“You know what the most popular dish in Japanese households is? Curry rice! It's super yummy and smells great! But now a Droid has ruined all the ingredients needed to make our curry! Well I'm not gonna let her get away with it! In the Name of the Moon, I'll punish you with red hot spice!”
— Usagi Tsukino
(DiC Episode: "A Curried Favor")
Chibi-usa is assigned to make a curry dish for school and Usagi gets roped into helping her alongside Mamoru. And to ensure that her upcoming dish is a success, Usagi goes to her friends for a crash course on culinary arts and to a Dark Power-contaminated supermarket for potential ingredients. Wait...
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ambiguously Brown: The Monster of the Week is shown with brown skin in both her civilian and Droid form.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When it's Usagi's turn to cut the vegetables, she maintains an impressive rhythm with her knife. Then it pans out and shows she isn't cutting anything.
- Amid the sheer panic of Minako having apparently cut off her own finger, Makoto belatedly notices that it's just a carrot.
- Big Eater: Petz's first scene has her eating a giant cake by herself.
- Bowdlerize: The DiC dub cut the scene where Minako thinks she accidentally chopped her finger off, only for Makoto to realize it's only a carrot. Despite this, the scene appears in the episode's Sailor Says segment used a public service announcement on safety, ironically getting rid of the original context and making it look like she really did chop her finger off.
- Comfort Food: Calaveras suggests Petz is eating that cake as a way to cope with a nasty break-up. Petz's angry reaction suggests she's on the money.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Luna points out how everything in the supermarket is reducing to dust and rot, Usagi is more concerned that she won't have the ingredients for her curry.
- Cutting the Knot: Rather then going through the excessive step by step cooking process, Rei hands Usagi her favorite "Here! Curry" instant mix.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When Mamoru admits that he can't cook curry to save anyone's life, Chibi-usa assures him with confidence that Usagi knows everything about preparing curry. Cue everyone reacting in disbelief over her statement.
- Dub-Induced Plotline Change: The DiC version removed the scene where Minako thinks she cut her finger off from the episode proper, but put it into its "Sailor Says" segment and ironically removed this context and making it look like she actually ''did'' cut her finger off.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Usagi's training pays off as she makes a delicious, if messy, curry meal that both Mamoru and Chibi-usa enjoy.
- Edible Ammunition: Avocadora uses avocados, bananas and lychee fruit as her weapons.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Petz, Calaveras, and Avocadora offer Dark Fruit, an eggplant like fruit, to the unsuspecting shoppers. Anyone who eats it turns into a zombie with the power of rot.
- Fingore: While cutting without caution, Minako believes that she cut her own finger. Everyone panics until they realize she just made a small cut and the "finger" was a piece of carrot. The DiC version removed this scene...only to put into the "Sailor Says" segment, and implying that she actually did chop off her finger.
- Foreshadowing: In Chibi-usa's second flashback, we see her daddy wearing a tuxedo along with her mommy with two long pigtails.
- Happy Flashback: Chibi-usa remembers a time she and her parents had dinner on a fancy cruise at night. She gets another one later on when she's walking down a sunset path with Usagi and Mamoru.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: In her thoughts, Chibi-usa admits it just feels right when she is with Usagi and Mamoru at the same time. Out loud, though, she insists she did not grab Usagi's hand and calls her a liar for suggesting otherwise.
- Holding Hands: To Usagi's bewilderment, Chibi-usa unintentionally grabs onto her hand while walking down the street at sunset.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Usagi suggest to Chibi-usa that they go to Mamoru's house to get his help with preparing the curry meal. Chibi-usa quickly figures out that she's just using her situation just to get close to him.
- Just a Kid: Luna points out that Chibi-usa is just a little kid who would overreact because of her current situation. Meanwhile Usagi, the older of the two, should take the initiative to be more mature and reasonable to her.
- Mad Bomber: Avocadora's main attack involves launching exploding avocados at her enemies.
- Mess on a Plate: Usagi's final curry plate isn't pleasing to look at. But to the delight of Mamoru and Chibi-usa, it turns out to be quite delicious.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Rei immediately picks up on the negative energy coming from the supermarket and orders Chibi-usa to stay behind while she checks it out.
- No-Sell: Petz unleashes a gravity force field that neutralizes Mars' Burning Mandala.
- No Social Skills: Petz's saleswoman skills are too negative and blunt to lure any suckers into eating the Dark Fruit.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Any customers who consume the Dark Fruit turn into a zombie who's mere touch can make all food go to waste.
- Sibling Rivalry: After Rubeus explains the next target, Calaveras volunteers for the mission, only for Petz to take it for herself. Calaveras chases after her, demonstrating she's not going to be upstaged.
- Snake Oil Saleswoman: Unlike her older sister, Calaveras has a natural talent at showmanship as she convinces everyone in the Juuban supermarket to try their Dark Fruit. Unlike the standard examples, the product she's offering is truly effective but for sinister reasons.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Chibi-usa is abrasive and antagonistic as ever to Usagi, but in private, she cries over being separated from her parents.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Sailor Moon is amazed that Tuxedo Mask mentioned "shabu-shabu" beef during his opening speech like she did.
- Tempting Fate:
- Minako is pretty careless with how she cuts the carrots as she considers having fun to be top priority. And then she gets a cut on her finger.
- Luna notices Usagi having a pleasant moment as she, Mamoru and Chibi-usa are walking down to the supermarket. It's ruined though when Chibi-usa accuses Usagi of taking her hand which leads to another argument.
- What Is This Feeling?: Usagi gains a warm, fuzzy feeling when Chibi-usa holds her hand to walk along with Mamoru.
- Would Rather Suffer: Chibi-usa initially refuses to accept Usagi as her Parental Substitute saying that she'd rather not show up at the school dinner then take her.
