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 18: Worth a Princess's Ransom

The princess of the Kingdom of Jewels comes to Tokyo in order to present a special jewel. Naru, who is invited, cannot really get excited about it because she still asks herself whether Masato Sanjouin has feelings for her. Luna asks herself whether the princess could be the Moon Princess, whereas Queen Beryl orders Nephrite to check whether the jewel might be the silver crystal. Zoisite is not happy about this and she looks for comfort at Kunzite, the highest general. Bunny is able to sneak into the party in a princess costume and meets Tuxedo Mask. When Nephrite, disguised as Sonjouin, uses Naru's love to get the jewel a fight starts which he loses. Eventually we learn that neither the silver crystal nor the Moon Princess are there and Nephrite disappears. Later at the party, a slightly drunk Bunny meets Tuxedo Mask again and they have their first kiss on a moon-lit patio.

Running time of the German episode: 18:25
Running time of the US episode: 17:46

Disregarding newly added scenes, 57 seconds are missing.

[01:11]-[01:28]
[-17 sec.]
Cut
Umino states more details about the precious treasure and when it will be presented. Bunny is very desperate because she will not be there when the treasure is unveiled.

[01:49]-[01:56]
[-7 sec.]
Cut
A shot of the newspaper featuring Kanjis and Katakanas was removed.

[03:22]-[03:28]
[-6 sec.]
Cut
Kunzite comforts Zoisite longer by saying that Nephrite will make the decisive mistakes all by himself, then he laughs.

[04:07]-[04:09]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
Bunny starts crying again in a close-up.

[04:56]-[04:58]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
Luna cannot be seen jumping on the couch in the US Version.

[06:55]-[07:33]
Alteration
The scene with Nephrite and Naru is different.

In the German Version, Nephrite is surprised to see Naru but it is quite convenient for him. She does not recognize him as Sanjouin before he removes his mask. They talk about the reasons why Naru is there and Nephrite says it had been boring so far. He then asks her to dance.

In the US Version, however, Nephrite pretends to have known that Naru would come and instantly tells her who he is. After some amorours chit-chat he asks her to dance. She says she was not good at dancing, but he replies she would underestimate her own abilities.

[11:34]-[11:37]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
Tuyedo Mask tries to help Bunny on her feet after he took her hand.

[12:06]
[+5 sec.]
Added Scene
In the original, Mars's fireball flying towards the camera is the only thing that can be seen, in the US Version the complete attack is shown. However, this does remove some element of surprise.

The balcony scene

The balcony scene was pretty much destroyed by DiC. Not only is the original scene missing completely, they also inserted something new which results in some logical errors.
Cut+Added Scene.

Removed Original Scene
[12:15]-[12:35] [-20 sec.]Tuxedo Mask tries to hold Bunny, but her hand slides out of the glove. When he tries to catch her, he falls over the railing as well. Luna then throws Bunny her umbrella, which she can open in order to safely glide down with Tuxedo Mask. Nephrite angrily watches this.

Newly Added Scene
[+13 sec.]Tuxedo Mask pulls Bunny up again. Luna says an emergency had occurred. Tuxedo Mask tells Bunny to meet him downstairs. In order to create this scene, some old shots were played backwards and others just repeated in a different context. Horrible. Additionally, it remains unclear where Bunny got the umbrella from.

German Version	US Version

[14:06]-[14:12]
Alteration
When Sailor Mars uses her incantation against evil spirits, the man standing in the fire was replaced with some regular fire. This will happen every time she uses this incantation from now on and will not be mentioned anymore.

German Version	US Version

[17:37]-[18:25]
Alteration
The final scene was robbed of its meaning. The whole thing of Tuxedo Mask and Bunny having their first kiss was changed into a dream, completely changing it.