I did not think it would actually take me this long to finally write about one of my favorite series of all time: Sailor Moon. Since it is something that I have loved for such a long time, I find myself almost at a loss of how to described the series without forcing everyone to read a dissertation on the subject, so I will try to condense it to the point of actually being readable. The series is based off of the manga written by amazing Naoko Takeuchi called Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, or “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon”. The story follows the events in the lives of a group of young teenage heroines and their journeys through life, love, and the defense of earth from the forces of evil.
Although I prefer the Japanese names for the characters, episodes, magical objects, etc… for the sake of not confusing everyone, I will try my best to stick to the English dub names.
A very, very, very simplified description of the characters:
Serena aka Sailor Moon: the champion of justice
Darien aka Tuxedo Mask: he throws roses at bad guys and gets captured and brainwashed a lot
Rini: Serena & Darien’s future child who has returned to the past (It’s easier if you don’t ask)
The Sailor Scouts (Or “senshi” which translates as “soldiers”), Sailor Moon’s friends: Mars (Raye), Mercury (Amy), Jupiter (Lita), & Venus (Mina).
Throughout the entire series, there is a recurring pattern of sacrificing oneself for someone that you love. Although you cannot really say that a character sacrificing his- or herself is an automatic allusion to Christ, lots of characters do that, there is one particular episode where there is a very blatant allusion to the Crucifixion of Jesus.
The allusion takes place in an episode titled “Rubeus Strikes Out” towards the middle/end of the second season, called “Sailor Moon R”. The basic premise for this particular arc of the R season is that in the future-Tokyo, called Crystal Tokyo, a group of baddies known as the Black Moon Clan have attacked the city and layed siege to the royal palace. Rini, the daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity & King Endymion (the future titles of Sailor Moon & Tuxedo Mask, respectively) has come to the past in order to bring back the Silver Imperium Crystal, the source of Sailor Moon’s power. It is important to note that at this point in the plot, Sailor Moon has no idea that she is one day going to be queen or that Rini is her future daughter.
The plot of this event actually starts in the previous episode titled “Rubeus Evens the Score”. In this episode, Rini steals Sailor Moon’s Imperium Silver Crystal and tries to open a portal to go back to Crystal Tokyo. When she does this, she is attacked by Rubeus, who is a leading figure in the Black Moon Clan, this season’s group of (mostly) incredibly inept villains (Think Pokemon’s Team Rocket with superpowers and a space ship from the future). The Sailor Scouts attempt to save Rini, but are then captured by Rubeus, allowing for Rini to escape with the Silver Crystal. End episode.
Now, in “Rubeus Strikes Out”, Rubeus lets Sailor Moon know that she has to hand over Rini and her Crystal if she ever wants to see her friends again. She would never give up an innocent life (which along with self-sacrifice, is another recurring theme of the series), and decides to go face Rubeus alone. Unbeknownst to her, Rini follows her anyway, and both of them are captured by Rubeus and taken about his spaceship, which is hovering over Tokyo.
When they enter into the spaceship, she sees all of her friends who are incapacitated and hung in a way that should be very familiar with readers of the New Testament:
As usual, Sailor Moon eventually saves the day: Everyone is freed from Rubeus’ clutches, and he is trapped inside the spaceship when it explodes, the end. But from the first time I saw this episode, even before taking a class on the Bible as Literature, it really got me thinking.
As someone who has watched the who series several times (in English and Japanese, oh yeah!) I feel like the animators did this to purposely make the audience aware of the type of sacrifice that the Scouts made. Yes, they and Sailor Moon tend to go back and forth with the whole “taking-the-bullet-for-one-another” thing, but they did this for someone who is almost a complete stranger, as they have no idea that she is really Serena’s daughter at this point. What further makes this significant, is that by allowing Rini to escape and themselves being captured, they have unknowingly saved the entire future of the world, because not only did Rini have the Silver Crystal with her at this time, which would have allowed the Dark Moon clan to take over the world, but Rini herself plays a monumental role in the coming events in the Sailor Moon series.
megepayne 