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 came 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 37: Tuxedo Unmasked

The Kingdom of Darkness wants to recaptchure the seven former crystal bearers to creat one Uber-Youma from them, which the Sailor-warriors couldn't possibly defeat. To achieve this, Queen Beryl sends Endymion with the Black Crystal to test his loyalty. Ryo Urwa manages to warn the warriors and asks them to protect Rei's grandfather as a former crystal bearer, who doesn't want to be helped at first until Ami makes it clear to him that is is her decision to help. As they escape from Endymion, Ryo confesses his feelings towards her which makes Ami very happy. Endymion appears in that moment, though, and manages to lock Ryo into the crystal. Mercury is able to trick him, though, and destroys the crystal, releasing all the prisoners. Sailor Moon then actually manages to heal Mamoru completely, but Queen Beryl kidnaps him again immediately. She now wants to erase his brain completely. The warriors don't realize any of this, though, as Ami takes a nice day off with Ryo.

Length of the German episode: 19:00
Lenght of the American episode: 18:17

Meaning that, not including scenes that are not contained in the original version, the US-version misses 44 seconds.

[00:00]-[00:08]
[-8 sec.]
Cutting of scene
The sun is shown and the frame blends over to an African savanna as the camera pans to the right. The end of the scene is contained.

[01:16]-[01:19]
[-3 sec.]
Cutting of scene
Part of the tracking shot across Tokyo at winter is missing.

[01:39]-[01:42]
Changing of scene
A special effect was swapped here. In the German version, the image on Ami's TV is slowly getting brighter as it warms up. In the American version, this was replaced with a brightly colored noise that appears very badly placed.

German Version	American Version

[02:01]-[02:22]
Changing + cutting of scene
Ryo behaves differently towards Ami in the American version. In the German version, Ryo wants Ami to not get into trouble because of him and asks her to help, so the Kingdom of Darkness does not win before he hangs up. In the American version, he gives nothing on Ami's safety and only talks about that it was destiny and stuff, before just hanging up. Also, the conversation was cut in the following:
[02:07]-[02:16] [-9 sec.]
Tyo says he doesn't want Ami to get into trouble. The image changes to a splitscreen and Ryo explains to her how important it was that Rei's grandfather (a former Youma) would not get into their enemies' hands.

[02:27]-[02:30]
[-3 sec.]
Cutting of scene
A shot of Tokyo at winter from Ryo's point of view as well as the first line of his thoughts are missing.

[02:31]-[02:40]
Changing of scene
Ryo's inner monologue was changed completely.

In the German version, Ryo believes to have done the right thing. He would have liked asking Ami and the others for help, but didn't want to get them into the big troubles he foresaw. In the American version, though, Ryo acts all macho and thinks Endymion wouldn't find him. As a sidenote, he hopes Ami can help the other former Youma. Ryo's character is changed a lot by this.

[03:42]
[+1 sec.]
Added scene
An itching lightning has been added into the American version as Queen Beryl explains the seven Youma.

[04:13]-[04:20]
[-7 sec.]
Cutting of scene
Kunzite cops out quickly as Beryl complains she was not happy about her decision to leave the job to Endymion. Satisfied with having secured her authority, Beryl says that they should at first wait and see how Endymion handles himself.

[04:48]-[04:52]
[-4 sec.]
Cutting of scene
Makoto brusquely asks Ami if she was a little dense as it was clear Ryo had to be protected.

[05:40]-[06:15]
Change of scene
The dialogue between Endymion and Ryo was mutilated.

As Endymion faces Ryo on the streets, Ryo immediately reveals himself in the German version and also admits to know about Endymion's identity. Endymion then brags to know about Ryo's gift of foretelling and mockingly asks what his own futuer would be. Ryo knows they wanted to transform him into a Youma again. At that, Endymion says Ryo should come along now, but Ryo says this was not possible. Somebody told him he could change destiny with his own decisions, which irritates Endymion.

In the American version, though, Ryo tries to play dumb, even as Endymion lists the details. Endymion mocks him and then provocatively asks what the reason for their meeting would possibly be. Ryo gives up and knows that he is supposed to be taken away. Endymion says any resistance was futile. Ryo insults at that and arrogantly says he could escape without a fight, irritating Endymion.

[07:15]-[07:20]
[-5 sec.]
Cutting of scene
Makoto talks longer at Ami as she leans to a telephone booth.

[11:47]-[11:52]
[-5 sec.]
Cutting of scene
In the American version, the fade starts earlier so the view at the amusement park's gate is not shown completely. Specifically, the final part during which a sign written in Kanji and Katakana is visible, is missing.

[18:26]-[18:35]
Change of scene
The final gag was destroyed here.

In the German version, Bunny is concerned about Ami maybe forgetting her job, and who could they trust then? Minako reminds Bunny she ahs the responsibility, which quickly brings her back to earth. In the American version, Bunny only moans all the time about being hungry and about Ami, to which Minako replies that she was a prime example for bad behavior.

This change shows once more that the American dubbing actually make the girls only argue all the time. They cannot stand each other and generally (especially Bunny), they were stupified.