There are plenty of powerhouses in Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino being the most powerful of them all with her good heart and Silver Crystal, but her boyfriend is infamously, laughably, weak in comparison.

As the only reoccurring male character, Mamoru Chiba stands out as the focal love interest for Usagi and as the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. To get into the details of his powers and abilities - and why he can't properly use them - we need to look into his past life as Prince Endymion.

Tuxedo Mask

Tuxedo Mask

Endymion was prince of Earth during the Silver Millennium and ruled over the Golden Kingdom. He helped protect Elysium with Helios and was guarded by the Shitennou, Nephrite, Jadeite, Kunzite, and Zoisite. He was in possession of an extremely powerful sailor crystal called the Golden Crystal, which is equal in power to Sailor Moon's Silver Crystal.

This Golden Crystal was a product of the powerful dreams of the people of Earth, and its strength relies on people fulfilling those dreams. It is strongest when multiple people come together to strive towards a shared dream, like all the characters longing to save Earth from the Dead Moon Circus in Sailor Moon Eternal.

Mamoru Unlocking the Golden Crystal

Mamoru-golden-crystal-1

Prince Endymion fought with his crystal and a sword, and flash forward a couple of hundred years and a reincarnation, Tuxedo Mask approaches combat the same way. The roses he uses in combat are pulled directly from Elysium, the Earth's heart, and are imbued with the Golden Crystal's power. While transformed, Tuxedo Mask of course has the same physical enhancements the girls' experience, and also has an energy attack called Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber.

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His power set is built like the other scouts, and if Endymion's crystal is just as strong as Princess Serenity's, then why is Tuxedo Mask noticeably weaker than Sailor Moon? More to the point, why are the other sailor senshi so much stronger than him? The answer is easy and obvious: it's because he's a guy.

Creator Naoko Takeuchi has stated that only women can be sailor scouts, so Tuxedo Mask, despite possessing the same potential as Sailor Moon, can never match up to them. Having made this rule, Takeuchi was understandably upset when the 90's anime changed the sailor starlights into men who could switch into women when transformed for combat.

Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion

Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion

While Mamoru can't use his crystal as offensively as a sailor scout, he can use it to bolster another crystal. In Sailor Moon Eternal, Usagi declares that the then missing Golden Crystal is hidden inside Mamoru the same way the Silver Crystal was hidden in her. Her reasoning is that every time Mamoru encouraged her and supported her, she felt a burst of actual power strengthening her. While fighting Nehellenia, Mamoru was able to boost Sailor Moon's attack, a genuine support character to the actual tank Eternal Sailor Moon is.

An unfortunate side effect of his planetary powers is his physical connection to the Earth. As seen in the Dead Moon Circus arc, if anything happens to Earth, Mamoru suffers physically the same effect. This direct connection casts an interesting light on why Mamoru is constantly getting kidnapped and brainwashed. Not only is he a weakness for Sailor Moon, but if he possesses the sailor crystal of Earth, no wonder every bad guy in the universe is trying to get a piece of him.

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