Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 7 Episodes 196-200

It’s all come down to this and the stakes have never been higher.  Facing an enemy that dwarfs their powers and has the ability to corrupt their strongest members, the Sailor Senshi seem to be in for a hopeless battle against Sailor Galaxia herself.  As the brave girls fall one by one, it’s up to Usagi, Chibi Chibi and the Sailor Starlights to join their remaining strength together for one last desperate gamble.  Will Sailor Moon be able to save her friends and maybe even Sailor Galaxia’s soul in the process?  And how will Usagi react when she learns of Mamoru’s fate?  The final battle has begun.

Before we kick off this Series Finale, Merry Christmas from me and the Gundam Anime Corner.  It’s kind of fitting as far as scheduling goes that I should be covering the final episodes of Sailor Moon on this day, at the end of a near year long journey (that sort of began back in Summer 2022 when I looked at Season One).  As such, this review is a pretty big deal.  After five seasons, Sailor Moon reaches its grand climax and it is the biggest one, a very endgame level event.  Its time for Usagi and the others to shine the brightest and face the ultimate enemy in a battle for the ages…so why the hell is this finale a completely frustrating, depressing and borderline cruel series of episodes until the very last one?  Sailor Stars has been mostly phenomenal but these final episodes left me feeling not quite empty but not quite as blown away as I’d hoped.  Why is this such a mixed bag (especially coming out on a happy holiday like Christmas?)
 
Last time, the stage was properly set for a pretty apocalyptic final battle for the Sailor Senshi.  Princess Kakyu was killed and the city was under siege by Galaxia’s overwhelming power.  The ending wastes no time getting everyone to Ginga TV and to the final stage that is Galaxia’s throne room.  Galaxia’s power has never been properly displayed until now but she’s definitely got a threat level like no other, at first glance anyway.  This stylish looking hottie has the power of an entire galaxy at her finger tips, so no way would it be an easy feat to take her down.  It seems impossible and yeah the finale takes that concept and takes it maybe a bit to literally.  Galaxia is way too OP, to the point where nothing can touch her and only the most powerful and desperate attacks can make her bleed, and even then that’s fixed quickly.  I’ve always had a problem with Big Bads like this.  Shonen shows especially like to drag out big battles like this to show off how powerful they are and make it seem like there’s no hope for the good guys to win.  Plus, the longer it keeps going on, the more Galaxia’s megalomaniacal schtick and penchant for over the top villainous laughter begins to get old pretty quick.  After a while, she’s just toying with the rest of the Senshi out of spite because she wants bragging rights.  While we do learn about her tragic origins, compared to Queen Nehelenia, Galaxia doesn’t hold a candle.  It’s a pretty disappointing display to another villainous with such potential that only sees her devolve into a generic “THE UNIVERSE IS MINE” cliché of a villain.
 
As if to prove a point as to how strong Galaxia is, all of the Senshi are dealt with pretty swiftly.  On the one hand, ok its important to show how outmatched the girls are.  But when Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus are snuffed out of existence without even getting a chance to fight themselves, it’s hugely disappointing.  This is the Final Battle, the Series Finale, the capstone to five seasons worth of character work…and four of your five major characters since the series beginning don’t get to do anything besides die in order to push Usagi forward? At least in Season One when they all died, Rei, Ami, Mako and Minako got to go out in blazes of glory like the bad asses they are.  Even Pluto and Saturn, arguably the strongest of the group, are taken out fairly easily.  Granted that has to do with Uranus and Neptune sinking back to their Season Three ways and pretending to be Galaxia’s servants just to get a shot at taking down Galaxia themselves…it goes about as well as you think and, as I frequently quote Tony Stark from The Avengers “Not a great plan.”  Uranus and Neptune’s death scene tries to tug on the heart strings as they feel repentant for their stupid decision but again, hard to sympathize with stupidity and the fact that they got more to do in this finale than the Inner Senshi.
 
The reason for this quick whittling down of the ranks was two fold.  The first was to push Usagi to more extremes than every before.  The second was to put the Starlights front and center like the entire season has done and see them try to redeem themselves for letting their home planet die without much of a fight.  Taiki and Yaten have been treating everyone so poorly for a while now, so I could honestly care less about them at this point.  Even their sudden realization that the Inner Senshi weren’t the hinderences they made them out to be feels like a “What? Noooo” moment.  Seiya still rocks and I’m glad they’ve been a strong pillar for Usagi to lean on all season long.  Still, they got more to do against Galaxia than anyone, even Usagi herself.  They may be the center stars of the Season but I cant emphasize this enough, EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE HAD A HAND IN FIGHHITNG GALAXIA, NOT JUST THOSE THREE!!!
 
Usagi spent much of the finale screaming and crying and begging Galaxia to look inside whatever amount of heart she had left to stop it.  The more Usagi refused to fight though, the worse it got for everyone and everything around her.  Now, this is true to Usagi’s character.  She doesn’t like fighting and would rather appeal to the light in any and all hearts, no matter how dark they’ve become.  The reveal that Galaxia was the Senshi who sealed away Chaos in her heart gave Usagi more need to reach out to her to save her without killing her.  The finale did drag this wish out and the final battle for so long it became kind of repetitive as Usagi tried to reach Galaxia and Galaxia retaliated by causing large scale destrutction and almost killing everyone while the Starlights took more damage trying to keep Usagi from being hurt.  Am I glad Usagi’s way worked in the end?  Of course I am.  The Series Finale put Usagi at her most vulnerable and helpless with her friends dead and even learning Mamoru’s been dead for months now.  Rather than sink into the total despair that kind of loss should bring, she bet everything on a tiny bit of Galaxia’s heart still being reachable.  It’s was a helluva bet and we had to endure a lot of character deaths, screaming and emotional turmoil to get there but we got there.  Am I proud of Usagi, always.  Still don’t think this was a great finale though.
 
While the final scenes of the final episode finally give us back some of that loveable charm and warmth as the Senshi bid farewell to Kakyu and the Starlights, the overall feel of the Series Finale was frustrating and drawn out.  The more damage Galaxia brought, the more you wondered how much longer was the show going to keep punishing us like this.  All the Senshi dead.  Usagi trying not to fight and the Starlights taking hit after hit while Galaxia prattled on and on and cackled just as much.  Past finales have had some of this but you could feel a sense of hope building towards the ending: like Usagi never losing faith in Sailor Saturn in Sailor Moon S or even Usagi ignoring Nehelania so she could leap off her palace to save Chibiusa in Sailor Moon SuperS (btw Chibiusa was totally absent from the entire arc save for a fake dream sequence during the Galaxia battle.  Other than that, she’s been entirely gone the Nehelania battle).  Here, you feel the hope dwindling and by the time the theme music kicks in and Usagi is still being tortured by Galaxia as the final blow is about to be struck, I just felt kind of depressed.  I knew everything was going to be restored in the end but even so, there was a chance this ending would go full End of Evangelion and that’s not the ending I’d envision for Sailor Moon.  We did get a happy ending but the road to get there was fraught with hardship that we all had to endure alongside Usagi.  Honestly, I expected something a bit more uplifting.  It didn’t help that every instance anyone had to one up Galaxia got crushed near instantly.  That’s just unfair.
 
Well, as you can see I have some mixed feelings about this Finale.  While the undeterred heart of Usagi Tsukino won out in the end like it always does, it was still pushed so close to being broken and the more it was, the more mad I got at how the show was treating her.  Killing off the Senshi and needlessly making Haruka and Michiru do a fake betrayal never sat well with me as the girls deserved more of a proper final battle at the end of their own series.  Could they be killed off?  Sure but at least have them do something other than die hopeless deaths just to make Usagi suffer some more. Galaxia’s origin story comes a little too late to redeem her from being a generic villain with a great sense of fashion and I never felt like Taiki and Yaten earned their coming to their senses moment when they’ve been jerks all season long compared to the more open minded and selfless Seiya.  All of this comes off of a season that has been the strongest overall thanks to a renewed focus on the Inner Senshi, some well done drama for Usagi and some much needed return to humor that made sense rather than being forced and done in a way that made the characters look stupid.  We even got awesome redos for Uranus, Neptune and Queen Nehelenia before the Starlights even took to the stage.  Overall, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars works hard to undo the mistakes of past seasons and give the Senshi a proper threat for their Final Season.  The final battle itself was needlessly bleak and took too long to resolve itself but until then, everything was kind of perfect and I had very little negative to say about things.  Still, I’ve gotta say it was my favorite season of the show for the most part and strong(ish) finish to one of the greatest Magical Girl Anime ever made, even if the mistakes of the finale are evident.
 
9/10 

Whew, so as I did with Slayers, let’s tally up the scores for all seasons, shall we?
Sailor Moon-7.5/10
Sailor Moon R-7.5/10
Sailor Moon R: The Movie-8/10
Sailor Moon S-8.5/10
Sailor Moon S: The Movie-5/10
Sailor Moon SuperS-3/10
Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie-7/10
 
And Finally, I award Sailor Moon Sailor Stars a 9/10
 
Whew, this was an endeavor but a worthwhile one.  This is, after all, the Magical Girl Anime that wrote the book on Magical Girl Anime.  Everyones character arc was strong and resolved at some point in Sailor Stars.  The villains were hit and miss but those who did stand out, stood out in the best way possible.  Usagi consistently grew into a beautiful, brave and kind hearted champion whose heart could never be diminished or conquered, no matter who tried.  This was also the first time I not only watched all of Sailor Moon in its entirety but also in its original, unedited, non Toonami format.  So I was seeing everything properly for the very first time and wow, it’s a whole different show and a better one.  There are highs and lows from the bulk of Sailor Stars to the completely forgettable (and ignorable) SuperS and even the movies had their merits beyond being simple Shojou insert films.  This was one journey well worth taking and now I know for a fact why Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, Sailor Chibi Moon, Sailor Pluto, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn and Sailor Chibi Chibi, all deserve their rightful places in the halls of Anime Legends.  Sailor Moon is Queen of the Magical Girl Anime Genre and as the old saying goes, “Hail to the Queen, baby”.
 
And that, Dear Readers, concludes the Year of Sailor Moon.  BUT Usagi Tsukino will return this coming summer as our Extended Summer Series Review looks at the epic franchise reboot/abridged series.  Can a new Series and two sets of two part movies make what I just watched better?  Find out when Sailor Moon returns in Sailor Moon Crystal, Sailor Moon Eternal & Sailor Moon Cosmos, July 2024 right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
 
(Quick note: While I def want to do this, it also depends on when presumably Netflix wants to become the Steaming home of Sailor Moon Cosmos.  Fingers crossed but I’ll have to think of a Plan B just incase.  See ya in 2024 everyone).