Episode 17
Sailor Moon
An Animated Mess
Jap.21 "Protect the Children's' Dream! A Friendship Tied by Anime!"
I remember loving this episode the first time I saw it when I was in High School. Probably like many people who visit Moonkitty.NET, I was very interested in the field of animation when I was growing up and actually aspired to be an animator some day. Now that I'm grown up, my expectations have changed a little bit but I still love animation and still feel a connection with this episode more than most of the other "filler" episodes.
The people involved in the production of this episode also seemed to connect to this episode as suggested by the above average screen time given to the two main victims of the day, their boss and their day to day lives being students at an animation studio.
In fact almost 70% of the episode focuses on these two girls with Serena, after a twenty second scene after the opening credits which introduces the audience to the fact that a Sailor V movie is coming soon, not appearing until the second half of the episode and even then in more of a supporting role.
Any way, after Serena raving about how she just can't wait for the Sailor V movie to come out, we are introduced to our two new victims *cough* I mean friends, the animation school students. The one with the glasses, Lorey is nervous about having their boss critique her latest drawings for the Sailor V movie which they're working on and flashes back to a previous critique where she was told she drew the legs too thick and the hair to clean. Her friend, Cassie tells her that she'll do fine which cheers her up and with the thought of their names in the credits at the movies, they race off to the studio.
Unfortunately in all their excitement, Lorey drops one of her folders but luckily Amy was around, saw this, picks it up and decides to return it to the animation studio's address which is written on the folder... after school of course.
Later that night as Amy's walking to the studio a very nice car speeds past her. As she glances at the driver she recognises him immediately! It's Nephlite!
At the studio, Lorey is freaking out about how far behind she is in her work (most likely to losing half of her work) and when thinking about what to do, remembers some special pencils that her and her friend bought before they got in to the class. Apparently they're very expensive so they promised each other to only use them for special projects and not without each other's permission.
Flashing forward to the present now we found out that Lorey has already broken her promise and has been using her share of the pencils quite a bit and decides to use them some more as she's in a tight spot.
Suddenly, Nephlite appears behind her and implants his power into the pencil apparently in an attempt to bring forth the "Gemini".
As he leaves the building Amy, now transformed into Sailor Mercury confronts Nephlite and demands to know what he's doing here. She tries to attack him, but he attacks her first and manages to get away before she can stop him.
Admitting defeat for now, Sailor Mercury changes back into Amy and decides to return the folder anyway. When she gets inside she's virtually ignored by a dramatically moody Lorey. It obvious that Nephlite had done something to her and Amy picks up on this.
The next day at school, Amy explains the situation to Serena and Luna. Luna tells Amy that she shouldn't have confronted Nephlite by herself and Amy agrees but she thought she had to do something.
They contact Raye via the Moon Communicator who is over at her school and they all plan to drop by the studio under the guise of wanting to see how a movie is made in order to check on Lorey.
When they meet up to head over to the studio they notice that Raye is carrying a paper bag full of something. She claims that it's just clothes but unfortunately it breaks and it's revealed that she had been carrying heaps of autograph cards in the hopes of getting autographs and selling them for a profit! Of course she says they're for all the kids at her temple.
Once they arrive, Serena and Raye go completely bonkers with all the Sailor V drawings while Amy asks Cassie how Lorey's doing. Suddenly Lorey enters and screams at Serena and Raye to be quiet. Cassie tells Lorey that she isn't acting like herself and asks her what's wrong.
The tense situation is interrupted fortunately by a phone call from the boss who tells Lorey that her latest drawings are her best ever and that with the sequel he wants her to be the head artist. Lorey explains that there will be now sequel and that Sailor V will be destroyed at the end of the current movie and that darkness will win! Her boss says she's crazy and tells her that she's fired. This doesn't bother her however as she decides to quit. With this she hangs up the phone and leaves the building.
Cassie, Serena, Amy and Raye run after her and find her on the roof of the building where she holds up her special pencil which begins to glow and summons two evil beings called the Gemini. Cassie faints as does Lorey.
Serena, Amy and Raye all transform with the series' first split screen transformation sequence and confront the new Monster of the Day.
The battle isn't as easy as they thought it would be as the Gemini seems able to summon both Mars' and Mercury's attacks which they fire at the Sailor Scouts! Luckily for the girls the two Gemini sisters begin to bicker over who's attack did the most damage and let go of each other, weakening themselves.
The Sailor Scouts take advantage of this moment and fire off a special combination attack which destroys the Gemini.
After the battle, Cassie talks to Lorey and reveals that she had also broken her promise and had been using her own special pencils. The both promise to be friends forever and the onlooking Luna comments on how the Sailor V movie just got it's happy ending.
Monster of the Day
Like Leo the Lion, the Gemini are the manifestation of the constellation of the same name and were personally trained by Nephlite himself!
They're both stronger together than separately and enhance each other's powers by linking their tails and yelling "Twin Power". In order to attack they both yell "Gemini Power" which enables them to summon the attacks, Mars Fire Ignite and Mercury Bubbles Blast. Whether they have the ability to use the same powers as the Scouts or if their power is simply imitation based is unknown.
They were both destroyed by the first combination attack done by the three Sailor Scouts in the series which included Mars Fire Ignite, Mercury Bubbles Blast and Moon Tiara Magic.
Shopping Info
This episode of Sailor Moon is available on the DVD "Sailor Moon #3" from Amazon.com for the Region 1 DVD and HMV for the Australian Region 4 DVD (which has the same picture and sound, but better menus and navigation). If you're after the original Japanese episode with English subtitles (and no English audio version) you can get it in the Sailor Moon Season 1 DVD Box Set which is only available in the American Region 1 type of DVD so make sure your player is multiregional before grabbing this. Copies of all Sailor Moon DVDs are selling out fast as the distribution rights for the show have expired so no more copies of DVDs, Videos or CDs are being produced. If you're thinking of buying something Sailor Moon related, buy it fast. You have been warned.
<- Episode 16 - Sailor Moon Anime Guide - Episode 18 ->
| 
