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The basics, for anybody new. The original Bishoujo Senshi Sailor
Moon ran in Japan from 1992 to 1997: five seasons (Sailor Moon, R, S,
SuperS and Sailor Stars), 200 episodes, made by Toei Animation and based on
Naoko Takeuchi's manga. In 1995 DIC brought an English version to American
TV, cut down to 65 episodes covering the first season and part of the
second. Cartoon Network started showing it on Toonami last summer, and after
fans spent months writing letters, the 17 second-season episodes that had
never been dubbed were finally finished and shown last November.
So now you can see the first two seasons in English. Here's how they stack up, round by round. |
| Round | What's different | Winner |
| Names | Usagi is Serena, Mamoru is Darien, Naru is Molly, and so on. Kunzite became "Malachite." The Japanese setting is still obviously Tokyo, though. | Original, but honestly I say "Serena" half the time out of habit. |
| Story | Some episodes skipped, scenes cut for violence, and Zoisite turned into a woman. Worst of all, the end of season one. In the original, the Senshi really die, one by one, and it's the saddest thing I've ever seen in a cartoon. The dub cuts and rewrites it until it doesn't feel nearly as final. | Original, by a mile. |
| Music | The dub opening uses the tune of "Moonlight Densetsu" with brand-new English words. A lot of the background music was replaced. | Original. The dub theme is catchy though, admit it. |
| Voices | Kotono Mitsuishi's Usagi can go from a wail to a whisper in one breath. Terri Hawkes' Serena is sillier, but she has real heart in the big scenes. | Tie. Really. |
| "Sailor Says" | The little lesson at the end of every dub episode. Cheesy. Adorable. My little sister still recites them at dinner. | Dub! (Nobody else gives it this round.) |
| Getting to see it at all | The dub is on regular TV. The original means finding subtitled tapes through a club or a friend. | Dub, and this round matters most. |
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My verdict The original is the better show. The story is whole, the music is better, and the end of the first season means what it's supposed to mean. If you can watch it subtitled, watch it subtitled. But I would never have found any of this without the dub. Neither would most of the people who write to me. The dub is the door. People who sneer at dub fans forget that they came in through the same door, most of them. So be nice in the newsgroups, okay? We're all Moonies here. My one real worry: whenever S finally gets an English version, I hope they leave Haruka and Michiru the way they are. That's all I'm going to say. |
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Where to go next ☆ The manga. Mixx has been putting it out in English, and it's a different, darker, faster story than the anime. Read both. ☆ An anime club. Most colleges and a lot of big-city libraries have one now. That's how I saw S, SuperS and Stars. ☆ Please don't buy bootlegs at conventions. Real fans passed tapes around for free. When official subtitled tapes come out, buy those. |