Sailor Moon manga and anime have been popular since the early '90s. The original English dub was licensed by DiC in 1995, and they produced the first two seasons, which are also the longest seasons. If DiC lost out to its competitor bidder, Toon Makers, for Sailor Moon rights, American audiences would have a completely different experience with Sailor Moon; they kept more to the original Japanese material than Toon Makers planned to.
Even though DiC kept closer to the source material for the English release than Toon Makers would have, they still made copious changes. The production company felt that they had to make certain censorship concessions and moralizing additions to make it more "successful" for a Western audience. Not all the changes were bad, some changes were neutral — even amusing.
10 DiC Anglicized Character Names
Sailor Moon's Original Name Changed From Usagi to Serena
DiC chose to anglicize the names of the main characters, and many of the evil entities, and many argue that the name changes were ultimately unnecessary. Usagi's name means "rabbit" in Japanese, which is a reference to the East Asian Rabbit of the Moon, but DiC changed her name to Serena. The name change does at least have some thoughtful significance, because it's quite similar to Serenity, which was Usagi's name in her former life.
All the Sailor Guardians have anglicized names, though most of them are almost identical, but for some spelling changes: Minako Aino became Mina, Ami Mizuno became Amy Anderson, Rei Hino became Raye Hino. Mamoru Chiba became Darien, which has a similar sibilance to his previous life's name, Endymion. The first English dub kept the major antagonist's name, Queen Beryl, but they changed her hideout from the Dark Kingdom to the Negaverse, which sounds a bit less like an evil fairy tale domain and more like a superhero villain's lair.
9 Queen Beryl's General Also Had Mysterious Name Change
Kunzite Was Changed to Malachite
Kunzite is Queen Beryl's most powerful Dark Kingdom general, and previously he was Prince Endymion's Knight of Purity and Affection. His name was also changed for the original DiC dub, from Kunzite to Malachite. It's hard to guess why they made the mysterious dub change because both names share the same gemstone theme.
Each of the four Dark Kingdom generals and Queen Beryl are named after minerals; the other three generals' names have minor spelling changes. Kunzite is a mineral, a semi-precious gemstone, and so is Malachite. Both are beautiful-sounding names. Kunzite is a stone with a beautiful characteristic lilac color and a crystalline appearance. Malachite is an opaque, striated green stone, similar to the stalactites that make up the Dark Kingdom.
8 Didactic End Credits Segments
American Execs Shoehorned Themes and Messages
American studios are notorious for shoe-horning moralistic lessons in children's media. Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli notoriously had to fight for his stories' ambiguity with American execs who didn't like or understand nuance. Sailor Moon suffered a similar plight. There are plenty of positive themes in the original Sailor Moon manga and Japanese anime, like protecting the innocent.
American execs wanted Sailor Moon's messaging to be even more direct and felt the (unnecessary) need to hand-hold the audience. As a compromise, they tacked on didactic ending segments in the English dub called "Sailor Says." Some of the "lessons" were so shoe-horned into the episodes that they are comically disjointed with the rest of the episode.
7 Sailor Neptune's & Sailor Uranus' Censored Relationship
LGBTQ+ Relationships Were Censored in American Media in the 90s
It's unfathomable why any studio would conclude that turning an LGBTQ+ relationship into an incest relationship is appropriate. Queer relationships, especially in children's media, were a target for censorship in the United States, especially in the '90s. Though there's a long way yet to go towards fighting against censorship, things are only just starting to get better in media (with works like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and the unedited release of Sailor Moon with its unaltered relationships).
Sailor Uranus' romantic relationship with Sailor Neptune is baked into their character dynamic. The American studio did a hack-job censoring the relationship, trying to pawn it off as a cousin relationship. It only just made the loving couple look like kissing cousins, which is awful.
6 Sailor Moon English Dub Had Cut Episodes
DiC Cut Most Sailor Moon Episodes But Kept Fillers
The original English dub cut a lot of scenes and obscured details because they were deemed too subversive. Some episodes were cut because violent scenes were too integral to the plot to be softened or trimmed. The studio also cut a few entire episodes for no ostensible reason. The only possible guess could be that they didn't advance the plot.
Seasons One and Two of Sailor Moon are the longest in the series because there are so many filler episodes. DiC didn't cut all the filler episodes, though; they actually kept most of them. The most plausible guess fans have is that they wanted to introduce the rest of the Sailor Guardians faster.
5 Sailor Moon English Dub Used Different Voice Actors
The English Speaking Cast Still Do Anime Conventions
The '90s Sailor Moon voice actors are so well-loved and recognizable that they still tour different anime conventions and do fan interviews. Interestingly, there were two voice actors who voiced Serena/Usagi, leapfrogging through the episodes: Terri Hawkes and Tracey Moore. Darien Shields/Mamoru's voice actor, Rino Romano, is particularly well-loved, and gives many fun and informative interviews with fans.
The second English dub, from Viz Media, uses different voice actors. They had to rerecord with an entirely different cast because of lapsed licensing issues. It's bittersweet because the DiC dub is difficult to find in its entirety for fans who grew up with the original dub cast, but it also gave a fresh new cast a chance to bring the well-loved characters to life.
4 Sailor Moon English Dub Had More Simplified Episode Titles
Japanese Titles Were Long and Descriptive
The original Sailor Moon titles are quite long and descriptive. The first episode title translation is "The Crybaby: Usagi's Beautiful Transformation." The first dub simplified the title to "A Moon Star Is Born." The key differences are that the DiC dub title is more snappy and less descriptive.
It gives only a vague idea of what the episode is about, which is Usagi/Serena's magical girl awakening as Sailor Moon. It also references other pieces of western pop culture, like the movie A Star Is Born. Future English dubs, like the Viz version, used more direct translations of the episode titles, and kept closer to the original Japanese script.
3 DiC Had a Different Theme Song
Fighting Evil by Moonlight, Winning Love by Daylight.
Most '90s Sailor Moon fans still have the theme song opening fresh in their minds: "Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight." The first dub song is so sweet and catchy. This theme song and opening sequence was used only in the first English dub, and future dubs kept the original Japanese opening. The first English dub opening revealed far more about the plot and characters.
It's debatable whether the first dub opening sequence and theme song gave too much away, like romantic scenes between Serenity and Endymion. It's so obvious exactly who the protagonists' reincarnated identities are from the first episode, though. Usagi/Serena, Sailor Moon, and Princess Serenity all look exactly the same, from facial features to hairstyle. Likewise, Mamoru, Tuxedo Mask, and Prince Endymion are obviously the same person.
2 Zoisite's Swapped Gender (Surprise: It's More Censorship)
Another Sailor Moon Queer Relationship Censored
In the manga, Zoisite and Kunzite/Malachite do not have a relationship. Their couple status is an invention of the '90s original anime only, but it's a very welcome change, because they have a very loving villain romance that makes the characters come alive even more. Zoisite and Malachite are two men who served Prince Endymion, then switched sides to work for Queen Beryl.
Unfortunately, American studios in the '90s would not tolerate having a queer romantic relationship on television. Their "solution" was a gross act of censorship. Zoisite has traditionally feminine features and interests, so they just changed Zoisite to a woman, thus fully censoring the first queer relationship in the series. It was a bad call and, thankfully, it was rectified in later dubs.
1 Sailor Moon English Dub Censored Main Character Deaths
American Studios Worried Children Couldn't Handle Heroes Dying
The Sailor Moon Season 1 finale is quite heartbreaking. Just before Sailor Moon finally faces Queen Beryl and the Negaforce, she and her fellow Sailor Scouts fight the Doom and Gloom Girls. The Doom and Gloom Girls are the most powerful youma in the Negaverse, and they pick off each of the four Inner Sailor Scouts, one by one.
In the original English dub, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus' deaths are censored. They trimmed the scenes and made it seem like the Doom and Gloom Girls abducted the Scouts rather than actually killing them. This isn't the first time a character dies in the season, but the studio worried that children couldn't handle seeing the heroes die, even though Sailor Moon eventually revives them, and the Sailor Scouts are reborn again with their memories temporarily sealed.
