There are so many great quotes in this volume I won't number them all.
Just... wow. Everything - how it all could and should end - is here.
Chaos! Cosmos! Heavenly bodies! Evil Sailor Guardians! I enjoyed every ounce of it. Why did it take me so long to express it until now?
It has always been about Sailor Moon, the Pretty Guardian in a sailor suit. She is the star. She is the hero. The manga finale reaffirms this: She alone can save the universe, and this time without her loved ones and companions, whom she had depended on for so long, and were the sole reason for her fighting up until now. Sailor Moon is Eternal, is Cosmos, a mother, a queen. The most beautiful, shining, luminescent star - Sailor Crystal - of all time. Her hope is truly immortal.
In ‘Volume 12’ we learn that Sailor Galaxia has delusions of grandeur and a god complex. She had wanted to escape her own dull planet, and collect more power from other Sailor Crystals in order to gain a mother planet of her own, and rule over the Milky Way. She learned about the birthplace of the Milky Way from Wiseman, oddly enough. Though as it turns out, Wiseman, along with all of Sailor Moon's past enemies, is a manifestation of Chaos, a failed heavenly body who controls the Galaxy Cauldron at Sagittarius Zero Star, the centre of the Milky Way. Galaxia constantly calls things she considers beneath her "scum".
Usagi firmly believes that Sailor Guardians are worth more than just the sum of their Crystals - she wants to restore her dear friends' bodies, somehow. She, Chibi-Chibi, the Sailor Star Lights, and Princess Kakyu travel to Sagittarius Zero Star for the final showdown with Galaxia; after leaving the injured Luna, Artemis and Diana with Usagi’s mother, who has a strange feeling that her daughter will never come home again...
Sailor Moon will learn the positives and negatives of both being protected and being independent. Elements from Greek mythology meet the Guardians at Sagittarius Zero Star - and Galaxia's castle. There's a tragic story of a lesbian Guardian couple; following Sailor Moon's declaration that she would willingly die if it meant that no war or conflict will cause any more suffering due to her Silver Crystal existing. The Star Lights perish easily, and Sailor Chibi-Moon and her Sailor Quartet Guardians arrive from the 30th century to save the past; thus saving their future. (There's a really funny, cathartic moment of Chibi-Chibi being introduced to Chibi-Moon). Princess Kakyu reveals herself as a Sailor Guardian (Well obviously. And couldn't she have transformed before? Like, when her Star Light protectors were killed?). She dies also, in Sailor Moon's arms.
All her Sailor Guardian friends, and Tuxedo Mask, appear... but as Galaxia's reincarnated slaves. Chibi-Moon and Chibi-Chibi use their power to protect Sailor Moon, but only she can fight - this is her solitary battle, even when her wings are torn off by those she once loved. By never giving up, and by using the Silver Crystal's fathomless power, she defeats the imposters.
Now the fight is on: Sailor Moon versus Sailor Galaxia. Galaxia mocks her opponent's trust and faith in others and their power, for one's strength can only come from oneself. Sailor Moon fights for the belief that having comrades in arms - physically and spiritually - is what it means to be a Sailor Guardian to begin with.
Galaxia leads Moon to the sanctuary and source of star seeds/heavenly bodies, the Galaxy Cauldron, which is also the home of Chaos, a Metalia/Wiseman enemy father. Galaxia throws all the Sailor Guardian Crystals into the cauldron, obliterating any chance of restoring their physical forms. With Tuxedo Mask gone, Sailor Chibi-Moon fades from existence. Things have never been so intense for Sailor Moon; Galaxia wants to get her angry, desperate and hopeless enough to pour out her maximum Silver Crystal power into the cauldron, and destroy Chaos. Galaxia plans to become the cauldron's new ruler - a god who controls life, death and rebirth.
A beaten-yet-still-loving Sailor Moon ends up saving Galaxia from Chaos, for she sees her enemy's loneliness reflected in herself. She also realises and understands all her previous foes’ wish to obtain her Silver Crystal light - to embrace it, to seek companionship in a big, dark, lonely universe. Chaos fully merges with the Galaxy Cauldron. Suspense mounts to the brim: Will Sailor Moon, the epitome of love and hope, have to take up Sailor Saturn's torch and bring death to the cauldron, and therefore all heavenly bodies, and the Milky Way?
Pointless, because conflict can never cease. Light cannot exist without darkness, and vice versa. The Galaxy Cauldron must live on, for rebirth - and therefore, hope - to carry on forever.
Sailor Moon is a hero of the universe who continues to have faith, to believe in a better future, to embrace anything, everything and everyone. Even when she says she has nothing to fight for anymore. A brave warrior, and shining star; living and struggling on in war, to no end.
"Together as one". Eternal Sailor Moon will not abandon hope for the future. Alone she enters the Galaxy Cauldron and embraces Chaos, and uses the power of all the Sailor Guardian Crystals inside - and across the Milky Way - to defeat the enemy, sacrificing herself in the process. Everyone is "regenerated" back into their heavenly bodies.
Chibi-Chibi, inspired by Sailor Moon to never give up no matter what, reveals her true form at last: She is Sailor Moon's ultimate future self, Sailor Cosmos. The Sailor Quartet acts as the audience’s stand-in as she explains her purpose. In Cosmos's future she did abandon hope, when battling the never-ending threat of Sailor Chaos. She ran away, and then revisited the past in order to fix her mistakes and stop Sailor Chaos from existing. Sailor Cosmos wanted the Galaxy Cauldron destroyed so as to prevent future conflict. But, thanks to her past self, she remembers hope, her reasons for fighting, and the Silver Crystal's good light.
Usagi, Mamoru, Chibiusa, and everyone else (I assume the cats are alive and well, as are Kakyu and the Star Lights) are together again. What a happy reunion! There is a Guardian Cosmos in the Galaxy Cauldron as well, who returns them to their old lives on earth.
The series draws to a close with Usagi and Mamoru getting married, and the conception of the future small princess of Crystal Tokyo.
The End.
Phew! Epic all around.
Other characters don't get much attention, except for Chibiusa. Old minor characters barely appear at all (Helios doesn’t show up at all, for example). But, as I've said at the start of this review, this manga has always been about Sailor Moon and the power she possesses - not just with her MacGuffin/slight deux ex machina Silver Crystal, but with her heart, her ferocious dedication to protect others, and limitless amount of hope in her battles with darkness from all across the universe. To be lent support from her loving friends and comrades. ‘Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon’ has always been an emotional journey more than anything, and the ending delivers in swirling, twinkling, teary galaxy loads!
There are two more of Naoko Takeuchi's phenomenal manga volumes left for me to review, containing short stories which don't connect to the main plots of any the series' arcs. As well as telling more fun adventures for 'Sailor Moon' fans, the stories are character studies which should make up for this finale's lack of panel time with fan favourites.
One quick note before I sign off for now: At the end, Guardian Cosmos tells Usagi that her past self, Princess Serenity, and the Silver Crystal were conceived when Queen Serenity once entered the Galaxy Cauldron with a "small heavenly body cradled to her chest". And Chaos calls Sailor Moon "my child" at one point. So it is implied that Chaos - or at least the cauldron itself with its billions of star seeds - is Princess Serenity's father. That... explains a lot, actually. It should begin many interesting reader interpretations and theories.
I love this manga/anime series, and will keep on loving it forever. As well as love, hope is the key to a brighter future.
Final Score: 5/5
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