Queen Beryl (クイン・ベリル Kuin Beriru), named after the mineral beryl, is the first main antagonist in the Sailor Moon series. Beryl has immense magical power, but she uses most of it to channel the life energy harvested by her servants into the entity called Queen Metaria. In most versions of the story, Beryl has the ability to corrupt others into her service.[note 1]
Before the events of Sailor Moon, Beryl is a young girl on Earth during the age of the Silver Millennium.[3]:Act 12 Beryl is in love with Prince Endymion, but her love is unrequited. After discovering Endymion's relationship with Princess Serenity, she sides with Queen Metaria and is corrupted.[3]:Act 12 Beryl mobilizes the Earth in a war against the Moon Kingdom, killing Endymion while he is protecting Serenity, leading to the princess' own suicide. Though killed by Sailor Venus with the Holy Moon Sword, Beryl is reborn in the 20th century, regaining the memories of her past life upon finding Queen Metaria while traveling to D-Point in the Arctic.[3]:Act 12 She becomes Queen of the Dark Kingdom, communicating with Metaria while recruiting her reincarnated generals Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite to find the Silver Crystal.[4]:Act 7 Beryl is able to summon the reincarnated Prince Endymion, Mamoru Chiba, to her side, as a lifeless thrall after he dies and is revived with a fragment of the Silver Crystal inside him.[4]:Act 10 Beryl fails in her attempt to get the Silver Crystal and is killed Sailor Venus with the Holy Moon Sword.[3]:Act 12 In Crystal, Beryl's demise was altered to have her necklace, which maintained her existence, shattered by the Holy Moon Sword wielded by Sailor Moon.
In the first anime adaptation, Queen Beryl attacks Tokyo while Usagi Tsukino and the other Sailor Soldiers are searching for the Moon Princess. She also kidnaps and manipulates Mamoru in order to force him to kill Usagi. But when he breaks free of her control and attacks her she lies in a swoon and begs Metaria for more power, which results in Metaria possessing Beryl's body, transforming her into an enormous being. Queen Beryl is soon obliterated along with Metaria when Usagi, who has transformed into Princess Serenity, combines the power of the Silver Crystal with that of the Moon Stick.[5]
In the live-action series, Jadeite and Nephrite are rivals for her affections; Zoisite is more loyal to Endymion than to her; and Kunzite sets his sights on taking Metaria's power for himself. At one point, Beryl creates a shadow of herself, Mio Kuroki, who sets out to ruin Usagi's reputation while being Beryl's eyes and ears. When she learns that Mamoru Chiba was Prince Endymion, Beryl forces him to come with her by showing him that she can easily kill the Four Kings of Heaven with Nephrite as an example. Once she has the object of her desire under her services, Beryl has Jadeite implant an item in Mamoru's body that will shorten his life when he is with Usagi. However, Mamoru still risks his life for Usagi and Beryl loses control over Metaria's actions due to the overuse of the Silver Crystal. She is killed when her castle crumbles under the stress of a distraught Princess using the Silver Crystal to destroy Earth. However, for all her sadness she is not alone, as Jadeite stays by her side after she removes her mind-control spell on him, saying that Beryl is his master by choice.
Beryl appears in the first musical, Gaiden Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen and its revision, in a similar plot to the series' first story arc. She is then revived in the semi original musical Eien Densetsu and its revision by Sailor Galaxia, who merely uses her as a puppet to awaken Saturn.[6] Beryl dies while protecting Sailor Moon from a stab by the evil Tuxedo Mask mud puppet, her last statement being, "This time I die for passion".[7] Similarly, in Shin Densetsu Kourin Beryl kills the evil King Endymion mud puppet to give Sailor Moon a fighting chance against Galaxia.[8] Several times in the musical, Beryl and Sailor Pluto share the song Onna no Ronsou which explains why betrayal by Endymion in the past killed Beryl's emotion of love. Each time this song is played, Sailor Pluto would always begin with "Because we are the same" or a similar phrase.[9][10][11]
In the anime series, her voice actress is Keiko Han. During recording, this contrast resulted in occasional fits of giggles among the cast when Han would change from Luna's cute, catlike voice to the deep, evil tones of Queen Beryl. Sometimes, she would accidentally play Beryl with Luna's voice.[12] In Sailor Moon Crystal, she is voiced by Misa Watanabe.[13] In the DIC English adaptation, she is voiced by Naz Edwards, with Jill Frappier as a stand-in. In the Viz Media English adaptation, her voice is supplied by Cindy Robinson. In the stage musicals, Queen Beryl has been played by two actresses: Yuri Nishina and Akiko Miyazawa (who previously played Sailor Venus). In the live-action series, she is portrayed by adult J-pop idol Aya Sugimoto.