Sailor Moon is beloved by viewers of all ages, genders, and walks of life for many reasons.
It boasts one of the most iconic animated female protagonists of all time. It has a storyline that's both packed with action and filled with heartwarming scenes. There are really cool LGBT characters, several great romantic storylines, and a whole encoming theme about the importance of endurance and friendship.
When you get past the DiC English dub, it is definitely one of the best magical girl anime of all time. Plus, Sailor Moon also has one of the most interesting female villains of all time too.
To the casual viewer of Sailor Moon or Sailor Moon Crystal, it may seem like there isn't much to Queen Beryl, the red-haired ultra-spooky intergalactic villain matriarch from space. But there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Beryl. Her character and past are explored (unfortunately) significantly more in the manga than in any anime adaptation of Sailor Moon.
Do you think you know everything about Sailor Moon, including Queen Beryl? Some of these facts may surprise you.
Beware of some spoilers that may lie ahead! Check out these 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Queen Beryl From Sailor Moon.
15. She used to look completely different
When we look at the old bodies of Usagi/Serena (Princess Serenity) or Mamoru/Damian (Prince Endymion), they look almost identical-- there's barely even a difference in hairstyle between the characters' Moon Kingdom bodies and their Earth Kingdom incarnations. When it comes to Queen Beryl, though, there's a pretty big difference.
It's not just in the manga, either-- in Sailor Moon Crystal, it's really drastic how different Sage Beryl and Queen Beryl look. In the manga, Sage Beryl had raven hair, big innocent eyes, and dressed in not-so-villainous attire. As Queen Beryl, she has big red hair, typical "evil" female villain eyes, and a sharp black and violet outfit that just sort of screams "villain."
In the anime revival, she looks fairly similar to her old self, only her skin is a pale green and she boasts red hair and horns.
14. She's died once and for all - or has she?
We all the intense climax of the Sailor Moon series-- and if you don't, spoilers ahead! While trying to kill Sailor Moon to get the secret of the Silver Crystal from her, several of the Senshi the events of their past lives and use their memories to stop Beryl, ultimately ending in Sailor Venus stabbing Queen Beryl with the Holy Blade.
In this third episode of Sailor Moon R, Artemis the alien cat confirms that Queen Beryl is officially dead. But in a Sailor Moon universe where characters are reincarnated, reborn, and reawakened constantly, who knows?
Maybe series creator Naoko Takeuchi will write up a final series of manga when we least expect it and bring the villain back. Unlikely, but we can dream, right?
13. Eternal Sleep & the Negamonsters
Queen Beryl has many different magical abilities in the manga and anime adaptations. Her most well-known ability is the "Eternal Sleep" curse that she and some other villains in the series can cast with ease and often use as a punishment. In the original anime, she puts the curse on Jadeite after he fails in his mission. Queen Beryl can also use mind control and has the power of energy absorption.
She can summon and control "Negamonsters" and create infinite darkness. She also has the ability to turn into Super Beryl, but fans debate whether that's an intentional ability or just Queen Metaria's merging with Beryl.
Being a master of energy manipulation, Queen Beryl can also use her powers to extract energy and feed it to the Negaforce.
12. Her origin story
Is Queen Beryl really anything other than your typical anime villain, bent on world destruction for no particular reason? Apparently not.
Unless you stuck with the show all the way to the end and read the manga, you may be out of the loop about who Queen Beryl was before she was the evil queen we know today.
When the souls of the Sailor Senshi, Usagi, and everybody else were in the bodies of residents of the Moon Kingdom, Queen Beryl was simply Beryl, a young peasant girl and lowly sorceress alive during the time of the Silver Millenium.
She had an unrequited love for Prince Endymion (Mamoru) who was in love with Princess Serenity (Usagi) and as such, she had maliciousness in her heart. Queen Metaria was able to use this darkness in her heart to corrupt her and use her to further the Dark Kingdom.
11. The meaning behind her name
Names make a big statement in the Sailor Moon universe. Like many other characters in the Dark Kingdom particularly, Queen Beryl's name is derived from something else and has symbolic meaning. In this case it is beryl, a mineral. Common types of beryl include emeralds and aquamarines, meaning her skin is very much intentionally greenish-blue.
A massive amount of other Sailor Moon characters are named after gems. Queen Beryl's four Shitennou are Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite (also known as Malachite). These are all minerals found in the beryl family.
Most of the characters in the series that are named after gems are antagonists or part of the Dark Kingdom. In addition to characters named after gems, most of the planets that belong to each of the Senshi and their respective birthdays each have representative gems.
10. She's super tall
Most villains appear to be larger than life, unless they have a stereotypical Napolean complex. Queen Beryl is definitely a villain that comes in fairly tall. She stands at a somewhat towering six foot one.
While Sailor Moon's Usagi is the only character to be given an official height by an official anime guide (she's four foot eleven!) fans have estimated the height of other characters based around Usagi's height. Setsuna Meioh, a.k.a. Sailor Pluto, (ironically, being the smallest planet) comes the closest in height to Queen Beryl at five foot ten, followed by Mamoru Chiba, a.k.a. Tuxedo Mask, at five foot nine; and Haruka Tenou, a.k.a. Sailor Uranus, at five foot nine. ChibiUsa, of course, comes in as the littlest of the bunch at three foot eight.
9. She's in every version of Sailor Moon
We all know Queen Beryl's a staple character in the Sailor Moon universe, but did you know she has been in every single continuation of the series?
That means that she's appeared in the original manga and original anime, as well as Sailor Moon Crystal. She has also appeared or is at least mentioned by the characters in the first season of Sailor Moon (of course, it's her Dark Kingdom arc after all!) as well as Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon S: The Movie, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon R the Movie: Promise of the Rose, the live-action series, and all of the musicals and video games.
After all, if Queen Beryl had never existed, then neither would Usagi and the rest of Sailor Senshi. She's quite an important character!
8. Her original English dub was laughably bad
In the original series and manga, it is easy to sympathize with Queen Beryl because her story is, in a much more extravagant and metaphysical way, very relatable to teen girls and just about everybody else who's dealt with unrequited love and anger.
Beryl loved a man and felt maliciousness in her heart-- something that was very easy for Queen Metaria to take advantage of, grow, and turn Beryl into a shadow of her former self.
Unfortunately, the DiC English dub of the original run of the anime is notorious for being one of the dumbest dubs ever. Not only did DiC cover up the romantic relationship between Uranus and Neptune, they also heavily edited plotlines and dialogue throughout the series that definitely hindered rather than helped.
For Queen Beryl, her entire backstory was erased from the show, and she was simply yet another needlessly evil-for-the-sake-of-it villain.
7. She's the third strongest entity in the Negaverse
It's easy to see Queen Beryl, the most consistent antagonist in the Sailor Moon universe, as the most powerful foe to exist. However, this isn't the case.
Full of malice in her heart in the days before she was a fire-haired villain, Beryl was corrupted by Queen Metaria in order to become Queen Beryl. Queen Metaria is an evil energy form and the real evil mastermind behind the Dark Kingdom who gave Queen Beryl her powerful abilities.
Queen Metaria is ultimately an aspect of Chaos, an evil even more powerful entity that is the source of all evil in the galaxy. Queen Metaria's connection to Chaos means that there isn't a particular reason for her corrupting Beryl or trying to destroy the Moon Kingdom other than a pure ancient need to destroy.
Beryl is also sometimes referred to as the second most powerful entity in the galaxy, as Metaria and Chaos are sometimes considered one and the same.
6. Her appearance in Sailor Moon Crystal is true to the manga
Sailor Moon Crystal is a hit-or-miss series among fans. Many really dislike it, particularly the messy first season, and others love how true to the manga the work is. In fact, Sailor Moon Crystal is very true to the original material while the original anime series from the nineties kind of did whatever it wanted. Even Naoko Takeuchi has said she was surprised by the production or the original anime and how it turned out.
When it comes to Queen Beryl, she shows up in the second episode of Sailor Moon Crystal-- around the time she's supposed to show up during the story arc in the manga as well. The original anime introduced her at a very different time, sometime during the pilot episode "A Moon Star is Born".