Moon Princess Halation

Powered by the Cutie Moon Rod, this attack lets Sailor Moon loose a beam of moonlight energy, and it recurs throughout the printed volumes, Crystal, the original animated series, the stage musicals, and several games. On occasion Sailor Chibi Moon steps in beside her so the two can perform a reinforced duo cast.

The name draws on the word halation, a term describing light that spreads outward to ring an object like a halo. Early photographers coined it to describe light blurring and bleeding into the shadowed parts of an image, and in the story the technique belongs to the Moon Princesses while they hold their Sailor forms.

In the manga and Crystal, Sailor Moon first calls on it in the fifteenth act to finish Koan after Moon Tiara Boomerang came up short, then leans on it repeatedly through the Black Moon arc. A later chapter has Neo-Queen Serenity hand Sailor Chibi Moon a rod so the pair can unleash a stronger combined version against Death Phantom, an effort that destroys him but shatters both of their Moon Rods.

The animated series introduces it in the second season, after the spirit of Queen Serenity grants Sailor Moon the Crystal Star and Cutie Moon Rod, used first against the Cardian Reci. The Rod throws off a stream of crescent-shaped bolts of light. Cardians struck by it break apart and leave only a blanked card behind, while Droids lose their outer coloring, turn pale blue, and crumble to dust, leaving a colorless gem. Its power varied by target: it merely slammed Rubeus into a wall rather than killing him, yet it destroyed Esmeraude in her dragon form after Tuxedo Mask stunned her. By the third season it proved useless against the Daimon Mikuji and was swapped out for the far stronger Moon Spiral Heart Attack. Usagi also turned it to a gentler use, purifying the Makai Tree.

Sailor Moon is the core user, with Sailor Chibi Moon joining for the paired form. The stage shows extend its reach, letting Sailor Moon slay Queen Beryl in the first musical and, in a later production, letting her and Chibiusa combine it with the Outer Guardians' talismans to cleanse the Inner Guardians of a vampiric curse. Its English localization went through several names, beginning as Moon Scepter Elimination before the dub began substituting Activation for Elimination partway through the Rubeus fight.