Crisis, Make Up

Spoken while gripping the Holy Grail, this phrase pushes Sailor Moon beyond her ordinary guardian state and into the far stronger Super Sailor Moon. It reached audiences in the one hundred eleventh episode of the 1990s series and in the thirty-third chapter of both the manga and Crystal. Chibiusa eventually gains access to it too, reaching Super Sailor Chibi Moon through the same sacred cup. A later refinement of the incantation, Moon Crisis, Make Up, builds directly on this foundation.

How the change unfolds shifts across the different versions. In the manga it first happens when Cyprine and Ptitol assault the guardians: Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon, and Tuxedo Mask pour their hearts together to shape the Grail, the rest of the team feeds her their strength, and the cry completes the leap to her Super form. A firm rule governs this in the printed story, since summoning the Grail demands that all eight guardians stand together. When that group later fractures, with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto stepping away to raise the infant Hotaru, Usagi and Chibiusa lose the ability to call the cup, so Pegasus instead hands them the Crisis Heart Compacts to reach their Super states.

The animated telling leans on spectacle. Holding the Grail aloft, Sailor Moon triggers a flood of golden light that wraps her in a cocoon before it splits apart amid a swirl of rainbow butterflies, leaving her in the upgraded uniform. A rare alternate rendition, embraced by fans as the special version, gathers the might of the inner team plus Uranus and Neptune; the crest on her brow glows with six colors, her Pure Heart Crystal surfaces, crumpled wings unfurl as she rises, and the feathers gild themselves gold while she soars. Crystal has seven of her allies lend their power alongside the Grail so that she and Chibi Moon ascend at the same time.

The transformation belongs to Usagi Tsukino as Sailor Moon, with Chibiusa sharing it as Sailor Chibi Moon. Several quirks trail its history. During the debut episode the heroine never actually voiced the words, and odd feather barrettes turned up in Chibi Moon's hair. A separate, willed activation in episode 125 ran an entirely distinct animation that viewers dubbed the special version. The move also proved costly on screen, draining most of her energy so that she slipped back to her prior evolution soon after firing Rainbow Moon Heartache. Localizations reworked the name repeatedly, landing on Moon Crisis Power and, for the film release, Super Moon Crisis Power, while Crystal itself swaps the chant to Moon Crisis, Make Up.