There's nothing too nutty about this particular episode. The youma is a pretty standard, generic purple thing; the Dark Kingdom freaks don't hatch any harebrained schemes; and the overall plot doesn't take any really odd twists or turns. On the other hand, some aspects of the story in this one are a bit puzzling and weird: most notably, we learn some admittedly trivial but nevertheless unexpected and eyebrow-raising facts about Rei and Minako.





Usagi gets things started by trying to convince herself that she never really liked Mamoru after all (the last episode ended with the revelation that he had a girlfriend). She eats the cookies she made for him, morosely making her way back to Crown or home or wherever. On the way, she hears a news story about Aino Minako: apparently her idol is still trying to lie low in order to better hide the Mystical Silver Crystal from the Dark Kingdom maroons, as evidenced by the fact that she's been cancelling appearances and concerts left and right. The scene shifts to Minako's hotel room, where we discover that the strain of juggling a secret life of crimefighting in a silly outfit with a career as a well-known singer and pop idol is starting to really get to her; she collapses on a couch, to the dismay of Artemis the poorly-puppeteered cat.

The Dark Kingdom losers show up next. The prospect of a revived "Queen Metaria" (whoever that's supposed to be) has made Kunzite positively giddy, but also positively insubordinate: he flat-out tells Queen Beryl that he works for Queen Metaria now, and not her. The Queen takes this in stride; she's keen on seeing Queen Metaria revived as well, and tells Kunzite that he might as well go on collecting energy to hasten her revival. (Strange: Queen Beryl, in the last episode, seemed surprised that this "Queen Metaria" even existed; when Kunzite first mentioned her name, she got this look of pure confusion on her face. Now she says that it's imperative to reawaken Queen Metaria as quickly as possible. What gives? I know Beryl is batty, but this seems a bit out there even for her).

Oh, and Jadeite reappears as well to offer his assistance. The Queen says that she's glad to have him back on board, and Nephrite seems pleased too: finally he's got another pal that can help him stand up to Kunzite, whose aforementioned insubordination has driven him almost as batty as Beryl. Later on, in fact, while working to get Jadeite caught up on what's been happening since he's been out of the picture, he takes some time to gripe about Kunzite's irritating habits. Thrilling stuff.

Cut to Usagi's home economics class. (Well, at least it's better than listening to Nephrite's griping and Kunzite's foppish posturing and the Queen's airheaded evil rants). The students are ordered to knit mufflers for their sweethearts or friends or whoever. This gives Naru an opportunity to tease Usagi about Mamoru, so, of course, she takes it. Usagi, having been reminded of Mamoru, sighs longingly and thinks about all the great non-romantic moments the two of them have shared thus far. Also, Melancholy Music plays. And plays. And plays.





At Crown later that day, Usagi is still down in the dumps. She perks up, however, when she abruptly remembers that she still has a crush on another guy: Tuxedo Mask. She decides to make the assigned muffler for him, and drags Makoto with her on a trip into town to buy some yarn. Her spirits rise visibly, but it's obvious to all but the most brainless viewers that she's really still sweet on Mamoru and is only acting all perky and bubbly in order to repress her true feelings and keep the Melancholy Music at bay.

Meanwhile, Rei is visiting her mother's grave. This is where things get a little peculiar: Rei's mother, we learn here, was a Christian (of the Roman Catholic variety, specifically, although this is never stated directly). This is perhaps not strange all by itself, but I think you'll agree that Rei's being a Shinto priestess adds a layer of disconcertment to the whole notion (it should be noted, additionally, that none of this is inconsistent with the anime or manga. Rei has always been portrayed as having Catholic affiliations -- going to a Catholic private school, for instance -- it's just that the issue doesn't really arise in the live action version until this episode). That's not all, though: seconds later, we're shown that Minako, too, is a Christian (or at least, it is implied that she is; she piously folds her hands and closes her eyes and prays in the local Catholic church).

This, of course, begs the question: How do ancient Moon Kingdoms and magic powers and talking cats and reincarnation fit in with the Christian worldview? Where does Sailor Moon fit in with Jesus's plan for us? Have Minako or Rei ever bothered to think about any of these things?

Probably not, and I kinda doubt the show's producers thought much about it either, since Christian concepts and precepts in general (in general!) have never been very widely comprehended in Japan. I could probably go into greater detail with this -- these little sociological questions are always a lot of fun to tackle -- but I'm reluctant to really play up this angle to any significance here; the Christian element in this episode is pretty minimal, after all. (Moreover, an explanation for Minako's apparently Christian leanings is easily devised: Christianity possesses a sort of cool mysteriousness in the Far East, in the same way that Buddhist teachings are seen to be cool and mysterious in the West; as a hip celebrity with international cache, the idea that Aino Minako would be into Christianity is perhaps not all that surprising).

At any rate, Rei and Minako end up meeting each other at the church, after the local gaijin priest discovers a sick dog on the street and asks them both to help look after it. Minako instantly recognizes Rei, as she's seen her in her Sailor Mars get-up before, but it takes a little while longer for Rei to realize that Minako is a famous pop idol (you'll remember that Rei isn't much for karaoke or TV or any of that sort of foolishness). The two become friends: Rei apparently respects Minako's piety, and Minako thought it was cool that Rei didn't know who she was.





The next few scenes feature Usagi crooning gleefully into a microphone at Crown (still trying to hide her feelings) while Makoto and Ami work on their own mufflers -- neither of them look particularly amused at Usagi's annoying crooning (I myself grew annoyed with it in pretty short order).

Back at the church, the local gaijin priest is attacked by the generic purple youma I mentioned at the top of this review. That the youma's attack was successful definitely raises some theological questions here -- is Catholicism of absolutely no use against Queen Beryl's foot soldiers? Would some holy water or something have stymied the creature? Anyway, Rei hears the attack and transforms, ultimately chasing the beast into a gymnasium festooned with crosses. She attempts to fight the youma off by herself, but it proves to be a bit too much for her: the thing is able to dodge her magical fire, and uses a purple fencing sword that shoots energy beams to blast away at her.

Fortunately for Rei, Minako shows up and transforms into Sailor Venus to help her out (thus revealing her secret identity to Rei). The two fight the youma together, but the tricksy monster manages to escape after knocking Sailor Venus down and exiting the gym. Sailor Mars, concerned with Venus's well-being, fails to give chase, which earns her an earful from Minako: she tells Rei that she's an awful Sailor Soldier and needs to start, I dunno, training or something. Rei is stricken by Minako's harsh words, but the obvious reply ("get bent!") eludes her. (Rei was only looking out for Minako, after all, whom Rei believes to be the Princess...and if you remember Luna's lesson from way back in the third episode, the ultimate duty of the Sailor Soldiers is to protect the Princess).

Usagi and Makoto and Ami, meanwhile, are called to the scene of the youma-battle by Luna, but never arrive there. Usagi, you see, to her profound mortification, bumps into Mamoru and Hina (his girlfriend) on the way to the church and is too emotionally devastated to do anything except mope and finally come to terms with the fact that she really does like Mamoru. Melancholy Music plays. And plays. And plays. And continues to play, while Rei and Minako fight for their lives against a supernatural being that even Catholicism is helpless in the face of.





Just what the youma was doing at the church is never explained, and the idea that Usagi and Makoto and Ami would just mope and simply not bother to help out Rei after the unpleasantness with Mamoru and Hina is dubious (incidentally: where was Hina hiding during the first fifteen episodes of the series? Usagi bumps into Mamoru like eight hundred times in earlier episodes; why was she never around then? Also, Mamoru's earlier behavior strikes me as kinda rakish in light of the fact that he's got a girlfriend -- what was he doing leading Usagi on like that by taking her to the beach in that one episode? Does Hina know about all of the little non-romantic adventures the two have had? What a cad).

Anyway, that's about all there is: Rei and Minako get to know each other, and Usagi mopes. Nothing spectacular or groundbreaking, but hey: this is Sailor Moon we're talking about.

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