Hallo all,

I grew up watching the Dubbed anime on TV, and for years that was the only version of Sailor Moon that I knew. And then I watched the japanese subbed version. And I realized that I had been gypped! Watching the Subbed and Dubbed anime are like watching two different shows. I can understand that some things may need to be changed for translation purposes, but I am talking about entire conversations being re-written. Terribleness. And I can not understand why.

Anyway. Here I will be posting conversations in the original format and the dubbed format so you can see how much certain things were altered. Post yours too! It's too painful for me to watch all the Dub, so I want to know of all the things I have forgotten! ^^

Ok, so this first entry is taken from episode 34 of the first season. The cap version contains the original japanese text. Below it I will include the English transcription.



English Dub:
Serena: Hey, there’s a bee on your back!
Darien: Thank you, I hate bees. ‘Appreciate it, Meatball Head.
Serena: Stop calling me that! I get enough of that from your friend, Raye, I don’t need it from you too.
Darien: Ok, I won’t say it anymore. Hey, I gotta get going now. See you around, Serena!
Serena: What? No way. Darien was actually nice to me. What’s this? (gasp) Hey, this looks like blood? (gasp) It must be bad! He’s not himself.


Why is this all about bees??? And what is this odd tick at changing Mamoru’s rare kindness towards Usagi into complete obscure dialog? O.o

Well, as much as it annoys me to read subtitles... I suppose I'll be watching the entire show Subbed now...

YOU HAVE NOT??? Ahem. I have many more examples to entice you with indeed!

(have you seen the stars anime then?)

Also from episode 34.



ENGLISH DUB
Darien: Why are you following me?
Serena: Cool your jets, will ya?
Darien: Sorry, you just surprised me.
Serena: Well, you don’t need to go ballistic, Darien, I was just worried about you.
Darien: What for?
Serena: Cause you’re bleeding? And I doubt it happened in ka-ra-te class. Am I right?
Darien: Why do you care anyway?
Serena: (small gasp) Cause … you’re Raye’s friend.
Darien: Just leave me alone. It’s not serious.
Serena: Not serious? Hah! As if. You know … I got a C+ in first aid! I can tell! Ooh, I’m gonna find out what that guy is up to.


Thank you DiC for making Usagi sound stupider than she already seems. C+?

A few highlighted lines: Cool your jets, don’t go ballistic, and Serena’s fake japanese accent at saying karate. Wow. And why the constant reference to Darien being Raye’s friend? -_-

I saw Starlights, and it wasnt too bad. I had to watch almost everything twice though, once to read and focus on the subtitles and what was being said and then a second time to actually WATCH the show. I'm not so good with dividing my focus. Hence my hating subtitles.

Mars. Go watch the subbed version. NOW. It is hard to get used to reading subs, but you'll be so happy you did! It really opens up a whole new world.

What P/Os me about DiC is that they changed things JUST BECAUSE THEY COULD. Like with the whole "bee" thing. Instead of trying to stick to the original script, they chose to uselessly add new context for the hell of it. That gets them into trouble later on.

Yes! When they are trapped in the elevator, they have to change the dialog again! Oh, that annoyed me so much. It was another cute scene between the two of them with NEW dialog once again.

And that's my biggest issue -- they change things that did not need to be changed. I can get the gender changes because whatever, but normal convos? Why?

Actually, I think it was more trying to match the way their months were moving. While they are just lips flapping, the anime keep them in a rhythm that matches what they say. Because English is a different language, they had to be careful with what words they used otherwise it would look like bad editing on their part.

Also they wanted Usagi look like a dumb blond and a basic teenager, hence all the out of date phases they use. I think it was Serena how said something was the 'bomb' back in SuperS.

"THOSE KIMONOS ARE THE BOMB" They look so nice on you and your COUSIN.

Still, there are other ways to match up the mouths and dialogue. PLENTY of other animes have done it. By the way, Becca, here's a great site on the differences between the dub and sub, if you haven't read it already.

http://www.smuncensored.com/series.php

Hehe. Yep yep, I love that site. The person who writes up those reviews is really quite passionate. XD

By the time they got to S, they ahd no excuse. But when Sailor Moon started out in America, they had just gotten started to dub correctly in general. They probably thought that if DBZ's dubbing wasn't that great (Any one remember "OVER 9000AHHHHHHHHH!"?), they could get anyway with it. Sadly, Sailor Moon was never that lucky considering DBZ got a better dubbing company.

Morpheus makes a point. Now not to defend the dub and all, because there are things that I just WTF about to this day, but some of the dialogue they changed so it would appeal more to a younger age American girl audience of 1995. It may sound corny now, but to me as a younger kid at that time period, i didn't even notice.

These two scenes actually don't bother me that much between the dub and Sub. You get the gist of what is going on and what was intended originally. Even if they added in some lame-o phrases. (am I the only fan of the "I got a C+ in first aid ya know!" line? Cause that really catered towards Usagi's AND Serena's personality. I bet you she probably did have a C+ in first aid. XD)

There are things that don't make sense. Like making Raye a bitch and completely changing scenes that make Serena sound very self-centered and extremely stupid. I mean JEEZ she is already dumb enough as it is in the sub...

But thinking back on it. None of this bothered me when I watched it. Even after reading online about all the changes they did in the english version from the japanese, I still watched it.

But keep posting some of this stuff! I love dub/sub comparisons. ^^

Alright, so this took me hours to do, and I am quite sure it was silly of me to do so because I am probably the only one who is this shocked about this sub to dub alteration.

The DUBBED version. Click to enlarge the image if you cannot read the text.

So, are you dubbies will notice, there is a lot of dialog going on here. It is humorous and cute, with wonderfully embaressing lines such as Darien's usual Ditto! and him calling her Meatball Head.

I love how they throw in a useless line from Serena "Oh Darien, do you really mean that?" -- inserted when her mouth isn't even moving.

The scene in general is more comedic than romantic. The moment they kiss, Darien immediately asks Serena if she has been chewing gum because his mouth is stuck to hers. Worse than cement, he says. Wow. Quite the romantic there. Also, it is quite off-putting that the reason why they are still kissing is because he cannot pull his mouth away.

Continue below to see how different it was originally intended.



This is the japanese subbed version of this scene. Please enlarge to see the dialog! It is quite different!!!

First of, as you may notice, THERE ARE TWO EXTRA PANELS INCLUDED! Why these were cut out is beyond me, but I could not believe it. Granted, they are not the most vital scenes, but that is not the point. This is a rare romantic scene between Usagi & Mamoru -- we fans will take all we can get from the anime.

Also, the dialog changes from Mamoru offering Usagi a hot fudge sundae to him carefully helping her up on to the dock. After Usagi shyly says "Lucky," she notices Mamoru simply gazing at her and she blushes more. After this scene, there is no more talk. In fact, that last panel of them kissing lasts for a few seconds. The Japanese version, in comparison to the dub, portrays a more intimate moment between these two. The nature of their kissing is also a bit more serious (as the anime can get), because there is no distracting the viewer from the couple's actions with useless dialog.


I grew up with the dub and this being my favorite scene. I giggled at how cute and silly they were and I adored how Mamoru called Usagi "My Meatball Head." I thought it was adorably possessive. Then, I just recently watched the sub for the first time and I was shocked at how different it all was. I felt so jiped that all along this was a really tender and intimate moment between the two, that they were actually kissing for more than a moment, and how Mamoru didn't crack any jokes with her.

Personally, things like this just drive me crazy.

I always thought the kissing scene in the Japanese version was a little humorous along with being adorable in that it went on for so long with no dialogue, too. That was part of the little joke. The "too long gag" or whatever TV Tropes call it.

The caramel gum (and seriously? caramel gum? Even when I was 13 I thought that sounded gross) part was just kinda WTF. He was stuck? Then how come "Rini" didn't get stuck to him? Um? And "Serena" wasn't chewing gum that entire time so huh? /overthink

I don't even remember this scene from the dub. But there are so many like this. I think the reason they would cut out a few seconds here and there was for time constraints since airing times are different in the US than Japan. There are more commercials. XF

Lol, oh yeah cutting out a few seconds here and there is totally understandable!

My comment above was mostly about the fact that (it seems like to me) DiC like to fill in lots of dialogue where there was none before. The joke was the *crickets chirping* type silence but maybe they thought English-speaking audiences wouldn't get it! We need some jokes about sticky bubble gum STAT!

Yeeah. This didn't happen to just Sailor Moon too. I remember watching a lot of DBZ sub and dub and noticing where there were moments of silence they would add in dialogue. I think since they were aiming these shows at a real young audience they thought kids would lose interest if there wasn't dialogue. But i think thats an older though process because its not done like that anymore.

For example of a kids orientated animation, look at Wall-E. That movie was practically a silent movie for the first 45 minutes or so and look how successful it was. But i think as much as we complain about the dub, you can't forget it was from the mid 1990s and times have changed A LOT since then. I can imagine if maybe Sailor Moon had been dubbed in the past decade or so it would have been different.

oh, totally. Heck, I don't mind the dub. I got into Sailor Moon - and anime, and Japan - through the dub. I mean - this is cheesy as hell, but the dub probably changed my life through some sort of ripple effect. It was a long time ago, and they did what they thought they had to do make it for young children. I mean, I was watching at 12 and it was still way above the dub's target audience at the time. :-/ Or at least, the TV's stations' target audience for the show (based on the placement and time of the show).

^^^Agree! I was about the same age watching the dub too and at the time all the corny lines and whatever didn't bother me until I actually learned about the sub. XD

The dub was extremely fond of just shoving in dialogue whenever there was silence in the original. That scene with Usagi and Mamoru definitely highlights a case where the producers of the dub, upon finding a scene with more than two seconds of neither character speaking, decided: "No! No! This simply will not do! Erectin' some needless dialogue!"

Some of the best scenes have little to nothing said in them.

If you can, Jupiter, check out the opening scene from episode 96 (Cruel Uranus? Makoto's Pinch) where they have the near bike accident in the beginning. I'm reviewing it now and I cringe at how badly they butchered it. There's even a nice little bit where "Lita" begins talking without her mouth even moving! That's not even mentioning the total change in tone of the initial exchange between Usagi and Makoto and Haruka.

This makes me a sad Heavy.

Just as everyone before me said, the dub practically thrived on inserting dialogue where it was originally silent; not just DiC, Cloverway is guilty of this too. I've read SMUncensored, which helped fill me in, so I haven't actually seen these first hand.

Basically, in their minds, silence = bad, boring scene which nobody will understand, so they feel the need to cram in useless dialogue which, in my opinion, makes the scene WORSE. Compare this to the revelation of Usagi being Princess Serenity. In the original, she is completely silent, while in the dub, Princess "Serena" says something along the lines of "This is way past weird!"

In the end of the third season, when the Senshi are erecting a barrier around the Mugen school, there is nothing but silence and this maneuver is nameless. In the dub, however, each girl says something, even when their mouths are not moving, when they are onscreen, and the maneuver is called the "Sailor Box". It's completely unnecessary and ruins a perfectly good, dramatic scene.

By the way, Jupiter, I love how you set up the comparison!

Yeah, like i said other animes had this done to them too. Its too bad. The silence portrays much more emotion and meaning than adding in useless dialogue. But god forbid the 4 year olds lose attention to what they are watching. lol

Morpheus wrote:

Actually, I think it was more trying to match the way their months were moving. While they are just lips flapping, the anime keep them in a rhythm that matches what they say. Because English is a different language, they had to be careful with what words they used otherwise it would look like bad editing on their part.

Also they wanted Usagi look like a dumb blond and a basic teenager, hence all the out of date phases they use. I think it was Serena how said something was the 'bomb' back in SuperS.

This is entirely true. All of Serena's "ohaaa ho-ha-ho-ha-ho" screams (the ones with the crazy vocal delineations) are added because in the Japanese version Usagi speaks for longer periods of time. Japanese languages stress every syllable hence it takes longer for them to say something than it would in English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcbXaakZESI

^I know there's a rule about not repostings links from other sites but that typically means fansites. YouTube is pretty much a community website so I don't think I'm breaking the rules by posting that. Plus, it's entirely appropriate for this topic and hilarious!

Youtube is ok. There is code for youtube.

And that is CLASSIC. XD

DiC always ends up making things so much worse! XD

Brit-chan wrote:

Youtube is ok. There is code for youtube.

And that is CLASSIC. XD

Rofl. I watch that video about once every two weeks it never gets old!! "Bbbbbbuttt Iiiiiiim the onnnnee with the mosssst talllent herrrre!"

It's been awhile since this thread was alive, but I do have something I want to share!!

I decided to do a comparison today of a few things in the English dub and Japanese with subs. What sparked my interest was, since I'm going through the S season, the episode where Chibiusa makes a return, she says her mom has a letter for them explaining why she was there. She hands it over and Minako makes the statement "there's absolutely no kanji in this letter!". I was like "oh how interesting. I wonder how they handled this in English..." so I switch my episode into English (watching via DVDs) and what's said instead is that Minako read the letter with her imagination because in the letter, Neo Queen Serenity wrote with "funny symbols"! And Ami comments that there were "some letters, but erased" or something along those lines. I was like "WOW that is so wrong for so many reasons!" XD

It's so crazy what some of the differences are. I feel like that also takes a stab at the Japanese language.

Also, with an added note, I did a comparison with some of the senshi attacks and what stood out to me most was Pluto's attack. In English she yells "Pluto Deadly Scream!!" and it completely contrasts with the face Pluto is making for the attack (calm, cool, and collected) and the mouth and shout don't match at all. I thought it was a little funny X3

This is so interesting! I have to watch that dub episode again because I am not quite sure what you meant with the dubbed reading of the letter.

I always thought Pluto's Deadly Scream in English sounded so commanding and authoritative. Then I heard it in Japanese and it gave me chills! It's actually terrifying to hear such a, well, deadly, attack be spoken so softly. As if the attack is so powerful that she does not even need to cast it from her, just needs to softly command it. I love the Japanese Version so much better.

Yeah Dub Pluto likes to scream her attack for some reason. XD

I remember Sailor Moon Uncensored bringing the letter thing up. They were really mad at Cloverway for that. I feel like seeing how the show was Americanize Cloverway should have Mianko say NQS's hand writing is so messy or something like that.

Oh, here's Sailor Moon Uncersored's website by the way. They show all the edits from the dubs:

http://smuncensored.com/

Ah I saw that site mentioned. I'll definitely look it over. I do agree though that that is a major screw up by Cloverway though since that was a total insult to basically Japan itself. I mean, they could've used practically anything but "funny symbols" to explain the lack of Kanji in English.

I love doing comparisons with the English and Japanese Sailor Moon. It's so interesting and gives so much insight to how they change the episodes (for sometimes, no real reasons) and how they handle certain things within the episode.

Also with the authoritative and commanding screams, such as with the senshi attacks, I just find them so funny in comparison to Japanese altogether. I just...don't buy it XD at least, not anymore. And it's funny how they felt the need to add, for example "Uranus World Shaking" "Neptune Deep Submerge" and "Pluto Deadly Scream" rather than just stick to the original. I mean...why change it?

I'm going to check out more comparisons too and see about helping add to this list.