When finding out that they were going to do another adaptation of the series, I was very hopeful. I was looking forward to certain aspects that the original series left out, like the Shittenou and the Asteroid Senshi, for instance. Maybe we could get a better adaptation of SuperS or maybe Saturn will be utilized more properly in this version. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through the series far enough to fully see how these storylines were handled.
As for why I could not get through this series...mainly the characters themselves. They come across as terribly bland in comparison to the original anime. I do know that this is a manga adaptation and how it is closer to the manga, which I did like, but this is a situation where Sailor Moon benefits from having filler. The characters could be fleshed out more, which in part, helped the audience to become attached to the characters. It really *does* feel like Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen, and the rest. In the original, it was nice seeing the characters doing activities that normal kids their age would be doing anyway, showing they had lives away from Sailor Business...and I think that was the main problem with Crystal...it was mostly Sailor Business. It made the senshi boring and like their only purpose in life was to just be soldiers.
The more boring aspects of the manga had to be used in the newer series and I get it, but for a person like me who never particularly cared for it, it was draining. I liked the original for focusing on the friendship aspect between our main characters as opposed to the romance angle. It gives me Miaka and Tamahome vibes from Fushigi Yuugi's anime. It's like everyone else didn't matter to Miaka, including Yui, and it was always Tamahome, Tamahome, Tamahome to her. I also know that they adapted the Beryll/Metallia battle closer...and there's something from that situation that I hated when reading the manga. I liked the change the original used...but that's just me being nitpicky.
The story pacing wasn't very good with this. Too fast-paced, which I do understand since it's adapting the manga more closely since the manga is already completed. Since they're only focusing on the Sailor Business stuff, like the manga mostly would (minus the extra stuff that I actually would've liked to have seen adapted), that's no surprise, but I like character building and world building. As mentioned above, because of this approach, none of the characters come across as interesting.
I didn't like the animation style, but I will admit that from the bit I've seen with later episodes (clips), the animation seems a bit better. The animation, though, still comes across as too glamorous and flashy to me...like they are trying to make the characters perfect. Also, to me, the manga style just doesn't work in an anime style. The animation was also a bit stiff and the characters didn't emote hardly at all. This is another plus for the original series. The characters were very expressive and they didn't look disproportioned. The only things I will admit to liking animation wise, is the background for their henshin sequences showing their planets and the designs of their sailor fuku. They actually got the designs right and this was probably because they could use CG as opposed to the hand-drawn animation of the original where it would be more of a hassle to have to keep redrawing every character's outfit differently for each episode.
As for music...it wasn't very memorable for me. The intro and ending was...so-so and the bgm didn't stick with me like the original series. This may just be bias on my part, but Moonlight Densetsu will always be Sailor Moon to me.
Maybe someday I will go back to this series and hopefully the issues I had with it, which turned me off from it, will have been resolved. I really really really wanted to like this. I went to the Sailor Moon Cafe in Ikebukuro when Crystal was being promoted. I went to Sky Tree when all that Sailor Moon stuff was being promo'd along with other works that were originally in the magazine Sailor Moon ran in. It's been about four years now for me since I gave up on Crystal and it's really sad.
