So this was actually a blog I was asked to do. Star Seeds are a concept in the Sailor Moon universe, and one that gets the most discussion powerscaling wise. What do they equate to, what are their properties and how do things related to them work when compared to characters from other series? This blog will not be super powerscale-y per se, this will be just a general analysis and explanation of Star Seeds.
This blog will be seperated into four sections: Background, Nature, Function, and Narrative. If you want to skip to a section what these will entail are:
-What is the Basis of Star Seeds
-What are Star Seeds
-What do Star Seeds do
-and What is the Narrative Purpose of Star Seeds
Background:
The first thing to know is that Star Seeds are not an idea Naoko Takeuchi made up. Naoko incorporated numerous Mystical and New Age type elements into the Sailor Moon universe. Some examples of these would including Fire Reading
Dowsing
Psychometry
and many many more.
These Mystical/New Age Notions are similar in that they are believed by a more occult/spiritualist community but are not believed in by Mainstream Science. That said it's clear that in the Sailor Moon universe these practices are actually real. Star Seeds are one of these belief systems. Like many of these New Age beliefs, Star Seeds do not have a singular description of what they are, but numerous.
The oldest reference comes from Brad Steiger's 1976 book "Gods of Aquarius" which introduces the concept of "Sky People" or "Star People" described as being from Indigenous American accounts and comparing them to that of European Fae
Brad Steiger accounts how he and his wife were adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Tribe and learned more information on the Star People, namely that there was coming a time of great purification of the Earth but that their Star would assist in the survival of humanity and their uplifting to wisdom and "the path of peace"
The chapter primarily deals with the explanation of UFO Phenomena. When discussing possible external explanations for such beings, the author expresses them as higher dimensional, as intellects and consciousness that are higher forms of being taking on human personage
I can't link every account of Star Seeds but as the concept has evolved, it has become more and more general, that Star Seeds are people from higher dimensions or planes of reality, who take on human form to guide humanity.
This for instance is the most popular video on the notion on Youtube. They are described as "residents of higher dimensions that incarnated into a physical human experience with the intention to help raise the collective consciousness of humanity" It is stated that the determination if one is a Star Seed is "to look within and determine if they feel a very strong mission, a very strong purpose towards being able to help heal the Earth as well as raise the collective unconsciousness." They are also noted to reincarnate into the Earth system numerous times to better understand the human condition. Other traits commonly noted in this video and elsewhere are that Star Seeds are higher in perception and often eccentric.
What does this have to do with Sailor Moon? While Naoko Takeuchi doesn't use the concept exactly the same, this should give a good idea of what she was invoking when she used it in the story. In particular while everyone in the Sailor Moon universe has a Star Seed, the archetype of Star Seed is instead something Naoko evokes in the Sailor Senshi:
The Sailor Senshi are girls born with unusual abilities and are outcasted usually because of them:
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However the Sol Senshi are all good souls:
They reincarnate across lifetimes but have to awaken again to their true identity
This true self is actually a deeper metaphysical self
They came to this system not just to guide humanity but specifically to guide their evolution by removing negative influences
The parallels go deeper but I hope the point is made. Naoko clearly is very interested in these New Age-y concepts and took inspiration from the Star Seed concept when writing the Sailor Senshi.
Nature:
Star Seeds have been in the series since the very beginning with the series central Plot Element, "幻の銀水晶"/"Maboroushi no Ginzhuisho", roughly translated "Legendary Silver Crystal" being a Star Seed. However our first descriptions of them as a group are from the Fourth Arc, and it is only in the Fifth and Final Arc that they are explicitly described.
They are first described in a flashback sequence by Queen Serenity to a scared young Princess Serenity. Queen Serenity says that within each of our hearts is a star and that in order to defeat those who's heart is dark, one must keep their star shining brightly
Later in the chapter in a very clear call back, Mamoru says that now that his Golden Crystal has awoken, he feels as those a star was born inside him, and Usagi describes it as the Star of his Heart and the warmth he feels is the sign it is shining brightly
This is a poetic description obviously and is the first expression of what Star Seeds represent, the light in one's heart that allows one to persevere.
The final arc has more explicit descriptions with the primary description of Star Seeds coming from Yaten. She describes them:
"Everything in the Heavens grows from a Star Seed. And not just Stars. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they have different names but everything with life grows from a Star Seed."
On Sailor Crystals she says that Sailor Crystals are born as Special Star Seeds. Those seeds are sent off to their Chosen Planet to develop alongside it eventually becoming its Sailor Senshi
Finally she says directly that everything that makes a Sailor Guardian is contained in their Sailor Crystal, that they are distillations of unknown power and will never fade away.
So to review some of the points Yaten made and expand upon them
Are Star Seeds universal?
Yes, everything has a Star Seed including, it would seem, the Cosmos and Chaos themselves
The only qualifier is that everything "with life" has a Star Seed. This probably doesn't mean biological life as planets and stars possess Star Seeds but instead life as in vitality or animacy with Celestial Bodies in the Sailor Moon universe being animate
Are Star Seeds Metaphysical?
So, this is a surprisingly interesting question. Yaten says that they are the Distillations of the Senshi' Power. Other translations render is as Crystallizations. The notion there is an immaterial thing that is rendered physical. In other words there is a metaphysical star within the hearts of people and when removed from them crystalizes into a physical form.
We see this exact thing happen in the first arc. At the death of her true love, Princess Serenity cries a tear in which there is a light that crystalizes into the Silver Crystal
This is as described earlier the Star of Usagi's heart leaving her body and crystalizing.
The light then leaves the Crystal and enters into Mamoru's body, leaving the Crystal a dead stone
This Crystal component, the shell that housed the light of Usagi's heart is clearly physical. Kenji a normal human is able to physically handle it fine
However the underlying thing INSIDE the Crystal is not material, as shown it passed into Mamoru's body without physical resistance.
So in other words, Star Seeds are the physical crystallizations of something immaterial within someone. The shell component of a Star Seed can be physically manipulated but the immaterial part, most often conceptualized as a "light", can't be.
What are Sailor Crystals?
Sailor Crystals are special Star Seeds that Sailor Senshi have that sent off to their chosen planet to guard them. Those with Sailor Crystals have a special aura of stellar energy
and women with them are Sailor Senshi and can transform into a Sailor Senshi form.
Sailor Crystals are consistently noted to be the most powerful of the Star Seeds with the greatest shine of them and for those of the Shadow Galactica who worship power they therefore consider them the ultimate or higher class of Star Seeds
Though non Sailor Senshi can have Star Seeds with nearly the same power and radiance as Sailor Crystals
Men can possess Sailor Crystals but are not Sailor Senshi, and cannot transform into a Sailor Senshi form, though can access their Sailor Crystal's power
What is the Lifecycle of Star Seeds?
The final thing of of note from Yaten's description is that Star Seeds will "never fade away." There is a recurrent dichotomy between the temporal physical forms of people and their eternal Star Seeds throughout the Stars Arc and will form the basis of Usagi and Galaxia's philosophical conflict I will talk about later.
Star Seeds like all things are born at the Galaxy Cauldron, a Cosmological Structure in the Sailor Moon universe. Within it all "stars and possibilities" are born
Galaxia herself describes it as the place as the birthplace of the planets and stars of the galaxy, clearly using stars not to just refer to stars as the celestial bodies but also persons via their Star Seeds as indicated by her expression of "Scum and Sailor Guardians." before mentioning that it is where they also pass away
Thus it would appear that Star Seeds are born at Galaxy Cauldron and should they return, they are extinguished. Otherwise they are eternal. If you are wondering about the odd emphasis on the galaxy I will write an addendum about that at the end of this blog.
Outside Yaten's description, do we know other things about the nature of the Star Seeds? Some.
Are Star Seeds aware?
Star Seeds, or at least Sailor Crystals seem to possess animacy and awareness themselves. The Silver Crystal has been known to act to protect Usagi and even people close to her even when she is unconscious or even dead
Sailor Senshi can have unusual aging where they don't age for 900 years or rapidly age for an upcoming crisis
This seems to be a function of the Sailor Crystals.
Do Star Seeds change?
The Star Seeds are eternal in that they don't die naturally, but there is some level of change, usually in correspondence with the state of the thing connected to them. It is noted that they grow alongside their planet
When a Sailor Senshi develops as a person particularly in a way that develops their sense of self the Crystal seems to develop as well such as when Sailor Moon was in despair at feeling like she was alone causing the Silver Crystal to develop into a Lotus shape or Chibi-Moon beginning to step out of her mother's shadow causing her Silver Crystal to become the Pink Moon Crystal
and of course their most famous part, the legendary shine of the Star within. This Shine corresponds to the Star of one's heart and whether one keeps bright
When the body and mind connected to a Sailor Crystal is destroyed, this light is faint. This status is compared to something like sleeping, presumably the Sailor Crystal waiting for the reincarnation
Are Sailor Crystals Souls/Minds?
No, we see them very much contrasted. Souls in Sailor Moon have a humanoid appearance and the Third Arc clearly differentiates them from Sailor Crystal with sequences such as Chibiusa's soul holding her Silver Crystal, her Star Seed
and as mentioned the Star Seed persists though goes into a state of dormancy if both the body and mind are destroyed.
I believe it is most likely Star Seed should be seen as something conceptual in nature as even conceptual entities like Chaos possess one, showing that even an entity of that level of fundamentality possesses a Star Seed. So what are Star Seeds?
Can one have multiple Star Seeds?
Surprisingly yes, and this actually brings up one of the most important pages for thematic analysis of the Stars Arc and in my opinion for understanding Star Seeds in general
Sailor Galaxia notes that the Sailor Senshi bear two both a human Star Seed but also a Sailor Crystal, wondering at how they cling to their human Star Seeds when they have the unrivaled Sailor Crystals. She demonstrates the difference by destroying human Star Seeds when she uses the Cauldron to destroy Sailor Crystals.
This to me is the key to understanding what a Star Seed is meant to be. What does a Sailor Senshi have that a normal Human only has one of? The answer is something to the effect of "Identities." There's a lot of thematic stuff surrounding this in the Fifth Arc which I will get into the fourth part but here see we what I believe to be key to understanding Star Seeds. The Human Star Seed of the Sol Sailor Senshi represents their Human lifespan while their Sailor Crystal represents their eternal life as a reincarnating Cosmic Guardian.
Function:
So what do the Star Seeds do? This will be a much shorter section because the answer is much broader. A Star Seed determines much, perhaps everything about its person.
The most obvious facet of that fact is that when Galaxia took the Star Seeds of Sailor Moon's friends, she used the Sailor Crystals to resurrect them as her evil loyal minions. In this monologue she describes the Sailor Crystals and Power which they represent as the only true reality
as mentioned Yaten describes them everything that makes a Sailor Guardian is contained in their Sailor Crystal, a very comprehensive statement that suggests that everything that makes that identity comes from the Sailor Crystal.
Star Seeds, or at least Sailor Crystals, seem to be associated most often with protecting the person connected to them. In the Third Arc, the villains powers are thwarted as noted several times because the Senshi possess "the light of the stars, celestial protection"
Star Seeds' primary function seems the maintenance of one's existence.
When one's Star Seed is removed, it causes one to be erased from existence.
This does not immediately erase one in other time periods, though at least their future self will gradually begin to fade as though there is a delay
if one's Star Seed is destroyed, which for a Sailor Crystal can only be done from the Galaxy Cauldron it not only erases the individual but their influence from history, this can seen when erased in the Galaxy Cauldron and Chibiusa, his daughter from the future is instantly erased
So one's Star Seed maintains and informs one's existence.
Sailor Crystals also unlike other Star Seeds grant one their Sailor Senshi abilities obviously.
Narrative:
So I've said I think Star Seeds represent Identities, but what about thematic reasons for such?
So I've written a lot about this in my Sailor Moon act Reviews, but much of the Final Arc is about laying out the dichotomy between Usagi and Galaxia and what they represent.
Galaxia represents a kind of Gnostic Search for meaning and the eternal in a world full of flawed temporal things. Galaxia is one of the two strongest Sailor Senshi yet she was born on a trash world in isolation without any deeper meaning
unwilling to believe that such a world was her destiny, she sought to find a world worthy of her, rejecting every world she found as unworthy of her and destroying them
When Galaxia questions why the Sol Senshi cling to their Human Star Seeds, she's asking why they trust in something seemingly so temporal and weak. It's actually very important to her emotionally to get Usagi to admit this as she demands Usagi acknowledge that the things she trusts in are just shadows of the true reality
and when Usagi argues the point Galaxia and insists that it's because of her friends that she has power, because of the temporal things Galaxia believes as just fleeting shadows, Galaxia is taken aback and asks in resentment why USAGI is the one with the strongest Sailor Crystal
Galaxia is the anti-Usagi. At the end of the First Arc, Usagi was offered the life of being the new Queen of the Moon by the spirit of Queen Serenity and instead chose to live as a normal girl on Earth choosing her human life over a celestial life
and at the end of the Fifth Arc Usagi chooses again a life of struggle on Earth with her loved ones that remaining in the Cauldron in perfect heavenly existence
where Galaxia asks why cling to their human star seeds, Usagi wishes that their physical bodies would also exist forever
where Galaxia represents rejecting all, Usagi represents embracing all even a future of never ending conflict, even Chaos the ultimate enemy
The narrative battle between Galaxia and Usagi represents the battle between a Gnostic Rejection of the world as a manifested physical temporality with all its flaws in search for an eternal world vs Love and finding a perfected metaphysical eternal reality within it. Galaxia is depicted as searching and ultimately trying to force a perfect world worthy of her to come into being but it is when she comes to understand Usagi's love, a love that would embrace a future of endless struggle that she finally finds that perfect existence in Usagi
The Sailor Crystals in this arc's dichotomy represent the difference between their philosophy.
Galaxia thinks that only the Sailor Crystals, that the perfect existence is the only thing that matters, powerful and independent and immortal. It's why she doesn't see any meaning in the temporary and flawed. The series makes an allusion to Plato here when it references that the things formed from the Sailor Crystals are just fleeting shadows in comparison to them and indeed Galaxia's philosophy can be said to be parallel to Platonic/Gnostic thinking, a belief and search for an ultimate reality independent of and "flawed" physical existence
but Usagi argues with it, saying it is specifically because of those temporal things that Galaxia disregards that Usagi is as strong as she is
Understanding this in terms of identities and the choices they made in regards to living a mortal life vs a purely celestial one, and what the arc is saying is that Galaxia only cares about persons in their eternal metaphysical aspect but Usagi cares about persons in the wholeness of their being. This is essentially the difference between Gnosticism as a Christian Heretic Cult and a more Broad Christian viewpoint for instance, the difference between saying only a person's soul matters and that all parts of a person has a sanctity to it including their soul and their body. There are other religious parallels one can draw obviously including to the Japanese concept of Kami, an invisible spiritual presence in all things with vitality and all the parts of nature.
Because there's a reason that Naoko gave all people Star Seeds as opposed to just making it so that only Sailor Senshi have Star Seeds as the original concept of Star Seeds was. It's because she wanted to emphasize, as Usagi recognizes at the climax of the manga, that all people have a Star in their hearts, that we all are lonely stars seeking to gather together as one, that we all have a metaphysical part of our being
The Star Seed, the Star in our Hearts, represents the eternal part of ourselves constantly trying to reach each other through this transient physical reality we share. This is why the series ends with the marriage of Usagi and Mamoru, representing the Moon and the Earth, the Celestial and Mundane worlds, coming together to form a new future together.
TLDR:
Star Seeds represent our Identities. Compared to other verses these can be equated roughly to one's concept, or part of one's concept, or something even more fundamental then one's concept if you think the Law of Identity type stuff is more fundamental than a concept. Star Seed Manipulation broadly does two things
1: Having your star seed removed causes you to be hit by existence erasure. To resist this requires powerful existence erasure resistance stronger then at least the Sailor Senshi who can resist existence erasure
2: If someone gets your Star Seed they can use it, or at least Galaxia can, to alter you in basically anyway they want. This is conceptual manipulation. I hear some people call it information manipulation. Personally I don't see this as very different from conceptual manipulation but to the extent it is different then yeah it should also allow for that. Resisting this requires conceptual manipulation resistance
Addendum: The Emphasis on the Galaxy
If you're wondering at the emphasis of the Milky Way Galaxy in Sailor Moon, this is actually because in Japan the "Milky Way" is actually Amanogawa (天の川) which translates more literally to "The Heavenly River." The Heavenly River is a fixture of some Japanese religious traditions as a poetic image. In folklore the Sky King's daughter Shokujo married the cowherd Kengyu but with the Heavenly River created to separate them so they can only meet once per year, an occasion celebrated on Tanabata. This event is referenced directly in Sailor Moon
and is shown to be a true account
Amanogawa in Japan is heavily linked with the expression of love, and particularly a distant or impossible love. In Classical Japanese poetry the flooding or misting over of the Heavenly River was connected with the fortunes of lovers separated by space or fate. A poem from the "The Romance of the Milky Way (Amanogawa)" for instance:
"Though the waters of the River of Heaven have not greatly risen, yet to cross this near stream and to wait upon him remains impossible."
The Stars Arc in particular also takes a substantial amount from other East Asian Cultures for inspiration such as Princess Kakyuu taking much in design from Chinese History and Myth and the Three Starlights Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Maker, and Sailor Star Healer corresponding to the Trimurti of Hinduism. In China while still associated with distant love, it is also seen as a representation of fate or divine authority. Consider the beginning of the Tang Dynasty Poem "A Ballad of Heaven" by Li He:
"The River of Heaven wheels at night
Drifting the circling stars
At Silver Bank, the floating clouds
Mimic the Murmur of Water
By the Palace of Jade, the cassia blossoms
Have not yet fallen
Fairy Maidens gather their fragrance
For their dangling girdle-satchels"
to go back to Sailor Moon, Galaxia considers herself divinely chosen, characterized by the highest of ambition, and her ambition is speculated to be to use the Milky Way to control the procession of stars and their development
As such I don't believe that the character's reference to using the Cauldron to control the stars of the galaxy is meant to be a limiting factor on the Cauldron's influence. Numerous Stars from the Cauldron emerged in other DIMENSIONS such as Pharaoh 90, and furthermore it is said numerous times that the Cauldron can be used to rule over the universe or even to create a new universe
Rather that the conquest of the Heavenly River is meant to represent Galaxia's divine level of ambition, her Luciferian desire to be the Lord of Heaven, that she considers herself to be a God, and perhaps to represent that the way she stole Mamoru, Usagi's love, creating a sense of romantic separation. I wrote about this more in my Sailor Moon reviews but there is a narrative separation between the Earth, Usagi's world which Galaxia considers inconsequential and the "Heavenly" world of Galaxia, the cosmic and eternal. For a comparison it's like a verse based on Greek Myth having characters very focused on getting control of Mount Olympus and getting its power. It's not saying they are mountain level, but that the mountain has a special religious significance.
Feel free to ask if there are any more clarifying questions I can answer about the Sailor Moon universe.
