Usagi's Confusion: Is Tuxedo Mask Evil?

Hoping to lift Usagi's spirits after weeks of fretting over Tuxedo Mask, Minako brings her to a fashionable salon promoting free cuts for its grand opening. What neither girl realizes is that the celebrity stylist doubles as a Dark Kingdom operative, scanning customers' hair to expose Sailor Moon. The outing ends with a jarring revelation: the missing Tuxedo Mask still lives, yet he now answers to Queen Beryl as the villainous Endymion.

Kunzite intends to identify Sailor Moon using a strand of hair kept from an earlier fight, and the salon run by stylist Kariko conceals the DNA-scanning device. A steamer mistakes Usagi's hair, blended with Minako's, for its target, so Kariko fixes on Minako as the princess and demands the Silver Crystal. When Minako refuses, the stylist and her assistants twist into the youma Mitsuami. Usagi slips off to transform and faces the monster, but as she raises her Moon Stick a rose knocks it aside.

Tuxedo Mask sits nearby, and Usagi's joy curdles when he names himself Endymion of the Dark Kingdom and orders the youma to seize the crystal. She flees through town until the other guardians arrive; Mars and Jupiter blend their attacks, Mercury follows with Shabon Spray, and Moon Healing Escalation restores Kariko's group. Beryl recalls Endymion before he can fight, and Usagi resolves to win him back through her love.

This entry debuts the evil Endymion and his black roses, plus the first look at Usagi's hair worn loose. Minako's phrase, Venus Power Make Up, sounds for the first time alongside her Transformation Pen. Moon Healing Escalation gains fresh music and upgraded animation from this point onward, and the closing minutes carry an instrumental take on Heart Moving. In the manga her friends style her rapidly grown hair at home rather than at any salon, and Mamoru first reintroduces himself as an acquaintance of Motoki named Endou.