Comparison between 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.

Just as in the first season, the second season also offers a different opening, different credits, different episode titles, as well as the "Sailor Says". These things will only be mentioned in the report of the first episode of the second season. Any of these differences will be ignored for the overall difference in time for each episode, which means that only the "real" content of the episode matters for these statistics. Therefore, the reports will basically concentrate on cuts as well as alterations (some of the scenes actually offer both things at the same time). The time designations always refer to the German version.

Episode 52: Secret Garden

It is business as usual. Once again, Ail tries to hit on Bunny and Anne flirts with Mamoru, while they all try to sabotage each other. However, they are about to have bigger problems soon. The last energy deprivation does not work out as it was planned and the energy sickens the tree of the dark power instead of making it stronger. As they do not manage to get to school anymore because of the lacking energy, Bunny decides to pay a visit to them. As she is sad that the two seem to have no friends, she visits them later again and thus comes in contact with the tree. To Ail’s and Anne’s surprise, the tree appears to react positively to Bunny. Meanwhile, the Warriors conceive suspicion as they find a scion of the tree in Bunny’s hair; and when Bunny visits Ail and Anne once more, Mamoru joins them for having heard that Anne was sick. Anne’s jealousy overwhelms her and she flings Bunny in the clutches of a Cardian to entirely squeeze her for the tree. The tree of the dark power is outraged about how badly Bunny is being treated and suddenly grows into monstrous size. Ail and Anne watch this in pure horror, while the Sailor-Warriors run into the skyscraper in order to fight the threat emanating from the tree and eventually to rescue Bunny.

To be continued…

Duration of the German episode: 19:00
Duration of the American episode: 17:42

That means the US-version lacks 1 minute and 18 seconds, deducting the scenes which are missing in the original version.
This is the second part of the two-parter which concludes the storyline about Ail and Anne. Unfortunately, the double episode had to suffer a lot and lost much of its original impact.

[00:49]-[00:55]
[-6 Sec.]
Cut
While Bunny eats something, she and Ail keep on talking. Ail remarks that it is quite a miracle that they have met considering the crowds of people. Bunny agrees with him.

[01:07]-[01:17]
[-10 Sec.]
Cut
Anne furiously asks Ail what he is doing together with Bunny here, as he actually wanted to go to the library. Ail responds in an equal manner by blaming her for being with Mamoru instead of studying with a friend, as he thought she would do. Anne is not happy to hear that.

[01:30]-[01:34]
[-4 Sec.]
Cut
You can see more shots of the dying tree of the dark power.

[01:55]-[02:12]
[-17 Sec.]
Cut
The scene fades from Ail to the front of a theater. As Bunny reads that a Sailor Moon puppet show is going to take place, she is happy about being that famous. Luna remarks sarcastically that her role might rather be the one of a laughing stock, which does not please Bunny at all.

[03:06]-[03:08]
[-2 Sec.]
Cut
Startled by the screaming, Bunny runs to where the Cardian attack took place.

[03:46]-[03:49]
Alteration
This view of the school appears for the first time here and has been replaced by the standard view including the translated sign in the American version (Probably because of the school’s sign on the wall). This will not be mentioned again in future episodes.

German version	American version

[04:02]-[04:22]
Cut + Alteration
The scene in which Bunny, Ami and Makoto are heading towards the skyscraper where Ail and Anne are has been cut as well as massively altered.

In the original version, Ami asks Bunny whether Naru and Umino were well again after the attack of the Cardian. Bunny says yes, adding that the two of them need some more time to recover for they suffered high energy loss. Ami says the assault was pretty unusual, but Bunny thinks she only imagines this.

In the American version, Makoto asks (image manipulation) why they bother with slugs like Ail and Anne after all. Bunny says the primarily do that because Ail is a true stunner. Even Ami agrees with that and asks randomly if they should not pay a visit to Naru and Umino as well. Bunny thinks they could visit them afterwards.

[04:02]-[04:08] [-6 Sec.]Additionally, the beginning of the scene is missing. Makoto asks Bunny and Ami whether they should not check on Ail and Anne because they missed school. Bunny agrees, adding that she just thought the same.

[04:23]-[04:26]
Alteration
Here in the American version, the attempt has been made to blur the sign of the skyscraper’s entrance. However, this was done so poorly that half of the sign is still readable.

German version	American version

[04:33]-[04:51]
[-18 Sec.]
Cut
As Bunny sees Ail and Anne, she thinks that it is unusual for brother and sister to wear the same clothes. Makoto concludes they rather looked like a couple. Ail tries to talk his way out by claiming that they had such a close relationship because their parents had left them when they were very young. Bunny accepts this excuse.

[05:36]-[05:44]
[-8 Sec.]
Cut
Bunny adds that it is a good thing to have friends. Ami comments that Anne is left more and more behind in school because of her continuing absence.

[06:34]-[06:50]
Alteration
The conversation between Ail and Anne has been turned upside down.

In the original version, Anne asked Ail if he was sad now as Bunny had left. Ail asks her whether she also has got this warm feeling around her heart and Anne asks what he means by that. Ail is unable to describe it further, since he has never had a feeling like this before.

In the American version, by contrast, Anne wants to know what is going on because she is feeling strange. Ail says it was as if he would think with the heart instead of his head. Anne speculates that this location may be the reason for it. Ail responds angrily that it does not matter what it is but that it is dangerous.

Once again, the crucial story part of them having to learn what affection is has been crippled by this alteration.

[07:01]-[07:05]
[-4 Sec.]
Cut
Lena keeps on wondering where Bunny might be.

[13:01]-[13:04]
[-3 Sec.]
Cut
The original transition got lost here in favor of the digital scene transition.

[17:49]-[18:04]
Alteration
As it is the case with all transformations, the one of Minako into Sailor Venus was censored and the bodylines were removed. A strange effect happens here as it looks as if she had a hole in her chest. This is true with all future transformations and will not be mentioned again.

German version	American version

[18:53]-[19:00]
Alteration
In the American version, the words “To be continued”, which were not existent in the original, have been laid over the last scene. Moreover, the image has purposely been blurred (it looks worse than it is for the bad compression here)

German Version	American Version

TO BE CONTINUED...