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 70: Enemies no More

Kermesite is in a most difficult situation. The Wiseman has predicted that something horrible will happen to her. Rubeus thinks she's outlived her usefulness and anyway sends her onto a mission to capture Chibiusa at Hikawa Shrine. However, Kermisite is running into complicated situations at the shrine, making her doubt if she's fighting for the right cause. She doesn't manage to capture Chibiusa, causing Rubeus to lose the last faith in her and causing him to tell her, that only a suicide attack can restore her honor. The Senshi stop her from doing so, however. Kermesite breaks down and admits to herself she's so messed up, that the Black Moon has lost all meaning to her. The Silver Crystal right then alters her, cutting the poisoning link to the Dark Moon.

Length German TV-Version: 19:00
Length US-TV Version: 17:55

The US TV Version lacks 1 Minute and 5 Seconds of footage.

Generally
DiC in this episode watered down many references and explanations about love. Since it happens so often, it's said here right at the start.

[00:41]-[00:55]
[-13 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The conversation between Rubeus and Wiseman is quite a bit longer in the original.

Wiseman warns Rubeus, that something horrible will happen to Kermesite, but Rubeus is not concerned. To him she's just a chess piece. He's just interested in the child, and nothing else.

[00:57]-[00:59]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
A sign with the word "Iriyama" is missing. The reason is unclear.

[01:11]-[01:20]
Altered Scene
The picture was zoomed in order to hide the "Otafukuya" shop name on the awning. Question is, why they put so much efford into this, since the shop name is quite visible in a number of other scenes (like the one directly after this one).

German Version	US Version

[01:42]-[02:00]
Altered Scene
The awning and Kermesite's shopping bad were changed to erase the shop name "Otafukuya". Since this will happen several more times in this episode, it won't any longer be listed.

German Version	US Version

[03:10]-[03:24]
Altered Scene
The scene with Rubeus and the cologne was really messed up by DiC. In the original and German Version, he acts as if accepting the gift, the breaking the bottle in his hand and then makes clear through his "innocent" act, that he has no respect for Kermesite. In the American Version however he's rude right from the start and even threatens her, if she should fail her mission (which he originally never did).

[03:25]-[03:36]
[-11 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
After Rubeus has left, the scene goes on longer.

The broken bottle is shown. Kermesite looks to the shards, clearly intimidated, and already suspects that that Rubeus is not putting any trust in her. After a scene change, the entrance of Hikawa Shrine is missing as well, obvously because of the Kanji on the obelisk.

[04:00]-[04:36]
[-36 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
A very long scene got cut out of the episode.

Yuuichiro welcomes Kermesite to Hikawa-Schrein in an overblown manner and tries to sell her various spiritual junk. She does recognise him to her dismay (they literally ran into each other) but in the end she does buy a surprise fortune. She thinks that this can possibly return her to Rubeus' good side and she pulls out her pocket mirror to talk with him.

[05:48]-[05:51]
[-3 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Minako punishes Artemis for his schadenfreude by snipping his nose. The cut also forced them to change Artemis' rection in the following scene (pain becomes laughter).

[05:59]-[06:16]
Altered Scene
In the scene where Rei finds Bunny reading her comics, things got changed. In the Original, Rei is running out of patience and asks Bunny why she's still there. Bunny returns she's waiting until Luna and Chibiusa are gone from home, before she'll borrow some for home. In the US Version, Bunny is simply too lazy to carry them. Again, her character was made worse in the dub.

[13:16]-[13:20]
Altered Scene
An ungly CGI-border was put upon Kermesite's memories, with CGI lightining added to the mix.

German Version	US Version

[18:09]-[18:13]
Altered Scene
The contrast was ramped up when Kermesite got altered in the American Version, in order to hide details of her nudity. Some line got removed as well.

German Version	US Version