Dead Moon Circus

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Sailor Moon villain group

The Dead Moon Circus. Left column: CereCere with Zircon, PallaPalla, JunJun, VesVes. Right column: Zeolite and Xenotime, Fisheye, Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye, Zirconia, Queen Nehelenia.
Dead Moon Circus
Story arc: Sailor Moon SuperS (anime)
Dream (manga)
Dark Moon Circus
Zirconia
Queen Nehelenia
Key figures: Amazon Trio, Amazoness Quartet, Xenotime, Zeolite, Zircon
Lemures (Dead Soul)
Tools: Circus resources, Black Mirror, Golden Crystal (briefly)

The Dead Moon Circus (デッドムーンサーカス Deddo Mūn Sākasu) are a group of fictional antagonists from the Sailor Moon metaseries. They are the primary villains of the series' fourth season, called Dream in the manga and SuperS in the anime. In the English dubbed anime, they are called the Dark Moon Circus.

The Dead Moon Circus is led by the twisted Zirconia, in command by the absence of the dark Queen Nehelenia who is trapped within a mirror. Zirconia is searching for the legendary Golden Crystal or golden starseed, which will allow Nehelenia to break free of her entrapment and take over the Earth. They are the only group of villains with two subordinate groups: the Amazon Trio and the Amazoness Quartet.

Key figures

Zirconia

Zirconia (ジルコニア Jirukonia) appears as an insectlike old woman with lavender skin. Secondary to Queen Nehelenia, she controls the Amazoness Quartet and the Amazon Trio. Her name is derived from the mineral Zirconium dioxide, which is often called Zirconia. She first appears in Episode 128 of the anime and Act 34 of the manga, her connection to Nehelenia varying. In the English-language adaptation, Zirconia's gender was changed from female to male.

In the manga, Zirconia communicates with Nehelenia and delivers her orders to the Amazoness Quartet, who are able to carry them out during the day (Zirconia herself cannot stand light). She refers to herself as Nehelenia's "Guiding Soul" (in the English versions, this seems to be replaced with the title 'Soul Hermit'). When Sailor Saturn and Sailor Chibi Moon begin to break through Zirconia's influence on the Quartet, Zirconia captures all of them, imprisoning the Quartet inside four magic balls and Saturn and Chibi Moon within two shards of broken mirror. She sends the objects through the mirror to Nehelenia. When the Senshi confront her, she rises into the sky and grows in size. She also shoots power from her body and pierces Usagi and Mamoru through the chest with this attack, creating the illusion of their rotting corpses. The other senshi are able to break Usagi and Mamoru out of the effects of the attack and they use Sailor Planet Attack to defeat Zirconia. Zirconia escapes into Nehelenia's mirror, but when Sailor Moon follows, she only finds Nehelenia. Following Nehelenia's apparent defeat in the mirror's world, Zirconia reappears in the mirror and claims that the Queen of the Dead Moon will not die yet and that the Dead Moon will triumph yet before disappearing, reviving Nehelenia in the process.

In the anime, Zirconia is an entity created by Nelehenia from her own being and serves as the queen's representative in directing their followers on missions to find Pegasus in the beautiful dreams of people in Tokyo. While the Amazon Trio feared her, Zirconia has trouble keeping the Amazoness Quartet in line. It was only when the Quartet begins to develop sympathy for the senshi, that Zirconia is allowed to incarcerates the Quartet and drains their energy, becoming sufficiently stronger and impossible for the Senshi to attack. However, the Senshi figure out that the Quartet will be freed if they destroy their balls, which the Quartet does. Zirconia escapes to Nehelenia's mirror, disappearing as her services for the freed queen are no longer needed.

Zirconia is voiced by Hisako Kyōda.[1] In the Cloverway English Adaptation, Master Zirconia's voice is supplied by Rowan Tichenor.

Queen Nehelenia

Queen Nehelenia (女王ネヘレニア Joō Neherenia), leader of the Dead Moon Circus, is named after the ancient goddess Nehalennia. In the English version her name is spelled Nehelenia. She first appears in Episode 148 of the anime and appears in full in act 37 of the manga, though she appeared as a voice in a mirror starting in Act 35.

In the manga, she is like the dark mirror image of Queen Serenity; the self-styled Queen of the dark center of the moon that existed since the Silver Millennium. She made herself known at the celebration of Sailor Moon or Princess Serenity's birth. Swirling with dark energy, she confronted the Queen who used the Moon Wand to seal Nehelenia inside a dark mirror forever. In retaliation, Nehelenia cast a curse that the Moon Kingdom would fall and the princess would never inherit the throne. The Sailor Senshi thought this might have been what ultimately brought about the end of the Silver Millennium. Thousands of years later, a solar eclipse allowed her to breach the seal and make her way to earth, where she found Sailor Chibi Moon's four future guardians, the Sailor Quartet, sleeping in the forest. She awakened them prematurely and brainwashed them into becoming her minions, the Amazoness Quartet, to aid her in her goals. Nehelenia claimed to be the true Queen of the Moon, that she was the rightful owner and heir of the Silver Crystal and that the planet Earth belonged to the Moon Kingdom, of which she would be the ruler. She set out to get what she wanted, first by taking over the planet from within, by way of corrupting the land of Elysion with her dark powers, capturing its guardian (Helios), and then by sending the Amazoness Quartet to defeat the Sailor Senshi and retrieve the Silver Crystal from Sailor Moon.

Nehelenia's actions against Elysion forced the captive High Priest of Elysion, Helios, to make his spirit flee from his body and seek out the help of the Sailor Senshi. Helios told Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon he had seen in a vision that, in order to save both Elsyion and Earth, they had to find an item called the Golden Crystal and awaken its power. Once the Sailor Senshi managed to defeat all of the minions, they eventually found out the Golden Crystal was inside Tuxedo Mask's body, and went to confront Nehelenia in Elysion, where she attempted to take the Silver Crystal one last time. But the power of it combined with Tuxedo Mask's newly awakened Golden Crystal, bound together by the love of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask for one another, prevented this yet again. When defeated by Eternal Sailor Moon using the joined powers of all the Sailor Team, Nehelenia shrivelled into a wizened old woman, and, after being sealed inside her mirror once more, was vanished completely.

In the anime, Nelehenia was revealed to have been a queen of her own kingdom and adored by her people. Due to her childhood of having no real friends or loved ones, Nelehenia learned to love herself which led to her vanity which played into her madness when she asked an enchanted mirror to show her future and saw herself as an old hag. As a result, Nelehenia became obsessed with the notion of keeping herself young and beautiful so she consumed the dreams of her subjects, who became Lemures, and founded the Dead Moon Circus. Nelehenia sought the Golden Crystal possessed by Helios, who escaped her in the form of Pegasus, only to be later sealed by Queen Serenity within her mirror. To rectify her condition, during the events of the SuperS series, Nelehenia creates Zirconia to lead the Dead Moon Circus to hunt down Pegasus. Eventually learning of Helios's close friendship with Chibiusa, Nehelenia realizes that she is the holder of the Golden Dream Mirror that Pegasus is inhabiting. Once obtaining the Golden Crystal, Nelehenia breaks from her mirror and attempts to use it power when the Amazones Quartet steal it to give it to the Sailor Soldiers who, along with the people of Earth, break Nehelenia's spell as the queen carries Chibiusa off. Beginning to wither into her true aged form before throwing Chibiusa off the ledge out of frustration of Sailor Moon's look towards her appearance, Nehelenia renters her prison to restore her youthful appearance. Nehelenia wants to get the golden crystal because it will give her the ultimate power, where she will be the strongest being in universe.. and to rule it unopposed.

In the Sailor Stars series, Nelehenia serves as the main antagonist of the first quarter when she is freed by Sailor Galaxia and encouraged to annihilate the senshi and to exact her revenge through the shards of her Black Mirror. Among the victims is Mamoru, rendered emotionally dead. After dragging Mamoru into her nightmare dimension, Nelehenia captures all the Sailor Soldiers before revealing her tragic past to a powerless Usagi. However, Nehelenia is ultimately redeemed by the Senshi's forgiveness, and reborn as a small child around Chibiusa's physical age. She is referred to as "Queen" even at this age, and she only remembers everything as a bad dream. However, signs point to her having learned her lesson, as she is seen making an effort to become close to her subjects as true friends.

In the original Japanese series, Nehelenia is voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara while her purified reincarnated child version is voiced by Wakana Yamazaki. In the Cloverway English adaptation, her voice is supplied by Lisa Dalbello. In the musicals, Nehelenia is portrayed by Kaori Ishikawa.

Amazon Trio

The Amazon Trio (アマゾントリオ Amazon Torio) are a subset of the Dead Moon Circus, and follow the threatening commands of Zirconia.

In the manga they are created from animals from the circus by the Amazoness Quartet to destroy the Sailor Senshi.[2] They each respectively target a relevant Sailor Senshi to kill. The only exception to this is Sailor Venus, who is targeted by Xenotime and Zeolite.[3] They do not summon lemures themselves, but are treated as lemures.

In the anime, members of the trio summon lemures (spirits of the dead) from the shadows to assist them in various battles with the Sailor Senshi, mostly using them to fight their battles entirely for them. The Amazon Trio's job is to look into the dream mirrors of mortals, searching for the legendary and powerful Pegasus. Pegasus possesses the Golden Crystal which can free their leader, Queen Nehelenia, from her entrapment within a mirror and allow her to take over Earth. The Trio choose their victims by seducing various women and men, whether they be young or old, and attacking them while they are vulnerable.

Each Trio member removes his targets' dream mirrors in the same three step process. First he says "One" (in English), and a large red board with the Circus' logo raises from the ground behind his target. Second, he causes shackles to lock them to the board by saying "Two." Finally, by saying "Three," he forces the victim's dream mirror to appear from their chest. In one instance two members did it at the same time causing two boards to appear at the same time. In one episode the boards appear every time they say one, even when they did not want them to.

Rather than being killed by the Sailor Soldiers like in the manga, the Amazon Trio share a different fate in the anime. When Zirconia finally reveals to them their true natures (those of animals), Fisheye in particular fears their fate and questions why they do not possess dream mirrors like humans. Fisheye's change in perspective was attributed to the kindness of Usagi after Fisheye was rejected by Mamoru and also with the discovery that Chibiusa was the holder of the Golden Dream Mirror, which housed the dream Pegasus (Helios) hid himself in. Fisheye's insolence nearly costs the life of the Amazon Trio, however, because Zirconia reads Fisheye's memory and mistakenly believes Usagi is the holder of the Golden Dream Mirror, Zirconia sends Hawk's Eye to steal the mirror. Fisheye and Tiger's Eye follow to stop Hawk's Eye while Zirconia plans to have the trio eliminated as soon as Usagi's mirror is revealed, and instructs PallaPalla to send a Lemures called Mr. Magic Pierrot to finish them.

Mr. Magic Pierrot shatters Usagi's dream mirror before Hawk's Eye has a chance to restore it to Usagi's body. Hawk's Eye ends up dying to protect Fisheye from an attack and gives him the power Zirconia granted him to stay human like so that they may finish off Mr. Magic Pierrot. Fisheye and Tiger's Eye use the power to resurrect Usagi, realizing she is Sailor Moon, and also summon Chibiusa, believing that the pair are the only ones who can defeat Mr. Magic Pierrot and avenge Hawk's Eye. Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon defeat Mr. Magic Pierrot, but is it too late for either of them to do anything for the Amazon Trio, who have reverted to their animal forms. Soon afterwards, Pegasus, summoned by Chibiusa, grants them dream mirrors, knowing that the trio have suffered greatly and have truly changed for the better. They cannot, however, retain their current forms as humans and are taken away by Pegasus to the Crystal Forest. As he places them within the forest, he promises that one day they will be reborn as the humans they wish to be, with their beautiful dreams intact.

Tiger's Eye

Tiger's Eye (タイガーズ・アイ Taigāzu Ai) was a tiger turned into a human by Zirconia. He takes the form of a tall, long haired blond man. He wears tight tiger-striped pants and a white top, and attacks with a whip.

In the anime, his targets of seduction are particularly younger women, as he uses his charming abilities to lure them into his traps until the right time to look into their dream mirrors in search of Pegasus. He can speak more English than just the "one, two, three" required to set up his trap. It is not clear how much he knows, but he asks one of his targets what the time is in English.

Tiger's Eye is killed when he and Fisheye give up their power to rebuild Usagi's destroyed Dream Mirror. However, Pegasus revives him, and he is sent to Elysion with the others.

In the manga, Tiger's Eye, in animal form, first assisted PallaPalla and VesVes in causing havoc in the Juban district. After becoming human, he and PallaPalla attempted to pollute Sailor Mars with negative thoughts in order to take her energy while she was investigating a mysterious hall of mirrors. He is killed by her just after she powers up into her 'Super' form. He is destroyed in the blast from her new attack, Mars Flame Sniper.[4]

In the original Japanese series, his voice actor is Ryotaro Okiayu. In the Cloverway English adaptation, he is voiced by Jason Barr. In the stage musicals, he is played by Ryujji Kashahari.

Hawk's Eye

Hawk's Eye (ホークス・アイ Hōkusu Ai) was a hawk that was turned into a human by Zirconia. He takes the form of a tall young man with bright, wild pink hair. He wears a bra-like toga and tights in his battle attire.

In the anime, he often gets into fights with Tiger's Eye, though their relationship is rather love-hate, and their arguments are usually playful. His attacks are fire-based, and uses a torch as his primary weapon. His targets reflect his romantic preferences, in this case older women (to contrast with Tiger's Eye's preference for younger girls).

He first appears in episode 128 of the anime but his first offensive move is made in episode 130, his victim being Usagi Tsukino's mother, "Ikuko-mama". His designs on her are thwarted by Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. He continues throughout the series to mainly target older women, although he and Tiger's Eye compete over Minako Aino.[5]

Hawk's Eye is killed by the lemures Mr. Magic Pierrot, who is sent by PallaPalla to eliminate the trio. However, Pegasus revives him, and he is sent to Elysion with the others.

In the manga, Hawk's Eye deceives Sailor Jupiter pretending to be a female owner of a herb store. He is killed later, just after she powers up into her 'Super' form. He is destroyed in the blast from her new attack, Jupiter Oak Evolution.[6]

Creator Naoko Takeuchi characterized Hawk's Eye as a sort of grown-up Zoisite, with the dream of someday being a "bar madam" in either Las Vegas or Ginza.[7]

He is voiced by Toshio Furukawa. In the Cloverway English adaptation, he is voiced by Benji Plener. He is played by Hikari Ono in the stage musicals.

Fisheye

Fisheye (フィッシュ・アイ Fisshu Ai) was a fish that was turned into a human by Zirconia. He takes the form of a slender, effeminate man with long, pale blue and green hair. In some disguises, he is styled with some hairdos such as a ponytail. In some of the foreign dubs, including the English dub, Fisheye's gender is changed from a male to a female.

In the anime, like Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye, he targets his ideal romantic interests, which are young males (though ironically, in the manga he appears to be heterosexual, attempting to seduce Ami.) His magical attacks are water-based, but his primary choice of attack is knife-throwing (which, to his frustration, he is not very good at).

Fisheye has a very small part in the manga, in which he is sold to Ami Mizuno in fish form. He gives her nightmares about her father abandoning her, luring her into a trap. She powers up and defeats Fisheye with Mercury Aqua Rhapsody, and he is killed soon after by Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon.[8]

In the Materials Collection, creator Naoko Takeuchi describes him as the Circus's "ball-balancing girl (??)", who one day dreams of becoming the "best ball-balancing girl (!) in the world"; emphasis is hers. She also compares his temperament to that of the exciteable Mimete.[7] This has led some fans to believe that Fisheye was a girl in the manga, or originally intended to be one.

Fisheye is also effeminate in the anime, as well as openly attracted to men, and while in disguise almost always dresses as a woman. Crossdressing is the basis of many of his disguises, as he is usually able to pass himself off as a woman to attract his targets, who are generally heterosexual males (he portrayed his gender honestly to the one gay target he had).[9] Undisguised, he speaks Japanese with exclusively masculine pronouns, such as boku when referring to himself. All of the Trio's forms has some ambiguity,[10] and every other costume Fisheye wears is part of a human disguise.

Unlike his cohorts, who are rather superficial about their victims, Fisheye seems to nurse a paradoxical genuine affection for many of his victims (or at least a childish crush) until they give him the inevitable brush-off. This included the kind Mamoru Chiba, who he seemed to develop feelings for and even kissed.[11] The lemures he summons are always male (while Hawk's Eye and Tiger's Eye summon females) and normally have a spade (♠) somewhere on their body or clothing.

Fisheye is also the first of the three to wonder if what they are doing is right, and his wavering loyalty lands him in hot water when he is nearly killed by Zirconia. Midway through the series, he and the others are sublimated into Pegasus' world and given the promise of rebirth as real humans.

Fisheye was killed when he and Tiger's Eye gave up their power to rebuild Usagi's destroyed Dream Mirror. However, Pegasus revives him, and he is sent to Elysion with the others.

Fisheye was changed to a woman in the English dub of the anime, which is not unprecedented within this adapted series: Zoisite and Zirconia also had their genders changed.[12] However, the female Fisheye's voice seemed to waver between effeminacy and boyishness, and the TV version of the dub slightly edited a fairly noticeable scene in which Fisheye is seen without a shirt— the chest was placed off-camera.[13] In the uncut DVD, the many references to Fisheye as female are retained, but the scenes showing "her" as a shirtless man are still shown. Fisheye merely claims that "she's" not like other women.

He is voiced by Akira Ishida. In the Cloverway English adaptation, Fisheye's voice is supplied by Deborah Drakeford.

Amazoness Quartet

The Amazoness Quartet (アマゾネス・カルテット Amazonesu Karutetto)[14] consists of CereCere, PallaPalla, JunJun, and VesVes. Their attacks are derived from circus skills, with each having a specific talent. In the Cloverway English adaptation, they are called the Amazon Quartet. In order to remove a person's Dream Mirror, a member of the Quartet hits her Amazon Stone with a pool cue, similar to a billiard ball. The mirror is knocked out of the person the instant it makes contact with them. They also use the Amazon Stones for other attacks. In the manga, they also created and commanded the Amazon Trio to attack the Sailor Senshi, whereas in the anime the Trio came before the Quartet and served Zirconia.

The Sailor Quartet. Left to right: Sailor Vesta, Sailor Pallas, Sailor Ceres, Sailor Juno.

In the manga, they are actually the Sailor Quartet—commonly referred to in English-speaking fandom as the Asteroid Senshi, because they are named after the first four major asteroids to be discovered. The four asteroids hold particular importance because they were originally considered planets in history before more were discovered.[15]

They had been placed in a deep sleep somewhere within the Amazon Jungle, awaiting the time when they could become the future protectors of Sailor Chibi Moon, analogous to Princess Serenity's four Guardian Senshi and to Prince Endymion's four Shitennou. However, Queen Nehelenia woke them prematurely and forced them to work for her. At her defeat, they are returned to their true forms by Usagi (in the form of Neo-Queen Serentiy) and to their long sleep. During the fifth story arc, they accompany Sailor Chibi Moon from the future to help in the fight against Sailor Galaxia. The Sailor Quartet's uniforms are a cross between those worn by the Sailor Team in their first forms and their final forms, with the Quartet's own image colors. The uniforms have one-layer skirts, belts, chokers and back-bows like those on the Sailor Team's first uniforms, with boots, gloves, brooches, leotards, and tiaras the same as the final forms. Their shoulder pads are in the style of the final uniforms, but are white. They are shown using 2 attacks as a group, Pink Lady's Freezing Kiss (all four of them plus Sailor Chibi Moon) and Amazoness! Jungle Arrow (used by the four Quartet members).

In the anime, the Quartet's history of being former sailor senshi's were never shown to viewer and the story is followed after they are captured by Queen Nehelenia and is already a part of her Dead Moon Circus. They began working for Queen Nehelenia after Queen Nehelenia decided to appeared inside a magical mirror after hearing the Amazoness Quartet playing in a forest, and then offered to keep the Amazoness Quartet from ever growing old in return. She changed their dreams into the physical form of Amazon Stones, instructing them to use these to remove the "dream mirrors" of humans. They are dedicated to this task, but still generally spend more time playing than working. The Amazoness Quartet, being children, wished to ride Pegasus and seeing that Pegasus can only be called by Chibiusa, decided to secretly free Chibiusa from Queen Nehelenia's captivity by creating a replica rag doll of Chibiusa and swapping the real Chibiusa with the replicate rag doll. After Queen Nehelenia found out about the rag doll trick, the Amazoness Quartet were imprisoned inside mirrors in another dimension by Queen Nehelenia as a result. During the battle between Zirconia and the Sailor Senshi group, they were released by Queen Nehelenia at Zirconia's bidding in an effort help Zirconia fight the Sailor Senshi. However, Zirconia decided to trap and drain their powers instead to aid herself fight the Sailor Senshi. Sailor Moon then decided to try and save the Amazoness Quartet lives, but in the process could not break free Zirconia's trap. Sailor Moon convinced the Amazoness Quartet to break their Amazoness stones and give up their eternal childhood powers by saying that they can still have children's dreams whilst in adult form, and this was the only way to help break themselves free of Zirconia's control or else they may die from Zirconia's power drain. The Amazoness Quartet each breaks their own stones, and in an act of kindness in return for Sailor Moon having convinced them and saved them from Zirconia control, they then decided to help Sailor Moon fight Zirconia by switching the Golden Cyrstal in Queen Nehelenia's hand with a pineapple, and then giving this Golden Crystal to Sailor Moon to enhance Sailor Moon's powers and hence defeat Zirconia. They parted their ways with the Sailor Senshi, noting that it is possible that destiny will have them meet the Sailors again, as this is consistent with the manga storyline of them becoming Chibiusa's future Sailor Senshi protectors, even though they never showed up again in the next season - Sailor Stars.

The Quartet appears in several of the stage musicals, with a substantially different background. Here they are homonculi created by Professor Tomoe, and are known as the Sammael Quartet. They are portrayed as young children around Chibiusa's apparent age, instead of their normal ages. They are created from Chibiusa's starseed, and are linked to her, having the power to transform into Sailor Senshi as a result.

CereCere

CereCere (セレセレ Seresere) is the pink haired, and most mature acting member of the Quartet. She is a trapeze artist for the Circus and can manipulate flowers; she is known as the Flower Magician and is the leader of the Quartet. She has light skin and wears pink, but has a yellow ball. She is very feminine and tries to be mature compared to the others in the Quartet. Her Senshi counterpart is Sailor Venus, and her colors are pink and yellow. Her hair is decorated in bows and a flower.

Naoko Takeuchi has stated that CereCere is sexy and talks in a very aristocratic tone[16] which corresponds to the order of discovery of the dwarf planet she is named after when 1 Ceres was classified as a dwarf planet, Ceres and the Roman goddess Ceres. Later in the manga it is revealed that she is actually Sailor Ceres, one of the four protectors of Chibiusa. In the manga, she is the only member of the Quartet not to use any attacks or spells.

In the anime, she tends to be arrogant and haughty, and chases after people that will highlight her perceived beauty for her, such as when she chased after an artist and asked him to repaint her. She also appears extravagant and outrageous while disguised and not in her circus uniform. However, there are moments when she breaks the mature mask and plays for fun. The other Amazonesses see her as lazy, and take every opportunity to call her such. She stated that she hates dried squid. She summons only plant-based lemures, a possible nod to her Roman namesake, Ceres, a goddess of vegetation and plants.

In the anime series, her voice actress is Yuri Amano. In the Cloverway English adaptation, her name is changed to "Cele Cele" and she is voiced by Daniela Olivieri. In the musicals she is played by Shiori Eguchi and Risa Honma, the latter of whom later went on to play Sailor Mars.

PallaPalla

PallaPalla (パラパラ Parapara) is the blue-haired, childlike member of the Quartet. She uses ball-based attacks. She is called the Magician of Balancing Balls. Her Senshi counterpart is Sailor Mercury, and her color is blue. She frequently speaks in the third person and likes playing with toys.

Naoko Takeuchi listed her as being a bimbo, crybaby and childish. She is the second eldest sister,[16] This corresponds to the number of her asteroid, Pallas. She was also named after the Greek goddess Pallas Athena. In the manga, it's revealed that she is actually Sailor Pallas, one of the four protectors of Chibiusa.[17] Parapara—which is how her name is pronounced in Japanese—as an onomatopoeia means to be unevenly distributed, sprinkling rain, turning the pages of a book, and the sound of pages of a book being skimmed.[18] It is also a style of dance. It's noteworthy that "palla" in Italian means "ball". In the manga, almost all of the Quartet's spells or attacks are cast by PallaPalla. She is responsible for sealing the Space-Time Door ("Crown Ball"), switching Chibi-Usa and Usagi's ages ("Opposite Ball"), changing the Amazon Trio into humans ("Palanquin Ball") and bewitching Sailors Mars and Jupiter ("Echo Ball" and "End Ball" respectively).

In the anime, she speaks in third person and is equally childish as she is in the manga. Nevertheless, she shows some signs of cleverness, such as pointing out that the arrangement of the curtains is wrong in one episode (when no one else saw it), setting up a popular dentist office in another, and using a doll to manipulate the Senshi in yet another. The other Amazonesses think she is very dangerous; in one episode she rips the head off her own doll as a cure for its toothache. She often summons ball-like lemures or uses dolls as part of her attacks, and likes to attack groups of people rather than one at a time. All of the Lemures she summons have two faces, a good one and an evil one, reflecting her own dual nature.

She is voiced by Machiko Toyoshima, and in the Cloverway English adaptation, her name is spelled as "Para Para" and her voice is supplied by Jennifer Gould. In the musicals she is played by Kurumi Nishijima and Seira Saeki.

JunJun

JunJun (ジュンジュン) is the green-haired tomboy of the Quartet. She is athletic and somewhat impulsive. JunJun is an acrobat in the Circus, referred to as the Magician of Acrobatic Feats. Her Senshi counterpart is Sailor Jupiter, and her color is green.

She is described by creator Naoko Takeuchi as a vulgar "Yankee"—Japanese slang for a delinquent or rebellious youth[19]—and uses very informal male speech. She is also said to have dark skin and is the third sister, which corresponds to the number of her asteroid. She was supposed to ride a motorcycle.[16] In the manga it is revealed that she is really Sailor Juno, named for the asteroid Juno and the Roman goddess Juno. In Act 39/45 ("Dream 6"), she uses "Medicine Ball" to attack Sailors ChibiMoon and Saturn with a barrage of tablets.

In the anime, she often speaks with a hard edge. She tends to dress in biker outfits outside of her circus uniform even though she is never shown to ride a motorbike. She likes to let her targets attain their dreams before she takes their dream mirrors which may be an oddball reference to the mothering aspect of the goddess Juno. She always summons male lemures; the only one of the Quartet to do so.

She is voiced by Kumiko Watanabe. In the Cloverway English adaptation, her voice is supplied by Mary Long. In the musicals she is played by Hitomi Tomashino and Niki Ajima.

VesVes

VesVes (ベスベス Besubesu) is the red-haired aggressive member of the Quartet. She is loud, brash, and somewhat violent. VesVes is the Circus' animal tamer, known as the Magician of Beasts. Her Senshi counterpart is Sailor Mars, and her color is red. She carries a whip and her hair is tied up in a high ponytail which makes her distinguished from the other members of the quartet.

She is listed as being a "Queen" and having a darker skin color than JunJun.[16] She is the youngest of the Amazoness Quartet and has the most appearances in the anime out of the four. In the manga it's revealed that she is really Sailor Vesta named after the asteroid Vesta and the Roman goddess Vesta. In Act 39/45 ("Dream 6"), she uses "Steel Ball" to send knives at the Sailor Senshi.

In the anime, VesVes can appear to lack a sense of reality, rushing into things without realizing what she's doing. She once appeared before her target on top of a levitating ball in a flight suit and failed to realize how this wasn't realistic until Chibiusa and her target pointed it out. She is not as picky about her targets as the other three. She tends to command lemures that are animal-themed.

Junko Hagimori provides her voice in the original Japanese series. In the Cloverway English adaptation, her name is spelled as "Besu Besu" and she is voiced by Karyn Dwyer. In the musicals, she is played by Miho Suzuki.

She is also very stubborn. The other Amazoness always try and keep things away from her especially her own targets.

Servants

Zircon

Zircon (ジルコン Jirukon) is Zirconia's companion and tool, a flaming eyeball with wings. In the beginning, it simply floats around her staff, but later can fly anywhere, and Zirconia uses it to gather images of those with beautiful dreams. She also uses it as a weapon, or to spy on her underlings. When Zircon is hit hard, any images it has gathered but not yet presented become distorted. It can also be used as a weapon with which to remove a human's Dream Mirror, similar to the Amazon Stones of the Quartet.

Xenotime and Zeolite

Xenotime (ゼノタイム Zenotaimu) and Zeolite (ゼオライト Zeoraito) are knife-throwing twins who only appear in the manga. After the failures of the Amazon Trio, they volunteer their services to the Amazoness Quartet. Xenotime, disguised as a talent scout, invites Minako to a fake idol audition set up by the twins and the Quartet in which the participants must undertake a 'survival audition' in a jungle setting. The participants, encouraged by the folk of the Dead Moon, become aggressive and fall prey to the Lemures but Sailors Mercury, Mars and Jupiter intervene before the same can happen to Minako, who has not received a power-up. Xenotime and Zeolite attack all four by throwing knives at them and commanding Lemures.[20] When Minako attains her Super form, she destroys both twins with Venus Love And Beauty Shock.

Lemures

In the anime, both the Amazon Trio and Amazoness Quartet summon monsters called Lemures (レムレス Remuresu) from the shadows to assist them in various battles with the Sailor Senshi (mostly using them to fight their battles entirely for them) when on the quest to target people's Dream Mirrors in order to find the Golden Dream Mirror that contains beautiful dreams enough for Pegasus to hide in it. In the manga the Amazon Trio are Lemures themselves, created from circus animals by the Amazoness Quartet to destroy the Sailor Senshi.[2] They each respectively target a Sailor Senshi to kill. The only exception to this is Sailor Venus, who is targeted by Xenotime and Zeolite.[3] The anime presents the Lemures as what remains of Queen Nehelenia's subjects after she took their dream mirrors to stay young. The manga, however, presents them as spirits of the dead.

"Lemures" is the singular form of the word as well as the plural. In the English adaptation, the creatures are renamed Remless (meaning creatures who lost their dreams), possibly a reference to the REM cycle of sleep, during which dreams occur.

Each member of the Trio and Quartet seems to follow a basic theme with the Lemures they summon, in both appearance and naming. The majority of the Lemures seen in the anime are female, but Fisheye and JunJun summon male Lemures instead.

References

  1. ↑ "Hitoshi Doi's Seiyuu Database". Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Takeuchi, Naoko (September 6, 1995). Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Volume 12. Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-178814-0.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Takeuchi, Naoko. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Volume 13. Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-178820-5.
  4. ↑ Act 36.
  5. ↑ Episode 141
  6. ↑ Act 37.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Takeuchi, Naoko (September 1999). Materials Collection. Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-324521-7.
  8. ↑ Act 35.
  9. ↑ Episode 140
  10. ↑ Ravenwood, Emily (2006-11-08). "More About Gender Dynamics, Etc.". Ravenwood's Illustrated Discussions of Sailor Moon. ...I mean, just look at the Amazon Trio. There's a liminal bunch of characters, if ever I saw one... Hawk Eye has what look remarkably like breasts under that little chest toga, and even Tigers Eye, while having nice broad shoulders, also has some noticeable hips. Fish Eye, of course, is the most ambiguous; he looks feminine but is also far too aggressive to fit the typical parameters of femme.
  11. ↑ Episode 148
  12. ↑ Wheeler, Robert; Bednarski, Dan; Wood, Tiffany. "Sailor Moon Uncensored: Sailor Moon SuperS". Retrieved 2007-06-18. Full list of changes made for English dub
  13. ↑ Wheeler, Robert; Bednarski, Dan; Wood, Tiffany. "Sailor Moon Uncensored: Episode 140". Retrieved 2007-07-06. Full list of changes made for English dub
  14. ↑ This group-name is sometimes rendered as Amazones Quartetto by English-speaking fans, but the romanization of their name can be seen on Japanese merchandise. The Amazoness is a result of being girls from the amazon jungle not the Amazon warrior women
  15. ↑ Hilton, James L (2007-11-16). "When did asteroids become minor planets?". U.S. Naval Observatory. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Takeuchi, Naoko (October 1999). Materials Collection. Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-324521-7.
  17. ↑ In the English adaptation of the manga, her name is misspelled as both Palis and Palus.
  18. ↑ "[Pod: Onomatopoeia #3 - Sound and Non-Sound Imitations]". Season 3. 2-4-08. Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ↑ As defined in this dictionary entry.
  20. ↑ Takeuchi, Naoko. "Translation of Act 38". Retrieved August 10, 2008.

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