The trailer for the new Sailor Moon reboot (revolutionarily called Sailor Moon Crystal) is finally out, and the eye-popping 90 seconds have only polarized fan reactions further--the criticisms range from petty, to valid, to bizarre, to people sounding like they just watched their first anime yesterday. Check it out and see for yourself!
What do you think? In terms of criticism, I've heard people say it's just too different from the original, that the girls look too thin, the poses are physically impossible, the colors are "weird," that she's wearing lipstick now . . .
Now I'm as used to fan freakouts as the next guy, I know the lengths to which it can go, but nonetheless ARE YOU SERIOUS BRO. Yeah the girls look thin and the poses look weird, it's freaking anime--they also have eyes that would render them blind in a week given earth's light intensity, hair colors you only see in Crayola 80s throwback editions, and the cats are also rabbits are also frequently robots, are almost always also humans. This isn't Grave of the Fireflies, you're in Magical Girl territory. Also, have you seen the manga?? It actually looks pretty faithful to the comics, as was the stated intent.
The more reasonable complaints involve the level of detail and attempts to 'modernize' - the remake does look a bit clunkier and unelegant. The hair-wing thingamadings look tacked on, and the ribbon ornaments, collar, and earrings all have twice as much metal and shapes as before, which is a bit surprising. I thought modern meant, you know, Apple-y--sleek, minimal, easy on the eyes, but I suppose the extravagance is also tied to manga-faithfulness. All in all, nothing to cry over, girls and boys.
Let's focus on the good to look forward to: more attention to the source manga means more gore, less "monster of the week" pacing, more attacks, more genderbending fun, and mature themes (incest, sexual assault, self-harm, the heavy stuff). Sparkle sparkle, baby.
The series debuts on July 5th at 7 pm, with a new episode every other week. It'll be available to stream via Niconico Douga, a Japanese streaming site, and American distributor Viz Video will likely stream the episodes on their site as well.
[via Kotaku]
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