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PGSM - Act Forty
Minako tells Artemis that she has decided that she's going to quit singing. She doesn't have much time left, so she has to focus on her mission.
Artemis tells her that she's not just Sailor Venus, she's Aino Minako as well. She disagrees; she is only alive to fulfill her mission from the past life.
Theme Song
The senshi are at Crown, where Usagi was reporting about her last conversation with Mamoru. But rather than Usagi talking, Ami recaps. Mamoru went to the Dark Kingdom to help prevent the earth from being destroyed.
So Usagi says that she has to learn to prevent herself from using the MSC.
Luna praises her for being right all along, that Mamoru isn't their enemy. Usagi gazes at her watch before agreeing with Luna
Down in the Dark Kingdom, under the endlessly pulsing purple light, Jadeite goes to report to Beryl.
She praises Jadeite for always being loyal to her.
He flashes back to Act Thirty Six when Beryl threatened to kill all of them.
Meanwhile, Minako is having tea. Her manager arrives because she called him. She wants to tell him that she wants to quit, but he doesn't give her a chance to say anything. He's been trying to get her to do commercials because it will help her career to advance. But he promises her that after her second CD comes out, she can take a break.
Artemis goes to see Rei, and then the scene quickly changes to Minako putting on make up. Her manager comes in to tell her that she's not doing a photo-shoot today after all. Someone else is taking over... Mars Reiko.
Rei is finally getting her revenge on Minako for what she did to her in Act Twenty-Three when Minako tricked Rei into singing.
So Rei dresses in some traditional-ish Japanese outfits and poses for the camera. To me, this seems a bit out of character for Rei. She doesn't look at all like herself. Minako tries to tell herself that she's not jealous... really she's not... she's quitting after all.
Over at Crown, Motoki is still rather bored, as he was in last episode until the door opens and Mamoru walks in.
Motoki scolds Mamoru for not calling him in such a long time
Mamoru apologizes, saying that he's been busy.
The sound of clinking glasses makes the both of them look up.
In walks Nephrite, still in his human form that we were introduced to in Act Thirty Seven. Only now he has the addition of an apron that marks him as an employee of Crown.
Motoki introduces him as "Nephikichi-kun" which really amuses Mamoru.
Mamoru, of course, knows exactly who Nephrite is. Motoki can't pronounce Nephrite's real name, so he gives him a nick name.
Through all of this, Nephrite is very firmly Not Looking at Mamoru.
Nephrite gets rather angry at Motoki... so Motoki runs away, leaving Nephrite and Mamoru alone.
Nephrite pleads for Mamoru to help him get back to the Dark Kingdom, but Mamoru refuses and leaves. Nephrite looks like he is either going to scream or cry...
So he settles for just throwing his tray down onto the ground.
Meanwhile, back at the photo-shoot, everyone is adoring Rei. Minako's manager is hovering over Rei.
Her manager tells her that he has been focusing on Rei now because Minako doesn't seem to be interested in singing anymore.
Minako declares that she still wants to sing. So Rei challenges her to a "match"
Usagi is at home, laughing at the TV when she gets a phone call. She hurries off, telling her mother that she's going out.
Her mother isn't really listening. She's lamenting the fact that she didn't get the reporter job after all.
Scene change to a TV studio where the sign reads "Aino Minako vs New Girl Mars Reiko Battle Tournament"
The host of the game show (Minako's manager) is kind enough to read the sign to us.
On the white team team there is Minako, Usagi and Luna. Usagi and Luna are bouncing all over the place. The red team is Rei, Makoto and Ami who are not bouncing all over the place.
Makoto asks Ami what's going on. Ami's not entirely sure.
Minako and Rei go off to sit in special boxes. Minako asks what Rei's doing, dragging the princess into this. Rei says that they don't refer to Usagi as the princess. Usagi seems to second this opinion by bouncing around and waving to Minako in a rather un-princess-like manner.
The game works like this: Rei and Minako each have a large balloon hovering over their heads. Whenever one team wins, the balloon in the box of the opposite team member inflates a bit more. Whoever's balloon explodes first loses.
The first contest, Usagi vs Makoto. They wear a Velcro suit and jump off a trampoline and stick to a wall. The one that reaches the highest wins.
Makoto jumps gracefully onto the wall. Usagi does not, but she does jump higher. Point to Minako's team.
Next up, Luna vs Ami. They have to stand on a platform , back to back and try to knock each other off. Ami hesitantly bumps into Luna, who goes flying. Point to Rei's team.
Next up, Luna and Makoto. They put on cat ears and a tail and the object of the game is to grab the other person's tail. I think that Luna does this contest for the purely ironic factor. They run around in circles for awhile and Luna dodges through Makoto's legs to grab her tail
Usagi vs Ami in figuring out a math problem. A very long scary looking one too. Usagi pulls out a calculator but Ami finishes the problem before Usagi can finish punching it all in. (This one is my favorite)
Makoto and Luna use chopsticks to transfer beans from one plate to another and Makoto wins.
Usagi and Makoto in a tug of war, Makoto wins.
Luna and Ami have a plate spinning contest. Luna is doing much better until she sneezes, and turns back into her cat form.
Usagi quickly distracts the announcer by having him move on to the next contest... a sumo wrestling contest. Usagi vs Makoto of course.
Everyone is cheering except Minako... but as she watches she gets tenser and tenser... this is the last contest.
And Makoto wins, and Minako's balloon explodes, covering her in some white powder.
She jumps to her feet and declares that things aren't over yet.
The announcer says it's time for a commercial break. And I can't tell because I'm watching a video of it, but I think that the show really does go to commercial.
Now for the last event of the game show, Minako and Rei have balloons attached to them and are armed with foam bats. The object of the game is to pop all of the balloons of your opponent before all of yours are popped.
There are lightsaber sounds while they fight. Usagi and the others cheer them on and then the game show host suits them up with bats too. Luna has somehow vanished. So now it's Minako and Usagi vs the other three senshi... and they rush around chasing each other with bats, popping balloons and having lots of fun.
The camera crew quietly leave at a signal from Minako's manager. This was all a set up, and he was in on it all along.
Animated Artemis looks very relieved and he sighs to animated Luna. This is the first time for awhile that the cats have been all out CGI.
The senshi collapse into a pile of giggles as Minako's manager watches.
They all head home, talking about what happened. Usagi and Makoto are laughing about how fun it was that they were finally all together, Minako too.
Ami quietly thinks to herself that this must have been Rei's idea all along.
Rei gazes up at the building where Minako is recording her new song, which I don't know the name of.
Everyone is happy that Minako is singing again.
Just as Minako finishes her song, which is playing in the background as the other senshi walk home, Luna-the-girl alerts them to the presence of a youma.
It's more of the creepy black and white youma. Makoto says they should use the excess energy that they still have left from the game to finish off the youma.
So, while Minako sings, Moon, Jupiter, Minako and Ami take out the four youma. It's actually one of the better fight scenes.
Minako later asks Rei if she did all of that to make Minako sing again. Rei said that that's not the reason - that she was just annoyed because Minako is always so focused on the past life. They aren't in the "past life" anymore. They are in the "now"
But Rei says that she knows why Minako would rather focus on the past life. It's because Minako doesn't want a reason to live in the "now"... which means undertaking the risky surgery.
Minako storms off angrily. But she can't help but remember how nice it was to be playing with everyone.... Just having fun.
She's rather surprised to discover that that thought makes her cry. She's realized that she has sort of brought her loneliness upon herself...
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