The Messiah of Silence Awakens? Stars of Destiny

The frail girl Hotaru is unmasked as the reincarnation and living host of Sailor Saturn, the soldier bound to silence and annihilation. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto reach a grim conclusion: because Saturn's spirit cannot survive without a body to inhabit, Hotaru has to be eliminated before that power fully stirs.

The rest of the team pushes back hard, and Chibi Moon most fiercely of all, unwilling to sacrifice her dearest friend over what she was born to become. Deepening the dread, Rei finally confesses the recurring nightmares that have been haunting her, visions of the planet's coming destruction should the Messiah awaken completely.

The episode plants several first glimpses of what is to come. Saturn's planetary sign flickers on Hotaru's brow, the Silence Glaive surfaces within a vision, and the Messiah of Silence appears only as a shadowed silhouette. Pharaoh 90 is named and briefly shown as well, sketching the scale of the threat the Guardians now face.

The Garnet Orb proves able to project images of many events, feeding the sense of prophecy running through the episode. Professor Tomoe, meanwhile, sets his sights on the planetarium, declaring that the stars know everything.

Tomoe's line about the stars echoes a habit of the first-season villain Nephrite, who used a similar phrase before choosing his prey. The later Viz English dub adds a nod to David Bowie, with Tomoe recalling a disco tune about a starman waiting in the sky.

The chapter caused trouble on its way to North America. It was passed over during the original run because the featured Daimon appeared topless with only placed stars for cover; a reworked broadcast turned those stars into the cups of a strapless top. The uncut home-video release, however, kept the original design intact.