“Nothing excites me more than watching fellow Guardians, sworn to protect their planet, kill each other. Countless planets have succumbed to my power, and each time, their Guardians have brought about their own doom by betraying one another. Friendship is but an illusion.”

Well hell. Here we are- several years ago, on another website, I started posting these (most of which I’d done beforehand), but that site died and they got re-posted here to SWO Productions. We’re finally at the end of the road.

So the story to this point: The Sailor Starlights arrived on Earth in search of their Princess, and finally found her… but she died, killed by Sailor Galaxia. Who turns out to be the Legendary Sailor Senshi who sealed away Chaos (all the evil of the universe), but she’s now evil herself, and harvesting the True Star Seeds from Sailors- who are resurrected stars, meant to defend the universe. Her Sailor Anima-Mates were all former Sailors who turned on their allies and slaughtered them, but they’re all dead too.

Oh, and all of Sailor Moon’s dearest friends have also been slaughtered. Her friends from the very beginning died saving the Starlights. Sailors Uranus & Neptune murdered Pluto & Saturn just for a guaranteed killshot against Galaxia… but they failed, as her own Star Seed is gone. Then they died. Oh, and Mamoru- Sailor Moon’s one true love- died in the very beginning of the season. So it’s her and the injured Starlights up against the injured Legendary Sailor Guardian.

EPISODE #199:

And then, in our penultimate episode, Sailor Galaxia talks about how she was the victor of the “Sailor Wars”, and decided that the only way to save the galaxy was to absorb Chaos within her own body. Then, years later, she realized that only she had the power to contain it, and made her move to conquer the entire galaxy until there was nothing left BUT her. Sailor Moon is like “but… the power of friendship?” pointing out that Sailors fight TOGETHER, and she should have asked others to share the burden.

Galaxia lashes out, but the Starlights do a big pose-off and their THEME SONG PLAYS again (so you know shit just got real), and they start throwing out a kaleidoscope of energy at her, actually OVERPOWERING the villain! Galaxia can bleed! Furious, she decides they must suffer for hurting her, unleashing an attack with her sword. This blasts them to hell, and she even crushes Star Fighter’s “Star Serious Laser” pendant thing, but Sailor Moon takes one look at this evil woman who’s just killed everyone close to her, including her one true love, and is like “No wait, I can purify you- let’s talk”. Oh FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, USAG– wait, this has worked before, let’s see where it goes.

So she unleashes her purifying light via the massive staff version of her wand, and bathes Galaxia in it while the Starlights coo over how warm the light is… but NOPE- Galaxia just slices the tip off the damn thing and we’re back where we started. The Starlights prepare a final sacrifice, confusing Galaxia further (“You wouldn’t understand”, they taunt- they refuse to see “such a gentle light extinguished”, and she beats them once more, but now it’s Usagi jumping in the way, opposing Galaxia’s power. She unleashes her Star Seed’s light, but Galaxia simply GRABS it, dooming her. Princess Kakyuu’s spirit now speaks to the Starlights, doing more “have hope because this is why you were born!” stuff, and…

Finally, we get our “Full Backstory”: Galaxia, upon sealing Chaos within her, realized that her “reward” was to become corrupted by Chaos, which continually grows, even inside her. So she lets out her Star Seed (hence her being immune to the Bracelets now, explaining why Uranus & Neptune’s trickery failed) and tells it to find someone who will embrace it- she thus protects it from Chaos’s power. Aaaaaaaand of course it’s Chibi-Chibi (who’s literally sat there doing NOTHING for several episodes, but was in every scene so we’d still know she was there). She shines her light, which awakens Sailor Moon, and we’ve one more episode left.

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EPISODE #200:

And now, after ALL THIS TIME, we’ve finally reached the finale! And right out of the gate Chibi-Chibi reveals herself to be the Light of Hope that Sailor Galaxia sent across the galaxy. And the Light appears before Sailor Moon, still being de-powered (you can see the pink ribbons around her and everything as her costume “disintegrates”), and empowers her into her Princess Serenity form, then transforms into a SWORD she can use to counter Galaxia’s. One is even purple and one light. But before they can open the key to Castle Greyskull, they gotta FIGHT! The Light keeps telling Sailor Moon to fight and seal Galaxia using the sword- that Galaxia was corrupted by Chaos long ago and the Light (aka Galaxia’s Star Seed) is the only thing that can stop her now, but Sailor Moon AGAIN refuses to fight.

So this is of course the crux of Usagi’s character- she doesn’t want to fight unless she HAS to- she’ll wipe out mooks by the score, but but the major villains? THOSE can be redeemed. But Galaxia ain’t having it, demands to be fought, then shatters the sword Usagi JUST GOT, leaving a battle-damaged Chibi-Chibi. Usagi apologizes to her as Galaxia/Chaos is all “the world sucks and I’ll destroy it, blah blah”, but Usagi does one of those things where she talks about even though the world is full of pain and sadness, she loves it because that’s where she was able to meet all her friends and loved ones. And when Galaxia is all “But I killed everyone you loved”, Usagi just points out what the Starlights said- “They’re never gone, so long as I have faith”.

And then we get the famous finale I recall reading about ages ago- a nude (but with Barbie anatomy and wings) Sailor Moon- nudity symbolizing purity in Japan- still resists Galaxia’s power. And she’s not only rejected the idea of using the sword to hurt Galaxia, but she reaches out “for the tiny bit of hope left in your heart”- the THEME SONG PLAYS (so you know Galaxia is proper f*cked) and the Star Seeds she’s collected rise up around her, she tries to use the sword but it SHATTERS, and the Power of Love prevails. We see her base form, as the long haired “Sailor Cosmos” (the manga term) looks at Galaxia, finally reaching through to her. “I too love this world- I love it with all of my heart”.

The Sailors touch hands and the dark Chaos form explodes, leaving Sailor Cosmos in all her hair-porn glory, and she thanks Sailor Moon.

“Chaos has gone back to where it belongs… in the hearts of everyone”.
“So it’ll happen again?” Cosmos mourns.
“Have faith. Don’t forget the Light of Hope resides in every one of us as well”.

The Star Seeds are guided back to where they belong, Cosmos thanks Usagi profusely, and she’s gone. But Usagi privately cries about how lonely she’ll be without her friends… so of course they’re all immediately resurrected, duh. And OF COURSE Mars is the first one to speak. Princess Kakyuu returns before the Starlights, too, and everyone ends up on Juuban High’s rooftop- Kakyuu and the Starlights say their goodbyes while Seiya is all “I’ll NEVER FORGET YOU” to Usagi. She’s all “Yeah, we’ll always be friends!” and everyone laughs over how naïve she is (though she OBVIOUSLY knows Seiya was into her, I guess she’s forgetting the torch is still being carried?).

Every Sailor gets one last line, Michiru responds to a shooting star by saying “I don’t need to wish for anything- I have everything I need right here” and leans into her Haruka, and Mamoru professes his love to Usagi as she repeats the narration of the very first episode (“My name is Usagi Tsukino- I’m xx years old and go to Juuban–“), updating to reflect her current age and school… and they play the ORIGINAL theme song over the closing credits, complete with pictures of the cast, as we get the happy ending the characters deserved.

And we’re out. The End. 200 episodes down, and 5-6 years of doing these reviews is over. Just wild.

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And that’s my final Sailor Moon episode recap! I’ll next post a final summation of the season and the entire series as a whole- all my thoughts and opinions on the strengths and weaknesses (of which there eventually became MANY) of the show!