So, when I saw the preview for this episode, I had high hopes for the animation.  Those hopes were completely unfounded.  Again, while there were technical errors, it was direction choices that resulted in the episode’s more egregious flaws.

This episode does a lot of new things, and I can’t help but think it’s all experimental.  There are a lot of effects that seem like they were implemented to visually match the manga, and I can’t agree with the choices at all.  The comic reaction shots of Usagi and Mamoru reacting to some outlandish lines are almost exactly the same as in the manga, but while the manga has them as tiny panels that seem to fit seamlessly, their inclusion and execution in Crystal is magnitudes more jarring.

Yeah, comic stuff was put into the previous episodes, and they were all serious too, but those were entire scenes that served a purpose.  The comic reaction shots in this episode blatantly stand out.  Plus, they remind me of the 90s anime in a bad way…

YMMV on that one, but one of the more technical flaws early on was the decision to have Chibi-Usa’s eyes hidden by shadows, but still have her tears visible.  It.  Was.  Terrible.

I feel like way too much time was spent on Usagi being jealous of Chibi-Usa.  They REALLY dragged out what was supposed to be a two pages of conversation.

The first half got one thing right: all the hints that Usagi and Mamoru got it on that night. And it was a LOT more blatant than I was expecting.

There was just ONE thing that should have been different.  The moment before Mamoru embraces Usagi from behind, he felt that she was about to disappear.  There were several ways to interpret that scene in animation, and I seriously doubt that static effect was the right way to go.  I always saw that as more Mamoru sensing something in Usagi’s emotional state was dangerous, rather than actually SEEING her disappearing.

Sailor Pluto did NOT disappoint.  She looked a lot better than I thought she would.  I just wish she got more time.  Also, this was a case where the director SHOULD have just stuck to the manga’s simplicity, because Pluto’s Dead Scream attack was made into some weird rod-twirling physical attack.  The manga VERY clearly depicts Dead Scream as a ranged attack where Pluto points her rod and summons a cutting wind.  I would think that would have been much easier and simpler to animate.  That’s effort that could have gone into making a better action background for Venus and Tuxedo Mask’s attacks.  Speaking of which, how is it that with today’s technology, they couldn’t accomplish something as simple as that?  That shit is what low-effort CG was invented for.  Fucking use it.

Another major thing this episode got right was how brutal Crystal Tokyo is.  It’s dark and death is EVERYWHERE.  We needed to see those corpses in the streets to really sell that point.

The Boule Brothers fight was… something different.  Honestly, I couldn’t tell what the fuck was happening in the manga version, so I don’t mind what I saw in the Crystal version.  We have a new animation for Moon Princess Halation, and it’s… different.  It’s not as awkward as the previous bending-over-twirl thingy, that’s for sure.

Also, I enjoyed seeing how much of a total bitch Esmeraude was.

And hey, we also got Venus and Tuxedo Mask getting a kill.  Imagine that.  Tuxedo Mask actually got a kill.  That’s more than he got in nearly 200 episodes in the 90s anime.  Or hell, more than pretty much all of the Inner Senshi in the 90s anime except Jupiter.

Finally, kitty.

Overall I’d say this was the first subpar Black Moon episode.  Simply put, the director didn’t have priorities straight when it came to which parts of the chapter to put emphasis on, and the experimental visuals were unnecessary and jarring.  Also, eyeless faces fucking everywhere.  The entire Luna dream sequence could have been done away with or severely shortened, and we could have had a minute less of Chibi-Usa drama.  What could we have spent that free time on?  Expanding Pluto’s scene, inserting a little bit more fluff with Usagi & Mamoru (we skipped the bit where Usagi mentions Mamoru’s birthday is coming up) and just a bit more of Luna & Artemis staying with Venus.