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 episodes-series about a group of girls, who can perform magic tricks, fighting 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 quitr a surprise. In comparison to Saber Rider for instance, the German Version are 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 modification (please see below), the German Version is equal to the uncensored original Japanese Version.

Unlike the US North American Version.

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 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 legen.... wait for it.... [sorry, wrong franchise -:)] The realization is legendary but it's also a perfect example for heavy censorship in animes these days. Especially season 1, produced by DiC, has a very dreadful rep and is the one with the most censorships being made. "Highlights" are the last two episodes of the first season. The remains of these episodes were put together to one single episode. Really preposterous.

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 wiped out as well. Further differences are renamed foot (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 to revealing. This also and particularly concerns the transitions (except Sailor Moon's) where curves 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. The removed episodes Nr. 2, 5, 6, 20, 42 and the episodes 44 and 45 were so heavily cut that it was one single episode in the end.
In the second season, episode 67 was being removed. (Note: The German Vesion 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" (good old times), 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 Tiara Action	Moon Tiara Magic	Mondstein, flieg und sieg
Shabon Spray	Mercury Bubbles Blast	Seifenblasen, fliegt
Fire Soul	Mars Fire Ignite	Feuerball, flieg
Supreme Thunder	Supreme Thunder Crash	Donnerschlag, flieg
Cresent Beam	Venus Cresent Beam Smash	Halbmondstrahl, flieg

Change of names affects all characters. Here's a list of characters with more than one appearance in season 1. 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
Königin Perillia(Beryl)	Queen Beryl
Königin Metallia	Negaforce
Jedite (Jadeite)	Jadeite
Neflite(Nephrite)	Neflyte
Zoisite(Zoicite)	Zoycite
Kunzite	Malachite
Naru Osaka	Molly Baker
Motoki Furuhata	Andrew
Umino Gurio	Melvin
Shingo Tsukino	Sammy Tsukino
Ikkuko Tsukino	Mom
Kenji Tsukino	Dad
Mika Kayama	Mika Cassidy
Haruna Sakurada	Patricia Haruna
Reika	Rita
Yuuichirou Kumada	Chad

It's also worth being mentioned that the German 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 dialogs with subtitled Japanese episodes proof how close to the Original the German dialogs are.

Only the comparison of the first episode 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 of them, sometimes both at the same time. The time index is based on the German Version.

Episode 15: Dangerous Dollies

Queen Beryl wonders why Nephrite is so inefficient when it comes to her enemies. That's why she incurs Nephrite's displeasure. Zoisite enjoys it because she's coming up with some intrigues on her own. At the same time, Bunny finds out that her brother Shingo (even though it was accidental) destroyed a self-made doll of his girlfriend Mika. And it wasn't just any doll. It was the one his girlfriend won a competition with. Bunny wants Shingo to apologize to Mika but Nephrite chose Mika as next victim in the meantime. Being on the move in his identity as Masato Sanjouin, he flatters Mika's mom and wants to sponsor performance at the next doll con. He bewitches one of Mika's dolls secretively. Shingo notices Mika's strange behavior but the Sailor Tema can do nothing but wait. During the exhibit, it finally happens and Youma Juno appears. Sailor Moon gets almost strangled to death before Merkur's analysis and Tuxedo Mask's intervention leads to success. In the end, Mika and Shingo reconcile (with a little help from Bunny).

Running time German episode: 18:24
Running time US episode: 17:43

That means: minus the non-existent scenes in the Original Version, the US Version lacks 45 seconds.

[01:23]-[01:27]
[-4 sec]
Shortened scene
After having made fun of him in front of her parents, Shingo makes a very impolite gesture to Bunny.

[03:29]-[03:34]
[-5 sec]
Shortened scene
Shots of several self-made dolls of Mika's.

[05:36]-[05:42]
[-6 sec]
Shortened scene
Bunny is pretty upset when she enters Shingo's room. She spproaches and hits him. Shingo is furious and wants to know what that was all about.

[08:26]-[08:32]
[-6 sec]
Shortened scene
Missing shot of the doll bewitched by Nephrite. The doll looks to both sides before the facial expression changes.

[09:18]-[09:22]
[-4 sec]
Shortened scene
High angle shot of Shingo's room while he's asking himself whether Mika is still angry with him.

[10:32]-[10:34] und [10:42]-[10:45]
Modified scene
The two shots of the poster at the doll con are different. The Kanji has been replaced by English writing. But this step is inconsequent because the remaining Kanji and Hiragana remains untouched.

German Version	US Version

[10:54]-[11:00]
Modified scene
A foolish but serious goof.
In the German Version, Shingo remembers that Mika likes Sailor Moon more than Sailor V.
In the US Version, she likes Moon more then Sailor Venus. Big mistake because Venus' introduction in the franchise hasn't taken place yet (approx. 15 more episodes until the introduction), which means Venus is completely unknown so far (although V and Venus are the same girl, Minako, but it's still wrong - one way or another).

[11:14]-[11:17]
[-3 sec]
Shortened scene
While Bunny tries to hold in her anger about Shingo's dreadful Sailor Moon plastic (she thought it was a pig), a bubble with thoughts passes by. In this bubble, Sailor Moon and a pig take it in turns, accompanied by squealing noises.

[15:46]-[15:56]
Modified scene
I usually don't mention the altered names of the attacks but this one here is incredibly awful. Rei uses her Miko powers to neutralize the two killer dolls. In the US Version, this has been changed to "Mars Fireball Charge Ignite!". Absolutely wrong because these powers have NOTHING to do with her Sailor powers. She always had these powers.

Furthermore the image of the man standing in the fire has been replaced by an image of a simple fire.

German Version	US Version

[16:02]
[+4 sec]
Added scene
Additional shot of the Youma recomposing.

[16:02]-[16:19]
[-17 sec]
Shortened scene
To their horror, Sailor Merkur and Mars have to witness that Sailor Moon gets strangled with Youma Juno's bear hands. Sailor Mars immediately shots a fireball at Youma but the hands around her neck don't loosen so that the attack harms Sailor Moon additionally.

Due to sloppiness in the re-editing process, a split second of the shot of Sailor Moon getting strangled plus the fireball is still in the US Version.

[16:39]-[16:43]
Modified scene
In the German Version, Sailor Moon attempts to toss her moonstone. But due to the cut-off oxygen supply, she's already gotten so weak that she can't attack no more. The US Version simply repeats one of Youma's attacks.

German Version	US Version

[17:59]-[18:02]
Modified scene
Now the sign of the elementary school Shingo goes to in the German Version. The US Version contains a shot of Bunny's school instead (tranlated sign included). This alteration is completely and utterly pointless because the following scene shows Mika and Shingo at school. Definetely sloppy work in the editing process.

German Version	US Version