Holy Grail

Resembling a richly decorated cup, the Holy Grail is a sacred vessel wielded by Super Sailor Moon. It surfaces across three continuities: the manga, the third season of the original anime, and Sailor Moon Crystal. Speaking the words Crisis, Make Up, Sailor Moon uses it to advance for a time into Super Sailor Moon, a far mightier stage than her ordinary third form.

Beyond transformation, the Grail sharpens her weapon. It magnifies the reach of the Spiral Heart Moon Rod, unlocking the powerful finishing move Rainbow Moon Heartache. In several versions a second, smaller Grail belongs to Chibi Moon, granting her the parallel evolution into Super Sailor Chibi Moon.

In the manga the Grail takes form when Sailor Moon merges her strength with Sailor Chibi Moon and Tuxedo Mask, its appearance breaking the mind control cast by Cyprine and Ptilol. The four Inner Guardians feed their planetary energies into it while the Outer Guardians add the power of their talismans. Sailor Moon then drinks from it, rises into Super Sailor Moon, and destroys the enemy pair with Rainbow Moon Heartache. Once the Outer Guardians depart after Pharaoh 90 falls, the two Grails lose their sacred power and fade, since the planetary energy needed to sustain the Super forms is gone.

The anime instead has the vessel appear when the three talismans, the Space Sword, Deep Aqua Mirror, and Garnet Orb, are brought together. The items lift into the air and the cup takes shape between them. To use it, Sailor Moon first reaches her regular third form, then raises the Grail with the transformation phrase. The chalice can materialize in her hands whenever it is needed, and she is able to summon it at will rather than only in battle. Sailor Moon Crystal follows much the same pattern, with the Grail boosting the Spiral Heart Moon Rod and later releasing its full sacred energy alongside the Silver Crystal to finish Pharaoh 90.

Super Sailor Moon is the Grail's chief bearer across every version. In both the manga and Crystal, Super Sailor Chibi Moon gains a smaller Grail of her own, then joins her power to Sailor Moon's for the combined strike Rainbow Double Moon Heartache, an attack far stronger than Moon Spiral Heart Attack. In the anime the Grail meets its end when Mistress 9 tricks Sailor Moon into surrendering it, uses it to call Pharaoh 90 to Earth, and the entity absorbs and shatters it.

The item carried several other names over the years. The Cloverway English dub called it the Purity Chalice, likely to soften the religious reference, the original English print manga renamed it the Moon Chalice, and merchandise such as the first toy release marketed it as the Rainbow Moon Chalice. Its healing, life-saving nature in the hands of a pure heart deliberately mirrors the Holy Grail of Christian legend.