sirvalkyrie

So, Sailor Moon Crystal aired.



Personally, I find it mediocre. The new animation style for Usagi does lend itself to some pretty, model looking pictures of the girls when it isn't looking horribly off model.  Everyone is blonde now.  Haruna is blonde. Shingo is blonde. Both Princess and Queen Serenity are blonde. 

I did love the opening sequence and a few things in it were very reminiscent of Pretty Cure in a good way.  I am so glad they changed the theme song.  I love Momoiro Clover Z but Moonlight Densetsu is not the type of song that fits their talents. Moon Pride, on the other hand, is perfect for their strengths.

I enjoyed the music, but I was expecting that as it is my favorite composer from Pretty Cure.

It was an almost 1:1 adaptation of the manga.  There were a few new scenes thrown in but it was pretty much all familiar territory.  Overall, the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is still my favorite version of the first episode as it hit everything it needed to while still doing some things originally.  I really hope there will be more expansion later as the manga really isn't that good.  It is very repetitive and formulaic in the construction of each arc and most characters don't get much development.

If you don't count Mary Marvel's original incarnation, the first fighting magical girl was Honey Kisaragi. She was the heroine of Go Nagai's manga Cutey Honey. It was inspired by heroes that could take multiple forms, and in particular one that had seven special forms. It was full of fanservice, lesbians, violence and death. It was turned into an anime that toned things down considerably, but still had many of those elements still. It is claimed by Go Nagai to be the first shonen series to star a heroine. It also gained a considerable female audience.

Cutie Honey has had many different AU series over the years ranging from cute and family friendly to hyper sexual. The English spelling of her name has also been changed from Cutey to Cutie. The most recent, and my favorite, version of Cutie Honey is "Cutie Honey The Live".


cutie honey the live opening by manganihon

I love this version so much! It aired a few years ago. It is the series I used to convince my best friend that the magical girl genre could be very awesome. The characters actually beat each other, the only special attack is actually a function of the transformation, they even have an actual American actor playing the American character! With real English!

Traditionally, Honey has a male love interest and a female interest. Which one she favors changes from version to version. While the characters that normally serve as love interests are in it, neither are. They are both just friends. Instead a new boy and girl are introduced as her love interests.

I would definitely suggest watching until episode 5. That is when most people seem to know for sure if they like it or not. If you are interested in the lesbianism then wait a bit longer, you won't be disappointed.

Oh, who is this in the ending credits?

I ran a magical girl fic/art gift exchange twice. It was the first succesful exchange I ran. I adore it. But, I am wondering if I should run another round of it again or not. On the one hand it was very small, less than twenty participants, but on the other hand I felt there was always quality in the gifts given. But then again I have my shipswap exchange which is much bigger to run and most of the magical girl exchange would end up being Madoka Magica, Utena and Sailor Moon.

I now have a grand total of one contact on dreamwidth! Let's celebrate with magical girl amvs!( Of course under the cut )