So I was watching a review of Sailor Moon Crystal, and I thought back to how I have never actually read or watched Sailor Moon before, and all I know about it I got from some crossover fanfics. Subsequently, I didn't get past two episodes. Now I have watched several magical girl anime and enjoyed them enough to keep watching, so why was it that I didn't care for the anime, when it is the codifier for all subsequent magical girl anime?
Well, I think that's the problem. It's the codifier for most magical girl anime/tropes. It does each perfectly well, but doesn't go too far beyond that. It laid the foundation, but other shows have built upon it. It's not a bad show by any means, just others are better because they have built upon that foundation and refined it. It's like watching a movie like Citizen Kane. The movie itself is rather dull in my opinion, but it introduced a lot of film techniques that are used to this day. It's not a bad movie, but other films have built off the foundation and have done them better.