Sailor Moon Episode 40 - Legendary Spirit of the Lake! Usagi's Family Bonds

I'm getting closer. Slowly, but surely, the end of the tunnel is in sight. Haha. I'm almost done.

For some reason, this thought gives me an incredible feeling of relief. Because when this is over, when I am done with this season, I'm going to give it a full, overall review based on the entirety of it, and lay down a final verdict. It's only fair to settle the score once you've documented evidence of having seen the entire show, right? I think it's fair.

So with that in mind, let's just get down to business folks. 39 episodes down... seven left to go.

The obligatory Hot Springs episode, only 35 episodes late! Well, this is going to be promising I bet. Nearly every mainstream series has this episode, Magical Girl shows especially. Why? Because everyone likes naked girls I guess. Naked Snake Girl Monsters are also a plus, it would seem, because we've got one of those too.

If I know my tropes well, the episode will probably roll something like this: Usagi is going on a trip with her family to the mountains, and they're all "well since you actually have friends you should bring them along it would be fun". Odds are, the Rich Girl can get them some arrangements, and then when they get there something goes down.

Oh, I've completely missed any Dark Kingdom plots by this point... well damn. Okay, we'll just have to see how this actually goes since the episode is starting up without a "in case you've never seen this show before". I'm pleased to see those go. Now if only we could shoot the guy spoiling the episode before we watch it, this might have some actual plot twists.

Today's episode starts with a two day break, and Luna is unable to find anyone around. She does find a note by her food bowl though.

Damn, and here I was hoping the President was
kidnapped by ninjas...

So the family is one the worst animated car trip ever, and Usagi has taken up backseat gaming for her little brother, who is playing something that sounds like those old-school Tiger/Mattel game system thingies. Or Game & Watch. Well, then there's talk about how they never go on a family trip, and the bunny is all "man, hot springs sound boring".

HOT SPRINGS SOUNDS BORING.

Most people would kill to go visit a hot springs resort, especially ones like the one they're probably going to! That shit can be kind of expensive usually!!

Anyway she gets tired of the backseat gaming, tries to steal the handheld system, almost drops the broach she has which just casually drops into her lap, and her dad laughs that some dude gave it to her. Ha ha.

Then her father almost kills everyone in response.

WHO CARES ABOUT THAT THE CAR IS SPINNING
IN CIRCLES RIGHT NOW!

Somehow, they make it there in one piece, and her father reveals that This Is Where He Met Your Mother. Then the pendant starts playing music and oh no romantic feelings time. Wind blows through her hair and then they go off to do Hot Springs Things while we watch the wind blow through everything.

Meanwhile, in Beryl's Castle of Misconduct...

Boy oh boy, a coincidence!

They've found a Youma. Not one of theirs, but similar enough, so Endymion heads off to go check it out. Once he's gone, Kunzite is all "yeah, dunno if you've noticed but he's acting weird" and she's all "please, there's no way he knows his mind was messed with, but go follow him anyway to be sure".

Hold on, you're actually entrusting an important thing to one of your guys, after he's made a suggestion regarding it? That is an amazingly sensible thing to do for a change.

Hate to break it to you but I think he's just
not that into you.

So turns out that being at a secluded hot springs is a pretty awesome thing, and the children can't stop but push each other into the spring and steal the other's towels. Then Shingo sees someone standing by the water, and we're treated to a '70s acid trip again, complete with trippy translucent people!

Oh god what?

Just when you thought you were done with these seizure-inducing segments...

If you can see right through your man, that is
generally regarded as a bad thing.

Mamoru is confirmed for Brawl! And Usagi goes running off because she can't believe he's actually around. By the time she gets to the water, there's just this creepy statue of a couple standing by the water. I say creepy, but I actually kind of like it, it has that classic Japanese aesthetics thing going on.

I wouldn't mind one of these in my house.

Then the pendant starts playing again and the wind kicks up, and then her man appears in front of her. And he's all dark and brooding and wondering why the music makes him feel funny.

Of course, this sends Usagi off into a crying fit, and he doesn't remember who he is, or who she is. Then her mother shows up, and he does the off-screen teleportation thing while the mother wonders what is wrong with her daughter.

Spotting the statue, her mom goes on to talk about the legend of the Lovers' Statue. Story goes, this woman fell from heaven, and this guy from a local village fell in love with her. Hey, they sounds an awful lot like the whole back story for the Moon Kingdom thingy, right?

You can't get any more classic than this.

Okay, so jealous woman turns into a monster, attacks the village, then the couple sealed the monster in the lake, and lived happily ever after. Just like your typical fairy tale, really. Japanese Folklore is kind of not too far off when these sorts of things are considered. So honestly, I'm kind of okay with that.

Then her mom is all 'hey when you get a man bring him to us so we can meet him'. Yeah, not gonna make anything awkward at all.

So after hearing the story, Endymion is all "so the monster is in the lake, bahaha I am so evil look at me doing not nice things". Kick a puppy or something god.

Standing Evilly is an important skill for a villain.

Then Kunzite is all "yo man, release that energy". So he like, talks to the water, and commands the evil energy to come forth.

Y'know, this is actually the coolest thing that has happened in this show ever? So the lake like, explodes, and a Naga explodes out of the water - our monster of the day.

Holy shit, it has BOOBS!

At this point we get our commercial break, which is kind of something you need at this point. Once we return, he's being attacked by the Naga, who is clearly nutters.

JUST LOOK AT MY BOOOOOOOOBS.

Of course, she stops and suddenly flies off into the sky, totally ignoring Endymion, and instead targetting Usagi off in the distance, possibly not having anything to do with that reference to the Moon Kingdom I made earlier.

Speaking of the brat, her family is wondering what's up with her, to which her excuse is, "the moon is so beautiful it makes me want to cry". Oh man, you are fooling precisely nobody with that lame-ass excuse kid. But she goes running off, because she doesn't want to cry in front of her family. It's about this time she gets attacked by the monster, and her family starts freaking out.

Usagi gets all seriously bent out of shape, and her father tries to do the brave manly man thing with a stick, and his daughter prepares to transform. But before she can, a black rose appears and oh boy, what have we here? Once again, bad guy to the rescue. Give it up dude, seriously? You're fooling precisely zero people yourself.

Having made himself a target, Tuxedo Endymion is all "come get me snaketits" and then he gets beat around a bit. Then somehow, the other Sailor Scouts suddenly appear out of nowhere?! Wait, what?! Mercury sets up a bubbly mist so everyone can get away, but Usagi stays behind to transform, because she wants to pretend to be a responsible person every now and again.

After the sequence, she calls the naga a goblin and... promises to punish her. Then she proclaims her love for Tuxedo Mask, and is promptly attacked by the monster. Which gives everyone else cause to just try to outright destroy the damn thing.

Sadly, that won't work because it is invincible, and just keeps coming back.

To date, it seems to have worked exactly one time.
Why are you so surprised? And useless?!

Then they decide to go with some tiara action, and blows her up again. That still won't work however, because this isn't a mere Youma, it's an evil creature bound by intense jealousy. Which is somehow worse than your typical monster.

Uh... come again?

Since it is a spirit though, Sailor Mars is uniquely suited to dealing with this, and slaps a talisman on there before Sailor Moon does her Moon Healing thingy, and purifies the monster back into becoming a woman of ancient Japan, complete with cherry blossoms. Whoa. Then she ascends to heaven, and she sees her beloved in Tuxedo Mask - big surprise there, right?

Now it's just him and the girls, but he thanks them for dealing with this and then runs off. Afterwards, Usagi's family goes out looking for her, assuming she was eaten by a monster. Sadly, this was not the case, and a heartfelt family reunion is in order, complete with really annoying J-pop that doesn't really seem to fit the mood? Then she's all "I love my family" and the other girls hang out at the hot spring with her, to try to cheer her up. Oh, and finally reveal how they came to, y'know, BE HERE.

The sad story is, Luna told them where she had gone, and didn't want to be left out of the fun. Har har, way to ruin a FAMILY TRIP YOU JERKS. Also, way to COMPLETELY AVOID HOW YOU EVEN GOT HERE. NONE OF YOU HAS A LICENSE. DID YOU SPROUT WINGS AND FLY?

No, they could have made an actual joke out of that, and stopped short of coming up with one that could've had a lasting impact. Such a disappointment. Almost like the rest of this show so far.

This episode was a lot better than the last few at least. I could deal with the 'monster a day' thing if they were more like things out of mythology, because that stuff is pretty awesome. But really, there's just way too many coincidences going on. You'd think that maybe the villains might be able to start putting things together at this point and finding out for the THIRD TIME who Sailor Moon really is.

... naaaaaaaaah.