Sailor Cosmos and Eternal Moon
Hi! I’ve been writing about my favorite scenes from the Sailor Moon manga and decided to post them here. This will basically be my thoughts and analysis of specific characters and scenes in the manga, with some anime comparison.
The first scene I’m choosing is my all time favorite. It’s from the last volume of the manga, where Sailor Cosmos is at the Galaxy Cauldron with Eternal Sailor Moon and calls Eternal Moon the “true Sailor Cosmos”. There’s a lot to unpack here and it’s completely different from the anime, so for those who haven’t read the manga, try to put aside some of what you know because it doesn’t all mean the same thing.
At this point in Stars, Eternal Moon is at Galaxia’s palace close to the Galaxy Cauldron. She’s watched all her Senshi be murdered and Galaxia has turned them on her, making them brutalize her with attack after attack until her wings are ripped off. Sailor ChibiMoon and the Sailor Quartets have come from the Thirtieth Century to help, but they can’t do much. Chibi Chibi holds ChibiUsa’s hand to show her through visions what happened to Mamoru and the Senshi. When Galaxia finally throws the reanimated Mamoru into the Cauldron, ChibiUsa disappears much to the grief of Eternal Moon and to the astonishment of the Sailor Quartet.
As Eternal Moon faces Chaos, it says to her:
“that white radiance...the power of the Milky Way’s strongest light! It has come to me at long last. I am Chaos. One who failed to become a heavenly body, and the ruler of the dark heavenly bodies in this cauldron. My child, who has inherited the power of the cauldrons beautiful light... with your hand, you have illuminated evil heavenly bodies of darkness, my fellow siblings born from the same sea… Your radiance grows from their blood splatter, your name has thundered across the Milky Way. Incarnations of evil darkness that roam the Milky Way, seeking the power of light… All those whom you have vanquished are manifestations of me! Each and every one of them set out to cross space-time from here… You are all siblings! It was your destiny to come to this place. Where there is light, there is also darkness. Darkness summons light, and light, in turn, summons darkness. We are fated to pull each to the other. Just as we have originated from here, as one. And now, the time has come once more for light and darkness to clasp hands! Now hand over your power to me, strongest Guardian of the Milky Way, Sailor Moon! The moment has finally arrived when my long desired wish to replace the cauldron and rule the entire universe shall come to be!”
This is an intense moment and a huge revelation as to the powers Sailor Moon holds and how it works in the universe. She is a heavenly body, just as her Senshi are, and just as Chaos is. They are siblings in a way, all born from the Cauldron and constantly seeking one another, whether for good or ill - is irrelevant. Their mere existence means they will be drawn to each other. This is important because this idea of heavenly bodies being drawn to each other is the reason why her Senshi have always been drawn to her, and her to them. And it’s the reason why they are able to be reincarnated together at the end of the series.
As Eternal Moon thinks on what Chaos has said to her, she thinks about how she’s always fought to protect her comrades and those she loves. But now that they’re gone, is it worth it? Sailor Chibi Chibi uses this time to finally speak. She implores Sailor Moon to destroy the Cauldron completely even if that means destroying the birthplace of the universe. Even if that means Stars (heavenly bodies/senshi) will never be born again. Because, she says, the future is filled with never ending war and she, Sailor Moon, alone will have to bear the burden of it. Eternal Moon wonders at what Chibi Chibi says. She wonders if she will be the one to swing the scythe of death this time. Galaxia then says that even if that’s true, a new Cauldron could form bc conflicts cannot be so easily avoided. (This is a pivitol moment for Galaxia, where she finally understands the true meaning of being a senshi. But I’ll save that for another post.) Moon agrees, saying, “brand new futures will keep coming into existence. And there will be light and darkness there, war and hope, life and death, and happiness and sadness. I am sure it will all exist again. Everything… That is what this universe is!”
Chibi Chibi is stunned and wonders how Moon can have faith in the future of this universe. Galaxia looks at Moon, thinking that she is the Guardian who can embrace anything and everything. Galaxia finally realizes in this moment what it means to be a Guardian and what her place as a Senshi can be. In that moment her bracelet breaks and she enters the Cauldron with the implication that she has a chance to be born again. This leads to Eternal Moon telling Chibi Chibi that “hope and the future await at the end of war.” And she’s going to make it happen. She gently reprimands Chibi Chibi not to abandon hope for the future either, saying “have faith that our star of hope shall never be extinguished. For so long as that star shines brightly, we’ll be alright. Because we won’t lose.”
And this brings us to one of my top scenes in the manga, where Chibi Chibi changes unto Sailor Cosmos, kissing Eternal Moon on the cheek. Moon acknowledges that the reason Metallia, Death Phantom, Pharoah 90, Nehelenia and Galaxia came after her power is the same reason she seeks out her loved ones and comrades. That they are all, each, lonely heavenly bodies, pursuing each other because “we want to be together. Together as one.” It’s an astounding moment that is devoid of judgement and hate. Moon chooses to embrace *everything* inside the Cauldron in order to save everything (this is lambda power/Cosmos’s power). As she throws herself into the Cauldron, it’s not an act of hopelessness but the opposite. She calls to all the crystals in the cauldron and the Milky Way, to her comrades and those scattered across the Milky Way to give her strength. Sailor Cosmos watches as the crystals that were scattered into the Cauldron from Galaxia are illuminated and start making their journey to their home planets where they will regain their original forms. The Sailor Quartet aren’t sure what’s going on but Cosmos explains that Moon didn’t sacrifice herself, instead this regenerative power arose from all the crystals in the Milky Way at Moon’s urging. She says it is the Cosmos crystal’s ultimate power, Lambda power, which restores everything to the static Cosmos. She then finally introduces herself as Sailor Cosmos causing Sailer Ceres to gasp and declare her as Sailor Moon’s ultimate form. (It has been speculated by ChibiUsa that Chibi Chibi could have been her daughter or her sister but now we know that’s not true). Cosmos explains that in the far distant future, she’s been waging war against Chaos. She’s lost all her comrades and has been fighting alone. She came back to this time to find “the me of this era” and convince her to destroy everything so that Chaos would never gain back power. Cosmos tells Ceres that the Eternal Moon who just saved the Milky Way is the true form of Cosmos and when she gains that much courage to face the future, that’s when she can be called Sailor Cosmos again. She then tells them that ChibiUsa will be taken to the thirtieth century from the cascade of power coming out of the Cauldron and with a wave of her staff, sends the Quartet back to the Thirtieth century. So she’s got powers over space and time too. While there’s a lot of speculation as to who Cosmos is despite Naoko saying that Chibi Chibi is the future Sailor Moon (therefore making Cosmos=Sailor Moont), I do think it’s clear that she is Sailor Moon but she’s from so far into the future, we don’t know what has happened or how many life cycles she has gone through. Her silver crystal power has obviously continued to change, becoming the lambda power which is drawn from the Cosmos, not just the Moon. For this reason, I refer to Sailor Moon as a Creation Goddess.. Her true nature is one that obliterates anything you think you’ve known so far in the series, and perhaps is the reason why the final lines in the manga, spoken by Mamoru refer to her as “forever immortal. For you are the most beautiful, shining heavenly body of all time” with an image of Usagi and Eternal Moon together.
If y’all read through all that, thank you so much. This is my all time, ultimate favorite part of the whole Sailor Moon series. I love her strength and depth of character and power. This is the scene that truly makes me excited about Sailor Moon, and I hope for those who haven’t read the manga, that you will. I love the anime and I love critiquing it bc the manga exists in which to base that critique off of. But as a big Moonie, I can separate my love for them while also loving to analyze the juxtaposition of the two.
