Sailor Moon: Learn How To Be Skinny From Usagi review

Sailor Moon tackles real life issues in this message episode. Here's our review of Sailor Moon episode 4.

Jadeite continues to exploit female insecurities, this time in the form of body issues, by taking over a gym and getting Usagi and all her friends to exercise all their energy away. Usagi is, as expected, slow on the uptake, but with a little help from Luna, she rises to the occasion and foils Jadeite’s plan.

So… the Anorexia episode. It’s interesting how Sailor Moon will occasionally tackle issues that are relevant to girls and women. True, anorexia affects men as well, but not nearly as often. It’s nice how casually the show treats the topic. It’s a scheme Jadeite hatches to blatantly prey on girls’ body issues. Low-hanging fruit, certainly, which makes it exactly the kind of thing he’d do, and thus the issue surfaces rather organically within the narrative.

Good on Usagi’s parents, who, while not condoning her unhealthy eating habits and crappy exercise efforts, point out that she’s not fat and that, in fact, it’s not healthy for a girl her age to be too skinny. On that subject, am I the only one who thinks Haruna-sensei looked stunning in the “before” photo? Also, Umino, you’re a creeper.

Right on for Motoki having a fondness for the zaftig girls (though Reika’s svelte physique will later contradict this), and right on the writers for pointing out the difference between having a little meat on your bones and being morbidly obese. While I don’t think a girl’s sense of self should be dependent on the opinions of men, it is nice to have a male character vocalizing that some guys like chubby girls, and that there are many different kinds of beautiful.

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It’s worth noting that this is one of the few episodes where Queen Beryl is actually satisfied with a minion’s accomplishments.

Another solid effort, though the formula is starting to grow a little tedious already. The episode isn’t a total bust, but mainly passes on the merits of how creatively it tackles a “message” issue.

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Rating:

3 out of 5