Ami Mizuno is the brightest girl in her grade, with an IQ of 300. However, she spends so much time studying, she hasn't had a true friend until meeting Usagi. She attends the Crystal Seminar, just as odd things start to happen to its students. Usagi finds out about the Crystal Disks, powerful objects made to brainwash the attendees into serving the Dark Kingdom, and looking for the Legendary Silver Crystal. She must get to the Seminar as fast as possible, or Ami could get taken.
Tropes used in this episode:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Rei shows up briefly at the very end, after a quick shot of Hikawa Shrine's exterior and rows of shrine candles. The manga first introduces her in Act 3, The '90s anime, episode 10. Even before that, her name can be seen reflected in Luna's eyes when she's looking at Ami's info on her computer.
- Brainwashed: Unlike prior versions, Ami is brainwashed by the Dark Kingdom's Crystal Disk program into expending her cognitive energies in their service, though it doesn't fully take due to Ami recognizing that her friend Usagi is in distress, and snapping out of it.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Twice used to communicate emotional agitation
- Queen Beryl's eyes and left side of her face are shadowed during her testy scolding of her minion Jadeite in her throne room
- A troubled Jadeite has the right side of his face in shadow after sending off his second youma
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Ami's get knocked off shortly before she turns into Sailor Mercury for the first time.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Ami's mist obscures us from fully seeing Usagi's tiara tear the Youma in two.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: It's all but stated that Usagi is Ami's first real friend, since her intelligence and shyness makes her peers (wrongly) think she's haughty.
- Luminescent Blush: Usagi blushes when she makes a mental note that her new acquaintance Ami is cute, and Ami, having been friendless, blushes whenever Usagi's affectionate, like when she hugs Ami effusively, tells her she's cuter when she smiles, and when she agrees to be friends.
- Memento MacGuffin: Since Usagi is her first friend ever, Ami rapidly becomes very attached to the pen she won on their first outing together at the Video Arcade. While Brainwashed, she's oblivious to orders from the Monster of the Week as she staggers to retrieve it from across a room, dull-eyed but sighing happily when she does.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Ami's eyes turn green and lose all highlights while under the control of the Crystal Seminar's brainwashing program.
- The Power of Friendship: When Brainwashed shortly after making her first friend ever in Usagi, Ami's attachment to the pen from their first outing is so strong it renders her oblivious to orders from the Monster of the Week as she tries to retrieve it from across a room. When Sailor Moon explicitly calls Ami "friend," she gradually shakes off the brainwashing just in time for her pen to be revealed as a Transformation Trinket.
- Spanner in the Works: The whole fact Ami refuses to misplace her new pen, even when brainwashed, with no-one thinking what else said pen is.
- Touch Telepathy: Ami has a sudden, involuntary vision of the Moon Palace when she touches Usagi while handing Luna back to her.
