Women Must Be Strong and Beautiful: Rei's New Special Technique

Hoping to lure visitors back to the emptying Hikawa Shrine, Rei's grandfather launches a class that blends self-defense with exercise. The venue, however, happens to be a Crystal Point, and the Black Moon agent Koan sets out to corrupt it for her own ends.

Shamed by a magazine that exposes his habit of pestering young women, the old priest nearly hands the shrine over to Rei before Yuichiro helps him fill the new fitness course with recruits. Koan seizes the building with Dark Power and takes command of the class, unleashing the Droid Dumbull as the students turn violent and pour out dark energy. When Dumbull's rampage strikes down her grandfather, Rei's anger finally boils over.

Sailor Moon transforms and rescues Rei with her Cutie Moon Rod, Tuxedo Mask returns the favor with a thrown rose, and Moon Princess Halation destroys the Droid. As Koan flees behind a wall of Dark Fire, an enraged Rei shouts Mars Star Power, Make Up for the first time, shoves Usagi clear of an incoming blast, and after Fire Soul falls short, ends the duel with her debut technique Burning Mandala, driving the burning Koan off. Chibiusa, meanwhile, earns a lesson of her own after being caught rifling through a sleeping Usagi in search of the Silver Crystal.

This seventeenth chapter of the second season, the 63rd overall, aired in Japan on July 24, 1993, written by Shigeru Yanagawa and directed by Yuji Endou. The DiC dub titled it Gramps in a Pickle for its November 9, 1995 North American airing, and its featured monster is Dumbull. The episode debuts both the transformation call Mars Star Power, Make Up and the attack Burning Mandala.

This is the first time Usagi and Ami wear shrine-maiden robes alongside Makoto and Minako, and the second occasion Usagi disciplines Chibiusa with a spanking. In the manga, Koan's only clash with Sailor Mars takes place at Rei's school, and her assignment there is recruiting people into the Black Moon Clan.