In Sailor Moon, middle school student Usagi Tsukino awakens incredible powers within and transforms into the guardian of love and justice. With her lovable cat Luna at her side, she locates other Sailor Guardians, and they come together to protect Earth from many evil villains.

Usagi’s adventures in Sailor Moon helped define the magical girl genre of anime in the ’90s, but the story goes much deeper than the powerful transformations and galaxy-ending villains of the week. Long before Usagi awakened her inner Sailor Moon abilities, there was a terrible conflict between Earth and the Moon Kingdom. This epic, ancient war led to unthinkable devastation, and it was undoubtedly a turning point that led to Usagi becoming Sailor Moon centuries later.

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The War that Changed Sailor Moon’s Universe Forever

The Moon Kingdom’s Conflict Led to the End of the Silver Millennium

In ancient times, long before Usagi Tsukino and her friends were fighting evil together, Sailor Moon‘s world experienced an era called the Silver Millennium. During this time, the Moon Kingdom existed in harmony with the other planets, with Earth being the sole exception. The royal family of the Moon Kingdom included Queen Serenity and her daughter, Princess Serenity.

Even during these prehistoric times, the Moon Kingdom was a beautiful place with advanced technology. The Silver Millennium was a Golden Age, filled with peace and prosperity for the Moon Kingdom. All of this changed forever when the Dark Kingdom invaded, leading to the Moon Kingdom’s unfortunate collapse.

While the events of the war between the Dark Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom largely take place off-screen and outside the manga’s panels, Sailor Moon‘s epic story has still revealed many details about the terrible conflict. The ancient war set the stage for Sailor Moon‘s modern-day storyline. Thanks to Usagi frequently saving the world, the conflict between the Moon Kingdom and Earth remains the deadliest and most tragic event in history.

Queen Serenity Forged a Fragile Balance with Earth Royalty

Tensions Were Already High Between Earth and the Moon

While the Moon Kingdom was a utopia that experienced plenty of prosperity during the Silver Millennium, it wasn’t without its flaws. Moon-Earth interactions were particularly strained during this time, with relations between the people and the Earth and the Moon forbidden. Those living in the Moon Kingdom enjoyed incredibly long lives, but they also had important duties. Above all else, they were to protect the powerful Silver Crystal, which was handed down for generations in the royal family.

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Their second duty involved watching over the Earth and keeping it safe from evil forces. Despite the Moon Kingdom citizens watching over and protecting them, the people of Earth likely didn’t realize the work the Moon Kingdom was doing to keep them safe. Queen Serenity stated that people on Earth saw her as the Moon goddess, Selene, but thanks to her daughter’s forbidden romance, it was possible for outside forces to manipulate the people of Earth into launching an attack on the Moon Kingdom.

Princess Serenity’s Forbidden Romance Triggered a War Between the Moon & Earth

Princess Serenity’s Romance with Prince Endymion Was a Catalyst for the Conflict

While Queen Serenity was ruling the Moon Kingdom during its Golden Age, her daughter, Princess Serenity, was tempting fate by falling in love with someone from Earth. Even though she had strict orders to not visit the planet, Princess Serenity would still secretly visit Earth. There, she crossed paths with Prince Endymion, prince of the Golden Kingdom during the Silver Millennium era. Prince Endymion was one of the most important figures on Earth.

His forbidden romance with Princess Serenity defied both the Earth and the Moon’s laws, and it gave two Sailor Moon villains the perfect opportunity to ignite a terrible war. Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity’s love is a beautiful testament to key Sailor Moon themes of unity and destiny, but it also allowed more sinister forces to spark feelings of jealousy, fear and resentment among the humans on Earth. Knowing that their love was forbidden, the Dark Kingdom had the chance to start an uprising, and they capitalized on it.

Sailor Moon’s Queen Beryl Manipulated Earth’s People

Beryl Was Under the Influence of Queen Metalia

The Dark Kingdom could launch an attack that ended the Silver Millennium and destroyed the Moon Kingdom after Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion fell in love. Queen Beryl was in love with Endymion and allowed Queen Metalia to corrupt her after discovering his love for Princess Serenity. The true leader of the Dark Kingdom, Metalia gave Beryl remarkable power, but it also sets her sights on destroying the Moon Kingdom rather than getting revenge on Endymion.

Using her dark magic, Queen Beryl could raise up the people of Earth, turning them against the Moon and launching a vicious conflict that would cause unthinkable devastation for both sides. With Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion’s forbidden romance outlawed on Earth and the Moon, it was all too easy to sway Earth’s people into war. The Sailor Moon manga explores Beryl’s backstory and unrequited love for Prince Endymion. Endymion tried to stop the conflict personally, telling his people to not fight against the moon. In a dark twist, the corrupted Beryl then killed Endymion, winning the war as Princess Serenity took her own life after Endymion’s death.

The Dark Kingdom’s Invasion Led to Total Devastation

Beryl and Metalia Ultimately Ended the Silver Millennium

The Dark Kingdom’s full-scale invasion of the Moon Kingdom led to mass destruction and put an end to the Silver Millennium. Prince Endymion, Princess Serenity, and her four protectors (the Inner Sailor Guardians) all died in the battle. With both the Moon Kingdom and Earth’s most powerful citizens dying, this was unfortunately the bloodiest and most tragic conflict in Sailor Moon history.

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In the manga and the Sailor Moon Crystal adaptation, the Outer Sailor Guardians are drawn home after the war began, awakening Sailor Saturn — the God of Destruction. Sailor Saturn then uses her Silence Glaive weapon, annihilating the remains of the Silver Millennium and anyone who survived the conflict, including herself. As a result, all were reborn into the present day. The ’90s anime handles the fall of the Moon Kingdom differently, with Queen Serenity sealing off the Dark Kingdom, and sending Princess Serenity, her protectors, and Prince Endymion to be reborn on Earth in the 20th century.

The Moon Kingdom Conflict Led to Sailor Moon’s Rebirth

Princess Serenity Was Reborn as Usagi Tsukino

The terrible conflict between the Moon Kingdom and Earth may have been the deadliest war in Sailor Moon history, but it ultimately led the story to its modern times, which fans of the franchise know and love. Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity were reincarnated as Mamoru Chiba and Usagi Tsukino respectively, and once again they would find each other and prove that their love was timeless.

Over the course of Usagi’s journey in Sailor Moon, she awakens her powers as the titular guardian of love and justice, while continuing to live her own life, too. Her past life as Princess Serenity plays an important part in who she becomes, and Usagi’s destiny ultimately leads her to rule over Crystal Tokyo in the future, ushering in a new Golden Age like the one her former incarnation’s mother enjoyed during her own reign.

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In the Sailor Moon manga, Sailor Saturn’s destruction of the Moon Kingdom and rebirth of all of its survivors wasn’t entirely a blessing, though. Queen Beryl was also reborn, and she found the ruins of the Dark Kingdom, reawakening Metalia and corrupting Endymion’s protectors to work for her. This set up one of Sailor Moon‘s first modern-day conflicts, as Beryl worked to find the Silver Crystal while Usagi and the Sailor Guardians did all they could to protect it.

Ultimately, the conflict between the Moon Kingdom and Earth completely wiped out civilizations and resulted in the death of all major characters in the story. The deadly conflict is in a league of its own; while epic Sailor Moon battles against threats like the Black Moon Clan, Death Busters, or even Galaxia and Chaos are all thrilling, none of them end with the fall of two kingdoms. Most importantly, without this war, the events of Sailor Moon and the reincarnations of Usagi and her Sailor Guardians would never have happened, making it truly a conflict that defined destiny for the franchise.

Sailor Moon

Release Date

March 7, 1992

Directors

Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara

Writers

Sukehiro Tomita

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