As it turns out, the manga and I arenāt going to be great friends. Rather than spend the energy on a liveblog thatās increasingly negative, Iām reading each manga act (mostly) silently, and then writing up summaries at the end. Iāll be very candid, which means thereās likely criticism and snark aāplenty about the manga, either wholesale or in details. If that isnāt a thing you feel like reading, please skip this post!
Things included in this summary:
The final battle against Wiseman/Death Phanton/Nemesis/Ryan. Why Ryan? Why not Ryan. Presumably his parents didnāt name him Death Phantom. Now his name is Ryan.
The conclusion to all the Crystal Tokyo shit.
The arc epilogue, which is where all the character-intensive stuff should happen but in case you forgot, this is a summary of THE MANGA.
Things not included in this summary:
My multiple literal screams.
At least not in audio form.
Iāll still scream in text though, donāt worry.
Usagi aims her love rod at an entire fucking planet which is now I guess close enough to be within visual range of Earth. I have so many questions about this, but it occurs to me that it would only make this arc longer if they were to be answered, so I keep my mouth closed. Thereās a burst of light. Usagi disappears. Planet Ryan disappears. Aw, sheāll have to fight the big bad on her own, but this will be test of her mettle that will prove sheās
JUST KIDDING CANāT FORGET THE REAL STAR
Mamoru joins Usagi by, near as I can tell, thinking about it real hard. Nobody else joins Usagi. Nobody else even tries. I can tell that, somewhere, some part of me wants to cry. The tears donāt come.
Neo-Queen Serenityās clock finally runs out of snooze times, and she decides sheād better get up. She wanders her dead and deserted palace, noting her potentially dead but certainly unwell Senshi. She considers going to them, checking on them, showing any concern about them whatsoever, but then chuckles to herself. Donāt be ridiculous, this is the manga! Only one thing matters. CAN YOU FOLKS AT HOME GUESS WHAT IT IS??
I know, right? Itās so good to see Mamoru getting the kind of attention heās due. Heās been so neglected and forgotten. š¦
King Douchedymion wakes up, Holodouchedymion disappears, and he and NQS emerge from the palace. Then we get some Family Values propaganda bullshit.
NO OKAY
NO FUCK YOU
YOU DONāT GET TO SPEND YOUR WHOLE DAMN ARC TALKING ABOUT HOW CHIBI-USA IS LONELY AND ISOLATED AND HASNāT KNOW A SHRED OF AFFECTION FROM HER MOTHER FOR NINE HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS AND THEN DRAW THIS LIKE IT RESOLVES ANY OF THAT
WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS INTENDED TO DO BECAUSE NEITHER CHIBS NOR NQS NOR ANYONE ELSE SAYS A SINGLE WORD ABOUT THE NEGLECT AND ABUSE CHIBS HAS BEEN SUFFERING LEAVING THE ONLY CONCLUSION THAT ITāS JUST NOT A CONSIDERATION TO ANYONE ANY MORE AND WEāRE GOOD
WE ARE NOT FUCKING GOOD AT ALL
And this gets even worse as things go on. Iām obviously having to rely on my translation here, which I grant is questionably accurate at best, but itās whatās in front of me right now, so.
NQS goes on to tell Chibs that what got her to wake up was Chibsā transformation into a Senshi. The conversation continues with Chibs expressing all this sadness and remorse for all the people she feels her actions indirectly killed and all the people she couldnāt protect. NQS saysĀ āItās not your fault, now letās not talk about it any more.ā NOTE THAT SHE SAYS THIS WITH PLUTOāS DEAD AND SPRAWLED BODY LIKE FIVE FEET AWAY BUT EVERYONE IS FINE WITH THAT. From here, it starts to really get to me though, because the entire exchange turns to Chibi-Usaās power.Ā āYou have powers of your own now,ā NQS says excited.Ā āWe can use our powers to protect the planet together.ā When Chibs tearfully confesses she didnāt think her mother needed her, NQS starts strong withĀ āYouāre my only daughter. Youāre precious to me.ā but then:
And it doesnāt stop there. NQS turns to the Senshi (MY GOD YOU MEAN THEYāRE THERE???) and tells them that when she ascended, sheĀ ālost almost all of [her] powers to fight as a soldierā. And some other shit I think may be translated wrong but doesnāt really matter in the grand scheme. The important part is that she tells Chibs she has to use Plutoās powers (WHICH I GUESS SHE CAN JUST DO NOW) to find Sailor Moon and Tux, and use her power to help them take Ryan down for good.
(A THING SHE HERSELF WAS UNWILLING TO DO HERSELF BY THE WAY I JUST WANT TO POINT OUT THAT SHEāS SENDING HER EIGHT YEAR OLD DAUGHTER TO KILL A DUDE SHE REFUSED TO TAKE CARE OF)
ALSO FOR SOME REASON THE INNERS CANāT ALSO GO FIGHT WHY THE FUCK DO THEY KEEP LISTENING TO EVERYONE TELLING THEM WHERE THEY CAN AND CANāT GO
Iām going to skip ahead a bit to complete my thought about NQS here, but later in the chapter she powers up the Inners with the laughableĀ āYouāll be able to fight alongside Sailor Moon with easeā like yeah, Iāll believe that when I fucking see it. She also powers up Sailor Moon from across time and space, and gives her a new brooch and toy from Bandai, AND OKAY WEāRE COMING TO MY POINT NOW.
Which is, EVERY GODDAMN THING ABOUT NQS AS SHE RELATES TO ANYONE NOT ENDYMION IS ABOUT POWER. And this CREEPS ME THE FUCK OUT. Her entire exchange with Chibi-Usa isnāt about Chibi-Usa, itās about how now Chibi-Usa can fight. The fact that she didnāt wake up until Chibs could transform upsets the shit out of me. Thereās no part of their interaction that, in a sincere way (and no I donāt count the easily tossed out āYouāre my daughter, youāre preciousā platitudeĀ as none of her interactions with Chibs over their 900 year relationship demonstrate these feelings in a way recognizable to Chibs), show NQS has any interest in Chibi-Usa whatsoever UNTIL SHE HAS POWER. She LITERALLY does not wake up and hug her daughter for what last issue suggested was the first fucking timeĀ until Chibi-Usa is a Senshi.
CREEPED. THE FUCK. OUT.
God, anyway, then Usagi and Mamoru spend five pages or something telling each other that theyāre the bestest and Mamoru is just as important and powerful as Usagi.
Because again, what does female empowering mean if notĀ āreassure the male romantic lead heās on equal footing with the titular female lead characterā.
Somewhere in the 30th century, the Senshi are filling out their resumes.
Chibs shows up, and she and Usagi destroy Planet Ryan, which is sure to send debris hurtling to Earth and upsetting the delicate climate balance that hahaha no of course not, everythingās fine.
NQS then powers up the Senshi, a move she couldnāt have done a few minutes earlier and then sending them off with Chibs to have anything at all to do with the final battle, because why, honestly. Why. Just why.
Everyone returns to Earth, and Usagi angsts a bit about not getting to meet her future self, which she canāt do because all of space and time will unravel and itāll be very bad. Neo-Queen Serenity is angsting about it herself. Itās all so sad, so very sad, so much sadder than poor dead Pluto still lying there going through various stages of rigor mortis on her first outing in about five thousand years.
THANKS FOR SHOWING ANY LINGERING REMORSE ABOUT THE DEATH OF YOUR ONLY FRIEND LITERALLY TEN MINUTES AGO
But honestly, who has time for any of that when Usagi is sad? SHE WANTED TO MEET HERSELF YOU GUYS AND ITāS HEARTBREAKING THAT SHE CANāT ITāS TRAGIC THE MOST TRAGIC THING TO HAPPEN ALL DAY, manga!Usagi is thinking to herself as she steps over Plutoās body still-warm body.
BUT FUCKING WAIT
BECAUSE NEO-QUEEN FUCKING SERENITY AFTER TALKING ABOUT HOW THEY COULDNāT POSSIBLY MEET RUNS THE FUCK UP AND STARTS CHATTING TO USAGI ANYWAY
I SCREAMED I SCREAMED SO GODDAMN LOUD WHAT IS THIS UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT
JUST THIS CONVERSATION COULD ALTER HISTORY
YOU JUST LOST LITERALLY YOUR ENTIRE CITYāS POPULATION IN A WAR AGAINST FUCKS WHO WANTED TO ALTER HISTORY
SAILOR PLUTO FUCKING DIEDĀ SO YOU COULD STOP EVERYTHING UNRAVELING
AND NEO-QUEEN SERENITY SAYS FUCK ALL OF THAT BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO SAY HELLO TO HER GODDAMN FOURTEEN YEAR-OLD SELF
A DECISION USAGI NOT ONLY SUPPORTS BUT IS DELIGHTED BY
I AM A BALLOON FILLED WITH PURE RAGE AND I JUST FUCKING POPPED
THIS IS THE MOST SELFISH SHIT I HAVE EVER SEEN
āWow, Chibs, your mumās a bitch,ā Minako says. Chibi-Usa just emphatically nods.
R A G E
Ugh, fuck, letās get this over with. Chibs is packing up and leaving, and Usagi is allĀ āYOU DONāT THINK ABOUT MY FEELINGSā, as though anyone else is allowed to have feelings to ever be considered. She goes to the park to travel home. Only Mamoru is there. I canāt even pretend to be anything but resigned at this point. But donāt worry, because the Senshi have a whole long panel!
Rei is comforting that fan club president she knew for a couple of hours! Makoto receives a hug from the guy who talks about Mamoru 98% of the time! Minako greets Motoki who looks terrified! Ami is just there because like I said back at the beginning of this arc, she has absolutely no other character at all to connect her to!
God, arenāt you bored with all this attention on the Senshi? TAKEUCHI SURE IS BUT DONāT WORRY HERE COMES MORE MAMORU AND USAGI. They talk about how their future is already planned out, and are somehow romantic and wistful about it. And then surprise! Chibi-Usa is back!
Neo-Queen Serenity will finally, after 900 years, get to see her daughter grow! God, how terrifying. HEY FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD ME PLEASE RAISE HER LIKE YOUR DAUGHTER I SPENT LIKE HALF AN HOUR WITH HER AND IT WAS TERRIBLE KTHX ā„
THE FUCKING END
Honestly, this series is the worst. Still watching Crystal because I want to see if Venus gets some shred of decent spotlight and action. Plus, I want to see the other Senshi.
Listen @keyofjetwolf I understand youāre going through a thing with the manga right now but all I could process was
Endymionās all āoh noes ultimate tabooā and then flashback Queen Serenity shows up just say āyeah do it and die no reason lololololā. āWow, Usagi, your mumās a bitch,ā Minako says, to which Usagiās only response is two viciously thrust middle fingers.Ā
As it turns out, the manga and I arenāt going to be great friends. Rather than spend the energy on a liveblog thatās increasingly negative, Iām reading each manga act (mostly) silently, and then writing up summaries at the end. Iāll be very candid, which means thereās likely criticism and snark aāplenty about the manga, either wholesale or in details. If that isnāt a thing you feel like reading, please skip this post!
Demande has decided that instead of ruling the Earth, heās going to destroy all of existence. I understand. I felt the same when my team lost the point in Overwatch the other day. WOULD IT FUCKING KILL YOU TO STAY PUT FOR THREE GODDAMN SECONDS GENJI
Everyone braces for impact, and when I sayĀ āeveryoneā meanĀ āmore versions of Mamoru than is strictly needed, but certainly not the Senshi because, shockingly, they are all knocked out again.ā
YOUāRE TWO FOR TWO LADIES
SO EMPOWERED
Bored with this plot, Pluto stops time so she can have another flashback. In it, Queen Serenity finally reveals The Third Taboo. She indicates that this taboo, which must never ever ever be broken ever is somehow more dire than the previous two taboos which must also never ever ever be broken ever. I think Queen Serenity really just liked sayingĀ āTabooā, and was playing a secret game where she tried to make as any other people say it as possible.
Tabgwooo?
At any rate, she completely sets Pluto up for failure on this, because itās possible there were a small contingent of people out there still determined to think Queen Serenity was super duper aces benevolent awesome.
YOU NEED THAT GARNET ROD FOR LITERALLY NO OTHER FUNCTION THAT WEāVE SEEN EXCEPT THIS ONE THING THAT YOU CANāT EVER DO OR YOUāLL DIE GO HAVE FUN NOW BEING AN EIGHT YEAR OLD STUCK ALONE IN A FEATURELESS LIMBO FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS DOING A JOB NO ONE ELSE CAN DO EXCEPT LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE CAN DO IT AND DONāT FORGET THE ONLY REWARD FOR USING YOUR ACCESSORY TO DO A THING YOU CAN NATURALLY DO ANYWAY IS DEATH NO REASON JUST BECAUSE I SAID SO LOL HAVE FUN PS: NO BENEFITS OR VACATION EVER BYEEE
Endymion isnāt affected by the time stop, because of course he fucking isnāt. Pluto becomes Tinkerbelle and sprinkles all the Senshi with pixie dust, which wouldnāt have been my choice if I knew I was going to have Taboo Death in like 90 seconds, but god, let Pluto have one moment for fuckās sake. THEN EVERYONE SAYS SOME VARIATION OFĀ āTIME HAS STOPPEDā LITERALLY TEN TIMES IN SEVEN PAGES YES I COUNTED THEM
DO YOU THINK EVERYTHINGāS FROZEN AND TIME HAS STOPPED I DONāT KNOW ITāS UNCLEAR
Endymionās allĀ āoh noes ultimate tabooā and then flashback Queen Serenity shows up just sayĀ āyeah do it and die no reason lololololā.Ā āWow, Usagi, your mumās a bitch,ā Minako says, to which Usagiās only response is two viciously thrust middle fingers.
Plutoās not quite done yet, though. She implores Usagi to pluck the two ginzuishous from Demande. She does. Itās really easy, and yet still somehow takes like a full page to happen. Plutoās really happy existence is saved, proving sheās a bigger person than me who would probably just beĀ āfuck all yāallā with my dying breath.Ā āI always wanted to fight at your side,ā Pluto says, in a gesture that would probably mean more if she hadnāt just met them like 48 hours ago.
As her final pre-death action, Pluto summons Tiny Kitten from the Gate of Time. And donāt get me wrong, if I had the power, I would probably cover myself in puppies and kittens on my death bed too. And I mean, legit aww here.
BUT NOW THE GATE OF TIME DOESNāT EVEN HAVE A FUCKING TINY GREY KITTEN GUARDING IT COULD IT BE ANY MORE CLEAR THAT THESE TABOOS ARE SHITE I MEAN IF IāM PLUTO IāM FUCKING FURIOUS RIGHT NOW
Also the cuteness of this scene is ruined by the fact that Pluto is spending her last living moments waxing poetic about Endymion and his purple tux no I am not remotely kidding you.
ALL INCARNATIONS OF MAMORU ARE THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST AND MOST IMPORTANT AND MEANINGFUL HOW ELSE WILL YOU KNOW THAT IF EVERY CHARACTER DOESNāT TELL YOU SO SAILOR MAMORU ON BEHALF OF LILAC HE WILL PUNISH YOU
Pluto apologies for not being able to protect Chibs and then dies. Somehow, someway, I feel Iām supposed to care about this, and yet since the story gave no fucks about Pluto, I donāt see why I should start. I mean, it wasnāt like she was Mamoru or anything.
Black Lady begins to flashback to Pluto, including a weird bit where we see her basically playing flag football and snatching one of Plutoās keys and then later wistfully saying Pluto gave her one, but okay. Chibs goes on to say she doubts her mother even likes her.
Basically at this point I am prepared to sayĀ āFuck the entire Serenity lineā. The manga has made exactly no effort to show that Chibs is wrong. I mean say what you will about the anime, but at least it made it clear that Chibsā memories were either incomplete or viewed through her own bias, and then further fucked by Wiseman. Here, the only real connection attempted between Chibs and EITHER of her parents was her running at Douchedymion and him not even bothering to try and hug her. NOT EXACTLY STRONG EVIDENCE AGAINST. And one of the only scenes weāve had with NQS comes right before this:
Neo-Queen Serenity not only questioning whether Chibs should be allowed the SINGLE FRIEND she has, but having the goddamn nerve to maintain this fuckingĀ ādutyā charade REPEATEDLY PROVEN TO BE UNNECESSARY and only trapping Pluto in a solitary and pointless existence denied even the brief occasional moment of social contact.
FUCK THE SERENITY LINE
GOD THE MANGA PISSES ME OFF
Anyway, Black Lady cries, and this turns her into Sailor Chibi-Moon somehow. I donāt fucking know. Maybe there are three ginzuishous now? Mamoru snaps out of his brainwashing too I guess. ITāS THE KIND OF CLEAR AND SUCCINCT STORYTELLING YOUāVE COME TO EXPECT.Ā Chibs tries to show Pluto her new outfit, but Plutoās still dead, and itās difficult at this point to not envy her.
Usagi gets pissed. Things are very gwooo and also a bit gwaaa.
Usagi kills Demande. Sorry, Usagi AND FUCKING MAMORU kill Demande, and Iām looking into the camera so hard right now. PS: This makes likes eight people the good guys have killed in this arc alone and so I completely understand NQSās future reluctance to kill Death Phantom and instead banish him and forget all about him after he only blew up an entire fucking city and killed untold thousands or even millions of innocent citizens.
Wiseman is revealed (again) to be Death Phantom, and I guess weāre supposed to be surprised by that. Heās also the planet, in a way that makes no sense, but whatever. Usagi vows to protect Earth. The other Senshi sayĀ āWe will too!ā Ha, just kidding, they fucked off for ice cream like three hours ago and no one noticed.
Honestly, this was hilarious to read because sadly it is very accurate
3) (THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME) The line about hugs and kisses is being mistranslated as coming from Chibiusa. Theyāre actually part of Plutoās longer, 2 page spanning line going āSmall Lady, hugs and kisses are not the only way to show love. There exists another form of love, where someone quietly watches over you from afar.ā
Thanks as always for the corrections! Though Iām not sure I see how this changes the ideas here too much. Whether itās Chibs sayingĀ ā[My mum] never hugs meā or Pluto sayingĀ āSmall Lady, thereās more to showing love than hugsā, the idea remains that NQS isnāt hugging Chibs, or showing her any kind of love in a way that an eight year old ā A NINE-HUNDRED YEAR eight year old, per the manga ā understands. I mean, in 900 years of existence, and Neo-Queen Serenity has hugged her so rarely, if at all, that Pluto has to reassure Chibi-Usa that her mother loves her in some distant, nebulous way Chibs isnāt otherwise picking up?
(This being just one of my many problems with the idea of 900 year old Chibs, by the way. I just does not hold up for me under even a tiny amount of consideration for the long term implications.)
I mean Pluto is literally the one always on duty who canāt even leave her station, and Chbi-Usa understands love and affection from her, but not her mother.
Whether itās Chibs directly making the observation here, or Pluto responding to some off-panel feelings sheās expressing, I think the results are pretty much the same. At least in my view! Mileage varies as always.
I haven’t read the manga in forever. But just saw these scenes in Crystal earlier, and honestly, this is all pretty much the same feeling I got – that Chibiusa doesn’t feel loved by her mother, nor has Serenity actually done anything to show it. Like wtf?!!
It did okay for me (accepting that the manga is never going to go to the level of characterization I really want) in the sense that I can see Chibs beingĀ āWELL AT LEAST SOMEONE WANTS MEā. I can also see it as aĀ ātheyāll miss me when Iām gone, thatāll show themā gesture, which again, works, particularly given Chibsā age. You know, sheās eight, and it seems her parents barely took time out of their week to hug her, Iām not surprised she didnāt learn about Stranger Danger.
ALSO WHO THE FUCK WAS GUARDING THE GATE BEFORE PLUTOāS SEVENTH BIRTHDAY IF ITāS SO FUCKING CRITICAL AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM THAT THE ONLY ANSWER WAS A FUCKING FIRST GRADER
Future Minako wouldāve runĀ āDeath Phantomā through and had Future Rei burn the fucking corpse and Future Ami to freeze the ashes in a thousand separate blocks and drop them into the ocean and Future Mako to bake a cake to celebrate.
I always did say Venus should have been the real heir and princess of Silver Millenium.
š„ There is beauty in destructionš„ 