Raimi Spider-Man-verse Strategy Guide

 

How to be OP in the Raimi Spider-Man-verse

Large Building Tier:

This tier includes most of the villains the Amazing Spider-Man came across during his career as a superhero. During Spider-Man 1, the Green Goblin used a missile to create an explosion nearly the size of a bridge calced at being nearly 4.5 tons of tnt worth of energy. Likewise his son in Spider-Man 3 using a flamethrower turned a substantial part of the Building-Sized Sandman to glass quickly, calced at just over 2.5 tons of tnt worth. This same Sandman would in Spider-Man: No Way Home get into inter-universal fights with the TASM-verse Electro. Electro's powers fluctuates based on his psychological state but generally stayed within the Building to Large Building Level range based on the mega-amperes he was giving off, with him eventually reaching into the low end city block level. Sandman fighting a fairly combat-focused Electro should scale him to Large Building level. The various villains would also then get into a fight with the Three Spider-Men including the TASM-verse Spider-Man who numerous times outsped and avoided Electro's lightning, the villains moving at fairly similar speeds to them, suggesting they would also be massively hypersonic.

This tier includes four threats. First of them was the Goblins, the first being the Green Goblin and then his son. Contrary to popular opinion Harry Osborne is never deemed the "Hobgoblin" in the third Spider-Man film, instead only ever deemed the "New Goblin." The Goblins are enhanced with a genetic serum and various experimental technology including a glider for flight and numerous forms of explosives including pumpkin bombs and missiles. Their technology also includes homing razors and knockout gas projected from their gauntlets. They also have an unconventional resistance to memory erasure as their insane split alter ego can remind them, even after losing memories of what they're fighting for. The Green Goblin is likely physically stronger then his son due to the enhanced serum within him, and is also dramatically cunning and manipulative, to the point of manipulating the superhuman intellects of the Spiders both in Spider-Man 1 and in No Way Home and is something of a scientist himself. 

This tier includes the Sandman, Flint Marko, who was transmuted into a logia being of sand. This makes him extremely hard to conventionally hurt and gives him an extreme regenerative property, the ability to grow into a massive building sized form, and the ability to form weapons from his body. He can also somehow fly as a cloud of sand and has a generally strong will, to the point of reforming himself quickly through the love of his daughter, when earlier it was shown to be extremely difficult to do so. 

Finally this tier includes the Symbiote entity which after de-coupling from Spider-Man, merged with the Eddie Brock to become the villain Venom. Venom can use it's own logia form to mimic Spider-Man's abilities such as "webs". He was able to form claws from his body, and most dangerously, the symbiote can attach itself to other entities, amplifying their power and aggression, and altering the host's mind to make it extraordinarily hard to remove the symbiote.  This version of Venom also has a pseudo-spider sense that allowed him to quickly find the Sandman, suggesting he can counter at least mild stealth strategies and the symbiote in its natural state has a high level of regeneration. 

Also Namor and Dr. Strange canonically exist in the Raimi-verse but nothing is known about them so it's kind of unhelpful.

So when considering the biggest threats it's sleeping gas, flight, logia (sand), and biological corruption/possession. The tier also has numerous forms of weaponry to use against a counter and notably has higher end power for large building level. 

In terms of weaknesses, the Green Goblin is psychologically unstable, and both Goblins rely heavily on their technology. Anyway of disabling that would leave them, especially Harry, as completely helpless. The Sandman doesn't want to fight particularly, and his sand properties can be turned to mud by water making his regeneration vastly slower, while heat turns him to glass. The Symbiote makes an individual uninhibited and short-sighted, is weak to sonics and intense sound, and deprived of its host is significantly weaker. 

So in general elemental forms of combat would work well. In general I think a character that stays at range would be good for the tier as the most broken offenses of the tier, the sleeping gas and the symbiote are at extremely close range which works well with most elemental type fighters. There's also just not that much combat skill in this tier so I think a highly skilled counter would work. Green Goblin can block a punch from Spider-Man while he was a novice, but he didn't have that much skill at that point. In Spider-Man 3, the villains pretty regularly struggled to deal with Spider-Man's level of agility and skill, and Raimi-verse Spider-Man doesn't have any skill feats beyond C Tier. So a particularly agile, skillful type character would probably aid that.

Well when I think elemental type powers and high skill for the same characters, I think of one verse which leads me to my first counter

Combustion Man, alternate alias Sparky Sparky Boom Man from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Combustion Man personally has one of the highest end large building feats I've ever seen destroying a rock formation with his explosion calced at 9.44 tons of tnt. He's also comparably fast to Prince Zuko who outpaced lightning to protect Katara, putting him at similar stats for the tier.

Combustion Man is a Fire Nation assassin who creates sudden explosions via his third eye. These explosions would be devastating to most of the villains of this tier, immediately glassing most of Sandman from heat potency and the sheer boom of the explosion would likely massively damage the symbiote. Given the power should be comparable to one of the Goblins higher end explosives, it would likely seriously damage the new Goblin as well given how just one of his normal pumpkin bombs did serious damage to Harry when Spider-Man flinged it back at him.

Combustion Man is also an extremely skilled fighter able to match master tier fighters like many of the members of Team Avatar as of Book 3 suggesting he should be able to dodge their attacks in turn similar to how Spider-Man was able to, or block them with his metal arm. His stealth assassin type strategy would be especially strong against this tier even if Venom should be able to hypothetically track him.

Also against Green Goblin specifically, if Goblin got into close range and used sleeping gas, while Combustion Man probably wouldn't know what it is, assuming he recognizes enough to know it's probably not good, he can likely avoid the effects. Firebenders as part of their training learn to control their breath and he can likely hold his for an extreme amount of time if need be. 

However there's an argument he scales too high for the tier, and also it's possible Green Goblin's homing razors or Sandman's sandstorm would disrupt his third eye, causing him to blow up. For an even stronger counter you could use

Umi Ryuuzaki from Magic Knight Rayearth.

Just to clarify, you can arguably use the anime for MKR if you want. If you do the Knights scale far higher, this is just manga Umi. In the manga, Umi scales to the power of Lafarga's sword swings making fissues calced at 9.8 tons and partially took the energy of Esmeraude's castle collapse calced at over 12 tons of tnt putting her very consistently at this range of power. Speedwise even in the manga she is able to pilot Celes at FTL speeds in close quarters, suggesting she could easily react to these characters, though she can't really prevent them from getting in and out of close range with their superior movement speed.

Umi is a powerful swordswoman, to the point of fighting the best swordswoman in the world of Chizeta and winning showing a dramatic skill advantage to this tier in skill. She complements with three extremely helpful spells all themed around water manipulation. She can create a water dragon which can act independent of her, which is especially helpful when a tier has so few enemies. The water would obviously turn Sandman to mud, slowing his regen and generally weakening him, which is especially helpful when the Sandman wouldn't want to fight a young girl given his motivation. It's possible the water would also clog up the Goblins technology and even if it can't, Umi can easily block them with her escudo blade. Her second spell creates a sapphire whirlwind around her which can allow her to maintain distance if wanted, and be a general purpose area of effect attack, and her third spell icicle blades are the strongest of her attacks which given her normal level of power can likely one-shot any of the enemies here. 

Umi also has a few other magical abilities, she can create magical portals to Cephiro which can bfr any of her opponents if they charge her or block any of their projectiles. If either Goblin tried to use sleeping gas, Umi could likely resist as she doesn't seem to need to breath given she can go underwater indefinitely without difficulty. Finally if the symbiote tried to possess Umi, it would absolutely fail as Umi's will is so powerful that it provided 1/3rd the will to overpower the universal reality-warping god Mokona. Umi would just pluck the symbiote off her, yell at it for rudeness and attack the weakened hostless symbiote. 

The only real way I could see Umi losing here is if the Green Goblin manipulates her famous over-emotional nature and then quickly overwhelms her with attacks. Umi is the DPS and without Hikaru the tank to take the explosions or Fuu the support to heal her or see through the Goblin's manipulation, that strategy might work, though Umi does have Escudo armor and is more composed by the end of Magic Knight Rayearth so I don't think this is likely. Still for the best counter I would suggest

Static from Static Shock!

Static was able to vaporize a pillar of ice calced to this value, and in terms of reactions was able to create shields to block blasts of light from Green Lantern which moves at...lightspeed.

Static is a scientific gifted kid known for analyzing his opponents and using science and biology to figure out his own powers and defeat his opponents. Against the Goblins he would be completely unfair. Not only does he have the ability to use his electromagnetism to send all their weapons away from him just through his aura and not only can he resist knockout gas, he can reflect all their technological attacks back at them and his electromagnetic control can allow him to control technology including just turning it off. If he wanted he could simply turn off their battle armors, or make pumpkin grenades blow up in their hands. He also has the Static Saucer to levitate like them, and its unlikely Green Goblin could manipulate him since he is unlikely to be able to gather any personal information on him and without that it would be similar to when he tried to manipulate Spider-Man the first time which also didn't work, but with the added difficulty of Static being a far more experienced superhero.

Against the Sandman and Venom, Static can literally stay far in the air and ping them with lightning from outside their range, making it difficult for them to fight back. Basic electricity attacks would likely turn sections of Sandman to glass and when using most of his energy, Static was able to create an EMP nova effect across a large section of the city, which should be able to pretty easily encompass Sandman's giant form.

While it might take a bit for Static to figure out Venom's weakness, it'd be pretty difficult for Venom to get close to Static given Static is significantly more experienced to Peter, and has more options for keeping opponents at range. He was also able to amplify a store's sound system to hurt Talon, which he means once he figures out Venom's weakness, he should be able to win fairly quickly. 

Overall Static can pretty easily supply the weakness for each of the tier's threats while keeping pretty much completely outside of their ability to counter-attack.

City Block Tier:

Characters on this tier are significantly stronger than the prior tier which were close to city block level, likely scale to TASM Electro's upper end power which reached low end city block level, and include the feat of Doctor Octopus of creating a miniature for the repeatedly stated purpose of harnessing the "power of the Sun, in the palm of one's hand." as a form of energy source capable of revolutionizing the world. The energy of the core of the Sun across the whole of one's body is a multi-city block feat, and even for that level of heat in the palm of the one's hand would likely be city block level, supported by Doctor Octopus's arms manipulating a Sun that was drawing in all the metal in New York.

In terms of speed, it's fairly similar. The characters in this tier are faster but not factors faster than the prior tier, so massively hypersonic.

This tier includes two, kind of three, characters. First is Doctor Octopus. While Doctor Octopus's normal body is normal human body, actually hurt when Aunt May hit him, his arms were able to completely overpower Tobey McGuire Spider-Man that could match the prior mentioned villains, would later restrain the other Spider-Men in No Way Home, and generally manipulate the small suns without damage which was the purpose of their invention. These four metal tentacles that adjust their length are Doctor Octopus' main weapon, having independent reactions and sensing all of which feed into Doctor Octopus' brain. They can allow him to climb up vertical surface or carry large objects, and have an especially strong resistance to heat and radiation. This is before their upgrade from the the Iron Spider's nano-technology which granted them a resistance to technopathy, and electrical resistance strong enough to grab TASM Electro. Doctor Octopus is also a supergenius intellect creating his arms AI purely as a side-effect of his main goal that he succeeded in, creating unlimited power, suns that could fit in ones hands. 

Generally the Raimi-verse Spider-Man would have been in the prior tier, however that's not true on two occasions. When the symbiote merged with Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3, he temporarily became the far more aggressive Black-Suit Spider-Man who completely stomped Sandman and New Goblin who he would normally be relative too. However this is almost certainly transcended by the real threat of this tier, Spider-Man normally as of No Way Home, after upwards of two decades of more experience and his world's greatest hero.

Spider-Man has enhanced stats, including agility, surface scaling and the ability to create webs (notably biological in this version), which can be used to restrain people, swing from buildings, or grab objects. He has decades of experience as a superhero by NWH and is a supergenius intellect helping the other Spiders create serums to remove the biological transformations they've undergone, and actually understood Doctor Octopus' papers as college student. He has a level of stealth, dropping down behind criminals without them noticing it multiple times, a low healing factor, and his famous Spider-Sense. The Spider-Sense gives Peter a 360 degree awareness and danger sense "bordering on precognition", and can be used for clairvoyance to view distant events. 

In terms of weaknesses, Doctor Octopus' biggest one is that his physical body is just as squishy as ever. It's difficult to get a strike off as his four appendages can all "see" and act individually, but if you can get around essentially the equivalent of four people on this tier, and hit his main-body you can one-shot him. Spider-Man's biggest weakness in the films is repeatedly shown to be his heart. When he lost faith in himself, his powers stopped working entirely, and he regularly becomes distracted trying to protect civilians. Both characters also significantly lack ranged attacks. Spider-Man at least has webbing, but Green Goblin and Sandman were both able to escape from Spider-Man, partially because they can fly. Finally the best thing to use on this tier is just being higher end into City Block Level. The feats Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus scale to are lower-end in City Block Level, and a character on the higher end will be several times stronger and be able to easily overpower them.

So who would be a good counter? The first counter I would suggest would be

Cleopatra from Dante's Inferno

Cleopatra is conservatively in the city block range of power scaling from Death who created a dimension which seemed to encompass a city block, and telekinetically moving a giant tower and creating a storm around it. She can move at comparable speed to Dante who can lightning time, putting her at similar stats to this tier even in her base state, let along her giant state which should overpower.

Cleopatra can create a powerful storm around her giant form, coursing with lightning, a magic neither Peter nor Otto have a particularly good counter. While Otto's tentacles post-nanobot upgrade would likely not be shorted out by the lightning since it can restrain Electro, it's unlikely they could protect him from the sweeping winds. 

Cleopatra as queen of the circle of Lust has the ability to imbue lust to try and tempt humans into lust and would likely try to use the same strategy on Spider-Man as she did to Dante. It's feasible Peter could resist this through his love for Mary Jane, though he does not have the superhuman willpower feats that either his comic version or Dante Alighieri possess, so it's a bit up in the air. Either way, in a direct fight, Spider-Man would have a degree of difficulty dealing with such a large enemy similar as he has to the Sandman, especially one who could do dramatic damage with her own strikes and can surround herself with a powerful windstorm that can throw off his webs and which can shoot out lightning that would seriously damage him.

Against Otto, it's an even better fight for Cleopatra as he almost certainly couldn't resist her seduction unless his tentacles mind control can override it, her stormwinds are not something his tentacles could resist, and she can take from her breasts legions of  demon babies with blades for arms that could swarm at Otto. While these babies are fairly weak, they are definitely strong enough to kill his human torso of his arms can't keep up. I don't know if it's outside help, but she also keeps Marc Anthony inside her mouth, which would be a zombie roman warrior capable of aiding her fight at the same stat range as well.

However it's arguably that Cleopatra might be outside the verse's power range depending on interpretation, and also she might be an astral entity. For an even more fitting counter one could you use 

Emira Blight from the Owl House

Emira Blight is an Illusionist, and so her powers do not focus on attack potency or durability, though she should be comparable or superior to her lowerclassman illusionist Gus who learned a fire glyph calced at over 32 tons of tnt, making her likely a couple times stronger than the tier. In speed Emira is comparable to Luz who is not as fast as her mentor Eda but fast enough that in Season 2 the two were able to fight somewhat evenly, meaning Emira shouldn't be dramatically slower than Eda, Eda being a lightning timer. This means Emira would be somewhat relative, though perhaps slower than the tier, balancing out her power advantage.

Emira can create magical illusions to disguise herself or make her opponent misconstrue what they are perceiving and she, along with her brother summoned up Luz's worst fears to prepare her for Grom. Magical Illusions would be an extremely broken power for this verse in general being completely unlike anything shown, which Doctor Octopus' tentacles would not be able to see through too protect, and which it's unknown if even the Spider-Sense would see through. And unlike her brother, Emira is famously pragmatic and prone to using her illusions in practical ways to get an advantage and is mischievous and tricky enough to find their weaknesses. 

Against Otto Emira could do things like disguise the ground to make it look safe so his arms will rest his body then when it's not safe, or make him think he's seeing his machine or Spider-Man or the like when he's not. Against Peter she could if wanted disguise herself as Mary Jane and fake "dying" or something to the effect to mess with his heart and short out his powers.

And even if discovered, it's not like she can't hold her own in a normal fight. She can restrain them with magical energy like she did the Slitherbeast, something neither of them would be able to break out of, and even if damaged can heal herself as she did her brother while hitting them with attacks twice as hard as their own strikes or escape via disguising herself with magic. 

The only real danger is because they are faster if she's caught up by surprise in the open, either tentacle grab or spider-webs can likely restrain her as she isn't that physically strong to break out of it and if restrained likely can't use her magic to escape. So for the best counter I would suggest

Akito Tenkawa from Martian Successor Nadesico.

Akito's Aestivalis mech is able to one-shot Jovian warships the size of buildings, violently destroying them in massive explosions so long as they don't have shields up. It's also fast enough to fight mechs and ships that move comparably to the Nadesico which can travel from Earth to Mars in a month which requires speeds of over Mach 138 using average Earth-Mars distance and fight enemies that can quickly go from the orbit of planets to the ground in seconds. This would put him at comparable in stats to the tier, if not much stronger in raw power.

Aestivalis can fly around and shoot rocket fists from a distance which would be a difficult strategy for Peter or Otto to fight given the lack of ranged firepower. Even if Akito approaches them, not only is he comparably skilled in hand to hand with his own weapons but the Aestivalis is far larger than them and they lack significant area of effect. 

However Akito also has probably the single most helpful power to have for this tier. He's an A-Class Boson Jumper, a teleporter whose teleportation skills are strong enough to teleport even across inter-planetary distances. Against Otto, Akito can just teleport into right next to him, going past his tentacles defenses, and one-shot him physically. Akito is personally physically strong enough to do that as he scales to gag feats of Yurika doing things like shaking things the entire warship Nadesisco meaning he could easily one-punch Otto before his tentacles could react.

Against Spider-Man it's notable that ALL his abilities work based on spacing. His webbings hold thing in one place, and if it could just teleport that wouldn't work. His Spider-Sense tells him the precise position of things and their motion but even in the comics it can't predict Boson Teleportation and certainly not here. His famed ability to avoid attacks comes from agility, acrobatics, positioning basically. Just teleporting next to him suddenly negs that. Basically teleportation would completely mess with Peter's normal strategy.

Bizarrely enough, even in the specific scenario where Otto created his Solar Machine and started drawing in all metal in a city-wide radius, it wouldn't work on the Aestivalis because they are made entirely of ceramics and ultra-hardened resins in their normal frames, and have no metal in their composition meaning it would not be drawn in at all. 

Overall Akito's comparable to superior stats, the several weapons of his mech and single ability he has that perfectly counters both Otto and Peter's abilities means he would be able to pretty easily beat both of them.

And that's how to be OP in the Raimi-verse Spider-Man.

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 21 Review

 

Act 21 begins as the last act ended, with the abduction of Sailor Moon by Demande and Wiseman. Mamoru and Minako call out for her in shock and despair. It immediately cuts to a dream sequence of the unconscious Usagi where she sees an older Chibiusa running off with Mamoru

I do like the clever little thing Naoko does where if you don't know what's happening, you think this is just an extension of the themes in the arc so far; that Usagi is afraid of being left all alone by Mamoru and Chibiusa. However the dreams of the Senshi have foretold the future, including Usagi's seen in the first act. So if you do know what is going to happen, you know what is really being foretold in Usagi's dream.

Usagi awakens in an unknown place, her head aching wearing a strange dress...writing that sends a chill down my spine. The sequence of Usagi on Nemesis over the next two acts I find particularly affecting. There is an allusion to sexual harassment and potential assault, something I find particularly disturbing a concept to consider even in comparison to crimes of similar magnitude. Naoko expertly evokes this fear and will use it for one of the most awe-inspiring sequences in the manga.

Usagi quickly finds Demande's hologram of her future self, where Demande greets her, referring to her as Neo-Queen Serenity. 

While it's technically correct that the two are the same person, I think this is used to show Demande's obsessive desire to control Neo-Queen Serenity by having him desire to use that name even when it's less fitting.

Demande demonstrates his ability to control Usagi's body at will, forcing her to sit so she doesn't try to fight him. Demande says he wanted to show Usagi that the Silver Crystal wasn't the only thing with infinite power, that they of the Black Moon Clan were young revolutionaries who hated how the queen "infected" the Earth with "lies of long life" creating complacency. I find it peculiar how Demande frames this as though the Queen was lying them, even though they seem to recognize the Silver Crystal actually does grant immortality. 

Demande unveils the Black Moon Clan's plans. After the destruction of the Crystal Tokyo, they plan to go back in time and rewrite history into being a Pro-Black Moon Clan timeline, Operation: Replay. Demande declares that bodies were made to age and die, conflict and war are inevitabilities, and that the Silver Crystal's immortality and eternal peace are therefore blasphemies before God

The irony being that while he decries the Silver Crystal as unnatural, he seeks to literally rewrite the timeline. Because that's totally natural. Once again, there is the insistence that the Silver Crystal is unnatural or unreal. It is "Maboroshi no Ginzuisho," the "Illusory/Legendary Silver Crystal", something ethereal, an ideal that guides people. That will become very relevant again in the next chapter. It's why the Black Moon Clan hate it and call its powers "lies." Its infinite power doesn't come from anything physical and temporary but from the eternal; faith and love. I think this connects really interestingly with themes in the first and final arcs, as well as to things like the second arc statement from Sailor Pluto that the Silver Crystal's power does not change with the eras, its power is the same in all eras.

Demande on the other hand claims that via the power of energy, specifically that of the Black Crystal, space and time are at his control, and with the power of the Black Crystal he will conquer every planet in every dimension. Demande transitions into talking about his encounter with Neo-Queen Serenity.

During the assault on Crystal Tokyo, he was going around, among the people dying from the attack when he spots a crying girl that looks like Chibiusa. Because he found her crying mildly annoying he grabs her and kills her in his hands...as though to cement even further Demande is as evil as a human can be in Sailor Moon. Neo-Queen Serenity saw the event and Demande was instantly smitten by her inhuman beauty, describing her as a goddess...yet she looked at him with slit eyes of cold hatred like he was subhuman. 

Gee, I wonder why. 

Demande uses the Evil Eye but the Silver Crystal encased Neo-Queen Serenity and returned her to the palace. So this might be a plot hole because earlier they said that Neo-Queen Serenity was encased by the Silver Crystal when the explosion dropped on Crystal Tokyo, which is clearly not happening here. I don't know if this is meant to be two separate times, but if it and she can actually get out after it's encased her, why hasn't she done so already again. 

Demande comments that now he finally has Neo-Queen Serenity under his control, commenting that Usagi's eyes are just like the Queen's before forcibly kissing her. Usagi slaps him, actually sending him back with it and tries to transform only to find that her power is nullified on Nemesis

This is very effective atmosphere-building and suspense-building. Having Usagi be powerless here obviously gives the sensation of hopelessness and Demande's being an obsessive sexually harassing madman who has Usagi in his grip is chilling. I'm very sensitive to themes of sexual harassment and sexual assault in fiction, however I think Sailor Moon, especially the next act has I think the best depiction of the theme. 

Usagi thinks to herself that these people aren't human, they're demons. Meanwhile far away, Neo-Queen Serenity stirs in her sleep sensing something is wrong. Meanwhile King Endymion is giving more exposition to Mamoru and Minako about Planet Nemesis, a Black Hole world that changes it's orbit. He also very clearly lays out the basic properties of a Black Hole

So wait, does this mean Usagi and everyone else there are just....standing on a Black Hole? That doesn't really make sense. But whatever, I guess sometimes this universe runs on Super Mario Galaxy physics. 

Mamoru and Minako are obviously anxious to rescue the others but the Dark Crystal prevents them. Diana describes the Black Crystal as the evil antithesis of the Silver Crystal. While the Silver Crystal infinitely produces energy, the Black Crystal infinitely absorbs energy. Both also warp space and time which actually makes sense. Matter-Energy distorts spacetime, that's what gravity is. The Silver Crystal is the source of energy so distorts spacetime one way, and the Black Crystal distorts it oppositely by absorbing matter-energy. Without the ability to use the Silver Crystal, it seems like the heroes have no way to fight the Black Crystal but Minako comments that only Sailor Moon and Neo-Queen Serenity can use the Silver Crystal.

However, Luna suddenly gets the thought that if Chibiusa is Neo-Queen Serenity's daughter, she should be able to use the Silver Crystal as well since the blood of the Silver Millennium was passed to her as it did from the original Queen Serenity. King Endymion refutes this, saying that Chibiusa carries no power and surprising them greatly by saying that Chibiusa is actually 900 years old getting cute shocked expressions from everyone

While Chibiusa is physically and mentally around age six at this point, she simply stopped developing long ago for mysterious reasons that will become thematically important later. King Endymion states because she is the first born to the lineage of both the Moon and the Earth, her aging is unknown. A lot of times of in manga, or media in general, the gag will be that this character that looks like a child is actually super old and is also mentally that age but here it's actually this girl is physically AND mentally young she just has existed for a long time without developing. Chibiusa is still very clearly a young child physically and never claims to be anything else. This does sort of raise the question of "if she's 900 years old wouldn't she have gathered some more intelligence and maturity just from experience even if her brain hasn't actually developed physically" and that gets into weird complex questions about brain-mind connection and what it means to develop, but I think the implication is we're supposed to handwave that as part of her lineage.

Minako asks if Chibiusa doesn't have any powers, how will she ascend to the throne one day. Kind of a weird follow-up question to ask but I do like the response. King Endymion responds immediatly with "her awakening will come!" saying it is her destiny. It's such a subtly sweet moment. 900 years of nothing, but King Endymion is STILL sure his daughter can do it. Not a hint of doubt. 

Luna asks when the conflict with the Black Moon Clan started and King Endymion speaks of an encounter centuries ago in a time of perfect peace, when suddenly a man with powers, codename: Phantom, appeared restoring crime and murder with his powers. He was defeated by Neo-Queen Serenity and sealed away on the planet Nemesis. Peace was restored and all was forgotten, until a new batch of rebels showed up bearing his insignia, the current Black Moon Clan.

There's a slight mistranslation on this page. It states Phantom "and his crew" were sent to Nemesis. The original just says "Phantom" was sent there and later it will be implied it was only him.

Luna questions if they are Phantom's descendent but King Endymion says that none of them attained the long lives granted by the Silver Crystal so Phantom would have died out so long ago, he doubts they would even remember Phantom. Yet despite that...they were drawn to Nemesis as their base where Phantom once was banished, as though they were being called too... this is once again where we see the glimmers of Cosmic Horror Naoko seeds into her writing and it's great

Mamoru looks at the cracked Cutie Moon Rod, made by his and Usagi's love, and agonizes over how he swore to protect her promising to Usagi's spirit he will find a way to save her. It cuts to Usagi who actually somehow thinks she hears Mamoru's voice briefly. Usagi comments on how scared she is, alone and defenseless, and it's painfully evocative. Usagi guilty and painfully thinks to herself about how someone other than Mamoru kissed her and feels especially guilty over how the last time she saw him they had a horrible argument, and now she may never see him again.

This, this is really good. Even though Usagi did nothing in regards to Demande's actions, she is feeling a level of guilt for it. This isn't right, but it is real. One of the worst things about sexual harassment is the insidious way it makes the victim feel as though they were in some way responsible for what happened to them and Sailor Moon not only expresses that but actually correlates it with and builds it into the plot and I can't talk about how here since the resolution is next act, but it's fantastic.

Usagi thinks to herself about how even though they were fighting the enemy, she was constantly distracted by Mamoru and Chibiusa, and now she's pretty much dead. She's in the base of her enemies without any power or the ability to even transform. But then she remembers what Queen Serenity told her.

The Silver Crystal is controlled by Usagi's desires. Usagi thinks to herself her heartaches, her loss of faith in herself...before realizing maybe that is the the reason she lost her power and goes into awesome self-pep talk. She is Neo-Queen Serenity, ruler of the next era, and it is her duty to protect Earth and everyone in it, as images of Chibiusa asking Usagi to save her mama, her loving friends, her sexy boyfriend (sans-shirt, calling back to their intimate night) flash around her. She is not along, and just as everyone else believes in her, she has to believe in herself!

I don't talk about it enough, but Sailor Moon is awesome. Not Sailor Moon the series, I talk about that plenty. But Sailor Moon the character, Usagi Tsukino is awesome. When Mamoru says he loves Usagi because she always shows a different side to her, I believe in him, because of scenes like this. Usagi is in a position where she should be at her lowest, she's a 14-year old crybaby who has been demeaned, harassed, brought to a place where she has no powers, had her friends systematically captured to make her feel powerless, and so much more. Yet still she is able to reach her friends emotionally to say "I'm not alone." She's still able to find the courage somewhere to believe. Usagi Tsukino is my favorite character period.

After that comes a several page long sequence where Usagi's emotions awaken her friends in the distant prison room they're in, they try to transform, realize they can't because they're still on Nemesis, and fall unconscious again. There technically is slightly more that happens, they find skeleton, but not much. I get it's foreshadowing, but would it kinda feels like a bit of a pointless interlude this chapter. Could you not have had the Senshi stay awake (spoilers: that wouldn't effect anything in the plot since the Guardian Senshi re-awaken and escape next act), so it feels like something happened? I don't know, it's a very mild complaint but it does feel a little pointless. I guess it's good for rebuilding the atmosphere with them finding a skeleton in the corner of the prison room they're in.  

Usagi and Wiseman sense Usagi's friends brief awakening though Usagi can't do anything about it and Wiseman doesn't really care. In his Crystal Ball you can see his target is Chibiusa. It cuts to the small rabbit herself who reminiscences about first coming to the Modern Day Tokyo. There's a really sweet point where Chibiusa notes that her mom, the impossibly impressive and power Neo-Queen Serenity, the person who seemed an impossible idol to ever get close too in the past was a ditzy girl who got yelled at a lot.... "just like me."

This is really sweet just within the story for the obvious reason; Chibiusa has been laboring under the feeling that Sailor Moon is a perfect unbeatable Senshi who grew up to be the perfect idol of a queen and that she as her goofy ditz of a daughter who can't even use powers is a disappointment. Yet her mom in the past was a lot like her. However there's even more angles I really like it from. 

I don't know how universal this is...I think it's fairly common though it's an especially big thing for me. When most of us are young we view our parents as perfect. They seem to know everything, can do everything. And one of the elements of maturity is coming to realize that no, your parents don't know everything. They're flawed people who have made mistakes and have probably done you wrong at least once. And what's beautiful to me is so long as they as they are still at least decent people, that brings ones love for ones parents to an even greater height. When someone is perfect, them doing the right thing is easy. But if someone is trying and struggling with things, that makes their sacrifices for you all the more meaningful. It's the moment you realize your parents didn't have all the answers, they were just trying their best. Chibiusa similarly is seeing that her mom wasn't always the great queen she constantly sees, she was a young girl once too, who was as flawed as she was. Usagi didn't always get it right the first time, she didn't even always get it right the second, third, or fourth times. I don't wanna talk too much about my personal life experiences, but for me this theme really hits me emotionally.

There's also another way I look at it that I really like. Sailor Moon is one of the first Magical Girl series actually written by a woman who had seen Magical Girl series in her youth. She said in creating Usagi that she wanted to create a Magical Girl that young girls could better relate too. I don't think this was Naoko's intent in this scene here, but I do sorta think it presents what made Sailor Moon appealing; that after hearing stories told of more perfect Magical Girls, the young girl Chibiusa finds one that is just like her, that makes her think maybe she could be one.

However from that wholesomeness we turn to Chibiusa remembering in contrast what her life was like in Crystal Tokyo, people mocking her and saying she's not even the queen's real daughter because she can't use the Silver Crystal, feeling like she'll never be able to fill her amazing mother's shoes.

It's very good drama for Chibiusa I think. We have her whole dramatic arc really set up in these three pages. Once again I love how Naoko makes this so fantastically cosmically high-end, yet also relatable. Most of us don't have a Magical Goddess-Queen for a mother, but I think almost anyone can relate to the feeling of feeling like you won't be able to live up to someone you admire, and I think it especially hits hard if it's a parent, where there's an expectation that you WILL be able to do so. 

However after this, the truth that Chibiusa has been hiding, making her feel so guilty is revealed. In an effort to prove herself, Chibiusa goes in and steals the Silver Crystal one day. Without her Silver Crystal, Neo-Queen Serenity was unable to defend herself or Crystal Tokyo against Demande. In Chibiusa's mind, she's responsible for this.

I think this might be one of the themes of this arc, or at least this chapter, responsibility. Chibiusa thinks she has responsibility for the Black Moon Clan. The Black Moon Clan meanwhile push the responsibility for their actions unto Usagi and the Silver Crystal while Usagi feels guilty and takes an inordinate amount of responsibility unto herself.

Chibiusa runs off to find Pluto, who she describes as her "only friend" flashing back to meeting Pluto for the first time. She finds the doorway somehow inside the Palace in Crystal Tokyo, when earlier Queen Serenity showed it to Luna on the moon.....where is the Spacetime Door? Sailor Pluto tells Chibiusa only people of the Silver Moon's lineage can enter here, which is an...odd statement. Either she means are "allowed" to come here, in which case why did she attack Sailor Moon earlier, or "are able to come here at all" in which case what is her job function? 

What follows is a really wholesome moment between the two. Sailor Pluto after mentioning the Silver Moon lineage, says that Chibiusa is the beautiful spitting image of her mother, something which Chibiusa thinks only her parents has ever said to her and has some fun with her, giving her the magical toy Luna-P to make her feel happier when she's sad

They have such a sweet friendship because Sailor Pluto is the lonely guardian of spacetime in a world derived of life, symbolized by the lively youthful Chibiusa, and Pluto is the type of wise maternal-type figure who can help Chibiusa see the things she needs to see. Sailor Pluto tells Chibiusa it is her destiny to someday perform miracles like her mother does.

Back in the...present? Future? Back out of the flashbacks, Chibiusa and King Endymion are talking to Sailor Pluto about what to do with Sailor Moon having been captured. Endymion asks Pluto for help and she obliges, looking happily at him. Chibiusa notes she looks happier then she ever has looking at Endymion, and feels jealous and lonely that her only friend now seems to also like someone else more than her

Chibiusa tries to run away again, as she typically does when upset, through space-time but accidentally drops her time key. So instead of traveling to a different time she instead quickly becomes lost in the dark space-time storm. However a strange figure appears.

The Wiseman emerges from the strange otherworldy fog, commenting to Chibiusa that her heart's rejection of her world has brought her "here", to the forbidden far edge of the world, through all barriers. Wiseman offers the little girl all her dreams, everything she desires, if she comes with him. While Demande is meant to evoke the evil of a dictator strutting around on full display, performing vile acts to show his power, Wiseman here is meant to evoke the child abductor, more subtly creepy, offering kids candy if they just come with him.

As a mild sidenote, I find it really interesting to note that one of the reasons the people mocked Chibiusa as not being her mother's was by her not having the mark of the Silver Millennium on her forehead...but she has it here. As though her destiny has finally come.

Act 21 is a great act, really starts to get into the best of the Black Moon Clan arc. The act basically has two sections as well as the exposition section about Phantom; the Nemesis section with Usagi, and the Chibiusa section, both of which are not only good, but have a fantastic part, and which connect and parallel to each other and other parts of the story. 

The Nemesis section not only sets up for next arc which has one of, if not the best parts in the Black Moon Clan arc, it's also really good on its own. At first its distressingly evocative. It's realistic in how Usagi at first blames herself for being victimized, even when she did nothing wrong there, and it makes you wanna cheer on Usagi a lot, but then it goes super triumphant and awesome with Usagi being ready to rescue her friends even though she's powerless on an evil black hole planet. I would say it starts off a little exposition-heavy, and kind of unnecessarily so, repeating a few points we already know or could easily figure out, and the sequence with the other Guardian Senshi could have had them just stay aware. But those are really minor to me. Acts 21 and 22 together to me are such a great sequence to show how awesome a character Usagi is. 

The Chibiusa section, as befitting her character in general, is full of far more cutesy and sweet elements, including the supremely heart-warming moment of Chibiusa thinking to herself that her mom in the past was just like her. But as befitting her character in this arc specifically, it has a sad undertone. Obviously there's the ending where she falls under the sway of the Wiseman, but there's also her guilt over believing to have caused the destruction of her home and everyone she knows. But on the point of Wiseman's manipulations, that's also one of the creepiest scenes to me in Sailor Moon, not only because it's evoking the idea of the child kidnapper, but also just how it's both Wiseman speaking in these weird esoteric terms yet paradoxically very quiet. It's the sort of creepy of when a character enters a room and people are doing some kind of chant or prayer that sounds ominous but is in a language you don't understand. It gives the sense of foreboding-ness more than direct dark language would. 

You also get a few extra fun or interest little bits like the gag about Chibiusa's age or the backstory on the Criminal "Phantom." These are obviously not even in the same tier of great as the other two parts, if only because they're way shorter and can't have much build-up, but they're alright additions. It's overall pretty interesting I think that the two parts of the act also connect, if only in small amounts by the shared idea of Usagi and Chibiusa taking the responsibility of the Black Moon Clan's actions unjustifiably on their own shoulders while the Black Moon Clan blames others.

I can understand that maybe some of this is exaggerated in my mind by my own experiences. If sexual assault is less of a fear for you, or you don't have as strong an emotional connection to the theme of realizing your parents are also flawed people like you, I could understand not liking this act nearly as much as I do. With that said, I definitely consider it a great act. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 20 Review

 

Act 20 begins with Chibiusa going to hug her father, only to pass right through him

It's a moment that threatens to be particularly sad, though the manga, ever fast-paced doesn't linger on it. Chibiusa's father introduces himself as King Endymion, and commends Chibiusa's cleverness and bravery escaping to the past. He says in another underratedly sad line that he never wanted to show them a future like this. They comment in shock that he has no reflection or shadow. 

That's right. He's a vampire.

No, King Endymion explains he's just spiritually projecting this form the same way while his real body lies comatose, which might be related to Mamoru's earlier display of channeling the spirits of the Heavenly Kings. King Endymion asks Chibiusa to introduce herself and she adorably does so with a little royal curtesy, expressing that she is Usagi "Small Lady" Serenity, daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion, crown princess of the Silver Millennium. Endymion commends her and Diana reveals she can speak telling Chibiusa that the king was watching over her all this time....somehow. As Mamoru and Usagi figure it out, King Endymion reveals it to them; Chibiusa is their daughter, leading to adorable blushing reactions from both of them.

I like this in several ways. First of all, it's not generally shown in fiction to have the guy also express some embarrassment in this type of situation, and I just think it's so sweet and cute how they have the same embarrassed reaction. Even Minako seems to have a mild blush! I like how Chibiusa is deliberately made to be as similar to Usagi as possible. They share the same name, the same look, the same birthday, the same temperament. It's reflective of Chibiusa's struggle to escape her mother's shadow. As I mentioned I also really like that Sailor Moon actually allows the Superhero to gain political power without it being treated as instant-gateway to being an evil dictator, even though she is queen of the world! Usagi is not just a physical force, she is a spiritual force, she whose tears revitalized the world, who is proclaimed to be the messiah. It's a set of imagery a lot of modern stories seem scared to utilize, but which I find enjoyable.

King Endymion and Diana give the backstory of what happened, what little they know. The Queen would almost never leave the palace, but one day she ran out in a panic, cutting dramatically to a picture of Chibiusa looking in despair, though they don't notice it. They tell of a massive explosion wiping out everything but the Crystal Palace, made from the Silver Crystal. The Guardian Senshi at their queen's side fell to the explosion but the Silver Crystal encased the queen to protect her, as it did during the first arc when she stabbed herself

The enemy tried using poison gas on them, but Endymion, Chibiusa, and Diana were unaffected. Likely due to the protective power of the Silver Crystal. As the Queen and the King had often told Chibiusa tales of the Legendary Sailor Senshi, Sailor Moon, she fled to the past to gain her aid. 

Once again, Naoko really just does not care about what kind of content was considered acceptable for a Shojo manga at the time. I appreciate that she wanted to show a horrors of war scene and so just...included it. While this isn't her most graphic scene, it doesn't shy away from saying that the enemy used poison gas based weapons to kill of the civilian populace. 

But enough horrors of war, we've got cutesy kittens! Diana introduces herself as the daughter of Luna and Artemis, getting it's own shocked reaction

I'm eternally impressed by Naoko's ability to change moods so quickly without causing massive whiplash. I also just love Diana as a character. She's another example of Naoko's tendency of making things a little....TOO convenient. Like does it really make sense Luna and Artemis would have one child near the time the main events of Chibiusa's life were to happen? Not REALLY but this is by far one of the more believable ones she's done, and the result is this loveable ball of fluff.

Mamoru asks his future self how it is that no one seems to have aged and Endymion reveals that it's from the Silver Crystal, that its auspices grant immortality. After he married to Serenity, through marriage he became part of the line of the Silver Millennium and was blessed by its immortality, and when Serenity ascended to the throne of the Earth, uniting it in harmony, that immortality spread to all humanity.

I think this is really cool and am always happy to see it. I love it when Good-aligned characters are allowed to have agency and shape the world for the better rather then just giving the supervillains all the agency and making it just the heroes stopping them. I also really don't like the casual dismissal of the idea of immortality in a lot of media as wrong. I don't really wanna get deep into my views on life extension and immortality but broadly speaking I don't agree with the immortality would be some kind of horrid curse. It would have difficulties and struggles, but so does life in general and the decision to live anyway is to me, noble and beautiful.

King Endymion mentions the Black Crystal Monolith they saw last chapter. How it absorbs energy, warps space-time, creates the poisonous mist, and just generally is the source of all the messed up stuff going on, and that the only thing that could stop it is the Silver Crystal. He takes them to a high-tech sci-fi looking observation room and shows them Nemesis, the 10th planet of the Solar System discovered in the far future, and the base of the Black Moon Clan.

King Endymion goes into some exposition about Nemesis, calling it an "illusory" dark planet, using the same word used to refer to the Silver Crystal, impossible to normally detect, but which Crystal Tokyo detected via its negative energy. This is pretty interesting because in real life it's one of the ways in which astronomers find black holes which are invisible to the naked eye. Endymion says that long ago one prisoner was given the ultimate sentence and exiled there before the planet was closed off. However the Black Moon Clan have made their base there, the Black Moon clan being a militant terrorist organization who despise the peaceful long-lived society of Crystal Tokyo.

I find it really interesting how this parallels themes from the first arc, in particular that Planet Nemesis acts like the Silver Crystal in it being an illusory ideal that pulls people to it, though this time darkly rather then nobly. Likewise the reason for the Black Moon Clan's hatred of the people of Earth is the same as what Queen Beryl used to propagandize the people of Earth against the Moon in the distant past, that they are a long-lived race. But while Beryl spread jealousy of the former, and a distrust of the aliens, the Black Moon Clan instead view it as unnatural and against God's will to extend the natural lifespan, and now arguably aliens themselves trying to take over the Earth. One of my biggest issues with Sailor Moon is that it can feel like the arcs are fairly disconnected, but every once in a while you do get these thematic internal connections.

Luna tells King Endymion what they have learned, that the Black Moon Clan is using something called the Black Crystal to attack, with even tiny fragments of it bearing great power and are using its power to attack the past as well. However before King Endymion can express the danger that presents, Sailor Moon's body begins disappearing

Endymion tells Sailor Moon she has to hurry to the past as multiple of the same person cannot exist in the same space-time or it will disrupt the flow of space-time. This...doesn't really seem to make sense to me, and more just seems like a rather clumsy way to end the scene. Beyond the "why" of why that makes sense, why is that only triggering now and why is it only happening to Sailor Moon when Present and Future Mamoru are right next to each other. And if you're gonna say it's because King Endymion is only spiritually projecting, I'd say that his real body is comatose back where the queen is, meaning the exact same effect should be happening to Mamoru.

The Senshi say their farewell to Endymion, affirming their shared desire to stop the Black Moon Clan and rescue the other Senshi. Mamoru affirms to the King that he would risk his life to protect Chibiusa, and King Endymion comments on how strange it feels to be talking to his younger self. Meanwhile Usagi starts getting a little jealous again of the attention Chibiusa is getting.

As the team moves back towards the Spacetime Door, Endymion exposits on Sailor Pluto, saying she is the solitary guardian of the final sacred domain of time, existing in the interval between times, descended of the God of Time Chronos. It's all very atmospheric. 

Sailor Pluto, at the request of her king, gives Sailor Moon a time key to move between the times at will. Endymion commends Sailor Pluto for having lived through every era, longer than anyone, with wisdom and judgement better than anyone, asking Sailor Moon to trust her. This will become relevant later.

Sailor Pluto sends them back to the Present Day, leading to a quick gag of Minako accidentally landing on the others

Unfortunately this leads to another scene of Usagi exploding at Mamoru and Chibiusa over Mamoru giving her all the attention. On the one hand, yes, it's realistic. Teenagers can be possessive and jealous for their attention of their significant others. Even some adults can be. But narratively it does feel unsatisfying to have this repeated. I get it's necessary for the effect Naoko is going to be going for in the next chapter, and really the rest of the arc, but especially as I don't there is a really good trigger for it, it's just Mamoru telling Endymion he would risk his life to protect her, and agreeing to take Chibiusa back to his place for the night.

That night Usagi is thinking to herself how dumb this jealousy is, how she's their child, how they have so much more important things to be thinking about. Mamoru meanwhile is looking off into the distance, considering what to do, all manly-like, and Chibiusa is snuggling in his oversized pajamas all guilty-looking. See it's tricky because you think she might be feeling guilty over Usagi and Mamoru's parents fight but it's something else you might have noticed back in Crystal Tokyo. We also briefly get a cut to Minako thinking about rescuing the others, which is nice I suppose.

The next day Mamoru wakes up to find that Chibiusa has run off again, as she seems prone to doing whenever she's in a high-stress situation. Chibiusa runs off to Sailor Pluto, much to Pluto's shock. She asks Pluto if she can stay there with her, commenting Pluto's always alone. Pluto smiles and tells Chibiusa she's a good girl though Chibiusa thinks to herself she's not a good girl at all..,

Chibiusa returns to the future and pets the sleeping Diana wondering if Diana is dreaming of her mama and papa. She then goes to the place where Neo-Queen Serenity lies encased in the Silver Crystal and in a heart-breaking sequence, begs in despair for her mother to open her eyes. Meanwhile King Endymion's spirit watches sadly.

You'd think he would go to her, but in his spiritual state where he can't even hold her close, he would just be another painful reminder...

Meanwhile on Planet Nemesis, Demande is creeping over the hologram of Neo-Queen Serenity as he is prone to doing. Esmeraude spies on him only to get busted by Rubeus. Esmeraude pleads with Demande for a second chance, saying that she has a secret weapon to use, revealing she's gained the same warped hands that Wiseman has

As Chbiusa leaves the palace sadly, Esmeraude ambushes her, grabbing her with the Beast Hands, causing Luna-P to beep beep in alarm and the spirit of King Endymion to call for her in shock. Esmeraude begins strangling the little girl asking her where the power she inherited is, the power of the Queen, beating into her again that she is a shadow of her mother's. 

Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen, and Sailor Venus show up. Sailor Venus and Tuxedo Kamen working together manage to save Chibiusa from Esmeraude's grasp. Sailor Moon tries to use the Moon Princess Halation on Esmeraude, but it doesn't work and Esmeraude grabs all three of them with her beast hands, quickly draining their bodies of energy. Fortunately the spirit of King Endymion appears behind Tuxedo Kamen and lends him power to destroy Esmeraude

King Endymion tells Sailor Moon that the presence of the two Silver Crystals close together is causing the same paradox effect mentioned before, nullifying both their powers. In other words, Sailor Moon can't use the Silver Crystal in the 30th Century! This is a pretty good way to up the drama of the situation I think in a logical extension of what's already been established. 

Demande and Wiseman teleport in, Demande commenting they blew Esmeraude to bits and Wiseman noting with curiosity how the Silver Crystal's power seems weaker than they thought. Demande introduces himself to our heroes, and Sailor Moon, despite her lack of powers looks at him with defiance demanding to know what he's done with her friends. It's theatrical and dramatic and I really love the way that despite her lack of powers Usagi still defies Demande courageously. It really shows her character as well as her character development. 

Demande notes how she has the same eyes...the same hate-filled eyes of the Queen looking into his, and uses his mystic evil eye. The act ends with Demande's Evil Eye paralyzing Sailor Moon and shockingly abducting her.

Act 20 is a pretty good act overall I think. Despite the fact that it has some of the flashiest things in the second arc up to this point, it's good in ways that are more subtle and more personal then Act 19 which I probably like more overall.

There are some pretty legit complaints about this act. Them going to the past and then back to the future feels unnecessary, Usagi's jealousy of Chibiusa, while realistic, is maybe not the most fun thing to read even though it does contribute to the themes, the paradox stuff doesn't really make sense, and probably biggest of all is the fact that the first 2/3rds of the act are mostly just exposition.

I can't really say there's any one big thing I like about Act 20 but there are a lot of little things I like about it. I like Diana in general, she's very cute. I like the characters blushing at the reveal Chibiusa is their daughter. I like the buildup of atmosphere around Sailor Pluto and when Chibiusa is speaking to her mother. I like how the heroes are allowed to have agency to change the world around them and made it into a harmonious utopia of immortals. I like how Usagi defies Demande even without her powers and how her getting kidnapped is unexpected, though with the pattern earlier it's possibly a triple or quadruple subversion.

However the thing is, the thing I most like this act for is that it sets up something great coming up and while that's in some ways really good, in some ways it's also a downside. This act is mostly Naoko setting up the second half of the arc, and she throws in cute bits or atmospheric bits everywhere to make it more interesting. When I think of the best parts of the first arc of Sailor Moon it's concentrated into basically 5 acts. The best parts of the second, third, and fourth arcs, on the other hand are spread out more evenly and I think that's reflected in stuff in how the acts of those arcs will often have bits of greatness sprinkled throughout them but rarely have super in-depth concentrations. 

Overall, I do like act 20 a lot, even if it's harder to explain why because it's not so much a few big things, it's a bunch of small details I like.