“Hey hey hey! Everyone knows children represent our hopes and dreams for the future. Attacking them is unforgivable! Afterall, kids aren't just innocent and cute, we depend on them to take care of us after our retirement! In the Name of the Moon, I'll punish you!”
— Usagi Tsukino
(DiC Episode: "Kindergarten Chaos")
Minako meets a kindergarten girl who admires Sailor Moon and is driven to ensure that she also becomes a fan of the Guardian of Love and Beauty. As luck would have it, the little munchkin happens to be part of a group of children that are targeted by the Makaiju Aliens.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Adorably Precocious Child: Mie worries that her classmates will grow up and "yearn for their lost innocence". Heck, even one of the boys in her class gets psych-o-logical during show-and-tell where they discuss how adults project their troubles onto children so they can indulge in their personal fantasies.
- All According to Plan: Ail tries to justify him flirting with Usagi is so he can steal her love energy. En hardly buys it.
- Artistic License – Law: The writers must have taken multiple liberties with getting Minako and Usagi into the kindergarten bus. The original teacher allows Minako, a middle school student with no credentials or history with the kindergarten, to watch over her class on a whim. The same applies to the bus driver who allows Usagi to join them without needing to see any ID or be informed of the "new substitute" by his managers.
- Battle Aura: Sailor Venus gains a golden aura when she unlocks her new power.
- Beam Spam: Venus unleashes a thousand energy attacks called Crescent Beam Shower.
- Birds of a Feather: Minako manages to catch up with Usagi who's also running late to school.
- Blow You Away: Gigaros can summon large winds to attack his opponents.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Artemis addresses the audience to comment on Minako's quirks and bad habits.
- Bus Full of Innocents: The Cardian targets children riding school buses as they pass through a secluded tunnel. Ami catches on to the first attack and immediately figures out the next bus that needs to be protected.
- Bully Magnet: The girl is an ongoing target of boy bullies who pick on her for liking Sailor Moon.
- Call-Back: Minako waking up late, rushing to school and scaring off some bratty bullies is highly reminiscent of the pilot.
- Character Narrator: The first scene has Artemis introducing himself along with his chaotic partnership with Minako.
- Continuity Nod: Before she wakes up, Minako calls out Alan's name.
- Conveniently Empty Roads: The Bird of Prey Cardian manages to attack the two school buses while they're completely alone in the tunnel without any type of traffic or witnesses.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Apparently the main reason Usagi was picked for the mission was because her Disguise Pen only works for her.
- Crocodile Tears: Mie is very eager to exploit this trick to get her way.
- Crowd Chant: The kindergartens chant their belief in the Sailor Guardians to give them the motivation to save the day.
- Didn't See That Coming: Both Usagi and Minako seeing each other at the targeted schoolbus. Usagi's quite relieved, as she didn't want to have to handle this mission all by herself.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Usagi and Minako sing Moonlight Densetsu alongside the bus full of rugrats.
- Dub Name Change:
- The Cardian Gigaros is named "Vulturos" in the DiC version.
- Sailor Venus' new move "Crescent Beam Shower" is named "Venus Meteor Shower".
- The little girl Mie is named "Carrie"
- Dude, Not Funny!: None of the girls are phased when Usagi jokes about a manga panel during their Sailor Guardian meeting.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Minako is shown to be relatively good with children in this episode, even growing close to Mie. Later episodes nearly make it a running joke that she's bad with kids.
- Judging by Artemis' reaction from her singing with Usagi on the bus, Minako probably isn't meant to be much of a singer here. This is dropped when Minako becomes an aspiring idol in later seasons.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: The conflict of the episode is Mie being picked on by her classmates for believing in Sailor Moon.
- Everyone Has Standards: The main girls are disgusted that the Cardian would stoop so low as to hurt defenseless children.
- Failed a Spot Check: Seijuro openly declares his love for Usagi without even realizing that Natsumi is standing right next to him.
- FanGirl: Mie is a fangirl of Sailor Moon. Later she becomes one to Sailor Venus.
- I Am Very British: In the DIC version, When Serena disguises herself as the substitute teacher, she speaks in an overly Posh British accent.
- Irony: After we see Minako struggling with her morning routine to the point of arriving late for school, Artemis chimes in to say this is actually one of her better days.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Usagi uses the Disguise Pen to turn into a British Kindergarten teacher so she can get on the same bus that's being targeted by the Bird of Prey Cardian.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Venus gets an improved version of Crescent Beam called Crescent Beam Shower.
- Not So Above It All: Much of the episode highlights how Minako, despite her professionalism in the previous arc, actually has a number of goofy quirks. She shares Usagi's chronic lateness, is really touchy about being called old, can be overly dramatic, and mangles common proverbs.
- Real After All: Alot of Mie's kindergarten classmates don't believe in Sailor Moon. It isn't until they see her and Sailor Venus save them from Gigaros that they turn into true believers.
- Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe in the dub, Artemis comments that he’d find an attack by the Negaverse during the group singing session “a favour”.
- Sadist Teacher: Along with forcing Usagi to wait in the hallway and miss out on learning new material, Miss Haruna forces her to wear a sign that says "I am always late for school!"
- She's a Man in Japan: Gigaros is voiced by a male VA in the original dub.
- Winged Humanoid: The Bird of Prey Cardian Gigaros resembles a yellow human with large white wings.
- Would Hurt a Child: The aliens decide to send their Cardian to hunt children.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Moonlight Knight motivates Sailor Venus by showing her how the children have faith in her ability to save them from the Cardian.
