Sailor Moon Crystal - Act 13 Final Battle: Reincarnation

Previously, “Act 12 - Enemy, Queen Metalia”

Photo Credits: Sailor Moon Crystal

This episode picks up when Sailor Moon slashes Dark Endymion with the Holy Sword before turning it on herself and running herself through, only with a bit more internal dialogue expressing remorse for having to do so. The Guardians then arrive to see their bodies lying prone before them. While expressing their shock and sadness, the “Legendary Silver Crystal” begins to grow and cocoon the bodies of Sailor Moon and Dark Endymion before Queen Metalia appears and absorbs it into her body. Rejuvenated, Queen Metalia proceeds to put a severe beating on the Guardians. At that moment, Luna and Artemis appear from a portal from the wrecked command center. Luna leaps in to attack the queen, but she ends up getting knocked around for her troubles. While Artemis tries to console Luna, the Guardians decide to teleport above ground to regroup and fight again; however, when they get there, they see that the Earth’s transformation has already begun. Queen Metalia, now emboldened by the “Legendary Silver Crystal,” has started to spread over the entire world, encasing it in a dark cocoon. To combat this, the Guardians use their Sailor Planet Attack; however, it fails due to the evil queen being much too powerful. Metalia then hits the Guardians with a powerful concussive blast, almost killing them. During this time, Luna persuades Artemis to take them to the ruins of the Moon Kingdom to plead for Queen Serenity’s help.

Back at the North Pole, the Guardians are still laid out and in shock from their earlier defeat, when four fragments of light fall on them; these are the essences of Sailor Moon essentially revitalizing them and reminding them that they drew their strength from her - and vice versa. The girls rise to their feet, and Venus miraculously pulls the Holy Sword from an image of Sailor Moon’s outstretched hand.

The Guardians then decide to use the power of the Holy Sword along with their transformation pens to try and seal away Queen Metalia, sacrificing their own lives in the process; this fails spectacularly, as the queen is much too powerful for that. Meanwhile, Sailor Moon comes to and realizes that Mamoru’s watch saved her from committing seppuku. She is then surrounded by the wailing cries of millions of souls; Queen Metalia appears and torments her foe by telling her she failed, and the earth will be encased in darkness forever. Sailor Moon notices the “Legendary Silver Crystal” just barely within reach, and she grabs for it; this is enough to free her and Endymion from Metalia’s grasp. This also has two unexpected side effects: it removes the shroud of darkness the earth was under, but it also manages to bring Mamoru back to life. Except…he wasn’t dead, either, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Sailor Moon tries to use the power of the “Legendary Silver Crystal” to seal Metalia away, but it doesn’t quite work. Mamoru stands to help her, but is stopped by four gems that fall from him; these gems contain the essence of the newly healed Four Kings; Kunzite, along with Jadeite, Nephrite, and Zoisite, inform their former master that the seal on Metalia’s head is the way to defeat her. The gems then crumble to dust, and the Four Kings disappear. Mamoru rises to his feet, gives Sailor Moon some strong words of encouragement, and Sailor Moon then prepares to strike down Queen Metalia with the “Legendary Silver Crystal” and her newly empowered Moon Scepter.

Here are my five standout moments of the episode:

1. I’ll give credit where credit is due: the Sailor Guardians attack more than once. That’s good, because in a one hour special, they could only pull off their attacks once.
2. Although they were essentially wasted, it was good to see the Four Kings again; this time, they were restored to their glory.
3. Good job, Luna. Go get her…oh.  Never mind.
4. The Guardians took a beating and kept on coming back for more; gotta love their resolve.
5. I’ve never harped on the animation style of these episodes, but this one…this one made Sailor Moon look like a fish near the end.

No.

No, no, no, no, no! This is a standard case of false advertising. If an episode is called final battle, you are allowed to expect there to be an…I don’t know…FINAL BATTLE. This wasn’t a final battle; this was a curbstomping and a fade to black before the fight could actually begin. This could have been such a good episode, had they only done it right. If they wanted to have the Guardians get beat into submission, they could’ve done that in the first half of the episode. The second half could’ve been Sailor Moon’s existential crisis getting resolved and her defeating Queen Metalia. But, no…there just had to be a veritable cornucopia of angst and despair with about three minutes of excitement before fading to black. This episode is the Twilight: Breaking Dawn of Sailor Moon Crystal; it’s going to be needlessly padded and split into two separate episodes to get the most bang for their buck. Problem with that is it dilutes the brand too much, and almost makes it unwatchable. We’ll see what the next episode brings, because this one didn’t bring anything at all.