30 years ago, Naoko Takeuchi’s manga Codename: Sailor V debuted. That book spun out into a franchise for Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. In addition to the 18 volumes of manga produced, Sailor Moon characters also appeared in original short stories, a Japanese anime series, animated movies, live musicals, live-action series, and video games. In 2014 a new version of the anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, debuted. Needless to say, Sailor Moon and the “magical girl” genre of stories have serious staying power.
It isn’t just the title character that causes people to fall in love with the franchise. Sure, Usagi Tsukino, clumsy and prone to emotional outbursts, makes everyone feel like they could be a hero too. A compelling heroine is only a small part of the equation, though. Stories also need stand-out supporting characters and some truly interesting villains. Sailor Moon has those in spades, especially where villains are concerned. Every single arc of the magical girl story features monsters of the week who are overseen by a team of Sailor Moon villains, who are then overseen by a leader, who is ultimately doing the work of an even bigger bad.
These hierarchies of villains produce fascinating layers of story to flesh out character backstories and make many of the bad guys operate in shades of grey. The best of the best of the Sailor Moon antagonists have been assembled with every major Sailor Moon villain ranked from weakest to most powerful.
Updated on May 15th, 2021 by Amanda Bruce: No matter how long it's been since her original debut, fans can't get enough of Sailor Moon. Movies created that exist outside of the story canon, live musicals, and the ever-popular Sailor Moon cafes throughout Japan prove that fans will always have an appetite for the hero's story. Her story wouldn't be complete without these truly formidable villains, some of whom have seen themselves remade in Sailor Moon Crystal and the Sailor Moon Eternal movies. As long as fans keep responding to her story, there's a good chance the audience could still see new versions of the rest of the major villains as well.
Doctor Tomoe
Doctor Tomoe leads off the ranking for one major reason: he’s not really the villain of his time in Sailor Moon’s story. Instead, a Daimon, the alien creatures that take up much of his story arc, takes over his body. He was, however, the go-between for the big boss of his arc and the monsters of the week.
Souichi Tomoe was a well-respected scientist and father. Though he didn’t get a ton of backstory in the original anime, the manga revealed that he completed some questionable experiments (one of which killed his wife). The scientific community ostracized him. When he discovered the eggs that created Daimons, he thought he’d found the perfect way to create stronger humans.
He used the eggs to not only save his daughter but to experiment. Tomoe ended up creating new “monsters” in service to another Sailor Moon villain. In the long run, Tomoe doesn’t have any of his own powers; the infection created by a Daimon made him seem like he did. His power lies in his intelligence, but he allows the bad guys to use him instead of striking out for his own gain.
Fiore and the Xenian Flower
Unlike most of the Sailor Moon antagonists, Fiore didn’t appear in the manga first. Instead, he was created to be the primary villain for the movie Sailor Moon R. His turn as a villain allowed audiences to learn more about the life of Tuxedo Mask. Fiore was actually friends with Mamoru as a child. He even knew Mamoru before the death of the latter’s parents, something not true of anyone else in the Sailor Moon stories.
With a great fondness for plants, Fiore promised to return to visit Mamoru after he moved away as a child. He also promised to bring back the greatest flower ever seen when he did . The “greatest flower” turned out to be the Xenian Flower. While Fiore appears to be the villain when he returns to Earth as he attempts to rid the world of Usagi, he isn’t really. Instead, the Xenian Flower, which is a parasitic species, controls him and takes advantage of his jealousy of Usagi’s relationship with Mamoru.
All it took to defeat Fiore’s controller though was for him to realize how much love existed between Usagi and Mamoru. Realizing that love triumphed over hate was enough to break the hold on him and disintegrate the Xenian Flower altogether. That’s one easy defeat.
Vampir and Dracul
Sailor Moon typically spends her time facing off against aliens, beings from other dimensions, or threats from the future. The live musicals produced in Japan in the early 2000s took a different route. The Sailor Senshi took on vampires and demons.
Vampir was the daughter of the famous Dracul. She wanted revenge against the Sailor Senshi because she believed the group took her father’s life. In reality, he was still alive and would become the primary villain of the Sailor Moon musical when Vampir changed sides. Vampir, though, spent much of the musical in revenge mode. She had all the abilities of a vampire thanks to her father, but because her mother was human, she wasn’t burdened with the need for human blood. As a bonus, she had the nifty ability to change vampires back into humans if she so chose.
Vampir–despite being fairly strong and a compelling character–doesn’t rank higher because she isn’t truly a villain. She’s a young woman who misses her family. (She hopes to use Sailor Moon’s Silver Crystal to bring her mother back to life.) She isn’t able to defeat the Senshi on her own and initially allies with demons. When she discovers that her father lied to her and is the true villain, she decides to form an alliance with the Sailor Senshi instead. Likewise, the audience doesn’t get to see much of what Dracul can truly do, so it's hard to establish that he outranks some of the more iconic villains.
Bewitched Tuxedo Mask
There are times in the manga and the anime where Tuxedo Mask doesn’t know who he is. Sometimes, that’s a result of actual memory loss, and other times it’s the result of him being bewitched. When Mamoru suffers memory loss in the anime, he takes on a new heroic persona known as the Moonlight Knight. When that memory loss is the result of Queen Beryl's manipulation though, he works for the Sailor Moon bad guys instead.
In Sailor Moon Crystal, he took on the identity of one of the oldest friends of Motoki, the young man working at the arcade. That’s harmless enough on the surface. It caused emotional strain on Sailor Moon when Usagi realized what was going on, but it didn’t physically harm her. When Queen Beryl revealed that she had complete control over Tuxedo Mask though, that was another matter entirely.
It didn’t just cause a little emotional distress for Sailor Moon; it also meant that she was nearly ready to throw in the towel and make sure both she and Mamoru ended up destroyed so they could be “free” to be together. Tuxedo Mask might not have had a lot of abilities to use against Sailor Moon, but the emotional manipulation of her was enough to make this version of the character a major villain.
Ail And An
Ail and An, whose names were a play on the word “alien,” were the only major Sailor Moon antagonists created exclusively for the anime. The two were from a distant planet and the only survivors of their people. The population declined as their Tree of Life became ill. Ail and An believed that they needed the energy of humans to feed their tree, which in turn gave them energy to sustain life on Earth.
Ail created special monsters called Cardians from a deck resembling tarot cards. They didn’t target the Sailor Senshi specifically until the women got in their way. Because the two were simply trying to keep their way of life alive, it’s easy to have sympathy for them. When they discovered that the tree that gave them life was “sick” because of the energy they fed it, they attempted to change.
What the tree really needed was love, something they were able to do once they stopped acting as the villains of the story. Though the English dub of the series made them connected to the Negaverse and Queen Beryl, the original Japanese anime did not. The original Japanese story made it clear that the two weren’t intentionally evil.
Sailor Animamates
This special brand of Sailor Senshi appears in three different versions of Sailor Moon’s story: the manga, the original anime, and the live musicals. Rather than being named after their protective planet, they were named for metals and animals. Their particular power level varies depending on the story.
The musicals took inspiration from the anime -- having the Sailor Animamates working for Sailor Galaxia, but ultimately being ineffective in their quests for Star Seeds. In fact, in the anime, the group of Sailor Senshi rarely succeeded in the missions set to them by Galaxia. For the series, they were Sailor Senshi whose planets Galaxia had conquered. She forced them to help her expand her empire. The manga had a different, and darker, approach. The manga saw the Sailor Animamates choose to work with Galaxia. Many of them stole their Star Seeds in order to gain their power.
The Sailor Animamates of the manga were ruthless. Aluminum Siren took out Sailors Venus and Jupiter. Sailor Tin Nyanko destroyed the Sailor Senshi companions Luna, Artemis, and Diana. While those two might have been effective, Sailor Iron Mouse and Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon both failed in their quests, making the power levels of the group uneven and landing them a lower ranking overall.
Amazon Trio
Though this trio of villains only appeared briefly in the manga, they got new life in the anime. Appearing in 22 episodes of the SuperS anime, they were actually the longest-running henchmen for the series! Despite their longevity, these Sailor Moon bad guys weren’t very effective, though that’s likely a result of them not originally being villains.
Hawk’s Eye, Tiger’s Eye, and Fish Eye were all originally the animals from which their names stem. A magic ball turned them into humans with special abilities. The trio fell in love with life as humans. During the “Dream Arc,” the trio searched for the Dream Mirror that contained the enemy of Queen Nehelenia -- Pegasus. Fish Eye was actually effective in that he discovered that Chibiusa held it, but his superiors didn’t really listen to him, targeting Usagi instead.
Ultimately, the trio saved Usagi from a horrible fate when her Dream Mirror was stolen and destroyed. They sacrificed the magic that made them human, funneling it to Usagi to restore her Dream Mirror. Appreciating their selfless act, Pegasus made them truly human.
Kaolinite
Kaolinite (sometimes called Kaorinite to go with her civilian guise as Kaori) was a servant of Pharaoh 90. She’s a Magus, which means she should be more powerful than her underlings, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Kaolinite had a lot of tricks up her sleeve. Not only did she have magical abilities, but she could communicate with her master through a magic fountain. She was also able to resurrect the Witches 5 after the Sailor Senshi defeated them. All of that makes her sound pretty unbeatable, but she’s no match for Sailor Moon.
While facing off against the Sailor Senshi, Kaolinite actually evolved into her Daimon form. It’s in the monstrous form that she went up against Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon wasn’t cowed by the villain though. Instead, the fight actually allowed Sailor Moon to level up to her own next form: Super Sailor Moon. Kaolinite was then easily defeated.
Pharaoh 90 and Mistress 9
Pharaoh 90 was the Sailor Moon villain of the "Infinity" arc. Mistress 9 was his loyal partner. The arc occurs in the manga, the original anime, and Sailor Moon Crystal. Though the two were the villains in the shadows, they didn’t get a ton of screen time compared to some of the other villains in the same arc.
It’s Pharaoh 90 who gave Kaolinite her powers and influenced Doctor Tomoe’s life for the worse. Pharaoh 90, however, spent much of his time as a villain as something of an undefined cloud with glowing eyes. He gave so many people more power, but he didn't exert his own. When he finally attempted to, Pharaoh 90 became more liquid-like, trying to surround the planet and absorb its energy, though it didn’t work with Sailor Saturn awakened.
Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90 are inevitably tied together as Mistress 9 was supposed to be his second-in-command. With her Daimon egg spending so long incubating in Hotaru though, the audience didn't actually see much of her in action. Most of her abilities are the same as that of Kaolinite, though she did appear to edge her out in the strength department. When Mistress 9 managed to get the souls of the Sailor Senshi, it was Hotaru’s pure determination that stopped her from winning.
Mio Kuroki
Not every Sailor Moon fan will have heard of Mio Kuroki. That's because, for a long time, there wasn't access to the live-action series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon outside of Japan. The series still hasn’t made its way all over the world and it debuted on Japanese television in 2003.
Mio Kuroki was created exclusively for the live-action series. She was actually the shadow of a villain everyone will recognize: Queen Beryl. Queen Beryl created this version of herself to get to Sailor Moon in her everyday life. As a result, Mio became a teen pop idol overnight and befriended Usagi while competing with her friend Minako. The other Sailor Senshi saw through Mio’s act as the young woman repeatedly made Usagi miserable. She blamed everything on coincidence or accidents, but when she kidnapped Mamoru, Sailor Mars confronted her.
This Sailor Moon villain had a portion of Queen Beryl’s power, like being able to bewitch Mamoru, but she didn’t have all of it simply because she was a "shadow" of the real queen. Her power really came from her ability to make Usagi miserable in her civilian life. She was particularly creative in her endeavors, even if she didn’t win in the end.
Ayakashi Sisters
Since their debut in the manga, the Ayakashi sisters have had a lot of different names. The original anime referred to them as the Negamoon Sisters, then later dubs named them The Four Sisters of Deception, The Spectre Sisters, and The Phantom Sisters. No matter what they're called, this foursome made an impression.
The original anime series had the group working for the Black Moon Clan, with each of the sisters trying to impress Rubeus, which was ultimately their downfall. They spent so much time trying to outdo one another when they should have been working together. Sailor Moon Crystal took the girls back to their manga roots. Each of the sisters targeted one of the Inner Sailor Senshi specifically. They were each powerful enough to capture one of the Senshi.
Unfortunately, this was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts as each capture of a Sailor Senshi also meant the defeat of an Ayakashi Sister. Koan was a master of dark fire, Berthier commanded dark water, Calaveras could summon spirits and control minds, and Petz could control lightning and thunder. Each of the Sisters took on the Senshi with the closest power set to their own. If the group had been more intelligent in their approach, they might have switched things up and won their fight.
Black Moon Clan and Wiseman
Though the Black Moon Clan employed Ayakashi Sisters, plenty more filled the ranks. Prince Demande, Saphir, Esmeraude, and Rubeus made up the Clan itself. Behind the scenes, it was Wiseman who pulled all the strings. While Wiseman was the big bad behind everything, his real power appears to be manipulation as he got so many others to do all of his work.
In addition to being in charge of the Ayakashi Sisters, Rubeus was telepathic, controlled fire, and could jump so high that it’s almost like flying. The youngest of the Black Moon Clan, the audience didn’t get to see much of Saphir in any incarnation. He’s tech-savvy and suspicious of Wiseman, but of anyone, he’s the weak link since he never puts any powers to use.
Of the group, Emeraude might be the biggest threat as she sought out new powers to use, taking the abilities offered her by Wiseman, and not just sending her underlings into the fight. She attempted to get things done herself, though she never succeeded. Prince Demande, aka Prince Diamond, was the leader of the foursome, though he also allowed himself to be manipulated into doing the dirty work of Wiseman. He used his third eye to attack people himself and he’s got a creepy obsession with Neo Queen Serenity to boot.
Queen Badiane
For the movie Sailor Moon SuperS, the story needed a suitably scary villain. Inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel, Queen Badiane took the cake, so to speak. Queen Badiane, also called Badiyanu, was an evil queen who came to Earth from another world. Her entire goal was to absorb energy from children’s dreams to increase her own power. She didn’t just send out monsters to absorb energy like so many of the villains in the series did though.
Instead, she kidnapped children, bringing them to Marzipan Castle, and kept them alive in “dream coffins” where they could dream until all of their energy was spent. It’s her Marzipan Castle that might remind viewers of the witch living in a gingerbread house in fairy tales. All of her minions were also named after French words for different types of sweets.
Much of her weaponry also resembled sweets. That all makes her visually appealing, but it doesn’t take away from her being one of the most frightening villains in the 90s. It took powerful characters like Sailor Pluto to help bring her down once Queen Badiane targeted Chibiusa.
Dark Mercury
Many times in the manga and anime when one of the heroes was brainwashed by an enemy, the effect was temporary. Like Tuxedo Mask, who spent different arcs across the many story interpretations with no memory or thinking he was someone else completely, Sailor Mercury spent some time with the Sailor Moon bad guys.
In the live-action series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Ami was exactly the same as her manga and anime counterparts. Relatively quiet and focused, she spent most of her time studying when she’s not saving the world. Unique to the show, though, was the fact that one of the former Kings of Heaven, usually seen as Queen Beryl’s generals, was able to catch and corrupt her to work for them!
Kunzite caught Ami when she was feeling vulnerable and lonely and filled her with dark energy. It took time for the dark energy to take Ami over completely, but once it did, she blacked out and went to Kunzite, transforming into a different version of her Sailor Senshi. As Dark Mercury, not only did Ami hit the Sailor Senshi emotionally because they had to fight one of their own, but she also took them all on at once, proving how strong she really was. She even had a neat trick where she turned an icicle into a sword.
Amazoness Quartet
The Amazoness Quartet had essentially the same power set in both the manga and original series, but their backstory differed greatly between the two. The four young women, VesVes, CereCere, JunJun, and PallaPalla, were part of Queen Nehelenia’s Dead Moon Circus.
In the anime, they had magical stones that allowed them to retain their youth forever -- though the stones also allowed them to be controlled by the Dead Moon Circus. While the anime had the foursome found by Queen Nehelenia in the Amazon, the manga revealed why they’re actually so powerful; the group were destined to become Sailor Senshi.
They’re supposed to become Sailor Chibi Moon’s own team, the Asteroid Sailor Senshi. In the manga, they were in a deep sleep in the Amazon, waiting to be called to duty, before they were turned into evil beings by Nehelenia. Both versions of the story involved the Quartet “healed" and repenting. Of course, in the manga, when they returned to the story again as Chibi Moon’s team, they’ve been influenced by evil yet again. It seemed this group was destined to play both sides of the conflict.
The Kings of Heaven
Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite are always the first group of Sailor Moon antagonists.
Jadeite was the least competent. No matter the version, he was the first to fail in his mission, replaced by Nephrite. Nephrite was always the most conflicted of the group, falling in love with a civilian or befriending the Sailor Senshi when he realized he’s being controlled. He’s also one of the most effective, learning their civilian identities and using his shadow self to attack.
Zoisite was the least consistent across the stories. Sometimes, he’s portrayed as Kunzite’s partner and was adapted to be female in the English dub. He did manage to injure a few of the Senshi and Prince Endymion in different versions though. As the leader, Kunzite was definitely the most powerful. Unfortunately, that meant Queen Beryl made sure to keep him tightly under her control.
Witches 5
Though their name claimed there were only five of them, there were technically six. Eudial, Mimete, Tellu, Viluy, and Cyprine make up the primary Witches 5, but Cyprine actually shared her body with a sixth - Ptilol. The Witches 5 appeared as part of the "Infinity" arc created by Professor Tomoe’s experiments.
Of the group, Eudial was the only one who didn’t rely primarily on magic. Instead, she used her own inventions to extract souls and battle the Sailor Senshi, making her quite the unique villain. Like many of the other groups of Sailor Moon villains, the Witches worked separately to go after the Sailor Senshi.
They each wanted to be ranked higher in their organization in the original anime, causing them to strike out at one another. If they had banded together instead of allowing their own greed to overcome them, they might have won. In fact, when Kaolinite resurrected them all in Sailor Moon Crystal, the audience saw a great example of what could happen if they worked together. The Witches 5 were able to capture all of the Inner Sailor Senshi and force Sailor Moon to face off against them on her own. If the Outer Sailor Senshi weren’t introduced, Sailor Moon wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Queen Metalia
Often called Queen Metaria depending on the translation, she was actually created in the sun that orbits Earth. While she’s referred to as a demon, she was created by radiation before she left the sun and came to Earth.
When she first came to Earth, she allied herself with a peasant girl named Beryl, promising the young woman that if she helped destroy the Moon Kingdom, Beryl could have the love of her life, Prince Endymion, all to herself. Much of Beryl’s magic and influence came from Metalia. Of course, Queen Serenity was able to defeat Metalia, but what she did was seal the entity away on Earth’s North Pole, where she remained for centuries.
When Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Senshi awakened in their reincarnated lives, so did Metalia. She once again corrupted Beryl, getting her to gather more and more energy in hopes of releasing her from her prison. Metalia left on her own wasn’t nearly as powerful as she thought. Because of the imprisonment, she needed others to work for her and gather energy. The more energy fed to her, the more powerful she became and the more humans she could influence. If left unchecked, she could have corrupted the entire planet.
Princess Snow Kaguya
Inspired by a short story that appeared in the manga, the Sailor Moon S movie featured a villain similar to the fairy tale classic Snow Queen. Princess Snow Kaguya was very much in favor of the longest winter. Traveling on a comet, she came to Earth in search of a missing shard.
Kaguya had a lot of abilities, but they all stemmed from her power to control the cold. She could control ice, snow, sleet, hail, and flurries for starters. Her powers also included blizzards and blasts of energy from her hands. That alone made her a formidable opponent, but she wasn’t out to just make a few snowstorms here and there.
Instead, Kaguya’s aim was actually to blanket the entire planet in ice. She already had a collection of ice planets and wanted to add Earth to the mix. If she had succeeded, most life on Earth would have vanished during a new Ice Age.
DD Girls
Also called the Doom and Gloom Girls, the DD Girls are the only “monster of the week” to land amongst the most powerful villains. Everyone else is a major Sailor Moon villain, recurring in the stories. The DD girls only made an appearance in the finale of the first '90s anime arc, but they packed quite a punch.
One of the few monsters created exclusively for the anime, the DD Girls volunteered to destroy the enemy when Queen Beryl knew that the Sailor Senshi were on their way to her. Up until that point, the Sailor Senshi had been fighting monsters of the week in every episode and proving that they had what it took to bring the Dark Kingdom down. They hadn’t yet fought a unified force like the DD Girls, though.
Unlike the teams of women that would follow them in other story arcs, the DD Girls weren’t trying to one-up one another and no single one of them was out for the glory. They were also all willing to sacrifice themselves for the win. With nothing to lose, they picked the Sailor Senshi off one by one, though Sailors Jupiter and Mars each managed to take two down with them and Sailor Mercury even took one out on her own.