Comparson 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 45: Spring fairy

Ail and Anne found a new and profitable target: the spring fairy, where masses of people gather whose energy they can steal. The Sailor warriors are also visiting the fairy because of a school excursion and are easily caught out by the Kardian. Bunny tries to fight as Sailor Moon but she lacks of power, even after queen Serenity gave back the silver crystal which she lost in the battle against queen Beryl. However, when the knight of the moonlight cheers her up she forges, with help of the crystal, a new moon sceptre which is able to defeat the Kardian. She is still confused of who this knight might be, while Ail and Anne are getting angry about the mass of throwbacks.

Runtime of the German episode: 19:00
Runtime of the American episode: 17:47

Including the scenes missing in the original version the US version lacks 1 min. and 58 sec.

[01:01]-[01:20]
Change of scenes
The whole scene was changed, even in its meaning.

The original and the German version show how they are talking about how nice Miss Haruna was to ask the principal to let them go to the fairy. The American version shows that they are at the fairy because of environmental studies, which does not fit into the image material.

[02:16]-[02:37]
[-21 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Naru locks Umino in his sleeping bag and tells the others to serve picnic. They do so and ignore locked away Umino. Umino moans that it is mean and he wants to get released.

[02:38]-[04:54]
Change of scenes
The whole scene is surrounded by an ugly CGI frame. Because of the length of this scene here are only a few examples.

German version	American version

[02:40]-[02:47]
[-7 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Umino rebukes Naru that he has made so much effort and she is that mean. Naru excuses herself and says that it was only a little joke.

[02:57]-[03:22]
[-25 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Here a long scene has been cut.

After Bunny commented the delicious state of the food, Rei taunts her that what Bunny prepared is everything but delicious. Bunny is offended and shoots back that Rei is not a better cook which now offends her. One can see why: Rei brought along fastfood. Bunny goes to Makoto and asks her for some food.

[03:34]-[03:45]
[-11 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Bunny asks Minako and Ami for some food. Both seem to be astonished because of such a gluttony.

[03:99]-[04:47]
[-48 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Another, long scene.

Rei makes fun about Bunny’s begging and speaks about her cooking skills in a scornful manner. Bunny is now out for revenge and prepares a sandwhich which is really hot. She hands it out to Rei who soon runs around with a burning throat what makes Bunny happy. Rei is mad about this situation and leaps at Bunny which ends in a big brawl. Luna and Artemis are observing the scenery and are yawning.

[08:51]-[08:54]
[-3 Sek.]
Cutscenes
The scene in which the Kardian catches Bunny’s friends has been cut. A view on the bewitched tree is missing as well as an intercut to the girls.

[09:09]-[09:15]
Change of scenes
Aus unbekanntem Grund wurde über Bunnys Verwandlung zu Sailor Moon in der amerikanischen Fassung ein starker Rotfilter gelegt, so dass das Bild einen sehr starken Rotstich hat.
Because of known reasons Bunny’s transformation to Sailor Moon was underlaid with a red filter.

German version	American version

[09:16]
[+33 Sek.]
Additional scene
To cover up the missing time, the American version shows the complete transformation scene.

[12:40]-[12:43]
[-3 Sek.]
Cutscenes
Queen Serenity’s appearance is longer. The cut appears because one can see Bunny’s bottom and breasts. It is like a miracle this scene was not cut more heavily.

[12:40]
[+6 Sek.]
Additional scene
Two freeze frames of Bunny’s face and queen Serenity were added. Very obvious: The water-effect is missing.

[14:47]
[+6 Sek.]
Additional scene
The American version offers an added scene of Ail and Anne how they order the Kardian to attack Sailor Moon. At the beginning the moon can be seen.