Moonlight Shines Eternal (The Sailor Moon Post: Part 3)

Previously- Part One: The Crybaby Who Saved The World | Part Two: The Crybaby Heals The Future

Part Three: The Crybaby's Idealism Vs. The Pair's Practicality

"Listen. If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?"

(Copyright claims are a headache and a half in the USA, so if you can't see the above you'll have to make do with this. Same visuals, but it has the dub opening theme to it... which is iconic in its own right. Aaanyway. Sailor Moon S!)

At last, then, we've come to it. Sailor Moon S, the third season of the show and the exact midpoint of this entire experience. I have not-so-subtlely been building this up as the point where everything changes, and that isn't a lie. With overall reflection, I can say that Sailor Moon S was my favorite season of the show to watch. It was the most consistent with its themes and it hits some of the highest highs that the show will ever reach, while avoiding doing anything untoward like betraying my trust in its characters for the sake of a cheap shock. It would be easy to claim that the entire arc of the show's quality creates a parabola, with Sailor Moon S at the top. Easy, but not entirely accurate. There are some aspects where it falters compared to what's come before, and some aspects of what's to come that will resonate better with me. In the broadest strokes, though? Holy shit it's a masterpiece. We've taken our first steps into a bolder world with the show now, and the battle is bigger than just throwing magic powers at space demons. Sailor Moon S wants to tell a story about people, and about a clash of ideologies which cast a shadow on everything that's come before. Hold on tight. Everything's about to change.

Rei-chan, I don't feel so good...

I should have seen it coming, of course. As a matter of fact, I did. I promised one last glimpse into 2003 and we've now reached it. Visiting my pal in the summer sometime, we absently flip on the TV to kill time. On goes YTV, and would you look at that? It's the magical girl show I was watching up until I got busy as hell with prepping for college. Now we have a minute to relax, but this opening looks totally different. It's strange. On the screen, Rei has a premonition. Red skies promise the end of the world, the disintegration of her friends and city. In a dimly lit lab, a mad scientist tinkers with something to create a monster, its target being Rei. The creature reaches her, and rips out her heart. Not literally, thank god, but it pulls something out of her. A glowing crystal. A "pure heart", as I'll learn in 15 years from now. Her essence, her purity, everything that she is tugged out of her. Her friends are powerless to help, as the thing shrugs off every attack. This is all I remember from 2003, but back here in 2018 and watching it? This is all familiar.


Sailor Moon undergoes a bit of a shift here in the way it deals with monsters of the week, playing more from the Super Sentai/Power Rangers handbook. It's especially evident here in S with a literal mad scientist actually making the monsters in his lab, not unlike the mad scientist Finster from the first season of Power Rangers that we got (coincidentally right around the same time as S was airing in Japan!). Hell, later in the season the guy is literally throwing shit into a science microwave to make his monsters! More to the point, the monsters take on more of a... theme? Like there are targets with the pure hearts in the episodes, and the target will have some special interest or hobby. Say, playing the violin or running track. So the monster of the week to go after their pure heart will literally be a violin monster, or a goddamn shoe. The monster design was never exactly serious in tone, but from S onward they really take on a new level of goofiness. Even so, here and now, with Rei? This monster's a threat. Even the Silver Crystal can't stop it! The Silver Crystal! The thing that blew up two of the final enemies can't do a thing to a monster of the week! This is another trick from Power Rangers: power creep. Each new enemy is vastly superior to the last, such that even a monster of the week is stronger than last season's ultimate evil. To combat them, the heroines will need brand new powers and attacks in order to sell more toys improve their fighting ability and grow stronger. That doesn't happen here. No, what happens is absolutely jaw-dropping. Just when our five heroines have gotten their asses kicked by this one monster, two attacks come out of nowhere and just OBLITERATE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF IT. Holy fuck! We don't see who did it, but there are two strange silhouettes which look remarkably like Sailor Senshi who examine Rei's pure heart once it flies out of the monster, and then return it after a moment. We don't know it yet, but two of the most fascinating characters this franchise will ever craft have just arrived on the scene.

Perfection.

With an angelic chorus and stylish flower petals in a freeze frame, Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh enter the world of Sailor Moon. This, in the end, was a gravity I always knew was coming. I didn't know them in 2003, of course, but in the 15 years since I picked up some things via cultural osmosis. Of course I knew about them and their secret identities. A duo of upperclasswomen by daylight, but by moonlight? Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, respectively. Our universe has expanded, and in more ways than one. The other thing I picked up with that cultural osmosis? The fact that Uranus and Neptune are a lesbian magical girl duo. My GOD, the gay energies that radiate from these two. It's not even limited to their Sailor Senshi forms or anything; Haruka and Michiru (but especially Haruka) flirt with all of our main Senshi at least once over the early points of S. Granted, Haruka is somewhat masculine-presenting with her tall frame and short hair, but it has to be said: Holy Lord God Is Sailor Moon S Gay As Hell. Just... several examples for you all in one handy link. That on its own is pretty great, but it's their Sailor Senshi identities that make things really interesting. It isn't hard for me to compare the duo of Uranus and Neptune to another duo of powerful girls very near and dear to my heart; Kei and Yuri of Dirty Pair. It can be tempting to reduce Kei and Yuri down to a "tomboy and girly-girl" dynamic, but you shouldn't do that for either them or Uranus and Neptune. There's so much more performative play going on under the surface, but this isn't a Dirty Pair blog.


No, Uranus and Neptune represent something altogether more fascinating; a conflicting ideology to our main Sailor Senshi. The mystery scientists (who I don't even think get named until late in the series, but are called the Death Busters and will be referred to as such from now on) have a simple racket going here. Target owner of a "Pure Heart", implant a monster into an object based on their hobby, plant object near the target, target uses the object and the monster awakens to steal their "Pure Heart". The Death Busters aren't just collecting plain Pure Hearts, though; they want special Pure Hearts called Talismans which will converge to form the Holy Grail and then let them... do a thing. We'll get to it. Incidentally, get used to this sort of plot: we'll be dealing with variations of it from now until the end of the show. The main ideological clash between Uranus/Neptune and our five main girls comes in how to deal with the Pure Hearts and this Talisman business. Uranus/Neptune are convinced that nothing can avert the apocalyptic scenario Rei glimpsed; nothing short of gathering the Talismans first. Of course, the implication here is that stealing someone's Pure Heart for any lengthy period of time will kill them. Uranus and Neptune are lone wolves who refuse to be team players with the Inner Senshi, and are ready and willing to take three lives to save the rest of the world. Naturally, Usagi and friends are horrified at this. Usagi, ever the sunny optimist, just knows that they could all work well together and that faith and love will see them through to victory. Uranus and Neptune believe that Usagi is incredibly naive, only co-operating in short bursts but warning the others to stay away. This is, after all, a life and death battle with the fate of the planet at stake. There's no time to be sentimental, or optimistic, or hesitant in the face of what has to be done. Three talismans. Three sacrifices to be made in order to ensure the survival of everyone on the planet. Uranus and Neptune adamantly believe, to crib from another utopia, that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.


I'll get into what Usagi (and the narrative by proxy) think of that in a moment, but I want to preface it all by praising how much I love this. Conflict by way of clashing ideologies, not by bullshit knife-twisting drama. Usagi's utopian idealism and belief that everything will work out fine with enough faith and strength, versus Uranus and Neptune's contempt for such naive wishful thinking, and their grim determination in doing what has to be done without faltering. This the way I like my dramatic conflict to go in a work of utopian fiction, and the added bonus of making Haruka and Michiru likeable and flirtatious and fun in their civilian forms while utterly driven as Sailor Senshi? It makes them utterly fascinating. Haruka in particular is a favorite of mine. I don't agree with her methods, but the show tells its story so well that I absolutely understand her way of thinking. I would be remiss, though, if I didn't mention their turn in the manga. We've mostly ignored the source material since the 90's anime is an adaptation that changes quite a lot, but in all fairness to Uranus and Neptune's ideology it must be brought up: they're far more reluctant to sacrifice lives to save the world in the manga, even going so far as to say to Usagi that if she has a better idea for saving the world, they're open to hearing it. The anime omits that, in favor of making the pair turn up their noses at Usagi's naivity. As much as I adore this plotline, the anime is lesser for making Uranus and Neptune less conflicted and reluctant. Nuance is GOOD!


More to the point, while the conflict itself seems well thought-out and an understandable set of idelogies from both Usagi and Uranus/Neptune? The narrative is absolutely on Usagi's side here. There are two major clashes here in which Uranus and Neptune are convinced sacrificing lives is the only way to save the world, and Usagi is convinced there's another way. The talisman issue is the first clash, and we're going to get to the second... but, spoiler alert. Uranus and Neptune's ideology is proven 100% WRONG by the narrative. There is ABSOLUTELY a way in which the world can be saved without sacrificing any needless lives. The utopian idealism had to win out, in the end. In the case of the talismans, it turns out that Uranus and Neptune were the holders of two of them. They're ready and willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of saving the world, of course... but then Sailor Pluto comes back. She's the holder of the third talisman, and they just create the Holy Grail then and there while still keeping their talismans/pure hearts. Nobody needed to die at all. Sailor Moon even gets a power boost using it, becoming Super Sailor Moon... but the transformation does task her. As wrong as Uranus and Neptune were, Sailor Moon isn't entirely ready for the full power of the utopian idealism of the Holy Grail yet. Still, in short bursts it will help to stop the monsters and heal pure hearts. To save the day, however, we'll need the intervention of a future utopia.


You guessed it. Or you've seen the show. Or you have no idea what I'm talking about and don't care about spoilers. Either way, let's spit it out. Chibiusa is back! And she's a magicial girl in training, becoming Sailor Chibi Moon! A lot of people find Chibiusa annoying. I can sympathize well enough, but she also embodies that entire utopian ideal I've been praising for the last... um... 2100 words? Dang. Well, we've got a lot of ground left to cover. Maybe this one actually will be shorter than the others. Unless I keep stalling like this. So yeah. Utopian ideal. Chibiusa is many things, of course. A magical girl in training. A smaller, diminished version of our Usagi. A resident of Crystal Tokyo, the future utopia. She occupies this strange space as both a lesser and superior version of Usagi and her idealistic views. More to the point, her involvement in the next two seasons is vital to saving the day from the forces of corruption and darkness. Don't believe me? Take a look at this. The final battle for the fate of the world is ages away... and yet, Chibiusa is about to win it here and now. The characters don't know it. The ideological clashes don't know it. The narrative knows it, and the narrative lets you know too. Now I'm going to let you know. Here it is. The moment that Chibiusa, without even knowing it at the time, saves the world.

Doesn't look like much, does it? She just was friendly to a young girl about her age named Hotaru. Pull back a bit, and we can see all the gears that turn. Hotaru Tomoe is the daughter of a bespectacled scientist. Dr. Tomoe is none other than the mad scientist we've been watching turn fucking violins and shoes into monsters to get Pure Hearts for the Death Busters. We find out, eventually, that he and his daughter were gravely injured in an experiment. To save them both, he made a contract with a devil from beyond the solar system, and now he works to help bring their god, Pharaoh 90, to Earth in order to cover the planet with darkness and reign supreme or some such nonsense. Oh, and Hotaru is also possessed by a powerful demon or whatever. Look, I'm going to level with you. The villains of this arc disappointed me. Everything around them is great, and the twists and turns as we slowly learn about Hotaru and Dr. Tomoe are wild. In making the true bad guys and their motivations late-game twists, however, we lose a certain sense of development build-up for them. This is what I loved about R; everyone was playing off of each other from the start, plotting how best to backstab each other. You get some of that with Dr. Tomoe's scientist helpers, where each one is eventually betrayed and killed by the next in line, but for the most part you don't know a goddamn thing about the Death Busters! Starting the show, I didn't even know if they were from an alternate dimension, or from Earth, or demons or humans or anything. In making all of this shocking endgame reveal, it made them flat at the start and just had me longing for some DEPTH for the other 80% of the show. For now, I'm painting in the broadest of strokes. Let's go ahead to the end of the world, and the absolute height of the clashing ideologies that embody Usagi and the pair of Uranus and Neptune.

To summarize. Things have gone from bad to worse. Dr. Tomoe and the rest of his scientist pals (and the alien menaces possessing them) are toast, but Hotaru has awakened. Implicit in the prophecy of the end of the world is a specific menace rising up, raising her almighty glaive and reaping the planet Earth... and she is a Sailor Senshi. Sailor Saturn, Agent of Destruction. Hotaru is that legendary power, but right now the Death Busters have her. Right now, she's stolen Chibiusa's pure heart in order to ascend to something else. Just as Chibiusa's corruption led her to become Black Lady, so does stealing her pure heart make Hotaru into a mature woman. Mistress Nine stands before Sailors Moon, Uranus, and Neptune, ready and willing to bring Pharaoh 90 into this world and purge the lot of it. All she needs is the power of the Holy Grail, but Sailor Moon is holding onto it for the time being. Here it is, then. The final clash of ideology between Sailor Moon and Uranus and Neptune. After that talisman business, Uranus and Neptune have been on the hunt for the vessel which will bring about Sailor Saturn and the world's destruction. The idea is even simpler than with the talismans; kill the child, and Sailor Saturn will never appear and reap us. Sailor Moon, pointedly, wants not that. She wants to save the child and save the world, and through the grim despair of a world on the brink she can see the way out.


You saw it, remember? I pointed it out to you. The show ascended to a new utopian ideal after its brush with the future last season, and Sailor Moon has been blessed with the gift of true sight. Looking ahead, at her foe who threatens to unmake the world? She doesn't see her. Sailor Moon doesn't see Mistress Nine, the one who will summon Pharaoh 90 with the power of the Holy Grail. She doesn't see Sailor Saturn, cold and heartless destructor who will cut the world in two with her glaive. Sailor Moon looks right past all of that and sees Hotaru Tomoe. Chibiusa's friend, a somewhat sickly child with hopes and dreams all her own. Sailor Moon couldn't possibly kill that child. She couldn't pull out her magic talisman and blast that embodiment of hate into nothingness, like she did with Queen Beryl or Death Phantom. So, Sailor Moon does what she does best. She hands over the Holy Grail, and lets faith and hope take over for the rest. Uranus and Neptune beg and plead for her not to do this, convinced that Sailor Moon is condemning the planet Earth to destruction because of her weak-willed idealism. Once again, though, the narrative is utterly unconvinced of Uranus and Neptune's ideology. Hotaru Tomoe's will, combined with the pure heart of Chibiusa having some influence, is enough to fight back against Mistress Nine. Hotaru awakens as Sailor Saturn, but not to cut the world in two. It is Pharaoh 90 who will face the destruction, at the cost of Hotaru's life. Sailor Moon, at least, will help. You can really tell things have changed because we don't even see the final battle with Pharaoh 90. What we just witnessed, with Hotaru taking control of her life back and turning her glaive on Pharaoh 90? That was the final battle, and the naive idealism won out. The day is saved, and though Hotaru is destroyed she's reincarnated as a baby and given back to her father, injured and amnesiatic following his years-long possession. Everything seems set to wrap up, but there's one more wrinkle.

Utopian idealism well fought for.

Uranus and Neptune are furious at Usagi. Yes, everything worked out in the end, but the point is that Usagi put the entire planet at risk for nothing more than hope and faith. These are not the actions of a Moon Princess; they're the actions of a naive girl with far too much optimism in the face of cataclysm. Her friends stand up for her, ready to throw down... but Usagi calls them off. They're right, after all. She's naive. A crybaby. A klutz. Despite all that, she knows she did the right thing back at the edge of oblivion. Sailor Saturn was a Sailor Senshi, one of them. Still, Uranus and Neptune won't relent. If Usagi wants them to understand, it will have to be a fight. A literal clash of ideologies, as the pair and Sailor Moon face each other off to make the other understand their way of thinking on the field of battle. Uranus and Neptune aren't holding back, blasting their signature attacks directly at Sailor Moon, all while Sailor Moon remains pacifist in her dodging. The fight's quick to end once she gives off a divine glow and dodges an oncoming rush, making Uranus and Neptune collide. That's enough to make the pair stop. They bow to her, understanding now. In a pinch, in a moment of despair, she's proven herself. They depart the town for the time being, and it really seems like they understand Usagi's way of thinking now. She may be a klutz, a crybaby, and a naive idealist who trusts way too much... but she has the qualities needed to bring about the utopia of the future. She has the qualities of a Moon Princess.


We'll be seeing Uranus and Neptune again, of course, but not until the final season. Whether or not they take Usagi's idealist nature to heart will be chatted up there and then... but I can get a little interpersonal and offer some context based on my own personal headspace. You may or may not be aware of a little game series called Dangan Ronpa. I'm quite fond of it and it's inspired me in important ways just like Sailor Moon has. To make a long story short, it too is about clashing ideologies... only these ideologies are more abstract. Hope and despair are the warring ideologies at play here, and in the first game you play as an average high school student thrust into an awful situation forced to make him and his classmates murder each other for the purposes of snuffing out hope and letting despair run rampant. Despite multiple murders and multiple betrayals, this average high school student holds fast to his hope, letting his idealistic and hopeful nature burn like a torch against even the pure embodiment of despair. In a final ideological battle versus despair's ultimate leader, his hope rings true and inspires everyone around him. That average high school student is Makoto Naegi, and in the original Japanese version he's voiced by Megumi Ogata... who, years earlier, lent her voice talents to Sailor Uranus. The sharing of voice actors is a happy coincidence, but one I'm happy to headcanon away as Uranus (in another form) being inspired by Usagi's idealism and using it to inspire hope in Makoto's comrades. Hell, Usagi's voice actress even lends her voice to a character in the second game... though things don't end as well for her. But, that's a story for another day...


In case you couldn't tell, I ADORED Sailor Moon S. Uranus and Neptune are totally fascinating characters, and the clashing ideologies are done in a really interesting way that offers a fresh take on the same old conflict. It has to be said, though, that the manga handles things a lot better and with more nuance... but the manga's not what I blasted through in April. No, here and now, Sailor Moon S has hit a peak of quality that the show will be hard-pressed to match. It will reach higher highs in some areas, and lower lows in other areas. Sailor Moon S, though, is the most consistent the show has been. All I can really fault it for is the Death Busters; making their motivations and machinations a big shocking reveal worked well for the plot, but it made them utterly forgettable Power Rangers-level villains in the first half of the show. Granted, this is an all-ages magical girls show, so Power Rangers with a feminine bent is a fine bar to aim for. We've hit the high-water mark of utopian idealism, though. Once we blew up Death Phantom, we lamented that there should have been another way. We found it. The other way is looking past the all-powerful devil looking to blow up the Earth, finding the person in need of healing inside, and doing your very best to help them heal. Even Uranus and Neptune can see the merit of that, given time. Now all we need to do is go forward with that ideology, and apply it to ourselves. Fear a little bit less. Trust a little bit more.

Yes. Minako. You're pure.

(Also, it has a hilarious Venus-focused episode where she's jealous that all the other Senshi have been targeted for their pure hearts by the Death Busters, questions her own purity, and goes on a mass blood donation spree in order to prove that she's so pure to be worth targeting for her pure heart... and it works. The image of Sailor Venus gleefully clutching her exposed pure heart and running off while cheering abot how pure she is is forever in my mind, and I adore this summer child. In fact, as I started writing the finale of this post, the planet Venus was literally visible from the night sky. She's watching over me. Venus help me in finishing the last two posts in a timely fashion...)


Next Time: The Crybaby's Dreams And The Dark Queen's Nightmares