Moon Kingdom – Promises of the Past

Queen Serenity
Queen Serenity
Queen of the Moon
Princess Serenity
Princess Serenity
Princess of the Moon
Prince Endymion
Prince Endymion
Prince of Earth
Ice Princess
Ice Princess

Millions of years ago before the present, the Ice Princess’s comet approached the Earth with a mission to take it over. But before the comet reached Earth, Queen Serenity used the Silver Imperium Crystal to banish the Ice Princess into space.1

Two thousand years before the present, there was an era called the Silver Millennium. It was an era of peace between all planets, filled with joy and celebration, which lasted for one thousand years. On the moon was the Moon Kingdom and it was ruled by the lovely Queen Serenity. The Moon Kingdom was the core of the solar system and all the princesses from the surrounding planets would come to the Moon’s celebrations.

Ice Princess

In the distant, Queen Neherenia happily ruled her planet, the New Moon.2 She was surrounded by cheerful servants and her people always praised her beauty. Queen Neherenia’s beauty became the most important thing to her and she believed that her beauty would last forever. One day, she asked a magic mirror what her future looked like. The mirror showed her an old woman, who was ugly with wrinkles. Queen Neherenia was horrified. The mirror chanted over and over again to her, “Never… never be suspicious of dreams within the dreams of dreaming kids!” until she began to chant it as well.

The evil in the mirror possessed her and told her that she could keep her beauty forever by eating the dream mirrors of other people. So she ate the dream mirrors of all her servants and all her people. Her people turned into lemure monsters and she was alone on her dead planet. In her loneliness, she watched the White Moon’s festivities with jealousy because the Moon Kingdom promised happiness. She wanted the White Moon’s happiness for herself and be Queen of the Silver Millennium. Later, she learned that with the Golden Crystal, she could rule the moon and the universe but she wasn’t able to get it. Queen Serenity saw the evil in Queen Neherenia and used the Silver Crystal to seal her into the darkness of the New Moon.

Ice Princess

Queen Serenity had one daughter, named Princess Serenity, who was young and gentle. Princess Serenity would spend much of her time gazing at the planet Earth from the Moon Palace. She loved the trees, the oceans, and other things the Moon did not have. She also fell in love with a man who lived on Earth. His name was Prince Endymion, the prince of Earth.

Then, the day after one thousand years of peace, the evil force Metallia (Negaforce) possessed a human on Earth named Beryl. Using the evil powers of the Dark Kingdom (Negaverse), she possessed the minds of many humans and soon took over the planet Earth. With the possessed humans as soldiers and her Dark Kingdom warriors, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite (Malachite), Queen Beryl planned her attack on the Moon Kingdom so she would rule both Earth and Moon.

Ice Princess

Prince Endymion fled to the Moon Kingdom to warn Princess Serenity. It seemed to everyone on the Moon Kingdom that Earth was now their enemy and no humans could be trusted. Prince Endymion told Princess Serenity that their love was forbidden, but he would do his best to protect the Moon, even though he would be fighting his own planet. They shared a last kiss before he went off to help fight.

Beryl and Metallia attacked and everything on the Moon was destroyed. The Sailor Senshi, princesses of the surrounding planets and guardians of Princess Serenity, and the Moon’s army tried to defend the Moon but all of them died without success.

Finally, Beryl cast her eyes on Princess Serenity and attacked her. Prince Endymion saved her from the attack and Queen Beryl asked Prince Endymion to become her King. When he refused, Metallia attacked the Prince, sweeping him into a tornado. Princess Serenity screamed and jumped into the tornado with him. Just as they grasped hands, Metallia blasted them with an energy beam and they died.

Ice Princess

Queen Serenity watched as their two bodies drifted upward in the tornado. As she cried, she muttered, “I won’t let it end like this,” and mounted the Silver Imperium Crystal on the Crescent Moon Wand. Luna and Artemis, her faithful advisors, reminded her that if she used the crystal, she would surely die. But her mind was made up. She would sacrifice her life so that her daughter and the rest of her people could live.

Using the power of the crystal, she sealed Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom. The Prince, Princess, the Sailor Senshi, and the people of the Moon Kingdom were stored into the Silver Crystal. She released the Crystal into the air and sent it with all her people one thousand years into the future to be reborn on Earth. As she lay dying, she told Luna and Artemis that Princess Serenity and the others would have no memory of this time and that there was a possibility that the Dark Kingdom could break free again. If that were to happen, Luna and Artemis must seek out the Princess and the Senshi to awaken them.

With her last breath, she whispered to her people, “On behalf of the moon, you will be free. Maybe we’ll meet again, someday,” and she died. The Crescent Wand fell from her hand and whisked Luna and Artemis away with the others to the future.

Continue to Tokyo – Blossoms of the Present

Moonlight on Manga highlights only the differences in the Sailor Moon manga compared to the anime. Please read the anime storyline above before reading this section. The Sailor Moon manga is comprised of 18 volumes or 18 books. Each volume has 3-4 acts, which are like chapters of the book. There are 52 acts in all.

Though the Ice Princess did not state exactly when she was banished from Earth in the “Sailor Moon S” movie, according to the manga, the Silver Imperium Crystal drove her away 4.5 million years before the present.

There are a few differences in the manga when it comes to the Silver Millennium. One detail that isn’t mentioned in the anime is that Queen Beryl’s generals, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite (Malachite), were actually generals of Prince Endymion on Earth and were brain-washed by Beryl to serve her. The four generals were also Prince Endymion’s guardians, just as Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus are Princess Serenity’s guardians. There is a hunch that the Inner Senshi had relationships with the four generals during the Silver Millennium. There are several clues to this possibility in the manga. First of all, in the “Sailor V” manga, there is one picture of Princess Venus being held romantically by what looks like Kunzite (Malachite) but his name is never mentioned nor his origin. I will also discuss a few clues in Moonlight on Manga in the Tokyo section. One of the biggest indicators of Naoko Takeuchi’s intentions is her drawing that appears in Sailor Moon Art Book I. This drawing shows Princess Serenity’s guardians being held romantically by Prince Endymion’s generals. So even if it is not clear whether or not they had relationships, it seems evident that Naoko Takeuchi intended them to or at least played with the idea. However, if it is true, I find it odd that destiny does not bring them back together like it did Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity in the present day.

The human Beryl embraced Queen Metallia’s evil force because she wanted Prince Endymion to love her and was jealous of Princess Serenity’s relationship with him. As Queen Beryl died in the manga, she admitted this and admitted spying on them when the Princess snuck away to Earth to be with Endymion.

The deaths of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion at the end of the Silver Millennium were very different in the manga. When Queen Beryl attacked the two of them, Prince Endymion shielded Princess Serenity and was killed by the blast. Princess Serenity was so grief-stricken that she took his sword and she killed herself.

When she saw the dead couple, Queen Serenity thought, “I felt this love affair end sadly. A love between the Earth and the Moon could never be. I’ll seal it away…that demon and this Moon…and give you to the future! This time…you’ll be born on the same planet and you’ll find happiness there.” That was the reason why she sent them all to Earth.

Continue to Tokyo – Blossoms of the Present

Footnotes

1 Events from “Sailor Moon S” movie.
2 Events from “Sailor Moon SuperS”.