Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Mini Review (live-action)
September 30th, 2007 by Lianne
PG/PG-13 for mild violence, terminal illnesses, good guys turning evil, and Sailor Jupiter dressed as a turtle for Motoki’s turtle fetish; awesome fanpage Sailor Dream, which is responsible for the above scan
It takes a few episodes to get used to the style, but this show is actually really good–the plot is surprisingly linear, and it gets touching and even features some laugh-out-loud humor. Beware bad singing and horrible special effects, but the talking plush cats never cease being funny. As a testament to this show’s quality, NotHayama always hated the Sailor Moon anime, but she got addicted to this series–and you know how discriminating her tastes are. Too bad the ending sucked.
Educated impression: Seriously, you should try this. (Lianne)
The ending wasn’t too unexpectedly bad, though. Just regular mediocre, but that the potential was there for a better ending makes it suck worse.
Additionally! The special effects are about Power Rangers level (only with more over-the-top human character costumes), so if you can stomach that, or have any nostalgia for it, you should be fine with PGSM. The singing is typical average J-Pop quality, except the karaoke scene in the first episode, which is terrible. There’s also less singing than you would expect from characters whose hangout is a karaoke place (not an arcade like in the anime and manga).
If you watch the specials, there is an actual parody episode, largely making fun of the overacting the bad guys have to do. This is also apparent in the “Omake” commentary the actors do, the “Tuxedo Kamen origins” episode, and in the behind-the-scenes from the musical. Yes. It’s not as bad as it sounds, because a child actually cried in terror! I’m a terrible person, I know. There is also a dance-along.