Shingo's Love: The Grieving Doll

The eighteenth entry in the debut season turns on Shingo Tsukino and a classmate named Mika Kayama, a talented young doll maker whose contest victory catches the eye of the Dark Kingdom. After Shingo carelessly wrecks the prize doll Mika offers him, guilt and a widening rift set the stage for Nephrite to mark her as his next reservoir of energy.

Queen Beryl pressures Nephrite over his lack of results, and his rivalry with a smug Zoisite flares when she proposes the two cooperate. Nephrite's star-reading soon settles on Mika, and he arrives at her home posing as an admirer of the craft, sinking his crest into her latest figure so a youma can hide within it. The doll's dark influence twists Mika's mood until she lashes out even at her own mother.

Prodded by Usagi to make amends, Shingo brings a handmade Sailor Moon sculpture to an exhibition of Mika's work. In a back room the creature Jumou bursts free and begins siphoning the girl's strength, flattening Shingo when he tries to intervene. Usagi transforms and flees the hall, drawing the monster after her until Mercury and Mars join the fight. Bubble Spray and Akuryo Taisan slow it, Tuxedo Mask frees Sailor Moon from its grip, and a Moon Tiara Action ends the youma. Mika recovers, and she and Shingo patch things up over a small figurine of the guardian.

The DiC broadcast, retitled "Dangerous Dollies," trimmed much of the sequence in which the monster chokes Sailor Moon. This marks Mika's only appearance in that early English version and her final one in the Japanese and Viz releases. The French dub borrowed its name from France Gall's 1965 Eurovision winner, and the episode brought Tracey Moore back to the role of Sailor Moon in the DiC dub.