Genvid & Dies Gaudii Forums

Just retracing the manga and...

There was virtually no development. A new character was introduced every chapter for the first 7 chapters, then they essentially spent the rest of the arc in a final battle or preparing for final battle.

There is absolutely no reason to care for Ami, Rei, Or Makoto because we know next to nothing about them, their personalities, or past. We don't meet their families, we don't see how they live their day to day lives, what they are like at school, ect... Minako's only development is via Sailor V. Luna has no development either. We hardly even get to see how the girls interact with each other, much less what their overall personalities are like. When these characters lives are threatened, I can't help but feel as a viewer "who really cares about them?".

The romance plot is no better than in the Anime. Usagi and Mamoru had met each other less less than ten times before falling in love, and All but one of their meetings is very brief. At least in the much maligned Anime version of the romance, Usagi and Mamoru had met each other 30+ times. The only memories they have together are from their past lives, and that means next to nothing to me as a viewer.

And the villains? Poor guys. We don't know anything about most of them.

The humor was largely non existent compared the other versions.

I can't help but feel underwhelmed compared to the Anime or PGSM versions.

Actually, most people would disagree with the romance in the anime portrayed better. The manga portrayed their relationship to bickering to amiable to lovers better. The romance development in the anime was rather abrupt compared to the manga. In the anime, she had just began to think of Mamoru as someone she could like as a friend on the elevator and then.. booom.. they're forced to transform and learn of their past memories. The manga did a better job of showing their journey of bickering to friends to lovers better. I do agree with PGSM since PGSM had Usagi choose between her crush(Tuxedo Kamen) and her love(Mamoru Chiba). She eventually chose her love(Mamoru).

I have to somewhat agree. I couldn't really get into the manga's version of the Dark Kingdom storyline. I read the entire manga all the way through almost 2 years ago. And for me, it didn't really pick up until the Crystal Tokyo story.

I perfer the manga really, its more serious and the battles are much deeper and felt more consequential, the whole monster of the day just made the show feel as if it was being dragged on

I'm still trying to figure out the x pairing. Was it necessary for to get confused or get into an identity crisis?

The action scenes also had problems. Its usually just any character raising their hand or wand. Then the enemy either gets hurt, transforms to something else then a sailor does another attack then vaporizes the enemy.

And sucks here. Her Aqua Mist and Snow Shine Illusion wasn't really that effective against Jadeite and Berthrite. And she lost to Viluy. I still have to read the Dream arc though. But this really isn't 's best version for the first 3 arcs.

The Dream arc isn't much better for Ami. She kills a few lLemures but her attack couldn't even break a freaking mirror. Makoto had to finish the job with her fist. It was a truly embarrassing moment I thought for Ami. Apparently Jupiter Punch> Mercury Aqua Rhapsody.

As for the topic, I thought the first manga arc was vastly superior to the anime. Not so much in characterization but the actual presentation of the story was just so much better. And we're going to have to agree to disagree on the Usagi/Mamoru romance. The anime completely and utterly dropped the ball on that. I swear it's like they didn't even try. Felt like an afterthought. The manga depiction of it was richer, deeper, and just all around better. The anime couldn't be bothered to even try to do it justice in the first and even subsequent seasons. It comes off as too one sided on Usagi's part. I haven't seen or have any intention of ever watching PGSM so I can't vouch on how the relationship was depicted in that version.

PGSM Usagi is torn between Tuxedo Kamen and Mamoru (not knowing they're the same guy), and ultimately chooses Mamoru. PGSM Mamoru breaks off his engagement to his fiance (or rather, she breaks it off, suspecting his feelings for her have faded, in order to make him happy) to be with Usagi.

I agree with you for the most part. I was disappointed after reading the manga for the first time. Though there are a number of things I appreciate, like the whole suicide angle, the climax of the manga doesn't even close to the climax of the anime. Those last 2 episodes of Sailor Moon are probably the best episodes ever made, imo.

I actually find the anime better overall. I hate sounding like I'm bashing Naoko Takeuchi, but her villain character development left a lot to be desired. Most of the time, they seemed like little more than generic evil bad guys with no personality whatsoever.

It's mostly the same thing in the anime, only most of them turn good in the end instead of just being destroyed. So then they become generic happy good guys with only slightly more personality.

Personally, I'm all for the occasional redemption, but I favor the irreedeemable baddies like Queen Beryl was in both anime and manga. Because sometimes, I just want to see an unrepentent psycho get what's coming to him/her.

To be fair, the original came before the anime, so there was a sense of trial and error in the first story arc by the time the anime hit.

The anime and manga ran at the same time in Japan, simultaneously side-by-side.

I'm afraid I'm on the anime team too. There are some cool things in the manga, enough that I want a new adaptation, but the much reviled anime fillers did wonders for getting us to know and care about these girls.

Then I suppose she tried two different approaches, and one worked and one didn't.

Most villains die in the anime as well. And I have to agree that the anime really gave the villains more character development. But I thought they still were cool in the manga.

But regarding the first arc, it was just the beginning, the introductions were made, of course we didn't see that much interaction between characters. I know now that Sailor Moon was supposed to be just the first story arc, but it well it wasn't like that, so luckily we see more of the character development later on instead.
I didn't have any problem, since the story was still entertaining.

Naoko made the manga. Staff members at Toei adapted her work into the anime. Naoko wasn't as involved with the anime as she was the manga and PGSM.

I had two issues with the manga. The first was that the villains did not get enough character development. The second was that it felt very formulaic. It would always be Moon chapter, Merc chapter, Mars chapter, Jupiter chapter, Venus chapter, other chapter, coming together, kill the badguy. You sometimes might some variation like an extra chapter added or one of them being extended for multiple chapters. But, it never really completely shook up the order in my opinion.

For the anime it dropped the ball on Usagi/Mamoru. It also made me sad that Ami, Rei and Makoto never did anything of overall plot importance to the season long arcs. They only really got to do anything important in single episodes. You could write Ami, Rei and Makoto out of the overall plot and not lose anything. Minako only gets to stay because of Sailor V, but after that she doesn't have much importance at all.

Overall, PGSM is my favorite version. I felt it took the good parts of the manga, Usagi/Mamoru relationship, and the good parts of the anime, greater character and villain development, and then added their own splash to keep it from being the same old thing.

But, yeah, I do agree that the first arc of the manga wouldn't have stood up very well if it had been the entire story like it was originally planned.

Yeah, but most of them were innocent people that were brainwashed, corrupted, or bamboozled into serving evil. I'm talking about the pure evil villains, those that were never good to begin with.

It also irked me that many of the ultimate baddies didn't die in the manga, the only ones that did were Queen Beryl, Death Phantom, and Mistress 9; everyone else was either sealed or spared. Also the anime makes Sailor Moon look like Jesus with no character flaws at all; like an ultimate Mary Sue. I prefer the manga heavily because of that.

Do you mean in the anime? Because in the manga, all the ultimate baddies die. And in the anime, Pharoah 90 dies, too.

Yeah, meant anime.

I don't agree with that. Her social and academic life is as flawed as it gets, and her purity became a serious draw back many times in S. It's only really at season finishers that she gets much right...

I personally liked the anime better then the manga or PGSM especially in the first season. I loved the story as well as the characters and I was also happy that the villains actually got character development.. There were things that should have been added to the anime such as an elaboration or Beryl and the Shittenou's story plus the romance between Usagi and Mamoru was handled better in the manga however it was still done well in the anime.

that's true, I can't seem to enjoy or get into the manga as much as the anime or even pgsm

I even enjoy the dub more

That probably has more to do with the fact that Chiba is much more into Usagi in the manga.

that may have something to do with it

Mamoru loves Usagi just as much in the anime as he does in the other continuities. The only difference is that their romance did not get the spotlight it deserved as often.

I know, but, anything to get Rose's goat.

my goat?

There are some things that I feel the manga did better with. First off, I HATE the rainbow crystal BS in the anime. I feel like if they would have just made the crystals control the Seven Youma, and not have been the Ginzuishou it would have been much better for the story line. If Usagi had only hunted the crystals in order to destroy them so the Dark Kingdom wouldn't have used them, ya know? But since that isn't the case, I prefer the manga. All in all, In my head, the Ginzuishou will always be Usagi's heart and not some combination of crystals.

Also, I like that the Moon Kingdom was restored in the manga. However, I wish they would have built more on that.

I feel like Naoko gave us less insight on the Dark Kingdom's members (excuse me if this sounds weird, it's hard to put my thoughts to words) because maybe there weren't supposed to have stories because of their low value to Beryl and Metallia, and that's what Naoko was trying to portray. They didn't have back stories because Beryl wouldn't allow them back stories.

However, I do agree with you that I wish we could have gotten to know the main characters more in the manga. It made it less sad when they died because I didn't really know them.