based on Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon episode 38: Yukiyo yamayo yuujouyo! Yappari youmamoyo!View the screenshot album for this episode (opens new window)This is an important episode, not only for the relationship between Yuuichirou and Rei, but for Rei's friendship with Usagi. Yep, in the wild they'd be natural enemies, but when forced to work together the two of them discover they can get along. For a short time. Kinda. Our story kicks off with one of Usagi's rare attempts at self-improvement - having recently discovered her past identity as Serenity, she wanted to enter the Moon Princess competition at a mountain ski resort to prove she'd got what it takes for this gig. Rei and Minako were also pretty pumped about it (planning to tell Luna they would be 'training' in the mountains), but accommodation problems loomed. Yuuichirou to the rescue! Our hero offered to let the girls stay at his house - by a fortuitous circumstance known as a lazy writer, he's from that area in the first place. Rei seemed reluctant (perhaps imagining the house as a bit of a hovel - Yuuichirou doesn't look as though he comes from a place with co-ordinated curtains and cushions, or even necessarily indoor plumbing, I must admit) but the others accepted the offer eagerly. 'You
can provide free accomodation? I feel
strangely drawn to you,
Yuuichirou...' Who
could resist this smile? Meanwhile, Kunzite and the brainwashed Endymion were up to no good; wouldn't you know it? How many times have you entered a winter sports tournament and found it was a mere front for some white-haired poseur's evil plan to discover the secret identity of Sailormoon and avenge the ignominious death of his boyfriend? Doesn't it just make you want to spit? Yuuichirou's
house turned out to be not a dingy dump
with spiders in the bathroom and carpet
that sucks at your feet, but a palatial
mountain lodge. It seems he gets to use it
while Mater and Pater are away at their
holiday home in Switzerland. (I
loved DiC's Raye's reaction to this
revelation: 'I never knew you were
loaded!') The plot thickens! Trying to
ignore Usagi hissing that 'there are a lot
of weird people among the rich,' Rei asked
him why someone so wealthy was living at
Hikawa Jinja, and he said he wanted to
improve himself - that was what was really
important. What could be better? Rich but
not hung up on it! And generous to
boot. 'Like
the fire? 100-yen notes. Money to burn,
me!' Of
course, it's easy to look this cool in the
snow, ha ha. Furthermore,
Yuuichirou can keep up with Rei on the
slopes - we can see in the next scene that
they're both excellent skiers. We are also
treated to the disturbing revelation that
Mizuno Ami will attempt to read while
skiing. While Usagi and the others wanted
to stick to the bunny slopes (tee hee) Rei
and Yuuichirou wanted to go higher up the
mountain for something more challenging.
Usagi wasn't interested until she heard
that the Moon Princess contest would be
held on the higher slopes, and that Rei
was now thinking of entering. Whereupon
naturally there was no way in hell she was
not going up that mountain. Usagi got a little wiggy on the ski-lift, and Yuuichirou helpfully told her that at the top it was even steeper. (Do you think Yuuichirou could be devious enough to try to demoralise Rei's competition before the race? Nah, he's too nice for that.) At
the top of the mountain, a vast throng of
ski bunnies listened avidly to last year's
Moon Princess, Yamamoto Saeko, announcing
the rules of the race, before whizzing off
down the mountainside. Usagi froze up at
the start line, and Yuuichirou had to give
her a shove to get her sliding. (Again,
you gotta wonder if he's really being
helpful! But there's no malice in
Yuuichirou... well, no malice directed
against Usagi, anyway. We won't see a
nasty side to his character until
SuperS.) Shortly afterward, the
reigning Moon Princess started down the
slope. Now why would she be doing
that? 'Attagirl,
Usagi-san!' Rei, naturally, was leading the pack when strange things began to happen; moguls (hard humps of dirty ice) loomed up where there had been none before, and soon all the other contestants had wiped out - except Usagi, who had managed to keep going simply because she had no idea how to stop. Suspecting there was something sinister going on, and trying desperately to talk some sense into the panicking Usagi, Rei was horrified to realise that there was now a huge snowball rolling down the slope and gaining on them - compliments of Saeko, who was, of course, in thrall to Kunzite. Demonstrating her admiration for Charlton Heston, Saeko created a sort of parting-the-Red-Sea effect, making a walled-in road of snow down which Usagi and Rei were forced to ski, with the snowball getting ever closer, and probably trying to remember how Indiana Jones dealt with a similar situation. Who needs Indiana Jones when you have Yuuichirou? 'Something
is not right... my spidey-sense is
tingling.' 'Hey
you! Leave those babes alone!' He looks SO
cool here. Coming along behind to make sure nothing happened to the girls, he saw that something was about to. In a rare moment of supreme badassitude, valiantly he flung himself in the path of the frosty juggernaut! Valiantly he fell on his arse as it rolled straight over him. The world is not on Yuuichirou's side; it's a good thing I am. The walls of snow now closed in completely, trapping Usagi and Rei in a small pen. While Rei tried frantically, unsuccessfully and rather comically to climb out, Usagi sat down and began to listen to the tune from Tuxedo Kamen's dinky plastic toy-looking musical pendant. After a while Rei gave up and sat down beside her, and Usagi explained that she listened to the pendant to cheer herself up. Just when you think Usagi can't get any ditzier, she surprises you with a moment where you can really feel her loneliness and confusion. Rei said 'I gave up on Tuxedo Kamen - but you'd better become happy with him, or I'll punish you!' She's gruff, but she cares. After some bickering (perhaps Usagi misunderstood Rei's remark that they 'had to fight' to create a safe world), Rei was just about to transform into Sailormars so she could melt the snow with her Fire Soul attack, in fact she had got as far as yelling 'Mars Power,' when lo and behold, Yuuichirou popped out of the snow. (His expression of delight at finding them is priceless.) Ah, nuts - he missed a good show. But he'd dug a safe tunnel through the snowbanks, and they were all about to crawl to safety when Saeko showed up. 'Oh
my GOD! That woman has the stupidest
breasts I've ever
seen!' No
comment. Okay,
tangent over. The Saeko-youma announced
that Rei, because of her beauty and
athletic ability, must be Sailormoon.
Yuuichirou was shocked; Usagi was pissed.
This shot is an interesting example of the
'same planet, different worlds' principle
- have you ever seen three people having
such different reactions to the same
speech? The
youma attacked them with a blast of
freezing air, and Yuuichirou, like the
gallant swain he is, bore the brunt of the
gust to protect the girls. He made a very
brave, badass face, which unfortunately
gave him absolutely no protection from
getting totally glazed in ice. With
Yuuichirou literally out cold, Usagi and
Rei morphed into Sailormoon and
Sailormars. Sailormars launched a Fire
Soul attack at the youma, saying this was
'for freezing my Yuuichirou.' The youma
dodged - sorry, rewind, can we have that
again? 'My Yuuichirou.' 'Dude!
You iced my swain! Not
cool!' Gosh, after that I've quite lost interest in the rest of the battle. In the interests of accuracy, I will report that Endymion intervened, as he always did in Kunzite's daffy little schemes, and attempted to intimidate Sailormoon into giving him the ginzuishou (Silver Crystal). He chucked a black rose at them, which impacted harmlessly in the snow, and said 'Next time I won't miss on purpose.' I'm sorry, but that's just not scary! Sailormoon tried to appeal to his memory of her, and to remind him of their love. A rather touching moment was interrupted by the Saeko-youma - youma have no appreciation of romance! - lobbing a spear of ice at the Senshi. Endymion shattered the spear with a red rose and Sailormoon restored Saeko to humanity with her wand. Endymion left, muttering dire things about 'I don't want to defeat you this time.' The red petals fell off the rose and it turned black. Ah, shoot. With
her typical difficulty in saying anything
nice about anyone, Rei cradled
Yuuichirou's shoulders, muttering about
him being a hopeless idiot - but moved in
for another of those little cheek-kisses.
Jeez, he had to be unconscious for this?
It's still a beautiful moment. Let's all
just stare at it for a minute and feel
warm and happy. This is the smooch of a
girl who's grateful; this is the smooch of
a girl who's really glad her beau isn't in
permafrost. I guess they used the snow tunnel after all (and may I point out that if Yuuichirou knows how to construct one of these safely, so it won't fall in on anyone crawling through it, he is pretty darn clever - it's a real skill) because the next scene is of Yuuichirou, Rei and Usagi sitting by a fire at the foot of a tree. Yuuichirou finally regained consciousness, and was thrilled to see that the girls were okay. (I bet dragging him through the snow was fun - look at the size of him!) Rei told him the Sailor Senshi had arrived to save them, and he apologised, ashamed that he hadn't been more useful; Usagi, however, thought what he did was really cool, and said so with gusto. As the other girls arrived, having been searching for them, Usagi and Rei started bickering again, Rei blaming Usagi for the whole mess, and Usagi exclaiming that they had become closer friends through this adventureß. Rei said she could crumple their 'friendship' up and throw it away, causing Usagi to start bawling. I dunno; Rei can always manage to sour a conversation. However, we can infer something very important from this episode, especially when viewing it in the total series context. In moments of extremity, Rei will show her true feelings, which she might otherwise mask because of some cockeyed sense of pride. She may retract her kind words or actions later, but this is another pretence. We all know Rei really likes Usagi; she's just driven mad by her behaviour sometimes. She's proved it again and again in the series and the movies. In this episode, Rei shows friendship for Usagi but tries to take it back later; she shows possessive, protective affection for Yuuichirou, but acts stand-offish when the heat of the moment has died down. Yet Rei is Usagi's true friend; therefore, surely Rei really loves Yuuichirou. The first series of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is the premier season for onscreen Rei-and-Yuuichirou kissage. Twice. On the cheek. Anyone else frustrated? Of course, who knows how much they snog when the cameras are off. |
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