Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 4 Review

 

I'm just gonna say it. I still like Act 4, but it is my least liked act of the Sailor Moon manga. There are good parts, and it is adapted into basically every version of Sailor Moon but it primarily two problems I will get into at the end.

The act begins with Luna working a computer, as cats are wont to do. She notes down Tuxedo Kamen, Mamoru Chiba (she does expressly put both once again showing people in the manga do recognize peoples identities), as "Friend or Foe?" It's a strange point for those of us now where Tuxedo Kamen being Sailor Moon's love interest is so well known that even people with no knowledge of the franchise are roughly aware of Tuxedo Kamen's role, but in the beginning Mamoru was intended to be a figure of some mystery and potential danger. While he rescued Sailor Moon in Act 2, and arguably in Act 1 his current motives are unknown. This is a fairly common trait in the male love interest in series written by and for women, where he will have an element of mystery or danger about him to make him a more exciting love interest. This whole beginning section really serves as exposition to catch up to date those who haven't read the prior chapters. First we have Luna using her computer to catalog information on Usagi, Ami, Rei and Mamoru. 

Then we have Ikuko reading a newspaper about another daring rescue by Sailor Moon and company (with a convenient seperate part of the newspaper setting up that the Princess of the "D Kingdom" is coming to Japan with her nation's famed gems, setting up the plot of the act. This part is a bit odd, because people probably wouldn't know that Sailor Moon saved the children in Act 3 since it took place in another dimension, nor would they have known about the fight with Morga in Act 1 since everyone was unconscious there and people thought it was a dream. This suggests there are seperate battles with the Dark Kingdom happening off-panel, which is just a pretty interesting thought.

Finally we have Usagi just explicitly recapping what's going on, turning into a cartoonish gust of wind running off late for school while expressing all the recurring info from last chapter. There's also a funny bit where Usagi says she's "A champion of justice, but (she's) no ordinary champion of justice!

It's humorsly within Usagi's character. I also appreciate in general Naoko trying to spice up the exposition catch-up by introducing it through three sources and including little character bits and funny bits. I do think it does kind of go on a bit long. Usagi is introducing the other Senshi on page 9 of 42. 

Usagi talks to Naru about the princess of the D Kingdom, yes the "D" Kingdom. Right above the Republic of "I" and just south of the Military Dictatorship of "?" The D Kingdom is the world's largest supplier of gems, and the princess is hosting a party where the mythical hidden treasure will be presented. Obviously it's pretty laughable now to imagine that this might be the Silver Crystal and the princess they're looking for, but again near the start of the series it really was supposed to be a mystery where the princess and the crystal were. That's the thing about Sailor Moon arcs, they're usually occult mystery stories at heart.

Usagi introduces her friends Ami the "genius girl" and "the scary and angry beautiful shrine maiden" Rei. I have to say Usagi's characterization is odd; at no point so far has Rei acted remotely unfairly angry. This does lead to a funny gag where Rei asks why she has to be a Soldier of Justice, literally saving the world, when she's already so busy flaunting her hair in an elegant apathetic manner

Rei demands Luna reveal more about her true identity and motive otherwise she won't go along with this. Luna protests she can't say, and even if she did, they wouldn't believe her, which is an odd protestation given you know....talking cat talking to magical champions of justice. Ami tries to appeal to Luna's reason more diplomatically saying they do need more information on the Silver Crystal and their enemies but Luna responds she doesn't know their enemies true identities. 

Luna does however reveal that a seal was placed upon the princess and until it's been removed, they won't be able to find her along with reiterating the information about the Silver Crystal Beryl revaled to her minions: the Silver Crystal is a holy gem of unlimited power and it would be very bad if evil-doers got it. Luna proceeds to suggest that the Sailor Senshi have not fully awoken, and when they do awaken by recalling lost memories the seal on the princess will break. This will come into play a lot more later, but even here it's an atmospheric idea to just drop in building to the sense of strangeness and mystery lurking behind the Senshis' identities. 

This whole time Usagi wasn't really paying attention focusing on an arcade game. Luna bemoans that Usagi who was first among them, and thus should be their leader is the most unreliable of them.

This is...odd reasoning to me. Why is Usagi awakening first evidence she should be leader? Luna doesn't really explain. 

Motoki and Umino enter the scene and start discussing with Usagi about the princess. Motoki speculates that the princess is probably "a gorgeous blond" but Motoki takes out a picture revealing...she basically just looks like a female Umino. Usagi, clearly thinking it will be like a fairy tale, expresses her desire to go to the party but Rei warns her she has a bad feeling about this.

Meanwhile in the Dark Kingdom, Nephrite expresses his desire to have his comrade Jadeite, fellow member of the Heavenly Kings, to be resurrected and Queen Beryl responds that when they have the Silver Crystal they will be able to ask their great leader to resurrect Jadeite. It's sweet seeing that the evil-doers do care for each other. Nephrite makes it clear he intends to crash the party to see if the D Kingdom's gems are the Silver Crystal while Beryl speculates what kind of stone the Silver Crystal is to hold its vast power. This is I think the first point of several times in the manga where various villains express confusion and an inability to understand the Silver Crystal, a gem which represents much more than just power.

Usagi uses the moon pen to change herself into a princess so she can attend the embassy party.

I find it immensely amusing that Usagi's mental image of "princess" is just herself with a dress, a tiny tiara, and cleavage. It's also pretty amusing to see Ami and a pouting Rei easily get in just by dressing up formally, which I think shows Usagi just wanted to say "Change me into a princess." I imagine she was just waiting for the opportunity. The Senshi get into the party and split up. There's a cute point where Kenji sees the transformed Usagi and thinks she just looks like Usagi, and wonders if Usagi will look that beautiful when she grows up.

Usagi meanwhile is massively enjoying being dressed up like a princess and wishes she could have a dance. A lady accidentally spills her drink on Usagi causing her to run off to find a bathroom to clean it leaving a handkerchief with her real name on it...which I don't know why her transformed self has that on her, maybe it was just part of Usagi's mental image of princess...which is picked up by Tuxedo Kamen. Usagi expresses her distaste at being alone when Tuxedo Kamen appears before her and asks her to dance. 

It's quite romantic and sweet seeing the two dance together, and their relationship blossoming further. Usagi describes the feeling as a warmth through her body, a feeling she will use throughout the series to express when Mamoru gives her strength, an expression of her feeling their connection.

We cut back to the plot where Princess D is fretting to a rather...suspicious looking interpreter that everyone's just here to see the gem rather then her, saying if only she was more beautiful people might be more interested in her. The interpreter just flat out agrees before revealing itself to be a shadow, Nephrite's shadow, in disguise, and possesses the princess...I know it's all magic and stuff it does seem kinda weird that the shadow was able to disguise itself as a human with a body and stuff. The dialogue makes clear that Nephrite after the treasure also thinking it might be the Silver Crystal. 

Shadow D takes the gem and makes a break for it leading to Usagi being knocked over a balcony, caught by Tuxedo Kamen before Shadow D sends them both over. Usagi turns her pen into an umbrella to float down so the two safetly causing Tuxedo Kamen to say that today she saved him. This sequence of events confuses me. Why is the pen can change into just some random object when usually she has to disguise herself and if she has time to disguise herself why not just transform, she'd pretty easily be able to survive a fall from that height as a superheroine. I get they're trying to show that Usagi and Mamoru rescue each other and protect each other mutually but this scenario just seems kinda weird to me. Probably overthinking it.

Sailor Moon transforms to go help the other Sailor Senshi against Shadow-D whose somehow brainwashed all the other people at the masquerade party. Sailor Moon briefly freaks out realizing she doesn't have her tiara since she used to bind it on Jadeite and it was the other dimension when it was destroyed before ... her love just makes a new tiara. Literally same page

Why introduce this plot point and then immediatly solve it on literally the same page? Was Naoko worried people were just gonna be continuity cops on this one, because I'm pretty sure people would accept the Tiara just sorta appears with the rest of her Senshi Fuku when she transforms. At the very least it's not a bigger leap then this.

Nephrite's shadow appears over Princess D and starts "swallowing the area in darkness" planning to take the Crystal and the humans there back as sacrifices for their great leader. I do have to say, this is a pretty cool set of abilities Nephrite has. Usagi notices in worry her father is part of the people being sucked into the darkness.

Sailor Mars tries to use her Akuryo Taisan attack which killed Jadeite but it does nothing to the Shadow either because it's too powerful or it's a shadow and can't be physically hit. I would think the latter makes more sense but the text is unclear. Tuxedo Kamen, expert on magic that he apparently is, tells Sailor Moon the only thing that can destroy darkness is a powerful light and shes uses her new upgraded tiara to reflect moonlight as an attack to destroy the shadow, which I think is a pretty cool use of environment and is fun imagery.

Nephrite back in the Dark Kingdom grumbles about Sailor Moon destroying his shadow which I think is meant to hype him up as a villain that just his shadow was this strong. Then there's a little gag where the Princess' glasses come off and she's revealed to be really pretty causing the others to imagine Umino without his glasses as a cute bishonen and it's pretty funny.

The treasure of D kingdom is revealed to be giant diamond scuplted in Princess D's image...Hang on. Earlier they said the treasure was passed down through the family? Did all their family look like Princess D? Did they know generations in advanced Princess D was going to look like this? Or did they honestly ruin this precious family heirloom, what would have been the most expensive gem in world history to sculpt a stature of someone with it who apparently didn't even want it? Rude.

And that's the end of the chapter. Definitely... Nothing else comes after that. Nothing else I have to talk about...well....

An exhausted Sailor Moon drinks some alcohol under the mistaken assumption it's juice and after a single glass falls dead asleep in Tuxedo Kamen's arms. He takes her outside under the moon and before leaving gives her a kiss, a feeling in the air that it's all so familiar. 

So um, yeah Mamoru kisses Usagi while she's unconscious. I don't like talking about it this part because it's prone to raise very strong emotions. Surprisingly however I don't see that much kickback in this day and age over it like I was worried I would. Let me say first that obviously OBVIOUSLY don't do this in real life. Kissing a person while they can not give consent is wrong. With that said there's three points that I think make it broadly more acceptable here and that most people agree on:

1: Sailor Moon is a series written by a woman for young women about primarily young women. This isn't a male writer projecting any kind of misogyny or any kind of creepy predatory fetish into his writing, it was written by a woman who clearly viewed it as romantic for women of similar tastes.

2: In-universe Usagi loves Tuxedo Kamen, she absolutely would have kissed were she awake. It doesn't mean Mamoru should have done this in-universe but there was no victim to this act.

3: It's obviously a reference to Sleeping Beauty. Naoko loves makes references to fairy tales and classic stories among other things and it's pretty clearly this is the motif she's going for.

Besides all that narratively speaking Mamoru is meant to be potrayed as a suspicious figure that you aren't supposed to know at this point whose side he's on, shown at the beginning of the Act as well when Luna catches the two of them and questions his motives causing him to admit if they're after the same Silver Crystal they might be enemies.

The act ends with the first appereance of Makoto running through rain as a storm approaches, previewing the next act. 

So talking about Act 4, I still like Act 4, there's a reason it's recreated in pretty much every version of Sailor Moon. With that said talking about Mamoru kissing Usagi while sleeping always makes me feel like I'm walking on eggshells, and it's the closest thing the manga has to filler, so it's probably my least favorite act.

The act does have some funny bits and some cute bits, Nephrite's shadow is a pretty cool opponent, and seeing Usagi and Mamoru's relationship develop is very sweet. I certainly don't dislike the act. It's weird to think at one point Mamoru was meant to be a mysterious suspicious character even though he constantly helps Sailor Moon and the two clearly have feelings for each other.