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REVIEW: Sailor Moon BD+DVD Part Two


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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:06 pm Reply with quote
@residentgrigo

Just wondering, what do you mean by "OG?" when you're talking about the original anime? Do you mean original generation?

I will also admit, looking back at the manga, Michiru (Neptune's identity name) was probably one the most underutilized characters in the manga, not in the anime.

====================================================

@Princess_Irene

I see. I don't find it irritating, but we've all different opinions.

Did you know interestingly, in episodes 44-46 of this set, Usagi was actually voiced by Kae Araki (who later did Chibi-Usa) instead of Kotono Mitsuishi?

It was because Kotono was ill and I heard she needed her appendix removed; it was only until the episode where Usagi got her next power up.

{Merged serial posts. ~nobahn}
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KarmaRocketX



Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:24 pm Reply with quote
Review: "It is funny, but it smacks a bit of ADV's old Ghost Stories dub as well."

Really???? You think so??

That's weird, I must have missed all the parts where Usagi refers to Mamoru as a "Jew-hating, Neo-Nazi", all of the countless Fox News jokes, The lines of Rei referring to Minako as a "Raging Dyke", and the 20 variations of endlessly repeating rape jokes.


Seriously though if you're going to resort to exaggeration and hyperbole in your criticism, you might not want to use examples like ADV's Ghost Stories as a comparison, if you're trying not to sound like a {Please be polite. Thank you. ~nobahn} when making them.
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:32 pm Reply with quote
Please be polite. If you cannot say anything polite, then don't say anything at all.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:32 pm Reply with quote
KarmaRocketX wrote:
Review: "It is funny, but it smacks a bit of ADV's old Ghost Stories dub as well."

Really???? You think so??

That's weird, I must have missed all the parts where Usagi refers to Mamoru as a "Jew-hating, Neo-Nazi", all of the countless Fox News jokes, The lines of Rei referring to Minako as a "Raging Dyke", and the 20 variations of endlessly repeating rape jokes.


Or turning Usagi discussing the Dark Kingdom with Rei into a joke about Christian Bale being a hottie in Dark Knight....Oops, wait, sorry, wrong messed-up dub. Razz

(I've seen the changes, and they're not much--
We're not talking the Disney Porco Rosso, where they just started to be arbitrary about it.)
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:03 pm Reply with quote
Glad to read your reviews. They always make me think. I'm buying this for the new dub. I really like it. I'm not a video expert, but I do notice several things off with the quality and it does bug me.

I also did not like the choice to leave lyrics in romanji. Even the booklet with the lyrics in it that came with Part 1 LE does not translate the song completely either. The original lyricist wanted it that way. Confused

Quote:

What is the real draw to these episodes, apart from formerly missing content (and that hot springs episode really could have stayed lost), is the growth of the characters.


Umm, I assume you're talking about episode 40? I'm confused about writing it could stay lost though, since it was dubbed with not too many alterations as I remember in English in the 90s too. Unless you just disliked the episode that much, in which case I would be curious why? It's one of the most memorable episodes of the season for me. I feel it does showcase different aspects of Usagi's growth and the parts of her character with her family.

Quote:
Some of the imagery is more sexualized than you might have expected, with one sea-themed monster shooting...stuff...from her breasts; more interesting is the fact that non-manga episodes or sillier ones have a distinct increase in panty shots. (Plus one weird one where Mercury falls over and Jupiter makes an odd face while looking up her skirt.)


Personally I've been more surprised by a lot of chatter about sexualization in the classic series (and Crystal). In all the years I've been a fan I've never given any of the things people have been bringing up recently a second thought. Once, I remember a part of the manga where one of the girls was fetishized. It sparked a discussion on an online Sailor Moon community that I gave consideration too. That's it. I'm not saying its an improper topic for discussion. Or of no value, especially in an evaluation of what is a more mainstream series. Maybe I've just gotten immune. Still, I swear sometimes people are going somewhere in their minds on their own. All the talk about it is beginning to weird me out. Sorry. Embarassed
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:24 pm Reply with quote
@KarmaRocketX

Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked

What the hell are you saying? Do you even know what you're talking about?
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ParkerALx



Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
@KarmaRocketX

Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked

What the hell are you saying? Do you even know what you're talking about?


He's citing examples from the Ghost Stories gag dub to point out how absurd it was for the reviewer to compare Viz's Sailor Moon dub to it.
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Princess_Irene
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Joined: 16 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:37 pm Reply with quote
katscradle wrote:
Glad to read your reviews. They always make me think.


Wow, thank you. That really makes me happy.

Quote:

Umm, I assume you're talking about episode 40? I'm confused about writing it could stay lost though, since it was dubbed with not too many alterations as I remember in English in the 90s too. Unless you just disliked the episode that much, in which case I would be curious why? It's one of the most memorable episodes of the season for me. I feel it does showcase different aspects of Usagi's growth and the parts of her character with her family.


You're right - on that front, it is a good episode, and since this review was already over 1300 words, I had to do a lot of trimming. What I was unimpressed by was the Tuxedo Mask aspect of it; it felt silly and shoehorned into an otherwise nice story about Usagi getting to just be Usagi. I also wasn't thrilled spoiler[with the rest of the gang randomly showing up; it felt like it took away from the positive aspects of the episodes.]

Quote:
I'm not saying its an improper topic for discussion. Or of no value, especially in an evaluation of what is a more mainstream series. Maybe I've just gotten immune. Still, I swear sometimes people are going somewhere in their minds on their own. All the talk about it is beginning to weird me out. Sorry. Embarassed


Things can get really intense when the subject of sexualization comes up, especially with a nominal kids' show like, well, most of the magical girls. I think it is generally a conversation worth having - it actually just came up in my YA Lit class - and that the issue has gotten confused with the appeal of magical girls to a demographic outside the (original) target audience. It's interesting as well to think about it in terms of what it does for the little girl viewers; Rika in The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls is a good example of a child wanting to project a more mature, sexier image based on the media she's seen. (In her case starring her idol-singer big sister, but you know what I mean.) There's also the question of sexuality versus sexualization - in the manga spoiler[Usagi has sex with Mamoru in original volume 5], and that sends a different message than random panty shots.

Hmm...is that tl;dr? Sorry! Laughing

EDIT: The Ghost Stories comment was in no way intended to imply that the Sailor Moon dub literally was like ADV's gag, and I'm sorry that was confusing. It was intended to indicate that it was in the spirit of overdone gags and excessive camp.


Last edited by Princess_Irene on Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8499
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:39 pm Reply with quote
Granted, the dub does sneak a little bit of "humor" unrelated to the original script, but it's not even DBZ English dub level of persistent, and it's certainly not a gag dub like Ghost Stories.
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ParkerALx



Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:50 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:

EDIT: The Ghost Stories comment was in no way intended to imply that the Sailor Moon dub literally was like ADV's gag, and I'm sorry that was confusing. It was intended to indicate that it was in the spirit of overdone gags and excessive camp.

That makes sense. I can see how people could see a similar overdone style to both. My apologies if I sounded a little harsh in that post above yours. I greatly enjoyed your review overall, and only took issue with that one reference. Thanks for continuing to point out the releases' visual flaws. Cool
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Princess_Irene
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:03 pm Reply with quote
No worries, ParkerALx. Smile I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of the review!
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:16 pm Reply with quote
ParkerALx wrote:
Sailor Sedna wrote:
@KarmaRocketX

Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked

What the hell are you saying? Do you even know what you're talking about?


He's citing examples from the Ghost Stories gag dub to point out how absurd it was for the reviewer to compare Viz's Sailor Moon dub to it.


I see.
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2577
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:20 pm Reply with quote
@Sailor Sedna. Yes Naoko complained about that aspect the most in the notes. The Sailor Stars arc may be the most WTF worthy change in the adaptation but Kunihiko Ikuhara really got to mess with the story when he was given Neptune X Neptune to play with. The original 4 came way short and the 2´s back story and behavior pattern were just ... well not really from the source.

Frankly all the new-ish back stories and motivations for the girls are a mess with Rei´s being the winner as they turned her into a new character that lacked all the grace of the OG version.
I not saying that the girl´s meager story´s made sense in the manga (who are their parents again?) as they came way too short but i take what i get. The biggest problem with both version (i will never touch the life action tv show) is how quickly the cast exploded so characterizations were spread very thin but the manga at least decided to focus Usagi, Mamoru (the last arc was VERY bad for him) and Chibiusa with the rest only becoming important when the plot needed them. Some parts (the circus arc!) are thus very disjointed but i at least i got 3 characters go see developed and that is better then over a dozen with NO development at all.
The Sailor Stars further sucked in both versions and the series should have focus on the reformed circus girls or whoever else instead. Or you know ended with Vol.15 and then just showed the marriage with an epilogue for the rest. My score would have gone up by 1 in that case. It´s clearly these 3 character´s journey in the manga and Mamoru is even called the second lead in the authors notes towards the end with which i agree as the last page is a point of view shot by him.
Anime Usagi though is horrible, he was aged up and messed around with in general and the likable Chibusa was turned into Scrappy-Doo. This is the anime in a nutshell and the show´s ending is also just Mad . Even 9 year old me felt cheated but the manga´s ending feels complete. Some of the girls were supposed to have died which makes a lot of sense if you consider the mood at the end but editorial decided that their marketing puppets needed to stay "damage free".
Working for a BIG shonen/shoujo magazine sound like hell if you ask me.

Then there is the lovey original manga art but i found weird is how frequent the proportions changed. Breast got smaller or bigger by the page and some of the grade school girls looked like gravure idols. I mentioned the big amount of fan service before and let´s not get me started on the legs/hands or the skirts. That the anime did right i will admit. One design ONLY but endless filler, a well documented breakneck production schedule with a gap of only 2/3 months between manga and anime just couldn't work. Look at what the studio is now doing to One Piece to see that we learned nothing. Guess which anime i am not watching? Let´s not forget the excessive amount of filler or the infamous filler animations of which there are none in the manga but both have very bad action scenes to be fair. Clamp managed that aspect well with Sakura and it is the slightly better franchise even if it´s pretty crazy in regards to "Clamp-sexuality". Loli X Teacher engagement (in the manga) anyone?

Thus i can´t and won´t like the 90´s anime and am glad that the classic is now getting the treatment it deserves. The final note in Vol. 18 is that Naoko wants to get married which is very ironic but i like that Usagi was pregnant (was she even 18 as Saturn was still a child?) before the ceremony which was a nice touch. Which modern (all ages) magical girl show would pull half of the stuff the manga did and Usagi and the rest are even core gamers! Our modern magical girl shows are seinen only for the most part and even the ones for girls cater to these "gentlemen" too. So the girls are younger, will stay "pure" 4ever, no boys will show up and so on as we need to sell an ideal. I call these innocence porn (Madoka is fine so stop screaming) but Naoko at least tried to sell a full story even if execution was a bit hum ho. It´s would have been nice if she would do short form passion projects and not not just be Mr. HxH´s waifu but she was worked to the bone at a young age so off the board she went. A shame as i see a lot of room to grow.
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1095
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad I'm only buying the DVD-only releases. The BD's, like everyone says, look really bad. I usually don't notice these kinds of things and let it slide, but with these even I can see that it went very wrong somehow.

Not that the DVD's look great either, but they're watchable for me and they're way cheaper. I'm also very satisfied about the new dub, it's fantastic.
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:44 pm Reply with quote
@residentgrigo

I thought the Stars manga arc was mostly better; but I still mostly prefer the anime series, and I don't think anime Usagi is "horrible." I liked Uranus and Neptune, heck, most of the characters in the anime better (they sadly didn't get much development in the manga, and Uranus saying she'll take advantage of Usagi once and kissing Sailor Moon? WTF?) And Chibi-Usa pretty much acted the same in both versions to me. I think the anime is great; I just prefer it. I like the manga, but no offense, I don't understand how people say the manga is better.

Also, I don't get the whole "sexuality" thing with Sailor Moon and magical girl anime/manga in general...

Another thing, Crystal, from what I've seen, hasn't really been faithful to the manga...
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