44 "Usagi no kakusei! Choukako no message"
(Usagi's Awakening! A Message from the Distant Past)
93-2-13
39 "The Past Returns" 95-11-2

Minako and Artemis have finally found the entrance to the Dark Kingdom and all of the senshi meet to go there. As they travel down a cave, Kunzite finds them to block their way. He hit them with an attack to send them into a world of multiple dimensions, and the senshi are transported to a new place. Moon was the first to wake up and a glowing sphere come to her, which turns into a miniature figure who calls herself Queen Serenity. The other senshi awaken and the queen tells the story of the past known as the Silver Millennium, a beautiful place where peaceful people lived. There was a celebration one night where Princess Serenity was approached by Prince Endymion of Earth, warning her of an invasion by Beryl and the evil Metallia. He is spotted by guards and quickly leaves before he can tell her more. She rejoins the ball where she is asked to dance by a masked man in a tuxedo as they dance what is said to be their last dance together. The earth forces attack, and Metallia kills the four senshi in the battle. Beryl wanting Endymion for herself, breaks them apart and Metallia kills the princess. After witnessing all of this, Queen Serenity uses the ginzuishou to seal everyone and send them to the future on earth. Should the Dark Kingdom rise again, Luna and Artemis could find the senshi in their future lives and do battle with them. With the knowledge of their past lives and mission, the senshi all return to the present in front of Kunzite, who is shocked that they aren't dead. The senshi protect Moon from his attacks, but with her new determination, Moon is able to harness the power of the ginzuishou against him and deflect his attacks. Kunzite calls to Zoisite, letting him know he's on the way, and dies.

Script-wise, I was this close to saying it came out good. I can't do it because they had the scouts know about the past before they arrived there just minutes later. Other than that, this was the easiest of the three episode comparisons I did this weekend which was a breath of fresh air.


The script was handled better in this episode than the last two, but still not good. I'll say tolerable, I believe that's fair. And may as well mention it here, the theory here of the ending of Moon's speech showing the script quality is moot here. She doesn't end it with either line. Maybe that's why I feel somewhat in the middle about the script here.

This is a pure-plot driven episode, therefore there's no VotD or MotD.

Pre-episode preview was handled as it has for a good while now.

(25 seconds) Entire opening scene was cut. In it we saw Usagi dreaming about Mamoru, with Luna waking her up, to inform her of Venus and Artemis finding the entrance to the Dark Kingdom.

(2 seconds) Camera pan down of senshi shadows running down the cave.

(3 seconds) Shot of Kunzite's face befire Jupiter's attack.

JAotD: Jupiter Thunder Crash! (the sequence was actually not sped up)

"She wouldn't send creeps like you in the future with us!" ~ Moon

How the hell would Moon know anything about Queen Serenity at this point? Or anything of the past for that matter?

(1 second) Shot of Kunzite's hand pose is cut.

(2 seconds) As the senshi go through the portal, there's a series of cool little effects. So cool one didn't make it. After why use things already there when you can waste time and money making unneeded effects?

As soon as I finished that thought, there's a digital scene bump added. To the same shot of the Crescent Moon Wand before and after the bump. Amazing.

(1 second) The shot of a crater among the ruins is cut.

(1 second) Shot of Moon looking in the distance before Queen Serenity appears is cut short.

(1 second) Close up shot of Queen Serenity when she appears is cut.

(2 seconds) Camera pan up from lake to the palace is cut.

(5 seconds) Camera panning through the ballroom filled of people dancing is completely cut.

During one of the angle changes of Princess Serenity, a ripple effect is added.

And the scene change to Luna and Artemis had a digital bumper effect added to it.

After the cats get to the North Pole, a shot of the moon in the clouds is added in

(4 seconds) Another camera pan of people dancing on the ballroom floor is cut.

(2 seconds) Endymion holding Princess Serenity in the dip is shortened.

Queen Serenity's Moon Healing Escalation --> Cosmic Moon Power

Digital scene bump after above SDA.

I believe the saying is something along the lines of silence being golden. Apparently DiC never paid attention to this by filling in various places with dialog or taking one word lines and adding to them.

(1 second) Snippet as Queen Serenity explains to the cats what she's doing.

As Queen Serenity dies, there is a camera pan of her cut, as well as an overhead view of her. Chances are the overhead view was likely cut due to the pillar she was on as atop another fallen pillar where the two looked like a cross. As for why there's no time marked....

...the cut segment was replaced by another shot of all the energy being sent to the earth. The dropping of the Crescent Moon Wand is where both versions start together again.

Coming back from the second American commercial, the clip of the senshi being transported back is replayed.

Filling the digital bump quota, move along.

The whole conversation was mangled between the senshi and Kunzite here. Originally, they were shocked about their trip to the past and everything they learned. Moon was quite sad about her mother she had just learned about, and Kunzite was absolutely shocked that they somehow came back from the world of multiple dimensions.

Instead, we get a pep talk between the scounts and trash talking between them and Malachite.

(2 seconds) While the slashing of Moon is still there, the shot of it happening to Mars and Venus is cut. The same thing to Mercury and Jupiter is half cut. There was a white flash on the screen where the cuts occurred, but still a loss of a couple seconds.

As with Queen Serenity's Moon Healing Escalation, Moon's is also changed to Cosmic Moon Power.

Another shot of Sailormoon all shiny was added in the sequence.

Total Retained 83%














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