My Final Thoughts on Sailor Moon Crystal Season III

Season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal was not as good as the original Sailor Moon S, but a huge improvement on the first two seasons of Crystal and even an improvement on the manga's version too.

This is all my opinion also, you do not have to agree, but please respect my opinions if you disagree.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

What I liked/loved:

The new opening and the first and third endings.

The art and animation were a huge improvement. It was more fluent, the characters looked better and more like a mix between the manga/anime art.

The voice acting was brilliant and some sounded just like the original even (Uranus was the best example, Junko Minagawa is a wonderful VA! ).

The characters were a bit more believable, were hilarious, and felt like their manga counterparts, you can look at them and go "Yup, that's Usagi, yes, that's Ami."

The action was mostly good and felt like action sequences and the Inners were more useful, with their attacks hitting most of the time and the Inners attacked more or did something in nearly every episode compared to its manga counterpart.

I loved the new transformation and attack animations, they were brilliant and exciting, the animation was fluent, the art was cool, I loved the nail polish/symbol spinning and such, and Moon's Super transformation was an improvement on the original.

The story was more faithful to the manga with minimal changes, with some improving the story, like moving the part with the Senshi mourning Moon to the part where Moon jumped into Pharaoh 90.

Sailor Saturn attacking Pharaoh 90 (and Pharaoh 90 himself, glad we get to hear him speak and see his creepy self).

Chibi-Usa and Hotaru's friendship was executed flawlessly.

Some parts brought back fond memories of the 90's anime, like seeing Tomoe and Kaorinite in the lab with lab coats and a scene at the end reminded me of a certain scene in Sailor Stars.


What I felt could have been improved/were flaws:

The art and animation took a nosedive for the two labyrinth episodes and the first episode of the final battle, probably because they spent their budget mostly on the eye candy stuff and parts of the final battle.

The second ending. It was crap, too cutesy, and why are there full grown, adult men singing on a little girls' song?

The pacing. The whole thing with the talismans and the Outers' identities being revealed felt a bit too fast to me, as it's like the first talisman is revealed, it's revealed the mysterious soldiers were Uranus and Neptune, Uranus and Neptune were Haruka and Michiru, the second talisman is found...bit too fast for my tastes.

Despite being more useful, the Inners were mostly shafted to the sidelines and underused. Unlike in Sailor Moon S where they had more focus there too, their character focus episodes unfortunately didn't add anything to their characters or develop them and some felt interchangeable. Sometimes only bits of their personality showed up in parts like the Labyrinth episodes and their focus/introductory episodes, and sometimes they weren't that believable (Mars vs Eudial, Eudial says Mars is studying etiquette, but this is the only time we see Mars concerned with something like that).

Michiru/Neptune's characterization and role. Compared to S, Neptune was just bland, underused, underplayed and just "there" most of the time, which is a flaw that sadly was in the manga too. Sure, she kills all five of the Witches 5, but Neptune here just doesn't stand out or do anything much other than being the "Sailor with the Mirror Talisman". The fact they focus more on Uranus rather than Neptune combined with one other part didn't make the Haruka/Michiru relationship feel believable in the slightest. And in one part the two transform but Neptune just stands there and does nothing...maybe if we saw her use her Submarine Reflection before it would have been better.

Some parts of Haruka/Uranus' character/role. Uranus is too overplayed, I never really got the whole Usagi/Haruka thingy in the manga, Uranus forcing that kiss was a big and creepy "WTF?" moment to me, it never felt like it contributed anything to the plot or left any impact, and Crystal made it worse. The way they showed it again also along with showing scenes with Usagi and Haruka just felt like Toei was more pandering to fans who support that ship. And for the three Outers, why does it have to focus on her the most?

Hotaru being a cyborg. I know it was because her body was fragile, but it would have worked had we seen more of her like that. Just showing it right before she becomes Mistress 9 didn't add any impact or advance the story.

Eudial and Mimette of the Witches 5. I loved them in the 90's anime, but this is a flaw that the manga/Crystal had, they were just there, didn't have much of a personality and got wiped out. At least they made Vilyui out to be smarter than most of them.

Some of the fight scenes felt rushed and lackluster. One episode I felt in particular was the episode with Vilyui and Mercury (on a side note, what's dumb is while we saw Mars use her Burning Mandala, Venus her Love me Chain and Jupiter her Sparkling Wide Pressure, Mercury's Shine Aqua Illusion/Shine Snow Illusion feels like it doesn't exist), all that happens is Mercury's attack is dodged, she's Worfed and made completely useless, the Inners, Moon, Haruka and Michiru show up, and Uranus just defeats Vilyui and she and Neptune leave. Felt rushed and lacking compared to the manga version, the faster pace works better in a manga.

Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask didn't really do much this whole arc minus the Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber and having his own ending song.

I felt Kaorinite and Tomoe's Daimon forms looked a bit stupid, like some silly Pokemon.

Parts of Moon's character and development. It seems like Moon lost most of her flaws that mad her character unlike other versions here, and it was like she was too perfect in a way during this season, though she wasn't completely Mary-Sue like in seasons 1 and 2. She also developed oddly here. The way Moon developed when she had that fear she had in the elevator probably should have happened in the final battle, in the manga, it feels odd that she doesn't think of her friends in the final battle, it would have worked better if she thought about them during the final battle instead of just being all "I'll release the Silver Crystal (which felt like a plot device/Deus ex Machina here) into Pharaoh 90!" ) compared to how she had to make that extremely difficult choice in S, it's as if Naoko put Usagi's development in the wrong place. Crystal did improve upon this by having her think of her friends again protecting her, but it felt a bit belabored, along with all the times we saw the Outers saving the Inners after we're told they had always wanted to fight with the Inners, it made that whole conflict seem a bit contrived. I think that's a flaw in Naoko's work; sometimes things just come out of nowhere and it takes a while to make sense of them.

Professor Tomoe. He pretty much came off like a typical mad scientist, and what really makes me dislike this version of him is that he's pretty much an abusive father to his daughter, basically a heartless jerk who does not care for anyone but himself/Kaorinite/Pharaoh 90. I miss his hilarious/caring side the anime version had, even if it did kinda lead to some confusing stuff (he dies in Another Story yet comes back in Stars?) Thank God Hotaru now has better parents...


The finale/final episode. Compared to the manga/S's finales, while the final battle began in an epic way, it unfortunately finished in a way that felt very rushed and anti-climactic. All that pretty much happened here was Moon came out, the Inners and Outers get super forms for no reason (that didn't really leave an impact on the plot either), Saturn seals Pharaoh 90 away with the help of Pluto, the Outers leave with baby Hotaru, and that's pretty much it minus the other part which could hint at a fourth season...we don't see the Inners finding the Outers' empty apartments nor their helicopters flying off, signaling that their duties are done and they are now heading for their new life with Hotaru...

The whole thing with the destruction and such really felt non-existent compared to the manga and S (which had a better ending than this one also). Apparently Toei can't show people dying now, in the manga it felt real because we could see the people dying and the city being destroyed before being revived, in S, we could see the roadway and Mugen Academy destroyed during the final battle, and we got the sense that Moon had to make a tough choice and that everything seemed to be all for naught there before Moon saved the day, but here, it's like only a few buildings got destroyed, no people were there in Tokyo at all other than the Sailors during this whole final battle compared to what we saw in the manga/S (which had hypnotized students in the episode before the final battle)...were they all on summer vacation or something? The stakes just didn't feel that high compared to the other two versions.

And whilst the ending/beginning of Dead Moon arc was kinda charming and it was funny seeing Usagi and the others being hilarious and finally in high school, it really felt tacked upon and nearly forced, almost like how season 1 ended/2 began, with Chibi-Usa just coming out of nowhere and it not feeling like an ending. The ending didn't feel like an ending, and the way it was executed, it felt that season III ended up building up to a letdown in a way. In my opinion, they made a mistake for putting the cliffhanger in the episode 12 and probably should have just ended it with Saturn appearing and then have her attack and such in the final episode. At least we may be getting the Dead Moon arc which was far better than the Infinity manga arc and the best of all five manga arcs.





The flaws do tend to stick out at times and they do hold the series back a bit compared to the original anime/manga, but fortunately, the flaws most of the time do not outweigh the good parts and it still comes together into a satisfying experience, I'm truly glad we now have a good arc in Sailor Moon Crystal, a good modern Sailor Moon anime, and to partially quote AVGN on his Castlevania II review (pardon my French) we may as well (try to) count Sailor Moon Crystal Season III as the first season in the Sailor Moon Crystal series and leave the Sailor Moon Crystal seasons 1 and 2 alone as they stand today, in my opinion, as two of the biggest *beep*-ups of all time (yeah, I really did not like seasons 1 and 2 of Crystal; if you like them though, I respect your opinion as long as you respect mine). I am glad that I've seen season III, Toei Animation has improved a bit, and I can't wait until Season 4 comes, if it comes, I've got confidence that it will.


My final grade:

On a scale from A-F:

C: Average, nothing too special, but good and worth watching.

On a scale of 1-10:

6/10: Average, decent, worth watching, give it a chance.