“On the court, you only have yourself to rely on. Monsters aren't allowed to score an ace! I won't let you get an advantage either! How dare you use tennis for your evil ends! Even Navratilova would be upset! I am Sailor Moon! And In the Name of the Moon, I'll return your serve for a point!”
— Usagi Tsukino
(DiC Episode: "Match Point For Sailor Moon")
A suave villain from the Dark Kingdom called Nephrite proclaims that he can absorb vast amounts of energy from a single person then what Jadeite could have collected from a hundred. And he starts by targeting Rui Saionji, a rising tennis star and Naru's childhood friend.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Badass Bystander: Naru realizes something is seriously wrong with Rui and refuses to back down even as Rui starts threatening her. She's even willing to take a blast from Rui's possessed racket.
- Be the Ball: Tesuni traps Sailor Moon in a giant tennis ball costume and bounces her around the court.
- Breaking Old Trends: The first episode to introduce the Victim of the Week theme.
- Captain Obvious: Central Control’s information comes off as this in the DiC dub, which has had the characters be aware of their nemesis’s name and intent since the start.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Nephrite secretly infuses one of his monsters onto Rui's racket to speed up and steal her energy. A crest appears on the racket and Rui experiences a dark shift in personality as a result.
- Cool Big Sis: Naru considers Rui to be her "big sis" since they grew up together and how Rui watched over her.
- Cool Car: Nephrite drives a crimson red Ferrari Testarossa.
- Dowsing Device: Nephrite calls upon the stars to channel their energy into his thoughts so he can visualize the designated target.
- Dub Name Change:
- Nephrite's disguise name in the DIC version is "Maxfield Stanton".
- Rui Saionji has her name changed to "Katie Sandler" in the DIC version.
- The youma Tesuni becomes the Negamonster "Tensie".
- The Gadfly: Zoicite's first appearance is him taunting Nephrite about his hubris and imagining that he'll fail spectacularly.
- Happy Flashback: Naru thinks back to her childhood and how happy she and Rui were.
- Internal Reveal: Luna learns from her secret partner that their enemies are known as the Dark Kingdom and that they're after human energy.
- Invented Individual: Nephrite names himself as Masato Sanjoin, a totally normal human who's also the rich and handsome president of a brand new company.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Rui doesn't remember anything that happened from the moment she picked up her racket to after Tesuni's demise.
- Old, Dark House: In the outskirts of Tokyo, Nephrite manifests his base as an abandoned mansion with a dark forest surrounding it. It can be assumed that this mansion and surrounding forest ceased to exist when Nephrite dies.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Rui loves tennis and her passion and dedication to the sport have made her well known in the sports community. This trope takes a turn for the worse when Nephrite's youma possesses her which causes the girl to become more savage and obsessive the more she plays.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Nephrite's disguise is Masato Sanjouin; he is said to be a business entrepreneur but what business exactly he does is never mentioned. He introduces himself to Rui as "a tennis coach." A later episode subtly implies that he owns the M.S. Shopping Mall due to the initials matching his alias.
- Playing with Fire: Tesui's second mode of attack involves launching fire balls at Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Nephrite proves he's better then Rui because he used his otherworldly strength to beat her at tennis.
- Star Power: By analyzing the movement of the stars, Nephrite can pinpoint and target which humans are about to reach their peak energy level.
- Villain Opening Scene: Nephrite begins the episode by explaining how he can obtain mass amounts of energy from a single person based on when their energy level is at its peak.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: Nephrite argues that Jadeite's tactics failed because he tried to collect energy from too many humans at once. He plans to focus on a single target and draw as much energy from them as possible.
