A New Enemy Appears: Nephrite's Evil Crest

Template:Episode Anime
**"A New Enemy Appears: Nephrite’s Evil Crest"** is the 14th episode of 1st season of the anime, and the 14th episode overall. It aired in Japan on June 13, 1992. The DiC English dub title for this episode is **"Match Point for Sailor Moon"** and it aired in North America on September 25, 1995.

## Summary

Nephrite takes over as Beryl's main energy gatherer. He plans to gather power from individual humans at their strongest, rather than from groups and starts by targeting Naru's childhood friend, a tennis player.

## Plot

At the Dark Kingdom, Nephrite explains Jadeite indiscriminately took energy from anyone he could, wasting needed time and effort. He reveals a plan to target a single person whose energy level is at a peak moment in their life, using the stars above to guide him to them. Zoisite appears, making fun of the plan as he would do better before disappearing. Nephrite finishes off, telling Queen Beryl he’ll focus on infiltration.

Reporters chase after tennis player, Rui Saionji. She makes a break for it, needing to get to practice. Nephrite establishes his base up in the mountains. Believing human destiny is guided by movements of stars, he uses astrology to determine his new target. He locates someone when their energy potential is at its maximum, Rui Saionji.

Usagi and Naru watch Rui play in a match. Naru explains she‘s grown up with Rui like a sister, as her mom has been going to their jewellery store for years. Nephrite shows up to the court, and everyone starts talking about how he’s the president of a new company around town. He takes over the game, pretending to be a coach called Masato Sanjouin and promises to help Rui improve. Placing a symbol on her racket, he seals a youma inside which raises her energy. She changes almost immediately, battering all the players she goes up against.

Luna is contacted by an unknown contact through a machine at Game Center Crown, claiming he’s found information about the enemy. He reveals the name Dark Kingdom and the intention of stealing human energy, though doesn‘t know what the final goal is. After school, Luna meets Usagi, Ami and Rei at Hikawa Shrine to share the new information.

Naru watches Rui brutally defeat all the people she’s up against, sensing something’s not normal. Naru calls over Usagi to her house, and tells of Rui unusually treating everybody as beneath her and her increased aggression. They go to one of Rui’s trainings to see what they can find out, when an attempt to stop her causes Rui’s energy level to peak.

Usagi and Naru get knocked back as Rui faints, causing Tesuni to awaken. Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon when Tesuni casts a spell, turning her into a tennis ball to throw around. Tuxedo Mask manages to knock Tesuni down, though she gets back up and starts firing flaming balls. He then throws his rose, though is paralysed temporarily Moon Tiara Action takes the youma out. Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars arrive at the last second to see her success.

Later on, Naru and Rui happily play a match together as Usagi watches them go back to being close friends.

## International Dub Titles

* Brazilian Portuguese: Chegou um Poderoso Inimigo: Nephryte ("A Powerful Enemy Has Arrived: Nephrite")
* European Portuguese: Neflite é o Novo e Poderoso Inimigo ("Nephlite is the New and Powerful Enemy")
* European Spanish: Un Nuevo Enemigo muy Poderoso ("A New and Very Powerful Foe")
* French
	+ TV: Le nouvel ami ("The New Friend")
	+ DVD: Un nouvel ennemi. Le blason maléfique de Nephrite. ("A New Enemy. Nephrite's Evil Coat of Arms.")
* German: Der Tenniscrack ("The Tennis Crack")

## Changes

### Changes from the Manga

* The manga's version of Episode 22 is when Nephrite takes over Jadeite's position of stealing energy, while in the anime, he does this first in this episode.
* These events never happened in the manga.
* Nephrite didn't have a civilian identity.

### Dub Changes

* This episode was omitted from the Korean dub.

## First Appearances

* Nephrite (formally)
* Zoisite

## Gallery

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## Trivia

* When Sailor Moon told Tesuni that "Navratilova would be ashamed," she was referencing tennis player Martina Navratilova, a woman from Czechoslovakia (now the countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia) who defected to the west. She is also known for LGBT rights activism (she is openly gay), animal rights activism and her opposition to communism.
* This episode featured the first time an individual was specifically targeted by an enemy, though it became the formula for the majority of episodes in the anime.
* This is the last time that Rino Romano voiced Darien / Tuxedo Mask in the DiC English dub.
* The opening where Usagi introduces herself changes to include an introduction of Ami and Rei as well.