Episode 50
Sailor Moon R
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall
Jap.56 "Steal Mamoru's Kiss! En's Snow White Strategy"
As the episode starts we see Anne in her apartment reading Snow White. She's obviously really into the story and longs for the day that she she can make Darien fall in love with her by simply kissing her.
Elsewhere, Raye, Mina, Amy and Lita are telling Serena about how Darien was helping a friend out with a play but eventually they all bailed and left him in charge of the whole production.
Darien then shows up and all the girls immediately offer their support for the play however they all want to be the lead role... Snow White! They all fight constantly before they're stopped by Anne who appears out of nowhere and tells them all that they should all draw straws with pieces if tissue she has in her hand. Those who draw a coloured one are a dwarf and whoever pulls the shortest is Snow White.
One by one they all pull the coloured tissues leaving Anne last who draws the short one making her Snow White! Anne is excited, the Scouts angry but there's nothing they can do as they all agreed on this method.
Back at the aliens' apartment, Alan has heard about this play and summons a new Cardian, Pirot to go to the theatre when the show starts and sap the audience's energy.
Meanwhile, practice has started on Snow White at the theatre and the girls aren't very happy.
Anne is making them all rehearse the kissing scene over and over in an obvious attempt to kiss Darien for real. Eventually they all have enough and call it a night. After Anne leaves, Amy, Raye, Lita and Mina let slip to Serena that they think Anne cheated with the tissues by ripping her one in half while she was holding it. Serena becomes furious and demands to know why they didn't say anything but they tell her they couldn't prove it and kind of respect Anne's determination.
Serena doesn't buy this however and tells them that "cheating is cheating!"
As they all walk home they spot Anne praying at a temple for the play to go well. They then all realise how much this play means to Anne and decide to let her be Snow White despite the fact that in the following rehearsals she makes them all wear stuffed animal costumes (with Melvin's help).
On the day of the performance the theatre is packed! Serena's brother is in the audience watching her and Melvin and Molly have also been given roles in the play as dwarves.
Suddenly the Cardian attacks! Serena, off stage, transforms into Sailor Moon and attacks it but she ends up getting caught. The Moonlight Knight then arrives and frees her. Funnily enough the audience thinks this is all part of the show!
The other girls then transform (Molly, Melvin, Anne and Darien are either knocked out or under all the costumes) and each make their own individual kabuki entrances on the stage with Sailor Mars summoning her Firebird as her dramatic background.
 Sailor Mars then stuns Pirot with her Mars Fireball Charge attack and Sailor Mercury then freezes her some more with her Mercury Ice Bubbles Freeze.
Sailor Moon then destroys Pirot with Moon Sceptre Elimination and the audience applauds.
Later that night, Anne cries because she just wanted to be Snow White. Alan, outside her room says to himself that he just wanted to be the prince.
 Monster of the Day
The Cardian summoned today (unusually just by Alan) was called Pirot and doesn't really have anything exceptional to mention here except for the fact that it's name means "clown" in French and that the Japanese have borrowed this word to mean "clown" in Japanese from the French. Whether "Pirot" was the Cardian's original name in the Japanese version I'm honestly not sure but it is not unusual to see characters in Japanese tv shows called "pirot". One such example is the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Special Act which featured clown/pirot monsters.
Interesting Facts
 While Sailor Mars didn't really use Mars Firebird Strike in this episode, she did use it's image when making her big stage appearance.
 Speaking of which, the Sailor Scouts' stage entrances were obviously heavily influenced by Japanese Kabuki theatre judging by the background imagery, the way they were shot and the Japanese music cues which remained even in the English version of this episode.
Drawing coloured tipped tissues is simply something some people do in Japan though the drawing of straws is also done as is the (freakishly) popular "Rock, Scissors, Paper" which enjoys such wide spread use that it can be seen used by children, adults and even on tv in Japan when two or more people need to decide on something.
While Serena is normally punned to death with the rabbit references (due to the Japanese legend about the rabbit in the moon and her Japanese name, Usagi meaning "rabbit") here we see her in a bear costume which has a crescent moon symbol on it and is also a popular moon related pun in Japan (as well as other Asian countries). There is in fact a real bear called the Moon Bear (or the Asiatic Black Bear) which has enjoyed great popularity in Japanese pop culture inspiring several shows and even a few Pokemon!
Shopping Info
English language version available on this DVD.
Buy from Amazon.com
Japanese language version available on this DVD.
Buy from YesAsia
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