Take a deep breath.
Via YNN Correspondent and the First Lady of Yuricon, and from Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary Twitter account, the trailer for Sailor Moon Crystal‘s 3rd season is here!
本日は「美少女戦士セーラームーン」第3期デス・バスターズ編新キャラクター海王みちるのお誕生日です！
こちらのツイート1000RT達成で“海王みちるオリジナルバースデー画像”をプレゼント！#海王みちる生誕祭#セーラームーン3期 pic.twitter.com/9s2Rc0adb8— セーラームーン30th公式 (@sailormoon30th_) March 6, 2016
Breathe. Then notice how well Haruka and Michiru have been drawn – especially when compared with the earlier two seasons. (Or indeed as compared with the Inners, as can be seen in this comparison of two frames from the trailer by my wife.)
Wouldn’t it be amusing if history repeats itself and the third season, with a different director, is just leaps better animated than the first two seasons? For how much of this can we thank director Kon Chiaki, the first female director to run this show?
Just for fun, let’s notice all the things we don’t see in this trailer. We see Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, the three Talismans and the Witches Five. There’s two notably missing elements – Hotaru appears, but not (yet) Sailor Saturn, which makes sense as she’s the big reveal and Uranus and Neptune’s attacks. I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited to see those in the new animation. ^_^
So take a deep breath and rewatch – and remind yourself that the story isn’t a mystery, it’ll be identical to the manga – and wait with the rest of us to see Sailor Moon Crystal, Season 3, starting in April 2016!
The show has also switched character designers from Yukie Sako to Akira Takahashi, and I genuinely think that the new designs seem a better bet for adaptation to animation. (Takahashi worked as a producer on Sailor Stars, but likely rings a bell for more folks as the character designer for Heartcatch Precure.) My very nuanced way of putting it is that the designs are a bit less wispy ^^;
Although I did not finish SMC, I am absurdly excited about this third season. I should be careful to temper my enthusiasm, but details like the fact that the ED will be a duet by Haruka and Michiru’s VAs make it difficult to. Looking forward to April!
The duet was also a selling point for me.
I appear to be the only one I know with no actual problems with Crystal. The biggest hurdle is that the anime made it overseas first so the fandom isn’t really interested in the manga, as such. I like the manga for itself, although I have to admit I’m dying to see the trainwreck end animated. ^_^
For me, for SMC, it wasn’t really so much that I had a problem with it as it failed to engage me at the point in time that I tried to watch it. Which, alright, *is* a problem when we’re talking about a piece of entertainment, but my overall feelings toward it simply aren’t strong in any direction. I’ll think from time to time, “Hmm, I should finish that.”, but never feel much compelled to; in contrast, this third season has re-piqued my interest. (And this, I’ll add, may be partly due to timing, as I rather impulsively decided to start re-watching Sailor Moon S a couple of weeks ago and as a result was feeling really enthused about Haruka and Michiru anyway when this trailer appeared.)
When people used to ask me why I liked Sailor Moon, I always replied “time and place.” But for me, the appeal continues in whatever form: musicals, live-action. No matter how cheeseball, I love it. (Probably more if it is cheeseball, frankly.)
To be honest my favourite sailor moon couples were venus and mars, Hotaru and Chibi-usa. Sailor Moon is based upon two greek myths, The Tragedy of Selene and Endymion and The Comedy of Naxos and THE SON OF SATURN. A good place to go for greek mythology is http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta.html.