An Animated Mess

"An Animated Mess" is the 17th episode of Sailor Moon. It was preceded by Who is that Masked Man? and followed by Worth a Princess's Ransom.

Plot
A Sailor V movie is coming out soon. The animator, Lori, is criticized for not drawing Sailor V well enough. While racing against her friend Cassie, Lori drops a folder containing her work, which is found by Amy.

Neflite picks Lori as his next target while watching the movement of the stars, and intends to release the Gemini Warriors. Amy sees him drive by in his car.

Lori is still unable to draw the animation right, at times messing up Sailor V's hair, and at others messing up the bow, so she gets out some special pencils. A flashback is shown where Lori and Cassie are shown getting the pencils, which animators use, and that they will help them draw better. They are expensive, so they promised to use them only for special projects, and to not use them without each others' permission. Lori has used them all up except one. Neflite appears and charges her remaining pencil with dark energy. As he leaves, he is confronted by Sailor Mercury, but he drives away and escapes from her.

Lori is now evil from the dark power, and is ignoring Cassie, as well as Amy when she comes to give her the folder she lost. Cassie thinks the pressure of the deadline of the Sailor V movie is getting to her, but Amy knows Neflite got to her.

Serena is furious at Neflite when Amy tells her that he called her "wimpy". Serena, Amy, and Raye decide to go over to the studio to investigate, but Serena and Raye want to get an autograph. When they get there, Mr. Masterson tells Lori that her work is what he has been looking for and that she'll be the lead artist for the sequel, but she says there won't be a sequel because Sailor V will be destroyed. Lori runs off to the roof, saying she'll create her own studio. Serena, Amy, Raye, and Cassie go to her. There, Lori's energy reaches its peak and the Gemini Warriors appear, draining Lori's energy. Cassie faints as they appear, and Serena, Amy, and Raye transform into Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars to fight them.

The red Gemini Warrior uses Mars Fire Ignite, and the blue Gemini Warrior uses Mercury Bubbles Blast. This appears to gain them the upper hand on the Sailor Scouts, but they argue over who gets to finish them off, and disconnect their tails from each other. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars combine Moon Tiara Magic, Mercury Bubbles Blast, and Mars Fire Ignite to destroy the Gemini Warriors. Lori's energy is returned to her and she returns to normal.

Neflite cannot understand how the Sailor Scouts beat the Gemini Warriors, whom he trained himself, and Zoycite is sure Queen Beryl will kill him as punishment.

Cassie asks Lori about the special pencils, and reveals that she also used up most of them, because Lori's drawings were better than her drawings were. They promise to be friends forever, and it appears the Sailor V movie got its happy ending.

Sailor Says

 * Serena: When Lori used Neflite’s pencil to draw better, she was cutting corners. Using something that wasn’t hers to further her career. So, she got a lot of praise and admiration, deep inside she knew it wasn’t really her doing those beautiful drawings. Doing something well takes time and patience and hard work. But for all that effort you have pride of knowing you did it all on your own. Don’t be afraid of a little hard work. Most of all don’t cheat. Sailor Moon says! You won’t be sorry!
 * Luna: She should talk…