Story: 3/10
The story in both arc's are dreadful, especially; in Black Moon, but let's start with Dark Kingdom. Now, to its credit it does flow very well at least unlike Black Moon. The Dark Kingdom Arc is where everything began and introduces us to Queen Baryl and here generals. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite, as well as the intro to Queen Metaria. Their plans are to find the Imperium Silver Crystal, a.k.a. the Heart of the Moon so that they can take over the world and the universe. (Of course)! It also introduces our main characters Usagi as Sailor Moon, Mamoru as Tuxedo Mask, Ami as Sailor Mercury, Rei as Sailor Mars, Makoto as Sailor Jupiter, and Minako as Sailor Venus and that they are the reincarnated sailor scouts from the Millienium Age before it was destroyed.
The story well it does have a good flow to it has some serious problems. For one thing, it is rushed. There are only 13 episodes per season. Just simply trying to cram everything in together at once and that is not a good thing and I don't care what anybody says by simply saying, "but the 13 episodes follow's the story exactly from the manga." That doesn't mean that, that makes for a good anime guys. It might be good for a manga or comic book but not for an anime. The purpose of adapting a manga into an anime is to give it something more. Like more character development, developing the plot more, expanding the story, and giving the villians a more and better approach. Simply cramming everything together just to get it done and over with is right away the mark of a bad anime. It's the same philosophy for a video game, especially; a movie video game that throws everything at you at once in the kitchen sink at the end shares the same principle.
However; though, I will say that Dark Kingdom did have some good ideas in it that actually did come from the manga but were poorly executed. They either lasted for about just that one episode and got struck down right away. It was because of most of these ideas why we needed to have these seasons expanded, especially; for newer audiences that were coming into this show, but again, didn't give a damn. In fact, I'll just simply call it as it presented itself, lazy. Pure laziness. Despite these poorly; executed ideas though, the story did flow well in Dark Kingdom.
However; the king of the turd lay with the story in Black Moon. By the nine, the story in Black Moon is bad. It's pure lazy, repetitive, tedious, and just plain boring and the major problem with it of all is that the ending fights with the main villians in this one are anti-climatic. Black Moon is my favorite arc in this show because in my personal opinion there was a lot more at stake here and this is the season that I literally; had to force myself through every episode because it was that bad. Every time when one of the new villians, except Rubias, came in for a battle with the scouts got axed right away. The story also made no sense in this reboot. Why was the final battle in the future and not the past like it was in the original and why did the scouts spend so much time in the future in this one? Ugh! Another problem with this series, actually; for both; is that there is no drama. Ok, the drama was built up well for Pluto but that was it. Beyond or before that, there's absolutely no drama, and furthermore; not only is it filled with plot holes but also in my opinion. It has one of the biggest plot holes at the beginning that I've ever seen. I won't mention it on here because that would be a spoiler.
Art: 4/10
Much like the story for Dark Kingdom the art work is overall; not that bad either. At least, again, for the first season. They decided to go back to a water color paint style for the backgrounds which I really like. I've always found water color paint to by one of the best styles to be used in anime's like these because it really brings out the texture for Japanese life styles and housing and was very well done. The animation while having some major problems in it was at the very least ok to get through the first season. Even the transformation scenes didn't look that bad at first. The transformation flowed pretty well and even the element attacks looked pretty good, but again, ONLY, for one season.
For the second season they didn't even try to improve on anything. The animation was perfectly the same. It still had the same flaws that were presented in the first season and just simply gave the middle finger to fans that actually; gave a damn about the animation. Again, lazy! Hell, they actually; had to correct the color in the opening sequence because of you know, laziness. I have never seen such poorly developed animation for a reboot from a classic like Sailor Moon in my entire life. There's no life to it, no energy, and barely any effort put into it for the second season. Ugh!
Sound: 5/10
Once again, we have lazy editorial for this crap for not giving a damn since once again. We have the same repetitive and tedious sounds and music for both seasons. However; with that said, the sound and music is actually; pretty good, especially; the opening and ending themes. I freaking love these two songs. Moon Pride for the opening and Heart Moving for the ending. Heart Moving in my opinion is one of the most beautiful ending themes that I have ever heard in anime. It's heartwarming, it's romantic, and kind of tragic when you think about it. Moon Pride is a great way to open up the show because it's energetic, it's loud, and kind of has a rock theme to it. The background music is pretty good too but once again nothing changes for the second season and I'm gonna leave it at that.
Characters': 2/10
Where do I even begin with this segment? For me personally; this is what KILLED, Sailor Moon Crystal for me and the reason why is because all the characters except Sailor Moon and Endymion are basically; stripped of their personalities. It was their personalities that made a lot of people fall in love with this show to begin with. Amy was the brains of the group and always analyzing the situation and how to get out of tough situations. Rei was the psychic and used those powers in order to either; help out those whom were possessed and could actually sense when something was wrong and evil was nearby. Lita or Makoto was the warrior of the group, (as well as my favorite character until Saturn came out), and could fight outside of her Jupiter form. Minako was the beauty of the group and was the first to become a sailor scout before the others. Actually; in retrospect, she's probably the only scout in this series that has somewhat of a personality while the others don't and it doesn't stop there.
Hell, even Mini Moon or Chibi I think is her actual name feels somewhat stripped of her personality. Yes, she does act sad and does feel distress but I didn't feel the exact impact of her feeling guilty when she took the crystal like we did in the original and hell. When she became Wicked or Black Lady. She was somewhat a little bit diabolical even though she was brainwashed but you actually felt that she was now kind of evil.
It gets better though. Even the villians feel like they don't have a personality, especially; the main villians like Baryl and of course, Wiseman. Wiseman was this big manipulative, diabolical, entity who could easily twist and turn someone with just simply his words but they feel empty here. Even his voice doesn't help. His voice in the original was big and loud and helped give him a personality and he barely does anything in this series. Hell, not only do nearly all the villians feel like they have no personality but also feel like that they are doing absolutely; NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Their just damn dissapointing and underplayed, just like the main characters.
Futhermore; it doesn't help either that the scouts don't really fight off the villians together most of the time. It feels like Sailor Moon is the one doing all the work hence why she's probably the only scout that actually has a personality. Ugh!
Enjoyment: 2/10
I'm gonna keep this one simple and short. Did I enjoy this reboot? Hell no, but to its credit, (what little it deserves). At least for the first season there were some good ideas but again, poorly executed and there was nothing for the second season. It was mainly flawed, repetitive, tedious, boring, and the fact that nearly every character was stripped of their personality didn't help much either. Again, pure laziness!
Overall: 3/10
My overall score for both seasons of this rebooted anime of Sailor Moon Crystal is a 3/10. It would be a 1 or 2/10 if not for some of the effort that actually showed in the Dark Kingdom reboot. I would strongly recommend that if you're just coming into Sailor Moon to NOT watch these two series as a starting point. Go and watch something else because there are better stuff out there. Hell, go and watch the 90's original anime. It is a classic and is the perfect intro if you're just coming into this franchise. If you liked this reboot, more power to you, but I didn't and I will not return to it again, but. I have heard that for the third arc, Infinity or Death Busters that they have a new director and art team for it. So, since I am fair I am going to give that series one chance but one chance only, but mark my words. If they screw up the intro to my favorite scout in this one. There will be hell to pay.
