Restore Naru's Smile: Usagi's Friendship

The twenty-sixth episode of the first season braids a story of mourning with a major revelation. Weeks after Nephrite's death, Naru remains too heartbroken to return to school, so Usagi and Umino take her to Yokohama hoping to lift her spirits. There a kindhearted priest falls under attack from Zoisite, and in the chaos Mamoru comes to realize that he is Tuxedo Mask, dropping a locket that Usagi later discovers.

Mamoru has been plagued by a recurring dream in which a princess before a distant kingdom urges him to seek the Silver Crystal, and he wonders whether he is truly the hero it depicts. At the Hikawa Shrine, Luna briefs the team on the Rainbow Crystals: the Silver Crystal was broken into seven shards, each sealing one of the Seven Great Youma who were reborn as ordinary people, and Usagi's new Moon Stick glows near any that are close. When Makoto invites Usagi to the meeting and learns she is out with friends, the group wrongly assumes she is being careless, unaware she is helping Naru grieve.

The trio stops at a cemetery on the way to Chinatown, where Naru breaks down realizing Nephrite has no grave and confides in a passing priest, only for Zoisite to appear. The Moon Stick flashes, drawing Usagi and Luna to the scene as Makoto rushes to back them up. Zoisite draws the Rainbow Crystal out of the priest, transforming him into the monster Boxy; Umino shields Naru, Tuxedo Mask carries Sailor Moon to safety, and Sailor Jupiter's thunder stuns the creature so that Moon Healing Escalation can restore the man. Tuxedo Mask slips away with the crystal, and as he reverts to Mamoru his memories return, confirming he is the dream's hero. Later, on a park bench by the water, Naru binds Umino's wound with the same cloth she once tied on Nephrite, while the star-shaped locket Usagi found begins to play a soft melody.

The chapter debuts the Orgel, the musical star locket, which is unique to the anime but echoes Mamoru's pocket watch from the manga. It gives Makoto her first fight while consciously aware of her guardian identity and marks Mamoru's first deliberate transformation to and from Tuxedo Mask now that he knows his other self. It was also the last episode to close on the ending theme Heart Moving and to use the original visuals for the opening. The DiC dub, retitled The Power of Friendship, swapped a reference to chocolate parfait for a mention of Nephrite's alias and trimmed shots of Usagi roughing up Umino; it aired in North America on October 10, 1995, after the Japanese broadcast on September 12, 1992.