Following last week’s Anime Japan event, footage of the upcoming season of Sailor Moon Crystal has made its way to YouTube. SMC Season 3 revisits the ‘Infinity’ arc of Naoko Takeuchi’s manga, previously adapted as the fan-favorite Sailor Moon S storyline by the 1990s anime.
Sailor Moon fans rejoiced in 2013 when Toei announced plans for a twentieth-anniversary reboot of the much-loved show. Then, Sailor Moon Crystal actually came out and met with a reception roughly akin to that of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace or Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, sending a devoted fanbase into serious rage-mode. How did Crystal get it so wrong? Well, there’s a whole hilarious Tumblr devoted to that. Mostly, it boils down to wonky, low-budget animation and an utter lack of character development. Crystal promised to eliminate the monster-of-the-week filler episodes that made up the bulk of the original anime’s 200-episode run, but in doing so the show basically forgot about the rest of the Sailor Senshi, whose distinct, goofy personalities gave the show its heart.
Like a lot of Sailor Moon fans, I’d kinda given up on Sailor Moon Crystal. But, seriously, Season 3 actually looks like it could be pretty good. The video below contains the new opening and ending sequences, and clips from the first two episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 (Acts 27 and 28 of the manga). Check it out:
Though the video is in Japanese, without English subtitles, there’s a lot to see here. Admittedly, things start off a bit wrong-footed, with a remarkably goofy running sequence and some odd naked shots of giant-headed Chibiusa and Hotaru, all set to the tune of the new opening theme. But things soon pick up from there.
We get a glimpse of the rebooted Super Sailor Moon in her upgraded white uniform with white and yellow trim, and a shot of the girls standing on some columns in front of a starlit background gives a nice callback to the original opening titles of Sailor Moon S. There’s a great frame of Sailor Saturn throwing some seriously menacing side-eye and brandishing her Silence Glaive around 50 seconds in, and some lovely-looking scenes of Michiru and Haruka (looking suitably elegant and badass, respectively). Luna and Artemis seem to have gone through a much-needed design tweak, and actually somewhat resemble cats again. The revamped Witches 5 also look pretty fantastic, more than ready to stir up all kinds of fabulously-dressed trouble for the Sailor Senshi.
At around the 7:30 mark, we see Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-Moon’s new transformation sequences. Mercifully, most of the weird CGI that marked earlier Crystal iterations of the transformation sequence are now gone, though there’s still some of the crazy spaghetti-limb action that grated on fans in the first two seasons of the reboot. Nonetheless, it’s a noticeable improvement overall, and the addition of the old-school roses and lace in the background suggest the ‘90s anime will have a greater visual influence on the upcoming season; we can only hope it will help shape the direction of the writing as well.
Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 debuts in Japan on Monday, April 4th. As yet, there is no word on an official U.S. release date, though Seasons 1 and 2 saw episodes with English subtitles on Hulu, Crunchyroll and Viz.com released simultaneously with the Japanese editions. You can also watch the nearly-full run of the original anime (197 of 200 episodes, with the remainder forthcoming) on Hulu and Viz.com.
Are you excited for the upcoming episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal? Do you think the reboot will finally get back on track in its third season? Let us know in the comments!
