Aired: 1st November 2003

Ami is paranoid that she isn't really friends with Usagi and Rei, and Usagi's not-so-subtle attempts to help the process along are doing more harm than good, as Rei points out. Ami even buys a book about becoming better friends with people, but when she skips juku so that she can go to Usagi's house one night, she ends up fainting from exhaustion after trying to fit in with Usagi and Naru. Usagi apologises, and essentially says that efforts to seem more like a good friend don't count if they're a lie, which unfortunately puts Ami off even further. When a monster attacks at an art show (because the woman in charge of the show has a pendant with a jewel that could be the Silver Crystal), Ami transforms into Sailor Mercury, but she endangers herself because she is reluctant to call Usagi and Rei for help. Luckily they show up anyway to protect their friend, and afterwards Ami finally begins to open up a little more.

(Anime/Manga Comparison)

Characters Introduced:
- Makoto Kino (very briefly)

Important Events:
- It was already blatantly obvious, but this episode removes any shadow of a doubt: When Ami suggested in episode 2 that she and Usagi shouldn't be too close in case people realise they are both Sailor Guardians, that was just a smokescreen to hide her own insecurity
- Usagi and Rei appear to be getting on much better than they had been even in the previous episode - they're bickering, but it's friendly bickering, and Rei is calling her "Usagi" without an honorific (honorifics are name endings in Japanese that indicate the relationship between the speaker and the person they are referring to - the lack of an honorific implies a very close relationship)
- Ami admits that she doesn't really need her glasses (the prescription is very weak), and that she only wears them because otherwise she feels shy
- It is revealed that Nephrite is in lovee with Queen Beryl (or at least, that's how it appears)
- Usagi and Mamoru finally find out each other's names
- In battle, Mercury concentrates very hard and senses the movement of water in order to find the monster (which is constantly changing its position); this technique may or may not recur in a later episode
- Ami starts to call Usagi "Usagi-chan" (which indicates they are friends - until now she had been calling Usagi "Tsukino-san", which is much more formal)
- At the end of the episode, Ami goes back to eating lunch alone on the roof (earlier she'd sat down in the classroom with Usagi and her friends), but she also realises that she has forgotten her glasses and she doesn't care

New Attacks:
N/A