Sailor Moon Crystal Review: Episode One

Here it is, the moment all of us secret sailor senshi have been waiting for—the premiere of the much hyped “Sailor Moon” reboot, “Sailor Moon Crystal.” The reboot hit the cyber streets yesterday, and of course I didn’t hesitate to check it out and compare it to the wonderfully campy original I grew up on. Oh so cheesy and I love it.[divider type=”space_thin”]So the big deal with “Sailor Moon Crystal” is that it’s supposed to follow the plot of the manga more closely, but for now, it’s hard to see how that will play out, because the first episode of the new series is exactly the same as the first episode of the original. So it definitely gets bonus points for that, because so far, this is just a nice skip down memory lane. The series starts with an introduction to Usagi and her astounding level of fail (quite literally in this case, as she scores a 30 percent on an exam). She meets Luna, who gives her the magical moon compact and helps her become Sailor Moon. We don’t get to meet the big, behind-the-scenes baddie (Queen Beryl) just yet, but we do meet Jadeite and his first henchman (youma), who disguises herself as the mother of Usagi’s friend Naru. The youma uses a jewelry sale to steal the life energies of a number of fashion-conscious women. (… Yeah, even now, that still doesn’t seem like the best villainous plan, but sure, we’ll go with it.) Sailor Moon does her makeup transformation, fights her first battle (with a lot of whining and crying mixed in, of course) and ultima…