The Rod of Love is Born: Usagi's New Transformation

When a Daimon attacks a young girl and Sailor Moon finds she can no longer transform, the rest of the team is left leaning on the pair of mysterious new soldiers who have started appearing at their battles. Usagi's crisis of confidence sits at the center of the episode, resolved only when a surge of love restores and upgrades her powers.

In his laboratory Dr. Tomoe discusses the Death Busters' aims with his assistant before launching a Daimon Egg into the city. That same night Usagi suffers a nightmare in which her friends tease her about retiring, and she wakes fearful that the fading light of the Silver Crystal has cost her the ability to transform. Luna sends her to Mamoru, who cheers her up at an abandoned building where the two stumble onto a girl feeding a colony of strays. Usagi vows to help the cats, and among her friends at the shrine she tries to parcel them out, only to be met with excuses. Meanwhile the wandering Daimon Egg lodges itself inside a cat puzzle in the girl's room.

The puzzle hatches the monster Nekonneru, who chases the girl to the same building. As the beast collects her Heart Crystal, the Guardians arrive, but Usagi fails to transform and the others are turned aside when Nekonneru reflects their attacks with her tail. Two energy blasts seem to fell the creature, and the pair of stained-glass figures declare the Heart Crystal is no Talisman and return it, refusing Venus's plea to fight alongside the team before vanishing. Nekonneru revives and seizes Usagi by the throat, until a rose and Tuxedo Mask shatter the tail. Wounded, he urges Usagi to flee, but she refuses, determined to protect everyone and him most of all.

As the two join hands, a light rises between them, revealing their past selves from the Moon Kingdom. Their shared love forges the Spiral Heart Moon Rod and remakes her brooch into the Cosmic Heart Compact, letting her transform with the new phrase. Sailor Moon then wields the fresh weapon and its Moon Spiral Heart Attack to destroy Nekonneru. Afterward the group settles on bringing the rescued cats to an animal shelter.

The episode debuts the Cosmic Heart Compact and the Spiral Heart Moon Rod, along with the transformation call and the Moon Spiral Heart Attack. The way the new rod springs from the couple's love mirrors how her previous weapon came into being in the manga. This also marks the last use of that season's opening ending theme.

A visible error carries over from the prior storyline: during Sailor Moon's transformation the background is the one used for the earlier R season, a slip not fixed until the following episode. In Cloverway's dub, a character's reason for refusing a cat is rewritten from lack of time to a mother's allergies, and the kitten Usagi names Sugar is called Ginger.