A Moon Star is Born (Interim Episode)

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Episode Data
ep1.jpg
Usagi becomes Sailor Moon for the first time.
Original Episode
Name (Kanji/kana): 泣き虫うさぎの華麗なる変身
Name (Romaji): Nakimushi Usagi no Kareinaru Henshin
Name (Translated): Crybaby Usagi's Magnificent Transformation
Name (Viz Dub): The Crybaby: Usagi's Beautiful Transformation
Episode Number: 1
Director: Junichi Satou
Writer: Sukehiro Tomita
Animation Director: Hiromi Matsushita
Air Date: March 7, 1992
Previous Episode: None
Next Episode: Punish Them! The House of Fortune is the Youma Mansion
TV English Dub Episode
Name: A Moon Star is Born
Number: 1
Company: DiC
Air Date: August 28, 1995 (Canada), September 11, 1995 (USA)
Previous Episode: None
Next Episode: Talk Radio
Tokyo Side Stories Interim Episode
Name: A Moon Star is Born
Segment: Pinako meets Central Control for the first time
Number: 160
Previous Episode: The Sweetest Dream
Next Episode: Computer School Blues


Usagi Tsukino encounters a talking cat named Luna and awakens as the Sailor Senshi of love and justice, Sailor Moon.

Summary

Usagi Tsukino is a clumsy, below-average junior high student who encounters a black cat on her way to school one morning. She rescues the cat from some children and removes some band-aids from its forehead, revealing a crescent bald spot. Realising she is going to be late, Usagi leaves the cat and runs to school.

Usagi is late anyway, and is further berated for achieving yet another low test score. Her friends, Naru Osaka and Gurio Umino, mention that the mysterious heroine Sailor V has been in the news, having thwarted a jewellery store robbery. Naru says that her mother's jewellery store is having a sale, so she and Usagi decide to visit it on the way home.

Meanwhile, in the domain of the Dark Kingdom, Queen Beryl demands that her minions bring her the legendary Silver Crystal as an energy source for their great ruler. With the crystal still hidden, Beryl's general Jadeite reveals that he has a plan in motion to gather human energy as a substitute.

Usagi and Naru go to the jewelry store and find Naru's mother in a state of excited salesmanship. Unbeknownst to them, Naru's mother has been replaced by a double from the Dark Kingdom, a Youma named Morga who is using the discounted gems to transmit the humans' energy to Jadeite. She offers Usagi a discounted diamond, but Usagi realises she has no money, and her father is unlikely to buy it for her considering her poor test result. Dejected, she leaves the shop and throws her test paper away. It hits a boy behind her on the head. He too mocks her for her poor result, and she storms off. As she heads home, dreading revealing her score to her parents, the black cat from earlier is watching her.

When Usagi arrives home, her mother immediately asks her about the test. She reluctantly hands it over, and is promptly kicked out of the house. Back at the jeweller's, the effects of the gems cause the customers to faint. Naru asks her mother what's happening, only to be confronted with a Youma.

Finally back inside, Usagi decides to take a nap. The black cat comes in through the window and speaks to her. She says her name is Luna, and thanks Usagi for removing the band-aid which was suppressing her powers. Luna gives Usagi a brooch and tells her that she must fight a mysterious enemy that is attacking Tokyo, and assist in the search for their princess. Usagi doesn't really believe her, so Luna gets her to recite the transformation phrase: "Moon Prism Power, Make Up." The brooch transforms her into Sailor Moon, and she is able to hear Naru's cries for help. Luna tells her that it is her job to save Naru.

As Naru wrestles against Morga, Sailor Moon appears. Morga awakens the comatose customers and sends them after Sailor Moon, who panics, not knowing what to do. Morga moves in for the kill, but is distracted by the momentary intervention of the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. Sailor Moon continues to cry, and her amplified wailing starts to incapacitate the customers. Luna instructs her to use her tiara against Morga. Sailor Moon complies, removing the tiara and using the Moon Tiara Action attack, which destroys Morga. Tuxedo Mask congratulates Sailor Moon, who is instantly smitten.

The next day, Naru recounts her strange dream, in which she was saved from a monster by someone called Sailor Moon. Usagi, however, is too tired to listen.

Interim Season

Note: When this episode was rebroadcast in the Interim fifth dub season of Sailor Moon, it contained new bookending segments with original story material. Terms and aspects of the DiC Dub are used in this section.

The young monster from the Negaverse Pinako Aino, resident of Tokyo, arrivea back home from school and finds the television mysteriously turned on, startling her. The mysterious figure on the TV claims to be a family friend named Central Control. She claims that Pinako's aunt, Mina asked Artemis to tell Pinako about her old adventures, followed by Artemis passing the buck to Central before asking Pinako is she wanted to hear about the story of Sailor Moon. Pinako guesses it's Serena due to both Central's description, as well as Serena's dislike for monsters like Pinako. Central tells Pinako that once she hears the story, She'll understand why...

With the story finished, Central Control says that the first night for Sailor Moon was hectic, but if it wasn't for her, the world would have been taken over by the Negaverse. Pinkao asks why they coudn't just buy energy drinks before being told that they were not available at the time, but floppy disks however, were. Central Control explains that the result of the next episode is all due to her own error, Once Pinako asks Central who she is, Central says that she can't do that, she never knows who might be watching


Episode trivia

  • Sailor V appeared in a non-speaking role as part of a daydream, which made her the first Sailor Senshi to appear in the series. She was also the first to appear in the manga and live-action versions.
  • In this episode (and the manga chapter on which it was based), Sailor Moon was able to hear over long distances via the jewels in her hair. This ability was never referenced again in either version.
  • There was a book titled "セーラーＶ" (Sailor V) sitting on Usagi's dresser as she admired the brooch that Luna had given her.
  • In DiC's English dub episode ("A Moon Star is Born"), 1 minute and 20 seconds of information from the episode "Usagi's Awakening! A Message From the Distant Past" was inserted into this episode explaining the Silver Millennium long before it was explained in the original. Several other changes were made to the episode as well: Umino talking about Sailor V, Ikuko scolding Usagi for her bad grades, and Usagi mimicking Sailor V Kick were edited out; Usagi's failed English test was changed to a failed Algebra test; and Serena had known about Sailor V for a long time before the series started, but originally, she didn't know about Sailor V until Umino mentioned the name for the first time. Shingo was also completely removed from the episode. Morga's eyes also turned from yellow to red for the length of her transformation.
  • In the Interim Season, The following edits were made to the DiC dub of the episode.
    • The aforementioned prologue was removed from the episode, with the panning shot of Usagi's bed added back in. This was done to give Pinako and Central Control more dialogue as the original episode began.
    • The last few seconds of Jadeite's scene with Queen Beryl were reanimated to fit the line "Yes, My Queen."
    • The length of time that Morga's eyes were red was extended to until she blinked in response to Sailor Moon telling her to let Molly go.
    • Morga's final shot was redone to correct her color palette.
    • Jadeite's Last line was changed from the original episode's "Someone will pay dearly... for this!" to "Follow the Leader"'s "Morga, too Bad for You... You failed."
  • Also in the Interim episode's, during the second bookending segment in its first airing, Central Control claims that if Sailor Moon had not been there, "This world would have been doomed to be an evil counterpart", this line was corrected in future airings to "This world would have been conquered by Queen Beryl and the Negaverse" instead.
  • A shot of the sign outside the Tsukino family house with their names on it was removed from the DiC English and French dubs, while the writing on the sign was erased in the Korean dub.
  • In the Korean dub of this episode, the kanji on the student rankings were edited out, leaving the Juuban students looking at blank pages. The moment where Morga dropped her disguise was also cut.
  • In the Hungarian dub, as Haruna Sakurada scolded Usagi for being late for school, the original audio was used instead of the Hungarian voice actress's voice.
  • In the Dutch dub, Bunny called Luna "sir" despite the fact that Luna was female.

Cast

Interim Version Cast

  • Pinako Aino - Becky Hopkins (An AI of Kotono Mitsuishi/Usagi)
  • Central Control - Daisy Hill (An AI of Naz Edwards/Queen Beryl)
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