Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 45 Review

 

The second half of the Dream arc begins with the Outer Senshi showing up to save the Guardian Senshi but apparently for some reason they came in their civilian state. I know it's so they can have a dramatic henshin scene but did they go from wherever their house is to Azabu-Juuban just as normal humans? Or did they get there as Senshi, and then de-henshin just to make this dramatic entrance?

Because I could very well believe the later.

Before the Outers transform they give some cool sounding lines to cement that they're the cool senshi. Michiru comments how hot it is, wondering if they stumbled into the Amazon and Haruka responds this heat is nothing compared to the heat inside her race car. Setsuna, ever concerned about proper order and place, says that this place doesn't belong in this world and Hotaru, the tiny goth horror movie child she is, responds that only ruin awaits this place..

The Quartet demand to know who's there and the Outers in response transform before introducing themselves properly to the Quartet.

It's easy to see why Naoko would have wanted to bring the Outer Senshi back. The Outer Senshi were ridiculously popular with Haruka regularly being near or at the top of Sailor Moon character popularity polls, and Sailor Saturn was such an incredibly massive presence in the last arc that her returning would immediately draw in a lot of attention. However it's a lot of characters to juggle and character usage is one of Naoko's weakest areas as a writer. 

Uranus frees the Guardians with an attack and Pluto launches an attack the Quartet though they manage to evade the attack via teleporting. The Guardian Senshi are shocked at the Outers return and in particular Saturn returning to her proper age. You have to wonder if they were secretly in terror that Saturn was going to do her old thing again. Haruka warns the Guardian Senshi about Sailor Moon being danger, and we briefly cut to Usagi, laid up sick in bed with the curse with Chibiusa going to call the others for aid.

After the one page detour, we cut back to the fight between the Quartet and the Senshi, with Neptune destroying stones summoned by Palla-Palla. Mars asks Neptune why the Outer Senshi have finally returned to them. Neptune says that they're here because a series crisis is approaching their princess and prince, and Pluto tells them that though they can't avoid destiny, they CAN create a new destiny for themselves, which is the mission of the 10 Sailor Senshi.

This is an expression of the Outer Senshi's development the last act. They initially were led to believe their mission was just their duties, and tried to prolong destiny (Saturn's awakening) even as they thought it might be hopeless. However with the love and understanding the princess gave them, they now believe that instead of prolonging fate, they can face it and create a new destiny for them, which is why they refer to it as a mission for all ten of them, where in the Infinity Arc they usually referred to "our mission" (as opposed to the Guardian Senshi's)

Uranus tells them to leave the conversation for after they beat the enemies and attacks with her space sword. Meanwhile Saturn speaks in her heart and Chibi-Moon hears from far away, not believing what she's hearing, as it's the voice of her dear friend she thought lost. Usagi agrees, saying she can feel it, that those three (The other Outer Senshi) are fighting with them again.

Not exactly sure how that works, but Sailor Moon has a lot of plot convenient points where characters just sort of...sense things.

Chibiusa sees the four Outer Senshi reflected in Neptune's mirror, the mirror Neptune gave her as promise they would return. Chibiusa convenes with Usagi who tells Chibiusa to go aid them, she'll be right behind her. Chibi-Moon gets a look of determination and tells the Neptune Mirror to guide her to the others. It teleports away and Chibi-Moon races off after it.

The Mirror appears in Neptune's hand. She looks in it, seeing the determined Chibi-Moon and smiles knowingly. 

Meanwhile Usagi, though pained from her illness knows she's needed too and limps out of bed running out. She runs immediately into Mamoru, himself still suffering from sickness, saying he heard her call him. Though Usagi caught Mamoru's sickness, his worst fear, she tells him it doesn't matter so long as she's with him as she clings to him. However she regains her composure and tells him the Sailor Senshi have assembled and that she is needed to defeat the enemy.

I know some parts of it are just generic hero stuff, but I love Usagi. The way she tries hard to fight and help the others despite being waylaid in bed earlier from crippling sickness. The way she doesn't regret it even a moment if it means being with Mamoru. I love the little dichotomy of Usagi clinging to Mamoru looking vulnerable and fragile but then getting a determined look on her face saying the others need her, that's her character in a nutshell. 

Sailor Venus tries to ask the Outers what's going to happen but Neptune yells that there's no time and blows up the main circus tent with her mirror revealing the Dead Moon hanging in the sky

Venus is shocked saying there was nothing there when they went in, but the Outers tell them that the world is being engulfed in nightmares, and consequently that they can't trust what they see. Pluto expresses that the entire planet is actually engulfed in a barrier of darkness, Nehelenia's barrier which was preventing them from transforming and Saturn says their plan is to this world into a dead world with a cool looking image of Saturn and Pluto holding the darkening world.

We cut to Chibi-Moon running through the streets seeing displays of rage and violence everything, saying this isn't the Azabu-Juuban she knows. 

I know it's not super emphasized, but it's really cool how Sailor Moon villains are probably some of the closest modern examples to Eldritch Horrors with Nehelena's dark presence doing something like this. It's really cool to me that Naoko is willing to use such dark imagery or concepts in a Shojo manga.

Moon, Chibi-Moon, and Tuxedo Kamen catch up to the other Senshi just as Zirconia appears before them, angry at the Quartet for their useless playing around. Zirconia introduces herself to the Sailor Senshi as a psychopomp serving Nehelenia, a psychopomp being a spirit guide. 

Zirconia marvels at the people of the White Moon Kingdom being reincarned but tells them it's too late, the city is under their control and the planet nearly is. The image of Nehelenia is transposed on Zirconia showing their connection as Nehelenia laughingly says that destroying them will be "easy as breaking a baby's neck."

...Charming. I think this is meant to reinforce again that she's some kind of fairy tale witch.

Usagi begins coughing up blood, which triggers Mamoru into doing the same though Usagi still remains resolute in the face of Zirconia but Zirconia tells her to disappear along with her old kingdom and blasts her and Mamoru. Helios senses the attack on his prince and projects himself up to protect them. 

Zirconia's magic, to the horror of the other Senshi begins to rapidly de-age Usagi and Mamoru until they disappear alongside Helios.

Meanwhile Chibi-Moon and Saturn run off together to try and stop Zirconia. As they do Chibi-Moon marvels that Saturn has already grown so big, and Saturn comments that it's because it was her destiny...and so that she can alongside Chibi-Moon.

The cute interlude is cut short when they run into the Quartet again blocking their path and challenging them to fight.

The Quartet attack them, PallaPalla using a gross sticky attack to bind them and the others throwing attacks at them though Saturn very casually blocks the attack and instead of fighting back yells at them to awaken, that the demonic power is binding them to darkness, that they're just being used. It's interesting she uses the term awaken here as awakening is how the Senshi regaining their past memories when they awoke to their true identity was termed. 

The Quartet continue to attack them with Saturn defending against their attacks fairly easily, never going for any kind of offense and trying to get them to awaken. The Quartet tries to fill their heads with their own nightmares, where Chibiusa hears their feelings, that they don't have any beautiful dreams, that in the darkness, in the circus they aren't allowed to dream and it's all the fault of the White Moon. This backfires however as Chibiusa and Hotaru aren't shaken by this and instead are redoubled in their sympathy for their Quartet

I like this part because it shows one of the recurring differences between the heroes of Sailor Moon and the villains of Sailor Moon, when shown the same bad circumstances, ones instinct is to vengeance and resentment, and the other's is to compassion. This happens near the climax of the entire series too which I'll get to when we get to it.

Saturn tells them interestingly that they are being manipulated by the dead which is...an odd way to express what the Dead Moon Circus are, and actually seems to reach the Quartet. The Quartet hesitantly look like they want to join Saturn but Zirconia shows up and seals them in their Amazon Stones.

This part confuses me a little bit since I thought Zirconia was still back fighting the other Senshi, and when you see the events of the next act you might understand my confusion.

Zirconia mumbles to herself how ungrateful the Quartet were given she basically raised them and tells Zircon, the little flaming orb on her staff to deal with the intruders...somehow. Chibi-Moon tries to attack Zircon but they get...trapped in her attack I think? The acts ends with Zirconia putting their shards Chibi-Moon and Saturn are trapped in along with the stones the Quartet are trapped in through a mirror at Nehelenia's feet.

I don't like this ending, and it's not so much the events themselves, it's that they are the start of a recurrent problem over the second half of the Dream Arc. I love Sailor Moon dearly, but Naoko's biggest problem is her inefficiency with her cast. She includes too many characters for the space of the story and doesn't allot time between them well. And this sort of symbolizes it well. If you were going to have any of the Senshi outside Moon herself do something important this arc, who would it logically be? Well the obvious narrative choices are Chibi-Moon and Saturn. Chibi-Moon is one of the most important characters in the series, this is an arc that features her heavily, and she has the Silver Crystal which is hypothetically equal to Sailor Moon's own. Sailor Saturn was one of the most important plot elements last arc, was enormously important in the act before serving as the major momentum-changing event at the halfway point of this arc and has huge hyping in terms of power and capability. Plus Saturn is one of my favorite characters and just really cool to watch in action in general. But they do almost nothing to resolve the problem this arc. It's kind of a cool power that the enemy uses here but it's basically just Naoko writing the two other Senshi that might be able to do something, both narratively and logically, out of the story temporarily so she doesn't have to worry about them. Likewise, the Quartet changing sides might have been a really cool plot point if Naoko hadn't immediately written them out of the arc's plot. This is one of the reasons that while I love the Dream Arc, it is my least favorite arc of Sailor Moon. This part here is emblematic of one of Sailor Moon's biggest problems, Naoko's inability to write the cast size she put into her own story. I can't believe they brought back Saturn, maybe the coolest thing in the entire series so far only for her to get jobbed not even by the main villain, but at best by the main's villain spirit, at worst a pet of a lackey of the main villain. 

I'm not as fond of Act 45 as most Sailor Moon acts, mostly due to how it ends, as well as a couple of small bits that are weird logically if you think about them ala the bit with Zirconia being arguably in two places at once or the characters just sorta running into each other. The act's not bad, there are a bunch of smaller good parts. Saturn fighting the quartet was a pretty cool showcase of Saturn and both her power and willingness to hold back her power to help the quartet awaken, and is a good part of the Quartet's characterization. The Outer Senshis' introduction were cool, and I enjoyed the part where Usagi doesn't show any regret for her actions with Mamoru. And of course it follows up on the last act a little bit with the Outer Senshi stating their mission as all ten Senshi is to create a new destiny.

But a lot of this act skips out on the stuff that was built up during the first half of the Dream Arc. It's cool that Hotaru says she transformed to fight alongside Chibi-Moon but not only do they never actually really fight alongside each other in the entire series, but this reunion, the meeting again of two characters that had such a huge connection last arc is given almost no focus. The Guardian Senshi have been thinking of reuniting with the Outer Senshi all arc up to this point yet their action reunion is relegated to surprised reaction shots, the Guardians asking why they've returned, and the Outers basically recapping last act.

In-universe sure, it's realistic. They're in the middle of a fight and it's not particularly realistic that they would just stop for a reunion scene. But this is a trope that's usually considered an acceptable break from reality, and moreover the story could have been written to give some focus to the character interactions between the two groups.

Overall it's not that I dislike this act or anything. Naoko is still really good at creating atmosphere, I really like the characters in it, especially Usagi and Hotaru, and there's the cool Sailor Moon world-building elements in it like Zirconia being Nehelenia's spirit which is shown by projecting Nehelenia's image onto Zirconia. That said in comparison to Sailor Moon acts, this is one of the lower ones.