Nephrite is confused that Naru is actually talking to him like a human being... I guess Beryl isn't very good with employee relations ;)

Nephrite isn't one of my favorite kings, but seeing as I like Jadeite a whole lot more from writing a page about him, I think Neffy will probably grow on me, too. Nephrite appears in episode fourteen, I believe, either that, or he comes in right at the end of thirteen to take over Jadeite's position. In any case, episode fourteen is his first time as the main villain. Nephrite also gathers energy for Beryl (at the beginning anyway) but he has a rather fascinating way of doing it... Neffy is an astronomer. He is under the impression that, instead of Jadeite's reasoning that energy needed to be taken from a large group of people at once, that each person has one particular time in their lives that their energy is at its peak. Nephrite believed that the stars could, if read properly, predict whose energy was at its highest level at any given time. Neffy was an accomplished astronomer and he could read the stars easily, and then go gather energy from whichever person the stars showed them.

Nephrite is the only king to have an alter-ego on Earth, perhaps because he claimed it was "his realm." He hung around Earth going by the name of Sanjouin Masato, driving a fancy red sports car and living in a very interesting mansion. It was in his mansion that he did his star readings, saying the infamous (and ever-repeated) line, "The stars know everything." Then he would read the patterns of the stars and planets and their paths and such, and an image of the next target would appear.

Like most of the villains, Nephrite didn't have much luck getting energy. But unlike Jeddy, he wasn't going to settle for that. He wanted to prove his worth to Beryl and he would do whatever he needed to do so. So, in a rather un-Neffyishly stupid plot, he decided that he would go right ahead and get the Silver Crystal for Metallia. The only problem with this little plan is that someone else had already been assigned this job... namely, Zoisite, the most vengeful of the Shitennou and arguably the most dangerous. And Zoisite most certainly did not like someone else moving in on his territory-- this scheme ultimately let Nephrite to his death. Anyway, it was clear that Zoi really didn't like the second king very much to begin with, because in many of Nephrite's episodes, he is shown popping on on Neffy and generally trying to aggravate him. But more on that later.

So, Neffy began searching Earth for the ginzuishou, using a little black crystal he had created with the help of the stars. It was sort of a homing becon for the Silver Crystal, and I guess it could also be modified to search out other things too, as is done later in the season. Meanwhile, on Earth, Nephrite was beginning to get a little to close to one of the humans, namely, a girl called Naru. Out of pure coincidence (*cough*) Naru was also the best friend of Sailor Moon's alter ego... hmm... how convenient. From the moment she saw him at the tennis court in episode fourteen, there were sparks, and her affection for him grew into full-blown adoration by the end. I missed perhaps four of Nephrite's episodes, maybe seventeen through twenty, but because of that I didn't get the full effect of their relationship and it doesn't interest me too much. There is a lot of stuff on the internet dealing with Naru and Nephrite, and if you're a fan of them I suggest you go here: Stayka's Dark Kingdom Home It's got a whole lot of really good fanfic, including quite a few Naru and Nephrite fics, which I haven't read but assume are good because all of the other stuff is ^_^

Nephrite and Naru got closer and closer, Naru falling completely in love with him and Neffy simply using her to get closer to Sailor Moon (or at least that's what he told himself-- he never really admitted to liking her until the end.) And much to Nephrite's confusion, the black crystal suddenly began reacting whenever it was near Naru. At first he believed that she had the ginzuishou, then that it might be inside her, but when he searched her in her sleep (pedophile!) he found nothing. After a while, it finally hit him that the black crystal reacted to a pure heart, one of which Naru definately had. Meanwhile, Usagi knew that this Sanjouin Masato feller that Naru was so taken with was really Nephrite of the Dark Kingdom, and she tried to warn her friend, but even though Naru believed her she couldn't make herself stop loving him. She even risked her life for him, throwing herself in front of Sailor Moon's tiara and forcing her to stop it in mid-air. It was only then that Nephrite realized how Naru really felt about him. Their mutual understanding would not be for long, however, as Zoisite had had quite enough of Neffy's mooching on his job, so, on Kunzite's advice, he sent a trio of youma to do him in. They kidnapped Naru, forcing Nephrite to rescue her (and even he didn't understand why he did it), and causing Nephrite to get injured. Naru brought him to the park and bound his wound, joking about whether people in the Dark Kingdome got Sundays off or not and making plans to eat chocolate parfait together. It was really sweet, actually...

Anyway, Zoisite's youma burst in on this conversation and proceeded to impale Neffy through the shoulder with some energy-zapping vines. Naru tried to pull them out, and to the great shock of all involved, she almost did. But Nephrite was far too injured to survive (having been run through and all), and he died in Naru's arms, finally telling her at least that he was glad to have met her. So, unlike most of the Shitennou and almost all of the othe BSSM villains, Nephrite turned virtually good before he died... The Senshi even cried for him, which was less than many villains.

It's kind of strange that Nephrite would die like that, or more that he would bring it upon himself, because he obviously was a smart guy and should know better than to mess with Zoisite. But I think he had a pretty big ego thing going, too much pride... which is also a fault many villains share.

Nephrite in the manga was slightly different... other than having absolutely nothing to do with Naru, he was also a big smugger (more smug?) and didn't have such a hateful relationship with Zoisite. It was also funny, because he did seem to show some affection for Jadeite, swearing that he would avenge the previous king's death. And Zoisite also was pretty upset when Nephrite got blasted, too... Anyway, in the manga Nephrite took over a couple people in order to get at the Silver Crystal using his "shadows", and finally once showed himself. He had taken over Motoki from the arcade just before, and Makoto was not a happy camper because of it, so she destroyed him with her thunder and lighting attack. Poor Neffy. He didn't last long in the manga either, just like Jadeite and Zoisite.

Since I don't have as much room on my page as I'd like to (and I'm paying anyway, due to Geocities' evil new data transfer policy) I have some links here to pages where they have lots of good pictures. If there's a picture you've seen previously on this page, e-mail me, and I'll try to fish it out of the vast space that is my hard drive ^_^

Stayka's Dark Kingdom Home
This page has the most screenshots I have ever seen from any show, let alone the Dark Kingdom of Sailor Moon. There's tons and tons of them, and almost all of my pictures came from here. I know I already have their link on this page, but heck, Stayka's Dark Kingdom Home has everything!

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