Sailor Moon remains one of the most widely loved anime of all time, and like many popular anime, the series had multiple films released to theaters. Unlike Dragon Ball, which has 20 different films, Sailor Moon only has three. However, quantity is not the same as quality, and each of these films presented a compelling, memorable antagonist.
Which of these antagonists is the most compelling? Which one ranks as the most fearsome threat Usagi and friends need to confront? By analyzing each villain -- their motivations, powers and threat-level -- one can rank the three Sailor Moon movies by the quality of their antagonists.
Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice - Princess Snow Kaguya
Princess Snow Kaguya is the coolest villain on the list -- literally. She rides comets to encase planets in ice, adding them to her collection of frozen worlds. Kaguya is essentially what would happen if Elsa from Frozen turned into a planet-destroying villain. This makes it slightly disappointing how she's barely a subplot in Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice.
The core conflict of Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice centers on Luna -- Usagi's cat -- falling in love with human astronomer Kakeru Ōzora, obsessed with the legend of Princess Kaguya from Japanese folklore. The villain only factors into the film at the very start and very end, when a fragment of her comet starts sucking Kakeru's life energy. For such a visually stunning villain, Kaguya feels somewhat inconsequential to the conflict.
Sailor Moon Super S: Black Dream Hole - Queen Badiane
Queen Badiane is the master of a creepy circus that lures children into a hell world of nightmares in order to harvest their fear to create a black hole. Sailor Moon Supers: Black Dream Hole is a surprisingly twisted film, all things considered. Queen Badiane remains a background threat for the film's first half, letting her fairy minions pull a Pied Piper trick by luring children from their beds. In particular, she wants to harvest Chibiusa's dreams.
So why does she want to create a Dream Black Hole from the dreams of imprisoned children? She ultimately assimilates with the Black Hole, hoping that, by consuming everything within it, she can conquer all existence within her confines. Badiane is ultimately a fairly simple villain, but she remains a real threat from start to finish, going to terrifying lengths to reach her ends.
Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose - Fiore
Undeniably, the best Sailor Moon movie villain is Fiore from Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose. This is in part because Fiore is the only movie villain with motivation more complex than simply 'He wants to destroy or conquer everything.' Fiore is in love with his childhood friend Mamoru and wishes only to make Mamoru happy. Flowers make Mamoru happy, so he goes out to fetch flowers for Mamoru. Sadly, the flower he happens to find is an alien parasite known as the Xenian Flower, an invasive entity that feeds on planets until they blow up.
The flower simply plays and manipulates Fiore's drive to make Mamoru happy by convincing him he can fill the entire planet with beautiful flowers Mamoru loves. He also sees Usagi as a serious romantic rival -- or at least someone who is making Mamoru unhappy. This nuanced, complicated rivalry between Fiore and Usagi pushes the entire Sailor Guardians to their emotional extreme, forcing them all to examine the positive roles Usagi plays in their lives. Fiore remains a complex, tragic figure, rather than just some bad guy to defeat. Fiore ranks as one of the most compelling antagonists in Sailor Moon's entire history.
