Sailor Moon R: The Movie, known in Japan as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R: The Movie (劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンＲ Gekijōban Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn Āru) is a 1993 Japanese anime superhero fantasy film directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara and written by Sukehiro Tomita based on the Sailor Moon manga series written by Naoko Takeuchi. The film takes its name from the second arc of the Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon R, as Toei Company distributed it around the same time. The events portrayed seem to take place somewhere in the very end of the series, as Chibiusa knows about the identities of the Sailor Guardians, the characters are in the present rather than the future, and Mamoru and Usagi are back together. The film centers on the arrival of an alien named Fiore on Earth, who has a past with Mamoru and wishes to reunite with him. Unfortunately, Fiore is being controlled by an evil flower called Xenian Flower, forcing Usagi and her friends to save Mamoru and the Earth from destruction.
Japanese theaters featured a 15-minute short recap episode before the film titled Make Up! Sailor Soldier (メイクアップ!セーラー戦士 Meikuappu! Sērā senshi).
The film debuted in Japanese theaters on December 5, 1993 and Pioneer Entertainment released it in the United States on February 8, 2000 as Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose. On January 13, 2017, Viz Media re-released the movie re-dubbed and uncut for the first time in American theaters. The Sailor Moon R: The Movie redub also included the English dubbed 15-minute short Make Up! Sailor Guardians.
Plot[]
A young Mamoru Chiba hands a mysterious boy a rose before he disappears, vowing to bring Mamoru a flower. In the present, Mamoru meets up with Usagi Tsukino and the Sailor Guardians at the Jindai Botanical Garden. Usagi attempts to kiss Mamoru, but when he suspects the other girls of spying on him, he walks off outside alone.
The stranger appears from the garden's fountain and takes Mamoru's hands into his own, which makes Usagi uncomfortable. Usagi tries to break the man's grasp from Mamoru, but is knocked down. The man vows that no one will prevent him from keeping his promise before disappearing again. Mamoru tells Usagi that the stranger's name is Fiore (フィオレ Fiore). At Rei Hino's temple, the Sailor Guardians discuss an asteroid which has started to approach Earth and on which Luna and Artemis have discovered traces of vegetal life. The talk turns into rumors about Mamoru's and Fiore's possible relationship, while Usagi thinks about how Mamoru had told her that he had no family and was alone, and how she had promised him she would be his family from now on.
Fiore sends his flower-monster henchwoman, Glycina (グリシナ), to Tokyo to drain the population's life-energy, but the Sailor Guardians free them and destroy the monster. Fiore appears, revealing his responsibility for the attack, and uses a flower called a Xenian (キセニアン Kisenian) before severely injuring the Sailor Guardians. Mamoru attempts to talk Fiore out of fighting but the Xenian controls Fiore's mind. After Mamoru saves Usagi from certain death by intercepting his attack, Fiore takes Mamoru to an asteroid rapidly approaching Earth and begins to revive him in a crystal filled with liquid. While in the crystal, Mamoru remembers meeting Fiore after his parents died in a car accident. Mamoru had previously assumed that he had made up the boy as an imaginary friend. Fiore explains that he had to leave Mamoru because of the Earth's unsuitable atmosphere; Mamoru gave Fiore a rose before disappearing. Fiore searched the galaxy to find a flower for Mamoru, finding the Xenian in the process. Seeking revenge on the humans for his loneliness, Fiore returns to Earth.
Meanwhile, Luna and Artemis tell the Sailor Guardians that the Xenian can destroy planets using weak-hearted people. Ami Mizuno realizes that the energy from the asteroid matches the flower-monster's evil energy, deducing that Fiore has hidden there. The Sailor Guardians decide to rescue Mamoru. Despite her initial reluctance, the Sailors and Chibiusa convince Usagi to save Mamoru and confront Fiore.
After the Sailor Guardians fly to the asteroid, Fiore reveals his plans to scatter flower-seeds to drain humanity's energy on Earth. The Sailors Guardians then fight hundreds of flower-monsters, but they end up captured. When Fiore orders Usagi to surrender, she is unable to feel his loneliness; Fiore begins to drain her life-force. Mamoru escapes and saves Sailor Moon by throwing a rose at Fiore. The rose embedded in Fiore's chest blossoms, freeing him from the Xenian's control. The flowers on the asteroid disappear, but it continues to hurtle towards Earth. Usagi uses the Silver Crystal to transform into Princess Serenity to change the course of the asteroid. In an attempt to stop Usagi, Fiore soon realizes that when Usagi and Mamoru were children, she gave Mamoru the rose that was once given to him after Fiore had left. With Fiore and the Xenian destroyed by the Silver Crystal, Usagi, Mamoru and the Sailor Guardians combine their powers to divert the asteroid away from the Earth. The Silver Crystal is shattered and Usagi dies of exhaustion. Back on Earth, despite Luna and Artemis' concern over why the Sailor Guardians are taking too long, Chibiusa assures them that the girls are all right.
In the aftermath, now safely drifting in orbit, the Guardians and Mamoru are devastated by Sailor Moon's death in her still form after her transformation brooch is damaged, saying that it wasn't worth it to survive if they lost the one most dear to them. but Fiore reappears and thanks Mamoru. Using a nectar-filled flower with Fiore's life-energy, Mamoru wets his lips with the nectar and kisses Sailor Moon, reviving her, restoring her transformation brooch and repowering the Silver Crystal. Fiore, reduced to the form of a child again, ascends to the afterlife to live in peace. She smiles weakly at them and says she told them she would protect everyone. The Senshi smile through their tears and collapse into her arms.