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 81: Child's Play

Esmeraude has had enough and uses her last chance by contaminating two places at the same time, guarded by Chiral and Achrial. Too bad one place is the elementary school Chibiusa attends. To Chibiusa's horror the school has turned into a horrible place, students and teachers alike infected by evil. To her dismay this also includes her friend Momoko, who is now attacking her without mercy. The Sailor Senshi arrive in time, only to be forced to defend themselves against Chiral and Achrial while protecting Chibiusa from Momoko. Suddenly they are trapped and together with Momoko tortured with electroshocks. After Chibiusa protected Momoko, she in turn gets hit by Achrial's attack. Full with anger, Chibiusa releases all her energy, which sadly is noticed by Wiseman and Prince Diamond. Wiseman is impressed and suggests in light of this pontential to change their strategy. Meanwhile Chiral and Achrial got defeated, causing their curse to break. Esmeraude is red with anger and about to attack in person, when Prince Diamond recalls her. Momoko will recover, but Chibiusa now knows that she no longer can run away. She together with her allies have to travel to the future in order to defeat their foes.

Length German TV-Version: 19:00
Length US-TV Version: 17:43

The US TV Version lacks 1 Minute and 17 Seconds of footage.

[00:00]-[00:46]
[-46 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
As of often recently, the complete first scene of the episode is missing, which again opens many plot holes.

We see a flashback to Chibiusa's first day in elementary school. Her name is read on the blackboard and Chibiusa is introduced to the class by the teacher. The students welcome her, but one student makes fun of her low height and her name, until a girl named Momoko after warning him hits him on the head with a rolled-up copy book to get him to shut up. Chibiusa is visibly surprised that someone stunds up for her right away. The scene then fades to Chibiusa in her bed.

This cut is especially regretful since instead of the normal animation they did create special drawings by hand, which is reflected in their quality. Also, there is a pun connected to her name in the Original, the student calls her Chibi (small) Usa (small form of Usagi). Sadly that is un-translatable.

[02:21]-[02:23]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The original scene tansition (a fade) got lost due to the digital transition.

[04:45]-[04:51]
[-6 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Momoko kicks the male student into the head. He goes down and Chibiusa watches fearfully.

[05:40]-[05:43]
[-3 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Chibiusa almost gets a broom handle slammed into her head by Momoko. Additionally, the teacher and other students look threatening towards her.

[05:50]-[05:52]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Momoko's next strike barely misses and now everyone is after Chibiusa.

[11:08]-[11:12]
[-4 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Achrial attacks Sailor Moon and Chibiusa. His arm extends significantly all of a sudden and they barely manage to escape.

[12:12]-[12:14]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Sailor Mars barely manages to pull away Chibiusa, before she is hit.

[12:16]-[12:18]
[-2 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Another attack from Momoko is missing.

[12:30]-[12:35]
[-5 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The Senshi are trapped in the energy field created by Chiral and Achrial and are tortured with electroshocks. Momoko is trapped as well and screams in pain. Chibiusa is longer seen in Mars' arms as well.

[13:10]-[13:14]
[-4 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Momoko, to Chibiusa's horror, is struck by Achrial's force bolt.

[14:42]
[-1 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The start of the scene at the headquartes on planet Nemesis was slightly trimmed.

Trivia

Looking at the intro of the of the first season, one can discover that there are two scenes where scanned text is found sideways. The text is fully readable and clearly comes from some kind of book written in English. Sadly, this author has not managed to find out what the source is. All three instances seen below were rotated to make it easier to read.