The next English dubbed episode of Sailor moon Crystal will be available on Hulu and Neon Alley this Friday. Act 16, Abduction – Sailor Mercury, has Ami facing off against Berthier of the Ayakashi Sisters or the Spectre Sisters as we’re referring to them in the dub. The conflict this week is over a game of chess! There are some interesting references to the original anime this week. On its surface this episode closely resembles Sailor Moon R episode 71, For Friendship: Ami vs. Berthier. Another similarity is Naru’s swimsuit which looks a lot like the one seen in the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime.

This episode includes young Ami, who is seen in one scene interacting with her dead beat father. He’s an artist who likes chess and doesn’t seem to care much about his daughter. Ami gets her love of chess from him but she wants to be a doctor like her mother, so it sounds like she chose the right role model when it counts!

The latest two episodes of Sailor Moon R were added to Hulu and Neon Alley this Monday morning. This week we see episodes 71 and 72 which deal with the fate of the rest of the Ayakashi sisters Berthier, Petz and Calaveras. These episodes were the last two included in DiC’s original dub of Sailor Moon. Following these was a lengthy break of a couple of years before the next episodes were finally dubbed. For a lot of people who watched Sailor Moon in the mid 90s and grew out of it, these were probably the last episodes they watched!

Episode 71, For Friendship: Ami vs. Bertheir, is all about chess. Ami has been hanging out as this chess tower which is shaped like a giant rook. Berthier, of the Ayakashi sisters, who happens to have a very similar power as Sailor Mercury also happens to have a similar interest in chess! It made a bit more sense that Koan happened to face off against Sailor Mars twice since she simply attacked the shrine she lived and worked at twice but the coincidence of Berthier encountering Ami twice is a bit silly. Regardless, a fierce all or nothing chess game is played and amped up with some magical chess pieces that freeze the loser. Sailor Mercury wins, since she’s incredibly smart, and Berthier gives up on life. Having learned from the last episode that she can be healed, Sailor Moon heals Berthier and she’s happy with her sister Koan once again! Hooray!

Episode 72, Rubeus the Heartless: The Tragic Sisters, takes care of the last two Ayakashi sisters. The first event isn’t really relevant to the episode itself but has some importance in the next few episodes. As Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Guardians transform Chibiusa is shoved in a closet type thing and sees them all transforming. This is a huge revelation for her as she always liked Sailor Moon but hated Usagi. Hard to reconcile these two things! Such are the perils of a secret identity. Finally when Chibiusa sees Sailor Moon use the Silver Crystal later in the episode Chibiusa realizes that she needs to get a hand on that thing to go back to the future to save her mother. The main plot of the episode has Petz and Calaveras fighting over this magic wand thing, nearly killing each other, and of course getting healed! Ultimately all four of the Ayakashi sisters are reunited and they open up “Beauty Quartette”, a small shop which sells beauty supplies. I’m not sure the business model is rock solid, as one person would easily have been able to run this small shop, but now these four are splitting the profits not to mention being stuck in 20th century Tokyo with no credit history, valid ID or a past. It won’t be easy making a life for themselves, but it’s probably better than trying to live on a dead, desolate prison planet.

Support the site by buying the first season of Sailor Moon, subbed and dubbed by Viz, using the links below: