EPISODE 020

Natsuyo Umiyo Seishunyo! Omakeni yuureimoyo

(Summer, Sea, Holiday! And Ghosts, too)

Original Air Date: 08-01-1992
Director: Kazuhisa Takenouchi
Animation Director: Hisashi Kagawa
Writer: Megumi Sugihara

Did you notice...?
Screencaps

What's In This Episode?
Inaka-hama, Sakiko, Sakiko's Father, Pension Adams

Usagi, Ami, and Rei have traveled via train and arrive at the seaside. They remark on how nice it seems there, and Usagi says that she wishes she could have brought Naru. Luna suddenly pops out of a basket where she has been hiding and reminds the girls that the trip is not for fun: it is for training to become better Sailor Senshi.

The girls rush out of the train station and look at their map to locate the hotel at which they will be staying, which is a European-style pension on the beach that Rei booked for them. Usagi is hoping that the private beach at the hotel will be crowded with good-looking guys, and she daydreams about sunbathing while Motoki brings her refreshments and Tuxedo Kamen windsurfs.

The girls walk through a forest at sunset, making their way to the hotel. Usagi blames Rei for not properly checking things out. Just then, a storm cloud passes overhead and lightning can be seen in the sky. Usagi is terrified of lightning, so she begins to run as fast as she can. She suddenly sees a little girl in a cloak who frightens her. It begins to rain, and the little girl guides them to a building on top of a cliff. Usagi thinks that it looks creepy.

Luckily, the building is Pension Adams, the hotel that Rei booked. Usagi is scared to stay there because she thinks that it looks spooky. Ami ignores her and addresses the young girl, who is soaking wet from the rain. Rei knocks on the door, and it is answered by three scary-looking employees. One looks like a ghost, another looks like Frankenstein, and another looks like a werewolf. Usagi and Luna are terrified, but Rei and Ami don't appear to be fazed. The little girl quietly walks in and announces that she is home.

Rei introduces herself to the ghost-like employee, and the girls enter the hotel. The lights (which had been out due to the thunderstorm) come on and a man appears. He is the little girl's father, and he demands to know where she has been. He calls the girl Sakiko.

Usagi goes up to her room to dry herself off, complaining about how tired she is. She tells Luna that the people at the hotel seem very weird; it may be a haunted house! Just then, the ghost-like employee knocks on Usagi's door and frightens the young girl. Rei and Ami come rushing to her aid, only to find that the employee is actually changing a light bulb in the hallway. She tells the girls that dinner is ready.

The girls fight amongst themselves, while Sakiko watches from her own room through a window. Her father appears behind her and tells her that the girls are a bad influence, and that Sakiko should stay away from them.

Usagi, Ami, and Rei have a large dinner, while Luna drinks milk from a saucer on the table. The Frankenstein-like employee comes to serve them a second helping, and the Werewolf-like employee offers dessert, but Usagi says that she is full. She is scared of the workers, and demands to know why Rei booked such a place. Rei calmly tells her that the place is very cheap! Ami cheerfully says that the cooking is very good, and that she enjoys the costumes of the employees. The two workers thank her and tell her that those are their two main selling points.

A strange wailing sound soon begins, scaring Usagi and the employees, who say it happens frequently. A white, wispy creature appears and rapidly disappears again. Ami suspects it may be a youma, but Rei says that she doesn't feel a youma aura. She does, however, feel a very strong amount of energy.

Meanwhile, Sakiko's father is hypnotizing the young girl with a pendulum. She goes to sleep and slowly, slowly wakes up again.

[Commercial Break]

The girls visit the beach the next day, and Usagi is initially depressed because there are no "white yachts" or "cool guys." Oh well; she resolves to have fun anyway! Ami decides to read a math book, and remarks that Sakiko didn't come out of her room this morning. Rei is appalled that Ami brought a textbook, and Usagi snatches it out of her hands, saying, "Youth is a priceless thing that you only have once! Studying is important, but you have to play when it's time to play! I think it's important to create nice memories that way!" Rei is amazed that Usagi is saying something reasonable. The three then begin to play ball as Sakiko looks on from the top of a cliff.

That night, the Werewolf-like employee howls on the roof of the building. He laments about how scared he is because it is night time again. Usagi takes a bath in her room, but she is so scared that she keeps calling out to Luna. Meanwhile, Rei puts anti-evil scrolls on the chairs around the dinner table. She thinks to herself that it was certainly no ghost that disturbed their dinner the night before; it was a stronger power. She overhears the employees talking about the strange events, and how they can never let the girls find out about their secret.

Ami sees Sakiko looking out over the ocean. Sakiko tells Ami that she was watching the girls all afternoon: "Ladylike Rei, slightly clumsy Usagi, and the cat, Luna." Ami asks the girl if she is lonely, and Ami says, "Cheer up! You remind me of how I was not so long ago because you're all by yourself. I know! The best thing to do is to become friends with Usagi. She'll cheer you right up." Sakiko's father comes and forcefully leads the young girl away, scolding her for talking to strangers. He warns Ami, "You girls should get out of here quickly. That is, if you don't want to be in more frightening situations."

At the hotel, Sakiko tells her father that Ami and her friends are nice people, and that she was close to being friends with them. Her father silences her and tells her that she must learn to master her powerful psychic powers. He is attempting to help her harness her powers through hypnosis, and he believes that it is working. He begins to hypnotize her with a pendulum. He says, "All those people laughed and said our psychic powers were fake. Now, show them your incredible power! With your power, you will become a pioneer of the spiritual community!" Ami witnesses the entire scene from a keyhole in the door.

Usagi walks down the stairs and begins to cry because she is afraid. She comes upon the employees bowing before a shrine covered with candles, performing a strange ritual of some sort. They scare her, she scares them, and Rei enters and scares them all! Rei tells Usagi that the employees are just normal human beings, but that there is a very strong power being brought into existence somewhere within the hotel.

In the dining room, an unseen force rips Rei's anti-evil scrolls from the chairs and spins the chairs in the air. In Sakiko's room, her father tells the girl to create the figure of a ghost to scare the "noisy girls." Ami suddenly interrupts the pair, breaking the father's concentration. Sakiko does create a ghost, but the ghost begins attacking her father instead of the senshi. Back in the dining room, the chairs crash through the windows. Outside, Sakiko's father is being attacked by the ghost. Usagi and the employees are terrified!

The three girls transform in order to help Sakiko's father. Sailor Mercury rushes to Sakiko to attempt to wake her, but to no avail. The young girl just says, "I don't want to anymore!" Sailor Moon attempts to use her Moon Tiara Action against the ghost, but her tiara flies right through it without harming it. Sailor Mercury manages to awaken Sakiko, but the ghost doesn't disappear as anticipated.

Unfortunately, Sakiko can no longer control the ghost. Sailor Mercury tells the senshi that because the girl no longer wanted to listen to her father, that feeling was magnified and has become uncontrollable. The senshi are thrown backwards into the bushes.

Sakiko rushes to her father's aid, and he tells her to run. He says, "I am sorry. I knew you just wanted to live like a normal girl, but I..." she cuts him off by hugging him. The ghost rushes towards the two, and Sakiko blasts it with a huge burst of energy. Finally, the ghost disappears.

Sakiko's father says, "I just wanted everyone to acknowledge that Sakiko possessed truly strong powers and though I knew that she hated her powers, I continued training her. I used the guests who happened to come to this hotel to conduct experiments." Sailor Moon wonders about the employees, and Sailor Mars says that they were probably just scared of the ghost and tried to conduct an exorcism.

The next day, the three girls go to the beach with Sakiko and play ball in the sand. Sakiko's father looks on, and the three employees ask if there will ever be any more ghosts... they are scaredy-cats who can't deal with the apparitions! He smiles and says that they won't have to deal with it again... ever.

Episode 020 - Did you notice...?

When Ami, Rei, Usagi, and Luna are in the forrest, lightning flashes. When it does, Usagi's basket disappears and then reappears. You've got to be quick with the pause button to catch this one!