The Crybaby: Usagi's Beautiful Transformation

'The Crybaby: Usagi's Beautiful Transformation" is the series' premiere of the 1st season of the Sailor Moon anime and the 1st episode overall. It aired in Japan on March 7, 1992.

The DiC English dub title for the episode is "A Moon Star is Born". It aired in Canada on August 28, 1995, and then in the United States on September 11, 1995.

Summary

Usagi Tsukino is a 14-year-old schoolgirl who is very cheerful, but clumsy and is always finding herself into unwanted trouble. One day, Usagi meets a talking black cat named Luna, who reveals that dark forces are threatening the lives of the innocent and that Usagi has the power to stop them. Using a magical brooch, Usagi is transformed into Sailor Moon, the chosen guardian who fights for love and justice.

Plot

Usagi Tsukino is a 14-year-old middle school student who’s a bit of a klutz and kind of a crybaby. As her day begins, she wakes up late, as usual, and frantically leaves the house in a hurry to make it to school on time. On her way to school, Usagi discovers a group of kids mistreating a cat. Usagi runs over and yells at them, picking up the black cat. She notices there’s a bandage on the cat’s head. Deciding to remove it, she discovers a crescent moon shaped symbol on the cat’s head. As the mysterious cat flips over and examines Usagi, the clock tower rings and Usagi hurriedly runs to school.

At school, Usagi is punished by her teacher, Ms. Haruna, for being late again. As she waits in the hallway and begins to snack, Ms. Haruna comes out and explains that behavior like tardiness leads to poor grades, as shown by Usagi receiving 30% on a recent English test. During lunch, Usagi's best friends Naru Osaka and Gurio Umino comfort her over failing another test, although Naru says this is nothing out of the ordinary. The trio talks about how Sailor V, an unknown crime fighter, has foiled another robbery attempt at a jewelry store. As they’re talking, Naru remembers that her mom's jewelry store is having a huge sale. She invites Usagi to the store and both girls proclaim that they can’t wait for school to be over.

Meanwhile in a dark subterranean lair, Queen Beryl inquires if any of her followers have found the Legendary Silver Crystal. They tell her no. She reminds them that massive amounts of energy are required to awaken their Great Ruler, while they look for the Silver Crystal. Then a general named Jadeite appears and agrees to use his youma to help gather energy from humans to help awaken the Great Ruler.

Now that school is over, Usagi and Naru make their way to the jewelry store to find it extremely packed. Naru introduces Usagi to her mom and Naru's mom promises to give Usagi an extra special deal because she's Naru's friend. She tells the girls that a ring normally costs 500,000 yen, but she'll sell it for 30,000 yen. As the pair stand in disbelief, it attracts the rest of the store and a brawl ensues. When they finally escape the crowd, Usagi remembers she already spent all of her allowances and her parents aren’t likely to give her more after she failed English test. Naru reminds her there’s always next time and the two-part. Outside, Usagi crumples her test and throws it over her shoulder, hitting a man intently staring at the jewelry store. As she says she’s sorry, the man calls her stupid for getting 30% on her test. A mortified Usagi proclaims it’s none of his business and sticks her tongue out at him, calling him a weirdo. As Usagi leaves, she passes by a Sailor V poster at the arcade. She wishes she could be “cool like Sailor V” and be free from tests and homework. Usagi looks at her test one more time, cries for a bit then continues home as the black cat follows her, proclaiming "Usagi Tsukino, at last, I've found you."

As she returns home, Usagi's mother tells her that she bumped into Umino earlier and he told her about the English test. Cursing Umino, Usagi reluctantly hands the test over and, after seeing her 30%, Usagi's mom kicks her out of the house. Usagi's little brother arrives home and berates her for being a dummy. As he runs into the house, Usagi executes a “Sailor V Kick!” only to hit the door. Now crying even louder, she begs to be let back in the house.

Back at Jewelry OSA-P, Naru notices that customers’ energy is being drained by the items they purchased. She asks her mother what's going on, only to find her acting very strangely. Transforming into a youma, Naru's mom begins to attack her.

After a little while, Usagi is allowed back into the house, but she doesn't feel like doing homework. Instead, she takes a nap. Just as she falls asleep, the mysterious black cat jumps through her window, startling Usagi awake. Even more alarming, the cat begins to talk. Although she thinks it’s a dream, the cat explains that her name is Luna and she’s been looking for Usagi for quite some time now. She elaborates that a powerful enemy has begun to threaten Earth and Usagi is a Guardian guarded by moon who can stop this. Still not believing, Luna gives Usagi a special brooch and tells her to shout “Moon Prism Power, Make Up!” Usagi shouts the phrase and is surprised when it works, transforming her into Sailor Moon, the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Justice! She begins to cry because she doesn't understand what's happening, however, Luna tells her that Naru is in trouble. Hearing her cries through the odango covers on her hair, Sailor Moon and Luna run off to OSA-P.

Sailor Moon arrives to find Morga at the Jewelry store. Using the bodies of people drained of energy as vessels, the monster begins to assemble an army to fight Sailor Moon. Not used to fighting, Sailor Moon is chased and scrapes her knee. Just as the monster is about to kill her, a rose appears from a man in a tuxedo, and he tells Sailor Moon to not give up and crying won't solve anything, but Sailor Moon says that she can't help it. Continuing to cry, her odango covers emit Supersonic Waves, slowing the monster and the people down. Luna tells her to throw her tiara and shout “Moon Tiara Action!” to kill the monster. Sailor Moon stops crying and as she finishes the attack, Morga is destroyed and the people, including Naru and her mom, regain consciousness. Before Tuxedo Mask leaves, he comments on how he will not forget what happened tonight, leaving Sailor Moon infatuated by the handsome hero.

The next day at school, Usagi naps as Naru and the other girls talk about a dream they all had, where a superhero named Sailor Moon saved them all from a monster. As they ask Usagi what she thinks, she responds that she’s too tired to talk about it.

International Dub Titles

Brazilian Portuguese: Como uma garota medrosa se transforma em guerreira ("How A Frightened Girl Becomes a Guardian")
Catalan Spanish: La ploramiques es converteix en guerrera ("The Crybaby Turns into a Guardian")
Chinese: 愛哭鬼小兔的華麗變身 (Ài kū guǐ xiǎo tù de huálì biàn shēn) ("Gorgeous Transformation of the Crybaby")
European Portuguese: A choramingas transforma-se em guerreira (The Crybaby Turns Into a Guardian")
European Spanish: La niña llorona se convierte en guerrero ("A Crybaby Becomes a Guardian")
German: Der Glanz der Juwelen ("The Glittering of Jewels")
French:
- TV: La Métamorphose ("The Metamorphosis")
- DVD: Le vilain petit canard devient un cygne ! (The IUgly Duckling Becomes a Swan!)
Hungarian: Holdtündér színre lép ("The Moon Fairy Comes In")
Italian: Una guerriera speciale ("A Special Guardian")
Latin Spanish: Como una niña miedosa se transforma en Sailor Scout ("How A Frightened Girl Becomes Sailor Scout")
Polish:
- Polsat: Beksa zmienia się w wojownika ("Crybaby Turns Into a Guardian")
- TV 4: Beksa zmienia się w wojowniczkę ("Crybaby Turns Into a (Female) Guardian")

Russian: Плакса превращается в воина (Plaksa prevrashchayetsya v voina) ("Crybaby Turns into a Guardian")
Swedish: Hur lipsillen blir Sailor Moon ("How the Crybaby becomes Sailor Moon")

Changes

Changes from the Manga

The first episode is based on Manga Chapter, Act 1 Usagi - Sailor Moon but with a few differences:

Queen Beryl didn't appear until Act 2.
Usagi visited the game center to play the Sailor V Game, and Motoki Furuhata made his first appearance. In the anime, Usagi only looks at a poster of the Sailor V game outside of the game center before continuing to walk home, and Motoki does not make an appearance until the next episode.
Usagi has a dream of herself playing in the Sailor V Game, taking down a monster, and saving Motoki and the cat with the crescent-shaped bald spot.
Luna scratched Usagi in the face twice: once after she was stepped on and Usagi kissed her, and the other time was to wake Usagi up, as well as to reprimand her for calling her crescent moon a "bald spot".
Ikuko was reading a newspaper on Sailor V. She is reading something on the table at the beginning of the episode in the anime, but it is unknown what it is.
Usagi accidentally steps on Luna while running to school. In the anime, Usagi saves Luna from some children who were tormenting her.
Tuxedo Mask did not reveal himself to Sailor Moon until after the youma was defeated. He also did not throw a rose as a distraction.
The youma Sailor Moon fights was never named.

Dub Changes

In the DiC English dub, 1 minute and 20 seconds of information from the episode Usagi's Awakening: A Message from the Distant Past was inserted into this episode explaining the Silver Millennium long before it was explained in the original.^[1] Several other changes were made to the episode as well:
- Usagi's introduction at the beginning of the episode was cut out. (17 seconds cut)
- The scene of Usagi taking the bandage off of Luna had 11 seconds cut out of it.
- In the original Japanese, Mrs. Haruna had Usagi stand in the hallway as discipline for being late to school, a scene that was cut out in the English dub. (17 seconds cut)
- A scene of Usagi, Umino, and Naru talking about Sailor V was cut out. (20 seconds cut)
- A shot of Usagi sticking her tongue out at Mamoru was cut out (3 seconds cut)
- Ikuko scolding Usagi for her bad grades and Usagi mimicking Sailor V Kick at Shingo were edited out. (24 seconds cut)
- A scene of Morga choking Naru was cut (7 seconds cut)
- A scene of a girl going after Sailor Moon with a broken glass bottle, causing her to slam into a blue pillar, was replaced by one of Morga coming at her.
- Several other small cuts were made. In all, 2 minutes and 15 seconds were shaved off of the episode.
- Usagi's failed English test was changed to a failed algebra test.
- Serena/Usagi had known about Sailor V for a long time before the series started, but originally, she didn't know about Sailor V until Umino/Melvin mentioned the name for the first time.
- Usagi's mom says Umino's mom called her about the test in the dub. Originally, she says she only bumped into Umino, which is how she found out about the test.
- Usagi's mom kicked her out of the house upon discovering her failed test in the original. That was edited to her telling Serena (Usagi) to go to the library to study more in the English dub.
- Usagi's brother Shingo (Sammy in the English dub) made his first appearance in this episode, but his appearance was cut in the English dub.
- For Usagi's first encounter with Mamoru, his pet name for her is changed to "meatball head" from "dumpling head" (お団子頭 odango atama), since dumplings are less common in North America. She leaves the encounter finding him "cute" in the English version, but only a "weirdo" in the original.
- In the DiC version, the transformation footage changes during the skirt and tiara sequence.
In the Korean dub of this episode, the kanji on the student rankings were edited out, leaving the Juuban students looking at blank pages. The scene where Morga dropped her disguise was also cut.
In the Hungarian dub, as Haruna Sakurada scolded Usagi for being late for school, the original audio was used instead of the Hungarian voice actress's voice.
In the German and Dutch dub, Bunny called Luna "sir" even though Luna was female.

First Appearances

Characters

Items

Transformation Brooch

Phrases

Moon Prism Power, Make Up

Attacks

Gallery

Trivia

This was the 1st episode to use "Moonlight Legend" as the opening theme and "Heart Moving" as the ending theme.
Sailor V appeared in a non-speaking role as part of a daydream, which made her the first Sailor Senshi to appear in the series. She was also the first to appear in the manga and live-action versions.
In this episode (and the manga chapter on which it was based), Sailor Moon was able to hear over long distances via the jewels in her hair. This ability was never referenced again in either version.

References

↑ An article comparing the Japanese version of the episode to the English version of the episode

[1] An article comparing the Japanese version of the episode to the English version of the episode

[1]