“There's no way I'd let anyone get away with wasting a girl's precious time! I bet even the cuckoo in the cuckoo clock is angry! I am Sailor Moon! And In the Name of the Moon, I'll punish you!”
— Usagi Tsukino
(DiC Episode: "Time Bomb")
Jadeite's newest scheme involves manipulating everyone's sense of time which forces the Juuban citizens to accelerate their daily lives and radiate stressful amounts of energy to exploit. Sailor Moon decides to put an end to this madness with the help of her newest friend and teammate: Sailor Mercury!
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adaptational Dumbass: In the DiC dub, the Negaverse has never heard of the concept of time.
- Ambiguous Situation: Haruna cancels her classes stating she has four dates set up that day. Given how desperate she is to get married, it's unclear if she was acting under the influence of the energy-sucking clocks or if that was Haruna being Haruna.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ramua's victory is stolen after Tuxedo Mask uses his rose to destroy her grandfather clock which frees the Guardians and gives them the opportunity to destroy her.
- Bloodless Carnage: Averted. Ramua slices Sailor Moon's cheek with her spear which causes her to bleed.
- Chekhov's Gun: Luna gives Ami a supercomputer to analyze the cat clock. In the second act, Mercury uses the computer to help her and Moon navigate Ramura's time labyrinth.
- Clock Tampering: Of the magical variety. Jadeite has his youma sell clocks and watches to the Juuban public which manipulates them into thinking that they're running late for just about everything.
- Description Cut: Usagi believes that Luna is gonna be happy to see the new clock that looks like her. It then shows Luna criticizing the clock and claiming she doesn't look anything like it.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Kenji Tsukino can be heard humming "Moonlight Densetsu" when installing his newly bought clock at home.
- Drives Like Crazy: At the insistence of his impatient passengers, a stressed out bus driver decides to drive on the other side of the road regardless of traffic laws. A bystander in the DiC dub quips "He's making good time!"
- Dude Magnet: Miss Haruna managed to set up for different romantic dates and had no intention of missing out on any of them.
- Eldritch Location: Ramua resides in a magical labyrinth within her grandfather clock that contain endless but colorful voids for the Guardians to get lost in.
- Fountain of Youth: A section of Ramua's lair is able to de-age Sailor Moon into a little girl. Moon even worries about the opposite happening.
- Hopeless Suitor: Umino tries to convince Naru and Usagi to go out with him on the grounds that life is too short to enjoy. Neither of them are interested and proceed with their busy schedules.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: In the DiC dub, Melvin is worried that he'll be late for his Snail Watching Club. And he's the only member.
- Lady in Red: The Clock Keeper Youma, Ramua, wears a long red dress.
- Leeroy Jenkins: As Sailor Moon, Usagi insists on rushing in to the clock shop to defeat the youma while throwing caution to the wind.
- Locked Out of the Fight: While Sailors Moon and Mercury manage to enter the clock shop by blasting a hole, Luna jumps in too late as the hole regenerates and leaves her out of the battle.
- Magical Computer: Luna summons a supercomputer to allow Ami to analyze anything related to the supernatural.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Despite surviving a massive pile up by an eighteen wheeler, a man decides to go to the hospital to fix his bleeding finger.
- Never Trust a Title: For the DiC dub episode name. While there is a time-related plot, there is no "Time Bomb" in the episode.
- Oh, My Gods!: In the original version, Usagi thinks to herself that God/Kami-sama was watching over her after receiving her new cat clock.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Moon and Mercury serve as this dynamic. Even though she was under the influence of the clock, Sailor Moon acts more impulsive and emotional when doing hero work. Sailor Mercury, by comparison, is the cautious one as she wants to take her time to strategize and learn as much as she can before attacking.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never explained how Luna was able to tie the cat clock on her back without opposable thumbs.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When Sailor Moon briefly gets de-aged into a little girl, her Sailor uniform becomes noticeably oversized and baggy on her shrunken frame.
- Shopping Montage: Usagi takes Ami out on a window-shopping adventure.
- Shout-Out: Mercury's supercomputer briefly show the Prime Directives from Robo-Cop.
- Stealth Pun: The DiC dub has Molly telling Serena and Amy about a big shoe sale that's just started at the end of the episode.Molly: It's two for one!
- Time Master: Along with using her grandfather clock to drain everyone's energy, Ramua is able to freeze Sailor Mercury in place.
- Toast of Tardiness: A stressed out Kenji runs out the door with toast in his mouth the morning after getting the new clocks.
- Villain Opening Scene: The episode starts with Beryl being informed of Mercury's awakening along with Jadeite explaining his next scheme which involves exploiting human anxiety.
Jadeite has done a lot of terrible things, but today on Sailor Moon he actually speeds up time, and at what a price! Can the Sailor Scouts slow down long enough to stop the clock? Stay tuned! When we come back, I'll show you!
