52 Days of BSSM - Act 3 - Rei/Raye - Sailor Mars

[Phoenix]

Three acts, three senshi introduced. Meanwhile, the TV series has had
to mark time waiting for Rei to show up. As a point of interest, here
is when each senshi was introduced in the manga and in the TV series.

Usagi - 2/92 (act 1) - 3/92 (episode 1)
Ami - 3/92 (act 2) - 5/92 (episode 8)
Rei - 4/92 (act 3) - 5/92 (episode 10)

Nephrite is introduced as Jadeite continues to fail. In the anime, the
evil side handoff did not happen until episode 13 which aired the
following month (6/92)

The story is pretty much the same as the anime with girls disappearing
on "haunted" buses when they visit Rei's shrine. However, there was a
note from Naoko stating that there are intentional differences between
the manga and the anime. Two things I noticed. One, Mamoru was on the
bus with Usagi and their relationship moved forward a bit. Two is that
Jadeite is killed by Mars rather then put to sleep by Beryl.

Other points of interest. It is on the bus that Usagi and Mamoru start
to suspect each other's identity. Mamoru's NA family name is finally
scripted as "Shields" which is a nice touch as Mamoru does mean
"defend". Finally, Mixxzine translated Mamoru/Darien's student ID as
showing him to be in the 11th grade. I have the Japanese manga, but I
have no idea if it is saying the same thing. If so, that should put
him at 17 years old.

Phoenix ;{)

[Mike]

Mamoru is indeed 17 and in the 11th grade.

I too was surprised that the suspicion of each others' identity was
happening this early, but I'm sure we'll be seeing far more situations
like this in the manga due to the lack of filler.