Sailor Moon Crystal Spotlight: Act 15 Recap!

The beginning of the new arc, yet nothing has really changed. Sailor Moon Crystal continues the trend into mediocre obscurity of the last episodes with Act 15.


I am seriously starting to run out of things to say that I haven't already. That being said, bear with me if from now the recaps might get even smaller (although surprisingly not this one). To be fair, I have half a mind of pulling a Theron Martin on this and drop doing these altogether but seeing how I don't want to sink to this level and I have invested too much time into them I won't.

Act 15 marked the start of the Black Moon Arc. Unfortunately nothing changed really. The adaption is still nearly perfectly faithful with all the positives and negatives this has brought us so far. Unfortunately there are also some things that put a bit of a damper on things.

Technical Performance

And these are in fact mostly here. With almost nothing to say about an episode that doesn't deviate from the manga at all, the technical details stand out way too much. Maybe this sounds like nitpicking but I cannot help once again comparing this to the old nineties anime which had openings and endings for each season, along with perhaps just marginally altered but still unique transformation scenes for each power-up.

Sailor Moon Crystal... doesn't. And frankly, saying that a production from the nineties shows more variety than something done in 2015 is just plain awful and utterly uncreative. The opening theme is still the same. That I could have lived with as Moonlight Densetsu staid for four seasons, only getting replaced on the last. However, inexcusable is that the opening in itself was exactly the same aside from a few seconds of replacing the Dark Kingdom cast with the Black Moon, Chibiusa and Pluto – way to spoiler for anyone by the way. This took up the space of about 10 seconds worth new scenes in the entire opening. Ten. Seconds. Tight budget or no... I do not accept this. There was utterly no creativity to mark the start of the new arc in the opening.

And of course, the ending remains entirely the same. As much as I love the song – much more so than Moon Pride, mind you –, no new scenes? Nothing more in tune with the new arc? Nothing at all? Seriously....... I don't even know what to say.

Transformations also remain blissfully unchanged – and really we'd really need some work done here as well. It was honestly not even necessary to show them all, especially since that probably cost us a minor character introduction (see below). Even worse is that some were cut and some were not. Ironically this was Rei's episode and her transformation was also cut short... Way to go. Who taught these people how to make an episode concept?

The girls got to showcase their powers a little more by beating up on the helpless Droids and we get to see Mars finally perform a REAL attack. Unfortunately Burning Mandala falls right into the rest of the unimpressive bit of magic spectacle Sailor Moon Crystal had to offer so far. Let's not even talk about Moon Princess Halation again. No, seriously, let's not... I mean... first of all it’s nothing but a twirl and a shot of yellow light, even the previous one was better (and that wasn't exactly awe-inspiring either) and then just look how utterly off-target the gathering light in the animation is (look at the screencap below), it's gathering next to the rod instead of at the top where it was clearly supposed to be. This is a magical girl anime for crying out loud: Where is the colorful spectacle of attacks and transformation already?! Happiness Charge Precure could master more dynamic and vividness in that category in one episode than Sailor Moon Crystal can in its entire run.

Characters

Unazuki is missing. I take particular offense since I sort of like her (not a lot but still enough to care). It was a one frame introduction in the manga but was completely cut out here, probably falling victim to the lengthy sequences of unchanged transformations. A shame really. Set your priorities right. Either give us REAL new transformations or don't cut out character appearances entirely. Yes, she doesn't really do much (if anything) for the plot but neither do the transformations if there is nothing to show.

I liked Chibiusa's performance though, both from her voice actress and how her character was brought across. She is far from the whiny brat we've known throughout most of the old anime. Sure part of that is a front but sometimes you can actually see that's she's technically over nine hundred years old – remember there is no cold sleep. At times she comes across as almost too mature, both in action and voice but I much prefer it this way than what the old anime did with her.

Rei was kept pretty much in line with the manga. Which, in fact, makes it odd because early on it seemed liked we'd get a third Rei version within Sailor Moon Crystal but that has never been further pursued and so all her manga lines and reactions were used, including her funny reaction to UFOs. Once again a pitiful way to show creativity (or the lack thereof).

Practical Performance

I already pointed out pretty much everything above. Unazuki was missing. Chibiusa's line when Mamoru got the vision was a little different which affected the following dialogue slightly. But that was okay as Chibiusa being regretful actually works with her character here. The only problem is that the line mostly works if you know what she thinks is her fault. It doesn't even add much foreshadowing without knowing the context.

One last thing... The neglect of Artemis. Yes, that's mostly Naoko's doing but at least he was squeezed in during one frame when the new pens were given out. This is another of these moments where the people in charge here show their utter lack of competence in realizing a potential flaw and just go along with it. There wouldn't even have been a need to have him say something, but at least have him at the table.

Conclusion

Let's take this last paragraph to start the conclusion. The trend of the last two episodes before this is steadily continuing. Sadly enough, now that the Shitennou's side arc is over, it seems the staff has decided to go about copying the manga material at a rate of 1:1.1 to the screen, exempt a few cuts and somewhat longer fighting scenes. As such it also still remains a sad fact that I continue to have to say that I am much happier about this than the alternative which would be making it worse again. Unless they swap out the entire staff and get a larger budget, this is the norm we are looking forward to, make no mistake about it.

Score: 3/5

---

Gallery/Screencap Commentary

(Source: All Screencaps made by me)

Usagi comes out unscathed against Metallia but is defeated by the mighty rose gun!

10 seconds worth new material.......

Start.

The Black Moon Family

The sisters who will be far more obscure in this seeing as they do no warrant even the effort of uncreative extra scenes to let them live longer than one episode.

One thing that bothers me here... They find it okay to have Luna talk right in front of a conscious Chibiusa?! And Luna does so without even knowing about who she is? WTF?! (Naoko what were you thinking? ^_^)

Here comes the almighty pink umbrella (hypnosis)!

New gear... I wonder if they can do something with these bubbles?

Asanuma-kun, one of the few minor characters that may show up again once in awhile in the future.

Kotono doesn't really.

THAT expression. ^_^

Suspicious sisters.

Nothing new here, heading right along...

BURNING MANDALA! (finally a real attack even if the animation doesn't amount to much beyond this frame)

Burned Droids.

Moon Rod... the name is unimaginative enough, thank you, what comes after is worse than Moon Healing Escalation (I kid you not).

WHY is the light gathering next to it?! Especially as in the frame before this it didn't?! Another fine example of making an already utterly bland and simplistic attack even WORSE through sloppy animation. And don't tell me it was meant to be that way, I don't buy it.

Mars gets abducted by blue flames and the wonderful, detailed green blob of glowing light probably meant to be a saucer. Maybe. Perhaps.