The prehistoric Moon Kingdom
The "Silver Millennium" (シルバー ミレニアム, Shirubā Mireniamu) was the name of the Moon Kingdom that existed during a prehistoric age in harmony along with the rest of the planets of the Solar System, excluding Earth. It provides a setting for the past lives and future selves of most of the series' major characters and functions as a major driving force behind both plot and characterization.
According to the Sailor Moon R series, a second Silver Millennium will appear on Earth sometime between the 20th and 30th centuries, this time centered in "Crystal Tokyo".
The royal family of the Moon Kingdom bear on their foreheads special markings shaped like small crescent moons. These appear on Queen Serenity, Princess/Neo-Queen Serenity, and Chibiusa "Small Lady" Tsukino, as well as Sailor Venus when disguised as the princess and the moon cats - Luna, Artemis and Diana. In the anime, non-royal civilians of the Moon Kingdom lack the symbol on their foreheads.
Silver Millennium Kingdoms[]
Main article: Moon Kingdom[]
The Moon Kingdom, though it had a fairy-tale appearance, demonstrated advanced technology. It existed within a dome that produced an artificial climate, and the Moon Castle where the royal family lived had an advanced computer called the "Eternity Main System". According to Artemis in the anime, ice skating was a popular sport which Princess Serenity was shown to be very good at. Those who resided in the Moon Kingdom were long-lived beings and had two specific duties: First, they were to protect the Silver Crystal, a powerful "holy stone" which had been handed down through the generations of the royal family. Second, they were to watch over the evolution of Earth and protect it from any negative influence. As it would be explained by King Endymion, Silver Millennium natives age at the same rate as humans, but their aging stops when they reach adulthood.
The original Silver Millennium, which existed ages ago, is portrayed as an ancient Golden Age, marked by peace and prosperity. The Moon Castle, inhabited by Queen Serenity, Princess Serenity and her four guardians, was centered in Mare Serenitatis (the Sea of Serenity). The Outer Sailor Guardians, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, were guardians who had defended the Moon Kingdom from invaders from beyond the Solar System, while Sailor Pluto protected the Door of Space and Time, each of them carrying out their duties with their talismans.
During this time, Endymion, flanked by his four guardians, held the position of Crown Prince of Earth. Despite a prohibition on relations between people of the Earth and the Moon, he and Princess Serenity fell in love.
The Dark Kingdom was ultimately responsible for the fall of the first Moon Kingdom. Out of jealousy and under the influence of the evil Queen Metalia, a sorceress named Beryl raised up the citizens of Earth in a war against the Moon. As a result, the Moon Kingdom was completely destroyed, with Prince Endymion, Princess Serenity and her guardians all dying in the battle. The war was the end of the first Silver Millennium.
In the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, the Outer Sailor Guardians who were not present at the fight were drawn to the destruction of the Silver Millennium, where their talismans unleashed a hidden power, which awakened Sailor Saturn, who lowered the Silence Glaive and destroyed the remains of the Silver Millennium, and all who survived, including herself. Everyone was reborn into the present day as a result.
In the anime, when it seemed all hope was lost, the Queen used the last of her energy to use the Silver Crystal to seal away the Dark Kingdom and sent her daughter, Prince Endymion, and the Sailor Guardians to be reborn on Earth during the 20th century.
The Prince and Princess were reincarnated as Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba and even before they recovered their memories, they succeed in finding each other once again. The reincarnated Sailor Guardians become close friends with Usagi; through their efforts, the resurfaced Dark Kingdom and even Metalia herself were destroyed.
In the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, the entire Moon Kingdom was resurrected at the end of the conflict with the Dark Kingdom, but Usagi decided to continue living on Earth with her parents, her friends, and Mamoru. This wasn't the case in the original anime, however, as the Moon Kingdom was never revisited or established to have been rebuilt at the end of the first season. They all continued to live their normal lives on Earth while protecting their world from new enemies in the future.
Crystal Tokyo[]
Both the anime and the manga reveal that the Silver Millennium will be reestablished in the 30th century, this time centered in the city of Crystal Tokyo. Usagi and Mamoru will rule it as Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion and they will have a daughter named Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity.
The Sailor Guardians protect the entire royal family. However, the story makes no mention of the location of the Outer Sailor Guardians, other than Sailor Pluto. This is likely because the Crystal Tokyo storyline was created before the introduction of the other Outer Sailor Guardians. After their awakening in the manga, the Sailor Quartet also acts as guardians, but specifically to Small Lady. Luna, Artemis, and Diana live in the palace as well. The Black Lady Musicals (but no other canon) show that the Outer Guardians are around during this time and help their comrades of the present fight the Black Moon Clan.
At the center of the kingdom stands the Crystal Palace, where the Royal Family and the Sailor Guardians live. The manga depicts it over water, while in the anime it has another palace, Serenity Palace, located at the top middle spire. It is particularly shown in the beginning credits for the second opening sequence of Sailor Moon R and is seen in a flashback where Chibiusa thinks that the Sailor Guardians and her parents have forgotten her birthday. Later, the interior is shown, indicating that this is the part of the Crystal Palace where the royal family and their protectors live.
Exposure to the Silver Crystal rendered all of Earth's people long-lived like the Silver Millennium natives of the past. When Neo-Queen Serenity took the throne, everyone at that time became locked at their current physical age. For example, the King, Queen, and Sailor Guardians did not age past their 20s. The princess Small Lady, Chibiusa, is noted to be an unusual example. At the time of her debut, she was stated in the manga to be over 900 years old, yet had the body and mind of a child, even though Silver Millennium natives were supposed to age at the same rate as regular humans and only stop when they become adults. According to her parents, such an extremely slow growth is irregular, but upon her awakening as Sailor Chibi Moon, she finally starts growing again.
Like the first Silver Millennium, the second Silver Millennium was besieged by an enemy seeking the Silver Crystal, this time by the Black Moon Clan. After Neo-Queen Serenity expelled the Black Moon Clan to the planet Nemesis, the tenth planet in the Solar System, Wiseman took this as an opportunity to achieve his goal of bringing total darkness to the world and unleashing the full power of the Death Phantom. He manipulated all members of the Black Moon Clan to unknowingly support his self-interest, encouraging them to seek vengeance on Neo-Queen Serenity and destroy Crystal Tokyo.
The Black Moon Clan launched an attack on Crystal Tokyo. In the anime, Sailor Pluto sent the daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion to the past for safety as well as to seek the help of Sailor Moon. In the manga and Crystal, however, Chibiusa stole a Space-Time Key from Pluto and journeyed to the past on her own. Chibiusa was followed by the Black Moon Clan, but was protected by the Sailor Guardians of the 20th century (or 21st century as depicted in Crystal). The Sailor Senshi learn of their futures when traveling to 30th Century Crystal Tokyo and defeat the Black Moon Clan in the present day, restoring the future.
Though Serenity has taken her place as Queen on Earth, Takeuchi leaves it unclear whether she returns to the Moon as Neo-Queen Serenity to re-establish herself as the new monarch of the Moon Kingdom itself.
Key Figures[]
Queen Serenity[]
Queen Serenity was the ruling monarch of the Moon Kingdom and mother of Princess Serenity (during the first Silver Millenium) and spiritual maternal grandmother of ChibiUsa (Small Lady). She states that the people on Earth knew her as the Moon goddess Selene. Queen Serenity first appeared when Sailor Moon and the Inner Sailor Guardians traveled to the ruins of the Moon Kingdom (accidentally in the anime, intentionally in the manga/Crystal) where she told them all about their past lives and the history of the Silver Millennium.
The queen appeared only in spirit (in the anime) or as a "digital will"/A.I. (in the manga/Crystal). After her daughter, her guardians, and Prince Endymion perished on the Moon, she used the Silver Crystal to send them to the future to be reincarnated and seal away the Dark Kingdom, although the seal was imperfect due to her casting it while grieving her daughter's death.
At the end of the Dark Kingdom arc, Queen Serenity's digital will in the reconstructed Moon Kingdom, tells her daughter to find happiness with the one she loves before granting her the Crystal Star brooch to transform into Sailor Moon once again. She appears three more times in the manga, all in flashback: in Luna and Sailor Pluto's memories in the Black Moon arc, during the celebration of Princess Serenity's birth where she was confronted by Queen Nehellenia in the Dream arc, and from Guardian Cosmos' recollection of her maintaining her physical form while entering the Galaxy Cauldron, just as Usagi and the Sailor Guardians had in the Stars arc. In the anime, Queen Serenity appeared a total of three times: the first as a cameo when Luna and Artemis tell the Sailor Guardians about their past, the second as a spirit when the Sailor Guardians are sent to the Moon Kingdom, and the third when she appears to Usagi to give her a new transformation brooch and weapon.
In the manga, Queen Nehellenia said that Queen Serenity came to the Moon after traveling from a great distance, implying she was not born on the Moon. Although it is entirely possible that Nehellenia was referring to the Galaxy Cauldron as the place where they, and all life, were born, and a significant area that would be explored in the Stars arc.
Queen Serenity does not appear in the main live-action series, but does appear in its "Special Act".
Prince Endymion[]
Prince Endymion was secretly the only known Earth-born associate of the first Silver Millennium due to his taboo relationship with Princess Serenity. After the establishment of the second Silver Millennium centered in Crystal Tokyo, he would rule alongside his wife as King Endymion.
Sailor Princesses[]
Act 48, of the manga reveals the Sailor Guardians as princesses of the Solar System. Each one had her own castle, which she can call upon late in the series for power. This act first enables Sailor Moon to transform into Eternal Sailor Moon. The castles are named after moons of the respective planet, except for Mercury's and Venus'. Venus' castle is introduced long before the others', in the Sailor V manga, but she never mentions this to them.
In Act 53, Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto actually visit their castles — huge structures orbiting around their respective planets. Each castle features viewscreens, forcefields, comm systems, and other forms of high technology and comes under the protection of a Power Guardian, who appears as a miniature version of the Sailor Guardian she serves. Sailor Pluto states that the castles were given to all the Sailor Guardians by Queen Serenity at the time of their birth.
Takeuchi's Materials Collection artbook shows the detailed design of each princess's unique gown. The Sailor Guardians wear the gowns at key moments in the Stars manga, and also in the Original Picture Collection Volume IV. Flashbacks to the period of the first Silver Millennium, however, always show them dressed in their ordinary uniforms.
Sailor Power Guardians[]
In the manga and Crystal only, the Sailor Power Guardians look like sprites— tiny versions of the Inner Sailor Guardians and Outer Sailor Guardians who live in their respective castles. The series shows only the Inner and Outer as having Power Guardians, and although all eight are shown, only three of them are referred to by name: Guardian Uranus, Guardian Neptune, and Guardian Pluto. The rest of their names appear in cast drawing in one of the art books. The Sailor Power Guardians are responsible for keeping the Castles safe while the Sailor Guardians are on Earth, and provide some of the Guardians' with their Sailor Crystals during the Dream arc.
Each Power Guardian communicates with her respective Guardian by calling on the power of that Guardian's Sailor Crystal. The Power Guardians can help the Sailor Princesses call on the power of their Castles to produce a new transformation. Thus they upgraded to new forms and poured this great holy power into the Holy Moon Chalice, which in turn allowed Usagi to evolve into Eternal Sailor Moon for the first time.
The Sailor Power Guardians disappear in the Stars arc around the time of the killing of the Sailor Guardian they protect. The exact nature of their fate remains unclear, although the Sailor Guardians themselves are later resurrected.
The Silver Crystal[]
- Main article: Silver Crystal
Mythology[]
In Western myths and legends, silver has long been associated with the moon and femininity, especially after the 1500s and the alchemists. It was the alchemists who assigned the traits we are most familiar with in astrology to the planets. In many world mythologies, Greek, Roman, Indian, and some Native American, silver is the second age of man, coming after gold. Humans are not as peaceful, and life is slightly harder than the age of gold.
According to Hesiod, there are five ages of man: gold, silver, bronze, age of heroes, and iron, which is the age we are in now, and each age gets progressively worse. It is fitting considering the characters, that the "golden" age was called the Silver Millennium, but Naoko Takeuchi is a little off in her construction.
Trivia[]
- Serenity’s Palace very closely resembles the architecture of the old Moon Kingdom.
- The manga reveals that the Crystal Palace is home to one of the largest libraries in the world; the majority of the information is stored on microchips.
- The manga implies that the restored Moon Kingdom is part of Crystal Tokyo; Neo-Queen Serenity is shown telling Chibiusa that she will be taking lessons at one of the Moon’s castles, suggesting that the Moon Kingdom is still in use (as it was restored at the end of the first arc)
- The DiC English dub of the 90s anime states that the Moon Kingdom existed one thousand years ago, but the original manga made it prehistoric.