Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 37 Review

 

The battle with Mistress 9 resumes with Super Moon and Chibi-Moon doing a combined energy blast on Mistress 9. Unfortunately Mistress 9's daimon body just absorbs the energy from the blast and continues to grow even though it seems like she's in massive agony from either it or being unprotected in an alien dimension.

Usagi, being the excellent tactician that she is basically tells Chibiusa that the solution is for them to shoot even more power at her to blow her to bits. There's several pages showing all the Guardian Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen all trying to contribute and add their power in as well in a bigger blast. This also however does next to nothing as she just continues to absorb energy...almost like shooting energy at an energy-absorbing alien was NOT a good strategy.

Meanwhile Pharaoh 90 is also absorbing the energy from, I guess the parts that are going to the sides of Mistress 9 from the energy blast? He says that now that he's begun assimilating into the planet, he's invincible. Because...um....They don't wanna destroy the planet? He's stronger now that he's merging with the Earth? It's not actually clear. Naoko doesn't do complex fight choreography a lot and, as a result, it gets a little confusing what's actually happening in some of these fights.

Pharaoh 90's confidence halts when he realizes he's running into a forcefield, the one the Outer Senshi deployed. Uranus and Pluto tell him they won't let him leave the delta region and this will be his grave, though while he's surprised he's not impressed and brings the Tau Nebula itself there, showing them it through some kind of portal. Pharaoh 90 gloats that he's going to merge their world with the Earth to create a new homeworld.

Meanwhile Super Chibi-Moon runs out of stamina and collapses falling from the sky. It's a bit weird given the Silver Crystal is supposed to give infinite stamina though I'll have an explanation with the events next arc. Tuxedo Kamen catches the falling Chibi-Moon. Meanwhile Mistress 9 sacrifices herself for Pharaoh 90 as his partner, causing darkness to flood from her head as she falls and is assimilated into Pharaoh 90.

Once again, this isn't bad at all. It's cool imagery and atmospheric but some of the stuff that happens is kind of confusing. It's not really explained why Mistress 9's head just sort of bursts into darkness. That kind of thing can be fine, something unexplained in a science-fantasy story for atmosphere, but here some of the elements just feel like it's a bit hard to tell what's going on. 

Mistress 9 is assimilated back into Pharaoh 90 who starts turning pitch black. My guess is this is meant to represent the blood of the Daimon, empowering Pharaoh 90. The forcefield falters and is overcome as Pharaoh 90 is empowered by Mistress 9 as the Outer Senshi collapse from exertion. Pharaoh 90 instantly grows to encompassing a significant fraction of the Earth turning it into a black lava smelling of death, Presumably this is what the worlds the Daimon come from are like and I do think it's cool just how alien it feels.

Super Sailor Moon and the Guardian Senshi try to blast the black lava but once again it does nothing as Pharaoh 90 just absorbs the energy, turning it into more of its darkness. The Guardian Senshi collapse from the exertion as Tuxedo Kamen and the Outer Senshi rush to their sides.

Super Sailor Moon floats alone, the sole fighter left with power. However she thinks to herself that everyone's power isn't gone yet. She's Super Sailor Moon, she has everyone's power within her, evidenced by her Super Form. 

Super Moon resolves herself to fight with everyone's power, to show Pharaoh 90 "all" of her strength and summons the Holy Grail to her side. She asks the Holy Grial to fill her with the ultimate power of the Nine Sailor Senshi. Looking at her in worry, Tuxedo Kamen asks her what she's planning to do and she gives him only a resigned smile.

Before plunging directly towards Pharaoh 90, to the horror of everyone.

Super Moon declares that she's going to release the power of the Silver Crystal and Holy Grail within their enemies. She enters Pharaoh 90's form which warps and distorts briefly...before returning to normal, and it seems all hope is lost. The Silver Crystal, which is the solution to all other final bosses in the series...has failed.

Or has it?

A great light emerges and the talisman begin to shine together. Usagi's plan becomes apparent, she was not trying to destroy Pharaoh 90 with the Silver Crystal but to awaken an ally thought lost. The black mark on Mistress 9's head is shot through with light, and emerging from Pharaoh 90 she finally appears, awoken. The Harbinger of Death, the Soldier of Silence, Sailor Saturn.

This sequence is the true climax to the third arc, and is rightfully amazing and one of its most memorable moments. It's an extended sequence for this manga, given an immense amount of gravitas, similar to the awakening of Usagi to her identity in Act 9 which is fitting for a Senshi that is treated as a reverse messiah to her. Sailor Saturn's specter has hung over everyone the whole arc, in dreams of doom, visions of destruction, energies charged with death. The Guardian Senshi, the Outer Senshi, and the Daimon all in turn have acted under the immense presence caused by the coming of the Messiah of Silence. And like all messianic appearances, the truth of their characters was revealed by their reactions to this emergence. Throughout this entire arc, the Daimon and the Outer Senshi have both been fixiated on death, on the Grim Reaper, on Sailor Saturn. The Daimon are associated with life, with nature overgrown past natural boundaries, seeking eternal life even at the expensive of others, stealing the vitality from them to escape the reaper. The Outer Senshi on the other hand have sought to make what can only be said to be a sacrifice to Death, to kill the innocent to save all, in their philosophy of "kill or be killed." 

But while both the Daimon and the Outer Senshi were focused on Sailor Saturn and her Scythe of Death, Usagi was focused on Hotaru, the innocent girl. Usagi focuses not on death, but on life. She is not willing to sacrifice a single innocent soul the way the Outer Senshi are, but is also willing to sacrifice herself as she demonstrates, showing in neither direction a slavery to death, but instead a willingness to metaphorically and nigh-literally put her trust in Death, because she sees her not as her role but as the person she is. Usagi's greatest strength as a person is her ability to read and reach the hearts of others, her empathy. It is through this power that she was able to unite the power of the Senshi together through understanding their true selves; seeing their insecurities and longings for companionship that gave her the power as Super Sailor Moon to dive into Pharaoh 90 and awaken Sailor Saturn, and at the same time it is that same empathy that gives her trust in Hotaru that metaphorically, EMOTIONALLY gives the her the ability to do that same thing. It is an example of Naoko's hybridization of the physical events of the story and the emotional events of the story, having Usagi's ability to gather people together through trust and empathy giving her the ability to reach someone no one else thought too, let her defeat the seemingly undefeatable enemy not by overcoming her but by putting her trust in her and that faith being rewarded.

The other Senshi are in despair at the apparent death of Usagi. Sailor Saturn meanwhile surveys the situation and comments it doesn't seem so long ago she was summoned last, but it seems she's always the unwelcome guest.

It's one of Sailor Saturn's most famous lines, because it so perfectly shows her character. Completely cool and composed in the face of the apocalypse, treating and casually tackling it like her job, yet sadly and tragically always alone from being the living apocalypse killer. 

Sailor Saturn goes into a bit of an exposition sequence though as she does she starts hitting Pharaoh 90 with her weapon, the Silence Glaive which drains away his power causing him to yell in pain. It's both hilarious and awesome that Sailor Saturn beat the big bad of the third arc so casually she can explain what was going on to the other Senshi while doing so. Sailor Saturn explains history seems to have gone off-course, that Hotaru Tomoe was supposed to die, to never awaken as the awakening of Sailor Saturn would have been too much for that fragile body.

However Professor Tomoe, with aid of the invaders from the other dimension vesselized her body to preserve her, keeping the spirit of Sailor Saturn trapped. She comments in wonder that they, were all drawn there, to the Omega Area where the passage to the other world was opening. That great energies gathered there.

And with these great energies, the path to destruction was brought forth. Fate has led them all to this, now that she has awoken Sailor Saturn must fulfill her sacred duty as a Sailor Senshi, to lower her Silence Glaive.

Sailor Saturn is ironically herself an Outer Senshi. She puts her responsibilities above all else, prioritizing her sacred duties as a Sailor Senshi above all else, though for her this duty is taken to the logical extreme. The Outer Senshi yell for her not too, that this will be the end of all things, with Uranus asking furiously why would this be what fate wants?

But of course, they can't stop her. They said it themselves. They are powerless before death itself. Sailor Saturn uses an attack called Death Reborn Revolution, summoning dark ribbons from her Silence Glaive that apparent emanates an immense "negative aura." This is a really fun, cool, and logical solution to getting around Pharaoh 90's powers. Negative Energy is a concept in physics. Here it is a space where adding energy would create a vacuum, an area of net 0 energy. Sailor Saturn, being the METAL Senshi, has a negative aura. Pharaoh 90 was invulnerable because it absorbed energy used against it, but absorbing negative energy would diminish it, after all adding a negative to a positive only results in lowering the positive.

Pharaoh 90 then hilariously realizes that the great energy they felt in the Omega Area, the one they sought out to replenish their dying energy, the one he felt from a different dimension and pursued that they wondered if it was trapping them...it was Sailor Saturn's dormant energy.

That was her sleeping! Pharaoh 90, this cosmic space blob that assimilated all energy and was the world soul of another dimension that was going to replace the world-soul of the Earth, infecting it into an alien world sought an immense cosmic energy only to find it was the sleeping energy of Saturn. That's right, Sailor Saturn cosmic horror story-ed a cosmic horror!

Sailor Saturn begins pulling Pharaoh 90 off the ground and towards the portal to the Tau dimension, causing everyone to be shocked at how strong she is. However Sailor Saturn reveals she still has to lower the Silence Glaive, ending the world. Everyone reacts in fear and shock, Chibi-Moon hiding in Tuxedo Kamen's chest, Tuxedo Kamen thinking it's hopeless they're all doomed, and Uranus proclaiming this is the end they were scared off as she desperately yells for Sailor Moon.

Notice how Uranus despite all their conflicts, despite being the cynical one to Usagi's idealism, still believes in her and calls for her in their final moments.

The act ends with Sailor Saturn lowering the Silence Glaive.

Act 37 is generally a very good act. Sailor Saturn herself is perfect and her arrival was something both dreaded and which needed to happen ever since she was first foreshadowed. As a character she has an immense presence and manages to be funny, scary, saddening and wholesome all at the same time with lines like "wherever I go, I'm always the unexpected guest..." that pained self-aware knowledge that she only shows up when things are bleak and only to make them worse. She's also just awesome. Sailor Saturn is maybe in my top 3 Sailor Moon characters. Her first appearance is the climax to an arc where she cosmic horrors a cosmic horrors. She's incredibly evocative as the Soldier of Death, the Messiah of Silence, complete with her own verse of the Grim Reaper's Scythe in her glaive. It's connected to the scythe used by the Harvest God Saturn, the possible precursor to Death's scythe, a tool used to prune and harvest excess life represented by the Daimon. 

If this act has any weaknesses it's that it doesn't have that much things that actually happen compared to most acts, especially most climactic acts, and the fact that Naoko's not the best at fight choreography. Fight choreography is clearly not that interesting to Naoko as her fights tend to be very short and basically be "I am stronger so I win" or "I have broken ability so I win." Some sequences are kind of long and don't change anything in the act. Not that they're too long or anything, the parts where the Senshi try to attack Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90 with their energy or Saturn appears don't drag or anything, but especially given it's already a bit on the shorter side for a climactic SM act, it does mean there's just not a lot of actual things that happen. It's mostly the Senshi being unable to overcome Pharaoh 90's energy-draining, which is set-up for why they need Saturn, Super Sailor Moon sacrificing herself to summon Saturn, and then Saturn fighting Pharaoh 90 revealing she's still has to perform her duty to end the world. The first part is fine, maybe a bit confusing, and latter two parts are both good but don't really require much explanation.

This act also has several good small points sprinkled in. I enjoy how Pharaoh 90 transmuted the world into something more alien and otherworldly really giving the feel of what it's doing. I love Saturn's famous line of how she always feels like the uninvited guest. I enjoy the way Uranus shouting for Sailor Moon shows she really did have faith in her as much as she tried to deny it. I think the art, especially on Saturn is top notch for Naoko's art.

The two biggest strengths of the act are the great scene with Saturn defeating Pharaoh 90 and the scene of Usagi plunging into Pharaoh 90 with everyone's power, putting her faith in Saturn. The first one is the one of the top tier in the arc; a scene basically introducing how awesome Saturn is, that's abstractly hilarious as it is really cool, seeing her defeat a cosmic horror with her dark magic themed powers. Her using negative energy is a really cool sensical way of beating an energy-absorbing enemy, and the fact that Pharaoh 90 realizes that the giant energy the Daimons were pursuing, the dormant energy of the holy land, the Omega delta, was really just Sailor Saturn's sleeping energy was fantastic. The Super Sailor Moon scene is pretty nice from a thematic standpoint. It's showing her living out the ideal she's been expressing to the Outer Senshi all arc, showing her full commitment to it. Unlike both the daimon and the Outer Senshi, she does not fear the reaper, and instead is able to put her trust in her.

Overall I don't think it's quite as good as last act, not because it has anything wrong about it or it's good points are significantly worse, but just because it has less stuff in it in general, though it's still on average a great act.