Wow… this episode was surprising.

Everything came together nicely.  It knocked all the right moments from the manga out of the park, and it made significant changes that needed to be made, much like the Dark Kingdom arc… attempted to do but failed spectacularly at…

Let’s start with animation flaws.  There’s one that really stands out.

The Chibiusa henshin was great, though it went by a little too quickly at times.  I think it’s especially notable that it’s entirely 2D rather than the CG transformations for the other senshi.  On the flipside, it seemed rushed.  There were cuts where ribbons flew by and it seemed like certain parts of her attire were supposed to materialize as they passed through, but they were very clearly already present.

Crystal did something incredibly RIGHT when the Senshi actually lifted a finger and did something.  They combined their powers to fight against Nemesis.  They didn’t do jack shit in the manga chapter, and if that happened here, it would really stick out because of what little they accomplished.  In the last two episodes, all they did was finish each other’s sentences and get knocked out.  So yay, they were given something constructive to do!  But WTF, why did everyone use their new powers and Venus pulls out Love-Me Chain?  I’m baffled by the idea that she can just create an infinite-length chain whip.

Another great change from the manga was the way Demande went out: not like a bitch.

In the manga, Demande just kinda goes “Fuck it, Wiseman is going to kill us all anyway.  Might as well try to kill Sailor Moon!” and then he gets Halation’d to death.  Giving Demande one final moment of defiance was definitely the way to go here.

So yeah, everyone gets sucked into Nemesis while The Final Battle plays in the background.  They see the FINAL FORM OF THE FINAL BOSS.  IT’S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLE!!!!!

The next episode is called Replay ~ Never-Ending.  Considering we still have no confirmation of the next arc – Infinity – and this very well could be the last episode of Crystal (at least for a while… I’m honestly expecting a break and for Crystal to continue in a year or so) I’m going to go ahead and call trolling.