-
This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn more.
Most of the discussion on the manga has always been theorizing about its many undeveloped elements, so it is demonstrably part of why it remains in people's minds, and compared to the other arcs, Stars is the one that has the most underdeveloped elements and the most references to previous underdeveloped elements, so it's the one that shows up the most when talking about them.
You can analyze it any way you want, be satisfied with it or not, but it is there and that's all that's needed for you to get why others would prefer it. Like I've said several times now, if something in the manga doesn't work for you that doesn't mean it ceases to exist or you get to act as if it doesn't count, it's still there and it will work for others.
The story opens with a flashback to the Dream kiss and to the star speech, the star seeds reference that speech and Dream's crystals, the idea of other Sailors existing was introduced in Dream with the Quartet, Tin Nyanko and Lead Crow reference the cats and the crows being humanoid aliens in Dream, Wiseman from Black Moon directs Galaxia to Chaos, the Silver Crystal attracting evil has a flashback to Black Moon, the castles appear after being mentioned in Dream, the Sailor Power Guardians are from Dream, Chaos being the origin of all previous villains has flashbacks to all previous arcs, Chaos and Sailor Moon having the same origin references Nehelenia's flashback in Dream, there's a flashback to Sailor Saturn in Infinity when Usagi thinks about destroying the Cauldron, Queen Serenity in the Cauldron explains how Usagi was born after the past Dark Kingdom fallout, the wedding ending shows how Usagi puts history on track to the future from Black Moon, and I might be missing more but this is already plenty.
I know most of that doesn't work for you, and objectively most of it is very underdeveloped, but all of it is still there to attempt to give the manga a feeling of payoff from previous arcs. I've yet to see anyone argue against this without factoring in personal preference to dismiss all these references. The anime had almost no story references to previous seasons and you need to analyze character arcs (or just plain make up line meanings, as someone else did in this thread) to give it that overreaching feeling, so it is different.
From your comment I get you're more puzzled about why some fans hype up Dream and Stars' quality, but I'm trying to not bring assessment of quality into this. If you ask my opinion, both the manga and 90s anime are massively overrated by certain fans, and they only work when they appeal to the fans' charm or imagination.
Still waiting on the 90s manga data, I've only seen the average ratings for the 90s anime season at Tuxedo Unmasked and Toei's data for Crystal I shared at the start of this thread.
You can analyze it any way you want, be satisfied with it or not, but it is there and that's all that's needed for you to get why others would prefer it. Like I've said several times now, if something in the manga doesn't work for you that doesn't mean it ceases to exist or you get to act as if it doesn't count, it's still there and it will work for others.
The story opens with a flashback to the Dream kiss and to the star speech, the star seeds reference that speech and Dream's crystals, the idea of other Sailors existing was introduced in Dream with the Quartet, Tin Nyanko and Lead Crow reference the cats and the crows being humanoid aliens in Dream, Wiseman from Black Moon directs Galaxia to Chaos, the Silver Crystal attracting evil has a flashback to Black Moon, the castles appear after being mentioned in Dream, the Sailor Power Guardians are from Dream, Chaos being the origin of all previous villains has flashbacks to all previous arcs, Chaos and Sailor Moon having the same origin references Nehelenia's flashback in Dream, there's a flashback to Sailor Saturn in Infinity when Usagi thinks about destroying the Cauldron, Queen Serenity in the Cauldron explains how Usagi was born after the past Dark Kingdom fallout, the wedding ending shows how Usagi puts history on track to the future from Black Moon, and I might be missing more but this is already plenty.
I know most of that doesn't work for you, and objectively most of it is very underdeveloped, but all of it is still there to attempt to give the manga a feeling of payoff from previous arcs. I've yet to see anyone argue against this without factoring in personal preference to dismiss all these references. The anime had almost no story references to previous seasons and you need to analyze character arcs (or just plain make up line meanings, as someone else did in this thread) to give it that overreaching feeling, so it is different.
From your comment I get you're more puzzled about why some fans hype up Dream and Stars' quality, but I'm trying to not bring assessment of quality into this. If you ask my opinion, both the manga and 90s anime are massively overrated by certain fans, and they only work when they appeal to the fans' charm or imagination.
Still waiting on the 90s manga data, I've only seen the average ratings for the 90s anime season at Tuxedo Unmasked and Toei's data for Crystal I shared at the start of this thread.
Cosmos and Sailor Chaos were created by Usagi jumping to the Cauldron, which makes Black Moon a parallel timeline already.
Likes:
sailormoongalaxy
I think it's fair to say that Sailor Stars (90s) did a solid job wrapping up Usagi's character arc as the final season (and I really enjoyed reading your analysis on it, @Al Evans!). Even the subtle callbacks to the Dark Kingdom finale do a great job of highlighting Usagi's growth throughout the '90s anime—setting SuperS aside
However, for fans like me who feel like Sailor Stars doesn’t quite land as a “final season,” a lot of it comes down to how low-stakes much of the season feels. The Monster of the Day formula was inevitable, but the issue isn’t the formula itself—it’s the way it was executed, particularly in relation to the season’s MacGuffin.
The cycle of a star seed going blank, turning into a Phage, and then Eternal Sailor Moon healing them works on a thematic level, especially because it ties into her eventual healing of Galaxia in the finale. But the problem is, it comes at the cost of any real tension. Compare that to Sailor Moon S. In hindsight, it’s easy to point out that the introduction of Pure Heart Crystals marked the start of the anime leaning more heavily into a formula. I’d even argue that the first two seasons, with their focus on energy collection, had more variety in their plotlines. But when I first watched S, the Pure Heart Crystal concept felt fresh. The tension stemmed from the fact that extracting a Pure Heart Crystal visibly put people in danger—characters literally turned pale.
Even though the Daimons introduced some goofier monster designs, they still felt like they posed some kind of threat. Most of them were responsible for extracting Pure Heart Crystals, and the show didn’t shy away from the fact that this could easily result in someone’s death. Eudial’s Daimons were an exception to the formula, but Eudial herself was one of the most memorable villains in Sailor Moon. The stakes felt high, and the potential for real harm was always hanging over the characters. Contrast that with the earlier seasons, where the focus on collecting energy was less dire. While energy-draining sometimes implied the risk of death, more often than not, the characters just fainted after their energy was stolen.
In Sailor Stars, that kind of tension is completely missing the moment a human turns into a Phage after their star seed is extracted. The only real sense of danger comes when the Sailor Starlights threaten to kill the Phage and its logical implication... But even that felt so forced, especially after the first episode when they realize Eternal Sailor Moon can easily heal the Phages. It’s clear they were trying to give the Starlights the same morally ambiguous vibe as the Outers, but it doesn’t quite work. The Outers’ moral ambiguity in S made sense because when a Pure Heart Crystal became a Talisman, it meant the person would die. The Starlights, on the other hand, are more focused on their princess, which doesn’t translate well into the episodic structure of Stars.
This brings up the biggest issue with Sailor Stars: the overuse of the Starlights. In S, Haruka and Michiru were nowhere near shoved down our throats. When one of the Inners had a focus episode, the Outers mostly took a back seat, and when they were involved, they were actually likable (at least as civilians). Even when Haruka and Michiru acted like jerks toward Usagi and the others, it was directly tied to the overarching plot of S. Their coldness and morally gray actions served to highlight the larger conflict between their mission and the Inners' more optimistic approach. S did a great job connecting multiple plot threads, like Rei’s visions of destruction, the looming threat of the Outers killing innocent people to achieve their goals, and the tension surrounding Hotaru’s identities as Sailor Saturn and Mistress 9—all of which built up to an incredible climax.
In Stars, by comparison, things only really pick up in the final stretch of episodes, and even then, it feels disconnected from the rest of the season because:
A) Sailor Galaxia never intended for her underlings to be an actual threat, and at any point, she could have just ripped everyone’s star seeds from their bodies—just like in the manga.
B) Many of the Starlights b-plots revolved heavily around them being idols and Seiya's one-way romance with Usagi... In fact, the Starlights' search for their princess barely factors into the plot at all which is funny because Kakyuu's death is what essentially triggers the last couple of episodes.
For all its flaws (and there are many), the manga—and Cosmos as its faithful adaptation—never had trouble selling the idea that this was the highest-stakes battle of all, even if the storytelling wasn’t always as coherent as the original anime. Stars just lacked that same level of consistent tension and emotional weight throughout most of the season for me.
However, for fans like me who feel like Sailor Stars doesn’t quite land as a “final season,” a lot of it comes down to how low-stakes much of the season feels. The Monster of the Day formula was inevitable, but the issue isn’t the formula itself—it’s the way it was executed, particularly in relation to the season’s MacGuffin.
The cycle of a star seed going blank, turning into a Phage, and then Eternal Sailor Moon healing them works on a thematic level, especially because it ties into her eventual healing of Galaxia in the finale. But the problem is, it comes at the cost of any real tension. Compare that to Sailor Moon S. In hindsight, it’s easy to point out that the introduction of Pure Heart Crystals marked the start of the anime leaning more heavily into a formula. I’d even argue that the first two seasons, with their focus on energy collection, had more variety in their plotlines. But when I first watched S, the Pure Heart Crystal concept felt fresh. The tension stemmed from the fact that extracting a Pure Heart Crystal visibly put people in danger—characters literally turned pale.
Even though the Daimons introduced some goofier monster designs, they still felt like they posed some kind of threat. Most of them were responsible for extracting Pure Heart Crystals, and the show didn’t shy away from the fact that this could easily result in someone’s death. Eudial’s Daimons were an exception to the formula, but Eudial herself was one of the most memorable villains in Sailor Moon. The stakes felt high, and the potential for real harm was always hanging over the characters. Contrast that with the earlier seasons, where the focus on collecting energy was less dire. While energy-draining sometimes implied the risk of death, more often than not, the characters just fainted after their energy was stolen.
In Sailor Stars, that kind of tension is completely missing the moment a human turns into a Phage after their star seed is extracted. The only real sense of danger comes when the Sailor Starlights threaten to kill the Phage and its logical implication... But even that felt so forced, especially after the first episode when they realize Eternal Sailor Moon can easily heal the Phages. It’s clear they were trying to give the Starlights the same morally ambiguous vibe as the Outers, but it doesn’t quite work. The Outers’ moral ambiguity in S made sense because when a Pure Heart Crystal became a Talisman, it meant the person would die. The Starlights, on the other hand, are more focused on their princess, which doesn’t translate well into the episodic structure of Stars.
This brings up the biggest issue with Sailor Stars: the overuse of the Starlights. In S, Haruka and Michiru were nowhere near shoved down our throats. When one of the Inners had a focus episode, the Outers mostly took a back seat, and when they were involved, they were actually likable (at least as civilians). Even when Haruka and Michiru acted like jerks toward Usagi and the others, it was directly tied to the overarching plot of S. Their coldness and morally gray actions served to highlight the larger conflict between their mission and the Inners' more optimistic approach. S did a great job connecting multiple plot threads, like Rei’s visions of destruction, the looming threat of the Outers killing innocent people to achieve their goals, and the tension surrounding Hotaru’s identities as Sailor Saturn and Mistress 9—all of which built up to an incredible climax.
In Stars, by comparison, things only really pick up in the final stretch of episodes, and even then, it feels disconnected from the rest of the season because:
A) Sailor Galaxia never intended for her underlings to be an actual threat, and at any point, she could have just ripped everyone’s star seeds from their bodies—just like in the manga.
B) Many of the Starlights b-plots revolved heavily around them being idols and Seiya's one-way romance with Usagi... In fact, the Starlights' search for their princess barely factors into the plot at all which is funny because Kakyuu's death is what essentially triggers the last couple of episodes.
For all its flaws (and there are many), the manga—and Cosmos as its faithful adaptation—never had trouble selling the idea that this was the highest-stakes battle of all, even if the storytelling wasn’t always as coherent as the original anime. Stars just lacked that same level of consistent tension and emotional weight throughout most of the season for me.
So, everyone in the future is dead except Sailor Cosmos, where Sailor Chaos will always return no matter how many times it is defeated? And she won't revive them coz Sailor Chaos will just kill them again? Meaning it's practically the same as the cycle of Sin in FFX but far worse and with no chance of permanently ending without destroying the universe? And thus Sailor Cosmos, future self of Usagi/Sailor Moon/Neo Queen Serenity, is forever denied her happy ending with Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask/Endymion and her friends, having to live eternity without them?
Likes:
Late to the Game
Then it's final. Even though it got dubbed, I will FD Cosmos and go by Eternal as the grand finale. So sure, Nehelenia wasn't behind Wiseman and Pharaoh 90 like Chaos was behind all of them, but she was kinda behind Metalia in a way, and the final battle was epic with that song and everyone coming together, and Nehelenia gets the glorious fate she was denied in Super S, with awesome visuals, and on top of that, no Happy Ending Override, as far as we can tell from Season 1 through Eternal, the world knows eternal peace after Wiseman's defeat in the future.
Stars arc was never meant to appeal to me. One version has a complete Happy Ending Override, the other lacks what Sailor Moon gave me an interest in. Anyone who likes either, no offense and I will respect your opinion, I simply ask you to respect mine.
Stars arc was never meant to appeal to me. One version has a complete Happy Ending Override, the other lacks what Sailor Moon gave me an interest in. Anyone who likes either, no offense and I will respect your opinion, I simply ask you to respect mine.
Likes:
Late to the Game
But a huge Mood Whiplash after a really menacing Nehelenia moment when it seems that she will win.
Likes:
Late to the Game
While I'm fond of anime Stars (despite all its problems), my headcanon is that manga Stars simply doesn't exist. I tolerate Cosmos but Eternal is a better finale IMO. I feel you, @Sapphire231...
Likes:
Sapphire231
Speaking of Cosmos, as I was taking the screens for the speeches of the girls, I noticed a new thing (to my upmost dissatisfaction...)
Ok, the Three Lights are that super mega popular boy band and they have easily a couple of thousands of people at their concert.
Iron Mouse ATTACKS THEM PUBLICLY ON STAGE and they just dodge it casually and disappear.
How in the holy sexy shoes of Kaolinite-kun that it doesn't become a scandal???
Then, the next day they transfer to Usagi's school and everyone is gushing over them?
No one's bad mouthing them and I guess their agents don't care that they are going to a public school after an attack at their concert?
Then, they do another concert with Seiren doing the same thing as Iron Mouse except she attacks at Usagi's school.
Is this a Wattpad story???
Filler, filler, padding, padding and nonsensical writing...
I feel like I'm losing brain cells over here!
Actually, I'm glad that Takeuchi was so adamant on not making any changes so that now everybody can see how STUPID her manga is.
Edit:
Speaking of the Three Lights, why do they sing? Is it so that Kakyuu 'hears' them and responds to their call?
I don't remember, there's so much info dump in Stars.
Were they expecting Kakyuu to tune in on the radio?
Does their singing have a special power?
When Seiya starts singing to UsaMe on the roof, it does seem so... so -
You 3 ding-dongs have been SINGING at every concert in front of thousands of people knowing that Galaxia is on your tracks and can sense your energy via your singing hence endangered countless people but NOW suddenly, Seiya shouldn't be singing???
THIS.IS.SO.STUPID.
Ok, the Three Lights are that super mega popular boy band and they have easily a couple of thousands of people at their concert.
Iron Mouse ATTACKS THEM PUBLICLY ON STAGE and they just dodge it casually and disappear.
How in the holy sexy shoes of Kaolinite-kun that it doesn't become a scandal???
Then, the next day they transfer to Usagi's school and everyone is gushing over them?
No one's bad mouthing them and I guess their agents don't care that they are going to a public school after an attack at their concert?
Then, they do another concert with Seiren doing the same thing as Iron Mouse except she attacks at Usagi's school.
Is this a Wattpad story???
Filler, filler, padding, padding and nonsensical writing...
I feel like I'm losing brain cells over here!
Actually, I'm glad that Takeuchi was so adamant on not making any changes so that now everybody can see how STUPID her manga is.
Edit:
Speaking of the Three Lights, why do they sing? Is it so that Kakyuu 'hears' them and responds to their call?
I don't remember, there's so much info dump in Stars.
Were they expecting Kakyuu to tune in on the radio?
Does their singing have a special power?
When Seiya starts singing to UsaMe on the roof, it does seem so... so -
You 3 ding-dongs have been SINGING at every concert in front of thousands of people knowing that Galaxia is on your tracks and can sense your energy via your singing hence endangered countless people but NOW suddenly, Seiya shouldn't be singing???
THIS.IS.SO.STUPID.
Last edited:
Those are essentially the typical standards for Sailor Moon, regardless of the media adaptation.
If we were to take it seriously, the main character would likely be the Japanese Army or the Japanese Government, given that civilians are terrified by the enemy of the day and stuff is exploding everywhere in almost every episode.
If we were to take it seriously, the main character would likely be the Japanese Army or the Japanese Government, given that civilians are terrified by the enemy of the day and stuff is exploding everywhere in almost every episode.
The standards of writing are causality and effect.
The 90s anime does the concert attack at the very end and by doing so doesn't make the whole situation seem pointless.
Does the Starlights being popular serve or play any part in the story - no.
The story wouldn't change in the slightest if they were regular people, so the fact that they are popular must serve for something especially if you're going to feature how amazing their concerts are.
What does the first concert attack serve in the story - nothing.
They could have started with transferring to Usagi's school, have all the uninteresting character moments, move to the concert attack (Iron Mouse and Seiren are basically the same character), and have both the Starlights make their debut as well as killing Mercury and Jupiter over there.
The Iron Mouse scene is basically a rehash of the Mimette one - concert attack, girls arrive and pose, villain attacks, gets one-shot by the new Senshi in shadows.
Rinse and repeat.
Back in Infinity, you have the girls transforming in the streets without a care about their secret identity, then the very next episode, Hotaru having seen the girls transform is suddenly a big thing?
Takeuchi just writes what scenes she wants when she feels like it - the fact that in 2024, we are still being forced to see it as 'good writing' makes it even more stupid.
The 90s anime does the concert attack at the very end and by doing so doesn't make the whole situation seem pointless.
Does the Starlights being popular serve or play any part in the story - no.
The story wouldn't change in the slightest if they were regular people, so the fact that they are popular must serve for something especially if you're going to feature how amazing their concerts are.
What does the first concert attack serve in the story - nothing.
They could have started with transferring to Usagi's school, have all the uninteresting character moments, move to the concert attack (Iron Mouse and Seiren are basically the same character), and have both the Starlights make their debut as well as killing Mercury and Jupiter over there.
The Iron Mouse scene is basically a rehash of the Mimette one - concert attack, girls arrive and pose, villain attacks, gets one-shot by the new Senshi in shadows.
Rinse and repeat.
Back in Infinity, you have the girls transforming in the streets without a care about their secret identity, then the very next episode, Hotaru having seen the girls transform is suddenly a big thing?
Takeuchi just writes what scenes she wants when she feels like it - the fact that in 2024, we are still being forced to see it as 'good writing' makes it even more stupid.
"Ohoho, look dear. The peasants don't understand TRUE ART."
"Shh, just let them enjoy their quaint little 90s anime. It's amusing to watch their caveman brains struggling to grasp the genius of the hime-sama."
*Everyone chortles while taking in the latest Bedazzlered sketch*
"I can SMELL the dead flowers she glued to this one. I swear."