Sailor Moon Stars Arc Review and Ranking

I adore the Stars Arc, it is my favorite arc of my favorite series. If Sailor Moon didn't have the Stars Arc it would still be my favorite series but I wouldn't be considering it in a tier of its own way I currently do. The Stars Arc is the culmination of the series, the part where it all comes together both literally in that it introduces a lot of that recontextualizes and explains vast amounts of the series before it, but also thematically and narratively as it takes Usagi's character and attempts to break it by bringing it to the most extreme length possible, in doing so merging the two biggest themes of the entire series. Just as this series contrasts and finally unites the physical and the metaphysical so too does it take both the literal and symbolic elements of the story to their climax. It's also the shortest arc being only 11 acts and with all of the acts being medium or slightly short in size. This makes its sheer efficiency in doing so all the more clear and helps it keep up its heightened level of quality across a larger proportion of the act, with more than half of the arc being in the top third of all Sailor Moon acts. 

It fascinates me how Takeuchi-Sensei decided to break down the internal world she built, destroying expectations from as early as Galaxia killing the, to this point, second most important character, the male lead, in the middle of a romantic scene with no warning. How she pretends to follow her own formula, only to rip down Usagi's friends, the things she believed in right in front of her. How she pushes Usagi, the heroine, to the brink, to point where she admits she never fought for love and justice, that she doesn't belong to the eternal world of ideals. A critique the manga has had to this point is how incredibly focused it is on its heroine, Usagi. Takeuchi-Sensei somehow addressed that point by creating the MOST Usagi-focused arc, destroying every single other important character to this point that appeared in the arc. The whole story has been focused around the Earth and Solar System, the microcosm world of Usagi's in particular and so Takeuchi-sensei destroys that microcosm to thrust Usagi into the greater macrocosm of the story, the larger world ruled by and embodied in that character created specifically meta-narratively to be a rival to Usagi, Sailor Galaxia.

Sailor Galaxia is my favorite villain in all of fiction and she makes this arc what it is, the embodiment of everything fantastic about it. She represents the maturation of Usagi and the series in being a threat to that destroys the sense of stability and security Usagi and the readers relied on. She represents the greater scope of the universe, the world beyond Usagi's personal world of concerns. I have mentioned that there are three regards I rate villains by and Galaxia is top tier in all three regards. In terms of being threatening, Galaxia's spirit hangs heavy over the entire arc until Usagi can finally confront her, she looms as a threat not just from her broken power, but from the sheer way she breaks Usagi and the reader down emotionally, the way she takes everything seemly so solid and breaks it down, the way she forces Usagi to her emotional end. In terms of being entertaining, Galaxia is constantly proactive, unlike many prior villains or villains in general, Galaxia is constantly acting and maneuvering, attacking just when Usagi thinks she is safe, and everything about Galaxia is over the top and yet has a silent seriousness. Every other sentence from her conveys the cosmic scope of the conflict. In terms of being compelling, Galaxia represents to me one of the biggest psychological troubles I've had, a disdain for the meaninglessness and arbitrariness of mundane life, the ambition to find the eternal perfect. Everything about Galaxia's personal character arc, the way she clearly wants to be understood even as she hides it speaks to me and the climax of her arc where she dies finally seeing the eternal she was searching for, with it ever just out of reach is heartbreakingly emotional. Even outside of villains, Galaxia is one of my favorite characters in fiction in general which is incredible for a character whose only around for 10 acts of a 60-act story.

In terms of themes this arc has themes that are some of my favorites in the entire series, maybe my absolute favorite, and also express them in ways that are among my favorite, maybe my absolute favorite. The theme for this arc is the divide between the physical and the metaphysical, the temporal and the eternal, the imperfect and the perfect bringing rise to the two opposite extreme philosophies; Nihilism, the rejection of the eternal, and Gnosticism, the rejection of the temporal, moderated by Love, seeing the eternal's expression within the temporal. This is a philosophy I seek to live in my conduct and one that makes me emotional to think of. Expressions of this are everywhere in the arc. Galaxia rejects worlds, destroying them, because they are not the eternal world she was searching for. Sailor Cosmos lost faith in anything enduring after losing everything to Sailor Chaos and so advocated to let all things fade into peaceful oblivion. But Usagi saw the eternal in the temporal existence of her friends, because even if they were temporary, that love she experienced, was an eternal existence fundamental to being. Expressions of this are constant through the arc, with statements wishing that these bodies we express our love with would last for eternity like their Star Seeds, telling Galaxia she would show her the power of their hands and words, the temporal aspect of their existences, or Usagi expressing that she never for peace and justice, but for her loved ones. The theme isn't just expressed in dialogue, but in the dichotomy of Galaxia and Usagi's presumptions about each other. Galaxia takes everything from Usagi trying to show Usagi the temporal nature of reality, wanting both that Usagi would come to understand and be like Galaxia, and to awaken her true power, assuming Usagi would react to these things the way Galaxia did but couldn't understand why this would make Usagi save Galaxia, because Galaxia didn't think her own life as it was deserved saving. This theme is expressed more naturalistically than the Dark Kingdom Arc's, more consistently than the Black Moon Clan Arc's, more clearly than the Infinity Arc's, and more dynamically than the Dream Arc's. 

This arc also takes the two biggest themes of the whole series; the pain of isolation and the ennobling power of love and takes them to their conclusion, having the two intersect. Sailor Galaxia is defined by her isolation, by her philosophy that the greatest stars shine alone, that stars coming together is a sign of them being too weak to shine alone. She spends the entire arc forcing Usagi to feel the pain of isolation until the climactic act when making Usagi feel "the pain of true solitude" is explicitly her goal. Conversely, Sailor Cosmos is defined by her loneliness after Sailor Chaos destroyed the future, leaving her alone, leaving her in disbelief she could face the future. Usagi herself is at first in similar disbelief, questioning what is there worth fighting for if everyone is dead and gone. Likewise, the ennobling power of love is played with this arc. Usagi's love and her ability to grow stronger from her love has always been her greatest strength yet this arc turns that on its head with Galaxia trying to exploit that very facet by emotionally tormenting her to bring force a greater level of power, forcefully isolating her and paining her from her love, represented in the beautiful imagery where Seiya comments on Usagi having wings that hold her down, a force that should give let her fly bringing her down to Earth. The intersection of these two themes comes about in the final defeat of Galaxia's ideals by Usagi's ideals, when Usagi chooses to save Galaxia after everything Galaxia did because Usagi "saw (her) lonely self in Galaxia." Usagi's power comes from her love for her friends, and being without them is emotional pain of the greatest extent, but to someone with a heart of love, being lonely only increases empathy for those who are also lonely. These two themes are emotionally defining for Galaxia and Usagi, Galaxia defined emotionally by the pain of isolation, and Usagi by the ennobling power of love, but as they come together, as they battle directly, Galaxia was unable to understand Usagi, but Usagi WAS able to understand Galaxia. These two themes have been with the series since the beginning, but here we finally see the triumph of one over the other.

On a more basic level, I also love the more direct things of the Stars Arc. I think the expansions to the lore like Sailor Crystals, the Galaxy Cauldron, Chaos being the source of all enemies, all make sense and are really cool. I love the plot, especially the moment Galaxia finally reveals the reason behind her actions which gives so much meaning to the prior parts of the arc. I love the design and aesthetic sense of the arc, which I would go so far is to say is the best, save maybe the first arc. I love how this arc contrasts some of the most silly mundane antics in the series history with some of the darkest events in the narrative so as to maximize the effect. I love how this series pays homage to prior arcs while also subverting and breaking down the formula they were built on, truly making it feel like the conclusion to the story, the ideas taken so far that they break down and something new emerges. I could re-read this arc a million times and never gets bored, this is to me what good fiction looks like. The last page of the scene fits this arc so much because other stories I know will come and go, other interests will fill my mind and leave, but the Stars Arc will fly triumphantly in my heart for all time as an expression of what I reach for. 

Arc-Ranking:

11: Act 51: Act 51 is pretty clearly the weakest Stars Act to me not for having massive negatives per se but moreso for lacking positives. I think Haruka, Ami, and especially Michiru getting angry at the Starlights is a pretty funny scene, Michiru's anger in particular is perfect. That said most of this act is just introducing the Starlights and Chibi-Chibi. It's mysterious if this is your first time reading but otherwise you know everything about these four so there's not much to unravel. I think that Ami getting an imperfect store on a first year High School Exam just so she can get angry at Taiki getting a perfect score pushes the joke a bit past believability, and Aluminum Seiren is the single least interesting villain this arc. The civilian antics are fun this act. As mentioned Michiru getting angry at Yaten telling her that her lipstick shade is a trashy color and Michiru snaps the lipstick in pure anger will always be hilarious and Chibi-Chibi annoying Minako is funny, but the actual Senshi business has the least amount of attention this act, with Galaxia not even showing up. Ami and Makoto dying is unexpected but unlike Mamoru or Rei/Minako there was no build-up like Mamoru's two romantic scenes with Usagi or Rei and Minako's plotline the act before, and it doesn't advance the surprising atmosphere of the arc other than the fact it was one of Galaxia's minions, not even Galaxia who performed the deed. I think this is the act that could be easily rewritten to be better of the Stars Arc.

10: Act 56: So there's not much really wrong with this act, it's just that this is the Stars Arc and so the bar is set much higher than normal. Act 56 is the self-contained episode with Lethe and Mnesmonye. It serves narrative and thematic purposes for the arc being Usagi entering into the world of Galaxia, seeing the influence Galaxia has had on the galaxy, but particularly on a literal plot level it feels a little disconnected from the whole. I love Lethe and Mnesmonye as villains and their backstory is fantastic. I think this act does a great job of establishing two new antagonists and giving them a complete arc in one act while also using it to put a new light on the central antagonist and her world. However, the death of the Mautions seems a little excessive, and the beginning is a little confusingly paced with a concern being brought up only to be immediately disregarded. Overall a really good episodic plot in it, but a little disconnected.

9: Act 57: Act 57 is an act that has a lot of cool ELEMENTS in it, but comes across a little unfocused. It's good at a little bit of everything, almost exactly opposite to the very focused and mostly self-contained Act 56 right before it. This act has two different fight scenes, one being the Heavy Metal Papillion fight used to reintroduce Chibi-Moon and her Senshi and the other being the fight with Chi and Phi where Kakyuu dies to establish the role of the power of hope in the climax. This act also has the hilarious scene where Galaxia, just to infuriate Eternal Sailor Moon, teleports her castle around right before Usagi can reach it. It has a lot of atmosphere building with Heavy Metal Papillion's introduction to Galaxia's castle, Chi and Phi referring to the Senshi just as Sailor Crystals, and the speculation about Chibi-Chibi. This act has a lot of good things I can say about it but I can't say what it's about per se. 

8: Act 53: Act 53 is the death act for Venus and Mars, as well as technically the Outers but I think these were built up more then the ones in Act 51. Mars and Venus were a significant focus of the act prior and the Outers Death is something implied and we get the resolution for in Act 55. It's an act with two significant villains, Lead Crow and Iron Mouse both of whom are connected to prior characters and are the best Sailor Animamates. In that way it parallels Act 57 but it's more focused as an act. While it does not have the death of Kakyuu, Mars and Venus Deaths are some of the most impactful in the series due to being a double subversion which allows Usagi to finally begin to confront Mamoru's death. This act does a lot of worldbuilding both with learning of Mau and Coronis, beginning the distortions in the future plot point that will be thematically reflected by Galaxia asking Usagi if she's sure of the future she believes in, Yaten explaining Star Seeds and Sailor Crystals, the two identities of a Sailor Senshi, and the Outers trying to create a barrier around the System. The act serves to culminate the first few acts of the arc and to begin leading in to the end of the sub-arc. 

7: Act 58: Act 58 is 3/4th pretty good, and 1/4th great. This is the act where Usagi fights the Galactica Sol Senshi and finally confronts Galaxia face to face. It's a pretty short act overall but definitely really good overall. I do think the main thrust of the act could have been intensified, that is Usagi's emotions could have been sharper and her reactions better tied in with the arc's themes, but I understand narratively what it means and the final quarter is exactly what it needs to be, Usagi and Galaxia talking past each other, expressing their divergent beliefs and inability to understand each other. 

6: Act 50: I said that Stars 1 was about average for the arc and I meant. Stars 1 is not just great as an opening, it's great as an act of Sailor Moon which is particularly impressive as I find every piece of Sailor Moon content from acts, to arcs, to the entire story almost always get better as they go along and usually significantly better. So to have such a good start as this is truly impressive. This act has two romantic scenes between Usagi and Mamoru, both exquisite and with the latter being one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series which highlights and contradicts both the eternal-ness of love of Mamoru's love and the temporality of his being, the inherent paradox of this arc. Galaxia before she speaks to a single other character in the series has one of the most memorable villain introductions in the series, simply appearing and killing the male lead out of nowhere. And it's not just a shock death either, this is crucial to the themes of the series and the event ripples across the entire arc. Several scenes are set such that they can be read both by the reader and the characters in multiple lights just by clever framing, which is such a cool trick. This act is such a good introduction and sets the stage for the Stars Arc perfectly.

5: Act 52: Act 52 is another short, comprised of three component parts, all of which I really enjoyed. Shortest of these but definitely not least in importance, this is the first time Galaxia speaks to another character, speaking to her subordinate about her confusion towards the Sol Senshi clinging to their human Star Seeds, giving us the first understanding of Galaxia's worldview and the major theme of this arc. This is contrasted with the second part with Usagi thinking on the same thing from the opposite perspective as she is lost emotionally at the seeming temporality of things, at the way the world can see to fall away out of nowhere. Usagi this act has to be confronted by Seiya by the reality of what's going on. This act marks the midpoint of the first sub-arc of Stars and because of my own life experiences, I find Usagi very relatable this sub-arc, and her emotions this act speak to me extremely strongly. Finally this act has the Minako and Rei subplot which is funny, compelling, and sweet all in short succession with Rei's annoyance at Minako's antics, their utter faith in each other, and the implied emotional bond between them that goes beyond what they'd have with a hypothetical boyfriend. This act is great and is an act I often think of when I think of great Sailor Moon acts, and it's only fifth highest Stars Arc.

4: Act 54: The two acts at the end of the first sub-arc of Stars are both a little exposition-heavy but they really hit me emotionally. This act has multiple scenes that would the best in almost any other Sailor Moon scene. This act has the scene where Seiya asks Usagi if she's always borne such heavy wings on her back, a sentiment about how Usagi's greatest strength can also be her greatest weakness, that the love that gives her wings to fly can also be so heavy to drag her down. There's the immediately following page where Usagi wishes that our bodies were as eternal as our Star Seeds, again reflecting Usagi's opposite nature to Galaxia, you've got Kakyuu's backstory and expressing that coronation at the end of the last arc was a symbol to the whole universe. Even beyond that this act has has tons of tiny cool things such as Chibi-Chibi answering Usagi's question of "Who are you" with "I am me", the callback to Saphir telling Usagi that her Silver Crystal threw the history of humanity off-track when she's feeling guilty, Galaxia's surprise attack on Usagi, the beginning of the holding hands imagery that would repeat across the arc etc.

3: Act 55: I love this act so much, this act is a juxtaposition between my two favorite characters in the series, two of my favorite characters of all time, Sailor Moon and Sailor Galaxia, bringing the first sub-arc to its conclusion. Sailor Moon's journey in this act finishes the emotional journey she's had over the first half of the arc, with her declaration that "every me is me" setting her up as the unity between the temporal self and the eternal self. Just as Usagi this act is the ultimate celebration of the series legacy, Galaxia is the ultimate subversion, inverting the normal narrative rules for a Sailor Moon arc, making the destruction of Usagi's world trivial and done over the first half of the arc, instead of the second, forcing Usagi instead to come to her internal world. This act has Galaxia thinking for the first time, finally making her more a person instead of a conceptual representation of the uncaring eternity of the universe, giving her backstory and showing her philosophy. It contrasts with Usagi finally building up the will to battle Galaxia through the opposite philosophy. There's so many great things I could say about this act.

2: Act 60: The final act of the series was everything it needed to be, and included four different sections all of which were great to fantastic. We've got Sailor Cosmos' ruminations and proclamation that Usagi's true power that allowed her to beat Chaos is the "courage to allow one to throw it away and take it all in", the power that makes one the true Sailor Cosmos. We've got the Cauldron Scene where Usagi finally reunites with everyone and where the coming of age theme is finally completed with Usagi reaching the place Queen Serenity did along with Usagi choosing this world with all its struggles and strains because it's the world she found her friends. We've got the extremely emotional marriage scene of Usagi and Mamoru which pairs a perfect resolution to this arc's themes with the culmination of the romance that has been a centerpoint to this entire series. And we've got Usagi beating Chaos not by attacking her but sheerly by the force of her love, an inspiring, beautiful praise of the loving heart and its ability to overcome anything, even the conceptual weight of everything that could ever happen.

1: Act 59: My favorite act in the entire series. The culmination of Galaxia and Usagi as characters. Galaxia's end is heart-wrenching every time I read it and Usagi's love is the pathway I want to walk everyday of my life. This is an act that connects to the greatest artistic and philosophical traditions we've had as a species, commenting on them confidently and cleverly. I love every page, every panel of this act. Usagi and Galaxia's every interaction in this act speak to me on so many levels both literally as a narrative and emotionally as representatives of impulses in my heart, the Gnostic Impulse to reject the imperfect and the Impulse of Love to embrace things. My favorite thing about art is its ability to communicate emotionally something so much more powerful than just saying it would be outright. This act to me shows that so clearly, the way it expresses why one should act in love, how it connects oneself to the eternal even through such flawed conduits as things in this universe we inhabit. I love how Usagi admits she's a creature of that material flawed reality, not a better spirit from an eternal perfect reality with her admission that she can't fight just for peace and justice, that she's only ever fought for her friends and loved ones. I love the tragic beauty of Galaxia finally seeing the eternal form of being in Usagi when Usagi expresses that she will love the universe, no matter what sufferings it submits her to, but can't reach that light, it ever out of reach of her. I love how with a single simple sentence "My hand reached out because I saw my own lonely self in you" we see the victory of Usagi's ideal over Galaxia's, the victory of the impulse of Love within us over Gnosticism and why, because Gnosticism can't understand Love but Love can understand Gnosticism. I love Chaos and Sailor Cosmos and the surprises they add to the act and how it adds a Nihilistic Extreme opposite polarity to Galaxia's, which is defeated for exactly the same reason that Love beats Gnosticism, because Nihilism cannot account for Love but Love accounts for all else. I love how this act is Usagi somehow both broken down as a character and yet also taken to her ultimate extreme, somehow still the scared girl from Act 1 and the ultimate light of the universe, just as she is material and metaphysical at the same time. 

Sub-Arc Ranking:

2: Solar System Invasion/Animamates Sub-Arc (Acts 50-55): This sub-arc starts out with a bang and gets better overtime. It's an an arc where the universe at large forces itself upon the small little Solar System, connecting and expanding the lore from the local microcosm of Usagi's personal concerns to the greater overarching concerns of the macrocosm, with numerous lore elements prior being recontextualized such as the Mautions, Phobos and Deimos, The Power Guardians, the Planetary Castles, etc. and introducing Senshi from outside the Sol System, the Starlights and their princess. At this same time this introduces the point of the temporality and smallness of Usagi's worlds, a traumatic overwhelming reality represented in Galaxia that Usagi spends the sub-arc developing to face. By the end of the sub-arc, Usagi has developed and matured internally as she comes to grips with the scope of the outer universe, and through the emotional strength and worldview she's cultivated over the series prepares her to face it head on, all the while slowly introducing and expressing the worldview of Galaxia, the anti-Usagi, a character literally made to rival Usagi and break down her worldview, setting the stage for their battle.

1: Galaxy Cauldron/Chaos Sub-Arc (Act 56-60): This sub-arc only gets better as it goes, as the fated battle with Galaxia and Usagi comes closer. Galaxia does everything she can for the majority of the sub-arc to strip Usagi of all the temporalities keeping her from understanding Galaxia, trying to bring her hatred to her zenith, yet the thing she could never anticipate was that Usagi was not acting in the same hatred Galaxia was, but had already found the thing Galaxia had always searched for, the answer to that emptiness. This sub-arc takes Sailor Moon as a concept, the entire universe and its themes to their utmost, to their breaking point, until the themes of the series congeal and conflict unto one comes out triumphant. The final two acts are full of some of my favorite moments in fiction. Everything from the lore to the plot to the characterization to the imagery to the aesthetics to the atmosphere of this sub-arc are spot on and exactly what I love. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 60 Review

 

Eternal Sailor Moon says no what she'll never give up home and says that she doesn't know she can save everyone but everyone is still with her with their spirits in her mind. She hears the words of Mamoru, Hotaru, and Kakyuu in her mind, the ones who have represented hope in her mind, Mamoru being the one whose eyes reflected that blue orb of hope and possibilities, Hotaru being the Senshi that kills but also brings rebirth, Kakyuu being the Senshi that expressed the ability of Sailor Senshi to always be reborn together in the same world. Love properly realized creates Hope.

Usagi takes on a new form as she enters the cauldron. She calls on the power of every Sailor Crystal sleeping within the Cauldron and all her loved ones across the galaxy to give her power.

                                                                                        

This new form is a bare form lacking any armor or weapons of war. She is not a Sailor Senshi but something beyond. She is not a Soldier for she has transcended the binary divide of the war. There is an aspect of the feminine as a pattern of being that reaches out unto the absolute, the divine female from which the image of woman is made. I feel its spirit reading these pages, an expression of a uniquely feminine ideal that women may aspire towards, a person who bears a community in her heart, who in her love and empathy has the spirits of all people within her. This to me was what made Sailor Moon so inspirational and special in my youth, why I believe it inspired a resurgence and the mass popularization of the Magical Girl Genre like never before: it neither tells young women to submit their femininity to men nor to relinquish it to be equal and the same, but exalts that femininity as one of the most special powerful forces in the universe, presents a cosmos where the force that saves everyone is nothing else but the love in one young woman's heart.

Away from these events, the Amazon Senshi awaken to find themselves surrounded by stars, their own Star Seeds emerged from their chests, yet they don't perish. They know intuitively someone is calling out to them calling their strength. They run to the epicenter of this event and find Usagi in the Chaos with the lights of the Heavens going towards her. The Amazon Senshi watch in wonder as their own Star Seeds join in the procession of lights.

All throughout the arc, we've seen that people without their Star Seeds die and disappear. Without an identity like the Star Seeds represent, we are as nothing, we fade into the chaos. Or at least, that was the presumption. But there is a grand Love that when our identities fade within, we remain. As Hotaru said in Act 44, quoting Einstein "a person starts to live when he can live outside himself." In contrary to Galaxia's philosophy that the greatest stars shine alone and stars gathering together is proof of their status as trash, what this is showing that the spirit comes to life when it can enter into the body or soul of another, taking their psychic or physical struggles on. 

Usagi channels the energy of all these Star Seeds at once and a great cascade of light and energy come forth, with the whole of Sagittarius Zero Star shining with the light of the countless Stars that have been born and that will be born, the power of the light tearing Chaos apart. Usagi states she can feel everyone's power coursing through her body saying she can rescue everyone here, as she is brought to the absolute, as her form erases in the sea of the Galaxy Cauldron.

It is the most incredible thing to me. The chaos of being seems insurmountable. We travel through life with many conceptual weights along us, dragging our spirit down. But it surprises me how easily that chaos breaks up. If you face the chaos of being with love in your heart, the conceptual Chaos even of all being just disappears in the ether. I've found often when facing troubles that feel incomparably heavy in my heart that when I begin to face the problems with that spirit within me, it all suddenly feels so light, that even the conceptual weight of the world falls apart before I even realize. I don't know if this is an experience that is peculiar to me or is more common but I sincerely hope all people may find that peace.

The Amazon Senshi watching from outside are shocked as the Galaxy Cauldron becomes a glowing swirl, flooding light into the universe in the form of innumerable stars. The mysterious Sailor Senshi from last act appears by their side to their surprise and explains what's happening. She tells them all the Sailor Crystal that got scattered into the Cauldron and have regained their original forms and returning to their proper place. 

The Amazon Senshi are worried for Sailor Moon, thinking this regenerative power could only have come from the Silver Crystal, but the other Sailor Senshi says that this power came from the Lambda Power, the ultimate power of the Cosmos Crystal, the energy of all the Sailor Crystals coming together as one. The "Cosmos" is an older term for the "universe" but specifically the universe recognized as a singular unified whole as opposed to Chaos. It's the idea that the entire universe, space and time, could be regarded as a single Celestial Body like a planet or a star that is internally orderly, the orderly world emerging from primeval chaos. 

Confused by these alien terms of "Cosmos Crystal" and "Lambda Power", the Amazon Senshi ask who this mysterious Senshi is and she introduces herself as Sailor Cosmos. Sailor Ceres asks if she is the final form of Sailor Moon, but Sailor Cosmos dodges the question saying she is nothing but a coward who ran away from where she should have been, no match for Eternal Sailor Moon's ultimate display of strength and courage. 

Sailor Cosmos' backstory is finally explained. Though she dodges the question, she is a future form of Sailor Moon that fled back in time from a calamity, regretting the pain and suffering she's had to endure but with her spirit invigorated by her younger self's courage in the face of ultimate Chaos. 

From the phrasing the Amazon Senshi are worried by Sailor Cosmos' words that Sailor Moon perished, and asks about the fate of their princess who is dependent on Sailor Moon. Sailor Cosmos reassures them that their princess along with everyone else was reborn through the Lambda Power and will be carried on the stream of light to the 30th Century. Sailor Cosmos says that in trying to absorb Chaos, Sailor Moon melted into the Sea of Beginnings along with Chaos and that it was thanks to her that the Galaxy and the Cauldron regained their original forms. 

But, Sailor Cosmos continue sadly, that because Sailor Moon didn't destroy the Cauldron, Chaos was not completely vanquished and will return one day. She tells them of her time when she and her friends battled Chaos, reborn as the fearsome Sailor Chaos with their power being not enough and Sailor Chaos causing devastation such that even Sailor Cosmos could not repair the damage done. Sailor Cosmos speaks of how everytime she doubted or wavered in her belief, she thought back to this battle, of what if she had destroyed the Cauldron and so she came back to this time to comfort and give support to the "her" of this time, hoping to sway her into destroying Chaos and the Cauldron.

Yeah it's SO mysterious who Sailor Cosmos is, she doesn't give any indications.

Sailor Cosmos' backstory makes up a significant portion of this act so it's not a surprise that for being such a relatively minor character she gets brought up so often. Her struggle is the embodiment of the extreme lengths Usagi as a character is taken to this arc where even her future selves don't believe the conflict is worth fighting for anymore and a future in which she loses everything she loses but Usagi through love is able to persevere, believe she will find a future she loves even so, and bring hope back even to her future self. 

Sailor Cosmos says she's realized her younger self was right, that the path she chose was the correct one. No one can destroy the birthplace of the stars because it is why they are all there, because it gives them the chance to do things over and over again. Sailor Cosmos affirms she's not going to run away anymore, she's going to face the future because she received the greatest power from Sailor Moon, one she had forgotten, the courage to "throw it all away, and take it all in".

I LOVE this way of expressing the meaning of the Sailor Moon climax which Sailor Cosmos repeats the next page, it's so poetic and so rich with meaning. The two extremes this arc are the extremes of Nihilism and Gnosticism. Gnosticism here can be seen as rejecting the imperfect of the world as unworthy, to refuse to take it all in. Nihilism in contrast to view all things as equally pertinent, to refuse a transcendent worth sacrificing to or to suffer in pursuit of and thus is refusing to be willing to throw it all away. The Path of Love is neither of these. It does not cling to any material item or situation, it's willing to throw it all away for the good. Yet it does not reject anything as meaningless or worthless and sees the value in all things, it's willing to take it all in. It improves but is merciful. It exalts the imperfect and material and in doing so finds the perfect and eternal within it. I love how Sailor Cosmos refers to it as the "Courage" to throw it all away and take it all in. It's not something that Sailor Moon developed the ability to do. It's something Sailor Cosmos could do, it's something any of could do, if we're willing to embrace Chaos, to head into the future with only the spirit of love in our hearts. Sailor Cosmos says the Sailor Moon that saved them is the true Sailor Cosmos and when she has that courage, the courage to throw away and take in everything, then she will be the real Sailor Cosmos. And in saying so Sailor Cosmos waves her staff and sends the Amazon Senshi back to the future before flying away. 

Usagi awakens inside the Galaxy Cauldron, feeling warm and wondering what happened saying the scent around her feels familiar. She wonders what happens commenting that she was going to envelop Chaos within herself but was pushed back at the last moment. In the blank space, she wonders if she's the last one left, if everything else vanished; Chaos, the Cauldron, and everyone else. However, a hand reaches out and touches her.

Usagi turns and sees... Mamoru. As Usagi begins to cry, Mamoru's hand grasps Usagi's as they are joined by all the other Sailor Senshi 

This scene is obviously extremely sweet and emotional. There's a way I think one might think it's contradictory to the arc's themes, but I actually think the opposite that it's the purest embodiment of that theme of the arc. One of the themes of this arc is the temporal-ness of items, people, and situations, all material things. This is represented in Galaxia's belief that the only thing one can believe is one's own strength. This is why Usagi had to deal with the loss of all her loved ones since they too are temporal things. But... that's also why it makes sense thematically that Usagi see them again. Because it doesn't just go one way, because the detachment Usagi had from them, that loneliness, is also a material situation that would come to end as all material things. All happy events have the bit of sadness of knowing it won't last, that sad times will come again. All dark times are tempered by the knowledge that the clouds will break and the Sun will shine again someday. In the course of eternity, cruel and wonderous infinity will take everything from you and give everything to you in its own time which is why one must have the courage to take all things in and throw everything away. This theme has existed in Sailor Moon since the beginning since Princess Serenity was willing to replay her tragic romance with Endymion any number of times just to love him again, all the way to Princess Kakyuu with her dying words saying she wouldn't mind being born again into a world of conflict if it means being with everyone again. 

Usagi embraces Mamoru as she is overwhelmed by emotion seeing everyone, never having expected to see them again. Mamoru says it's thanks to her. The Senshi apologize they couldn't be with her through this struggle, that they wanted to see her desperately and thank her for giving them power. Usagi feels more hands and turns to see Chibiusa, now winged herself. Chibiusa tells Usagi that she'll be waiting for Usagi in the 30th century and flies off to the future, now no longer needing the Time Key. Usagi turns back to her loved ones and says she trusted that she'd see them again and as they rejoice their thoughts 

You might wonder how Chibiusa can do this but the Senshi were given the lambda power from Usagi, hence them saying she poured power into them and how they can survive inside the Galaxy Cauldron. The Lambda Power is the power of all the Sailor Crystal including the Pluto Crystal so it actually makes sense. 

Usagi embraces her friends again, happy they're finally together again. Of course the main one she embraces is Minako because the writer still has her favorite ;) 

A new voice appears, who declares that this is the brilliance of the strongest stars. She praises their power, being able to maintain themselves within the Cauldron, and introduces herself as Guardian Cosmos, the guardian spirit of Cosmos Seeds. We've actually seen her kind before in the Dream Arc with the power guardians except this is the one for the Star Seeds of universes. 

Guardian Cosmos addresses Usagi saying that once another came here in the same perfected heavenly form, with the same luminescence as Usagi. She was holding a smaller light to her chest, with the image shown being that of Queen Serenity.

Thus the myth arc reaches its finale as it cycles in on itself, the coming-of-age narrative has reached its zenith as Usagi stands, or rather floats, in the exact same position Queen Serenity her original mother did eons ago, with Usagi now having matured into that perfected heavenly form that was perhaps the reason Queen Serenity was considered a goddess. In times long ago, Queen Serenity got the luminescence of Usagi, the Silver Crystal from the Galaxy Cauldron. Queen Nehelenia called Queen Serenity a follow galactic traveler and it was this she spoke of, that both of them and Usagi besides had come from the Galaxy Cauldron to the humble Sol System, following that ineffable will of the Silver Crystal. 

Guardian Cosmos asks if the fact that Usagi is here means she wants to discard her current life into the Cauldron's sea of beginnings, start a new history of the stars or if she wishes to leave here with her current form. But if you've been paying attention to the Stars Arc so far, you already know the answer. This world is full of suffering and loss, but Usagi loves it as much as she can love any world and says she wants to keep making a future together with her friends and to live these lives, these fates, no matter how difficult it may be. 

Guardian Cosmos accepts this wish and sends the Senshi away with her power, back to their proper place. As she flies away Usagi yells to Guardian Cosmos one final question, what happened to Chaos? Guardian Cosmos responds both the Chaos Seed, Chaos' core, as well as Guardian Chaos were melted down to infinitesimally small within the Galaxy Cauldron. But that they may be reborn one day, since the Galaxy Cauldron is where all stars and potential are born.

We cut to a luxurious bed sometime in the future. Mamoru awakens in it undressed, with Usagi sleeping next to him, similarly undressed. Mamoru kisses Usagi awake and the two flirtatiously wish each other a good morning, Mamoru's body suspended over Usagi's. Usagi says it feels like she was dreaming for a very long time but when Mamoru asks what kind of dream she was having, she responds she can't remember.

I love Usagi and Mamoru so much, they are my favorite ship in fiction and this is the culmination of their romance, the climax of single central arc of the entire series and it gets me unreasonably happy every time I see it. 

Usagi thinks of Crystal Tokyo representing their future together. She asks him in a cutesy way to say it again please. Mamoru complains he already said it 50 times last night. Usagi implores him just one more time and Mamoru agrees and says this is the last time. He kisses Usagi as he says it one more time, the scene transitioning along with his words

"Marry me Usagi." Marriage is a traditional end to a comedy, comedy meaning in times gone by not a funny story, but a story with a happy ending as opposed to tragedy. If tragedy must end a dichotomy with one or both of the dichotomy slain, comedy must end with the dichotomy resolved and unified. I wish more Magical Girl series at least the end were willing to show the heroine reaching this later stage of maturation, but Sailor Moon is one of the most mature works in its genre in this way and more.

As they kiss, Usagi feels something. A new star being born inside of her, a reference to Chibiusa. The two lovers promise to protect this world side by side, to live with and protect each other forever. They clasp hands, a symbol of sharing power this arc, before kissing even more deeply.

Many lifetimes ago, the princess of the distant unchanging Moon longed to go down to the Earth, that blue orb looking like a crystal, where real wind blew and real plants bloomed, the world of temporalities. That Earth was a blue orb shining with hope and possibilities she saw reflected in the eyes of its prince, falling in love with him. To her, he was a representation of that strange world that she had just begun to love, a world of temporalities and struggles and change and adventure and new feelings blossoming within her. When that strange otherworldly beautiful princess came down from the distant Moon, to the Prince of the Earth, she left an ethereal mystery in his mind, the feminine mystery that has compelled mankind since time immemorial, chasing her down through the ages, searching for her lifetime after lifetime, her always showing a different side to her, drawing him further into her world of emotion. To him, she was a representation of the eternity represented in the Moon's cycles, the illusory world beyond the physical that inspires us and makes us whole. Their love, that love of eternal and temporal, of physical and metaphysical, that paradox is, in a sense, the inciting event for the entire story, and not it finally reaches its ultimate culmination as they united in body and soul. 

Usagi goes to celebrate with her friends, thinking that they will protect the world alongside them. As she does Mamoru watches on thinking to Usagi even if they someday are all gone, and new soldiers and stars are born, "Sailor Moon, you will always live eternally. For all of eternity, you will always be the most beautiful shining star of all."

Act 60 is a fantastic ending to Sailor Moon and one of my favorite acts in Sailor Moon. In terms of endings I will say that like most of the manga it's really focused on the main character, and to a lesser extent Mamoru and Chibiusa over anyone else but I think it's pretty fitting given how much this arc was specifically about Usagi. This act is comprised of four scenes all of which have great importance to the narrative and all of which I can feel a personal connection too.

First and most obvious there's the final battle between Usagi and Chaos, though battle is a bit of a misnomer here. Usagi didn't even try to kill Chaos, it was an accidental result of Usagi's love that allowed her to face the Chaos of being which defeated Chaos. I love all the symbolism here. Usagi doesn't beat Chaos as Sailor Moon, a Soldier of Justice, she does it just by being Usagi Tsukino, a young woman who loves even when love seems unwarranted and in doing so can face any future with the hope summoned from love. I love how she is bare, her lack of weapons and armor representing how she is not a soldier here. I love how the Amazon Senshi star seeds join the procession of stars in the Lambda Power yet they don't perish because even if identities fade into the great love of the universe, we remain whole. I love how Usagi defeated Chaos so easily. Like most fights in Sailor Moon, the fight isn't about tactics or external factors but about the state of the character's hearts with this fight showing the wonderful fact that despite its seeming impossible immensity, truly anyone can bear the weight of conceptual chaos if they allow low into their heart. More than anything I love how Takeuchi-Sensei created a Heroine's journey where femininity and power could mix in a feminine ideal to aspire towards, neither asking her younger female reader to submit her femininity to a man nor to sacrifice it to be like a man, but instead to be proud of her femininity and let it reach its truly world-changing potential. 

Second is the scene of Sailor Cosmos and the Asteroid Senshi. While the battle between Sailor Cosmos and Sailor Chaos is extremely vague, Sailor Cosmos as a character is pretty helpful here both to exposit what's actually happening while also representing the extreme lengths Usagi had to go this arc, even convincing her future self of the value of existence. I adore the way Sailor Cosmos phrases the ultimate power of Usagi, the courage to "throw it all away, and take it all in" which perfectly explains the dichotomy that this arc teaches, the path of love superior to both the Gnosticism and Nihilistic extreme and how she says that's what truly makes one Sailor Cosmos, that any person even a crybaby like Usagi can be the Guardian of the Universe.

Thirdly there's the scene in the Galaxy Cauldron. Seeing Usagi finally reunite with everyone is heartwarming and seeing their affection for Usagi, how proud they are of their little bunny princess who saved the whole universe from Chaos. The encounter with Guardian Cosmos is cool both in the sudden lore about the universe and the past that completes Usagi's myth arc by putting her in the same place as her ancient mother Queen Serenity but also gives another chance to express the theme of the arc on the absolute level, with Usagi choosing this universe with all its struggles because it's the world where she met her friends instead of trying again with a new universe the way Galaxia wanted too.

Finally, there's the last scene, the romantic scene with Usagi and Mamoru and of all scenes this is the perfect one to end the series on. Usagi and Mamoru's love has been a continual plot, the ONLY continual plot element since the very first act, outside of maybe "villains trying to get the Silver Crystal." It was the plot element that really started the entire story and was a key element in the resolution of almost every arc save arguably the third. And the way it's done so is cute and heartwarming and appeals to traditions while also feeling distinctly Sailor Moon. We get to see Usagi and Mamoru together in bed, once again celebrating the maturation of the series along with its reader from young teenagers to young adults and being another way the series concludes its coming-of-age subtext similar to Usagi reaching the same place her mother did. We then get to see their wedding and the conception of their daughter together beautifully showing the two of them going into the future together, the future Usagi fought so hard for this arc. And the ending is so incredibly perfect. 

This entire arc has been all about the division between the temporal physical world and the eternal metaphysical world. Usagi bridged that divide through her love and the series concludes with a marriage of the two people representing those two worlds, the world of localities the Earth, and the Moon representing the mystical distance of space, the outer world of unknowable seeming eternities, the two worlds finally united together forever through love. And the final panel puts the reader in the perspective of Mamoru looking up to Usagi, the temporal looking up into the Eternal just as we the reader view this strange metaphysical thing called a story, this strange metaphysical ideal, that existed long before the book we're holding was made and long after it's gone.

If I had to think of what people might dislike about this act I guess you could say that the middle two scenes are a bit "exposition-y" and you could say that it doesn't give particularly a conclusion to anyone but Usagi and maybe Mamoru, but I have to be honest, I really don't care. I love this act, I love this act immensely. All four of its scenes, especially the first and the last fill me with such a sense of joy and meaning.

I've grown up with this series. It's a series that's meant a lot to me growing up, helped give me focus when I felt lost and helped inspire me when I feel down. The philosophy is expressed in its final arc, a philosophy of showing love in all regards, of being willing to let all pass and yet also to take everything in...that's meant a lot to me. It's a part of me in a way no other story can claim to reach. Whether Sailor Moon influenced me to think this way or I felt this way and Sailor Moon is the only series to express the complex emotions I feel and helped me verbalize it, I don't know. Probably a little from both. But in that spirit, I want to say thank you to everyone for reading this and may you find the path of love in your own life. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 59 Review

 

I have considered how I was going to write this blog every week, possibly every day, since I started this blog project. Act 59 is an act everytime I read or even think about it, I find new meaning, an act which I never seem to be able to exhaust what I can understand from it. But I will try to express what I feel from this act. 

Sailor Moon and Sailor Galaxia clash, their power equaling. Chibi-Chibi protects Chibi-Moon from the power surge with a barrier

Chibi-Moon asks Chibi-Chibi if Chibi-Chibi is her younger sister or daughter or something, that means the future will come to pass, they will beat this threat, and that's why she asked Chibi-Moon to trust in Sailor Moon, right? They are meant to win this fight? Chibi-Chibi just looks back at Chibi-Moon, her eyes vacant and empty. Chibi-Moon asks "Chibi-Chibi, who are you, really?"

Galaxia pins Eternal Sailor Moon to the ground, choking her. As she does, Galaxia relates her backstory. She was born alone as trash to a world that was trash, trash here meaning without value. Everyday she wandered in solitude, a Hellish existence, until one day she awoke as a Chosen Guardian. But an ordinary Sailor Senshi is no better than trash, and Galaxia sought the ultimate goal, the planet with the greatest power, the star with the greatest shine, a world worthy of her.

 

This is the origin of Galaxia's worldview, born to shifting sands to a world full of meaningless chaos she awoke to an eternal identity, unable to believe that one as great as her would have a destiny so humble as to protect a world of shifting sands. This is the heart of what she feels, and is compelling in a sense. It is true that it seems strange that the strongest Sailor Senshi would have a destiny of protecting something so humble as a world. Though Galaxia is arrogant, it is a conflict that has plagued the philosophically minded since the dawn of time, the yearning to find the eternal and meaningful even in the sometimes dim and dismal world of arbitrariness we find ourselves in. 

Galaxia brings her face so close to Sailor Moon's they almost touch, her eyes monotone and alien, otherworldly and reflecting her gnostic worldview, while Sailor Moon's are human, reflective of her role as the everygirl. She tells Sailor Moon that she found it, that world worthy of her, but that to obtain it she needed the strongest power in the galaxy... Sailor Moon repels Galaxia off her, telling her that a Sailor Senshi's power is made to protect peace and justice in the galaxy, to protect one's loved ones. 

Galaxia scoffs at this notion, saying that to gather together is a sign one is trash, that the only thing one can believe in is their own strength, the power of one Sailor's Crystal. She continues the idea by saying that through the Sailor Crystal, the body can be remade and broken again endlessly like toys. And then in an odd line Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon already knows this, that the things she trusts are fleeting illusions.

On the surface, this may seem just like a Galaxia form of standard villain dialogue. "Friendship is weak, Rah." But this is actually a really revealing two pages as to Galaxia's mental state. This is her expressing her own Gnostic philosophy to Sailor Moon, that the only thing important is ones strength, which she connects to the eternal component of oneself, the Sailor Crystal, and that the temporal and cyclical parts of the world are irrelevant tools to be used. That those who are strong shine alone in the universe, and ones who gather together are a sign they can't shine alone. But she frames this all in the context of "trust." "The only thing you can trust is your own strength" and "you still insist on trusting these fleeting illusions?" Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon knows what Galaxia is, that with her great power, she is like Galaxia. This is the act where Galaxia reveals her goal, yet this is the first action in the arc that doesn't lead to her goal. If anything it leads away from it. Her expressing to Sailor Moon that she should acknowledge the things she believes in are illusions, calling back to when she asked Usagi earlier if she was really confident the future she believed it would come to pass, does not advance her plan at all, so the question is...why does she ask it? Why does she believe it about Sailor Moon?

Maybe you can say this is meant purely to demoralize Sailor Moon but that's not consistent with what happens next. Sailor Moon rebuffs Galaxia's claim, saying that Sailor Galaxia is a Soldier of Destruction and so can never understand the power the hands, the words, the bodies one's loved ones and comrades can give. In the complete antithesis of Galaxia's worldview and the claim Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon admit, Sailor Moon says that it is BECAUSE of her friends and loved ones that she's made it this far. Galaxia is taken aback by the notion.

This is the first time in the series Galaxia seems unsettled. The only negative reactions she has had in the arc up to this point is when Chibi-Chibi's power repelled her, which only seemed to annoy her and her aimless wandering looking for her purpose. However, this seems to actually anger her. When Sailor Moon appeared before her, Galaxia thought that Sailor Moon's shining power was hatred for Galaxia. But Sailor Moon's power is not hatred, it's love, a possibility Galaxia can't truly understand. Galaxia prides herself on her strength yet admits she needs the greatest of powers, Sailor Moon's. She has tried to make Sailor Moon slowly more and more like her, yet Sailor Moon keeps insisting that the illusions, the thing Galaxia dispossesses as meaningless is where her power comes from.

Galaxia teleports the Sailor Crystals away before running off, Sailor Moon in hot pursuit. As Galaxia leaves she wonders to herself why Sailor Moon is the one with the most powerful Sailor Crystal, ignorant scum that she is, however acquiring it is essential to defeat Chaos.

This part is so incredibly revealing, such a good subtle character moment for Galaxia. On the one hand it's literally revealing, this is the first point where Galaxia's true motive is suggested. While she pretends to work with Chaos she really wants to use the Silver Crystal to defeat Chaos and that by itself is a pretty fun twist, not dissimilar to Beryl revealing she never had any intention of freeing Metaria but was just trying to get the Silver Crystal for herself. But what's so much more interesting here is Galaxia's...anger. Galaxia had no companions, lived on a meaningless world, and sought her entire lifetime for the ultimate answer, doing everything in her power to find the world worthy of her, to find something meaningful and eternal. This girl who, as far as Galaxia knows, has always had companions and lived in peace, never even trying to find the eternal comes in and after all, Galaxia has done to show her the truth, still says to her face that it's those very things that give her that power. You can feel the sting of resentment in Galaxia's words, the feeling of unfairness that Usagi who seems to have sacrificed nothing and pursued nothing is not just as strong as Galaxia but has a power in her that's even stronger. 

Galaxia brings Sailor Moon behind her palace towards Sagittarius A Star itself, the Galaxy Cauldron, source of all stars which Galaxia calls "the holy land of the stars." As Eternal Sailor Moon catches up to her, the light of that most holy star bathing Galaxia's body in shadow, Galaxia speaks to Sailor Moon about the Galaxy Cauldron. She tells her it is where all stars are born, whether they are strong or weak. It is where all common trash and Sailor Senshi are born, a holy land with the greatest potential in the galaxy. Galaxia declares this to be the area of their final battle, the place where everything will soon cease to exist.

And as she says this, Galaxia takes the Star Seed cluster of Usagi's friends...and drops it into the Galaxy Cauldron, erasing them.

This was Sailor Moon's objective the entire arc, even before she counciously understood what Galaxia had done to Mamoru. The recovery of the Sailor Crystals meant that with the Silver Crystal she could resurrect her friends. But Galaxia both tactically and emotionally needs Usagi to understand the illusory temporary nature of all the things she put her trust in, and now her friends can't be recovered, pushing her to finally be alone like Galaxia is. 

Usagi stands there shocked for a moment. She knows what this means, that Galaxia has just erased her friends for good. That her hopes were for naught. And for the first time in the entire series, the Heroine Usagi declares she won't forgive someone, preparing to kill Galaxia charging the psychopathic queen as she inspects her nails for insignificant dust. Galaxia feels Eternal Sailor Moon's power and encourages it saying, in one of my favorite lines in the entire series "Fuel your fiery rage with your hatred. Feel true solitude Sailor Moon. It will awaken your true infinite power that lies deep within you."

One of the overarching themes of Sailor Moon as a story is the pain of isolation. Every Single Senshi Sailor Moon has befriended suffered from social alienation. Here that theme is brought to its climax at the same time it's vocalized. Galaxia contends it's not love for her friends that gives Sailor Moon her power, but anger at Galaxia for taking them away as part of her philosophy that the temporal and mundane parts of the world are trash that are meaningless and all that matters it the eternal. She is seeking to prove this here by bringing Sailor Moon to her ultimate power at the same time as she is isolating her. At the same time, Galaxia, even as she doesn't realize it, is admitting the emptiness in her own heart. She expresses her desire for Usagi to feel the pain of "true solitude" yet also wants to awaken Usagi to the reality she sees meaning the pain of true solitude is something she sees.

To complete her plan, to bring Sailor Moon to the zenith of her power and make her experience "true solitude" Galaxia knocks Mamoru into the Galaxy Cauldron, erasing him to Sailor Moon's horror. Chibi-Moon reaches for her mother but disappears from history. The ghastly sight is so horrible that even Chibi-Chibi can't bear to watch, which is more meaningful when you find out who she is. As this happens Galaxia declares that once Sailor Moon understands the truth Chaos will reveal to her, her power will explode and she along with Chaos will cease to exist.

There's so much to unpack in two short pages without even much dialogue but firstly.... GALAXIA....what a villain. She erases the second and third most important characters in the story without any aplomb as basic tools to her plan. There are two plots that extend over the course of the entire story from Act 1 to the end; Usagi's transformation from a cowardly crybaby to the Champion of Love and Usagi and Mamoru's romance. Here Galaxia, for her own reasons, uses the latter plot, sacrificing it to the former which interestingly enough parallels the climax of Takeuchi-Sensei's prequel manga Codename: Sailor V where Minako, the Champion of Love, ironically cannot have her own love because she must sacrifice her own chance at love to protect the world. In the deletion of Mamoru, the embodiment of that world, that crystal ball shining with the blue light of hope and possibility Princess Serenity saw from the Moon along with Chibi-Moon, the embodiment of the happy future Usagi was fighting for, Galaxia is attacking Usagi's hope itself, her sense of present and future. This arc is meant to take Usagi as a character to her maximum extent, to bring her to her breaking point. She wants to protect the ones she loved but what happens if they are all taken away, how can she stand up to the tragedies and horrors of the world when alone.

We also finally learn Galaxia's intent though it's implied over the course of the arc and this act specifically. Sailor Galaxia has been deliberately emotionally torturing Sailor Moon this arc because the Silver Crystal responds to Usagi's heart, trying to raise her power so she and Chaos will wipe each other out. After discovering Chaos, the painful truth at the heart of being, Galaxia was willing to make any sacrifice of this temporal world in order to destroy Chaos and find that perfect world. It makes sense in theory and explains almost all of Galaxia's past actions; her killing of Usagi's loved ones in front of her, attacking her when she's vulnerable to take away her sense of safety, kissing Mamoru, teleporting her castle around to troll Sailor Moon. The one action it doesn't explain is earlier this own act when Galaxia tries to get Sailor Moon to admit that the things she believes in are illusions, an act done because though Galaxia doesn't realize it, she wants Sailor Moon to understand her. 

Sailor Moon wails in horror and Chaos goes on the move from the sudden increase in power, likely from the Golden Crystal. Galaxia prepares to finish her master plan attacking Sailor Moon with a cosmic wave of force while declaring to Sailor Moon to unleash her great power in the Cauldron wiping out herself and Chaos. However, Chibi-Chibi intercepts the blow, to Galaxia's shock. Galaxia tries to pivot and tell Chaos that she has brought Sailor Moon as a present, thinking to herself that the time has finally come for the two to wipe each other, for her to gain the entire universe. However, Chaos betrays Galaxia, possibly because it heard her telling Sailor Moon to wipe Chaos out along with herself. Chaos drags Sailor Galaxia towards the Galaxy Cauldron but a hand reaches out and grabs Galaxia's. Sailor Moons pull Galaxia to safety and protects her from Chaos. 

The artwork puts special emphasis on their hands clasping. Earlier Usagi wished that their bodies of ours would last forever, these hands that clasp together and make us stronger. This imagery is repeated constantly this arc, with the Senshi holding hands as they travel into Galaxia's territory, the way Lethe and Mnesmonye grasp each other's hands as they perish together, Sailor Moon saying that as a Soldier of Destruction Galaxia can't understand the power one's companions hands bring, holding hands is a visual imagery all throughout this act of expressing love through our bodies. It is what Galaxia disdains as an illusion Sailor Moon clings to, but it is what Sailor Moon uses to save Galaxia. 

Chaos looms ominously over Sailor Moon and Galaxia's unconscious body, the power of its presence causes Sailor Moon to shrink back in a defensive stance. Chaos is surprised at the power of Sailor Moon, commenting that the white brilliance has finally made its way to it. Chaos introduces itself to Sailor Moon as Chaos, the one who never became a star and instead became ruler of the dark stars within the cauldron. Chaos addresses Sailor Moon, calling her the heir to the Cauldron's beautiful light and with that power she evil heavenly bodies of darkness, fellow siblings born of the same sea, her radiance growing from their blood splatters and her name thundering across the galaxy.

I love this part of this series so much. Everywhere abstract images and words and concepts are floating filled with meaning. Some of them like Sailor Moon inheriting the power of the Cauldron and that they were born from the same sea will be explained more next act, but some are immediate recontextualizations of the past. Chaos describes Sailor Moon's power growing from her past fights as her radiance growing from the blood splatters of the evil heavenly bodies of darkness, the past enemies, a manipulative way of making Sailor Moon sound like she was in the wrong and a macabre image, Chaos expressing that word of Sailor Moon has reached it in such a cool way like "your name has thundered across the Milky Way." We also learn of the true enemy of the entire series, Chaos, that which never became a star, lord of the dark heavenly bodies. Possibly important for the symbolism in Japanese the word for star can sometimes mean planet or world, and so the perfect world that Galaxia is looking for and the world Usagi inhabits are referred to with the same term as these past enemies, who are depicted in contrast as worlds or stars of darkness, whole microcosm worlds of their own.

Sailor Moon interrogates Chaos' statement and Chaos states that incarnations of evil darkness roam the galaxy searching for the light, all of them naught but manifestations of Chaos itself. Chaos says with her light she destroyed her own siblings, born as they were of the same Galaxy Cauldron, the source of all. Sailor Moon realizes who Chaos speaks of; Metaria, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Nehelenia...they were all manifestations of Chaos searching space and time for the Silver Crystal, the ultimate light. Chaos proclaims this her destiny, to return here, for light and darkness call for each other, summon each other, until they are all as one again just as they once were. 

Stretching back to the beginning of recorded human stories the great enemy was Chaos, the embodiment of all that is unknown, dating back to Tiamat the Mother of all Monsters, just as Chaos here is the mother of all enemies. Chaos here references both the Greek Mythological Entity Chaos, the precursor to the Cosmos, representing the original undifferentiated being before order and patterns emerged into the universe and the Japanese concept of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Dark Star of Heaven, representing the nebulous and unnamable, suggested by some to be the void from before things whose presence still somehow lingers. Chaos in Sailor Moon is a combination of these, the original darkness who wishes to become as one again with the light, undifferentiated being. Chaos is the ultimate enemy, that all others are merely the manifestations of. Sailor Moon has until this point been fighting shadows of the real enemy, the temporal aspects, but now is seeing the reality Galaxia sees, the eternal enemy Chaos. Chaos refers to Sailor Moon as her brilliance, her light, showing it views her Silver Crystal as the real her, which I think explains why Nehelenia said Sailor Moon is the spitting image of her mother Queen Serenity and even earlier why Metaria confused the Queen and the Princess. They are part of Chaos who only sees the Light it seeks to reunite with, the Silver Crystal. 

Chaos says the time has come for the light and dark to clasp hands again, once again referring to the recurring imagery of clasping hands to become stronger, and says its desire will finally come to be, to gain the Silver Crystal and replace the Galaxy Cauldron which will be an important plot element soon. Meanwhile, Galaxia wakes up. She asks Sailor Moon why Sailor Moon saved her saying Sailor Moon should just kill her, that she could never win against such a gigantic power as Chaos', saying in sadness that this place too was not where she belonged too. But then Sailor Moon responds in one of my favorite panels in the entire series and indeed one of my favorite moments in fiction

There's so much I want to say about this singular panel. This right here shows the difference between Galaxia and Usagi. These two I understand so well, they're both in my top 5 characters of all time, and their conflict is one I understand intuitively as it's a conflict I have had internally but this here is the ultimate victory of Usagi's ideals over Galaxia's. Galaxia couldn't stand the seeming meaninglessness of life, to the point she thinks now that her plan has failed Sailor Moon should just kill her. She projected unto Usagi and assumed Usagi would feel the same way as her. She insisted that Usagi's rising in power was just Usagi's hatred for Galaxia and got mad when Usagi continued to insist her power came from her friends, from the seemingly meaningless things Galaxia brushed aside. She wanted to make Usagi like her, alone, and seeing the truth of the universe because she assumed that would bring her hatred to the ultimate level to the point of being able to destroy the final enemy. But she made the mistake in thinking Usagi would feel identical to her. Usagi's greatest strength is and always has been her love, her empathy that lets her understand others and in making them more alike, Galaxia actually gave Usagi the tool to understand Galaxia, which ironically is what Galaxia secretly wanted even if she didn't realize or know how to express it. Galaxia thought that if Usagi saw the same as Galaxia, that Usagi would hate Galaxia as much as Galaxia hated her own meaningless life, that she'd be driven to be the same homicidal hatred that led Galaxia to destroy world after world, to become a fellow Soldier of Destruction. But for Usagi these temporalities are valuable and while the why of it will be explained this act, Usagi knows that even if they fade away that these temporary lives we lead are important. She doesn't even say she did it, she says her hand did so, so automatic a thing was it. Even put in the same situation as Galaxia, Usagi doesn't want to end Galaxia's current existence, doesn't think Galaxia's life isn't worth existing. Usagi wonders at Galaxia's heart, while Galaxia assuming Usagi's heart is like hers. Usagi was able to understand Galaxia while Galaxia was unable to understand Usagi.

I feel this intuitively internally. I have both the gnostic impulse and love within me. Both are incredibly strong emotions, the perception of things as having a transcendental value and the dislike for the arbitrariness when things feel empty and meaningless. But the Gnostic Impulse in all people is Totalizing, it seeks to go to the absolute, to the extreme, to the point of being self-destructive as it destroys your life, as it makes you sacrifice anything that isn't immediately meaningful, the rejection of any world that doesn't reach the impossible zenith of perfection. But the path of Love is different, it isn't totalizing, it seeks to connect things within oneself and between things. Love contains empathy and it seeks to understand and take into all account all human needs inside of us INCLUDING our Gnostic Impulse. This asymmetry is true externally; a loving empathetic person will understand the Gnostic when the Gnostic will be not be able to do the same in reverse. And it's true internally, our sense of love will give the Gnostic Part of our soul its due, it will look for what is most meaningful but it won't let the Gnostic part totalize our soul, while the Gnostic Part of our soul can't understand Love, unconditioned and given freely as it is. I know this may seem very abstract but in this moment in Sailor Moon I see a reflection of a battle that has been fought and won many times in my heart; part of me wishing to focus only on the most important matters and reject all seemingly meaningless temporal things and the part of me asking myself to trust the temporal, treat it as bearer of the divine image. In that battle I listen to the latter impulse, born of love, because I know it properly takes into account all parts of my soul including the former. 

Sailor Moon says she doesn't want to lose any more companions but Galaxia contends that Galaxia is her enemy, that they are at war. But Sailor Moon says that she can't keep fighting, that all her friends have disappeared. And then in possibly the most important statement in the manga, Usagi says that all this time she has never fought for peace and justice, but only for the sake of her friends and loved ones.

I don't know how Takeuchi-Sensei does it, write a final arc that is somehow both the ultimate expression of Usagi's character and a breaking down of her character at the same time. I almost don't feel equipped to talk about this line here because it means so much. Usagi's original character concept was to write a Heroine normal girls could relate to. A crybaby who acts brave for the sake of her loved ones. Usagi has been a superheroine and even an outright messianic figure in this manga, yet here her humanity is being highlighted, it's breaking down the idea of Usagi being an exceptional person that...lives in the spiritual realm, the conceptual realm of pure virtues. Usagi doesn't live in the same world as the ideas she claims she fights for. Peace is important but it doesn't hug you when you're crying. Justice is important but it doesn't laugh with you at your jokes. Courage is important but you can't eat lunch with it. Love is important but it doesn't hold your hand. Usagi as a person doesn't inhabit the world of the ideals, she's a person who needs the physically manifested people around her to live and to fight for those ideals. She sees the eternal but she sees it in that imperfect world of temporals, of particulars. Ever since at least the days of Plato speaking of a perfect eternal world of forms, we've wondered and searched in our spirits to live in that world, but to live in such is inhuman. There's something important for us in the particular, in the material. We learn not just through the lesson in abstract but the lessons incarnated in the form of stories. The great triumphs and tragedies of humanity may escape our heart but the minor ills and successes of our loved ones can feel like the whole world. Sages even say to speak to us, God himself took human form. Be this literally or metaphorically true, or both, this notion shakes me. 

And for Usagi herself, this is a massive character moment. If the penultimate Act of Arc 1 elevated Usagi as an identity to the level of Sailor Moon, the penultimate Act of Arc 5 reduces the identity of Sailor Moon to Usagi, showing that the seemingly invincible heroine is just a normal girl, no truly greater in spirit than any of us. It's a fantastical analogy to plenty of real world examples of the great people showing their failings or vulnerabilities, moments both empowering and terrifying in that it reveals the fragility of our world and the power we hold in ourselves to rise to the level of our heroes. It's a painful moment for Sailor Moon, a moment of humility in the face of eternity, admitting she is still just silly Usagi.

Usagi asks if everyone's gone, that what purpose is there even in fighting anymore and here we see finally the opposite extreme of Gnosticism reveal itself fully, Nihilism. Nihilism is the sense that nothing has particular meaning and is associated with hedonism and in its excess self-destructive emotions like this. Galaxia gives a bitter laugh and comments that they are the last two Sailor Senshi, and if neither of them can fight then she guess that means the war is about to end. Sailor Moon wonders to herself that the ending of the war is what she wanted, but she didn't expect to get it like this. However Chibi-Chibi intervenes saying that the war won't end, that the battle will continue forever but that Sailor Moon can stop it here by destroying the Cauldron and Chaos at once. She explains the Cauldron and Chaos have merged into in one and that Sailor Moon can destroy Chaos by destroying them both. However Sailor Moon protests that if she does this, no new stars will be made, the future of the galaxy will end. 

In the history of storytelling, Chaos is the historical enemy but Chaos is also something else, potential. In Sailor Moon the source of all potential is the Galaxy Cauldron and Chaos fusing with it is symbolic of the fact that all potential comes from Chaos. All newness comes from Chaos, from the unknown. Chaos is the mother of all monsters, all enemies are creations of Chaos, yet this is because its fused with that which creates in general. It's also just a really cool image that the Galaxy Cauldron created stars and Chaos fused with it to create stars of darkness, the major enemies so far. Chibi-Chibi's sentiment here is the opposite of Galaxia's. Galaxia represented ambition in extreme wishing to use the Cauldron to find a perfect world. Chibi-Chibi's represents surrender, cosmic suicide. Galaxia's extreme is that of Gnosticism, of sacrificing everything to the ideal while Chibi-Chibi's here is the opposite, the Nihilistic sense that nothing matters so if the pain is too large, you may as well just let everything end, a fixation on the material imperfect world of pain and loss. 

Chibi-Chibi insists that she must, that so long as stars are still born, war shall continue. And it is true that being in this universe we find ourselves entails conflict and pain shall persist until the end of all that is currently. Sailor Moon wonders if this truly is the will of the galaxy, remembering the words of Chaos and its child Nehelenia, that the darkness calls out for the light and the light calls out for the darkness. Sailor Moon wonders if this means that she will be the one to lower the Glaive this time.

I don't have much to add here, this is just really cool imagery and an excellent call back. 

Galaxia speaks up and contradicts Chibi-Chibi saying that even if the Milky Way is destroyed, a new Galaxy Cauldron would just appear elsewhere. A new future will be born, with light and darkness saying the end of the war will not come without hardship. Galaxia wonders at how strange it is that she can still say such things with such sincerity. 

However, Sailor Moon agrees with the sentiment, saying that new futures will be born, and there will be light and darkness, war and hope, life and death, and happiness and sadness. Sailor Moon affirms she is sure it will all appear again, because that's what the universe is.

It's fitting I think that it's Galaxia, embodiment of the opposite of what Chibi-Chibi is suggesting that first expresses the problem with her suggestion, that though we may wish for an end to pain and suffering, we presume that's an even option, but conflict is a part of the universe, an ideal whether we like it or not and in some sense is eternal or at least relatively speaking. The universe doesn't just refer to the physical structure we call the universe but on the dichotomies by which conflict emerges as Usagi expresses and that dichotomy painful as it may be, simply is the universe. This is also the first time since they were broken Usagi is drawn with angel wings, as her feelings of love are returning to her, love for this complex and painful universe that nonetheless is so much better than infinite silence.

Galaxia hears Usagi's words and is shocked. She wanted to bring an end to the war with Chaos, to find the perfect form of being, and this is how she justified her sacrifice and struggles. But here Usagi is making a statement even more ambitious, a statement Galaxia could never have imagined, that she's willing to fight a war with Chaos forever. Looking at her Galaxia asks "You'd even believe in such a distant future? Sailor Moon are you the soldier who embraces all?" Galaxia reaches for Sailor Moon, saying she finally found it, the world she wants but her bracelets come undone, for she no longer is a Soldier of Destruction. Galaxia says to herself it's too bright, she can't reach it. She says to herself that THIS is the star that will shine eternally in the universe and perishes to Usagi's shock.

This is such an amazing moment, it moves me everytime I see it. In the Inferno written by Dante, we learn of the fate of Ulysses, representing human thirst for knowledge without regard for morality and in his final doomed voyage, sailing to the other end of the world, where man was forbidden to go, only to perish just after seeing it, when anyone virtuous will reach it in time. I feel the echos of this legendary imagery in Sailor Moon here. Sailor Galaxia was always searching for the eternal perfect form of being, even contending with Chaos itself, when it's freely available to all who seek it, and she dies tragically beautifully having finally found it but it forever being just out of reach. Galaxia is technically an alien, but this is not just her most human moment, but one of the most defining measures of humanity both in its grandeur and stupidity that they will seek something so obvious, moving Heaven and Earth, and even manage to glimpse it only to never actually reach it.

What is this perfect thing that Galaxia was truly seeking for? Galaxia was seeking a form of being that never dies, that carries all meaning with it, the peace to the gnostic soul. Though she didn't know it, what was she was searching for... was Love. Sailor Moon is my favorite series and it's partially because it showed me the way I want to live. There is a path that is between Gnosticism and Nihilism yet somehow opposite both of them, the path of Love. To walk the path of love is to see the imperfect things of this world in all the imperfect and treat them still as containing the eternal within them. I would describe this as one of the central feelings undergirding my worldview:

The world will sometimes be untrustworthy. Trust anyway.

The world will sometimes seem not worth fighting for. Fight for it anyway.

The world will sometimes seem to waste your love. Love anyway.

Because if you reject the world in search for perfection you will find nothing, only Chaos without and only the empty void within.

But if you embrace the world in spite of its imperfections, you will find that perfect existence we call Love. 

Sailor Moon is saddened at Galaxia's death but refuses to give up hope, saying she will create a future with everyone. She asks Chibi-Chibi not to give up hope, saying that as soon as their star of hope is still shining, they won't lose. I personally believe that this is a continuation of Galaxia's statement that she finally found a star or world that shine eternally, that star being Love itself. Chibi-Chibi begins to lightly tear up and transforms into an adult woman with a very familiar hairstyle who kisses Sailor Moon's cheek.

That's right, Sailor Moon reinvigorated the spirit of the Future Sailor Moon. This is a way love shines eternally metaphorically speaking. It transcends time and allow our messages and our hearts to reach the hearts of people who we didn't even know who come after us.

Sailor Moon and this other Sailor Senshi hold hands, giving each other strength. However Chaos interrupts saying that now that it has fused with the Galaxy Cauldron it is time for the emergence of the universe's greatest star, Chaos, declaring that the Mother Galaxy Cauldron all come will be here grave. 

Sailor Moon faces down Chaos, a radiance coming off her that impresses Chaos. Sailor Moon thinks to herself to all her past enemies: Metaria, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Nehelenia, and Galaxia, along with Chaos itself, that she now understands why they all wanted her Silver Crystal. It's for the same reason she sought out her friends and loved ones. She says that we, all of us, are lonely stars. That's why we pursue each other, because we want to be together.

We are each worlds within ourselves, our soul an eternity somewhat detached from all the strangeness of the outside world. Like stars emanate light, we try to emanate of ourselves, we speak our thoughts and write our stories and perform actions with our bodies that are meant to externalize into that vast external cosmos all the expressions of our souls, that our light may reach perhaps one of those distant other stars and that seemingly infinite distance between our inner worlds and the outer world may be bridged.  This whole world of experiences and memories, this swirling storm of colors and sounds and strange occurrences... it is my opinion that these too are the light from some far greater star of the absolute, ordering the cosmos, perhaps that Star of Hope called Love, that the whole of the universe and our perceptions within are a language called Wisdom we may pick up a word or two off. 

Sailor Moon addresses Chaos saying that we all start as one and for that reason she is going to embrace them all in the Galaxy Cauldron before jumping directly into the Galaxy Cauldron

The Galaxy Cauldron and Chaos together represent chaos and potentiality. People were thrown in and were erased completely. However now a new thing happens, Sailor Moon voluntarily embraced it. Sailor Moon is my favorite series and this is my favorite moment in Sailor Moon. It is the perfect merger of the literal and the symbolic that this series is so good at. Chaos is the ultimate enemy, it shows up unexpectedly and consumes people. Yet if someone embraces it willingly... if we humans truly do bear something divine within us, I believe it is that we can understand the Chaos of being, we have the abstract reasoning to understand all the horrendous fates may befall us, all the tragedies that make up material experience, yet somehow bear that responsibility, that we can keep moving into the chaotic unknown tomorrow.

Since the known beginning of legend, the great enemy was Chaos, and it would be slain by some masculine ideal, a warrior hero dating back to Marduk slaying the Great Monster Tiamat. In such times men were considered superior to women. A few thousand years ago, there was a revolution in thought, an enlightenment as the warrior culture began to subside and the power of love became known. In time the role of women began to be elevated in society. Female Heroes emerged, but since the Modern Times began they were often warrior heroes of old. Naoko sought to create a heroine that normal girls could relate to with Usagi and all the stereotypical traits of femininity were exalted in her. It is not just the Hero's Journey gender-swapped, but the Heroine's Journey. And what at the climax of her story, she comes across that most ancient of enemies, the one we've struggled with since we were wise enough to tell stories, she does not slay it with violence, she embraces it with love. What I see when I see this section is the beginning of the collective unconsciousness of an understanding of the Heroine Ideal, a representation of the development of humanity to realize the power of love greater than violence, an elevation of feminine traits as equal in value to masculine traits, the final grand sweep of Usagi's character development, an expression of the most noble traits of all humans (our ability to bear the conceptual weight of Chaos), and a perfect synchronicity of the literal and the symbolic.

I tend to have mixed feelings on most things I see. When I see a bad series, I find it easy to find the silver linings and the relative strong points. When I see a good series, I find it easy to point out its weak points and what I think could be improved. Even with the Acts of Sailor Moon I generally find it easy to express where I think there could have been improvement despite this being my favorite series. Yet Act 59 is a perfect act. I can't think of a single way it could be improved for me. Other series reach this zenith for maybe a scene of animation, or a couple of pages in a story, but this entire act is one giant perfect scene. It's not just my favorite act of Sailor Moon, it's my favorite chapter of any story.

I honestly don't know how to even talk about this act for all its greatness. Like, where do I even start talking about it? I guess I'll start with the plot. On a basic plot level, this is the climax of the entire series and it delivers, incorporating the two biggest themes of the series; the pain of solitude and the ennobling power of love and brings them together in a new way with Galaxia using the pain of solitude to try and bring out Usagi's real power, while also not just expanding on the themes but taking that central theme of the ennobling power of love and taking it to its absolute conceptual limit as Usagi reaches the zenith of this universe's hierarchy via the development of her love to encompass all. Galaxia secretly having been trying to destroy Chaos the entire time and doing everything this act to emotionally torment Usagi in the aim of that goal is a really cool plot twist that adds a lot to her character while also making sense and recontextualizing so much of the arc prior. Every past villain being a manifestation of Chaos explains why they all wanted the same thing and thematically helps establish Chaos as the meta-threat, the threat of potentiality always spawning new threats and enemies. The climax of the act is absolutely perfect and is the exact culmination of Usagi's character arc both in this arc specifically and over the entire manga. 

Usagi's arc over the entire story has been to show the ennobling power of love that can turn a crybaby into a Champion of Justice. I don't know how Takuechi-sensei does it, how it's so clear that Usagi is the same person as she was in Act 1 and you can see it so very clearly, yet at the same time she's developed so incredibly much. I think it's because in Act 1 we saw Usagi not just as a static person but as a trend and here that trend is finally taken to the absolute pinnacle. At the very start of the story we saw that Usagi represents that strange trait about humanity that we can be so clearly evidently flawed yet rise into heroism for the people we love. For her loved ones Usagi has developed as a Heroine over the course of the series yet she has always still been that crybaby Usagi. This arc asks Usagi who she will fight for if everyone she loves is consumed by Chaos. But that pattern Usagi represents is taken to its conceptual extreme as she acts here not just in the name of loved ones who are or are not here now, but in the name of all the people she ever will love and this chaotic universe that gave her the chance to love in the first place. Sailor Moon's statement about never really fighting for peace and justice but for her loved ones is a monumental statement breaking down the physicality of our Heroine, her expression that we are all lonely stars seeking to gather together as one breaks my heart everytime for how paradoxically esoterically relatable it is, and her statement that she saved Galaxia because she saw her lonely self in her is fantastic in how it so effortlessly shows the superiority of Usagi's ideals over Galaxia's ideals. Speaking off...

This act is the culmination of Galaxia's character arc and it's breathtakingly good, and it makes Galaxia my favorite villain in fiction. She has so many layers this act, the resentment towards Usagi for not facing the truth of the universe as she sees it, the seemingly unconscious need for validation and understanding, the way she sadly comments that the war can't be stopped so easily. Galaxia's death is tragic and beautiful and speaks to something both wonderful and demented in the human psyche. Learning Galaxia's origin helps to explain how she ended us so skeptical of the material world as she is, and her ability to be a continued presence is impressive. 

This act functionally reveals two more characters, the secret villain Chaos who really is more an embodiment of the ultimate enemy, of the chaos of being as a concept and the way it is the same as the potentiality that is worth fighting for, and Chibi-Chibi's true form. Chibi-Chibi's true intent becomes clear this act, acting as the surprise opposite extreme of Galaxia. Instead of the height of ambition, she represents the abyss of giving up, of thinking it's not worth it and that peaceful silence of oblivion is preferable to the painful chaos of living. But love has a strange power that transcends time and her spirit was restored by the love of none other than her past equivalent. Chibi-Chibi's role here is to give agent to Sailor Moon, to make it so she doesn't just passively become the embodiment of love's redemptive power, but has to actively make the choice that allows that to happen by choosing to confront the future and all the pain that entails because of her love giving ther the power to do so, instead of avoiding that pain by choosing to destroy the potential for any future.

If I had to sum up what makes Act 59 so great, it's that it sets the highest possible ambition it can for itself, commenting on the very nature and purpose of being, of humanity's eternal struggle with Chaos and how to progress in it, and taking the universe's lore and characters to their highest conceptual limit, and actually accomplishes what it set out to do. It comments on the themes and emotions most important to me and expressed them in a way that influenced who I am. 

There are also smaller parts of the act I love as well though. I love the ideas it presents, I think they are really cool. I love the artwork this act, when Galaxia is atop Sailor Moon, Galaxia's eyes being alien and distant while Usagi's are drawn in and human, or when Sailor Moon wonders if its her role to bring about the death of everything with Sailor Saturn drawn above her, or the majesty of the images in Sailor Moon's address to Chaos before diving into the Galaxy Cauldron and she regrows her angel wings, all of it beautiful. The atmosphere is perfect, paradoxically so mystical and esoteric it's relatable as it conveys the facets of existence and love.

I love this act and I hope I've been able to convey at least some of why I feel that intuitively, or to put in the way of this act, I hope the light of my star has reached you.