Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon is a beloved franchise that has stood the test of time. For many Western anime and manga fans, it was their first foray into the world of Japanese animation… even if they didn’t know it. The 1990s Sailor Moon dub by international production company DiC is infamous for its butchering of the source material.
Dialogue was completely rewritten, several scenes (and even full episodes!) were cut, the soundtrack was replaced with generic music, and any Japanese cultural references were wiped clean. Luckily, DiC halted production after Sailor Moon R. But Cloverway’s Sailor Moon S dub wasn’t much better. Although Cloverway tried to stick closer to the source material, they still glossed over or even outright axed some of the original gags in the Japanese version.
10 “Odango” Was Changed To “Meatball”
In the DiC dub, Darien Shields teases Serena about her distinctive hairstyle by calling her “meatball head.” To a Western audience, this is amusing, albeit a bit strange. Of all things to compare the iconic twin buns to, why meatballs? In the original Japanese language, Mamoru Chiba refers to Usagi’s hairstyle as “odango.” “Odango” is a common Japanese sweet made of mochi balls skewered on a stick. Although meatballs are also food, “meatball” carries a different connotation than a traditional Japanese sweet.
9 Rei’s Grandfather Is A Goofy Pervert
Sailor Moon is an old anime and along with it come some outdated tropes. The perverted old man trope hasn’t completely fallen into obscurity, but it was certainly more popular back in the day. DiC decided to cut any references to Rei’s grandfather’s perversion, potentially to avoid any pushback from parents. In the original Japanese version, he’s rather fond of chasing high school girls and being generally goofy. By Sailor Moon R, he’d become such a nuisance to the local high school girls that they stopped visiting his shrine altogether.
8 Usagi Gets Humorously Drunk In Two Episodes
In the original versions of “Usagi’s Dance, in Time to a Waltz” and “Romance Under the Moon! Usagi’s First Kiss,” Usagi mistakenly drinks alcohol when she meant to drink punch or juice. The scenes that follow depict a clearly intoxicated underage girl who is completely unaware that she’s under the influence.
Cloverway wanted to avoid any potential controversy attached to these scenes, so their English dub of Sailor Moon S avoided mentioning alcohol entirely. For “Usagi’s Dance,” Serena becomes nauseous from consuming too many sugary drinks. And in “Romance Under the Moon!,” Cloverway edits Serena’s inebriated first kiss into a mere fantasy.
7 Usagi Hilariously Orders Cream Soda At An Alcohol Bar
“Protect the Melody of Love! Usagi is a Cupid” is an episode that was entirely cut from DiC’s 1990s dub. It didn’t receive a dub until Viz acquired the series in 2014. In this episode, Usagi is helping jazz musician Yusuke Amade figure out how to confess to the woman he loves. Part of the episode includes Usagi using the Disguise Pen to change her appearance to an adult so she can sneak into a bar, where a shocked bartender takes her order for a non-alcoholic cream soda.
6 Makoto Says She Should Play Snow White Because She Has The Biggest Chest
In Episode 56 of the original Japanese series, Mamoru’s university is putting on a play for Snow White, which prompts the Sailor Senshi to bicker over who gets to play the leading lady. Each Senshi has her own reason as to why she should be given the role, but Makoto’s is perhaps the most amusing. Makoto suggests that the girl with biggest chest should be the one to be Snow White, putting herself at the top of the list. The DiC dub replaces this line by having Makoto’s English counterpart, Lita, say she’s got the biggest “talent.” While still implied, “talent” certainly isn’t as direct as the source material.
5 Umino Flips Haruna’s Skirt
The second episode of the original series is another one that was completely cut until Viz dubbed it in 2014, presumably because Gurio Umino’s (or Melvin, in the previous dubs) antics were too rambunctious for young Western audiences. Umino goes to a fortune teller for help with winning Usagi’s heart but is unknowingly targeted by the Youma running the fortune-telling tent.
As a result, Umino acts out of character for the majority of this episode, including bullying his homeroom teacher, Haruna. One such moment includes him brazenly flipping her skirt, revealing her underwear. This is another old anime comedy trope that hasn’t aged well.
4 Umino Uses A Video Game To Show He’ll Marry Usagi
This gag is from Episode two, which was cut from the DiC dub and didn’t receive a dub until Viz picked up the series. It’s the kind of joke that cements Umino into his nerdy archetype (just in case the bottlecap glasses weren’t enough).
Instead of speaking with a human fortune teller to check his future with Usagi, he whips out a handheld fortune teller video game that has already predicted he and Usagi will be a happy couple.
3 Umino Claims He Was Bitten By An Alligator
This scene is from Episode 5, which was also cut from DiC’s dub and remained Japanese-only until Viz released a dubbed episode in 2014. The central issue to this episode is figuring out how to get Usagi’s cat-phobic little brother to accept Luna. While she’s discussing her brother’s cat fear with her classmates, Umino comments that her brother’s lucky he was only bitten by a cat, because Umino himself was bitten by an alligator. Usagi and Naru eventually figure out that Umino was talking about an alligator-skin purse, not an actual alligator.
2 Neo-Queen Serenity Doesn’t Use Kanji
In the Japanese writing system, there are three types of scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. While hiragana and katakana are merely phonetic, kanji are logographs that represent entire words or concepts. To read Japanese effectively, it’s best to use kanji in your script, and Japanese children are expected to know about 1000 of them by age 13.
It’s quite humorous, then, that Neo-Queen Serenity didn’t use any kanji in her hand-written note in Episode 104. This joke only makes sense in Japanese, although both the Cloverway and Viz dubs made poor attempts at transliterating the humor.
1 Their Japanese Names Are Puns
This is another joke that requires a bit of explanation. The surnames of the main cast are mostly retained in the DiC dub, with only Amy’s last name being changed from “Mizuno” to “Anderson.” The rest stay as “Tsukino” (for Serena), “Hino” (for Raye), “Kino” (for Lita), and “Aino” (for Mina). All their names end with “no,” which sound like the Japanese language particle indicating possession. The first bits of their surnames are the Japanese words for “moon” (“tsuki”), “fire” (“hi”), “wood” (“ki”), and “love” (“ai”). Accordingly, their names are references to their respective planetary lore. “Tsukino Usagi,” for example, can be loosely translated as “rabbit of the moon.” Unfortunately, without the Japanese language context, the meaning of the puns are lost.