Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie

This 1995 release closes out the trio of films tied to the original Sailor Moon anime and carries a subtitle referring to the Black Dream Hole. Yoji Enokido wrote it and Hiroki Shibata directed. It premiered in Japan alongside a sixteen minute companion short about Ami's first crush. Pioneer and Optimum Productions later dubbed it into English in two forms, an edited television and VHS cut and a fuller uncut disc edition, and Viz Media eventually made it widely available for streaming.

In a European town, a young flutist named Poupelin enchants children into following him aboard a flying ship, part of a worldwide wave of vanishing youngsters. In Tokyo, Chibiusa befriends a gentle fairy boy called Perle, unaware that he serves Queen Badiane. That night the children of the city begin sleepwalking toward the ships, and the Guardians give chase, clashing with Poupelin and his Bonbon Babies before Mamoru breaks the spell.

Badiane means to gather the dream energy of sleeping children to feed a growing Black Dream Hole that will swallow the Earth and seal all of humanity in dream coffins. Perle, doubting his mistress, guides the Guardians to her floating Marzipan Castle, where Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Pluto arrive to rescue them from Badiane's fairy servants. The drained energy forces every Guardian but Sailor Moon into a partial de-transformation, and Badiane retreats into the hole itself with Chibiusa.

Usagi follows and resists an illusion that offers her a peaceful life with Mamoru if she abandons her goal. When Badiane merges with the void and attacks, the other Guardians channel their power to Usagi, waking Chibiusa and letting them obliterate the queen with Moon Gorgeous Meditation. The castle falls, the captured children are returned home, and on a beach at sunrise Perle gives Chibiusa his glass flute and a promise before flying away.

The film opened in Japan in December 1995. Pioneer and Optimum Productions released two English editions, a broadcast and VHS cut with DiC's music and softened transformation scenes and an uncut disc version keeping most of the original score. The picture sits outside the main anime continuity, since Sailor Pluto fights beside Uranus and Neptune here despite her separate storyline elsewhere, and it offers the only anime appearance of Ami's mother. Its tale nods to European folklore such as the Pied Piper and Hansel and Gretel.