There are a couple of strikes against DIC in my book, unfortunately. One
of them was that they took so many liberties with stuff like storyline,
names, and translations - the "seasonal" story arcs seem to be pretty much
intact, but I know from sources with access to the original Japanese anime
that DIC has taken out whole episodes which were deemed "unsuitable" for
American audiences, and played havoc with several characters.
	If all they'd changed were the names, I might be able to live with
it ... but DIC is pretty firmly on my 'down' list after what they did to
Sailor Moon. Did you know that Zoicite and Kunzite (Malachite in
translation) were lovers in the original Japanese - and that Zoicite was
*MALE* originally? Just an effeminate man ... I shudder to think what DIC
will do when they get to Haruka and Michiru (Sailors Uranus and Neptune; I
think their English names have been noted as Alex and Michelle).
	I'm not sure whether to be upset or cheered by the fact that DIC
still isn't renewing Sailor Moon in the USA ... of course, this could be
linked to the fact that some of the coming storyline will also be
"unacceptable" to Americans at large - unless they edit it beyond all
recognition. *sigh*

				Tim Miller
					trmiller@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us

Good points Tim.  Allow me to explain what happened....


When the rights to SM were sold to DiC they were pretty much told what they
could and couldn't do.  For example: they couldn't use the original
Japanese lyrics; they had to adapt everything to English, etc. Dragonball
had this same problem. Anyway...

As for rewriting the scripts, it was the CANADIAN CENSORS who deemed what
was appropriate and what wasn't. Since the Production was done in Canada,
DiC really had little say in it. The US and Canada aren't the only ones who
changed Kunzite (Zoicite) to female, btw.  He is a 'she' in some of the
European dubs of the show as well.  As for Haruka & Michiru, the idea was
to follow suit with some of the European shows once more and say that the
two were sisters or just really good best friends ((no news on this,
however, since it's still up in the air as to whether DiC is going to get
the S, SS and Stars series)).


As for removing episodes, let me explain how the industry works.

In animation television, shows are categorized according to certain
factors. Depending upon a show's classification, that determines how it is
blocked off (sequenced). There are blocks of 12 episodes, 24 episodes, 36
episodes, and 65 episodes. There is no in-between. Since SM's original
series was 46 episodes, it was considered an "Episodic" category of show,
and was blocked off for 65 episodes minimum (thus the reason why SMR t.v.
series was thrown into the original mix & released unfinished, and why
Robotech was "hacked up" so badly by Streamline). If a show can't do 65
episodes, then it is blocked off at a lower rating, and the producers must
pay for more than 1 season's worth of viewings (which is expensive at
$120,000 or so an episode).  Since DiC wanted to cram as much SMR as they
could (to guarantee that they would get the S, SS & Stars series), they had
to make some cuts to the original series.  In truth, I've seen every
episode of Sailor Moon, and the episodes that they cut out entirely were
really insignificant.

The only cut that bugged me was the cut of the final two episodes - however
that was entirely out of DiC hands. The Canadian Censors decided that
showing the Sailor Scouts die was inappropriate, since they were aiming the
show at 7 year olds and up. Therefore, the 2 episode ending that DiC had
already done was hacked up to only one episode (much to everyone's
chagrin).  However, they did the best they could with what they were
allowed to show.

You're correct, Tim, when you say that most of Sailor Moon S and up would
be considered outrageously unacceptable by most of the U.S. population.
When I lived on the East and Southern coasts of this country, the idea of
gay love was an abomination to me - abhorred and evil.  Now, however,
(years later) I live in California - a more liberal and open state, and for
me, talking about gay love and having gay friends doesn't cause any sort of
anxiety for me in the least.  Since I began reading CLAMP, Rumiko
Takahashi, Naoko Takeguchi, and Akira Toriyama, gender issues don't bother
me anymore.

However, most of the country still doesn't see things the same was as us
'weird' Californians do (or those 'strange' Euopeans, or those 'perverted'
Japanese, or....I hope you're catching the sarcasm btw).


In any case, I'd say, if you're really interested in Sailor Moon, don't
slam one particular release of it. In truth, this show has generated more
love for the animation industry that any show in a long time in the N.
American continent (followed closely by Dragonball Z now). It's created new
anime fans, who are just now discovering the original language releases and
merchandise. If this keeps up, we'll have an entire j-pop generation of our
own right here in the good ol' U.S.A. (keeping fingers crossed).

I, for one, won't knock anything anime that comes our way - in fact, I'll
support it 100%, because I love anime so much that even a slaughtered
version of it is better than nothing at all.

Hope that helps.

- Rena/Maigrey