Sailor Moon Black Moon Clan Arc Review and Ranking

The Sailor Moon manga has five arcs. The middle three of them have always felt a little bit different to the first and final arcs to me. They feel a little less universal in their themes and their genre elements, more specific. They feel much more like Naoko had the suspicion that there would be more Sailor Moon after, and so each, especially the third and fourth, feel a bit like Naoko didn't want to write a conclusive "ultimate" arc of Sailor Moon but was instead writing "Sailor Moon meets this plot element", whether it be Time Travel, an Evil Silver Crystal, Antihero Sailor Senshi, Mad Scientists, A Lovecraftian Alien, Dreams, a Creepy Circus etc. This is as opposed to the first and final arcs which read to me as moreso thinking she needed to capture the greatest as well as the most timeless universal appeal of Sailor Moon in an attempt to create an ultimate Sailor Moon arc. 

Which you prefer is obviously a matter of taste, and both have their advantages. For the middle arcs, it can be quite fun to see the I guess "Sailor Moon" take on a particular genre element. For the second arc you get to see all kinds of random occult and Sailor Moon's version including time travel, crop circles, dowsing, ESP, spontaneous combustion, robots replacing people, channeling, haunted location stories, and so forth. On the downside this means it can feel a little bit more gimmicky and lack the feeling of timeless grandiosity, which I can say is what I would prefer.

Every Sailor Moon arc is fantastic to me, and the second arc is no exception. Even compared to the other Sailor Moon arcs, it has its advantages. It has probably the most consistently good cast of villains; Saphir being probably Naoko's most realistic villain, Demande being a great hate sink, Black Lady being one of the most popular villains in the entire franchise history, Death Phantom being this fantastic modernization of the ghost story on a cosmic scale, and more.

The second arc also has some of the best "cute moments" in the entire series, if you're interested in that kind of thing. It introduces Diana who is basically cuteness defined, as well as basically introduces Chibiusa, the cute Senshi who gets plenty of cute moments in the series such as when realizes Usagi was just a crybaby like her once, or the way she gives Neo-Queen Serenity a determined little nod when she's asked if she can go help Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Puppet. The romance between Usagi and Mamoru is great as always, and this arc probably the most balanced in how much the romance between the two is important to the arc, less centralizing than the first and fourth arcs, but more relevant than the second and third arcs.

This arc has the same themes as the rest of the series; the pain of isolation (demonstrated through Sailor Pluto's desire to join the others and aid her king and queen, Chibiusa's sense of alienation from others, and Death Phantom being called the solitary king, the lone being of Nemesis) as well as the ennobling power of love (as shown when Chibiusa's love for Sailor Pluto allows her to finally transform for the first time, Usagi and Mamoru's love making Usagi grow stronger and summoning Chibi-Moon, Usagi's love for her friends returning her spirit on Nemesis and then her ability to transform, and so forth.)

The unique themes for this arc are responsibility and maturity. The Black Moon Clan regularly renounces their own responsibility, attributing it to others. Conversely the Heroes regularly take responsibility for themselves, sometimes too much, and the climax of the second sub-arc is Usagi telling Demande that she is not responsible for his evils. This ties into what I believe are the best part of the arc, which is Usagi and Chibiusa's paralleling character arcs.

Usagi is obviously the most important character in Sailor Moon. Chibiusa is either the second or third most important. Their relationship is extremely important to the arc and while the fighting over Mamoru was not that entertaining, realistic though it may be, and the brainwashed Mamoru felt repetitive of the first arc, overall I thought it was really well done. Chibiusa had always been kept from responsibility as the princess, and so couldn't deal with it when it arose, and ran away to the creepy man offering her a lifetime of indulgence and responsibility-ness. Basically "Honest" John from Pinchocchio bringing him to Pleasure Island. Conversely Usagi's arc is pretty clearly metaphoric for the responsibility of having a child, particularly when one was not expecting. She's jealous at first of the attention and doesn't deal with it, but as the arc goes she develops in maturity and in her maternal side and by the end of the arc is protective and loving of Chibiusa, who through seeing her mother's own development in her younger years comes to appreciate the parallel journeys. All this comes to the head when Chibiusa is able to make the Silver Crystal her own and go and help her mother, a representation of generations mutually sharing responsibility to save the world.

Plus there's some other really good parts of the arc. Usagi telling off Demande. Diana taking the responsibility as guardian of spacetime from Sailor Pluto. Ikuko commenting that Usagi is beginning to look more like an adult woman. Usagi and Mamoru's implied intimacy. Chibiusa's goodbye to Usagi and Mamoru. It's not my favorite arc of Sailor Moon, but I still adore it as an expression of development of the parental instinct, and the need to share responsibility across generations, to work alongside each other to save the world. Even if the time travel stuff still causes my head to ache with all the plot holes.

Arc Ranking:

12: Act 16: Has some cute parts like Tuxedo Puppet and some development of Usagi and Mamoru's relationship, but Berthier's plan is weird and doesn't really make sense to me, and the ending is kind of a disappointing surprise. Not bad, but far from the arc's best.

11: Act 17: Pretty formulaic, to the same extent as Act 16. Also has some cute parts like Makoto and Asanuma developing a cute little friendship/relationship thing. Its pacing is kind of janky as it darts back and forth a lot, and it has a bit of a repetition problem. That said I liked Petz and her plan more than Berthier and it has the AWESOME moment of a nearly unconscious Makoto destroying a robot assassin sent to kill her with her bare hands. 

10: Act 20: This act is mostly just exposition. It's mostly here to set up later acts in the arc so on its own its not really exciting until the end. Usagi getting kidnapped is a neat enough quadruple subversion of expectations. It introduced Diana whose really cute, and it has the atmosphere buildup around Sailor Pluto. It's also got the exposition about Neo-Queen Serenity turning the Earth into a Utopia and I'm all for Heroes who have the agency to positively change the world around them. It's pretty good but still on the lower end of the arc.

9: Act 15: An interesting start to the arc, this act is jam-packed with stuff. It's introduces like a dozen characters including all the villains, starts the main plot of the arc, starts the sub-plot, has its own subplot and jokes. It's a little bit cramped. That said at the very least all its parts are memorable. Koan is memorable as a villainess for being a twisted villain, even by Black Moon Clan standards, there's the funny joke about Rei speaking like Usagi, and the interesting character development that implies. Naoko does a pretty good job juggling all these elements at once.

8: Act 18: The conclusion to the Invasion sub-arc and definitely my favorite act from it. It's for pretty simple reasons overall. Calaveras is my favorite of the Ayakashi, having the best reasons for her actiosn and the coolest powers and modus operandi, plus both Minako and Mamoru have really cool moments this act and I love Mamoru and Minako. More than any other act of the Invasion sub-arc, it's focused. It knows what its objective is and it doesn't clutter it. I do think it maybe goes too quick at the start, which is a new one for Naoko who usually ramps up in speed as the story progresses. 

7: Act 19: Act 19 is an act of contrasts. It has scenes of an adorable cute kitten and Usagi and Mamoru's intimacy...and also the ruins of Crystal Tokyo. Similarly it has all those scenes which I would consider great and it also has the whole Chiral-Achiral which is...I mean it's fine I guess but it feels like kind of a pointless diversion, as though Naoko has to include a fight scene in every act contractually something. Except it also takes a weirdly long amount of time, mostly to try and explain Chiral-Achiral's powers, which it never really does. But the great parts of Act 19 are REALLY good, and I definitely think put it over the acts before it.

6: Act 23: Act 23 is another act that is basically two separate parts that converge near the end, something Naoko seems to like to do. You have Black Lady taking Demande and Saphir to the end of spacetime where Wiseman finally reveals his aim, and you have Usagi missing Chibiusa and developing into a more maternal state. These come to a head with them meeting Black Lady for the first time at the end of the Act. Both sections are great and they support each other well which is why it's in the top half of acts for the arc. My one reservation really is that as mentioned the Dark Endymion stuff feels repetitive of the first arc.

5: Act 21: Moving from the really good acts to the great acts. It's another act with two sections; the first is the Chibiusa section where we get the really sweet and thematically important, then tragic scene with Chibiusa expressing how she found that her seemingly perfect mother used to be just like her before being lured away by the Wiseman due to not being able to take her guilt. The second is the section where Usagi is trapped on Nemesis with Demande, and while it's kind of another exposition-heavy section, Usagi just gets to be really cool, defying the Dictator Sexual Harraser and show her courage and character development for her loved ones. 

4: Act 26: The Epilogue Act. Neo-Queen Serenity and Chibiusa's reunion is incredibly sweet, as is the entire sequence back in the past of Usagi and Mamoru saying goodbye to Chibiusa. I have minor reservations on how the climax could have been thematically more potent, but it was still great seeing Usagi and Mamoru's love again, and Chibi-Moon fighting alongside her mother to defeat Death Phantom. Just a really feel-good act. 

3: Act 25: The top three are all somewhat comparable, Act 25 is not that much weaker than the top acts. This act has perhaps a little bit of an odd pacing and logic in places, but Sailor Pluto's death leading to Chibiusa's re-awakening is a fantastic scene capturing the beauty and tragedy of the fact that a Child may be sheltered without developing for 900 years, but someday they will eventually encounter tragedy and for better and worse, take on responsibility. The death of Demande is really poetic and Death Phantom is in one of his best appearances in this act. 

I went back and forth between the top two acts a lot, these two are both fantastic acts and I will probably change my mind again at some point on which I like more. As of right now the order is

2: Act 22: This act is mostly one long sequence of awesome. Saphir is one of Naoko's most complex villains, and he serves as the catalyst for a fantastical metaphor for victim-blaming that ends with one of the most triumphant moments in the entire series as Usagi transforms even when it should be impossible on Nemesis, channeling the spirit of her future self. This act teaches through dramatic demonstration the self-destructive tendency of the dictatorships, though they chain the body through atrocities, they can not chain the spirit which is invigorated against them by their actions. The scene where Usagi has the spirit of the Queen behind her calls back amazingly to the first arc, and this arc will have repercussions all the way to the last acts of the manga. You also have the fantastic lovecraftian feel of the conversation where Saphir speaks of the planet's intent towards them shifting, hinting towards its true nature, and ironic how it uses them as objects the way they use others, or the scene where Mamoru plunges into the space-time storm to save Chibiusa. This act could very easily be the best act in the arc, but there's one that is competitive with it.

1: Act 24: Act 24 is, in my mind, the best representative of what's good about the second arc as a whole. Death Phantom, Black Lady, and Demande are all agents in this arc and show the individual styles of villains whether it be cold and otherworldly, a spoilt brat, or a mad obsessive king. Sailor Moon channeling the spirit of the Queen again this act, but this time deliberately, not falling into it through the queen's help to bring down the oppressor, but deliberately in love for her people and her home. This is a fantastic act for Sailor Moon and her conversation with Black Lady is so evocative if only because what Black Lady says is, like so many teenage rants, true and not true and it doesn't even matter if it's true all at the same time, it's an expression of their resentment. This act has the reveal of Death Phantom and villains fighting, a true rarity for Sailor Moon, and Death Phantom for all his intelligence being shown to not be able to intercept the suicide recklessness of human evil. And best of all, this act has little kitten Diana taking on the duty of protecting the space-time door so Sailor Pluto could go save the world, the perfect encapsulation of this arc's theme, as this tiny kitten that no one noticed taking on responsibility helped save the universe showing the importance of everyone and anyone being able to make the difference. It's not as potent in its goodness as Act 22, but more varied. It wants to be good in more ways, and while none are as individually potent, the diversity of emotions is a quality all its own.

Sub-Arc Ranking:

3: Invasion Sub-Arc (Acts 15-18): I like all Sailor Moon sub-arcs and this has its points of interest for sure. There's plenty of cute elements, and cool atmospheric stuff, particularly if you're more of a science-fiction type person or into all these occult mysteries. With that said I thought it was pretty repetitive, and the Ayakashi Sisters are only really decent villains of the month. The main plot is also not especially surprising for an adult reading this, though Chibiusa is a fun addition to the cast.

2: Crystal Tokyo Sub-Arc (Acts 19-22): Some divide this into two two-parters, Acts 19-20, and 21-22, but I like the symmetry of them all having four acts. Really good sub-arc with a fantastic finale, this sub-arc starts out a little slow but it does an overall excellent job introducing Sailor Pluto and Crystal Tokyo, and further developing the Black Moon Clan. Exposition-heavy, but that's not really a deal-breaker and it's got a lot of really good parts.

1: Death Phantom Sub-Arc (Acts 23-26): Great sub-arc and makes for a amazing finale to the arc. Every act here is at least really good, and brings Usagi and Chibiusa's paralleling arcs together and to a really good resolution. Demande not being in charge and his rivalry with Black Lady and eventually Death Phantom are a fairly unique subplot for Sailor Moon, and I think even though it doesn't have Act 22 which might have the best moment from the Second Arc, it holistically better represents the better parts of the second arc, especially with Diana taking on Sailor Pluto's duty. It has cutesy moments, dark moments, cosmic moments, personal moments, goofy moments, and mature moments.