Sailor Moon Eternal Vol 5 featured Reviews 

“Sailor Moon” #27-32

By | July 4th, 2022
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Welcome back to our Summer Comics Binge of Naoko Takeuchi’s “Sailor Moon,” today we’re looking at the first half of the manga’s third arc, ‘Infinity,’ which introduces Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenou) and Neptune (Michiru Kaiou), as well as the future Sailor Saturn, Hotaru Tomoe. The storyline sees Usagi and friends encounter the hostile new Guardians while investigating the mysterious Mugen Academy, which has been linked to a series of bizarre monster attacks, and is secretly run by the Death Busters, a cult that worships the alien god Pharaoh 90, led by none other than Hotaru’s father, Professor Tomoe.

Pictured: Sailor Venus
Art by Naoko Takeuchi
Created by Naoko Takeuchi
Translated by Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley
Lettered by Lys Blakeslee

[Official blurb is the same as the previous volumes. (“Teenager Usagi is not the best athlete, she’s never gotten good grades, and, well, she’s a bit of a crybaby…”) “Eternal” Vol. 5 actually collects chapters #27-33, but for reasons we’ll go into next time, we split our coverage of the 12-part arc into equal halves.]

If I were to describe this arc in one word, it would be “confident;” by this point in 1994, the manga had been running for a little over two years, meaning fans of the series were growing up, and Naoko Takeuchi must’ve felt more free to tell a darker, more complex, and emotionally challenging storyline. The girls are now in the final year of middle school, and their anxieties about whatever new threats they may face are coupled with those about their high school entrance exams. There are lengthy scenes involving unfamiliar characters, particularly Haruka and Michiru, before their identities are revealed; languid panels emphasizing the looming buildings and occult layout of Mugen Academy; and most of our cast wind up having eerie nightmares about their impending doom.

Key to this newfound air of maturity is the conflict between the original five Guardians, and Uranus and Neptune, who are wealthy, independent Mugen students, and clearly older than them. One way Takeuchi makes Haruka and Michiru feel more grown up is by avoiding depicting them in a chibi style, which is often the case with the main five; admittedly, that choice may’ve been the result of having to cram in so many characters on several pages, but still. Their relative maturity is also conveyed subtly in their character designs: unlike the original five, their eyes are rendered with realistic horizontal ovals, not vertical ones.

Venus's reaction to the new Guardians (scan taken from an earlier translation)

In the first chapter, Haruka and Michiru warn the Inner Senshi not to interfere with their mission, leaving them (and the reader) in doubt as to whether they’re friends or foes. As with previous arcs, the early issues follow a formula where one or two of the Guardians are pitted against a counterpart from the enemy’s henchmen, who this time round are Magus Kaolinite’s Witches 5 (why they’re not called the Witches 6, I’ll never know.) The Outer Senshi spy on these proceedings and eventually start intervening, but in an aloof manner that engenders little love towards them. It feeds back into our title character’s continuing growth, as she proves she’s a true leader by trying to reconcile the two groups.

Usagi and Mamoru also encounter Haruka and Michiru countless times in civilian mode, causing a couple of minor love triangles to develop, a realistic development showing our teenage heroine may not want to be locked in with her future husband. Which brings us to Haruka, who is a fascinatingly genderfluid character in particular: at the start everyone assumes her to be a boy, because she wears masculine clothes, and doesn’t wear jewellery or make-up. When she’s first spotted in superhero mode, she wears a mask and cape, much like Mamoru’s alter-ego Tuxedo Mask, playing up the idea of her as a romantic rival. (It took me a while, but I eventually figured out the biggest difference when Haruka presents as a boy is that she doesn’t have long eyelashes: very clever.)

That said, gender’s not a problem for Haruka, who kisses Usagi on the lips when she meets her for the first time in superhero girl mode; it may now be 2022, but it feels as extraordinary to see now as it would’ve been in the past, especially as Usagi still remains under her spell, and fantasizes about her after deducing the truth. Even more groundbreakingly, by the end of this stretch of issues, Michiru tells Usagi her partner is “both a man and a woman. She is a Guardian of both, with her attributes and strengths limited to neither” — it’s an incredible affirmation of her androgyny, one that could very well make her one of the first genderqueer or non-binary superheroes, and still one of the most unique ever created.

Continued below

With Uranus and Neptune’s prominence, it can be easy to overlook this arc also introduces Saturn as Hotaru Tomoe, whose tragic backstory is similarly key to the darker tone: between having a cold, mad scientist for a father, a mother who was killed in a fire at one of his labs, physical fits, and being an outcast at school, Hotaru’s life is considerably worse than any of the other Sailor Guardians.

Chibiusa getting to know Hotaru

Chibiusa is the primary character who becomes concerned with befriending and checking in on her, a decision that makes her story more palpable thanks to the little heroine’s sweetness and light; it also has an upsetting pay off when Chibiusa accidentally discovers Hotaru has sinewy prosthetics as a result of the fire she survived as a little girl, which freaks her out, sending Hotaru spiraling into rage and loneliness — poor Chibiusa, no one should have to tend to someone else’s mental health alone like that though.

The arc introduces one more Guardian, or rather, reintroduces her: Pluto returns, reborn in the present as Mugen physics student Setsuna Meiou. Setsuna’s debut at the end of chapter #30 is a great twist, as she was shown as a child during Neo-Queen Serenity’s reign, meaning you’re truly baffled as to how she’s still alive; but as she says when she remembers on awakening her powers and alter-ego at the end of the next chapter, she was reincarnated in the past by Serenity to help Uranus and Neptune’s mission. As Chibiusa puts it, her old friend is “not quite like the Pluto I used to know,” which is only a natural reaction to learning someone you knew has lived another life elsewhere.

We’ll return to discuss the second half of the arc next week.


//TAGS | 2022 Summer Comics Binge | Mooniversity

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Sailor Moon vampires featured Columns
    Mooniversity: Vampires. Wait, Vampires?!

    By | Oct 31, 2023 | Columns

    Welcome back to Mooniversity, our column for all things “Sailor Moon.” It is Halloween, and so we’re taking the opportunity to discuss a surprising running theme across most incarnations of the series, which is vampires. Why have vampires appeared in the manga, anime, and stage shows? You’d think werewolves would be a better fit given […]

    MORE »
    Mingjue Helen Chen Sailor Moon Inner Guardians Columns
    Mooniversity: The Future

    By | Sep 27, 2023 | Columns

    Header fan art by former Disney (now Sony Animation) artist Mingjue Helen Chen.Welcome back to Mooniversity, our column for all things “Sailor Moon.” As we continue to await word on the release of the Sailor Moon Cosmos movies — which mark the conclusion of the second anime continuity — outside Japan, now’s a perfect time […]

    MORE »

    -->