"You know what's worse then being rude and damaging things that aren't yours? People who think nothing of other people's feelings! I am Sailor Moon, In the Name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
— Usagi Tsukino
This episode was not included in the DiC dub.
Umino reveals that he has a crush on Usagi, who is oblivious and annoyed at how he busted her for being late to class again. Naru suggests that he go see the new fortuneteller in town to get advice on courting her friend. Unfortunately, said fortuneteller is a youma who steals energy from boys compelled to commit mischief.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adults Are Useless: Haruna nearly has a breakdown when a brainwashed Umino flips her skirt. She laments she won't be able to live it down. A more competent teacher would have kicked Umino out for the day.
- Bowdlerization: The first Korean dub, French dub, and Hungarian dub cut the scene where Umino flips Haruna's skirt.
- Cartesian Karma: Subverted. Since a lot of boys were affected by the brainwashing, the school found out and everyone forgives them for their misdeeds.
- Defiled Forever: After the dress flipping incident, Miss Haruna breaks down in tears over the fear that she'll never get married after that.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Umino thinks that if he waits for the right moment, Usagi will fall in love with him, and they'll get married. Naru gently suggests that first, he has to do something and advises him to see a fortuneteller. While Usagi thinks Umino is a good friend, she doesn't think of him that way and tries to clue him into that.
- Epic Fail: Usagi sheepishly admits to Luna that she forgot the words to her transformation.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- We meet Motoki in this episode when Usagi goes to see him. He runs his family's arcade, lets Usagi play the new Sailor V game first, and gives her tips on how to play while offering a quarter for the machine. It's no wonder Usagi is smitten with him.
- Usagi's dad Kenji sees her while he's picking up groceries for her mother. After they talk, he wonders why she's out this late and says they should head home before Ikuko frets. Then when he sees Luna, he doesn't offer to take her home (which we find out later is because Usagi's brother Shingo has a cat phobia). All in all, it shows a well-rounded character.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Usagi's slightly put off when she sees the House of Fortune for the first time, calling it gaudy.
- Umino is mortified to learn that he committed sexual harassment and vandalism when he was brainwashed.
- Fan Edit: Due to the episode being cut from the original DIC run because of syndication, dedicated fans have come together to give it a What If? DIC-style episode after years, complete with the DIC intro, soundtrack and cues, as well as its own "Sailor Says" PSA (Unofficially dubbed "House Of Misfortune").
- Foreshadowing: Motoki mentions that he's seen Luna frequently around the Crown Arcade.
- Fortune Teller: The theme of this episode revolves around fortune telling. Jadeite's Clairvoyant Youma, Balm, pretends to be one while she brainwashes her customers into giving her energy and there is a real one who appears as a gentle old man.
- Goofy Print Underwear: When Ms. Haruna's skirt gets flipped up, we see her underwear has a smiley face across her butt.
- Green and Mean: Balm has lime green skin and her minions get green skin coloring after she orders them to fight Sailor Moon.
- Heads or Tails?: Usagi does this with her shoe to decide if she should go to the House of Fortune or head home. The shoe lands on Mamoru's head, who tells her off.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Averted. Even though Kenji notices Luna following him and Usagi and mistakes her for a stray due to not wearing a collar, he doesn't consider adopting her.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Naru assures Usagi that Umino is too shy to ever ask her out on a date. Seconds later, he appears and openly asks her out.
- Loss of Inhibitions: Part of Balm's hypnosis trick is convincing her clients that they're free to do whatever they want.
- Never My Fault: After waking up to see that she's late for school, Usagi blames Luna for not waking her up earlier.
- Nice Girl: When Usagi sees that the local fortune-teller has been losing business to the House of Fortune, she immediately offers her palm to him and asks for his advice.
- Nice Guy: Motoki is ridiculously nice to Usagi, and says that she always lifts his spirits. He also mentions that he's been keeping an eye on Luna, worried that she is a stray.
- Novelization: The episode was adapted in the first Tokyopop novel, using names from the DiC dub.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: After Umino flips her skirt, Haruna breaking down about how she'll never be able to get married as a result is changed in the Viz dub to her crying over how she'll never live it down.
- Prehensile Hair: Balm is able to use her hair to attack Sailor Moon. Two of the strands even look like giant claws.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: To showcase his new bold personality, Umino ditches his school uniform in favor of a flashy blue tux.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: It's established that while Umino is good, Usagi doesn't like how he inadvertently gets her in trouble. She appreciates how Motoki is very nice and always willing to make time for a person or cat.
- Stealth Hi/Bye:
- Luna magically shows up while Usagi is getting a video game lesson from Motoki.
- Tuxedo Mask does this to provide Sailor Moon the opening she needs to defeat the youma.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After visiting the House of Fortune, Umino and the other boys begin to behave like cruel delinquents and stir up trouble for Juuban Middle.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Naru convinces Umino to go the suspiciously brand new House of Fortune for help with his romantic problems. This would lead to him being brainwashed by the youma running the business.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene has Jadeite observing how popular fortune telling is with the human populace. He then reports to Queen Beryl who had just dismissed her court so they can continue searching for the Legendary Silver Crystal.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: After Usagi gets her fortune told, then her fortune happened, Usagi runs back to thank the fortune teller, only to find out that he was no longer there. After this and another run in with Mamoru who she accidentally kicked her shoe up to in order to do a "Heads or Tails" bit, he's never been brought up again.
- You Remind Me of X: Usagi briefly imagines how her beloved Motoki is as thoughtful as her father Kenji.
