9 Horror Movie References You Never Noticed In Anime
8. Sailor Moon R: The Movie
Moving right along from a George A.
Romero reference, we arrive at an anime you might not at first
realize has clear iconography of a zombie film. In the second season
of the classical anime Sailor Moon, known as Sailor Moon R, we see
two major story arcs occur: The Makai Tree Arc and the Black Moon
Clan Arc - the latter of which introduced Chibiusa (Rini in the older
English adaptations).
Where we really see our zombie reference, though, is in the Sailor Moon R film, which would take place around the end of the R season.
In said movie a sympathetic villain named Fiore tries to drain humanity of its life force because people are being mind controlled by a sentient flower, known as the Xenian flower. Turns out Fiore had once been on earth and was given a pretty flower as a child by the series heartthrob, Mamoru (Darien in the English versions).
When Fiore first sends one of their minions to attack earth, the Sailor Scouts stumble upon it stealing peoples' energy. The Xenian flower resurrects untold numbers of its victims to fight against the heroic team. The scene where they are summoned is right out of a horror film with a jump scare-like moment wherein one of the salarymen victims reaches out with a pale hand and grabs Sailor Venus' ankle.