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 3: Ski Bunny Blues

Bunny figured out that there's a skiing contest in the mountains but it looks like they can't book a room until Yuuichiro helps them out. Unfortunately the contest is nothing but an ambush to get the silver crystal, staged by the dark side. Bunny wants Rei and Yuuichiro to come closer to each other. When the Youma Blizzard traps them, they can finally have their talk. Even though it's Yuuichiro who finds them but the Youma interrupts, it's Endymion, who doesn't want Kunzite to succeed because he's envious, who could avoid that they were going to be defeated. It really seems like there's nothing going on between Rei and Yuuichiro at the moment. Rei is embarrassed that she didn't talk to Bunny, that she pretended she didn't know her.

Running time German episode: 19:00
Running time US episode: 18:13

That means: minus the non-existent scenes in the Original Version, the US Version lacks 47 seconds.

[00:00]-[00:04]
Modified scene
The episode starts with an extension. In the German Version, the camera tracks slowly to the right so that the girl at the shrine appears. The US Version contains a freeze frame instead.

German Version	US Version

[00:11]-[00:13]
[-2 sec]
Shortened scene
Missing shot of Bunny. She agrees by nodding.

[00:22]-[00:37]
[-15 sec]
Shortened scene
Rei starts romancing and falls into a daydream about herself as major skier who wins the competition with no sweat. When she tells herself how romantic all that was, Bunny gets her back to reality by being agreeing way to noisy.

[00:50]-[01:03]
[-13 sec]
Shortened scene
The conversation is much shorter.

After Bunny wondered that he of all people suggests to deceive Luna and Artemis, Ami adds she was pretty sure the two of them were going to believe that. Bunny is enthusiastic but Rei says it was almost impossible to get a hotel room, which changes Bunny's mood rapidly.

[01:40]-[01:42]
[-2 sec]
Shortened scene
Due to the added CG transition, the original transition got lost. In the original one, the picture on the flyer in Rei's hands dulled simultaneously with the flyer in Kunzite's hands.

[01:42]-[02:28]
Modified scene
The meaning of the scene with Kunzite and Endymion has been changed.

In the German Version, Endymion wants them to pool forces to reach their common goal: victory over Sailor Moon. Kunzite subtly tries to figure out whether the brain washing has worked or not. So he confronts Endymion with his transplanted memories of battles with Sailor Moon. Then he says he didn't need his advice, no matter what, and cuts him off.

In the US Version, it's all about their rivalry. Endymion says Sailor Moon shouldn't be underestimated, even though she was a deadbeat. He also bad-mouths about Zoisite. Kunzite spits at him he just tollerated him because of the Queen's orders and says he was going to get the silver crystal first.

[03:15]-[03:20]
[-5 sec]
Shortened scene
The last shot of Luna and Artemis with the heating blanket while the camera's zomming out is missing.

[03:39]-[03:46]
[-7 sec]
Shortened scene
Rei stutters sth. after Yuuichiro said he was going to become a better person. Bunny whispers to her to be careful because most of the rich people were nuts.

[05:31]-[05:34]
[-3 sec]
Shortened scene
Missing shot from Bunny's POV (she looks down to the ground) while she's going up the ski lift.

[13:19]-[13:23]
Modified scene
Betrayed by secret identities I

When Youma Blizzard accuses Rei of being Sailor Moon, Bunny just says it was a misunderstanding in the German Version. In the US Version, she says "I'm Sailor Moon." while Yuuichiro is standing next to her.

[17:25]-[17:30]
Modified scene
Betrayed by secret identities II

And another modified dialog. When Sailor Mars, still being transformed, wakes up Yuuichiro, she says "Chad, Chad? Can you hear me? It's Raye." to him.

[18:22]-[18:58]
Modified scene
The final gag is completely different as well.

In the German Version, Makoto says she wasn't keen on looking for them. Minako replies with a wrong expression and Ami corrects her. Rei takes the opportunity and blames Bunny. When she replies they were friends, Rei denies that as well and explains she'd never be HER friend which makes Bunny cry.

In the US Version, Makoto is upset but Minako keeps jerking her chain by telling her she'd found out the ski instructor was married. Ami says Minako got that with displeasure, too. Rei says they should have sth. to eat before they went night skiing. But Bunny doesn't want to go skiing anymore. Rei replies harshly they were going to go on the hill for morons, just because of her.

Besides the fact that they were talking about food one more time, the imaginary ski constructor Minako and Makoto had the hots for is being mentioned here. He was totally made up and only exists in the English dub.

[18:58]-[19:00]
Modified scene
At the end, the German Version fades to black. The US Version contains a pretty ugly CG effect with kind of a crescent moon star curtain in the background.

German Version	US Version