Death Analysis: Dragon Shiryu

 

The Dragon Saint, Future Libra Saint of Athena, Pupil of Dohko, a Knight of Justice, The Warrior of Rozan, Medusa Shield-Slaying, Waterfall-Reversing, Suplexing into Space, Indestructible Shielded Warrior, the Legendary Bronze Saint Shiryu!

Obligatory

They were the epitome of true courage and power. They didn't use weapons to fight, for their own bodies were weapons. Their fists were known to rend the Heavens and their kicks to crack the earth. The ages tell that wicked times would inevitably come again, and that the saints would be the warriors of hope. They are the Saints of Athena, armored holy warriors protecting the Earth in the service of the goddess Athena. To protect the latest incarnation of the Goddess, Mitsumasa Kido adopted 100 orphan children and began to train them to potentially take up the mantle of one of Athena's 88 saints. 

One of these children was the young Shiryu. After a few years of training as young children, the children drew a raffle to decide where they would train. Young Shiryu in the raffle was sent to the Five Lushan Peaks in China to train under the Old Master Dohko, the Libra Gold Saint, in order to attain a Dragon Cloth, the armor of the Dragon Constellation, said to be a dragon incarnate. These were also the days in which he met his love and inspiration the young girl, a fellow orphan, named Shunrei

Dohko gave Shiryu a task simple but impossible; reverse the flow of a waterfall. It was a task Shiryu thought impossible but Dohko trained him and taught him about the universe for six years straight, telling him how the mighty Yangtze river flows in the opposite direction it "should", that the laws of nature humans look for are only their way of understanding the incomprehensible

Shiryu punched and punched at the waterfall with all his might. It should be fruitless, to fight against the laws of nature so. But what are the laws of nature but man's attempt to force nature to be understood? Shiryu fought the water, gravity, inevitability itself until the day where with a mighty blow...

he made the waterfall itself flow upwards in the shape of a dragon, earning him the right to use the Dragon Cloth. Dohko also found, to his approval, that unlike most of the Saints who fought for personal reasons, Shiryu was truly a saint who fought for justice itself. For this Dohko gave to his pupil the dragon tattoo, a marker for the Saint who will become the Libra Gold Saint, a Saint who will be a judge of good and evil for the Saints of Athena

Shiryu returned to Japan to test the power Dohko have given him in the Galaxian Wars, a tournament of the newly appointed Saints beginning a sequence of events where Shiryu and several other Bronze Saints would realize that the Sanctuary, the place that was meant to serve Athena's interest, had been corrupted from within which was the reason the newly manifested baby Athena was given to their adopted father in the first place. Shiryu along with his friends would be drawn into a massive political and physical war between the Gold Saints and the Gods themselves, though were able to protect Athena and the Earth.

This blog will be covering Shiryu from the manga continuity. There are two Dragon Shiryus, the one from the original manga, and the one from the anime adaptation. While the anime adaptation is relatively similar to the original manga, the manga continues with the manga sequel "Next Dimension" while the anime continues with the anime sequel "Omega." Similarly, this is not using the Shiryu from Episode G: Assassins, as that is a possible future timeline which has not yet come about and as such is unclear whether it will come to pass or not.

Cosmo:

Almost all fighters in the Saint Seiya universe use a power source known as "Cosmo." All things in the universe are made from atoms, that were once one in a singular mass that expanded outwards in the Big Bang. Persons are comprised of those same atoms that were once at one with all things. Internally each person contains a micro-universe that they can utilize as a form of energy source. To have even a basic awareness of cosmo is to feel the universe within oneself. The Saints with their battles make the universe within themselves "explode" or expand growing their energy to affect the atoms of the physical universe.

Atomic Manipulation:

The most famous trait of cosmo is the ability to destroy on the atomic scale. It's one of the most reiterated statements in the entire series. While it's the most common use of the power, it can be used for a far vaster array of abilities. When one uses cosmo, it causes the body to erupt in a burning aura of energy that can both passively burn away enemies as well as protect the user from numerous types of abilities. A saint's aura reflects their true nature, and Shiryu's is a dragon. Just as atoms can be accelerated to make heat, they can also be slowed down to freeze though Shiryu has not done this in particular. Shiryu has also used his cosmo to manipulate water, sometimes using it to travel around on. Via the manipulation of atoms hypothetically anything should be possible, though the primary usage of cosmo is to imbue oneself with a supernatural energy and superhuman physical capabilities.

Superhuman Physical Strength and Durability:

The most obvious facet of Shiryu's cosmo is his superhuman strength and durability, which continually grows throughout the series. His normal level is variable as cosmo and the level of one's cosmo can change based on the emotional state of a person. Becoming angrier or growing in determination can cause one's cosmo to rise during a battle. As of Next Dimension, Shiryu has grown in strength to the point of being equal with his master the Gold Saint Libra Dohko, who is claimed to have the greatest strength of the Gold Saints, though this kind of a claim is far from unique for the Gold Saints and was evenly matched with Aries Shion, who could destroy and recreate the entire universe into something else. While this was a younger Dohko, Dohko has only aged 243 days since that time due to the divine power of Misapethamenos. Shiryu has other Gold Saint tier feats as well in his base form, casually blocking a strike from the Angel Tenma without looking, catching Capricorn Shura's strike with his bare hands, kicking Shura away with Shura directly calling Shiryu stronger than him, and along with the other bronze saints was even durable enough to withstand an attack from the God Thanatos who was trying to kill them. Thanatos is an even stronger entity making three of Gold Saint-tier Generals of Hades look like infants in comparison and killing Pandora with a thought yet Shiryu and the other main character Bronze Saints withstood his attack.

These feats are impressive as Taurus Aldebaran, a lower-tier Gold Saint was able to stop the attack of Pegasus Seiya, Shiryu's ally after first unlocking the Seventh Sense comparable to the Big Bang. This same Taurus Aldebaran as a younger Saint was able to shatter the Sin Scale, a dimension comprised of human souls weighing more than the stars with his special attack that Seiya was able to overcome and reverse it back at him as well as break the maintain stay pillar of Poseidon which would withstand even the end of the universe. Other Gold Saints have universal feats as well such as Aries Mu erasing the sealed Titan Iapetos' dimension before creating his own bigger universe, Leo Aiolia's attack "Photon" Burst being compared to the Big Bang, Virgo Shaka and Virgo Shijima engaging in a mental battle of Ungyo the sound representing the end of the universe and Agyo the light representing the birth of the universe in which countless universes were made, Sagittarius Aiolos killing the Sun Goddess Apophis who as a goddess would have unlocked the Ninth Sense which granted Anti-Pope Aiolos enough power to rival the Big Bang, Gemini Kanon being able to match the power of Anti-Pope Aiolos, Aquarius Camus and Cygnus Hyoga's clash in Episode G Assassins disrupting the boundary between the worlds of the living and the world of the dead, and a general untranslated statement saying Gold Saints have the power to destroy the universe. Shiryu would easily scale to these feats given his scaling to Thanatos. 

Superhuman Endurance:

Shiryu is pretty infamous for beating his opponents via sheer endurance and willpower, often brutally injured to win a fight. He easily fought through being stabbed through with a lance, withstood his own attack reflected at him, withstood a beating from Angel Tenma without his cloth, took Scorpio Escarlte's scorpion stingers which inject people with poison and pain to the point of driving them insane until they die affecting his entire nervous system to the point it should paralyze gushing blood until he lost all his senses and continued to stand and fight, survived being between the gates of life and death for seven days, gave most of his blood to repair two of the Bronze Clothes which weakened him and made him less durable yet still withstood blows from Black Dragon his dark equivalent, was stabbed through the heart by Shura and only got stronger from his determination, and most famously of all gouged his own eyes to fight the petrifying gaze of Perseus Algol's shield. It is one of Shiryu's most famous traits, to be brutally injured, and to persist regardless through sheer willpower. It was for this indomitable spirit that the Dragon God Ryujin recognized Shiryu's worthiness and granted him a stronger cosmo. 

Superhuman Speed:

Like with his power, Shiryu's speed can rise during a battle. He and the his allies Seiya, Hyoga, Shun, and Ikki, have a famous over-the-top speed feat, flying from the Underworld to Elysium, the Greek Heaven, through the hyperdimension in minutes. The narration describes this as flying past billions of galaxies, though it's unclear if it means through a space that would contain billions of galaxies like a universe which would require speeds quadrillions of times the speed of light, or through literally billions of galaxies lined up in a row, requiring a speed quintillions to sextillions of times the speed of light depending on one's assumptions. 

There are numerous other speed feats for Seventh Sense tier entities in the range of quadrillions to quintillions of times the speed of light. This level of speed is fairly consistent with Thanatos sending attacks across universal distances nearly instantly. Even in the Sanctuary arc Ikki believed he could flee to the edge of the universe in his fight with Virgo Shaka and Shun was able to send his chains through the dimension of Saga to hit him. Anti-Pope Aiolos was able to launch an attack quickly between universes, likely quadrillions of times the speed of light but Gemini Saga and Capricorn Shura reacted to it and blocked it. Shiryu can likely push himself even further however, as he was able to as mentioned earlier, catch the blow of the Gold Saint Capricorn Shura, who performed the fastest finite speed feat in Saint Seiya, overcoming the speed of the initial expansion of the universe with his Excalibur Technique. At the very beginning of the universe, it expanded from the size of a proton to the size of a grapefruit in an unfathomably small period of time between 10^-45 seconds from the beginning to 10^-35 seconds, a rate of expansion calced at 30 septillion times the speed of light. It should be noted that this is technically a mid-end. Estimates of the final size of the universe after the initial expansion can vary from as small as a grain of sand to a grapefruit, with resulting speeds ranging from quintillions to septillions, however, various depictions of Big Bangs in Saint Seiya, depict them as reaching the size of grapefruit or larger, often the size of people or greater after the expansion, which would increase the value even more by several factors. As such Shiryu likely reaches septillions of times the speed of light with his Bronze Cloth.

Bodily Manipulation:

Shiryu demonstrated the ability to use his own cosmo to heal himself, even healing injuries that would normally take six months to heal in one day. He was also able to force his own blood to circulate through his body via his cosmo to fight off paralysis. Also while Saints are not immortal and will die from aging eventually or from sickness, cosmo can extend their lifespan dramatically such that they can live centuries.

Potential Attack Reflection:

Numerous cosmo users in the series have independently shown the ability to reflect attacks without any special techniques, something Shiryu due to his skill with cosmo should be able to do as well. However, it's unknown if this can be done to attacks not comprised of cosmo. Given how the reflection is depicted, it seems likely that it can. 

Non-Physical Interaction/Conceptual Destruction:

Any cosmo user in Saint Seiya can destroy ghosts and evil spirits, something Shiryu himself demonstrates. Cosmo can even be used to hit conceptual things like curses, the Dryads which mankind's evil given human form, and even the Gods who are conceptual entities. 

Saints have regularly shown that not only can they interact with non-physical entities as though they were physical, they can also destroy the incorporeal parts of a person without even destroying their physical bodies. Ikki even during the Galaxian Wars showed the ability to destroy a bronze saint's soul with his strikes rather than his body, an ability clearly not exclusive to him as Pegasus Tenma was said to be able to destroy someone body and soul. Gold Saints have numerous times shown the ability to destroy 20,000,000,000 souls at once, which Shiryu should scale too. Likewise given they can strike conceptual entities, they should be able to essentially destroy someone on any plane up to the conceptual. 

Attack Techniques:

As mentioned, Shiryu's cosmo has its own unique form like any other Saint, which he can form into various combat techniques. The most well-known is "Rozan Sho Ryu Ha" (Rising Dragon Punch), a technique in which Shiryu uppercuts an opponent his cosmo taking the form of a Chinese dragon. He also has a variant "Rozan Ryu Hi Sho" (Soaring Mountain Punch) where he dashes forward striking forward instead of upward. His master Dohko taught him two more strenuous techniques later of greater power. The first of these was "Rozan Hyakki Ryu Ha" (One Hundred Dragons Blow) where his cosmo takes the form of 100 striking dragons that attack Shiryu's foes. The other, "Rozan Ko Ryu Ha" (Ascendant Dragon Blow), is a last resort move where Shiryu grapples his opponents and rises into the heavens with them, the two being disintegrated from the sheer force. Dohko describes the move as a technique that could kill any human, himself included at the cost of the user's life.

From the Gold Saint Capricorn Shura, Shiryu learned the additional technique of "Excalibur." Shiryu is not as skilled as Shura with this technique, and can only use it with his right, arm, as opponent to any limb, but Shiryu can encase his arm in cosmo sharped to the point of being able to cut anything, even the unbreakable gold spear of Chrysaor Krishna. Excalibur has shown the ability to truly "cut anything" as it is warranted, including the fabric of space itself. It cut through the infinite light of Brontes Kido and cut off the arm of Zeus's astral body, Zeus being the multiversal top tier of the verse. It is likely that Excalibur completely ignores the durability or size of the target. Excalibur, as a divine weapon, also has the property of negating regeneration as Shiryu used it to kill the dragon faceless, a spiritual entity that regenerates when harmed. This happened in Episode G-Asasssin but should apply as a general property of Excalibur. 

Higher Senses:

While cosmo is the sheer energy of the internal universe within a person, the Saints and others come to skillfully utilize this cosmo through the development of the senses. 

Much as the perception of a sense can become more intense when the other senses are cut off, so too does a Saint's higher senses grow stronger as their senses are restricted. Phoenix Ikki took advantage of this by allowing Virgo Shaka to restrict his six senses to aid his awakening of the seventh sense. Both that fight and Shiryu himself demonstrate that restricting the senses also causes cosmo to strengthen further. Virgo Gold Saints are famous for using this to their advantage whether it be  Virgo Shaka keeping his eyes closed to control his cosmo or Virgo Shijima refusing to speak so that words would become imbued with his cosmo.

Sixth Sense:

The sixth sense refers to mind, and development of this sense can grant psychic powers. The sixth sense is suggested to be made of "premonition, signs, suggestion, intuition, perception, foreboding, and inference." Usage of the sixth sense can allow the user to fight even without the other senses, essentially replacing them and it gives them access to telekinesis which Shiryu demonstrates by shattering a boulder with a gesture and a command. 

The primary ability granted by the sixth sense however is telepathic sensing. Saints can sense cosmo, and the unique nature of various cosmo or the aura around things to understand their nature, and are able to sense cosmo at such a distance that Cancer Deathmask could sense Shiryu's cosmo while he was at his temple on Earth and Shiryu was in the Underworld, another dimensional realm. Deathmask was also able to feel Shunrei's prayers for Deathmask, hearing even the words within it while they were in the Underworld and she was in China. Shiryu was able to sense these prayers immediately, showing a telepathic power greater than Deathmask, a skilled enough psychic to attack Shunrei from another dimension. Those with awoken sixth sense can sense disturbances or things that are amiss acting as a rudimentary danger sense.

Seventh Sense:

Stronger than the first six senses, and the source of them all as well as a person's cosmo is the seventh sense. The seventh sense was a sense all people had in the time of myth and was the source of heroism. The seventh sense can completely heal any of the prior senses if lost, as it did to Shiryu's sight, and can compensate if any are lost, allowing the Saints to fight even while unconscious. At this level a Saint's manipulation of their own atoms that Leo Aioria was able to regenerate his arm and heart's molecules from will. Due to the manipulation of their atoms, a Saint at this level can only be defeated if they can no longer will their bodies to regenerate, a difficult feat given the seventh sense will compensate for lack of consciousness. 

The Seventh Sense, when extended to the maximum, the supreme seventh sense is also linked to the capability to use a unique power called "miracles," which will be explained later.

Eighth Sense:

Beyond the Seventh Sense is the Eighth Sense, Arayashiki, or "Enlightenment." It is referred to as the essence, the source of one's karma. Shiryu has unlocked the usage of the Eighth Sense. The Eighth Sense allows the user to "overcome death" and gives one control of one's own soul, allowing one to stay in the land of the living even after death and reconstitute bodies for oneself, a form of low-godly regen. Hypothetically this would have been possible with the seventh sense given the ability to reconstitute the atoms of matter, but upon death, the soul would have left for the underworld normally. It also allows one to enter and exit the underworld alive, where normally the underworld robs one of all their senses.

Sainthood:

Dragon Shiryu is a Saint of Athena, a human serving the goddess Athena's holy will, with special skills and ways of way developed for the Goddess' protectors separate even from the powers granted to other users of cosmo in the verse.

Reactive Evolution:

Perhaps the most famous ability of the Saints is their ability to adapt and grow in combat. It's one of the most quoted statements about a Saint, that the same technique never works twice on them, due to them developing resistance from experiencing or seeing an attack technique being used. The Saints also grow stronger from battle, growing stronger every time they're knocked down. Shiryu himself has gone from half-dead and being stomped by Cancer Deathmask to powerful enough that his aura burned Deathmask in moments. 

Divine Protection/Resistances:

All Saints have the protection and grace of their guardian constellation. Combined with Shiryu's immense cosmo and the divine blood (ichor) of Athena that has fallen upon his cloth, Shiryu has developed numerous resistances. As mentioned above Saints can generally destroy not just the physical bodies of people but up to their conceptual bodies, yet Shiryu especially can resist the attacks from other Saints trying to destroy him completely, with even the Primordial Deity Uranus being unable to erase Shiryu, forced to seal him away in another dimension. This gives him a resistance to astral to conceptual destruction equivalent to his durability. Higher plane destruction resistance is not the same as actual manipulation of those things, however, in the same way that having physical durability is not the same thing as matter manipulation resistance. Shiryu does however have resistance to these forms of manipulation. In Episode G we see the battle between the Gold Saints and the sealed titans, the sealed titans creating their own universes with their own planets of people with their own cosmo, souls, and minds, and which they can control freely to do things like miniaturize the planet to use as a weapon. These dimensions are likely the size of full universes, containing countless stars. This would likely be universal reality-warping resistance, and at least planetary levels of soul, mind, and size manipulation resistance as well as multi-stellar or universal energy-matter manipulation resistance. Shiryu's mental resistance may be even higher, as the Gold Saint Virgo Shaka, who is not even the most accomplished psychic of the Gold Saints, is known for mental trap referencing the story of Sun Wukong and Buddha where he traps an enemy within a mental reality large enough to contain at least multiple galaxies shown several times as well as being able to have his mental battle with Virgo Shijima containing the birth and death of countless universes. However, while it's very likely Shiryu would be able to resist this, as it's extremely unlikely he'd be able to just do this to someone like Hades who God Cloth Shiryu had grown somewhat notable in power to, it's not technically confirmed.

Saints also have other resistances as well. Saints have shown on numerous instances a resistance to fate or destiny manipulation. After awakening the Eighth Sense, Saints have a resistance to death manipulation as the Underworld instantly kill anyone who enters yet doesn't kill Saints who have awoken the Eighth Sense and can survive the presence of the god Hades, who even as an incarnated baby killed everyone in a castle around him with his presence. In Saint Seiya Omega it is also stated people with enough cosmo can move even in stopped time. While Omega is part of the anime timeline, the two series are both universes in the same multiverse, and so the basic properties of cosmo should be the same. Shiryu also possibly has a limited resistance to petrification. While Perseus Algol immediately turned the others to stone with the Medusa Shield, Shiryu only had one-half of his body turned to stone instantly, and was able to still fight after looking into it. This was possibly because of the bandages covering his eyes but Algol says the Medusa Shield can penetrate past it.

Miracles:

Probably the ultimate tool of the Saints, the weapon that can surpass even the Gods is "Miracles," a representation of humans being able to improve infinitely while the gods, great as they are, will always be the eternal concepts they embody. Miracles are a uniquely human power and are considered an extension of the seventh sense, created by combusting the cosmos within oneself. Miracles have infinite potential and can generate unlimited power. It is the power of miracles, of raising one's cosmo infinitely that brings about the ultimate upgrade of the Saint's Cloth, the God Cloth. While miracles are broadly used to raise one's power greatly above where it normally is temporarily, it can also be used to manipulate possibility itself to turn an impossibility into a possibility, defying what can and cannot be done.

Miracles are stated to be raise one's strength "infinitely." Aristotle the Greek philosopher divided infinite into "actual infinity", a completed infinity, a set with infinite elements, and "potential infinity", a quantity that is never completed, which grows and continues with no last element but always with finite elements. Thematically the infinity referred to here is "potential infinity", just as humans have a cosmos in them that expands from their big bang with no limit, so too does human power grow without limits. This means that a Saint can grow stronger and faster towards infinity without limitations, which unlike actual infinity does not cause contradictions here. 

Dragon Cloth:

Like all Saints, Shiryu wears a distinctive armor, his being the Dragon Cloth which he can summon to him at any time. Clothes are partially sentient and can act to protect others and can abandon a Saint who is evil enough that they no longer wish to protect them. Even when a Saint is dead their spirit can move their armor, the way Sagittarius Aiolos moved his Cloth to cover Seiya and aid him. Contrary to popular belief, clothes do not empower a Saint, their power comes from their cosmo. The armor just protects them and without it their bodies are extremely vulnerable against each other. The Dragon Cloth is a dragon incarnate, hammered by the water of the Milky Way for eons, making it the toughest of the Bronze Clothes. The shield and gauntlet of the Dragon Cloth are considered invincible, and while that's not technically true, Shiryu is noticeably more durable than the other Legendary Bronze Saints due to his cloth. The Bronze Cloths normally freeze at -240 Degrees Fahrenheit/-151 Degrees Celcius though due to Shiryu's burning cosmo imbued in his Cloth, this amount drops to an even lower temperature.

 

Also with its final evolution, the Dragon Cloth grew wings and gave Shiryu the ability to fly.

Dragon God Cloth:

An ultimate form of the Dragon Cloth brought about by the power of miracles and Shiryu raising his cosmo to the infinite. With the power of his God Cloth, Shiryu was able to one-shot the God Hypnos alongside God Cloth Hyoga, a god equal or stronger than Thanatos who could one-shot all the Legendary Bronze wearing Gold Clothes earlier. Hypnos also tanked an attack from an entire generation of Saints together, including the Pope and all 12 Gold Saints, which is even more impressive given that any 3 Gold Saints together can recreate the power of the Big Bang. Shiryu, along with Hyoga, Shun, and Ikki were able to push back the God Hades with their God Cloths. Hades for comparison created Hell, Elysium, and the Hyperdimension, maintaining them with his will. The Hyperdimension alone using the higher end of the speed calc mentioned above would have a diameter of over 2.5e33 meters, a diameter of about 2,841,000 times the observable universe's, and with a three-dimensional volume 23 quintillion times the observable universe's. While much larger than the observable universe's size, this is much smaller than the real universe's lower bound size estimate for the full universe, so what you make of this is your prerogative. Technically both Elysium and Hell are referred to as infinite as well, however because the God Cloth Saints are finitely weaker than Hades, this would cause a paradox as it's logically contradictory for something to be finitely greater or smaller than an infinite quantity. As such I wouldn't use this.

The God Cloth would also easily have speed superior to that of Capricorn Shura's by an unknown amount but likely a large amount, and has a freezing point hundreds of times below Absolute Zero. In the process of anointing a God Cloth, Athena gave the Dragon Cloth some of her blood, divine ichor, which grants an eternal statue to its wearer, making them resistant to history and causality manipulation attacks, it's stated to give protection against "everything" and healing. Ichor also gives a more obscure resistance to information/paradox manipulation as they can resist the "black hole paradox problem", a paradox trying to erase Saints that exist in multiple places at one due to diverging timelines which usually forces there to only be one version of a character in a timeline.

The God Saints were able to fight alongside Athena against Hades, though they were significantly weaker. Seiya was able to actually catch a blow from Hades and surprise him with his strike. As mentioned above Hades' power created and maintained the underworld which is stated to have limitless space, which means his power would be infinite, which in turn means Shiryu with his God Cloth might have infinite attack/reaction speed. This is potentially supported by Hades in Episode G is considered relative to Cronos, preventing the underworld from being destroyed by his power, indicating he was able to react to Cronos' power. Cronos' power was able to wipe out all time from the multiverse in finite time, the Saint Seiya Multiverse being infinite in size with Athena traveling across an unknown portion of it to aid Shura in Episode G.

Skill/Intelligence: 

All the Saints are master hand to hand fighters, but Shiryu is especially gifted in this regard, being considered the best of the Legendary Bronze Saints at actual martial arts. He was one of the first of them to awaken to the Seventh Sense and defeated the strongest of the Marine Generals save Kanon primarily through skill and recognition that Krishna's "chakras" were his equivalent of the Saints' Star Points. He was able to disappear into darkness, has knowledge of pressure points, and while blind and paralyzed restarted Seiya's heart with a punch. His martial skill is superhuman and he and the other Legendary Bronze Saints were able to aid Athena in her battle with Hades, overpowered but not outskilled by Hades, Hades and Athena being likely billions of years old and Athena being the goddess of war.

Shiryu is also a skilled tactician, intentionally exposing his weak point to manipulate Shura into attacking how he wanted him too. He was clever enough to figure out that there was a second hidden Black Dragon Saint and like all Saints is well-versed in mythological history, knowing how the mythological hero Perseus defeated the mythological Medusa. Shiryu has a reputation of being the most level-headed and wise of the Legendary Bronze Saints, befitting the impartiality called for by the Libra Gold Cloth.

Weaknesses:

Shiryu originally had the weakness that when he struck, he left himself vulnerable for 1/1000th of a second which any blow would kill him. With the recent upgrade from the Dragon God Ryujin, it's not clear if this upgrade is still there. Shiryu has the same weakness as the other Saints, that he's vastly more vulnerable without his cloth and even if a Saint can resurrect themselves, they can't necessarily resurrect their Cloth.

Shiryu's biggest weakness though is his absolute nobility and sense of justice and fair play. When he was battling the evil Gold Saint Cancer Deathmask, Deathmask proved so evil that his own cloth abandoned him but refusing to take advantage of his opponent's vulnerability, Shiryu removed his own cloth so it would still be a fair fight. Due to his durability, willpower, and temperament, Shiryu sometimes takes blows for others, especially his friends. Like Superman or Captain America, he's the shield of his team. 

Also in non-canon anime filler, he struggles against some normal wolves.

Personality:

During the 2004 popularity poll of Saint Seiya characters, Dragon Shiryu came first before immensely popular characters like Phoenix Ikki or Gemini Saga and before the protagonist Pegasus Seiya. I believe this is partialy because while every other character in Saint Seiya fights for personal reasons, whether good or ill, Shiryu is one who truly lives for justice, to protect the weak and innocent. In a classic 80s battle shonen filled with hot-blooded characters, Shiryu is the most mature, wise, and level-headed, the one who truly embodies the idea of a Saint, one who fights purely for justice's sake rather than any personal vendetta. The reason he is often blinded in his fights is a reference to the notion that justice is blind, it is wise and without prejudices based on appearances reflected by Shiryu's ability to "see" without seeing, immune to illusions and false appearances. 

In their own ways, each of the four Bronze Clothes that Seiya befriends models a trait he would need as a Saint; devotion for Hyoga, compassion for Shun, and power for Ikki. However, what Shiryu demonstrates is arguably the defining trait for the entire series; willpower in the pursuit of justice. Befitting one chosen of the Libra constellation, Shiryu is able to calmly and maturely take in information, without compromising his ideals and faithfulness to the cause of justice. In the Hades Arc when Shiryu returns to Sanctuary to fight the Sanctuary Dohko reprimands him, asking if he doesn't understand love, that Athena knows she and the Gold Saints are likely to perish in this battle and Athena in her love was trying to spare the Bronze Saints that battle, asking if he can't just accept a quiet life with Shunrei's love. However Shiryu refuses and continues to try to fight Aries Shion along his master, even as he is beaten down. Shiryu explains to Dohko that a Saint is what he is, that telling him to not fight for justice is the same as telling him to kill himself because he can't turn his back on his comrades and continue to live. Dohko relents and agrees to fight with Shiryu, saying he will personally beg Athena's forgiveness on Shiryu's behalf. This is perhaps the only time in the entire series that the wise old master Dohko is wrong, and it's because even he could not see how deep the quest for justice goes down to Shiryu's soul, that he can't just live peacefully because to abandon his quest is the same as to spiritually die. 

For most heroes in Saint Seiya, and indeed it seems most series, nobility and ideals are virtues to aspire to, but not the character's natural orientation. For Shiryu, however, they are the stuff of life, that which he persists on. They are the animating components of his soul, lived in his actions. It is the source of their many crippling tragedies Shiryu has faced as he sacrifices himself for others; it is why he gave of his own blood to restore the Pegasus and Dragon Cloths, why he blinded himself to fight Algol, why he refused to abandon the fight against Deathmask when he had the chance, why he tried to sacrifice himself against Shura. Yet just as the spiritual transcends over the physical, giving it meaning, no matter how much damage Shiryu takes, he remains standing. It was his willingness to sacrifice himself that finally convinced Shura that the Bronze Saints were really serving the true Athena and his true strength of character that allowed him to overcome Cancer Deathmask. Shiryu is a representation of the true meaning of a Saint, someone whose ideals are not just a detached virtue to reach, but are shown in their every action, where goodness and justice are truly not things they do but something they live.

Summary: 

+Universal Attack Potency, Durability, Metaphysical Destruction and Metaphysical Destruction Resistance. Macrocosmic with God Cloth. Can rise higher infinitely via miracles.

+MFTL (Quintillions normally, can reach as high as Septillions), Higher with God Cloth. Can rise higher infinitely via miracles. Potentially infinite attack/reaction speed. 

+Energy Manipulation/Aura

+Various Attack Techniques he can channel his cosmo into

+Matter Manipulation (Atomic)

+Regeneration (Low-Godly)

+Superhuman Endurance/Bodily Manipulation

+Potential Attack Reflection

+Can ignore durability and negate regeneration with Excalibur

+Telekinesis, Telepathic Sensing (Inter-Universal), Precognition and Enhanced Mental Facilities with Sixth Sense

+Can fight while unconscious

+Power-Amping and Probability Manipulation with Miracles

+Control of his soul, can enter and exit the underworld at will

+Reactive Evolution

+Flight

+Holy Emanation

+A Tier Skill, Potentially High A Tier Skill (Comparable to Hades and Athena)

+Basic Stealth

+Possible Healing (With Ichor)

+Acausality

+Resistance to Multi-Stellar, likely Universal Reality-Warping, Spacetime, Existence Erasure and Matter-Energy Hax (The Primordial Uranus could not erase him, Uranus being a superior user of the Dunamis of Gods than the Titans who create dimensions called universes and with countless stars)

+Resistance to Planetary+ Soul, Mind, and Size Manipulation (The Sealed Titans can create and manipulate planets of people and change their size yet could not affect the Gold Saints, Shiryu withstood Cancer Deathmask's attack which could manipulate 20 billion souls), Possibly Higher (May be able to resist Virgo Shaka's psychic power)

+Resistance to Sensory Sealing, Freezing, Fate Manipulation, Paradox/Information Manipulation, Death Manipulation, Causality Manipulation, and Time Stop

+Some level of resistance against "everything."

+Possible Limited Resistance to Petrification

-Dragon Tattoo possibly turns into a weak point for 1/1000th of a second while he attacks

-Is completely fair-minded and refuses to take advantage of any vulnerabilities of his opponent

-Wolves?

Recommended Opponent:

Naofumi Iwatani (Rising of the Shield Hero): 

Two Heroes that are known for their shield above all else, entering the world's strongest turtling match. End of Web Novel Naofumi could be a real threat to Shiryu and it would be a fair matchup to think about vs wise where a lot of factors from both like Shiryu's resistance to Naofumi's causality manipulation, seemingly his biggest weapons, though Naofumi's poisons and curses, more modest would also plausibly work...though Shiryu's would be defenseless against their with the Eigth Sense, Bodily Control, and the ability to attack curses. The biggest interest is the thematic side. Naofumi is a hero driven by his hatred and want for vengeance after his false accusation and exile from civilized society and I think there could be a really cool theme about the difference between justice and vengeance. The two would be such opposing personalities, and were both popular for being different kinds of heroes for their time; Shiryu for being a morally noble, wise, and mature hero in a hot-blooded series and Naofumi for being a pragmatic, realistic, and cynical hero in a time of generic Isekai protagonists. An exchange of words between them would be as interesting as an exchange of fists, or shields as it were.

Next Time:

Thanks to my friend Thor for making this trailer that really captured the....eccentric nature of the two combatants I'm doing next time.

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 39 Review

 

Act 39 is tied for the longest act in the Sailor Moon manga with Act 27 at 75 pages, both being the introduction to an arc. The Dream Arc commences. The arc begins with the Guardian Senshi watching the eclipse that Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibiusa were at the end of the last act. Makoto comments on how she wonders if Usagi is watching this too and Ami comments that the conditions for this eclipse only happens only once every few centuries. 

A young girl nearby is told that an eclipse is even rarer than a shooting star and is told to make a wish, wishing to become an actress. Hearing this Minako and then after a little giggle at Minako's childishness, the other Guardian Senshi playfully join in and make their own wishes. Minako wishes very similarly to be an idol singer. Makoto wishes to be a bride, and makes a second wish for a flower shop and a cake shop, causing Minako to humorously comment on Makoto's greediness in having so many wishes. Ami wishes to be a doctor, and Rei wishes to be the head priestess at the Hikawa Shrine.

This is building upon a part from the last act where they celebrated becoming High School students, and wanting to join clubs. It represents a theme of the arc, a maturation of the Senshi through their dreams. As you might be able to tell through the arc name, dreams are a theme of this arc.

The Senshi notice how much darker it's gotten and how it really seems to be taking its time. Cleverly Naoko cuts from that quickly, and if you know how this arc goes you know why that's clever. We cut to Mamoru who suddenly doubles over in pain. He tells the others there he just felt dizzy and wonders where that sudden pain came from. However, his wondering is cut short by the arrival of a flying ship, the occupants proclaiming themselves to be the Dead Moon Circus finally here in this bright city of beautiful dreams.

...as you do. 

This is one of the first things one notices about the Dead Moon Circus, starting on page 6 of the entire arc, that surreal things just happen this arc. It was part of what caused the initial dislike his arc had. While I'm not saying you have to like it, in fact it's not particularly my taste, it does serve a narrative purpose; it's meant both to make the arc feel more "dreamlike" for obvious reasons and because this is the arc centered around Chibiusa it's to make the arc feel more like it's coming from the perspective of a younger child. Depending on how out there vs grounded your tastes are you might enjoy this aspect of it. But yeah things like a flying circus tent of evil clowns can just show up and nobody questions it. 

That's also connected to the major difference with this villain group. So far we've had the urban fantasy villains, the sci-fi villains, the apocalyptic villains. This time we're evolving again into the surrealism-type evil. This stuff became very popular with the rise of the internet; stuff like creepy clown videos with them just showing up, liminal spaces where empty or degenerated places create creepy ambiance (for instance this vid of the SpongeBob outro playing in an abandoned mall), psychopathic children playing twisted versions of children's games. These are the type of horror that became popular with the rise of the internet and which the Dream Arc seems to be portraying. Though it comes from a period before this became popular, the idea of creepy clowns has certainly been around much longer (ala The Joker or Pennywise the Clown) but the idea came to mass prominence somewhat recently. This type of fear is characterized by the twisting of the fantastical things meant to delight children; clowns and dreams and fairy tales into more horrific forms, the contrast serving to accentuate the surreal fear of it. Fittingly the Dead Moon Circus characterize a lot of this type of villainous fear. They are much more in your face than any villain group by far, just showing in the middle of civilization yet are somehow the most invisible. They mix immaturity in their behavior with malevolence and violence and their monsters are stylized after monsters children might fear are under their beds or in their closets. The Dead Moon Circus play on this type of scares I would refer to as anti-innocence, the subversion of a seemingly innocent or childish element with a dark element or undertone. Their members are psychopathic children, creepy killer clowns, and circus performers, all led by a classic evil fairy tale witch-queen.

People seem quite surprised by the flying circus ship though view it as some kind of weird amusement rather than any threat, akin to a magic trick, save for our heroes who comedically do the same reason all in unison.

A joke, but also a little cartoonish and surreal. Once again, Naoko subtly building up the atmosphere, even when it's the least subtle of her atmospheres so far.

Usagi and Chibiusa, panicked, reiterate what they just saw, that a flying ship came out of the center of the eclipse, with Mamoru commenting that he guesses it wasn't just a daydream and that he has a bad feeling about this. Yeah thanks Mamoru, brilliant observation. 

We cut back to the Guardians who also saw the Dead Moon Circus and are wondering what's going on. Phobos and Deimos, Rei's crows, show up and warn her via tarot cards that it was a bad omen, that something bad is going on.

It's nice to see Phobos and Deimos again, and they help to build the atmosphere a little bit being a bit more classically mystical while still being kinda surrealist. Rei proclaims that she senses a new enemy.

We cut back to the Moon family where they decide to stick around the area for a bit longer, going to the shopping district to kill time. They don't seem especially concerned about what they just saw though I can't tell if that's deliberately there for atmosphere purposes or is just odd character writing.

They come to a big circus arrival sale where the Dead Moon Circus information is being circulated, that they are a world-touring circus from the Amazon rainforest while their music plays across the street...Naoko has done evil hypnotic music before, a lot if you include Sailor V, but this is the first time where it's subtle and not even clear if it is hypnotic in any way or if it's just giving the eerie vibe like that

Usagi and Chibiusa wander around the Dead Moon Circus street vendors looking at all the various things for sale The two excitedly stare at all the strange sights, coming across pretty kaleidoscopes, a toy using a series of mirrors with colored material to create a procession of images. In a sense, a kaleidoscope is actually a metaphor for the events of the arc; a series of colored individual items (The Sailor Senshi) trapped among mirrors whose interaction create a series of illusory images like dreams.

Usagi and Chibiusa ask Mamoru to buy them the kaleidoscopes which he does after giving them an amused smirk. Usagi is depicted as being similarly immature to Chibiusa in that she needs to ask someone else to pay for a toy for her, which will also be a theme in this arc and even in this act. There's a cute moment where Chibiusa shows Diana the inside of a kaleidoscope, amazing the kitten. Meanwhile, the Guardian Senshi find the Lunar family, happy that they seem alright, though still distrustful of the whole situation.

The 5:00 bell rings yet Usagi observes there's still a massive crowd of people in the streets like a festival. Once again, there's the subtle allusion to people being manipulated and acting unnatural, but unlike in previous arcs in a subtle way that could easily be dismissed. Things aren't unnatural, just surreal.

Usagi tells Chibiusa she should probably wait to leave until tomorrow since traveling at night can be dangerous... SHE'S TIME-TRAVELING! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! Mamoru tries to argue against that because Chibiusa said in her letter she'd go back home today. Once again, she's traveling to a later point in time, leaving later would just mean a shorter distance, she literally can't be late! 

Chibiusa says it's fine to Mamoru because her letter was dated April First, meaning her mother will think it's an April Fool's joke. Usagi and Mamoru don't really buy that logic but say Chibiusa can stay the night if she apologizes to her mother for her delay. After double bunny eyes pleading, Mamoru lets both girls stay at his place for the night, giving the relatively rare image of Usagi and Chibiusa with their hair down. Chibiusa is seen using Neptune's mirror from last act to brush her hair while Usagi gives bare-faced lies to her mother to explain her absence.

Usagi and Chibiusa absent-mindedly play with their kaleidoscopes when they are suddenly hit with a full frontal assault of pillows. For rabbits, it's quite brutal. Mamoru tells them they need to go to sleep as they need to get up at 5 tomorrow, much to the shock of both girls, though I imagine it's to go to the park when no one is around and stay disguised. Mamoru also tries, in a funny bit, to tell Usagi she can't stay around his place so much or it will "ruin his reputation", which is a funny reversal of it usually being the girl in the relationship who worries about sleeping over with her boyfriend in case people get a certain image of her.

Usagi and Chibiusa both complain at his protestations, once again depicting Usagi as being unusually immature. Mamoru comments that as a parent he plans to be a firm parent. Usagi comments that she wishes she was still a kid where she could be spoilt and treated like royalty though Mamoru annoyedly points out he never spoilt Chibiusa. Meanwhile Chibiusa argues that being a kid is much worse because you can't do anything you want on your own, and that despite technically being 903 she wants to be an adult as soon as possible so Mamoru will see her as a woman. Usagi points out that she's talking nonsense, she's his daughter. Mamoru is angry at all the commotion and just wants them to go to sleep.

Overall it's a pretty amusing bit that's meant to set up part of the themes of the arc. Usagi the young woman wants to be a kid, and Chibiusa the kid wants to be a young woman. Usagi wants to be carefree and Chibiusa wants agency. It's also very clearly trying to callback to the second arc, with is something that happens several time this arc with references to Chibiusa's little girl affection for her father or her really being over 900 years old. 

Chibiusa lies in bed, looking at over at Usagi's form in admiration. She thinks to herself what she really wants is to be like Usagi, with long slender legs, a full chest, long flowing hair. Chibiusa wishes she could be pretty like that. This is also in its own way calling back to the second arc where Chibiusa was scared she'd never be able to step out of her mother's shadow, born the daughter of the legendary savior Neo-Queen Serenity. Here to show the progression it's not that she thinks she won't reach Usagi's status, but she wishes to attain it soon. It's also meant to reflect the real beautiful parts of post-adolescent young women that young girls find admirable and enviable. 

Usagi and Mamoru notice Chibiusa is still awake and asks if she can't sleep. Chibiusa asks them to tell her a story, that at home mama would tell her stories to help her sleep. Mamoru asks her what type of stories she wants to hear and Chibiusa lists off stories about sunken civilizations, the pyramids, lost diamonds, and then amusingly adds stories about robots and stories about vampires....which are real things Chibiusa herself was therefore, robots are the droids from the second arc, and vampires are from the side story Chibiusa's Picture Diary 1 also taking place in the second arc.

Chibusa finishes the list with "stories about mirrors", which prompts Usagi's interest. Chibiusa explains that there's a legend about mirrors, that on the other side of mirrors is a dark parallel universe, and if you look into a mirror in a full moon night you'll be sealed away in the world of darkness forever. Mamoru being a sophisticated gentleman identifies it as an old European Legend.

I get that this is foreshadowing for the arc, very clear and obvious foreshadowing for what is to come, but that would be a horrible bedtime story. What little girl would wanna go to sleep after hearing THAT?

Usagi, frightened at the prospect, proclaims she's never looking at mirrors at nighttime again, hurrying under the covers. Chibiusa has already fallen into calm sleep causing Mamoru to comment to her sleeping form that he guesses she's the mature one here. Mamoru and Usagi both tuck Chibiusa in a bit more, and pat her head in parental displays of affection. Meanwhile the dark mirror in the room is emphasized to the reader.

We cut back to the Dead Moon Circus tent and to our villains this arc. An old seemingly non-human woman who names herself as Zirconia summons to her side her familiar, a flying eyeball called Zircon that can catch fire. She complains in stereotypical old person fashion that the light of day hurts her eyes and she's been waiting for the cover of night, but that unless their circus is a bit hit, she won't be able to sleep well either. Once again we see a surrealist contrast. This woman is complaining about mundane old person things, while holding a flying fiery eyeball. 

Zirconia addresses her minions, the Amazoness Quartet. Despite Zirconia calling herself their leader, they are noticeably disrespectful to her responding with "We heard ya, you old hag." The quartet explain that they're going to seal up all the entrances, so that no one can escape their big show or interfere, one of them using a magic orb to do so.

The Amazoness Quartet are a fairly popular villain group in the Sailor Moon fandom, partially because a lot of Naoko's villains are straightforward evil destroyers or conquerors. The Quartet aren't either and while technically affiliated and just a bunch of childish brats. The closest comparison would be Black Lady, but Black Lady was the spoilt brat archetype, the Quartet are the mean-spirited pranksters. They're also popular for another thing seen later.

We cut back to Mamoru's place where all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Chibiusa sleeps soundly, when she hears someone calling for the "young maiden" in her dreams. The pegasus appears in Chibiusa's dreams calling her a young maiden before, to the delight of the young girls reading at home, taking her on a magical night flight through the city in her dreams.

This "whole new world" sequence is interrupted when Chibiusa notices a section of the city is unusually dark and asks the pegasus why that part of the city is so dark when the rest of the city is so bright. To Chibiusa's shock, the pegasus tells her that's the area they were just in, the Juuban shopping area.

The pegasus tells Chibiusa his name is Helios and gives her a bell to call him when she needs him. He tells her that he will need her strength soon to save "Elysion." Elysion is a reference to the Greek Mythological afterlife for Heroes.

Chibiusa sees Helios trapped in a cage and begin to fade away as the dream comes to an end, she also briefly sees her parents. Obviously including a dream sequence that also is meant to be the continuation of the plot is another example of creating a surreal atmosphere, it's almost the textbook example of it. Though Chibiusa initially thinks it was just a dream, she finds the bell Helios gave her confirming it was real.

Usagi and Mamoru awaken and realize that they both dreamed the same thing, dreamed of Chibiusa riding around on Helios, meaning that all three of them had the same dream. In the same way the third arc had a lot of emphasis on the Senshi having the same heart, the same motive, the fourth arc will make much of the Senshi having the same dream, the same goal, and this is the first narrative example, more literal than usual. 

Mamoru doubles over from a pain in his chest, though he attempts to dismiss Usagi's fears by saying that it's just a temporary pain coming from college drinking parties. Usagi looks unconvinced but is distracted by a note from Chibiusa saying she's gone to the future.

We cut to Chibiusa running to the park to time travel, a concerned Diana on her head. Chibiusa comments to herself that she doesn't really wanna go home and while getting out the time key, finds the bell. She wonders why she got on him so easily despite not knowing if he's friend or foe. She thinks of his serious pleading eyes calling for her help. Her thoughts shift first to her mother excited for the day she would become a true Sailor Senshi and return home. She looks in Neptune's mirror recalling what Neptune said to her wondering if she truly is an elegant Sailor Senshi, and whether it's time for her to leave. 

Her contemplations prove fruitless as when she tries to time travel, she runs across one of the seals the Quartet placed and is stopped

The attempt shocks Chibiusa, both physically and mentally. Usagi and Mamoru show up only to be alarmed by what happened. Chibiusa sees a vision of the pegasus again, asking for her power. This could metaphorically be her responsibility calling out to her and not leaving her conscience. Chibiusa tells Usagi and Mamoru that even though she couldn't travel through time, she's unharmed and that she thinks the pegasus needs her help. Meanwhile, one of the Amazoness Quartet, Palla Palla, senses that someone tried to break one of their seals, and another one of them, Ves Ves, uses her whip to call a circus tiger to her side.

We cut back to our heroes and after a page basically re-expositing what we already know, with the only new information being Usagi doesn't fully trust the pegasus, they notice a tiger is on the loose and causing havoc. You'd think this could be a problem for the police to solve, but I guess the police just got used to the Sailor Senshi dealing with everything for them. Mamoru gets bogged down by the pain in his chest while Usagi and Chibiusa go to stop the tiger.

In a... kinda bizarre sequence...Usagi and Chibiusa first find that they can't transform into their Sailor Senshi forms, only for the Holy Grails to appear. Usagi notes that they can't transform into their super forms because it required the unity of the Sailor Senshi and the Outer Senshi aren't there... only for Usagi and Chibiusa to almost instantly transform with a new power arising within them due to the "need to fight."

This might seem like the biggest deus ex machina in the entire series and...granted it might be. But there is KIND OF an explanation for it. Back when Chibiusa was first describing the Holy Grail the way she explained it was that in times of the greatest crisis, the Holy Grail would grant Sailor Moon a stronger power. The third arc sort of leads you to believe that the power Sailor Moon gets from the unity of the Sailor Senshis' hearts is that power, however, the fourth arc is basically saying that there are actually two separate power sources, both of which are strong enough to change the Senshi into their Super Forms; the "unity" power and the "crisis" power. 

But the bizarre-ness doesn't stop there. The Super Sailor Senshi round the corner to stop the tiger only to run into the Amazoness Quartet, Palla Palla summoning "lemures" to fight for her from the darkness. Lemures in Roman Mythology were the restless spirits of the dead, but in Sailor Moon, they're dark orbs with "scary" faces that are the representations of nightmares.

Though a lot of this is basically unexplained, it almost has to be in this case. Naoko doesn't explain a lot of elements of her world-building, but here it's very deliberately so because as the old idea goes, the scariest thing is the unknown, it's what your mind can imagine. The Lemure are deliberately devoid of details in both explanation and appearance, much like a lot of things about the Dead Moon Circus, so your brain will fill in the details in the worst possible way.

 The Lemure attack Super Moon and Super Chibi-Moon, and though they bat them away, they lack any weapons to actually hurt them. Chibi-Moon uses the bell to summon Helios, the pegasus to her side. Helios summons their kaleidoscopes from earlier which are imbued with the Super Senshis' powers to become magical weapons and also....gain.... consciousness? 

It amazes me that I never hear anyone talk about this part. Yeah, it's weird, obscure, and doesn't come back up but that just makes it seem more conversation-worthy in my eyes. Where did this come from? Is this just another way from Naoko of making things seem surreal? I can't think of any other reason for this plot point to just suddenly be there.

With their new weapons, Super Moon and Super Chibi-Moon use the new attack of the arc, Moon Gorgeous Meditation. One thing I will definitely give this arc is it has on average my favorite attacks for the Senshi of any arc. The Quartet teleport away in fear and... I guess the tiger is also teleported away? Mamoru finally catches up to them but collapses much to Moon and Chibi-Moon's worry. Helios briefly shows up and the nearly unconscious Mamoru comments that he sounds familiar...

Back with the villains, Zirconia comments in annoyance and fear that the great light they faced must mean the people of the Moon Kingdom have been reincarnated, She angrily yells at the Quartet to stop messing around with flashy tricks, that the queen, Nehelenia, is angry. 

Zirconia exposits to the Quartet about the White Moon Kingdom, implying she was around during the time of the kingdom but the Quartet were not. She explains that they have the infinite power of the holy stone (The Silver Crystal), and immortal bodies. Because of that, if they attack head-on, the Senshi will blow them away. As such, they must infiltrate slowly if they want to take the planet. This is a different dynamic than normal. Usually in this type of story, the villains are stronger, but here the villains outright acknowledge they are weaker and that they'll get crushed in a direct fight. 

Zirconia goes and begins speaking to a mirror, commenting she wants to know of the horse that came to the Senshi's aid. Meanwhile, the Quartet begin complaining to each other, with Jun-Jun complaining that the "old hag" said she could do whatever she wanted, but is now telling her what she can do. Cere-Cere says she agrees with the hag, they only just got there, they should take advantage and have a little fun. Palla-Palla agrees, saying she wants to find out what kind of town this is and what kind of people are here. Ves-Ves gets an idea from this and gets three of their circus animals; a hawk, a fish, and the previously seen tiger. Palla-Palla uses her magical orb on them, turning them into the miniboss squad known as the Amazon Trio.

I have to be honest, I think this was perhaps a bit of a mistake on Naoko's fault. She's already introduced enough villains for this arc and is clearly struggling to express different personalities for the quartet given how their previous discussion didn't clearly differentiate their personalities and now she's just throwing in three more disposable villains. Also just to clarify; Naoko has made it apparent that the Amazon Trio are all male in the manga, even if one is a crossdresser. While the anime potentially made Fisheye transgender, in the manga, there's no indication Fisheye is female so I use male pronouns for manga Fisheye.

Ves-Ves gives their new minions their mission; they're gonna bring their lemure across town so that they can do what nightmare clumps love to do; eat beautiful bright dreams. She explains this is for the purpose of filling the town with dark dreams instead... because of course that explains it. That's a natural goal to just accept. The Amazon Trio express their understanding in ways to give slight understanding to their personality, with Tiger's Eye mentioning wanting to be an artist, Hawk-Eye teasing Ves-Ves by calling her their "big sister" before clarifying she's not old, and Fish Eye giving a comedic yell at the end of his declaration he will work really hard.

The quartet gather together to look into the dreams of their enemies where Usagi and Chibiusa are expressing the opposite sentiment of what they explained earlier with Usagi stating she has to be strong and mature and Chibiusa in fear expressing she doesn't mind being a kid, that she needs more training. Palla-Palla comments that throughout history the words of people contradict what they desire and while Usagi and Chibiusa fret over Mamoru, Palla-Palla uses her magic orb to reverse their ages.

I think Naoko does a generally good job of using her first act of each arc to express what the arc is going to be like, with the sole exception really being the first arc. With that said I'm not especially fond of this act, not necessarily because of its content but how long it is, and broadly unnecessarily so. This act is the same length as the first act of the third arc but that act was a slow burn building up the atmosphere around the Outer Senshi and the daimon and didn't actually contain that many plot points. This act actually contains a LOT of plot points. It introduces Zirconia, all the Quartet, the Amazon Trio, basically reintroduces Helios and his plot thread, has an episodic fight, has exposition on the mirror universe, has exposition on the eclipse, has a whole bunch of character moments, introduced the conflict for next chapter with two scenes devoted to it, etc. If you compare the section where I go over Act 27 it's 3,373 words, compared to this act's at 4,305 and that's because there were so many more plot elements I had to describe. I feel like this could have been better if Naoko had divided it into two acts.

Going into the actual content of the act, Act 39 is a general set-up for the Dream Arc, the same way 15 and 27 were for the Black Moon and Mugen Arcs, introducing the major elements and atmosphere. It's a surreal act with really strange things happening all over; but not arbitrarily strange. Everything that happens are either elements common in children's stories specifically or a creepy subversion of the prior. This arc is about Chibiusa's struggle to become a full Sailor Senshi, and in the same way that the Mugen Arc was about the mature, cynical Outer Senshi causing the arc to be dark and maturely sophisticated, this causes the Dream Arc to adopt a lot childish imagery either to play it straight or to subvert it to reflect a child's development.

I'm not very much a fan of this act's content, by Sailor Moon standards at least, because it just feels less than the sum of its parts. The same way Act 1 was filled with symbolism, Act 15 was filled with life, and Act 27 was filled with intrigue, Act 39 is filled with ideas. And it's not even necessarily that the ideas don't come together, because they do all support the surrealist atmosphere Naoko is going for. Things do indeed feel-dream like. It's that the overall results feel like less than the sum of its parts. This act includes some really cool ideas; the eclipse, Helios taking Chibiusa through the dream world, the Quartet sealing up the entrances, Zirconia acknowledging they're outclassed in a straight fight, Lemure being nightmares incarnated, the Senshis' weapons coming to life, yet in spite of the large size of the act, none of these individual ideas are given much focus. As a result, you don't know what here is especially important, as it doesn't seem to focus on anything else. That's a broad way I would describe a lot of the arc; it's atmospheric and is full of ideas, but it lacks a clear narrative focus for much of it.

That's obviously not to say the act is without redeeming factors, just that it's not one of my favorite SM acts. This act introduces a lot of the relatively unique aspects of the Dream Act; villains like the Quartet without much paralleling, more playful powers that aren't just insta-win buttons, the simple but beautiful childish imageries of things like flying on a magical pegasus and more. There's also a lot of cute interactions between the Lunar family and I especially liked the moment where Palla-Palla proclaims that for all of history, people have said the opposite of what they wanted for being a very archetypal line. And of course, I like the sequence of Chibiusa flying on Helios through the dream world, it's a sequence that's in most versions of Sailor Moon that reach the Dream Arc, because it's such an iconic sequence that captures what the Dream Arc can do at it's best; iconic imagery that carries the potential beauty of childish simplicity, unmoored in unnecessary complication. 

Probably the best part of the act and the part that hits most in the mutual protective love between Usagi and Mamoru have for Chibiusa and her admiration of them, her parents. In the highly surrealist world made by this act, it's the most grounded relatable aspect. However, the worst aspect of the act is probably a sheer lack of narrative focus. Surrealism is not really my taste, but even beyond that I don't like the meandering feel of the act. In both aspects; this act is like a child; sweetly innocent, filled with infinite potential, but shifting in identity and concerns from moment to moment, hard to keep up with. How much you like it, I imagine depends on how much you value that childishness.