There are many stories that move and inspire us, though I wonder how often we really look to analyze these stories against who we are now and who we were then. Sailor Moon was always a story that inspired me to believe in the power of teamwork and to persevere because it’s important that we grow through the various trials we find ourselves in. If we don’t, then how can we possibly be the person others need us to be.
That’s the consistent struggle throughout Sailor Moon, persevering because no one else could stand against the darkness that kept creeping into the world. Things that no one else was aware of, but were affected by none-the-less. Through it all, the Sailor Senshi had to rely upon and even advance their virtues and ethics in order to be guardians of love and justice. For this paper, I’m going to be looking at how three different virtues outlined in the Jedi Compass (Responsibility, Discipline and Integrity) are manifested and developed in the movie Sailor Moon Super S: Black Dream Hole. While this will focus primarily upon this movie, I found it important to also put some of my assessment into context of points in the series both prior to this movie, and later on in the series- as some lessons are better looked at within context of full awareness of the whole story.
For some background, the story was inspired by the Pied Piper. It follows four brothers who are in the service of Queen Badiane who rules the Black Dream Hole. It is a dream world that is filled with wonder and promise that children will always be happy. The children, as you might have guessed, are lured their by the boys whom are Pipers, playing their flutes beautifully and placing the children in a trance. The movie eventually takes a turn, when Chibi-Usa falls prey to the piper and is lured alongside the other children in Tokyo.
Responsibility
We find that Responsibility plays an important role in the Jedi Path, because it forces us to acknowledge that in order for the world to get better, we need to accept the weight of what it means to be a Jedi. That is, if we are to be guardians of peace, we cannot sit back and allow things to go unnoticed. It also means acknowledging when we are at fault for the problems going on. Accepting Responsibility for our actions, and moving to correct them is at the heart of the Jedi Path.
At first, when Mamoru (Tuxedo Mask) and Usagi (Sailor Moon) hear that children around the world have mysteriously disappeared, we see concern wash across their face. It’s at this point that we can see they are concerned for the situation, and that by the report’s nature it falls squarely into their territory. However, due to their limitations (the senshi are confined to whatever location they are in, they can’t just drop everything and go to Europe at a moment’s notice) this problem cannot be dealt with.
It’s not until later that night when Diana (a kitten) wakes up Usagi and the senshi gather together that they are able to deal with this problem directly. Ami (Sailor Mercury) is the one that is able to put two and two together and realizes the scene of kids they are watching must be what the news spoke of earlier. It is at this point that the Senshi recognize their responsibility as guardians of love and justice means they need to get involved. What I love about this scene, is that it’s not even a question for them.
They decided they were going to do something even before they realized it was linked to things that happened elsewhere. Which is no small feat. It’s not impossible for others to have witnessed the same scene unfold and were simply too afraid to come forward after witnessing all of this. Instead of feeling like they can’t do anything, they acknowledge that they may be the only ones that can facilitate a rescue and save the children. That level of confidence, in a situation where you’re the only person or persons present, is something I feel every Jedi needs to tap into. We cannot simply allow ourselves to fall prey to the “someone else can handle it” mentality. The decision comes down to action- what action can you take to save the lives of others, and what calvary can you call in?
Which brings me to Tuxedo Mask and Perle. Both drive into the story recognizing that they have a responsibility to the children. When Tuxedo Mask is cornered by the children at the Poupelin’s song, he has a few choices available to him. He can do nothing, or he fight off the kids potentially bringing harm to the very people he is there to help rescue. Instead of doing this, Tuxedo mask allows himself to get hurt, and flung off the edge of the sky boat.
Perle shows up at this time. Perle represents the idea of Responsibility when you realize you’ve done something wrong and you need to correct it. In the grand scheme of the story, he is the brother to the other two pipers and has been helping Queen Badiane kidnap kids around the world. Somewhere along the way, he realizes this is wrong and cannot continue. But it’s not until he gets to Tokyo and sees the senshi fighting back that he realizes he not only has the ability to, but also the responsibility to do something about what he’s done and try to make things right again.
Finally, we have the Outer Senshi (Pluto, Uranus and Neptune) who feel a dark energy and immediately feel it’s their responsibility to respond to it. As it concerns Uranus and Neptune, this is a mark of growth for them. When they first began their journey as Sailor Senshi, they felt the need to do things on their own. That their responsibility was only to their mission, and to team up with the Inner Senshi was not an option. Over time, they grew to realize that their responsibility wasn’t just to the mission, but also to play as a key support role to those who were on the same mission (to protect the earth) as themselves.
Responsibility comes in at many levels. We have to learn to accept that our ability to maintain our responsibilities has to factor in everyone. Our support channels, ourselves, our community, and the resources which are equipped to handle things we normally cannot.
Discipline
In the Jedi Compass, Discipline is defined as the quality which gets you through your training, and calls you to maintain your life in accordance with your training. It is also a useful tool in overcoming your desires in the face of a pressing need.
When the senshi are pulled into a dream during their first encounter with a piper (Poupelin), we see the cats all trying to figure out how to pull them out of their dream state. Of course, the senshi can’t hear them through their elation at the fact that there’s a gigantic gingerbread house waiting to be eaten. This scene is important because it illustrates that there is a lack in their training on the matter of overcoming a trance. Which is somewhat ironic, given that this isn’t the first (or last) time that the
Senshi have been pulled into a dream-like state that they needed to overcome. The first time is in the first season of Sailor Moon, before Jupiter and Venus enter the picture, during a fight at Dreamland. Later on, in the final season of Sailor Moon, Galaxia lures the senshi into their own nightmares.
Although they are able to make it out of each of these situation, every time with the aide of an external force, a recognition of responsibility to their roles and instilling a personal discipline to train, would have potentially indicated to the senshi that if one enemy can do this, it’s possible for more enemies to have the ability. While I could restrict this to the film itself, I feel it important to point out the lack of discipline and responsibility could have led to serious disasters later on, and is seen as nearly being the undoing of the senshi in this story. Were it not for Tuxedo Mask’s simple gesture of throwing a rose, the senshi would likely have stayed in the dream while Poupelin got away.
Furthermore, the fact that a gingerbread house was able to completely break their concentration on the battle at hand proves that discipline just wasn’t present. For the first few seconds we can see that they are all questioning the situation, but suddenly forget everything because they have sweet teeth.
Another area where discipline comes into play, is in our strengths. We see this a few times in the movie. Sailor Mercury is very likely the most apt in this role as the tactician. When everyone is still trying to figure out their next move, Mercury rushes in with her own natural talents to rely on her datapad for information. The moment that Mars says she can hear something, Mercury pulls out her compact computer to start analyzing the situation. Again, we see her responding with keen situational awareness the moment a canon is fired at the boat they are on, in order to prevent another attack. This is discipline over the mind, in the form of the first line of the Jedi code “Emotion, yet peace.”
It’s no surprise that Mercury’s counter-part amongst the Outer Senshi, Sailor Neptune, has a similar response time. Once in a position to determine the weakness of the enemy, Neptune turns her mirror upon the enemy and looks for the way to take out their power source. Uranus, who has trained alongside Neptune, is standing still before attacking. The moment Neptune reveals the truth, Uranus is able to rush in and take out one of the piper’s flutes. It takes seeing Uranus do this for Mars to recognize the situation and jump in herself. In this scene, we can see that group training sessions between the Inner and Outer Senshi would be beneficial. And that certainly would have come in handy later down the road when we see all of the Senshi together in the final arc of Sailor Moon (Stars).
Integrity
The Jedi Compass defines integrity as being directly connected to the Jedi Code. When you don’t adhere to it, you begin to create breaks in the glass that forms your right to the title “Jedi”, let alone “Jedi Knight” or “Jedi Master”. And if you’ve ever had a crack in your windshield, you know that it doesn’t take much time before something that seemed like a small fracture ends up spider-webbing if you leave it alone. Once the windshield is shattered, there’s nothing you can do about it. But if you catch the small ones in time, you can get it repaired and not have to worry too much about it. It’s left as a scar to remind you not to let that integrity break again.
“My wish is to protect the places where kids can grow up with their family and friends.” – Perle, Sailor Moon SuperS: Black Dream Hole.
This is what Perle’s code of ethics lies upon. The other pipers were brainwashed to believe that what they were doing would line up with this, but Perle realized that this was not the case, firing at Badaine “You’re doing the opposite of that!”. He realized that by helping Badaine, his integrity was shattering, and before he had to replace the windshield, he needed to do something about it.
In a similar vein, Sailor Moon and her friends are working to protect life on the planet because a dream world where everything is perfect isn’t real. It’s suffocating. At one point, we actually hear Neptune say “But if you don’t reach adulthood...then you can’t enjoy life’s pleasures.” While Neptune meant something...Ahem...crass....in a more appropriate meaning, it’s not without warrant to see the world in that way. In the Dream Mirror Arc, Sailor Moon and her friends explain to the Amazon Quartet that you cannot reach your own dreams- be it to be a wife, to own a floral shop, to become a singer, or a doctor- if you don’t grow up. You’re stuck at home with potential wasting away. Inside the dream, maybe you get these things- but eventually you realize it’s false platitudes of what your mind wants for you, and these things can turn into nightmares. So it is to the Scouts, that their Code of Ethics surrounds the idea of protecting life so that it can manifest into it’s full potential.
As Jedi, our integrity is to the Jedi Code, so it’s only appropriate that we talk a bit about how the code was manifested in this story. We’ve already seen how Mercury, Neptune and Uranus adhere to the first line “Emotion, yet peace”, at the same time they manifest this they also demonstrate the next life “Ignorance, yet knowledge”. But what about other lines of the code?
Passion, yet Serenity. Interestingly enough, it’s actually because of their passion that the girls, Tuxedo Mask and Perle are able to reach a resolution. They have a passion to preserve life, and that leads them to victory. But it is only by not giving into the will to lash out recklessnessly, and to do things with the discipline they do have, that they are able to help return everyone home safely.
Death, yet the Force. It’s not so much that they acknowledge the Force, but Chibi-Usa illustrates faith in someone higher than herself: Sailor Moon. Even if this was her end, she knew that the power of her mother would see the earth through this threat. She didn’t give into the idea that everything was lost, which one of the hearts this line of the code beats too.
Conclusion
Sailor Moon SuperS: Black Dream Hole illustrates the pitfalls that come with a lack of discipline in certain areas of training, but also highlights the way that being responsible and adhering to integrity of one’s morals and values can help overcome some of those pitfalls. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and build up our weaknesses, but at the very least it shows how failings in some portions of the Jedi Compass can be made up for by building strong foundations upon other areas within the Compass.