Love British.

Hello, and welcome to our weepary it and exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime reference in a barnaked lady song.

And I'm Jackie lastra, a professional voiceover artist. Wow.

Yeah. We have our good friend Jackie here joining us. You may know Jackie from such shows as Grand Blue Fantasy, bayblade Burst, turbo, sirius, The yeager Anything else you want to Scott?

The tons she's lockermosive. donna.

Yeah. I love this.

Look at all her credit. Stuff I can't talk about yet.

We have a true anime expert with us. Yeah.

Okay. Let's not go that far. I try my hardest.

You're an expert on this specific anime?

This specific anime. I know way too much about that's.

Good.

Because we are diving into a classic. It's going to be hard to not know it. We're watching the original sailor Moon.

Yeah. throwback.

Yeah. The series was first released 91, I believe. Who.

I was born.

I wasn't I wasn't.

I was a child. I was a small child. I'm old. Okay.

That was five years before my time.

Slowly.

That's my favorite.

We fade to dust, cascade into the wind.

So, yeah, this is your favorite anime. Jackie, could you give us a little insight into why you love this show so much?

I love, first of all, the aesthetics. It's a gorgeous show. It teaches you about love and about never giving up and about owning being a woman and kicking butt at it.

Hell, yeah.

Yes.

Adolescence.

The outfits and the superpowers and everything's cute. And that's what I love.

Perfect.

I'm excited already.

Everything you need from a good anime.

Yeah.

Brendan and dana, do you have any experience watching sailor Moon?

No, not watching it. But it's kind of impossible to not know about it because it is prevalent and so popular. But, yeah, I didn't get premium cable back in the olden times, not for quite some years. So we didn't have all the cartoon Network stuff. And then by the time I did, I was in the young youth of preteen, and I was like, I want boy show like you. Hakasho. And try Gun hawke show.

A distant relative of sailor Moon.

Yeah. I believe the creators are married.

They are. I don't know if I just missed my chance to watch this, so I just never did. But it wasn't an anime that I was interested in watching. I guess when I first got into.

It at, like, 13, it's also a serious undertaking. I mean, it's 200 episodes.

It's a boob.

Yeah.

And it's very girly and very flowery and rough. Teenagers were too close for all that.

I was brooding. I watched Death Note, black Butler and Black Butler.

Yes.

Well, it was around that time, too, where it has the parallel of Dragon Ball Z, which was, like, the boy anime. It's, like, super masculine. And that was also one. I will not recommend anyone to embark on that journey because it's just way too much. And in all honesty, Dragon Ball Z is pretty bad. It gets real bad.

See, I've never seen Dragon Ball Z because at my school, all the girls watch sailor Moon and all the boys watch Dragon Ball Z. Did not cross over.

Yes. Same man.

I have, like, flashbulb memories of watching sailor Moon because it was, like, the late 90s when it was just on reruns on American TV. So just as, like, a four or five year old, it would just be on. And I have vague memories of watching it, but I have no comprehension of the show.

Got you.

I remember the four kids dub, and her name was Serena.

Yes. That's my favorite dub. The deak. Sorry. Sorry. Viz. Love you.

Love everything you do.

Love you. But, I mean, I've come up with deke.

It's the nostalgic.

Yeah, it's just that I mean, I know there's been, like, four sailor moons, but the original will always be my Dear Suite Serena.

Well, yeah.

So shall we dive into the memories of Dear Suite Serena and watch the first three episodes of sailor Moon?

Yes, let's.

All right, let's transform I don't know the terminology. Transform back into a regular middle schooler, your high schooler, 14, whatever.

Was that 8th grade here in the Us.

I think that's right. That's 14.

Yeah, 14 is around that yeah, that's.

Like, late middle school. Early high school.

I was 16 in my freshman year. I was a weird older kid in that grade.

What?

Okay, let's drop. What's going on? Wait, no, I don't want to.

It's very uninteresting.

We have a guest. We can't derail this much.

Don't make us look bad in front of the guest.

I know, you guys. It's cool. I have dnd. There have been much derailment that truly can lie.

You know us for our dead.

Exactly.

You know the worst sides of us.

We're the best.

So, yeah, we just watched the first three episodes of the original sailor Moon.

Yes. Let's get into it.

Yeah.

So I watched it on hulu, and they had the Viz dub, which is what I watched.

Yeah, I watched the first episode of the original dub, and then the second and third, I watched the Viz dub.

I did the opposite because I had never seen the Viz dub before. I saw it with Crystal, but then I didn't see the original visdub, so I went ahead and I watched the first one and was just like, I miss my old Serena.

It's too difficult.

I love you, Stephanie shea.

But I didn't know there were other dubs, so I the one I watched had Serena in it. So I'm guessing that's the deak one.

Yes.

Okay. So I watched.

How exciting.

Dub, sub dub as well.

We all did such different things. There's such a variety of ways to watch sailor Moon.

Emily shamala, would be excited about this twist we have.

I hope our notes aren't too different.

It'll be the same story. We might get confused with the names, though.

I give them the names anyway. I never remember.

Yeah, I'll try and remember. So let's get into the childhood I never had. Starts out right with the opening. There's no lead in it's, just the opening. And I like it a lot. Very 90s.

It's classic.

Yeah. I'll I'll say watching the dub for the first one, it didn't grab me as much, but once it switched over to the Japanese version for the Viz episodes, I was digging it a little bit more. It just works a little bit more in Japanese.

I don't know how I've heard it. I've definitely heard this song, the Japanese version, I don't know how.

Yeah, I mean, they've probably played it like in the background at cons or YouTube somewhere.

Yeah. Big inspirational show like this. It's got to be everywhere, just in the background, even if you don't recognize it.

But that's interesting because the one I watched is the classic traditional opening, but apparently yours is this one has Japanese mixed into it. Or is the Japanese song in Japanese?

Yeah, it's a Japanese song.

Interesting. Okay.

Yeah.

And the Japanese intro as well, like the animation is the Japanese intro as well.

Are they two different intros?

Yeah, because I noticed when I watched the subt one, I noticed the Japanese intro is different than the English, but apparently the version uses the Japanese intro, which is pretty I don't know the right word. It's pretty contained. Whereas the deak like, English original English dub intro kind of reveals the whole story. Like, it shows all the characters and it's like sailor Mercury and jupiter and all these characters that aren't introduced. But then the Japanese one shows you, I guess, just kind of the core sailor cast.

Yeah, it shows.

That did throw me off because watching that English version first, seeing all those other characters, I was like, yeah, they're going to be involved right from the start.

No.

And then they were not actually, I.

Believe the fifth one doesn't even the completion of the Inner Sense, she doesn't even show up until the 34th episode.

Whoa, my God.

Because fillers.

The best.

Yes.

Get all the time in the world.

Dang. Well, I was super into it. I really liked the aesthetic of the Japanese opening. I did not watch the English opening.

I forgive you.

I even watched the wrong English dub.

We're all mixed up.

Yeah, but so after the opening, we're introduced to usagi Serena. I guess I'll call her Serena.

That helps me.

Whatever. It works for you.

Could we just call her sailor moose?

Okay.

I was going to say so she wakes up, she's late, as always. She's clumsy and late, and that's what she's known for. I knew this about her. She also likes food, which is why.

I love her so much.

She's very cute, very relatable. So relatable right off the bat.

Yeah. I mean, later on, I wrote that I don't necessarily relate to her, but just that I love her already.

She's private.

She's very cute.

I blame her for me being late every single day.

You aspired to be like her a little too.

Exactly. It's her fault.

It opens up. And in the Viz dub, I don't know if they do. Maybe they do it in the other one, but she just says, Hi, I'm usagi. And I'm just like, Hi, Usaggy. Nice to meet you.

Okay, I'm going to have to step in, though, because with the deep old dub, it just vomits information at you immediately, which I'm guessing didn't happen in the viz because it happened before we see her waking up.

Was that my blood type? My star sign?

This is like, on the moon. Queen Barrel took in these negotiations.

Did you get the backstory?

Yeah. Okay. Because they just, like, hurled all this information. They're moon people, and then they got sent to Earth and they got to defend and I'm just like, what the hell is happening? I'm already super confused. And this was in the course of, like, 30 seconds. All of this information was, like, throwing at you. So it's just like, oh, God, I.

Have a note later about spooky stuff. I guess all of that information must have just gone over my head or something, because I didn't no, I don't.

Think they mentioned it in the Vizdub.

Okay, good.

I don't think they start out with that.

That is weird that they don't give, like, the whole backstory to why everything is happening.

It didn't help stretch it out. I'm very confused immediately.

Yeah, but so she also mentioned she gets teased for being emotional, and I'm like, saying, that's really cool. Her mom is beautiful. Doesn't look like her at all, but her mom is beautiful, and she's like, ou, saggy, you're going to be late for school, but here's your lunch. And then usagi creeps back in. She's like, okay, I'll take it.

Thanks, mom.

Thanks, mom. So she's running to school and she sees some boys. Bullying a cat is rough for me.

Why is it with anime, kids are just beating off like small animals? What the hell is wrong with anime kids?

Psychoanimate bullying, apparently.

She's so rude.

She kids, but so she yells at them, she shakes her fists at them, and then they run off and they put a bandage on the kiddie's forehead. And it's very upset about it. So she's like, oh, I'll take it off for you. Don't worry. And it was at this point I was like, oh, she saved the magical cat, so now she's going to be a magical girl. Just like madoka saved Cuba.

I was immediately put off having that be the parallel I was going to.

Hey, wait a minute.

Me too.

The sailor Moon Show just copied playlist Go. What the hell's going on?

Hey, guys.

I know the back story, so I didn't even put that together. Thank you for pointing that out.

Hey, can I copy your homework? Yeah, just change it a little bit.

She calls it a bald spot. It has a little moon on its forehead. We all know it's not a bald spot. spaced cat, safe cat, cookie cat. So she runs to school. She's late. darn it. Unless she has a very funny line of it's not my fault everybody else gets here on time. This prime comedy. I already really like this. I was like I was sitting here because I was thinking I wouldn't enjoy it. Just being like a 22 year old person watching it for the first time, you know? Like, I thought it was going to be something that you had to get into when you were a little younger, but I'm already enjoying it at this point, which was a nice surprise.

Well, that's good.

I really enjoyed they said character traits about her and then showed those traits versus just saying, like, oh, she's ditzy and always late, and then never expel on that anymore in the entire series. Like, they show you this is who she is.

Oh, yeah. In every episode, they beat you over.

The head with that.

Yeah. They make the strong choice and they stick to it.

Respectable. Yes. But so she's late and she's failing. She got a 30% on her test, and she's banished to the hallway because of it. And then I don't know if it's after school or if it's lunchtime, but now she's outside and she's with her friend naru what's her name in the other dub?

Molly.

Molly. molly.

And she has a New York accent.

I love it.

I love it.

So strange.

It's a very odd choice, but God damn it, do I love it. It's so good.

I'll have to check that out. That sounds delightful.

It's a stereotypical, like, Long Island accent as it you get it's great.

I love you.

I'm all the names at points, everyone gets a little bit New yorky, which is odd because there are sarcastic Sarah Moon moments where she sounds just a touch of New York. And it's like this is very odd.

Most of the voice actors were, like, Canadian voice actors, so I wonder if they based their American accent on maybe New York.

Oh, that's so funny.

This is just a theory. I have no idea.

I hope it's true.

Like, a lot of other people New.

York sounding you can get I can do New York perfect.

Like, a lot of people in other countries, when they say, like, American accent, they nearly go to texan stereotype, but.

So I think that's funny. I remember seeing the Tokyo mew mew version of that. Like, the guy's name is Mark, and her name is zoe. It's just so funny. But so her best friend is like, hey, I know you're feeling down. Let's go to my mom's jewelry store after school because we're having, like, a super mega sale and they're really excited about going. And there's also that really smart kid who's always there.

Melvin.

Fucking melvin is calvin Melbourne melvin.

Very underrated character. He is fantastic.

I will say. He's a great character. He's a terrible person.

Oh, no, he's a terrible person. But his comedic moments throughout the first season are just great.

Yeah, I even like him. He has some pretty funny moments just even in these first three episodes. His name is, umi now in the other one. But yeah, and they also talk about sailor V, who serena usagi. pretends to know who that is and gets all excited about it. And then she's like, who is that, though? And naru is like, you don't even know what I'm talking about. Which is a funny trope that I enjoy. But so that's when in the viz one, we get the spooky stuff, we are introduced to Queen Barrel, who I just called Evil Lady at first because I didn't catch her name, sir. And she's looking for the silver crystal. And then a blonde dude steps forward and he's like, I volunteer to help. And I was like, when was this dubbed? That's todd habercore.

Sharp ear.

Yeah, I actually saw him at ala. Did not say hi because why would I? So they go, Whatever. He offers to help, great. That's the gist of it. And then they go to the jewelry store and we get best friend's Mom snickering like, oh, maybe she's evil.

What's going on here?

There are also a lot of redheads in that store. I noticed.

I did not notice this.

I love redhead girls. And there are a lot in this show.

I think it's just a color palette. They're just like everything's bright. So they're like, why have everyone have boring brown hair? Red make a pop.

Yeah, americans have red hair. I don't know.

Got redheads and blondes. That's all you need.

So even with the super mega sale, neither of them can really afford any of the jewelry. So they're leaving. And usagi, I think, at this point, like, crumples up her test and tosses it. And then handsome dark haired man picks it up and he's like, wow, you litter and you get shitty grades. You suck bunhead.

Meatball head.

Meatball head.

Meatball head.

So they called it what's wrong with bunhead?

Because it's meatball head.

Well, in the early 90s, for a lot of Japanese dubs, when they have dumplings and stuff, for some reason, they translated as meatballs.

I love a good jelly donut.

I guess in the 90s, it's yeah, we don't know what food is. If it has the vaguely same shape, I guess we can pass it off. Dumb Americans. They'll get mad if they don't know food. That's their thing.

Well, when I was little, I figured it made sense because she had meatballs and her hair was spaghetti.

That's cute logic.

I mean, I was five.

That's cute logic.

It checked out. That's probably more logical than whatever they justified that port.

Yeah, but so that made me mad. I was like, you don't even know her. Shut up.

This guy.

And then she calls him a stupid jerk with his purple pleated pants.

He does have some awesome style.

He is very 90s. Stylish. And usagi complains about her life, and the kitty hears her complain about it, and that's when the kitty talks for the first time. She's a magical kitty. And there's just a moment where we see, like, the exterior of usagi's house, and I just really like the way it's painted. It feels very different from the aesthetic of the rest of the show, but it's just really pretty. And I wanted to say that.

No, the scenery in this show is gorgeous. Like, throughout all the buildings, all of Tokyo. It's incredible.

Yeah. I didn't think I would be into the color palette like in show because I've seen pictures of it, and I think it's kind of cool, but at the same time how does this work?

But I love it works well.

It's such a cool aesthetic, but so the cat comes into her room and she's like, hello. And usagi is, of course, like, wow, a talking cat. She was kind of outlining the magical girl stuff, and I was just like, unfortunately, Cuba has taught me not to trust Luna.

Oh, no.

Yeah, I did have bad associations going in. I was like, oh, don't trust that cat.

We've been around.

But I now want to get a black cat and name it Luna because it's cute.

This was one of the changes for the Viz dub that I actually preferred in the original. Luna in the original dub was like, a slightly older British woman.

Right.

But I liked it for reasons I'll get to in a second, but I'll elaborate further.

Yeah. I think it sounds like wendy Lee in the Viz dub.

Not sure I believe it's. Michelle. wendy is crewing serenity.

Oh, okay. Well, there you go.

Yeah, I think it's Michelle bruno.

Got you. So she kind of is just like, I don't believe you. This sounds all pretty wacky to me. And then Luna is like, I'll prove it. And she gives her a brooch, and usagi Serena is just kind of like, oh, cute. And puts it on, apparently sealing the contract. Genius. And Luna says, okay, say this thing. Moon prison power. Moon Power. Prison moon prison power. Yeah. Moon Power.

Unless you're watching the Japanese or the vista where they say Moon Power and makeup.

Oh, yes. I forgot about that. That was a weird I didn't like that.

Yeah. I like moon prism power.

All of the Japanese transformations. For some reason, they say makeup at the end.

Yeah.

I don't know why.

Mistranslation.

But so she has her first transformation sequence. It's cute. I like it. I've seen this.

The iconic scene.

Everyone's seen this.

Yeah.

I will say this. I did get a little bit of goosebumps seeing it because I was like, oh, this is like the main magical girl thing. I'm seeing, like, such an iconic transformation thing.

She started it all.

The og.

But so after her transformation, she looks super cute. And then she has, like, spidey senses where she can hear that something's going wrong with her friend naru. And we have seen at this point that people who bought jewelry from her mom's super mega sale are getting weaker. They feel weak and dizzy because the jewelry is draining their life energy.

Whoa.

Because her mom is evil.

Well, she's possessed. It's not real.

She's possessed. Yeah. It's not her mom.

But you could tell because her mom did not have a New York accent.

But so she goes to the jewelry store, and the Naru's not mom, transforms into a scary, icky monster. And I was like, oh, gross.

You'll love, what are you doing? What's going on here?

Which, if you watch, they got so creative with their monsters throughout the series because you got to think it's a different monster every episode. And so at some point, there were, like, tennis ball monsters and aerobic monsters. And it's worth looking at. They get bizarre.

Yeah, this one was pretty it was uglier than I thought it was going to be.

Yeah, it did get more aesthetic. Yeah. It got more grotesque and very zombie like a mom. This is a sharp turn from everything we've seen so far. I love.

Yeah. But so she's like, who are you? And usagi is just kind of like, well, good question. I'm sailor Moon, I guess. And that's what she says, in the name of the Moon, I'll punish you. And I wrote, in the name of the moon, I'll fuck you up. Because that's what I like to think of it as. And so we have a fight. Scary demon lady versus brand new magical girl who doesn't know what she's doing.

And, like, immediately cowers away from the horde of people, and she just starts crying.

Tuxedo masks.

But yes, why not? useless superhero.

He's so funny because he just shows up and he says something along the lines of crying isn't going to do anything. And then she just cries louder. And it does do something. Take that, tuxedo man.

And knocks all the women out who were being controlled by her.

Yeah. And then does he leave before the fight is over? He leaves before the fight is over.

Here's a rose. A quick pet talk. I'm out of here.

He doesn't do anything.

Spawn over me for a moment, say how dreamy I am, and then get back to the fight.

I have seen I think it was just a vine of him saying, my work is done here. And then usagi saying, but you didn't do anything. And it's an animation of him running away and the sound whoops.

That just summarizes his entire character.

Yeah, but so she wins the fight. Luna tells her to throw her tiara at the scary monster, and I forget what she's supposed to yell. I think that's when she yells something along the lines of, like, moon Prism Power Tiara Magic. Yeah.

Yes.

All right. But yeah, so she wins the fight, and I don't know if anything happens before the ending.

They're at school, and she's really tired, and everyone else is like, I had this weird dream. It's like, I had that dream, too. And so did I because they were all being mind controlled.

Yeah. So that's pretty much episode one.

Yeah.

The ending is a nice song, too. It might be different in the other one, but the one I saw was nice.

It is, yeah.

I believe that deke was just the intro. Again, the same song.

Oh, got you.

At least the one I watched.

Yeah.

All right.

So I'll say now, because this is what really drew me in. I was seeing especially in the original dub, I was seeing a lot of parallels to buffy the Vampire slayer that I was not expecting.

Okay, I can see that.

So you have the girls, the hero. This one, she's learning how to use power, so that's a little bit different. But the underworld, where the evil creature is in season one, the vampire is, like, under the town, and they keep descending down into the chamber of, like, soon our plan will come together. And also for the original dub, luna having a British older person teaching you how to be the hero. Luna was my giles, and I was just loving that.

My giles is a cat.

And just throughout, I kept seeing just sort of the small town, like, monster of the week things, of, like, ooh, this new pop up, and, oh, no, everyone's getting cursed, and we saved the day. And just that kept recurring, and I was like, oh, this is way more familiar than I thought it would be.

I mean, is anyone surprised? joss wean's a weeb joss weaven that got what it deserves.

Yes.

That one wasn't back.

Anyway, redeem yourself, Brendan, with episode two.

I don't promise anything, so I watched this one subbed, and I'm glad I did, because of the parallels we've seen with just the editing, let alone the translations. So there were differences right away. So at least what I saw there was just, once again, an extremely fast recap of the first episode. Right away, it's just like, oh, God, too much. And then we get a title card, which you don't see anymore in anything. I thought that was both, like, nostalgic. Like, I'll remember these. And then I was like, you guys probably don't. And then starts off, there's a weird old man in an alleyway, and he's got a really long line of people just like, waiting to talk to him. It's not really clear what he doing, at least for me. And then we see Queen Barrels, like, henchman standing in line, and he's just, like, kind of muttering like, dumb humans, and walks away. It's like, all right, weird. Okay, see you. And this is where we see Queen Barrel. And this is the first time I heard about the Silver Crystal. And she's looking for this crystal for its power. And until they can find it, they're going to be draining the energy from the humans and to awaken their ruler.

She said.

She said, like, our rulers waiting.

Okay, which you don't need until much later.

Yeah, so it's kind of confused by that. And then we cut to Serena waking up late again. And classic serena, as usual. This time she's trying to sneak into class without being caught and fucking melvin, this dumb nerd calling her out. He can't shut his mouth. He's like, what, are you just screaming in class? And of course, teacher turns, why are you crawling?

Did you drop a contact list? Shut up, nerd.

And of course, teacher turns around, sees her. It's like, all right, stand in the hallway because you're late and in trouble. And then melvin is also out there with her. And when she's kind of talking like, oh, man, that sucks. I got caught. And she's like, Wait, melvin, why are you out here? And he's just like, oh, I don't know. I just kind of wanted to be near you because I just wanted to.

Hang out with you.

Gosh, you're so cool and pretty.

God, I hate melvin Bar. And then we get a little clip. Or cut to melvin outside talking with molly, I think. And she's kind of like, why are you around Serena so much? What's your deal? It's like, oh, you like her? You got a crush? He's like, I don't know. She's like, well, you should go to a fortune teller and figure out if you guys are destined to be together, because fortune tellers are a big thing in the 90s. He's like, oh, I made my own video game. Like video fortune teller. And it tells me that we're destined to be married.

And she's like, no, the voice is so good.

Have you ever thought about being a voice actor, Brandon?

No, I can only do nerd just because it's what I am.

Only nerd.

That's my only character.

Oh, the other buffy thing. He is xander.

True.

That means nothing.

But friendly classmate who is in love with the lead.

Got you. Is xander likable, though.

More than melan.

He's more charming. Not as likable.

So molly tells him to go to, like, a real fortune teller and see what his chances are. So then we cut to Serena, like, walking down the street, and she walks by the alleyway that the old guy was in earlier. She's like, hey, there's no line. Like, there usually is. What's the. Deal, old man? He's like, oh, there's a big, fancy smanty fortune teller across the street now, taking all my business. I can't barely do fortunes anymore. She's like, why don't you read my fortune? But she never pays him. I noticed. So it's just kind of like, maybe this is why you're not doing well, old man, because you're not charging anyone anything off screen. We know she doesn't have money. She complains about it earlier in the last episode.

I suppose so, yeah.

So after the fortune teller fortune teller, she's like, there's a boy thinking of you. Like, someone's got, like, good intentions. She's like, ooh, I wonder if it's a certain guy I know. And then she goes to the game center, where she goes to play the sailor V games, because she's a big fan of sailor V, which is, I guess, a superhero or TV show character or something in this world.

She's a vigilante.

Yeah. She's sailor Moon, basically, because she's already out there fighting.

Yeah.

And, I mean, we can go exploit we're only doing three episodes. I'm pretty sure that sailor venus.

Yes.

Okay.

I assume so.

They set you up, and they're like, oh, we got to find this moon princess. We don't know who she is, but we're on the lookout for her for, like, 40 episodes. And then all of a sudden, they're like, oh, it's Serena. Big surprise.

The one with Moon in her yeah.

Literally has soccer.

Oh, God. And then what happened?

I wonder who Tuxedo desk could be.

So when you look Tuxedo oh, by.

The way, they never actually explained this, but Tuxedo darian has no idea that he's Tuxedo mask walking at all. But it's great if you watch this, knowing this in the back of your mind, that he has no idea he's doing this every night.

Oh, God, this makes it so much better. Oh, I love it. It's like the one guy in cart after soccer.

Oh, yeah.

Anyway, so she's at the game center.

That's so funny. I'm thinking about that for the rest of my God.

She meets a guy outside the game center, and he's like, oh, Serena, you're here early. He's like, come on. And he's like, oh, they must know each other. Maybe she's here on a date. And it turns out he took rick's there. And she just is there playing the game all the time that they've gotten to know each other. In a later episode, he's named Andrew in the tub. So she's playing the game and doing be terrible at it. So he comes up, and he's like, let me show you how it's done. And he starts playing the game, and that's when Luna jumps up and bites her hand, kind of trying to drag her away of like, we got shit to do. Stop wasting your time with this, like, nerd and video games. And then Serena goes back to the fortune tower to see if her chances with the game at center guy have improved, and the fortune tower is gone. She's like, shucks. And she says, like, oh, I'll decide my own fortune. I'll throw my shoe up, and if it lands right side up, I have good chances with Andrew. If it lands, like, upside down, I don't I have good chance with them, or I'll go home. So she kicks her shoe up, and it falls right down on Cool Guy Mcjones's head. That's what I was calling him. And he's just fucking asshole. He's just such a dick. And he just starts, like, tearing into her, and she's like, whatever, takes her shoe and goes home. And then meanwhile, melvin just goddamn nerd, goes to the fancy smanty fortune teller to see what his odds are with Serena. And lo and behold, he's getting hypnotized by the fortune teller who's evil.

No, right in the name of the episode. He shouldn't have gone in.

Didn't he see the title card?

You have to watch the opening credit.

He's the kind of guy that would skip the opening.

And so, yeah, the fortune teller, like, hymnizes him and say, you'd be a perfect servant of evil. Oh, man. Really? Just laying it on thick. There are a fortune teller, and she puts a card up to him that will drain his energy, but it also controls him. He gets absorbed into his body. And then serena's running back home, and as she's running back home, she runs into her dad, who's just, like, out buying groceries because he got off work early and then just was like, both her parents are alive. Weird.

Yeah.

Weird for an anime.

Fair.

Yeah, for an anime, it's very uncommon for both parents to be in the show.

Well, and also, like, happy.

Yeah. Not dysfunctional. I mean, as far as we can tell, it's only the second episode we'll see.

Yeah. I don't want to spoil it, but you have the wrong ideal. Not quite, but there is a twist.

Okay, well, in this moment, I'm happy in my ignorance.

Yes.

So, yeah, she runs into her dad and they're walking home.

No, but there's also a weird moment where she's thinking about Andrew while looking at her dad.

Oh, yeah. She's kind of deirdre. And about Andrew, she's like, oh, I.

Hope he's as considerate as my dad is.

And I'm just like, man, froying.

I guess that's typically model the guy that they want after some of the traits of their dad, if they like their dad.

I like my dad, and my boyfriend is nothing like my dad. But, hey, everyone's different. It's an admirable trait. Like, being considered is a nice trait, but I just thought it was a weird moment for her to be, like, looking at her dad and for him to have, like, the daydreamation thing up into the guy she likes.

Freud would have a field day with anime.

Yeah, that's what killed him.

And cocaine.

He did a lot of cocaine.

Anyway, next day they're at school, and they're like their lockers, putting their stuff away, and molly's telling screen, and like, oh, I think melvin likes you. And at that moment, melvin shows up in a full, like, three piece suit, and he's like, oh, baby blue, baby blue suit. And it's like, oh, you're not in your uniform. Teachers won't like that. He's like, whatever, I wear what I want. The bad boy attire is, like, the most formal thing you could possibly wear. Even as a nerd, his bad boy suit is just dumb. I hate melvin. He's so lame. And then he just starts eating, like, a whole loaf of bread that he just took out of his bag. And the teacher shows up, is like, hey, you can't be wearing that, and you shouldn't be eating lunch right now. And like, as he's walking away, he's like, eh, whatever. And just flips the teacher's skirt up, and it's just like, man, absolute garbage.

Fuck, this guy hardcore.

Melvin.

But then the teacher starts crying and breaks down. And at least in the sub, she says, now no one will ever marry me. Just like, wow, your standards are super high. If that's all it took.

All these children saw my underwear, so.

Now no one will marry me.

That's all it takes to just ruin someone's life.

Guys, life is harsh.

I mean, for a teacher. Yeah, maybe it's that hard. Oh, God. So then we cut to, like, in class, Melvin's making noise and just laughing at some sort of comic or something. And when a teacher goes up to yell at him, she gets tripped by another student who's another asshole. And we see, like, the little glow.

Melvin goes from being one kind of classmate that I hate to another kind.

Of he has no redeeming qualities ever.

You got to collect them all.

Yeah.

So we see, like, a little glow of a fortune telling card in the other student who's being a dick. And then we cut to them, like, throwing rocks through windows at the school and just like, man, what a bunch of brats. And then Serena and molly come up to him being like, hey, guys, what are you doing? Stop being dicks. As when melvin just tries to lean in and tries to kiss her, and Serena just breaks down and just starts crying and screaming really loudly, I hate you. Why are you so different? What's wrong with you? I hate you so much. And they're just like, oh, God, no. And all the guys just back away and leave. Hey, it worked.

Her tears overpowered the influence of satan.

Cry the devil out of you.

Everything, guys.

So that's what Devil May Cry is about.

Yes.

Who's the devil crying to get away from?

Or is this devil may cry?

Baby, we'll watch that someday.

That's a dark one, that one. I couldn't make it through that one.

So then Luna comes up and tells Serena like, hey, I think something's wrong with these guys. I think someone's controlling them. And Serena immediately pieces together, like, oh, it must have been that Fortune Tower, because I heard all the boys were going into the Fortune Tower, so that's probably who's controlling them. Oh, shit. You actually pieced together. Good on you.

I could go, you impress me, kid.

Nice walk. And then Serena, at least in the sub, is like, oh, I've pieced it together. Do I get a new item now? Like a game? Hey, I solved the quest. where's my reward?

She plays luna's like, what, games?

Yeah, like, what? No, I'm not. No. Get to the fortune tower. I really like that. Just really quick interaction between those two. So they go to confront the Fortune Tower and Serena literally just kicks in, or no, before she does that, Luna is like, all right, you transform now. serena's like, oh, yeah, in the name of the I forget the words. And it's like, bless you, Serena, you wonderful child.

Still fresh, still evolutions.

I love it. And she just kicks in the door, literally kicks open the doors, and it's just like, hey, Fortune teller, I know you're evil and I'm going to stop you. Like, no banter, no back and forth. Like, just cutting right to the chase.

I'm here to murder you.

I'm going to cleanse you from this earth. And the fortune teller transforms into this big green monster, like crazy hair. And then all the boys just controlling, kind of transforming, turn green as well. And they start attacking her. And as they're chasing her around, tuxedo Mask shows up and throws a rose down. A rose down and draws everyone's attention to that and gives her a little pep talk, and away he goes, because God forbid he accomplishes anything in his life.

Is back useless? Not to help.

No, never to help. Just to draw attention to himself, because he's a narcissist, apparently.

Running around anywhere good back.

And knowing he doesn't remember any of it does make it better.

So funny.

So then once the tension is broken up by Tuxedomass, she throws her tiara at the Fortune Tower and just obliterates her, just turns her to dust.

Moon saves the day again.

Good to know a 14 year old has no quarrel about murder.

There's actually a big change throughout the show with this. The destruction of the enemies is only the first little bit, and they transform very quickly into her healing all of the enemies. So the tiara destroys, but only for a few first episodes. And then she gets a healing rod. And from then on, it's all about saving the other person and understanding that they have a dark past, but they can be reformed. Yeah, it's a really great hidden message.

Within the show, like, how far in do they introduce season five?

How far in do they introduce what?

Switching to healing them rather than just.

Murder dusting them actually wrote it down. Hold up. Episode 25. Okay, so very quickly in it's not.

The first season of an anime.

Yeah, so like season two, they switch it.

It's actually still season one. It's a long series. I think the first season is 40 something episodes. I think like 46.

Oh, damn.

That's more than I thought.

In the grand scheme of things, it is not that far into the show.

Got you.

When you think about at that episode, we've only met the fourth sailor scout.

My god, it is weird being like, hey, let's start this season. And also just halfway through, let's just switch up. The complete mechanic of this character from just killing these bad guys to redeeming.

Them.

Are literally just monsters. Monsters take a lot to kill them because they're just going to disappear. But after that episode, it's like actual people.

So we should be nicer.

It's like Power Rangers. Yeah, it actually reminds me of a non anime show. God forbid we talk about it, but arrow, which is fucking garbage. But the first season, it's Green arrow. And he's just shooting criminals with arrows. And he's just straight murdering people left and right in the first season. And the second season, the first episode is like, hey, can you stop with all the fucking murder? And he's like, okay, I guess I'll just cripple them for life. And it's just like, that's not much better.

Not better.

That's probably worse.

I just like how the superhero is just straight up killing people without any remorse in the first episode anyway and.

Live with the pain.

Absolutely. Thanks for the suggestion.

So yeah, defeat the monster. Cut. The next day, everyone's walking to school and molly's selling melvin all the embarrassing stuff he did. And he's just like super depressed. Oh god, how am I going to face everyone? And he turns to run back home and he runs in this serena. And he's like, oh, I'm so sorry. She's like, don't worry. We all have bad days out. You can just forget about it. And he's like, oh yeah, I forgot you get bad grades all the time. You're okay with being terrible?

And he's like, haha.

And runs off. And she's just like, yeah, what the fuck? Like, I just saved your house. That's it. That's just like, man, I fucking love Serena and I hate melvin so much.

Well, good news. He's not super in the next episode.

Thank you.

So yeah, episode three, we have love themes throughout. We start as we do get in the past two episodes with Barrel collecting the energy and saying, hey, you failed me the last few times. Side. henchman guy jedi jadite. jadite.

All of the bad people are gemstones.

Yes, I know.

Okay? Because I didn't notice. Sorry.

Go ahead. No, I was just like people who are really into sailor Moon often get really into Greek mythology and geology and astrology because of all the small little hidden things from sailor Moon.

All the names and themes that's kind.

Of branches interacts with. Like, if you're big into Greek mythology, there are a lot of similar tropes between the two.

Yeah, I know.

This was jadite in the other dub.

Yes. I didn't know barrel was spelled B-E-R-Y-L until I watched the sub. Up till then, I was saying B-A-R-R-E-L. Like the barrel you put shit in.

No.

And I was like, that's a weird name for a villain, but okay.

I believe Barrel is also a gemstone.

Yes. It's like a blue small one.

Yes.

Episode three.

So, yeah, and jadite is like, hey, don't worry. Me and my new assistant frau are going to be collecting energy left and right.

We're on it.

So we cut to usagi listening to a midnight radio show, Midnight Zero, which is a radio show that reads love letters on the air.

Wait a minute. This is a different episode than what I watched.

Did you watch Slim, dude? Yeah, because the last one I didn't watch, but, I mean, I've seen it, so I was able to catch up. But I watched one, three, and four because for some reason, the website I was on sent me to.

That interesting.

That's odd.

Let's tell Brendan about fsa free.

I will have nothing to contribute, so it'll probably go by a lot faster.

It's all about also a big thing. They're stealing their life energy by way of emotions. Emotions are a big theme throughout sailor Moon. The negavers is not supposed to have emotion, which is why they're sucking humans of it.

I love lore.

I love context given to me outside of the show.

Got to dig in deep. So, yeah, listening to this radio show, they introduce a letter, and the name is familiar because it's the name of their teacher, and their teacher had a love letter read on the air. And we cut to her just freaking out, like, I got picked. And they mentioned that everyone who has a letter read on the show, they get sent a flower brooch to be a symbol of their love being out in the world.

I love it.

So they cut to the next morning after luna's, like, hey, you idiot, go to bed midnight and you have school. You are consistently late. Can you make an effort, please?

It's a very naggy cat.

So we cut to the next morning where the parents are downstairs reading about a mysterious sleep sickness that is plaguing the town where people just sleep and can't wake up.

Been there until Sunday.

Relatable content.

You can't tell if you're honestly relating to it or calling me out.

I'm making fun of you.

Okay.

I mean, literally, every character, once they hear about this, they're like, oh, God, that sounds so fucking good. I just wish I could sleep. Please. Of course. Yeah. But do you know I'd rather be.

Asleep than have to live.

Who needs a job and family? Oh, hello dear. My darling wife. So they hear her scream, I just woke up. I got to go to school. And she just sprints out. But when she gets to school, not to worry, the teacher isn't there. The teacher is even later than she is. So strange. So she skates in under the wire and then the teacher comes in later just dead tired, just barely shambling in and saying, hey, we're having a free period. I cannot keep my eyes open. And she's wearing this fun flower brooch from the radio show. And then we have luna is just walking out on her own being like, oh, that damn idiot girl. Is she really like a hero? Because she sucks right now. She's always late to everything. She's a crybaby. I don't know if she's the hero and she runs into you know what though?

Luda keeps complaining about her temperament and stuff, but it's like you literally forced her to be a magical girl.

Yeah, she didn't want this.

You can't get mad at her for this, right?

Like every other magical girl gets a preamble of like, hey, this is a terrible life. You have to make a strong decision. She was like, hey, check out this sigma Doubt. Okay, anyways, now you're a magical girl. Check out the so fight these zombies real quick.

Okay. But on the other hand, cube A did not give them the full breakdown either.

No, I don't know what you're talking about.

So Luna sees I forgot the game I just wrote gameboy.

Andrew.

Andrew? Yeah, the guy who works at the game store arcade place.

He's a video game boy.

He's the one who wins.

Yay burns.

So he's like, hey, this cat's back. Hey, do you want some milk? Cool. And she's like, yeah, cool. He's a cool guy.

Psa. Don't give cats milk. Their life doesn't tolerant.

Yes, but it's a 90s cartoon. Of course you're going to give a little kitty a bowl of milk.

Yeah, little saucer.

So we cut back to the school. The teacher has fallen asleep and she cannot wake up. So she is taken away to the hospital and everyone's freaking out and no.

One thinks to take off that dang brooch.

No.

I mean, magic is a prevalent in that world. I guess they might not put it two and two together.

I take it off just because it's so ghosh.

I mean, if I have a broad hat out, you're not going to immediately think, oh, that awesome. accessory must be training her life energy.

Drained by the chunky jewelry.

If they're taking her to the hospital, are they going to like I guess they wouldn't change her clothes or anything, like to monitor her because then wouldn't she wake up?

Maybe she's already taken her life force at that point.

Jackie has a good book though. It's like, hey, Jackie passed out. Let me loot her body. All the valuable tools. Let me fucking rob her blind.

She's been asleep for 13 years.

Secret if I am asleep longer than a minute and I don't wake up completely naked, I'm going to be concerned.

Meanwhile, at the radio station, they keep getting letters and fan mail and love notes for this radio show that does not exist. And then a woman comes out and says, hey, I'll take those letters and walks away.

Redhead.

Yes.

The theme continues.

I wish I did watch this episode.

So they keep going. usagi is like, oh, I wish I could have a letter read on there. And she's like and molly, I forget naru in the viz one. She's like, oh, I'm submitting letters too. And she's like, what? You don't date anyone? And she's like, yeah, I'm writing it to my future boyfriend. Just a general love note. Just put your name here at the top. And then it applies to anyone, obviously. So usagi's fantasizing about who will I write my love note to? And runs into jerk Boy.

He's back.

Surprisingly, the only one who didn't have a New York accent.

Hey, I'm walking here. Hello.

I am walking here.

Even when he isn't Tuxedo Mask, he just also shows up places.

Yeah, he just appears nowhere.

He's always around.

Actually, this makes sense now because the episode I watch, she's like, oh, hey, it's Darren. I was like, what the hell did she learn his so it's probably because I watched him out of order.

You watched a great episode, though, that one.

It was a classic 90s, very special episode of sailor Moon. This brings me back.

So she decides that she wants to write a love letter, but doesn't know what to write. So she's going to go talk to the host of Midnight Zero and get some inspiration. But when she goes to the radio station, the guard is like, we don't have a show called that. No host by that name works here. Get out of here, you crazy child.

Go get.

And she's just kind of like, okay.

She's like, oh, sure. All right.

Fair enough.

But then she goes and listens to that night's broadcast. And it's like, see, there is a show, and naru's letter is read on that episode. So she is super jealous. The next day goes up and she's like, hey, I heard your story. But naru is falling asleep at her desk at school. And as usagi gets close, she is also involved in the magic and also falls asleep and has a lovely fantasy dream of Tuxedo Mask, the true dream boy. Hello. One more reminder that I am a character.

I wish you did.

Greatest male damsel in distress.

So they wake up at the hospital after the magic wears off, and they're like, okay, something's up. Both people who had their letters read had this sleeping spell. So let's go and investigate the radio station. So she sees the guard that bounced her yesterday. And she's like, oh, no, I don't know how I'm going to get passed. And she gets a new tool for her utility belt. She gets a disguise, pen, upgrades.

She just draw a mustache on her finger and hold it up.

Now this is the real deal.

It is. I Mr. Radio. I am here for the sherry.

How do you do?

You've heard of me. I own all radio.

But of course. Go right on in. I won't question anything.

So she chooses the disguise of a gorgeous news anchor. And Luna is like, did you need to be gorgeous? And she's like, yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be? So she walks into the radio station and sees in the control room that everyone is passed out because jadite and frau are hijacking this radio station every night to steal the power. So she walks straight into the recording booth and is like, this just in. This is all some bullshit. And announces the plan out to the audience.

Not her brightest moment.

Yeah, it works. Yeah, it got the job done. But now there's two pissed off demons that want to eat her face. So frau jumps through the window and she's like, okay, got to transform, and transforms into sailor Moon pride. And then the fight leads them up to the roof. frau gets dusted. And when jadite confronts her, tuxedo Mask shows up.

What?

And basically just scares jade away and he teleports back to the demon space.

I don't understand. I mean, roses are terrifying. Don't get me wrong. That threw me off. Like, what did you think he was going to do?

I got to ask since you've watched it all, Jackie, does Tuxedo Mask actually ever do anything or is it literally just like, here's his quick cameos to.

Remind us he's okay. He has a move that I believe he uses like once or twice, and it's called the Smoking bomber. And he throws, like, little bombs, but yeah, no, other than that. He dresses a Santa claus one. He gets captured a lot by the enemy and brainwashed. So, yeah, no, he's pretty useless.

I guess every good hero needs a danville.

He does. He plays a good support role to sailor Moon and like, his love and her love for him is really what is her power later on. And it's adorable. Like their love story. It's a great love story. He's just not a great hero.

I would love to know what he was doing before sailor Moon got powers. And did he just walk around at night like, let me just make random appearances at party sleepwalks.

Those are his pajamas.

Hey, you bear in the atm. Here is the rose who saw booze from the party.

Oh, it's that asshole on the top hat and cape.

Well, the negative showing up is pretty recent. And before that it was just sailor V doing things. So again, he doesn't know what he's doing as Tuxedo Mask. So he's just trying to find the Silver Crystal to regain his memories.

Okay.

Got you.

He seems like such an iconic character, but I guess that's solely in pair with sailor Moon. He himself is boring the shit.

He is the king of Earth, but his purpose is just the love between them. And that's where she gets her power. She gets a new powers because of their bond. It's really cute.

And I guess without him, we wouldn't have the COVID art we have with dana with the Rose.

Exactly.

True.

I was thinking more of our own high school host club, but fair.

I was thinking more Team Rocket.

Yeah. James from pokemon.

There are some, you know, so many anime races.

Yeah.

If I was anybody, if I was like anybody in pokemon, it would be.

James, the best pokemon trainer. He doesn't capture any of the pokemon.

They just come with sweet to all of his pokemon.

Oh, he's adorable.

But yeah, that's basically the episode. They go to school the next day and usagi is writing a message or a love note to Tuxedo Mask. And molly is like, you get a boyfriend and starts running around with the letter and getting chased and it's very cute. And then the teacher is also like love notes and also chases.

No, she makes a great line. She's like serena actually did her homework. Let me read it to the class.

Oh, I missed that part.

It might have been different with the dubs.

I think we watched the same one, though. I'm just an idiot.

We switched the last one.

Oh, no, that's right. Yeah, you went old school for the.

Last few what a diverse episodes.

Yeah, there was so much going on between that is the issue with anime. Sometimes it's like, oh, did you watch this year's version? Or this studio's version?

Or this company's subtitles that company's version.

So, yeah, it can be overwhelming at times. But then we have such a wide exploration between the four of us.

That's why you would need experts.

True.

And the same message you got across throughout all of the different translations.

Yeah, you just lose some of those little.

Dudes. Are weeb there yet?

I will say, going into it, I was not expecting to like it as much. I thought it was going to be more like bubblegum pop than it was because we got some actually truly grotesque monsters that I was not expecting. And having that, like, buffy parallel going in my mind really helped because the vibe of each episode felt like they could be buffy episodes. And since I'm such a big fan of that, that was such a good way to just drag me in.

Good way. So I think we found the key way to get dug into Watch Magical is make it compare it to something else. sailor Moon is to buffy as pueblo magica is to sonic the. Hedgehog. Yes. Oh, you got to listen to that episode.

Magica episode.

It was a glorious train ride.

They were having fun. I was suffering.

So, yeah, I am on board with this. I don't know if I would sit down with a bowl of popcorn and watch all 12,000 episodes of all the various series and stuff, but this is something I would continue watching if you.

Want the story without the time. Crystal is a good spark notes sailor Moon.

Good to know.

Yeah. It's a little different story wise, but there's no filler episodes, so it's just.

Story always the plus that's like, Dragon Ball Z has Dragon Ball super, which no, what was it? Dragon Ball kai is the reboot without all the filler, like just the streamlined, like, abridged. Yeah.

I would say as someone who hasn't seen this, I also enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and I think I would based on these three episodes. I'm sure the story gets more involved later, but if it's something and I'm just like, tired and I just want something to kind of turn my brain off to, I would turn off.

It's great to watch just for fun and also for the deep themes that are rooted in there because later on they explore gender and all these other different themes that have to do with growing up and eating disorders is another thing that's kind of hidden in there.

That's the epsom.

Yeah. That's what starts the whole eating disorder behind sailor Moon. That's kind of like an introduction, but wow, interesting.

Yeah. And in episode one, I think I don't know if it was also in the viz one, but in the original there was just like a little bumper towards the end that was like, hey, yeah, it's okay to have emotions and feel things. Like just do your best and be strong and you'll get through set.

Oh, sailor says is great.

Yeah, just that little bit of like, hey, here's your daily pep talk.

Which is great if you're like watching it as like a little kid and you're growing up and you're like, oh, words of wisdom. It's like gi. Joe kind of feeling. Oh, boy.

Gi. Joe is more like turn the oven off before you eat. Also, don't use the oven. You're six.

Thanks.

The more you know gigo. All right. Me and Jackie are agent. We get it.

Thanks, brenda.

I grew up.

Jackie did it. Jackie brought an anime. That dude.

Thank you, Jackie.

You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it.

I'm sure you would have murdered me if I didn't.

No, I know some people don't like it. Not everybody can like everything. That's fine.

You're nicer than we are.

Look, there's an anime for everyone and not everybody's going to like the same anime.

Oh, man.

It's true.

We're going to do this.

Jackie says dennis all right, well, that's going to do it for us this week. Thank you very much to Jackie. Jackie, where can people find you online? And do you have anything coming up that you would like to plug?

I cannot plug yet about anything that is coming up, but I do have lots in the works. My instagram is Jackie Lynn vo. My Twitter is just my name. Jackie LASTRA last name? La. S-T-R-A. Yeah.

Lovely.

And Jackie with an Ie rather than a Y. All right. And you can find the show on Twitter and Instagram at are we there yet? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period. Weebu and on Twitter at Queen underscore.

Weebu you can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is the name of my other podcast. And also going to do a quick plug for macross 82 99, which is a DJ online who does future funk music, which is heavily inspired by sailor Moon, and he has a whole album called sailor Wave, which is all music either sampled from sailor Moon or dedicated to sailor Moon. It's all very sailor Moon focused and it's very good.

Cool.

Very nice. Also, I definitely jumped ahead. What are we watching next week, fellas?

Oh, I don't know.

It's the teaser. It baits you into sticking through all of our plugs so you can find out what we're doing next time.

Yes, it was an intentional mistake and.

I'm also not killing time to find Also forgot.

But it's not my choice.

No, we haven't planned it out. We know what we're doing. Yes, it's Shirobacco, which is my pick.

All right, cool. And we are taking suggestions for shows to watch, so if you have a series that you would like us to watch on this show, feel free to tweet at us. Or you can send stuff to our gmail, which is Arwibariet@gmail.com. All right, thank you, everyone, for joining us this week and we hope you'll join us next time as we learn to live with ante. bye.