What If the Doom Tree Arc Were Part of the Manga?

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Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#1
One of the things that makes the Doom Tree arc so special is that it's entirely unique to the 90s anime, being the only story arc not based on/inspired by the manga. But what if that weren't the case? What if the Doom Tree arc had been part of the manga? What would it have looked like had it been written by Naoko? What would be the same, what would be different?

Ail & En
Certainly I don't think these two would have looked the same had they been designed by Naoko. Most likely she would have based their designs off of contemporary runway looks. Perhaps Mugler Spring 1992?
Also, their names would have been different. "Ail & En" doesn't exactly follow Naoko's naming pattern for her villains. Had she done the Doom Tree arc as a lighthearted side story or mini-arc (a la the Pet Chapters in Sailor V) she might have named them after botanical terminology (Xylem and Phloem perhaps, or maybe Stamen and Pistil), but if she had done it as a normal, full-length, 10-14 chapter arc, she likely would have given them mineral names, perhaps picking minerals named after plants (Heliotrope [bloodstone] and Hyacinth [sapphire] perhaps?). And, if she had done it as a full-length arc, there probably would have been a handful of other Doom Tree aliens, too.

Moonlight Knight
Given the way the Dark Kingdom arc ended, it seems unlikely the Moonlight Knight would have appeared in a manga version of the arc.

Power Ups
The anime gave the Inners each a unique new attack. Would Naoko have come up with the same new attacks? Different new attacks? Or would she have kept the girls using the same attacks from the DK arc?

Chibiusa
Assuming Naoko would have ended the DK arc in the same way and done the Doom Tree arc before jumping into the Black Moon Clan arc, there's the question of how Chibiusa would figure into the story to be considered. In the second art book, Naoko mentions that early on she had an idea that Chibiusa would have alien friends - perhaps that idea could have been realized in a manga Doom Tree arc. While traveling to the 20th Century, Chibiusa encounters a couple of aliens who have lost their home. Depending on whether or not the Doom Tree would have actually been evil, they could either be Ail & En's fellow aliens who have just gotten separated from them, or they could be the sole survivors of another planet that was destroyed by the Doom Tree. In either case, it would be up to Chibiusa and the Sailors to help restore them to their missing families.

What do the rest of you guys think? Like my ideas? Hate them? Share your own! And: Would you be interested in Naoko doing her own take on the Doom Tree arc now, perhaps as a 30th Anniversary one-shot assuming she ever gets around to writing more manga? Or what about some other adaptation (musical, USJ event, etc) that tried to fit the arc into the manga's continuity?
 

Nadia

Aurorae Lunares
Jun 30, 2010
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#4
This is a very thought-provoking question.

I definitely imagine the looks, the names, and the motivations of the characters would be so different that you would hardly be able to call them the same characters. I'm not even going to try to come up with any sort of design.

I don't believe this would be part of the main manga, but only a side story. I can't imagine Takeuchi breaking up her own manga for a pair of aliens, especially since there was no need for the girls to be re-activated in the manga.

I can imagine that the main plot would be for this magical tree that would appear out of nowhere would come to Earth, and for people to become in awe of the tree and begin to water it. However, the tree itself would begin to grow at the expense of first the plant life around it and then people would come up missing. Eventually it would bear fruit, and from that special fruit would appear manga!Ail and manga!En. There would be no love-square, and the aliens would disguise themselves as the missing people. There would be more literal pod aliens more that would come forth as the Tree says on Earth to talk over this. Endymion would also ave a critical role as the protector of dreams.

I'll say this, though. If she did her take on the Doom Tree aliens now, it would be so heavily influenced by the anime that it would be completely different from her original ideas and probably would be a manga adaptation of the Doom Tree. Because it would likely be a one-shot, then the shenanigans of the arc would be lost. On the other hand, this would be our one and only chance to get an official Sailor Makaiju.
 
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Sep 6, 2014
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#6
En wouldn’t care about Mamoru. But would have some lesbian subtext with Usagi

Usagi would have a breakdown for “cheating on Mamoru” when Ail hits on her and kisses her without her consent

No redemption for Ail and En, Moon would probably vaporize them with Moon Princess Halation

Since energy sucking was more of a Toei thing Ail and En would probably just siphon the life out of people to strengthen the Makai tree

The Guardian Senshi would likely get different attacks or at least Venus and Mercury probably would. Venus didn’t use Crescent Beam in the manga outside of the Sailor V manga so I can’t see her randomly using an upgraded version in the manga and Mercury didn’t use bubbles in the manga.
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#7
We all know that Naoko loves her some Greek mythology, and since there are multiple myths about people turning into trees, perhaps manga!Ail and En's plan would be to turn Earth into some sort of evil forest planet by changing all the humans into trees?

They also probably would have had some sort of magic crystal. Beryl had the Dark Crystal, the BMC had the Black Crystal, the Death Busters had the Taioron Crystal, the Amazones Quartet had their Gems, Galaxia had the Saffer Crystal, and Kaguya had her own (unnamed?) crystal, so Ail & En no doubt would have had some sort of crystal too. (Maybe the "Phoenix Crystal," named for both the mythical bird and the mineral Phoenicite, itself named after the date palm whence the phoenix also derives its name?)

Venus's "Crescent Beam Shower" attack isn't so different from her "Love Crescent Shower" attack in the Sailor V manga, which makes me wonder if the anime staff based it on that? It would be interesting to know what involvement (if any) Naoko had with the Doom Tree arc. Obviously she didn't design Ail & En (if she had, the design sheets would have been in the Materials Collection), but maybe she contributed or at least was consulted on other aspects of the arc, like Ail's flute playing, or maybe even the Cardians.
 

Seira Hazuki

Solaris Luna
Jan 17, 2007
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#8
As others mentioned, I have a hard time seeing Naoko having come up with most of the Ail & En arc on her own because the concepts don't really gel with her sense of aesthetics and world building.

HOWEVER, I low key could have seen her doing a one shot parody of this arc similar in the vein of the stories featuring the Genii Loci. The plot would be significantly rewritten with Ail and En* as "guardian spirits" of the Makaiju, an extraterrestrial species of trees. Their mission would be to grow the Makaiju on Earth and they'd pose as shopkeepers selling brainwashing bonsai trees that steal energy or something like that. Also maybe Ail could pose as the Moonlight Knight as Tuxedo Kamen's rival?

*Since the Genius Locii don't follow the gemstone naming scheme and are just puns, Ail and En would fit right in.
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#9
If Naoko wrote Ail & En as genii loci, they wouldn't be aliens, so their names would still have to be changed to a different pun. They'd probably be the guardian spirits of some incredibly ancient tree in Tokyo (perhaps one that was planted by a witch and has some kind of curse or enchantment on it) that some nefarious land developer wants to chop down, causing Ail & En to be disturbed and driven into action. Like you suggested, they'd probably pose a shopkeepers and sell some kind of brainwashing plant that would cause humans to vandalize buildings (basically the story would become the ecological equivalent of the Beware of Tanabata side story).
 
Sep 13, 2008
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In the shadows throwing roses at you
#10
as everything centers on Usagi x Chiba more so in the manga than any other version [to the point where even inners feel back ground] I wouldn't see either trying to go after them in a way that stirs things up, that's what haruka michiru were for in Infinity and even then it was more of a tease in that sense unless we ignore that cause by this time it didn't happen yet and play it up here instead

cardians would be a generic one type monster i.e. one design everytime one or even a group appears per act and not the cool designs seen in the 90s

I doubt they would be redeemed in the end

I would imagine there would be some interesting details for moonlight knight character development since he is chiba and the manga will cater to that over others, which is the one version of chiba in the 90s I actually like

inners one time attacks from the 90s maybe used until the official upgrades they get in Black Moon


I would also imagine the arc would be more mature than the 90s counterpart

and another reason I wish this arc was true canon is that this should have been the real test of their romance for Usagi and chiba i.e. losing memory and Usagi trying to get him to remember and chiba as moonlight knight watching over her with no thoughts himself remembering what he's been doing as moonlight knight until the last ep which would eliminate the stupid break up arc in the 90s R black moon since they already tested that here so toei would need another thing to filler out while they wait for Naoko's next act
 
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Nadia

Aurorae Lunares
Jun 30, 2010
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#11
I'm warming up to this idea of Ail and En as dryads or kodama instead of actual aliens or alien invaders, as essentially they might as well been in the old anime. The only extraterrestrial aspect of them was their origin; they easily could be members of the Fair Folk and the arc could play out nearly the same way.

However, there has to be some horror aspect to their attack or it wouldn't be Sailor Moon.
 
Sep 10, 2012
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The Void
#12
If the arc did run on manga, then the aliens could be considered interim villains, since they would have not association to Chaos like the other villains (excluding the side story bad guys). It seems like all the big bads have some connection to darkness, including Chaos itself, but the aliens didn't seem to have that type of connection in their domain, so that's why I'd think they wouldn't be associated with Chaos.