Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Cosmos Movie

As far as I am aware that this is how Sailor Moon usually is, I still have a tremendous amount of love for this franchise. I love the 90s series and the original Sailor Moon for me will always be that one, I gotta say that for sure. The whole new adaptation, Crystal, was kind of refreshing, it was like following my favorite childhood series all over again but I gotta be honest about how disappointed I was with the first season. After that, they kind of made it enjoyable with season 3 and even made a satisfying film with Eternal for me but Igotta say that Cosmos, which I had the most expectations of really disappointed me, especially with part 1. I don't know if I am the only one but the story was jumping all over the place, the scenes were really incoherent and I had a hard time staying calm. I am aware that this is a movie and they have to make it compact and all but watching this movie felt like reading a whole bunch of drabbles and it's not my cup of tea when it comes to movies. Look, I am IN LOVE with Seiya. I literally signed up for this whole mess only for Seiya and... anyways. I have some really mixed feelings for this movie, and as far as I am happy that it concluded I am strongly thinking that it could have been better. Now, I am gonna go and watch the Stars season from the 90s version again just to relive my love for Seiya.

After 9 years, Sailor Moon Crystal is finally over. Comparing the beginning of this reboot to the end is almost like night and day. Sailor Moon Cosmos is the second adaptation of the Sailor Stars arc of the manga. It does a much better job at adapting the original storyline of the manga than the 90s anime (that is VASTLY different than the manga). Where Eternal had some issues in regards to the pacing, these movies were paced a lot better (despite being the same length as Eternal as well). While Stars could have easily been a 13-14 episode season and add a lot ofmore things that weren't in the manga, the additions that are in the movie are sufficient. Instead of feeling like a stripped version of what happened in the manga (like Eternal), many scenes that were in the manga that aren't in the movies were replaced with original content to compensate (part of the ending just to name a part). The visuals are also gorgeous. A lot of time was put into making sure this movie was visually stunning, it looks like an updated version of the 90s anime. In my opinion, these movies are the best that Sailor Moon has ever looked in an animated form. Overall, I think these movies are great, and they do a great job at adapting the mangas ending that was very different in the 90s anime. Most Sailor Moon fans will enjoy these two films a lot.

Although I have rated this as average, the second part is actually a solid 7.1 because the last 15 minutes the pacing finally slows down, and we get to see the most beautiful animation of Sailor Cosmos (thanks largely in part due to Sidney Deng's contribution to some key frames as well as the transformation for Chibi-Chibi). So everyone was right in that the pacing for the films is truly not helping the story develop as it should and it's incredibly difficult to relate to characters when you can't even sit with them. Some cringe scenes occured in part I with no rationale behind them,such as a character I won't name switching from random dialogue to breaking out in song, also too many scenes occur on the same rooftop. The star lights barely get any screen time, look I am sorry but that was the big appeal about this arc. They also took away the iconic music when they transform which is a shame. There is a bit of strange back and forth between "are these new fighters our enemies" and "omg the star lights have a concert tonight even though we just found out their real personas" fangirl moments in the same scenes and it's incredibly confusing. We also never get any closure whatsoever and it's the film's biggest flaw. It's fine to follow the manga but I don't get why not add a one-liner with an explanation at least. in the original version (sorry, yes I will mention it) we not only spend a lot of time to get a feel of their individual personalities but we also get closure, even though that respective ending was rushed and left the story largely incomplete. I feel as though you'd need to combine them to get any sort of satisfaction. Ultimately, the animation in Part II is much improved, similarly to how Eternal films behaved. The final 15 minutes are really beautiful and well done, incredible use of colours and composition, the atmosphere is good, deep insight into characters. It was fantastic to see Galaxia and we got time to spend with her (unlike any of the other villains in Crystal) and understand her background and motivation a bit, which really helped with the world building and storytelling. The OST was lacking yet again, apart from the intro music. Still largely choir music mixed with piano and some metal. I feel like 70% of the 90s atmosphere was the music composed by Takanori Arisawa, and the remainder 30% the voice acting. The original had a much much darker atmosphere and it was a bit frustrating to see this largely lacking yet again. It is a bit too vanilla when the manga clearly depicts various violent events. These were never translated into the Crystal remake. It can be quite bland in parts without this element. The VA for Cosmos sounded bored, no idea what happened there. Still, I enjoyed the 2nd episode and thought it was the best the remake could do with the budget and attention. Nice closure and ending. It felt authentic. It's sad we never got to spend some time with any of the girls and Usagi's friends in the remake, there could have been more scenes showing the girls bond and build on their friendship. you can't rush these things and just show character 1 cry over the death of character 2 with no background whatsoever and expect viewers to care. The best thing the studio could do for Sailor Moon is remake the 90s version and get rid of the filler episodes.

Rewatching Naoko Takeuchi's magnum opus story as a reboot with modern animation and production wasn't wholly a delightful ride, Crystal had it's fair share of bumpy moments, but the Cosmos movies redeemed the whole journey by giving a worthy conclusion to this classic series which it always deserved. This was one of the best arcs from the manga, and Usagi handles it pretty well, she is an amazing protagonist, her charisma, personality and characterstics are very uplifting, and her emotions are very humane, she tries her best but also gets on the verge of giving up when she fails. It really makes her the perfect fitfor the role she's playing. Also, gotta commend all the VAs for giving out their best of performances, like how Kotono Mitsuishi (VA of Usagi) delivered the same voice she did 30 years ago, is just amazing.

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