The script for this episode earns another spot in my new favorite "meh" category. Nothing really overly bad, but definite room for improvement. The MotD's name is Gigarus, changed to Vulturous in the dub. This may be just a matter of opinion, but from my perspective the Cardian changed genders in the dubbing process. It was a female in the original, but sounds too much like a male for me in the dub to believe it's still a female, even with its boobs. Maybe this Cardian can be seen as an influence for Dr. Girlfriend over a decade later? There really isn't an episode specific VotD as essentially all kindergarten kids are targets. There is an episode specific character though, whose name is Mie Sayama. The dub changed her name to Kerry, not bothering to give her a last name.

The pre-episode preview has the normal special frame surrounding it.

(5 seconds) In the first of a series of cuts that makes me wonder why DiC even bothers to keep anything from before the original episode title card (sometimes the original has a small scene before the episode title card, which are usually mangled in the dubbing process), we see Minako squeeze the breath out of Artemis as she dreams.

(2 seconds) After Minako lifts a clock-carrying Artemis out from under the blanket, she turns him to have the clock face her. The turning of him is cut.

As I mentioned in my two cents above, we're treated to a bit of a peek at Minako here. In her rush, she tosses off her PJs. While the flying PJs do cover most of her body, there is a fair amount of skin showing and even part of her underwear! Even in this cut-happy scene, this shot was untouched. It's times like this that make me wonder exactly what kind of logic DiC uses when making cuts and edits. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of a cut here. =P

(13 seconds) While we saw the start of Minako's run, most of it was cut. Also cut was when she and Artemis jumped in the air. And there was have it, about half of the scene before there originally was a title card was cut.

(14 seconds) After the original title card, we go right back to the cuts, where Artemis made a graceful landing before Minako crash lands right on top of him.

(4 seconds) After Mie is helped to her bus, a front shot of the bus with a kana label on it is cut, as is part of the side shot before it starts to leave.

I'm going to save myself a lot of typing here, as the above cut is the only time kana is fully cut in this whole episode. There are a couple moments where a shot containing kana ends up being cut, however other angles still show the kana. While I question the logic of many cuts, for this episode, kana is not a reason for them.

A front shot of Usagi's school (containing no kana) was replaced by the stock Crossroads Junior High School shot.

(3 seconds) After Usagi arrives to school late, she is sent to the hallway wearing a sign saying "I am always late for school" as she holds a giant bucket. We don't initially see these two items, as the dub cuts the camera pan up Usagi. It picks back up when the pan stops at her head. Both the sign and bucket are visible later on in a different angle.

(4 seconds) The first shot of Natsumi appearing between Usagi and Seijuro is cut.

(3 seconds) The last shot of Usagi and Natsumi on the screen together is also cut.

Here is a scene that begs the question "WHY?!?!" They changed the order of events in the scene before the playground. To make it easier to explain, here is how this was ordered in the original: Distance shot of Minako and Artemis walking down the street Mie is shoved by the boys Side shot of Minako and Artemis Mie on the ground speaks out Front closeup shot of Minako and Artemis Boys stand over Mie Now the same moment in the dub: Distance shot of Mina and Artemis walking down the street Front closeup shot of Mina and Artemis Kerry is shoved by the boys Side shot of Mina and Artemis Kerry on the ground speaks out Boys stand over Kerry If someone can tell me how making those changes to the scene makes any sense, I'm all ears. About a second was lost in this as well somehow.

(2 seconds) After going so long without them, snippets have returned!

(2 seconds) More snippets to make up for the fact that most cuts were traceable up until about a minute or so prior.

As the Cardian is summoned, the shot of the front of its face is actually added from a moment later in the episode.

(2 seconds) A shot of the bus was shortened and snippets of kids getting energy drained cut off a couple seconds.

In my notes at this point, I wrote down "Yay break!" I noticed something with many episodes this season in that before the first commercial an episode is cut so very horribly, yet after it the episode is hardly touched in comparison. So I figured I would put this theory to test starting here. And it looks like I was right, because after this note I don't see nearly as many notes as I do before it.

(5 seconds) A front shot of all the kids gathered around Minako and Mie is cut.

(4 seconds) A shot of Artemis in Minako's arms is cut as well.

(1 second) Snippets or a speedup during the disguise pen scene shaved off a second.

While I haven't really bothered mentioning the digital bumps for this episode as they haven't been as obstructive and have flowed fairly well with the episode thus far, I have to mention this one. The scene happened to fade out to black then back in, but instead of a bumper to liven it up, DiC adds digital lightning bolts to the black.

In the original, Usagi and Minako led the bus in singing "Moonlight Densetsu." The dub has them lead them in other kids songs. I think DiC making this change makes sense, since the dub's theme song directly mentions Sailor Moon where the majority of the kids had just stated that Sailor Moon wasn't real.

(6 seconds) After Sailor Moon finished transforming, we miss Artemis getting tossed through the air and caught by Minako.

This episode did not have a traditional speech ending from Sailor Moon. No "that means you" or "I'll punish you" here. I find this amusing as that pretty much lines up how I feel about the episode just being in the middle with the script quality.

DiC shows they can't decide how they want to keep attacks in just this one episode. Venus' Crescent Beam attack has always been "Venus Crescent Beam Smash" up until now. However, when she first attacked, it was called "Venus Crescent Beam Crash." Her second attack went back to the normal "Venus Crescent Beam Smash." Since I already have this box open for Venus' attacks, I'll just continue here. Her new attack is called "Crescent Beam Shower." DiC changed this to "Venus Meteor Shower." Marking this as an SDA just because the attack was already in English! >.<

Before the Cardian got up from Venus' first attack, DiC added the same front shot of the Cardian they added earlier.

(1 sec) Snippets as the Cardian died and some moments after the battle.

The fade out was changed to a circle fill to the now typical pink background with moons and stars.