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Please don't think me blasphemous, but I am going to attempt to show Sailors Moon and Saturn as Christ figures.
The Christ figure is a common motif in fiction. Examples can be found in works such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (Gandalf, Frodo, & Aragorn), Lucas' Star Wars (Anakin & Luke Skywalker), CS Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Aslan), Shakespeare's Othello (Desdemona) and Much Ado About Nothing (Hero), etc.
The Christ figure has very distinctive attributes. Though not every example has every attribute, each must have at least one. These attributes are taken from Jesus Christ's life as described in the Gospels.
At Christmas, we remember Jesus' birth: He was born of a virgin and had no human father - His Father was the Holy Spirit. Anakin Skywalker likewise had no father but the Force. We find out in the first season of Sailor Moon that Serena/Usagi (Sailor Moon) has a father, but he disappears somewhere along the way. Hotaru (Saturn) has a father (Dr Tomoe), but doesn't appear to have a mother. This is very strange, especially since she is reborn so often; who gives birth to her?
When Jesus grew up, He healed many people, raised the dead, and cast out demons. It is not as clearly shown in the movies as in the books, but Aragorn (in The Lord of the Rings) has a great talent for healing with herbs and such - although, he cannot heal the injury Frodo receives from the Mordish blade. Similarly, Luke Skywalker "heals" his father, saving him from the Dark Side. Sailor Moon also heals, using her sceptre to return people who are under the influence of evil to their true form and right mind.
Before His death, Jesus took upon Himself the sins and sorrows of all people (Isaiah 53:4 & 1 Peter 2:24). Frodo also volunteers to carry a burden (the One Ring). Like Jesus, Frodo does not deserve to carry his burden, but he is the only one who can. All of the Sailor Scouts possess power beyond what normal teenagers have and, like Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said in the movie Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." They carry the burden of protecting the world from whatever comes to threaten. As the most powerful, Sailors Moon and Saturn carry a larger amount of this burden.
The Bible tells us that Jesus lived a sinless life. Despite this, He was accused of treason and blasphemy. In an echo of this, Shakespeare's heroines Desdemona and Hero are falsely accused even though, to those who really know them, they are obviously innocent: they are naive, gentle, and honest. In the movie The Promise of the Rose, Fiore accuses Serena/Usagi/Sailor Moon of controlling Darian/Mamoru's mind with evil intent. This is clearly false since Sailor Moon is the most naively innocent person on the show.
Perhaps the most obvious thing a character can do to make him/her a Christ figure is to die (or risk his/her life) for someone else. Jesus died to save the world. The wizard Gandalf falls into shadow while saving the other members of the Fellowship from the balrog. Aslan surrendered himself to the Witch to be killed in place of Edmund. In Sailor Saturn's ultimate attack, which is the most powerful of all the Scout's attacks, she dies in the act of defeating the enemy and saving the world.
Three days after His death, Jesus walked out of His grave, alive and well. Not too many Christ figures accomplish this, though some do. In the book The Two Towers, Gandalf returns from the underworld surprising his friends who had thought him dead. Likewise, Aslan rises after the Witch kills him. And Sailor Saturn is reborn each time she dies, though her resurrection is unique as she always returns as a baby.
While Sailors Moon and Saturn do not individually have every attribute I mentioned, they are clearly Christ figures. There are, of course, other attributes of the Christ figure that I do not have time to get into.
Watch some Sailor Moon this Christmas. Now you know how appropriate the show is to the season. :)
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