Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon Crystal: Wait... Didn't I do this 4 weeks ago?

"Hi you 20-40 somethings that enjoy sticking to your childhoods! Did you like Sailor Moon growing up? Have you heard how much better the Japanese version is? Well here you go, have the first three seasons redubbed and restictionless now that we don't need to worry about the TV sensors. What's that? You want a new show? Well then take this, the first three seasons with all the filler removed in a brand new art style! That's what you meant by a new show right? No? Too bad!"-A Viz media representative... probably (not really).

As cynical as that might sound, I'm not really joking, that's all this is, it's Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S compressed down to around 13 episodes each reanimated with all the advances Japanese animation has made since the 90's. I said on Twitter that I wasn't going to review the Viz dubs, but it looks like I am anyway. Let's close of this marathon with where we started, Sailor Moon Crystal.

The first thing I want to get to though is the localization, because, to me at least, this is both the best, and one of the worst localizations I've seen for this franchise. The reason for it though comes down to how faithful of a dub it is. The new voice director is good, and the cast are a lot better then the Cloverway dub overall, but there are some lines that don't really work when in English. Alongside the use of the Japanese names, most of which are similar to what the older dubs called them I will admit, they did reintroduce things like the scouts reffering to themselves as Pretty Guardians. It might just be that I'm going at this after watching the four previous dubs, but even with the better direction, it's hard to take some of these changes seriously. They play those up as big, important things to the characters, but if I was one of the villains in this franchise, I'd probably die of laughing because they say those with a straight face. It sounds stupid in English. The thing about me with Localization is that a good English Dub of a show, even if it's not as faithful to the source material, makes the changes needed for the feel of the show to work in other countries. If it requires name changes, fine, replacing lines of dialogue to let the writing flow better in a different language? Fine. I draw the line when it comes to full on censorships like how Cloverway handled Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, but unlike to others, it's a soft line that can be changed depending on context for me. In regards to the names though, with how similar some of them are, I don't know why Viz didn't do the dub of Crystal to the western names, it would have been a nice bit of detail for fans who have only seen the English Dubs. I know I'm nitpicking here, but considering what I'm working with on this one, I need something to pad this review out.

I don't even feel the need to talk about the story. Again, it's Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, and Sailor Moon S with all the filler hacked out of them. It does make each of the stories feel rushed now, but that's due to the differences between a comic/ manga, and a tv show of some description. Filler doesn't really become a problem, at least for me, until it throws the pace of the story off. Spending more times with villains? That's fine. Taking 30 episodes to get from one place to another, or airing the same episode over seven times? That's a problem. It's why I never really had a problem with the filler of the shows, more that almost every episode was a monster of the week story. When you're marathoning shows like I am for the sake of reviews, that gets really boring really quickly. In that regard, Crystal's better, but in terms of a watching a show at a more leisurely pace, the older shows are better paced.

That being said though, while this looks visually impressive, I don't see why it needs to exist. Viz have now redubbed all three seasons with the new cast, and I'm sure many fans would rather see a new story, something more original. If Crystal existed without the redubs, then fine. If the redubs existed without Crystal, then fine. Do both of these need to exist though when the audience they're aimed at want new stories? Heck, why not dub the one season that didn't make it over to the west, Sailor Moon Stars. Again, this has great production value, but it just feels wasted due to the redubs.

It's weird to be closing out the marathon like this. Crystal's not a huge high to leave on, but also not a dissapointing bomb either. It's just kinda there, made all the worse at the fact that the points I have on the stories themselves, I've brought up before in the reviews of the first three seasons. If you want to see the stupid at times localization, watch the DiC and Cloverway dubs. If you want to see a more faithful dub, watch the Viz redubs, if you want to see a more faithful dub that looks pretty and gets rid of all the padding, watch Crystal? Yeah... that's the best I've got... See you on Sunday for the next Toybox review...