Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 48 Review

 

Act 48 begins with Nehelenia formally introducing herself to the Sailor Senshi as the beautiful Queen Nehelenia ruling over the darkness within the New Moon, the Dead Moon. Addressing Sailor Moon herself she calls her young princess of the White Moon Kingdom, and says that her mother was clever to have reborn in new form on this planet, but that even reborn she is still the spitting image of her mother, shocking Usagi that she knew Queen Serenity.

So this actually explains something from WAY earlier in the manga, though this will still involve some spoilers from later. If you know the end of Sailor Moon you know that for a very particular reason, Metaria and Nehelenia share a similar perspective. And you may recall that back in Act 8 Metaria said strangely that it was the Princess who destroyed her rather then Queen Serenity, and I'd explain my theory on this later. I think for these cosmic beings they're not really looking at their physical bodies of the characters, but their energy, the shine of their Star Seeds, which for both Princess Serenity and Queen Serenity would be the Silver Crystal explaining why they might look alike and even be mistaken for each other. This would explain why Metaria would see Princess Serenity returning as the return of the one who destroyed her to restore her kingdom, since to Metaria they would both be the same person, "the bearer of the Silver Crystal"and why Nehelenia would see Usagi as looking just like the mother of her past life, who she has no genetic relation too. It's because while she's in reborn form, the physical body is the irrelevant details, while the spitting image is the metaphysical image, the shine of the Silver Crystal. The other dark stars Death Phantom and Pharaoh 90 also both saw Usagi at different points as the shine of the Silver Crystal. This is the person they view as their adversary, while Queen Serenity vs Princess Serenity in both is the irrelevant details of what material form it rests with at the moment. I like this theory because it ties in with other themes of the manga such as the first arc themes of identity in the first arc where Usagi questioned if she really was Usagi, Princess Serenity, or Sailor Moon, or the end of Sailor V where Minako after awakening to her cosmically long past life says the her she thought she was until now was just a disguise or some elements of the Stars arc. 

Nehelenia says she is also a queen of the Moon and says therefore this planet rightfully belongs to her. However, Sailor Moon becomes determined and gives her famous "In the Name of the Moon" speech.

I think it's a really pretty backdrop Naoko draws for it here with the large White Moon in the background and standing atop a field of flowers. It's also notable that they are the inversion of Nehelenia's imagery. Nehelenia is associated with the Black Moon and black flowers that suffocate, the Dead Moon Circus generally suffocating out any other life. 

Nehelenia taunts Sailor Moon that she won't be able to bear her curse, as Sailor Moon grips her chest in pain, the black rose of the curse hurting her internally. Sailor Moon tries to use the Moon Gorgeous Meditation on Nehelenia but Nehelenia reflects the attack and traps our Heroes in the Moon Gorgeous Meditation, the inside looking like a revolving kaleidoscope.

This is where the foreshadowing from way earlier in the arc comes back, when Mamoru bought Usagi and Chibiusa kaleidoscopes. As mentioned then a Kaleidoscope is a series of colored individual items (the Sailor Senshi) trapped among mirrors whose interactions create a series of illusory images like dreams. Nehelenia is going to use this opportunity to show the Senshi visions.

A vision appears before the Senshi of their past lives, specifically of the birth of Princess Serenity. Moon notes with confusion that Nehelenia's mirror is in the throne room. The four tiny Guardian Senshi run up to Queen Serenity to congratulate her and swear to protect her.

what adorable little child soldiers. More seriously, this part is really sweet and cute, especially with Queen Serenity's adoration towards her little daughter. 

However, the party attracted an uninvited guest, lingering around ominously like a shadow before revealing herself. Nehelenia comments on how she was uninvited to the largest celebration on the Moon and that she also has a present to give. She came, trailing black shadows, from the black depths of the Moon, with the little Guardian Senshi forming an adorable defensive ring around the Princess.

As everyone who ever reads this notes, yes this is a clear allusion to the story of Sleeping Beauty with the Evil Fey arriving at the birth of the princess bearing her own "present", a curse in spite at the insult of not being invited. It's not arbitrary Naoko picks that fairy tale to allude to here. The story of Sleeping Beauty at its climax is a story about the awakening power of love to wake us from the dreams we fall into against our will back into reality through the potency of love. That is also exactly what this arc repeatedly shows, people falling into material dreams as they contend with the world only to be "awoken" by the power of love. 

In this sequence I really enjoy the black of Nehelenia, particularly her hair, seems to blend and fade into the darkness, making her seem as though she is an incarnate part of the darkness itself because she is. I also find it interesting that Nehelenia states she comes from the depths of the Moon, the same way Elysian is in the depths of the Earth. I am not sure if there's any real symbolism there deeper than "dreams and nightmares are both internal things" but I think it may just be an idea that struck Naoko's fancy while writing this arc.  

Pluto comments that this was in the ancient past, when the moon was all light with no shadow, where Nehelenia had slipping in and made her home in the Moon's depths without notice, that they didn't know "darkness attracted light" which will be relevant later. Queen Serenity tells the uninvited guest she is welcome here if she is seeking peace and sanctuary, but if she brings darkness, Serenity can't allow her. then in a very particular comment, Nehelenia asks Queen Serenity "haven't you also traveled from another galaxy?" and tells her "we share the same origin."

Hehehe, this is one of those statements that...if you know, you know. Stars Arc Hype. Even in this context the statement engenders a level of mystery, as the reader probably wouldn't have assumed Queen Serenity came from somewhere outside the Moon, though such was hinted at in the First Arc when Queen Serenity stated that the Moon People came to this system to watch over and guide the development of mankind.

Queen Nehelenia asks Queen Serenity to take her hand, to accent the darkness, saying the darkness cries out for light and vice versa which...once again is really good foreshadowing for later. Queen Serenity doesn't accept this and uses the Silver Crystal to seal Nehelenia away in the mirror though as she does so Nehelenia curses the Moon Kingdom proclaiming that the Princess will die before she takes the throne and the kingdom will fall to ruins.

Once again, obviously a reference to Sleeping Beauty. Moreover this explains basically Nehelenia's backstory and sets up one of the ideas of the fifth arc, that the darkness and the light call each other, the two are naturally drawn towards each other with Nehelenia acting as envoy for the darkness here, wanting the separation between the two to end.

Back with the Senshi, Moon is processing what she just learned. Neptune gets oddly angry at the vision shown, saying it wasn't a curse that destroyed the kingdom and killed the princess, it was fate and angrily saying that fate can't be controlled by anyone. Saturn seems more contemplative that the fall of the Moon Kingdom was caused by numerous tragedies like dominos as though fate was being manipulated to cause it so. Saturn comments she thought everything from the time was destroyed and reborn..but one piece remains. 

It actually makes a lot of sense Nehelenia would have survived the Silence Glaive coming down as Nehelenia was sealed in another dimension by Serenity and in the third arc Saturn explicitly told Pluto to seal of the Tau Dimension to protect the people in the main dimension from the effects of the Silence Glaive. I half-wonder if that sequence was there specifically for Nehelenia's existence. I also just really like the idea that Nehelenia is also a primordial entity from before the great wiping of all life, the only one perhaps, as it's a cool idea to have Antediluvian entities that way and it fits with Nehelenia being so fixated on the past to have her literally come from the distant past.

Nehelenia comments she knew the people of the Moon Kingdom would not be destroyed so easily, before saying that she wanted to finally conquer the Earth to show her claim as the true Lunar Queen, the Earth hiding a secret unknown power rivaling the Silver Crystal. (The Golden Crystal) She then comments on her surprise that the Silver Crystal would be here as well. 

She then rips the Silver Crystal from Sailor Moon. Wait...

Well, that escalated quickly.

Moon begins coughing up the black blood from the curse again, aggravated by the loss of the Silver Crystal. Mamoru tries to go to her side, but collapses in similar black blood-coughing agony, the two sharing in the same pain due to their connection. Nehelenia proclaims her victory, oddly implying that the curse she laid on the Moon Kingdom and the curse she laid on Elysion are the same, as though Usagi and Mamoru's connection allowed it to spread from one to the other.

Nehelenia's giant ethereal floating head hovers above them menacingly along with one giant ghostly hand, holding the Silver Crystal in it, looking tiny in comparison. Mamoru powers through the pain to protect Earth and Elysian. Nehelenia attacks them all with Mamoru taking the brunt of the attack and the Senshi protecting Moon whose been severely damaged by losing the Silver Crystal.

I love how Magical Girl series so often go all eldritch horror with their final villain, and I love Mamoru's part here. This is the start of the climax for Mamoru's character arc. Mamoru at the start of the arc worried his powers weren't strong enough, that he would hold back Usagi, but here he is powering through an attack better than any of the Senshi for his love. Because as this sequence so clearly shows, through their love his pain is her pain, and his strength is her strength.

Mamoru takes Usagi's hand, and Usagi in her pain calls his name, looking at her love for strength. The two kiss and embrace, sharing power as they have before and the Silver Crystal teleports away from Nehelenia's hand, drawn towards the Golden Crystal creating a powerful shining wave of energy around them

This is a really hype moment. Not only is it a super cool demonstration of what the arc has told us the whole time about Usagi and Mamoru's relationship, that they share the same pains AND strength to deal with it, it's also really sweet and romantic and beautifully drawn. It might seem at first that this is another example of Naoko writing something that makes narrative sense but not literal sense with the Silver Crystal somehow just returning to Moon through Usagi and Mamoru's love, and maybe it is but I think it was kind of set up earlier. In the first arc, in concern for the dying Mamoru, Sailor Moon's will sent the power of the Silver Crystal into his body to keep him alive and when she became distraught, Mamoru's body shook as the Silver Crystal inside him was being controlled by her emotions. There is a lot suggesting that the Silver Crystal is controlled by Usagi's emotions and a little suggesting it's controlled by emotions like the part mentioned earlier, as well as when she literally cried it out of her body, so it returning to her from her desire to be as one with Mamoru and his Crystal I think is arguably set-up even if it might not seem it at first.

Usagi gives a little speech to Nehelenia that has always puzzled me a little. She tells Nehelenia "power isn't something you obtain, it's something that is born. And you can't give birth to it alone or use it alone. This statement has always slightly mystified me. On a very broad scale, I get that Nehelenia is anti-social and selfish to the extreme, wanting to own the universe and Usagi wishes to share it with everyone, but the statement has always felt disconnected to what comes before or after, yet it's so specific and so clearly motivated by something that I know it's there for a purpose I have yet to understand. That's the thing about Sailor Moon I mentioned in Act 1, it always feels like you can go deeper, there's always something new about it you didn't see before you find with each re-reading.

Sailor Moon holds aloft the Silver Crystal, which Nehelenia mistakes for the power of Queen Serenity.

This, I think, supports my point that they see Sailor Moon and Queen Serenity as the Silver Crystal itself, or more specifically the light that comes from it, with the person around it being the irrelevant details. It's also a cool detail seeing the otherwordly shifting dimension inside Nehelenia's face. The eyes are the windows of the soul afterall.

After that is a fairly lengthy sequence of Usagi's friends transforming and giving their power to help her. It starts with them all transforming into their princess dresses and the mooncats get teleported to Elysian changed into humanoid form. 

The Senshi are going to change forms again in less then 10 pages, but I think Naoko just wanted to draw the Senshi in pretty princess dresses. And to be honest, I don't blame her. The human form cats are even more well known from this part. Human form Artemis was seen earlier in this arc which was MAYBE done to set up this part, and human form Luna was seen in the Kaguya short story set earlier, but human form Diana is new. If you're wondering why the cats have human forms well...spoilers but.... it's because they're not really cats, they're aliens that look like cats. They lived on the moon during the Silver Millennium. Naoko is reminding us of this because it was be important next arc.

The little versions of the Senshi show up appearing before their associated princess. They call themselves the Sailor Power Guardians and um...to be honest, this feels like kind of an irrelevant detail. Yes, technically they will appear again next arc as well so maybe Naoko was setting that up but not in any crucial role and I don't see why they couldn't have just been kept as individual aspects of the Senshi inside them rather then this little fairy thing. The only ideas I could think of are maybe Naoko wanted them to have a bigger role initially, or maybe they were just put in to give exposition, but it's not like even with their exposition we really understand what's going on.

Guardian Saturn tells the Senshi it's time for a new transformation and Guardians Uranus and Venus, arguably representing the leaders of the two teams of Sailor Senshi, tell them to send their energy into the Holy Grail, as well as the Sailor Power Guardians and their Castles orbiting their planets which was mentioned back in Sailor V...briefly. The Senshi all do so and Super Sailor Moon transforms into Eternal Sailor Moon which Diana calls the form second in power only to the Queen.

Naoko in her typical fashion doesn't really explain the how or why, but the way I understand it, there were two forms of Super Sailor Moon laid out in the Third Arc. One form was created in times of Crisis, where the Holy Grail would give Sailor Moon a greater power, the "Crisis" Henshin. The other one was formed by the unity of the Sailor Senshi, the "Unity" Henshin. The third arc sort of tricks the reader into thinking they're the same, but in the Dream Arc the Holy Grail gives Sailor Moon Crisis Henshin even when she can't use Unity Henshin. Conversely here a Sailor Moon who had already undergone Crisis Henshin is also undergoing Unity Henshin. So Eternal Sailor Moon is the two forms of Super Henshin overlapping, or Super-Super Sailor Moon. At least that's my interpretation of how this works.

Act 48 is pretty similar to Act 46. It's a really good act overall with the first 2/3rds or so being great, but kind of petering out towards the end, not that the last part is bad just that it's not as good. The thing that I notice most about this act and to a lesser extent this arc in general is how much it connects to other arcs. This can be good in that it can recontextualize or foreshadow things or it can feed somewhat dependent on them for its substance.

This is broadly the problem I have with the last third. Mostly it's foreshadowing all the small plot details that will become relevant in the Stars Arc; the Human forms of the Mooncats, The Planetary Power Guardians, the Castles, Eternal Sailor Moon as a form, even to a lesser extent the statements about the darkness and light calling for each other and Nehelenia mistaking Usagi for Queen Serenity are all stuff that are meant to prep the viewer for the next act, but this arc isn't even over and this isn't even the last act of the Dream Arc. The actual plot runs thing in these less two acts and if it wasn't for the foreshadowing I'd be tempted to downright call this padding, just having the Senshi stand around and channel power into Sailor Moon to transform, something that is going to be repeated next act.

The majority of this act isn't about the future but the past, and that's where this act really shines I think. The sequence of Nehelenia recontextualizing the fall of the Moon Kingdom is one of the famous sequences of the Dream Arc for good reason, it's immensely important for the lore of the series, about one of the parts of the lore the fandom is most starved (The Silver Millennium), manages to both respect the series past while expanding on it and also manages to much more naturally foreshadow the Stars Arc with Nehelenia's expression of how Queen Serenity is herself a cosmic traveler, and how they represent the light and the darkness. 

Having any Silver Millennium content is already treasured just because that time period is kept so purposefully vague so the reader can fill in whatever they want about it with their own imagination. As I mentioned the Sleeping Beauty homage is not just because Naoko loves including classical references, but because that story is super thematically connected to this arc in particular which is about love awakening one from dreams, except here they're usually non-literal. The Chibi-Guardian Senshi were also cute and it's cool to actually see Queen Serenity in action. We already knew she was powerful given she fought Queen Metaria during the Silver Millennium when Metaria was stronger but that was an off-screen fight. Here we see Queen Serenity beat the main villain of the arc with basically no effort in one or two pages and I'm a real sucker for the trope of seeing the cool power of the last generation that mastered the powers our child to teenage protagonists are learning. 

I've seen some people get confused about the destruction of the Moon Kingdom. My interpretation has always been that Nehelenia's curse summoned Metaria to attack the Silver Millennium. This would explain the bizarre radiance "their father" the Sun had one year, turning dark, the birth of Metaria. As opposed to some unexplained cosmic event if Nehelenia had summoned her it would explain why it suddenly happened and makes sense given the eventual connection we learn Metaria and Nehelenia possess. Saturn's also kind of involved. When the Queen created the seal on Metaria, unlike the seal on Nehelenia the seal on Metaria was imperfect due to the pain in her heart; either from the death of her daughter or from Nehelenia's curse or perhaps the two are one in the same, keeping her from using her full power. Saturn awoke and ended all life to reincarnate in the future, destroying the rest of the Dark Kingdom as well as...everyone else. 

Possibly the best part of this act however IS the part that isn't really about the past or the future, but the act's own internal plot as short a sequence as it might be. Nehelenia taking Sailor Moon's Silver Crystal is a pretty big moment making her threatening, and Mamoru powering through the pain of it to save her is one of his best moments, combined with the two of them uniting which is super sweet and romantic and actually arguably was foreshadowed why that would summon the Silver Crystal back to them. I think that part really makes for a good effective climax for the arc, and overall I enjoyed the act a lot.