Silver Crystal

The Silver Crystal (銀水晶, Ginzuishō) functions as one of the most important items in the Sailor Moon metaseries. Its full name translates as "Illusion Silver Crystal" (幻の銀水晶, Maboroshi no Ginzuishō), "Phantom Silver Crystal", or other names, but the series frequently refers to it by its shortened title. The English-dubbed anime sometimes calls it the "Imperium Silver Crystal" — as well as various other names.

The Silver Crystal possesses tremendous power, capable of reviving an entire world from ruin, but the strain of using such power often costs the user her life - as the power actually derives from the life force of the Moon dynasty, the members of which alone can actually use it. The anime shows this happening three times. The first time is in a flashback with Queen Serenity, and the second time is Usagi defeats Queen Metalia at the end of season one and finally, in the R movie. It is shown as the source of Queen Serenity's power during the Silver Millennium; Usagi Tsukino and Chibiusa each go on to inherit the Crystal in some form.

Both the anime and manga commonly portray the Silver Crystal as possibly the single most powerful artifact in the universe, able to focus the energy of its wielder to perform magnificent feats. However, several artifacts rival it in strength, including the Black Crystal of the Death Phantom in Sailor Moon R and the Saffer Crystal of Sailor Galaxia. In the fifth series of the anime, the crystal also appears to double as the Star Seed of Sailor Moon, which was hinted at in the R movie, and the manga implies that it is her Sailor Crystal. It takes on a multitude of shapes, including round, diamond, rose, heart, star, and lotus, and it turns pink while stored within the brooches of both Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon.

Because Chibiusa comes from the future and will eventually inherit the Silver Crystal from Usagi, two versions of it exist in the series. After the first and second story-arcs, the owners of the crystals keep them in their respective transformation brooches and only remove them in times of urgent need. In the final Last Dracul Musical, a third Silver Crystal appears when Usagi's crystal resonates with a past version of itself, owned by Princess Serenity. This allows Serenity to briefly come to the present with her crystal and aid her future self. Before leaving, she states that the Silver Crystal cannot be used by just anyone. Vulcan later states that it will always find itself when it needs to.

Although some criticsof Sailor Moon have noted that her powers derive from her "consumerist" external baubles, Emily Ravenwood argues that the Silver Crystal, which "saves the day", comes forth from Usagi's tear, and therefore represents internal attributes

Manga
Characters make use of the Silver Crystal several times in the manga — often in battle to defeat the final "boss villain". The crystal has two primary powers: the ability to generate a powerful magical attack and the power to rejuvenate (both physically and mentally). The crystal seems to have both more control and more focused power when attached to Sailor Moon's Moon Stick, though Usagi eventually becomes so in-tune with her power that she no longer needs the extra help of the Moon Stick. One might infer that the reason why her mother needed it was because of the Silver Crystal's true form as Usagi's Star Seed, and thus Usagi is the only one that can make full use of its potential on its own. But to use all of it would kill her as it would use up all her life force. However her love for others and desire to help them appears to be strong enough to extend that life force interminably,Queen Serenity first initiates the use of the Silver Crystal to remove negative influences from the Earth and also to send Princess Serenity and her court to Earth. It was also used to send the souls of her fallen subjects into the future to be reincarnated, which cost the Queen her life. It also extends the life of the user and those around them if they do not use it to its limit.

The Crystal eventually evolves into the next form: a Sailor Crystal. For Sailor Moon, it evolved into the Silver Moon Crystal. For Chibiusa it evolved into the Pink Moon Crystal. (This supports the theory which sees the Silver Crystal as a Star Seed that evolves throughout the generations.)

The Silver Crystal is also considered the most powerful crystal next to its evolved forms

Anime
The anime adds a few extra powers to the Silver Crystal, for instance, the Sailor Moon R movie showed that it could be used to construct a shield, as in the first season when Princess Serenity battled Queen Beryl with the Moon Stick. In conjunction with the Moon Stick it is also used to heal people back to their normal forms. Most of the other properties of the Silver Crystal are the same of the manga. It is used in the anime far more than the manga. The anime also emphasises love as the key to using the full powers of the Silver Crystal. In the anime, specifically in Episode 83 of Sailor Moon R, the Crystal was not only powerful enough to restore the Earth and its people to life after the planet was devastated by some unspecified ecological catastrophe (specified in the manga as the next ice age), it also created the metropolis of Crystal Tokyo.

The Silver Crystal in the anime also has the unique ability to borrow the powers of the other Senshi to further amplify its own powers. The last episode of the first season demonstrates this for the first time: as Usagi battles with Queen Beryl and seems about to lose, the other Senshi lend their powers to Usagi by calling out their Henshin phrases. Their powers then visibly get absorbed into the Crystal and concentrated directly at Beryl, leaving her in ashes. Usagi performs this feat once again in the Sailor Moon R movie Promise of the Rose just before the Silver Crystal shatters leaving Usagi in a temporary state of death. Finally, the Sailor Moon S movie shows Usagi doing this with the Silver Crystal: for the first and last time, both the inner and outer Senshi (with the exception of Sailor Saturn, who does not appear in the movie) lend their powers to the Silver Crystal. As a result, Usagi's and the other Senshi's fuku turn to the purest white light, exerting enough power not only to defeat the Snow Queen, but to transform Luna into Princess Kaguya (referring to the old tale of the Bamboo Cutter) of the moon.

When Usagi uses the Silver Crystal in the Sailor Moon R movie, the other senshi fear for her life. The film implies that Usagi's life force connects directly with the Silver Crystal, and exerting too much of that power will kill her. This fear is also brought up again when Usagi uses the Silver Crystal to battle the Snow Queen in the Sailor Moon S movie. This theory is further supported in the Sailor Stars anime when Usagi's Star Seed is revealed to be the Silver Crystal itself, and removing a Star Seed from a true Senshi causes their "Starlight" to vanish, and leads to their inevitable death. However in the Sailor Stars series, when Usagi draws an unprecedented amount of power from the Silver Crystal and heals Sailor Galaxia without threatening her life. It often blooms into a lotus shape, which indicates a more powerful version of the same crystal - indicating a more direct link to her life force and the amount of energy she can expend from it

Rainbow Crystals
The anime features seven rainbow crystals that had the Seven Great Youma (Daiyōma, Seven Shadows in the English dub) sealed into them. They are the most powerful youma in the Dark Kingdom. Thanks to the power of Queen Serenity, they were sealed within seven separate shards of the Silver Crystal and carried to Earth where they were reincarnated centuries later, with no memories of their prior existences. All seven rainbow crystals (and, as in the manga, one of Usagi's tears) are needed to recombine into the Silver Crystal.

Seven carriers of the Rainbow Crystals exist:
 * 1) Gacen (ゲーセーン, Gēsēn), episode 25: the keeper of the red Rainbow Crystal, a cyber-youma reborn as Crane Joe, a pro at prize-grabber games due to his ability to make small objects levitate. His name is short for Game Center.
 * 2) Boxy (ボクシー, Bokushī), episode 26: the keeper of the orange Rainbow Crystal, a winged, boxing youma reborn as a priest who Naru was with at a cemetery. His name is a pun on bokushi, meaning "minister" in Japanese, and bokushingu, meaning "boxing".
 * 3) Bumbo (ブンボー, Bunbō), episode 27: the keeper of the yellow Rainbow Crystal, a reptilian youma reborn as Ryo Urawa, who developed a crush on Ami. Though the beast awakened, Urawa attempted to retain control over himself and attacked Zoisite, only to end up completely under his control.
 * 4) Beana (ビーナ, Bīna), episode 28: the keeper of the green Rainbow Crystal, an angelic plant youma reborn as local artist Yumeni Yumeno. Her attacks are art-based.
 * 5) Rikocader (リコケイダー, Rikokeidā), episode 29: the keeper of the blue Rainbow Crystal, a youma reborn as Motoki's girlfriend, Reika Nishimura
 * 6) Jiji (ジジ?), episode 30: the keeper of the indigo Rainbow Crystal, an Oni-like youma who is reincarnated as Rei's Grandfather
 * 7) Bakane (バケーネ, Bakēne), episode 31: the keeper of the violet Rainbow Crystal, a beastly youma reborn as the cat Rhett Butler, who had a thing for Luna, even in youma form. (He and his owner, Ohara, share names with the main characters of Gone with The Wind Rhett Butler and Scarlet O' Hara.

Live Action Series
As in the manga, the Silver Crystal originally remains concealed within Usagi's body. But the Crystal has a double-edged power: even in the possession of Sailor Moon, its excess power could not only energize Metalia but, if enough is exerted through it, could destroy the entire planet. It is shattered in the series finale, causing all of the Senshi's transformation devices to vanish