Their Story
Ail and An were two aliens wandering the universe trying to find a place where they could live. This was complicated by the fact that they could only survive by feeding from a giant space tree called the Makaiju ('Hell Tree') that would convert other energy into a form they could consume and they were having trouble finding the right source to feed the tree. Helping their cause was their arrogance and belief that all other forms of life were beneath them which made it easy to steal energy guilt-free from other species. Of course, this means when they landed on Earth they went straight to the top and started attacking humans.

Human Guise
On Earth, the two posed as brother and sister and started attending Juuban Junior High School, the same school that Usagi and friends went to. They took on the fake last name Ginga (銀河 'galaxy') and claimed to have transferred in after living overseas. Of course, when her new classmates asked An to say something in English, she responded with "Fera fera fera.."

Ail's alias on Earth was a 9th grade student named Seijuurou (星十郎 'star tenth son'), and An's was an 8th grade student named Natsumi (夏美 'summer beauty') in the same class as Usagi. Except for some reason Ail had an entirely different uniform while An wore the Juuban one like everyone else. You would think such a powerful alien would be able to get that right.

Seijuurou quickly became popular with all the girls at school with his good looks and mad flute skills, and found himself the target of legions of rabid school girls. On the other hand, Natsumi was generally thought to be weird and have a bit of a brother complex. The Sailorsenshi - unaware that she was actually An - actually felt sorry for her and would try to include her in activities even when she would be a bit of a jerk.

True Colours
Of course, we all know that they weren't really human (though arguably they were siblings) but rather powerful aliens. The last two of their kind, in fact (if you haven't seen the Sailormoon R movie to know that there was one other - Fiore - left out there on his own). Like all good villains they could fly, teleport, send powerful energy blasts, and generally kick ass five ways to Sunday. And of course, like all good super villains they'd rather just delegate to random minions while they sit back on their laurels.

Although the two were similar in many ways, they still had their own personalities. Ail was quite the romantic, and liked to wax poetic about Greek myths and true love. He was quite often seen with his flute, even when disguised as a human, and there are two songs that he was heard to play; the first he would often play for An (or any random number of girls), while the second he would only use to summon or control Cardians. The fact that he was the more laid back of the two (for lack of a better word) also made it easy for him to blend in with humans, as he didn't stand out as "different."

An wasn't as quickly accepted by her human peers, as she was a bit more rash and would often say or do odd things without thinking (or caring). But it wasn't that she was rude, it was more that she (like Ail) carried herself with a certain air of nobility (superiority?). But sadly in her case it didn't come across as suave so much as different. An was also the more direct of the two, and was more willing to actively take matters into her own hands (both in love and war).

Speaking of An's "nobility," it doesn't really come across that well when translated into English but she had a rather unique way of speaking; regardless of the situation, she always used Japanese honorifics. Like, "speaking with the Queen" sorta fancy talk that the average Japanese person would never use in everyday conversation. It was actually quite amusing when she was in the middle of battle and used language that actually honoured her foes (ok, maybe this was only amusing if you're a Japanese linguist, but we gotta get our kicks somewhere). Her polite speech of course carried over into her human disguise, and as the rivalry between her and Usagi heated up Usagi actually started to mock her by using honorifics. (Did I mention that the Japanese language = super fun!?)

Ail + An = ?
While we're on the subject of my nerdy love of the Japanese language, when Ail's name is written phonetically it actually is Eiru (エイル), but Ail is a more popular romanization. An's name phonetically, of course, is An (アン). When you put their two names together you get EiruAn - the Japanese pronunciation of the English word alien. In fact, if you watch the official English subtitled version they actually referred to them as "Ali" and "En" to reflect that.

Love is a Battlefield
Ail and An kept coming up with various plans to gather energy, usually involving picking a specific group to target and then sending a Cardian in to do their dirty work. Due to their lack of concern for humanity no one was safe, and they'd go after anyone they thought was energetic enough, be it adults, teenagers, or infants. No one would ever die as a result of their scheming, but instead would be left incapacitated (and often hospitalized) until they regained their strength (Naru is proof of that, as the poor girl seemed to get sucked dry nearly every episode). They also had the ability to directly take energy from a person, as An fed off an actress when she couldn't wait for their Cardian to finish its job during a scheme at a TV studio, but I would assume it is not a permanent solution or else they would do it more often (because really? So much easier than relying on the tree).

Despite claiming An was his everything, their first day on Earth Ail fell head over heels for Usagi and started to pursue her with reckless abandon. This infuriated An, but then she met Mamoru and was just as smitten and even more forward in her approach. Although there was definitely tension between Ail and Mamoru, it was much more pronounced between An and Usagi as the two were classmates and "friends" which gave them many more opportunities to fight for Mamoru's affections. What neither Ail nor An realized was that they actually had fallen for the enemy, or that in doing so they slowly were becoming more and more human. They started to lose sight of their original goal and distain for human life and got caught up in human activities, such as eating human food or when An joined Usagi and her friends in a community stage production of Snow White (Ail was bitter he wasn't allowed to star as the prince and sent a Cardian to wreck it all).

The Makaiju
The Makaiju (魔界樹 'Hell Tree') was what created Ail and An what keeps them alive. It lived alone on a vast ocean planet and made Ail and An's species to end its solitude. For a while things were all well and good, but then its children turned greedy and started fighting over the Makaiju's energy until the violence escalated to the point where the entire planet was destroyed. The Makaiju travelled through space with its remaining children in search of a new planet where they could live, but they had no success and the Makaiju's children slowly died off until there was only Ail and An left.

In the End
Satisfied that at last Ail and An had learned their lesson on True Love, the Makaiju asked Sailormoon to purify it with her power. She agreed, and after using Moon Princess Halation on it the Makaiju disappeared (leaving behind a moderately destroyed apartment building). But in the world of Sailormoon happy endings are a good thing, so Ail was overjoyed when An suddenly came back to life in his arms. A small seedling also appeared before them and they decided to leave Earth and find a new planet where they could raise it with the energy of their love. Awwww~

The Last Word
If you've made it this far, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit! And if you've only ever seen the English dub of Sailormoon, I sincerely recommend you seek out the original Japanese version! I was nothing short of blown away by how much more awesome Ail and An were in comparison to Allen and Anne. That fact is actually the initial spark in the creation of this shrine (well, that and An and her adorable way of speaking. I ♥ you An!).

Link Out and In
The following is just a small selection of general Sailormoon and villain-specific links. For a more comprehensive list, please check out the links page over at my Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon shrine.

Ai no Senshi ★ Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon ★ Crow's Nest ★ Heavy Metal ★ Memoirs of a Fish ★ The Oracle ★ The Sailor Senshi Page ★ ten(sen)shi

Loose Ends
Across the Universe is the title of one of my favourite Beatles songs. This site is a part of iocane-powder.net. If you have any questions, I can be contacted here.

Last updated December 13, 2014

Across the Universe was the Site of the Month at Deep Submerge
for November 2009! Thank you so much! ♥ It really means a lot!

★ BACK TO TOP ★