Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 56 Review

Sailor Moon and company fly at the edge of the Solar System. Kakyuu gestures to the center of the galaxy, a giant light where many stars are densely packed saying that it is Sagittarius Alpha Star, with Sagittarius Zero Star being at its center. This is a reference to Sagittarius A, a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way that all stars in the galaxy orbit around. The contrast between Alpha Star, the greatest and most supreme of stars, and Zero Star, a star of nothingness is also another reference to the two villains of Galaxia and Chaos.

Princess Kakyuu states all star seeds come from the center of the galaxy, it is the place where stars are born.

Sailor Star Fighter asks that if that's where the Shadow Galactica has made their base, then is Galaxia planning on controlling the growth and decay of the galaxy's stars. Kakyuu agrees that is most likely Galaxia's intent, and while they're not wrong technically, neither of them are thinking big enough. The Senshi grasp hands to fly to the center of the galaxy, with Kakyuu saying there's no guanrentee they'll get there safely. Sailor Star Healer says they're prepared regardless, knowing they were going into the middle of enemy territory. 

In literally one panel Sailor Moon and companies fly to the center of the galaxy...making their concerns of being intercepted seem oddly unfounded. However Galaxia is not trying to truly stop them from getting to her, she is planning on Eternal Sailor Moon reaching her. They reach the gate to Zero Star, finding themselves in a strange magical desert. A ferryman rows a boat across the desert, who identifies herself as Lethe, the ferryman of the "river of sand."

Seems Legit.

This is one of those cases where I think Takeuchi-sensei was a lot more focused on the symbolic side than the literal events. Deserts are one of the most commonly recurring visual motifs to represent barriers, challenge, or barrenness. Rivers and water in general are the opposite, representing life and potential. A mystical desert like this represents the barrenness of Galaxia's inner world, the way nothing persists in it, the same as Kakyuu's earlier statement that nothing lives under the domain of the Shadow Galactica. It being a river of sand is actually a really intriguing visual motif, representing the paradoxical union, a life made of barrenness and challenge, and reflects Galaxia's home world. That said if you're trying to follow the literal events this just comes out of nowhere and seems bizarre that they're flying through space and are just suddenly in a desert. There is also the more obvious reference that Lethe is the River of the Underworld in Greek Mythology and so the Senshi are here entering the "underworld", Galaxia's world of death opposite Usagi's world of life.

The Senshi board the ship because...I guess what else are they gonna do.....but as they go along the sand turns to water which swallows up the boat, sending Usagi into unconsciousness. Usagi awakens again in her civilian form, with a glazed look in her eyes. She asks where she is and how she got here. Lethe appears before and somehow manifests the Mooncats before her. But with the glazed eye in their eyes, Usagi doesn't recognize her.

Lethe says that if you take care of cats, you'll just be lonely when they die, you're better off by yourself. Usagi even in her dazed state disagrees, saying she gets lonely when she's alone and she thinks she wants to make a lot of friends. Lethe asks "Then what are your friends like?" However, Usagi can't remember. Lethe points to the ring on her finger, asking if she has a lover but Usagi can't remember, can't even remember who she is. 

 

Lethe tells Usagi that memories aren't worth much, even their bodies are just containers for the only thing of any real value, power. In demonstration of this cruel fact of reality, Lethe cruelly attacks the mooncats, getting at their Star Seeds. A painful scene but the symbolism is clear and strong here. Usagi has entered into Galaxia's world where this is the baseline assumption, this is the philosophy of Galaxia put plain and simple that Usagi is going to have to fight against. The body and mundane life is irrelevant, all that is important of someone is their eternal component.

In the far future, Small Lady feels a pain in her chest at Diana's pain in the past. She finds Luna and Artemis in pain, their bodies shimmering as if in and out of existence. Small Lady runs to her mother asking where Diana is. Neo-Queen Serenity responds that Diana felt a disturbance in the past and returned to help. 

Small Lady says that something has happened to Diana's body, she can feel it. Neo-Queen Serenity relents and shows her daughter what's going on. The bodies of the Senshi lay side by side, their bodies slowly fading away but their Crystals shining. The abnormalities in the past are threatening the future.

Small Lady, quite justified by this point, demands to go back to the past to help Sailor Moon. Neo-Queen Serenity tries to tell her it's too dangerous but Small Lady responds that it is her mission, that she can feel the pain of the others surging to her across time, that they call out to her. While Neo-Queen Serenity must stay here to guard the 30th Century, she will return in time to fulfill her mission. Small Lady transforms into Eternal Sailor Chibi-Moon, joined by the Four Eternal Amazon Senshi, Sailor Ceres, Sailor Pallas, Sailor Juno, and Sailor Vesta.

Neo-Queen Serenity relents, giving her daughter the Time Key and telling her that she will need to cross time, and the galaxy, making the latter sound more significant than the former. Strange as that may sound, time's dangers are circumvented by having a Time Key, while the dangers of the Shadow Galactica exist throughout the galaxy. 

Back in the present Usagi takes the dust in her hands in shock, asking Lethe how she can kill so easily and then in a super archetypal little exchange, Usagi says "Everyone is born to live" and Lethe responds "Living things are born to die."

In the temporal physical world we inhabit, both these facts are not only true but basically the flip-side of each other. It's a classic case of "is the glass half full or half empty." I don't think these statements can get more archetypal or universal, the meaning they hold is being expressed at the maximal amount precise.  Usagi is the heroine of the story, often associated with messianic and life-restoring themes, having brought everyone back to life on numerous occasions. Here she faces the ferryman to the underworld Senshi associated with death. As such there's a cool life and death symbolism reflected in their perspectives here. This also ties with the arc's greater themes. Transient things like individual lives are born in a sense to end someday, this is the fixation of Galaxia and those in her inner world, and it's true but it's not the full story, because as Usagi stated they are are also born to live, the very reason that they are born at all is to experience and go through life. 

Sailor Lethe attacks Usagi with her attack, who lays on the ground painfully asking why Lethe wants to kill her. Meanwhile, Mnemosyne watches but recoils at the sight, gripping the ground, clearly not wanting this to happen. Lethe tells Usagi she came here only to lose everything, as in the very point of Usagi coming here was to lose everything. Usagi knows that's not right, that she has loved ones to protect, but she can't recall anything about who they were to give her strength. Lethe says no one can beat her at the bottom of the river of oblivion and prepares to kill Usagi.  However Sailor Mnemosyne stops her sister, telling her that she's hurt Sailor Moon, just leave her to Galaxia. Hearing the words "Sailor Moon" restores Usagi's memories and she reawakens in the River of Oblivion.

Lethe gets angry that Sailor Moon somehow regained her memories in the River of Oblivion, while Sailor Moon rescues Chibi-Chibi. Mnemosyne telekinetically brings Sailor Moon and friends outside the water.

While Sailor Moon asks Chibi-Chibi if she's alright, Lethe asks Mnemosyne if Mnemosyne is betraying her. Mnemosyne, though less willful than her sister, replies that she doesn't want to hurt their fellow Sailor Senshi anymore. She gives Kakyuu water from the River of Memories, restoring Kakyuu's memories. 

Sailor Moon and Kakyuu address Lethe and Mnemosyne who introduce themselves. Lethe says that this it the outer moat of the Galactica Palace, with Lethe being the Guardian of the River of Oblivion and Mnemosyne being the Guardian of the River of Memory. Lethe tells Sailor Moon she can't let her take a step forward. Mnesmosyne tries to ask her to stop but Lethe just tells her to close her eyes, and asks her if she's forgotten their pact with Galaxia

This leads into a brief backstory for the sisters, that they were Senshi of a dual-planetary system, the two planets being small, dismal, and chaotic. War was constant. Galaxia arrived on the planets and her arrival wiped out all life save for them, Galaxia brought death and everlasting silence to the chaos. Galaxia told them that if she was victorious, they would find a peaceful place to live. However Kakyuu protests that they will never find peace or happiness under the Soldier of Destruction, that ruin and slaughter are all they'll ever find with her.

This backstory is great! You ever wonder why people follow these extreme fanatical movements, gnostic cults or the orders of a dictator. It's simplified, but this is why. Because chaos is fundamentally unlivable, and people will attach themselves to anything or anyone that can conquer the chaos, that gives their loved ones a world they can live in. Yes, Galaxia is a soldier of destruction who kills everyone, but even peacefully orderly death surrounding you is better than chaotic meaningless death surrounding you, because the former at least is comprehensible, it gives one a chance to rise from the circumstances. It is my opinion that the extreme gnostic impulse, and I speak from experience, comes from trying to bring order to the most chaotic of all things; the human heart. Likewise, externally people will align themselves to a dictator as a result of trying to bring order to chaos. Kakyuu's rebuttal is also well-founded. A peaceful happy world won't be made through destruction and warfare, the tools of a dictator like Galaxia. Galaxia this arc has been a physical threat, endangering Usagi's life, a mental threat as she breaks Usagi's mind and her plans seem almost unstoppable, a conceptual threat as she embodies the ideals and the ultimate enemy that Usagi must utilize her growth to face, and a narrative threat as she breaks the conventions that the genre and prior arcs have established. Yet here Galaxia is a spiritual threat, a corrupting force on the galaxy, turning Senshi against Senshi. Lethe and Mnemosyne are great character despite their briefness. Lethe is immediately compelling as a villain despite her dark actions because it's easy to understand and sympathize with her desire to protect her soft-hearted sister. If it was just Lethe wanting a peaceful world for herself, she'd seem understandable but indulgent and irresponsible. However, to do vile actions in the protection of one's family is a pretty classic motif for a villain to make it hard to hate them. I mean, what should Lethe have done, resist Galaxia to the end and let her sweet sister die? For what, her pride? 

Lethe responds to Kakyuu's statement by speaking to Sailor Moon in an accusatory fashion, asking if SHE will bring peace to them. Can she promise them a happy future, the way Galaxia at least says she will. Lethe angrily declares that Sailor Moon's power attracts conflict, that as long as she's there, the war will never end, and so in her eyes Sailor Moon is their enemy. She does this while standing protectively in front of Mnemosyne who in some of my favorite art of the series looks as Sailor Moon with a mixture of sadness and pity and anger, knowing Sailor Moon is supposed to be their enemy, and clearly on some level she is responsible for the conflict they bear, but also being soft-hearted and not wanting to hurt anyone. 

This is a favorite art of the series for me, the way their stances and faces say so much about them. Lethe says that no matter who wins, the future will be the same, she just wants to secure happiness for herself and her sister.

Sailor Moon responds that if Lethe truly believes it will end the war, that she will allow Lethe to kill her, much to the shock of everyone here. Sailor Moon says she came here to end the war herself, that she has the same mission and wish as them, that there is no more battle, that peace returns, no matter what future that entails for them personally. 

Personally, I don't think Sailor Moon was really telling Lethe to kill her there, but was saying the words she knew would best reach Lethe's heart because of their self-evident truth, but I know there's some contention there.

Lethe, unable to tell herself that someone willing to allow herself to be killed for their sake is their enemy and seeming to know already deep in her heart that killing Sailor Moon wouldn't end the war anyway, allows her to pass. However, Sailor Chi and Phi show up, denouncing Lethe and Mnesmonye for their weakness before taking their star seeds. The last act of the sisters is to hold each others hands as they disappear.

For basically only appearing in one act, Lethe and Mnemosnye are such good characters, I think. Their story is tragic, evocative, self-contained yet ties into the greater story and thoroughly engaging. 

Sailor Phi attacks them but Chibi-Chibi creates a barrier to protect them. However Phi does manage to take the star seeds of the Sailor Starlights, ending the act.

Act 56 is a much more active act than the past two, starting the second half of the Stars Arc. It's pretty notable that compared to the other Star Acts, it's pretty clearly the most self-contained of the acts in Stars. It's not filler, every SM act advances the plot at least some. This act has Sailor Moon and company traveling to Sagittarius Zero Star and the death of the Starlights which is fairly important to the Stars Arc plot. That said it's definitely the act that feels more disconnected to the rest of the arc. Like as someone whose reread this manga a lot, I see all the thematic connections this act has to rest of the arc, and it's place in the overarching narrative, though for a first time reader I can imagine the events of the act might seem less unified with the rest of the arc.

Talking about the internal story of the act first I think Lethe and Mnemosyne make for a good pair of antagonists, some of the most compelling in the series history and decently threatening. Their story is interesting and tragic and makes for a good test both physically and emotionally for Usagi. I do think that Sailor Moon regaining her memories from hearing the words "Sailor Moon" could be seen as a little deus ex machina-y. I would perhaps have preferred something that referred back to the first half of the act, such as the thought emerging in Usagi's mind that "I can't keep avoiding the pain" referencing she's already "lost" her memories and regained them in the arc. With that said I think the story is pretty good on its own. I like that Lethe and Mnemosyne's rivers form the "moat" around Galaxia's palace, as well as conceptually the ideas of the "river of sand" or the interaction between the embodiment of life, Usagi, and the ferryman of death, Lethe, exemplified by their brief exchange that things are born to live, and things are born to die. The exchange is an archetypal exchange as directly meaningful as asking if the cup is half full or half empty.

Where this act excels, as is the general case for Stars Acts, is in the symbolism which is what actually connects this act to the rest of the arc. While the act may seem kinda disconnected on a first read, if you've read the story many times, it actually serves a narrative purpose connecting the two halves of the arc. The first half of this arc is broadly Galaxia imposing herself on Usagi's world, the eternal pressing itself upon the temporal and breaking it, the affairs of the greater galaxy seeming inevitable and destructive to the relatively tiny local world of the Solar System. The second half of this arc in contrast is Usagi entering into Galaxia's world, reversing the usual structure of an SM climax, learning about this larger than life Soldier of Destruction who seems to control everything. The narrative purpose of this arc then is for Usagi to cross the threshold and see the effects of Galaxia's dominion over the Galaxy. 

In series where the hero has to infiltrate or bust a dangerous cult, there's always a scene where they first enter and the viewer is quickly exposed to several displays of atrocious acts meant to express to the viewer what's at stake, what the antagonist's effects on others really is. This act serves the same purpose, showing what Galaxia's effect on the galaxy is as a spiritually corrupting force that causes sympathetic Senshi to have to do horrible things to survive. To this point Usagi has encountered the effects of Galaxia's philosophy, but this the first act she has to encounter the worldview itself as she enters into Galaxia's world, exemplified by Lethe's statement that living things are born only to die. There idea of the eternal war and trying to bring peace to it is also an idea introduced which will become the driving idea for much of the second half of the arc. Finding peace is Lethe's goal, a time and space that would be safe for her soft-hearted sister. Kakyuu tells her that you won't find peace following a Soldier of Destruction, foreshadowing the revelations Galaxia herself will eventually realize, and Eternal Sailor Moon offers her life if it would stop the war, foreshadowing the question she will have to face at the end of the story; the choice between painful chaotic life and quiet peaceful death.

There are a few other points about the act of note. Chibi-Moon and her Amazon Senshi are going back to the past to help Sailor Moon which is a pretty good continuation of her arc in the Dream Arc. As mentioned the start's a bit weird with how they voice a concern only for it to be immediately disproved without any comment. Also Lethe killed the Mautians? I get that it was needed to show Lethe's expression of Galaxia's philosophy and representing the world Sailor Moon had entered but that seems really weird given the cats were on Earth at the time so...what?

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 55 Review

 

The act resumes where the last act ended, Galaxia's power blowing away the city while Usagi tries to withstand the force, thinking she's not to face Galaxia, an enemy beyond all others she's faced. She tries to telepathically contact the Outer Senshi, telling them to respond as she needs their help.

Galaxia however reads Usagi's intent and telepathically shows Usagi images of the Outer Senshi dying. Usagi remains resolute and thinks to herself as she reaches for the Holy Grail that she summoned in front of her that she'll get everyones' crystals back, and that united they will will be able to save everyone. Galaxia just floats through Usagi's barrier though telepathically asking if she really believes that.

Galaxia is my favorite villain and this is one of the reasons. When creating Galaxia, Takeuchi-Sensei was thinking about Usagi, one of the most iconic manga characters to ever be created and someone who has by far dominated the story so far with her narrative and ideals, and wanted to create a rival, an anti-Usagi who could break that sense of certainty that Usagi, the readers, and the narrative had built around Usagi's story and this is almost literally represented in Galaxia's words and actions here. She simply ignores the barrier Usagi built up around herself, she destroys the city around Usagi, the locality that represents Usagi's mundane life suddenly and out of nowhere, she questions whether Usagi even really believes that this will be just like every other time.

Usagi tries to protest that this is always what happens, that they always unite and protect the future but Galaxia scoffs at the notion, asking her if she's sure that future will happen. Galaxia destroys the Holy Grail, symbol of the unity between the Senshi. A surge of energy happens as Galaxia says that now Usagi's planet will be no more and Usagi collapses from the strain. However before Galaxia blows up the planet, Chibi-Chibi grows her angel wings again and creates a shine that actually recreates the Holy Grail and the city.

This is the first time in the narrative Galaxia's plan has actually not come to fruition, even if the basic thrust of what she was aiming at was achieved by tormenting Usagi more. I love how Galaxia, just as she started this arc by killing the leading male and second most important character without any hassle asks Usagi if her stereotypical idea of how things will go will happen. Galaxia, the Soldier of Destruction, just as she wipes away the city destroys the narrative certainty. Of course, on some level, the reader thinks that there will be some kind of happy ending, but the degree is left uncertain by how much Galaxia destroys the standard narrative established in the last four arcs, represented by her messing with the future. Maybe there will be a happy ending, but the sacrifices and losses could really be anything. 

The Starlights show up trying to figure out what happened but Chibi-Chibi just calmly says things are alright, without any worry at all, building to her secret identity. The Starlights are shocked that Usagi survived an assault against Galaxia, despite not even transforming and restoring the city in the process, commenting that this is the legendary power of the Silver Crystal.

We cut to Galaxia in a flashback, drinking alone at a bar on an alien planet, listening in on a conversation, or rather a man ranting. He proclaims  that there is a birthplace of the stars, strong stars and weak stars, light and power, that if someone had it they would own the universe and be like a god, not live "like that." Having gotten the information she was looking for Galaxia proclaims to him that "trash is still trash until its death" and leaves both the bar and the planet. Looking down upon it she speaks to herself saying "whenever I go, all I see is trash" and well...

Galaxia is a soldier of destruction indeed.

Galaxia suggests that this is the fate of both this planet and her home planet, implying she destroyed it as well, the ultimate example of Galaxia's disdain for temporalities, declaring she is the one chosen by God, the one given such power. Insane as this might sound and though I don't have the godlike ego or genocidal tendencies...I can relate to Galaxia here. More than that I relate to her more than almost any other villain in fiction, maybe more than any other villain period. On the Gnostic to Nihilistic Spectrum, my tendency is dramatically towards the Gnostic. Sure I don't destroy entire worlds but I know immediately what Galaxia means when it seems like the world is empty. When I watch fictional series, I don't feel very much for most of them. You go through chapter after chapter, episode after episode, for scant bits of meaning, but so much just seems...arbitrary. This character or that event happens because the writer felt like it I guess and there's no deeper reason. I don't....feel it. And this isn't something I feel only towards others. I don't talk about it much but when I write anything, I feel...almost a contempt for most of my sentences. Every sentence I feel needs to justify its existence, so many of them I just think to myself "That doesn't go very deep, that doesn't give enough meaning." Even in real life, so many moments of our lives pass by without conveying any deeper meaning and people just seem okay with that in a way I don't understand. I can find meaning in them, just as I can read meaning into stories or deliberately try to extract what's meaningful in them, but I have to work for it most of the time. I always want most things to be more efficient in meaning, to take less time and effort, and give more meaning. Indeed what I love about Sailor Moon IS that it's so meaning-dense. It communicates so much in so little time, and even there you'll see if you go back on these reviews I give praise to the acts that communicate meaning and criticize when the times when things feel empty, even if I rationally know that no human author could possibly make a long-form story so meaning-dense as I'd like. I don't exalt in the chaotic destruction many seem too, I feel no drive to mess up orderly and working systems...yet I do enjoy a form of destruction of my own, I enjoy mentally burning away all the fat and excess, cutting down on the excess and arbitrary and the... meaningless. I wanna see how meaning-efficient a series can be, yet even as I mentally do that, part of me knows for some reason that's the part of series others connect too. Things that feel shallow to me are the interest of others. This impulse within me taken to its logical extreme is Galaxia who destroys whole worlds...because they're not meaningful to her, because they're trash without value for her. This is part of Galaxia's character arc that makes her one of the most compelling villains, heck one of the most compelling CHARACTERS I've ever read. I know the emptiness that drives her, the quest to find the meaningful and eternal that will fill the emptiness. And the conclusion of her character arc moves me just thinking of it now.

Galaxia in the flashback goes searching for an even greater power, a shining star worthy of her, looking for that mythical place in the universe where who does she run into, but Wiseman from the Black Moon Clan Arc. Knowing how to manipulate power-mad tyrants, Wiseman tells her of the place where stars are born, rushing forth like water from a fountain, Sagittarius Zero Star. Wiseman guide Galaxia to the center of the Milky Way where she meets a strange amorphous entity known as Chaos, who proclaims itself her mother.

Wiseman being here was a pretty cool reveal I think, and it probably makes sense time-wise. Technically Phantom appear until Crystal Tokyo so Wiseman shouldn't have been born yet, but he's also a time traveler and there's a reveal near the end of the arc which adds an extra way this could make sense. Galaxia's traveling around the universe is pretty cool especially since we see some really non-humanoid looking aliens with fish heads and Chaos itself is introduced. Little is seen about Chaos here but it's clearly going to be a bit plot point for the arc. 

Galaxia awakens from her dreaming of her past in her civilian form calling it a "tedious dream of when she looked for where she belonged." She mentions Sailor Moon shall come here soon, just as Chaos called her here to see the true, deliberately paralleling the two which will become relevant later as well as expressing that she became enlightened of something here. Galaxia beckons Sailor Moon to hurry here, saying the Earth is not even worthy of Sailor Moon alone, let alone a battle between the two, once again showing both her extreme larger-than-life personality and her disdain for temporalities-like worlds.

This is really cool although in ways that will make more sense after you learn the truth of what Galaxia is trying to do. Broadly though Galaxia after meeting Chaos had a mission, a goal, and her words mean more in their light.

Tin Nyanko returns, begging for forgiveness and one more change. However, Galaxia says that trash can never become stars, a reference to her dream flashback and to her believe that the only thing that matters about something is the eternal part of that thing, that the temporal part that changes is meaningless. She causes Tin Nyanko's bracelet to release and Tin Nyanko turns to dust, as Galaxia changed her body. The symbolism here is a bit more direct. Galaxia considers her minions temporal and like sand shifting in the wind, and so they become. 

We cut to a dream sequence of Usagi where she is beside a great shining star, hearing the sound of rushing water. Yet even hear she is not safe, for Galaxia attacks her, telling her that this is Sagittarius Zero Star, the Galaxy Cauldron, and dragging her down into it.

It's not really clear how Galaxia is doing this, even though she clearly is doing this as Usagi is being given plot information here. However, the reason why she's doing this is clear. She's tormenting Usagi even in her dreams, making it so she can't feel safe even in her dreams and trying to draw her to come to Sagittarius Zero Star. 

Usagi awakens again at Chibi-Chibi's prompting with the Starlights and Kakyuu nearby. Usagi thinks she thought she was being dragged down into that Dark Abyss, which is possibly a poetic reference to Hell or the Underworld. Usagi feels Chibi-Chibi's warm hands, commenting that Chibi-Chibi saved her, gave her strength through her warm hands, contrasted against the cold Abyss. Usagi wonders at the mysterious little angel sent from the future sent to save her, and at her allies protecting her while she's awake. Following up her feelings last act of losing herself to her eternal identity of Sailor Moon, bearer of the Silver Crystal, that her presence is what's causing her loved ones to be killed, Usagi thinks to herself that her friends are dying for her because she is the Guardian with the Silver Crystal...and then Usagi says something that is a massive moment in her own character arc and the themes of this arc in particular. 

Depending on the translation she says "no matter what, I'm still me" or "I just have to accept it. Every me is me." following by saying that because of that fact there are some things only she can do. Addressing the Starlights she says that they are more than their Sailor Crystals, but their bodies too. It is by seeing each other, by talking to each other, by joining their hands together, that their power grows. That it's only with their bodies can they combine their strength, that's what a Sailor Senshi is.

This is such a fantastic moment, I don't even know how to start talking about it. This is the character development for Usagi that foreshadows the climax of her battle with Galaxia and even here it shows the truly antithetical position for Galaxia. Usagi believes that these temporalities we live in are important because they are how we come to know each other, that the eternal component of our being come to understand each other through the temporary and transient parts of ourselves, and that's so...true. While I will get more into this in Act 59, the eternal manifests itself through the temporal so it can. Great metaphysical universal truths from gravity to fairness are experienced by the mind in the transient and humble sensations of mundane life from dropping a plate accidentally to seeing continually unlucky and feeling sorrow for them. These seemingly small meaningless and arbitrary sufferings of the universe and even its arbitrary joys are a communication between the inner eternal universes of our souls to with the eternal realities of the outer universe. What Usagi is saying here that their power as Sailor Senshi, as shown through their higher forms which are literally their hearts coming together as one, is formed of the bond their selves, their hearts, their Sailor Crystals form but THROUGH their bodies, their physical selves, that these silly mundane lives they lead are what connect them to each other and let them become stronger, that this transient world of temporalities, painful though it may be, allows the change that the Eternal Sailor Crystal alone would not. When most people, myself included, talk about great works of fiction we might say it makes other works look bad in comparison. But the Stars Arc of Sailor Moon is the only great work I know to do the reverse. It makes me love every single other work of fiction more because it helps me see them for what they really are: an attempt from one heart to express and communicate with mine, a physical manifestation through which I might see the eternal reality of another heart or the truths of the universe we share.

Usagi gets a chill thinking about Galaxia's words, though refuses to believe that her friends are lost forever, speaking to Galaxia in her heart saying she will return things to normal but in classic empathetic Usagi fashion trying to understand Galaxia's motive and why she is doing what she is doing. After that is a cute scene where Usagi gets up early the next day and Ikuko questions why, with Usagi asking if she can keep Artemis and Diana as pets, knowing they need a home temporarily without the others. Usagi explains that Artemis and Diana are Luna's husband and daughter, and says, with a sad expression that Minako can't look over Artemis at the moment. 

All the while Usagi thinks back to Kakyuu telling her that the damage to their foreheads aren't healing, and they may never talk again. The cats meow pitifully. The scene I believe is meant to show the growth in Usagi's composure and be emotionally evocative in how Usagi has to say these calm words knowing the reality.

Ikuko agrees to take care of Artemis and Diana as well as Luna, relieving Usagi. Usagi, having to hold back all her emotions tells her mother that she's leaving with Ikuko tearing up telling Kenji that it feels like Usagi's not coming back, the cats in similar despair.

That's some...ominous foreshadowing. Usagi goes off to war.

Usagi along with Kakyuu, the Starlights and Chibi-Chibi have a few exchanges, with Yaten surprised on Chibi-Chibi speaking normally now, the four planning to go to the ouskirts of the Solar System to meet up with the Outer Senshi. In a cute little exchange Seiya asks Usagi to give Seiya her hand, to let Seiya guide her. Usagi refuses, saying she doesn't want to be a burden and will keep up with them, but Seiya responds that she's a princess and a princess grows stronger when she gets protected. It's a cute little exchange. 

The Senshi grow Angel Wings to fly through the Heavens, as they take off for the Outer System. However when they arrive at the Outer Senshis' castles, they find them abandoned, only static playing on their screens. Usagi panics and rushes between them. When they get to Charon Castle orbiting Pluto however...

Sailor Moon learns from the visual recorder that Galaxia has already killed them. I know it would have super broken up the flow of the plot and probably wouldn't have been good for the overall symbolism and what they represent...but some part of me really wishes that Saturn and Galaxia had actually fought instead of Hotaru having her Star Seed taken in civilian form. Saturn vs Galaxia would have been the most hype thing ever.

Sailor Moon holds her face in her hands in anguish, saying if Galaxia wants Sailor Moon's crystal, she should just come after her, asking in despair why she is doing this to everyone. Sailor Moon declares that she will never forgive Galaxia, and addresses Kakyuu demanding to be brought to Sagittarius Zero Star. Kakyuu asks in shock how Sailor Moon knows of Zero Star. Sailor Moon says Galaxia told her of it, before addressing Galaxia directly saying to her that she's coming to get her. Meanwhile, transposed over this image in a really cool visual display, Galaxia senses Sailor Moon's intent across the Galaxy, telling Sailor Moon to hurry to her so she can destroy everything she loves one by one, till Sailor Moon is all alone. The two greatest lights of the universe are fixed against each other, their battlefield is set and the time of their battle approaches, concluding the first sub-arc of Stars.

The act concludes with a brief mysterious twin pair of girls, Lethe and Mnemosnye seeing an immense light approach them, the distant light of the Silver Crystal. Mnemosnye tells her twin she's scared and Lethe reassures her that she will protect her and their future, and won't let anyone step past them, obviously foreshadowing the next act.

Act 55 is fairly similar to Act 54 in its strengths. As such, I can hypothetically understand how someone might not be especially fond of it, given how much of it thematic self-reflection and dialogue and not actually much plot advancement, but on the other hand COME ON it's SUCH good thematic development. I think it's absolutely fantastic for my own part and it even advances the plot more than the last act. Parts of this act leave me truly at a loss for words because it's so...its strengths are so immediately evident to me yet also so deep in its themes and developments.

Act 55 concludes the first half of the Stars Arc. It culminates in the dichotomy of two subplots; Usagi's development and learning about Galaxia, comparing and contrasting them, forming the recurrent dichotomy of the first half that reaches its apex within this act, preparing for their clash. 

Galaxia is introduced as this mysterious character characterized by her larger-than-life nature, beginning the arc by declaring herself queen over the galaxy and proving herself so inevitable and alien to Usagi's world that she kills Mamoru, the leading male, during a romantic moment, halfway through the first Stars act. Over the course of this arc, Galaxia has seemed an unstoppable inevitable force, more than a person. Every time Usagi thinks she's won or is safe, NOPE Galaxia is here to take everything she thought was real from her. We see Galaxia only cares for the Eternal and the Universal, wondering why the Sailor Senshi cling to their mundane lives coming to the culmination this act as we see Galaxia's thoughts for the first time, her dismissal for the temporal nature of things with her declaration that trash will always be trash, her care only for the eternal, as well as the scope of her character. She is paradoxically the ultimate, the eternity, the top of the Senshi hierarchy that shapes the Galaxy's politics with her will, yet it's this various fixation that makes her compelling. 

Galaxia's destruction of the internal world of Usagi's security and expectations is continued into this act, to the point of being expressed vocalized as Galaxia asks Usagi if she is really certain that her future will come to being. Similarly, narratively, most of these arcs have a second half where the various villain group invade the planet directly. The Dark Kingdom freed Metaria who attacked the planet openly. The Black Moon Clan with Black Lady at their side attacked the future Crystal Tokyo directly. With the arrival of Pharaoh 90 and the awakening of Mistress 9, the Daimon attacked Earth to turn it into their homeworld, Zirconia eventually engaging the Sailor Senshi in open conflict when Usagi and Mamoru were weakened. However, these were the culmination of their arcs. Attacking the planet directly isn't Galaxia's plan or the point of this arc, so casual that Galaxia does so suddenly to start an act without even transforming and mocks the idea of the Earth being a worthy battlefield. Now the battle for Earth, for Usagi's inner world is only the prelude, the arc beginning where most arcs end. Now Usagi will have to invade Galaxia's world, come to understand this strange new enemy of hers, a seeming final equal and opposite to her, if she wants to win foreshadowed in her twice this act wondering about Galaxia's true nature, what kind of person she is. Now instead of having to protect her own planet, for the first time in the series, the second half of an arc will be Usagi entering into the world of an enemy, the great and most absolute inner world of the setting, Galaxia's world. the world of Sagittarius Zero Star. It's an immediately engaging subversion of the established structure that works on on many levels, mostly to show Galaxia's unique nature in the series history, how she focus only on the great and supreme things in the universe, how she is truly an equal to Usagi, whose inner world is equal in importance to the arc to Usagi's, how Usagi will have to come to understand Galaxia to prevail, foreshadowed with Usagi wondering multiple times who Galaxia is, and the way Galaxia parallels herself to Usagi with both being summoned to Sagittarius Zero Star, and is trying to make Usagi alone the way Galaxia herself is.

If Galaxia is the ultimate subversion of the series, breaking its narrative conventions, Usagi's arc over this first half, culminating within this act, is entrenched in the series' history. Literally this first half of the arc has been about Usagi coming to terms with Galaxia and preparing her will to battle against the greatest threat in the universe. But metaphorically it's about Usagi coming to terms with the transient nature of the things she trusts in and believes in. Usagi is introduced to us as an immature, irresponsible girl who nonetheless becomes stronger for the ones she loves. Over the course of the series, she has developed into a mature and responsible young woman, and a champion of love and justice, through the exact same principle. It showed Usagi's transformation in Act 1, and then showed that act on a far grander scope across the arcs, becoming a better, nobler, and more capable woman through her love for others. However, the first act of this arc where Galaxia killed Mamoru in front of her at the same time killed her sense of security and trust in the world she knew, the expectations she had that she and her friends would always triumph and defend everyone. 

For the first several acts she's unable to face this reality at all, completely disassociating from it. However, over the course of the arc, she has to grow to face this reality, embodied in Galaxia. Last act, Usagi wishes that their bodies would go on for eternity, her love embodied as angel wings which though they should let her fly through the Heavens, instead weigh her down, her greatest weapon, her love that ennobled her made into her curse by Galaxia. Yet this act she makes the emotional breakthrough with her proclamation "every me is me" neither prioritizing her material life as Usagi or her heavenly life as Sailor Moon, and asserting the diametric opposite of Galaxia's philosophy, that these fragile temporal material lives we lead to give them strength, and that itself is what a Sailor Senshi is. In doing so, she as Eternal Sailor Moon regains the use of her angel wings to fly through the Heavens, which is what allows her to fly to Galaxia's world. It is in recognizing her power to grow stronger as a Senshi that she literally, emotionally, and metaphorically regains the ability to confront Galaxia directly. 

I adore how each of the themes of the first four arcs can all be seen in this act as this act shows Usagi's development as a person and a Senshi to the point of being able to fact the ultimate reality embodied in Galaxia. In the first arc Usagi came to realize that her identities could co-exist within her at the same time, shown when she declares herself Princess Serenity and Sailor Moon against Metaria and when she chooses to live as Usagi Tsukino on Earth instead of as new Lunar Queen. That's seen with Usagi's declaration that she is still herself, that their bodies are an important part of them giving her conviction in her ideals. In the second arc, Usagi had to learn proper responsibility, taking on the ultimate maternal responsibility, a willingness to sacrifice herself for her daughter, and the responsibility of ruling over the entire world in the future but not taking the responsibility for Demande's actions unto herself. Similarly this act, Usagi thinks of how Galaxia is killing everyone she loves to get to her, a part that's clearly in her mind since last act showed her flashing back to Saphir making that same assertion. Yet instead of falling to despair again, Usagi refuses to take responsibility for Galaxia's actions and instead uses this to motivate it, to take the responsibility on her shoulders to stop it saying "There's always a friend risking their life to protect me. Even if it's because I'm the Soldier with Silver Moon Crystal...My being this way is exactly why there are things only I can do." The third arc taught Usagi the importance of looking beyond the surface layer of a person to their soul allowing her to see that the mysterious "boy" Haruka so alien to her was another Sailor Senshi with the same heart as her. Usagi ends this act looking at Galaxia no longer as some inevitable force, but as a person, a person whom Usagi wonders at the intent off. This makes her someone Usagi can fight, and will be important for her later in the arc. The fourth arc taught Usagi the difference between the surface level and deeper dreams, shown when she breaks free of an indulgent dream where Mamoru serves her every whim to share the same dream with him, a dream of the two in true partnership, working together to protect the world as symbol of their love. While Usagi's material dream is for the safety and security of her friends, that they might never die symbolized in her statement last act that "I wish these bodies would last forever," while Galaxia might have shattered the waking dream Usagi inhabited where they were all fine and wouldn't die, Usagi had a deeper dream, a dream of protecting this world surrounded by the ones she loves, a deeper dream that maintains her and empowers her in the time of toil, and as loving true dreams unites her with her friends regardless. Usagi has gone from a scared crybaby, half as good as any of the other Senshi to the light of the universe, a soldier who this very act faces down the strongest Senshi temporarily whose very visage paralyzes other Senshi and it feels so incredibly EARNED. This act subtly showcases Usagi's growth as though the entire series has built up to this moment of Usagi going off to battle her ultimate opponent with all the development she had.

This act is fantastic because it juxtaposes the series' two best characters in my opinion: Usagi and Galaxia, developing both, connecting to both past and future in its showcase of the development of Usagi and foreshadowing what she will need to beat Galaxia, highlighting the difference of their hearts, one who rejects the flawed temporal worlds we inhabit, and one who loves them, a conflict which if I'm honest, is one I experience regularly. 

That's not even getting into all the cool little details about this arc! The part where Chibi-Chibi fends off Galaxia, the first time the whole arc Galaxia has been stopped from doing something foreshadowing Chibi-Chibi's importance, Seiya and Usagi's cute little exchange about princesses being stronger when protected, Ikuko's comment about Usagi seeming like she will never come back building the tension and the finale where Usagi declares she is coming for Galaxia while Galaxia like a true supervillain grinning and inviting her to come for battle building the hype. I love this act and I could talk about it even more, it is the perfect thing to reflect on the greatness of the series so far and prepare the reader for the final sub-arc in Sailor Moon. 

Mythology Scaling to Real World, Pros and Cons

I enjoy scaling Mythological Figures yet one of the eternal arguments that come up about it is the following:

"Yeah this character created a star, but they didn't think the stars were that big so it's not that impressive a feat."

I have to be honest, I'm a bit of two minds about this argument and can see arguments for and against it. This blog will basically be assessing this logic. Before I begin, however, powerscaling, though it might not seem it,  is really two related but distinct questions that each scaler needs to pick what they're asking:

"If these characters and their stories were real and they fought, who would win?"

and

"If these characters were written to fight, like in a crossover, who would win?"

These often have the same result, but have some different assumptions. If you're trying to answer the first question then when powerscaling a character you're asking "how strong would this character have to be, at minimum, to perform the feats they are attributed if these events actually happened?" and if you're trying to answer the second question then when powerscaling a question you're asking "how strong is this character intended to be depicted as." The two questions will have different perspectives on things like authorial intent, outliers, consistency, and diegetic vs non-diegetic interpretations of the text. 

When powerscaling, I'm trying to answer the first question. I don't usually think "how strong did the author intend this character to be" or "how strong are they usually depicted", my thoughts are "alright if this feat really happened, it would require about this level of power or speed to actually do." I don't necessarily think either way is superior or inferior, just that they are answering different questions. I'm going to try and talk about Mythology Scaling to the Real World using both questions.

Question A:

In Method A, what the author intended is seen as sort of irrelevant. As such if I was to talk about a feat for Zeus from the Theogony, how large Hesiod thought the universe was is kind of irrelevant. So that makes it nice and simple, right? Mythology Feats scale to the Real World equivalents?

Well, no, that's just where it begins. While this question treats the fictional setting as a "real" world for the purposes of the hypothetical, and therefore the author isn't being considered, details given about this world can be anything said in the text. If a fictional setting is meant to take place on a planet that is not Earth, then destroying the planet it takes place on can consequently be a different level of power than destroying the Earth.

This might seem like a different scenario however because these Mythologies purport to happen on the Real World and in fact, often seek to explain things about the real world. Therefore it seems especially clear here, though this would be my default assumption anyway, that the "universe" of the stories is identical to ours except where it is noted. This would be my default assumption anyway for any story.

There is an additional wrinkle, however.in the form of cosmological contradictions. Talking about "Mythological Zeus" or really "Mythological" anyone is always going to be a vague composite. What we call mythologies are really many stories by many writers who often have different cosmologies in mind and write different cosmologies. Yet at the same time, these stories ARE often meant to take place in the same "universe." They will very often directly reference each other, saying this person was the descendant of that person, or reference events from other mythical stories. The closest equivalent to how Mythologies are formed in terms of modern writing would be something like Western Superhero Comics with many writers over generations writing in a shared universe, except the DC Universe is 100 years old and has central editors to keep stories in line while Greek Mythology spans a length of time at least many times that length and encompasses everything from the pop culture of the day like plays, to the actual temple religion overseen by priests. These are writers distinct enough that Aristole refers to Anaximander as being "a long time ago" (~200 years difference) yet the full span is several times that.

And these writers did contradict. I remember being in one powerscaling debate about Zeus and my opponent refused to believe any of the Greek Gods could be above at max Star Level because one of the ancient Greeks estimated the size of the universe to be what we would today would known to be the size of a large star. However, the Greek philosophers and astronomers did not all agree with Anaximander along with others thinking the universe was infinite and with various primordial entities in the Greek Mythology having statements of being "boundless" or "endless" in the actual religious texts.

Broadly these contradictions have to be reconciled by whatever method a powerscaler usually uses to reconcile differences in cosmology by different writers. Other long-running verses with many authors have similar contradictions, it's just here the differences are on a wider scope due to a far greater timescape and lack of central editing authority. Broadly I treat mythological feats like I would any other feats, I treat it as equivalent to the real world unless I see a textual statement that the object of the feat is distinct, in which case I treat it how the verse specifies. If a mythological deity makes a star, I would call them star level normally. If the culture it comes from doesn't know what a star is, that doesn't really matter to me since I'm treating it as though the story is real for the purposes of the hypothetical. If philosophers of this culture have wrongful postulations that stars are holes in the sky as large as, say, a person, I wouldn't consider it important especially if there are conflicting views as I don't consider the mindset of the person writing the story important for the question at hand. If the religious text explicitly says that the stars are holes in the sky the size of people I would say the feat is the power level needed to make a person-sized hole in the sky. If it says numerous contradictory things about what the stars in the sky are, I will try to reconcile the maximum amount of information I can. 

Question B:

This is not my natural inclination, so I may not get the logic down for what people who ask this question would think on the matter. I am not as big a fan of answering this question as, being more narrative analysis-y than math and science-y, it's more ambiguous a lot of the time and more subjective.

Obviously if you take the Ancient Greeks or any society from Pre-Modern times they would not be thinking about their Deities manipulating stars and galaxies the way we would think about them, because they didn't know about these things. While the approximate size of the Earth has been known since about 240 BC when it was calced by Eratosthenes, the true size of the universe is obviously very counter-intuitive to the human mind, and things like manipulating the stars or the milky way are very obviously not intended by the ancient writers to be the sizes we know them as today, the very notion of such sizes would be even more baffling to them then they are to people today. Indeed many times Mythological Gods have feats of manipulating geographical features of the Earth; mountains, valleys, islands, and so forth, and this is meant to be very impressive which would obviously not be the case if they would also create stars as we know them today.

I do think there might still be an argument however to use real world sizes for at least a large amount of mythological feats as well. If we are considering Authorial Intent, most of the themes these feats are not included to specifically state the character is mountain level or star level. It's meant to impress upon the reader or listener the divine power of the gods. I highly doubt that if you went back to ancient Greece and somehow told the Priests of Apollo that the Sun is a sphere over 100 times the diameter of the whole of the Earth, that they would change their religious beliefs. Instead, I think they would respond something to the effect that this is the power of Lord Phoebus Apollo that his chariot flies through the Heavens regardless. The relevance of these feats in the minds of their authors isn't the specific power of the feats, but the great and awe-inspiring power of the Gods.  This is also why there are contradictions in power. Even ignoring the cosmic feats, it might seem a contradiction that Typhon, a monster on the power of Zeus could be trapped under Mt. Etna, yet Athena in the Gigantomachy hurled the island of Sicily in combat against the giant Enceladus, Athena being weaker than Typhon and Mt. Etna being a single volcano on Sicily. Yet both of these feats individually are meant to emphasize the divine power of the characters involved and are not concerned with the specifics of the the joules or kilograms involved.

Ultimately how the ancient Greek believers or any Pre-Modern people would have taken in the updated scientific knowledge of the universe we possess is unknowable. Broadly speaking for mythological feats I take the feats to be equal to the real-world feats unless the information is presented contrawise in the text itself, which is the same standard I take for any series. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 54 Review

 

The Starlights are shocked to see their princess Kakyuu appear before them and kneel in respect. Kakyuu says she heard their song and wanted to go to them but "her body's recover took more time than expected" suggesting she have may have been injured in a fight against Galaxia's forces when they escaped their Star System.

If that's the case it does sort of raise the question of how she got to the Sol System if she was injured and recovering inside the incense burner and how she got separated from the Starlights. Kakyuu says that Chibi-Chibi was helping her and telling her about what was going on. Kakyuu speaks to Chibi-Chibi and says she felt her stellar power and asks her "You're a Sailor Senshi aren't you?" Chibi-Chibi transforms and confirms that she is herself a Sailor Senshi with angel wings like Eternal Sailor Moon.

Back with Usagi, Nyanko reveals her true form as Sailor Tin Nyanko and attacks Luna and Artemis after they called her a hiding cat monster basically saying "Takes one to know one." Luna and Artemis, changing into their human forms, manage to evade but Tin Nyanko is right on their heels

Usagi transforms and pursues. Tin Nyanko use an attack called "Galactica Puppet" which sends out energy strings from her bracelets to grab enemies but to Luna and Artemis' shock Eternal Sailor Moon jumps in the way of the attack. During the encounter Tin Nyanko is still jokingly pretending to be Sailor Moon's friend introduces herself as Sailor Tin Nyanko from the planet of Mau, where Luna and Artemis are from. Luna calls her just a shallow imitation of their planet's Sailor Senshi and Artemis asks how she can go against the peace-loving values of their home world. 

Tin Nyanko angrily protests, calling Luna and Artemis traitors again and saying they know nothing; Sailor Mau and all Mau are dead, the Shadow Galactica turned it into a world of death. 

This is a repetition of the idea presented with Phobos and Deimos actually being aliens from Coronis, wanting to better tie the history of the Solar System to the history of the Galaxy at large. I also think Takeuchi-sensei, knowing this was the last arc wanted to give the backstory for one of the story's oldest ideas; the mooncats. While it's not particularly integrated into the plot I think she does well enough including it naturalistically and the explanation makes a fair deal of sense. They are aliens from the world of cat-aliens Mau. I also think Tin Nyanko is a relatively interesting villain having a playful catlike attitude yet also clearly projecting onto Luna and Artemis her own feelings.

Nyanko angrily expresses that she will survive this battle and that she will have her bracelets removed and being given her "former, complete" body back again. Before the reader can register that Nyanko continues with the same thing Lead Crow said, saying Galaxia will give her a Sailor Crystal and planet of her own, becoming a real Sailor Senshi. However going into the implications of the statement, Tin Nyanko is implying that all the Animamates and those who wear Galaxia's Bracelets are enslaved to Galaxia's will, which is why her attack is one that references puppets and has strings that control them, because they lack their original bodies, that Galaxia altered their bodies to be of better use to her. This will be relevant symbolically later but broadly notice again that Galaxia is associated with a gnostic contempt for the body, that her power reveals the temporality of bodies. 

Usagi comments to herself on Luna and Artemis being from Mau the way Phobos and Deimos were from Coronis, and they left their home planets to aid them. Then Diana in her human form appears to aid her parents, the three of them getting hit by an attack from Tin Nyanko, the attack hitting Diana's Crescent Moon disabling her ability to speak.

The attack disabling Diana's speech because it hits her Crescent Moon makes sense since in Act 1 we were shown the Mautians can't speak or use some of their abilities if the Crescent Moon on their forehead is covered. The bigger problem is how Diana returned to the past, though while this is a mystery for now, it does get an explanation later. 

Sailor Moon actually tries to convince Nyanko to stop her actions which I just thought was notable as it meant Nyanko really did a good job convincing Usagi they were friends, possibly cause of Usagi's loneliness at the death of the other Senshi. Nyanko just creates some kind of illusory duplicates however and hits Luna and Artemis, similarly disabling their ability to talk. Before Nyanko can kill them however Sailor Moon leaps in the way again, protecting them, Nyanko believing it. Star Fighter than bursts in and shoots a laser at Tin Nyanko. Nyanko's evidently a lot less confident than the other Animamates and runs at away at the number of enemies there.

Sailor Moon reacts in surprise to see the Starlights, and extra surprise to see the newly transformed Chibi Chibi. While their speaking is disabled from having their Moon Crescents damaged and they are hurt, the Mautians are still alive. It does make one wonder why Galaxia decided not to show up this time. It might have been a cool scene to see Galaxia show and have the Starlights freak out at her finally appearing before them, though it would have disrupted the flow of the act. The Senshi bring the Mautions back to the wise Princess Kakyuu to get her advice on helping them.

Kakyuu gives herself a very formal and regal introduction to Usagi expressing that she is "Kakyuu, First Princess of the Tankei Kingdom, of the Planet Kinmoku." Kakyuu as a name typically refers to a fireball or a very bright meteor. Kakyuu gives a very formal bow to Usagi and apologizes for the Starlights rudeness, expressing admiration for the future Neo-Queen Serenity. Usagi in confusion asks "How do you know me?" and Kakyuu responds that the whole galaxies admires the strength and beauty of the Senshi of the Sol System, and that when she and Mamoru came together and coronated themselves at the end of the Dream Arc, they sent a shining image across the universe, a message of strength and warmth from the Solar System.

This is a really cool way to link up the Dream and Stars arcs and it makes sense both literally and metaphorically. The End of the Dream Arc was the Coronation of Serenity and Endymion, it was their formal declaration of nation, it was them stating that the Solar System was a kingdom again, their kingdom. But kingdoms have enemy kingdoms. By declaring them, they drew the eye of Galaxia as seen at the start of the arc, and her Shadow Galactica, the most immense of cosmic kingdoms  Their coronation like many similar royal ceremonies is also a coming-of-age ceremony where the Princess becomes Queen. And like any adult, they must shift from their problems of childhood represented in the first four arcs' villains, internal problems of their own inner world, the Solar System, and unto the problems of the greater world, the problems of other people. The villains in this arc are other Sailor Senshi as a way of showing the increased maturation of the threat. They're not fighting formless space monsters anymore, they're fighting other people who are like them in a sense. I also just think it's cool how this isn't framed as a bad thing they did which could have been an easy error to make, making it seem like Usagi and Mamoru were wrong to announce their presence to their universe. It did draw Galaxia's eye and brought on their current crisis. But the presence of strong and noble Senshi like them clearly gave hope to a hopeless Galaxy under the imminent reign of Galaxia. This isn't a cosmic horror story, or just a cosmic horror story, about how everything in space wants to kill you, it's a tale of Usagi's increased responsibility with the immense challenges that come with it and also increased ability to care for others.

Kakyuu comments on the Mautions that their Star Seeds have the same shining power as Sailor Crystals. Seiya tells Princess Kakyuu that the enemy fled before they could deliver the finishing blow, and therefore it doesn't seem like Galaxia had complete control over her, an astute observation. Kakyuu tells Sailor Moon of the woes of the galaxy. Sailor Galaxia is recruiting young ambitious people and giving them the power of Stolen Sailor Crystals which is what gives them their power, however they're not True Sailor Senshi and without their bracelets, their shackles to Galaxia's will, they die, forcing them to her will. 

Kakyuu says that the places Galaxia has taken are planets of death, where both the living and dead die. Even... and Kakyuu is unable to explain who but she is clearly referring to her love also perishing, paralleling her to Usagi.

Sailor Galaxia is the Soldier of Destruction making her the fundamental opposite of Sailor Moon, the Soldier of Restoration, their powers being opposite. I've seen some people compare Saturn and Galaxia in regards of their Sailor Affiliation but the major difference is that Saturn is the Sailor Senshi of Death as well as Life, of the cycle. She causes living things to die so that they may be reborn. Galaxia is nowhere near as benevolent in her powers. She simply destroys things; body, soul, and all else, leaving nothing but their Sailor Crystal. 

Princess Kakyuu tells Sailor Moon however that no matter how many planets Galaxia attacks, her ultimate goal is...her. Usagi. Usagi, shocked, asks why and Kakyuu responds "Because you carry the Sailor Crystal with the strongest power in the Galaxy, you carry the Silver Moon Crystal." We come full circle back to the First Arc. Usagi then wondered if she was losing herself to Princess Serenity, the princess doomed by fate. Now Usagi is trapped by Sailor Moon, by the Silver Crystal, by being the heroine and inviting death and destruction on everyone else. Usagi thinks back to the Second Arc, where Saphir has yelled in fury that she and her Silver Crystal disrupted history...she questions in her mind, "is all this really my fault, everyone was attacked because of me?"

An excellent callback, perfect for the situation, and an excellent internal conflict that both calls back to the themes of prior arcs while also advancing the character. Usagi tells Kakyuu that she has to go where Galaxia is and asks her location. You'd normally expect in this type of scenario for the characters to be like "oh no it's too dangerous!" and the main character to be all like "It's dangerous but I have to do it" or some such but Kakyuu gets a determined look and says she will lead Usagi there herself, to the surprise of the Starlights. There's an atmospheric picture of Usagi and Kakyuu holding hands transposed over the galaxy while the Starlights give some exposition on the galaxy, Taiki saying that the Solar System is a special place in the Galaxy for being exceptionally well-balanced and having sustained balanced growth. Yaten elaborates that all things that bear life have a Star Seed including people, planets, and stars from which they grow. Special Star Seeds, called Sailor Crystals are sent to chosen planets to guard them, developing into a Sailor Guardian alongside them. This might be why the Sol System Senshi are so strong, their System has the most sustained balanced growth and so the planets and consequently the Senshi developed the most.

This actually does explain something alluded to since the first chapter of Sailor V, that the Sailor Senshi are "chosen" Soldiers, blessed by the planets, bearing the light of the stars within them which is what grants them their superpowers. This is the light of the Star Seeds within them enveloping like an aura, that glow around them sometimes, and the way they are chosen is to grow and develop like their associated planet. The notion that all living things have a special thing, a spirit, separating them from inanimate matter is a common idea in spirituality.

This line of thought reminds Usagi of her friends and she begins to weep again. Seiya goes to comfort Usagi but she regains her composure, saying "the battle with Galaxia awaits me." Seiya metaphorically sees Seiya with Heavy Angel wings, her arms chained commenting how she always has those heavy angel wings holding her down.

It's really beautiful imagery I think, that what should be carrying her up to her heaven, her love and purity are dragging down into the ground as she suffers from the burden of responsibility and the pain of loss. Seiya's words carry the connotations that Usagi's always felt this way, that this weight is one Usagi already knows. I find it hard to interpret this sentiment, not because it has no obvious connections but because, like so many scenes in Stars, it can be seen in so many ways. Perhaps it is in admiration. Usagi, though the manga makes it easy to forget this fact, is a teenage girl who has to bear the weight of the world numerous times and her ability to transform from a tearful cowardly girl to the Hero of Love and Justice so quickly as Seiya just witnessed is truly something incredible. Perhaps it is in despair at how easily she accepts this binding, this horrid responsibility suggested by Usagi's cold expression on the first panel. Notice how the bindings on her go to her wrist, the wrist bracelets of Galaxia and her minions enslaving them being a common idea this arc. Perhaps as suggested by the next panels, it's an expression of Seiya's love wondering if Usagi has seen the death of her loved one before. It's a beautiful complex motif that can be seen in a multitude of ways. 

Seiya tells Usagi that Kakyuu also lost her true love to Galaxia and in classic knight and princess manner pledges her strength to Usagi, kissing her hand as she does so. Usagi looks in Seiya's eyes and wonders if she was never a Sailor Senshi, would she have ever met her companions, without the Silver Moon Crystal would she even exist? Thinking back to Yaten talking about their Eternal Star Seeds, Eternal Identities as Sailor Senshi,  Usagi says the thing in her heart all arc, that she wishes their physical bodies would last for eternity too.

This is another scene I don't know how to express. So many emotions are intermingling on this page and I feel like to properly address it would require a blog unto itself. This arc is about the dichotomy between the temporal, physical reality and the eternal, spiritual reality. The physical world, our physical lives are contingent on the spiritual reality, is born from it. Even if you're not a religious or spiritual person at all, you can understand this by comparing your personal life to the cosmos itself, practically a form of eternal more spiritual existence in comparison. All things are instances of broader patterns and trends, temporary bodies inhabited by widespread animating forces, just as Usagi in an incarnation of the Silver Crystal, the temporary mundane life compared to her eternal role as Sailor Moon.

In this arrangement the physical is indebted to the spiritual, indeed would seem to disappear into them. Our little lives seem to disappear into the grand scope of the universe, the moment slipping away into eternity. And an existential panic can arise, that all we are can be subsumed, eaten up like the fragile moment, by the underlying reality that causes us. Are we born purely as a vessel for the eternal reality, is our sense of self and all the details of life going to disappear into the role we inhabit? Moreover, are all our efforts and passions and loves we find in this world meaningless if it disappears like any other space dust? But Usagi ever since she feared losing herself to Princess Serenity back in the first arc is the girl who wants to elevate her humble mundane life on Earth, who chose to live on Earth as a normal girl over living as the Magical Queen of the Moon for the time being. In this way, she is the opposite of Galaxia. Galaxia asked why the Sol Senshi cling to their human Star Seeds just in the same way Usagi wishes their bodies, their human lives were as eternal as their Sailor Identities. 

Seiya gives her a reassuring kiss on the cheek, saying she hopes they can be reincarnated again. Seiya offers to walk Usagi home but she gives a brave smile and takes Chibi-Chibi. Watching her leave, Seiya comments that it would never work out between them, her rank in the Galaxy is higher than hers, which is a fun little bit of world-building.

Chibi-Chibi plays on the swings a little and Usagi starts thinking about how strange Chibi-Chibi is, always trying to make Usagi feel better but she knows nothing about Chibi-Chibi. She asks Chibi-Chibi who she is and and Chibi-Chibi hilariously responds with "I am me." Not only is that a good childish response that's also kinda profound, especially for this arc which is so focused on identities and the divide between identities it also carries extra meaning if you know already who Chibi-Chibi is. 

Usagi gets annoyed at the answer-dodging and begins to chase Chibi-Chibi only to be stopped by a crystal falling from the sky. A Sailor Crystal. A very familiar woman wearing a long flowing dress and with long flowing hair asks for it and thanks Usagi for giving it back to her.

The woman says "you always have so many friends" to Usagi before asking if it's because...of Usagi's Sailor Crystal.

An immense energy emerges from her upon saying that, sending Usagi into a defensive crouch over Chibi-Chibi. The energy is greater than any Usagi has feelt before as Usagi realizes just as she said she had too earlier, she's come face to face with Galaxia!

Act 54 is a great act though acts as a slightly, emphasis on slightly, calmer act after the trauma of last act. Mostly this act serves as an exposition on the current state of the galaxy and the nature of the Star Seeds, the big plot device of the arc. Despite this however, Naoko manages to make the arc really engaging imo through these really beautiful imagery.

This is always the part of Sailor Moon I love most, when it gets all otherworldly and esoteric when you're not even fully sure what's meant to be literal and what's meant to be metaphorical, when the boundary between worlds is thinnest, and each scene, each line can be read in a dozen different ways, thought of and understood differently in different tones over and over again. It's a type of content that I can enjoy almost uniquely over and over again when most series the meaning is expunged almost immediately after seeing it once. It's a tone that makes images and feelings cascade through my mind the way emotional music or poetry can do. Most Arcs in Sailor Moon start in the relatively mundane world and build up over the course of the arc into the surreal and otherwordly, and even most acts have this internal structure. Yet Stars as the finale for the entire series feels that way semi-consistently throughout, as though it is to the other arcs what the confrontation with the Eldritch Horrors are for the other arcs. 

It's kind of hard to know where to even start talking about this act because it's so consistently good throughout the course of it. My favorite part however is probably the two pages where Seiya comments on Usagi's heavy angels wings binding her, and the following page where Usagi wonders if she would have even been born without the Silver Crystal and comments she wishes that their bodies would also last for eternity. I feel there's so many emotions packed into those two pages and it's so indicative of the greater conflict of the arc, and the two dualities, the one with Usagi and the one she has with Galaxia. Galaxia this arc represents one who also sees the Eternal Identity of Sailor Senshi as valuable, who wonders why they even bother to have a mundane temporal identity. However for Usagi this is exactly reversed in orientation; she lives in the mundane temporal world of her friendships and her normal identity, and it's precisely losing herself and all she knows to the Eternal Identity of Sailor Moon that crushes her. She would rather never fight for Love and Justice again, would rather live everyday having fun with her friends, and taking up the mantle of her responsibilities of her Eternal Self which should give her the freedom to fly through the Heavens unbounded like it does Galaxia, instead, it weighs her down with guilt and self-doubt as she holds herself responsible for the deaths of her loved ones and comrades against the galaxy.

We just came off the tail of an arc that taught that one should not put their eternal dream as secondary to the temporal material dream, but Usagi here is not trying to make her Sailor Identity secondary, she just wishes that their mundane identity was as important, as eternal as it was, because that's where she draws her power from her. Stars has a longer emotional journey, but this section here really tells you everything you will need to know about the conflict between Usagi and Galaxia as established earlier, setting the stage for the arc. It's incredible to me just how paradoxically this arc can be incredibly esoteric and abstract in its theme, yet so incredibly personal and relatable. On a personal level, I have found this to be perhaps the most primary conflict in my life from the very small and irrelevant to the existential and massive: that the smaller and more local an event, the more temporal it is, the less you can trust it to always be there. If you turn your gaze into eternity, you find that all the soft parts of you and your life fade away into the infinite. Everything you have a fondness for, from clothes to food, from fandoms to works, from ideals to people, the things you trust fade like planets and stars and galaxies as you zoom out into the perspective of the cosmos. And if you're someone who perhaps struggles with change like Usagi, or perhaps like me, you might feel Earth is too Chaotic and Heaven too distant for your heart, wishing that these joys you find in the world may continue for eternity. 

To get away from my personal meditations and back to the more literal parts of the act, I think other parts of this act really complement the overall theme and plot of the arc. As mentioned the act does a lot of exposition work for the arc as well as explain plot elements that have been mysteries since the beginning of the series such as what the Silver Crystal IS, where Luna and Artemis come from, what the nature of Sailor Senshi are, and more. The beginning fight with Tin Nyanko is pretty good and the ending part of Galaxia ambushing Usagi when both are in their civilian states is an ironic moment for good reason, it's yet another point of Galaxia's unpredictability and engaging in prolonged mental warfare and downright torture of the sensitive Usagi for her own purpose, making her feel like it's impossible to trust anywhere or anything no matter mundane, making her feel like every moment is just one step away from the world fading away around her again into blackness the way it did when Mamoru died. I also think it was a really cool decision to have Usagi face Galaxia directly now that Usagi has accepted the reality of what Galaxia represents.

Outside the larger parts of the act, it also has a few cute smaller details peppered in. You've got Seiya's crush on Usagi that she knows will remain unrequited, you've got Chibi-Chibi's cute and honestly kinda brilliant response to Usagi's question of "who are you?" with "I am me." You've got Kakyuu's backstory as well as two different fantastic callbacks to prior arcs with Usagi remembering Saphir telling her that she and her Silver Crystal have thrown off the course of human history at exactly the time Usagi would remember that, as well as the reveal that the Stars Arc happened because of the Coronation at the end of last act, a callback which not only makes a lot of sense literally and metaphorically but also makes sure to show that it was not just a bad thing which is a really smart writing decision. 

I can get if someone's  not super into this act because it's a lot of talking and not much happens for the majority of it, plus if you already know the lore of the series it's a lot of just exposition, but for me personally I absolutely adore it.