Phage

Every Phage adopts the guise of a false Sailor, its name and look drawn from whatever talent, job, or skill defined the human it came from, so that each one loosely mirrors a genuine Sailor Guardian. The change begins once a Star Seed is drawn out and left glowing atop a yellow flower on the victim's head or chest; the instant that light dims and the seed darkens, the body warps into the monster.

The Animamates roam Earth searching for gifted people who might carry an eternally shining True Star Seed, using a Galactica Bracelet to tear the seed loose. When a target proves ordinary, the failed extraction leaves a Phage behind, which the Animamate abandons for the Sailor Guardians to subdue. Like the Lemures before them, Phages rarely factor into any larger plot, the lone exception being Sailor Stewardess, whom Sailor Aluminum Siren built specifically to snare Sailor Moon's Star Seed.

Eternal Sailor Moon restores each one with her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss or Silver Moon Crystal Power Therapy Kiss; blinded by the light, the Phage cries out 'Beautiful!' before reverting to human form as its flower closes over a renewed Star Seed. Seiya recounts that Galaxia once wielded this same corruption to ravage her homeworld of Kinmoku, turning its people into Phages that destroyed the planet.

Stripped of free will, a Phage attacks any civilian nearby without hesitation, wielding powers that echo the pseudo-Sailor identity it has taken on. Their creation traces back to the Galactica Bracelet used in the extraction, and the manga and Crystal drop them entirely, since there Galaxia hunts only real Sailor Crystals. The name itself borrows from bacteriophage, a virus with a crystal-shaped head, rooted in a Greek word for devouring.