As it turns out, the manga and I aren’t going to be great friends. Rather than spend the energy on a liveblog that’s increasingly negative, I’m reading each manga act (mostly) silently, and then writing up summaries at the end. I’ll be very candid, which means there’s likely criticism and snark a’plenty about the manga, either wholesale or in details. If that isn’t a thing you feel like reading, please skip this post!
Demande has decided that instead of ruling the Earth, he’s 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 say “everyone” mean “more versions of Mamoru than is strictly needed, but certainly not the Senshi because, shockingly, they are all knocked out again.”
YOU’RE 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 saying “Taboo”, 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 it’s 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 WE’VE SEEN EXCEPT THIS ONE THING THAT YOU CAN’T EVER DO OR YOU’LL 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 DON’T 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 isn’t affected by the time stop, because of course he fucking isn’t. Pluto becomes Tinkerbelle and sprinkles all the Senshi with pixie dust, which wouldn’t 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 fuck’s sake. THEN EVERYONE SAYS SOME VARIATION OF “TIME HAS STOPPED” LITERALLY TEN TIMES IN SEVEN PAGES YES I COUNTED THEM
DO YOU THINK EVERYTHING’S FROZEN AND TIME HAS STOPPED I DON’T KNOW IT’S UNCLEAR
Endymion’s all “oh noes ultimate taboo” and then flashback Queen Serenity shows up just say “yeah do it and die no reason lolololol”. “Wow, Usagi, your mum’s a bitch,” Minako says, to which Usagi’s only response is two viciously thrust middle fingers.
Pluto’s not quite done yet, though. She implores Usagi to pluck the two ginzuishous from Demande. She does. It’s really easy, and yet still somehow takes like a full page to happen. Pluto’s really happy existence is saved, proving she’s a bigger person than me who would probably just be “fuck all y’all” with my dying breath. “I always wanted to fight at your side,” Pluto says, in a gesture that would probably mean more if she hadn’t just met them like 48 hours ago.
As her final pre-death action, Pluto summons Tiny Kitten from the Gate of Time. And don’t 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 DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING TINY GREY KITTEN GUARDING IT COULD IT BE ANY MORE CLEAR THAT THESE TABOOS ARE SHITE I MEAN IF I’M PLUTO I’M 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 DOESN’T 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 I’m supposed to care about this, and yet since the story gave no fucks about Pluto, I don’t see why I should start. I mean, it wasn’t 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 Pluto’s 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 say “Fuck the entire Serenity line”. 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 Chibs’ 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 we’ve 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 fucking “duty” 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 don’t fucking know. Maybe there are three ginzuishous now? Mamoru snaps out of his brainwashing too I guess. IT’S THE KIND OF CLEAR AND SUCCINCT STORYTELLING YOU’VE COME TO EXPECT. Chibs tries to show Pluto her new outfit, but Pluto’s still dead, and it’s 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 I’m 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 NQS’s 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 we’re supposed to be surprised by that. He’s also the planet, in a way that makes no sense, but whatever. Usagi vows to protect Earth. The other Senshi say “We will too!” 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
I always thought the animé version of Black Lady/Wicked Lady was much more powerfully done. That moment when she visualizes the Senshi around her, “it’s all your fault, you’re to blame” is heartbreaking. I feel like Chibs in the manga should have been more questioning of Wise Man rather than just accepting his hand.
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 being ‘WELL AT LEAST SOMEONE WANTS ME”. I can also see it as a “they’ll miss me when I’m gone, that’ll show them” gesture, which again, works, particularly given Chibs’ age. You know, she’s eight, and it seems her parents barely took time out of their week to hug her, I’m not surprised she didn’t learn about Stranger Danger.
Future Minako would’ve run “Death Phantom” 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.
I KNOW. I accept the translation correction, but jesus wept, it just makes everything that much worse to me. I mean fuck, Rei awakened as Sailor Mars on one page, and was LITERALLY ALREADY KILLING JADEITE before the end of the next. The first thing she does is summon Phobos and Deimos, and the next thing she does is roast a dude alive. SHE DOESN’T EVEN NEED PHOBOS AND DEIMOS TO DO IT I ASSUME SHE JUST INVITED THEM OVER TO WATCH.
Then fast-forward a thousand years, and we have Death Phantom/Wiseman who (assuming correct translation) DESTROYED THE ENTIRE CITY, killing gods only know how many people, and Neo-Queen Serenity’s just “oh I don’t know, I don’t want to think about it, let’s just send him somewhere else”. I mean you’d think maybe the Senshi might’ve been “Yeah, sure, leave it to us” and then fucking killed the guy anyway. NQS clearly had no intention of thinking about him the second she sent him away, so how would she know?
WHICH BY THE WAY HOW INTERESTING A STORY WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN DEATH PHANTOM RETURNING FOR REVENGE AND NQS LIKE “WTF WE BANISHED YOU” AND THE GIRLS LIKE “UHM YEAH ABOUT THAT”
This keeps making me think about how irritated I was by Episode 200, though, where Usagi’s just like “Oh I’m sure this’ll be fine, bye now!” NO IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. As the only person with any power to make them stop fucking murdering – which can assume NQS must be, since the only account we get is centered around her feelings and actions – then it’s AT MINIMUM her responsibility to make sure they don’t do it again. If her conscience demanded she banish Wiseman, then her conscience should have fucking demanded she know where he was and what he was doing at all times. Instead, she called it job done and went for a beer.
That’s the part I’m really struggling with. It’s so unbelievable irresponsible, and I just KNOW there won’t be any repercussions from it.
🔥 There is beauty in destruction🔥 