Dic Sailor Moon Changes
 |
There were a lot of changes in the DIC dub, one of the reasons it's called an
adapation and not a translation. Nudity was basically avoided entirely. The
senshi are nude when they transform, but DIC edited the breast and body lines
out of the transformations in the dub. Panty shots of the senshi were also
cut out. The level of the water in Serena's baths were raised. "Perversion"
was also avoided. Rei's grandfather in the original anime is a pervert, which
is still somewhat obvious in the dub, but he was toned down a lot in DiC SM.
In Sailormoon R, Makoto says she should play the role of Snow White because
she has the biggest breasts; DiC modified her statement to say that she had
the most "talent". Acts of violence were cut: Sailormars and Sailormercury
both slap Sailormoon in the original anime (to get her to snap out of her
hysteria). Prince Endymion uses heavy physical force against Sailormoon when
he is under Queen Beryl's control and even chokes her, but this was
considerably edited in the dub. Chibi-usa in Sailormoon R pulls a gun out on
Usagi, but in the dub, they just play the scene where she falls out of the
scene backwards so she somehow summersaults back up into the air and disappears
(this was EXTREMELY obvious...) Death was totally disregarded. In the
original Japanese anime, the Sailor Senshi and Mamoru all die during the battle
with Queen Beryl over the course of two episodes; in the dub, however, all
death scenes were cut out and the two episodes were compiled into one, "Day
of Destiny". The scouts did not "die" but rather were "kidnapped" by the
Negaverse.
Several episodes were left out for a variety of reasons. In one episode, Usagi
transforms herself into an adult in order to sneak into a bar to follow after
a piano player. In another episode, Umino and Usagi's male classmates become
possessed by a youma disgusing herself as a fortuneteller; they become rude
and obnoxious, vandalizing property and flipping up Haruna-sensei's skirt to
reveal her panties. Other episodes that did not directly affect the story
were also left out- Minako's past as Sailor V, the senshi's vacation in R.
Characters were changed in personality. Many people feel that Mina is an
airhead with no personality, partially due to the fact that DiC left out the
important Sailor V episode which would have developed her character. Raye
becomes a lot meaner in the dub and does some rather suspicious acts; in the
original, for instance, Sailormoon gives Mars her Moon Stick, which is
supposed to show the other senshi that Moon trusts Mars, but in the dub, Mars
says she "found" the Crescent Moon Wand that Serena "accidentally" left
behind. Rini is a pretty big brat in the dub too. I personally found most
of the characters to be more annoying over all. Zoicite also had a sex
change- he is supposed to be male, but since he and Kunzite are male lovers,
he become a rather flat woman.
Dialogue and the entire story was changed, but I really don't know why.
Attack names and powers were changed; again, I don't know why, since in the
original Japanese anime, all the transformation phrases and attack names are
in English to begin with.
Originally, to make Sailor Moon more "safe" or "moral", I guess, a "Sailor
Says" was tacked on at the end of every episode saying some silly, cliche
lesson of the day, like "Eat healthy" or "Don't do crazy diets" or "Be nice
to everyone". This was NOT in the original anime at all.
Anyway, for a more complete listing of changes in the dub, please read the
Sailor Moon FAQ
by Ken Arromdee. Section 3 specifically deals with the changes, cuts, and
censorship stuff in the dub, but the other parts talk about other aspects
of the dub as well.
