English Dub Review: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Part One: A solar eclipse brings a new set of enemies for the Sailor Guardians as darkness covers the town. Chibiusa meets a Pegasus named Helios who’s searching for a maiden and the Golden Crystal. Mamoru grows distant from Usagi in order not to burden her with his sudden sickness. In Juban a circus called the Dead Moon Circus comes to town. Their goal is to spread nightmares called Lemures and obtain the Legendary Silver Crystal for their leader. However, every Sailor Guardian gets a power-up and they overcome the traps set by the Amazoness Quartet.

Part Two: The Outer Guardians raising the reborn Hotaru sense that something is off with solar eclipse. After meeting a reawakened Sailor Saturn they all decide to head back to Sailor Moon and the others. The true leader behind the Dead Moon Circus, Queen Nehelenia arrives to take the Legendary Silver Crystal. Helios uses the last of his power to save everyone as the Sailor Guardians gather together to help Super Sailor Moon. The Sailor Guardians combine their powers and Sailor Moon defeats Queen Nehelenia.

Our Take:

This Sailor Moon Eternal movie definitely takes me back to childhood. Studio Deen and Toei Animation did a good job with the animations for the fights and transformation scenes.

These two parts cover the Dream arc of Sailor Moon and it’s straightforward with the plot and the theme of love and friendship. The first part covers setting up the conflict with the Sailor Guardians and the Dead Moon Circus and getting power-ups for the Inner Guardians. It does a good job at establishing their dreams and their thoughts on protecting the world they love. Then the second part covers the power-ups for the Outer Guardians as the true villain, Queen Nehelenia appears.

The power of the friendship is hammered into the final battle with every Sailor Guardian sending their power to Sailor Moon to defeat Queen Nehelenia. To top it off they even get another power-up involving the castles from their guardians’ planets. Admittedly it doesn’t really feel earned in comparison to the first one. If anything at least we get to see the Sailor Guardians in pretty dresses.

On a minor note, there’s the age swap between Usagi and Chibiusa. The problem is comedic, but the movie doesn’t give any time to digest it. It’s just conflict after conflict to get the Sailor Guardians their powers back to fight against their new foe.

In between all the power-ups, there’s Chibiusa and Helios the Pegasus/High Priest of Elysion. There’s the problem of his captivity by Queen Nehelenia and his search for the Golden Crystal. He also explains his connection to Mamoru, the reincarnated prince of Elysion. Mamoru later gets his own power with the Golden Crystal after awakening with Usagi’s help and it revives Elysion. However, Mamoru is mostly withering in agony over the darkness in his lung while trying not to be a burden to Usagi for a decent portion of the movie. Eventually, Usagi gets through to him and he recovers.

Lastly, there’s Queen Nehelenia who’s basically a cartoon villain. Her motives are simple like gaining the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal and ruling the world. She does have that evil witch vibe with her entrance to the celebration of Princess Serenity/Usagi’s birth and the curse to destroy the White Moon Kingdom. They try to squeeze in the whole light and darkness can’t exist without each other. However, they end up turning the dark queen into a pile of dust. It somewhat implies her death and defeats the purpose of that dialogue.

Overall it’s a decent movie for the fans of Sailor Moon. I just wish there’d be more depth for the characters.