THEY DID IT. THEY FINALLY DID IT. IT’S A GOOD EPISODE.
Can you tell I’m excited? Cause I’m excited.
I don’t know if this is because Toei Animation had an extra week to work on it or because of the criticism it has gotten. Maybe it’s both! Whatever the reason, this episode was exactly what I wanted out of Sailor Moon Crystal. It was a faithful adaptation that is not afraid to add or remove content to better fit its medium. So how did it accomplish all this? Let’s look a little deeper into Sailor Moon Crystal – Sailor Jupiter.
First off, we’ve got Sailor Jupiter to thank. In my opinion, Sailor Jupiter is probably the best character of the inner scouts. I say this with a heavy heart, since my personal favorite is Venus, but she really is a great character. It’s hard to believe that the majority of the content of this episode was written in the early 90’s. Sure, many might think that decade was cool, but aside from The Powerpuff Girls and a few select television shows, girls were often regulated to one character. It’s what TV Tropes calls the Smurfette Principle. Men can often have different personalities and traits, but the one woman is regulated to the personality of “girl.” Ironically, Sailor Moon features Tuxedo Mask as the anti-Smurfette main character for the majority of its run, so I’d hate to call it progressive, but it was at least different.
Enter Sailor Jupiter, lover of cute things with macho strength. As high schooler Makoto Kino, she’s one of two sailor scouts that I admire for being able to be feminine while possessing typical masculine traits. The best thing anyone can take away from Sailor Moon is that there are many ways to be a woman. You can be smart, beautiful, strong, athletic, etc. There’s no wrong way.
To my delight, Sailor Moon Crystal took Jupiter’s introduction and twisted it to better fit an animated medium. Her classmates’ fear toward her is evident in the comic, but it’s hard to tell that it’s affecting her. I like how they expanded the story about her “senpai,” since it’s such an integral part of her character. If I’m going to nitpick, I wish they would have showed him outright rejecting her, rather than just getting a girlfriend. I also particularly liked the interactions between Usagi and Makoto. Not only did they give us a deeper insight into Makoto’s character, but, as Ami pointed out, they help viewers understand how much love Usagi has. This development will prove essential in later episodes, though I can’t help but feel that the quality of this episode will overshadow Mercury’s and Mars’s characters. Viewers will likely feel more connected with Jupiter because her episode was handled as good as it was. But overall, the changes were great.
Speaking of change, there were far too many to count in this episode. Eventually, I just closed my copy of the manga because it became too much to comprehend. Again, most of these changes are really good. Either they eliminated something because it didn’t make sense or added something to clarify whatever was needed. The most interesting change in my own opinion was the removal of the “jumping bride.” In the manga, a mannequin is featured outside of the shop, looking like she was going to jump off the building. It seemed rather odd that a bridal shop of all places would have this kind of morbid display. I was fearful that this would impact the scene where a mannequin comes alive later in the episode, but even that change was creatively executed and positively creepy.
The animation was so good this time. There were a few choice frames here and there that failed to amaze me, but they were so few that I don’t really care. I particularly like how Makoto’s hair color was changed to reflect the manga. This sort of change is what’ll help this series separate itself from the old one. Again, I have issues with the transformation sequences. When Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars transformed together, there was a sense of urgency. It felt right. Serious kudos to the lightning effects going on in Jupiter’s transformation, but the whole thing felt very slow. As I’ve mentioned before, if this was going to be adaptation of the manga, why include the transformations at all? In the manga, they’re a quick flash of light (presumably) and then they’re done. If the speed was increased, the CGI wouldn’t look as odd and the pacing wouldn’t feel off. As it stands, I’m not sure whose is better, Mars or Jupiter’s. I’m going to give it to Jupiter for now because of that rad lighting effect, though the shot of Planet Jupiter in the background looks really off putting for some reason. Come on! It’s Jupiter! The gas giant! Why wasn’t more effort put into this?
One final good thing to note is the voice acting. Makoto is played by Shizuka Itou, the same voice actor behind Ryuko of Kill la Kill. Of course, this makes me giddy because now the Sailor Moon fanbase has to acknowledge that Kill la Kill exists (considering from what I’ve seen, they really, really don’t like that show). She was nearly perfect. I always liked the voice actor of the English dub of the old series. She provided a tomboyish voice that still was clearly feminine. Itou follows this trend and creates an adorable Makoto without sacrificing what makes her so cool. She also really plays well off of Usagi’s VA, Kotono Mitsuishi, especially in the adorable lunch sequence.
Please, Toei Animation! Please take note of the comments people will give this episode. If the animation studio puts the same amount of effort and quality into every episode after this, I’ll feel comfortable about recommending Sailor Moon Crystal as an alternative to the manga. As much as I love the manga, I even admit that it has become rather dated. This would be an amazing thing to recommend to new Sailor Moon fans. So here’s hoping that Toei Animation keeps up the good work.