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 22: The Power of Friendship

Mamoru sees strange visions telling him that the rainbow crystals will solve the mysteries of his past. At the same time, Beryl and Zoisite have found the next crystal bearer: a foreign priest. Bunny is concerned about Naru, who is still depressed because of Nephrite's death, and wants to cheer her up with Umino. At the same time, the other Sailor Warriors discuss whether it was the right thing to give Bunny the Moon Scepter and if she has leadership talent. When Naru wants to seek advice from the priest on the Christian cemetery, Zoisite suddenly appears. Bunny enters the scene as well but cannot prevent Zoisite from transforming the priest into the Youma Rocco, who then has no problem defeating her. Luckily for her, Umino and the suddenly appearing Tuxedo Mask can prevent any harm. When Sailor Jupiter joins the battle, Rocco can be defeated and the priest returns. Tuxedo Mask grabs the rainbow crystal and when he looks at it he suddenly realizes that he, Mamoru, is Tuxedo Mask. Naru is feeling better too while Bunny listens to the music of a music box that Tuxedo Mask lost.

Running time of the German episode: 18:25
Running time of the US episode: 17:48

Disregading newly added scenes, 37 seconds are missing.

[00:00]-[00:37]
Alteration
At the very beginning the story around Mamoru's dreams is different.

In the original and the German Version he is being told that he needed to find the rainbow crystaly in order to solve the mystery of his past. In the US Version, he hears that he needed the crystals in order to protect the princess, which is also a spoiler.

[02:24]-[02:32]
[-8 sec.]
Cut
Neprhite's dissolving and the following shot of Naru being sad are missing.

[02:41]-[02:44]
Alteration
Usually, alterations to the school sign are not being mentioned anymoer, but here the footage was directly altered and not replaced, even more it was done EXTREMELY bad. Just have a look at the pictures. Obviously they tried to plaster some stock footage into the original scene.

German Version	US Version

[03:29]-[03:37]
[-8 sec.]
Cut
Bunny hits Umino because he has not understood what is wrong with Naru. She then tells him and he is rather surprised. ( A rather badly edited cut because a later scene shows him on the ground and we do not know how he got there.)

[05:29]-[05:38]
Alteration
A heavy dialog change.

In the German Version, Makoto says that ,as long as she paid attention, the Kingdom of Darkness would never get all the shards. Rei then thinks that she wanted to say that too. In the US Version, however, Makoto shows off how easy it was to defeat the robot and rei angrily thinks that this was only possible because of Tuxedo Mask.

The problem: Tuxedo Mask was not even in the episode! He had nothing to do with the fight.

[05:48]-[06:06]
Alteration
The flashback, in which Bunny breaks her piggy bank with the Moon Scepter, was “enhanced” with a horrible GCI border. In the US Version it is also supposed not to be a flashback but her fantasy.

German Version	US Version

[06:37]-[06:40]
[-3 sec.]
Cut
Rei pinches Ami in order to force her to agree.

[08:07]-[08:19]
[-12 sec.]
Cut
Bunny loses it with Umino when he has anover stupid idea and chokes him. When Umino says that Naru was gone Bunny calms down again.

[10:42]-[10:51]
Alteration
Another unnecessary change. In the original, Naru recognizes the black crystal as belonging to Nephrite and wants to take it from Zoisite. In the US Version she wants it because she says it had killed Nephrite (which is rather stupid as it has never been a murder tool.).

[11:47]-[11:49]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
A shot of Zoisite seeing Sailor Moon standing on a grave stone is missing.

[11:51]-[11:53]
[-2 sec.]
The beginning of a panning shot along Sailor Moon is missing.

[16:36]-[16:44]
Alteration
And yet another strange dialog alteration.

In the German Version, Luna wants that Sailor Moon gets the crystal back from Tuxedo Mask, but as always she is in Seventh Heaven when she thinks about him. In the US Version, Luna asks Sailor Moon who had taken the crystal. She says yes and then adds that he had taken her the music box and that it would remind her of something. Luna is annoyed.

This is rather illogical. On the one hand, Luna was present when Tuxedo Mask took the crystal. On the other hand, Sailor Moon does not know yet what the music box is and cannot remember her previous life yet. Additionally, Luna's reaction makes no sense now.

[17:08]-[17:10]
[-2 sec.]
Cut
A scene transition is missing.