Sailor Moon S

Sailor Moon S (美少女戦士セーラームーン Sスーパー) is the third season of the Sailor Moon series. Sailor Moon S is the first Sailor Moon season to air exclusively on Cartoon Network's Toonami. The season premiered July 12, 2000, through August 1, 2000. It was preceded by Sailor Moon R and followed by Sailor Moon Super S.

A New Enemy
Raye has been having visions of an evil force destroying Earth. Doctor Tomoe, the leader of the Bureau of Bad Behavior, creates Daimon pods and gives them to his assistant Kaorinite to implant into objects to turn them into Daimon Heart Snatchers, to extract Pure Hearts from people. They are looking for three specific Pure Hearts. Kaorinite creates the Daimon Mikuzi and sends her to extract Raye's Pure Heart. Sailor Moon's scepter does not work on Mikuzi, and to make matters even worse, Mikuzi bites into her locket, severely damaging it and reverting her back to Serena. Mikuzi is ultimately destroyed by two mysterious Sailor Scouts using attacks called World Shaking and Deep Submerge. Raye's Pure Heart is returned to her.

Against the next Daimon, Nekonnell, Sailor Moon's love for Darien takes her to the Moon Kingdom where she receives the legendary Spiral Moon Heart Scepter, and she destroys Nekonnell with Moon Spiral Heart Attack; her locket gets an upgrade to Moon Crisis Power and is transformed into a heart shape. They soon meet Amara and Michelle, who (though the others don't know it) are the two Sailor Scouts, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who are also out to get Pure Hearts to stop Doctor Tomoe from destroying the world.

After more of Kaorinite's plans are foiled, she targets Serena, but finds that her Pure Heart is not the one she was looking for. After her Daimon, Senishenta, is destroyed, Kaorinite absorbs Senishenta's power from the glass shoe used to create her, and fights the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask, gaining the advantage, but when all seemed lost, Sailor Uranus decides to help them and attacks Kaorinite with World Shaking, reflecting her crystal beam at her and encasing her in crystal turning her Daimon power against her for the first and only time. Falling debris as a result of the World Shaking causes Kaorinite to fall over the edge of the tower to her death.

Eugeal of the Witches 5 takes over for Kaorinite, using a gun to extract Pure Hearts while she sends Daimons created in Doctor Tomoe's Heart Snatcher Oven to fight the Sailor Scouts when they interfere. During this time, Rini returns from the future, now a Sailor Scout called Sailor Mini Moon.

After all her plans are foiled, Eugeal discovers who possesses two of the Pure Hearts, and tells Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune to fight her on an island. There, she reveals that they have two of the Pure Hearts she is looking for, and extracts Sailor Neptune's Pure Heart, which is the Deep Aqua Mirror. After Serena arrives and fights off Eugeal, Sailor Uranus extracts her own Pure Heart, the Space Sword.

The Purity Chalice
Sailor Pluto appears, the crystal ball on her staff being the third Pure Heart, and the Purity Chalice appears now that all three Pure Hearts are united. She then separates the Pure Hearts from the treasures and returns them to Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Sailor Moon and Eugeal race through fire to get the Purity Chalice. Sailor Moon ultimately gets it, transforms into Super Sailor Moon, and defeats Eugeal. As she drives away in her car, she discovers that Mimet, the second of the Witches 5, and who always picks on her, put acid snails in her car to dissolve the brakes, and Eugeal crashes her car over a cliff and into the water to her death.

The Sovereign of Silence, whom Tomoe is serving, tells him she needs to eat Pure Hearts to give her power, so he sends Mimet to collect Pure Hearts for her. She sends Daimons to suck the Pure Hearts out through the victim's mouth, and always targets attractive male celebrities, but as before, her plans are foiled each time by the Sailor Scouts. During this time, Rini makes friends with a girl named Hotaru, who is actually Doctor Tomoe's daughter and the host of the Sovereign of Silence. While going over to Hotaru's house, Serena and Rini see Kaorinite, having been revived by Doctor Tomoe, though she pretends to have no memory of being evil.

At one point, it is revealed that Doctor Tomoe became possessed by a Daimon to save Hotaru from a lab explosion (presumably caused by the same Daimon), and he chose Hotaru as the host for the Sovereign of Silence.

Soon, Doctor Tomoe decides to give the job to Telulu, the third of the Witches 5, but Mimet imitates his voice to tell her the job has been canceled, and takes the job herself. Her plan is foiled, and her monster Upasocon is destroyed. Mimet enters Eugeal's power device to enter a giant TV screen, increasing her size and power, but is killed when Telulu pulls the plug as revenge for stealing her job.

Telulu uses plants called Venus Heart Traps to extract Pure Hearts. Hotaru is taken by Kaorinite. Sailor Moon destroys the plants, except one, which Telulu transforms into a plant monster called Big Bertha who feeds on Pure Hearts. When Telulu loses the Pure Hearts she extracted, Big Bertha turns on her and, when Telulu attacks her, self-destructs, killing them both.

Mistress 9 Revealed
Mugen School is revealed to be Doctor Tomoe's base of operations. Byruit, the fourth of the Witches 5, uses computers to extract Pure Hearts from the exam takers. The Sailor Scouts fight her, and in the end, Sailor Moon damages her bracelet, the nanocuff, causing it to backfire on her and dissolve her with the nano-machines inside its energy beam.

Cyprin, the fifth and final of the Witches 5, extracts more Pure Hearts from the students at Mugen School. The Sailor Scouts fight her, only to find that she shares her mind and body with another witch named Petirol. Eventually they trick the two witches into destroying each other. Kaorinite captures Rini (as Sailor Mini Moon) and the Sovereign of Silence eats her Pure Heart, awakening in her true form as Mistress 9, who kills Kaorinite with a bolt of lightning.

Mistress 9 and Doctor Tomoe's plan is to use the Purity Chalice to awaken their master, Pharaoh 90. Mistress 9 pulls Sailor Moon into the school through a portal and uses the remaining Daimon pods to create several identical, red, and unnamed Daimons that form a barrier around Mugen School. Mistress 9 Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus contain the barrier. Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Pluto arrive in a helicopter, which is destroyed by the Daimons.

Sailor Pluto stops time so Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune can escape and enter the school, but Sailor Pluto is killed in the helicopter explosion when time resumes. Mistress 9 sends Doctor Tomoe after them, and the Daimon Germatoid leaves him, no longer possessing him. Taking the form of several empty, marshmallowy monsters of his own creation, he fights Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Sailor eptune uses the Deep Aqua Mirror to reveal the true Germatoid among the fakes, and Sailor Uranus stabs him in the face with her Space Sword, killing him.

Pretending to be Hotaru, Mistress 9 tricks Sailor Moon and the un-possessed Doctor Tomoe into giving her the Purity Chalice. She then uses it to summon Pharaoh 90, destroying the Purity Chalice in the process. Pharaoh 90 easily counters an attack by Sailor Moon, and begins to bring about the Silence and destroy the world, killing the Daimons in the barrier in the process. With memories of her father and Rini, Hotaru overpowers Mistress 9, destroying her, and awakens as Sailor Saturn, the feared Sailor Scout of destruction.

After returning Rini's Pure Heart to her, Sailor Saturn explains to Sailor Moon that the only way to defeat Pharaoh 90 is to destroy his core, which only she can do because no one else can even get near him (except Super Sailor Moon, but as the Purity Chalice is destroyed Sailor Moon can no longer take this form).

She also says that the reason she is feared so much is because she has the power to destroy a planet, but using the power will kill her. She enters Pharaoh 90 and attempts to destroy him with her power. As he fights her, Sailor Moon is powered up by the other Sailor Scouts (including Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, except Sailor Mini Moon) and transforms into Super Sailor Moon without the Purity Chalice. She then enters Pharaoh 90 and destroys his core, killing him. She manages to rescue Hotaru, who is reborn as a baby.

Amara and Michelle take Hotaru, and eventually give her to Doctor Tomoe, who is temporarily in a wheelchair due to injuries to his arm and leg, and is suffering from amnesia. Sailor Pluto and Rini see each other for the last time during this event, with Sailor Pluto's spirit briefly returning to tell her about Hotaru. Then, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune then fight Sailor Moon in one final battle as Scouts, telling her they can't forgive her for putting the world at risk for one person, and that they don't think she should be future queen. Sailor Neptune starts the battle with a quick Deep Submerge that knocks Sailor Moon semi-unconscious.

The other Inner Scouts rush to her aid but a rose quickly stops them in her tracks, as Tuxedo Mask explains to them that sometimes people must fight in order to understand each other. He asks that they not intervene and that this is Sailor Moon's fight and hers alone. Sailor Moon gets up from the hit she just took, only to be taunted by the two Outer Scouts, who ask if she's going to cry.

She tells them they're going to find out unless they quit, to which Sailor Uranus responds with a quick World Shaking, followed by a barrage of kicks which she is able to dodge. However, she lets her guard down as Sailor Neptune grabs her arms from behind and forces her to her knees. They are winning until a light shines from her tiara, and Sailor Uranus crashes into Sailor Neptune. They acknowledge her as their ruler, Princess Serena and Neo Queen Serenity, and walk away, saying that they have found the Sovereign (implied to be Sailor Moon) and that Hotaru wasn't the only one she saved.

Rini returns to the future, however a final Daimon (who survived Pharaoh 90's attack) enters the Heart Snatcher Oven, merging with it into a Daimon named Rangy. The Sailor Scouts fight Rangy. Rini returns to help them, and Sailor Moon destroys Rangy, destroying the Heart Snatcher Oven as well.

Trivia

 * Sailor Moon S is the first Sailor Moon season produced and distributed uncut on DVD and censored for broadcast and VHS release only. Sailor Moon Super S would be the second.
 * Sailor Moon S has a total of 38 episodes, making it shortest season after Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R. The second shortest would be Sailor Moon Super S, which is only an episode longer than S.
 * Sailor Moon S also broadcast in early September 2001 on . One episode went unaired following the.
 * The new characters of the season are Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Pluto, and Hotaru.
 * Six major characters of the series received new voice actors:
 * Terri Hawkes declined to return to voice Sailor Moon because of her pregnancy with twins. She was replaced by Linda Ballantyne.
 * Emilie Barlow (who voiced Sailor Mars in the final 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R) replaced Stephanie Morgenstern as Sailor Venus.
 * Liza Balkan replaced Karen Bernstein as Sailor Mercury.
 * Tracey Hoyt is replaced by Stephanie Beard as Rini/Sailor Mini Moon.
 * Vince Corazza became the permanent voice of Tuxedo Mask after previously taking over the role from Toby Proctor in the final 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R.
 * Sabrina Grdevich was replaced by Susan Aceron as Sailor Pluto.
 * This is the only season of Sailor Moon to feature a majority-female cast of monsters. The only male Daimons are technically Pharaoh 90 and Germatoid, who were two of the three main villains of the season.
 * Sailor Moon S is the first season not feature any type of lyrical song during the final battle between Sailor Moon and the antagonist.
 * This is the only season where the central villains of the season die without reform. Doctor Tomoe does not count because he was possessed by Germatoid.
 * Sailor Moon S was recorded and mixed at Sequence Music Production Studios Ltd in Toronto, ON, Canada.