Most Sailor Moon episodes rely pretty heavily on essentially pointless filler material: fretful musings, flashbacks we've seen a hundred times, conversations about topics that have already been discussed ad nauseam, that sort of thing. These are no doubt included to pad out the running time of each episode, which really doesn't bother me most of the time, but the sheer frequency of these scenes can sometimes be annoying. This particular episode, eighteen, isn't much for flashbacks (although there are a few), but there's a lot of transparent filler material to be found in this one, so I kinda doubt this review will end up being very long. I guess we'll see.





We begin with Rei and Minako, currently in their guises as Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus respectively. They've just had something of a falling out: in the last episode Minako whined that Rei didn't know what she was doing and was basically a terrible Sailor Soldier (she opted to tend to an injured Minako rather than chase down a fleeing youma). Minako continues to berate Rei as this episode begins, but after getting her head together Rei sticks up for herself and tells Minako off: she says that maybe if Sailor Venus wasn't such a clutzy fighter they both would have had more luck. Sounds about right to me. She also adds that as Sailor Mars her first priority is to protect the Princess, which was exactly what she was doing in the youma fight. That's another good rhetorical point (and one I mentioned in my last review). Undoubtedly reeling from the force of these powerfully valid arguments (Rei's got all the bases covered on this one), Minako backs off and gives her a withering look, but doesn't pursue the matter; instead, she just takes off. Typical.

Later, even Minako admits to Artemis that she may have messed up, but she seems to regret giving her secret identity away to Rei more than she regrets snapping at her. Unabashed, unashamed abrasiveness: that's Minako for you.

Anyway, the Dark Kingdom goons follow this up with one of their usual dopey gab sessions. Kunzite talks about how great he is, complains that Jadeite and Nephrite are useless, and even gets an uncharacteristic dressing-down from Queen Beryl, who tells him that he really should stop being so insubordinate and rude to her other henchdudes. The meeting accomplishes nothing, since there's already a youma on the loose and therefore no reason to resolve to create another one (which is the usual outcome of these meetings), so the whole scene is pretty much all just filler.





Meanwhile, Usagi is still upset about Mamoru having a girlfriend. Still. She opens up about it to Makoto and Ami, basically telling them that despite her stated desire in the last episode to give her completed muffler to Tuxedo Mask, she's really still sweet on Mamoru. This is news to Makoto. "I thought you hated that guy," she says. "I thought I did..." Usagi replies, before her eyes glaze over and she gets that Mamoru is soooo great look on her face (it's a look we see a lot of in this episode). Makoto figures that it's better for Usagi to have a crush on Mamoru than to have a crush on that awful Tuxedo Mask, and so advises Usagi not to give up hope. She resolves to glean a little intelligence from Motoki about Mamoru and Hina: after all, the two of them could be on the rocks or something.

Back at the church, Rei shows up with some dog food for the poor neglected dog there (see the last episode). Minako sees this, and proceeds to go out and buy some fancier, more expensive dog food (high-class dog food) to show her up. Is this Minako's way of saying sorry? By kick-starting a petty rivalry over a dog? Sheesh. Anyway, civility is nevertheless maintained, and the two of them are able to set aside some time to converse about the still-on-the-loose youma and about Minako's reasons for concealing her identity from the others (she doesn't have any really good ones, so far as I can tell).

Elsewhere, Makoto and Motoki talk about Hina and Mamoru's relationship at some outdoor cafe somewhere. Motoki reveals (after Makoto ponies up some high class turtle food) that the two are engaged to be married. Yikes! At this point even Makoto decides that Usagi's chances are probably pretty slim, and tells her so a few scenes later. Usagi agrees, but is still unable to totally get over her feelings; she later mopes around her bedroom having flashbacks. Specifically, she thinks back on all the times he called her some name or insulted her in some way, and wonders aloud, "Why do I like that guy?" Search me! I've been wondering that myself all along. Mamoru is frequently rude, condescending, and has a physique that makes Jack Skellington look buff; what could any girl see in this guy?





We also get a brief scene with Hina and Mamoru, wherein we learn that Mamoru is marrying Hina more out of duty or some sense of obligation than out of love. Or at least, that's the implication. Hina seems oblivious to this, and asks Mamoru to attend a Mass with her tomorrow (church shopping for the wedding) in the church that Rei and Minako frequent.

The next day Minako (while drawing an elaborate "found" poster for the dog in an effort to show up Rei, natch) realizes that something big is going to go down at the aforementioned Mass: what better plan for a wily youma than to take over the body of a priest and gather up a buttload of energy from people while they pray? This turns out to be exactly the youma's plan; while Mamoru and Hina and the other parishioners look on dumbly, it jumps out of the gaijin priest's body and begins sucking up their energy with its magical fencing sword. "Youma!" Mamoru shouts in alarm. Jeez, what tipped him off? Anyhoo, he escapes with Hina to the nearby church gym or whatever, but the youma gives chase.

At which point Usagi, Rei, Ami, and Makoto arrive. Together, they "battle" Jadeite and Nephrite and the youma (fighting in the Sailor Moon universe consists almost entirely of performing cartwheels and shooting non-lethal colored beams of energy at one another) and pick up an advantage after Sailor Venus shows up to lead them. They pose. Triumphant music plays. The camera goes in for an interminable number of close-ups. Lots of padding here.

Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars chase the youma back to the church and combine their powers in order to defeat it; in the process, they basically patch things up. Back in the gym, Usagi and Ami and Makoto combine their powers to put the hurt on Nephrite, but not before a dumb little bit of comedy: Usagi airheadedly aims for the wrong spot when firing off her Moon Twilight Whatever attack, and because of this Nephrite is able to shrug off their first effort. More filler.





After the fight, Usagi sees Mamoru and Hina (the duo were cut down by the youma and presumably drained of their energy) lying peacefully together, hand in hand, and decides that maybe she can give the dork up after all if he likes this Hina girl so much. She revives them.

And so it ends. Well, there's a bit more Dark Kingdom crap, too, and a little bit of cryptic muttering from Minako (she says something about having "only half a year left") but it's nothing spectacular.

The main problem here is the plot, which has simply been stretched too thin (this is basically the second part of a two-part story) and which unfortunately forced the director to do a lot of (you guessed it) padding. Still, they cover the thin plot up reasonably well, and the episode isn't boring or anything, so all in all I guess it's really not too bad. And hey: it looks like I managed to get a decently long review out of this sucker after all. Score!

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