Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 19 Review

 

We begin the second third of the Black Moon Clan arc right where the last one left off. Chibiusa says she's from the future, but she didn't think they'd believe her and that she doesn't know exactly what happened.

The Senshi and allies promise to help Chibiusa and asks her to lead them to the future. I do have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of time travel stories. I feel like they usually lead to the same few types of plots and are also just a magnet for plot holes. All the biggest plot holes in Sailor Moon are caused by time travel. I also don't think it was necessarily a good idea to have the time travel arc in the second arc of five, since that means in every future arc we know that the Senshi have to eventually win, though for the type of story Sailor Moon is, it's not that big a deal since we know the villains aren't going to destroy the universe regardless. Also Naoko didn't know that it was going to extend past the second arc when she decided it was gonna be time travel.

Chibiusa doesn't want to go back because she's scared but Mamoru once again comforts her in a paternal way

Usagi's shocked expression at Chibiusa wanting to go to Mamoru's is pretty funny I think.

At Mamoru's house, Chibiusa is adorably wearing Mamoru's PJs which are massive on her as he tucks her in and gives her some encouragement. Usagi is watching and asks if she can stay too, noting Minako has already taken Luna and Artemis to her place...with the implication being the two of them are alone...

Usagi mentions to Mamoru his birthday is coming up and asks what she should get him which leads into Usagi admitting her insecurities, how it seems Mamoru pays more attention to Chibiusa than her. Usagi admits that she knows it's silly to be jealous of a child like that and apologizes. I really like it, how Usagi is a young girl in what seems to be her first relationship and is dealing with a fairly relatable problem while also recognizing her own fault. 

Usagi turns and comments she shouldn't even be thinking about then when Rei, Ami, and Makoto have been kidnapped and for a second it looks like she'll disappear. A really interesting little bit that I think is supposed to symbolically show how Usagi has always been somewhat ethereal and mysterious to Mamoru and maybe even herself, the Lunar element. Mamoru holds her, commenting on how for a moment it'd look like she'd disappear. The two then pledge their love for each other and get close...

I think the implication is pretty clear and I couldn't be happier for it.

In series aimed at teenagers, especially for the time it felt like there was two ways sex was approached. It was sensationalistic and cool and edgy. It was what made girls cool. Or it was what bad girls did. It's what made them impure. Some of that dichotomy is present still today. But Sailor Moon presents sexuality better than any manga for teenagers I've ever seen. Usagi and Mamoru's love here is not impure, Usagi remains the pure-hearted embodiment of love after this. It's not sensationalistic to the point many people miss the implication. It's a pure and beautiful embodiment of their love, appearing at a natural point in their relationship as Mamoru comforts Usagi from her relationship insecurity. In the manga Usagi and Mamoru can't keep their hands off each, they're constantly depicted touching each other lovingly. They're constantly supportive of each other and each others dreams. They compliment each other in ways that are so symbolically archetype yet also feel so personal.  I love their relationship, it's my favorite in fiction and I get so happy everytime I read this part again.

Meanwhile at Minako's house, Minako comments they didn't get to sleep all day likes cats normally do so tells them to get a good night's sleep and as if to accentuate the prior scene, Luna snuggles up to Artemis.

However Luna dreams, and as she dreams she sees a memory of being talked too by Queen Serenity who gives her a bunch of exposition about not going to a door she's looking at because it's a door to the future. That it's a forbidden sacred ground guarded by a solitary Senshi. 

In contrast to the prior part, this part is not done as well. It's just a bunch of exposition for something we're going to see not just this chapter but literally in several pages. It's technically foreshadowing but it's foreshadowing that makes it seem like Naoko was writing this manga chapter by chapter. I also don't even really know what's going on in the chapter. This has to be taking place on the Moon right, if Queen Serenity's there. But then why is the space-time door, why is Luna going up to the space-time door for Queen Serenity to stop her. It's only a page, and it's cool to see Queen Serenity, but I have so many questions. 

The next day they're getting ready to go to the future and Usagi comes out of Mamoru's apartment wearing the dress she wore yesterday....but not the undershirt...and with Mamoru's shirt on over it......

....I think we know what that means ;)

Chibiusa takes out the key from around her neck calling it the "Time Key" flashing back to a mysterious figure we'll learn later in this act is Sailor Pluto gave her but told her only to use if necessary as time travel is strictly forbidden. I do like the repetition of the idea that time travel is a forbidden thing. Chibiusa wonders if she should even bring them through time before telling the others they need to hold onto her hands and not let go no matter what. I'm sure that they will follow these instructions to the letter and will absolutely definitely not let go. 

Chibiusa uses an invocation to the God of Time, Chronos to show them the road of light through time. I tthink this is really cool imagery and while how time travel might be possible, if it at all, is unknown I do think the strange properties of light may relate to it as from the perspective of a photon, and this is a real mind-bender, there is an infinite time dilation, there is no separation in time, just the single eternal moment of being emitted and re-absorbed. At least to my understanding.

Of course the characters are grip is broken by the powerful current of light and they get separated

It cuts back to the Black Moon Clan where Saphir is observing that not just the rabbit, but SEVERAL energies are being transmitted across time. Wiseman tells Demande that the time has come to destroy the castle with Demande surprisingly asking if that's even possible. 

Esmeraude, in a surprising display given her love for the prince, says she will present the castle's "sleeping beauty", the object of Demande's desires, to him. Rubeus questions if she can even do that and Esmeraude summons her agents, the Boule Brothers Chiral and Achiral, sending them on the mission. Chirality is a property demonstrating asymmetry, when an object can be distinguished from its mirror image, which makes sense as Chiral and Achiral are mostly identical and create mirror images as part of their attack. 

It cuts back to Usagi, Minako, Mamoru and Luna who are trapped somewhere vague. Luna, master of time she apparently is, says they're in some kind of time purgatory between moments where they could wander forever. It seems like they're about to be eaten by a Black Hole before the Silver Crystal shines and brings them to the spacetime door regardless. The entire thing is two pages, making it feel like a kind of random interlude. You'd think it was setting up for later but...not really, no. At the time door they're stopped by the woman in Chibiusa's memories and the solitary guardian Queen Serenity told Luna about

Sailor Pluto, the Keeper of the Time Door, Guardian of the Underworld, and the first Outer Senshi. Sailor Pluto is a really cool character, one of my favorites in the series. She's the major Lawful Good of the Sailor Moon universe, a figure of rightful order and laws. As soon as this act came out there was mass speculation as to who or what Sailor Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were. 

Sailor Pluto blasts Sailor Moon and it's clear she's way stronger than them. She says that no one may break the sacred laws and prepares to destroy them. Knowing everything it's a bit weird given Pluto's devotion thinking she might just kill Sailor Moon, though she may think it's someone disguised as her. The fight is stopped when Chibiusa runs out and hugs Sailor Pluto telling her she brought them there.

Pluto asks Chibiusa where she has been like a concerned mother. Chibiusa says she went to get the Silver Crystal from the past of the legendary Sailor Senshi, Sailor Moon, since it's stronger than her Silver Crystal but Sailor Pluto tells her that the Silver Crystal's power is the same in every era, and that Chibiusa can't use either of them anyway. It's part of the symbolism of this arc, the passage of title and power from parent to child. Chibiusa has the same power as Usagi does, the Silver Crystal but assumed Usagi's is stronger because of her own insecure comparisons to her mother yet the power in the form of the title of Sailor Moon is passed down and the same no matter the era.

Sailor Pluto speaks to Chibiusa telling Chibiusa that she broke her promise, stole a time key, and ran away to the past. Chibiusa braces for Pluto to be mad about her but Pluto just hugs her concerned doing the maternal thing "I'm just glad you're okay, don't make me worry about you like that."

It's really, really sweet. I love Pluto and Chibiusa's dynamic. 

Pluto then lets slip that Chibiusa is a princess and she says that because the others are commoners they should be treating her with respect. Usagi, annoyed at the antics, asks to see her parents and mentions that Usagi's a princess too. Pluto allows them to go through the Time Door, though says she can't go through because she was placed her long ago to guard the door. 

Usagi and company go through to the 30th Century where they find things have definitely changed. Tokyo is now a city of crystal, called Crystal Tokyo and the Moon hangs very close on the horizon. However as they get closer it gets more chilling. The city is eerily quiet and when they get close enough to see through the fog, they find the buildings destroyed and the people...

aren't doing well. The saddest part to me is Chibiusa's gaze. Her eyes turn glassy and blank, showing how familiar this horrid scene is to her already.

They see a black monument in the distance that seems to be emanating the fog. Chibiusa holds close to Mamoru, who hears a voice warning him to stay away from it. Chibiusa explains what happened from her perspective. There was an explosion, leveling the buildings. Then the entire city was engulfed by a fog that killed everyone there, and causing their bodies to gradually fade away entirely. In case it's not clear enough yet, the Black Moon Clan used strategic bombings of civilian centers and usage of biological weapons in their attack on Crystal Tokyo. They aren't misunderstood good guys. I do like that Naoko is willing to use such serious elements in her story. It gives it a feeling of honesty, that the bad guys are willing to use tactics that are not pretty to look at, though I understand it still might read as artificial to some since the named characters rarely ever take any kind of "ugly" attack.

They head to the Crystal Palace where Chibiusa's mom is only to be tricked into a mirror copy of the Crystal Palace made by Chiral-Achiral. They use magnetism somehow to keep the characters from moving or using their powers. F-ing magnets, how do they work?

Esmeraude shows up and while she does get credit for somewhat masterminding this plan that would have killed Sailor Moon and company without outside hope, she also loses some points for floating around gloating a bit like the vain attention-hungry girl she is giving them time to escape.

She and Chibiusa bicker a bit, with Chibiusa saying it's impossible for anyone to destroy the Crystal Palace, a pretty sweet statement given she's essentially saying nothing is stronger than her mother's power. The voice from earlier tells Mamoru that there are imitation crystals holding them in that they can break, and the team breaks through with Sailor Venus and Tuxedo Kamen teaming up and destroying Chiral and Achiral. 

The team reaches the shining Crystal Palace. It at first seems to have no entrance but spontaneously makes one for Chibiusa the princess in a really cool little display. Luna has a little moment of recognition.

They enter into the throne room finding the Queen there encased in crystal and it shows the woman that was in Demande's hologram earlier, an older Sailor Moon. This is something I really like about Sailor Moon and once again like in Act 10, it only shows up a little bit, but it's more than most series allow which is the main characters are allowed to actually change the world for the better rather than just preventing the bad guys from making it worse. Usagi actually becomes the queen of the world and it's not presented like some kind of weird dictatorship like it's presented when various other superheroes, especially super-good ones gain control of everything. I like the fact that Usagi becomes queen of the world because that honestly that makes the most sense and I'll get more into that when her rule is described later.

But enough of that, now it's time for the most important character in the entire series to make her appearance.

DIANA THE KITTEN! She's the most adorable character I've ever seen. She's this little kitten that wants to be a hero and accompanies Chibiusa. I like how Naoko introduces her at the VERY end of the chapter and doesn't have her say anything so as to keep her parentage a "mystery" until next chapter. Macabre as it is to imagine, it is kinda weird how Diana is alive, as Chibiusa mentions. I guess being in the palace protected her or something? 

Diana scampers off and reveals an older Mamoru, dressed in regal attire, ending the chapter.

The Crystal Tokyo sub-arc of the Black Moon Clan Arc, is really good to the point I might like it more than the final sub-arc of the Black Moon Clan Arc. Act 19 is a great act. Giving it an energy it hasn't had since Act 13. It's an act I think truly of contrasts. It has some absolutely adorable and sweet things like the development of Usagi and Mamoru's romance into physical intimacy, Sailor Pluto's forgiveness of and protectiveness of Chibiusa, and Chibiusa's reunion with Diana. It also has some of the most bleak imagery in the manga with the silent destroyed city of Crystal Tokyo. In some series this would come across as incredibly tonally breaking, making the sweet scenes seem in poor taste and the bleak scene seem unintentionally comical. But the advantage of having such a fast pace is that you can include little sections like that with entirely different feels in the same chapter without it feeling like the two exist in the same emotional "space." Because of the chapter can feel like it runs a gamut of emotions without lessening them arguably intensifying them through contrast.

These are interspersed with interesting science-fantasy ideas, like the Primordial God Chronos opening a pathway of light through time through eternities between moments, magnetic control of atoms, doors just appearing on a palace at the will of the princess alongside the most notable ones; the first appearance of the Outer Senshi with Sailor Pluto and the future world of Crystal Tokyo. I love how this act introduces so many cool concepts. I will say I'm not big into time travel in general, and Naoko's not the best at actually explaining her ideas. Her exposition is often either awkwardly added in right before the actual time it's needed like Luna's dream of the Time Door, or it's just not there. Having no exposition, letting the idea speak for itself CAN work like the Door to the Crystal Palace. Specifically it works when it's just increasing the atmosphere. 

Where it can cause a problem is the mechanics of how somethings works is needed for the drama of the scene. The whole Chiral-Achiral fight is like most SM fights, very short, and because it's steeped in exposition that somehow doesn't at all explain what happens, it feels like a pretty pointless diversion. I personally think it would have been better if it was just Esmeraude attacking them and she used a more straightfoward type of attack as opposed to the whole complexity with the Boule Brothers. If she wanted it to be more science-fiction-y to fit the future feel, she could have done something with a more general well-known type of science. For instance, just off the top of my head, Esmeraude uses her magic to make some kind of large magnet that keeps the Senshi from moving by pining them their metallic weapons and transformation items. Mamoru, not having metal on him, is trying to avoid her attacks while protecting the cats when King Endymion tells him where the weak point on the magnet is to free the Senshi who flees at their combined force. I feel like that would have been a better quick sci-fi fight here.

However that's, relatively speaking, a very small part of the act. I obviously adore Sailor Moon's depiction of a healthy relationship extending into physical intimacy and depiction of sexuality, I adore the introduction of Sailor Pluto and the way she is very loving and caring towards Chibiusa. I enjoy greatly the depiction of Crystal Tokyo, especially the inclusion of little Diana, and the heavy atmosphere throughout. And those are really the three things I the act is most trying to impress on the reader.

Ten Characters with low stats and weirdly strong abilities

I was thinking the other day about characters in series that are clearly not fighters, they're not meant to be physical threats yet if you took them out of their verse and put them in our universe, or any universe with stats closer to theirs they would just be insanely strong due to having broken abilities or just weirdly strong abilities. These are characters that don't scale to any of the good feats of their verse, don't even scale to the minor feats of their verse....physically they seem to come from some other setting, yet have abilities that would break most settings of that level.

These aren't in any particular order. I hope you find it interesting regardless. Spoiler Alert for any series on here.

King: King is the Magical Girl familiar of Luz, a tiny power-hungry demon that seeks to be "king" of the world, though is thwarted by his own tiny fluffy adorable nature. It is eventually revealed that King is indeed of special descent giving him special powers.

How strong is he: King regularly struggles with very low level physical tasks including climbing a playground slide and has numerous times been knocked over by toddlers.

Abilities: Even just physically, King's claws have proven strong enough to hurt relevant physical threats to the main cast at times, and he can at the very least dodge magic attacks from characters that are themselves lightning-timers. He's also developed an enhanced tracking ability like a canine as well as a sonic attack that can cause small earthquakes and actually destroyed the finger of a Titan, Titans being the godlike entities whose power forms the basis of almost all magic in the Owl House and the decayed remains of one being an entire island chain. I started with King because his true capabilities are likely not known as he's only just began to tap into his legendary parentage and will likely become far stronger. 

Doctor Silverback: Doctor Silverback is a genetically modified superintelligent Gorilla that is the premier tech expert of the Champions Universe.

How strong is he: Doctor Silverback has never really been seen engaging in a physical fight. He might scale to beginning of game Champions just from being a Veteran Hero, Champions that can lift large bits of rubble and fight Qularr that can destroy walls, but most likely he's just an "ordinary" Silverback Gorilla physically. 

Abilities: Doctor Silverback is ridiculously intelligent and good at multi-tasking. He can speak through terminals to every player in the MMO Champions Online that needs instruction at once, presumably thousands of people at one time and is at least kind of relatively in technology intelligence to Mechanon the Robot Supervillain that wants to wipe out all organic life and is the best technopath in the series above the technology of the empire of Isvatha V'han, the Empress of a billion dimensions, a Type 5 civilization. When he does fight it's stated he uses the Gadgeteering powerset, and is presumably top tier at it, including robot armies that can fight FTL planetary, even possibly universal entities, orbital beams, toxic nanites, a resurrection serum, molecular manipulation, and an implosion engine and more. Though fortunately for the villains, he's just a mentor type figure in-game who gives instructions on objectives.

Kiki: This is Kiki as a child, rather than his later self as the Aries Gold Saint. He is training to be a Gold Saint under the Gold Saint Aries Mu, and is one of the people of the lost continent of Lemuria, both of which are potential sources for his psychic abilities.

How strong is he: Kiki may scale to the lowest tier of the verse if you think he scales to Pegasus Seiya while he was training. Otherwise he is strong enough to lift the Pegasus and Dragon clothes which Seiya previously described his cloth as seeming to weight "1,000,000 tons" if one's soul doesn't align with it, withstood a fall of several stories off a tower as Shiryu punched the center of it off, withstood strikes from Kraken Isaac, though likely not trying his hardest, and could react to the attacks of freaking Thanatos attacking from an inter-universal distance away in seconds. So whatever you wanna make of that. It's inconsistent to scale him to Gold Saint level abilities given a Silver Saint, Tarantula Aranche fodderized him, but without that there's no real scaling for him other then his own feats. 

Abilities: Kiki is a skilled psychic able to throw dozens of boulders to ward off Dragon Shiryu, and is skilled enough as a psychic that he was able to briefly distract Mermaid Thetis, one of the warriors of Poseidon equivalent to a Saint of Athena, equal to Ophiuchus Shaina. He can teleport and create psychic barriers, as well as sense attacks coming even across universes. Given he has some knowledge of cosmo he can likely effect the atomic structure of things as well and is a noted trickster. Overall I think he's supposed to demonstrate the abilities of someone with a strong usage of the Sixth Sense, the Mind, in Saint Seiya, inferior to the Seventh Sense, but relevant to Bronze Saint tier level entities. 

Mysterio: Mysterio is a Spider-Man villain who was a special effects worker that was so good at it, that it became akin to actual illusions. He has no actual powers, he's just really really good at special effects to the point he became part of the Sinister Six.

How strong is he: Well he's tough enough, possibly because of his body armor to survive falling several stories into a car, smashing it. After that you have to rely on scaling which can be kinda back and forth with Marvel. He was able to somewhat physically contend with Daredevil and Black Cat on separate instances, though how much you make of that is your prerogative. 

Abilities: Mysterio has a ridiculously broken arsenal of technologically-based abilities to the point that he was highly relevant in my match-up of the Sinister Six vs Carnage despite being the weakest person there by far. He has mind manipulation that works on Spider-Man, despite Spider-Man having city to country scale mental resistance. Teleportation technology. Paralysis gas. Technology that is basically just insanely strong illusions including making Spider-Man twice think he was six inches tall, Lightspeed rayguns that can threaten Spider-Man, robots that can fight Spider-Man equally, chemicals that can somehow jam Spider-Man's spider-sense despite that being his connection to a multiversal web, and one time got the Comic Cosmic that let him literally control the plot. If it wasn't for the fact that Mysterio is boastful and arrogant to the extreme or even if he was and he had decent stats for the Marvel universe, he'd be an insanely higher threat and it's kinda bizarre he's treated like some kind of joke villain.

Issun: Issun is the traveling companion of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu when she incarnates into the world as a wolf, and later becomes the Celestial Envoy spreading the word of her. He is a Wandering Artist who learns the Brush Techniques of Amaterasu.

How strong is he: He's a Poncle which means he's one-inch tall. He did survive a long fall but because he's so small this isn't actually a very impressive feat as he doesn't have enough mass to gathering much falling energy, similar to insects. For what it's worth he does use a sword, but it's relative to his size so it's more like a needle. He can also jump ridiculously high, high enough to jump on Ammy's nose from the ground which for his height is like jumping on top of a building.

Abilities: Issun learns the 13 brush techniques of Amaterasu alongside her and so can use presumably similar abilities including various form of element manipulation, bomb creation, surface scaling, restoration and slowing down time, although the scale is reduced to be similar to his size. Consider that if he was at human size then using these brush techniques he could likely beat most of the bosses of the game, threats to literally the entire world of Okami. This isn't exaggeration, he helped fight Blight, a tiny enemy, alongside Amaterasu when she was shrunken down the two doing relative damage to him suggesting if Issun was human-sized, he'd be Amaterasu tier. This is gameplay mechanics but he also gets the Thief's glove, which if properly leveled up, lets him hurt and even one-shot the minions of the game who are star to maybe galaxy level. 

Dojo: This isn't talking about Dojo's giant form, or his Eclipse Form, this is his normal tiny sized form. Dojo was the dragon assistant to Grandmaster Dashi who aids the monks in recovering his Shen Gong Wu.

How strong is he: Dojo tanked several times being knocked as a ball in a pinball machine game as part of his showdown with Wuya and basically tanked a rock his size falling on him from a rockslide. He also has this...in between-form where he gets his more draconic head features but is still small that broke out of an ice cage that Jack Spicer hurt his trying to break.

Abilities: Dojo is massively underrated skillwise both in and out of universe due to his cowardice. Not only has he hung around the Xiaolin Temple for 1500 years, but it's very clear he's learned skill from the time, in the very first episode correcting Omi on his strike being an 1/8th of an inch to the left, and leaping down on walking on his hands despite the fact that he could fly. He's shown that his transformation skill is strong enough to turn into a boat, and during the Eclipse but probably not caused by it he turned into a two-dimensional fluid type state that clung to the walls and turned invisible, likely via camouflage. He also much more notably HID IN THE BLACK BARS OF THE EPISODE HE WAS IN, where like no one would be able to hit him, especially in his own tier. His fire breath even in his small state can do mild damage to Jack Spicer, and when he drank hot sauce it was strong enough to overpower the Sapphire Dragon. The Sapphire Dragon is one of the most hyped Wu in terms of power stronger than the Lunar Locket that can throw the Moon around at relativistic speeds that mid-season 2 Omi was able to match, and was able to fight the Monks as of Season 3. His hot-sauce fire-breath is strong enough that it would dwarf the power of his Eclipse Self. 

Samuel "Slam" Bradley: Slam Bradley is a Golden Age Private Investigator from DC Comics, written by the same people as Superman, appearing in Detective Comics #1. 

How strong is he: He was strong enough that his punches were compared to cannonballs and feel like earthquakes and his weak sidekick Shorty cartoonishly jumped over a bullet. He's got a whole bunch of feats in that range in general. He also saved Robin (Dick Grayson) at one point in the early Post-Crisis period after he had gotten older, and probably scales to a similar range.

Abilities: Slam is a really skilled fighter to the point that in a few months of training he had already gotten "eternal fame" in the Boxing Ring. More notably in Detective Comics #20 Slam learns how to do magic which he uses for reality-warping shenanigans. Invisibility, Hypnotism, Teleportation, Existence Erasure, just absolute nonsensically strong abilities and at the end of the story he still has them. He just says he's not going to use them anymore because he "prefers his fists." Slam just has really broken magic for his tier as well as the ability to seemingly pick up any skill, even supernatural skills in days of training. 

Shadow Moon: Shadow is the protagonist of American Gods with a slightly different backstory depending on version but he's basically Odin's plot to survive the end of the Old Gods. 

How strong he is: Initially he was strong enough to fight the Leprechaun Mad Sweeny who kick a wooden bench in half and easily knock down a door. After he awoke to his powers, he was stronger than Laura Moon who could flip an ice cream truck casually. As a "Demigod" he's somewhere between the level of mortals and the actual gods who have the good scaling.

Abilities: Starting off simple, he has clairvoyance and precognition via his prophetic dreams, can hear people from different states, can communicate with animals, and light emanation. After awakening to his powers fully he can enter the Backstage, the conceptual realm of Gods underpinning reality, where time is passively stopped for physical entities and has causality manipulation causing things like weather patterns to change, people to disappear, and making a national emergency appear to be a hoax. 

Koenma: Koenma is the ruler of Spirit World during his father, King Enma's absense and is the one that gives Yusuke Urameshi his spirit detective cases in Yu Yu Hakusho

How strong is he: King Enma is a Mid E Class. This means he's stronger then Low E Class Botan who can one-shot zombified normal humans who can break through wooden doors, and around the same level as Mid E Class beginning of series Yusuke and Kuwabara before they had gained any spirit powers. Yusuke at this time would regularly implant Kuwabara's head into the pavement, and could move his whole body a few meters before normal humans could react, blitzing them. 

Abilities: As a Spirit World entity, Koenma is naturally invisible and intangible to non-spiritually aware entities. He can casually go back and forth between Spirit World and the Human World at will, and can bring people with him. There is a place between the worlds where even light cannot escape, meaning against a non-FTL opponent, Koenma could simply BFR them into the void. He demonstrates elemental manipulation, manipulating fire to allow people to escape a burning building, with Reiki/Spirit Energy giving a general ability to move the elements. He has shown the ability to create a shield of his spiritual energy capable of protecting Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama from Younger Toguro's demon energy that was obliterating people across the stadium. He also has his pacifer, his last resort, which he has poured his spirit energy into over centuries. It can be used to resurrect people or seal people away, the strongest sealing technique of Spirit World stronger than even the seal that bars the boundary between Demon World and the Human World. Also in the time he froze time at one point for everyone but Yusuke. In the manga this it's more ambiguous. He also is implied to know the Spirit Gun as he taught Yusuke how to use it. 

Hotaru Tomoe: So this is a really odd one, but I mean very specifically Hotaru Tomoe in her civilian state in the 90s Sailor Moon Anime where she would on occasions be possessed by Mistress 9 or Sailor Saturn to protect her.

How strong is she: Hotaru is a sickly frail young girl prone to seizures and fainting.

Abilities: Both Mistress 9 and Sailor Saturn reside in Hotaru and will act to protect her if she is endangered, even if she is unconscious. Mistress 9 creates a purple energy aura that life-drains anyone she touches into withered husk and can reflect attacks or will people away from her with her presence. She can also create psychic hands that can steal peoples heart crystals, rendered them into unconscious and mindless. Mistress 9 possessing Hotaru made her unkillable to even MFTL Planetary entities. Saturn's power is even greater. It allows Hotaru to heal people and to shape her energy in Hotaru's hands into the Big Bang so she could simulate the progression of the universe and see the future. This energy also allowed Hotaru as a baby to shoot out energy faster than Mirror Parodies quadrillions of times faster than light to reach to and destroy them despite star level durability, empowering the Outer Senshi to Super State, and transforming Hotaru from a baby to old enough to fight as a Sailor Senshi. Even as a baby, MFTL Star level entities were overwhelmed trying to get around Saturn's passive protection. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 18 Review

 

Act 18 is the final act of the first sub-arc in the Black Moon Clan arc. The act starts out as the last two acts have. The characters react in horror at Jupiter's capture. Artemis at the Command Center comments in frustration how the UFO just seems to appear and disappear, and he can't track it. However Tuxedo Kamen notes that Petz left behind a Black Crystal earring, something all the Black Moon Clan members save Saphir wear.

Tuxedo Kamen comments to Luna that they should be careful, it might be dangerous and Luna agrees asking Artemis to send over a containment unit. A petri dish just sort of...appears encasing it telekineticallhy. It kinda comes out of nowhere though it's more atmospheric than the craziness of whatever Artemis did to Endymion last arc.

Following that, Artemis mentions there has been over 200 reported Crop Circles in the Tokyo area, seemingly caused by that UFO which abducted the Senshi. Venus says the obvious conclusion; that the Black Moon Clan are a group of hostile aliens come to infiltrate human society. Special emphasis is given to the fact that they are aliens.

This is a dramatic reversal of the prior arc. Where Queen Beryl was an Earth woman who in jealousy of the lunarian Princess Serenity and spread distrust of the Lunarians across the Earth, the Black Moon Clan actually ARE a group of hostile aliens trying to control humanity. It's also meant to evoke the pop culture-y idea of ETs that do things like abduct people, make crop circles, and subtly influence humanity.

Mamoru, in a way both sensitive to Usagi's feelings and logical, says that he's sure the others are still alive, as if the Black Moon Clan meant to kill them, they would have already done so.

Usagi is frustrated by the whole ordeal and Minako suggest they go and question Chibiusa again. Meanwhile Luna and Artemis are analyzing the Black Moon Clan earring which is draining the energy around it. The meter meant to measure its energy goes negative, and then reaches the "minimum" state. This is actually a really cool detail and connects to a lot of other things the Black Crystal will be shown doing for the rest of the arc which I'll mention when we reach those points.

The Senshi meet Chibiusa at Usagi's house, whose in high spirits having made a friend at school, Momo. The Senshi seem to decide on letting Chibiusa be for the moment but Chibiusa catches a glimpse of the Black Crystal Earring and freaks out

It's a pretty sadly realistic depiction of how a young child seeing an object associted with trauma would react. 

Meanwhile on planet Nemesis, the Black Moon Clan are discussing how things are going. Saphir is annoyed at the reckless losses but Rubeus is unperturbed commenting that he has done exactly as the Prince wished, commenting that they have the power of Black Crystal and their own planet and that Saphir always gets so irritable when "accidents happen" and things don't go according to schedule. Esmeraude sees their conflict and comments on how petty their little rivalry is and mocks Saphir when he tries to intimidate her. The sociopathic nature of their group is understood from their reactions to the deaths of their underlings. Rubeus laughs it off as an accident and still seems to be having fun while even Saphir only dislikes it from a tactical position. 

Saphir comments to Demande that they don't really need the Silver Crystal, they have the Black Crystal and seen what its power did to that planet. Demande comments they haven't yet seen the body of that planet's ruler....I don't know why this is being treated like a secret when we saw the ruler last chapter.

Demande replies that they haven't fully tested their power and Wiseman adds that without the Silver Crystal, they can't power-up the Black Crystal to "infinite power." A recurring trend in this arc is the opposite nature of the two crystals; the Silver Crystal which produces limitless power and the Black Crystal which absorbs power limitlessly. Demande leave to his room impetuously and the other members of the Black Moon Clan there talk about how bizarre the Wiseman is, and how they're suspicious of him. I do think it's cool that Rubeus and Esmeraude are also suspicious rather than just Saphir, though unfortunately nothing really comes of it. 

We cut to the final Ayakashi, Calaveras demonstrating her occult practice of the issue, channeling as she channels the spirits preparing for her attempt at revenge. Rubeus comes up and in a surprising turn flirtatiously kisses Calaveras' shoulder saying he can't wait to see Sailor Moon's face in agony the way Calaveras' has been.

Once again this is a point that's nice by itself, though doesn't live up to its potential. Rubeus being in a relationship with Calaveras or flirting with her anyway adds something to their character though I feel like because it's just sort of brought up once, it doesn't add that much.

Calaveras introduces herself as a medium, and says she will win over the minds of "modern humanity" to the Black Moon Clan's side. I do like Calaveras most of the Ayakashi, manga-wise. She has the most interesting characterization shown with her little thing with Rubeus, her seemingly genuine desire for revenge, she has the most interesting powers to me, and her plot is unlike most of the Black Moon Clan's, more like villains in the rest of the manga, as a brain-washer.

The chapter cuts back to the others trying to figure out what's going on with Chibiusa, but Chibiusa is tearfully panicked at the Black Crystal earring and they don't get much information. Mamoru comforts her, telling they can stop if she needs them too. However Usagi declares that if Chibiusa won't give them the information they need, then she's essentially an enemy. Defying expectations here, Usagi is actually the one that runs away tearfully after the statement is made.

I really like this scene is set-up. Usagi's suspicions and frustrations are understandable and rise naturally between Acts 15 and Act 18. Her motives are understandable, and she starts out from asking for completely understandable things. Yet as her frustration grows we see her the downside of her greatest strength, her intense for her friends, cause her to go closer and closer to the line. Yet instead of doing the cliché thing with Chibiusa running away in pain at Usagi's declaration, instead it's Usagi who does it, because it's she who crossed the line of acceptability, which everything understand they understand why. She is reasonably flawed, understandable in why does what she does and understandable in where she goes wrong both to the readers and to the other characters. I do think it would have been stronger if the Guardian Senshi had a more reasonable reaction to her complaints earlier on, instead of dismissing everything about Chibiusa from the start.

After that scene, the manga goes on to remind the reader why Usagi is so emotionally disturbed having her on edge even hearing the word "black", in a sense similar to Chibiusa's negative reaction to the Earring, and having her talk about her heart being broken up without her friends there. Naru and Umino show up to cheer up Usagi and to give some exposition with Umino's video on "channeling."

Umino explains channeling is contacting someone from another dimension or place in spacetime and receiving messages. The screen shows Calaveras giving an interview where she goes into trance having Rubeus speak through her, claiming the Black Moon Clan are there to guide the people of Earth

I think it's clever the way Calaveras has set this up, so that even if the Senshi see what's going on, they have no reason to suspect her, the innocent medium transmitting the message as the source, but assuming she's just being given messages by their enemy. 

Usagi is shocked and runs off to get the others. Naru and Umino comment how pale Usagi seems to be, Naru commenting that Usagi seems to be in some "other world" that she can't enter, and wish she could make her feel better. I'm not the world's biggest Naru fan, she's mostly just fine in most canons imo, but I do think this is a really sweet moment. 

Meanwhile Minako and Artemis are watching an....oddly coincidental live broadcast of Calaveras who spreads the Black Moon Clan propaganda, that she is told that the people of the "White Moon" are alien infiltrators who will lead the Earth astray to sorrow, but instead earthlings should just trust in their own power.

This part I find fascinating and super evocative. In a way, what she is saying is true of the White Moon. Those of the White Moon do come to the Earth from the Moon, and a generation before that as it will be revealed, even further parts of the cosmos. In a sense they will drive them to tragedy, but only in so far as enemies like the Black Moon Clan attack them for the Silver Crystal. However what I find really interesting is just how her framing reveals the Black Moon Clan's mindset.

Obviously some of what she is saying is a lie. She says if humans believe in their own potential they can overcome aging and death, something the Black Moon Clan doesn't want. But some of what she says, that the people of the White Moon's interference with Earth is an unnatural infiltration of the Earth will bring tragedy on mankind, seems to coincide with what Saphir will say later. The Black Moon Clan, despite having spent generations on Nemesis, consider themselves the true protectors of humanity and nature against the interference of the White Moon. This is especially contrasted with last act where Makoto takes the time to directly tell Motoki that they ARE human. This is probably the most symbolically potent in the entirety of this sub-arc, and I don't feel like I've gotten to the bottom of its meaning, particularly with Calaveras making statements like "Earth and humanity are currently sick and seeking salvation, medicines and hospitals will do no good." A bold-faced lie? A Messianic Complex? An allusion to the dictators of history who compared their enemies to inhuman infestations that must be "cleaned"?  I'm not really sure how to interpret it. 

Back to the plot, Mamoru takes the four stones from last act and channels the spirits of the Four Heavenly Kings

This is a really cool moment, though once again I do think Naoko doesn't use the idea to its full potential due to just briefness of space. Mamoru's conversation with the Heavenly Kings boils down foreshadowing with the Black Moon Clan crossing space-time which...we already knew and Mamoru stating "I can't protect Usagi, I don't have the strength like the Four Guardian Senshi" and them giving him a pep talk being like "no trust us, you do."

Don't get me wrong, it's a cool moment and there's not enough cross-arc references in Sailor Moon, but I would have liked the Heavenly Kings to maybe do a bit more. Kunzite's the only one that even speaks. 

The next day Usagi wakes up only to find her transformation brooch has been taken which is a great shocking moment. Meanwhile Calaveras talks to her audience that the Age of Aquarius is upon them. The Age of Aquarius is an astrological concept that the Earth is in the Age of Pisces, and will move into the preceding sign, the Age of Aquarius, a sign associated with science, rationalism, the air, and equality. 

What I find funny about this is that in every way the Black Moon Clan are Anti-Aquarian. They are a rigidly hierarchal monarchy, they are anti-progress and science being a religious fanatical cult, their science comes from one of their members who is regularly put upon, and they seek the opposite of equality.

Calaveras begins brainwashing the people of Earth manipulating them into thinking the Black Moon Clan should be the ones to "guide' (rule) them during the cosmic revolution. Sailor Venus shows up to break her enchantment but Calaveras distracts her by channeling the spirits of the other Guardian Senshi into Naru, Asanuma, and Kotono to distract Sailor Venus before Calaveras channels the spirits of her three dead sisters into their bodies and attack Venus together with a spirit energy attack. 

But Sailor Venus awesomely powers through it declaring that she's wrong, that they're still in the Age of Pisces, the Age of Love, and that she's the Goddess of Love.

Once again, kinda Naoko favoritism, but it's too cool for me to care. Astrologically Pisces is said to be the sign of the universal love, and as such it is the sign where Venus is exalted, or in its best position. In my headcanon, it is the reason Sailor Venus is the leader during this period. It seems to be why she seems is stronger than the others.

Calaveras is not intimidated by Sailor Venus' declaration, stating that Rubeus is at that very moment about to get Sailor Moon and the rabbit to Venus' horror while Usagi thinks parallel that she has to get the brooch to help Sailor V. She finds Chibiusa having taken her brooch managing to knock her out of the way of Rubeus' attack. Rubeus commends her reactions but attacks again though Mamoru detecting Usagi in danger, transforming into Tuxedo Kamen and saving them mid-attack

Tuxedo Kamen manages to hurt Rubeus with his cane who gets all angry and Rubeus prepares to immolate them with fire. 

However Mamoru hears a voice which he describes as strangely familiar. The voice tells Mamoru he's the only one with the power to protect the two of them and to release the power in his fist and Mamoru uses a magic blast to knock back Rubeus 

It's really exciting to see Mamoru's growing power given that he is the male lead and the other half of the main relationship. It also will have later relevant to the plot, especially when it's revealed who this is. 

Rubeus flees and Mamoru wonders what that was. Usagi grabs the Silver Crystal from Chibiusa, transforms and one-shots Calaveras saving Minako

That's right, Naoko set up a pattern only to break it. That really is Naoko's style and it's both a good and a bad thing, I think best exemplified by this scene. Rei getting kidnapped, Ami getting kidnapped, Makoto getting kidnapped then Minako NOT being kidnapped is a cast of going from exciting surprise to disappointing surprise to just disappointing BACK to exciting surprise. It somehow makes Sailor Moon as a manga feel at once repetitive and predictable while also exciting and unpredictable just because you never know when the sudden change is going to occur.

Usagi asks Chibiusa why she stole the Silver Crystal and Chibiusa explained she needed the Silver Crystal of the past before asking Sailor Moon to save the future of the 30th century.

Act 18 is my favorite act of the "Invasion" or the "Ayakashi" sub-arc. It's focused, perhaps to excess. It's villain is the most interesting of the Ayakashi. Its plot connects the most with later elements. It subverts the formula expected to surprise the audience. It's filled with ideas, even if some of them it just sort of throws out there. And best of all, it's got awesome moments for Minako and Mamoru.

In a surprising reverse for this manga, it's not the end that's too quick here. The ending of this act IS quick but Naoko uses that to her advantage, making it tense knowing that Minako is fighting an Ayakashi without anyone there while Sailor Moon is being held up. And Mamoru's reversal on Rubeus sending him fleeing so Sailor Moon could go and rescue Minako was really cool, even if it does later kind of raise the plot hole of why "the voice" didn't tell Mamoru sooner. However it's actually the first half that makes too quickly this act. It throws in interesting ideas like Rubeus and Calaveras having a thing, even if just Rubeus flirting with her, which could be used for something interesting and doesn't use it. Or Rubeus agreeing with Saphir that Wiseman shouldn't be trusted, which doesn't really get brought up again.

The channeling and astrological stuff in this act are the most evocative occult ideas for Sailor Moon as a setting and I think Naoko uses them really well. Channeling is also metaphysical and how it's presented in the manga emphasizes the cosmic distances involved in channeling. Astrology is of course focused entirely on the cosmic and it's impacts on the mundane. Both fit the cosmic magic feel of Sailor Moon. I also really like the part with Calaveras brainwashing the people of Earth, as I feel it's a moment with a lot of ways you could interpret it. 

So yeah, overall it's a good act. My favorite of this sub-arc. Depending on the way you look at it the next four acts are either two sub-arcs of two acts each, or one sub-arc of four acts. I personally prefer to think of it as four acts just because I like the symmetry of the Second Arc having three sub-arcs of four acts each. 

Kratos vs Wonder Woman: A Quick Breakdown

So the other day I was actually asked about this matchup and I found it's a matchup that has some substantial interest. It's easy to see why. Kratos and Wonder Woman are both characters with heavy Greek Mythological origins, both famously killed their universe's Ares, the God of War before becoming the new God of War. And both fight with an iconic long thin mid-range extended melee weapon that can grapple things. I love both Kratos and Wonder Woman, they both are probably in my top 20 favorite characters of all time so I made this blog as a quick breakdown for those interested on my thoughts on the fight.

This will be God of War 3 Kratos with Pandora's Box Amp + God of War Powers vs the current Rebirth Wonder Woman, with goddess of war powers. These are the strongest version of the two characters that can be considered standard.

Strength/Durability:

Kratos in God of War is scaled to characters like Thor and Jormungandr including matching Baldur in strength who knocked down Jormungandr. In their fight Thor and Jormungandr will "splinter" the world tree Yggdrasil

a cosmic tree containing the Norse Pantheon's realm including 9 different dimensions as well as the realm between realms

This Kratos is considered weaker than Base Kratos from God of War during his fight with Zeus and is stated in the novelization to be "less muscular"

which makes sense given he easily is able to fight Zeus who far outscales pretty much anyone in the Greek Pantheon who themselves can threaten the entire Greek Pantheon's realm containing multiple dimensions. Zeus and Kratos are suggested by two developer statements to be able to fight Polygon Man, a Sony Playstation Crossover villain capable of fusing dozens of dimensions together

Admittingly, these are twitter word of god statements and one of them at least seems fairly unsure, so it's understandable if you don't agree with their usage. However given the other feats Kratos has including scaling to characters that can destroy a structure significantly larger than 9 dimensions, it seems fairly consistent and moreso just supporting.

Wonder Woman as of DC Rebirth is pretty regularly shown to be relative strength-wise to Superman and Supergirl knocking back Superman villain Doomsday with a shield bash and having an extended fight with a brainwashed Supergirl

As of Rebirth, as confirmed numerous times, all events have been made canon again to the mainline DC Earth. Within the Pre-Crisis continuity Supergirl when pushing herself to her absolute limit was able to damage the armor of the Anti-Monitor and made him flee

Anti-Monitor being a cosmic threat who even at this point had fought his equal and opposite enemy the Monitor for 1,000,000 years to a standstill, the Monitor being an entity powerful enough that with his dying energy he created a netherverse to hide the last remaining dimensions within from the Anti-Monitor

Comparing their base power, I think Kratos has a pretty clear advantage. Wonder Woman scales to a structure capable of containing two dimensions while Kratos scales to mascroscopic structures that contain nine dimensions and more, or to villains that can fuse dozens of dimensions. While both characters scale "above" their respective feats, I think Kratos probably has more raw strength and durability. Not neccesarily an insurmountable difference. I think Wonder Woman's strikes would probably do some damage to Kratos and I don't think Kratos would kill Wonder Woman with one strike but I think if they got into a strength competition, Kratos would win.

Both can also get stronger but I think Kratos also has a higher raw power amp. Wonder Woman can remove her bracelets to boost her power being normally evenly matched to Artemis while stomping her in a different fight when she removes her bracelets.

Kratos' rage is a similar type of power-up, used to amplify all his stats

to a significant enough degree as to allow him to stomp enemies that were previously evenly fighting him or had the advantage such as fighting Thanatos' humanoid form with difficulty with Deimos to stomping his monster form by himself

This would be by itself equal to Wonder Woman's own amp, but Kratos also has the stronger Power of Hope amp which eclipses it going from being easily killed by two-fingers of Fear Zeus despite his rage amp to Fear Zeus being unable to damage him.

Both also have implications of scaling to infinite quantities. 

I personally don't really use that as it is not logically consistent for a quantity to be finitely above or below an infinite quantity, and both Kratos and Diana have characters that are finitely weaker and stronger than them. At worst I think it equalizes out for both of them.

Speed:

In terms of movement speed, Kratos scales to the Fates who have the incredible movement speed feat of controlling the fates of all things in the entire Greek realm down to every animal motion and landscape movement

This is a speed feat calced anywhere in the range of quadrillions to septillions of times the speed of light.

Even more immense than this, Kratos in short burst speed, as well as reaction/attack speed can reach the speed of Hermes even as early as God of War 1

Hermes delivers all dreams to all mortals and all souls to the Underworld. He is, humorously for this comparison, the "Flash of Greek Mythology"

This comparison would be made more apparent when Kratos actually reacted to and killed Hermes directly. Hermes scales to Atropos' astral projection which moved to Olympus at "infinite speeds"

Wonder Woman is one of DC's greatest speedsters. Even in the Post-Crisis era she famously blocked the trillions of shards sent by the shattered god across the universe instantly, a feat calced at quintillions of times the speed of light and is considered relative to a Superman that stopped missiles threatening to blitz the universes at speeds calced at sextillions of times the speed of light

And as of Rebirth is capable of matching speed force users and Pre-Crisis Kryptonians that could travel infinite lengths in finite time as well as moving fast to enter into the speed force, the conceptual realm of the multiverse's speed via the speed of the God Mercury granted to her

If you don't think the infinite speed applies here that's fine though I think it's different because God of War's infinite speed doesn't seem to have any characters be finitely higher or lower than it and DC's infinite speed is conceptual in nature. 

So comparing them speedwise, Wonder Woman seems to have speed roughly on par with Kratos' burst speed, his reaction/attack speed. To put this in the terms of both universes, Wonder Woman would be like fighting Hermes for Kratos speed-wise as she would have a similar level of speed which is more than Kratos, which allowed Hermes to evade him casually at distance, but which Kratos could tag him in close range.

Conversely for Wonder Woman this would be like fighting Starfire who has the reactions times from her superhuman skill level to tag speedforce users, and can fight Wonder Woman in fisticuffs, but doesn't have that level of movement speed herself. 

Skill:

Kratos and Wonder Womans' best skill feats happen to sorta be the same thing, though in context its different because of the different universes they inhabit. Kratos and Wonder Woman both killed Ares, the God of War and scale to Ares in skill.

In God of War 1, after Ares completely depowers Kratos leaving him with nothing but his stats gained from Pandora's Box, (10:35) Kratos is still able to kill Ares via his skill (11:25)

Ares was a millenia old warrior who had, and which Kratos gained after becoming the God of War, a cosmic awareness of all combat through history for at least thousands of years. (5:00) The God of War Universe is a massive world where combat seems to be very common comparatively, meaning this would likely be equivalent to millions of years of combat experience, roughly a Mid A Tier level of skill by the quantification method I use for skill.

However Wonder Woman's feat is even more extreme. She was also able to kill the God Ares, and had to fight him multiple times despite his significant power advantage

While God of War Ares is a physical immortal entity presiding over warfare, DC Comics Ares is literally the concept of warfare  with knowledge of every single strategy and tactic from every battle since the beginning of time, across billions of years and an infinite multiverse. It's no surprise that Diana is the best melee fighter on the DC Earth.

Skill-wise, Wonder Woman had the advantage.

Intelligence:

While both characters have radically superhuman skill, their general intelligences are a lot more realistic, if still impressive compared to a normal human's

Kratos' intelligence is often downplayed in vs debates. While Kratos in the Greek Era does have a tendency of allowing his rage to get the better of him, he is of fairly high general intelligence. Kratos led the armies of Sparta to widespread militaries victories across Greece, and after becoming God of War would continue to guide them to war. He is inventive with using his environment in ways to get strategic advantages, and has solved numerous difficult puzzles in his travels including the puzzles of Daedalus meant to guard the most important objects in the verse as well as the Goddess Hera's spatial puzzle that she claimed would trap him forever. And given he was at the time an immortal God, she could indeed mean she intended for it to trap him FOREVER.

Wonder Woman is regularly considered one of the wisest members of the Justice League, granted wisdom as a gift by the Goddess Athena upon her birth, and is regularly consulted by even characters like Batman for council. She has had to regularly foil schemes by immortal supervillains like Circe and Ares and her wisdom has given her a knack for strategy, leadership, and diplomacy. She was able to beat the insane genius the Joker by out-crazying him, and once defeated Ares simply by showing him the results of his own warfaring ways would leave a war barren of people with no longer any ability to war.

Comparing them in intelligence, I don't think there's any huge gap. I think that while both are probably similarly skilled in strategy and tactics I think Wonder Woman is perhaps more versatile in her intelligence and probably has a greater scientific knowledge and a greater wisdom than Kratos. Though the two are relative enough that I don't think it would make that large a difference. 

Range:

Kratos typically uses weapons with extended melee range like the Blades of Chaos or close range projectiles on the scale of tens of meters. In his giant form, Kratos would have an effective range of many kilometers purely from size. However his maximum range is vastly higher. As the God of War he should scale to Ares who not only threw a rock spike from Athens ahitting Kratos with extreme precision all the way in the Desert of Lost Souls far to the East of Athens but was also able to affect Kratos while Kratos was in another dimension 

Wonder Woman typically uses weapons in extended melee range like the Lasso of Truth or closer range projectiles on the scale of tens of meters. By banging her bracelets together she can create a thunderclap that can extend for kilometers and similarly her lightning manipulation can effect structures as massive as mountains. Her Lasso of Truth can affect the entire universe at once and with her god powers she can technically manipulate Mount Olympus even from another dimension, though these does not seem to be combat-useable powers. 

So in terms of range both Kratos and Wonder Woman tend to fight at a very similar range via extended melee range weapons (Chained Blades and Lasso.) However beyond that point Kratos definitely has that advantage. In his giant form Kratos can use all his abilities at a range of kilometers whereas Wonder Woman can only use a few abilities at such a range (though in fairness against a giant target like Giant Kratos, accuracy at range will be less of a concern.) While both can technically summon things from an inter-dimensional range, and affect things on an inter-dimensional range, only Kratos seems to be able to attack from that far a range. While Post-Crisis Ares demonstrated that ability, it was an ability Wonder Woman struggled with and which New 52 Ares, the one she got the powers of, did not demonstrate.

Endurance/Stamina:

Kratos regularly takes brutal beatdowns and is severely damaged and continues to fight and recovers quickly. He was able to persist even without his god powers after being smashed by the hand of the Colossus of Rhodes, survived being impaled by the Blade of Olympus, and recovered quickly from a bloodying fight with Baldur, aided by his regeneration. He was also able to climb for three days straight even as a Demigod. 

Wonder Woman has been beat down immensely, especially by Bizarro and Ares both with the intent to kill her and as being hit by the full force of Superman's Heat Vision from the Sun to Earth when Superman was mind controlling into thinking Wonder Woman was Doomsday. She also fought demons with Superman and Thor in Asgard for 1,000 years. 

In terms of physical endurance I think Kratos has the advantage. Wonder Woman's endurance seems relatively speaking moreso peak human or low superhuman FOR her durability. As in she survives physical wounds generally speaking similar to what a tough human could survive or attacks from people somewhat stronger than her. Conversely Kratos has been completely impaled before without dying, and has endured strikes from people massively stronger than him.

In terms of general stamina, I think Wonder Woman has a much higher feat of fighting for 1,000 years vs climbing for three days, though I don't think this is a fight that would go on for days and neither can really tire the other one out as a win con so while Wonder Woman has the advantage it's not a super useful one.

Now just going to go over their capabilities in three categories and suggest how I think each ability would or would not work on the other, separated into Divine Abilities, Magic, and Equipment. These are mostly just focusing on what I think are their strongest abilities as both have plenty of random abilities.

Divine Abilities:

Kratos is known for his legendary rage which bolsters his abilities and can envelop him in an aura

The various auras around Kratos wouldn't be too difficult to deal with for Diana who typically fights with weapons regardless but Kratos' ability to rapidly improve as the God of War would present a challenge overtime as if the fight goes on too long, Kratos will eventually just overwhelm Diana as she doesn't have a similar power to improve her capabilities rapidly unless she uses the godwave.

Kratos is an immortal deity with a natural healing factor able to recover from wounds like massive holes in his chest. 

As mentioned above Wonder Woman has divine weapons capable of killing Gods of similar immortality and greater regenerative properties

Kratos regularly absorbs the life, energy, and magic from his enemies in the forms of orbs which he can do even with his bare hands

Wonder Woman has a limited resistance to this type ability. The Supervillain Clayface was able to absorb Wonder Woman's life and abilities and Wonder Woman was able to break out of it even after being reverted to clay

However this did take some time, so presumably Kratos would be able to somewhat absorb lifeforce and magic from Wonder Woman.

Kratos likely has all the powers of the prior God of War Ares. Ares showed the ability to create pseudo-black holes that could suck people into his dimension he could reality-warp within, create dark duplicates and steal Kratos' abilities

Wonder Woman has on numerous instances resisted the pulls of Black Holes, and was able to fight the God Ares in his own dimension the Areopagus where he can control reality and not even Zeus can touch him showing a level of reality-warping resistance

However it was highly difficult on Wonder Woman. Beyond that she has never shown resistance to power-stealing as comprehensive as God of War Ares'. It's unclear if Kratos would be able to create dark duplicates of Wonder Woman as she is not psychologically conflicted the way Kratos was at the time of the battle, and she has fought an evil duplicate of herself several times, but if he can that it would obviously be a large advantage just for dividing her attention. If Kratos manages to pull Wonder Woman into the other dimension, he would be at a massive advantage tactically.

Kratos' strongest divine power is the Power of Hope which laid dormant within him

The Power of Hope is the conceptual hope that is the greatest power of the Greek Realm at least. It grants Kratos a massive power amp, the ability to affect conceptual entities among other things. It also grants makes Kratos functionally unkillable as it can allow him to bring himself back to life from his own determination. This means for Wonder Woman to defeat Kratos she would need to either break his resolve which, while Wonder Woman is an immensely good advocate for peace who even quelled Ares' spirit, is just not happening to Embodiment of Rage God of War 3 Kratos outside very specific circumstances. Or she would need to destroy the power of hope itself, or destroy Kratos in body and soul. Both of which are hypothetically possible for Wonder Woman but very difficult and not what she would want to do.

Wonder Woman was granted many divine gifts by the Gods including Demeter giving Diana her strength, Athena granting Diana her wisdom, Hermes granting Diana her speed and flight, and Aphrodite granting Diana her beauty and loving heart. However Artemis and Hestia both also granted her gifts. As part of her gift from Artemis she was given oneness with animals able to communicate with them and ask them to heed her call. Depending on where they fight this could be an actual weapon as both universes do have some "animals" that are relevant physical threats to them

However Kratos has acquired the Head of Danaus which allows him to command animals as well, canceling out the potential advantage.

Hestia granted Diana the most esoteric of the gifts, sisterhood with fire such that she may open men's hearts. Wonder Woman can alight her lasso of truth with a purifying flame that can kill even the undead Black Lanterns and can keep the impure from crossing its threshold

God of War 3 was the low point of Kratos' life as a person where he brought destruction unto the world for his insatiable need for vengeance. While he does have resistance to conventional flame, Wonder Woman's purifying flames I think might be able to actually kill Kratos due to his own evil.

In her Goddess State, Wonder Woman can surround herself with a battle aura similar to Kratos' rage aura

though I think Kratos should be durable enough to withstand it, even ignoring that he usually fights with weapons at extended melee range.

As the Goddess of War, Diana can communicate telepathically with every soldier, and should have the same ability as New 52 Ares, who was able to summon every soldier who ever lived as ghosts to fight for him

Given that this is the DC Universe this would likely include many ultra-powerful beings though none are seen. Kratos shouldn't have any particular trouble dealing with souls as he's killed souls with his bare hands before along with other intangible entities

Similar to Kratos, Wonder Woman can manipulate her own Olympus dimension that existed during the New 52 restoring it after it destruction

Similarly Kratos persisted in Ares dimension though Ares seemed to not be trying to kill him directly at that point, and instead trying to break his spirit and did succeed at taking Kratos powers away. If Wonder Woman can bring Kratos to Olympus, then she will similarly to his dimension have a massive tactical advantage.

Gods like Wonder Woman can also channel the power of the Godwave

the Godwave is the original wave of power that created all Gods in the DC Multiverse, and gives Wonder Woman the power of all the Greek Gods as she channels it

however the Godwave's full power is not meant to be held within one entity, and trying to do so for too long drives whoever holds it mad and erases them from existence meaning Diana can only briefly use this power

If Diana uses the Godwave against Kratos, she probably can kill him even with the Power of Hope as even just the power of the Greek Pantheon includes the power of Gods like Zeus that can control infinitely-sized conceptual realm in the Godsphere and equals other infinitely powerful gods and which can permanently kill conceptual entities. 

However Diana can't use it for long and has only ever channeled it through her body meaning she needs to be in melee range to use it, meaning via his reaction time and mid-range weapons if Kratos can outlast it, Kratos can keep Diana from using the godwave power on him.

Magic:

Kratos has gained numerous types of magical abilities, mostly various forms of elemental manipulation. However more notably he has demonstrated various forms of lifeforce and power drain with summons like the arms of Hades

which can also transmute living people into Underworld soldiers

I actually think Wonder Woman would be able to resist the lifeforce stealing, as she can withstand being in Hades which in DC Comics dampens the fire in ones soul, drains the light from their eyes

and has resisted transmutation before, resisted being turned into a Gorilla

Kratos can also summon various types of ghosts including Sirens which can induce madness with their song

and the Gorgon Soul which can petrify people, turning them to stone

as mentioned before Wonder Woman has resisted transmutation. She's also resisted various forms of mind manipulation on numerous instances and also has a general resistance to magic

Overall I think Wonder Woman would be able to resist Kratos' magic pretty well

Wonder Woman has learned a few magical abilities herself. She's developed the ability to travel via meditation even to the Sphere of the Gods and creates magical portals between dimensions

This doesn't seem to be able to be used for BFR purposes normally. While this could hypothetically allow Diana to escape from Kratos' dimension, she couldn't use this to bring him into her dimension.

She was able to create an illusion to disguise the Justice League as civilians

However Kratos has the Eyes of Truth, an artifact that can dispel far stronger illusions

Wonder Woman fight on the astral plane, even hitting spiritual entities like demons

However Kratos was able to resist the God Hades trying to rip out his soul and should be able to resist Wonder Woman's astral plane strikes

Wonder Woman used to have a larger degree of match, a fraction of Hecate's left within her as a witchmark, but was stolen by Circe. As it stands her magic shouldn't be anything particularly difficult for Kratos. At best it may allow her to escape from Kratos' dimension.

Equipment:

Kratos has gathered a wide range of equipment which he call forth at any time from Hammerspace. Most commonly he uses his flaming Chained Blades. Beyond that he has numerous slower, shorter-range more powerful blow type weapons like the Nemean Cestus

While it would be significantly harder to tag Diana with the Cestus compared to the blades, considering his strength advantage and their ability to create shockwaves, it may be able to one-shot her.

Kratos also has the Claws of Hades, the weapon of Hades which can steal souls, which he used to steal the soul of Hades

Very fittingly, Wonder Woman has resisted this exact type of attack from Hades whose staff can steal souls yet Wonder Woman resisted

Kratos took the severed head of the God Helios which he can use to create a blinding light flash

However Wonder Woman briefly was blind in the comics and trained to fight just as well blind as she does with her sight, even fighting the League while blind

One of Kratos strongest pieces of equipment is the Amulet of Uroborus which allows him to control time and aging in an area, aging them up until they decay, rewinding them until they're restored, or slowing down time

As an immortal unaging entity, Wonder Woman may be immune to the aging decaying property of the Amulet of Uroborus, however de-aging Wonder Woman or slowing her down in time with it should work as she doesn't seem to have resistance to these forms of attacks.

Kratos also has the Oath Stone of Orkos which allows him to create a shadowy duplicate of himself that can fight alongside him or take his place for a trap like Substitution Jutsu.

This would probably be pretty helpful in a fight against Wonder Woman just to increase the overall number of attacks Kratos can give off at any one time.

Kratos also gained the Scourge of Erinys, an artifact which can create homing voids which drain the lifeforce from enemies.

While this hypothetically could work on Wonder Woman, not only does she have the aforementioned partial resistance to this type of ability, she also can reflect it with the Bracelets of Submission

Speaking of the Bracelets however, Kratos has acquired the Golden Fleece, one of his most powerful artifacts 

With the Golden Fleece Kratos can block, absorb, or reflect any form of ranged attack, even the gaze attack of Gorgons. This would functionally cut off Diana from using any kind of ranged attack against Kratos. 

However even this pales with Kratos' strongest weapon, the Blade of Olympus

The Blade of Olympus is the divine blade capable of absorbing godly essence, rendering the immortal and mortal and with one swing can create massive energy waves capable of BFR-ing enemies to Tartarus.

I don't think the ranged component of the Blade of Olympus is as much of a threat to Wonder Woman. Not only she likely block the energy component with the Bracelets of Submission, she can teleport back from Tartarus via meditation as demonstrated above. However the bigger threat the Blade of Olympus presents is the ability to render a god mortal from a strike. The Blade of Olympus would one-shot if it gets a melee strike in.

Wonder Woman has various divine equipment she keeps on her person. 

Most famously of which is her Lasso of Truth which has a variety of usages, but most notably is its ability to compel the user and show them their whole lifespan, forcing them to confront their whole reality which can make the particularly sinful suicidal

I think Kratos might be able to resist the Lasso's mental compulsion. He has been able to resist mental manipulation such as Persephone's before

However forcing him to confront the reality of his life may work. Depending on your understanding of Kratos' character and whether you think being shown his entire life flash before his eyes including all the events that haunt him would send him into a spiral despair, which would break him out of the Power of Hope, or whether he would just be like "yeah I see that everytime I close my eyes, it doesn't do anything." My reading of how the Lasso works and Kratos' character suggests moreso the former but I'd understand a difference of opinion here.

The Lasso of Truth carries the purifying fire of Hestia that burns away even Black Lanterns, Souls, and Gods

This I definitely think would work on Kratos and if Diana binds him and uses the fires of Hestia to "purify" him on a conceptual level, I think it would present an immediate threat, with only two real counters. The Power of Hope might allow Kratos to live through this given it allowed him to regenerate from an attack of Zeus fused with the very concept of Fear.

The other way of hypothetically getting out of the Lasso's purifying fire, Kratos could use the Oath Stone of Orkos to replace the him bound with a shadow duplicate like he did to Alecto's bindings

Wonder Woman can use the Lasso of Truth to teleport others along with herself

which is pretty relevant ability given Kratos does seem to have the ability to naturally travel between dimensions needing to use outside assistance to do so normally so dimensional BFR or teleporting Kratos to Olympus where Diana would have the upper hand with her reality-warping would be viable strategies. Another reason Kratos needs to avoid letting the Lasso encircle him.

Wonder Woman wields the Bracelets of Submission which allow her to reflect any ranged attack including Nekron's Dark Lightning and the bolts of Zeus

This would allow her to avoid most forms of ranged attacks Kratos could do.

She can use them to generate shockwaves and lightning strong enough to stun the Goddess Pele

However Kratos can obviously just block this with the Golden Fleece that can block Zeus' lightning.

Wonder Woman typically carries divine piercing weapons on her person including her tiara which she can throw with enough sharpness to kill the God Deimos

as well as various divine blades. Her one post-flashpoint was made by Hephasteus cutting on the atomic scale and being sharp enough to pierce even Darkseid's Emanation

which means it's actually probably sharp enough to pierce Kratos as Darkseid's emanation is actually multiversal scaling above powerhouses like Mordru and Time Trapper.

However while her sword is probably strong enough to pierce Kratos, that doesn't mean it would kill him. As mentioned above Kratos has a powerful healing factor alongside superhuman endurance. Even in his base state, Wonder Woman would need to do more damage than Kratos has ever survived, something like slicing him in half or piercing his brain to kill him, and with the Power of Hope where Kratos can literally bring himself back to life, Wonder Woman wouldn't be able to permanently kill him via her blade. 

Weaknesses:

Kratos as of God of War 3 had one real weakness, though it is a significant one. Kratos is filled with an unstoppable rage and need for revenge that possesses him and persuades him to impulsive violent actions, blinding him to the consequences of his actions. This has caused most of his own problems.

Technically Kratos also normally has a finite level of magic from which to draw on, though through enough rage he can ignore this limitation. 

Wonder Woman, like most DC Superheroes is led by a strict moral code. While she does not carry Superman or Batman's strict compulsions against killing, she will show mercy whenever possible even when it is dangerous to do so and will strive to protect civilians from collateral damager more than protect herself. She also lacks long-range weaponry due to the Amazon code of honorness.

For a long time Wonder Woman was especially vulnerable to "piercing" weapons, however this began to be faded out near the end of the Post-Crisis period and is no longer a concern for Rebirth Wonder Woman

Conclusions:

Because this is just meant to be an overview blog I'm not gonna come to any kind of conclusive decision on who'd win, but moreso I'm going to give what I think are the best arguments for both sides because I do think you can make a fairly good argument for both sides winning this matchup

The argument for Kratos: Kratos compares to Wonder Woman in general power and speed similar to how Ares would, a greater degree of power with lower speed but enough reaction speed/skill to avoid a blitz. Wonder Woman HAS defeated Ares before, but almost always through indirect means, and always with very high difficulty. Ares is usually favored in comparison to Wonder Woman and Kratos has similar abilities in several regards. While both can't really use projectile or beam attacks due to the Golden Fleece and the Bracelets of Submission, Kratos still has long range attacks he can use such as telekinesis or power-stealing (though the latter may recall them being in his dimension) meaning at long range he can essentially attack without being counter-attacked, aided by his greater enhanced senses. At close range, any strike from Kratos will do serious damage to Diana, and if he gets a hit in with something like the Nemean Cestus or especially the Blade of Olympus he can one-shot. Kratos due to durability, endurance, resistances, and healing factor would neg most of Diana's ways of killing him. Even in base state, the only ways Diana have of killing Kratos would be her Divine Sword, channeling the Godwave (which she's not liable to do and can't do very long), or getting the lasso around him. With the power of hope only the latter two of those are viable. Contrary as the fight goes on, Kratos will become increasingly strong while Wonder Woman will be slowly worn out by getting drained of lifeforce/magic and just generally a less strong healing factor. Kratos can also create a Shadow Clone of himself to help fight or get out of a dangerous scenario where Diana has gotten the lasso around him with the Oath Stone of Orkos and can possibly create shadow clones of Wonder Woman to overwhelm her or surprise her by suddenly slowing time around her or reversing her in time to get a big hit in close range.

The argument for Wonder Woman: In God of War terms, Wonder Woman has the strength of a bare-handed Hercules who did give Kratos some trouble and a speed similar to Hermes which Kratos did have significant difficulty catching up too, plus her own powerful arsenal of abilities. Wonder Woman should be able to use her increased movement speed, speed, and better flight to dart out of range repeatedly of most of Kratos attacks. While Kratos is characteristically impulsive and led by his anger, Wonder Woman is a composed warrior who can likely manipulate him by doing something like seemingly "escaping" through a portal to draw him to Olympus where she has control. This is possible because she can probably escape from his dimension, where the same is probably not true in reverse. Her lasso if she can get it encircling him would probably be able to defeat him and if he does get in close, Wonder Woman can still potentially break out of it by temporarily channeling the Godwave and overwhelming him with multiversal strikes beyond his ability to protect from. Speaking of, without prior knowledge Kratos wouldn't know Diana could suddenly use the Godwave and make entering close range for one of Kratos' trademark brutal executions suddenly massively more dangerous for Kratos. Without prior knowledge Wonder Woman is liable to find out and be able to use Kratos' weakness quicker than Kratos would be able to find out Wonder Woman's. 

So I hope this proves helpful for anyone who was wondering, these are my thoughts on the matchup as someone whose a big fan of both characters.