The 4th episode of Sailor Moon Crystal became available on Saturday August 16th. You can watch it on Crunchyroll, Hulu or Niconico. Act 4, Masquerade Dance Party, has everyone crashing a party put on by the D Kingdom in order to steal their jewels, hoping to find the Silver Crystal. While this is an early story in the manga it is somewhat similar to episode 22 of the Sailor Moon anime, Romance Under the Moon: Usagi’s First Kiss.
The episode largely follows act 4 of the original manga with one major exception, Jadeite is still alive. In the manga Sailor Mars kills Jadeite at the end of act 3 however in the last episode it was unclear if Jadeite actually died during the fight. Indeed Jadeite is still alive which is the biggest change to the story we’ve seen to date. Perhaps this change will lead to more differences down the line, as all of the Shitennou are still alive at this point leaving things open for different stories. In act 3 Jadeite made comments about how beautiful he thought Sailor Mars was, which may be related to a past and future relationship between the two of them. Manga art from the final Dark Kingdom story shows pairings between the Shintennou and Sailor Guardians during Silver Millennium. Sailor Mercury was with Zoisite, Sailor Mars is with Jadeite, Sailor Jupiter was with Nephrite and Sailor Venus was with Kunzite, a relationship which was also alluded to in the Sailor V manga. This may seem odd to anime fans who have only seen the Shintennou as villains however in the manga they were all friends of Endymion and good people from Earth prior to being corrupted by Queen Metalia. While we’ve followed the manga closely to date this may not last forever. By act 4 of the live action series we were still following the manga episode by episode but major changes were just around the corner.
Sailor Moon gets a new tiara and attack this week! Her last tiara was destroyed by Sailor Mars as she burned Jadeite and so she gets a new upgraded one and with that has a new attack which she uses to destroy Nephrite’s shadow. The attack she uses in the manga is Moon Twilight Flash, seen frequently in the live action series, though the attack is not named in this episode. Strangely enough an image of Sailor Moon using this attack is seen in the newspaper on the morning before she gets her tiara upgrade and is first able to use this attack.
Another fun moment has Umino acting like a total creeper when he reveals a photo of Princess D. Indeed Umino always having images of women at hand when needed is in itself creepy but something about the way he acts and speaks in this scene is particularly funny.
And speaking of creepy, the final scene of the episode needs to be addressed. Sailor Moon, after a long day at the party, passes out. In the manga she does this after consuming alcohol. While unconscious Tuxedo Mask approaches her and kisses her, causing fans to swoon at this romantic moment. She is unconscious and unable to consent to his advances. This behaviour is completely inappropriate. Luckily Luna shows up and comes to Sailor Moon’s defence.
Unfortunately we have to wait 3 weeks for the next episode! We’ve gotten used to seeing shows every two weeks but Sailor Moon Crystal is released on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of every month, not every two weeks. The next episode will be available on Saturday September 6th. Act 5, Makoto – Sailor Jupiter, will introduce us to Makoto Kino who becomes Sailor Jupiter. We see a shot of her at the end of the episode and more of her during the next episode preview. This again follows the manga schedule with Sailor Jupiter appearing in act 5.
Keep reading for more images from this episode and from the next episode preview.
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Yeah, I thought there might be changes somewhere down the line as to the direction of this story. I predict that by episode 8 it’ll be a bit more clear where exactly this story is heading. We’ve already seen some interesting ones, including that Sailor Mars is a bit more mellow and tolerant of Usagi’s behavior. I wonder how that will play out in future episodes.
I have to say though, something about this episode bothered me. Maybe it’s because I’m a fiction writer, but I felt there were a few details that were off about this episode. I’ll have to watch it again so I can put my finger down on what exactly bothered me about it. Good thing I’ll have time to reflect until the next episode, though it’ll be agony to wait.
I’m pretty sure that the picture in the paper is from the fight between Jadeite in the previous episode when he’s blasting Moon and Mercury with ice. You can see the beam of ice from his right hand (the one hitting Mercury) in the same iamge) I wonder who took that shot though?
Ami’s doing the whole Peter Parker thing on the side, to earn some spending cash. She sets up a camera before every battle
Joking aside, that’s an excellent point you bring up…
The newspaper photo is from act 3 when she’s getting blasted by Jadeite.
I am sad about some things. Rei still isn’t portrayed with the personality she has in the manga. She seems more like Ami. At the meeting she acts so subdued. Where is her slight impatience and subtle snarkiness? She did have that sort of attitude in the manga – just not to the extremes the first anime made them…
It also would have been awesome if they had shown a brief image of what the girls picture Umino possibly looking like without his glasses, like how it is shown int he manga. Oh, well…
I think it is awesome the Four Heavenly Kings will be staying in action though. I love that change. There is a major plot hole, though… Jadeite knows Sailor Mars’ civilian form! The four of them could easily go after her at any time, you know. Who knows? Maybe there is reason for that… “I can’t kill her or have the others kill her… I’m just so attracted to her for some reason! I’ll let you live, Mars… for now.”
Anyway, thanks for the heads up about when Jupiter’s episode will air… Wah! I want to see hers sooner!
So far I’m LOVING Sailor Moon Crystal! My fav episode so far is Act 2, but they have all been great! Honestly I can’t wait for Sailor V to appear! I’m excited and hopeful that it might be soon since Crystal seems to be following the Manga more closely than the original!
I must say I wasn’t digging it at first but is growing on me, I can’t wait for next episode.
I’m thoroughly enjoying Sailor Moon Crystal so far and can’t wait to see what they do with the Shitenou. I have a thought for everyone who’s wondering why the Dark Kingdom doesn’t go after the Senshi or their families since they know their identities. If you know that you’re looking for a group of young teens and you only know their first names and hair colors/styles (bearing in mind this is an anime so a blond or blue haired Japanese girl isn’t that unusual) and you have to search through a massive city to find them, would you be able to find them quickly? I know they should theoretically be able to but it would probably still take a while.