Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Cosmos Movie

The Sailor Moon reboot has been a decade-long bumpy ride. From an uninspired start with Sailor Moon Crystal Seasons 1-2, where the adaptation actually tarnished the source material by omitting most humane interactions of its cast and opting for an endless amount of ugly looking melodrama, to an amazing improvement on Season 3, which felt like watching an anime again and more often than not updated certain elements of the manga, to Sailor Moon Eternal that, as confusingly condensed as it was at times, brought back some charm and wit, to Sailor Moon Cosmos, which is by far the best addition to this incarnation of ... the franchise.

The Stars arc is a trendsetter for a lot of existential themes found in shoujo anime. Its symbolism, lore and overall message are by far some of my favorite in japanese animation. The two movies managed to explain several intricate/questionable points and visualized them properly by adding flashbacks/visions. There's not much left unexplained. Some ambiguity remains, but personally, this is why this arc works (weeell, except for the existence of a specific character that requires some mental gymnastics, ifykyk).

Despite the tightly-knit plot, each character feels true to their persona and their interactions completely make each of them shine. Taiki and Yaten are actually likable, who would have thought!

The movie format actually worked rather well here. It reinforces the high stakes and the shock value of the arc. With just three more minutes of screen time, some transitions between scenes would be less abrupt, but I truly think the team did absolutely everything they could to make all the time restrictions cast upon them work.

Director Tomoya Takahashi proved just how important good direction is. He uses flashy transitions, the camera work is eventful, the characters actually move and there's so much amazing lightwork. Actions scenes have energy and emotional scenes actually carry some weight. There were more than a few tears shed.

Even the music is more inspired and enriched despite being composed by the the same composer from previous seasons (Yasuharu Takanashi). The themes of Galaxia, Kakyuu and Cosmos are definitive highlights.

These movies contain the highest highs of the reboot animation-wise. There's much more movement and a somewhat consistent quality all the way through the films. The stock footage, even though it can feel redundant to some, not only is it really beautiful 90% of the time, but has amazing references from the 90s anime (I love nostalgia bait what can I say) and saves some money for the most pivotal scenes, which look absolutely amazing imo. The line-work and the colors are lively and impactful depending on the mood of each scene. I counted like fifteen (?) instances/seconds of wonky animation out of a 160 minute project. If Crystal had started out like this, I wouldn't even mention these moments because there is no such thing as perfection, especially in a Toei production.

Sailor Moon Cosmos was triumphant at what it set out to do, which is a faithful 1:1 adaptation of the manga. For the most part, it managed to embody and successfully decipher the manga arc (even improve upon it in certain ways). I really wish this had been the team working on the reboot from day 1. But I guess it wouldn't be a Sailor Moon project without a few "what if"'s.


8.5/10

Although I have rated this as average, the second part is actually a solid 7.1 because the last 15 minutes the pacing finally slows down, and we get to see the most beautiful animation of Sailor Cosmos (thanks largely in part due to Sidney Deng's contribution to some key frames as well as the transformation for Chibi-Chibi).

So everyone was right in that the pacing for the films is truly not helping the story develop as it should and it's incredibly difficult to relate to characters when you can't even sit with them. Some cringe scenes occured in part I with no rationale behind them, ... such as a character I won't name switching from random dialogue to breaking out in song, also too many scenes occur on the same rooftop.

The star lights barely get any screen time, look I am sorry but that was the big appeal about this arc. They also took away the iconic music when they transform which is a shame. There is a bit of strange back and forth between "are these new fighters our enemies" and "omg the star lights have a concert tonight even though we just found out their real personas" fangirl moments in the same scenes and it's incredibly confusing. We also never get any closure whatsoever and it's the film's biggest flaw. It's fine to follow the manga but I don't get why not add a one-liner with an explanation at least. in the original version (sorry, yes I will mention it) we not only spend a lot of time to get a feel of their individual personalities but we also get closure, even though that respective ending was rushed and left the story largely incomplete. I feel as though you'd need to combine them to get any sort of satisfaction.

Ultimately, the animation in Part II is much improved, similarly to how Eternal films behaved. The final 15 minutes are really beautiful and well done, incredible use of colours and composition, the atmosphere is good, deep insight into characters. It was fantastic to see Galaxia and we got time to spend with her (unlike any of the other villains in Crystal) and understand her background and motivation a bit, which really helped with the world building and storytelling.

The OST was lacking yet again, apart from the intro music. Still largely choir music mixed with piano and some metal. I feel like 70% of the 90s atmosphere was the music composed by Takanori Arisawa, and the remainder 30% the voice acting. The original had a much much darker atmosphere and it was a bit frustrating to see this largely lacking yet again. It is a bit too vanilla when the manga clearly depicts various violent events. These were never translated into the Crystal remake. It can be quite bland in parts without this element.

The VA for Cosmos sounded bored, no idea what happened there. Still, I enjoyed the 2nd episode and thought it was the best the remake could do with the budget and attention. Nice closure and ending. It felt authentic.
It's sad we never got to spend some time with any of the girls and Usagi's friends in the remake, there could have been more scenes showing the girls bond and build on their friendship. you can't rush these things and just show character 1 cry over the death of character 2 with no background whatsoever and expect viewers to care.

The best thing the studio could do for Sailor Moon is remake the 90s version and get rid of the filler episodes.

Total crap and the worst part of this Crystal remake series, which was very mediocre and sometimes outright bad anyway. While the previous parts were directed maybe at 12-13 years old, Cosmos audience have to be some 7 in order to enjoy it. It's emotionally flat, with incoherent plot, too much talking, and lukewarm play of voice actors. The characters' personalities are inconsistent, and they behave in ways that oppose their basic characters. Stupid gags and improper humour ruin the presumably serious mood of this part, with the characters suddenly getting all happy and cheerful right after being sad and broken.

There's nothing good to be ... said about this movie, except maybe for Yasuharu Takanashi's soundtrack. Still, despite all my love for this composer, I appreciate the ost of the old anime much more. Definitely not recommended.