Sailor Moon is one of the most iconic anime and manga franchises of all time, and that's especially among the case for fare geared toward the shojo demographic. Though it was far from the first magical girl series, it exemplified the genre much in the way that Dragon Ball Z is the archetypal battle shonen franchise. It's more well-known for the 1990s anime, but this wasn't the only animated iteration of the Naoko Takeuchi manga.
Sailor Moon Crystal was created to celebrate the original series' 20th anniversary, but it's far from a remake. Instead, it more accurately adapts the manga, eschewing the anime-exclusive stories from the original series. Along with these changes, it also improved as time went along in one notable area. This made Sailor Moon Crystal into a stellar anime adaptation, as it does everything that an adaptation of a manga should.
Sailor Moon Crystal Was a 1:1 Manga Adaptation
The Original Anime Took Many Liberties Including Filler Arcs
Something that many Sailor Moon fans might not realize is that almost half of the original Sailor Moon anime was anime-exclusive filler. Filler was especially prominent in anime from the 1990s, as this allowed the manga to develop further and create more content for the anime to adapt. This wasn't just interspersed throughout the middle or latter portion of Sailor Moon, however. In fact, from the second episode until quite a few episodes down the line, the classic series was made up of entirely original material.
Thus, it took a long wait to actually get back to the "main" story that manga readers were used to. This narrative length wasn't the only difference, with even the characters in Sailor Moon being altered. Usagi/Sailor Moon is herself much more mature in the manga, with the original anime playing up her childishness a lot more. In the case of characters such as Tuxedo Mask, the nature of their powers and transformations were changed along with their portrayals.
This resulted in the 1990s classic being fairly inaccurate to the source material that it was based on, though this wasn't the for the later adaptation. Sailor Moon Crystal doesn't feature any of this filler material, and it simply sticks to what made the manga work. To this end, the material is a lot darker and more mature, and the same goes for Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Scouts. For instance, later parts of the original anime had enemies "purified," whereas the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal instead outright destroy these fiends.
This did mean that there was less focus on some of the other Sailor Scouts, but in doing away with those scenes, Sailor Moon Crystal focused on the manga's main theme: love. This is done by making the relationship between Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon a much bigger deal. One issue with this is that fans of the original series are more used to all the filler that it had, thus making Sailor Moon Crystal feel as if it were "missing" elements.
While this is a fair sentiment given nostalgia, Crystal is still more accurate to the source material. This includes its darker themes, which range from suicide to topics of abuse. This also makes the pace much faster, which is likely better for fans of more modern anime. With no filler to bog the story down, it's able to tell the series' story without any extra fuss. This also means that certain characters are handled much better.
Major Characters are Much Better In Sailor Moon Crystal
Characters Like Chibi-Usa & Sailor Neptune Benefit a Lot From This Remake
Tuxedo Mask is essentially a side character in the original anime, but in Sailor Moon Crystal and the manga, he's a main character. Crystal accurately brings his romance with Usagi to life, resulting in a more accurate representation of what the series is all about. Romance is meant to be a key component of the story, so accurately cementing this puts it ahead of the first adaptation. In the classic anime, Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru felt a lot older than Usagi/Sailor Moon, which is an issue that the new anime fixes.
The nature of his powers is also different, separating him more clearly from the Sailor Scouts. It's a somewhat minor element, but it goes to show just how much the 1990s Sailor Moon anime changed about the manga and its cast of characters. Sailor Neptune is another major character who is a lot different in the original anime compared to the manga and Crystal. In the original anime series, she's quite antagonistic and rude, especially towards Usagi.
This created a lot of tension between her and the other Sailor Scouts, but it wasn't exactly accurate to the manga. There, she was supportive and a lot more laid back, having a quieter and calmer characterization. This matched, given that she was supposed to be the yin to the much more energetic Sailor Uranus's yang. Of course, they're also a couple, something that fans of the original series' English dub might be surprised by. Chibi-Usa definitely benefits from the story being more accurate to the manga. In the classic anime, she sometimes acts as childishly as she looks.
Thus, fans even see Chibi-Usa as a small child, which is only somewhat accurate. She's effectively immortal and has centuries of maturity, despite her appearance. Sailor Moon Crystal makes this point much better, again handling a character's core concept better. Though some of the Sailor Scouts might get less focus, their characters are more rounded and complimentary to each other. The lack of egregious filler to help develop them also means that Sailor Moon Crystal is ultimately focused mostly on Sailor Moon herself, which makes sense.
Sailor Moon Crystal Fixed Its Biggest Issue
Sailor Moon Crystal Upgraded Its Animation Before it Ended
One major criticism of Sailor Moon Crystal, that had nothing to do with nostalgia, involved its animation. The first two seasons of the series admittedly had particularly bad animation at times, and even at its best, it was wildly inconsistent. Characters' facial features and designs change rapidly, with even eyes and other basic features sometimes being wonky. Worst of all, there were less than 20 episodes for each of these seasons, so it wasn't a case of animators having to crank out a slew of episodes in order to meet a quota of some sort.
These two seasons were original net animation's, and even though Toei Animation was the studio behind them, the lack of quality was very noticeable. It detracted from what was otherwise a great adaptation of a beloved manga series, and it led to many fans of the original, in particular, having misgivings about the new anime series. Thankfully, this wasn't the note that the show ended on, with its third time being the charm.
Season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal wasn't a net series, but rather a television anime series. This meant that the animation quality had a significant uptick, with the bad animation finally a thing of the past. There was also a tighter focus on characterization, with the pacing not feeling as "rushed" to some fans. Thus, for both anime fans and manga fans, Sailor Moon Crystal's third season was definitely the highlight of the series.
This shows how the anime was able to evolve and overcome its weaknesses instead of adding to them as it went on. In the case of the original Sailor Moon, it can many times be a slog to get through, especially with all the filler episode. On the other hand, Sailor Moon Crystal truly reaches its peak in its final section, ending things on a note that makes fans of the manga proud.
