Jadeite One of the Four Generals, Jadeite in this episode uses special “Shape Ray” pods, designed to steal the life energy of unsuspecting victims at his Gym. He temporarily possesses three muscular men, and instructs them to kill Sailor Moon, but she is able to heal them by breaking Jadeite’s control tiaras. Jadeite escapes, but not without energy collected from the people of Tokyo.

Ms. Haruna, the females of Juban Junior High School, three random men. Haruna begins going to Gym Shapely every day, and starts losing way too much weight. Soon other females are lured into Gym Shapely, and unwittingly give their life energy over to Jadeite. Sailor Moon is able to save everyone, just before it would have been too late. Three random men were also possessed by Jadeite, just to attack Sailor Moon. Once she destroyed their mind control tiaras, they returned to being normal humans.

Episode 4: Usagi will teach you! The way to get slim. First appearance of Usagi’s chubby, unnamed female classmate. First time Tuxedo Mask does not come to aid Sailor Moon. First time Usagi is on time for school!! WOW Luna and Mamoru go out of their way to bully Usagi in this episode. Let the growing girl eat ONE dumpling, and the insults start flying. The DiC edit even added extra insults, just to drive it home. Kenji, Ikuko and Shingo weren't too bad, but boy were they smug here too. On a weird note, in the DiC version, Shingo/Sammy claims he rigged his sister's scale. He never did anything that stupid in the original or Viz dub. While not the same, elements of this episode are also seen in Codename Sailor V, Book #2, Vol. 9. Some of the animation is a little stiff. Watch the fight scene with Sailor Moon closely. There are scenes where they forget her red and white Odango caps, and one scene where she is supposed to turn is replaced with a shot from her transformation. The transformation shot is deleted from the Viz sets, instead preplaced by the digital slowing down and speeding up of the third guy hitting the pod, which is what Toei originally intended for the animation. Total Guardians: Final Blow from:

How this episode is treated varies. Keep in mind, I'm pretty lenient on anything animated because it's anime people and not real people, and the fact Moon Sisters exists at all is testament to how lenient I can be with animated schoolgirls, but this needs to be addressed.

In the original and Viz versions of the episode, Usagi is repeatedly teased by Luna to lose weight, and really the only moral is that you have to be careful about how you lose it. Motoki is the only person in the whole episode to correctly say that it's alright for 14 year olds to have a little weight on them as they grow up. The DiC dub mostly followed the original story of "let's tease fat Serena about her weight" until the very end, where suddenly there was a half-hearted Sailor SayS about body image, and Ikuko is seen hoping that her daughter won't go overboard again. The Tokyopop novel however used this as a warning to girls and young women against the dangers of anorexia, and had the moral focus on Usagi/Serena/Bunny learning not to let herself go diet crazy. This episode later inspired Codename Sailor V Vol. 9, where Minako was also weight conscious, but the results varied. In the V story, everybody gains weight from Danburite and her diet candy, and Ace ends up throwing out flyers to every girl about a weight loss gym. (What an asshole.) He leaves one for V, as she is bursting through her Fuku. Here, Usagi never gets fat, but after gaining a slight vanity pound, not only does she freak out, but everyone not named Motoki gets on her to lose weight.

All in all, this was very dangerous, as it shows young women and girls that unless you are anorexic and deathly thin, you're not attractive. It's bad enough that most anime titles push the idea that if you're not under 16, you're an old woman and therefore not attractive and easily expendable, but to also push for the idea of skeletal being "healthy" is just barbaric. But then, Toei itself has always been run by very sexist, somewhat pedophilic people, as is evident by the fact that PreCure and Pretty Cure survive off of girl stereotypes, and the fact that almost everyone in this show has been depowered when compared to the manga, so it's not like I should be surprised, but I can be aghast. The 90's was already chock full of females with eating disorders without this show making it trendy. Besides, I like Usagi-chan. I feel so badly for her that with each growth spurt, she's treated like a dog by her family, so this got under my skin a little bit.

Okay, feminist speech over. Let's move on with the review already!!

So the episode begins where Usagi is drying off after bathing. She admires her complexion in the mirror, and then heads for the scale. Upon seeing the number (we are never shown what it is) she starts screaming and crying. Her whole family pops into the bathroom to see Usagi crying that she thinks she's fat.

At first, Kenji says it's alright to have a little extra weight when you're young, but soon he, Ikuko and Shingo are smiling while running her down about her eating too much and not exercising enough. Gee. Could she be eating enough because oh I dunno… she's going through a growth spurt?? SHE'S FOURTEEN YEARS OLD!! THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!!! A few episodes from now, she's slightly taller, backing up the theory that she's a GROWING CHILD. What a shock, right?? Well of course, hormones, a bustling endocrine system and that pesky pituitary gland can't be blamed. Of course not. It must be junk food. Stupid rice balls!

By the way, her junk food is considered health food over here in America. Isn't that wild? Hey, Kenji, Ikuko, be grateful she's porking out on rice cakes. Over here that's diet food. Our 14 year olds pig out on Cheetos.

Back in her room, ironically gazing at the Moon, Usagi is drying the tears from her abnormally large head…….. you know, that might be encephalitis. Anyway, Luna at first offers her consoling advice. Stop crying, eat slightly less, exercise slightly more, the pound will go away. But just before Usagi can breathe easier, Luna trolls her with a crayon drawing, saying this WILL be Usagi in six months:

You know, it's a damn lucky thing I like Diana. If I was Usagi, I would have spayed the bitch. Usagi instead chooses to beat Luna off camera. Fair trade.

The next day at school, Usagi has left without her lunch. Her mother and father allowed this to happen.

*Clap. Clap* we're doing a bang up job parenting here, folks!

Everyone is eating lunch at their desks. Must be nice. Teachers in America would slap you for that one. Anyway, Usagi is starring at Naru's lunch, hungry. Umino offers her the last scrapings of his lunch (ewwww) and she declines. Once outside, she tells Naru, her unnamed chubby friend and a really homely, freckle-faced girl about her diet plan. Shouldn't Yumiko and Kuri be in this scene? Ah well, this isn't Crystal so who cares, right? Most of Usagi's friends are just expendable until the other Senshi arrive anyway. So here we have some playful banter about weight loss ideas that fail each girl. Naru even slips in a crack about Usagi sucking at swimming. Here, I'll just screencap it:



I'm not sure about the concept that falling in love equals weight loss. It's not long before the two homely girls start fighting anyways. Just then, Naru asks Usagi if she noticed that Haruna has been losing weight. As they talk about her, Haruna walks past, looking more skinny than usual. Umino pops up and shows the girls that in just two days, Haruna went from being slender to skinny. Usagi and Naru rightfully ask the little creeper how he got secret snapshots of the teacher, and he runs like hell. Usagi traps him in an alley, and he confesses that he's been spying on Haruna, and snapped the photos himself. Usagi tells him she doesn't care at all that he's stalking the teacher, she just wants to know which gym she's hitting. Right, because this is all normal. So the girls head over to Shaperin, a new gym that has just popped up without any explanation. It's promoted by popular actress Rie Goto:

You know, I get the feeling like she was supposed to be a victim of the day somewhere. This is the only time we'll ever see or hear about her. By the way, Viz has the gym as Shaperin, but ADV had it as Gym Shapely. Viz's translation is actually closer.

The gym is giving away a free trial, so the girls instantly join, while Jadeite calls them all fools from afar. Oh, and in case you couldn't get enough of Rie's very 80's aerobics getup, take a look at Usagi's gym uniform from school:

White sweatshirt, navy blue panties, thick white socks and gym shoes. Look, I know this gym costume appears in many 1990's anime, including Cardcaptor Sakura, but I have to ask. What pedophile from Hell designed this?? And why do we have a sweatshirt on top of underwear? What, we want boob sweat but everything else to get chilly?? Well not to be outdone, here's Jadeite in a tracksuit.

Elton John glasses, white socks, white loafers and a purple and green tracksuit. Sexy. <_<

Jadeite offers to train the girls, so the four start exercising, with Jadeite cheering them on as three, extremely muscular men workout along side them and coach them on each machine. Usagi gives up and hits the spa, while the other three work up a sweat. Usagi takes a bath, while the girls follow Jadeite into a basement full of creepy pods. He calls the pods "Shape Ray" and convinces the girls they will be their most fit if they step inside. Having absolutely no survival skills whatsoever, the girls jump in, not even realizing the pods are sucking their energy out like a straw. Queen Beryl calls out to Jadeite from her lair, and he sends her back a hologram, assuring her that the pods are getting plenty of energy. Once out of the pods, the girls look battered, bruised and more skinny, and feel like crap. Jadeite insists they look gorgeous, so the girls resolve to do this all over again tomorrow.

Right, because the zombie look is totally in right now. Jadeite laughs about this behind their backs.

Outside and back in her school uniform, Usagi laments that the girls pretty much deserted her, and never told her they were leaving. Damn girl, you need new friends. As she's lamenting, a little boy walks past, eating a pork bun. Usagi drools and remarks at how delicious they look. This frightens the boy, and he runs off to find his mom.

Usagi walks past the Sailor V poster, musing to herself that V probably never needs to diet or exercise. If only she knew, right? Well having not eaten since yesterday, Usagi passes out in Motoki's arms. She has a mini dream sequence about Motoki whisking her away and confessing his love for her. She wakes up lying on a bed in his office room, with him giving her a drink.

NOPE! Totally okay and fine. Let's not call a doctor or anything. Let's just sneak her into a private room, lie her on a bed and give her a drink. Totally fine, nothing questionable here, folks!

She tells him about the diet, after he accuses her mother of starving her over a flunked test. He laughs, saying that curvy people are more attractive than bony and skinny people. Usagi cheers, as Luna watches them from outside. Usagi then decides to get herself a few pork buns and relax about the diet, when suddenly, Mamoru walks up to her. He's wearing a tuxedo in the middle of the daytime, and yet nobody is clued in that he's Tuxedo Mask.

He accuses her of being a pig, says her eating pork is cannibalism, and tells her she's going to become a pork bun. She tosses a bun at him, he catches it and then says "at least you'll be a little less fat now" as he walks away. WHAT A DICK!! OMG she has KIDS with this creep??? Jesus, have some standards there, Usagi-chan. But then Luna appears, backs Mamoru up for the first time ever, and chides that the more Usagi eats the more she needs to work out. And look, just look at the smug face she makes saying that:

This cat is EVIL!!

Usagi tries to tell Luna she's fine with her body the way it is, because Motoki said he likes curvy girls more. And then this happens.

Oh… oh my God. Did the cat just seriously whisper that into Usagi's ear?? That's the most self esteem killing thing the little purple-black bitch has done, and it's only episode four!!

So after dismantling Usagi, Luna tries to tell her that Haruna is getting morbidly skinny, but Usagi can't hear Luna telling her about her teacher's newfound anorexia. Usagi needs to race to Shaperin and burn off those pork buns she just ate! Luna thinks usagi is doing this the wrong way. Well how would you like her to be then?? But as Usagi works herself into a frenzy, Luna catches Ms. Haruna using one of the pods. She realizes this gym was evil all along, Haruna has just minutes left to live, so she races up the stairs and pushes Usagi off of an exercise bike and into a wall. She races to the stairs, mewing a laugh while Usagi chases her. Usagi threatens to kill Luna, but Luna pushes her into a wall again, and threatens to use her face as a scratching post if she screams. HOLY CRAP!! So after being threatened with death by a talking cat, Usagi transforms and heads to the basement.

Jadeite sends the three muscular men from before after Sailor Moon, and vanishes with a ton of energy. Sailor Moon freaks and is being chased by the giant men wearing skin tight clothing. Sexual much? Well as she's racing for her life, afraid to be beaten by guys whose fists are bigger than her head, Luna chides her that if she fights them and breaks the head-rings controlling them, she'll lose weight. Using this for confidence, Sailor Moon punches, kicks and takes down all three men, then uses the tiara to snap the headbands, returning them into regular, muscle bound guys.

Jadeite fills a black sphere with all the energy he collected from the gym, and for once, Queen Beryl praises his work.

A week later, Usagi is enjoying a hot bath. Ikuko tells her she has a towel waiting for Usagi, and asks if Haruna is alright. Usagi says she took a week off and is already back at school. Ikuko and Shingo talk about being careful with diets, and Usagi screams, because once more, she's gained a little vanity weight.

I also want to point out that this was the very first episode where Usagi was NOT seen being late for class. And yet NOBODY praises the poor kid for that!!

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