The Legendary Lake Yokai: The Bond of Usagi's Family

A relaxing trip to an onsen sours when the Dark Kingdom grows curious about odd energy pulsing from a nearby lake. As Usagi soaks and sightsees with her parents and brother, the resort's local folklore about a haunted body of water sets the mood for what follows.

Back at headquarters, Queen Beryl and Kunzite weigh whether that energy points to a dormant creature. Convinced it does, Beryl orders the mind-controlled Endymion to look into it, brushing off Kunzite's worry that the prince's buried memories may be resurfacing.

At the water's edge, Usagi studies a lakeside statue while her pendant springs open on its own and plays its melody, drawn by the site. Endymion stands close by, yet he shows no flicker of recognition when she calls him Mamoru. Her mother arrives and recounts the tale of the statue and its legendary pair of lovers, and the two of them wander off, never noticing that Endymion caught every word.

Acting on Beryl's command, Endymion rouses the beast and turns it loose on Usagi's family. When it lunges at her father, Usagi reaches for her brooch, but a rose flung by Endymion cuts her off. He warns the family to flee just as the other Guardians rush in, and in the chaos she finally manages to transform. The monster shrugs off much of their assault, and only after the team wears it down does Sailor Moon land Moon Healing Escalation to finish it.

This marks only the second time the team squares off against a creature unconnected to the season's main villains, following the earlier ghost-and-beach outing. It also stands as the single instance of Usagi aiming Moon Healing Escalation at a foe with no Dark Kingdom ties, and the entry was left out of the Korean broadcast entirely.

Her character song You Can't Just Dream underscores the closing scene. The English DiC version produced a well-known slip: renamed Prince Darien, the character insists he has never heard the names Darien or Serena, even though Darien is his own dub alias. Commentators read the lake beast as a rough stand-in for the fuller backstory Queen Beryl carries in the manga.