Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 13 Review

 

Act 13 is my favorite act in the Dark Kingdom Arc. It's more then that though. Sailor Moon is my favorite franchise in fiction, containing the three scenes that I like more than any produced by any other series. This includes the climax of the Sailor Moon R movie, the climax of the final arc of the manga, and the climax of the first arc of the manga which begins in this act. I feel a lot of people do not see the symbolism and meaning in the First Arc's climax. I think this is because Sailor Moon is a very fast-paced manga, and people skirt over lines and sometimes whole scenes without having slowly considering each one as I have. In this overarching review I have pointed out numerous times the recurring themes within this arc, and this is where it pays off, as I express how it seems to me Naoko culminates those themes.

The act begins with Serenity's dying wish. She declares Endymion was the first and only person she has or will ever love romantically and that even if they are reborn again she knows they will find each other and fall in love over again. It's a beautiful sentiment showing that all of it, the horrific strains and stresses she had undergone, even dying from her own blade, she would suffer it all again to be with him, more then that that she would eagerly anticipate their meeting again. It also foreshadows the climax of the final arc. 

The Senshi are obviously horrified with Minako yelling in anguish is this their fate, to reborn to have it ever again, despairing it may be unavoidable fate.

Once again, I'd like to point out the theme is clearly pronounced. I do this because people seem to really not notice the themes being expressed at the end of the first arc in particular. 

From Usagi and Mamoru's prone bodies the two pieces of the Silver Crystal come together again. In seeming death the lovers are finally reunited again, and Usagi's identity is unified, but now it can't be used. Protectively, the Silver Crystal grows over Usagi and Mamoru encasing them in Crystal, seemingly to protect them. This initially seems to be a good thing but the Crystal begins outpouring energy which Metaria begins to absorb and grow rapidly stronger.

Metaria proclaims she can finally move freely and moves to engulf the Crystal, swallowing them up in darkness. Luna briefly tries to emanate energy as Artemis did to stop Metaria but as mentioned last act, Metaria just absorbs all energy. I really like Metaria as a final villain. Even ignoring all the symbolic stuff, her powerset and physiology is just really cool. One of the things I really love about Magical Girl series that a lot of people don't acknowledge is just how often, at least since Sailor Moon, Magical Girls tend to fight cosmic otherworldly horrors as final villains, with Naoko's being my favorite. Like Metaria is a living energy-absorbing darkness. That's just a cool concept, simple enough to be quickly understood, but also conceptually interesting. 

Luna remembers Queen Serenity's words, that she should always protect Usagi, that even though time may pass and she may change in appearence, she will always be her only master and Luna weeps in anguish that she couldn't protect the person most precious to her.

It's a very sympathetic moment, though I do have to admit and I don't think is a real failing, just a funny point, I do find it a little funny that Queen Serenity's like "even though her appearence might change" showing a picture of Usagi next to Princess Serenity and they literally look identical. Like, yes it's symbolic of the permenancy of identity persisting across time, but it's just a clear contrast between image and description. 

Metaria teleports to the surface, carrying the Silver Crystal with her, pursued by the Senshi who teleport after her. On the surface they find the North Pole has been turned to stone, just like the Moon was. They make the explict comparison it looks like the Moon Kingdom ruins, once again cementing that it seems like everything is repeating. Metaria grows to encompass the sky before them proclaiming that the Queen of the Moon Kingdom sealed her below ground so long, and now with the Silver Crystal the planet is hers. The Four Senshi try to combine their power to destroy her like they did to Kunzite, but Metaria once again absorbs their energy.

Luna's wound get worse and the Senshi retreat to the Command Center. Metaria's presence releases cold winds causing a state of emergency across the world. I like how in terms of imagery Metaria is consistently associated with the absense of energy as she drains it away; darkness, cold, stillness. Luna states she is sure that the princess is protected still by the Silver Crystal. The Senshi go back to fight Metaria again leaving just Luna and Artemis. 

Artemis tells Luna that she's pushing herself too hard, re-opening the wound she suffered against Tuxedo Kamen. Luna claims that it's her fault, that Usagi was going through so much pain and Luna made her fight the one she loved. Once again, I can't profess just how pure manga Luna is. Luna asks Artemis to take to the Moon, to the prayer room. There she prays desperately to the spirit of Queen Serenity to release the full power of the Moon. Meanwhile Metaria encompasses the world, and her presence drives humanity to savagery and violence.

Kunzite was shocked Metaria had grown to the size of a person. Metaria is now the size of a planet, and the world is grim and brutal. This is an idea Naoko seems to really like. Villains in her stories aren't just physical threats, they're spiritual threats. They turn people evil. Very often it's unsubtle brainwashing powers like this, however it gets a similar symbolic idea across. Villains like Metaria aren't just people that are evil, they are forms of being opposed to the very order and goodness of being, an idea Naoko references a few times including very early on with the statement Luna makes that their enemy "should not be allowed to exist in this world."

The Guardian Senshi seem out of options as they have no way to contain Metaria. Venus suggests sacrificing their pens to protect the princess, though she says that's as good as sacrificing their lives. Naoko initially wanted to make something more akin to episode 45 of the anime where the Senshi died individually but got told no by her editors. She then got mad, rightfully so I think, when the anime was allowed to kill off her characters but she wasn't.

 The Senshi sacrifice their powers to create a big energy beam which goes within Metaria. Metaria thinks that it did nothing and laughs to herself about their seeming foolishness but deep within Metaria, Usagi stirs from the light.

I do wish the Senshi had more individualized sacrifices but once again I think Naoko just wasn't allowed too do anything like that for some reason. As it stands I think the scene still gets across basically the Senshi's devotion to their princess and it's kinda sweet symbolically that they awaken her from the darkness she's lost in.

Usagi in the darkness dreams of times long-gone by, the time of the Silver Millennium. Princess Serenity tries to sneak off to Earth only to be caught by Sailor Venus. Sailor Venus chastizes Serenity for being irresponsible, but Serenity, being an absolute bastion of responsibility, sticks out her tongue at Venus while making a mocking face saying Venus don't know what it's like to be in love. This becomes more tragic when we see that Venus indeed had some love for Kunzite of Earth herself, though seemingly respected the division between the people of the Moon and the Earth. Venus privately confesses her worries to Mercury about their princess, that being in love will hurt her.

Serenity meanwhile talks to Endymion. They talk of the wind blowing the ocean, a distinctive atmosphere of the Earth being alive in a way the Moon isn't. Serenity comments that from space Earth looks like a blue crystal ball, once again referencing the thing she loves of Endymion and the Earth. As the two lovers hold each other Serenity comments that when she's with him, her heart's desires are clear, and she feels stronger. That she wishes they could be like that forever.

I love their pairing so much and the way Naoko draws them together evokes many feelings from me. However the memory turns dark as Serenity recalls her and Endymion seeing dark clouds on the horizona and then the battle for the Moon Kingdom. Endymion tried to protect Serenity from Beryl and dies stopping a blade swing from hitting her. Serenity in despair killing herself.

Queen Serenity comments here saying she had a feeling it would end this way, that a love that should not be between people of the Earth and Moon, two different worlds, would end in tragedy. The elements are introduced seperately but here they are all seen together. Queen Serenity, the Goddess Selene knew love between Earth and Moon would end in tragedy creating God's law that they would oversee them from afar. When Princess Serenity and Endymion did love each other, it inspired Beryl's jealously allowing Metaria her foothold and the death of the Moon Kingdom, Princess Serenity and Endymion. Queen Serenity, her heart in despair keeping her from fully using the Crystal, sealed away everything; the Moon, the Demon Metaria, entrusting the future to her daughter and her friends. 

Usagi thinks to Endymion that she knows they'll be born together again, on the same world, and the two can be happy.

I find it hard to comment on these events because they are beautiful imagery to me, but it is to such an extent I feel words failing me. Sailor Moon is a modern myth and when it's at its best it speaks for itself in a way that adding commentary can never full encapsulate it, as it speaks to an archetype beyond space and time. I can obviously draw comparisons. The tragic lovers are clearly inspired by Romeo and Juliet. I can comment on individual notions within it I like like Serenity and Endymion being born repeatedly to same place and time in the vastness of the cosmos to fall in love again. I can extoll how the themes are seen again with how Serenity says she feels stronger with Endymion and wishes they could stay in the happy times forever. But unlike most works I've read or seen, I never feel like I've gotten everything from Sailor Moon that I can, no matter how many times I read it.

The light from earlier, the light of the Senshi's desperate attack awakens Sailor Moon within Metaria. She doesn't know where she is, whether she's alive or dead, dreaming or awake. There's not many images on panel but it really shows Naoko's artistic talents.

Sailor Moon sadly looks at Endymion's body, realizing she's neither dead nor dreaming. Examining herself she finds Mamoru's pocketwatch, the gift he gave her, took the blade instead of her and she passed out like Minako did earlier rather then died. Serenity weeps that she can't be the only one of the two of them still alive. The Silver Crystal transforms from it's normal diamond shape, unfolding into a Lotus design.

The Lotus, because it is a beautiful flower that grows in the midst of the dismal murky swamp, is an often used symbol of enlightenment, coming to spiritual awareness in the midst of the illusion of material being like a beautiful flower in a murky swamp. Here now Sailor Moon lies in the monstrous darkness of Metaria and she will develop further.

Metaria notices Sailor Moon and fills her mind of all the hatred and animosity of the people of Earth, the darkness in their hearts in a bid to torment the sensitive Usagi.

As mentioned earlier, Naoko depicted the awakening of Sailor Moon as a theological event, and Sailor Moon not just as a superhero, a superhuman soldier of good, but a spiritual messianic power. Sailor Moon comes to spiritual awakening at the same time she faces the demon Metaria, who thrives on and attacks with the hatred and darkness of mankind. It is at once literal and symbolic.

Sailor Moon realizes that they're inside Queen Metaria, and Queen Metaria similarly realizes Sailor Moon's awake. Metaria goes to crush Sailor Moon who uses the Silver Crystal, an experience Metaria describes as an unpleasent heat within her, as Sailor Moon teleports her and Mamoru outside of Metaria.

Incredibly Mamoru's hands begin to get warmer and he re-awakens to Sailor Moon's shock, calling it a miracle. However Mamoru's vision is gone. 

Once again, this is Naoko doing something that makes symbolic sense even if it doesn't make literal sense. Where does Metaria making Mamoru blind come from? Nowhere really, it's not a power she shows elsewhere and, spoilers, it gets restored soon after. However symbolically Metaria, the darkness, blinds people, just as she blinded Mamoru and the people of Earth, both in the past and in the present, turning them hateful in their blindness. Sailor Moon in contrast is the Moon whose gentle light pierces the darkness, shows us we are not alone, who reveals the truth to us. 

Metaria in the sky bares down upon the two. Sailor Moon tries to blast her with the Silver Crystal but as established, Metaria absorbs all energy used against her and it does nothing. Sailor Moon wonders where her friends are, worried that Metaria has them already, possibly because of how strong Metaria is and because of her insecurity, her power begins wane-ing. Sailor Moon continues to doubt herself saying she can't seal Metaria away, she's not strong enough.

Tuxedo Kamen thinks to himself he can feel the pain Sailor Moon is in, and one of the four gemstones he held to his heart cracks, causing Kunzite's spirit to appear before him proclaiming to his master that at last the've finally met.  Kunzite exposites to Tuxedo Kamen about Metaria, telling him the black diamond set on her forehead is her heart, that as she's grown larger so too has her weak point. This was kind of set up earlier with Kunzite noticing the black diamond on her forehead, but it's still kind of a deus ex machina. 

The spirits of the Heavenly Kings appear before him, saying they're happy they met him before their stones shatter and they disappear. Tuxedo Kamen wonders if their stones caught the holy sword, which is the reason he's still alive. The symmetry is completed between Usagi and Mamoru, Mamoru's guardians protected him from the holy sword, Usagi's guardians awoke her from the power of the holy sword.

Mamoru speaks to Usagi, encouraging her to have faith in herself, saying he's sure that her friends believe in her too. He continues, possibly inspired by the spirits of his guardians appearing before him, saying he's sure her friends are looking over her from afar, and he'll support her in their place now. As they look into each other's eyes, Endymion promises to always be by her side.

Those eyes are the eyes Serenity compares to the Earth seen from afar, a world where the wind blows and the waves crash. A world brimming with possibilities and hope. It is he that Serenity said makes her feel stronger. Serenity comments that he always gives her the strength she needs; that she little by little she's becoming filled with strength and courage.

The themes all finally come to a head in one of my favorite moments in fiction. Across the entire arc there have been constant allusions to the divide between Usagi's identities. Usagi is a crybaby, she is nothing like Sailor V, she's the most undependenable Senshi, she's half as good as the others, she doesn't have their special powers, she can't convince her dad she's Sailor Moon even when she tries to tell him, she's scared of becoming Princess Serenity, she asks if tragically dying is their fate, she will always be the normal girl Usagi, she needs to unify her identities to stop Metaria, physically represented by the divide of her crystal and its power. She's somehow always that cowardly crybaby Usagi. She is somehow always the tragic princess Serenity, who had forbidden love, watched him die tragically and killed herself in anguish. 

Long ago, that tragic princess looked down from the Moon upon the Earth, a world brimming with life. From the still Moon, it was progression in Eternity. She saw that world in the eyes of that world's Prince, who being near always filled her with strength and courage. Usagi was the one who saw everyone else's true selves, being the first to understand the Guardian Senshi despite nasty rumors or idolization. Yet Mamoru was the one who sought and saw Usagi's true self, who knew sometimes she could be so strong for the ones she loves, could show a new face.

Looking into the eyes of the one she loves, that tragic princess is filled with strength and courage again declaring to Metaria the enemy of all, the demon that destroyed the Moon Kingdom, that she is going to destroy Metaria completely

and as the white moon glows with a powerful radiance, allowing Mamoru to see again, as the light of Usagi's heart penetrates through Metaria's darkness just as her love freed him, she declares proudly that she is Princess Serenity AND she is Sailor Moon.

This moment, this sole moment makes Act 13 my favorite act in the Dark Kingdom Arc, and puts the arc above the next three acts. It is one of those few fictional moments that moves me, to my core. It's one of the three best scenes in fiction to me, that I consider an ideal to aspire towards. I can't extract all that is good about it, I've tried for years. But to do my best:

That which exists eternal, which never changes is reassuring just as Usagi wishes she could be with Mamoru forever, just as her dying wish is for it to all happen again. But it bears with it at the same time the threat of being trapped forever by your sins. It is something I've felt strongly, the worry that mistakes you've made in the past will forever define you, that you can not escape what you've done. Likewise change brings about good things and it can be scary. These values, sometimes rendered as order and chaos, or the eternal and the temporal, are what we are trapped in because in some ways we are always changing, yet some part of us is always the same. We are people with a unified identity across time and yet showing mildly different faces based on space and time. We are, to be dramatic, souls in a material world. 

The thing that moderates between these two forms of being is love. When Usagi looks into Mamoru's eyes, she's somehow all that she ever was; she's the tragic princess looking into her star-crossed love, she's the normal girl Usagi looking into the eyes of that strange man who set her heart on fire, she's the Champion of Justice Sailor Moon looking into her superhero partner Tuxedo Kamen's eyes. It unifies us in our identities, something that connects us to our past, and something that we can put our trust in as guides us to our future. Yet in being so it also pulls us into something greater. When Usagi is protecting her loved ones, when she looks into their eyes, she is filled with power and courage, little by little, because we develop in love or the ones we love. Love is the transcendent power that renders us the same as we always have been, yet also makes us greater than we are. 

Usagi is introduced to the reader as a cowardly crybaby who nonetheless rises into heroism for the ones she loves. That idea is so captivating because it reflects something about the human condition, something displayed in this moment. Anyone can be a hero. It doesn't matter how far you've fallen, the sins of your past, or how little capacity you have in this moment. For the ones she loved, even a crybaby like Usagi can turn into a hero, and the same can happen for you.

Usagi was scared she was going to be Princess Serenity again, defined by her failure, but now she proudly declares she is that same princess, yet will still be the champion of love and justice Sailor Moon for the world and people she loves. 

I obviously love Act 13. Even outside its climax, I think Act 13 has a bunch of things I like. It has build up towards the climax, it has a bit more on the Silver Millennium, with Venus and Serenity and the romantic scene with the princess and the prince. It has the Senshi and Luna's mounting frustration culminating in the Senshi's heroic sacrifice and Luna desperately praying to Queen Serenity. It also has Metaria, who in general is an interesting and creepy eldritch monster. I also love the visuals and imagery used in the act with things like the Silver Crystal changing into the lotus shape.

It's not the least bad act. I still think that's probably Act 9. Act 13 is more uneven by comparison, the sacrifice of the Guardian Senshi could have been done better, particularly if Naoko was given more leeway I imagine, and Kunzite's explanation arguably broke up the flow and was kind of deus ex machina-y. With that said these are the kinds of things that are more than accounted for given even just the positives before the ending let alone the ending. 

Act 13's ending isn't just good the way a lot of series can be good. It's the culmination of many good usages of theme, plot, and imagery building efficiently to a single moment across 13 acts, It would be the best moment in any other series and even in Sailor Moon it won't be surpassed until the end of the series. It is a moment of storytelling that will forever for me transcend storytelling and be an ideal I wish to live in aspiration of.