Tsuki Niji doesn't sound so bad to me, actually. Or at least, it leaves a better first impression than Moon Pride did. It almost, almost gives me some Tuxedo Mirage-esque vibes. (Not to say it sounds like it, but a similar sort of feeling was in there.)

I like the ending.
Atmosphere in general feels pretty nice in the clips.

And it's not really any less animated than your average anime, stop putting Sailor Moon to some ridiculous standards.

*snip*

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@Kismet-chan I got that Tuxedo Mirage-vibe too :) Have to agree that the ending doesn't sound or look too bad to me either. So far, the opening and ending are my favourite bit of everything we've seen ^^'

I'll have to admit that I like the opening and ending. The umbrella scene in the opening is nice and conveys so many emotions. The ending video is like a fairytale - romantic, gentle, the song is not bad, but MomoClo failed to blend with it. I have to admit that I like the character designs more now in the actual episode. I hope some other strange frames from the trailer to be changed as well. But the CGI transformation is neither graceful nor magical. And as pretty as Ikuko-mama looks ( yeah, I really like her like this) she should have move a little. In that first scene there was up to no transition between completely still shots and instead of showing freaking out Usagi's face and the way she jumps off bed, all we see is Ikuko sitting on the table motionless, the stairs fall is ridiculously (un)animated as well. Other parts we saw so far look ok, at least for me, but there are a lot of close-ups to faces, without actual animation, with the exception of mouth opening and winking... But it still can turn out kind of good, if the attack sequence is not 3D and we've got some nice Morga scenes and the youma itself to get it's manga disturbing design and death. And I give them some points for the scene with Ami, she looks gloomy and also distant, without even seeing her face, you can feel how lonely she is.

Everything except the CG transformation looked passable. I won't say it looked good, but it was passable. I can watch it. But that CG.... yikes.

I am going to have to lean heavily on the story for this reboot, I think.

Did they have to go with CG for the transformations? It gets re-used at least once an episode so it'd seem worth it to invest a little bit more for hand drawn.

everything expect the cg is great so far

The official channel for Sailor Moon Crystal NicoNico Page is up!
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/sailormoon_English

So here's something that lends quite a bit of credence to my theory that Crystal (at least the initial 26 episode run) is going to be arcs 1+2:

Terrific, now they might screw even the pacing... This reboot should have never been created. At least not in such a pathetic way, with this incompetent stuff. It's like a parody of once glorious series. I feel kind a ashamed to be a Sailor Moon fan now - I feel like it's going to be the worst animated and directed anime title this season. It's a real mockery with fans. Hope they prove me wrong, but this is how I feel now. I don't know why I use the forum as a diary, sorry about that...

26 episodes is perfect for two arcs worth of material.
"Ashamed"? I beg you to rethink what emotions you're paying to a television show.
I was not ashamed to be an Eureka Seven fan when they made that horrible Eureka Seven sequel.
And that's assuming it's actually horrible, right?
I mean... We knew it was going to be a manga adaptation. Manga isn't that long. It doesn't have monster-of-the-week format, at least not quite in the same way the original anime does.
In general, MOTW format was employed simply to sell toys and prolong the runtime.
If Crystal is made to be story-centric, then they should still have plenty of time for characterization and off-scenes, because even the manga has some of those just fine.

Yes, but still... I was one of the few people who liked the character design and defended it. Even if they manage to put some characterization, while doing more than one arc, it still doesn't look right. They are pretty, at least for me, but from what I saw they barely even move, the music is a complete rip off, the one minute of sakuga is ruined with CGI. The final scene with Luna is motionless, just like a light novel. I've read somewhere that they have already made quite a profit of it even before the premiere, and still they did it with the absolute minimum of a budget. Yes, I hope the whole episode will prove me wrong, that there will be a proper battle/attack scene without any CGI, but i highly doubt it. Except for the opening/ending and some press release pictures, everything we saw so far is... static. What's the point making her hair move, when it moves with two looped frames? All the scenes we saw so far are like a slide show. Believe me I had faith in them till the very end, but I can't close my eyes anymore...

^ it's bad when even minaku isn't happy with the material, isn't it? :( You're usually so positive...! I know exactly what you mean but cheer up, it may look alright as full episode :) Some of the scenes we saw were quite lovely, particularly the one with Ami, at least. Let's wait until the full episode is out for now!
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Hmm. There are positives and negatives to the possibility of them animating two arcs:

The positive: each arc would be quite condensed, not much space for deviating from the source. If they're planning to continue with a second season after the initial run, we could get to Uranus, Neptune and Saturn faster, which would be great.

The negative: each arc would be quite condensed, not much space for deviating from the source- which often proceeded at a breakneck pace (due to Naoko being in a hurry, allegedly?). It would be difficult to flesh out the characters, world and relationships more- which a lot of characters could benefit from, possibly with ideas Naoko would have liked to add. Could end up feeling rushed.

...Yet the Dragon Ball fanbase envies you. At least Sailor Moon is getting a proper new show, rather than the hackjob that is the Boo-arc of Dragon Ball Kai that is currently airing, filled with terrible music-choices, extremely lazy remastering of the old footage that gives everything a green tint that makes The Matrix look perfectly normal, extremely awkward cuts, and leaving in way too much filler for a supposedly filler-free version. And that's just the Japanese version-- Japan is actually getting a CUT DOWN version of what Toei initially made for international markets. The international version is supposedly 69 episodes long. For a sped-up version of an arc that was initially 92 episodes. THEY DIDN'T EVEN CUT A THIRD OF THE CONTENT. Considering how filler-heavy DBZ is, that is nowhere near enough. Hell, some of the episodes are just Z-episodes cropped to widescreen with considerably worse music.

I would take a cheaply animated remake over that any day, thank you very much. And yes, 26 episodes for the first two arcs is fine, because the manga rushes through its story at such a rate that it literally needs some expansion for the audience to be able to connect with the characters.

Well, that image still doesn't assure that two arcs will be adapted in a season. It seems that image is a ending title card, then this may not mean anything, but just be an aesthetic choice.

I still hope that an arc is adapted by season, since I want to see more development of some characters (especially villains), who have little (or nothing) development in the manga.

I don't think the pacing will be messed up, it could just be "decoration" of shorts, maybe to tease what's to come. In fact, I'm expecting this first season to either tease the Black Moon Arc or even enter it somewhat, but tease it for the next season.

I actually like what I am seeing from the previews so far, with the exception of the CGI transformation for Sailor Moon, it seems to be sticking quite close to the Manga while doing a few new (or different) things. Hopefully they won't drop the ball later but so far things look good for me.

Multiple seasons (at least any more than 2) seems an unrealistic expectation.

The actual transcript of the title of that song is "Gekkou".

That's probably because it's composed by the same composer.

I have to laugh at how some people are starting to complain even without actually seeing a single episode.
How Frumix says, 26 episodes is perfect for two arcs. Dark Kingdom and Black Moon Arcs are consist of 26 chapters. Thus in such case pacing would be 1 episode per 1 chapter.

I read somewhere that someone has read somewhere that someone said somewhere that read something somewhere. Very credible. :p
Anyway sceneries like these promise at least average budget:
http://i.imgur.com/YjiCW9d.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YxEHqKs.jpg

About CGI, it's not used for saving money on animation but due to technical options. Director himself said in an interview this:
"Since the original work was so gorgeous, we can now use the latest imaging techniques that have developed over the past 20 years to really convey that splendor. In particular, during the transformation scenes I’d like to use CG to capture the movements of the girls from different angles, freely use lighting effects, and have a flashy display of their twirling forms."

And since in this thread prevails such a negative mood I post here latest interesting interview with director and character designer of new series:

I've read it on Sailormoonworld.it - one of the few sites who constantly posts confirmed information, one of the first European sites after the revival. The entry was something like 'Due to extremely high profits Toei plans to bring Sailor Moon back on TV (probably with Crystal). I don't complain about the episode as a whole, but the scenes we saw for now are below average DEEN level, which is bad... I can't help but being negative. A lot of cheap animation titles have stunning backgrounds, but I am pretty sure that this scene will stay on screen for 10 seconds, without almost any movements, just some dialogue. But we will see. I don't want to ruin it for anyone and I still hope I'll love it in the end...

Except the animations look off, with not enough frames, and even the whole work seems (hard to tell as it's not direct video) not very inspired. Considering Toei is doing a fine job with Precure in the CG department, somehthing like that is inexcusable.
Also, for personal preferences, I think the first transformation was one of the worst ones (but not the worst, that goes to SuperS due to its excessive length), so I'm not that thrilled on remaking it.

I've also finished seeing most of the leaked footage, and it really looks like a show with low budget. In addition, the choice to use Mitsuishi Kotono again was not a good one, at least hearing the material shown so far: she feels forced and not particularly good - it definitely shows the 20 year gap.

Considering they're basing themselves on the manga, that's not going to happen unless they really change it...