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What Happened to the Shitennou After Act 49? (adapted from "The Death of Nephrite? I Think Not", September 28, 2004; read original)
There has been a lot of confusion and speculation in the PGSM fandom about what exactly happened in Act 49. Even those involved with the production of the series were unsure of the fate of the characters, as the webmaster of Matsumoto Hiroyuki's website pointed out. Because of the ambiguous nature of the Shitennou's final appearance in the series, many believed that the Shitennou were dead (which certainly would spell curtains for the Nephrite/Ami pairing). But, after careful re-watching of the series, I have come to realize that this is not the case at all. So, I'm hoping that this rant will satisfactorily explain what was really happening in Act 49.

Background Info
The final appearance of the Shitennou in the main series (not including the Special Act-- we'll get to that in a minute) is in the mysterious gray netherworld that Usagi and Mamoru's spirits are trapped in after the whole "blowing up the world" thing. Princess Serenity appears to Usagi and tells her that because of the love of her friends, Usagi will be able to return to Earth-- her life is not dependant on the Mystical Silver Crystal, as previously thought. The Princess tells Usagi that her tie to the past life has been severed, and disappears. Usagi is now just Usagi, no longer Princess Serenity. Usagi wants to go back, but doesn't want to leave Mamoru. The spirits of the four Shitennou then appear to him, holding the painting that Beryl had been using to drain Mamoru's life force. They tell him that he can use the painting to restore his life. Kunzite tells Mamoru that they want him to live life for the present. Zoisite tells him that they will always be with him. Nephrite tells him that they'll be around if he ever needs them in the future. Usagi and Mamoru return to Earth, and this is the last we see of the Shitennou (until the Special Act).

The Theory
Many people take this scene to mean that the Shitennou were not reborn when the world was restored, and that they "live on" only as spectral beings in Mamoru's heart, only able to assume corporeal form when Mamoru is in danger. But I don't believe that this is the case at all. I believe that the Shitennou that appeared to Mamoru in the netherworld were, like Princess Serenity to Usagi, apparitions of their past life forms, and that the characters we grew to know and love throughout the series were, like the Senshi, their reincarnations that are still living on Earth. This scenario makes the most sense on a number of levels:

  1. Apart from Zoisite, the figures we see in the netherworld do not resemble the personalities of the Shitennou we saw in the series. Up until the very last time we saw him, Nephrite was adamantly opposed to the past life (much like Rei) and his mission to the Master. That the end of the world should suddenly alter his personality to a smiling, loyal vassal makes far less sense than that this was actually Silver Millennium-Nephrite's spirit, particularly considering that, less than 10 seconds beforehand, the extremely different-from-Usagi Princess Serenity had been on the screen. Since PGSM, unlike previous incarnations of Sailor Moon, went out of its way to demonstrate that a someone's personality (and their very soul) in the present day is separate from their identity in the past life, it would make sense that the spirits of the past Shitennou would be there while their reborn spirits would remain on Earth.
  2. This fits with what both Zoisite and Nephrite's apparitions tell him: We're going to be with you. We'll see you again soon. If you need us, we'll be there. Doesn't it make more sense that, like the Sailor Soldiers, if a threat arises their modern-day reincarnations will pick up their swords to fight, than to assume that Mamoru will somehow project their spirits into human forms?
  3. Why would the Senshi have been reborn and not the Shitennou? One might argue, "Because Beryl was the one who resurrected them." But that's not the case: we know from Act 13 that Kunzite was living on Earth as a reincarnated human before Beryl summoned him, so obviously Beryl's only involvement was possessing them after they were reborn. When Usagi used the Crystal to restore the world, all life was returned to the way it would have been without Metallia. So if the Senshi were reborn, then obviously the Shitennou must have been, too, since Beryl did not create them, but rather merely possessed them.

But didn't the Shitennou give their lives to restore Mamoru's?
This seems to be a common misconception in the fandom, but it's easily answered: No, they didn't. Mamoru's life energy came solely from the painting that Beryl had been using to drain him. The past-life Shitennou were merely the messengers that brought it to him, in the same way that Princess Serenity was the one who told Usagi that she was able to live without the Crystal. I think the writer simply chose to use the Shitennou here so we could see them all together one last time, since they weren't going to be shown again; and also to give us a hint about their fate (kind of an, "It's all right, the Shitennou are reborn too, see?"). Unfortunately, it was so vaguely worded that the nuance could be easily misinterpreted.

So why weren't they shown again? And what about the Special Act?
Everything would have been a lot easier if they had just shown the Shitennou one last time and answered this once and for all. Unfortunately, the show had a lot of material to cover and a lot of loose ends to wrap up, and simply not enough time. As I've stated elsewhere on the site, this show is called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. It was more important to focus on wrapping up Usagi's storyline and giving her the happy ending she deserved than dwelling on the Shitennou. As much as we all love the Shitennou, showing what happened to them in more detail might have detracted from Usagi's happy ending: reuniting with her four best friends, with the curse of the past life behind them. This is why I believe the writer chose to use the Shitennou to return the painting to Mamoru, rather than Endymion or Serenity: as a way to give us the Shitennou's happy ending without having to show it to us.

Another argument in favor of the "Shitennou are dead" theory is their limited appearance in the Special Act. Supposedly, since the Shitennou live on only in Mamoru's heart and can appear only when they are needed, this explains why they do not appear until the end, and why they aren't shown in human form. But there are a vast number of flaws in this reasoning:

  1. Originally, the "Mio" impersonator has the "Shitennou" working for her. If the Shitennou only existed in Mamoru's heart, then how would she have gotten them? It turns out that these Shitennou, like "Mio," are merely monsters who have assumed the Shitennou's forms in order to trick the Senshi and Mamoru. But how would that trick have worked unless the Shitennou were still alive somewhere on Earth, able to be possessed again like with Beryl? No one would have believed it.
  2. If the Shitennou were merely projections that lived within Mamoru, then they would have appeared immediately when Mamoru was in danger. As it was, Mamoru and Usagi had been trapped for quite some time before the Shitennou finally appeared, just before the Senshi arrived. Now, when "Mio" attacked, the Senshi were able to sense that they were needed to fight, even though they were scattered all over the globe; and they returned to join the battle. It seems that the same thing happened with the Shitennou: They sensed that they were needed, re-convened, and together hurried to find Mamoru and defeat the evil that was threatening him and the Earth.
  3. When the real Shitennou appear, Mamoru tells them that "they're late," but otherwise seems unsurprised to see them. Likewise, Usagi seemed surprised not that the Shitennou were there, but rather that the imposters hadn't actually been them. If they had thought the Shitennou were dead, wouldn't they have been a bit more surprised to see them?
  4. Going along with my theory that the Shitennou in the netherworld were the past life forms and these are the present-day forms, their personalities seem to reflect the ones we are used to: Kunzite is sarcastic, and Nephrite seems like he's there more in an "I'm going to make them pay for impersonating me" than an "I'm here to fulfill my mission and protect the Master" capacity.

But if the Shitennou were reborn as humans, why did they only appear in their Shitennou forms in the Special Act?
Unlike the Senshi, the Shitennou did not rely on the Silver Crystal for their powers; as guardians of the Earth, they drew their powers from the Earth. It seems likely that, when the Earth was threatened, their powers returned (kind of like the Senshi, only without the "having to look for the Sword of Destiny" bit), and they were able to transform to help defeat the enemy. There are a number of possible explanations as to why they appeared in those forms at Usagi and Mamoru's wedding:

  • They may have done it for the same reason that a military man will wear his dress uniform to a wedding rather a tuxedo.
  • Since the Shitennou had not been shown in human form earlier in the episode, it may have been to avoid confusing the audience (we would recognize Nefukichi and possibly Kunzite in human form, but the other two...? Remember, this is a kids' show— it would be assuming a lot to expect a six-year-old to recognize Jadeite and Zoisite without their wigs)
  • Barely anything in the Special Act makes any sense anyway (like why can Luna still be a human if the crystal has been destroyed? Or where the heck did Queen Serenity come from, and where was she when her daughter was blowing up the world?), so why should this have a rational explanation?

So what does this mean for Nephrite and Ami?
I think this is good news for Neph/Ami, because it means that they're in the same boat as they were in before the final battle. Clearly, the Senshi and the Shitennou still have their memories of what happened (and it seems that select humans do as well, since Motoki evidently remembers Makoto), and Nephrite was just about to make his move when PMS PSM blew up the planet. Even though they didn't explicitly show them in the Special Act, it really doesn't mean anything. After all, four years had passed since the end of the series. For all we know, Nephrite and Ami were dating the whole time. Ami was overseas doing her internship, so it's not like she and Nephrite would have had an opportunity to interact very much in the Special Act, anyway (plus, like I said about the Special Act... don't expect it to make sense). But what I think this leaves us with is an easily inferred happy ending, and a universe wide-open for fanfiction authors to explore.