Usagi's Panic: Rei's First Date

When Ami shows her friends a favorite park slated for demolition, Rei sets her sights on bringing a boyfriend there before it closes, and settles on the wealthy college student Mamoru. Meanwhile Nephrite marks the park's caretaker, Kunitachi, planting a crest that lets a youma command the local animals. As Rei engineers a date and a jealous Usagi spies on the pair, the possessed keeper turns nature itself against everyone in the park.

Rei stages a clumsy collision to guilt Mamoru into apologizing over tea, then a boat ride, while Usagi disguises herself to eavesdrop and drags Umino along. Nephrite's crest gradually overpowers Kunitachi, and once the youma Petasos emerges it orders birds and beasts to kill the people present.

Usagi and Ami become Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury, whose Bubble Spray weakens the animals, but Petasos snares both with her hair vines. Sailor Mars arrives and frees them with Fire Soul, and after a rose from Tuxedo Mask creates an opening, Moon Tiara Action destroys the monster. Kunitachi recovers, and Rei quietly wonders whether Mamoru might be Tuxedo Mask.

None of this happens in the manga, where Rei never crushes on Mamoru or dates him. Mamoru Chiba's full name is disclosed in this episode, which launches the running subplot of Rei pursuing him. Ironically, Nephrite's scheme ends up sparing the park from demolition, so the Dark Kingdom accidentally helps preserve nature. The DiC dub retitles it with a grammatical slip, using "phenomena" where "phenomenon" fits, and changes Rei's motive to simply beating Usagi to a first boyfriend.