“Mako. Minako. What's wrong? This is not a good time to be fighting. A powerful enemy has appeared and things are starting to get a little scary. We have to power up and get moving! Come on you two! Let's work together to punish them!”
— Usagi Tsukino
(DiC Episode: "A Charmed Life")
Makoto and Minako have a falling out after getting into an argument over differing views on boys and romance. Their fighting leads them to a targeted charm house where the workers are two sisters who hold some toxic and misandrist views on the topic.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Chibi-usa gets followed by two boys who at first try to hit on her only to antagonize the girl for badmouthing them. The DIC dub changes it to the boys nagging Rini over Luna-P and how she gets it to float around.
- Alone Among the Couples: Minako starts the episode by expressing annoyance over the abundance of lovebirds in the local park.
- Balloon Belly: Usagi gets a small one briefly as a result of chugging down the Charm Juice.
- Bowdlerize: Usagi spitting out the Charm Juice at Rei at the end of the episode was cut from the DiC dub.
- Choke Holds: Calaveras manages to get a good strangle out of Venus with her Dark Whip.
- Commonality Connection: Petz becomes heavily invested in Makoto after hearing how she was dumped.
- Distant Reaction Shot: The last scene switches from Usagi squirting Rei with the charm juice to outside the pizzeria where Rei screams her name and demands vengeance.
- Does Not Like Men: Petz has a strong disdain for men due to her last romance with one going to flames.
- Dub Name Change:
- "Sparkling Wide Pressure" becomes "Jupiter Thunderclap Zap" and "Venus Love-Me Chain" just removes the "-Me" and adds "Encircle" to become "Venus Love Chain Encircle" in the DiC version.
- Jamanen is called "Jellax".
- Fearful Symmetry: Jupiter and Venus' new attacks manage to counter Petz and Calaveras' attacks resulting in a stalemate.
- Feud Episode: The crux of this episode involves Makoto and Minako having a fight over their opinions on romance.
- Foil: The feud boils down to Makoto and Minako calling each other out for reacting to the same problem (unable to move past a former relationship) in different ways. Makoto falls for any guy that remotely resembles her former love, whereas Minako is so hung up that she doesn't even try to find anyone new.
- Friendship Moment: Minako makes the first step in apologizing by saying that Makoto deserved a boyfriend who truly cared for her and wouldn't let her go like her senpai.
- Hate Plague: The charms that Petz and Calaveras sell warp the customers' mindsets into hating love.
- Here We Go Again!: A rare example taking place in the middle of the story. Berthier chuckles over her older sisters getting into another squabble fest.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Luna asks if kids would be dumb enough to chug charm juice just to get their wishes granted and Usagi answers by taking the bottle and chugging it all down.
- Love Is a Weakness: Petz considers love to be rubbish and belittles those who still believe in it.
- Loving Bully: Minako pulls out the "boys will be boys" card by saying that Chibi-usa's bullies liked her. Makoto is quick to call her out on how stupid that idea is.
- Mugged for Disguise: Jamanen knocks out and traps the original workers in the backroom and stripped them of their uniforms for her superiors to use.
- Near-Villain Victory: Jamanen manages to subdue the Inner Guardians with her slime and comes close to killing them if it wasn't for Moon's intervention.
- Never Be Hurt Again: Calaveras uses the fact of Petz refusing to find love ever since her last boyfriend dumped her just to get on her nerves.
- Never My Fault: Both Usagi and Chibi-usa accuse each other of driving away Mamoru after he sees Usagi inside the charm house.
- New Superpower: Jupiter and Venus unlock new powers while fighting the Spectre Sisters. Jupiter gains "Sparkling Wide Pressure" and Venus receives "Venus Love-Me Chain".
- Old Maid: Chibi-usa happily warns Usagi, Minako and Makoto that they'll grow up to be old maids if they don't get over the guys who dumped them.
- Precocious Crush: Chibi-usa proudly declares that she plans to make Mamoru her husband.
- Protective Charm: The original charm house sold jewels and amulets to customers to help grant their wishes and improve their daily lives. When Petz and Calaveras take over, their charms make the users wish for the opposite of what they want.
- Replacement Goldfish: According to Minako, Makoto always judges the guys she likes based on whether they're like her old senpai or not. She points out that it's not healthy for Makoto to keep obsessing over him.
- Shadow Archetype: Makoto and Minako accept that they could turn into misandrists like Petz and Calaveras if they gave up on love or refuse to show humility.
- Sibling Rivalry: Petz and Calaveras briefly bicker over who of the two is the greater Proud Beauty.
- Slime Girl: Calaveras summons her Gelatinous Droid, Jamanen, to serve as her muscle when they and Petz take over the charm house.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When her friends try to take the charm from Usagi, Minako asserts that she certainly wasn't interested in "bringing back a past love for herself".
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: According to Makoto, Minako has a tendency to put a romantic spin on just about anything.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Petz decides to leave the fight after being thwarted by the Guardians. Calaveras joins her after assigning Jamanen to finish the heroes.
- Weather Manipulation: Petz comments on how the people of Tokyo's past can't control their own weather like in the future.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: When seeing the charm house offer a special charm juice, Luna asks out loud if the kids of the modern day would be stupid enough to fall for such a stupid scam. Cue Usagi pulling out her yen to drink it all...
