[LordBane999]

Originally Posted by terraptus

Just to elaborate on your points, the "blonde chick who was actually guy" was named Zoycite (female) in the English version, and Zoicite (male) in the Japanese version (like the stone).

Zoicite's romantic relationship with Malachite was considered inappropriate for the target audience the distributor was aiming for, namely young children aged 6-11. So they turned him into a girl. Only in America I guess. Hehe

They also added some ridiculous "Sailor Moon Says" segments at the end of the episodes to teach kids moral lessons and good values (these did not appear in the Japanese version in any way, shape or form). It was always laughable to hear Serena say such truisims as "be nice to other kids" and "Don't lie". But I suppose this is positive reinforcement for the very young crowd that may look up to these superheroes.

The American Distributor, DiC, who was owned by Disney at the time, was selling the first season of Sailor Moon into syndication across the United States. These episodes tended to air between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Because of these circumstances, scenes of nudity, sexuality, and violence were toned down or eliminated. I compare this to the edits that were done on Dragon Ball Z where nudity (Gohan peeing comes to mind) had to be deleted because it was inappropriate for kids.

Thankfully, unedited versions were released by ADV films a while back of the first two seasons that more faithfully represent what the original vision of the show was. There are also some excellent versions of Sailor S and SuperS that were put out by Cloverway and later Pioneer on DVD (now the defunct company Geneon). These episodes were relatively unedited and complete compared to the DiC versions and ended up airing on Cartoon Network. So I would argue that while the first two seasons done by DiC were not very good, the dubs made later on by Cloverway were actually pretty faithful and worth seeing. So don't lump ALL the licensed versions into the same category. DiC's version may have been heavily altered, but Cloverway's was a LOT more faithful.

Personally, I don't find the Dubs too horrible in the same way I can appreciate Robotech just as much as I like Macross. But for sticklers who prefer to see the shows the way they were "meant to be seen", I can see why the subbed versions are the only way to go.

Just adding some information on to the opening post. Check out the Sailor Moon Wiki for more information. They have a robust explanation of the licensing history of the shows by DiC and later cloverway, which episodes were edited, and what cultural/content changes took place.

very good details on the differences, i watched the DIC dub when i was younger (didn't have the cartoon network), i later came across some vhs tapes that someone recorded subbed sailor moon on, this was based on the origins of sailor neptune and uranus and i must say that it is different still much from the dubs in terms of sexuality and nudity, and that after watching the subs i can't say that any of the dubs can really compare in content, also if any of you are interested in legal subbed dvds, i noticed a bit back that a couple of the older sailor moon box set collections where still floating around at some online stores, they we're fully uncut and conatined all the "seasons", ovas, and movies between the too

[nagereboshi]

silly anime hah.......

[cid856]

the sailor moon says segment was added for time, they edited so much that even with comercials they had to find a couple of extra minutes.

[Zambo]

Sailor Moon was classic whether you liked it or not. It reminds me of a time when cartoon network had somewhat decent programming

[ThanhHuyLe]

The young teen girls love it so much. In my opinion, it's just a boring anime with the ridiculous girls as the silly heroines.

[LordBane999]

lol me and my first girlfriend, when we we're little i use to play sailor moon with her and her friends during recess. i was tuxedo mask usually, or i made up badguy

[takanuva509]

Frankly, I don't remember much of this anime.. except the opening. It was wicked. I remember a guy who can transform into a unicorn. That's cool. Another guy who wears tuxedo with a mask and a cape. Oh yeah, and he had red roses with him.. which he used to attack people (Even after all these years, I fail to see how a rose can hurt anyone...). There were also three sailors in the original series, then it grew to five, then six, then nine in total (I think).

Anyway, this show is legendary in its own right, like Dragonball Z.

[chainfire]

I practically marathoned this show (all 200 episodes, subbed of course) last year. The english version was changed a lot, as previously mentioned. Also, I don't recall season 5 ever being broadcast in the US. Not surprising, considering the gender-bender-ness of the sailor starlights, and the fact that sailor moon flies around naked for most of the final episode. I enjoyed the show from a large-scale plot perspective, but it does get tedious when in "monster-of-the-week" mode.

[Project-Eden]

Oh my, I was and still am in love with this series! Despite popular belief, I thought the dubbing and music from the series (the vocal tracks) were very good, even compared to some of the more recent dubbing. It was a shame they never finished dubbing the last season of the series.

[thoiztrippin]

I liked it when I was 7 years old =)