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 6: Time Bomb

Queen Beryl tells Jedite that they were lagging behind with the energy harvest and that they were under pressure now. Jedite has an idea for increasing the harvest by putting a lot of time pressure on the humans and thus maximising their energy exhaust. Some days later Bunny and Ami discover a new shop selling watches, but Bunny cannot afford one special watch. Later she is pretty surprised when her mother has bought her exactly that watch. The next morning there is a lot of chaos in the city because everyone except Ami has lost their sense of time. Luna suspects the watch to be responsible for this and asks Ami to have a closer look at it. As it turns out, it is indeed cursed and Jedite uses the watches to rob human's of their sense of time in order to increase the energy they waste. Sailor Moon and Mercury storm the shop and fight the Youma, but it is too strong and only after Tuxedo Mask has appeared and destroyed the big central clock are they able to destroy it.

Running time of the German episode: 18:20
Running time of the US episode: 17:38

Disregarding newly added scenes, 54 seconds were cut.

[00:41]-[01:10]
[-29 sec.]
Cut
Ami and Bunny are in Tokyo's city centre. Ami admits that she has never been there before and says she had no idea about shopping. Bunny is surprised but tells Ami that she would show her everything and that they would go into every shop.

[02:20]-[02:30]
Alteration
The dialog in the watch store was reversed. In the original, Bunny and Ami talk about how cheap the clocks were, in the US they are complaining about the high proces. The reasons for this are the price tags which have not been changed. 500 Yen are just cheaper than 500 Dollars.

[02:46]-[02:49]
Alteration
When Bunny has a look into her wallet, the 1000 Yen bill was turned into a 10 Dollar bill by removing two zeros.

German Version	US Version

[04:00-[04:03]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
Luna talks a bit longer about the clock.

[04:39]
[+2 sec.]
Added Scene
The US Version features a shot of Tokyo which cannot be seen in the original version.

[05:10]-[05:15]
Alteration
The scene in front of the school was changed. In the German Version, the school clock can be seen first and then a freeze frame of the students running around hectically. In the US Version, the standard shot of the school can be seen first and then the school clock. Students are not included here.

German Version	US Version

[07:46]-[07:55]
[-9 sec.]
Cut
Two shots of Jedite collecting the stolen energy, in which only his hand and eyes are visible, were removed.

[08:14]-[08:39]
Alteration
The scene in which Jedite congratulates the Youma Ramua was mirrored. Probably because the following scene was mirrored and somebody was not careful when editing the episode.

German Version	US Version

The Scene in the Bus
[08:39]-[09:22]This scene was changed drastically, which is why it is discussed here extensively. The shot order was changed, some shots removed, new shots added. Additionally, the whole scene was mirrored in order to turn the Japanese bus into an American one. However, this has not been done all the time and the letters were mirrored as well.

Original Scene:The bus can be seen in traffic. Bunny and other passengers complain, the driver answers that he did not know either what was going on. Bunny rudely tells him to think of something. Then the bus suddenly starts and Bunny hits her head against the ticket dispenser. Shocked, she sees that the bus driver entered the wrong lane. Somebody presses the stop button but the bus just drives past the bus stop. One woman complains and gets the answer that the bus would now go directly to the final stop. This causes the woman to choke the driver.

American Scene:The bus can be seen in traffic. A passenger complains and the bus driver asks whether he should drive through the other vehicles. Bunny now also tells him to hurry. The bus starts and Bunny sees that he entered the wrong lane while the bus driver cynically asks whether they were content now. Somebody pushes the stop button, then another shot of the traffic can be seen. The stop button is being pushed several times, but the bus drives past the stop. A woman complains about this but the bus driver just said that he certainly would be stopped some time. Again, the shot of the traffic can be seen.

German Version	US Version

Following parts of the scene were cut:

[08:56]-[08:59] [-3 sec.] Bunny bangs her head against the ticket dispenser and then has a big bump at her head.

[09:19]-[09:22] [-3 sec.] The angry woman is choking the bus driver.

Following scenes were added:

[09:10] [+3 sec.] The stop button is being pushed repeatedly.

[09:19] [+3 sec.] A repeat of the shots in which the bus is racing throug the traffic.

[11:35]-[11:38]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
Ami's transformation was shortened (see the last comparison).

[16:02]-[16:05]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
Sailor Moon looks horrified while the Youma's attack has left a bleeding wound on her cheek.

[16:26]
[+2 sec.]
Added Scene
Sailor Moon looks horrified.

[16:26]-[16:28] + [16:31]-[16:33]
[-4 sec.]
Cut
Sailor Moon desperately evades further attacks.

[16:31]
[+2 sec.]
Added Scene
Sailor Moon seems to be angry about the continuing attacks (which does not fit into the context).