Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 15 Review

 

The act picks up where the last act left off with the smaller Usagi, or Chibiusa as she will be dubbed, holding a gun to Usagi's head demanding the Silver Crystal. She proclaims it's real but when she clicks it turns out to just be a toy, though this doesn't numb the shock Usagi feels.

Chibiusa runs off and it cuts to a meeting of the main villains of this arc, and this is where Naoko really starts her mildly unfortunate tendency of introducing way too many villains for the space she has. In quick succession we see four humanoid villains, one of which is clearly the leader named "Prince Demand" and one of whom is named Saphir, as well as one otherworldly vaguely humanoid type villain called the Wiseman.

Bear in mind, none of them are going to be the main antagonist for the first half of this arc which is only 12 acts. When I say that most of the villains in the manga are more equivalent to monsters of the week from the anime then they are the characters with the same name, this is more so what I mean.

The villains are clearly some kind of upper class aristocracy in fancier clothing and performing a toast. They proclaim they've picked up the signal of the Silver Crystal, strangely calling it a "counterfeit" or "fake", with Demande noting this is the point where they will do a magnificent replay of their clan's history.

The actual villain of the month, Koan, introduces herself and her group the Ayakashi Sisters. Ayakashi is a tricky word to translate. Ayakashi is a general term referring to yokai that explain the strange bewitching sounds and sights seen at the surface of the water. I think the best translation I've heard for it is "Siren Sisters", it gets the closest. 

However Koan is actually fiery themed and proclaims she can feel that among the ones guarding the Silver Crystal there is a girl with fire magic running through her body, the same as Koan. She asks one of the four seen earlier, identifying him as Rubeus, to assign them to the mission which he accepts under his command. I do think Naoko does a good job, as is one of her specialties of evoking immediately an atmosphere. Unlike the Dark Kingdom who were hiding out underground and had an almost desperate quality to the search for the Silver Crystal, the Black Moon Clan seems fairly relaxed about it, and while this isn't explained yet why...it's as if in their minds they've already won.

Usagi wakes up from the shock and immediately demands they find that little girl, thinking she's a new enemy while Mamoru tries to be the voice of reason. They find Chibiusa looking all sad alone on a park swing. But when Mamoru goes to take her hand and asks to take her home he sees a vision of a crystal city through his psychometry.

Chibiusa comments Mamoru feels like her papa and I mean even as a child the Chibiusa plot was pretty easy to figure out if you thought about it. I do like how Mamoru asks about Chibiusa's home and then sees Crystal Tokyo from touching her, as though her thoughts of home are what triggered it.

Mamoru proclaims she's a normal little girl causing an exasperated Usagi to say in response she's not an ordinary little girl. And in fairness, she did pop out of nowhere and threatened Usagi with a gun for the Silver Crystal. They end up taking her back to Usagi's house where Usagi's parents (and Umino who's...there for some reason) start crowding around her to figure out things about her. 

Chibiusa reveals her toy, Luna-P which she turns into an umbrella to hypnotize everyone there into just accepting her, though Luna snaps Usagi and Mamoru out of it. 

I do have to wonder why this worked on Usagi and Mamoru when previous enemies very clearly couldn't control them. My guess is because it's technology rather then magic which isn't a theme per se in the second arc but is just an interesting thing about this arc that unlike any other arc it has a particular focus on technology. More importantly is the sense of invasion this creates in Usagi's life. She was threatened by this girl out of nowhere, who now is mind controlling her family into just accepting her into their home.

Usagi grabs Chibiusa and takes Chibiusa to her room where she demands that Chibiusa release her magic. Chibiusa doesn't oblige, protesting humorously that she is "not little." Humorous, but also technically the start of the symbolism of Chibiusa trying to assert her identity as separate to Usagi's. This will come up later. Luna notices a strange key around Chibiusa's neck and asks Usagi about the Silver Crystal who says she has it around her neck and that it has returned to its original shape so no one can tell where it is. Later Usagi and Luna see Chibiusa sleeping adorably with a little bunny plushy 

Luna tells Usagi that she doesn't sense any hostility from Chibiusa and they should wait and see, causing more exasperation from Usagi that no one is taking her concern seriously. And once again, I feel it's pertinent to point out, Chibiusa threatened her with a gun and brainwashed her family. I think Usagi has a little right to be concerned. Mamoru validates her concerns, but asks her to trust Luna and starts checking for reports of a missing person. The next day, Usagi is telling the Guardian Senshi who also brush off Usagi's concerns postulating Chibiusa is her illegitimate love child or a long list younger sister.

I do have to admit I find Usagi's angry exasperation at the others for calling their current situation relaxing peace and wildly speculating but it's also a bit head-tilting that nobody except Mamoru seems to recognize Usagi's very reasonable suspicions of Chibiusa's actions.

Luna interrupts to give the Senshi new transformation and communicators. It's explained later in the act that the reason she can do this is because the Moon Castle was restored during Sailor Moon's battle with Queen Metaria. This seems like a cool world-building element but also a bit thematically incongruent given how much it was a thematic element last arc that the Senshi were progressing past how they were in the past. Like it doesn't contradict anything in-universe, but it does feel a bit thematically incongruent. 

But enough of magical world building, we've got new civilian characters to introduce who I'm sure will make a massive impact on the plot. This includes Motoki's little sister Unazuki who is a cute peppy type girl and Asanuma, Mamoru's cute kohai who is a fan of his

What this arc definitely needed was MORE characters... I don't dislike either of these characters. Unazuki is cute, and Makoto's admission that she might be befriending her partially get closer to Motoki is funny. Asanuma will provide a little world-building, Makoto and Minako going all starry-eyed for him is cute, and be mildly important in a couple of acts. But this is a fault a lot of Shojo manga has, and Sailor Moon is particularly bad about it, which is introducing a huge number of characters for the space it has. And it's not like these are especially relevant or deep characters. Naoko's civilian characters all tend to be painted in very broad strokes, and in an act that introduces nine, arguably ten other characters there was no need to throw two more in that don't really impact the plot at all. I get this may just be a taste thing; that some people like these extravagantly overpopulated worlds. To me it seems very inefficient and cuts into the time of all the other characters. And it's not even done here.

Rei mentions to the others that for her school's festival, she's doing a fortune-telling booth. This of course leads to a transition for Rei to meet another civilian character, Sarashina Kotonoe, president of the paranormal club. She asks Rei to join their club and Rei politely says she'll consider it. This is a bit of subtle character development for Rei who initially asked why should she even save the world when she's so busy.

Asanuma looking at Rei talking to Sarashina, and comments Rei is beautiful and elegant, how he expected Mamoru's girlfriend to be instead of Usagi. The girls there talk to each other about Rei, and how she's become so much easier to talk too lately, likely as a result of her character development. They exposit her backstory and then her development leads to a gag when she complains to herself about a book on UFOs and then has to deflect when Sarashina hears her, worrying she's picked up Usagi's vulgar language.

This is both pretty funny and a good bit of development. While Rei has lost some of her elite mannerisms from hanging around Usagi, speaking more crudely, she's also a warmer and more approachable person than the distant miko rumored to be a witch, the two being connected. 

Sarashina begins expositing that there have been rumors of UFO sightings all around their area, reports of abductions, speculating that maybe aliens are among them disguised like regular people. In real life, this is the point where you put on a poised face and find a polite excuse to exit the conservation with the crazy person. Of course this is a science-fantasy story, so all the rumors are of course 100% fact. Rei goes into her dramatic dignified expression commenting that their new enemies might be invaders from outer space. Sarashina goes all heart-eyed for how cool Rei is.

This is funny, but it does sort of make me imagine that Rei is so used to muttering vague mystical things to herself that she doesn't actually mind civilians hear her talk about Senshi business, since they just assume it's her doing her Miko thing.

Sarashina starts talking about her masterpiece, a thesis on "spontaneous combustion." People just suddenly catching fire out of nowhere, saying there's recently been numerous reported cases in Japan recently. We have a chapter focused on the Fire Senshi, against an enemy who uses Fire Magic, and there have been cases of spontaneous combustion. I wonder. Sarashina finds out that there is another club at the festival, the Black Moon Paranormal Club, with the exact same line-up of exhibits, led by the woman before, Koan, in disguise. They briefly meet but at the meeting between them, the members of the paranormal club briefly see a UFO. Once again I think Naoko does a very good job of building up atmosphere, though the atmosphere is noticeably different than the Dark Kingdom's arc:

The Dark Kingdom moved anemically compared to the Black Moon Clan. Under Demande's reckless leadership, the Black Moon clan with the air of having already won, barely care about cover. The Dark Kingdom, like most modern stories about dark fae, vampires, or mummies, is a group of remnants from some forgotten age of fantasy and magic, using vague prophecies and visions, archaic looking technology, malicious conspiracies gathering the lifeforce from humans to re-awaken a dark goddess sealed in slumber across the eons. Conversely the Black Moon despite also using magic are vastly more sci-fi futuristic. Their infiltration is far more like men in black styled "strange people you don't talk too if you don't wanna disappear." They use technology like UFOs and robots. And their invasion is far more rapid and modern in feel. Even their aesthetic is far more modern in design. It's like comparing fighting a secret cabal of vampires vs fighting the body-snatchers. 

Rei has a vision as she sleeps of Koan burning a little girl to death, waking with a start.

Once again, I am amazed at what Naoko was allowed to put in a Shojo Manga in the early 90s. I guess Magic Knight Rayearth was also out in 1993 when this act came came out but this is arguably darker and it's not even like an important plot point. It's just something Naoko throws in to hammer in that Koan is one sick puppy.

Then it goes right into Usagi-Chibusa antics and its's pretty massive tonal whiplash

This is the second page after the above one. 

Usagi doesn't trust Chibiusa and Luna says she'll stay at home to watch her while Usagi goes to Rei's school festival leading to the above funny gag of Chibiusa protectively cradling Luna-P from Luna, then Luna getting distracted by Ikuko making her some milk only for Chibiusa to run off in the few seconds she laps at it. Once again, it's fun little gags, but it's a bit of a tonal whiplash. 

Tonal whiplashing back, at the festival Koan is acting like a creepy fortuneteller giving people evil fortunes, like they will die in six years from a heart attack which is made more horrifying by Koan's uncanny ability to tell a person all about their family history, displaying her "psychic powers." She states, ironically given the Black Moon Clan's goal, that they shouldn't fret because it's impossible to change fate, but they should join the Black Moon Clan which seems...kinda like bad advertising honestly. "Hi, you're gonna die painfully soon and nothing you do really matters. Join our club?" I get the feeling Koan's job is just to get members and this whole ominous fortune-telling is just her being a sadist. Koan offers to Rei's fortune, but Rei tells her to leave calling her a creepy shinigami. Rei goes to tell some of the nuns running the Catholic School she attends only to find

The Black Moon Clan is already among them. Once again, the Black Moon Clan is a lot more aggressively and a lot less subtle than the Dark Kingdom...and the Dark Kingdom made "Video Rental Dark."

One of the fake sisters spontaneously combusts and Rei transforms for battle, more powerful than ever due to the new transformation item. The other fake sisters reveal them to be secretly robots and attack but Sailor Mars dusts them with her new fire attack, Burning Mandala. Koan declares she's strong but says she'll fight Mars, fire to fire, prediction to prediction, blasting Mars with fire. 

Usagi and Chibiusa independently show up and Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon tries the ol Moon Tiara Boomerang on Koan but Koan....reflects it somehow then Tuxedo Kamen bats the reflected Moon Tiara away from Sailor Moon with his rod. It's a slightly odd sequence. 

Usagi and Mamoru's hands touch and emanate a power, which Demande watching from a monitor far away seems to recognize. This manifests into a new Moon Rod for Sailor Moon to use that Luna, Demande, and Rubeus all seem to recognize, and which Sailor Moon destroys Koan with.

Rubeus shows up and reveals that Sailor Mars is stuck in Koan's "fire barrier" and that while Sailor Moon must be strong to kill Koan so easily, no one can destroy the fire barrier that's up. Demande orders Rubeus from afar, presumably using some kind of communicator, to capture Sailor Mars and to Sailor Moon's horror, Rubeus simply disappears taking Sailor Mars with him.

This begins the second arc of Sailor Moon. Act 15 is a pretty good act in total. The obvious act to compare it to I think is Act 1, the only other start of an arc at the time of this act being released. Act 15 has both positives and negatives in comparison to that act in particular and what's interesting to me is that some of the advantages and disadvantages that Act 15 has in comparison to Act 1 also demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages the Black Moon Clan arc has as a whole compared to the Dark Kingdom arc.

One of the things to note is that this arc is full of things in general. It's gotten the plot moving especially at the end with Mars' capture and it introduces nearly a dozen new characters to the audience. That means there is a lot to the act and there's a certainly a lot of things in the act to be excited for. With that said few of those points get more than a few pages at most. Now this is understandable for some of the elements. Jadeite only showed up briefly in Act 1, and the other members of the Dark Kingdom also showed up briefly before they became notable to the story. Introducing elements prior to their importance isn't just ok, it's good writing. With that said introducing so many characters all at once runs the risk of overcrowding the space you do have. 

I'd say this while this act does have some pretty funny parts, it has Naoko's trademark build-up of atmosphere, it has the moment with Chibiusa angrily saying she's not little which is actually mild symbolic build-up, and it has the exciting cliffhanger of Rei being captured, it also feels a bit cramped. This is the only arc that doesn't have an "introductory" act before going into the Guardian Senshi's individual acts. Rei's chapter doubles as the introductory act meaning a lot of things have to be gone through at once which might have been better spread out over the new 2 or 3 chapters. I also think it's mildly frustrating at times how no one but Mamoru acknowledges Usagi's frustrations as reasonable. Usagi is going to go over the line at some point and be too harsh to Chibiusa but this is more effective if we see the slow escalation of her feelings be met with appropriate response. Likewise this act doesn't have any big symbolic moment like the climax of act 1. There is no part individually as good as Usagi rushing to save Naru, the closest being Usagi and Mamoru making the Moon Rod which isn't really symbolic build up for their relationship development, it's just there. This is an overarching problem most of the arcs will have, which is the symbolism is not as omnipresent and powerful as the first arc.

With that said, it's hard to deny that Act 15 feels much more alive than Act 1 does. Act 1 I complained about being kind of a slow buildup and of having the first half being focused on civilian drama that won't really be relevant to the story. Act 15 decides to forego choosing being civilian life and superheroine life and just chooses to present both and while it feels a bit cramped, it's also got way more elements to pick apart and think about and introduces everything even very mildly the symbolism that's going to be important this arc. The Black Moon Clan are a pretty good change of pace from the Dark Kingdom. Like every Sailor Moon villain group they are infiltrators but the Black Moon Clan is on the total opposite end of how slowly and subtlety they want to infiltrate and they act with far more confidence in their position. There are some gags I still find funny like Rei's exasperation at having adopted some of Usagi's informal language. 

Overall I think Act 15 is a good act, and while I don't like the second arc as much as the first arc, I do think Act 15 is a more enjoyable first act to an arc, if only because all the Guardian Senshi as well as Usagi's and Mamoru's relationship are in this act, and its a much quicker paced act with more plot points.