Four years since Season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal, the Japanese trailer for a new movie titled Sailor Moon Eternal has been released on the official Sailor Moon Youtube channel. The movie, which will be broken up into two parts, will continue where the series left off and looks to cover the Dream Arc of the manga. The Dream Arc is the shortest arc in the series and thus wiser to adapt as movies rather than a full TV season (when the '90s show tried to do the latter, it had a ton of filler). So what can fans look forward to in the new movie?
The Story So Far
The Sailor Senshi have grown in numbers, with Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Saturn making their first appearances in Season 3 of Crystal. The four inner guardians have reached the third stage of their power increase, and Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon have achieved their Crisis forms after attaining the Holy Grail during the fight with Pharaoh 90. Super Sailor Moon was able to reverse all of the destruction caused by Pharaoh 90 and the Death Busters, with Sailor Saturn being reborn as an infant. Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto take the infant in as their own and leave to raise her.
Days after the fight, the girls are shown getting ready to begin high school, and Chibi-Usa and Diana prepare to return to the future. The same day this is occurring, there's a solar eclipse. Everyone gathers around to watch the eclipse, and as they watch the moon cover the sun, Usagi and Chibi-Usa hear a bell ringing in the distance. The movie appears to combine the art styles of the original anime and the Crystal anime.
Plot
The movie will pick up right after Season 3, introducing the Dead Moon Circus as the new villains. Led by Queen Nehellenia, they seek to take over the Earth in the name of Nehellenia's dark version of the Moon Kingdom. In the past, Nehellenia was a self-styled "queen" of the dark center of the moon. She made her presence known at the celebration of Princess Serenity's birth by confront Queen Serenity, demanding the Silver Crystal be given to her. Queen Serenity was able to seal Nehellenia away inside of a dark mirror, but not before Nehellenia placed a curse on the Moon Kingdom and the baby Serenity, claiming that she would never inherit the throne. This prison kept Nehellenia alive even after the fall of the Moon Kingdom.
Now that she's broken out of her prison, Nehellenia seeks to take over the Earth using the power of the Golden Crystal, Endymion's equivalent to the Silver Crystal. The Golden Crystal is hidden within Endymion's kingdom of Elysion and guarded by Helios, Priest of Endymion. He flees Elysian, his spirit taking the form of Pegasus and hides within the beautiful dreams of Chibi-Usa. The Dead Moon Circus now seeks Pegasus by taking the Dream Mirrors of humans, turning them into horrid monsters called Lemures.
New Powers, New Allies
Helios makes his grand entrance in this arc. Guardian of Endymion and the Golden Crystal, he lives in Elysion and prays to protect them. However, he's forced to take on the form of Pegasus after Nehellenia's attack, and hides within Chibi-Usa's dreams. He asks her and Sailor Moon for help in breaking the seal on the Golden Crystal, which is now locked within Mamoru's body. This Crystal is what grants Mamoru the power to transform into Tuxedo Mask, and what allowed him to always be there whenever Sailor Moon was in trouble, even though he was clueless about its existence.
This arc will also see the Sailor Senshi gain their own Planet Crystals, giving them an even bigger boost in power and unlocking their Eternal forms. Unlike the original anime series, the power will be bestowed to each guardian by their Sailor Power Guardians, who appear as little versions of their respective Senshi. The Eternal forms for the Senshi did not appear in the original anime, except for Eternal Sailor Moon in Sailor Moon Stars. Instead they received their Super forms from Pegasus. Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon also gains new powers with the Moon Kaleidoscope and the Crystal Carillon respectively.
Release Date
The Japanese release is slated for January 8, 2021 for the first part of the movie, and February 11, 2021 for the second half. The movie was originally going to be released on September 11, 2020, but was delayed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). No international release has been announced yet.
