Once again, today didn't feature an MotD or VotD, this was a purely plot-driven episode. The script was decent, but nothing more than that. I think I finally figured out what was going on over at DiC when these scripts were written. I'm willing to bet that the writers of these various episodes are college dropouts or failed out. These writers are experts of getting the plot that was originally there really well, and do it in such a different way that doesn't take anything away from the original but doesn't make it the right way either. It's the only explination that makes sense to me.

Once again, the pre-episode preview is untouched video-wise with the exception of an added frame.

(30 sec) Opening Usagi segment is once again cut.

(7 sec) The second shot of the episode, a camera pan of the four senshi asking Venus if she's the princess is cut.

During Mamoru's flashbacks, DiC uses its budget to add a frame around the flashback as well as a ripple effect before and after it. Guess they have to spend their money on something after saving a lot with the writers that were hired.

A shot of the front of Juuban Junior High is once again replaced by the generic Crossroads Junior High School shot.

Cut (1 sec) Snippet as Usagi spots Mamoru after school.

With any anime dubbed around this time period, blood is a big no-no. It's always editted out of the shot or the shot is cut completely. This episode however, does not do that. The blood from Mamoru's wound is still seen on his coat and Usagi's hand throughout the episode. Definetly a step in the right direction, and the dub even acknowledged the blood. Lots of points in my book.

(2 sec) Either snippets or slightly spend up animation as Mamoru and Usagi are teleported in the tower cut the scene short a couple seconds.

As with Mamoru mentioned above, Zoicite's blood is also untouched in this episode. I don't know what made DiC decide to keep it in, but I like it. ^_^

JAotD: Jupiter Thunder Crash

This episode is a "and that means you" episode, proving the theory again.

(25 sec) All of the flashbacks Usagi has of Mamoru and Tuxedo Mask when she learns they're the same person. The flashbacks were all pastel-like drawings of each of them in earlier episodes with a quote to go along with each image.

(10 sec) In the famous scene where Tuxedo Kamen gets nailed with a crystal, there are shillouttes of the crystal penetrating his flesh, him crying out in pain and falling to the ground. All of these but less than a second are cut. The part that's kept is the crystal just hitting him but not actually penetrating him. All non-shilloute clips are untouched.

In the original as the crystal is formed and Sailormoon is revealed to be the Moon Princess, the song "Maboroshi no Ginzuishou" is played in the background. DiC uses their song "My Only Love" in this scene, which I feel captures the scene a lot better than in the original. However, the lyrics of the original song fit better than the lyrics of DiC's song. So I'm mixed on this, but in any case, I believed this was handled real well by DiC.

"Me, Serena, a princess? man this is way past weird." ~ Serena This episode has been pretty good with avoiding SDAs for the most part, only a couple and none actually worth mentioning, up until now. This line closes the dub episode. I hate this for two reasons, besides the obvious. One, there was silence in the original at this point. Two, this just totally kills the mood that has been so well set. They just couldn't keep a good thing going. >.<