From: phoenix@mediaone.net   
      
   Act 29 - Minako's Rival, Mio Kuroki, is a Transfer Student?   
      
   The senshi hold a karaoke party to celebrate Ami's return. Everyone is   
   now much closer and even Rei is openly enjoying the music.   
      
   However, their joy was to be short-lived.   
      
   A new idol star, Mio Kuroki, has suddenly appeared, challenging Minako   
   for the top spot. From the very beginning, something seems to be not   
   quite right with this girl. You get the idea that she might be...   
   evil... in some way.   
      
   We get a brief scene of Mamoru in his new school (where everyone is   
   slowly and distinctly speaking English ^_^) Zoisite continues with his   
   mind meld, attempting to force Mamoru to remember his past. At least   
   we now know that Mamoru made it safely to his school, unlike Stars.   
      
   Jadeite and Queen Beryl appear to be cooking up some sort of special   
   mischief concerning the Silver Crystal.   
      
   As usually happens when a new character is introduced in an anime   
   story, that person shows up as a transfer student in the very class   
   our heroine attends. Such is the case here. Usagi is still holding   
   back, loyal to Minako, but the other students go insane with fandom,   
   asking for photos and autographs from their new classmate idol,   
   including Naru. BTW, you could hardly hear the introductions for the   
   helicopter apparently hovering just outside the windows. At this time,   
   when this first aired, I was still puzzled about just what was going   
   on here. Was the sound guy asleep on the mikes, did the fansubbers   
   mess up the transfer somehow. Just weird.   
      
   Later on, the class competes in a volleyball game where this new girl,   
   Mio, proceeds to beat the heck out of Usagi on the opposing side. Time   
   after time, she whacks Usagi with the ball and no one seems to think   
   that's too unusual. She even kicks Usagi under the net which somehow   
   goes unnoticed as well except for Ami. Where's Minako when you need   
   her ;)   
      
   Luna Tsukino (Wikimoon's designation for Luna in her human form)   
   attempts to enter the Crown using one of the year-long passes, but   
   Motoki won't let her by. Motoki and Luna argue over whether she is too   
   young or not to enter alone. But then Makoto shows up and gives Motoki   
   a smile and all is well. I think that smile would have been hard for   
   anyone to resist ^_^ (So how has Luna been getting in before?)   
      
   After school, Mio approaches Usagi and manages to get Usagi to   
   acknowledge her as a friend, playing on Usagi's good nature of wishing   
   to believe the best of others and to have them be friends with her.   
   Usagi gives a mental apology to Minako for betraying her.   
      
   At the secret base, the girls are practicing Bushido chopsticks   
   training with a little wind cannon shooting colorful flower petals   
   into the air. I think you're suppose to do this with flies, but that's   
   likely a bit too disgusting for something as bishoujo as Sailor Moon   
   ^_^   
      
   As the girls train, Luna is monitoring their progress while painting   
   her fingernails with what appears to be Rei's bottle of nail polish.   
      
   Artemis comes into the base via a little hatch (the secret base has a   
   magical pet door too? I guess I answered my previous question). He has   
   a message from Minako expressing concerns about Mio. In the process,   
   Ami finds out about Minako and Venus. Usagi is now the only one who   
   doesn't know Venus' secret identity.   
      
   There is an interesting scene here where Mio is asking Usagi to tell   
   her if she likes anyone. Usagi starts to describe Mamoru (without   
   actually naming him, BTW). When Usagi says that she thinks she knew   
   him from long, long ago, Mio crushes her ice cream cone, obviously   
   upset or angry about something. Why would Mio know anything about   
   Mamoru or his past or care if Usagi likes him? Pssstt....   
   she's evil   
      
   As Mio washes the ice cream off her hands a youma appears. In the   
   resulting student panic, Usagi pushes Mio out of the way of a youma   
   blast, causing Mio to injure her hand. Now this is something that I   
   never noticed before. Mio looks at the youma and the youma nods some   
   sort of acknowledgement back to Mio. You know what? I think Mio is...   
   EVIL! (holds pinkie to mouth).   
      
   Usagi is forced to take Mio to safety before she can return. By this   
   time, Rei, Ami and Makoto have engaged the youma in battle. They   
   unleash a number of unnamed tambourine based attacks, but the youma   
   shields them all with her (are all youma female?) indestructible cape.   
      
   The youma blasts Mercury's tambourine out of her hand but then Mercury   
   uses some odd bubble ray to hold the tambourine out of the youma's   
   reach until it can be caught in Sailor Luna's net (who just happen to   
   show up at this opportune time). Luna tells Mercury to remember her   
   chopsticks training and tosses the weapon back to her.   
      
   Sailor Luna blasts the youma with a new attack subtitled as "Luna   
   Sucre Candy", but it sounds to me like she is saying "Luna Sweet   
   Candy". This pretty much proves that Luna is a Chibiusa substitute as   
   this attack is just like Chibiusa's Pink Sugar Heart-attack. However,   
   where all the other senshi attacks had failed, this one knocks the   
   youma head over tail.   
      
   This gives the senshi the opportunity to regroup and hit the youma   
   with a three-way Moonlight Attractive Attack. However, the youma   
   laughs it off and retreats.   
      
   Usagi goes back to Mio and bandages her injured wrist. The other girls   
   look on and agree that Venus' concerns were baseless, that Mio seems   
   unsuspicious (Rei, you really disappointed me here). However, the next   
   day in school, Mio has turned the other students against Usagi by   
   telling them that Usagi injured her (technically true, but...)   
      
   She's evil... EVIL, I tell you!   
      
   --   
   Phoenix   
   www.phoenixanime.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)