The main opposing force is one Souichi Tomoe, a crazed professor, concerned mainly with destroying the senshi with the help of his assistant, Kaolinite and ,later, the five Witches. His cunning plan is to use these people to drain the energy of the famous by taking their 'Heart Crystals' out of them. These crystals represent the goodness in people, and without them, they will soon die. With these, he hopes to retrieve three Talismen.
Kaolinite soon finds a way to get these precious heart crystals herself (via a strange cannon/gun contraption) and get in with a chance of finding the 'Holy Grail'
(no, not the Bible/Monty-Python/Indiana Jones style one. That would be taking things a little too far)
This can be obtained through the possession of three particular Heart Crystals, together with talismen of a mirror, a sword and a gemstone (the three holy symbols of Japanese mythology, don't you know). The Sailors task at this point is to keep retrieving the Heart Crystals and figure out what is going on.
The two most significant things of this series then show up. Michiru AKA Sailor Neptune and Haruka AKA Sailor Uranus. These two are considerably older than the original five scouts and study at the local University. They are after the talismen too, and have a close bond with one another. Without wanting to cause any kind of feeble controversy, these two sailors are lesbians. And you Stateside moonies still ask why DiC won't dub this series....
"Phenomenal" though the original Sailor's mental capabilities are, they are baffled by the fact that these two are pretty much neutral in comparison with themselves, and would rather stay out of battle.
Neptune and Uranus become much more concerned than the Inner Senshi when a Heart Crystal is stolen and usually set about retrieving them before the others. Kaolinite, the professor's assistant, is eventually won over to a more moral walk of life and the prof appoints the oldest of the Witches 5 as his new assistant, namely Yuziaru, who inherits Kaolinite's Heart Crystal cannon.
Kaolinite and Eudial then die to reveal the Talismen to the senshi in a special two-part episode.
Eventually, one of the 'special' Heart Crystals in Sailor Neptune and receive the Deep Aqua Mirror Talisman. Convinced that she holds another herself, Uranus shoots herself in the chest with Yaziaru's cannon, despite Sailor Moon's protests. Uranus succeeds and they obtain the Space Sword, the second talisman.
However, in keeping with the vices of this series, Neptune and Uranus will soon die without their Heart crystals. Mamoru stays with the dying sailors while Sailor Moon fetches the mirror and sword, at which point Sailor Pluto appears and retrieves the third talisman using the Garnet Orb. Now that all the Talisman are together, the sailors finally get the Holy Grail. Moon can use this to transform into Super Sailor Moon, hence the title of this series. A cunning plan, by any standards.
Meanwhile, Yuziaru is killed by her jealous sister Mimetto, who takes the brakes off her car. Surprisingly normal death for this series...
On to the next part of the plot. Chibi strikes up a friendship with one Hotaru Tomoe, an diseased girl with strange powers. She is of course the daughter of the crazy professor Souichi, but Chibi fails to realise this.
Mamoru helps the scouts to find out that the local University, where Souichi Tomoe (the crazy Prof.) teaches and Haruka and Michiru study is the HQ of all the inter-dimensional invasions of enemies. The dimensional door was accidentally opened by the Prof., through which the demon Mistress 9 eventually passes to cause trouble. She steals Chibi's Heart Crystal and possesses her body.
The leader of these invasions is Pharaoh 90, a black sphere of energy, who needs the energy of the Seihai (namely Sailor Moon) to pass through in to our dimension. As a matter of course, Pharaoh 90 plans to annihilate all life on Earth once it's passed through (can't they just get along?) so it falls on a certain group of Sailors to Save the World. Again.
The sailors take a minute to polish off the Witches 4, as they now are, when suddenly a possessed Hotaru (the Prof.'s daughter) steals Chibi's Heart Crystal and transforms into Mistress 9, pictured left. D'OH!. Can't be helped, I suppose. Sailor Moon grabs Chibi's lifeless carcass and gives it to Mamoru, who can sustain her life with his own energy as long as he stays with her. A somewhat irrate group of Sailors go to confront the opposition, including Uranus and Neptune, who help the professor fight Mistress 9's counterpart, Gerumtoido. The professor has been possessed by the latter, but is excorcised within minutes of the two scout's arrival.
Mistress 9 is causing the group serious problems in that she isn't beaten on the instant. Faced with this unprecedented situation, Sailor Moon gives the now perfectly sane professor her Holy Grail which he uses to awake the sleeping spirit of Hotaru within Mistress 9, but she just takes it off him and opens the portal for Pharaoh 90. Oh no! The Sailors don't stand a chance.
It is Hotaru,who saves the day by infiltrating the evil from within and beating Mistress 9's spirit, by transforming into Sailor Saturn. She returns Chibi's Heart Crystal before sacrificing her own life to banish Pharaoh 90. She springs into the ball of energy and is soon followed by a panicking Sailor Moon. Just a minute.... that'll kill them both, won't it? Sailor Moon manages to retrieve Hotaru as a baby and hands her back to the professor.
Sailor Neptune and Uranus then start blasting Sailor Moon and, having been defeated by Sailor Moon and Chibi, admit that it was just to see whether she was strong enough. Convinced of Sailor Moon's power, Haruka says that Usagi could well be the Seihai (a type of messiah)
