THE SHAPELIN INSTRUCTORS
大男のインストラクター · Oootoko no Insutorakutā
“Hey, what are we doing down here?”
– The Shapelin Instructors to Sailor Moon
I debated whether or not I’d cover this episode, given how there aren’t any actual monsters here. There is also the glaring matter of the story being rather… of its time. Unlike a lot of other episodes, this one doesn’t have any finer context to redeem its more indelicate plot points. Even so, Sailor Moon’s brawl with these bewitched jocks is worth a quick entry.
WHEN AND WHERE
In Episode 4, Learn How to Be Skinny from Usagi, Usagi, Naru and their classmates join the same gym that Miss Haruna attends: Shapelin. After each workout, guests may use the “Shape Ray” recovery treatment down in the basement. Usagi refrains, but everyone else who partakes ends up energy-deprived.
ETYMOLOGY
Seeing as how there are zero Yōma here, there is no wordplay or anything to go over. Jadeite’s goons, the three large gym rats who first coached Shapelin’s guests before then turning on Sailor Moon, aren’t given names in the episode or in the credits. The first Nakayoshi Anime Album collectively refers to them as “big male instructors” (大男のインストラクター), and individually they are called Instructor A, B and C.
DESIGN
The Shapelin minions are the usual top-heavy gym addicts you’d expect to see in late-’80s and early-’90s anime, albeit more crudely drawn. In general, muscular and beefy men aren’t deemed or rendered as beautiful in this anime, and this episode’s animation director, Kiyoshi Matsumoto, reserved the handsomeness for typical bishōnens like Jadeite, Mamoru and Motoki. However, the long-haired one has potential; he even looks a bit like a prototype for Yūichirō Kumada.
THE BATTLE
What’s interesting about this skirmish is how Sailor Moon is actually doing real close-combat fighting, but of course, that’s only because Luna said she’d burn calories. Whatever gets results, I suppose. Nevertheless, this is a rare instance where Sailor Moon, despite her relatively small size, fights back with her hands and feet. It’s unclear how she could inflict any substantial damage to these walls of muscle, though. In any case, it’s reasonable to assume that Sailor Moon was only allowed to tear it up because her opponents, while human, were brawny men who could withstand a few blows from a teenage girl.
Sailor Moon’s mastery of her tiara continues to increase; here she destroyed the mind-control headbands — atama no ringu — on the men without evidently causing them any physical harm. That accuracy is surprising when taking into consideration how this is only the fifth use of Moon Tiara Action.
EPILOGUE
After a strong third episode, this one is a letdown in many respects. The hand-to-hand fighting was a rare and welcome sight, but the weight loss plot is silly. Now, I’m usually able to watch Sailor Moon without constantly holding it up to a modern and Western lens, but a teenage diet story? It’s on par with most ’90s entertainment, I’ll give it that. Still and all, it’s funny how this episode was included in the DiC set, yet other — and better — ones were omitted.
Looking past the diet rubbish, it was actually smart of Jadeite to use mere humans as servants. Sailor Moon’s instinct to protect innocent bystanders, even when they’re placed under the enemy’s spell, remains intact. To exploit that “weakness” is indeed clever, but there’s also the fact that Yōma are, by nature, stronger and more equipped. And fans like myself wanted more monsters, not less. 🌙
Tales from the Paulside 
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