Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 51 Review

 

The act opens with Usagi having a dream where she's reunited with Mamoru only for him to melt away in front of her. Awakening with a fright, she tells herself it was just a dream. Usagi leaves for school thinking of Mamoru and Chibiusa, and how it's lonely around here now. It's implied some time has passed as Usagi wonders why he hasn't called or written yet. Meanwhile Seiya watches from afar, knowing the sad truth.

Meanwhile a little girl appears in the sky and floats down with an umbrella. After reaching the ground she scampers off and finds an unconscious woman elegantly dressed.

We cut to Ikuko doing the dishes when she comes across Chibiusa's cup. She looks at it in confusion, going glassy-eyed and wondering whose cup is this. Memories are a sub-theme of this arc and come up at several points, a callback to the first arc where awakening the Senshis' memories was a focus of the arc for a while. The little girl from earlier, Chibi-Chibi, takes advantage of her confusion and seemingly hypnotizes Ikuko to put Chibi-Chibi in Chibiusa's place.

Back with the Senshi, they're discussing the new enemy with Minako misquoting a proverb. Ami notes that the enemy specifically called them the Sailor Senshi with Sailor Crystals. Minako replies that they're famous like celebrities now, so that's not unexpected. Makoto asks whether they're another group connected to their past but Haruka doubts it, saying that outer space is vast, which fits the Outer Senshis' original purpose to defend the Solar System from invaders from outside. Setsuna agrees with Haruka continuing and casting suspicion on the Three Lights, recalling their tense meeting from last Act as well as that they had stellar energy around them. 

Usagi is gloomy at the prospect of facing a new group of enemies without Mamoru or Chibiusa there to support her. In a very sweet move Haruka and Minako representing the two groups of Sailor Senshi tell Usagi not to worry about anything, that this is their responsibility and they will protect her. This makes Usagi feel noticeably better. 

However her mood is soon changed as she returns home to find Chibi-Chibi comedically pointing and yelling in fear at the sudden little girl. It soon becomes apparent Chibi-Chibi has hypnotized Ikuko into thinking Chibi-Chibi is Usagi's little sister. The Senshi are quick to point out the obvious similarity to Chibiusa's arrival and assume Chibi-Chibi is a younger sister of Chibiusa from the further future. It also quickly becomes clear that Chibi-Chibi only ever repeats things said to her, annoying Minako in a comedic scene.

Usagi gets all blushy thinking Chibi-Chibi might be another daughter of her and Mamoru's. Chibi-Chibi enters Usagi's room, and places down an incense burner which gives the scent of sweet olives. Usagi comments how familiar it smells and allows Chibi-Chibi to sleep in her bed with her. The next day Usagi receives airmail from America. Believing it's from Mamoru, she opens i to find a single postcard with an orange sunset and no message. Usagi is confused as to the meaning of this and mildly annoyed, but feels relieved to have gotten something anyway to know he's alright. 

Her thinking of it is interrupted when she gets to school and finds out the Three Lights have transferred into her school. The three give their hobbies, Taiki's being poetry and computers, Yaten's being photography, and Seiya's being American Football. The girls in their class obviously go wild over the Three Lights being there, with Seiya taking the seat next to Usagi. Humorously Usagi introduces herself and Minako does the coy slide in to introduce herself as well.

However Minako's efforts are thwarted by the crowds gathering around them. Haruka, not trusting that Seiya seems relatively annoyed by this. Michiru asks where Usagi is and Makoto mention she's up writing a love letter on the rooftop.

Up on the roof Usagi is composing her love letter to Mamoru. The Three Lights independently also head there to get away from the crowd. Yaten complains about how annoying school is but Taiki exclaims that "learning is fun." with Yaten responding that "school is only fun for you Taiki." Seiya notes Usagi to the others and Yaten takes Usagi's love letter to read it, looking unimpressesd and commenting she's bad at Kanji. Usagi gets mad but Yaten give a cutesy apology with a wink. Usagi thinks that they're totally different from the other boys in her class, they're very cool.

Taiki notes the ring on her finger and asks if her boyfriend gave it to her. Blushing, Usagi says yes but Seiya asks "where is your boyfriend now." Usagi stops smiling and says Mamoru is in America...before doubling over in pain. Sensing something wrong with the princess Haruka flash steps up to Usagi and yells at the Three Lights to get away from Usagi and demands to know what they did, though they simply say they did "Nothing" and leave.

Usagi tells Haruka it's all right, it's just a headache, they were just talking but Haruka doesn't believe it, saying she won't let throw three get close to Usagi again.

What follows ia a pretty hilarious sequence where three of the Senshi continue to get comically angry by the Three Lights, the intruders, not helping their suspicion. Taiki somehow gets a higher result on a test then Ami causing Ami to angrily tear a notebook in half (if you've read Ami's First Love, you know how Ami gets at academic competiton), Seiya becomes an American Football player for the school distracting all the girls attention from Haruka making her angry watch. Michiru tries to tell Haruka to calm down....but then....Yaten comes over and comments on Michiru applying her lipstick, saying it's a trashy color and asking if she couldn't find a more suitable one. All the girls flock to Yaten asking for makeup advice. Michiru snaps her lipstick cartridge in half followed by perhaps the funniest panel in Sailor Moon where Michiru tells Haruka that they need to "obliterate these suspicious interlopers, now! They're an eyesore!" having gone to the purest of rages. Haruka tells Michiru she's scary. 

This scene is really funny. I think it goes a bit far to have Ami actually lose to Taiki given Ami's superpower is her super-intelligence and this is a test for first year High School. It would have made more sense I think if Taiki just tied Ami with a perfect score and then had girls gossiping that Taiki might be smarter then Ami setting off Ami's rage. That said Michiru's fury....hilarious. I love it everytime.  

However Usagi, Minako, and Makoto are smitten with them, the latter because Taiki joined the horticulture club and "no one that loves plants could be evil." ... did we just all collectively forget about Tellu? Ami, Haruka and Michiru don't approve for obvious reasons. Usagi, Minako, and Makoto sneak off to a Three Lights concert....though given the last one was attacked I am kinda surprised the civilians are so okay at going to another one. 

The Three Lights sing their Debut Single, calling to a hypothetical princess, a shooting star as it were, telling her they've been searching for her. Just abstract lyrics to a love song...probably don't mean anything.

Meanwhile, a mysterious woman though pretty clearly the next of Galaxia's minions is watching from the audience. The next day Usagi gets another postcard with no message, this one of some stars. She comments on the strange orange star in the center, when Seiya interrupts commenting that it's a man-made satelite, pointing it out to her in the sky.

Usagi and Seiya look at the stars on the rooftop. Usagi comments how she didn't know idols had time to go to school, and comments she feels like she knows Seiya from somewhere before internally chiding herself on saying something so obvious to a famous person. Usagi compliments Seiya's singing, saying she loved their debut album. Seiya smiles, happy she said that and comments that they became singers to sing that very song. As memories of the song wash away over Usagi, she wonders who the "she" Seiya is singing to in that song is.

So overcome in thought, Seiya forgets to hide the energy of stars coming from the Starlights, which the other Starlights and the Senshi both sense and rush over towards the sudden aura of the stars around Seiya along with another Sailor Animamate, a hydrokinetic named Sailor Alumineum Seiren. 

Aluminum Seiren attacks them but Eternal Sailors Mercury and Jupiter appear out of nowhere blocking the attack. Jupiter suspects the Three Lights called the new enemy here, which in fairness Seiya accidentally did, but Usagi insists that they're not enemies, that the Three Lights have the same stellar aura the Senshi do. She comments that they have the same protection of the stars, the protection held by the Sailor Senshi.

Usagi transforms and the other Senshi show up. Uranus tries to attack Aluminum Seiren who grabs Jupiter and Mercury with her long watery hair, using them as a shield to soak up Uranus' attack. To the Senshis' shock Aluminum Seiren proclaims she's a Sailor Senshi with a Sailor Crystal too. She continues saying she won't blow up the way Iron Mouse did, and she'll take the Sailor Crystals back to Galaxia. 

She then kills Mercury and Jupiter

While not quite as impactful as the death of Mamoru last act, this is still a pretty good point in the story for several reasons. Throughout the series there's been these contain villain of the month battles and narratively they don't have much tension after you realize that none of the heroes ever die during them. Except that's exactly how the temporarily of the universe creeps up on you. You're doing the same stupid thing you've always done. You're making your lunch or going to work or fighting a magical villain with your bffs like you do every day and suddenly someone's dead and your whole world is dead and it's like you don't even understand where or who you are. The theme of this arc is the juxtaposition of the eternal and the temporal, how we deal with the temporal nature of material things, when every thing you relied on like your friends disappear with the passing of time if only because the reaper took them. This moment connects to that theme by making the viewer question like with Mamoru before their assumptions. These villain of the month battles are just meaningless fun until suddenly every single one of them becomes a chance for anyone to die out of nowhere. This arc breaks down Sailor Moon's formula, Sailor Moon's ideals and worldview to see what remains. It's not as dramatic as it could be given we know Sailor Moon can resurrect people but it's still a jolt to the unexpected reader who thought this would just be Iron Mouse 2.0. It's funny to me Aluminum Seiren is almost speaking to the reader the page before she kills Mercury and Jupiter, saying she's not like Iron Mouse yet there's still just the assumption it's just villainous boasting that everything will be alright.

Alumnium Seiren grabs the Mercury and Jupiter crystals, the remains of their associated Senshi. The Three Lights transform into the Sailor Starlights and a combined assault of Sailor Star Fighter and Sailor Star Maker destroy Aluminum Seiren. The Starlights end the act introducing themselves formally to the Sailor Senshi.

Act 51 is not as good as Act 50 but it's still quite good. Killing Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter suddenly cements the tone following the death of Tuxedo Kamen last act, while also still being fairly surprising. It's almost cruel the way Naoko deliberately has most mundane goofy domestic scenes in this part of the story as if to maximize the contrast, and consequently the impact, of suddenly and brutally killing the major characters in front of the eyes of Usagi and the audience.

Part of the reason this act isn't quite as good as the last one isn't quite as shocking as the last one and much of it focuses on the Starlights. Oddly for someone who loves the Stars arc as much as I do, I've never been that crazy on the Starlights. Not that I dislike them either, or at least I don't dislike the Manga Starlights as a group, but their whole subplot has always felt a little disconnected from the main plot. I get why they're here, to give context to the greater galactic situation going on, to increase the tension subtly by showing that this is not the first Star System whose Senshi were beaten, to be someone for Usagi to exposit her feelings too at certain points, but eh. Part of me wishes the act had more focus on Ami and Makoto, though I also recognize it wouldn't be nearly as much of a shock if that was the case. I do find it kinda funny and a little sad that everyone always talks about how shocking Mami's death in Madoka was even though 15 years earlier Naoko was killing her characters on panel, arguably more graphically, and with less build-up. IMO really shows how ahead of its time Sailor Moon was. 

The goofy civilian antics in this arc are as good as they are going to be the entire series. They're funny and charming and relatable and broadly while I don't think Naoko's strength is writing mundane interactions, I think this is probably her best. Yaten insulting Michiru's choice of lipstick and her pure fury is hilarious and the entire sequence is good at expressing the divide between the Sol Senshi and the Starlights.

The more serious part of the arc is further setting the stage of the divide between the two worlds of the story; the physical, mundane, temporal world of Usagi Tsukino and the metaphysical, supernatural, eternal world of Sailor Moon. Similar to Act 50, the juxtaposition of the two in the sudden deaths of Usagi's friends is reflecting one of the most painful truths of reality: Sometimes things are just gone. There's no warning, there's no time to prep, sometimes things just disappear into the ether before your eyes. For someone like Usagi, and I admit someone like myself as I am quite similar to Usagi, it is one of the most difficult challenges of life; the fear that things you love, trust, depend on, will someday fade away into the uncaring void. We are like eternal souls in a temporal world, wishing things would remain forever, yet knowing the impossibility of that wish. This theme will be expressed with much more clarity in the next act.

This act also introduces Chibi-Chibi. Similar to everything in Stars, Chibi-Chibi is Naoko using her own tropes only to subvert them for dramatic effect. To explain would be to spoil future acts, but there's certainly more to Chibi-Chibi than just the Senshi' speculation. That she happens to appear in this act that furthers the divide between the Sol Senshi and Starlights as well as killing two of Usagi's friends makes a lot more sense when you learn of her true identity and motive. 

Overall, not one of Stars' best, it kinda just feels like Part 2 of the Act before it, but still quite good.