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PGSM - Act One
PGSM begins with a well dressed jewel thief setting off an alarm in a jewelry store. (After all, one must always look ones best when committing a crime). He takes off down the street, red and black cape trailing behind him when he is stopped by a super hero of the female type, Sailor V!
In a matrix-esque action shot, they two clash, ultimately leading in her ripping his bag, and all of the jewels he stole tumbling to the ground. He looks rather offended, where she looks like she's just scolding him - and scolding him like one would scold a puppy or something.
The thief who looks suspiciously like Tuxedo Kamen, takes off down the street, with Sailor V following. Although for no apparent reason, they both must run with their arms stretched out behind their backs.
The next morning, at 8:10, Usagi, an ordinary looking Japanese girl, (Note: black hair - that's important later) is not responding well to her brother's attempts to wake her until she realizes the time. Her mother is not surprised that she over slept, but seems just as frazzled as Usagi. Of course, Usagi still has time to see the leading news story: Sailor V foils another jewel heist.
Then she hurries off to school.
On her way to school, a blue-ish purple-ish stuffed cat falls from the sky and lands on her head. She is rather confused by this - since stuffed animals don't typically fall out of the sky. Still, she is late to school, and that is far more important than a mysterious stuffed cat....
Never mind that as soon as she sets it down, the cat suddenly become a CGI and stands up, watching her run off. Of course, Usagi doesn't actually *see* that, so I can't blame her too much.
Despite all of the crazy running around, Usagi is late - for the third time that week - and she has to stay after class to clean up. Fortunately, her best friend Naru - at which point the Myu fan in me squeaks, because it's a familiar actress - stays to help her. Then the two hurry off to Crown Karaoke. (Pay attention, that'll be important later). After an interesting bit of Usagi singing - and it's captioned so those at home can sing along! - Naru invites her to her mother's grand premiere opening. Or something like that.
Naru's mother owns a jewelry store, which is rather convenient plot-wise, since the show started with a jewel heist.
The next day, Usagi and Naru go to watch practice, spend some time oo-ing over the models and their clothes. Usagi plays with a white dress - a bit Serenity-style actually - and then when she goes to put it away, she runs into Mamoru (tho' he's not named yet). There's dramatic music, so you know that meeting is important. They get off on the wrong foot, per usual romantic comedy story line, and she storms off in a huff. Mamoru, on the other hand, seems far too interested in the people setting out the jewelry display. He murmurs something about finding the Mythical Silver Crystal - whatever that is :)
Meanwhile, the stuffed cat, is prowling around, her spidy-senses tingling. Right after she says there is something wrong, a ghostly trio of hands crawl out of a light fixture. These ghostly hands are probably what was creeping the cat - Luna - out. I'm guessing.
That night Usagi falls into bed, only a few minutes later to realize that the stuffed cat that fell on her is now next to her bed. She is confused, but even more so when the cat gets up and starts talking. Luna quickly introduces herself and explains that the earth is in danger, etc. and that Usagi is one of the senshi destined to protect the earth. Usagi actually takes all of this rather well. If course, she thinks this is a dream, and hurries back into bed.
Luna leaves her a cell phone and then exits via the window.
Previously there had been an ominous sort of scene that looked like maybe Naru's mother was going to be attacked. There is further evidence of this the next day when she doesn't recognize her daughter. Naru is quick to realize that something is not right, and she runs away. Only to run into one of the workers... His eyes glow green in a rather creepy manner and then he transforms into the first of the shitennou to put in an appearance - Jadiete. He knocks her out, and (speaking in reverb) orders the monster - the youma - possessing Naru's mother to absorb all of the energy from all of the people shopping.
Luckily, both Luna and Usagi are on the case. Usagi tries to climb into the building... which is a strange idea, but whatever. She tells Luna that she came because she felt Naru was in danger....
So.... either Usagi thinks she's still dreaming or she has suddenly accepted the idea of a walking/talking stuffed cat. She came around rather quickly I think
Luna gives Usagi a necklace and.... lipstick. Not sure why lipstick is required for the transformation, but hey. Her cell phone, apparently is a spiffy camera phone, which also lets her transform. So she changes into a model and sneaks into the building.
At the show, after the models strut their stuff, the youma-possessing-Naru's-mom blasts out some sort of purple gas, which makes everybody fall asleep instantly. Which is... pretty funny.
Usagi runs in, and with some prompting from Luna, attempts to stop her. So the youma takes it's real form - which in my opinion is the best youma that they had. They should have left them CGI things rather than power ranger style, but I digress - and chases Usagi outside.
Not the best planning on Usagi and Luna's part actually.
But apparently, during the scene change, Luna had coached Usagi on what to do, for she yells out her transformation phrase... and then we go to the transformation scene, which I just think is a riot.
After she's Sailor Moon, she takes a minute to admire her costume - and her blonde hair (I told you hair color was important), and Luna has to remind her that there's a monster attacking.
So... Sailor Moon does the best thing - she screams and runs away.
An oh-so-helpful Luna tells her that she should already know how to fight - she knows what she needs to do, now she just has to do it.
I do not think this is good advice.
However, Moon's tiara lights up and suddenly she knows she should stand up, and run around, jumping and occasionally making little "Ha!" noises.
Her wand appears (Well actually she manages to pull it out of her brooch... somehow...) And she uses it to drive the youma from Naru's mother.... who of course faints, so that it is easy to explain why she doesn't know what happened.
Moon's response to all of this? Woo-hoo! I did it! Yay!
But Jadiete is not pleased by this. So in a last-ditch effort, and because he's prolly rather ticked off that she destroyed the least-silly looking youma of the show, he throws a dagger type thing at her.
Good thing Tuxedo Mask is there to push her out of the way. He helps her to her feet, says something cryptic and then stalks off into the sunset (Okay, not really, but into a lot of backlight).
But before he leaves, he pulls a Phantom of the Opera with his cape, and introduces himself.
Sailor Moon thinks that he's cool, but has a weird name. Like Sailor Moon isn't a weird name...
We get our first (of many) exterior shots of a creepy looking castle framed in purple light - the Dark Kingdom.
Queen Beryl, the top villain, is upset that someone is going against her. She declares this to be unforgivable in a dramatic manner, thus getting her fifteen seconds in the first episode.
Then they have a dramatic "This is just the beginning" scene with Sailor Moon and Luna. There's a rather cool montage bit with the other four senshi, Jadiete and Tux.
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