

In the R season of the classic anime of _Sailor Moon_ , Chibi-usa had a
flashback memory of her surprise birthday party in the 30th century Crystal
Tokyo, in which Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus
were present (Wiseman made use of the piece of memory of the span of time
during which the secret about the surprise was being kept from her in order to
turn Chibi-usa into Black Lady). Chibi-usa also had a faint memory of the same
four sailor soldiers fleeing with her while Crystal Tokyo was being attacked,
but in this memory, the four people are darkened silhouettes. I can understand
that, due to the trauma of the attack and worry about her mom, Chibi-usa might
not remember clearly who helped her escape. After these events, she time-
traveled to the 20th century where she met Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars,
Jupiter, and Venus in their solider forms (as well as met them in their
civilian forms).

_If Chibi-usa had the clear memory of the birthday party, why didn't she
immediately recognize those same four sailor soldiers when she "re-met" them
in the 20th century?_ Didn't the party scene indicate that they were her
friends and she knew their names?

Is this a plot hole?

(The manga does not feature the birthday party memory, so I am looking for
answers regarding an in-universe explanation for the classic anime canon.)


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sailor-moon
Why didn't Chibi-usa initially recognize Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, & Venus as her friends?


I asked [a fan](http://kimiski.deviantart.com) who is not part of this SE
community this question and she responded:

> . . . you found loop holes in the anime. The whole thing in _R_ where Chibi-
> Usa didn't know Sailor Moon was her mom, or the four senshi were her
> friends, the same as in the future was in my opinion, a horrible decision on
> the anime creators side. In the manga she knew before she even went back
> into the past that Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino and her mother was one in the
> same. In the anime all she knows is stories of a senshi called Sailor Moon
> in the past that her dad told her. The fact that the inner senshi of the
> past and future look exactly the same, have the same names, etc, is
> completely side stepped by the anime's production. Like really? Are we
> supposed to believe she's so stupid she couldn't put those two things
> together? But alas, they try anyway.

Her interpretation is that in the 90s anime, Chibi-usa did know the names and
appearances of Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus in the 30th century
before she time-traveled to the 20th century, and that failing to recognize
them in the past is a plot hole.


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This is my hypothesis and you can pick it apart all you want. My theory is
that:

  1. Chibiusa did know who Sailor Moon was and who the Sailor scouts were, but perhaps because Chibiusa traveled in time, perhaps the shock of time travel partially wiped her memory (since she did recognize Usagi/Serena as the holder of the silver crystal). Or,

  2. Chibiusa knows the identity of Sailor Moon and Sailor Senshi and is pretending not to for one reason or another.

On the question of whether Chibiusa knows that Usagi is Sailor Moon, check
episode 65 about a dispute over love between Minako and Makoto. In that
episode, after the fight is over, Chibiusa pops up in the background like
she'd been there the whole time, so if she didn't know before episode 65, she
knows now. (or at least is putting 2 and 2 together)


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