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 8: Nightmare in Dreamland

Bunny, Ami and Rei meet in order to discuss their further actions. However, they are unable to start the search for the moon princess because Luna does not know where to start and there are no clear indications to be found. Because of this, they decide to concentrate on the new "Dreamland" park, in which several people have gone missing. In the meantime, Queen Beryl is more and more disappointed with Jedite after he failed so many times. When Jedite says he had a plan, Beryl just states that she hopes it would succeed or she might just replace Jedite. The investigation in Dreamland do not go on well either and Rei is annoyed by Bunny's childish behavior, especially when she meets Mamoru, her personal nemesis. When Ami is being lured into a trap by a Youma, a fight begins. The Youma confuses them with many illusions, but after Tuxedo Mask helps them again they manage to destroy it. Jedite has a feeling that this defeat might be fateful for him while the park returns to normality.

Running time of the German episode: 18:22
Running time of the US episode: 17:35

Disregading newly added scenes, 47 seconds were cut.

[00:00]-[00:10]
[-10 sec.]
Cut
The episode starts with a shot of the obelisk of the Hikawa Shrine, then we see Rei's room, in which Luna, Bunny, Ami and Rei discuss the further actions. Luna wants to tell them what to do next now that they have all gathered.

[00:29-[00:43]
[-14 sec.]
Cut
After her fit of rage Luna tells the three girls that their behaviour was not apt for sailor warriors. Rei and Bunny then ask Luna what they were supposed to do now.

[00:44]-[01:33]
Alteration
The following talk between Luna, Bunny, Ami and Rei was totally changed.

In the German Version, Luna tells them to start looking for the princess. Bunny asks how they should find her and Rei believes that she would probably carry a mark. Luna has to admit that she does not know how to identify her. Bunny and Rei cannot believe it, Ami suggests that Luna tries to find out more while they go and protect the people. When they check the newspaper, Bunny sees an article about the Dreamland and that 50 people got lost there in only one week.

In the US Version thinks are pretty different. Luna wants that Rei and Bunny stop arguing, but the two do not stop. Ami says that they should look for some recreation and that she had time (because she studied everything for the next 10 weeks!). Ami suggests the Dreamland and shows them the newspaper. Only then they notice that people got lost there.

The newspaper was, of course, changed as well because the Kanji and Katakana were all replaced by lines (the alignment was not changed, which looks a bit weird). The picture was also zoomed in in the second shot.

German Version	US Version

[02:10]-[02:12]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
The original scene transition, fading Jedite's face to the sky over the Dreamland, was replaced by the CGI scene transition.

[02:22]
[-1 sec.]
Cut
A short shot of the sign saying "Dreamland Administration" was cut. In the following camera pan, however, it can be seen.

ab [03:35]
Alteration
Rei and Ami react a lot more aggressive against Bunny in the US Version.

In the original, only Rei is really annoyed by Bunny and does not even say really mean things. In the US Version Rei and even Ami say some really mean things against Bunny. This change of character is kept throughout the episode.

[05:32]-[05:37] und [05:41]-[05:43]
[-7 sec.]
Cut
Two shots of Jedite collecting the energy, in which only his eyes and hand can be seen, were removed.

[12:56]-[13:05]
Alteration
The use of the talisman agains evil spirits by Sailor Mars was changed significantly. In the German Version she uses the Japanese incantation before she calls that the bad influence should go away. In the US Version she says "Mars Fireballs Charge". This is illogical twice, because a) this is no fireball and b) this power does not origin from her being Sailor Mars but being a Miko (Guardian of the Shrine).

The footage was changed as well. During the incantation the figure of a man standing in the fire can be seen several times. This was replaced by the shot of a fire wall.

German Version	US Version

[15:28]-[15:38]
[-10 sec.]
Cut
Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon seem to be rather embarassed about having ridden a broom and they ask themselves whether Tuxedo Mask has really been there. In the meantime, Youma Murdid picks up the energy stealing apple, Mars and Moon look shocked when notice it.

ab [16:11]-[16:16]
Alteration
Sailor Mercury's transformation was changed in a new way replacing the cuts of the previous episodes. The more specific body outlines were completely and removed, as a side effect, the picture became very blurred (note the comparison pictures).

German Version	US Version

[16:45]-[16:48]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
When Sailor Mars attacks the Youma, the shot panning upwards on her was cut. Her panties probably could be seen a bit too well for the US television.