Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 60 Review

 

Eternal Sailor Moon says no what she'll never give up home and says that she doesn't know she can save everyone but everyone is still with her with their spirits in her mind. She hears the words of Mamoru, Hotaru, and Kakyuu in her mind, the ones who have represented hope in her mind, Mamoru being the one whose eyes reflected that blue orb of hope and possibilities, Hotaru being the Senshi that kills but also brings rebirth, Kakyuu being the Senshi that expressed the ability of Sailor Senshi to always be reborn together in the same world. Love properly realized creates Hope.

Usagi takes on a new form as she enters the cauldron. She calls on the power of every Sailor Crystal sleeping within the Cauldron and all her loved ones across the galaxy to give her power.

                                                                                        

This new form is a bare form lacking any armor or weapons of war. She is not a Sailor Senshi but something beyond. She is not a Soldier for she has transcended the binary divide of the war. There is an aspect of the feminine as a pattern of being that reaches out unto the absolute, the divine female from which the image of woman is made. I feel its spirit reading these pages, an expression of a uniquely feminine ideal that women may aspire towards, a person who bears a community in her heart, who in her love and empathy has the spirits of all people within her. This to me was what made Sailor Moon so inspirational and special in my youth, why I believe it inspired a resurgence and the mass popularization of the Magical Girl Genre like never before: it neither tells young women to submit their femininity to men nor to relinquish it to be equal and the same, but exalts that femininity as one of the most special powerful forces in the universe, presents a cosmos where the force that saves everyone is nothing else but the love in one young woman's heart.

Away from these events, the Amazon Senshi awaken to find themselves surrounded by stars, their own Star Seeds emerged from their chests, yet they don't perish. They know intuitively someone is calling out to them calling their strength. They run to the epicenter of this event and find Usagi in the Chaos with the lights of the Heavens going towards her. The Amazon Senshi watch in wonder as their own Star Seeds join in the procession of lights.

All throughout the arc, we've seen that people without their Star Seeds die and disappear. Without an identity like the Star Seeds represent, we are as nothing, we fade into the chaos. Or at least, that was the presumption. But there is a grand Love that when our identities fade within, we remain. As Hotaru said in Act 44, quoting Einstein "a person starts to live when he can live outside himself." In contrary to Galaxia's philosophy that the greatest stars shine alone and stars gathering together is proof of their status as trash, what this is showing that the spirit comes to life when it can enter into the body or soul of another, taking their psychic or physical struggles on. 

Usagi channels the energy of all these Star Seeds at once and a great cascade of light and energy come forth, with the whole of Sagittarius Zero Star shining with the light of the countless Stars that have been born and that will be born, the power of the light tearing Chaos apart. Usagi states she can feel everyone's power coursing through her body saying she can rescue everyone here, as she is brought to the absolute, as her form erases in the sea of the Galaxy Cauldron.

It is the most incredible thing to me. The chaos of being seems insurmountable. We travel through life with many conceptual weights along us, dragging our spirit down. But it surprises me how easily that chaos breaks up. If you face the chaos of being with love in your heart, the conceptual Chaos even of all being just disappears in the ether. I've found often when facing troubles that feel incomparably heavy in my heart that when I begin to face the problems with that spirit within me, it all suddenly feels so light, that even the conceptual weight of the world falls apart before I even realize. I don't know if this is an experience that is peculiar to me or is more common but I sincerely hope all people may find that peace.

The Amazon Senshi watching from outside are shocked as the Galaxy Cauldron becomes a glowing swirl, flooding light into the universe in the form of innumerable stars. The mysterious Sailor Senshi from last act appears by their side to their surprise and explains what's happening. She tells them all the Sailor Crystal that got scattered into the Cauldron and have regained their original forms and returning to their proper place. 

The Amazon Senshi are worried for Sailor Moon, thinking this regenerative power could only have come from the Silver Crystal, but the other Sailor Senshi says that this power came from the Lambda Power, the ultimate power of the Cosmos Crystal, the energy of all the Sailor Crystals coming together as one. The "Cosmos" is an older term for the "universe" but specifically the universe recognized as a singular unified whole as opposed to Chaos. It's the idea that the entire universe, space and time, could be regarded as a single Celestial Body like a planet or a star that is internally orderly, the orderly world emerging from primeval chaos. 

Confused by these alien terms of "Cosmos Crystal" and "Lambda Power", the Amazon Senshi ask who this mysterious Senshi is and she introduces herself as Sailor Cosmos. Sailor Ceres asks if she is the final form of Sailor Moon, but Sailor Cosmos dodges the question saying she is nothing but a coward who ran away from where she should have been, no match for Eternal Sailor Moon's ultimate display of strength and courage. 

Sailor Cosmos' backstory is finally explained. Though she dodges the question, she is a future form of Sailor Moon that fled back in time from a calamity, regretting the pain and suffering she's had to endure but with her spirit invigorated by her younger self's courage in the face of ultimate Chaos. 

From the phrasing the Amazon Senshi are worried by Sailor Cosmos' words that Sailor Moon perished, and asks about the fate of their princess who is dependent on Sailor Moon. Sailor Cosmos reassures them that their princess along with everyone else was reborn through the Lambda Power and will be carried on the stream of light to the 30th Century. Sailor Cosmos says that in trying to absorb Chaos, Sailor Moon melted into the Sea of Beginnings along with Chaos and that it was thanks to her that the Galaxy and the Cauldron regained their original forms. 

But, Sailor Cosmos continue sadly, that because Sailor Moon didn't destroy the Cauldron, Chaos was not completely vanquished and will return one day. She tells them of her time when she and her friends battled Chaos, reborn as the fearsome Sailor Chaos with their power being not enough and Sailor Chaos causing devastation such that even Sailor Cosmos could not repair the damage done. Sailor Cosmos speaks of how everytime she doubted or wavered in her belief, she thought back to this battle, of what if she had destroyed the Cauldron and so she came back to this time to comfort and give support to the "her" of this time, hoping to sway her into destroying Chaos and the Cauldron.

Yeah it's SO mysterious who Sailor Cosmos is, she doesn't give any indications.

Sailor Cosmos' backstory makes up a significant portion of this act so it's not a surprise that for being such a relatively minor character she gets brought up so often. Her struggle is the embodiment of the extreme lengths Usagi as a character is taken to this arc where even her future selves don't believe the conflict is worth fighting for anymore and a future in which she loses everything she loses but Usagi through love is able to persevere, believe she will find a future she loves even so, and bring hope back even to her future self. 

Sailor Cosmos says she's realized her younger self was right, that the path she chose was the correct one. No one can destroy the birthplace of the stars because it is why they are all there, because it gives them the chance to do things over and over again. Sailor Cosmos affirms she's not going to run away anymore, she's going to face the future because she received the greatest power from Sailor Moon, one she had forgotten, the courage to "throw it all away, and take it all in".

I LOVE this way of expressing the meaning of the Sailor Moon climax which Sailor Cosmos repeats the next page, it's so poetic and so rich with meaning. The two extremes this arc are the extremes of Nihilism and Gnosticism. Gnosticism here can be seen as rejecting the imperfect of the world as unworthy, to refuse to take it all in. Nihilism in contrast to view all things as equally pertinent, to refuse a transcendent worth sacrificing to or to suffer in pursuit of and thus is refusing to be willing to throw it all away. The Path of Love is neither of these. It does not cling to any material item or situation, it's willing to throw it all away for the good. Yet it does not reject anything as meaningless or worthless and sees the value in all things, it's willing to take it all in. It improves but is merciful. It exalts the imperfect and material and in doing so finds the perfect and eternal within it. I love how Sailor Cosmos refers to it as the "Courage" to throw it all away and take it all in. It's not something that Sailor Moon developed the ability to do. It's something Sailor Cosmos could do, it's something any of could do, if we're willing to embrace Chaos, to head into the future with only the spirit of love in our hearts. Sailor Cosmos says the Sailor Moon that saved them is the true Sailor Cosmos and when she has that courage, the courage to throw away and take in everything, then she will be the real Sailor Cosmos. And in saying so Sailor Cosmos waves her staff and sends the Amazon Senshi back to the future before flying away. 

Usagi awakens inside the Galaxy Cauldron, feeling warm and wondering what happened saying the scent around her feels familiar. She wonders what happens commenting that she was going to envelop Chaos within herself but was pushed back at the last moment. In the blank space, she wonders if she's the last one left, if everything else vanished; Chaos, the Cauldron, and everyone else. However, a hand reaches out and touches her.

Usagi turns and sees... Mamoru. As Usagi begins to cry, Mamoru's hand grasps Usagi's as they are joined by all the other Sailor Senshi 

This scene is obviously extremely sweet and emotional. There's a way I think one might think it's contradictory to the arc's themes, but I actually think the opposite that it's the purest embodiment of that theme of the arc. One of the themes of this arc is the temporal-ness of items, people, and situations, all material things. This is represented in Galaxia's belief that the only thing one can believe is one's own strength. This is why Usagi had to deal with the loss of all her loved ones since they too are temporal things. But... that's also why it makes sense thematically that Usagi see them again. Because it doesn't just go one way, because the detachment Usagi had from them, that loneliness, is also a material situation that would come to end as all material things. All happy events have the bit of sadness of knowing it won't last, that sad times will come again. All dark times are tempered by the knowledge that the clouds will break and the Sun will shine again someday. In the course of eternity, cruel and wonderous infinity will take everything from you and give everything to you in its own time which is why one must have the courage to take all things in and throw everything away. This theme has existed in Sailor Moon since the beginning since Princess Serenity was willing to replay her tragic romance with Endymion any number of times just to love him again, all the way to Princess Kakyuu with her dying words saying she wouldn't mind being born again into a world of conflict if it means being with everyone again. 

Usagi embraces Mamoru as she is overwhelmed by emotion seeing everyone, never having expected to see them again. Mamoru says it's thanks to her. The Senshi apologize they couldn't be with her through this struggle, that they wanted to see her desperately and thank her for giving them power. Usagi feels more hands and turns to see Chibiusa, now winged herself. Chibiusa tells Usagi that she'll be waiting for Usagi in the 30th century and flies off to the future, now no longer needing the Time Key. Usagi turns back to her loved ones and says she trusted that she'd see them again and as they rejoice their thoughts 

You might wonder how Chibiusa can do this but the Senshi were given the lambda power from Usagi, hence them saying she poured power into them and how they can survive inside the Galaxy Cauldron. The Lambda Power is the power of all the Sailor Crystal including the Pluto Crystal so it actually makes sense. 

Usagi embraces her friends again, happy they're finally together again. Of course the main one she embraces is Minako because the writer still has her favorite ;) 

A new voice appears, who declares that this is the brilliance of the strongest stars. She praises their power, being able to maintain themselves within the Cauldron, and introduces herself as Guardian Cosmos, the guardian spirit of Cosmos Seeds. We've actually seen her kind before in the Dream Arc with the power guardians except this is the one for the Star Seeds of universes. 

Guardian Cosmos addresses Usagi saying that once another came here in the same perfected heavenly form, with the same luminescence as Usagi. She was holding a smaller light to her chest, with the image shown being that of Queen Serenity.

Thus the myth arc reaches its finale as it cycles in on itself, the coming-of-age narrative has reached its zenith as Usagi stands, or rather floats, in the exact same position Queen Serenity her original mother did eons ago, with Usagi now having matured into that perfected heavenly form that was perhaps the reason Queen Serenity was considered a goddess. In times long ago, Queen Serenity got the luminescence of Usagi, the Silver Crystal from the Galaxy Cauldron. Queen Nehelenia called Queen Serenity a follow galactic traveler and it was this she spoke of, that both of them and Usagi besides had come from the Galaxy Cauldron to the humble Sol System, following that ineffable will of the Silver Crystal. 

Guardian Cosmos asks if the fact that Usagi is here means she wants to discard her current life into the Cauldron's sea of beginnings, start a new history of the stars or if she wishes to leave here with her current form. But if you've been paying attention to the Stars Arc so far, you already know the answer. This world is full of suffering and loss, but Usagi loves it as much as she can love any world and says she wants to keep making a future together with her friends and to live these lives, these fates, no matter how difficult it may be. 

Guardian Cosmos accepts this wish and sends the Senshi away with her power, back to their proper place. As she flies away Usagi yells to Guardian Cosmos one final question, what happened to Chaos? Guardian Cosmos responds both the Chaos Seed, Chaos' core, as well as Guardian Chaos were melted down to infinitesimally small within the Galaxy Cauldron. But that they may be reborn one day, since the Galaxy Cauldron is where all stars and potential are born.

We cut to a luxurious bed sometime in the future. Mamoru awakens in it undressed, with Usagi sleeping next to him, similarly undressed. Mamoru kisses Usagi awake and the two flirtatiously wish each other a good morning, Mamoru's body suspended over Usagi's. Usagi says it feels like she was dreaming for a very long time but when Mamoru asks what kind of dream she was having, she responds she can't remember.

I love Usagi and Mamoru so much, they are my favorite ship in fiction and this is the culmination of their romance, the climax of single central arc of the entire series and it gets me unreasonably happy every time I see it. 

Usagi thinks of Crystal Tokyo representing their future together. She asks him in a cutesy way to say it again please. Mamoru complains he already said it 50 times last night. Usagi implores him just one more time and Mamoru agrees and says this is the last time. He kisses Usagi as he says it one more time, the scene transitioning along with his words

"Marry me Usagi." Marriage is a traditional end to a comedy, comedy meaning in times gone by not a funny story, but a story with a happy ending as opposed to tragedy. If tragedy must end a dichotomy with one or both of the dichotomy slain, comedy must end with the dichotomy resolved and unified. I wish more Magical Girl series at least the end were willing to show the heroine reaching this later stage of maturation, but Sailor Moon is one of the most mature works in its genre in this way and more.

As they kiss, Usagi feels something. A new star being born inside of her, a reference to Chibiusa. The two lovers promise to protect this world side by side, to live with and protect each other forever. They clasp hands, a symbol of sharing power this arc, before kissing even more deeply.

Many lifetimes ago, the princess of the distant unchanging Moon longed to go down to the Earth, that blue orb looking like a crystal, where real wind blew and real plants bloomed, the world of temporalities. That Earth was a blue orb shining with hope and possibilities she saw reflected in the eyes of its prince, falling in love with him. To her, he was a representation of that strange world that she had just begun to love, a world of temporalities and struggles and change and adventure and new feelings blossoming within her. When that strange otherworldly beautiful princess came down from the distant Moon, to the Prince of the Earth, she left an ethereal mystery in his mind, the feminine mystery that has compelled mankind since time immemorial, chasing her down through the ages, searching for her lifetime after lifetime, her always showing a different side to her, drawing him further into her world of emotion. To him, she was a representation of the eternity represented in the Moon's cycles, the illusory world beyond the physical that inspires us and makes us whole. Their love, that love of eternal and temporal, of physical and metaphysical, that paradox is, in a sense, the inciting event for the entire story, and not it finally reaches its ultimate culmination as they united in body and soul. 

Usagi goes to celebrate with her friends, thinking that they will protect the world alongside them. As she does Mamoru watches on thinking to Usagi even if they someday are all gone, and new soldiers and stars are born, "Sailor Moon, you will always live eternally. For all of eternity, you will always be the most beautiful shining star of all."

Act 60 is a fantastic ending to Sailor Moon and one of my favorite acts in Sailor Moon. In terms of endings I will say that like most of the manga it's really focused on the main character, and to a lesser extent Mamoru and Chibiusa over anyone else but I think it's pretty fitting given how much this arc was specifically about Usagi. This act is comprised of four scenes all of which have great importance to the narrative and all of which I can feel a personal connection too.

First and most obvious there's the final battle between Usagi and Chaos, though battle is a bit of a misnomer here. Usagi didn't even try to kill Chaos, it was an accidental result of Usagi's love that allowed her to face the Chaos of being which defeated Chaos. I love all the symbolism here. Usagi doesn't beat Chaos as Sailor Moon, a Soldier of Justice, she does it just by being Usagi Tsukino, a young woman who loves even when love seems unwarranted and in doing so can face any future with the hope summoned from love. I love how she is bare, her lack of weapons and armor representing how she is not a soldier here. I love how the Amazon Senshi star seeds join the procession of stars in the Lambda Power yet they don't perish because even if identities fade into the great love of the universe, we remain whole. I love how Usagi defeated Chaos so easily. Like most fights in Sailor Moon, the fight isn't about tactics or external factors but about the state of the character's hearts with this fight showing the wonderful fact that despite its seeming impossible immensity, truly anyone can bear the weight of conceptual chaos if they allow low into their heart. More than anything I love how Takeuchi-Sensei created a Heroine's journey where femininity and power could mix in a feminine ideal to aspire towards, neither asking her younger female reader to submit her femininity to a man nor to sacrifice it to be like a man, but instead to be proud of her femininity and let it reach its truly world-changing potential. 

Second is the scene of Sailor Cosmos and the Asteroid Senshi. While the battle between Sailor Cosmos and Sailor Chaos is extremely vague, Sailor Cosmos as a character is pretty helpful here both to exposit what's actually happening while also representing the extreme lengths Usagi had to go this arc, even convincing her future self of the value of existence. I adore the way Sailor Cosmos phrases the ultimate power of Usagi, the courage to "throw it all away, and take it all in" which perfectly explains the dichotomy that this arc teaches, the path of love superior to both the Gnosticism and Nihilistic extreme and how she says that's what truly makes one Sailor Cosmos, that any person even a crybaby like Usagi can be the Guardian of the Universe.

Thirdly there's the scene in the Galaxy Cauldron. Seeing Usagi finally reunite with everyone is heartwarming and seeing their affection for Usagi, how proud they are of their little bunny princess who saved the whole universe from Chaos. The encounter with Guardian Cosmos is cool both in the sudden lore about the universe and the past that completes Usagi's myth arc by putting her in the same place as her ancient mother Queen Serenity but also gives another chance to express the theme of the arc on the absolute level, with Usagi choosing this universe with all its struggles because it's the world where she met her friends instead of trying again with a new universe the way Galaxia wanted too.

Finally, there's the last scene, the romantic scene with Usagi and Mamoru and of all scenes this is the perfect one to end the series on. Usagi and Mamoru's love has been a continual plot, the ONLY continual plot element since the very first act, outside of maybe "villains trying to get the Silver Crystal." It was the plot element that really started the entire story and was a key element in the resolution of almost every arc save arguably the third. And the way it's done so is cute and heartwarming and appeals to traditions while also feeling distinctly Sailor Moon. We get to see Usagi and Mamoru together in bed, once again celebrating the maturation of the series along with its reader from young teenagers to young adults and being another way the series concludes its coming-of-age subtext similar to Usagi reaching the same place her mother did. We then get to see their wedding and the conception of their daughter together beautifully showing the two of them going into the future together, the future Usagi fought so hard for this arc. And the ending is so incredibly perfect. 

This entire arc has been all about the division between the temporal physical world and the eternal metaphysical world. Usagi bridged that divide through her love and the series concludes with a marriage of the two people representing those two worlds, the world of localities the Earth, and the Moon representing the mystical distance of space, the outer world of unknowable seeming eternities, the two worlds finally united together forever through love. And the final panel puts the reader in the perspective of Mamoru looking up to Usagi, the temporal looking up into the Eternal just as we the reader view this strange metaphysical thing called a story, this strange metaphysical ideal, that existed long before the book we're holding was made and long after it's gone.

If I had to think of what people might dislike about this act I guess you could say that the middle two scenes are a bit "exposition-y" and you could say that it doesn't give particularly a conclusion to anyone but Usagi and maybe Mamoru, but I have to be honest, I really don't care. I love this act, I love this act immensely. All four of its scenes, especially the first and the last fill me with such a sense of joy and meaning.

I've grown up with this series. It's a series that's meant a lot to me growing up, helped give me focus when I felt lost and helped inspire me when I feel down. The philosophy is expressed in its final arc, a philosophy of showing love in all regards, of being willing to let all pass and yet also to take everything in...that's meant a lot to me. It's a part of me in a way no other story can claim to reach. Whether Sailor Moon influenced me to think this way or I felt this way and Sailor Moon is the only series to express the complex emotions I feel and helped me verbalize it, I don't know. Probably a little from both. But in that spirit, I want to say thank you to everyone for reading this and may you find the path of love in your own life.