Sailor Moon Crystal (Dark Kingdom arc)

I can't tell you how long I've waited for Sailor Moon Crystal. Ever since it was announced, like, forever ago, I've been dying to watch it. I pulled an all-nighter the day the first episode was released. (It was actually because the house was making weird noises and I couldn't sleep, but you know. I was awake at 6am when they made the video live.)

Because I'm writing this review in Jan 2015, I'm only covering what has been released so far. 

Sailor Moon Crystal is a remake of the original Sailor Moon anime from over 20 years ago. It's super faithful to the manga. After each new episode, I go back and re-read the manga chapter, and there are little to no changes between the two. It's amazing. I think that's my favorite aspect of the new anime -- there's no filler, it's so much more concise, and it's a slightly different plot from what was originally animated.

The biggest complaint I've heard on the internet is the quality of animation. From what I've heard, Crystal relies entirely on ad revenue because it's not being broadcast traditionally, so they have a much smaller budget to work with. It's honestly not that much worse than the original anime at the very beginning, and I'm pretty sure they're correcting the animation mistakes for the Blu-Ray release. (I'm assuming they're fixing it for DVD, too, but I only saw tweeted screenshots with the Blu-Ray mentioned, so I'm not entirely sure.) Sailor Moon is probably the only anime that I'll endure ads for -- partially because Viz and Hulu won't stream with AdBlock enabled, but I've also learned to appreciate the time that ads give me to check my notifications.

Crystal also has given me a sense of community that I never had with the original anime. I didn't get into the original until well after it had stopped airing on tv, and for the longest time I didn't really know anyone else that had watched it. Crystal has given me the kind of excitement I've heard people talk about with the original -- waking up early to watch it, anticipating each new episode, that kind of thing. I know it's not quite the same since I know what's going to happen, but I still appreciate it.

I've also strengthened a friendship with one of my classmates because we both watch it. Every Monday after a new episode, we'll both be like, "Did you watch it?" and then we'll get to talk for a few minutes before and after class about what we thought. I love that.

I'm super super excited to see what the Black Moon arc brings! I was a little worried that the series would stop at 13 episodes, so I'm really glad that we get to see Chibiusa in the remake.

Overall, though, I'm not really sure I can say that one version of the anime is better than the other. Crystal is great, but the original allows for more depth in both the plot and the characters. The other senshi don't get as much of a focus in Crystal because there's more attention to the plot, and I honestly kind of miss the kinds of dynamics they had in the original. Also, I really missed the kind of relationship Usagi and Mamoru had before they got their memories back from before they were reincarnated. I really enjoyed that Usagi didn't fall for him right away, something that bothers me a little bit with Crystal and the manga. I understand that part of it is probably because they'd already been in love, that it was something that "transcended time and space", but I loved their initial interactions in Sailor Moon.

Long story short: I'd recommend Crystal to basically everyone.