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 episode series about a group of girls, who can perform magic and fight 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 quite a surprise. In comparison to Saber Rider for instance, the German Version is 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 modifications (please see below), the German Version is equal to the uncensored original Japanese Version.

The US North American Version however is a different matter.

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 - "Sailor Stars" - 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 legendary, but for all thw wrong reasons. It's a perfect example for heavy censorship in animes these days. After the horrors of the first season, everyone expected the worst... and it happened. DiC also created an absurd broadcast schedule. They first released 2/3 of the season (with the first 13 episodes for some reason put at the end of the broadcast) and then waited for almost three years before they bothered to do the remaining episodes (that's because they'd had the insane idea to just do 65 episodes for sydication, regardless if the story is done or not).

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 erased as well. Further differences are renamed food (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 too revealing. This also and particularly concerns the transformations (except Sailor Moon's) where body lines 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. In the second season, episode 67 was being removed. (Note: The German Version 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", 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 Princess Halation	Moon Sceptre Elimination	Macht des Mondes, verwandle ihn/sie zurück
Shine Aqua Illusion	Mercury Ice Storm Splash	Wasserstrahl, flieg
Burning Mandala	Mars Celestial Fire Surround	Feuerringe, fliegt
Sparkling Wide Pressure	Jupiter Thundercrash Zap	Donnerschlag, flieg
Venus Love Me Chain	Venus Love Chain Encircle	Feuerhertzenkette, flieg

• Change of names affects all characters. Here's a list of characters with more than one appearance in season 2. 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
Chibiusa	Rini
Der Erleuchtete	Wiseman
Prinz Diamond(Demand)	Prince Diamond
Saphir	Sapphire
Esmeraude	Emerald
Rubeus	Rubeus
Kermesite(Kōan)	Catzi
Bertherite(Berthier)	Bertie
Kavalerite(Calaveras)	Avery
Petzite(Petz)	Prizma
Ail(Eiru)	Ali
Anne(An)	En
Naru Osaka	Molly Baker
Motoki Furuhata	Andrew
Umino Gurio	Melvin
Shingo Tsukino	Sammy Tsukino
Ikuko Tsukino	Mom
Kenji Tsukino	Dad
Haruna Sakurada	Patricia Haruna
Yuuichirou Kumada	Chad
Königin Serenity	Queen Serena
König Endymion	King of Earth

It's also worth being mentioned that the German Version 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 dialog with subtitled Japanese episodes prove how close to the Original the German dialog is.

Only the comparison of the first episode of the second season (episode 47) 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 one of them, sometimes both at the same time. The time index is based on the German Version.

Episode 80: Lonely Amy

Sapphire is starting to get impatient with Esmeraude and wants to finally see results from her instead of failures. Esmeraude thus contaminates a cram school, in order to use the harvested dark energy to open the gate to the future. It's the cram school that Ami attends - she was not present that evening - and the next day the altered students, Umino one of them, trash-talk Ami. Their constant accusiations that her good grades are all due to cheating is wearing down Ami's self-confidence and when she arrives at the cram school, she despite transformation is easy prey for the Droid Doubt, who locks her into an illusion where everyone hates her. The other Senshi are unable to help, since Mercury thinks they are the enemy. Doubt then takes care of Sailor Moon to kill her. Mercury however manages to free herself and understand the accuisations are pointless. Strengthened, she weakens Doubt and the Droid is destroyed. Considering this failure, Esmeraude starts to become nervous, since she now only has only chance left.

Length German TV-Version: 19:00
Length US-TV Version: 17:52

The US TV Version lacks 1 Minute and 16 Seconds of footage.

Note

The dialogues in this episode at times are stupid and translated with much slang, but are not really wrong with one exception. However, one constant error in the episode is, that the cram school, which in the Original and the German Version is just that, in the US Version became the "Alberta Einstein School for the Gifted". This and Ami's regular school (where Bunny and Makoto also attend) are than confused with each other numerous times.

[00:00]-[00:33]
[-33 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Most of the first scene is missing and it is not hard to see why that was done.

The episode starts in Esmeraude's interdimensional space. Esmeraude is in the tub, taking a bath and admiring her beautiful legs. She knows Prince Diamond loves jasmine, therefore she takes a bath with jasmine flowers to make herself more attractive to him. Suddenly a hologram of Sapphire appears and scolds her for being so lazy. Esmeraude is scandalized that Sapphire has barged in while she's bathing.

[00:48]-[00:56]
[-8 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Esmeraude is again seen in the tub, this time in a full-view shot. Esmeraude boasts that she does have the best ideas while bathing and his (sapphire's) advice is not needed. Sapphire wants to know what she wants to tell him with this.

Both cuts produce a huge headscratcher in the next scene, since the american audience was wondering why in all names Esmeraude was wearing a bath robe, with her hair wrapped in a towel.

[01:04]
[+6 Sec.]
Additional Scene
Completely useless is this addition of the Tsukino house at night, since the scene after it takes place at the cram school. The reasons for this addition are unknown.

[11:30]-[12:02]
Altered Scene
When Doubt is trying to cause self-doubt in Sailor Moon, the dialogue got severely altered.

Here the German dialogue (translated):

Rei (illusion): "Sailor Moon, you are a failure."
Makoto (illusion) : "You are childish." (That was weakened, in the original it outright said she's flat-chested, thus why she's covering her breasts.)
Ami (illusion): "Cowardly and dumb."
Minako (illusion): "And a crybaby."
Sailor Moon: "Yes, I know! I'm a failure, childish, chowardly and dumb. So what?! I'm long used to others saying these things about me!"
Doubt: "Oh dear, I can almost feel sorry for her..."

Here the US Version:

Senshi (illusion): "What a joke you are Sailor Moon, a cockroach is smarter than you are. You're a complete loser."
Sailor Moon: "Oh alright give me a break, so I'm not Albert Einstein material and I do flake out sometimes. I admit it okay, see I really don't care, I'm used to being badmouthed."
Doubt: "This girl's actually proud to be a flake?"
Sailor Moon: "Yes I like being unique!"

The alterations are obvious. THe Senshi ar eno longer talking one after the other. Their criticism is far more hurtful. While the point of the Original is, that Bunny knows of her errors and doesn't try to deny them, she suddenly is proud of them in the US Version.

[12:07]-[12:14]
[-7 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
Doubt kicks Sailor Moon into her back, causing her smash into the ground face first. Afterwards she cries in pain.

This scene was also missing in the american episode preview (not added here).

[17:08]
[+2 Sec.]
Additional Scene
The original scene transition (Tuxedo Mask's cape) und the beginning of the scene following the cut below were frozen for a digital scene transition to hide the cut. This actually causes some additional run-time.

[17:08]-[17:36]
[-28 Sec.]
Shortened Scene
The scene changes with Tuxedo Mask's cape. Esmerause is again bathing and really surprised when Sapphire tells her that Doubt was defeated. Sapphire warns her to better put more energy into her job instead of her other activities. Esmeraude tells him she'll soon have a new plan, then hisses to get out, since she wants to continue her bath. Sapphire leaves and Esmeraude curses that she now clearly only has one chance left.