Fiol and Kisenian (Ail & Anne to all my Stateside audience) then, in a new storyline, Ruby, Esmeraud, the four Kooan sisters (?!?...), Beruche, Karaberas and Pettsu, Sapphire, Prince Diamond (Diamando) and 'Wiseman'. That's a lot of opposition for five (maybe six) 15 years-olds...
The length of the above list shows that the scouts have somewhat more to deal with over the next 42 episodes. The first opposing force are Fiol and Kisenian, two strange alien-types who go to Usagi's school. They arrive in a pod that crash-lands in Tokyo, bringing with it the 'Doom Tree'. Kids can be so sweet. Before long, Fiol has a crush on Usagi and Kisenian one on Mamoru. Sheesh. Once that little inconvenience is out of the way (they decide it's not in their best interests, which I reckon represents a victory for common sense), we learn that they are after a piece of the human race in order to sustain their life tree, which they try to obtain by using demon-summoning cards.
With each card, they summon a different demon. They also keep getting away with it, at which point you may remember what happened at the end of Sailor Moon (they were all killed, bar Usagi). As you'd expect from any good friend, Usagi resurrected her group from the dead, but there's a slight problem. Even Ami, the alleged genius, can't remember what the (insert unnecessary expletive here) they're supposed to be doing on Earth. They have their memories 'jogged' by Luna, again, who reminds them that their purpose in life is to solve the world's problems and wear short skirts while they're at it. Her words, not mine!
Before long, they have found out about Fiol and Kisenian, at which point things start to get nasty. Kisenian kidnaps Sailor Moon herself with the intention of draining her energy. Her brother Fiol is opposed to this and before long he gets Mamoru involved too, thus completing the life tree they need. The scouts face the tree, which suddenly kills Kisenian. The tree then tells the senshi about how it used to be a life-tree tree, and gave birth to an entire civilisation. But his children's minds became warped, and they turned evil. Their thoughts twisted the (nice) life-tree to a (nasty) doom-tree. Fiol and Kisenian were the only two survivors of the race, and the tree needed energy to survive. So it came to Earth. Fiol listens, and promises to mend his ways. The tree revives Kisenian, after this. The tree then asks Sailor Moon to use the heart-crystal to heal it. She does, and it turns back into a seed. So Fiol and Kisenian promise to take care of the seed, and let it grow into another beautiful life tree. So ends the first half of SMR.
Things lighten up when the crew get a futuristic visit from Chibi-Usa, a pink-haired sprog which we later discover to be the future daughter of Usagi and Mamoru. In one of the most memorable scenes Sailor Moon has ever had, Chibi-Usa falls out of the sky and whips a pistol out at Usagi and sticks Usagi up. She demands that Usagi gives her the Silver Crystal so that she can save her mother in the future. At last, someone who takes a direct approach....
Chibi-Usa soon becomes a regular, having hypnotised Usagi's family into treating her as their daughter. Mamoru says that he feels there is something familiar about Chibi and recommends they keep an eye on her. Little does he know he's talking about his own daughter. Chibi-Usa seems only to be concerned about getting back to wherever she came from and saving her mother. She concentrates on annoying Usagi in the meantime, not knowing that she is talking to a past version of her mother.
Because of Chibi forming a link with the future, a new Sailor comes into play, namely Pluto who doesn't fight but just sits there and guards the time portal. Good work if you can get it, I suppose.
A herd of adversaries make it through the portal to fight the sailors, just to make sure they can fill in another 20 episodes. They are human in appearance, albeit with black half-moons on their foreheads and are named after gemstones. Their purpose is to change the past in order to, you've guessed it, achieve global domination.
I won't go into the details of their efforts, save to say the enemy's only real achievement is to transform Chibi into a grown woman, dubbed 'Black Lady', and turn her against the Usagi, the other sailors and her parents. This series really runs out of steam towards the end and it isn't really made clear when it finishes.
