Sailor Moon R

Sailor Moon R (美少女戦士セーラームーンR) is the second season of the Sailor Moon. R's episodes were aired out of order, November 6, 1995 through December 8, 1995 on the UPN Network. Sometime after UPN later cancelled the show. A fansite organization named "Save Our Sailors" (S.O.S.) campaigned and petitioned to save the show after UPN dropped the show because that its target audience were "younger audiences", but website activity revealed it attracted older audiences.

With support from The Program Exchange and its sponsor General Mills, DiC later responded to the petition and announced that Sailor Moon R would debut on the USA Network June 9, 1997. However, in December 1997, Sailor Moon R and several other children's programming were dropped from the USA Network after a change of ownership in the network. April 1998, however, Cartoon Network gained syndication rights for Sailor Moon R. Sailor Moon debuted on Cartoon Network's Toonami June 1, 1998. The final seventeen episodes of Sailor Moon R premiered November 30, 1998 through December 22, 1998. Sailor Moon become the highest rated series on Toonami, August 1998, before it was overtaken by Dragonball Z in December of the same year. R was preceded by Sailor Moon and followed by Sailor Moon S.

Doom Tree Arc
Serena has lost all memory of being Sailor Moon and fighting the Negaverse. However, Alan and Anne, two aliens who were associated with the Negaverse, come to Earth, having heard about it once from Queen Beryl before her death. Their lives depend on that of the Doom Tree, which needs energy to survive, so they search for energy to steal from people. They send a Cardian named Vampeal to drain energy. Luna and Artemis attempt to fight her off, but are unsuccessful, so Luna restores Serena's memories. She transforms into Sailor Moon and destroys Vampeal with Moon Tiara Magic.

While posing as humans at Serena's school, Alan falls in love with Serena, and Anne falls in love with Darien.

When Alan and Anne send Cardian Minotaur, Luna restores the memories of Amy, Raye, Lita, and Mina. They fight Minotaur and destroy her. Against Cardian Faraion, the Moonlight Knight appears to help them out, whom Sailor Moon believes to be Darien. However, against Cardian Nacrid, Moonlight Knight and Darien both appear at the same time. Sailor Moon's tiara also loses its power. In the end, Nacrid is destroyed by Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus. Cardian Racy destroys Sailor Moon's locket, reverting her back to Serena. Queen Serenity restores Sailor Moon's locket and makes it more powerful, powered by the Silver Crystal and now having a star in the center. She is also given a Moon Scepter, which she uses to destroy Racy by saying "Moon Scepter Elimination."

The Sailor Scouts foil more of Alan and Ann's plans, until Serena and Darien discover Alan and Ann's true identities, and are attacked by the Doom Tree. The Sailor Scouts all fight against Alan and Anne (during which Darien regains his memories), but are at a disadvantage, until the Doom Tree attacks and kills Anne Sailor Moon stops it killing Alan, and it reveals that it was once called the Tree of Life and lived on a peaceful planet, but its children, the people of the planet it lived on, were corrupted by the Negaverse, until they were all killed except Alan and Anne

The Doom Tree needed love energy and not negative energy, but was too weakened to speak and tell them. Sailor Moon heals the Doom Tree of all the negative energy, and it brings Anne back to life. Alan, Anne, and the Doom Tree leave Earth to start a better life somewhere in the galaxy. The Moonlight Knight is revealed to be the physical form of Darien's desire to protect Serena, and merges with him, now that his memories are back.

Negamoon Arc
The evil Rubeus and the Negamoon Sisters appear from the future inside a UFO, with a mysterious hooded figure named Wiseman as their adviser. A girl named Rini also appears, and demands that Serena give her the silver crystal. When she refuses, Rini brainwashes her family into thinking that she is Serena's cousin. Rubeus sends Catzi after Rini, but Sailor Moon stops her.

Rubeus then tries to take over the crystal points of Tokyo, with the Negamoon Sisters sending droids to help them get the job done. Each of their plans is foiled, however, and all their droids are destroyed. In the meantime, Darien is having nightmares telling him to avoid Serena, which he does. ;It is soon revealed by Wiseman that four female warriors - the Sailor Scouts - are defending Crystal Palace, of Crystal Tokyo in the future, making their invasion impossible, which is why they are attacking the past. Eventually, a showdown commences between the Sailor Scouts and Rubeus and the Negamoon Sisters. Rubeus is defeated and retreats.

One by one, the Negamoon Sisters - Catzi, Bertie, Avery, and Prizma - choose good and are healed by Sailor Moon, and become humans and work at a cosmetic shop. Afterward, Emerald tells Rubeus that if he fails again, Prince Diamond will kick him out of the Negamoon Family. He captures Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus, telling Sailor Moon to hand over Rini. Sailor Moon and Rini are both transported inside Rubeus's ship where Sailor Moon fights Rubeus. Eventually, she defeats him when Rini breaks his power source. He blows up his ship in a final attempt to kill them, but they teleport off, and Rubeus is killed when his ship explodes.

Traveling into the Future
After Diamond's plan to capture Rini by sending Grim Man into her dreams fails, Emerald takes over to fill Tokyo's vulnerable spots with dark energy, using dark wedges provided by Diamond's brother Sapphire. She sends droids to help her as well, but each of them is destroyed by Sailor Moon, foiling her plans. Eventually, Diamond calls her back to the future, and the Sailor Scouts, Tuxedo Mask, Luna, and Artemis go with Rini to the future to help save Crystal Tokyo.

After meeting up with Sailor Pluto, and fighting Emerald's droid Genie of the Time Warp, they reach the future where they meet Darien's future self, King Darien, who tells them that Tokyo was frozen by an evil spell until Princess Serena and Prince Darien rose to the throne to break the spell, and became Neo Queen Serenity and King Darien. Evil villains appeared, but were defeated, and most of them turned good. Those who didn't were banished to a rogue moon called Nemesis (the Negamoon). These were Prince Diamond, Rubeus Emerald, Sapphire, and the Negamoon Sisters. They eventually attacked again, putting everyone except the king and the Sailor Scouts to sleep. The Sailor Scouts encased Neo Queen Serenity in a protective layer of quartz, and Crystal Palace was found to be invincible, which is why they attacked the past. Rini is revealed to be Serena and Darien's daughter, and the king was the one responsible for Darien's nightmares, to see how powerful his love for Serena was, because Diamond will try to turn them against each other.

Diamond captures Sailor Moon and tries to hypnotize her into loving him, but Tuxedo Mask stops him and they escape. Emerald is jealous of Sailor Moon, as she is in love with Diamond. When Sailor Moon is unable to awaken Neo Queen Serenity, Rini runs away, and Wiseman finds her and convinces her that no one loves her. Emerald goes to Wiseman asking for the power to destroy Crystal Palace. Wiseman tells her that she can be Diamond's queen, and gives her a crown powered by the dark crystal, which turns her into a hideous dragon. The Sailor Scouts fight the dragon, and eventually Sailor Moon destroys her. Emerald briefly reappears before falling into a void to her death.

Wiseman turns Rini into Wicked Lady, his new servant. The Sailor Scouts return to the past, and so do Diamond, Sapphire, Wiseman, and Wicked Lady, moving the Dark Crystal there as well. Sapphire overhears Wiseman saying he plans to betray and kill Diamond, and that he is really serving an entity known as the Doom Phantom. Sapphire tries to warn Diamond, but is injured by Wiseman. The Negamoon Sisters find him and take him to their home where it is revealed Prizma and Sapphire were in love. Sapphire begins to realize that what the Negamoon is doing is wrong, and goes to warn Diamond about Wiseman, with Catzi calling the Sailor Scouts and telling them to help him.

They, along with Tuxedo Mask fight off Wicked Lady. Diamond doubts that Sapphire is telling the truth, and Wiseman appears and kills Sapphire, which turns Diamond against Wiseman, threatening to kill him once he rises to power.

The Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask enter the Dark Crystal, whose power is increasing. Diamond tries to hypnotize Sailor Moon, but is unable to, and he soon realizes that what he was doing was wrong, and that Sapphire was telling the truth. Diamond fights Wiseman, who attacks Sailor Moon, but Diamond jumps in front of her and is impaled by Wiseman's dark spears, killing him. Wiseman plans to use Wicked Lady to open the Dark Gate to send energy through her and destroy Earth, but Sailor Moon and Darien get through to Wicked Lady, turning her back into Rini. However, Wiseman has already opened the dark gate and will destroy the world. He also reveals himself to be the Doom Phantom. Sailor Moon transforms into Princess Serena and uses the silver crystal to enter a beam struggle with Wiseman. Wiseman is seemingly unstoppable, as the Dark Crystal is stronger than the silver crystal. However, Rini discovers that she had the silver crystal of the future inside her all along, and, transforms into Princess Rini. Powered up by the other Sailor Scouts, Serena and Rini use the silver crystals to unleash an energy explosion that destroys Wiseman and the Dark Crystal.

Rini returns to the future, which has now been saved from the Negamoon, and Neo Queen Serenity reawakened. Afterward, the Sailor Scouts see two people dressed up as Sailor Scouts, and Serena has a dream about a scientist who looks like Melvin and a strange lady with him, setting up Sailor Moon S.

Trivia

 * Sailor Moon R is the longest season produced for North America at 42 episodes.
 * Sailor Moon R 's second arc focuses on Rini, a new character and the daughter of Serena. She becomes a series regular in S and Super S as well.
 * Sailor Moon R is the only season of Sailor Moon with two distinct arcs.
 * This season features two different organizations of villains. The first is Alan and Ann, and the second is the Negamoon Family (for the majority).
 * The intro for Sailor Moon R is identical to that of Sailor Moon Episode 11 on, and the bumpers also are identical.
 * This is the first season in which its villains are persuaded to the side of good and join Sailor Moon and survive. It also features the most villain redemptions, although two of them die as Neflite did.
 * Emerald, Sapphire, and Diamond's names are identical to those of gemstones, yet in the original Japanese version, their names were different: Esmeraude, Saphir, and Demande. This is the opposite of the first season in which Jedite, Neflite, and Zoycite's Japanese names were exactly the same as minerals Jadeite, Nephrite, and Zoisite, but were changed to something different in the dub. Also of note, in both versions Rubeus's name is the same and not identical to "Ruby", while both Malachite and his Japanese counterpart Kunzite are also the exact name of minerals.