I fondly remember the original Sailor Moon series as my “gateway” anime. That is, it was the first legitimate anime I ever watched, and it led me to a lifelong crippling addiction to the much harder stuff. An innocent enough looking series, it was seemingly marketed to little girls younger than I was at the time. When it wasn’t being over the top goofball, it was dripping with melodrama. A majority of the episodes were “monster of the week “ format, most of them acting as filler between important plot points. Yet, I couldn’t get enough of it.

What drove me to wake up at 6 a.m. on Saturdays, just to catch the once a week reruns that were shown on whatever the CW called itself back then? What was I thinking, risking what little popularity I had left in high school by flashing my Sailor Moon keychain where the cool kids could see it? (Younger readers must realize, back then, anime was a relatively new media to American audiences and not nearly as kindly accepted as it is today.) My practice art pad was filled with shakily drawn Sailor Moon sketches I had copied straight from the manga. Perhaps it was that I had the premise that maybe, just maybe, despite its glaring immaturity, a cartoon series assumed I might not be a child. For the first time, I saw an animated television series that showed progressive plot and character development, as well as actual romance!

Was it nostalgia goggles that caused me, after so many years and so many better animes under my belt, to squee with delight upon hearing the news of the new Sailor Moon Crystal series? How does it compare to the original? Who would get the most out of this? Die hard fans of the old show such as myself? Anime lovers who never had a chance to see the original? People who are completely new to anime and wish for their own “gateway “ into the genre? The answer may be just a little complicated depending on what you are looking for.

To begin with, Sailor Moon Crystal is not a sequel nor an entirely new story. One could call it a much closer adaptation to Naoko Takeuchi’s original manga. Gone is much of the filler material, and seven episodes (as of this post) in, the pacing is far tighter and more focused on plot movement. For example, as of the seventh episode, Sailor Venus makes her first appearance, whereas it took thirty-three episodes of the original until she joined the cast. Not only does it follow the manga’s plot and pacing more faithfully, but the character design as well. The characters are leaner, leggier, and somewhat more attractive doing great justice to Takeuchi’s illustrations. The animation itself is expectedly far smoother and more fluid than the original. (After all, there has been over twenty years of advancement in animation and computer technology between series.)

For those of you who can’t stop annoying your friends by humming the Attack on Titan theme, there is good news!  Attack on Titan theme composer REVO has written an entirely new theme for Crystal, dripping with J-Rock guitar riffs and sparkly girl power.

Despite its many differences, there are some remaining similarities fans of the old series may find comfort in. While it may be tighter paced, the plot remains relatively the same. In addition, all of the characters return and with relatively few personality changes. (With some exceptions. Mamoru is much less antagonizing against Usagi and Rei is far less tsundere.) The Sailor Scout transformation sequences are, to my delight, choreographed almost exactly the same, with much more beefed up animation of course.

My final verdict of what Sailor Moon Crystal has shown me so far is this: Don’t watch it if you simply have nostalgic longings for the original. Crystal may leave you feeling far more somber then you would want, as it lacks much of the camp value of its predecessor. Luckily, for people like you, Hulu is now streaming subbed episodes of the original. I also don’t recommend watching Crystal if you disliked Sailor Moon to begin with. I doubt you will find Crystal much better. What I do recommend is to watch it if you truly loved what Sailor Moon was for its plot and characters. Crystal sincerely does justice to these elements, even exceeding the original.

So Sailor Moon fans rejoice, grab your Crescent Moon Wand, and enjoy this polished new take on a beloved classic anime. New episodes stream the first and third Saturday of each month on Crunchyroll, and Hulu’s Neon Alley channel.