Sailor Mars is introduced in this one. It's not the flashiest or most interesting episode in the series, but it's a pretty fun one anyway -- there's an exceptionally dumb-looking monster-of-the-week, a straightforward plot, and a few clever moments sprinkled here and there. (I'm speaking relatively here, of course; I'm trying to judge the show according to its own terms. There's really no other fair way to review it. I mean, I know it's formulaic, for example, what with all the monsters-of-the-week, but I'm not gonna harp on that aspect of it: that's just the way these kinds of shows are).





The turtle guy who runs the karaoke place is the first sight we're greeted with this time around (this guy's a developing character; he pretty much gets his own episode sometime later in the series). He waves Usagi and Ami into the magical karaoke joint/Sailor headquarters, where the two meet with Luna and participate in the "Sailor Solider Quiz", a game show complete with buzzers and everything. It's the show's way of providing a little exposition to the viewer -- the scene is one of the clever moments I mentioned above. Luna, the host, asks Ami and Usagi questions about the plot, such as "How many Sailor Soldiers are left?" and "What is the mission of the Sailor Soliders?" Usagi loses out to Ami, of course, who answers both questions easily: the answers are "2" and "to find and protect the Princess and the Mystical Silver Crystal." This crystal, as it turns out, is capable of destroying the world, so finding it before it falls into evil hands is of paramount importance. Finding the Princess is also key, apparently, and because Luna suspects that Sailor V, whom we met in the first episode when she tangled with Tuxedo Mask, might be the one they're looking for, she runs off to find her.

Elsewhere, a girl is pulled into another dimension by a monster with super-long accordion-style arms. The look on her face is priceless, as I suspect mine might be if something similar happened to me: it's one thing to see the laws of physics as we understand them be broken right in front of you, after all, but probably quite another to see it being done by such a ridiculous creature.

Anyway, the temple priestess we met briefly in the last episode apparently senses this breaking of physical laws and the evil behind it, because we're thereafter treated to a few shots of her gazing seriously into a fire, thinking deep somber spiritual thoughts. But more on her later.





Usagi and Ami are in school; Usagi is chatting with her friends and getting scared out of her head by their tales of the evil temple priestess who abducts young girls, while Ami is shyly wandering around in the background. Usagi asks Ami to join them, but she declines: she's shy, in case we hadn't picked up on that, and Usagi's friends don't seem too thrilled about her hanging around with them anyways. They even bug her about it: "Why are you suddenly so interested in Mizuno-san?" they ask point-blank. In America, at least where I live, a ready retort might be "What business is it of yours?" but this is Japan, so Usagi demures and shrugs and doesn't respond. She catches up with Ami later, who tells her it might be better if they didn't hang out all the time so as to deflect suspicion of who they really are, but we get the sense that Ami's still simply hesitant about coming out of her shell.

We get our first good look at the monster shortly after this; in addition to his spindly arms, he has three airplane propellers for a face. Oi. What was Jadeite smoking when he thought up this one?





Later, even more Ami-is-shy-and-reluctant-to-cut-loose-and-have-fun stuff is thrown at us, as we see her "sitting properly" at Usagi's house and hesitating to get involved in some playful roughhousing Usagi and her mom are doing. Thankfully, there's lots more of this sort of thing to come in future episodes! Yay!

Meanwhile, Luna is chasing after Sailor V, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. (Sailor V runs with her arms outstretched, looking for all the world like she's a grade-schooler pretending to be an airplane, which I found kinda funny). Luna has no success in reaching her, though.

Oh, did I mention that Usagi accidentally bumped into the temple priestess a while back, and has resolved to give the bracelet that she dropped in the scuffle back? Yeah, that happened. So Usagi goes to the temple, but gets scared off after remembering her classmates' horror stories; on her second trip, though, she sees the temple priestess -- her name is Rei -- being accosted by a bunch of female bullies who are upset with her because they think she's behind the abductions propeller-face has been recently conducting. She jumps in and saves the day with her good cheer and gives the bracelet back to Rei, and manages to get an inkling of her personality: Ami may be a little shy and reserved, but Rei is just plain icy. Despite all the firey imagery.





Anyway, Ami and Usagi learn who the next kidnapped girl will be and follow her; Rei turns up too, as she's also investigating the matter, and both Usagi and Rei end up getting sucked into propeller-face's dimension. A fight ensues. Propeller-face has an inexplicable magical control over vines, ala that gross scene with the tree from Evil Dead, and he uses this ability to wrap Sailor Moon up...which forces Rei to act, and turn into Sailor Mars for the first time (Rei instinctively knows to say "Mars Power!" to activate her abilities, of course, and to spout that little bit about punishing the bad guy in the name of the Mars; you kinda just have to go with it). She defeats the monster, saves Sailor Moon, and helps the abducted girls out of the other dimension via a portal (these girls will have an interesting story to tell reporters). Tuxedo Mask appears to save the day one final time, and that's basically the end...except for a quick scene where Rei denounces karaoke, declares that she's not a team player, and insists on working alone, much to the chagrin of Usagi and Ami. Icy, like I said.

So it's not a bad ep, really. The complicated plotting is still a ways off, as is some stronger character development, but these introductory episodes serve their purposes pretty well by getting the viewer used to the formula and by gradually removing all sensible objectivity from them -- if they can get you used to the idea of a propeller-faced, accordion-armed monster being defeated in another dimension by a short-skirted girl who throws fireballs here, then you're well on your way to accepting even stranger situations and events later on. And believe me, they're coming.

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