The Mysterious Sleeping Sickness: Protect the Girls in Love

The girls of the city are hooked on a midnight broadcast called Midnight Zero, which reads aloud the love letters its listeners mail in. Around the same time, a strange ailment is spreading through town, dropping victims into a coma-like sleep. Among those it claims are Usagi's teacher, Ms. Haruna, and her friend Naru.

The show runs a contest: any letter read over the air earns its author a flower brooch. When Naru's letter airs, she receives one of the pins, opens it at school, and is instantly sapped of energy and pinned by sleep. Usagi rushes to rouse her and is caught by the same effect, drifting into a dream where Tuxedo Mask is her future love. Luna wakes her in the nurse's office. Behind the scenes, the host praised as J-Daito is really Jadeite, and he commends the monster Furau for the idea of preying on lovestruck girls. A trail of letters mistakenly sent to a station called FM No. 10, which airs no such program, tips off that something is wrong, and a mysterious woman collects them.

Unable to get past the studio guard, Usagi accepts the Disguise Pen from Luna and transforms herself into a glamorous newscaster to slip inside. She finds the staff slumped unconscious and Jadeite broadcasting freely. Seizing the microphone, she warns listeners that the flower brooches are the danger and reminds them that a love letter means nothing unless handed to the person it is meant for. Furau smashes through the studio glass in her true shape and attacks, spitting beams from her mouth. Usagi becomes Sailor Moon, dodges onto the roof, and destroys the creature with Moon Tiara Action. She then hurls the tiara at Jadeite, but he stops it with his mind. As he closes in on her, a thrown rose forces him to withdraw.

The episode bookends its danger with lightness. It opens on the girls enjoying the radio and Usagi imagining how pleasant an eternal dream might be, and it closes back at school, where Usagi has written a love letter to Tuxedo Mask that Naru playfully snatches away, sparking a chase that draws in a recovered Ms. Haruna.

This chapter introduces the Disguise Pen, along with the incantation Usagi speaks to use it. It is also her first meeting with Jadeite and the first time she trades blows with him directly. He stands out as the earliest foe in the series to shrug off Moon Tiara Action, which she notably employs twice within the single episode. One of those uses is animated without the attack's usual stock footage.

The English DiC version made numerous cuts and renames, trimming the cold open in which Usagi introduces herself and shortening several scenes for time. In that dub, Midnight Zero becomes Love Line, the Disguise Pen is rebranded the Luna Pen, and Usagi's chosen disguise shifts from a newscaster to a sophisticated talent agent.