Dark Kingdom

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See also Dark Kingdom (disambiguation)

Dark Kingdom

Universe	Sailor Moon
Type	Kingdom
Founded	Silver Millennium and 20th century
Location	Extradimensional (reachable by D-Point)
Key people	Queen Beryl, Queen Metallia
Purpose	Get the Silver Crystal, revive Metallia
Technologies	Youma
Subsidiaries	The Shitennou

The Dark Kingdom is an organization of antagonists in the Sailor Moon metaseries. They are the primary villains of the first story arc in the series. The English dub of the anime calls them the Negaverse, which is actually a catch-all term for all enemies in the English dubs of the first two Sailor Moon series. In the original Japanese anime, the Dark Kingdom is separate from the origins of any other set of antagonists, and is the extra-dimensional location of the evil Queen Beryl and her minions.

This kingdom came into being in the 20th century when the servants of those who had served the evil Queen Metallia millennia before (in the battle against the civilization on the Moon) were reawakened. Queen Beryl and her four Shitennou lead this group, attempting to gather human energy with which to reawaken Metallia.

Creatures called youma (meaning "monster") serve as monsters-of-the-day in the anime. They are summoned by the Shitennou in order to drain energy, hunt the Princess, distract the Sailor Senshi, or perform various other tasks.

Contents 1 Queen Beryl 2 The Shitennou 3 DD Girls 4 Queen Metallia 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Queen Beryl

Queen Beryl (クイン・ベリル, Kuin・Beriru^?) is the first major villain in every version of the Sailor Moon series. Beryl has immense magical power, but she uses most of it to channel the life energy harvested by her servants to the entity called Queen Metallia.

In most versions of the story, she has the ability to corrupt others into serving the powers of darkness. Her generals, for instance, were once the bodyguards and best friends of Prince Endymion, and in most versions of the story she is able to use her powers to sway Tuxedo Mask into her service.

In the manga, Beryl was girl a on Earth during the age of the Silver Millennium. She is shown holding a staff and kneeling before a cauldron, so it possible (but not known for certain) that she had some kind of power even then. Beryl was in love with Prince Endymion, but her love was unreturned; when she discovered Endymion with Princess Serenity of the moon, she was crushed. She later states that having Endymion was her sole reason for siding with the evil force from the sun, Queen Metallia. She was corrupted and empowered by Metallia, and used her new powers to mobilize the Earth in a war against their protectors, the Moon Kingdom.

Beryl killed Prince Endymion as he was trying to protect Princess Serenity, leading to the princess's own suicide. At some point after this, Sailor Venus killed Beryl with the holy moon sword. Queen Serenity, greatly weakened, sealed away Metallia again, and before dying sent the whole of her Kingdom to be reincarnated on Earth.^[1]

Beryl is stated to be "reborn" when the Senshi meet her again in the 20th century. She became Queen of the Dark Kingdom, communicating with Queen Metallia and wielding her reincarnated generals Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite to find the Silver Crystal and defeat the newly awakened Sailor Soldiers.

Queen Beryl was able to summon the reincarnated Prince Endymion (Tuxedo Mask) to her side, but only after he had been killed and merely existed as a mindless zombie. In the end she failed to attain the Mystical Silver Crystal, and was again killed by Sailor Venus who drove a sword through her body. As she fell, she said Endymion's name, and murmured that she had always just been watching him.

She is portrayed in a more tragic light in the manga than she is in the anime with a brief scene of personal regret knowing that she can no longer turn back.

In the anime, Queen Beryl is the mastermind behind the various attacks against the citizens of Tokyo while Sailor Moon, and later the other Sailor Soldiers, are searching for the Moon Princess. She also kidnaps and brainwashes Prince Endymion in order to force him to kill his lover. But when he breaks free of her control and attacks her she lies in a swoon and begs Queen Metallia for more power, which results in Beryl becoming Metallia's vessel for the destruction everything on Earth. Queen Beryl is soon vaporised along with Metallia when Sailor Moon, who has transformed into Princess Serenity, combines the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal with that of the Moon Stick.

In the English-dubbed anime no mention is given to her origin and she is merely said to be the ruler of the Negaverse, an evil alternate dimension. Her love for Endymion is not mentioned (she does not even know anything about love, vaguely saying that she has heard of it when Jadeite mentions this human phenomenon), although she does seem to have something of a crush on him and when he is brainwashed she states that he will rule the universe with her. At the end of the season Beryl is said to be merely banished back to the Negaverse when Sailor Moon defeats her. This leads to a continuity error when Artemis mentions during the second series that Queen Beryl had been "completely destroyed." (Alan and Ann also mention her, saying that she had told them about the Earth. They imply that all villains who appear thereafter are being dispatched by Queen Beryl as revenge.

In the live-action series, as in the manga, Beryl sends out her Shitennou to collect energy for Metallia, find the princess, and obtain the Silver Crystal. Beryl had problems, however: Jadeite and Nephrite were rivals for her affections; Zoisite was more loyal to Prince Endymion than to her; and Kunzite had set his sights on taking Queen Metallia's power for himself.

At one point, Beryl creates a shadow of herself, Mio Kuroki (Kuroki Mio) who sets out to ruin Usagi Tsukino's reputation.

When she learns that Mamoru Chiba was Endymion, Beryl forces him to come with her by showing him that she can easily kill the Shitennou, with Nephrite as an example. Once she has the object of her desire under her services, Beryl has Jadeite implant an item in Mamoru's body that will shorten his life when he is with Usagi. But due to Usagi's overuse of the Silver Crystal, Beryl loses control over Metallia's actions and dies in the finale when her castle crumbles under the stress of the combined energies of Metallia and the Silver Crystal. However, for all her sadness she is not alone, as Jadeite stays by her side until she dies.

Beryl's original form appears, blurrily, in a flashback in the later episodes of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Beryl's original form also appears in the manga, where she wears a gypsy-like outfit. [1]

• In the original Japanese anime, Beryl was played by seiyu Keiko Han, who also voiced Luna. This contrast resulted in occasional fits of giggles among the cast when she would change from Luna's cute, catlike voice to the deep, evil tones of Queen Beryl.
• In the English dub, the character was played by Naz Edwards.
• In the musical version, Queen Beryl has been played by 2 actresses: Yuri Nishina and Akiko Miyazawa (who previously played Sailor Venus).
• In the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon TV tokusatsu series, she was played by adult film star Aya Sugimoto.

[edit] The Shitennou

Main article: Shitennou (Sailor Moon)

The Shitennou, often referred to as Generals in English, are Queen Beryl's primary servants. Their group title means four heavely kings in Japanese, and during the Silver Millennium they were the guardians of Prince Endymion. Now they are bound to the Dark Kingdom, and are generally obedient to Queen Beryl's will. They are called Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite, and have very distinct personalities, goals, and relationships.

[edit] DD Girls

In the anime, the DD Girls (the Doom and Gloom Girls in the English dub) are Queen Beryl's most powerful youmas. In season one's series finale, the DD Girls are chosen by the evil queen herself to carry out the tasks of killing the Sailor Senshi and collecting the Ginzuishou (Silver Crystal). The Sailor Senshi all sacrifice themselves to destroy them, with Sailor Moon as the only survivor.

[edit] Queen Metallia

Queen Metallia (クイン・メタリア, Kuin・Metaria^?) is an amorphous energy being, born as a result of radioactivity in the sun, who is the true mastermind behind the Dark Kingdom. Like all arch-villains in the Sailor Moon universe, she is a descendant of the final arch-villain, Chaos. In the English dub of the anime, she is referred to only as the Negaforce, a god-like creature to the peoples of the Negaverse, and her role is greatly downplayed.

In the manga, when Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity were to be wed, Metallia took advantage of those on Earth who despised the union. Such a person was Beryl, whose affections for Endymion were preyed on by Metallia. After the war, Metallia was sealed at the North Pole and placed in suspended animation.

In the 20th century, Metallia manages to return a reborn Beryl to her service and orders her to find the Silver Crystal so it may be used to free Metallia. After Endymion's reincarnated form is captured, Metallia enters the young man's body to use him as a suitable host, letting Beryl die in battle. After Sailor Moon is forced to kill Endymion, Metallia is freed to resume her evil. She is eventually destroyed by Sailor Moon.

In the anime Metallia is much the same, with a few exceptions. She eventually becomes powerful enough to resurrect on her own and then took possession of the dying Beryl, transforming into a towering goddess like creature.

In the live-action series, Metallia lacks a personality. Beryl originally intends to use the Silver Crystal to control Metallia, but later learns that the gem's power only makes Metallia stronger, to the point where Beryl can no longer control the actions of her youma. In a vain attempt to stop Metallia, Endymion takes the creature into his own body. This has nightmarish results, as Metallia merges with Endymion and then uses him in an attempt to force Sailor Moon to use the Silver Crystal's power. The monster's plan succeeds, but Sailor Moon eventually gains control of the gem's powers and uses it to destroy Metallia for good.

In Japanese, Queen Metallia is voiced by Noriko Uemura, who reappears in the Death Busters story arc as Professor Tomoe's assistant, Kaolinite. In the dub, Metallia's voice actress is Maria Vacratsis.

[edit] See also

Shitennou (Sailor Moon)

[edit] References