Compared are the heavily censored US TV Version and the German TV Version.

German Version:	US Version:

The anime series Sailor Moon should ring a bell. The 200 episode series about a group of girls, who can perform magic and fight Evil is a classic which left a mark in the awareness of Japanese Productions (in both directions). No doubt about that. The series was a major success worldwide. But the German Version is quite a surprise. In comparison to Saber Rider for instance, the German Version is based on the original Japanese master and the effort to keep it as close as possible to the Original was being made. Besides a few modifications (please see below), the German Version is equal to the uncensored original Japanese Version.

The US North American Version however is a different matter.

The company DiC was calling the shots for the adaption of the first two seasons and Cloverway for the following two seasons. The final season 5 - "Sailor Stars" - has never been released in the US, probably because of the controversial "Sailor Starlights", which also change the gender during their transformations. The realization is legendary, but for all thw wrong reasons. It's a perfect example for heavy censorship in animes these days. After the horrors of the first season, everyone expected the worst... and it happened. DiC also created an absurd broadcast schedule. They first released 2/3 of the season (with the first 13 episodes for some reason put at the end of the broadcast) and then waited for almost three years before they bothered to do the remaining episodes (that's because they'd had the insane idea to just do 65 episodes for sydication, regardless if the story is done or not).

The modifications / censorship

• The removal of scenes is the most common censorship. The length of the removed scenes is purely and simply impressive. Looks like the episodes were censored randomly. Besides the violence cuts, which could be expected, plot scenes, some gags and anything that could cause trouble with the FCC, was precautionally removed.


• The meaning of scenes was changed very often, too. In most cases, the lines in the dub are softer, but modifications of the footage were also being made. As a result of that, a scene might have an entirely different meaning than the exact same scene in the Original.


• Americanization describes the pathetic attempt to make the series less Japanese. Not only the character names are different (please see below for details) but the Japanese ideographs (Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana) are erased as well. Further differences are renamed food (but it still looks the same which is quite hilarious). But the best thing is: anything takes place in the US, Tokyo isn't being mentioned for once. These modifications aren't going to be mentioned anymore because it happens too often. Exeptions are extraordinary examples for that.

Examples:

German Version:	US Version:

• Images were censored, especially when it became too revealing. This also and particularly concerns the transformations (except Sailor Moon's) where body lines were removed like there were no tomorrow.

Examples:

German Version:	US Version:

• CGI was added to a lot of scenes which doesn't contain any CGI in the Original Version. Listing all the CGI of any episode would break the mold but I can assure you: if there's a conspicuous CG shot, it wasn't in the Original Version.

Examples:

German Version:	US Version:

• Transitions were added digitally as well. Recognizing them is a piece of cake because they're obviously a break of style and they're supposed to cover up the cuts. And here also counts: listing any transition would break the mold, so I'm not going to do that.

Examples:

• Unfortunately there are some removed episodes, too. From 46 Original episodes of season 1, only 40 were left over. In the second season, episode 67 was being removed. (Note: The German Version lacks episode 89 but it only consists of stock footage and is hated by the fanbase, so it's not a big loss at all.)


• Gender change is a popular method to hide homosexuality. In this case, two characters are being affected: Zoicite (in Germany Zoisite) in season 1 is actually a man. But to avoid his homosexual relationship with Kunzite, he's a woman now. The second character is Fish Eye in season 4. Though he acts very feminine, he's actually a male (and he's also gay). A further victim of a gender change is Zirconia in season 4 for instance. And if such a censorship wasn't possible, the status of their relationship was being changed. The lovers Uranus and Neptun e.g. are cousins now.


• The modification of the audio track is no censorship in the proper sense but a lot of atmosphere gets lost. The reason for that is pretty simple: the US Version takes a pass on the original music and noises - a new audio track was being made. It works for the noises but it doesn't for the music. The original music is way better.


• "Sailor Says" is a segment which exists exclusively in the US Version. If you know Filmation's "Masters Of The Universe", the last scene should be look very familiar because it also with a scene where the kids were supposed to learn a lesson. This could be realized with stock footage.


• Different names for the attacks and transformations were used, despite the fact that the names in the Original Version are English as well. But I must say that someof the German names were just made up, too. Here some examples of attacks, an entire list would be too long.

Original Version:	US Version:	German Version:
Moon Princess Halation	Moon Sceptre Elimination	Macht des Mondes, verwandle ihn/sie zurück
Shine Aqua Illusion	Mercury Ice Storm Splash	Wasserstrahl, flieg
Burning Mandala	Mars Celestial Fire Surround	Feuerringe, fliegt
Sparkling Wide Pressure	Jupiter Thundercrash Zap	Donnerschlag, flieg
Venus Love Me Chain	Venus Love Chain Encircle	Feuerhertzenkette, flieg

• Change of names affects all characters. Here's a list of characters with more than one appearance in season 2. Find the original name in brackets if the German name is different.

German Version:	US Version:
Bunny(Usagi) Tsukino	Serena Tsukino
Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask	Darien Shields/Tuxedo Mask
Ami Mizuno	Amy Anderson
Rei Hino	Reye Hino
Makoto Kino	Lita Kino
Minako Aino	Mina Aino
Luna	Luna
Artemis	Artemis
Chibiusa	Rini
Der Erleuchtete	Wiseman
Prinz Diamond(Demand)	Prince Diamond
Saphir	Sapphire
Esmeraude	Emerald
Rubeus	Rubeus
Kermesite(Kōan)	Catzi
Bertherite(Berthier)	Bertie
Kavalerite(Calaveras)	Avery
Petzite(Petz)	Prizma
Ail(Eiru)	Ali
Anne(An)	En
Naru Osaka	Molly Baker
Motoki Furuhata	Andrew
Umino Gurio	Melvin
Shingo Tsukino	Sammy Tsukino
Ikuko Tsukino	Mom
Kenji Tsukino	Dad
Haruna Sakurada	Patricia Haruna
Yuuichirou Kumada	Chad
Königin Serenity	Queen Serena
König Endymion	King of Earth

It's also worth being mentioned that the German Version was being modified here and there, too. Zoisite e.g. is a woman as well (I guess the channel changed that) and attempts to avoid words like "kill", "die" etc. were being made, which causes an odd result in some scenes. But still: these modifications are pretty harmless in comparison to the DiC Version. Comparisons of the dialog with subtitled Japanese episodes prove how close to the Original the German dialog is.

Only the comparison of the first episode of the second season (episode 47) mentions the differences of the opening and final credits, the title of the episodes, the preview of the next episode and the "Sailor Says". All these elements are being ignored in the calculation of the different lengths. Basically, cuts and modifications are the two issues that might have happened. Sometimes it's only one of them, sometimes both at the same time. The time index is based on the German Version.

Episode 74: Rubeus Strikes Out

Rubeus is now sure about winning and shows off the crucified Sailor Senshi to Esmeraude while waiting for Sailor Moon. Bunny is willing to come, in order to free her friends, but Chibiusa sneaks aboard as well. Too bad the space ship then takes off to orbit, trapping them. Rubeus is not impressed: the hostages are held behind a force field, his ship is makig him a hundre times more powerful and he threatens to crush Sailor Moon with the artificial gravity. It's ignoring Chibiusa that's his downfall, as she damages the energy matrix of the ship, causig it to lose power, allowing Sailor Moon to defeat him and free her friends. However, the damage starts to cause the ship to blow up. The Sailor Senshi escape by teleport, but Rubeus is sentenced to death by Emseraude for his failure. This is Rubeus' death, but the Black Moon lives on...

Length German TV-Version: 19:00
Length US-TV Version: 17:50

The US TV Version lacks 1 Minute and 10 Seconds of footage.

Generally
This episode must have been a nightmare for DiC. No only does it contain plenty of violence, the Senshi get crucified by Rubeus. Americans generally react very sensitive to religious symbols, meaning that this episode got hacked to pieces.

[01:49]-[02:07]
[-18 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
They removed how Rubeus proudly shows off the crucified Senshi to Esmeraude. The scene first is from afar, before it gets closer.

[09:16]-[09:29]
[-13 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Sailor Moon and Chibiusa see, much to to their horror, the crucified and lifeless bodies of their friends. Rubeus mocks them as well.

[09:38]-[09:41]
[-3 Sek.]
Shortened Scene
Sailor Moon gives Chibiusa some slaps onto the head.

[10:23]-[10:26]
[-3 Sek.]
Shortened Scene
Due to the digital scene transition, the original one got lost, this time causing a continuity error. Sailor Moon is thrown to the ground during the transition, and due to the cut, she suddenly is on the ground while she'd been standing before.

[11:54]-[12:02]
[-8 Sek.]
Shortened Scene
Chibiusa runs to the cucified Senshi, which are each shown individually again.

[14:07]-[14:19]
[-12 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Chibiusa is trying to remove the crystal, but gets electric shocks for her try.

[14:53]-[14:56]
[-3 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The crystal flies out of the holding, while Chibiusa falls to the floor.

[14:57]-[14:58]
[-1 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Rubeus is blasted past the crucified Senshi.

[15:18]-[15:25]
[-7 Sek.]
Shortened Scene
It was removed how Chibiusa crawls to the Senshi. The reason most likely is the fact that you can see her underwear.

[15:38]-[15:58]
Altered Scene
Rubeus' explanation was gravely altered.

In the Original and German Version, Rubeus makes it clear that they've irreparably damaged the energy matrix and this will cause the space ship to explode. Horrified they wonder if he isn't to die, too, but Rubeus thinks, that since he can't return to the future, he at least can take them to the grave with him, thinking this will make him haile a hero.

In the US Version, Rubeus instead says he activated the self destruction and the Senshi accuse him of being a coward. Rubeus says, he'll restore his honor this way and his following scream seems to be his self destruction command.

Due to these changes, the meaning of the rest of the episode was altered completely

[17:17]-[17:19]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Esmeraude cooly slaps Rubeus' hand away with her fan, making it clear that she has sentenced him to death. It creates a cotinuity error, as suddenly Rubeus is holding his wrist in pain.

Trivia

It looks strange to viewers in Europe, but in Japan, a commercial break in something like an Anima episode is normal. Interesting are the "eyecatchers", which are specially animated by the studio for the beginning and end of the ad break and are a specialty of the Anime industry. Of course, they often get removed whenthe series is experoted to other countries.

Sailor Moon has eyecatchers as well, one for every season, and season 2 even got two, one for the start of the commercials, and one for the end.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5