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azuriteThis special chapter of "Differences" will feature Act Zero, "The Birth of Sailor V!" Are you ready? Let's GO!
Act Zero, which does include partial spoilers for the series (the actresses playing Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter... but if you're a Sailor Moon fan, you'll recognize them without having watched PGSM or having seen the PGSM opening sequence --which is the ending sequence to this Act Zero) ...
It's Christmas, and there's a burglar on the loose? Minako is on the roof of what is presumably her apartment complex, quietly singing "Silent Night." This should be enough of an indicator that we're deviating from the anime-- in the anime, Sailor V never got a back story, aside from a few flashbacks in one episode during the Dark Kingdom arc, when Sailor V was active in Britain (presumably) and worked with a female police officer. Her enemies were more along the lines of thieves, robbers, and mobsters than youma, but any and all of them held a grudge-- and in the anime, Sailor V walked into a trap. A building exploded, leaving the police officer she worked with thinking V was dead. However, V survived-- only to see the man of her dreams hold the stricken police officer. V left Britain for Japan, and became Sailor Venus.
In the manga (Code Name wa Sailor V!) we find out the truth behind Minako's transformation into Sailor V. While it is true that Artemis and Minako met through someone falling on someone else (in the manga, it was Minako landing on Artemis, not the other way around!), it was not at night time on a roof-- rather, it was during school, in Minako's gym class! Moreover, she was in school (7th grade, or 1st yr junior high) in Japan, not Britain! We also saw Minako's parents-- her overbearing mother and her geeky father. Minako, while considered by most to have a personality quite similar to Usagi, is much less of a ditz in the manga (than she is in the anime), and has common hopes and fears for a girl her age and in her circumstances. She crushes easily, has her fair share of strengths and weaknesses, and tends to get in trouble a great deal with teachers and police officers alike.
In the live action, Minako's already an idol. Popular, too, judging by Usagi's reaction to her single coming out (waking up early, leaving Naru-tachi behind to grab the single, instead of guarding the jewelry store). But she's all alone atop her roof, and when Artemis appears and gives her a transformation phone (NOT a pen, as she had in the anime/manga; the two pens differed in that one allowed her to communicate with the "Boss" (Queen Serenity), while the other was more of a transformation WAND, just like the ones the other senshi had. Also, Minako said "Moon Power, Transform!" to turn into Sailor V in the manga). Artemis controls her transformation by pushing a few buttons on the phone-- he doesn't have Minako repeat after him, or say anything at all. Minako's transformation is without lights and show; she just "becomes" Sailor V.
Artemis also doesn't tell her what her name is, where she comes from, or what her purpose is-- in the manga, he not only took her to outer space and showed her Venus's castle, Magellan, but he told her that she was the Guardian of a Princess, she was the soldier of Venus, and the reincarnation of the Goddess of Love and Beauty. In other words, in the manga, Minako knew all along who she was, what her mission was, etc. In the anime, she also knew that she was not the Princess, but she fully intended to fake everyone out until they found out who the real person was (no one knew Usagi = Sailor Moon = Moon Princess).
Sailor V's enemies in the manga are youma from the Dark Kingdom, under the authority of one Danburite-- the same guy responsible for Minako wearing her trademark red bow in her hair. That whole symbolism is completely gone from the live action, since Minako is a pop star and not an ordinary school girl dreaming of becoming an idol... and even if she did want to bend to someone else's wishes of how she should look, it would be to the public's or a personal stylist's-- not some random boy's.
It never seems to be touched on how Minako became an idol, though-- only that she's a rising star and quick success by the time Artemis meets her. Ironically enough, Minako's first CD and second single are already out by the time Artemis meets her-- including the song "Cest la Vie," the song that mysteriously sounds like "Sailor V!" (In the manga, she knows that V is short for Venus-- that's why she introduces herself as "Code Name" Sailor V, because until she finds the other Senshi, V is just a code name). Go figure-- maybe that's why Minako didn't need any help from Artemis coming up with a name? Her other songs could also be construed as being related to her position as Sailor Venus:
(1) Origin of the Legend (Sailor V is the original Sailor Senshi, and the origin of the legendary Sailor Senshi started with Act Zero)
(2) Imitation (Sailor V pretends to be an imitation Princess, to lure the Dark Kingdom away from Sailor Moon, whom she eventually remembers is the true princess)
(3) Don't Lose! Christmas Girl (Minako first becomes Sailor V on Christmas, and ironically accepts it right away, something she did with a great deal of reluctance in the manga, until she realized Danburite was stealing people's energy. We don't know why live action!Minako is so quick to transform her life when she's already so popular... but PGSM likely gives us clues to that.)
(4) Love vs. Dream (It was always Minako's dream to become an idol, but that conflicts with her duty as the Senshi of Love-- though initially she introduces herself as the Guardian of Justice. It might also be a reference to Minako's dream to be with someone special, but there's no love in falling for the first cute guy you meet; she spends the entirety of her manga looking for that "right someone" only to realize he was right in front of her-- but he cursed her to never find true love, so long as she remained a Guardian of Justice.)
(5) Happily~ (Minako wants "happily ever after," but in the manga, she's cursed to lose the only man she's ever loved- and worse, to get cursed by him to never find true love. In the live action, she wants a new life, and gets to be an idol... but she has to constantly hide her identity, not to mention something else that will prevent her from having a "happily ever after." So she trails off the last two words.)
(6) Secret! (Minako's got a big secret now-- she's Sailor V! When she hears Usagi hollering her name outside of Naru's jewelry store, she thinks Usagi has discovered her true identity-- and runs off. But nearby, Tuxedo Kamen realizes why V is running-- and he finds out V is Minako! Can Minako really keep her identity a secret when so much is on the line?)
(7) Orange Heart (Minako's image color is orange-- once she becomes Sailor Venus. Her symbol is the heart, since she's the Goddess of LOVE and beauty.)
(8) White Rondevous (Minako and Artemis, the white cat, meet for the first time... and Minako becomes more than just a girl, more than just a pop idol- -she becomes Sailor V!)
(9) Make Up Power! (This one should be obvious. All the Senshi finish off their transformations by saying "Make Up!" or "...Power!")
Unlike the other live action!Senshi, Minako doesn't seem to know much in the ways of instinctively fighting her enemies. In both the anime and the manga, Minako's skill in battle came from her prowess as an athlete and a gymnast- something she probably doesn't have in the live action, being a pop star and all. Does Minako even GO to school?
Also, when Sailor V first fights the robber, she uses her Crescent Boomerang-- in the manga, this is the same compact that reflects the "true nature" of her enemies. When she first looked into it (as Minako), she saw her reflection as Sailor V. When she reflected it at a youma or an enemy, it revealed them decaying and hideous-- the "true nature" of their hearts. Sailor V channeled her "Crescent Beam!" attack through the compact, which caused the enemy to become as they were reflected-- destroyed. (She can also use the Crescent Compact to disguise herself, saying "Crescent Moon Power, Transform!") In the live action, Sailor V uses her Crescent Boomerang as just that-- a boomerang. It doesn't seem to work at first, but it manages to knock a tree branch right into the path of the robber before he gets to Sailor V.
At the end of the battle, Sailor V recalls Artemis's name, and thanks him, saying it's "the best Christmas present" she ever got. In the manga, her sentiments were quite different-- her first battle entailed fighting a guy she had a serious crush on (Danburite), and her destroying him. When she got home, she ignored Artemis completely, and cried herself to sleep.
Of note is that Minako's uniform in the live action more closely matches the V we've seen in the manga than the V from the anime-- and there are slight differences. The things that are the same throughout are blue pumps, a blue skirt with a red stripe, a white bodysuit with a blue collar and armor, a gold brooch with a blue bow, a red bow for her hair, and a white crescent moon collar. However, in the anime, she has red stripes on her collar, NO sleeves, and on her skirt! Crescent moon pendants are on the straps of her pumps, and white lace underneath her skirt (in some pictures). Her gloves, which in the live action and the manga are just lined with a light gold ribbon, are adorned with a crescent moon, and consist of three gold-colored "tubes". Her live action hair bow has a red heart brooch on the back of it.
When we see Usagi, she's in what looks like her summer uniform-- a white collar instead of a blue one, and short sleeves instead of long ones. However, since the gap between Minako becoming Sailor V and Usagi becoming Sailor Moon doesn't seem all that long (maybe a week or two), it's very different from the anime and the manga-- where Minako was active for at least a year before Sailor Moon came around, and while Sailor Moon was still "learning the ropes" Sailor V was out kicking butt and taking names.
The news Usagi is watching reports on a variety of jewelry heists in their neighborhood-- the Juuban ward in Minato-ku (I stayed there while I was in Japan!). Naru's mother, Mayumi Osaka, owns a jewelry shop-- the last one in the area that hasn't been robbed yet. But it's name is NOT OSA*P, as it is in the anime; it's Jupiter! @_o
Also, it seems as though the police are failing to keep up with the robberies, and citizens are chastising (that's the "tame" word for it) them for it. Even funnier, the four police officers in the local station call themselves "Shittenou," (Four Generals) and are played by the same actors as Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite! (Why it's Jadeite's actor that calls himself "Hanako" and dresses up as a female police officer, I have NO idea. You'd think Zoisite would be doing that...)
When Usagi watches the news, she hears about Sailor V foiling another robber (though it seems as though one particular band of robbers, which we'll find out about later on, are eluding Sailor V). Usagi thinks she'd like to do that as well-- these thoughts are similar to Usagi's in the first episode of both the anime and the manga. Usagi imagines herself as a Sailor Senshi, complete with a mask and armor. When Usagi first becomes Sailor Moon in the manga, she DOES have a mask (a white one that she uses as an alternate weapon, along with her "feather" hair pins) ... but it stops appearing after a few acts. In the live action, Usagi never gets a mask like Sailor V's. Why V is the only one with a mask, I'll never know... (maybe it's because she's an idol and people stand more a chance of recognizing her, even with blonde hair?)
In the anime and the manga, Usagi's mother, Ikuko Tsukino, is not nearly as eccentric as she appears in the live action. She even makes a pun (which isn't explained in the subtitled Act Zero, unfortunately) and succeeds in confusing herself. That pun is "koban" which means "police station," but also "knock out." Ikuko-mama encourages people to take their complaints to the police station, but ends up saying that people should knock out the police officers. ^^;
When Usagi meets up with Naru, Naru wants to go to the police and get some protection for her mother's jewelry store while her mom's out of town. They spy on the police, and see one guy (I think it's Zoisite's actor) dramatically faint, another (Nephrite?) fight his way against the restraints of the "boss" (Kunzite), and the fourth one run around upset, dressed as a woman (Jadeite). They realize how crazy these guys are, and decide not to ask for their help-- much to the police officers' dismay. In the anime, OSA*P (Naru's mother's jewelry store, which Naru and her mother live on top of in an apartment) has its own security system-- but youma never have any problem getting around it (two in particular: Morga and Bandana). Thus, there's never a need for Naru to go to a police station... (and on top of that, the Shittenou would never disguise themselves as police officers, nor would they willingly work together-- unless it was just Zoisite and Kunzite!)
Later, Usagi and Naru walk with their friends Momoko and Kanami (they had different names in the anime) and decide that since they can't call on Sailor V, they'll BECOME Sailor V-- or rather, dress up as her comrades in the hopes that it'll scare any robbers away. They'll become Sailor M, Sailor K, Sailor N, and Sailor... Rabbit!? (Well, Sailor U does sound kind of strange, ne?) Little do they know that Ami Mizuno is right behind them, and she too, pictures herself as a senshi-- Sailor A! Usagi catches Ami making the "V is for Victory" eye-pose, so Ami hurriedly pretends she's straightening her glasses! Ami-chan of the anime never had that much imagination!
We meet Motoki and his pet turtle for the first time at Crown Karaoke (Darkwater calls it 'Krown Karaoke,' which pisses me off!)-- and hear from Hina, who obviously has some sort of relationship with Mamoru (and is non-existent in the anime/manga). It's revealed that Mamoru hasn't been answering his phone lately, but then again, he HAS just moved into a new place. We switch to Mamoru's apartment-- the place is a mess, but on the side is a tuxedo, cape, and cane, with a top hat and mask...
It's worth noting that in the manga, Minako went to Crown Arcade as well, and trained on the Sailor V game to become a more proficient senshi. It was also Artemis that first rigged the machines to allow future senshi (Moon and Mercury, in particular) to train on them, and in the anime, as a comm. center so Luna could talk to him. Since the arcade doesn't exist in the live action, and Minako's an idol, it's unnecessary and impossible to do it that way... (Motoki mentions that Mamoru's not so much fun to hang around anymore... Hina responds that Mamoru's got his reasons, and he must have something important to do-- they're not fighting. The latter statement again implies she's in some sort of relationship with Mamoru, which contradicts the anime and the manga, which both portray Mamoru as someone who very rarely makes friends, let alone with a woman.)
After Usagi and Co. go into Jupiter, we see... Jupiter! Or rather, Makoto Kino, who's getting rejected (for a loan?) by someone who says it's far too difficult to live alone. Since I haven't seen the episode where Makoto appears, I'm assuming that they keep her character intact, and that she's an orphan because her parents died in an airplane crash. Thus, it's a good reason why Makoto would be living alone while still in junior high...
Two "baddies" in leather (women) are scoping out Jupiter as Usagi leaves, and leave once they realize "the situation." Up above, V is watching-- and runs away when she hears Usagi scream "Aino Minako!" thinking Usagi's found out her identity. When and why she comes back to defeat the robbers (perhaps after more convincing from Artemis?) is not known. However, Tuxedo Mask hears her freak out, and realizes that Minako is Sailor V! The two baddies return to their headquarters to meet with their boss (who has a strange obsession with roses, "formations," streaks of colored hair, magical illusions/tricks, and helicopter sound effects...) QT Kenko. (If that's supposed to be a pun, I don't know what it is...)
The baddies manage to get into Jupiter by knocking out the security guards at the door, but Naru and her friends try to stop them before they can rob anything. They're all dressed up as senshi, with Naru (aka Sailor N) in a blue senshi uniform with a pink bow, gold brooch, and red hair bow on the left side of her head; Sailor K in a red senshi uniform with the bow in the back of her hair (same bow/brooch color), and Sailor M in yellow, with the bow in the rear right. They all have plain white sleeves and "armor," but no stripes or lace anywhere, and they all have the same red mask. If Naru even attempted to do this in the anime, she might not have been considered an easy target, or "youma bait" by so many enemies!
QT Kenko catches the "Sailor Alphabet" in a trap, but Usagi appears to "save the day" in her pink senshi outfit (same bow and mask)-- adorned with rabbits. Her only weapon is a fire extinguisher, though... and of course, Usagi gets caught. When the thieves go to steal the jewels, Usagi spots the expensive gems case has a key-- so she takes it and swallows it! So QT Kenko and his gang retreat with Usagi-- in order to "cut her open" and get the key back! (If Usagi ever had guts like these in the anime, she wouldn't have been such a crybaby when she faced her first youma as Sailor Moon!)
Meanwhile, the Sailor Alphabet goes to the police station, while Sailor V appears (no longer worried that Usagi knows her identity, apparently) to save Usagi from certain death (you know the old sword-in-a-box trick). V says she managed to find the QT Kenko gang hideout by placing a tracer (one that is the size of a quarter and looks like Artemis, complete with neon green blinking eyes) on the briefcase she KNEW they were going to take! (The truth is, Artemis put it there-- but how did Artemis get into the Jupiter jewelry store, into the back room, and into the closed cabinet with the case on it!? He's a CAT, for Pete's sake!)
Sailor V fights Kenko's henchmen... er, women, and manages to defeat most of them, though it's an escaped Usagi that puts the finishing blow on the last girl. It's then that Artemis senses something about Usagi, though we don't find out what until the end of the episode. Usagi cheers Sailor V on as the last two henchmen attack V-- and mysteriously, V's shoes change into sneakers! (Obviously, this was a mistake of the editors-- V was wearing pumps up until then!) When Kenko attacks with his rose (really fireworks), V is injured-- though not too badly. When next we see V in full body, she's got her pumps back on... (In the anime, Usagi has never met nor seen Sailor V outside of video games and movies. However, Minako is known to be watching Usagi...)
Ironically, the guys that save V from death are... the four Shittenou police! They're obviously trembling, and when Kenko asks THEM how they found the hideout, the one who resembles Nephrite said he "followed his soul." ^^; I suppose that's as close as we're going to get to the anime Nephrite's "reading the stars," ne? Everyone's freaked out when Kenko nods to his purple henchwoman to start up the helicopter noise, but V catches on and destroys the boom box with her Crescent Boomerang. The police charge when they realize they've been tricked, and they each grab one of the henchwomen, with Kunzite's actor grabbing Kenko himself. Usagi is happily looking on, until she realizes she's the last one left-- and V is gone.
Where did V go? She went after Tuxedo Mask, who snuck in and grabbed the suitcase with the rare jewels in it! People who have already seen PGSM will know that he's no jewel thief-- he's just after the Silver Crystal. In the manga, he was much more persistent about finding it (and had more of his memories intact, on top of that) and went to a variety of measures to find the crystal, similar to his live action counterpart. Sailor V stops Tuxedo Mask from running away, and asks him "what" he is. He answers "Tuxedo Mask," but obviously that's not enough of an answer for V-- so they fight to keep the jewels. In the fight, they meet head-on, and both see a vision-- the vision that caused the "flash of light" some fans might remember from Episode 1/Act 1. Tuxedo Mask sees the shadowed figure of a girl asking him for the Silver Crystal, while V sees (the same thing?) the Moon Kingdom surrounded by a protective barrier (it looks like a crystal), the buildings of the Moon Kingdom, the back side of a royal figure in an elaborate white cape holding onto another person, the Earth getting "eaten" away by a purple miasma, and the crushing of a fiery chasm into itself, with Tuxedo Mask falling into it, reaching down for someone else that remains unseen. They both land, but Tuxedo Mask drops his case-- and runs off without it, astounded that he's seen "another" vision.
When Artemis approaches V, she says she remembers her "true name" (presumably a part of the vision we haven't seen, when someone called her "Venus") , the Princess, and what her mission really is. Artemis says he too, has found something-- "that girl" (Usagi) is Sailor Moon! He calls on Luna, who comes down from the moon (not in a stasis capsule), and says "Sailor Moon, wait for me!" In the anime, Artemis and Luna were separated, and something caused their stasis tubes to malfunction-- they lost part of their memory, which is why Luna awakened Usagi as Sailor Moon, when Sailor Moon never existed in the Silver Millennium/Moon Kingdom. Artemis had more memory than Luna, but he had no way of communicating with her until he set up the games at Crown Arcade (not possible in the live action, since the arcade is a Karaoke joint). On top of that, Artemis should have known all along (if not all along, then especially after Venus remembered the truth) that there was no Sailor Moon. In the Sailor V manga, Artemis knew all along that Sailor V was meant to be the princess's decoy, but I doubt he knew Luna would awaken Sailor Moon (the princess) before her guardian soldiers!
Usagi is home and sees Luna as a shooting star-- and she wishes on it, hoping for "only good things to happen from now on." Obviously she doesn't get her wish... exactly... Another thing questionable about the whole thing with Artemis recognizing Usagi as Sailor Moon is, why didn't HE awaken her then and there? Obviously you don't just need one cat per senshi, otherwise there'd be 3 other cats! On top of that, even if he did want to leave Sailor Moon's training to Luna, why didn't he, Luna, and Sailor V get together to help train Usagi more, or help her remember her "duty?" Why did they stay separate factions? (Kinda makes V seem like the lone wolf, or the Outer Senshi...)
Outside, Rei, Ami and Makoto also sense Luna... though they don't know "what" she is.
To Be Continued...
Act Zero, which does include partial spoilers for the series (the actresses playing Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter... but if you're a Sailor Moon fan, you'll recognize them without having watched PGSM or having seen the PGSM opening sequence --which is the ending sequence to this Act Zero) ...
It's Christmas, and there's a burglar on the loose? Minako is on the roof of what is presumably her apartment complex, quietly singing "Silent Night." This should be enough of an indicator that we're deviating from the anime-- in the anime, Sailor V never got a back story, aside from a few flashbacks in one episode during the Dark Kingdom arc, when Sailor V was active in Britain (presumably) and worked with a female police officer. Her enemies were more along the lines of thieves, robbers, and mobsters than youma, but any and all of them held a grudge-- and in the anime, Sailor V walked into a trap. A building exploded, leaving the police officer she worked with thinking V was dead. However, V survived-- only to see the man of her dreams hold the stricken police officer. V left Britain for Japan, and became Sailor Venus.
In the manga (Code Name wa Sailor V!) we find out the truth behind Minako's transformation into Sailor V. While it is true that Artemis and Minako met through someone falling on someone else (in the manga, it was Minako landing on Artemis, not the other way around!), it was not at night time on a roof-- rather, it was during school, in Minako's gym class! Moreover, she was in school (7th grade, or 1st yr junior high) in Japan, not Britain! We also saw Minako's parents-- her overbearing mother and her geeky father. Minako, while considered by most to have a personality quite similar to Usagi, is much less of a ditz in the manga (than she is in the anime), and has common hopes and fears for a girl her age and in her circumstances. She crushes easily, has her fair share of strengths and weaknesses, and tends to get in trouble a great deal with teachers and police officers alike.
In the live action, Minako's already an idol. Popular, too, judging by Usagi's reaction to her single coming out (waking up early, leaving Naru-tachi behind to grab the single, instead of guarding the jewelry store). But she's all alone atop her roof, and when Artemis appears and gives her a transformation phone (NOT a pen, as she had in the anime/manga; the two pens differed in that one allowed her to communicate with the "Boss" (Queen Serenity), while the other was more of a transformation WAND, just like the ones the other senshi had. Also, Minako said "Moon Power, Transform!" to turn into Sailor V in the manga). Artemis controls her transformation by pushing a few buttons on the phone-- he doesn't have Minako repeat after him, or say anything at all. Minako's transformation is without lights and show; she just "becomes" Sailor V.
Artemis also doesn't tell her what her name is, where she comes from, or what her purpose is-- in the manga, he not only took her to outer space and showed her Venus's castle, Magellan, but he told her that she was the Guardian of a Princess, she was the soldier of Venus, and the reincarnation of the Goddess of Love and Beauty. In other words, in the manga, Minako knew all along who she was, what her mission was, etc. In the anime, she also knew that she was not the Princess, but she fully intended to fake everyone out until they found out who the real person was (no one knew Usagi = Sailor Moon = Moon Princess).
Sailor V's enemies in the manga are youma from the Dark Kingdom, under the authority of one Danburite-- the same guy responsible for Minako wearing her trademark red bow in her hair. That whole symbolism is completely gone from the live action, since Minako is a pop star and not an ordinary school girl dreaming of becoming an idol... and even if she did want to bend to someone else's wishes of how she should look, it would be to the public's or a personal stylist's-- not some random boy's.
It never seems to be touched on how Minako became an idol, though-- only that she's a rising star and quick success by the time Artemis meets her. Ironically enough, Minako's first CD and second single are already out by the time Artemis meets her-- including the song "Cest la Vie," the song that mysteriously sounds like "Sailor V!" (In the manga, she knows that V is short for Venus-- that's why she introduces herself as "Code Name" Sailor V, because until she finds the other Senshi, V is just a code name). Go figure-- maybe that's why Minako didn't need any help from Artemis coming up with a name? Her other songs could also be construed as being related to her position as Sailor Venus:
(1) Origin of the Legend (Sailor V is the original Sailor Senshi, and the origin of the legendary Sailor Senshi started with Act Zero)
(2) Imitation (Sailor V pretends to be an imitation Princess, to lure the Dark Kingdom away from Sailor Moon, whom she eventually remembers is the true princess)
(3) Don't Lose! Christmas Girl (Minako first becomes Sailor V on Christmas, and ironically accepts it right away, something she did with a great deal of reluctance in the manga, until she realized Danburite was stealing people's energy. We don't know why live action!Minako is so quick to transform her life when she's already so popular... but PGSM likely gives us clues to that.)
(4) Love vs. Dream (It was always Minako's dream to become an idol, but that conflicts with her duty as the Senshi of Love-- though initially she introduces herself as the Guardian of Justice. It might also be a reference to Minako's dream to be with someone special, but there's no love in falling for the first cute guy you meet; she spends the entirety of her manga looking for that "right someone" only to realize he was right in front of her-- but he cursed her to never find true love, so long as she remained a Guardian of Justice.)
(5) Happily~ (Minako wants "happily ever after," but in the manga, she's cursed to lose the only man she's ever loved- and worse, to get cursed by him to never find true love. In the live action, she wants a new life, and gets to be an idol... but she has to constantly hide her identity, not to mention something else that will prevent her from having a "happily ever after." So she trails off the last two words.)
(6) Secret! (Minako's got a big secret now-- she's Sailor V! When she hears Usagi hollering her name outside of Naru's jewelry store, she thinks Usagi has discovered her true identity-- and runs off. But nearby, Tuxedo Kamen realizes why V is running-- and he finds out V is Minako! Can Minako really keep her identity a secret when so much is on the line?)
(7) Orange Heart (Minako's image color is orange-- once she becomes Sailor Venus. Her symbol is the heart, since she's the Goddess of LOVE and beauty.)
(8) White Rondevous (Minako and Artemis, the white cat, meet for the first time... and Minako becomes more than just a girl, more than just a pop idol- -she becomes Sailor V!)
(9) Make Up Power! (This one should be obvious. All the Senshi finish off their transformations by saying "Make Up!" or "...Power!")
Unlike the other live action!Senshi, Minako doesn't seem to know much in the ways of instinctively fighting her enemies. In both the anime and the manga, Minako's skill in battle came from her prowess as an athlete and a gymnast- something she probably doesn't have in the live action, being a pop star and all. Does Minako even GO to school?
Also, when Sailor V first fights the robber, she uses her Crescent Boomerang-- in the manga, this is the same compact that reflects the "true nature" of her enemies. When she first looked into it (as Minako), she saw her reflection as Sailor V. When she reflected it at a youma or an enemy, it revealed them decaying and hideous-- the "true nature" of their hearts. Sailor V channeled her "Crescent Beam!" attack through the compact, which caused the enemy to become as they were reflected-- destroyed. (She can also use the Crescent Compact to disguise herself, saying "Crescent Moon Power, Transform!") In the live action, Sailor V uses her Crescent Boomerang as just that-- a boomerang. It doesn't seem to work at first, but it manages to knock a tree branch right into the path of the robber before he gets to Sailor V.
At the end of the battle, Sailor V recalls Artemis's name, and thanks him, saying it's "the best Christmas present" she ever got. In the manga, her sentiments were quite different-- her first battle entailed fighting a guy she had a serious crush on (Danburite), and her destroying him. When she got home, she ignored Artemis completely, and cried herself to sleep.
Of note is that Minako's uniform in the live action more closely matches the V we've seen in the manga than the V from the anime-- and there are slight differences. The things that are the same throughout are blue pumps, a blue skirt with a red stripe, a white bodysuit with a blue collar and armor, a gold brooch with a blue bow, a red bow for her hair, and a white crescent moon collar. However, in the anime, she has red stripes on her collar, NO sleeves, and on her skirt! Crescent moon pendants are on the straps of her pumps, and white lace underneath her skirt (in some pictures). Her gloves, which in the live action and the manga are just lined with a light gold ribbon, are adorned with a crescent moon, and consist of three gold-colored "tubes". Her live action hair bow has a red heart brooch on the back of it.
When we see Usagi, she's in what looks like her summer uniform-- a white collar instead of a blue one, and short sleeves instead of long ones. However, since the gap between Minako becoming Sailor V and Usagi becoming Sailor Moon doesn't seem all that long (maybe a week or two), it's very different from the anime and the manga-- where Minako was active for at least a year before Sailor Moon came around, and while Sailor Moon was still "learning the ropes" Sailor V was out kicking butt and taking names.
The news Usagi is watching reports on a variety of jewelry heists in their neighborhood-- the Juuban ward in Minato-ku (I stayed there while I was in Japan!). Naru's mother, Mayumi Osaka, owns a jewelry shop-- the last one in the area that hasn't been robbed yet. But it's name is NOT OSA*P, as it is in the anime; it's Jupiter! @_o
Also, it seems as though the police are failing to keep up with the robberies, and citizens are chastising (that's the "tame" word for it) them for it. Even funnier, the four police officers in the local station call themselves "Shittenou," (Four Generals) and are played by the same actors as Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite! (Why it's Jadeite's actor that calls himself "Hanako" and dresses up as a female police officer, I have NO idea. You'd think Zoisite would be doing that...)
When Usagi watches the news, she hears about Sailor V foiling another robber (though it seems as though one particular band of robbers, which we'll find out about later on, are eluding Sailor V). Usagi thinks she'd like to do that as well-- these thoughts are similar to Usagi's in the first episode of both the anime and the manga. Usagi imagines herself as a Sailor Senshi, complete with a mask and armor. When Usagi first becomes Sailor Moon in the manga, she DOES have a mask (a white one that she uses as an alternate weapon, along with her "feather" hair pins) ... but it stops appearing after a few acts. In the live action, Usagi never gets a mask like Sailor V's. Why V is the only one with a mask, I'll never know... (maybe it's because she's an idol and people stand more a chance of recognizing her, even with blonde hair?)
In the anime and the manga, Usagi's mother, Ikuko Tsukino, is not nearly as eccentric as she appears in the live action. She even makes a pun (which isn't explained in the subtitled Act Zero, unfortunately) and succeeds in confusing herself. That pun is "koban" which means "police station," but also "knock out." Ikuko-mama encourages people to take their complaints to the police station, but ends up saying that people should knock out the police officers. ^^;
When Usagi meets up with Naru, Naru wants to go to the police and get some protection for her mother's jewelry store while her mom's out of town. They spy on the police, and see one guy (I think it's Zoisite's actor) dramatically faint, another (Nephrite?) fight his way against the restraints of the "boss" (Kunzite), and the fourth one run around upset, dressed as a woman (Jadeite). They realize how crazy these guys are, and decide not to ask for their help-- much to the police officers' dismay. In the anime, OSA*P (Naru's mother's jewelry store, which Naru and her mother live on top of in an apartment) has its own security system-- but youma never have any problem getting around it (two in particular: Morga and Bandana). Thus, there's never a need for Naru to go to a police station... (and on top of that, the Shittenou would never disguise themselves as police officers, nor would they willingly work together-- unless it was just Zoisite and Kunzite!)
Later, Usagi and Naru walk with their friends Momoko and Kanami (they had different names in the anime) and decide that since they can't call on Sailor V, they'll BECOME Sailor V-- or rather, dress up as her comrades in the hopes that it'll scare any robbers away. They'll become Sailor M, Sailor K, Sailor N, and Sailor... Rabbit!? (Well, Sailor U does sound kind of strange, ne?) Little do they know that Ami Mizuno is right behind them, and she too, pictures herself as a senshi-- Sailor A! Usagi catches Ami making the "V is for Victory" eye-pose, so Ami hurriedly pretends she's straightening her glasses! Ami-chan of the anime never had that much imagination!
We meet Motoki and his pet turtle for the first time at Crown Karaoke (Darkwater calls it 'Krown Karaoke,' which pisses me off!)-- and hear from Hina, who obviously has some sort of relationship with Mamoru (and is non-existent in the anime/manga). It's revealed that Mamoru hasn't been answering his phone lately, but then again, he HAS just moved into a new place. We switch to Mamoru's apartment-- the place is a mess, but on the side is a tuxedo, cape, and cane, with a top hat and mask...
It's worth noting that in the manga, Minako went to Crown Arcade as well, and trained on the Sailor V game to become a more proficient senshi. It was also Artemis that first rigged the machines to allow future senshi (Moon and Mercury, in particular) to train on them, and in the anime, as a comm. center so Luna could talk to him. Since the arcade doesn't exist in the live action, and Minako's an idol, it's unnecessary and impossible to do it that way... (Motoki mentions that Mamoru's not so much fun to hang around anymore... Hina responds that Mamoru's got his reasons, and he must have something important to do-- they're not fighting. The latter statement again implies she's in some sort of relationship with Mamoru, which contradicts the anime and the manga, which both portray Mamoru as someone who very rarely makes friends, let alone with a woman.)
After Usagi and Co. go into Jupiter, we see... Jupiter! Or rather, Makoto Kino, who's getting rejected (for a loan?) by someone who says it's far too difficult to live alone. Since I haven't seen the episode where Makoto appears, I'm assuming that they keep her character intact, and that she's an orphan because her parents died in an airplane crash. Thus, it's a good reason why Makoto would be living alone while still in junior high...
Two "baddies" in leather (women) are scoping out Jupiter as Usagi leaves, and leave once they realize "the situation." Up above, V is watching-- and runs away when she hears Usagi scream "Aino Minako!" thinking Usagi's found out her identity. When and why she comes back to defeat the robbers (perhaps after more convincing from Artemis?) is not known. However, Tuxedo Mask hears her freak out, and realizes that Minako is Sailor V! The two baddies return to their headquarters to meet with their boss (who has a strange obsession with roses, "formations," streaks of colored hair, magical illusions/tricks, and helicopter sound effects...) QT Kenko. (If that's supposed to be a pun, I don't know what it is...)
The baddies manage to get into Jupiter by knocking out the security guards at the door, but Naru and her friends try to stop them before they can rob anything. They're all dressed up as senshi, with Naru (aka Sailor N) in a blue senshi uniform with a pink bow, gold brooch, and red hair bow on the left side of her head; Sailor K in a red senshi uniform with the bow in the back of her hair (same bow/brooch color), and Sailor M in yellow, with the bow in the rear right. They all have plain white sleeves and "armor," but no stripes or lace anywhere, and they all have the same red mask. If Naru even attempted to do this in the anime, she might not have been considered an easy target, or "youma bait" by so many enemies!
QT Kenko catches the "Sailor Alphabet" in a trap, but Usagi appears to "save the day" in her pink senshi outfit (same bow and mask)-- adorned with rabbits. Her only weapon is a fire extinguisher, though... and of course, Usagi gets caught. When the thieves go to steal the jewels, Usagi spots the expensive gems case has a key-- so she takes it and swallows it! So QT Kenko and his gang retreat with Usagi-- in order to "cut her open" and get the key back! (If Usagi ever had guts like these in the anime, she wouldn't have been such a crybaby when she faced her first youma as Sailor Moon!)
Meanwhile, the Sailor Alphabet goes to the police station, while Sailor V appears (no longer worried that Usagi knows her identity, apparently) to save Usagi from certain death (you know the old sword-in-a-box trick). V says she managed to find the QT Kenko gang hideout by placing a tracer (one that is the size of a quarter and looks like Artemis, complete with neon green blinking eyes) on the briefcase she KNEW they were going to take! (The truth is, Artemis put it there-- but how did Artemis get into the Jupiter jewelry store, into the back room, and into the closed cabinet with the case on it!? He's a CAT, for Pete's sake!)
Sailor V fights Kenko's henchmen... er, women, and manages to defeat most of them, though it's an escaped Usagi that puts the finishing blow on the last girl. It's then that Artemis senses something about Usagi, though we don't find out what until the end of the episode. Usagi cheers Sailor V on as the last two henchmen attack V-- and mysteriously, V's shoes change into sneakers! (Obviously, this was a mistake of the editors-- V was wearing pumps up until then!) When Kenko attacks with his rose (really fireworks), V is injured-- though not too badly. When next we see V in full body, she's got her pumps back on... (In the anime, Usagi has never met nor seen Sailor V outside of video games and movies. However, Minako is known to be watching Usagi...)
Ironically, the guys that save V from death are... the four Shittenou police! They're obviously trembling, and when Kenko asks THEM how they found the hideout, the one who resembles Nephrite said he "followed his soul." ^^; I suppose that's as close as we're going to get to the anime Nephrite's "reading the stars," ne? Everyone's freaked out when Kenko nods to his purple henchwoman to start up the helicopter noise, but V catches on and destroys the boom box with her Crescent Boomerang. The police charge when they realize they've been tricked, and they each grab one of the henchwomen, with Kunzite's actor grabbing Kenko himself. Usagi is happily looking on, until she realizes she's the last one left-- and V is gone.
Where did V go? She went after Tuxedo Mask, who snuck in and grabbed the suitcase with the rare jewels in it! People who have already seen PGSM will know that he's no jewel thief-- he's just after the Silver Crystal. In the manga, he was much more persistent about finding it (and had more of his memories intact, on top of that) and went to a variety of measures to find the crystal, similar to his live action counterpart. Sailor V stops Tuxedo Mask from running away, and asks him "what" he is. He answers "Tuxedo Mask," but obviously that's not enough of an answer for V-- so they fight to keep the jewels. In the fight, they meet head-on, and both see a vision-- the vision that caused the "flash of light" some fans might remember from Episode 1/Act 1. Tuxedo Mask sees the shadowed figure of a girl asking him for the Silver Crystal, while V sees (the same thing?) the Moon Kingdom surrounded by a protective barrier (it looks like a crystal), the buildings of the Moon Kingdom, the back side of a royal figure in an elaborate white cape holding onto another person, the Earth getting "eaten" away by a purple miasma, and the crushing of a fiery chasm into itself, with Tuxedo Mask falling into it, reaching down for someone else that remains unseen. They both land, but Tuxedo Mask drops his case-- and runs off without it, astounded that he's seen "another" vision.
When Artemis approaches V, she says she remembers her "true name" (presumably a part of the vision we haven't seen, when someone called her "Venus") , the Princess, and what her mission really is. Artemis says he too, has found something-- "that girl" (Usagi) is Sailor Moon! He calls on Luna, who comes down from the moon (not in a stasis capsule), and says "Sailor Moon, wait for me!" In the anime, Artemis and Luna were separated, and something caused their stasis tubes to malfunction-- they lost part of their memory, which is why Luna awakened Usagi as Sailor Moon, when Sailor Moon never existed in the Silver Millennium/Moon Kingdom. Artemis had more memory than Luna, but he had no way of communicating with her until he set up the games at Crown Arcade (not possible in the live action, since the arcade is a Karaoke joint). On top of that, Artemis should have known all along (if not all along, then especially after Venus remembered the truth) that there was no Sailor Moon. In the Sailor V manga, Artemis knew all along that Sailor V was meant to be the princess's decoy, but I doubt he knew Luna would awaken Sailor Moon (the princess) before her guardian soldiers!
Usagi is home and sees Luna as a shooting star-- and she wishes on it, hoping for "only good things to happen from now on." Obviously she doesn't get her wish... exactly... Another thing questionable about the whole thing with Artemis recognizing Usagi as Sailor Moon is, why didn't HE awaken her then and there? Obviously you don't just need one cat per senshi, otherwise there'd be 3 other cats! On top of that, even if he did want to leave Sailor Moon's training to Luna, why didn't he, Luna, and Sailor V get together to help train Usagi more, or help her remember her "duty?" Why did they stay separate factions? (Kinda makes V seem like the lone wolf, or the Outer Senshi...)
Outside, Rei, Ami and Makoto also sense Luna... though they don't know "what" she is.
To Be Continued...
