Sailor Moon Crystal, the second attempt at an anime adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi’s
Sailor Moon manga, met mixed reactions from fans. It was a more faithful adaptation of the manga series than the beloved ’90s anime adaptation, but its central characters, the guardians of Earth (also known as the Sailor Senshi), looked off. Sailor Pluto suddenly had lighter skin. The CGI transformations where the characters change into their superpowered forms felt outdated. And the muted tones lacked the bright, colorful prettiness fans remembered from the ’90s.
By season 3 of
Sailor Moon Crystal, the CGI transformations were gone, and the art style became less rigid and more playful. Now, five years later, season 4 of the series, presented on Netflix as the two-part film