The "Dead Moon Circus" is the main antagonist group of the Dream arc of the manga, the SuperS season and the first six episodes of the Sailor Stars season of the anime and the Sailor Moon Eternal movie.
Anime[]
Prior to Anime[]
The Dead Moon Circus was formely a peaceful kingdom ruled by Queen Nehelenia. Ever since when she was a child, her subjects showed loyalty and respect to their queen, but this caused that she growed up feeling different to others and alone. Her ancient mirror taught her that she must love herself only, causing her to become a selfish queen.
Queen Nehelenia lived happy being admired due her beauty and she dreamed to be young and beautiful forever, but the mirror showed her future as an ugly old woman, causing her fears of getting old. In the mirror the fears borned Zirconia, who said to Nehelenia: "Never ever forget to remember. A child's dream is a dream of dreams". Nehelenia followed it and released Zirconia from the mirror with her fears, so she took away the dream mirrors of her subjects and turned them into Lemures. The dream mirrors retained her youth for a long time. After she consumed the mirrors of her subjects, Nehelenia searched for more in other worlds, hoping to eventually invade the Moon Kingdom and usurp Queen Serenity, and from there become ruler of the universe. She found Elysion and tried to take its Golden Crystal only to be cast away by golden flames when the crystal sensed her evil intentions. Afterwards she attacked the Moon Kingdom on her own only to be trapped her in her mirror by Queen Serenity and her Silver Crystal.
Queen Nehelenia sent the Dead Moon Circus to Elysion to capture their guardian, Helios, and take his Golden Crystal, which could release her from the mirror. But Helios transferred his spirit to Chibiusa's dreams, which caused the circus to go to Earth to find Pegasus' holder.
Before their mission began in Tokyo, Queen Nehelenia found four girls in a forest and she gave them the Amazon Stones to give them more strength and keep them young and lovely forever. The girls turned into the Amazoness Quartet and agreed to work for her. Additionally, Zirconia captured a tiger, a hawk and a fish and gave them humanoid forms and powers, turning them into the Amazon Trio.
Sailor Moon SuperS[]
During a solar eclipse, the Dead Moon Circus tent arrived in Juban. Zirconia first sent the Amazon Trio to find Pegasus' holder. Each member searched on a different type of target: Tiger's Eye to young girls, Hawk's Eye to older women and Fish Eye to boys. Each member looked inside their dream mirrors but always chose the wrong targets, so they tried to kill them. The Sailor Guardians showed up to stop them and the Amazon Trio members summoned a Lemures who fought against the Sailor Guardians when their master returned back to the tent. Each was killed by Moon Gorgeous Meditation. Tiger's Eye also looked inside the Inner Sailor Guardians dream mirrors, and shared a brief romance with Makoto. After several mistakes, Fish Eye found that Chibiusa was Pegasus' holder and kidnapped her, but first he asked Zirconia if they were humans. She then showed them their true identities. The trio, afraid of their fate, were sent to attack a new victim, Usagi Tsukino. Zirconia sent Mr. Magic Pierrot to kill the Amazon Trio. Mr. Magic Pierrot looked inside Usagi's mirror and he didn't find Pegasus, so he attacked the Trio, destroyed Usagi's dream mirror and manageed to kill Hawk's Eye. Tiger's Eye and Fish Eye sacrificed themselves to repair Usagi's dream mirror and release Chibiusa. Both guardians easily killed Mr. Magic Pierrot. The Amazon Trio was revived by Pegasus, who gave them their own dream mirrors and went to live on Elysion.
After the defeat of the Trio, Queen Nehelenia revealed to Zirconia that Pegasus is a refugee in the Golden Mirror, so Zirconia sent the Amazoness Quartet to find that mirror. They first used their Orb Shot to extract the mirror and, after the arrival of the Sailor Guardians, they summoned a Lemures to eat the extracted mirror when the Amazoness escapes. Their Lemures were also killed by Sailor Moon and the extracted mirrors were sent back to their holders. PallaPalla was the only one who extracted several mirrors at once and any of her Lemures never ate any mirror. She once used her Amazon Stone to switch Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon's ages, but Pegasus reversed it. Sometimes, the Sailor Guardians and the Amazoness Quartet met in their civilian identities and befriended one another, not knowing about their real identities. The Amazoness also made fun of their beliefs of realizing dreams but they were also influenced by Chibiusa, who defends the importance of dreams.
When Queen Nehelenia became impatient to find the Golden Mirror, she plunged the world into darkness and covered it with spider-like threads. This caused Mamoru a strong pain that prevents him from fight. Then, both the Sailor Guardians and the Amazoness Quarted discovered their true idntities and the Amazoness sent all the remaining Lemures to fight the Sailor Guardians, but they were quicly defeated. Once the Sailor Guardians arrived to the Dead Moon Circus tent, Queen Nehelenia finds out that Chibiusa is the Golden Mirror holder and sent Zirconia to extract it. Then, Queen Nenelenia trapped her but shortly the Amazoness switched her with a doll for trying to ride Pegasus. The Amazoness were unable to, however, and Queen Nehelenia imprisoned them inside mirrors in another dimension as a punishment after finding out about the doll identity trick and trapped Chibiusa again. The Amazoness questioned their loyalty to Queen Nehelenia. Nehelenia used the golden dream mirror, forceing Pegasus to become Helios again, and to take the Golden Crystal. Meanwhile, Zirconia is fighting against the Sailor Guardians. When in trouble, Nehelenia released the Amazoness Quartet to help in battle but the Amazoness, having a change of heart, destroyed their Amazon Stones knowing that they will grow up one day.
Queen Nehelenia got the Golden Crystal and she finally escapes from the mirror. Then, she returned Zirconia to her body and fought against the Sailor Guardians. She tried to use the Golden Crystal to kill them but the Amazoness Quartet switched the Crystal with a pineapple and Super Sailor Chibi Moon used Moon Crisis Power to destroy Dead Moon Circus. Nehelenia survived and lifted the remains of the main circus tent toward the Dark Moon, kidnapping Super Sailor Chibi Moon, who is unconscious. Super Sailor Moon followed her to the top of the circus tent, where, as a result of the battle, Nehelenia's beauty and youth diminished. Nehelenia then returned to her mirror, sealing herself inside it once again, and returning to the dark moon inside her mirror to sustain her exceptional beauty, youth and charm for all eternity. Then Pegasus saved both Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. The Amazoness Quartet returned to Juban to live as normal girls that one day will become adults.
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars[]
Queen Nehelenia lived some time sealed on her mirror. Now without caring about being trapped and enyoing her youth, forgetting her loneliness and the Sailor Guardians. Meanwhile, Sailor Galaxia wanted to awaken Sailor Saturn's Star Seed. So she broke Nehelenia's seal, shows that Usagi is still alive and deceived her saying that Usagi was making fun of her, so Galaxia gives Nehelenia a mirror with all her hate and she broke it, causing that several people -Mamoru Chiba among them- will be controlled by their mirror and the appearance of several Mirror Paredri that will confront the Sailor Guardians. As a consequence, Sailor Saturn awakes an the Outer Sailor Guardians and rejoined the team. Queen Nehelenia trapped Mamoru on her mirror, prevented Usagi from transforming and caused that Chibiusa could dissapear, so Usagi followed her inside the mirror alone on a snow storm, trying to go to the destroyed tent to the limit of his strength.
The rest of Sailor Guardians also went inside the mirror but Nehelenia separated them in different couples. They defeated their respective Mirror Paredri working together, but were trapped inside mirrors by Queen Nehelenia. Then Sailor Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn confronted Queen Nehelenia in person, but they were also trapped on her mirrors.
Then, Sailor Moon arrived to Queen Nehelenia's palace (the former Dead Moon Circus tent), getting angry with her for trapping her friends. Then, Queen Nehelenia expressed the reason of her loneliness and Usagi feels sorrow. Usagi's influence causes that Nehelenia has a change of heart, which released the Sailor Guardians. Everyone joined their powers to the Eternal Tiare to reborn Queen Nehelenia, destroying the mirror once and for all to prevent Nehelenia from being corrupted again. Afterwards, they restored her kingdom, where her subjects reviveD without remembering any of the events. Queen Nehelenia returned to be a child again, only remembering her evil self as a dream but now with an open heart with which this time she will make good friends and being happy.
Members[]
Queen Nehelenia[]
The kingpin of the circus, Nehelenia commands Zirconia from behind her mirror due to being trapped inside it. She long seeks the Golden Crystal to rule the Earth and maintain her beauty due to her childhood.
In the manga, she was an incarnation of Chaos, who invaded Elysion, cursing Mamoru and Earth, and desired the Silver Crystal.
Zirconia[]
The general commander of the circus, she issues the orders and dream mirror targets for the Amazon Trio and the Amazoness Quartet and relays messages from the queen. Zirconia is often seen yelling at her subordinates.
Amazon Trio[]
A trio composed of Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye and Fish Eye, they are the first sub-group of villains the Sailor Senshi face, they eventually renounce their ways in order to become humans with dreams, and Helios transports them to Elysion.
In the manga, each member were sent to attack an individual Sailor Senshi while she was unable to transform. Fish Eye attacked Ami, Tiger's Eye attacked Rei, and Hawk's Eye attacked Makoto. Each Amazon member was destroyed by their targeted Sailor Senshi after she received her Sailor Crystal.
Amazoness Quartet[]
A quartet of acrobatic girls filled by VesVes, CereCere, JunJun, PallaPalla that take over dream mirror hunting after the Amazon Trio, they are playful and constantly ridicule Zirconia for failing to show them a good mirror target. Out of all of them VesVes (anime) usually gets the target
Xenotime and Zeolite[]
Appearing only in the manga and crystal series, they were sent by the Amazoness Quartet to eliminate Minako. They lured Minako to an idol competition which turned out to be a trap. In the end, Minako transformed into Super Sailor Venus and destroyed them both with Venus Love and Beauty Shock.
Lemures[]
The circus mooks, they are really the citizens of Nehelenia's former home, turned into what they are today due to their dreams being ripped from their bodies in order to fuel their queen's beauty. They are often sent to fight the Sailor Guardians after the Trio or Quartet failed.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the CWi English dub, they were called the "Dark Moon Circus."