Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 46 Review

 

After an adorable title page showing the lunar family sleeping in a big bed with Diana snuggled up to Mamoru, the act begins with Usagi sleeping say she feels like she's sleeping next to Mamoru. However when she awakens it's clear something is...a little off. She awakens as a little kid and finds a little Mamoru standing over her. This little Mamoru is super affectionate, kissing her, making her favorite breakfast, and doing all her homework for her.

It's really adorable and it combines two elements from earlier in the arc. We know that Usagi's dream according to Haruka is a sweet domestic life surrounded by people she loves and we also know that at the start of the arc she was envious of Chibiusa's physical age as people don't expect much of you and you don't have much responsibilities.

Usagi comments that this must be a dream as she and Mamoru walk to school but Mamoru helpfully points out that's silly, you can't walk and dream at the same time which is....so good as a statement. It's funny, and it's got that weird dream logic. It's also symbolic since most of the arc is about comparing the dazes we get into as we walk around in a world of material desires are just dreams. Chibi-Mamoru says his dream is to walk to school with Usagi like this, to spoil her and give her everything she wants.

Usagi knows something is off about this, that while this Mamoru is sweet, the real Mamoru was level-headed, and would never just do her homework for her. Chibi-Mamoru says what Usagi wants, or think she wants him to say, that his dream is just to marry her and asks Chibi-Usagi her dream.

I love this sequence. It's obviously adorable and funny on the surface but it also is really interesting thematically. There's a motif in fairy tales of the witch offering candy and a gingerbread house to lure hungry children in. Why? Because you have to teach children that if someone is just offering you nothing but nice things that's because they have secretly wicked motives. For children, this could obviously be abductors but even for adults people that never tell you anything but sweet words don't really have your best interest in mind; they're idolizing you, or they trying to lure you into a cult, or they're trying to get something from you. One of the preconditions of something being real, of any relationship being real is that, on occasion, challenges you, doesn't tell you you're perfect exactly how you are but instead challenges you to improve yourself. That's not something that comes naturally to someone like Usagi or...to my admission...myself. It's easy to want to live in a world without strain or struggle, but if someone loves you then they will, even if rarely, ask you to improve yourself. This Chibi-Mamoru is sweet and cute and everything Usagi might think she wants Mamoru to be, but this isn't the Mamoru Usagi fell in love with, the Endymion Serenity fell in love with, the Earth Sailor Moon fell in love with. It doesn't brim with potential and adventure and something that makes her want to be stronger and braver to protect him. It also connects once again to the theme of the arc. Usagi's material dream might be to live forever in peace and comfort, to have everything done for her so she can laze about, but she can't even in her dream say that's what she truly wants because her true dream is something deeper.

Usagi awakens in the darkness and comedically gets annoyed as the dream was so perfect and why did she have to wake up. Mamoru and Helios are there, Mamoru immediately asking if Usagi's alright and Usagi wondering what's going on, didn't they de-age from Zirconia's magic? Helios tells her to be quiet, they're hiding from Nehelenia's minions. He tells them in hushed tones they're in Elysion, though it's overrun by nightmares, and he used its purification powers to restore them to normal, and he wants to take them to the shrine. Usagi and Mamoru marvel at the horrific nightmare-scape that has become of Elysion.

Helios tells that this darkness across the land of Elysion is the black rose of the curse manifesting in Mamoru and his chests, before leading the two of them to the temple. There he shows them two priestesses of Elysion called the Maenads who are trapped away in crystal. The Maenads are some of the most minor of minor characters in Sailor Moon and I don't really know why they were added as it feels like a random detail. My best guess is they were a detail Naoko meant to develop into something more extensive later but I had no idea what it could be. The name itself doesn't help as in mythology the Maenads were the female followers of Dionysius which doesn't seem to connect to anything in this arc or the series as a whole. Maybe there's some connection between the arc's theme of dreams and their drunken sense of unawareness that the Maenads were said to be have, but the dreams referenced in the the Dream Arc are all sort of passive, they're material dreams one reaches after forgetting their true purpose and mistaking them for ones greater ambitions, while the drunken unconscious of the Maenads was characterized with violent passion, to the extent of tearing people to bits. So this is one of the most mysterious details in Sailor Moon, and I really struggle to know what Naoko's purpose here was. 

Helios tells the the crystals are a type of purifier used to try and combat the creeping darkness, and that the Maenads were sealed in sleep to protect them from the curse. Mamoru comments that this place seems so familiar and Helios confirms that this is where Endymion's family ruled from, the site of the Golden Kingdom. Helios mentions that though he and Endymion never actually met in his past life, he knews their wishes were as one. He then comments that similarly Endymion and Serenity were drawn to each other because they hold the same wish. That even though they were never supposed to communicate with each other as Prince of the Earth and Princess of the Moon, the two of them shared the same mission, the same powers, the same heart, the same soul. 

This is Usagi and Mamoru's relation expressed through the themes of the Dream Arc. Though their external personalities and material dreams are so different, their true dreams are the same and in love, they are united, which of course ties into the main theme of the series, the ennobling power of love in general. I think it's a beautiful sentiment, and it's what I would wish for any relationship, that the lovers have the same mission, the same heart, the same soul, such that even beings worlds apart can't separate them as they move towards the same dream.

Mamoru asks what he means about them having the same mission and powers, and Helios tells him the Silver Millennium protected the Earth from without and the Golden Kingdom protected the Earth from the threats from within, which is an interesting bit of worldbuilding to suggest the two are equal in scope. This mission is represented in their crystals, the silver crystal and heirloom of the Silver Millennium, and the Golden Crystal, heirloom of the Golden Kingdom.

Helios takes Usagi and Mamoru to the tower of prayer, the heart of the temple where he offered up prayers for the surface world and received revelations. This is where a revelation had appeared to in the silhouette of a woman giving him the prophecy he told to them earlier.

I know some people don't like "prophecy" type plots, though this is a very non-offensive version as the prophecy is not a major point of the arc, mostly serves to ship Helios and Chibiusa and to inform Helios that either Usagi or Chibiusa is the one that can help him. Usagi asks Helios where the Golden Crystal is right now. Helios, however, responds that nobody knows, it could be Elysion or elsewhere but since Usagi had already unlocked her Crystal, she should be able to find it.

I absolutely love this next page. Usagi is known for her empathy, her ability to relate to others. She remembers where the Silver Crystal was for her, and, grabbing Mamoru excitedly, tells him the Golden Crystal is inside him. Afterall, the Silver Crystal was inside her in the Dark Kingdom Arc. 

Usagi references all the past times Mamoru has filled her with power, suggesting that power was the Golden Crystal, and the connection between their crystals. This also explains some of the points in the series where events that impacted one of them, did the other. Usagi says to Mamoru before she woke up she had a dream. Her dream is to protect this planet with him so that everyone can be happy. Mamoru smiles and embraces Usagi, saying his dream is also to protect this planet with her, and Usagi is overjoyed that their dreams are the same. 

I love their relationship so much. Even though they have material lives and personalities and dreams that run so contrary, just as how in their past lives they lived even in different worlds, their souls, the true dreams are the same and so love will always unite them. This moment recontextualizes a lot of moments earlier in the series in a way that makes a lot of sense. Usagi and Mamoru's power are the same, because their Crystals are connected and call out for each other. When Mamoru was injured in the Dark Kingdom Arc, the Silver Crystal left Usagi through her will and entered into him to heal him, called to the Golden Crystal's side. In the second arc when Sailor Moon and Death Phantom's battle sent them far into space, Tuxedo Kamen was drawn to them, because the Golden Crystal is called to the Silver Crystal's side. I love the way that, just how Naoko connected the Silver Crystal with Usagi's internal sense of self so that her growth in power could reflect her character development, she makes the connection between Usagi and Mamoru both literally and metaphorically both their power so that as their relationship develops, so too can their ability to protect the world together can develop. 

Their lovey moment is interrupted when Usagi notices Helios' body locked away in a cage nearby. She goes to try and free him but gets electrocuted for her troubles by the same electricity used on Helios earlier. Nehelenia notices her trap being interfered with and comments some mice must have gotten in, steeping through a mirror to go down to Elysion.

Usagi comes face-to-face with the final villain of the, which still happened faster than any of the others arc relatively speaking outside maybe the second if you think Wiseman counts as Death Phantom. Usagi defies Nehelenia before Usagi and Mamoru shine the Silver and Golden Crystals at Nehelenia whose repulsed by the light. This is a weird recurring trait of the Dream Arc which is that the villains aren't actually that strong compared to our heroes and rely on tricks against them. I don't know if there's anything thematic about that. Something something "villains are relying on illusions" something something "in fairy tales the witch uses illusions" something something "dreams are ephemeral and less real." Helios to protect Usagi and Mamoru teleport them back up to the surface while Nehelenia attacks Helios.

Helios yells to Usagi and Mamoru that they should be able to resist the nightmares on the surface now, presumably due to Mamoru unlocking the Golden Crystal. Nehelenia is mad. 

Back on the surface, Usagi and Mamoru teleport back in...where the Sailor Senshi are all still gathered in the circle they were in when Usagi and Mamoru were teleported to Elysion by Helios. This it the time problem I mentioned last act in that it seems like the Senshi have just not moved for at least several minutes, likely longer. I suppose you could say something like it's a result of time being warped and that time moves in dreams or whatnot, but if that was the intent I don't think it was communicated very well, it just seems like Naoko didn't want to write what the Senshi were doing in the meantime. Usagi and Mamoru transform together.

The Outer Senshi quickly tell Sailor Moon that Chibi-Moon and Saturn ran off into the jungle, with apparently no one going with them or trying to stop them, while Zirconia tells Nehelenia that with Elysion's defenses weakened she can attack Elysion while Zirconia handles the Senshi. 

Zirconia causes plants to start overgrowing the city and, possibly related, causing the air to become much hotter and suffocating so they can barely breath, made worse by the fact that it's exasperating Usagi and Mamoru's sickness. That is a bit confusing since earlier Helios said if they unlocked the Golden Crystal it would break the curse but...they just did that. Everyone starts collapsing from the burning suffocating air around them and Helios gives the last of Elysion's power to purify the surface. This however causes him to collapse, saying goodbyes to Mamoru and Chibiusa.

Once again, dramatically this is trying to make you think Helios has possibly died, but that literally can't be the case because of the lore the arc establishes earlier. Helios, Mamoru, Elysion, and the Earth are connected. So if Helios had died, we would think Mamoru would be dead, and possibly the Earth too. Zirconia reiterates that Helios' power has finally given out and Usagi gets teary-eyed thinking about him, once again supporting that dramatically we're supposed to think Helios died, yet he objectively can't have. 

Then Zirconia shows in Kaiju size and shoots a blast through Usagi and Mamoru's chests, causing everyone to cry out in fear...which is basically just a repetition of the past one act ago where Zirconia attacked Usagi and Mamoru. Sure it's a different spell but narratively...why?

Act 46 is a really good act and a big improvement over the last act. Like most of the Dream Arc, it's basically got 2/3rds of the act devoted to one thing, the focus of the act, and then one-third progressing what I can only call the arc's general story. Often one of the act's parts will be better and in this case, the first two-thirds of the act are noticeably better than the last third.

The first two-third of this act are great, one of the highlights of the Dream Arc in general. Actually going to Elysion is really interesting, even if we don't see very much of it. But moreover this part is about Usagi and Mamoru's relationship which is my favorite in all of fiction and seamlessly connects it to the themes of the arc as well as developing Mamoru's character and progressing the main plot of the arc AND providing a new context for past actions. That's a lot of things to do at once, and the scene of Mamoru learning about and unlocking the Golden Crystal does all of them in a beautifully elegant way. It's one of the things that makes me think Naoko had a lot of things about her world or where she wanted the series to go thought out even back during the first arc as we do see times where Usagi and Mamoru are treated as mysteriously connected that this Golden Crystal actually explains. Crucially it doesn't take away from those moments either, Usagi and Mamoru's love is still the real catalyst for Usagi's growth in those moments, this is just providing an explanation on the internal mechanics such that it can also be used to grow Mamoru as well and progress the Dream Arc. There's a little bit of a contention I might have with the fact that once again, it's kind of the same character arc Mamoru already had in the second arc, but that was already introduced earlier in the Dream Arc so that's not really this act's fault. 

I also love the sequence of Usagi's dream of her and Mamoru having a cute innocent relationship as children in so many ways. First of all, it's absolutely adorable and funny at points. Little Usagi and Little Mamoru are both really cute and my favorite type of cute I would say is taking something normal and then making a smaller version of it. The sequence I think expresses a really good and important morale that is somehow both one of the oldest morals we have dating back to fairy tales, yet also not told often enough and is important for people to understand. If someone offers perfection, they're the metaphorical witch offering the candy house to children. Wanting you to remain exactly as you are isn't "loving you for who you are" because true love while it does have an element of acceptance, also contains an element of wanting to someone grow towards being the best they can be. Usagi may say and think she wants Mamoru to do everything for her, and I relate strongly, on some level it would be nice to be pampered forever. But that's not love, and Usagi knows that the real Mamoru, the one she actually loves wants her to grow because the thing he loves about her is the way she always shows a new side of her. I really get that moral, and the moment after Mamoru unlocks the Golden Crystal and Usagi and Mamoru express the same dream, to protect the world together...that hits hard. Because that to me is an expression of what love really is. 

The last third is not as good and is the only thing really keeping this act from being fantastic. I feel like Naoko kinda wrote herself into a dramatic corner in three different ways. One is that we know Helios can't be dead because of the connection he has with Mamoru stated another. Another is the weird time thing where Usagi and Mamoru have that whole Elysion sequence and apparently no time passed because I guess Naoko didn't wanna write what the others were doing at that point. However the biggest problem is the repetitiveness and I think I know why. 

Sailor Moon is a series that has fighting, but it's not a battle shonen, it's not a series about battle. Fights usually last only a few pages at most. Naoko doesn't seem very interested in writing complex fight scenes and so pretty much all of her fights are either "I have more power then you, therefore I win." or "I have broken magical ability, therefore I win." The characters are presented more like mages then fighters. This works well enough since it's not really what the story's about, but most of the second half of the Dream Arc is basically one long fight scene. If you consider that Zirconia is just part of Nehelenia, then it's basically a four act long fight scene. That doesn't sound very long from a Battle Shonen standpoint where whole volumes are regularly single fights, but for Sailor Moon that's ridiculously long, twice as long as the biggest fight scenes outside of this which are all at max two acts each (the final villain of each basically.) At best the fight with Pharaoh 90 was MAYBE three acts long, but by Act 38 Sailor Saturn was the real threat and Pharaoh 90 was basically an afterthought as Saturn casually beat him up, plus Pharaoh 90's powers, though broken, were mostly defensive. Nehelenia and Zirconia uses broken offenses like Zirconia de-aging Usagi and Mamoru are the attack she hit them with at the end of this act. This means you get Nehelenia/Zirconia hitting them with an attack, it working for a bit, and then the fight continuing. 

Despite the fact that I enjoy writing fight scenes, it's usually because I can imbue them with symbolism related to the characters or interesting ideas and applications of the characters powers. Maybe for some reasons "big fight scene" is actually a plus, that said I found it a bit interesting. However as I mentioned the last third of the arc while feeling kinda repetitive and having a few logical snafus are really just sort of problems endemic to the Dream Arc, and don't really take away from the first two-thirds being a real highlight of the arc and something that means a lot to me. Overall I think this act is one of the better ones of the arc, maybe being top three.