All spoilers for Sailor Moon Crystal and Sailor Moon Eternal will remain unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Sailor Moon Cosmos: The Movie is the two-part 2023 film sequel to Sailor Moon Eternal, the second canonical film in Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon franchise, the second co-production between Toei Animation and Studio DEEN, the fifth overall Sailor Moon film and the Grand Finale of the Continuity Reboot that began with Sailor Moon Crystal in 2014. It is directed by franchise newcomer Tomoya Takahashi in his directorial debut. Kazuyuki Fudeyasu also returns from Eternal as the film's script writer, along with Kazuko Tadano as the character designer and Takeuchi herself as the chief supervisor.
The duology tells the story of the last big adventure of Usagi Tsukino (Kotono Mitsuishi), who is continuing to live her high school life. Shortly after Usagi's boyfriend Mamoru Chiba (Kenji Nojima) proposes to her before he leaves for America to study abroad, Sailor Galaxia (Megumi Hayashibara), the leader of Shadow Galactica, suddenly steals his Golden Crystal and the other Sailor Guardians' Sailor Crystals. Meanwhile, the Sailor Starlights — Seiya Kou/Sailor Star Fighter (Marina Inoue), Taiki Kou/Sailor Star Maker (Saori Hayami) and Yaten Kou/Sailor Star Healer (Ayane Sakura) — and their leader Princess Kakyu (Nana Mizuki) arrive from the Planet Kinmoku. Joining forces with the Sailor Starlights and a young girl named Chibi-Chibi (Mitsuishi), Usagi must travel to the Galaxy Cauldron to confront Shadow Galactica and revive her fellow Guardians as the galaxy's fate hangs in the balance.
Most of the reboot's cast return, including Hisako Kanemoto as Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury, Rina Sato as Rei Hino/Sailor Mars, Ami Koshimizu as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter, Shizuka Itō as Minako Aino/Sailor Venus, Misato Fukuen as Chibi-usa/Sailor Chibi Moon, Junko Minagawa as Haruna Tenoh/Sailor Uranus, Sayaka Ohara as Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune, Ai Maeda as Setsuna Meioh/Sailor Pluto, Yukiyo Fujii as Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn, Ryō Hirohashi as Luna, Taishi Murata as Artemis, and Shoko Nakagawa as Diana. Wakana Yamazaki replaces the late Yuko Mizutani as Ikuko Tsukino. New additions to the cast include Sena Koizumi as Sailor Iron Mouse, Ayumu Murase as Sailor Aluminum Siren, Yōko Hikasa as Sailor Lead Crow, Mariya Ise as Sailor Tin Nyanko, Haruka Kudo as Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon, Shiori Mikami as Sailor Lethe, Kanae Itō as Sailor Mnemosyne, Fumie Mizusawa as Sailor Phi, Yuka Komatsu as Sailor Chi, Mitsuki Saiga as Chaos, and Keiko Kitagawa as Sailor Cosmos.
The first part of the Cosmos duology was released on June 9, 2023, with the second part released on June 30.
Previews: Teaser
, Part 1 Sailor Starlights TV Spot, Part 1 Trailer 1, Part 1 Trailer 2, Part 2 Trailer, Part 2 Sailor Cosmos TV Spot
Sailor Moon Cosmos provides examples of:
- Adaptational Name Change: Sailor Aluminum Siren's "Galactica Tsunami" attack is renamed "Galactica Wave."
- All Your Powers Combined: The end of the second trailer for Part 1 shows the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask combining their powers with Sailor Moon so the latter can perform her ultimate attack.
- At the end, Sailor Moon calls upon every Sailor Crystal (including the still alive Sailor Quartet) to lend her their power, allowing her to use her most powerful attack, Silver Moon Crystal Eternal Power, to defeat Chaos and purify the Cauldron, activating the Lambda Power that restores the galaxy in the process.
- Ankle Drag: Sailor Galaxia grabs Sailor Moon by the ankle, as seen in the first trailer for Part 1.
- Back for the Finale:
- Kanami Taguchi and Aya Yamane make brief appearances as Phobos and Deimos.
- Reina Ueda, Sumire Morohoshi, Yuko Hara and Rie Takahashi briefly return as the Sailor Quartet.
- Hiroshi Iwasaki and Tsubasa Yonaga also make surprise cameos as Wiseman and Saphir in Part 1.
- Beast Master: As part of some Adaptational Badass on their part, Sailor Iron Mouse is showing controlling a swarm of mice that merge together for "Galactica Crunch," and Sailor Aluminum Siren's "Galactica Wave" attack includes jellyfish within it.
- The Big Damn Kiss:
- In the first part, there's a brief shot of Mamoru kissing Usagi under the full moon.
- Two more of those come up during The Stinger where Usagi and Mamoru get married.
- The Bus Came Back: After having been absent since Sailor Moon Eternal, the Tsukino family returns just in time for the continuity reboot's end, with Ikuko voiced by Wakana Yamazaki this time around.
- Call-Back:
- The teaser trailer begins with Usagi waking up in her bed, alluding to the times when she did the same thing in Crystal.
- Like in Crystal and Eternal, there's a scene in the teaser trailer where Usagi and Mamoru share a kiss.
- At one point, Chibi-usa is seen wearing her pink princess uniform from Eternal.
- Usagi performs her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss technique on her enemies, just like she did when she killed Nehellenia in Eternal.
- Costume Evolution: In the teaser poster, Eternal Sailor Moon's costume sports realistic feathers.
- Cover Version:
- Part 1's opening theme is an updated rendition of "Moonlight Legend" from the first four seasons of the 1992 Sailor Moon anime, as performed by Usagi/Sailor Moon and the Inner Guardians.
- Part 2's opening theme is an updated rendition of "Sailor Star Song", as performed by Sailor Kakyuu and the Sailor Starlights.
- Divided for Adaptation: The film duology splits the Stars arc's 11 manga chapters into two halves in a similar vein to Sailor Moon Eternal.
- Dwindling Party: The Guardians all drop like flies throughout the first movie, leaving Usagi alone with Kakyu, the Starlights and Chibi-Chibi for the second.
- In the second, the Starlights and Kakyuu are killed as well. And while Chibi-Usa and the Sailor Quartet show up, Chibi-Usa ends up being temporarily erased from existence and Usagi ends up leaping into the Galaxy Cauldron, leaving the Sailor Quartet and Chibi-Chibi/Cosmos as the only survivors until Usagi and the others were revived.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After losing the majority of her loved ones (especially her future husband and daughter), confronting the source of all the evil she’s faced and temporarily dissolving into the Galaxy Cauldron in order to purify it, Usagi reunites with the others and chooses to return to the Earth with everyone and after a Time Skip, marries Mamoru and is pregnant with Chibi-Usa. It does lean towards Bittersweet Ending, as Chaos could return one day and Mamoru realizes that only Usagi herself is immortal (thus ensuring she will always have to fight Chaos), but overall, it’s a very optimistic ending.
- Evil Overlooker: Sailor Galaxia is looming above Princess Kakyu, the Sailor Starlights and Sailor Moon in the official poster.
- Eye Open: There's a brief close up of Sailor Galaxia opening her eye as she announces her intentions to steal the light.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Towards the end of the teaser trailer, there is a split-second shot of Mamoru's Golden Crystal, which previously appeared in Eternal.
- Grand Finale: Cosmos is the final entry of the Sailor Moon Continuity Reboot that started with Sailor Moon Crystal, ending a story nearly 9 years in the making. It is also the final adventure in Usagi/Sailor Moon and her friends' lives.
- Harmless Electrocution: At one point in the teaser, Usagi (in her Eternal Sailor Moon outfit) is electrocuted along with Luna, Artemis and Diana.
- The Hero Dies: Not even Sailor Moon herself is spared, as she throws herself into the Galaxy Cauldron, melting away after using her final attack. She and everyone else get better, though.
- Heroic BSoD: Good lord, Usagi goes through the ringer in this two-parter. At the start, Mamoru goes abroad and Chibi-Usa goes back to the future, leaving her without her two precious loved ones. Then Galaxia and her minions decide to invoke Dwindling Party.
- Light Is Not Good: Sailor Galaxia, the film's Big Bad, is briefly shown wearing a white dress in the first trailer.
- Logo Joke: The Toei logo is shown in metallic silver in the trailers, befitting the color of Sailor Moon's Legendary Silver Crystal.
- Mind-Control Eyes: In the trailer for Part 2, the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask have dark shadows under their eyes due to them being possessed by Shadow Galactica.
- Moody Trailer Cover Song: The Sailor Starlights TV spot ends with a brief a cappella rendition of "Search For Your Love"note from the Sailor Stars anime, as performed by Marina Inoue.
- Multi-Part Episode: As with Eternal, Cosmos is split into a two-part anime film.
- Musical Nod: Like in the first anime, the first and second parts open with new renditions of "Moonlight Legend" and "Sailor Stars Song", respectively.
- Mythology Gag:
- The teaser poster shows blue, green and purple comets. These colors appear on the uniforms for the Sailor Starlights, who have a major appearance in the manga's Stars arc and Cosmos.
- The opening for the first part has multiple:
- The opening begins with the Guardians striking a pose, similar to how Super S's second ending starts. They then take off into the sky, using both Super S's and S's intros.
- After the title, we're first shown the Inners, who strike a pose similar to the R movie opening.
- In the middle, Usagi spins around as we're treated to the Guardians attacking, similar to R's second opening.
- The opening ends with the Guardians and the Starlights together, similarly to S's opening. Notably, there was never a version featuring Sailor Saturn (and definitely not one with the Starlights!)
- Similarly, the opening for the second part has multiple:
- The opening has the logo form up over flying feathers, similar to how Sailor Stars opened.
- The first scene shows Usagi slowly walking before going into a sprint, stopping and looking into the distance, similarly to how she did so in R's ending. At the same time, we're shown how Usagi met the other Guardians during the events of Crystal.
- Princess Kakyuu holds out her arms and unleashes a burst of red energy similarly to how Galaxia did so in Sailor Stars' opening.
- Sailor Moon holds out the Silver Crystal, flanked by the Starlights, Guardians and Tuxedo Mask similarly to how Princess Serenity faced down Queen Metalla in the finale of the original series.
- The teaser poster
- No-Sell: Sailor Saturn unleashes "Silence Glaive Surprise" on Galaxia when she attacks Sailor Pluto. Sailor Galaxia initially starts screaming in agony... and then abruptly stops with a laugh before murdering both Senshi with one blast.
- Oh, Crap!: In the first trailer, Usagi is utterly shocked when Sailor Galaxia demonstrates her powers in front of the former.
- Parasol Parachute: In Part 1, Chibi-Chibi floats down towards Tokyo with an umbrella.
- Power Incontinence: Watching Mamoru plunge into the Galaxy Cauldron and Chibi-Usa being Ret-Gone because of it, Usagi unleashes a burst of rainbow energy as she mourns both, screaming in despair. It's almost something like Gohan losing control of his emotions in his early days.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Of a sort. This is the explicitly first time that Princess Kakyuu, Galaxia and Chibi Chibi appear at all in any variant of the original 90's intros and Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn and the Sailor Starlights get equal billing as the original sailor senshi.
- Remake Cameo: Keiko Kitagawa, who played Rei in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, appears here as Sailor Cosmos.
- Shout-Out: Part 2's opening features a shot of Sailor Moon brandishing the Eternal Tiare the same way that Utena Tenjou did with the Sword of Dios in her series's opening.
- Sitting on the Roof: The teaser poster shows a melancholic Usagi in her Eternal Sailor Moon form looking up at the night sky as she sits on a rooftop.
- Sixth Ranger: The Sailor Starlights, Chibi-Chibi and Princess Kakyu officially join the main cast for the final battle with Shadow Galactica and Chaos.
- Sole Survivor: Played With. The Sailor Quartet and Chibi-Chibi/Sailor Cosmos are the only ones who didn’t temporarily die, as Kakyuu and the Starlights die in battle, Chibi Moon ends up Ret-Gone and everyone else, including Sailor Moon, has their Sailor Crystals melted into the Galaxy Cauldron.
- The Stinger: After the credits, Usagi and Mamoru are shown getting married after a six year Time Skip, with the Guardians congratulating them. The Crystal Palace is also shown and Usagi senses that she’s pregnant with Chibi-Usa.
- Taken for Granite: In the first trailer, there's a brief shot of the Outer Guardians being turned to stone.
- Thanking the Viewer: The movie and the series end with a message from Naoko Takeuchi, thanking the viewers for watching and wishing a bright and happy future.
- This Is Something She's Got to Do Herself: As Usagi herself notes in the film, there are certain things she must do herself, since her friends frequently risk their lives to protect her.
- Time Skip: The Stinger is shown to have occurred after six years has passed, as the Crystal Palace is briefly shown and Usagi senses she’s pregnant during her wedding note .
