Now that I have your attention, did anyone else start rewatching it after the thread about what version to watch the other day? I vaguely remember watching the old dub when it was first airing in the US back in the 90s, and watching the remastered dub now I'm surprised at how well it holds up, all things considered. Except for the heavy overuse of flashing lights as a cheap to animate special effect, that part fucking sucks since I have to either physically cover my eyes or alt-tab until it's through with it.
I also keep getting distracted trying to pick out all the little labor saving animation tricks they used and trying to figure out how they managed to make such janky animations actually look decent, as well as wondering why modern low-budget animation can't manage the same effect even though modern tools should make it even easier and faster to use the old stylistic tricks. Is it just a matter of janky cell animation needing a very specific set of skills that no one today cultivates in order to look good?
I've just gotten through the tree arc. Weirdly, despite being 46 episodes long the first season felt like it was fairly well paced for the content it had; there were definitely filler episodes but it didn't really drag all that much, and the in-episode pacing got better the further into it it got. In comparison the first arc of the second season felt like an absolute slog, despite being much shorter - most episodes felt like nothing really happened and the action scenes getting taken over by increasingly long reused move sequences got old fast. While that particular labor saving trick is understandable in context - you make one intricately animated sequence and then use it over and over and over indefinitely instead of spending more on bespoke animations - goddamn if it doesn't get tiring to watch.
There's also the issue that while overall it seems much better than one would expect something from the early 90s to be, there's some creepy shit with a central conceit of the story being that the 14 year old main character is the fated soulmate of a guy who seems to be in his early 20s because the moon despot did a Third Impact after some guys with swords ran to the moon on a cloud, and that their relationship is portrayed 100% positively with him being a moral compass who's helpful but never oversteps the main character's personal agency. I can't decide if it gets some credit for making him an impossibly perfect passive wish fulfilment object for the main character (and thus does better than the typical anime things where he would be the viewer insert and Usagi would be the viewer wish-fulfilment prize) or if that just makes it worse by narratively contriving to make a relationship that would be extremely creepy and predatory IRL ontologically ok.
Overall though, it's a decent nostalgia trip that's making me realize just how formative it was on my imagination as a kid, and even now is making me think a lot about the technical and structural parts. But if the pacing doesn't get better in the second arc of season two I don't know if I'll manage to get through it, and I might just stop and go watch the much shorter reboot instead.
Yeah. Like apart from the age gap it's probably one of the best handled fantasy-perfect-romance-wish-fulfilment relationships, since he's just written as this wholesome and helpful figure who never steals the spotlight or takes over for the main character; like he's not some powerful prince who Usagi surrenders her agency to, he's just another magically superpowered being who's actively weaker than her but who still makes a difference by showing up to help too.
I just had to comment on it because it's been the one big issue that sticks out while I've been watching it.
For some reason I thought Utena was earlier. I never finished watching that after forgetting what episode I was on, I think it was around when the weird shoe thing started?
the shoe thing? if i'm thinking of the right thing,
minor utena spoilers
akio is actively grooming utena, and the show is incredibly aware of how creepy that is. this is the bit i was talking about that feels inspired by sailor moon, in like a "what if you actually had an adult man dating a 14 year old" kind of way
anyways, i would definitely recommend finishing utena, i think it ends super strongly
The movie is also really great - lots of really cool surreal visuals
Something about coffins and pairs of shoes. It was all very obtuse and I assumed relying on cultural references I didn't get. I'm thinking of when there was some weird morbid secret society thing, I may be conflating details of it with something else and synthesizing nonsense trying to remember it. I don't remember much, and I don't remember anything past that, but I have no clue what episode I was on.
ohhh, that was much earlier than i thought. you're about 14 episodes in. i don't think you were necessarily missing anything culturally, that's just where the series starts to get real weird
Ok, looking at the episode list I guess that's where that arc starts? Then I remember the cowbell thing which is apparently after. I'll have to poke around at some point to figure it out, once I'm done trying to binge watch sailor moon.
if you have any utena questions feel free to @ or dm m. and i hope you have fun with sailor moon!