Image via Toei Animations
By
Kelcie Mattson
Published 1 minute ago
Kelcie Mattson is a Senior Features author at Collider. Based in the Midwest, she also contributes Lists, reviews, and television recaps. A lifelong fan of niche sci-fi, epic fantasy, Final Girl horror, elaborate action, and witty detective fiction, becoming a pop culture devotee was inevitable once the Disney Renaissance, Turner Classic Movies, BBC period dramas, and her local library piqued her imagination.
Rarely seen without a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, Kelcie explores media history (especially older, foreign, and independent films) as much as possible. In her spare time, she enjoys RPG video games, amateur photography, and attending fan conventions with her Trekkie family.
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The original Sailor Moon anime regularly strays from its manga origins where both details and larger-picture events are concerned, but even its harshest critics can't claim that the iconic '90s series lacks ambition. As you can imagine, many underrated gems are tucked away inside its five-season and 200-episode lifespan — not the least of which arrives relatively early.
Season 1's twentieth installment, titled "The Summer, The Beach, Youth And Ghosts," is a particularly creative and impactful standalone (the first episode without any ties to the Dark Kingdom arc, in fact) that transforms Sailor Moon's inaugural "beach episode" from stereotypical filler fair into an entry that discards all traditional villain-of-the-week comforts. Evoking the sensation of an eerie summer's night spent huddled around a camp fire swapping folk legends and ghost tales in hushed tones, this disquieting horror interlude reflects Sailor Moon's darkest and most defining emotional metaphors.
What Is 'Sailor Moon's "The Summer, the Beach, Youth and Ghosts" Episode About?
If you ask the long-suffering Luna (Keiko Han), then Usagi Tsukino (Kotono Mitsuishi), Ami Mizuno (Aya Hisakawa), and Rei Hino (Michie Tomizawa) have traveled to the beach for a Sailor Scouts training session. The girls would rather enjoy their dream summer vacation, courtesy of a resort promising crystal-clear blue skies, a private beach, and a perfect view of the sunset. Getting lost in a gloomy forest during an intense rainstorm quickly wrecks the trio's starry-eyed excitement. So does their rental, which doesn't match the listing details and therefore fails to make a stellar first impression: a Gothic mansion cloaked in ominous shadows, its tall, sharp turrets illuminated by lightning strikes. The gargoyle-shaped door-knocker clangs with a resounding echo, the door itself groans open, and the concierge looks like they've crept straight out of a Universal Monsters film: a caretaker (Michiko Abe) with large pointed ears and sharp teeth, a cook (Michitaka Kobayashi) wearing forehead stitches like Frankenstein's Creature, and a waiter (Masato Hirano) with a human body and the head of a wolf. As for the owners, Sakiko (Yuriko Fuchizaki) is a polite but withdrawn young girl who's routinely scolded by her stern, nameless father (Osamu Saka).
If Ami and Rei enjoy everyone's commitment to the haunted house bit, then Usagi and Luna can't shake the pervasive, ominous sense that something isn't quite right. Their agitated tension increases once an eerie wailing interrupts dinner. When the Pretty Guardians spot a spectral apparition with their own eyes, Rei confirms that a tremendous power lurks within these walls. That said, its figure's energy strikes her as more visceral than a normal ghost. Even the next day's sun-drenched atmosphere, filled with games, laughter, and a refreshing breeze, isn't as restorative as it should be. Sakiko, forbidden to speak to strangers, morosely observes the girls from afar. Once night falls, the beach's brightly saturated blue-and-orange color scheme fades into the mansion's contrasting dark blue, green, gray, and purple tones. Even the staff dreads what fresh horrors the darkness will bring.
"The Summer, the Beach, Youth and Ghosts" Is a Uniquely Meaningful 'Sailor Moon' Standalone
The resort's vampire, Frankenstein, and werewolf staff standing at the door in Sailor MoonImage via Toei Animation
Despite the episode's tongue-in-cheek homage to classic horror films and television, "The Summer, The Beach, Youth And Ghosts" pushes beyond a fully humorous approach and re-interprets Sailor Moon's central themes through a ghost story framework. The series famously champions courage, optimism, and friendship, and the journey to embracing such states involves adolescent growing pains — and plenty of filler episodes along the way. By breaking from established tradition, this episode subtly foreshadows and parallels the fears gnawing at the heroines' hearts. Before the second night's uncanny occurrences ensue, Ami reaches out to Sakiko. The quiet, lonely girl reminds Ami of how she used to be before Usagi's influence extracted her happier, more carefree side. The teen's comforting words resonate with Sakiko — until her father finds the pair and furiously hauls Sakiko away by the wrist, ignoring her distressed cries of protest.
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Posts By Collier Jennings Oct 26, 2025In a private scene, the source of everyone's distress becomes clear. Sakiko's father believes his daughter has latent psychic abilities. If he can properly withdraw and harness them, then her potency will put every other psychic in the world to shame. Each evening, he hypnotizes Sakiko to sleep, commands her to conjure supernatural phenomena, and uses their rental home as a front to provide Sakiko with "test subjects." Since Sakiko despises the difficult and painful process, her father's goals are entirely self-serving. He overrides his child's needs in his determination to take revenge against the people who doubted their family's sheer, raw power.
'Sailor Moon' "The Summer, the Beach, Youth and Ghosts" Episode Tells a Deeper Story
As soon as Sakiko unconsciously summons the same spirit as before, events escalate from an unsettling atmosphere to a violent assault. Instead of appearing just long enough to frighten its unsuspecting guests before vanishing, the ghost attacks Sakiko's father, its distinctly human face contorted with rage. The Guardians' magical girl transformation routine is the most normal part of the episode, yet even their normal tricks fail to defeat this unique threat. Even when Sakiko wakes and orders the ghost to stop, it continues to target her father. Born of her accumulated pain and resentment, of being isolated, friendless, and traumatized for her parent's gain when all she wanted was to experience a normal childhood, her conjuration has become too powerful for her to control. Like an unattended pot of hot water that boils over, it lashes out at the source of its relentless hurt with all the violent, rebellious, repressed fury Sakiko herself can't express.
This is surprisingly profound work for a series about hope, unity, and love, let alone an ostensibly self-contained parody of horror tropes. The Sailor Scouts don't experience any character development here, but by humanizing their main threat into an emotional wound instead of a monster to kill, "The Summer, The Beach, Youth And Ghosts" explores loneliness, grief, the ways toxic anger can corrupt, and the terrifying speed at which we're catapulted from youth into adulthood. Since this is Sailor Moon, Sakiko does channel enough last-minute inner strength to save everyone's lives. Her father confesses his remorse, abandons his crusade, and reassures the concierge (and the viewers) that he'll never again place Sakiko in such emotional duress.
The episode closes with Sakiko finally experiencing one of the simple freedoms for which she's longed and been denied: playing on the beach with her three new friends. The main drive behind "The Summer, The Beach, Youth And Ghosts" isn't addressing Season 1's larger threat or thwarting a typical villain. It concerns a human parent realizing the profound and nearly irreparable harm he's inflicted upon his daughter and committing himself to ensuring her future happiness. However, the resolution carries a more bittersweet edge than the series' usual confrontations — an outcome driven by emotion rather than theatrical fight scenes and elaborate costume changes. Sakiko's yearning for the regular childhood happiness we often take for granted mirrors the Guardians' simmering anxieties about their future. Earlier, Usagi insisted they embrace joy while they're still young. These galactic protectors risk losing their fleeting innocence to their crushing responsibilities. For now, at least, this intense, mysterious, and poignant episode lets them help an innocent girl — another child who's grown up too fast — heal her wounds.
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Sailor Moon
TV-PG
Animation
Comedy
Kids
Action
Fantasy
Release Date
1992 - 1997
Network
tv asahi
Directors
Takao Yoshizawa, Harume Kosaka, Kazuhisa Takenouchi
Writers
Shigeru Yanagawa, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, Sukehiro Tomita
Cast
See All-
Kotono Mitsuishi
Usagi Tsukino / Sailor Moon (voice)
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Aya Hisakawa
Ami Mizuno / Sailor Mercury (voice)
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