How do you talk about your favorite series? How do you possibly condense the untold hours you've spent thinking about it into words? I've just finished reviewing my favorite series, Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon, act by act yet I still find myself a little at a loss on how to talk about a series that looms so large in my mind.
In my mind, possibly the best test for how good a series is would be how often you've wanted or actually re-experienced it. To me, a 3/5 or a 5 to 6 out of 10, is a series that was perfectly satisfactory for a single viewing but I don't have a strong desire to revisit it. A 4/5 would be a series I may want to revisit with the passing of time or to watch with new people, to get a new perspective on it. These series I've seen maybe 2 or 3 times. Then you get into the 5/5s, series I always find myself thinking of, which would persist in my heart no matter what I did. A 9/10, a series I consider legendary, a series I'm always up for watching again, most of which I've seen usually maybe a half dozen times from start to finish over the years. And then there's the 10/10 series, Sailor Moon, one I couldn't possibly count the number of times I've re-read it but it's an amount that would dwarf any other series. If you asked me for the rest of my life if I'd rather read Sailor Moon or consume every other series out there, the fact that I would hesitate to answer should say something.
Like almost any fantastic series it's not so much that Sailor Moon is really good at one thing so much as it is good at almost everything and these appeals connect and meld into the overall series quality. Usually, for me, the thing I connect to in stories are their themes and Sailor Moon does this fantastically, probably better than any story I've ever seen. Sailor Moon's themes hit both polarities for themes; they are themes I personally connect to and themes that I think are very well done. Sailor Moon has themes that are consistent across the story as well as themes specific to arcs. In terms of universal themes, Sailor Moon obviously has the themes that are nigh-universal to the genre; themes of friendship, romance, and coming of age are in Sailor Moon just as they will inevitably be in almost any popular long-form story aimed at a young audience. However, Sailor Moon has 2 more specific themes; the pain of isolation and the ennobling power of love.
Isolation and solitude is a recurrent theme, in particular the pain it causes one to be lonely or misunderstood. All the Sailor Senshi before meeting Usagi, outside arguably Minako, were outcasts or misunderstood by others and Usagi's role in the story is partially to bring them into a community they can belong. The final villain is similarly a Sailor Senshi, the most isolated of them to the point that the fact she is alone is a cornerstone of her philosophy and she wishes to force Usagi to feel the pain of true solitude with the emotional climax of the series centering on how to bear the pain of solitude. There are other instances of it spread around with various villains associated with isolation such as the Wiseman alone on Nemesis being called the "Solitary King" or Professor Tomoe being ostracized from the scientific community, the way in the Dream Arc that each person's material dream that distracts them leads them to be alone with that being reflected in their fears of being abandoned, and Usagi's final declaration in Act 59 that we are all lonely stars seeking to gather together as one. In real life, I am an intensely introverted person and have trouble expressing the universe within myself to other people. As a result, I have spent much of my life feeling misunderstood by others, so this theme resonated very strongly with me and I found its portrayal in Sailor Moon incredibly compelling. In particular I like how it expresses the problem as a nigh-universal. I think there is an immature tendency to assume that because of the internal intensity of my feelings and my introversion that this is something most people wouldn't understand, but this is a problem I think everyone or almost everyone may have to greater or lesser extent. We all want to be understood, and we all struggle sometimes to express outwardly what's happening within us, some of us more than others perhaps but few or none are completely absent of this feeling. Sailor Moon depicts a world where that is the common status of all of us, trying to be understood by others. The reason Sailor Moon is the heroine is partially because of her stronger ability to understand the inner self of others, and at the end of the series is key to understanding her final claim that we are all lonely stars.
The other major theme of the series is the ennobling power of love. Examples are so universal it's hard to know where to begin. Usagi Tsukino began the series as a cowardly crybaby and though she never fully stops being that girl, she also develops into being a true champion of love and justice, a transformation brought about by Usagi's love. It is a recurring pattern constantly in the manga that Usagi wonders how she can go on but she thinks of her loved ones who need her and is filled with inner strength. This pattern begins in Act 1 when Usagi hears a monster and though she doesn't know what's going on, immediately wants to help because her friend Naru is in danger and continues all the way to Act 60 where Usagi through her love absorbs the power of all her companions' star seeds dormant in the Galaxy Cauldron. Every dramatic plot resolution involves at least partly love ennobling and making stronger the heroes. Usagi gets strength from Mamoru in her battles against Metaria, Death Phantom, and Queen Nehelenia. From her love for her friends, Usagi regains the power to transform on Nemesis when she couldn't prior, it's from the unity of her heart with her friends, that Usagi gains access to her super form, and it is because Usagi is the Soldier who embraces all that her philosophy wins over Galaxia's, and lets her gain the ultimate power in the series. Partly this is because her Sailor Crystal explicitly increases her power with her emotional state, letting her directly become stronger with her love, but this theme is also shown of other characters. It is Chibiusa's love for Setsuna that allows her to break Wiseman's control over her and first transform into Sailor Chibi-Moon, it is Hotaru's love for Chibiusa that allows her to fight back against the daimon Mistress 9 controlling her body, it is their true dreams of love that allow each Senshi to break the material dream they became distracted from in the Dream Arc. This theme meant and means a lot to me. What it taught me as a youth was that despite my flaws and insufficiencies, someone like me could become a Hero like Usagi. I relate to Usagi a lot, she has a very similar personality to me, and at her age, I didn't think I would be able to do very much. Part of it was teenage angst and part of it was hyper-awareness of my own flaws. But when I see Usagi acting brave for her loved ones, part of me admired her for her bravery while another part of me knew that I would act similarly in that regard. In this way Sailor Moon showed me a side of myself I didn't know was there, an ability to become a better stronger person. Love as a theme means a lot to me because I feel it very intensely inside of me, and its magnificent ability to transform one resounds so true to me.
Sailor Moon also has themes particular to each arc which it uses to reflect a new aspect of each of the universal themes of the series. All of these arcs have at times been extremely important to me.
The first arc's themes are identity and destiny, specifically the intersection of those two; to what degree are we the person we've always been and destined to always be, and conversely how much do we determine our own identity. Usagi this arc struggles to be Sailor Moon, the hero of Champion of Love and Justice, as opposed to cowardly little Usagi, and feels herself turning into Princess Serenity against her will, the tragic princess who killed herself. Usagi tells her father she's Sailor Moon only for her to not believe she could ever be Sailor Moon. Usagi's hair grows uncontrollably as she wonders if she's losing herself to Princess Serenity. In her battle with Dark Endymion, Usagi wonders if this is their destiny and accepts even that tragic destiny, to die violently if it means being reborn again with Mamoru again. Queen Serenity tells Usagi that she is reincarnated to be a normal girl, and in the last act of the arc she chooses to live on Earth as Usagi rather then as the distant Queen of the Moon. Usagi regularly questions her identity this arc, and both her and Mamoru continually question what kind of person the other is with Usagi wondering if Tuxedo Kamen truly could be an enemy the way Luna says he might be and Tuxedo Kamen commenting before being sacrificing himself for Usagi that Usagi always seems to show him a different side of herself, and wondering what kind of girls he is really. This is even reflected in the powers where Usagi gets the disguise pen that lets her disguise herself as anyone, which is used more frequently this arc then any other arc by far. The resolution of the arc is Usagi's declaration that she is both Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity, unifying her identities. Destiny has a parable presence in this arc, more than any other with the threat of it all repeating, with it being asked if Usagi and Mamoru's romance is a tragic love fated to always end in the lovers' death. Usagi's willingness to die and suffer it all again if it means being with Mamoru shows the possible positive side of destiny, the comforting side of certainty but that alone isn't enough as Usagi doesn't just want to reborn alongside Mamoru, she wants to save him and all her friends, a love which is what allows her to unify her identities in the climax.
The second arc's themes are maturity and responsibility. Usagi is given charge of a little girl outside her own expectations, and though she initially acts immaturely in regard to this responsibility, rejecting and getting into childish fights with Chibiusa, becoming jealous over the attention she gets, and getting angry with her because of outside circumstances, she develops in maturity, a moment Usagi's mother explictly notices as Usagi seeming blossomed and maturity, Usagi channels the spirit of her future self Neo-Queen Serenity with her power even mistaken for the Queen's, and puts Chibiusa's needs over her own, even offering her life to protect Chibiusa. Chibiusa also is an example of the theme, kept physically immature for 900 years due to her immature sheltered mind, a fantastic symbolism for a real phenomenon. She starts the arc immature, running away from her problems and refusing to say what she did because of her guilt, and taking on an evil visage that is a child's idea of what "mature" is in Black Lady, a hedonistic sexually suggestive demanding teenage. However with her exposure to Pluto's death and realization that she's lost the one true friend she had, she transforms and takes on responsibility, not wanting to lose anymore and goes off to help her mother in her final battle that arc, finally beginning to physically and emotionally mature. The villains this arc also show this theme in being the example of what not to do. They regularly put the blame and responsibility on others, with Demande victim-blaming Usagi, trying to make her feel guilt for his assault on her kingdom, her dignity, and her emotional state, which is why one of the most resounding moments in the arc is Usagi refusing to feel guilty for what Demande does to her, a moment following her taking responsibility for herself and in doing so can reject responsibility for the actions of others. This arc also demonstrates the theme of maturity both in presenting Mamoru and Usagi as adults both of whom they become closer in statue too this arc, and in depicting the furthering of their physical relationship. This arc's emotional climax also involves Diana the tiny kitten helping to save the kitten simply by taking responsibility on her tiny kitten shoulders by offering to guard the spacetime door in Sailor Pluto's place to allow Sailor Pluto to help fight alongside the others. The point of this arc is one should take full responsibility for all the things one can do, and nothing more. You are not responsible for the things others do to you, but you are responsible for doing all you can, something that might save the world.
The third arc has many themes: childish idealism vs adult cynicism, the cycle of life and death, body and spirit, LGBT expression, religion, gender, and transformation. However the overarching heart of all of these, in particular this arc, is the need to see the heart or soul of something rather than its physical condition. The Outer Senshi present themselves as impossible figures to measure up too. They are glamorous and stylish being comedically rich. They are bigger and more powerful to the point that at the start of the arc Sailor Uranus knocks out all the Inner Senshi with one attack. They are seemingly "mature" whereas the Inner Senshi are "childish", with a mature outlook, speaking with knowledge and seriousness. Because of her masculine gender expression and emotional aloofness, Haruka the primary representative of the Outer Senshi as a group seems impossibly distant to Usagi at first, to the point that Usagi didn't even realize Haruka was also a woman. However as Usagi comes to understand Haruka, she comes to realize that their hearts are as one, and even the Senshi being forced to fight refuses to break her trust, with her faith in the hearts of all the Senshi allowing her to reach her Super Form. Hotaru is thematically the opposite. She has a broken-down body and is a pitiable and creepy young girl suffering from seizures and sickness. Yet despite her robotic body which is explicitly visually compared to being a puppet, it is her spirit that makes her truly alive, that didn't accept the pity of the other Outer Senshi, that fought Mistress 9 for Chibiusa's soul. Chibiusa is one of the Heroines this arc due primarily to her ability to see Hotaru for the person she is rather then for the external factors of her. The villains this arc are creatures that literally steal the bodies from people and don't care for their souls, consuming them for power, literally sacrificing the heart for the body. The climax of the series comes about through Usagi and Hotaru trusting in the heart, Hotaru in that she realizes that even with her body she still has power in her spirit that she can use to fight with and Usagi in trusting in Hotaru's heart that even the legendary destroyer of all Sailor Saturn can be befriended. The message of the arc is to recognize the importance of someone's soul, their heart, over their physical status.
The fourth arc's theme is explained in its name as the Dream Arc. It's about dreams, both literally but more often metaphorical, the type of waking dreams we fall into without thinking. We have first-order dreams for the things all people want, values we all share and which can bring us together, and we have second-order dreams that are tools in the acquisition of the first-order dreams. However in mistaking the two, in forgetting the purpose of our second-order dreams, we fall into confusion and despair. This is seen with pretty much every dream contrasts this arc. Ami was seeking love and companionship, but she thought she had to be smart and rational to achieve this dream, isolating herself from others and being waylaid by Fish Eye in her desire to be smarter. The Outer Senshi's dream was to fight and live alongside their beloved princess, but they mistook their second-order dream of fulfilling their duties to their princess and in order to grow beyond their ancient roles had to move from a legalistic view of their duties to ones born of love. Usagi mistook her second-order dream of living free carefree and responsibility-less for her first-order one of living with Mamoru, the man she fell in love with, the real one challenging her to improve and whose eyes shone with the same light of that World of Life and Hope and Possibilities. This contrast is constant and waking up from the dreams we've accidentally fallen into is a constant image in the arc with things like Hotaru telling the Outers that they've lived until now in a dream or telling the Amazoness Quartet they need to "awaken" to their true nature as Sailor Senshi. The last act even suggests that this was true of the villainess who sought to control the Prince and the Earth yet was acting to destroy both those things because she mistook her second-order dream of killing the Princess with her first-order dream of having what the royalty of the Moon had.
The final arc's theme is about the painful contrast between temporary and eternal things and how to reconcile them. Galaxia was seeing the perfect eternal world fitting of her and was willing to destroy all transient temporal things because, in her worldview, such things weren't important. Sailor Cosmos at the apex tried to convince Usagi to surrender the temporal universe to the peaceful oblivion, to allow an end to joys in exchange for an end to suffering. Usagi consistently the arc asks or says things such as "I wish our bodies could go on for all eternity too" "Why does death have to come so soon" "it is from my companions that I get my strength." This dichotomy is seen in the worlds and worldviews of the two major characters of this arc; Usagi and Galaxia. Usagi's world is the world of the temporalities, temporary and fragile, the microcosm of the Solar System in the scope of the greater universe, and in her defining statement this arc she states she never once fought for peace or justice, but just for her friends and her loved ones, the implication being she belongs to that material world of temporalities, reflected in her final decision to return to that world rather then remain in the Galaxy Cauldron. The Galaxy Cauldron and the surrounding land is Galaxia's world, the world of supreme importance, reflecting the infinite ambition of Galaxia to find that perfect eternal world.
Obviously, the series also has the themes that are nigh-universal to a Shojo Magical Girl Manga like friendship, romantic love, and coming of age. Usagi begins the series as a 14 year old girl and technically ends the series as a 22 year old woman, going through supernatural metaphors for puberty with her hair growing long and out of her control, having to mature herself through the various themes' arcs, begin to self-actualize and decide her own future as represented by the final conflict. As she does she forms a wide network of friends and gains a boyfriend and eventual husband. Their importance to her are major plot points, particularly in the last arc as she continues to assert their importance to Galaxia as emblematic of their differences.
Another one of Sailor Moon's strengths is its extremely strong sense of atmosphere embedded in its science-fantasy world.
Takeuchi=Sensei's world-building isn't very extensive. Often things will be given very direct, on-the-nose names such as "D Kingdom" "Dark Kingdom" "Witches V" or "Chaos." Concepts are brought up only in so far as they directly affect the plot. If you're more into storytelling for the joy of discovering a fully realized hypothetical world, this might be a disappointment. I am more of the ilk that enjoys stories for what they can communicate about the real world, so I don't mind this and I think it contributes to one of the unsung praises of the series, that being its sense of atmosphere.
Sailor Moon's ability to create a sense of atmosphere is, without a doubt, my favorite I've ever seen. Because the "rules" of the universe are so nebulous, Takeuchi-Sensei can pepper the series fully with little tidbits that speak to whole dimensions of the world not seen. Small statements like the Moon Kingdom calling the Sun "Our Father", Nehelenia describing Sailor Moon as the spitting image of her mother the queen, or Wiseman saying Chibiusa's rejection of the world allowed her to reach "here", the end of the world, excite the imagination. Each arc in genre most resembles something like an occult mystery and builds its own different feeling sense of looming darkness from the faster paced invasions of the Black Moon Clan and Galaxia's seeming inevitable omnipresent presence to the slower infiltration of the Death-Busters or the surrealistic distortions of the normal reality shown by the Dead Moon Circus. But what they ALL have is a sense of scale and gravitas.
The very first two things Naoko Takeuchi knew she wanted for Sailor Moon was that she wanted it to be about "outer space" and for it to be about "girl fighters." There are innumerable articles on the latter's appeal, how the series offered a hero fantasy aimed at girls that didn't ask them to sacrifice their femininity to be a cool hero, I've talked about it myself in these blogs. But the former appeal is not talked about as much.
EVERYTHING in Sailor Moon feels gigantic, even just when the characters are talking. Sailor Moon is a manga about outer space and it FEELS it. Every major conflict in the series feels like it's on a massive scale with threats to the entire world being a constant occurrence and even more minor enemies talking about threatening whole nations. When this is true in other series, it's often undercut slightly by having the characters treat the events with some degree of irreverence, that these constant end-of-the-world threats are more of an inconvenience or expected norm. This is done because the larger scale of a threat, the less relatable it does, with end-of-the-world-type plots feeling broadly unrelatable.
But Sailor Moon doesn't use the scope of things to artificially inflate the threat level, Usagi has a more personal stake in each conflict outside of just "the world will be destroyed." Instead, it's done to enhance the atmosphere, and the sense of grandeur, evoking the terrifying majesty and scale of things in space compared to those of our material. For me all the series I've enjoyed most have been partial because they contain a particular dichotomy, an opposition, and one of Sailor Moon's most prominent is the intensely personal internal world of Usagi's emotions, the very smallest and most personal scale, contrasted against the infinitude of the cosmic drama, especially so in the last arc when that is the theme itself. Speaking of, Sailor Moon's cast...
Sailor Moon's cast is my favorite in all of fiction and it starts with the main heroine, Usagi Tsukino. Usagi is my favorite character in all of fiction. Usagi's character is simple enough that she can be explained in a sentence: A crybaby schoolgirl has to rise to heroism to protect her loved ones. Yet contained in there is her rich complexity, the dichotomy of identities that makes her so human. She is at once the normal relatable Usagi and the Heroine of justice, Sailor Moon. I don't know what it says about me but I've never related to a character as hard as I have to Usagi, especially back when I was her age. Part of that is the point, that she's meant to be relatable, yet she expresses emotions so vividly that I don't hear expressed with such specificity, that worry the world will fade away, the need for the spiritual to be substantiated to relate to. I love how much the way Usagi's identities are contrasted or brought together is such a focal point of her character, to the point that it's what Mamoru says he loves about her, the way she always seems to show a new side of her. I feel like this is such an intensely understandable thing, the way there's so many different sides of us within ourselves and we are constantly trying to synchronize them or present our best us. Beyond relatable, Usagi's versatile character concept allows her to be applied to a situation almost universally and the force of her ideas makes her always a presence. Almost every scene Usagi is in, which is almost every single one that isn't just the villains given her main character status she impacts the plot in some way and usually in a way that is very understandable to me.
All this would be one thing if she could be contained to a single dynamic but Usagi's development is bar none the best in the series, and truthfully the best I've seen in the genre. Usagi's growth in maturity and responsibility is steady across the series and moves at a realistic yet visible rate. Usagi goes from a crybaby and a coward to the savior of the entire universe and yet also somehow never stops feeling like the same person. This juxtaposition is on a level I've never seen yet is accomplished because we see the base level of depth for Usagi in the first act, when she goes to rescue Naru despite not knowing what's going on because her friend is in danger. This level of heroism is relatable and understandable, and yet the final expression of her love at the climax of the story, accepting the conceptual weight of Chaos for eternity in the name of the loved ones she's ever had and ever will have, despite being incomprehensibly cosmic and messianic is clearly just the extension of this first heroic act. Sailor Moon's development takes her character concept to the absolute conceptual pinnacle while teaching its audience that they too can be heroes.
Beneath Sailor Moon in importance are the two other major characters, Mamoru Chiba and Chibiusa Tsukino. While Usagi is a focus of all five arcs, both Mamoru and Chibiusa are focuses of multiple arcs, with Mamoru being a focus in the first, fourth, and arguably second arcs and Chibiusa being a focus in the second, fourth, and arguably third arcs. I love both of them as characters, especially Mamoru who is one of my favorite characters in the entire series, though I admit both of their character arcs suffer a bit from repetitiveness, particularly in the Dream Arc.
While Mamoru Chiba is clearly written to be a love interest first, rather than an independent character, I think he is the best example of this trope because while his storyline revolves around Usagi, this is justified in-universe and the series never denigrates him. He is in no contest the strongest of Takeuchi Sensei's male characters with plenty of excellent scenes, some not even including Usagi such as when he consoles Chibiusa with Tuxedo Puppet, and more force on the narrative then almost any other character. He is often included to give Usagi and by extension, the audience the masculine perspective, and in so acts as Usagi's Jungian Animus, encouraging Usagi to develop. I love the way Mamoru is so supportive and loving of Usagi while still helping her to grow into a mature young woman. Mamoru's brainwashing into Dark Endymion is one of the most influential MG plotlines ever done for good reason and I will devote a whole section later to his and Usagi's romance.
Chibiusa is a funny and fun addition to the cast. Her plotline is the thematic center of the second arc, learning to take responsibility and beginning to physically and emotionally mature after 900 years and her maturing into a fully developed Sailor Senshi and developing into adolescence is one of the longest-running arcs in the entire manga going from the second arc to the final, only really beaten out by the developing of Usagi and Mamoru's romance and Usagi's developing into a hero. Her scenes of looking up to her mother are sweet and the loving relationship she and Usagi have is heartwarmingly wholesome.
The Secondary characters in Sailor Moon are the characters who are a major focus for a single arc. If I had to express who I think those are; the focuses for the first arc are Usagi, the Guardian Senshi, and Mamoru. The focuses for the second arc are Usagi, Chibiusa, and arguably Mamoru. The focuses for the third arc are Usagi, the Outer Senshi, and arguably Chibiusa. The focuses for the Fourth Arc are Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru (again.) And the focuses for the Fifth Arc are Usagi and Galaxia. You could also argue that each arc has a villain or a couple that are focuses but I will be giving them their own section, though I think Galaxia has enough of a presence in the Fifth Arc that I would consider her a focus regardless.
The Guardian Senshi are all beloved characters to the point that the 90s anime elevated them in importance above Mamoru and Chibiusa. I really enjoy all of them and their personalities though they did become underutilized after the first arc if only because Takeuchi-Sensi had too many characters and in too little space. Usually they would get 1 act each to focus on them in each arc after. However, while they may have been underutilized, I firmly disagree that the manga does not have strong characterizations for the Guardian Senshi.
I love the manga Guardian Senshi as characters, each of which I think is strong to carry a story herself, which Minako handily proved by actually being the lead in Codename: Sailor V. All of them have vibrant dynamic personalities that basically formed the standard type personalities in the MG Genre for a while. My favorites are Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus personally, though each of them have been really meaningful characters to me at some point. I love Mercury's dream chapter and thought she was one of the most relatable Senshi after Moon for her shy bookish nature. I enjoyed Rei's elegance and her funny dynamics with Usagi and Minako and enjoyed that she developed past man-hating without feeling required to want a boyfriend. Makoto is a sweetheart that's just fun to watch, and has some of the coolest moments in the series taking out a droid sent to assassinate her despite being sickly to the point of passing out or punching Nehelenia in the face and making her run away. Minako's the most versatile of the Guardian Senshi both being able to be the hilarious comic relief with her antics, as well able to be their cool-headed team leader. The team had good chemistry in civilian dynamics and provided a good core range of personality types and perspectives when dealing with enemies, even if it didn't really change much. I also whole-heartedly appreciate Takeuchi-Sensi defying the suggestions that she shouldn't make them all beautiful, wanting to show them all as strong beautiful women of different types.
The Outer Senshi are pure 90s cool given form. They have JUST the right amount of edge and angst for me, being able to provide an adult cynicism to contrast the Inner Senshi's childish idealism while still feeling compelling through their internal conflict. The Outer Senshi make me feel nostalgic for their uniquely 90s brand of cool. The Outer Senshi are stylish, mature, and confident in all the ways Usagi was still clumsy, childish, and unsure. In everything about them; their willingness to sacrifice, their lesbianism, their ultra-wealth, their years or even millenia of experience, their otherwordly gazes and powers, they were a glimpse into a more mature, distant world for the Inner Senshi and the readers that would tantalize and entice. Yet their reconciliation with the Inner Senshi, the coming together of the Senshi over the course of the Third and Fourth Arcs speaks to that spirit of love's ability to transcend boundaries, literally giving the Outer Senshi the freedom to move past their ages-only duties and act in the spirit of love to fight alongside their beloved princess.
I especially like Hotaru and Setsuna. Setsuna has the benefit of being the first Outer Senshi and contributing to several of the most heart-wrenching moments of the second arc, particularly with how her death was the moment that let Chibiusa finally being to mature and break Wiseman's hold over her as she realized she had lost the one friend she had gotten. Setsuna's lawful good persona is one I tend to like, characters that are mature, responsible, and follow or even uphold the rules. Yet she never comes across as strict or a stick in the mud. She instead brims with maternal compassion. When she first sees Chibiusa after Chibiusa breaks basically all the rules the first thing she does is hug Chibiusa saying how scared she was for her.
However I like Hotaru even more, she is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. Hotaru like Usagi has the perfect mixture of having a powerful presence, a versatile archetype, and a compelling personality. Hotaru is a cute young girl that sometimes goes otherworldly and murmurs ominously or shows supernatural powers. She can have an immense presence, sometimes more than Usagi, being the badass Senshi as well as the most otherworldly as she talks about how beautiful the pain before death is while torturing a cosmic horror to death. Yet despite this, she also tugs at the heartstrings with her tragic backstory and her strained attempts to protect her friend Chibiusa-chan with all her might despite having her body taken over. She is central to two of the series' greatest acts, the climax of the third arc and the midpoint of the fourth. She might also have second highest emotional intelligence after Usagi given the way she lead her adoptive mothers and showed them they were reborn to fight alongside their princess. However there is a character I like more...
Sailor Galaxia is my favorite character in Sailor Moon after only Sailor Moon. She is my favorite villain in fiction and one of my favorite characters. She was created to rival Usagi, my favorite character and she was a resounding success. Galaxia has an absolutely immense presence in the series, enough easily to rival any of the other Senshi despite them existing in numerous arcs. Yet as soon as Galaxia shows up, it becomes apparent that every other villain Usagi fought was preparation for big one. Galaxia starts the arc by killing Mamoru out of absolute nowhere, cementing her immense presence and is an unstoppable force for most of Stars, taking every seeming victory from Usagi's hands, emotionally tormenting Usagi, and forcing out of her some of the best character development in the series. Galaxia on a meta level destroys the expectations of the reader as she treats the objectives of past villains as tools or mockable in comparison to hers, suggesting that the Earth isn't worthy for Eternal Sailor Moon alone let alone their battlefield, forcing Usagi to invade her world of the infinite, casting herself as the main character of the arc.
Galaxia is extremely entertaining, more so than any other villain. This is because Galaxia is the most proactive villain in the series by far, constantly engaging Usagi on another level, popping in unexpectedly and instantly taking something else from Usagi, or near the end just trolling Usagi for a little bit more anguish from her. She takes the scale and gravitas the series is known for and raises them to the absolute degree, constantly speaking of the importance of the eternal and universal and dismissing the temporal and particular as irrelevant trash. She has the amazing balance of being both larger than life while also subdued, doing incomprehensibly giant feats while also acting like it's all beneath her.
But my favorite thing about her is what she represents and how deeply it touches me. Galaxia represents the Philosopher's Wanderings, the Warrior-Hero's attempt to force the universe to make sense by destroying the old system and forging a new one. Galaxia is the spirit of Gnosticism that tells us to reject the world for its imperfections, to strive for only the absolute. The entire arc's plot was her attempt, though she didn't recognize it, to get Usagi to understand these feelings. I understand that feelings she had as Usagi eventually did, they are one of the strongest emotions. But Usagi represents a newer type of heroine, based on an emotion even greater, a path even more ambitious, the path of universal love. Seeing Galaxia finally find the thing she was actually searching for, only for it to ever be out of reach is a tragically beautiful ending.
Sailor Moon's other villains, while obviously not as great as Galaxia and a bit more of a mixed bag, do have some really great characters. All the other Stars of Darkness are really cool Cosmic Horrors. I think they collectively are actually my favorite Cosmic Horrors. A lot of others rely on the trope of "we can't possibly understand..." and sort of rely on the reader to imagine it for themselves. Sailor Moon actually expresses Cosmic Horrors that truly feel cosmic and otherworldly and horrific while actually getting into the evocative details of them, making them feel so much more well thought out. From the life-draining living darkness Metaria to the living Death Phantom propelled by pure hatred, to the Alien World Soul that seeks to replace the World Soul of Earth Pharaoh 90, to the embodiment of the nightmare world's twisted reflection of the universe, Nehelenia and even the very concept of Chaos itself, the ultimate enemy, the darkness from before the stars that lingers still, all of them have a very clearly expressed concept and while their personalities are obviously very vague evil, the horror and alienness of their physiology works pretty well to make them villains.
A lot of Sailor Moon villains are admittingly fairly shallow in terms of personality, but most of them are at least threatening, having a real sense of menace as them given their propensity for actually killing people on-screen, having horrific true forms or creating horrific imagery in the form of nightmare delusions, far more than than was seen in the MG Genre or arguably would be seen again until at least Madoka. The Sailor Moon villains while not much deeper than villains of their time, did have the advantage of being actually threatening and having an adult edge, lacking the comedic goofiness of their contemporaries and replacing it with occult connotations, graphic violence, or mild sexuality.
There are also other stand-out villains in the manga. Queen Beryl is possibly the most iconic Magical Girl villain, having a good backstory, being an occult witch complete with dealings with a devil, and a sense of presence. I've always like Kunzite for being basically a character from a Dragon Ball-esque Shonen series in an urban fantasy story, his plan for drawing the Senshi out basically being threatening to blow up the city if the Senshi don't show themselves. Demande and Saphir are some of the realistic villains in the series, Demande being an all too real depiction of human evil as a terrorist and sexual assaulter, and Saphir his tragic counterpart, an abused brother unwilling to see his brother for the evil he is. Professor Tomoe is a memorably insane mad scientist, Kaorinite memorable for being a surprisingly compelling woman acting in love for Tomoe and forgiving her daughter's aggressiveness towards her while also being evocatively occult with her abilities and Mistress 9 their leader has the cool atmosphere she does in all versions of the story. Lethe and Mnesmonye for episodic villains are also really cool villains and Snow Kaguya from the Short Story is a really memorable villain that threads the line between the cosmic horror type villains and the more humanoid villains.
Sailor Moon's minor characters are honestly fairly forgettable. Takeuchi-Sensei is better at writing the great and extreme then she is at writing mundane scenarios so most of her mundane characters have relatively little focus as do her more one-shot type villains.
Some of the human characters facilitate some cute scenes. Ikuko in particular has several scenes showing her motherly love for Usagi that are always sweet. Kenji likewise has a couple of cute scenes showing his affection for his daughter or otherwise facilitating her development such as when Usagi tells him she's Sailor Moon and he just doesn't believe her. Naru similarly facilitates Usagi's growth into a hero in Act 1 and Asanuma prompts a cute scene with Makoto in her Black Moon Clan Arc. For the most part the civilian characters are functional and provide fodder for funny scenes like Kotono commenting that Rei's language change after hanging around the other Senshi or cute scenes. While there were a few characters that bored they usually had, for very similar reason, very little screentime and there was not a single character in the main series I actively disliked, and vanishingly few including side stories (the Parallel Senshi for being unnecessarily cruel to Kousagi, Taku for being a stereotypical strawman villain, and Minako's mom for being an excessively cruel wife and mother and an unfunny stereotype of the overbearing Japanese housewife)
Most of Takeuchi-Sensei's fantastical characters fare better than her mundane characters. The Starlights (in the manga) and their princess are fairly likeable characters even if Taiki is a bit pretentious, with Seiya and Kakyuu both serving as contrasts to Mamoru and Usagi respectively and helping Usagi's developing in the first and second sub-arcs of the Stars Arc, Seiya helping her to accept what happened to Mamoru and Kakyuu expressing to her the sentiment that she would be willing to be reborn to a world of war if it means fighting and living alongside everyone again, a sentiment that Usagi would echo in the climactic act. Helios is a cute love interest for Chibiusa and though he's a bit on the generic side being sort of just generally the noble protector of Elysian, his and Chibiusa's love is sweet and conceptually as the overseer of the plane of dreams Elysian, he's quite evocative. Queen Serenity is probably my favorite of the tertiary characters. She doesn't show up often in the plot, but every time she does it's a treat as she imparts wisdom on Usagi and helps her develop or reflects the deeper mythos of the series.
The most important of the tertiary characters and not coincidentally some of my favorites after Queen Serenity would probably be the Mooncats; Luna, Artemis, and Diana. They serve an important role in the story in being essentially the inciting incident that turns them into Senshi and starts them on their first arc, though aren't really the focus of any arc. That said all three of them are compelling and fun to watch. Artemis has the least to do in the series, partially due to his much larger role in Sailor V but Luna's guilt at failing Usagi and her desire to help her near the end of the First Arc is heart-wrenching and Diana, the cutest character I've ever seen, was central to the best moment of the Second Arc as she temporarily takes on the responsibility of becoming the tiny guardian of spacetime to let Sailor Pluto fight alongside the others, being adorable, hilarious, and also a great expression of the arc's themes.
The only series that has as many characters that are such amazing stand-out characters I love as Sailor Moon is maybe DC Comics but DC Comics is a megafranchise spanning 90 years and thousands of different series written by hundreds of people. Sailor Moon is a 60 chapter story written by one writer and her editors over the course of 6 years.
Sailor Moon is also host to my favorite fictional romance, Usagi and Mamoru. I've made a whole blog about my love for this relationship before, but I'll try to give just some of the reasons I love this relationship. Part of it I admit is just how it averts the normal relationship tropes in narrative I can't stand. One of the things I can't stand about so many romances in fiction is they are in a perpetual "will they, won't they" until the end of the series where they get together. It's generally obvious they will get together and doing it this will keep us from seeing the actually interesting part of the relationship develop, and not let them romantically support each other through their struggles. With Usagi and Mamoru there's never a question whether they will or won't, it's clear from Act 1 that Sailor Moon likes Tuxedo Kamen, clear from Act 3 that the feeling is mutual, clear from Act 6 that they will get together and they are finally officially together by the end of the first arc and we get to actually see their relationship develop through the arcs. Likewise the two are constantly supportive and emotionally mature in their relationship. They don't do a lot of the relationship drama that abound in similar works at a teenage audience and often even works aimed at an adult audience. Mamoru is never insensitive to Usagi's feelings and shows phenomenal emotional intelligence. Usagi does get jealous at Mamoru but it's treated fairly realistically and with it implied this being her first relationship it's understandable, and they work it out together. Usagi also doesn't get angry at Mamoru when he initiates intimate contact or call him a perverted idiot like so many other anime or manga girls do and it's implied she has equal or greater desire to initiate intimacy with him. Their relationship is one of the healthiest and most wholesome I've ever seen in fiction. And it's not even like they have a sanitized relationship that is meant just to be an example. Usagi and Mamoru are PASSIONATELY in love with each other. When together, they have difficulty keeping themselves from embracing and kissing. They are very aggressively implied to be having sex often, with both initiating and enjoying it, and Usagi thinking of it later to help give her strength. There is an energy to their relationship,a real sense that nothing could keep them from each other. At worst, it is perhaps a bit idealized but it's nto an impossible-to-reach level. Usagi and Mamoru do have occasional problems of not telling each other their problems or getting jealous but they work through them together. This is a realistic goal for a good relationship.
But there are other things I love about their relationship other than averting normal pitfalls. A lot more in fact. I love how supportive and encouraging they are. They're always talking each other up. Mamoru shows constant faith in Usagi, telling her that she will succeed and telling Chibiusa that Sailor Moon is invincible. Usagi refuses to let Mamoru think he's a burden on her despite her being the strongest character in the series at that point and her faith in him lets him unlock the Golden Crystal, equal to the Silver Crystal. The two are constantly expressing how much they mean to each other and you can see how they improve each other as people, how Usagi becomes more responsible around Mamoru, how Mamoru becomes more open around Usagi. This ties into my favorite thing about their relationship, the symbolism of their duality. It's too complex to express in a short manner, but Prince Endymion represented to Princess Serenity the hope and possibility and life that the vibrant blue Earth represented from space. In contrast, Princess Serenity represents the mystical and ethereal, the illusory we feel compelled to chase to Prince Endymion, just as her Crystal is the Illusory/Legendary Silver Crystal. The two form a beautiful duality within their relationship of the worldly and the otherworldly, of temporality and eternity that perfectly capstones the entire story with their union embodied in Usagi and Mamoru's wedding at the end of the manga.
Part of why what makes the romance between Usagi and Mamoru so evocative is the series excellent usage of imagery. I'm not especially an aesthetically gifted person so I would have trouble expressing what is good about Sailor Moon's manga. But I can say that Sailor Moon's aesthetic is my favorite I've seen. Takeuchi-Sensei's imagery feels always at least just slightly otherworldly, through usage of minimal backgrounds, the characters' designs using lots of flowing pieces that disappear into the ether, and exaggerated or surreal imagery. Takeuchi-sensei also likes to play with shifting her art back and forth between more realistic and detailed drawings and more cartoonish, usually, cutesier drawings based on the tone of the scene, as well as shifting character eyes from detailed and conveying emotion to show their humanity or without detail to give an otherworldly impression:
While Takeuchi-Sensei isn't the best or most inventive with the medium, her panel composition tends towards confusing, her actual artwork is beautiful, helped by her persistent use of visual metaphors. Examples of this include presenting an ethereal figure behind someone to represent that person having the spirit of the other figure in their actions, people joining hands to become stronger in their Stars Arc, Black Lady having a sexualized outfit to represent her childish understanding of what being adult means, or Professor Tomoe having one eye on his glasses obscured by mystical symbols to represent his split focus into two worlds and lack of sanity.
Another thing I love about Sailor Moon is its pace. I find that most series move far too slowly for my preference. There are few things that will turn me off a series faster than a poor pace. In the relationship between storyteller and listener, the storyteller has one obligation: the listener is entrusting the storyteller with their time, and the storyteller is to respect that. One thing no one has ever said about the Sailor Moon manga is that it wastes the reader's time. Sailor Moon is extremely quick-paced, having 5 full and mostly unconnected story acts in 60 acts. It almost never wastes time and gets to the point and I strongly appreciate the way Takeuchi-Sensei respects her readers' time and gets right to the good stuff. There is not a single filler act in the entire manga and scenes often serve multiple purposes to keep things moving at good pace.
The plots themselves are fairly simple, as can be evidenced by being a relatively short manga with 5 arcs. With that said they are quite engaging in themselves. Sailor Moon stories are essentially occult mystery stories, superhero comics with a dash of cosmic horror. Something otherworldly and nebulous is happening and the Sailor Senshi have to investigate the mysterious phenomena all the while coming to understand the mystery of their new allies, slowly revealing the final enemy of each arc, which is always some eldritch horror from behind the stars. This is a pretty comfortable genre and tone for me, and while it may sound repetitive in theory, Takeuchi-Sensei does a pretty good job of keeping it varied via the different types of villains with different plots as well as different kinds of new allies.
There's something so timely about Sailor Moon, yet also something so timeless. Takeuchi-sensei wrote the series with a certain feminine sensibility, a series for teenage girls to relate to, to look up to. It is stereotypical feminine qualities from sensitivity to beauty to emotional intuition and empathy that are considered the symbols of strength in Sailor Moon alongside the feminine iconography. The series never lets you forget that the thing that makes Sailor Moon a hero is her loving heart. The series was trailblazing in a way that is hard to imagine today; a series about female warriors, using their symbols of femininity as emblems of strength battling real and deadly villains and monsters through the strength of their bonds with each other and emotions. It depicts the protagonist, a pure-hearted heroine not just having sex with her boyfriend, but desiring it, thinking of it in terms of emotional turmoil for strength. It had a lesbian couple prominently, one of whom was gender non-conforming, and they weren't treated immaturely for it or had a tragic ending. They were viewed as the mature cooler mentors to the main girls and had a happy ending along with everyone else. Sailor Moon was and in some ways still ahead of its time in depicting women as real pillars of strength for their community and world, and giving an ideal to aspire towards. It does this without a hint of misandry, despite Takeuchi-Sensei admitting she doesn't like writing male characters the way she does female characters. But Mamoru is Usagi's partner and romantically her equal.
Where a lot of Sailor Moon's contemporaries went wrong in my opinion, and indeed many works today still go wrong, is they drew too much attention to that fact, sometimes did it just for the attention. In making it seem so unexpected for women to be bearers of strength and agency they absent-mindedly made it seem strange and subversive, turned it into a symbol of rebellion that could never simply be accepted. Sailor Moon doesn't do that. Women's' rights have expanded but Women's greatness, the ability to become a hero, has always been there and Sailor Moon recognizes that. It crafts a mythos where there has been a legacy of great and heroic women. Sailor Moon was born from Queen Serenity, the noble queen of the Moon, and she will give that legacy to her daughter. Being a heroine isn't a special strangeness of the heroine, she is surrounded by a community of awe-inspiring and badass women. And the fight isn't against men, such is to minimize the narrative of the Heroines to be towards men. Instead the fight is against the real evils of the world, the human evils of greed, tyranny, and cruelty and the cosmic tragedy of Chaos. In this way, Sailor Moon is a timeless work, a work which can be understood far further aflung in space and time.
There's another element that I think contributes to Sailor Moon's relative timelessness. There are people who don't like Sailor Moon, but one thing I've never heard anyone say about Sailor Moon is that it's shallow or that it can be easily dismissed. One of the things I love about Sailor Moon the most is the way it always gives me more things to think about. Takeuchi-Sensei had a very wide array of interests and she incorporated all of them into Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is an extremely complex web of ideas and themes impossibly woven into one narrative.
Everytime I read Sailor Moon, it exclaims to me "But wait, there's more!" There's always more. More ways to interpret things, more little details I didn't realize. Sailor Moon is an ocean of depth born of the inclusion of elements from everything Takeuchi-Sensei could think of. Mythology, Flowers, Space, Politics, Psychology, Dream Interpretation, History, Fashion, Spirituality, Geology, Conspiracy Theories, Scientific Advancement, Religion...Sailor Moon touches on all of them and weaves them into the narrative without even slowing down. The more I learn the more I see in Sailor Moon. And going about my daily business I see things that connect to something in Sailor Moon meaning it's always coming up in my mind.
As I said at the start of this blog, to me one of the ultimate tests of something's quality is how much you want to re-experience something. I want to re-experience Sailor Moon all the time, because every time I do I am not just getting more out of it, I am getting more out of it than I would watching more series. I've thought about it for decades now I'm still figuring out new things every time I read it. There are numerous things in Sailor Moon I don't understand still but think I will figure out in time.
If I were to express the weaknesses of Sailor Moon, for me there would be three of note. The first of these in importance is definitely the one everyone brings up, which is its inefficient usage of its cast. I strongly disagree with the notion some have that the manga characters are not characterized well. But I know what they mean when they say that. Most of the characters in the series don't actually do that much. This is because Takeuchi-Sensei wanted to have it both ways with a lightning-efficient plot but also an extensive cast. This is not helped by her tendency to write in groups of characters when a single character would have sufficed, leading to this glut of characters. There wasn't that strong a reason to introduce four Guardian Senshi initially other than Takeuchi-Sensei was inspired by Toku shows and their 5 man teams (which was because they had several dozen episodes focused on them) and then later there was no reason to introduce four Ayakashi Sisters, four upper ranked Black Moon Clan Members, five Witches, four Amazoness Quartet Members, three Amazon Trio Members or three Starlights other than Naoko wanted to pair them up one and one with three or all of the Guardian Senshi. This is definitely the biggest problem of the manga, it's the one most often noted and the hardest to change without either slowing down the story extensively or reducing the cast number dramatically.
Truthfully the cast usage isn't the best even taking into account the problem of size. As mentioned the second, third, and fourth arcs all arguably focus on Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibiusa and it's not like they were the stories that needed to be told with these characters, the fourth arc basically just repeats the second arc plotline for both Mamoru and Chibiusa.
The second problem and this doesn't bother me nearly as much but the series can be fairly artificial at times. The best moments in fiction make both literal and emotional/symbolic sense. It is internally coherent and natural feeling but also conveys real meaning to the reader. While Takeuchi-Sensei is good at the latter, she sometimes relies on conveniences or ambiguity to get to the point she wants to with it feeling fairly artificial. Like it makes symbolic sense that Metaria blinds Mamoru just as she blinds people to the truth and brainwashes them. It makes symbolic sense Usagi first sees Haruka dressed like Txuedo Kamen because Haruka's heart is so distant to Usagi at this point she doesn't recognize her as another Sailor Senshi. It makes symbolic sense that Nehelenia would want to take Mamoru as her own love despite her attempts to kill him. But none of these are logically justified in-universe or even really attempted to. As I said I care more about fiction as means of communicating ideas and emotions more than I am as internally coherent feeling realities so this doesn't super bother me, though I can understand how it's a problem for some. This also isn't so much a problem with the manga in particular but is common throughout the franchise and a lot of the genre in general.
The third problem, also not that much a problem for me but I can understand why it would be for others is that Sailor Moon tends to get better closer to the end. This is true on all levels. Individual acts tend to start with light recap of what's going on building into new events as the Senshi investigate some new mysterious phenomena until the dramatic confrontation near the end. Sailor Moon Arcs tend to have the first half being semi-episodic mildly repetitive confrontations between the Senshi and the underlings of the current villain group and the second half of the arc be really where the plot goes into overdrive and keeps going non-stop. If one looks at the series as a whole, the final arc is also the series' best as it both culminates and subverts everything the series has built up so far but the first four arcs do have some repetitive elements to them. I don't mind this format but I can sort of understand why some might.
Of those three weaknesses, only one significantly bothers me, and while it DOES bother me, the series' strengths don't just make up for it, they make the series unquestionably my favorite series despite that flaw to the point I'd be worried about trying to rewrite and correct that flaw for fear of messing up a series I love so much.
This is a manga so good it makes me rethink what's possible in fiction. There are so many things in fiction that feel wrong to me but I usually just accept because...that's just what everything does. Sailor Moon is a series about the themes that are important to me with a lightning fast plot with no filler using a cast of characters that are collective my favorite cast including my favorite hero, favorite villain and focused around my favorite romance, is incredibly female-centric and positive while not being at all misandristic, filled with esoteric, occult and cosmic imagery and a science-fantasy romance that is somehow the most relatable thing I've ever read. It's reverant and grandiose without slowing down to force you to appreciate that grandiosity. It feels like a direct appeal to the little girl inside me despite the fact that I can analyze it like high literature. It hits me like an emotional truck yet is also so subtle and deep that I always find new things when I read. It's goddamn SAILOR MOON and there's nothing like it! If you want to know what the inside of my mind looks like, read Sailor Moon.
Act Ranking:
The 60 acts of Sailor Moon I would divide into roughly 5 tiers. I should say these placements are not strict. Things can move around with other acts nearby and some acts are at the edge of a tier and could go either way. This is just a general sense of where everything is.
Tier 5: I would give a 6/10
These two acts are definitely the two I like least in Sailor Moon. I would still give them a review that is pretty good overall but they are much more mixed than other acts. I've also gone back and forth on which one I like more.
60: Act 45: This act I think really showcases Takeuchi-Sensei's weaknesses as a writer. This act she re-introduces all the Outer Senshi but uses the battle they're currently in to avoid the difficult-to-write scene of the Guardians and Outers finally meeting up again which has been built over the entire first half of the arc. She also has Chibi-Moon and Saturn, the two Senshi with the narrative clout to actually doing something get taken out in a cheap way by Zirconia trapping them in Chibi-Moon's attack and also has Zirconia trap the Amazoness Quartet in stones just as they were getting redeemed. This act basically removes all the interesting plot elements that were currently in the air sorta forcing the rest of the arc to be a giant fight scene and to have Usagi save everyone again. I think Nehelenia's pretty alright this act with her menacing comparison of destroying the Earth being as easy as breaking a baby's neck. I also liked how Usagi not regretting her decision to stay by her man's side despite catching the curse and Saturn trying to awaken the Quartet. But this act really doesn't live up to the potential and actively removes potential just because it's hard to write all the characters put into the story. It's possible I'm just a little salty that they brought my girl Hotaru and did basically nothing with her for the rest of the series even though she was so cool in the Infinity Arc.
59: Act 4: This act is kind of the opposite of the last act. While Act 45 is sort of the clearest example of Sailor Moon's usual weaknesses, Act 4 has its usual strengths but also some unique weaknesses. Mamoru kissing Usagi after she's passed out is uncomfortable for some readers I understand and it's the closest the series has to filler, feeling more repetitive than usual. That said it's got some cute bits like Usagi using the Disguise Pen to turn into a pretty princess or telling the reader she's "no ordinary Champion of Justice." What really made me put it above is that this act is one of the most classic acts of SM, known by basically everyone and recreated in basically every version. It definitely feels a lot more iconic if only due to there being a lot less plot points and characters this early into the story.
Tier 4: I would give a 7/10:
These chapters are really good, comparable to the best chapters of an average series.
58: Act 39: The first acts of three of the arcs don't rank very highly to me, because they are very concerned with setting up the plot points for the arc and serve more as an extended introduction than a particularly fun story in themselves, and I think Dream 1 is the clearest example of this. Act 39 is less than the sum of its parts as it does have a lot of fun cool elements such as Chibiusa's dream ride on Helios, her admiration for her mother and her parents love for her, some cool bits about the new villain group like they are actually weaker than the protagonists and rely on tricks to try and beat them. That said the act is very long and unfocused, clearly just setting up each plot one after another, some of which are things which never come up again and just seem incredibly random like Usagi and Chibiusa's power bringing their kaleidoscopes to life.
57: Act 47: Probably the single easiest act in the entire series to explain, Act 47 is basically just a giant fight scene against Zirconia and Nehelenia. While a lot of Shonen series do have battles last numerous continuous chapters, this is a rarity for Shojo. While the fight's not bad, the act's a bit lacking in depth for a Sailor Moon Act. I like how the Secondary Senshi feel at their most relevant this act with Neptune blowing up one of the tents, Mercury using her visor to find Nehelenia and of course my girl Jupiter punching Nehelenia in the face making her run away. There are also otherworldly nightmare visuals that also fit Nehelenia circus/dream aesthetic. That said the drama about Helios being "dead" is something that doesn't make sense if you think about it for a minute and it's just kind of simple.
56: Act 5: Jupiter is my favorite of the Guardian Senshi but I don't like most of the chapters that focus on her that much usually, as they're always the third and as such usually feel more repetitive from the prior two acts focusing Ami and Rei. Makoto's introduction is good and her friendship with Usagi is cute, but Nephrite's plan this act lacked scope and the ending felt quite rushed. I feel like this act would really benefit from being split up into two acts, one to introduce Makoto and have the Ghost Bride plot, and one for the final confrontation with Nephrite and Usagi becomes the leader.
55: Act 16: Once again, this act does have things I really do love. It has Mamoru being a loving supportive boyfriend to Usagi in her time of emotional distress, and comforting Chibiusa with the hero Tuxedo Puppet. There's some good setup for some of the villains and Ami. But the main plot is one of the most ridiculous in the series and that's saying something. Ami and Makoto getting kidnapped has some of the same problem of Chibiusa and Hotaru being instantly beaten by Zirconia in that it's Takeuchi-Sensei reducing the amount of characters she has to write reducing the story potential in doing so, though not as dramatic. It still feels kind of repetitive having them getting kidnapped one by one.
54: Act 17: Pretty similar in quality to the act before it and has the same problem of feeling fairly repetitive. Petz' plan is more comprehensible than and more interesting, though not especially tied to Makoto either. That said the act has its own cute moments like Chibiusa giving Usagi Tuxedo Puppet to try and cheer her up or being cartoonishly good at the Sailor V game, and it has one of the coolest moments for Sailor Jupiter in the manga when she is attained by a robot assassin sent from the future to kill her and take her place, and despite being untransformed and sick to the point of passing out she lifts it over her head and smashes it. I also think Makoto's scene with Asanuma is cute.
53: Act 42: Feels very similar to Jupiter's Black Moon Clan arc, with the enemy knowing they can't beat Jupiter in a direct fight so try to beat her via indirect methods. It feels similarly repetitive and the method used is less creative, but Jupiter actually succeeds in beating Hawk Eye and sending the quartet running so it feels like character development. There's a lot of cute details in this one like Makoto admiring Haruka for her confidence and Michiru for her beauty, or Chibiusa imagining asking each of the Guardian Senshi for love advice. The act's a little vanilla but pretty sweet character development for Makoto. I'd love to put it higher but SM is just really tough competition.
52: Act 41: This act feels like the opposite of Jupiter Dream. I sometimes feel like Act 41 is one I will comet to appreciate the more I read the series, as it's one that I think maybe hasn't fully clicked symbolically. Act 41 is an ambitious act that touches on a lot of things but only lightly and feels ironically a bit unfocused. I like the exploration of Rei's character and her potential asexuality, and Minako's advice or Rei's grandpa calling out for Buddha are hilarious. I thought Rei using her charm to banish Tiger's Eye even before transforming was cool and Zirconia talking to Nehelenia was good foreshadowing. That said something about the act doesn't click with me, it doesn't build up to a singular point as strong as it could.
51: Act 27: The introductory act of the Mugen Arc is a long act, tied for the single longest with the first Dream Act. It's even less coherent as a self contained story but far more focused introducing all the many plot elements of the Mugen Arc save Super Sailor Moon in one act while creating a foreboding atmosphere of impending apocalypse. The Outer Senshi are really cool additions and this act introduces Haruka, Michiru, and technically Hotaru, though barely. This act does a good job of balancing cutesy and funny elements like Usagi's dream of her and Mamoru getting married or Diana cuddling up to Mamoru with the darkest atmosphere of Sailor Moon so far.
50: Act 51: I really like the civilian stuff this act, the part where the Starlights keep accidentally outraging the Senshi are pretty funny, even if they can stretch believability. Aluminum Seiren killing Mercury and Jupiter is thematically appropriate but lacks the punch of the other deaths this arc due to not having any subtle build-up and being a lot more clearcut what's gonna happen, though is maybe more jolting if this is your first read through. I like the introduction of Chibi-Chibi, and the Starlights, at least in the manga, are decently compelling.
49: Act 20: This act has both higher strengths and weaknesses then the last few acts which are more generally solid. It introduces a lot of cool ideas, basically being the introduction to the world of Crystal Tokyo, but it delivers that through a lot of exposition making the act feel a bit less exciting than most acts. It has the Senshi traveling back and forth to the past from the future feeling a bit unnecessary and Usagi's jealousy while realistic is perhaps not the most fun plot point. That said it basically introduces Diana the cutest character in the series, shows more of Sailor Pluto and the ending where Sailor Moon defies Demande even without her powers and is abducted is an excellent cliffhanger.
48: Act 34: Pretty similar to Act 20 in that it has fairly notable strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, the resolution to the conflict between the Guardian and the Outer Senshi all arc long to this point feels fairly anti-climactic as they just push aside their ideological conflict on the grounds that as Senshi they share the same heart. That said the first half of the act is haunting filled with occult imagery like Kaorinite using necromancy and melting wax statues of the Senshi to kill them, or ghost Hotaru haunting Mistress 9, and the ending where Mistress 9 eats the Silver Crystal is unexpected and exciting. Mamoru's emotional support for Usagi is sweet and Haruka's anger at Usagi's idealism is at its most believable since Haruka thinks Mistress 9 has effectively killed Chibiusa unless they kill Hotaru and Mistress 9.
47: Act 11: Very iconic act and for good reason. Mamoru being brainwashed and Usagi have to fight her love is an idea that would be repeated many times in the genre because of the immediate tension it has. It's always hard to comment on this act as someone whose read this series so many times because it's meant to be intimidating for a first time reader. I think it does a good job building Beryl and Endymion's threat levels, Endymion seeming physically unstoppable this act and Beryl having loomed large this act, the two entering the Command Center and wrecking the Senshi. Jupiter getting worfed is an unfortunate side effect of her being "the strong one" and the act trying to make a brainwashed Motoki seem intimidating is misguided and funny for probably not the right reason. That said I think this act's build-up of menace as well as the cute scene with Usagi and Luna at the start are really good. It's also got the really funny scene of the Senshi meeting at Ami's house and Minako accidentally breaking things with the holy sword with Ami not caring because her family is rich to the point it doesn't matter. I think the good points here are really good and the act is iconic for a reason.
46: Act 43: Venus' chapters are always a bit special compared to the other Senshi's character chapters, I think because they're the last and Takeuchi-Sensei likes to establish patterns and subvert them, and also because Minako is her favorite. I will say, I don't like that the cliffhanger this act ends on. The resolution to the plot this act sets up doesn't really feel that set up that well in this act which I think is arguably a flaw of this act. But just as an act in itself, this one is quite good and very indicative of Minako itself blending the more serious drama explaining the stakes of the arc with Minako's silly antics. Minako is a character that blends seriousness and comedy such as her dramatic declaration of anger when the others keep bringing up the Outers when she's supposed to be leading them. Minako has one of her best depictions this act, being realistically flawed but very understandable in her anger at herself that she's not able to lead the others effectively, as well as remaining funny and silly and I adore the sequence where Usagi refuses to leave Mamoru's side despite his sickness because "your pain is my pain." There was a neat lore tidbit with Artemis saying Minako is becoming like the goddess Venus.
45: Act 15: The first act of the Black Moon Clan has to do a lot having to introduce the Black Moon Clan plot elements while also having its own episodic plot and I think it does a pretty good job balancing them. The other arcs have an "introductory" act before going into the individual Senshi chapters while this is both the Rei Black Moon Clan chapter and the introductory chapter for the arc. As such the act feels a little cramped and possibly really important plot points are kinda skimmed over such as the Guardian Senshi brushing off Usagi's concern of a little girl just appearing and hypnotizing her family. On the other hand no other introductory act feels as alive and natural, even Act 50. The act has a great cliffhanger, a funny dialogue between Rei and her classmate Kotono where it's revealed how the others are rubbing off on Rei's speech pattern, and the girl falsely accused of being an evil witch Rei against an actual evil witch Koan. The arc does a good job as well setting up the mysterious of the Second Arc with the references to UFOs culminating in Rei being abducted by one as well as introducing the mystery of Chibisa.
44: Act 31: Act 31 is a bit on the weaker side for an Infinity Act with the Tellu plot being a bit more creative but also being rather slower than prior acts and with the Act kind of just repeating information from prior. The scene of Usagi and Haruka are on opposite sides of the door is evocative with Usagi's anguish wanting to fight alongside her and Haruka feeling guilty of having to keep aloof from her princess, but at this point we're well aware Usagi and Haruka are in misalignment even though their hearts are together. We're also aware the Taioran Crystal is dimming and the enemies need souls for power, and that Sailor Moon is really strong and a threat to their mission. Hotaru really steals the scene this act with her really cool scene of freaking out her bullies by bringing going all Mistress 9 while glaring at them. There's also the cute scene with Chibiusa making her classmates jealous with her affection for Hotaru and of course Sailor Pluto returning. So it is overall a good act, just slower than normal.
43: Act 18: Act 18 is one that definitely subverts expectations. It has awesome moments for both Minako and Mamoru as Minako defies the conventions of the last several acts and actually powers through Calaveras' attack and resists getting abduction and Mamoru setting the standard for Magical Girl warrior boyfriends by actually unlocking magical powers himself and sending Rubeus fleeing. Unlike a lot of SM acts that can move a bit quick near the end, this act moves a bit quick towards the beginning with cool ideas like Rubeus and Calaveras having a relationship or Rubeus agreeing with Saphir that Wiseman is not to be trusted being thrown out there and not expanded on. That said it gets better as it goes ending on the cliffhanger as Chibiusa asks Sailor Moon to save the future. Calaveras is also my favorite of the Ayakashi Sisters in the manga having the most compelling motivation, avenging her sisters, and having the coolest powers in my opinion with her astrological and channeling-themed powers.
42: Act 6: I really like this act, this is the act where the series stops trying to introduce itself every act and the sort of awkward beginning part of the series and begins going into the mythos of the series. Having Tuxedo Kamen as a third party searching for the Silver Crystal helps adds complexity to the plot, and this is the act where Luna reveals she is from the Moon and where Sailor Moon, though she doesn't know it, first uses the Silver Crystal. With Zoisite's plan to drain energy from across Tokyo and being about the Dark Kingdom on Earth, and the extremely atmospheric scene where Luna tells the others she is from the Moon and it's their mission to fight evildoers that don't belong in this world, a scene that is somehow both clearly the inspiration for the Pretty Cure Fairies and Kyubey, this is the act where Sailor Moon begin to builds it identity of scale and gravitas. This is aided by the first time Luna explains the Silver Crystal to the Senshi and its ability to destroy even the stars of Heaven. This act also builds Usagi and Mamoru to falling in love with each other. Really this is the act that Sailor Moon starts "feeling" like Sailor Moon.
41: Act 38: Act 38 is the end of the Infinity Arc and is basically comprised of third, the first third being really good and the other two-thirds being pretty good. The first third is basically the climax of the Infinity Arc where Sailor Saturn kills Pharaoh 90 and hilariously the cutesy moe girl sadistically kills the cosmic horror while delighting in its death before Pluto seals them in another dimension to avoid destroying the dimension, a pretty good emotional climax to the Infinity Arc as Chibiusa and Usagi's trust in the Senshi of Death, that their hearts were their same allowed them to win the loyalty of the feared infamous Messiah of Silence. The second third is the falling action of the Third Arc and the final third is the start of the Dream Arc. These aren't quite as good, but the first third is the real star of the show and they're not bad at all.
40: Act 56: This act ALMOST reaches into the next tier. I think the death of the Mooncats felt excessive and needless and the act doesn't quite feel connected to the overall narrative for me to put it there. As it stands however the act is really good, having two of the most fully realized antagonists in the series despite only appearing in one act and being great at introducing Usagi to the alienness of Galaxia's inner world. This act's symbolism and general understanding of why good people do bad things is fantastic and it fits very well into the overall narrative of Stars.
Tier 3: I would give an 8/10:
These are the acts I consider great, comparable to the best episodes of the series I significantly like.
39: Act 2: I really go back and forth on this act. On the one hand it does have a lot of that early Sailor Moon weirdness, the villain plot is goofy as all heck, and most importantly the climax of the arc could have had a better focus. The but the first two parts I feel a certain affection for, early Sailor Moon having a novel feeling going back of being much more like a traditional Sentai series before the series established its cosmic fantasy feel. Alongside introducing Sailor Mercury with a pretty good introduction, the act introduces the Moon Pen which is a really sweet homage to the earlier MG genre where earlier Magical Girls sole power was the ability to turn into older versions of herself to symbolically represent coming of age and allow young girls fantasies of exploring possible career paths. In addition I really like the rumor scene where people assume because of Ami is smart and comes from a wealthy family people begin to create rumors about her that escalate in a sadly realistic way, not knowing at all of the personal struggles Ami has had, which is really the beginning of one of the overarching lessons of Sailor Moon; the importance of the heart rather than the outward appearance of a thing. While this act is a little messy I do consider it one of the great acts.
38: Act 57: Act 57 is a good example of Sailor Moon in general with a little bit of everything. It has two seperate fights with villains, a third heroic party showing up to help (Chibi-Moon and the Asteroid Senshi), a tragic heroic death, theme-ing with Kakyuu expressing her willingness to be born to a world with war if it means being reborn with everyone else, a sentiment important later for the arc, humor with Galaxia trolling Eternal Sailor Moon and Kakyuu by teleporting her castle around before they reach it, Usagi trying to understand her enemy, atmospheric cosmic language with Sailor Heavy Metal Papillion's introduction etc. It's a little bit of everything. It also has a great cliffhanger with the Galactica Sol Senshi showing up to stop Sailor Moon.
37: Act 1: The original Sailor Moon act is one of the most known things in the entire Magical Girl genre being alluded to and parodied countless times in Japanese media similar to something like Spider-Man's first appearance in American media. It's not hard to see why Sailor Moon was so immediately popular and took the world by storm. It's mysterious and atmospheric and introduces the idea that Usagi, this crybaby everygirl could become a Heroine of Justice through the power of her love, an expression both of an ideal to aspire to and which was relatable. It builds atmosphere excellently and the moment Usagi expresses to Luna that she doesn't know what's going on but her friend Naru is in danger and runs off to help her is a beautiful expression of what the series represents. As I mentioned in my Act 1 review, one of things incredible about Act 1 is that it's a completely normal act by Sailor Moon standards, fairly middle of the road. The baseline was this level of iconic-ness, atmosphere, and mystique.
36: Act 3: Of the really early Acts of Sailor Moon, the first 5, this is definitely the best in my opinion. This act while it has some relatively pronounced flaws, mostly in not going further with Usagi's characterization, really does feel like the a culmination of the elements set up in the first two acts and raises the stakes as the Sailor Senshi have to fight the first real enemy, who is given an appropriately bigger scheme and with more intimidating powers. This act introduces Rei, and she gets my favorite introduction of the Guardian Senshi, longer than Minako's, more dynamic than Ami's, and more tied into the act's narrative than Makoto's. This act begins the development of Usagi and Mamoru's relationship as they learn each others identities, though Usagi will deny it internally for a few more acts and introduce the Silver Crystal and the true scope of the story. It has Usagi being heart-eyed for Rei which was really cool for a manga chapter that came out in 1992.
35: Act 19: Act 19 is an act that gives the series an energy it hadn't had since Act 13, continuing to introduce science-fantasy concepts, having both matureness, even darkness, and cuteness and making them feel like they belong to the same space. While the Chiral-Achiral encounter feels kind of unnecessary and like Takeuchi-Sensei just felt she had to put a fight in every act, this act introduces Sailor Pluto and immediately shows both her responsible mature dutiful nature as well as her loving maternal side as she embraces Chibiusa. It begins the depiction of Usagi and Mamoru's relationship as maturely intimate, in a way that is wholesome and positive and having the atmosphere of the Senshi reaching the ruins of Crystal Tokyo, like the imagery speak for itself at the horrors of warfare. As such it's an act with numerous appeals.
34: Act 28: Act 28 is the act that really introduces Hotaru and it does a fantastic job expressing the personality of one of my favorite characters not just in Sailor Moon but in general, showing her loneliness and her flaws, her compassion, the way she oscillates between cute and scary. Her friendship with Chibiusa is adorable and heartwarming and her confrontation with her father and Kaorinite is surpisingly realistic and builds sympathy for the villains. This act has the cool scene of Mamoru and Michiru speaking in coded language, and the evocative scene of Eudial by a fireplace beckoning the schoolchildren of Mugen Academy to offer up their souls. Its weaknesses seem so superficial in comparison. And it even has some really fun civilian dynamics with Rei going up into the mountain to train for her birthday and the others following her leading to antics.
33: Act 53: This act really connects the lore of the Solar System to that of the wider galaxy with the connections of Luna/Artemis and Phobos/Deimos being of the same species as two of Galaxia's false senshi, and continues to impress Galaxia's power over the narrative with a double, arguably triple subversion where Usagi thinks she saves Rei and Minako from meeting the same fate as Ami and Makoto only for Galaxia to just pop in and take them regardless. While this act doesn't really as deeply as some Stars acts into the overarching theme of the arc, its inclusion does it give it a weight and gravitas a lot of lower acts don't have.
32: Act 49: The Final Act of the Dream Arc is generally pretty great as it gives the reader a sense of progression fitting for an arc that is both literally and metaphorically about awakening from a dream that keeps one static in time and moving towards a brighter tomorrow. I absolutely love the stellar imagery used this act that Queen Serenity tells Princess Serenity and she then tells Mamoru. It's simple yet deep, otherworldly yet compelling. All of us have a star in our hearts and we have to keep it shining bright. I will say this act really does show SM's second problem at numerous times, things often don't make literal sense this act and are done moreso for emotional or symbolic reasons than because they are internally coherent such as Chibiusa worrying about Helios being dead despite knowing that because Mamoru's alive Helios has to be alive, or having the Senshi all give their power to Eternal Sailor Moon despite them just that very thing at the end of last act. Let alone Nehelenia wanting to take Mamoru for her own when all her actions to this point would have killed him. However this act does serve both its purposes well, acting as a good finale to the Dream Arc and preparing the reader for the Stars Arc.
31: Act 58: Act 58 is an act that I think is really this high by its last quarter. It's a short act and the first three-quarters are emotionally effecting but probably wouldn't be this high as I think the act really could have gone further. However the last quarter Usagi finally confronts Galaxia in the moment the entire arc and arguably the entire series has been building too, Crybaby Usagi rising to courage strong enough to face the ultimate enemy, the top of the Sailor Senshi hierarchy Galaxia. I think the first three-quarters are good enough to be functional and the final quarter are strong enough to put the act at about the halfway point for Sailor Moon acts, which is a pretty big achievement for me. This act sets up Act 59 literally, emotionally, and thematically which to me is definitely its best achievement for me given how much Act 59 means to me.
30: Act 23: I am not big on Black Lady brainwashing Mamoru, as I feel it is fairly repetitive since we saw that last arc and it takes away from Dark Mamoru in the final arc. That aside this act is really good for two reasons. First it characterizes the villains really good, introducing one of the most popular villains in the series Black Lady, giving Demande more complexities without trying to make him any more sympathetic which would be a pretty doomed cause given the extent of his villainy, and Wiseman comes into play as the major villain of the arc. The interplay between these three is creepy and cool and complex in all the right ways. This act also has a lot of heartwarming and sweet moments for the Heroes: the development of Usagi's maternal love for Chibiusa, King Endymion talking to Neo-Queen Serenity, Rei's expression of trust in Mamoru, and the Guardian Senshi trying to cheer Mamoru up. This act balances plot and characters really well moving the arc into its final third and setting up the new threats and dynamics.
29: Act 35: Act 35 is comprised of three sections. Two of them are really good. Tomoe's section is fun as he's quite a memorable villain, a megalomaniac mad scientist halfway between the Joker and Lex Luthor. It doesn't really live up to the potential I think it could have, but it does have some pretty interesting nuances it. The Outer Senshi section is short and not really well set up but does a quite job tying the arc's conflict to this point between the Senshi with one of the overarching themes of the series; the pain of loneliness, evoking the infinite solitude the Outer Senshi persisted in, how their only solace was the soft light of their princess, the distant Moon. However the real highlight and the reason it's this high is Hotaru protecting Chibiusa. Absolutely fantastic scene, seeing this put upon ghost fight back against this extremely powerful enemy, showing that the emotions of even a young girl like Hotaru are more powerful than a great alien commander. Her love for and protecting of Chibiusa is incredibly sweet and she has a powerful presence with her dramatic declaration of how she will protect Chibiusa.
28: Act 12: This act feels so weighty and full of gravitas. The first arc has destiny as one of its major themes and the weight of destiny is so strong this act as things begin to repeat as they did back in the Doomed Silver Millennium. Sailor Moon's desperate attempts to avert her tragic destiny, ending with her giving in and accepting this destiny before attempting suicide is quite possibly the single most dramatic and emotionally intense arcs in the entire series. There's a lot of little details that help support the feeling this act of powerful forces beyond control influencing the events such as how Metaria hangs over Endymion like a dark spirit or the turmoil in Usagi's heart shaking Endymion. I love how Takeuchi-Sensei externalizes the internal in this way, uses the physical to reflect the deeper emotional struggle going on. There's also a lot of little tidbits here and there ranging from cool little allusions like how Beryl's hair is used as a weapon referencing the belief that a witch's power is connected to her hair to mildly nonsensical like Artemis doing....something....to stop Dark Endymion.
27: Act 7: Act 7 is a fantastic midpoint for the Dark Kingdom Arc, mostly for introducing Venus in a way completely unique from the other Senshi, recontextualizing the Sailor V game which was a plot point since the beginning of the game. You can really tell how much Takeuchi-Sensei loves writing V-chan with a Dark Agency styled plot this act. This act also has Mamoru's backstory which goes to set up his narrative for the arc and his theming for the rest of the arc in why he loves Usagi, the girl who gave him direction and meaning in a seemingly empty world without his memories. There's also the very cool scene with Metaria and Beryl where we learn Beryl is planning to double-cross Metaria. The scene is just really cool and expands Beryl's character and the intrigue even as we know it can't be that simple, that the witch making a deal with a demon never ends well for her.
26: Act 46: I love this act. This act is the Dream Arc's two dreams comparison brought to Usagi and in an extremely relatable piece, Usagi first dreams her material dream, her dream of being doted on and taken care of by Mamoru, of having every need of hers taken care off. And it seems great at first but she knows something is wrong, that this isn't the real Mamoru she fell in love with, the one whose eyes called her to adventure and possibility. The act contrasts that with her real dream, a dream of protecting the world with Mamoru, a dream that unites her with him as it is his dream too to protect the world with her. It is a perfect union of the arc's themes with the wonderful romance of Usagi and Mamoru along with some very relatable characterization for Usagi. This is the act as well that reveals Mamoru has the Golden Crystal which does a wonderful job recontextualizing the past times Usagi and Mamoru have shared strength and lets Mamoru engage with the story more actively as Usagi's animus. The only thing keeping this act back is that its last third isn't as strong, as it starts the "is Helios dead" drama which we know he can't be because the arc already established if he or Mamoru dies the other one does and Mamoru is still alive, plus it's just back to the fight scene against Zirconia which is just fine.
25: Act 37: Act 37 doesn't really have a lot of things that happen in it but it is incredibly atmosphereic and has a scene that is absolutely awesome, hilarious, chilling, and cool where Sailor Saturn, this goth moe magical girl Shojo Heroine beats up a Cosmic Horror with her death max all while talking in esoteric terms about destiny going awry. It also has Super Sailor Moon making the decision to trust in the collective hearts of the Sailor Senshi, taking the Holy Grail and plunging into Pharaoh 90 to revive Sailor Saturn which is a really good payoff for the arc's thematic lesson, as Usagi uses her understanding that their hearts are as one to befriend one of the two big threats of the arc and defeat the other one through her.
Tier 2: I would give a 9/10:
These are the acts I consider amazing, acts that would be one of the best chapters in the series I love. Fiction rarely gets this good overall.
24: Act 30: Act 30 has absolutely some absolutely amazing relationship development with Usagi and Mamoru as they work through their jealousy together and become stronger as a couple in response to Haruka's rather humorously direct flirting with Usagi which was super ahead of its time for the 90s and also connects with the themes really interesting, the way as Usagi comes to recognize Haruka as a woman like her, she also recognizes her nature as a Sailor Senshi and the similarity in their heart. Takeuchi-Sensei is contrasting the white-and-black thinking Usagi with the living ambiguity Haruka represents, in gender, morality, and allegiance. The Ami-Viluy section is pretty good, and Ami gets to be a badass in it, which is pretty rare.
23: Act 40: The best characterization for any of the Guardian Senshi in the main manga, period, possibly in the entire series. Takeuchi-Sensei paints a devastatingly understandable picture of Ami's insecurities and where they come from, developed from her artistic flighty father abandoning her and her mother, and her rationalist doctor mom rarely being home, leaving the intellectual Ami to cling to her intellect and her ration to prove herself, unable to muster the childish logic needed to combat the Quartet. Her development in this arc as she realizes she only cared to develop the intellect because of her love, that it was a second-order dream she wanted to use to reach her first order dreams, to be loved and to show her love in return is one of the cleanest and clearest examples of the Dream Arc's themes and psychology at play, and ties beautifully into the mythology imagery in her new attack. There's some stuff with Usagi and Chibiusa having swapped ages that is pretty good at times but does keep this act back a bit, feeling a little pointless with the anticlimactic resolution and with Super Sailor Moon for no real reason being the one to kill Fish Eye, probably just to make Chibi-Moon feel inferior, a repeat of her Second Arc character development. That said the Ami part is so beautiful I have to put it up here.
22: Act 29: Act 29 is the diametric opposite of Act 40. There it has the amazing Sailor Mercury exploration, with a much more standard for Sailor Moon plot with the Moon family. Here there's a pretty standard episodic plot with Minako, a fun little Sailor V homage as she uses her Sailor V transformation powers to fight Mimete, while the Moon Family stuff is where the real greatness comes from. This act begins the real arc of Usagi's confusion over Haruka, dreaming of her confused about Haruka's gender and her heart, unable to conceptualize the nebulous Senshi in her worldview and it's really interesting. This act also is the start of Hotaru and Chibiusa's friendship as Chibiusa goes over to Hotaru's house, supporting her when she gets strange and others would run forming their adorable friendship of light and darkness, a friendship that will be the real heart of the Infinity Arc. I think I like Act 29 a bit more than Act 40 because it's greatness is more versatile, divided into two plots and the Sailor V homage is more cute and fun to me than the Moon Girls swapped ages plot which while thematic in its expression of Chibiusa's desire to be seen as older and like her mother, kinda felt like a distraction without any proper resolution.
21: Act 48: This is the single most extensive viewing of the Silver Millennium in the entire series and it is a TREAT. Nehelenia's backstory is a perfectly mythological cosmic fantasy story, taking inspiration from classic fairy tails while also carrying cosmic weight with it being stated that before Nehelenia, the Moon had no shadows and Nehelenia telling Queen Serenity they both are travelers in the galaxy. The Chibi-Guardian Senshi were cute and seeing Queen Serenity in action, if short, was awesome. This act also has Nehelenia take the Silver Crystal from Usagi only for Mamoru to return it via the connection between it and his Golden Crystal through their love, the culmination of his development this arc. This act is absolutely full of fan service from the human forms of the cats to the Senshis' princess forms to Stars Arc foreshadowing. If there's any complaint I have about it it's that the Stars Arc foreshadowing starts to bog it down near the end and it kinda peters out a bit. That said the act for the vast majority is incredibly fun and a treat for a Sailor Moon fan.
20: Act 21: Act 21 is comprised of two major sections both of which are great, have a fantastic part, and parallel and connect to each other. On the one hand, you have the section of Usagi on Nemesis. It is a distressingly evocative scene of Usagi's helpless at the hands of these Devils controlling Nemesis, her vulnerability and sensitivity highlighted. Yet Usagi remains resolute and through the thoughts of her friends shows her inner strength and character development as she refuses to be kowtowed by the tyrant Demande. The act also has the Chibiusa section where we learn Chibiusa's backstory, and is full of cutesy and sweet parts like Chibiusa commenting that she thought her mother was unreachable but when she traveled back to the past she found her mom was just a normal girl like her or seeing Chibiusa befriend Setsuna, both alone for different reasons ending with the chilling and ominous scene of Chibiusa accidentally traveling to the edge of the world on the sheer strength of her emotion and being lulled to the dark side by the Wiseman stoking her dark feelings. If Demande is open and direct evil, a cruel and genocidal tyrant, Wiseman is subtle and creeping evil, strange men watching little children and waiting for them to be at their loneliest. The act also has the backstory of Phantom the criminal which will be relevant thematically later and the gag where the other Senshi find out Chibiusa is actually 900.
19: Act 50: Sailor Galaxia makes her entrance, very fittingly for a Soldier of Destruction, by completely destroying the sense of permanently and sense of certainty both the readers and characters have, killing Mamoru suddenly and during what would be expected to be a romantic climax of the series. Galaxia asserts herself as the expression of the reality of the cosmos, the imperfect temporal and ultimately untrustworthy nature of all things that Usagi will have to emotionally struggle with the entire arc. Usagi and Mamoru's love is so sweet and at one of its best states the entire series which makes Galaxia suddenly killing him so dramatic and yet so painfully real because it expresses the painful reality that life will take things from you when you least expect it and when it's hardest. The act has a lot of fun civilian dynamics with the other Senshi that contribute to the bright and light-hearted tone up until the very moment Galaxia pops in and takes Mamoru's star seed giving the act more versatility while also increasing the contrast. I love how you can feel the maturation of Takeuchi-Sensei's writing here with this act feeling more mature (with things like Mamoru and Usagi going to Mamoru's house for the night), increased depth of character writing with Galaxia being one of the most complex villains in the series, and an amazing understanding of how to weave narrative together with themes.
18: Act 26: What's best about Act 26 is its writing of the relationships between the three most important characters in Sailor Moon; Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibiusa. Usagi and Chibiusa are especially heartwarming this act as they finally express openly their love for each other as mother and daughter showing their development with Usagi coming to accept responsibility and maturing while Chibiusa realizing that her mother is not a personal distant idol but just a struggling girl just like her. The scene where they say goodbye always emotionally devastates me in the best way. There's also the scene where Chibiusa finally reunites with Neo-Queen Serenity and apologizes for everything with Neo-Queen Serenity accepting her apology, expressing her love and pride for her daughter and giving her the strength to aid Sailor Moon against Death Phantom.While not given quite as much focus, Mamoru and Usagi demonstrate their loving relationship as solidly as ever with Mamoru giving her the emotional strength to battle Death Phantom and Mamoru and Chibiusa having an emotional sweet goodbye. While I don't think the final battle with Death Phantom carries a lot of symbolic weight, it's kinda just flashy, and there's a few parts that don't age especially well in the course of the entire series like Neo-Queen Serenity giving the Guardian Senshi power to "always be able to fight alongside Sailor Moon" or that Sailor Pluto "will sleep forever in the Crystal Palace" the cuteness and sweetness of the emotions in this act carries it.
17: Act 32: Like the Death Phantom fight in Act 26, The Cyprine fight in Act 32 is a bit weak, that said the emotions of this arc carry it being just as strong in potency and even more complex and atmospheric. This act reveals the true nature of Hotaru, her body destroyed and replaced with lifeless machinery, she represents the duality of this arc's themes: how it's vital to look at the soul of a person rather than just their body. The scene with the Outer Senshi appearing before her questioning internally whether they can kill her and Hotaru demanding they don't give her such pity is such an effecting scene and her anguish that Chibiusa-chan may not want to be her friend anymore is heartbreaking. The scene also resolves the biggest conflict of the first half of the arc as Usagi finally understands the hearts of the Outer Senshi to the point that even when they are forced to fight, Usagi is able to still trust that this is not their hearts, that the physical condition isn't reflected in their emotional unity, her faith rewarded with the first transformation into Super Sailor Moon, a power born of the unity of the Senshi' hearts. This act reflects this with the Guardian Senshi being able to match the seemingly unmatchable Outer Senshi, the gap between their two groups closing. The act is one of the deepest in possibly the deepest arc.
16: Act 33: I tried to pick out iconic images from each act but I really struggled to pick from Act 33 because there's so many; the first appearance of Super Sailor Moon, Mistress 9 revealing herself to the Sailor Senshi, the entire backstory of Saturn but this image captures what's great about this act, in that it takes the thematic and emotional conflict of this arc and externalizes it at the same time as it takes the idea to the extreme. The Outer Senshi cut themselves off from their idealistic hearts. Despite being here near the Princess they always admired, they are still spiritually in those isolated zones at the edge of the Solar System, trying to bear all the responsibilities of the world no matter how it crushes them. The Senshi and their youthful idealism at first seem completely out matched by the mature Outer Senshi but it is the nature of the young to grow and not only do the Guardians match the Outers last act but this act the most innocent and idealistic and youthful of their number, Chibi-Moon manages to beat Sailor Uranus, vaunted for her speed, to reaching Hotaru propelled purely by her innocent love. This act is full of amazing atmosphere and beautifully expresses the themes of this act wrapped up in the most complex plot difficulty in the series history, the ideological conflict between the Inner and Outer Senshi. This act also the concepts of Super Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn, both extremely important concepts in the franchise history with the latter being just the coolest character in the entire series.
15: Act 25: Act 25 manages to capture both the soft tragedy of losing a loved ones before you can show them the accomplishment you have striven mixed with a cosmic science-fantasy ghost story of a living black hole propelled by the hate of a ghost that fell in centuries ago. Most series can't balance these two appeals but that's Sailor Moon and one of its best appeals to me that this cosmic fantastical can intertwine with the deeply personal and emotional. Sailor Pluto's death and her final address leading to Chibiusa finally blossoming into true maturity and awakening as Sailor Chibi-Moon is beautiful and heartwrenching, especially when Chibi-Moon sadly asks Pluto to open her eyes to see Chibiusa finally did it. The battle with Death Phantom also reaches its peak this act as he begins to rip holes in spacetime itself, showing them the true form of his hatred.
14: Act 10: Act 10 is a DENSE act. This act is only 45 pages and contains a lot of iconic and heartwarming moments. This act has Queen Serenity explaining the Fall of the Moon Kingdom, one of the most iconic sequences in the entire series. It has plenty of cosmic imagery with the Senshi looking at the Earth from space as well, a personal favorite type of imagery, and the Senshi and Kunzite battling as they fly into space. I absolutely adore the parallel where Ikuko and Kenji talk about their parental affection for Usagi where Kenji talks about Usagi seeming different and more mature while Ikuko says that no matter how old she gets Usagi will always be their little girl, paralleled with Queen Serenity expressing her maternal love for Princess Serenity, telling her that she was reborn to be a normal girl not to be a soldier of justice and it's from her normal emotions that her true strength resides. It's absolutely adorable, emotionally touching, and ties so well into the themes of Usagi's identity trouble during the first arc as well as the ennobeling power of love and the veneration of traditionally feminine imagery. The act also has amusing parts like Kenji's anger at the idea of Usagi having a boyfriend or Makoto commenting Usagi really is a "rabbit of the moon" when they're on the moon as well as cool lore bits everywhere such as Queen Serenity alluding to parts of the Moon Kingdom like the domed cities of the Moon or referring to the Sun as "their Father the Sun." and that she is known on Earth as the goddess Selene.
13: Act 52: Act 52 has three great sections that combine to make something truly special. I mentioned Act 40 has the best analysis of a single Guardian Senshi but Act 52 has the best relationship between two Senshi in the interactions between Rei and Minako, the two having an amazing relationship, ambiguously sapphic in nature and definitely ahead of its time in depicting strong women of opposite personality types both flawed in nature but absolute in their faith in each other joined in devotion to the cause of their princess. I love Rei and Minako's interactions this act acting both as comedic relief for the early Stars Arc and also saying so much about the two as people and their interactions. And that's only a third of Act 52. This act also has the first conversation Galaxia has with another character which sheds the first light on the Golden Queen's personality that will form the thematic heart of the Stars Arc as she expresses her confusion why the Sol Senshi cling to their human identities and has Usagi begin to come to terms with the reality Galaxia represents and with Mamoru's death, Usagi's character progression for the first half of the Stars Arc.
12: Act 54: Act 54 is the scene where we learn the Galactic situation just as we learn the emotional situation, as the themes that have been boiling under all arc long finally come to the surface as Seiya realizes Usagi has always been facing in her own way the reality Galaxia speaks of when she asks if Usagi has always had such heavy wings of love, this arc begins to break down our heroine, taking her greatest strength (her love) and presenting the pain it does bring Usagi, the two expressly commenting on the themes of temporality with Usagi's wish that their bodies would last forever too. This act and the subsequent one are two that if you are paying attention tells you where the arc is going, that Galaxia wishes to live only inplace the perfect eternities while Usagi lives in the world of the transient particulars and that this fundamental difference in their focus will inform the central dichotomy of the arc. This act gives a different perspective on the entire story to this point, expressing what the Silver Crystal is and its placec in the universe, the purpose and nature of what Sailor Senshi are, and expressing how Usagi's love can be used against her by one such as Galaxia. And talk about a cliffhanger with Galaxia suddenly engaging Usagi herself!
11: Act 8: Zoisite's chapters is what caused the series to begin to fell Sailor Moon, but Act 8 with the introduction of Kunzite with the coming of beginning of the second half of the Dark Kingdom Arc and end of Early Sailor Moon transitions the series into Sailor Moon proper. Kunzite with his theatrical overpowered directness marks the transition from the series from urban fantasy to cosmic science-fantasy with cosmic horror elements. Linked to this is Usagi's characterization going from a flawed everygirl with some heroic redeeming elements to a true heroine this act as she takes an attack from Kunzite, proactively kisses the man she loves before going off to battle again, taking charge against Kunzite and saving the others from him, demonstrating her true growth in character from the crybaby of Act 1. This act has so many amazing parks from Kenji refusing to believe Usagi is Sailor Moon even when she tells him to Mamoru's expression of what he loves from Usagi, that she, like the Moon, always shows a new side of her from a silly crybaby to a sweet and funny girl to a brave Champion of Justice. This is an expression not just of why he loves her but of her appeal as a character and the beauty of people being able to change and show a different side of them in different situations, subtly a key to climax of the arc. This act also introduces Minako and fittingly for Minako it's over the top and goofy while also being cool, revealing she was training them from the Sailor V game the entire time. The act also ends with possibly the main famous cliffhanger in the series where Tuxedo Kamen takes a lethal blow for Sailor Moon.
10: Act 55: This act is the resolution to the two overarching plotlines of the first half of Stars, connecting them such as to prepare for the second half of the arc. The first four arcs of the series treat Usagi's locality as the most precious of things, the target of the villains goal to achieve and the Senshi acting to protect it. But here Galaxia destroys it immediately as the act starts, preparing to destroy the world without even trying and mocking the notion that the Earth would be the thing they're fighting over, thematically expressing how this act is about the universal, not just the particulars of Usagi's world, and that contrast will be the thematic resolution of the arc. This act resolves both Usagi's will to fight even without her loved ones, her ability to face the absolute represented in Galaxia solidifying mixed with coming to understand Galaxia herself in the form of the first bit of backstory of Galaxia and learning her backstory. These two plotlines converge with the dramatic ending where Eternal Sailor Moon despite having lost all her friends demands to go to Galaxy Cauldron to face Galaxia herself while Galaxia watches from afar and asks her to come, ready to face Eternal Sailor Moon, one of the most hype pages in the entire series. This acts as both to uphold and subvert the narrative and its values to this point represented in the characters of Usagi and Galaxia respectively. For the first half of Stars Galaxia feels like an absolute irresistible force, though this absolute-ness is resisted briefly this act by Chibi-Chibi. With the solidification of Usagi's will to fight Galaxia, she too feels unstoppable with the narrative weight of being the main character, having the series values and powers of love and the Silver Crystal supporting her, leading to excitement for the inevitable clash of the unstoppable force and the immovable object. This act is so good because it juxtaposes my two favorite characters in the entire series, Usagi and Galaxia, preparing both for their inevitable final battle.
Tier 10: Acts I would rate 10/10:
These are the acts I would consider legendary and major events in fiction that I think back to her and felt influenced me as a person. It's extraordinarily rare for any series, even ones I love, to reach this zenith. Few series even have one, and having more than three or four is unheard off. Sailor Moon has nine, an insanely high number only really rivaled by something like, again, DC Comics, but DC Comics is once again a megafranchise with uncountably more content than Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon reaches legendary status nine times out of sixty, an inconceivable status for me that really shows why it is my favorite series.
9: Act 44: I mentioned that I don't think the third and fourth arcs don't reach quite as high as the other arcs, but the fourth arc's best is still legendarily good. Act 44 is one of the deepest acts in the series and is the Dream Arc's themes at their most potent and paradoxically both their most otherworldly and most relatable as Hotaru's second awakening expresses the duality that our material dreams can make many selves within us, divide against each other while our spiritual dreams can unite us, make one from many people bringing us together. This act includes lots of otherworldly imagery and classical references, some of the best in the series which I'm a sucker for and has so many absolutely amazing pages and lines especially as Hotaru expresses to the Outer Senshi that through their rebirth they live not for their ancient duties but for the overarching force that was the cause of those duties, their love and loyalty to their princess who gave them their chance at new life, a blatant messianic theme that fits so well and is such a fantastic resolution to the Outer Senshis' conflict from back in the Third Arc. This act is one of the legendary arc because half the pages are like the best of most acts prior, the sheer amount of incredible beautiful imagery and themes as it imparts beautiful psychological truths along with incredibly resonant symbolism and imagery.
8: Act 36: And of course right alongside the best of the Dream Arc is the best of the Infinity Arc. Act 36 could be subtitled "why Hotaru Tomoe is an AWESOME character!" This act is the culmination of Hotaru's development all arc long. She was physically and spiritually dead, her body a lifeless machine taken over by an otherworldly daimon and wondering she was even alive until she met Chibiusa and the simple friendship with an innocent loving girl her invigorated her spirit and gave her the power to save the Guardian Senshis souls and single-handedly hold back Mistress 9. It is the pinnacle of the Third Arc's Themes, of the power for childish idealism to allow you to grow past what you thought you were, of the importance of the spirit to supercede the physical, the potential for rebirth after death and arguably even LGBT expression depending on your interpretation as Hotaru's spirit and love are brought to life by her desire to protect Chibiusa. Her final conversation with Chibiusa is as heartbreakingly sad as it is adorably wholesome and the lines from Chibiusa and Mamoru after Hotaru disappear are incredibly profound and humorous respectively. This act also finally explains Pharaoh 90 being an alien World-Soul an absoltuely amazing concept taking an esoteric idea in philosophy and making a cosmic horror sci-fi take on it as this alien world-soul tries to inject itself into the Earth, also being a wonderful expression of the arc's themes as the Daimon seek life without living, survival in any form, sacrificing the eternal soul for the physical expression of bodies in the main universe. I obviously love both Acts 44 and Act 36 but I think the final bit of Act 36 where Chibi-Moon turns into Super Chibi-Moon, fanservice-y though it might be, is a better ending than the non-resolution to Minako's storyline at the end of Act 44.
7: Act 9: Act 9 is absolutely fantastic and I love it in every way. It's also an incredibly iconic act. This is the act where Usagi finally awakens her memories as Princess Serenity and gets the Silver Crystal, the central plot element of the entire series. Princess Serenity's description of Earth and its Prince break my heart everytime so instantly compelling are they, yet so deep that I have difficulty expressing all that I must about it. The Earth from space is a blue world so deep in color that is seems to swallow the gazer, a beautiful planet where wind blows and trees sway, a world of infinite hope and possibility. Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity's love is forbidden yet despite this, or perhaps because of it, the pure inevitability of it is so papable as their opposite forces draw closer of the illusory, otherworldly, ethereal and outside time comes into contact with the world of life and movement and adventure and possibility, the stuff of reality. The act comments on the nature of the genre it's in, breaking it down and expanding it as the wish fulfillment and coming of age story elements are recast in tragic colors, as Usagi comments in horror as her hair grows longer that she becomes the tragic princess, as the painful reality of being that princess reaches Usagi. In act 4 Usagi wished to be a pretty princess thoughtlessly, but here she is becoming that princess and it's a mournful experience as her identity begins to fragment around her. I love the supportive way the other Senshi act this chapter, the way Luna takes responsibility for this seemingly inevitable acts and is comforted by Artemis, showing a level of supportiveness and emotional maturity as a group that is so uncommon to see in fiction. And I love the messianic theme of Princess Serenity's power restoring the world to life yet triggered by her tears, one of the clearest expressions of Takeuchi-Sensei taking a feminine stereotype and not just making it a marker of power, but taking one of the most derided things about women, being tearful, and making it the symbol of the ultimate power, the savior of all. This act is more consistent and iconic to me than even Act 36.
6: Act 22: I don't love Act 22 in as many ways as Act 9, but I think its message is even more powerful and hits me even harder. The themes of the Second Arc are responsibility and maturity, with the Black Moon Clan regularly putting the blame for things on others and the Heroes, namely Usagi and Chibiusa, taking more blame on themselves and warreneted. This is the act where Usagi has an emotional breakthrough and tells Demande outright that the evils others do to her are not the fault of her or the Silver Crystal, that they stand for peace, love and tranquility. This is a message that meant a lot to me. If you're any kind of decent people, when bad things happen around you, some part of you always wonders if you could have done more to stop it, if you should have been better. And the most twisted of hearts in this world seek to turn that impulse against you, to hurt you and make you apologize to them for it. But Demande trying to do that to Usagi is what lights the fire in her eyes, lets her channel the spirit of the woman she will become, a symbol of what Demande can not overcome. Enslavement, Rape, and Murder are the tools of the Tyrant, petty or otherwise, but though he may hurt our bodies, he can never control the invincible spirit of humanity, whose burning justice will haunt and convict him. It's a powerful message I feel in this act. Even beyond that this act has the incredible complexities of Saphir who is probably the series most complex villain, Tuxedo Kamen running after Chibiusa in the spacetime storm, and the Lovecraftian element of Saphir saying he feels the planet's intent turning against them which is some really good cosmic horror foreshadowing. Yet somehow this is not the Black Moon Clan's best...
5: Act 24: Act 24 is a bit more flawed than Acts 9 or 22, and is more along the lines of Acts 44 or 36 there, but I love Act 24 for the sheer number of ways it's amazing as well the way it just feels so quintessentially Sailor Moon in a way no other acts from the middle arcs do. Of course the real highlight of the act is one of the big highlights of the entire series, Diana the kitten offering to take Sailor Pluto's place temporarily as guardian of the spacetime door so Sailor Pluto so she can go help the others. Its an act that is wholesome and heartwarming and adorable and badass and perfectly ties into the themes. The smallest and humblest of the entire cast took on ultimate responsibility and in doing so saved the entire cosmos through pure eagerness. The action on her part resolves Sailor Pluto's dilemma, her need to follow her duty and her longing to fight alongside her princess. The villains are absolutely perfect this arc with Demande, Black Lady, and Wiseman all having strong presences and fighting each other, a rarity in Sailor Moon but super cool. Demande in his extremely petty breed of human evil actually somewhat thwarts Wiseman's cosmic evil as he didn't prepare for the possibility of someone being willing to destroy everything in an act of pure pettiness. We get Death Phantom's backstory this act and it's absolutely wonderfully, an ancient ghost story taken to a cosmic sci-fi extreme, the perfect expression of Sailor Moon's mix of appeals and worldviews, as the human villain Phantom fell into a black hole and his lingering spirit of hatred animated and fused with that black hole, creating the Death Phantom, a mixture of ghost story lore of inanimate objects taking on the spirit of vengeful spirits mixed with the science of some of the most extreme objects in the universe with all things being trapped inside black holes. However the emotional core of the act is definitely the relation between Usagi and Chibiusa, Sailor Moon and Black Lady. Usagi shows her development from the arc as she has risen to maturity, willing to take full responsibility for Chibiusa, willing to exchange her life for Chibiusa's. Meanwhile Black Lady is the archetypal teenage rebellion to its extreme, Chibiusa creating a false maturity, trying to be a false version of the Mother Chibiusa aspired to be and felt she never could be. Their interplay is a contrast between false maturity and true maturity as the two try to understand each other and reach each other. The act does have some logical problems mostly coming from time travel tending to cause plot holes and it does have the repetitiveness of Dark Endymion, though the former is somewhat inevitable in any time travel story and the latter comes from an earlier act and isn't really this act's fault perse.
4: Act 14: Act 14 is an act that makes me feel so happy everytime I read it. This is the act Usagi and Mamoru are finally reconciled after literal lifetimes the law of gods and the will of demons trying to keep them apart and I love the way Takeuchi-Sensei expresses it through the themes of the arc showing the spirit of all their identities changing around them yet united in their loving embrace as the love they have for each other is what unifies who they are across lifetimes. Their lines are sweet and wholesome and tug at the heartsrings and the romance that felt somehow both doomed and inevitable is finally culminated in them being together. I love Sailor Moon's defeat of Metaria. Sailor Moon beat Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90 and Chaos in one burst of energy, sometimes with help, and Pharaoh 90 was beaten by an external force, but Metaria is the one time where Metaria actually withstands the power of the Silver Crystal and Sailor Moon has to redouble her willpower, solidify her resolve and push herself to such a brink that she breaks her transformation brooch and falls unconscious from the strain. Of the final battles it's the most physically intense. Sailor Moon's recreation of the Moon Kingdom from the power of her battle with Metaria is such an amazing metaphor for the way that our eventual triumph at something recontextualizes our past mistakes and tragedies justifying them and I love the way Sailor Moon tells Luna that she can't be distant queen of the Moon because even though she is Princess Serenity of the Moon she is also Usagi Tsukino of the Earth, a declaration blessed by Queen Serenity. It's a perfect expression of Usagi's growth this act as she confidently expresses her identities and her desire to voyage into territory new is blessed by the older generations is so amazing symbolically. Usagi reuniting with her friends is an amazing scene as all the Guardian Senshi openly weep with joy and the act has an absolutely hilarious end as Chibiusa drops in out of nowhere and threatens Usagi with a gun for the Silver Crystal. Act 14 never fails to make me feel happy in a multitude of ways.
3: Act 60: The final act of Sailor Moon is comprised of four parts all of which I love. The middle two are great and they're the weaker two. Sailor Cosmos finalizes the messages of the arc, expressing beautifully that Usagi's power, the power that can overcome Conceptual Chaos is one available to people if they have the courage. Usagi finally reuniting with her friends for good echoes the joy of Usagi finally being together with Mamoru in Act 14 and she completes the coming of age story as she reaches the same place Queen Serenity did. But the best parts are the beginning and the end, where Usagi defeats Chaos the ultimate enemy purely through her love, and the marriage of Usagi and Mamoru as Earth and Heaven come together, as the temporal and eternal are culminated in union, the themes and the literal plot of the arc intermingling wonderfully. This act wonderfully capstones the entire series with the most enduring plot elements of Usagi and Mamoru's love, the Silver Crystal, and Usagi's development into a hero all reaching their final perfected state with Usagi becoming an eternal hero through her love, the Silver Crystal's history and purpose are finally revealed and Mamoru and Usagi are joined together forever in marriage, mirroring the unity Usagi has represented all arc. It also capstones the arc with Sailor Cosmos expressing Usagi's power as the love that allows one to take it all in and throw it all away, the path of love the arc has been showing is meaning for the Nihilist like Sailor Cosmos and peace for the Gnostic like Galaxia, Usagi expressing she wants to go on living in this world with her friends rather than start a new history of the stars, and Mamoru's final words expressing that while they are all the temporal elements of the world Usagi's love is that eternal existence that will shine forever.
2: Act 13: Act 13 has one of the most emotionally impacting moments for me in all of fiction, a moment that has hit me extremely hard everytime I read it, powerful enough to feel like a universal symbol yet so personal that it feels like it was written for me. It is one of the three best scenes in fiction for me and it moves to my core. This scene is the one shown above where Usagi expresses that she is both Princess Serenity AND Sailor Moon. The first arc Usagi's struggle is one of identity, she wants to be the heroine of justice, Sailor Moon, to be strong for the people she loves. But she fears that she is losing herself to her identity as Princess Serenity, her tragic past, afraid that she will always be what she was. This is so painfully understandable to me, the feeling that you will always be the person you were, that you are destined to become what you have been. But love is a force that can break eternities and Sailor Moon declares that she is that same tragic princess but she is also the hero of justice because love can make anyone into a hero, because we are at the same time all our identities. When Usagi looks into Mamoru's eyes she is at once that tragic princess and she is everyone's hero. Love is the transcedent power that renders us what we always were yet improves us little by little. This act also has plenty of other good things but nothing even close to this fantastic climax.
1: Act 59: Act 59 is a perfect act, there's not a single way I can think to improve and it is filled with some of the best moments in the entire series as well being consistently engaging, thought-proving and emotionally moving along with just cosmically awesome. I can't express all the amazing scenes here but Galaxia's insistence than Usagi understand that temporal things are just illusions and her frustration Usagi refuses to believe so, Galaxia killing Mamoru and telling Usagi to feel the pain of true solitude, Usagi saving Galaxia and expressing she saved her because she saw her lonely self in Galaxia, Usagi expressing that she never fought for peace and justice but only for her loved ones, Usagi expressing to Chibi-Chibi that the universe will always exist with light and dark dualities as she is drawn with wings again for the first time since they were broken signifying her regaining her love, Galaxia's death as she tries and fails to reach Sailor Moon's light expressing it as that light that is always out of her reach, the eternal heavenly body, Usagi expressing that we are all lonely stars that seek to gather together as one and Usagi jumping into the Cauldron and embracing Chaos are all among my favorite moments in the series and they are all from this act. This act is the culmination of Usagi and Galaxia's stories and takes the themes of the series to the greatest heights as it expresses the beauty of the path of love, a path that guides us along in this temporal and flawed universe, seeing the eternal and beautiful within it. Act 59 is an act that I want to live by, it's an act I think expresses sublime truths of the world we live in and I hope it's message can reach all.
Conclusion:
So why is Sailor Moon my favorite series? There are too many reasons for me to ever list, but to summarize: Sailor Moon is a fast paced but deep and emotional manga about feminine heroism and the ability of an everygirl to be the hero of the universe. Its themes are the themes that are most important in my life and it speaks to them with a great degree of sensibility and understanding. Its characters are emotionally mature in a way that so often is not allowed for cheap drama, yet still flawed and colorful engaging personalities. Its plots avoid the typical humdrum in favor of the great and cosmic; superhero stories with a cosmic horror feel without slowing down for mundane plots, yet somehow makes it feel more relatable than any story I've ever read. It's a series that venerates and exalts the metaphysical without denigrating the material. It's a series that is dynamic, ahead of time, lights a way unto the future while respecting the traditions of the past and remaining reverent and full of gravitas. Sailor Moon is everything I knew I wanted in a series and some I didn't know I wanted, defying what I thought was possible. It's a narrative that connects to me in different ways at different times due to its seeming connections to every possible subject, reminding me of my past interests and encouraging me to grow into new ones to understand more of this series I love. Despite and because of this it is also timeless, connecting me to my past and future, and universal showing me the concerns of others and helping me express my concerns to others. Sailor Moon feels like the inside of my head and because of that represents the duality of myself and all other things, and thus the interplay as I wander through the universe of horrors and wonders encompassing all other things. That's why Sailor Moon is my favorite series.
Fantastic blog Imp. This puts a nice little bow on this entire blog series and feels like a good summarization of all of it.
ReplyDeleteThe general review segment felt like a good distillation of everything that was said previously in this blog series. Everything from the most important characters to the themes of the story were covered pretty well. And I think you did well explaining why this was such a revolutionary series for girls and a fantastic cosmic story in general. I would definitely direct someone to this blog if they wanted a general critical review of the series.
Even with your obvious love for the series, I thought you were pretty fair with your criticisms of the manga. I can definitely recognize the inefficiency of its use of characters sometimes, and I do agree I thought Dark Mamoru in the last arc could be a little stronger if he wasn’t brainwashed in the second arc. But ultimately, these things aren’t really a big deal to me either.
It is always interesting to me to see how someone personally relates to themes of a work of fiction they love and this is no exception. I appreciate your willingness to share why the series’ main themes of the ennobling power of love and the pain of isolation mean so much to you. As someone who is pretty introverted myself, I can relate to the struggle of communicating my inner world so it was really interesting to me to see this theme expressed in different ways throughout this entire manga. I can state with confidence that while Sailor Moon's target audience is primarily teenage girls, many of its themes are universal and can be enjoyed by anyone.
As far as the ranking goes, everything seems pretty logical in how it’s ranked and it was a good refresher to the things you said about all the Acts in previous blogs. I liked how you separated everything into Tiers as well so we know your general feelings about an Act. The ranking for the top 9 greatest chapters seems to be just about right, and really do capture the greatest moments that this series has to offer.
I can more easily see now why this series means so much to you, from its exaltation of the heroine’s journey to the beautiful symbolism of Usagi’s love embracing chaos. I can certainly call myself a solid fan of the series. I got a lot out of this entire blog series so I am glad I was able to read them all!
Well you did it, You wrote a Blog with a higher word count than an actual Sailor Moon manga Volume, just gushing about Sailor Moon :D hope you are satisfied with yourself. Honestly this was really cool Imp, Its hard to even comprehend how much this series clearly means to you in every single possible regard, and I really enjoyed your passion and eye for explaining the deeper symbolic meanings for things throughout all of your chapter reviews and this massive blog itself. I liked the neat way you divided up your subject matter for talking about this series going through the arcs the themes the characters and even doing a literal Top 60 list to hit the highlights of every single chapter in the main manga. This is probably the most comprehensive review of any series I have ever seen from anyone, and that IS saying something in that regard. I Don't honestly Know how much more I can add that wasnt something I said in 65 other lengthy comments I gave these. But I am sure you will NEVER fully say your piece on this series, And that to me seems to be an embrace of the eternal love messaged at the end of the stars arc
ReplyDelete