Sailor Stars Synopsis
The First Arc: Neherenia's revenge!
The anime version of Sailor Stars is made up of two interrelated parts, (or two story-arcs if you like) . The first part has to do with the release of Neherenia, the main villain in the much derided Super S series. Her ambition in Stars seems to have more to do with taking her revenge on the senshi rather than executing any grand control-the-universe scheme. I enjoyed this arc tremendously, especially the part where the Inners and Outers are separated into unlikely pairs, with fascinating teams like Uranus and Mercury and Mars and Neptune!
What happened specifically here was that Galaxia released Neherenia, who was trapped in a mirror at
the end of Super S,(actually she went into it of her own volition at the end of that series, to preserve her youth) in order to wake up
Saturn who was just a cute lil' baby in the arms of her Dad. (the mad Prof Tomoe) Well, I don't
think Tomoe was mad by this time, just a bit of a vegetable. Soon after Setsuna shows up and takes
baby Hotaru from the formerly mad professor, who doesn't seem at all alarmed that his kid is being
taken away! -- (probably more concerned with auditioning for Forest Gump II).
Anyways, last time Neherenia saw Sailor Moon, she (SM) just jumped off her flying castle hurtling after an unconscious Sailor Chibi Moon who was thrown off by Neherania (the cad!). She assumed SM would die and she went into the mirror, she didn't know Pegasus would later come rescue them both from before they could hit the ground and become Sailor Splats! ^_- So when she saw the 5 Inner Senshi girls and screamed Blue Murder!!! -- (or words to that effect.) -- And shattered her Soul Mirror (at Galaxia's suggestion) to send the glass shards towards the earth. Unfortunately one of these landed in Mamoru's left eye (that will teach him not to look up, eyes wide open, when it's raining evil mirror shards!) Shortly after this, Hotaru, after growing from wee baby to a little girl (4 years old?) was taken to live with Setsuna, Haruka, & Michiru to protect her from a mirror paredory (Devil-Youma type thing) that was trying to kill her. Hotaru then called them "Haruka Papa, Michiru Mama, and Setsuna Mama" in an incredibly cute moment (she could teach Chibu Usa a thing or two about acceptable ways of acting cute!). That same night however, little Hotaru grew and grew to maybe around 12 or 13 years of age, and by then she knew who she really is! -- Saturn the soldier of Death, Rebirth, and Destruction! To cut a long story short, (you aren't expecting a frame by frame account I hope!) Mamoru was kind-of possessed by Neherenia's mirror (he sure gets possessed a lot since the first series on!) and then on top of that, was kidnapped! -- (that seems to happen to him a lot too! ^^;;) Usagi soon goes off to follow him alone by powering up to Eternal SailorMoon (not clear how, except she cries, and the tears fall on her brooch...) and flew straight up into the sky! Rei-chan jumped up to try to grab her legs and stop her, but alas she missed and fell flat on her face. (A definite Rei & Usagi moment!)
So the Inners combined forces with the Outers and followed by Sailor teleportation. -- (Scottie was not involved.) The 10 senshi (excluding SailorMoon) arrived at what appears to be Neherenia's very own dimension! From there out they were some how split into pairs (except Jupiter,) -- Uranus with Mercury, Neptune with Mars, Pluto with Venus, Chibi Moon with Saturn, and poor Jupiter all by herself -- (she has an important role to play here though!) Sailor Moon, dazed and confused, arrived before the others, powered down to her civilian identity. -- (probably because she used her stored powers with all that flying!) Meanwhile, Each pair of senshi fought well with their unlikely partner, and learned something from each other. Even Uranus came to respect Mercury's intellectual type of combat. As for Jupiter, she some how stumbled upon Usagi just in time to save her from a mirror paredory who had somehow put Usagi under a spell! Unfortunately, for all their efforts, each Senshi became trapped by Neherenia's mirrors all the same. Saturn came closest to blasting her away, but was unfortunately distracted by ChibiMoon. (who was about to fade away due to a time traveling paradox in connection with Mamoru and Usagi's future as a couple - like in the first Back to The Future movie.) Needless to say however, is that at the end of the arc, Usagi saved the day again of course, with her boundless goodness and generosity. Basically she showed Neherenia that she felt sorry for her, and mad Neherenia was somehow cleansed and went back to her own dimension as a little kid. -- (doesn't make much sense to me actually!) I know it sounds a bit lame but that's basically how this exciting arc ended!
But this arc is a mere warm up for the epic ahead...
The Second Arc: Galaxia!
If the first arc was a fairly straight forward tale of revenge, love and courage, the second arc is
really high concept revolving around the Sailor Wars! After the defeat (or cleansing) of Neherenia,
the Senshi went back to having relatively normal lives. Usagi is miserable because Mamoru is leaving
to study in the USA for a year! But around that same time frame the excitement picks up as the Three
Lights appear on the scene! They seem to be enjoying a popularity of Spice Girls proportions! The
Inner girls were ecstatic as they suddenly enrolled at their high school, Juuban High! (not Rei's
T.A Private Girls' Only School -- and unfortunately this is not to be Rei's series! :-( Now, what
nobody knew at the time, was that the idols, the Three Lights, are actually Sailor senshi whose
secret identities are those of the Sailor Star Lights!
- Seiya Kou is Sailor Star Fighter (good name!)
- Taiki Kou is Sailor Star Maker (never seen him make anything!)
- Yaten Kou is Sailor Star Healer (never seen him heal anything!)
The Sailor Star Lights have a secret agenda, which is to find their long lost princess from their
distant planet. Meanwhile this is going on, Seiya (Sailor Star Fighter) seems to have developed an
instant attraction to Usagi, and even took to calling her "Odango" (often without the "attama"
part!) all the time. Initially the Sailor Star Lights and the Inner and Outer Senshi were
mistrustful of each other, except for Sailor Moon who, of course, trusts everybody! ^^;; In fact
Haruka took an instant dislike to Seiya for flirting with both Usagi and Michiru! (Michiru of
course, knew how to say no! ^_-)
Very soon after the Three Lights' arrival on earth, Galaxia began to despatch her animamates
(basically her henchgirls) to collect all the many star seeds that she knows to be there. From this
point on we get into the routine of each animamate stealing unwanted star seeds from innocent
people, turning them into monsters, which are then neutralized by the Sailor Star Lights (usually),
and lastly cleansed by Sailor Moon. Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto make the occasional "guest
appearance" during this time as well. After a few episodes of the battle routine, ChibiChibi floats
down from the sky a la Mary Poppins, and she eases herself into Usagi's family much the same way as
Chibi Usa did before her! -- (ie by hypnotizing the entire Tsukino family - Usagi's reaction to this
was priceless!). More monsters and animamates appear are all dispatched. Usagi during this time
becomes more and more miserable as Mamoru never replied to any of her letters, which she would write daily.
Princess Kakyuu (who the Star Lights have been searching for) also eventually shows up but
was quickly killed off by Galaxia who gleefully takes her star seed. By the time we get into the
last 6 episodes or so of the series Usagi is downright melancholy and the show takes on an unusually
dark tone.
Things became very tense and "edge of the seat" as Galaxia finally deigned to do her own dirty work! She began in a spectacular fashion by blasting away the much sought after Princess Kakyuu and taking her star seed! Soon after that she wiped out four of the Inner Senshi (with the exception of Sailor Moon of course!) with a mere flick of the wrist! -- (Look out for a highly emotional scene between the dying (again!) Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon (in fact they addressed each other as Rei-chan and Usagi during that scene. Another one for the Rei & Usa fans!!!)
As suspected, Galaxia's powers turned out to be immense! She shrugged off ALL the Outers concerted
attacks, and even stopped and broke Uranus' sword with two fingers! The Outers last desperate
measure forced them to go out in an even more spectacular fashion! Pluto and Saturn were killed by
*GASP!* fellow Outers Uranus and Neptune! (Actually, it was part of a secret plan by Uranus and
Neptune who knew Pluto and saturn would have been killed by Galaxia anyway!) So Uranus & Neptune
forced themselves to do the killing to convince Galaxia to give them the power-bracelets! -- Which
they then turned on Galaxia!.... Alas, to their misfortune, Galaxia didn't have a star seed anymore!
-- And she laughed off their efforts while admiring them a little for being the only senshi able to
resist the bracelets!
(I will explore this plan of Uranus and Neptune in more details in the characters page). The Outers' demise left only Sailor Moon, the Sailor Star Lights (looking rather messed up,) and little ChibiChibi. The Star Lights all agreed to stand by Sailor Moon and fight to the death.
All hope seems lost, when suddenly ChibiChibi surprised everyone by literally turning into SailorMoon's weapon: a sword no less! The arrival of this magic sword also triggered Usagi's Princess Serenity transformation. True to form, Usagi-Princess Serenity refused to fight a fellow Sailor Senshi, no matter what. Unfortunately this led to her new sword being broken, and the death of Chibi Chibi! -- I won't describe how Galaxia became totally consumed by Chaos and transformed into a devilish batty creature, suffice it to say that Usagi saved the day again with her infinite capacity for love, compassion and forgiveness. She "defeated" Galaxia very much the same way she did Neherenia: by recognizing the Good still buried within their souls.-- Galaxia became "good" after Usagi drove Chaos away with her sheer niceness! As a result, all the star seeds Galaxia horded were released and the dead Inner and Outer Senshi came back to life. -- (The first to greet her was Sailor Mars of course!) So, everybody was happy, Haruka and Michiru especially! Princess Kakyuu also returned to life and so Seiya and the Starlights said goodbye to Usagi. The series closed with the excellent "Moonlight Densetsu," the opening theme song from the previous three series and some never seen before still pictures...
The End of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon (forever?)
- The ep200 Zone My special synopsis and review of the last SM episode ever.
- Hitoshi Doi's Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon page
- The Everchanging Sailormoon Gateway
SM Zone | Sailor Mars Zone | SM Toolbox | Anime Zone