Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 24 Review

 

The act begins with the reactions to the news that Black Lady is Chibiusa, and shock she has seemingly joined the Black Moon Clan. 

Luna-P, her beloved toy created by Pluto that Chibiusa took everywhere, goes over to Black Lady but Black Lady bats it away, declaring it an "annoying toy."

Now that she has entered a teenage rebellious mindset, she shuns all the symbols of her childhood such as her toy, spurning the sign of Pluto's love. 

King Endymion tries to bring Chibiusa to her senses but Wiseman, Demande, and Saphir teleport outside the Palace, Wiseman declaring that the rabbit they knew is gone, with it being revealed that to parallel Demande's Evil Eye, Saphir was given the Beast Hands. Demande attacks Jupiter and Venus with the Evil Eye, while Saphir grabs and constricts Mercury and Mars

Jupiter and Venus quickly recover from Demande's attack and try to plead with Chibiusa not to destroy her home. However Black Lady says this place no longer holds any significance to her. Just as she rejected the toy representing her childhood and innocent, so too does she reject her childhood home, her past as having any meaning to me. 

Black Lady reveals that because of the second Black Crystal Monolith she's placed, darkness will spread and things will be erased from existence exponentially faster as the Monoliths work together. Sailor Moon asks how she can destroy her home like this, but Black Lady says she already has everything she wants from this place revealing the brainwashed Endymion, before parading her control over him in front of Sailor Moon

As I said, I think Mamoru being brainwashed feels too repetitive given we just saw this at the end of the first arc, but I do understand what Naoko is going for. She's trying to tie Usagi and Chibiusa's development across this arc to each other. Usagi felt insecure in her relationship with Mamoru, wanting his attention and feeling jealous even of his attention for a child. Over the arc she's developed in maturity and responsibility, to the point of developing a maternal aura. In contrast, Chibiusa was insecure about her insufficiency in comparison to her mother and her physical immaturity, but was not given the chance to develop being twisted by Wiseman into the symbol of immaturity Black Lady. This arc is about maturity and responsibility, with Usagi and Chibiusa's paths mirroring each other. This is reflected in their relationships with Mamoru. At their immature or insecure moments, Usagi and Chibiusa both cling to Mamoru but as Usagi comes to trust him with the development of her responsibility, Black Lady brainwashes him to test that trust. 

Mamoru also represents what is good about the Earth, and mankind. This was the symbolism of what Usagi loved about Mamoru in the first arc. What Chibiusa loved about her father was how he protected her, how he made her feel safe, how he cheered up when she was sad. Now having Black Lady control him at the same time as she threatens to end the Earth shows that this version no longer sees what is great in him.

Mamoru then strikes Usagi with the Cutie Moon Rod on the shoulder.

I do have to admit, I do find it an unintentionally comical image seeing him use a magical girl wand to hurt her with a shoulder strike. More seriously because the Cutie Moon Rod was made from their love, as Usagi mentions, it carries an emotional pain.

Sailor Moon continues trying to talk sense into Black Lady. She thinks back and says it's her fault, that she was jealous and possessive of Mamoru, that she knows what Chibiusa is going through having so many feelings she understands. That they both get unsure of what to do but she needs Chibiusa to be on her side. This unnerves Black Lady, unintentionally striking a nerve with her as Chibiusa did see in the past that her mother really was like her once, that they were both normal girls that made mistakes and didn't know what to do. 

Black Lady yells back angrily at her that Usagi doesn't know anything about her, attacking her. 

It's a statement that's somehow right and wrong and beyond both. It's true Usagi was the most suspicious of Chibiusa and didn't learn that much about her. It's true that Usagi does understand Chibiusa, that she understands her probably more than anyone in the world. And on some level this is the archetypal teenage rebellion as she doesn't even care whether what she's saying is true or not she's just trying to express her anger. Demande adds his own twisted perspective, that love is taken by force, which metaphorically is an example of a bad influence that causes children to rebel against their parents.

Black Lady brings down a third Black Crystal Monolith, exponentially increasing even further the rate of darkness and erasure that will fall upon the world. This collision is so powerful even King Endymion's spirit is somehow pushed by it....I don't quite understand how that works.

Black Lady laughs about how soon this whole place, the whole planet will be engulfed in darkness and Wiseman tells her that indeed with her great power she can make it whatever she wants, commenting strangely that being able to do whatever you want with great power is what they learned from Black Lady's clan, the Lunar Kingdom. This may be one of the few statements that may reveal Wiseman's psychology as he expresses perhaps something to the effect of resentment to those with power for being able to do what they want. Or perhaps it's yet another statement of manipulated aimed at what Black Lady is feeling.

There is a quick cut back to the spacetime door to show that Sailor Pluto is sensing something is wrong and that she wishes she could go and aid the others, though she is forbidden to leave the spacetime door unguarded. Back at Crystal Tokyo the palace begins to shine alongside Sailor Moon and Wiseman comments that it looks like she's still going to put up a fight.

Wiseman tries to intimidate Sailor Moon, telling her that he has her loved ones in his grasp and can crush them whenever he wishes. He tries to manipulate Sailor Moon into giving him the Silver Crystal in exchange for them however Usagi refuses declaring she will protect them from him, which is a demonstration of her growth, how earlier in the series she would have been completely internally unsure of what to do here guided by her emotions. But in this arc in particular she has grown far more confident in herself and so too correspondingly has the Silver Crystal's power grown.

Wiseman orders Demande to create another Monolith. Demande protests that this will destroy the planet but Wiseman comments "who cares, the Crystal and the Queen will be mine." Demande asks facetiously and what will happen to them when he no longer needs them. Demande reveals that the very Evil Eye technique Wiseman taught Demande protected him from being controlled by Wiseman's own Evil Eye, and that he was never under Wiseman's control much to Black Lady's shock and Wiseman's amusement.

This is a pretty good plot twist, and well set up by how much free will Demande has shown prior. This is a scenario we almost never get in Sailor Moon, two villains fighting, and when it happens it's really cool. Demande comments that Rubeus and Esmeruade were his comrades for years, and he will fight for their sake. Rubeus I get given that Black Lady just killed him but I'm not sure why he blames them for the death of Esmeraude. And he's usually so rational and objective in his thinking...

Puppet Saphir attacks and Demande, being the loving and responsible older brother that he is, one-shots him with the Evil Eye killing him. While Demande seems annoyed by that, he seems a lot less torn up about Saphir's death than Rubeus and Esmeraude's, though he does give a nice sentiment at Saphir's death that Saphir never work the black crystal earrings, proof of his principles. Demande, annoyed and angry at the death of his clan uses the Evil Eye on Wiseman revealing that underneath his cloak...

That's right, underneath his cloak Wiseman was just a skeleton the whole time, controlled by Old Man Jenkins to scare away tourists and wreck his rival's business. And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling Senshi, and their stupid Demande. 

From the Wiseman comes a strange aura thing that briefly possesses Black Lady, declaring that the real body is here and gestures to the sky revealing a massive disruption of the Heavens. Meanwhile Pluto can sense what is going on and is internally conflicted again, causing a flashback where Queen Serenity is giving an adorable Chibi-Pluto the rules of being spacetime guardian

The first rule is don't talk about the spacetime guardian  don't travel through time. The second rule is don't leave the door....which I feel kinda makes the first rule irrelevant. It's possible the first rule is not allow people in general to travel through time. We cut back to Crystal Tokyo before the third rule is revealed.

Meanwhile back at Crystal Tokyo, a dark planet appears in the sky, before two eyes appear and a great booming voice, deafeningly loud, declares that this is Wiseman's true form. The truth is finally revealed, that ancient criminal Phantom decayed long ago, but his will of hatred merged into the planet with the ages, becoming the will of the planet itself. The Wiseman they knew was just an afterimage of the original Phantom. The truth is that the true Wiseman IS planet Nemesis itself! The true enemy Death Phantom!

I love Death Phantom's backstory and utilization, it's to me how to include a cosmic horror type villain in a non-cosmic horror setting. You're fed enough clues overtime that you have some sense of what's going on but the revelation is still interesting and makes prior details makes sense. He's an immediately evocative idea, and has this super otherworldly feel to his actions and motions, without relying on "can't be described" type statements.

I also love how he's essentially a perfect blending of a traditional horror/fantasy trope and the cosmic science-fiction superhero setting of Sailor Moon. One of the oldest tropes in storytelling is the idea of a vengeful ghost haunting an object or a place associated with them after they die, that their spirit might somehow be imbued into the thing, which has a lot of interesting interpretations. Here however it's being applied to a black hole, which is super cool because one of the most fundamental things about Black Holes is that nothing, not even light, can escape from it. The way I always saw it was that Phantom's "spirit", his "will" became trapped in the Black Hole, unable to escape and so was forced to become one with Nemesis. It's taking this classic trope and doing it on a new setting on a far grander scale creating this awesome hybrid idea that sounds silly, metal, and campy all at once. 

With the coming of Death Phantom, everyone begins passing out, and the world begins being erased into darkness. 

Sailor Moon gets all determined, knowing she has to stop Death Phantom no matter what. Demande is looking on in shock and awe that the whole time Wiseman was actually Nemesis itself, manipulated by Nemesis, that their lives never had any meaning whatsoever.

Sailor Moon begins to glow again alongside Crystal Tokyo to battle against the darkness of Death Phantom. Initially the others think it's the light of Neo-Queen Serenity, except it's being drawn out by Sailor Moon. Much like earlier on Nemesis, Sailor Moon can channel the strength of her future self.

Unfortunately, Sailor Moon's power begins to fade against Death Phantom, unable to hold of Death Phantom existence-erasing light, possibly due to the additional support given by the Black Crystal Monoliths. The palace begins fading away and King Endymion, just as his younger self ran into the space-time storm to rescue Chibiusa, so too runs into the quickly erasing Crystal Palace to get to Serenity. Everyone is out of power and things are looking bleak so who's gonna save the day

No one else but the tiny kitten! Diana runs to Sailor Pluto to tell her about what's going on....somehow not actually sure how Diana got there, stammering out to Pluto about everything that's going on. Sailor Pluto looks forlorn wanting desperately to go help her king and queen, and her beloved friend Chibiusa, but can't leave the door unattended when one of the greatest moments of the entire arc happens.

DIANA OFFERS TO STAY AND GUARD IT FOR HER! It's adorable how Diana expresses that she's tiny and lacks powers but will give it her all! Diana, the tiny guardian of spacetime, is the unsung adorable hero of the second arc, saving everyone just through sheer earnestness.

I adore scenes like this in fiction. It's a point a lot of series make that the heroes have teamwork and work together meanwhile villains betray and backstab each other showing the unifying nature of good and the divisive power of evil, which to me really is the great advantage good will always have. While  alot of series will depict the backstabbing part, the villains sabotaging each other or being in conflict, I wish there were more scenes like this where someone without powers or who is small in the grand scheme of things makes all the difference out of love for the heroes. I love when it shows up in fiction because it's always both sweet and cool to see and feels so deserved for the heroes struggle, especially if they have their virtues sometimes make it hard to fight most optimally.

Pluto scoops up the little kitten and hugs her, telling her she's as sweet as Small Lady before going to help the other Senshi

Sailor Moon has a surge of strength and holds back Death Phantom but begins to weaken. Black Lady questions which will give out first, the planet or Sailor Moon herself and as she speaks Sailor Moon begins to weaken from the strain. Sailor Moon makes one last plea to Chibiusa, telling her that she can have the Silver Crystal and Usagi's life, just stop this madness. Granted this isn't really a logical thing, since I'm pretty sure Black Lady couldn't stop it now if she wanted, and if Usagi died Chibiusa would be erased from the timeline at this point but Usagi's in a heated moment where she can't really think properly and also it's symbolically the continuation of Usagi's maternal arc, being willing to give everything she has and is for her daughter.

Black Lady commands Endymion to take the Silver Crystal from Sailor Moon, in a mildly odd statement. I'm not sure she wanted Mamoru to do it especially...maybe to rub salt in the wound vindictively? Maybe she is still feeling internally conflicted and doesn't wish to go to her mother? Endymion takes the Present Silver Crystal from Usagi, depowering her and gives it to Black Lady though as she finally gets both of them in their hands, Demande snatches them proclaiming that he will never trust anyone again, and that now with two Silver Crystal he can overcome even the Black Crystal.

Sailor Pluto shows up just in time to see Demande impulsively bring the two Crystals together which Pluto proclaims will cause a paradox that destroys space-time. The heroes and villains are both temporarily unified in wanting to stop Demand as he declares that he's about to take them on a "wild ride"

Technically speaking, Death Phantom's plan failed. He gave too much power to those who were too reckless and if wasn't for factors outside his knowledge or control (IE the heroism of a tiny kitten), he along with everything else would be gone. But I'll get to that next time since that's the end of the act.

Act 24 is a great act. It along with the rest of the Second Arc is also kind of a really good example of Naoko's writing tendencies in general, its quirks and problems but also incredible strengths. If there's one thing I wanna impress on you about Naoko's writing is that very often it makes emotional or symbolic sense but not literal sense or at least in unexplained. And what I hope you get from that, what I got from that and seems to be a nigh-universal feeling is that the former is VASTLY more important than the latter. People care about the characters they enjoy and they care about if the plot feels right. People loved Harry Potter not because the Wizarding World made sense if you thought about it but because it excited their imaginations and captured their hearts.

The flaws of act 24 are mostly things of the latter nature. The rules of time travel and paradoxes and just how things work in general come and go out of nowhere and often don't really make sense. How was it that Diana actually got to Pluto? Why was it that no one had ever tried taking Pluto's place temporarily to give her a break? How is it that a physically collision somehow hurt a spiritual projection? I have my own answers to these in my mind, and that's really the point. Make your world feel right and people will create logical explanations for you. Make a world that is perfectly logical but doesn't have heart and no one will care about how perfectly consistent everything is. The one thing I thing is a serious contention with this act is once again I feel like Black Lady controlling Endymion feels pretty repetitive from the First Arc but I already went over that in a prior act.

This act has several elements that are really great independently. Probably the core of the act, which runs through from the start to the end is the relationship between Usagi and Chibiusa, a symbolic dramatization of teenage rebellion. It's the intersecting of their two character arcs; Usagi coming to take responsibility of and care for this little girl who happens to be her sister, and Chibiusa running away from her responsibility under the belief she can't do it. In every young woman's life, and indeed the lives of all people, responsibilities fall upon us we didn't ask for or want or expect, some that we are indeed even born with as we transition into adulthood. It might seem impossible to bear and unfair to expect it of her, but if she runs from it it will bring tragedy, and if she bears it, even against impossible odds, she will take on the essence of her future self, heroic and strong.

I love Diana going to Sailor Pluto and freeing her to go help the others. Sailor Pluto, the lonely guardian at that distant spacetime gate, can finally fight alongside her queen for the first time, and though it won't be long (ambiguous spoilers), it's clearly what she wanted. And it's just so adorable seeing the little kitten offer to bear the burden for the spacetime guardian. It ties beautifully into the theme of responsibility as it was because of a small kitten taking on a duty willingly without any provocation just for the chance to everyone that saves everyone. That is the way of the world, saved everyday by the little heroisms of small people in the face of the cosmos.

I love Death Phantom's backstory for the reasons I've already elaborated, it's a cosmic science-fiction modernization of one of the oldest type of ghost stories, keeping the soul (pun intended) of the latter, and taking the idea to an unfathomable extreme. and which is an immediately evocative concept of an otherworldly eldritch monster.

I also really like, on a similar note, the villains infighting this act. It's eternally kinda funny to me that Death Phantom, arguably the smartest character in the entire series didn't account for the suicidal impulsiveness of Demande and would have lost to someone he thought he had in the palm of his hand. Demande only wasn't controlled because Wiseman gave him the Evil Eye, and Demande fighting the other villains was great, if only it was longer.

Just in general, fantastic act. I love it greatly.