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 33: Little Miss Manners

After she got into some more trouble in school (because she forgot to do some homework), Bunny tries a course held by the countess Rose in which girls are supposed to learn how to behave like a princess. She has no idea that this is a trap by Kunzite, who has transformed the countess into a Youma. However, Endymion has his own plans. Meanwhile, the other Sailor Warriors have entered the course as well, but Bunny, Minako and Rei fail it. Suddenly, everybody else gets turned into a stone by the Youma. Kunzite planned to let Bunny fail and then force her to give him the Silver Crystal. The girls manage to transform without giving away their identity, but the following fight turns out to be very hard. Suddenly, Tuxedo Mask appears and wants to steal Kunzite's success by getting the crystal himself. Kunzite appears as well and they argue, Sailor Moon uses this chance to return the countess back to normal. Endymion and Kunzite know that this battle is lost and retreat. Again, Sailor Moon does not get a chance to heal Mamoru.

Running time of the German episode: 19:00
Running time of the US episode: 17:49

Disregarding newly added scenes, 1 minute and 11 seconds are missing.

[00:00]-[00:40]
[-40 sec.]
Cut
The complete beginning is missing.

Bunny is running out of her apartment in order not to get too late for school, Luna is annoyed because of her tardiness. She just manages to get to school in time and meets Naru there. However, Bunny is shocked when Naru tells her that they had to do a lot of homework, of which Bunny has done NOTHING. Bunny moans that she could go back home straight away then when a Rolls Royce approaches.

This scene was probably cut because of the Kanji relief that can be seen over the main entrance.

[01:07]-[01:09]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
The picture of the countess Rose can be seen a bit longer.

[01:13]-[01:15]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
Another shot of the countess is longer.

[01:59]-[02:10]
[-11 sec.]
Cut
When Bunny is dreaming, her dance with Tuxedo Mask is missing.

[02:20]-[02:21]
[-1 sec.]
Cut
The scene in which Bunny takes revenge on Mrs. Haruna in her dream is a bit longer.

[03:28]-[03:34]
Alteration
A clear softing down.

Queen Beryl demands Kunzite and Endymion to catch Sailor Moon and bring her to her for interrogation, whereas she wants her corpse in the original!

[03:45]-[03:58]
Alteration
Lunas password was changed again, whereas it always stayed the same in the original (which is the sense of having a password). The new password about a cat pursuing its own tail is also pretty embarassing.

[06:13]-[06:17]
[-4 sec.]
Cut
When the countess complains about Bunny lack of manners, we can see how she takes it. In her phantasy, a few knifes are sticking in her.

[08:52]-[08:55] und [09:01]-[09:05]
Alteration
When Bunny starts eating her soup loudly, the collective shock at the table was removed. Instead, the picture was frozen and a slow zooming in applied. The same was later applied to the butler's shock, although that picture was zoomed out.

A strange alteration, because the sweat drops cut out here can be seen all over the episode.

German Version	US Version

[12:33]-[12:36]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
A cut to the Youma turning all the successfull seminar participants to stone is missing.

[14:25]-[14:27]
Alteration
After Sailor Venus's transformation, a fading moon sickle was inserted. It is unclear why and there is actually no reason at all to do that. The obvious redundancy of this alteration justifies mentioning it.

German Version	US Version

[15:44]-[15:49]
[-5 sec.]
Cut
One of Tuxedo Mask's roses lands on the ground, but when it turns black it is clear that he will not be there to help them.

[18:57]-[19:00]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
The ending was shortened. The US Version fades out before Bunny stumbles and falls.