Sailor Moon Episode 43 - Is Usagi Going It Alone? The Sailor Warriors Get Into a Big Fight

With every passing day, I grow one step closer to finishing the first stage of this project. It fills me with a sense of relief, in a way, that I've managed to make it this long without actually causing any permanent physical damage. Like trying to take scissors to my face, or using a cordless drill on my hand.

That's not to say there haven't been moments when I have been sorely tempted to, mind you. Especially in recent weeks.

However, I am almost at the end of this thing. Four more episodes, and I will have completed Sailor Moon. Then I guess I can begin on R or something. Ugh.

I might as well just get this thing over with, so I can cry myself to sleep tonight.

So according to this episode overview, everyone gets jumped by evil ninjas, and Usagi wants to quit being a Sailor Scout?

Right, so this episode starts with all the girls ganging up on Sailor Moon, seeming like they're about to pretty much destroy her. That's something I can get behind, she is pretty terrible. Especially when Sailor Mars basically sets her entire team on fire in the process.

By the way, I'm fairly sure this episode has the longest title for an episode ever. At least in English.

After the title slide, we head on over to Beryl's Hate Shack, where her crystal ball suddenly explodes into violent light, blinding her and Kunzite.

Damnit woman, how many times have we told you,
don't use Calculator to divide by zero!

Strange energy reactions have been causing this, likely due to some sort of change to the Silver Crystal. Not knowing what is up, they had their top dark ninja try to find out just what the hell is going on. This chick looks pretty slick.

I'm a real ninja, zam!

She also keeps saying Banban, which I guess is her annoying ninja catchphrase. She ninja stars some blank photos and uses Banban to fill in the image, which is Sailor Moon getting picked on by all her little friends. Too bad, so sad.

Not like you've exactly been providing much of
a challenge so far.

Clearly this is shocking, but Beryl is cautious, wondering if this could just be a trap.

So immediately after, Banban sneaks into Naru's family's jewelry shop, smashes the glass and snags some stuff, and throws a cloud of kunai at the girl and her mother, pinning them both to the wall before Sailor Moon suddenly shows up to be the warrior of justice. She immediately gets kicked over by the other four, and proceed to all start fighting in front of the evil ninja monster about who should really be getting the credit for this here.

Yeah, you guys can't put aside your differences for like, five seconds and kill this thing before, I dunno, somebody gets hurt?

Nope.

I mean, Minako should really know better, but the ninja ninjas away and starts taking photos after transforming into a photojournalist, and bombards them with photos. She reveals that she is, really, a tabloid journalist, and proceeds to get the real scoop over the fight. Or attempting to anyways. Then everyone but Usagi leaves, and realizes that the monster has all but vanished.

I'm sure you'll get loose on your own eventually.

Then the next day, Naru tells her bestie about everything that happened the night before. As though she didn't already know. Then the journalist shows up again to pester them on the way to school, and tries to dig up as much information about Sailor Moon as possible. After getting pinned to the wall, Usagi points to Naru as a distraction and leaves her friend just sort of hanging to deal with things while she slips away. The whole time, Luna and Artemis are kind of watching things.

Later that night, the other girls attack Sailor Moon again with everything, including algebra. Lovely. It ends with Mars kicking her down again, and her crying. Practice? I hardly think so.

With eyes like that she really does look like a rabbit.

The truth behind the whole thing is that this is all a ruse to get into the Dark Kingdom, and it was Usagi's plan to have the other girls team up against her. Y'know, because letting them get their hands on the Moon Princess is the best thing they could do. So the cats have been spying on the reporter, who is now approaching super-reporter status. This means she is clearly a monster.

Well, glad you could figure that out, cats.

Then there's another argument about Rei wanting to take leadership away, and that ends with the most childish thing ever.

Grow up already you two, didn't you make up for this
shit like, twenty episodes ago? Christ.

Next day, Usagi heads to the reporter's house, which is a mega-condo. Cool. Her goal is to deliver a 'letter' from "Sailor Moon" signifying her intention to stop being a warrior of Justice. Which is clearly a lie. Then the commercial break hits, and I have to wonder how soulless the rest of this episode will be?

Oniwa... Bandana? Oh come on.

So the letter gets delivered to Kunzite, and there is no doubt in the ninja's mind that Sailor Moon is being ostracized by the others. This means that of course Kunzite has to go out to see her.

At 11, the ninja shows up and changes into reporter form, wondering if her plan is to actually leave. Then she changes into a ninja, and Kunzite shows up because that is kind of his thing. He just wants to ask if she'll join the Dark Kingdom, but of course she won't have that, being a warrior of love and justice.

Hold on, was this not your plan? To... pretend to join their side so you could get to where they were keeping Endymion? Because I thought that was your plan but now it isn't?

Right, so she won't join them, but she really wants to see Endymion. Kunzite offers a deal: Hand over the Silver Crystal, you get to see your once-dead boyfriend, who is too sick to move, no strings attached.

She agrees to hand it over, but only after she sees Enymion. Then the other girls are lying in wait, but you can never truly hide from a ninja, who makes it known that this was just an elaborate ploy to make them look like idiots.

Let's be honest here? That's not very hard. Because you've always kind of been idiots. Except that one time you could have won but totally didn't.

So Kunzite opens a portal to the Dark Kingdom for her to go through, wondering if she'll take the bait. Before she can go through however, she gets a scarf around the neck, and is being forced to hand over the crystal.

If only she were smart enough to use a shovel...

Of course, this is one of those situations where everyone is trying to outmaneuver the other team. The girls can't act because they'll ruin the plan, Usagi can't crack or she'll give everything up, and the villains just want to see if the other girls will come in for the save. What this doesn't solve however is the fact that Kunzite is entirely correct: If she dies, they can take all the time in the world finding the Silver Crystal. After all, it's not like just anybody can use it.

So then Jupiter prepares to ruin everything, but Mars is all like, 'nope, can't let you do that Starfox'.

She's got all the right reasons to at any rate.

But then it is revealed that Mars is holding onto the Moon Stick for their fearless leader. Clearly that means she can't possibly hate the person who basically stole her man and always one-ups her despite being a total dunce.

By this point, Sailor Moon is barely hanging on, and everyone is about ready to friggin' snap. Of course it's Mars that snaps first, and the girls show up with their intro poses because since when do they ever get to do intro poses?

Please tell me this is just a translation error. Because
my god, he could not sound any dumber...

Of course since Mars is angry, she pretty much sets fire to everything, which frees their leader, and then Jupiter and Venus team up for an attack that is totally ineffective against Kunzite. He runs off after telling them to take acting lessons (lol), and then we go right into some straight-up cheesy '90s action anime with the ninja about to smash Sailor Moon apart. Complete with speed lines.

Imagine this for thirty seconds, interspersed with
Usagi's face. You get the point.

Then Mars throws the Moon Stick, and the ninja's sword gets broken by the Moon Stick. So what's she do? Makes a lot of copies of herself. Kind of like that other incredibly annoying ninja. You know, the one with the jump-suit. Except his took less time and was way more entertaining than this.

But then Ami shoots some bubbles around which blinds all the ninjas, and Usagi goes on about how her plan was seen through so easily?

Seriously, what the hell are you talking about??

It's so bad even her team asks what she's talking about.

Then the ninjas get set on fire leaving only the one, and we wrap it up with a Moon Healing blablahblah. Then she goes off on Mars because they ruined her plan, and repeat the earlier exercise in childishness. The episode ends with the reporter asking about the Scouts breaking up again.

.... wow, this episode felt incredibly short. Not only that, but it didn't actually take us any closer to the end of this thing, plot-wise. For all anyone could care, this episode might as well have simply not existed.

Can this even be considered a filler episode? I suppose it would have to be. Except that, unlike all of the others, instead of leaving me wallowing in agony, it has instead just left me with a simple void where my heart should be.

I ought to be feeling something from this. But I'm not. I'm not surprised, or baffled, I'm not even outraged.

It might be a little depressing that I will probably forget about this episode entirely.

Kind of like a ninja.

..... oh SHIT. Those clever bastards. Now I get it. They went out of their way to make an episode about a ninja. One that would leave such a little impression that people would immediately forget about it. Just like a real ninja.

Well played, my friends. Well. Played.