks of her and Prince Endymion of Earth (aka Tuxedo Mask). Soon, the powers of the Crystal goes into Tuxedo Mask, and the Dark Kingdom runs off taking him with them. After several days, Usagi and the other Sailor Guardians finally decide to go to the Moon.

Meanwhile, the Four Kings of Heaven's memories start to re-awaken in episode ten as they look upon the unconscious Tuxedo Mask, and it is revealed that they were once Endymion's loyal soldiers. However, Queen Beryl puts them under her control again, and send them to fight the Sailor Guardians once again. During this time, the Sailor Guardians arrive on the moon where they meet up with a memory message from Queen Serenity, who reveals the entire story of what happened many years ago to them. They then swear that they will defeat the Dark Kingdom, and Usagi swears that she will rescue Tuxedo Mask. When they get back, they are attacked by the Four Kings, but before they can re-store their memories, the Four Kings retreat. And, we end off with Queen Beryl brainwashing Tuxedo Mask, leaving us with a new plot twist.

So far, the episode have been close to the manga, except for some changes to the story as usual. However, whatever happens next depends on what is seen in both episodes eleven and twelve next month.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 6-8 (Review)

Since I last left off on Episode 5 and made a difficult decision to delay reviews of Episode 6 and 7 until Episode 8 was released, there was beginning tension towards Tuxedo Mask by Luna, and Sailor Moon was then chosen to lead the Sailor Senshi. So, instead of separating each episode into short paragraphs, I will combine the aspects of all three episodes into one.

WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

We begin when Luna and the Sailor Senshi start to suspect Tuxedo Mask of being an enemy instead of an ally. However, Usagi still has feeling towards Tuxedo Mask, even though she still doesn't know who he is yet. Meanwhile, Mamoru is still trying to find out the secret of the Legendary Silver Crystal. It isn't until the Dark Kingdom attacks the city through the process of mind-control like they did in several of the previous episodes. Soon, a battle between the Dark Kingdom and the Sailor Senshi commences, and at the right moment, Tuxedo Mask comes in to help Sailor Moon. After Usagi faints from exhaustion, Mamoru takes her to his apartment where she wakes up in his bed with him looking at her from the doorway. It's at this moment that Usagi finds out that the man who always picked on her since the first episode is none other than her ally. Mamoru reveals to Usagi that he has been alone most of his life after his parents died in a car accident. He survived the crash but lost his memory, and he has recently been getting dreams about getting the Legendary Silver Crystal. He believes that it would help him regain his memories of who he once was. Afterwards, Usagi leaves but realises that she accidentally took a pocket watch that belonged to Mamoru. She soon meets up with the other Sailor Senshi, who find out that there is a DVD store that are renting out DVDs commanding people to capture Sailor Moon. Of course, the Dark Kingdom end up having another battle with the Sailor Senshi after they cure the citizens from the effects of the DVDs. However, another surprise comes when Sailor V comes in to assist them with their battle. Sailor V reveals that she is none other than the missing princess that the Sailor Senshi has been looking for, and they all meet up after she reveals that her other identity is Minako Aino and reveals that she also has Artemis, a white talking cat, to aid her. After a while, Usagi runs into Mamoru again and informs him about the pocket watch, but he tells her to keep it since she's keeping his Tuxedo Mask identity a secret. Luna also ends up running into Artemis, and he reveals that Mamoru is actually very important for their mission. Soon, the Dark Kingdom return again, and another battle commences that ends up leading another turn of events.

As much as I continue watching the series, the more I enjoy it, but these several episodes has their own changes along with them. Several things were cut from the manga, and another huge change comes around when it comes to Minako being a character that wants to do stuff by herself (which is never seen in Chapter 8 of the manga). From this point on, it looks like that there will be some major stuff to be revealed.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Holding Off of Sailor Moon Crystal Reviews...For Now

Hello everyone.

Ever since I wrote the review for the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, I've been excited to write more reviews for the blog, and watching the series as well. However, for the past couple of reviews I did for each episode of the series, I could only write so much to very little without giving any type of detailed spoilers.

So, am I ceasing to write more episode reviews? The answer, sadly, is yes. If I can't write much about a single episode (which I normally write about a paragraph or two), then I feel that I can't give it a fair review. So, I came up with a solution. I will write a review for the recently aired episode 6 and several of the upcoming episodes on a later date, so I could have more to write about for a more interesting review. I will be working on a three-episode review which will be based around episodes 6 to 8, and I will then do two-episode reviews from then on (pretty much, I'm reviewing the two episodes they air a month).

Hopefully, this will work out a bit better for any upcoming reviews on this blog.

- Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 5 (Review)

That time has come again, and a brand new episode of Sailor Moon Crystal was posted yesterday on Hulu. Of course, we were introduced to Makoto Kino, who is also known as Sailor Jupiter in the series.

In the manga, she was indeed introduced in the 5th chapter, but her first appearance in the original anime adaptation wasn't until episode 25. However, since the new anime is closely based on the manga, introducing her as soon as possible was indeed the best choice.

For the details of the episode itself, much of the chapter is adapted pretty well, but it did go through several changes and additions like episode 2 did. However, I did like some of the explanations that where in the additional flashback scenes which helped describe Makoto's character a little bit more than it did in the manga (which was described by her briefly at the end of the chapter). But, many of the characteristics of Makoto felt like they were very good in a lot of ways as well as her moments as Sailor Jupiter. Along with the brief glimpses of Tuxedo Mask, still making him a mysterious character as usual in this part of the series is very fitting.

Of course, the episode's ending brings along a new type of responsibility for the Sailor Guardians, which we will probably see in the next episode.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 4 (Review)

Last time, on the Team AnimeManga blog, the third episode of the Sailor Moon Crystal was reviewed, and now...the fourth episode.

For the first three episodes, we were introduced to much of the main characters, but for this episode, which is based on the fourth chapter of the original manga, we ended up taking a break to go to a fancy ball. I'm not kidding. Act 4: Masquerade Dance Party (aka Episode Four) is one of those moments in the original manga where it slowed the story down a bit, and how Toei Animation adapted this chapter in the reboot is a bit amazing.

For starters, there was little omitted content, but there was a good amount of additions which actually explained some of the story that wasn't well explained in the original chapter. Of course, the ball scenes were, in my opinion, beautifully animated. In the end, the episode ended with a mysterious side note, and a sneak peak for the next episode.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 3 (Review)

So, today, the third episode of the Sailor Moon reboot was released, and just like last episode, it introduced a new character.

"Act 3: Rei, Sailor Mars" introduces us to Rei Hino, a maiden at Hikawa Shrine, who senses demonic powers, and recently, a rumored bus has been kidnapping individuals late in the evening. Now, in the original anime, Rei wasn't introduced until Episode 10 (just two episodes after Ami was introduced). Also, Rei isn't the only new character to the show, we also have the introduction of both Nephrite and Zoisite (who were both introduced in Episode 14), and they are both members of the Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom just like Jadeite.

And now, to see how faithful the episode was to the third chapter of the original manga. As I looked back and forth from watching the episode to reading the manga, there were only some to little major changes, and there were skipped panels as well. As I've been watching these episodes, it only seems like the changes come whenever the battles tend to happen, but I guess that the people behind the anime want to have a result that is only slightly different than that of the manga.

Until the next episode...

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 2 (Review)

After coming back from my weekend trip to the 7th annual San Japan anime convention, I immediately watched the second episode of the new Sailor Moon anime reboot. Even though there is not so much to say since much of the details I said in the review of the first episode are the same: more close to the manga with some aspects from the original Sailor Moon anime.

"Act 2: Ami, Sailor Mercury" (or Episode 2 for short) is an adaptation of the second chapter from the original manga, and we are introduced to the second Sailor Guardian, Sailor Mercury. In the original anime, Sailor Mercury isn't introduced until Episode 8, and even though it did contain aspects from the manga, the story in the episode was a bit different from the one in the original chapter. However, even in the reboot episode, there are only some slight differences from the original manga, but it remains faithful.

Until the third episode premieres next month, we will be awaiting the next episode of Sailor Moon Crystal.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 1 (Review)

On July 5, the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal premiered worldwide, and I was one of the many individuals who watched it. From what I seen in the trailers thrilled me more and more each time until the episode was finally released. What did I think of it? Let's find out. Beware that this review contains spoilers.

From the opening moments of the episode, I began like the first episode of the original series did where Usagi wakes up and realizes that she is late for school. Of course, unlike the original anime series, this first episode is very close to Naoko Takeuchi's original manga where much of the story gets to the point. We see Usagi trip over Luna, and we also see Mamoru in a tuxedo outside the jewelry store from which becomes an important aspect for the climax of the episode. As much I can say, even though there are a few changes from the original first manga chapter, it remained pretty faithful to the source material.

Of course, there is the animation, which is quite fluent and artistic, and the designs that are close to Takeuchi's illustrations in her manga. Plus, there is the transformation scene which combines both CGI and traditional animation. Finally, with the return of Kotono Mitsuishi as Usagi/Sailor Moon, brings a somewhat nostalgic feel to this reboot, and both the opening and closing songs are enjoyable.

The episode itself was really good, and I have high hopes with this particular series. Now, I just have to wait for the next episode for the full introduction of Sailor Mercury.

- Nolan Schmidt

Anime Talk: Episode 2

For the second episode of Anime Talk, John Paul (my fellow collaborator) and I review the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal in this audio-only episode. We also briefly talk about the recently announced Viz Media English dub for the original anime and home video release, and our upcoming trip to the San Japan Anime Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

- Nolan Schmidt

Where In The USA Is The Sailor Moon Anime?

On July 6, 2012, it was announced that the Sailor Moon series would be getting a new anime series, and it would contain a new theme song performed by Momoiro Clover Z. Sailor Moon fans eagerly waited for the new anime to come, but it was delayed multiple times. Recently, on January 9th, it was finally announced that the new Sailor Moon anime would premiere this July, and that Toei Animation was going to be "adapting Naoko Takeuchi's original manga and starting from scratch again." Fans got excited again, and many of them now patiently wait for the premiere episode on Niconico.

This would probably be the first time that North American fans of the series would be able to watch their favorite magical girl team beat intergalactic villains on an instant online stream that would be subtitled in multiple languages. However, many of the fans in the U.S. still remember back in 1995 when the first Sailor Moon anime premiered on television, and even though the show was completely edited for content, it was still enjoyable for the American fans. But, it wasn't until after 2000 when the uncut episodes started appearing on DVD. Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R was released in two subtitled-only season box sets by ADV Films, and both Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS was released on bilingual DVD sets by Pioneer (now Geneon Universal Entertainment). Sailor Stars, the fifth entry to the anime series, never came to the U.S. due to the amount of content that would've been considered objectionable to television audiences at the time. Sadly, the DVDs became out of print after both ADV Films and Pioneer allowed the rights to expire around 2004 and 2005. The box sets are now very rare to get, and if anyone finds them for sale on sites like Amazon, they would be expensive to get (both new and used).

For the past decade, other American anime distribution companies, like FUNimation, have been trying to get the rights to the series, but sadly, no company owns the North American rights to the Sailor Moon anime as of now. However, in 2011, Kodansha USA re-released the first volume of the Sailor Moon manga, along with the first volume of Codename: Sailor V (the predecessor of Sailor Moon) on September 13th. This seemed like a sign to fans that Sailor Moon was making a big comeback to the U.S., but after all the manga was released, there was still no sign of the Sailor Moon anime until the news of the previously mentioned reboot.

In my opinion, as both an anime fan and a Sailor Moon fan, if there was possibly any company to get the rights from Toei, it would probably be either Sentai Filmworks or Discotek Media. However, I was able to get the first two uncut season box sets of Sailor Moon on DVD (after I spent a total of $296.46 to get them). Of course, I had to go through the existing flaws in the Sailor Moon R box set since an episode was missing, and the audio in the beginning of one of the episodes had some of the English dub soundtrack on it. Hopefully, since the recent announcement of the reboot, the Sailor Moon anime will finally make a comeback to the U.S., and the episodes could be enjoyed again by the American Sailor Moon fan base once again.

Written by Nolan Schmidt