Mooooon Healing ESCALATION!
An alternative title for this question is probably: “Why Doesn’t Sailor Moon Kill More People?” But that seemed a little dark, so I decided for some nicer phrasing. It’s not like we actually want Usagi to kill, right?
One thing that makes this question interesting is that, if Sailor Moon had been a cartoon originally made in the United States back in the early 90’s, I wouldn’t give this a second thought and it wouldn’t even occur to me that it’s odd that the vast majority of the monsters of the day (and even the major villains!) end up being ‘healed’ or otherwise brought over to the side of good. Even when the villains do wind up being killed in the anime, they usually die at their own hands, by being backstabbed by a colleague, or for some reason unrelated to the Sailor Team. But this is Japan, where the concept of showing bad (or even good!) people die in children’s media isn’t considered to be so wrong.
Detective Conan can be surprisingly dark…
Take Detective Conan for example. Its target audience is mainly young children, and yet since the anime began its run in 1996, a total of 334 people have died as of episode 631.1 Since the story is meant to take place over just one year (without any of the fancy time-resets Sailor Moon is granted), that works out to 0.9 deaths per day!
Even in the live-action Super Sentai series,2 which Sailor Moon‘s concept is based on, at the very least the daily monsters were generally killed without a second thought.
The first, and most obvious answer, is the argument related to sexism (though not necessarily in a bad way): the Sailor Soldiers are girls, and thus are seen to be pure and shouldn’t be killing people. What makes this a particularly difficult to refute argument is that the Sailor Moon series essentially created the fighting superheroine genre3 in Japan, so we don’t have a lot of examples to go off of. But I personally don’t think that’s 100% of the story.
Moonlight Mask
I wonder if, perhaps, this might be partially related to the major thematic element of the series – the moon. In fact, Japan’s first tv superhero, Moonlight Mask,4 also fought as a “soldier from the moon.” His name (月光仮面; gekkou kamen) actually comes from the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva Candraprabha,5 whose name is written in Japanese as 月光菩薩 (gakkou bosatsu; Moonlight Bodhisattva).
So how does this connect to the Sailor Soldiers always choosing to show mercy over killing? Well, Moonlight Mask’s motto (as a throwback to his Buddhist inspiration) might be the key:
憎まず、殺さず、許しましょう
“Do not hate, do not kill – let us forgive.”
Moonlight Mask was also known for not killing his enemies, possibly in reference to the Buddhist origins behind his name, but I also believe it’s related to the perception of the moon as a source of unsullied purity; a light in the darkness. This connection also is carried through into the Sailor Moon series, from the purity of the characters themselves and even back to the peace of the Silver Millennium, which was only put to an end due to the greed of humanity. But what about you? Do you think it’s simply a matter of tv viewers not wanting to see women kill, or is there possibly some other, deeper explanation that I missed?
As an interesting aside, between his turban, name, and all white outfit, he’s pretty clearly the inspiration behind Moonlight Knight, and also the second time Mamoru is based on an old Japanese superhero.
References:
I always loved how Sailor Moon tried to not kill the enemies and how more prominent it became with every new season (especially from S finale onwards, but still in Classic and R there was a lot of love for other people from Sailors). I felt like writers working on show were realizing more what kind of message they want to give the viewers and characters “matured to not kill” with them. I felt really dissapointed that in manga this message was almost nonexistent.
Sorry for my awkard english. ^^ And sorry if my comments sound like manga-bashing, I didn’t want to offend anybody!
Nope, not at all! I love hearing other people’s thoughts on these things. That’s why I started writing a blog in the first place — it’s interesting to know what other people think about the same anime/manga.
I think it’s nice that they tried something different with healing the enemies, but I wish that the anime actually kept them in the series, you know? It’s nice that the Ayakashi Sisters were all brought back to the side of good, but why couldn’t they appear maybe once or twice in S or SuperS to say hi? That was always a little disappointing to me.
🙂
Yeah, I agree! It would be wonderful to see episode in S or SuperS with Ayakashi Sisters, I really liked them as characters.
Wouldn’t it? It’d be nice if the anime at least took the time to showcase some of the older characters, even just in the background at a cafe or hanging out somewhere. I guess I understand that getting the voice actresses back for a one-shot cameo is impractical, though.
I think it just comes down to how Sailor Moon and the other senshi were characterized in the anime versus the manga. In the manga, after transforming they all took on a much more serious tone as if their past selves (as soldiers from the Silver Millennium) had been re-awakened. In the first volume of the manga alone every bad guy gets killed, and rather violently – the first by Sailor Moon herself, and then Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars tag team to burn Jadeite to death, and then Sailor Jupiter melts Nephrite with lightning. Sailor Moon Crystal returns to this pattern of having the senshi kill off the bad guys on a more regular basis.
The personalities in the original anime are much different from the source material, however, and more importantly the anime is a lot longer than the manga. I wonder if they didn’t kill off the bad guys and instead focused on either killing or healing the monster of the day and letting the subordinates get away to ultimately meet their end at the hands of the big bad frustrated with their repeated failure to pad the show.
I think what you mentioned in the latter part has a lot to do with it. One of the reasons for not killing the villains was probably to let them pad the show a bit by always letting them get away. By using the Monsters of the Day approach instead, it gave them an opportunity to let the main villains survive and keep coming back episode after episode. After all, that approach has worked well in the Super Sentai shows for decades anyway.
Honestly, I don’t know which approach I prefer. I like the fact that in the manga, the other Sailor Soldiers actually get a chance to do something. The whole “Now Sailor Moon…!” approach of having them just weaken the enemy seemed kinda sad and implied that they weren’t powerful. But on the other hand, by introducing the whole healing concept, it also allowed the series to allow normal humans to be possessed, which added more new characters to the show.
A lot of people/feminists I have noticed, tend to look down on Usagi’s pacifism. Viewing her as weak and whiny. And that portraying her as more ruthless and unforgiving towards her enemies makes her look stronger and more of a better role model, blah-blah…
Personally I found it rather refreshing. Particularly given at the time Sailor Moon came out the standard ’empowered’ strong female archetype essentially consisted of acting spunky, being hyper masculine, and possessing a ludicrous variety of martial arts techniques. Something which is still pretty much the norm today.
It helped that the anime also made a lot of the villains more tragic/sympathetic then their templates in the manga, which followed more traditional ‘evil for the sake of being evil’ type characterisations. Leaving not much room in the way of redemption.
Oddly enough, a lot of later adaptations treat Beryl more akin to the Anime’s approach.
Another story’s portrayal in particular seems like a kind of semi-canonical retcon.
On a similar note of healing. I wish that in the Stars Arc when the other Senshi were turned against her, she could have at least been allowed to save the Inners Star Seeds and bring them back to her side.
It always bothered me how they were denied being in the final battle of the series, and were just casually killed off at the start and not brought back until the last few pages. Especially given how often sidelined they were. What was even the point of giving them upgrades in the first place?
While I can’t really say much for feminist matters, I find it amusing that the lesson is that “women should kill too!!” and not that “men should be more forgiving!” I mean… I guess that’s what the world has come to?
That aside, one thing I really did like about them having introduced the concept of healing in the anime was that it provided for more opportunities to add in new side characters, even if they were only in the form of Monsters of the Day. Ryo Urawa, for example. If it wasn’t for them needing a victim to transform someone into a youma for the Rainbow Crystal arc, we wouldn’t have gotten one of Ami’s very few love interests. A lot of the characters were just one-off characters that ultimately didn’t impact the series, but it at least made the universe of Sailor Moon seem more diverse and filled with different people.
That said, the one thing I did like about the manga approach was that it actually gave the other Sailor Soldiers a chance to be involved. Because it wasn’t just Sailor Moon healing all the time, I felt like the other Sailors got a chance to actually fight against the enemy and “do some damage,” so-to-speak.
Ah yes, Ryo. ‘Ami’s First Love’ makes for some amusing irony.
I actually liked the anime’s tendency to promote more of a group effort, which I prefer anyway. Though they could have mixed it up a bit more.
One of the most memorable fights in the series for me, was against Cyprine/Ptilol. Due to how it was won by strategy rather then power, something that would be nice to see more of.
If I’m honest, I thought the manga made the other Sailors look more irrelevant then anything else. Something which Crystal (to my continuing annoyance) has taken to an extreme.
Like the Black Moon Arc for example, where three of them in a row are conveniently captured and then stuffed in a prison cell for the majority, and leaving Minako just to play third wheel to Usagi and Mamoru.
It was like Naoko’s way of saying that she didn’t know what to do with them.
And then the Outers came along and made then look flat out redundant…
Judging by how wildly the SuperS anime swung back to an Inners focus and completely threw out the Outers (which was notably different in the manga), I can’t help but wonder if a lot of fans were upset with how badly the Inners were ignored during the Sailor Moon S anime run. I can’t really blame them, since you had an anime with 8 main characters (5 Inners, ChibiUsa, Haruka, and Michiru — Hotaru and Setsuna never really got much attention anime, especially on their own) and there simply wasn’t enough time to concentrate on all of them. But the SuperS anime feels like an attempt to get “back to basics” to me.
Yeah I never had a problem with Sailor Moon healing many of her enemies as it fit with the idea of her pure heart and such, however what annoyed me was when she just completely stopped fighting.
But first let’s talk about how she never kills…
She killed Jaedite’s/Nephrite’s/Beryl’s youma, droids, daemons, and cardians. Which actually is the majority of the monsters of the day? (The only ones we’re really excluding are Zoisite’s/Kunzite’s youma and those Sailor Animamates so just 1.5 season out of 5. I did not forget Lemures, I need to discuss them separate) Yeah I know those are monsters/robots and not human, so I guess that means they don’t count as lives that actually matter? Although I’m pretty sure Buddhism would still frown upon this. Regardless there is no such excuse for Beryl, Kunzite, Esmeraude, or Cyprine/Ptilol. (Absolutely counting Cyprine as Sailor Moon and the Senshi deliberately charged up Cyprine/Ptilol’s attacks to deadly levels then intentionally tricked them into shooting each other for the kill. I’m also tempted to include Viluy. I mean Sailor Moon did use her Rainbow Moon Heart Ache which is what she used when she wanted to kill something. So the intent was still there even if the thing that ultimately killed her was not the attack itself but the nanotech it damaged malfunctioning. She also killed Death Phantom and Metallia right? Or were they just sealed/sent away?)
Also let us not forget the Lemures. You remember those the circus monsters from Super S. Except at the end we learned they were not in fact evil circus monsters but the INNOCENT PEOPLE whose dream mirrors Nehellenia had originally stolen. And Sailor Moon had been KILLING them all season long. I really don’t think the anime production team thought through the implications of that little flashback reveal at all… Because that is actually pretty messed up!
Finally if you want to include the movies she kills Queen Badiane, Princess Snow Kaguya, and the Xenian Flower controlling Fiore (although that last one was not an actual attack she was just consumed by the Silver Crystal).
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Honestly though they probably should have still let the Senshi kill Jaedite. But I guess it’s possible that was still early in the shows production where maybe they weren’t sure how much leeway they had or what was expected of them? I would not have changed the deaths of Nephrite (obvious reasons) or Zoisite (builds up Beryl’s menace near end of season plus its super awkward if Kunzite is mourning him in front of the Senshi).
Loved the redemption of the Spectre Sisters and it was the first time the anime did this so fresh/unexpected at the time. I’m torn on Rubeus, I would have been okay if Sailor Moon had just killed him, but I also kind of like him taking himself out (since Sailor Moon still earned the win first). I just would have preferred him to have died sooner crushed or consumed by fire while the Senshi were there instead of him apparently surviving until Esmeraude showed up because it means he sat back for no reason and let the Senshi escape making his whole take everyone with him plan stupid. Having Wiseman kill Saphir and Demande built up the threat of his character as the manipulative mastermind behind everything before the final show down. Although I was not a huge fan of Demande sorta redemption…because him repeatedly attempting to sexually assault a 14 year old girl can not be blamed on Wiseman. Obviously you could not kill Black Lady…
Kaolinite’s first death to Uranus/herself was fine as the Outers needed the early establishing win, and her second death to Mistress 9 built up the wickedness/power of that character. Eudial’s death was amusing and at least Sailor Moon beat her first. Mimete’s death was lame since Sailor Moon/Senshi never really fought/beat her and it was used to build an character that only lasted one episode herself. I am speaking of Tellu whose death was also an horrible cop out with her suddenly being killed by her own plant. Those two should have just been left as Senshi kills without question. Germatoid left Tomo unrelated to Sailor Moon doing anything and the Outers pretty much had to kill Germatoid otherwise Pluto’s sacrifice would have been meaningless if they did not help with the final battle at all. Mistress 9 obviously could not be killed. Did Sailor Moon and Saturn kill or seal Pharoah 99 I can’t recall?
In Super S they actually had a tricky situation with the Amazon Trio. Sure the manga killed them without blinking, but the killing of innocent animals is kind of a sticky situation for a kids show. So basically the show either had to throw out the material of their origin and treat them as monsters losing much of their character depth…or do what they did and not have Sailor Moon kill them. The Amazoness Quartet obviously could not be killed given their role in the manga as Future Sailors. Can you imagine the rage if they had been killed? Zirconia could not be killed because she is Nehellenia. Nehellenia was re-sealed for eternity instead of killed, eh whatever especially since it seems like Sailor Moon tried/thought she had killed her at first when they used the Golden Crystal. Plus that little comment and the pity eyes before she left her to her fate. Perfect.
Stars is where things started to get stupid. I mean here Sailor Moon gains her ultimate form from the manga aka Eternal Sailor Moon. In the manga she is actually pretty bad@ss in the form and a force to be reckoned with. Instead the anime turned her into a total pacifist who does nothing but stand and get the crap beat out of her while she talks and makes almost no attempt to even defend herself most of the time. HATE! I mean let’s recap… Nehellenia. For some reason that is never explained she de-transformed when she arrived wherever Nehellenia is. With her friends all incapacitated the audience is psyched for an Enternal Sailor Moon vs Nehellenia throwdown…and she does nothing but stare at Nehellenia while she wails on her. Then more unexplained stuff as Usagi somehow breaks the curse of Mamoru and frees her friends. I guess she used the Silver Crystal although it is never seen and there is not even a glow around her? Nehellenia is redeemed and more unexplained magic as she is suddenly her younger self again with a second chance? Would this not screw up the timeline, or is this not actually happening and just playing out in her head after she has been magically sealed away somewhere again. I’m going with the latter. Whatever…
As previously stated Sailor Moon heals all the monsters of the week during Stars which is said to be feat no one thought possible before which kind of gives it added gravitas and it at least provides a reason that the Star Lights can’t hog all the glory by getting kills. So yeah no problem with the healing here although I just really really wish she wasn’t completely useless in every single battle before she heals them. I think the lone exception is when she throws a pizza. The anime probably should have just let her keep some kind of tiara in her Eternal form or invent some kind of new non-finishing attack. As far as the recurring villains she (and I am including the other Senshi in this) never even gets a real win in a fight again Iron Mouse or Aluminum Siren before Galaxia kills them, or Lead Crow before Tin Nyanko killed her. She does at least get a win against Tin Nyanko by firing off Power Kiss almost saving her once before Galaxia killed her. Yay?
But then comes Galaxia the climax of the entire series…and again everyone has to be expecting an epic battle will happen here right? We have a single failed Silver Power Kiss after Kakyuu dies. The Inners die she does nothing. She doesn’t even try to defend herself against the Outers although she at least doesn’t stand still…progress shown since Nehellenia at least. Nothing after until she gets the crap the beat out of her and watches as the Star Lights fight and nearly get themselves killed a few times. The only thing she does besides talk then is the one failed attempt to just use the Silver Moon Crystal (not really even an attack name so dunno what she is going for here), and two blocked Galaxia sword swings one of which she accidentally cuts Galaxia off the deflection. Contrast that to their fight in the manga…and this is stupid. I don’t even care that she redeemed Galaxia. I would have been fine with that naked hugging and all. I just wanted Eternal Sailor Moon to actually do SOMETHING before that point.
So uh part 2 of my post ….we’ve looked at the how things happened now let’s look a bit to see if we can get a why for it?
For starters I think you have to look to Season 1. Basically in Season 1 at first glance it doesn’t look like there was any issue. Sailor Moon killed 2/5 main villains and two of the others were better killed by others for clear story reasons. Except there is more to it than that. As you watch the battles unfold once the Inners start to join you will start to see patterns. What we will call the “rules” of the show.
1) The show is called Sailor Moon. She must be the only Senshi to vanquish pretty much EVERY enemy.
2) Recurring villains should be stronger than Monsters of the Week and thus not defeated by the same attacks/methods.
3) Each new season the enemies are stronger requiring a new power-up/attack to defeat even the first Monsters of the Week.
The manga did not really have monsters of the week….or it did but most of those became the recurring villains of the anime series. So with that in mind let’s look at how her important enemies were killed in the manga vs how they were defeated (not always killed) in the anime by the Sailor Moon and the Senshi.
Jaedite – Dodged Sailor Moons tiara, and then run over by a plane (injured not killed.)/ Killed by Mars
Zoisite – Force blasted by Serenity with Moon Stick (injured not killed) / Killed by Venus
Kunzite – Batted his own energy boomerang back at him with the Moon Stick / Killed by Sailor Planet Attack (no Moon)
Beryl – Nearly killed by Tuxedo Mask rose to the chest. Finished by Moon Prism Power / Killed by Venus with Holy Sword
Metallia – Kiled by Moon Prism Power / Killed by Moon Princess Halation with Tux support.
(Never really defeated Nephrite in the anime. Sure there was the one time she threw her tiara at him and Naru jumped in front. But I think we’ve established that would not have killed him or done much) / Killed by Jupiter)
So ummm holy crap guys due to rule #1 that was 5 characters then anime needed to change their deaths since they were all killed by the Senshi without Moon’s involvement. (Moon Tiara Action was also obviously off the table since it was used to kill weak youma.) So the anime managed to come up with 5 different ways to defeat them. But it makes sense that something like being hit by a plane was too mundane/real of a death for Jaedite, and as previously discussed they couldn’t have Zoisite killed by Moon at that moment as Kunzite mourning his death at the same time as the Tux/Serenity stuff going on would not have worked well. Thus why those kills were transfered to Beryl.
Spectre Sisters – Koan draw with Mars, Talked down by Mercury, Calveras attacked by Petz, Petz overwhelmed by consecutive Senshi attacks/ Each Killed by Moon Princess Halation after capturing a Senshi (except Calveras failed to get Venus)
Esmeraude – Weakness on crown, then Moon Princess Halation / Killed by Tuxedo Mask
Rubeus – Killed by his ship self destructing / Killed by Wiseman
Saphir – Talked down only by Petz / Killed by Demande (while Saphir under Wiseman’s control)
Demande – Talked down only. Sailor Moon did at least mentally fight off his control / Killed by Moon/Mask combined using Cutie Moon Rod
Okay so here we go. Moon Princess Halation was off the table because she had already lost that rod. Also she had already used her new rod’s attack to destroy the Monsters of the Week so that was off the table for dealing with the Spectre sisters. Crap! So basically they had to either invent a new attack for Sailor Moon or she wouldn’t really be able to kill any of the major enemies this season. Hence the death by self destruction for Rubeus. Esmeraude looks like a violation of Rule #2, until you throw in the Wiseman crown. It was the attack on that Deus Ex which allowed her defeat. (Something else to note here is that before the actual Black Moon arc started, the original person in charge of the show stepped down with Ikuhara taking over those duties. Ikuhara in several interviews flat out stated that he did not like the character of Tuxedo Mask and thought he detracted from Sailor Moon. Which is probably why anime Tux never got his Smoking Bomber, never got his connection to Moon definitively boosting her attacks (like the one that killed Demande), and lost his role in wielding the Golden Crystal against Nehellenia.)
Kaolinite – Uranus causes her own attack to backfire encasing her in glass / Killed by Rainbow Moon Heart Ache
Eudial – Super Sailor Moon reflected her fire back at her / Killed by Moon Spiral Heart Attack
Mimette – *None* / Killed by Uranus/Neptune
Villuy – Killed by Sailor Moons attack damaging her nanotech causing her next attack to kill herself /Killed by Uranus Space Sword
Tellu – Killed by her own plant after surviving Moon Spiral Heart Attack but having the Heart Crystal released by Tux /Killed by Pluto
Cyprine – Killed by tricking her into attacking herself /Killed by Rainbow Moon Heart Ache
Germatoid – Killed by Uranaus Space Sword / Killed by Rainbow Moon Heart Ache
So again 3 killed by other Senshi and 3 killed by previously used Sailor Moon Attacks that all needed new deaths… Finally we do have an addendum to rule #1 though. The talismans of Neptune and Uranus since they were never used on the Monster of the Week were allowed to actually kill Germatoid in order to make them at least somewhat relevant to the final battle (Which needed to happen in order to get Pluto’s sacrifice to be not pointless). Now we did also have one case where the show could have given Sailor Moon an kill but chose not to do so with Eudial. Since this was Sailor Moon’s first transformation into Super Sailor Moon they could have had her use her new attack to finish her. However they chose to use Eudial’s death to build the character of the next recurring foe instead.
I think we already discussed Super S pretty thoroughly, so like I said before I think their hands were pretty tied where giving Sailor Moon any kills of the Amazon Trio or Amazoness Quartet were off the table. Basically I think Super S the only things they could have done differently is to not redeem the trio before they were killed by failing (which just added character depth), and to kill Nehellenia but her fate was actually the same in the manga of being resealed rather than killed. Plus you have to wonder if they had already considered bringing her back to start the next season since Naoko was clearly falling behind and not going to have Stars totally plotted by the time the anime needed to restart production.
Stars was when someone new took over the direction of the show as a whole, Igarashi, and I honestly think he somehow had developed his own idea of what Sailor Moon was supposed to be. I’m just spitballing here but I really think that he did not view her as a warrior that should kill (or really even fight) at all and thought she should solve all her problems purely through the power of love. *GAG*. There is no other way I can come up with to explain how pathetic she became this season compared to her manga counterpart.
Speaking of the manga, since Sailor Moon and her allies did not really win a fight against anyone (unless you want to count that time Aluminum Siren was severely outnumbered on the plane, randomly started throwing airplane food which the Senshi blocked with attacks then she retreated to be killed by Galaxia) in the anime we’ll just list the manga kills of characters that appeared in the anime:
Sailor Iron Mouse – Killed by the Starlights
Sailor Aluminum Siren – Killed by the Starlights
Sailor Lead Crow – Killed by Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss
Sailor Tin Nyanko – Killed by Galaxia
Galactica Neptune/Uranus – Killed by Silver Moon Crystal Power
Galaxia – Killed by Chaos
So on the small chance that they plan wasn’t to turn Sailor Moon into a pacifist…Once again we start with rule #1 for Iron Mouse and Aluminum Siren. The Starlights are not Sailor Moon and they used their attacks on Monsters of the Week and did not destroy them so no way could they kill one of the recurring characters with them. And of course Rule#2 then for Lead Crow, especially since Therapy Kiss was turned into a purely healing move. So it was much easier to just change them all into Galaxia kills. Obviously the circumstance were different with Uranus/Neptune since they were not total meat puppets like in the original manga…of course that wouldn’t have prevented Sailor Moon from at least doing something.
But anyways in summary though looking back at it now does it not make a lot of sense why so many kills suddenly were done via contrivance, backstabs, termination for failure, or changed to redemption? Because the show just had no idea how to come up with that many plausible original ways for them to be actually directly killed by Sailor Moon.
In all fairness, both versions of Stars could have been a lot better.
In my ideal adaptation all the Senshi/Mamoru would have come back at the end to help Usagi defeat/heal Galaxia.
Guess that’s why I like the ‘Kaiteiban Musical’ the most. It’s better then the anime, and far-far better then the manga.
I agree, In Cygnus And In Health. I don’t really like how the Senshi were all turned evil by Galaxia in the manga, espiecially the Inners.
I totally agree with Xenox33. She became annoyingly pacifist in the fight with Galaxia and let others die, who did so in order to protect her. Couldn’t she do something to at least stop Galaxia’s fatal attacks against her friends, whether it succeeds or not? In the end she says that she does not want to lose her important friends any more. I got angry. You didn’t even try to actively stop Galaxia when she tried to kill them, so what gives you the right to talk about them like this? You want to redeem Galaxia, that’s fine. But you let your friends die while you remain a crying sitting duck? I don’t consider her a leader material, let alone a hero. If you want to save lives then at least try to do so for all. After this I lost all my love and respect for the anime.
If I could perhaps steer this back on topic, and away from pointless and uncalled for Usagi bashing (which I’ve grown quite tired of).
But could the simplest reason for why Sailor Moon heals people, be due to them playing up the whole Messiah thing.
I don’t usually like to bring religion into things, but if we look at the two characters you can see certain parallels.
Both are children of a God/Goddess (with the implication of a virgin birth), have a group of followers, and they both perform miracles.
Another noticeable trait of the Messiah was his ability to forgive, even those who betrayed him, just like Usagi does.
A recurring theme in Sailor Moon is the power of will and belief, and sticking to one’s convictions and dreams.
This is mirrored in the clash between Haruka and Michiru’s seemingly more practical methods, as opposed to Usagi’s own more passive approach. And as we know, by the end of that arc, her beliefs won out over theirs.
I know it sounds a bit cheesy. But Sailor Moon is at its core a very optimistic series, where you are obliged to leave your cynical/bitterness by the door.
I think a lot of the older fans tend to forget that. Particularly with stuff like Madoka popularizing the so called ‘dark and edgy’ deconstruction tripe.
As it’s occasionally been commented on. Usagi’s greatest strength is not her physical power, but her personality and character. She sees the grey area where others merely see black and white, and that the ends justify the means.
Like for example how she bonded with the other Inners, who themselves were treated almost like outcasts. And in return will go to the point of willingly sacrificing themselves to protect her.
Rei in particular, goes from being her antagonistic rival, to her most loyal friend.
Again, like the biblical Messiah, Usagi is occasionally tempted by evil. The mini Nehelenia arc for example, involves said villainess kidnapping Mamoru and capturing her friends for the soul purpose of making her suffer like she had, and the ultimate prize of driving Usagi to hate her.
But Usagi to her astoundment does not play ball. Instead she understands Nehelenia’s pain, and frees her from it in a manor that’s left ambiguous.
We have a similar situation with Galaxia. Who is a sort of fallen angel, corrupted for performing a noble sacrifice to imprison Chaos within herself.
Again Usagi is put in the position of despair, but again remains srtong and sees the good inside her.
Indeed half of the final battle in the series is about helping Galaxia free herself, rather then just blowing the shit out of her.
If I could use a similar and famous example for comparison, Darth Vader’s redemption at the end of Return of the Jedi. Luke only manages to beat him down in a moment of anger, but it’s his belief in his father that ultimately results in the ultimate personification of evil being destroyed.
As it’s been pointed out. The situation is different in the manga due to all the villains being evil for evils sake (and having less character then the average monster of the day), so she has little reason to be lenient with them.
Incidentally, Usagi in the anime has no qualms about destroying pure evil entities either.
Oddly enough the Live action series gave us a glimpse of how dangerous she could be if she had given into hate and bitterness.
Granted this is just speculation on my part, but the Japanese have a well documented history of inserting symbiology into their work, Ikuhara certainly did that.
It’s interesting to me that there was a long stretch post-anime where most newer adaptions lost the anime’s strict Avoid Kill rule (PGSM’s regenerating Shittenou dodged the issue, the newer Myus definately don’t avoid it) yet Crystal seemed to take that same big deviation in the first season before snapping hard away from it for the rest of the run (perhaps under pressure from purists?). So I wonder if this is a squeamishness on Toei’s part.
But… this article is totally WRONG. Sailor Moon and friends kill every episode!!! Seriously, and not just those poor Monsters of the Week… Who, in many cases, save for maybe the Cardians, are shown to be intelligent, thinking beings. The Youma especially are shown to be independent, with Thetis shown being in love with Jadeite, for example… making her death the more painful to watch.
Never in all the episodes of the anime do the girls stop to think to maybe NOT use the face-melting Moon Tiara Action on the monster but maybe ask her to surrender?
And that’s just the various Youma/Cardians/Droids/Daimon, etc… There are also a TON of people who are arguably humans, or at least humanoids, whom they have killed. Kaolinite, for example, in the anime was never said to be a Daimon experiment like in the manga, so I always assumed she and the Witches 5 were just humans dabbling in the occult… Hence, they committed murder when they killed them. Of all the villains, only the Black Moon clan and the Amazoness Quartet was spared… and that’s only in the old anime. In the new Crystal anime, the girls kill all the Clan members mercilessly, as well.
This frankly always bothered me about anime, as it goes against my morals. IMHO a hero should not kill a villain, especially not when – as it is in all of the cases in this anime – the villain is all but defeated and at her mercy.
I always thought it was because Sailor Moon was a story about how your past doesn’t define you — Serenity and Endemiyon’s story was a tragedy, and Usagi and Mamoru made theirs a success. Hotaru gets to start over and become the Senshi of Rebirth, rather than the Senshi of Destruction. Death is finality, with no chance to change. So Usagi stubbornly refusing to kill and insisting on healing people, she’s giving everyone a second chance. Something that’s so important to her that she’s willing to die for it, as she proves again and again.