Aluminum Christmas Trees: The retention of Game Center Crown in Crystal may seem to run counter to its Setting Update to non-Japanese viewers, given that the Video Arcade isn't as popular in the west as it once was, and the 2003 tokusatsu's change to a Karaoke Bar, but through contracting, arcade gaming remains the largest sector of Japan's gaming market.
Angst? What Angst?: Makoto flirts with Asanuma by talking about the tragic deaths of her parents and smiling, complete with an inappropriate wink and a blush. (The same scene was in the manga, but leaned more towards Makoto trying to indicate to him not to worry about her.)
Act 19 and 22 have adapted the expressive faces from the manga's humor in such a weird fashion that it ended up as this, to put it simple: They draw the expressions with the original scene's background on it, and then put that under a frame that's based on the manga's background for that moment. In other words: The show makes a Ba-Dum-Ts! joke to itself. Compare: Manga◊ vs any other episode of ''Crystal''◊ vs Act 19 and 22◊.
Tellu's transformation in episode 6 of Season 3. It just... happens. She knocks all of the Inners down with one attack, charges at Chibi Moon, and is immediately killed by Pluto with no further comment. (A result of Crystal Bowdlerizing the original manga scene, where her mutation was caused by Chibi Moon's attack.)
Season 2: Wiseman is the manipulative advisor to the Black Moon Clan. Born in the 30th Century, Wiseman was once a regular human with dark powers, who decided to brainwash people into rebelling against Neo-Queen Serenity. Banished to Planet Nemesis after being defeated, Wiseman merged with that World. Now with the power of the Malefic Black Crystal at his disposal, Wiseman manipulated Prince Demande and his Black Moon Clan into doing his bidding, killing Rubeus and forcing Demande to Mercy Kill his own brother. Wiseman would go on to brainwash Chibiusa into Black Lady and happily uses her in the final confrontation against the Sailor Senshi. During the final confrontation after Chibiusa is freed, Wiseman gleefully announces his intentions to destroy all life in the Solar System and beyond.
Season 3: Professor Souichi Tomoe is a top member of the Death Busters. Expelled from the scientific community for inhumane experiments, Tomoe sides with an entity known as Pharaoh 90 and devours a Daimon Egg to completely swear loyalty after a lab accident killed his wife and critically injured him and his daughter Hotaru. When Pharaoh 90 gives him Mistress 9's Daimon Egg, he saves his daughter Hotaru's life not out of care but for the sake of science. Tomoe implanted her Daimon Egg into Hotaru and would perform many experiments on her over the years, and only "cared" for her because he was curious to see what would happen when Mistress 9 took full possession of her. Tomoe would abduct people over the years and experiment on them with Daimon Eggs, and when he didn't get the results he wanted, labelled them defects. Highly abusive towards his daughter, Tomoe also makes it more than clear that he no longer loves his wife. When the Sailor Guardians confront him, Tomoe turns himself into a full-fledged Daimon, declares himself a God and a Super Life-Form, and tries to kill them with no remorse.
Contested Sequel: Rather "contested adaptation" in this case. Fans are pretty much split down the middle if this one is better than the 90s version or not. One side like that it follows the manga more closely and doesn't have filler. The other side hates the characterization in this, feeling it's too bland, find the battles lacking and just don't like the overall tone of this one, feeling it lacks the quirky charm of the 90s version.
Season 3 is somewhat disparagingly referred to as "PreCure Moon" by fans who find the updated art style to be more reminiscent of a Pretty Cure show (Akira Takahashi, who took over the role of character designer beginning in Season 3, previously provided the character designs of Suite Pretty Cure ♪ and Doki Doki! PreCure.)
While a great number of fans of the manga and/or the first anime would like to forget this series exists at all and prefer to just stick to the earlier adaptations, some only ignore the first arc, finding the series from the Black Moon arc onwards to be of a more watchable quality than the Dark Kingdom arc. The fact that the latter has previously received an expanded adaptation in the form of the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series (and has been recycled to death in the musicals) probably contributed to this to an extent.
The release of Season 3 pushed this further, with many people choosing to ignore the previous episodes (although there's a small group that ignores Season 3 due to the art style change and recycled stock animation).
Growing the Beard: The reception to Season 3 was much more positive, and a number of fans have stated that the show took a general upturn in quality around that time.
Many viewers figured that the series was going to go into the Wiseman arc due to the fact that the series was serializing 1 act per episode and the To Be Continued card showing Princess Serenity holding the Cutie Moon Rod.
Quite a few people in Latin America predicted that their Spanish dub would use the original Japanese names.
There's a fair number of people who feel that a Shot-for-Shot Remake of a manga they'd already read, covering the same territory as the live action series and the first season of the old anime wasn't what they got excited for when they first heard Sailor Moon was coming back. Many fans who were interested in a Truer to the Text adaptation, meanwhile, express disappointment at how faithfully Crystal replicates the manga's flaws - such as its rushed pacing, lack of characterization for everyone outside the main cast (and even the main cast itself in the first arc), and plot holes - rather than taking the opportunity to improve upon the manga's weaknesses.
Choreography and poses from the first anime's Transformation Sequences and In the Name of the Moon speeches were repurposed for Crystal. While many fans feel this is a nice nod to the original, others were expecting more creative, entirely new transformations and choreography.
Sailor Moon's Moon Prism Transformation being almost exactly the same as her Moon Crystal transformation except for the brooch being different. There are a few that are OK with this, but most have loudly complained about SMC's apparent laziness, especially people who hoped that at least in Crystal, the upgrades meant a different Transformation Sequence also for the other Inners, not just Sailor Moon.
Season III got hit with accusations of reusing key animation from the previous anime's attack sequences and a general overuse of Stock Footage (compared to previous seasons, where a lot of attacks were shown in real time).
Cries of this were heard when the art style for the Dead Moon Circus movie changed to resemble the 90's anime, with others claiming that any originality Crystal had was now gone.
Just Here for Godzilla: There were quite a number of fans who just tuned into Season 3 to watch Sailor Saturn.
The franchise always had a big one anyways, but older LGBT girl fans (who loved the manga and got upset at the 90s dub, as the reputation goes) are vibrating excitedly at how nicely Usagi's attraction to almost every girl she sees is being treated on the screen.
With the introduction of Haruka and Michiru, fans have been going nuts, especially since this version is far from coy about the fact that the two are in a romantic relationship (in contrast to the infamous Bowdlerization attempted by the original English dub of the '90s anime).
Most transgender and non-binary fans have been squeeing over Haruka, as most identify Haruka as genderfluid, thanks to this page◊ from the manga and this scene◊ from season three.
Finally, The intro for Season 3 isn't even subtle about Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, with a scene of them both unclothed, with them looking towards each other while lying together, surrounded by roses, the poses deliberately done in such a way to keep it chaste.
Many of the specific scenes and plot elements that Crystal's more vocal critics use as examples of how the series is "ruining" Sailor Moon, such as Usagi's attempted suicide at the end of Act 12, existed in the original manga and were simply reproduced in the adaptation.
Many fans also don't realize that the original 90s anime took extensive liberties with that adaptation that even Naoko Takeuchi didn't approve of.
The Pocket Protector twist with Mamoru's moon phase pocket watch and the Shitennou stones, which didn't make any more sense even in the manga itself, especially with the latter actually showing a lot of blood; Crystal worsened it somewhat through an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole regarding the stones, but it still was something taken directly from the source material.
Some of the complaints about Act 13 included the fact that it ends right as Sailor Moon prepares to unleash the final attack on Metalia, making it look like the final battle was split into two episodes for padding purposes. The corresponding chapter of the manga ends on the same cliffhanger in all editions.
A common complaint about Crystal revolves around the story's close focus on Usagi and her relationship with Mamoru, while the rest of the Sailor Guardians, particularly Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter, have very little prominence or development after their introductory episodes. Since the '90s anime uses its much longer running time and monster-of-the-week format to give equal attention to all of the team members, the contrast is understandably jarring, but this too comes directly from the manga, which doesn't really begin fleshing out the ensemble until later story arcs.
Kunzite having fair skin consistent with his manga design, as opposed to the darker tan skin tone he has in the '90s anime, has led to accusations of whitewashing. This accusations of whitewashing have also been applied to Nephrite, due to his skin tone being somewhat paler than it appeared in the original anime, although the difference is not as significant as with Kunzite.
On the other hand, long-term fans of the manga sometimes blame Crystal for "errors" that were, in fact, changes introduced in the later manga editions (Crystal being specifically based on these reprints, down to the episode count and naming). One such example is Sailor Moon retaining her choker accessory in the form of her first transformation brooch even after getting her second transformation.
While Crystal had altered the Shitennou's fates to an extent, the deaths of the Spectre Sisters in the Black Moon arc and their treatment as monsters-of-the-week is consistent to their role in the manga.
Kunzite and Zoisite not being portrayed as a couple added a great deal to the already heated debate regarding the Senshi/Shitennou pairings, and caused some to outright accuse Crystal's creators of censorship and homophobia. Kunzite and Zoisite's relationship was a subplot exclusive to the old anime series, and was never present in the manga; Takeuchi's notes indicate that the two of them were meant to be more like brothers.
As Michiru and Haruka are known as a power couple thanks to the 1990s anime, many fans were horrified to see Haruka kiss Usagi (more than once at that). Even though the scenes are from the manga, many were annoyed by the infidelity their Ship Tease causes.
Moral Event Horizon: Metalia manages to get an extra one hammering in villainy when the Sailor Guardians free the Four Heavenly Kings from her mind control, she kills them saying that if they reject the darkness, they're useless.
Narm: The subtitles for Act 33 cause a lot of inappropriate snickering by using the word "aroused" instead of "awakened" when discussing Sailor Moon's powerup to Super Sailor Moon and the prospect of Sailor Saturn awakening as a senshi.
Queen Metalia, thanks to her design being much more faithful to the manga. Sure, we don't get the Nightmare Face from the manga, but having nightmares about the Big Bad killing the love of your life is still horrifying.
No Yay: Unless you have an incest fetish, Chibi-Usa's crush on her father's younger self is creepy, especially after gaining an adult body, brainwashing him and kissing him.
Periphery Demographic: Well aware of the Sailor Moon franchise's "big friends," ViVi, a popular women's magazine in Japan, held a high profile premiere party for Crystal, with men barred from attending unless they were brought by their wives, girlfriends, or female friends.
Those who hated Chibi-Usa in the '90s anime like her a lot more in Crystal, given that it's a straightforward adaptation of the manga; helps that she later got over her crush on Mamoru for obvious, Hotaru-related reasons in Season 3.
Mamoru, for those who weren't fans of him in the '90s anime, as the Crystal didn’t replicate his Ron the Death Eater personality traits given to him by director (who admitted to hating him) seen in the original anime.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: The survival of the Shitennou and their increased presence in the plot has revived the once very ugly debate regarding the scrapped subplot about the Four Heavenly Kings and the Inner Guardians having romantic links and made it worse. Episode 10 had confirmed past romances between the Guardians and the Four Kings. A number of fans that pair the Sailor Guardians with each other weren't pleased. Episode 12 continued the revelation, but also killed off the Four Kings and had all four Guardians cry over them, which only worsened the rage.
For many fans, when Black Lady kisses a hypnotized Mamoru. TWICE. (This happened in the original manga, too, but even among those familiar with it few people expected these shots to be kept in.)
Some fans found Usagi and Mamoru's ambiguous love scene and following Sexy Discretion Shot in Act 19 gross for many reasons, including the fact they're both minors note Usagi is fourteen/an 8th grader and Mamoru is seventeen/an 11th grader.
Sailor Uranus stealing a kiss from Sailor Moon in Episode 3 of Season 3. With the much stricter views on consent nowadays, Uranus' actions end up feeling a LOT more unsavory and gross. Not helped by her continuing to tease and flirt with Usagi afterwards even after she makes it clear that Mamoru is her boyfriend.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The music for the first half of the eyecatch is literally the modern HBO feature presentation jingle note-for-note.
Nostalgia for the original anime drives many of the complaints, especially amongst people unfamiliar with the manga and even more so among English speaking fans whose familiarity with the franchise comes from the DiC dub. On the flip side, for some vocal fans of the manga, any divergence from its text is a point of contention. Specific items of complaint range from the inclusion of confirmation that the Senshi and Shitennou were romantically involved in their past lives to minor details like the absence of certain jokes and gags.
Some people feel the story arcs have rushed pacing, which once again is a byproduct of faithfulness to the manga.
Some fans would have preferred to see as many of the classic cast return as possible, given Kotono Mitsuishi's Role Reprise.
Some people are complaining that the OP isn't "Moonlight Densetsu." This partly stemmed from the initial assumption (mistakenly spread by some fansites) that Momoiro Clover Z's popular Cover Version, which ended up being the Theme Song for the Takarazuka RevueRevival of the musicals, was to be used for Crystal.
Episode 7 changed Tuxedo Mask's participation in Sailor Moon's confrontation with Zoisite from not being able to reach her at all to an actual attempt at defending her, which served to emphasize his switch from just wanting to obtain the Silver Crystal to desperately wanting to protect Sailor Moon herself. Cries of the theme song being defied followed.note For justice's sake, let's point out that Tux rather quickly loses against Zoisite, clearly showing that he is completely powerless. Not to mention that, in the original manga, the Senshi themselves were losing to him as well until Sailor V pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment, and Crystal simply inherited that scene. Additionally, in the manga it was still ambiguous just where Mamoru's loyalties really lie at this point, which made his Heroic Sacrifice in the next chapter a sort of a last-moment life-changing decision (whereas Crystal has him more or less confessing his love for Usagi already).
Episode 8 altering the plot so that Minako insisted on fighting Kunzite alone has split fans more, with complaints that getting rid of the girls' group bonding scene to have Minako want to go at things alone flies in the face of the series' messages about girl power and friendship. On the other hand, other fans love that Minako got a unique characterization than the other Senshi that show how burdened Minako is by her status as leader of the Senshi, and note that it results in a different but equally powerful team bonding scene when the rest of the Senshi catch up to her and insist that she doesn't have to go it alone any more.
Episode 12 did another plot alteration by having Beryl killed by Sailor Moon instead of Sailor Venus, which some fans saw as downgrading Minako's power as the leader of the Guardians (Venus is instead the one to cut the Senshi free of Beryl's Prehensile Hair, an act performed by Sailor Jupiter in the manga, but this change is rarely criticized). It doesn't help that the scene was Bowdlerized so that instead of impaling Beryl with the Holy Sword Sailor Moon simply destroyed her necklace which was linking her to Metalia's powers (a detail that never existed in the manga).
The show's tendency to focus on romance in general, be it Usagi/Mamoru or Senshi/Shitennou. While some argue that the romance in the manga was already idealized to begin with, others find the expanded version cheesy and unnatural, or are only willing to accept the changes as long as they don't get close to the Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole territory, which happens on some occasions. Specific examples:
The scene with Usagi and Mamoru inadvertently ending up together on a bus in Act.3, which in this version leads to Usagi getting embarrassed and hilariously trying to cover her blushing face with Luna. In the manga, Mamoru explicitly recognizes her as Sailor Moon and, from her conversation with Luna, starts to suspect she is somehow connected to the Silver Crystal, which serves as an additional explanation of him following Usagi as Tuxedo Mask when she leaves the Hikawa Shrine to investigate the cursed bus (Crystal did leave in a similar scene in Act.2, though).
The Shitennou stones. Due to Crystal expanding the Senshi/Shitennou subplot, the four villains were left alive until the final confrontation with the Dark Kingdom, only to be abruptly killed off by Metalia just as the Senshi managed to undo her brainwashing on them, for drama's sake. The problem being that, in the manga, Mamoru carrying around the stones the Shitennou turned into was crucial to the plot, because they ultimately acted as a Pocket Protector when Sailor Moon slashed him with a sword (which still happens in Crystal but with no explanation). As a side effect, people not familiar with the manga were puzzled by the scene where the Shitennou appear before Mamoru as his Spirit Advisors.
The removal of the subplot in Act 13 involving Mamoru temporarily going blind as a result of Metalia's powers possessing his body (though it was already hinted at when the animators went with Red Eyes, Take Warning for him, instead of the manga's black) for the sake of achieving the happy ending for Endymion and Serenity an episode earlier. The complaint being that, in the manga, not only is it what leads to him effectively discovering/remembering his ability to observe the Earth just by touching the ground, but also strengthens the True Love's Kiss scene, which simultaneously revives Usagi and cures his blindness.
Fan response to the new art style and 2D transformation sequences introduced in Season 3 seems to be mostly positive, but there is a camp of fans protesting that they preferred how it was done in the first two seasons.
The Sailor Moon Eternal films received this even more from people who were more than displeased that aspects of the series were changed to resemble those of the 90s anime. Namely the art style, changing girls' planetary symbols from circles (as they were in seasons 1-3 and in the manga) to hearts (as they were in the 90's anime), having Eternal Sailor Moon's transformation brooch be the same as the one from the 90s anime instead of her manga brooch, and even having the attack sequences for the girls' Super attacks (Mercury Aqua Rhapsody, Mars Flame Sniper, Jupiter Oak Evolution, and Venus Love and Beauty Shock) be the same ones from the 90s anime, feeling that it betrays the whole point of Crystal/Eternal being a more faithful adaptation of the manga and not a recreation of the 90s anime.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Prince Demande is given a sympathetic death that wasn't in the manga, which doesn't really add up when you consider that he is an attempted rapist and all-around horrible person, and that he had literally just attempted to destroy the universe before this death happens, resulting in Pluto’s Heroic Sacrifice.
Win Back the Crowd: Season 3 saw a number of changes to the show as it moved from a web series to airing on television (and presumably gained an increased budget in the process). Most notably, the art style was changed and the transformation sequences done away with in what may well be a purposeful attempt at addressing fan dissatisfaction with those elements.
The Woobie: It's hard to not want to give Sailor Moon a hug after the first episode. While she did dream about "beating up bad guys," she gets a massive dose of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome when she finds her life in mortal danger and she has no clue what the heck she's doing! Fortunately, after a few battles and more experience, she begins to break out of that mold.
, arcade gaming remains the largest sector of Japan's gaming market.
