***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. Reader discretion is advised.***
Season Synopsis – Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
With the battle against Queen Nehellenia and the Dead Moon Circus now over, Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Scouts take a well-deserved rest.
During hard-earned peace, ar new boy idol group, Three Lights, has been taking Tokyo by storm. To add to the excitement, the group’s three members, Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten Kou (voiced by Shiho Niiyama, Narumi Tsunoda, and Chika Sakamoto), enroll at Usagi’s school. Almost instantly, the leader of the trio, Seiya, takes a liking to Usagi.
With spirits high, it is merely the calm before the storm.
The Earth is invaded by Sailor Scouts from outside the Solar System, and they are searching for objects known as Star Seeds. At the same time, Usagi and her friends run into the mysterious Sailor Starlights -- Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Maker, and Sailor Star Healer. For Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, it is unclear if these new warriors are friends or foes.
With everything at risk, Sailor Moon must now fight her most dangerous, and final battle against the self-proclaimed ruler of the Galaxy, Galaxia (voiced by Mitsuko Horie).Season Positives
And so, it’s come to this. We have reached the fifth and final season of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon Super Stars, and my expectations were high. Maybe too high.
While I can’t Sailor Stars was a disappointment, it certainly wasn’t my favorite of the five seasons.
We will discuss the reason why this is the case the case in a moment, but for now, let’s focus on the positives; and there were positives. Sailor Stars did have some really good things in it; like best-of-the-series kind of things.
Like it was with the other four seasons, Sailor Stars was still a great watch and a lot of fun.
Perhaps the most important thing I can say about season five is that despite its problems it has, it was a worthy ending to this series. Could I go for one or two or three more seasons? Yes, but this was a satisfying conclusion.
The Return of Queen Nehellenia
What a hell of a way to kick off the final chapter. The first six episodes, which I will refer to as the Queen Nehellenia Arc, continued right where season four left off, and this gave a much more rounded conclusion to this storyline.
Not only that, this may have been the best arc of the entire series; it’s currently in the running against Sailor Moon R’s the Hell Tree Arc. The Queen Nehellenia Arc was a much more fitting way to send off the best final boss of Sailor Moon.
Sailor Stars began with a climax. The Queen Nehellenia Arc was intense, dark, threatening, serious, and it put Usagi and her friends through their most difficult challenge of the show. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this would have made a perfect series finale.
This will get you pumped for the final stretch.
The Sailor Starlights
I’ve got mixed feelings about this trio, and get into the why later.
To start, I liked the Sailor Starlights because they weren't Sailor Uranus 2.0. Incidentally, I need to mention that Sailor Uranus, who showed up in this season, was toned way the hell down – thank god.
Odds are you put it together when you were reading the Season Synopsis, the Sailor Starlights were indeed the members of Three Lights. And as a hint of things to come, Taiki and Yaten were part of the reason why I couldn’t get into this trio. However, Seiya made up for a lot of their nonsense.
At first, I didn’t like Seiya; like at all. It was almost as if Sailor Stars was giving us another Sailor Uranus. Luckily, as this season when forward, Seiya ended up being more like a second Mamoru -- a much better way to go.
Seiya was the one Sailor Starlights to realize working with the Sailor Scouts was actually a smart idea, and that they were all fighting towards the same goal. She became a refreshing reprieve whenever Taiki and Yaten would go into their little hissy fits about not needing any help. For example, the plight of the Earth wasn’t their concern. Sailor Moon didn’t understand what it meant to fight. So on and so on, and it was all terribly redundant.
Now, did you notice something? In the Series Synopsis, I referred to Three Lights as the popular boy idol group. However, I used the pronoun “she” to Seiya. Yes, it finally happened.
It may have taken this show five seasons and over 170 episodes to do it, but finally, FINALLY, a Sailor Scout had a real and for true secret identity. As Three Lights the trio were male idols, and in their true Sailor Starlight form, they are female warriors. Granted they looked identical, but this was enough to raise questions.
This kind of actual doubt has been nonexistent in this entire series.
Therefore, when the reveal of the Sailor Starlights identities came, it was a real shock. It wasn’t a shock for us, the audience, since we knew long before this happened. Also, the Sailor Starlights still had no excuse for not figuring out who the Sailor Scouts were.
But the look on Usagi’s was one of genuine disbelief, one we had not see since Mamoru revealed himself to be Tuxedo Mask.
I have been harping on this point since the beginning. To see it here at the end was both surprising and satisfying.
Season Negatives
What I am about to say isn’t a negative; I just have to comment on it.
It was incredibly off-putting to not hear Moonlight Densetsu, the main theme of this series, during the opening credits of this season. The song that replaced it was Sailor Star Song, which wasn’t bad. But after having listened to the same opening for over 160 episodes, this new thing didn’t feel quite right.
However, Moonlight Densetsu was the song that played during the final credits of the final episode, and there could not have been a better choice.
Now for some actual problems.
After the Queen Nehellenia Arc, Chibiusa and Mamoru no longer played a role in this show. Chibiusa went back to the future, an event we didn’t get to see, and Mamoru got attack by Galaxia in a five-second flash of light that was neither referenced nor explained until the very end.
So, if you’re expecting to see a rose go flying through the air, you will be disappointed.
It wasn’t just these two either. Many other established characters were underutilized. Sailor Neptune, Sailor Pluto, and yes, even Sailor Uranus didn’t make an appearance until the show was about to go into the climax. And then, poor Sailor Saturn didn’t show up at all until the climax.
Sailor Stars decided to not use the characters we had gotten to know over the course of this series. Instead, this season tried to introduce new people. And to be frank, this was a poor decision.
The Sailor Starlights
Like I said, I have mix feelings about the Sailor Starlights. Seiya and the fact this trio broke a long-standing habit of this series made a huge difference. However, these two aspects were fighting an uphill battle.
Taiki, Yaten, and, at first, Seiya’s attitude and demeanor throughout the season became hard to stomach. While they didn’t go full Uranus, they are certainly Uranus-light. At any given point, Taiki and Yaten’s personalities would either be tolerable or annoying. You never knew what you were going to get. That was this season got to the lead up to the finale. In this case, they were always annoying.
The Sailor Starlights shouldn’t have been introduced in the final season. Visually, they were unimpressive. Granted, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune didn’t stand out much, but they at least matched the celestial theme of the other Sailor Scouts.
Sure, the Sailor Starlights were from outside the Solar System, but all black with little to no variation was lame if you ask me.
Also, they didn’t do that much. This trio would usually show up at the end of a fight and stun the enemy long enough for Sailor Moon to finish the job. I could say the original Sailor Scouts did the same thing, but there were always around for the entire fight, That, and I like the originals much better.
With this being the last season and all, the Sailor Starlights were just way too lackluster.
The Final Boss
Sailor Stars continued the trend of having a good climax, and this one, in particular, was strong enough to end the show. However, this ending was only as powerful as it was because it was the final one. I can tell you this for sure, Galaxia had nothing to do with it.
Like Queen Nehellenia, Sailor Stars introduced Galaxia early on. In fact, this season did this much earlier than Super S did with Nehellenia. And luckily, Galaxia didn’t reach the level of awful the Dark Kingdom did. That said, Galaxia’s subordinates sure as hell went that low.
But as a final boss, Galaxia was the least threatening of the series.
Despite how often the Sailor Starlights said otherwise, I never saw Galaxia as all that special. It wasn’t until Tokyo was in utter ruins did I begin to feel any sort of inkling that she might be a problem. And while it did take Usagi awhile to finally defeat Galaxia, Sailor Moon was more so fighting poor pacing rather than the actual villain.
Even after Galaxia “killed” all of the other Sailor Scouts, I never thought Usagi was ever in that much danger.
Also, there is no way anyone would believe the Sailor Scouts died. Why? It’s because Sailor Moon had already done this. I didn’t buy it then, and I didn’t buy here.
To be honest, though, had Galaxia shown up in any other season, she would have made for a decent, if not good, final boss. She just should have been the final boss.
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Finale: Synopsis
Galaxia managed to take all the Star Seeds from the Sailor Scouts who gave their lives to protect their princess. What’s worse, Galaxia reveals that she also took the Start Seed from Usagi’s beloved Mamoru. With all the people she cared about gone, Sailor Moon begins to break down.
No matter what Sailor Moon does, she cannot lay a finger on the unstoppable Galaxia. All appears lost. However, one final light of hope calls out to Usagi.
Long ago, a benevolent Sailor Galaxia feared that her great power would one day grow corrupt. To prevent this, Sailor Galaxia sent her own Star Seed to Earth, where it has remained.
With Sailor Galaxia’s encouragement, and the last plea of her dear friends, Sailor Moon takes one final stand and with all her might, manages to defeat the evil Galaxia once and for all.
With the battle over, the stolen Star Seeds return to their rightful owners. The Sailor Scouts are revived, and Usagi is at last reunited with Mamoru. The Sailor Starlights return to their home planet, and everyone finally able to continue their lives in peace.
With it all over, and under the backdrop of a beautiful full moon, Usagi and Mamoru reflect on how a rash crybaby rose to become an agent of love and justice.
Thus ends Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.
Others in the Sailor Moon Series
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