I'm curious about others countries's Sailor Moon dub!
So I start, and I'll introduce the french dub to you. Here comes my childhood!
This dub was made by the same guys that made a lot of french anime dub in the early 90's, AB productions. And for Sailor Moon, it seems there were only 3 girls and one man to dub the entire show, I kid you not.
Also, like every AB production series, the opening was made by Bernard Minet.

What does it means ? That we have the most aweful opening ever. And I'm not kidding. German opening is fun, US opening at least kept the original tune... but the french one? Just your average "kid show opening" :


The lyrics are as ridiculous as it sounds. Have a translation :

Spoiler:

Oh dear, the memories. Now, to the names. Here, it could have been worst...

Tsukino Usagi : Bunny Rivière
Rivière means river, no I don't why the f*ck they choose this. She is also the only one with a last name. Her "odango atama" nickname became "tête de linotte", wich basically means "light head" or "stupid" - nothing to do with her haistyle.

Princess Serenity : Princesse Sérénité (the french translation, literally.)
Prince Endymion : Prince Endimion (don't ask.)
Tuxedo Kamen : L'homme masqué. (The masked man.)

Chiba Mamoru : Bourdu
BOURDU. THIS. I DON'T EVEN. For years, I thought this really was his original japanese name, you know? Because NO ONE in France is called Bourdu. I learnt not long ago that it was actually a french name from the 50's, totally forgotten now. But. Bourdu. This name traumatized lots of kids.
Also his voice, because he sounds like a 40 years old guy and this makes his relationship with Usagi very creepy.


Little clip, so you can have an idea. If you just want to hear BOURDU's voice, he starts talking at 3:05. Remember : he's creepy. (In the other hand, Zoicite's voice is priceless. It'll be Diamond's later for a few episodes, before having BOURDU's like every male character.)

Mars in this part is so OOC. She just say "yes, the masked man will die." without any emotion in her voice. Wait, Reeeei ? Were you not supposed to angst because Mamoru is Tuxedo and basically Usagi's love ? Dub's joy...
In the very end, Luna says "It's the Princess Moon, our Princess!" like 'Moon' was the Princess's name. Fortunately, it isn't.

Mizuno Ami : Molly
Hino Rei : Raya
Kino Makoto : Marcy
Aino Minako : Mathilda
In the first two episodes where she was introduced, Minako actually presented herself as "Amélie". Then it became Mathilda without warning. Okay.

Funny thing in the Shitennou : to "explain" Zoicite and Kunzite's relationship, the dub made them brothers.
BROTHERS. Zoicite final words thus were ruined and instead of his tearful love declaration, we had a : "you were the best brother. I take your memory in my heart."
Sigh. At least they were both men.

Chibi Usa : Camille
Another WTF moment from the dub, Camille is the nickname Mamoru (I can't call him Bourdu) finds to stop Chibi Usa from calling herself "Bunny". After some episodes, it's like it's her real name ; even King Endymion call her like that and no, she never had the same name as her future mother anymore, by magic.
Black Lady : La dame noire
Wiseman : Vieil homme ("Old man". He had the same voice as BOURDU. And Diamond. Aka the creepy old man voice.)

Tennou Haruka : Frédérique
Good choice here, as this name has two "forms" : a female one, Frédérique, and a male one, Frédéric. But they had to ruin it all and gave her a male voice (Bourdu's again...) in civil form and a female one (Mars's) as Sailor Uranus. Duh! Well, at least her and Michiru were not cousins.
Kaiou Michiru : Mylène
She has the same voice as Jupiter, Luna, Pluto, Saturn...
Tomoe Hotaru : Olivia
Meiou Setsuna : Sylvana



Let's talk about powers and make-up.

In french, the transformations and attack don't change names until SuperS (where there was a change in the dub's direction if I remember. There were changes in the voice actors too, Usagi's for example.)
In all seasons, Sailor Moon uses "Moon prism power" and "Moon healing escalation" no matter the brooch or scepter.
The crystal transformations of the other senshi sound silly because they say "By [Planet] and crystal power" to make-up.

Sailor Moon :
Make-up : "pouvoir du prisme lunaire, transforme-moi !"
Grail make-up : "pouvoir suprême, transforme-moi !" ("supreme power" - no "crisis" or anything.)
Attack : "Cicatrisation lunaire, exécution !"

Sailor Mercury :
attack : "Paillettes d'argents, agissez tout de suite !" ("silver sparkling, act now!")

Sailor Mars :
Attack : "Âme du feu, agis tout de suite !" (fire soul)

Sailor Jupiter :
Attack : "Eclair suprême, agis tout de suite !" (supreme thunder)

Sailor Venus :
Attack : "Croissant d'amour, agissez tout de suite !" ("crescent of love")

...
Oh, the outer. Here, it can upset the fans. Being a HUGE Uranus fan, I know what I'm talking about...

Sailor Uranus :
Make-up : "Pouvoir d'Uranus, transforme-moi !"
Ok, nothing wrong except she just changed voice - remember, her civil voice is a dude's. Now...
Attack : "Cercle de feu, brûle !" ("circle of fire, burn!")

You read right, FIRE. Same for Neptune :

Sailor Neptune :
Make-up : "Pouvoir de Neptune, transforme-moi !"
Attack : "Cercle de glace, gèle !" ("circle of ice, freeze!")

ICE AND FIRE. I don't know what they were smoking to change earth into fire and sea into ice but man, was it strong!
I don't remember what Pluto's was.

The anime "ends" in France at SuperS. No Sailor Stars for us - fortunately I must said.

And you? How was Sailor Moon dubbed in your country? Good/Bad?

Wow! That theme song!

I took French for several years in high school and Tuxedo Mask's voice reminds me of the audio tapes we used to listen to in the language lab. I still wish I spoke it as well as I did back then, I can read and understand it better than I can speak it.

Germany did have some awesome music! I love listening to the Super Moonies CDs. Their theme song was awesome.

Oh man, that Tuxedo Mask voice scares me. A lot.

Brit-chan wrote:

Oh man, that Tuxedo Mask voice scares me. A lot.

You're not the only one, dear!
Ask any french over 20 years old about BOURDU : Trauma and/or hilarity insues. (Though some kids back then were in love with him despite it.)

Thank you so, so, so much for this. It was just filled with epic awesome. XD

You are right about the opening -- it is so kidlike and silly! Heehee. The lyrics are priceless as well.

Mamoru's french name = awesomeness. XD

Usagi is kinda cute in french. Heehee. But OHMYGOSH FRENCH!MAMORU is CREEPY!!!!! XD Oh, you poor dears, having to put up with that voice. I would weep. XD


I do think that the German opening is one of the best. The music is so invigorating! Hee.

Oh my god, this is great. I've seen clips from different dubs and I would have to say that my favorite dub would be the German.

But here's what I have to say about the French dub
-The French dub opening is horrible! xD
-It's CRAZY that 3 women and a man were able to dub all of the characters
-I can understand the name changes. Even though, some of the names are ugly. LOL
-I actually like the transformation scenes especially when they say "transforme-moi."
-As for Michiru and Haruka, if they weren't cousins then what were they? I think they should have left Haruka with a female's voice instead of male's voice.

Thanks for this topic Sailor Night it's probably my favorite thread so far .^_^.V

Heh I'm glad to know this post is not so useless~

Sailor Jupiter> I still like Usagi's french voice. She had the most silly but cute laugh that fitted Usagi's character perfectly and -not in the clip I linked though- was also able to have a pretty deep voice for serious speech. It's one of the few voices I can hear without laughing - depending what she's saying.

BOURDU's voice actor mostly dubbed bad character or creepy villain (he also did Zirconia -who is male in french- for example. His voice is PERFECT for this kind of character) but it was clear he was bored when playing Mamoru. If I remember right, he actually said it one day and was a total troll in some episodes, like the end of the Youma tree act : instead of saying "Sailor Moon" he clearly says "Sailor moche" (moche is french slang for "ugly").
It's such BLISS to hear japanese!Mamoru after this. BLISS. ;-;

Sailor Mercury> Yay I'm curious to know about the Latin American one!
-I exaggerated a bit when saying "3 girl and one guy" but... not too much. As I said, the same woman did Luna, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn and some supporting characters. The woman villains like Beryl, Esmeraude or Kaolinite had exactly the same voice. Same for the men, even those who started with another voice's (why Diamond, whyyyy) ended up with Mamoru's like he was the only one staying in the end.

-Haruka and Michiru's relationship was not "explained" for kids, they leaved it like it. Since Haruka had this ugly man voice in civil, they looked like a hetero couple. (Though they leaved all the "Frédérique is not a boy!" moments.) But as Neptune and Uranus they were totally the lesbian pairing we know, even in a "kid show" dub - hehe~

Sailor Night wrote:

BOURDU's voice actor mostly dubbed bad character or creepy villain (he also did Zirconia -who is male in french- for example. His voice is PERFECT for this kind of character) but it was clear he was bored when playing Mamoru. If I remember right, he actually said it one day and was a total troll in some episodes, like the end of the Youma tree act : instead of saying "Sailor Moon" he clearly says "Sailor moche" (moche is french slang for "ugly").
It's such BLISS to hear japanese!Mamoru after this. BLISS. ;-;

That is simply outrageous, are you serious? My gosh. That's actually really disrespectful, I think. If it is your job to be the VA, you can't purposefully do a bad job just because you do not like the character. It seems rather unprofessional to me.

I wish I was kidding. ):
This is something most of us didn't notice as children and discovered later. Here, I found the part of this episode :



It's at 0:50. It's still unclear if he saying "moche", "machin" ("thing") or trying to say "ma chérie" ("my dear") but was cut. And it's not the only episode where he's heard muttering things like these. /sigh

At least, Sailor Moon's speech just before this sounds so cool - her VA helps enduring this dub even with Mamoru's.

Again, thank you for putting together such an in depth thread about this topic! It is so interesting and must have taken you a lot of time.

To me, it is really weird hearing them in french. lol. But I do think that Usagi's VA is very strong and I appreciate that characteristic being brought to her.

Personally, I think it sounds like Mamoru said "moche" but if it was cut off then one could argue otherwise. But seriously. If you KNOW that cutting off the word at that point would insinuate a totally different meaning, you wouldn't have done it. XD Or, if that was your intent, then you would have.

Wow.... That is all I can say is WOW...

See, the thing is that I grew up with the American Dub... so looking back now I know it's cheesy, but it means so much to me that I just don't care... however, I now know just how messed up it is... so seeing this REALLY REALLY made me cringe.. and that voice does NOT belong in a kids show.... more like some Adult Channel vid late at night that is even more cheesy than a dub

Thank you SO much for sharing!!! <3

LOL, I love the French opening; if only for the So Bad it's Good factor.

I actually like their method for dealing with Haruka and Michiru! It probably wasn't intentional, but it restores the concept from the manga that Haruka is both a man and a woman, which was done away with in the anime. It's not EXACTLY the same, but it's still closer to canon than THEY'RE COUSINS LOL.

I'll introduce the European Portuguese dub to you. The dub was made by the same guys that made some of the dubs in the early 90's. Sailor Moon was the first big anime series to get a portuguese dub. Before Sailor Moon, we'd get mostly european series. The opening theme is actually "Heart Moving" with a new instrumental made in Portugal and new lyrics. This happened because the people reponsible for the dub fell in love with "Heart Moving" and thought it was much better than "Moonlight Densetsu".The portuguese opening theme is usually called "Luna Luna" and it's performed by Mafalda Sachetti, a famous portuguese singer. This song opens the 5 seasons and the ending theme is always its instrumental.
Here's a translation of the lyrics:

Spoiler:

The dub had a very low budget and they couldn't afford to pay a lot of actors so we have 5 actresses and 3 actors providing the voices but they do a great job changing their voices from character to character. Also, they had no idea of what happened next in the story, they would dub an episode without knowing what happened on the next episode.

Tsukino Usagi: Bunny Tsukino
Princesa Serenity: Princesa Serenidade (= serenity)
Prince Endymion: Príncipe Endymion
Tuxedo Kamen: Mascarado (= Masked Man)
Chiba Mamoru: Gonçalo Chiba (sometimes the actors pronouce it "Jhiba" because "chiba" is slang for "tattletale".

Usagi x Mamoru: Mamoru is much more open about it. He even calls Usagi "my darling" once and Chibiusa"princess". You can hear him sobbing and his voice cracking during the R break-up. Once he said "Don't die without me!" to Usagi. He sounded completly desperate. He sounds more flirtatious during Classic and his last line on episode 46 after Usagi goes away is "This girl is so cute." It's more obvious to the audience he has a thing for Usagi and she confesses she's mean to him too and deep down he's a nice guy (ep. 34) and he is her best friend (ep. 46), despite their fights. When Motoki says Usagi is not a kid anymore and Mamoru should respect her, he replies "I'll try but I always end up making her mad. We're different." and then sadly adds "I'm sure that's what she thinks..."
In general, Mamoru is a lot more passionate in portuguese, mainly because the portuguese actor sees him as a romantic lead.

Mizuno Ami: Ami Mizuno
Hino Rei: Rita Hino
Kino Makoto: Maria Kino
Aino Minako: Joana Lima
Luna: Luna (This Luna is a male cat. The actor fell in love with the character and chose to change its gender so he could voice it. This Luna is the sarcastic character of the cast and is often used to mock portuguese pop culture and public figures, or even the show itself, including the characters. Sometimes you have Usagi talking and you can hear Luna saying "She's crazy!" off-camera. This type of joke is never used during serious or emotional moments. Rhett Butler the cat is a female cat called "Tareca")
Artemis: Artemisa (They had to change Artemis' gender because od Luna. She speaks with a
french accent and calls everyone "darling". She's a lot more serious and tougher than Luna.)
Osaka Naru: Sara Tavares (Sara Tavares is a famous portuguese singer)
Umino Gurio: Jimmy Gurio
Shingo Tsukino: Chico Tsukino
Kenji Tsukino: the poor man has no name
Ikuko Tsukino: Fernanda Tsukino
Beryl: Peryl
Jadeite: Jedite
Nephrite: Neflite
Kunzite: Kunzite
Zoicite: Zoicite
Zoicite and Kunzite's relationship: Zoicite is male and sounds way more effiminate and they're still gay.
An/Natsumi Ginga: An/Natália Ginga
Ail/Seijuurou Ginga: Ale/Sérgio Ginga
Yuuichirou Kumada: Fernando Preguiça (= lazy)
Chibi-Usa: Chibi-Usa
Black Lady/Rabbit/Small Lady are exactly the same and in english.
Wiseman: Sábio
Koan: Karmesite
Berthier: Bertierite
Calaveras: Calaverite
Petz: Petzite
Rubeus: Rubi
Dimande: Diamante
Esmeraude: Esmeralda
Saphir: Safira
Tenou Haruka: Haruka Tenou
Kaiou Michiru: Mariana Kaiou
Haruka x Michiru: Both female, with female voices, not related and lesbians.
Example:
Mariana - You're too heavy! You've been eating a lot of sweets lately.
Haruka - It's the only pleasure I've been having lately.
Enough said.

Tomoe Hotaru: Octávia Tomoe
Meiou Setsuna: Susana Melo (sometimes Setsuna Melo)
Professor Tomoe: Dr. Tomoe
Kaolinite: Kaorinite
Eudial: Eugénia
Mimete: Mimi (trivia - Dr. Tomoe sings Mimi's name whenever he says it like an opera singer. "Miiimiiii!"
Tellu: Marilu
Viluy: Beatriz
Cyprine: Sílvia
Zirconia: Zircónia (Zircónia is male)
The Amazon Trio, Amazoness Quartet, Helios/Pegasus, Diana and Nehellenia have the same names. Helios/Pegasus sounds a lot older, older than Mamoru.
We have Stars. Seiya, Taiki, Yaten are all voiced by male actors (they sound like total trannies) and keep the same names. The rest of the new characters keep the same names.Yaten once calls the Outers "s.luts". The portuguese dub is quite toungue-in-cheek and keeps the original adult humor or makes it even worse. There's no deleted or altered footage. Most of the japanese background songs are deleted, though. The action still takes place in Tokyo and they keep names like "Juuban".

Usagi x Seiya vs Usagi x Mamoru:It's obvious the portuguese dub is pro-Mamoru and anti-Seiya. Portuguese Seiya is a lot less vocal about his feelings to Usagi and Usagi tells him a lot more she's not single and in love with Mamoru. The
dialogue changed and I'd get the feeling Seiya is attracted to Usagi but never truly in love. Usagi tells him Mamoru is her fiancé and Usagi's attraction to Seiya is often erased. Usagi tells Rei Mamoru is the only man she loves and the person she loves the most. Seiya's famous line "Am I not good enough?" was changed to "May I help you?" and Usagi's last piece of dialogue is "My name is Usagi Tsukino, I'm 16 years old. I'm a bit rash and a crybaby but I'm the soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon. And beleive me, Mamoru, I love you very much."

Do you have any video clips of the portugese dub? I want to say I've heard the opening song, but I don't really remember. ^^; Also, I think its cute they added in the extra mamoxusagi stuff and put an emphasis on them. Very sweet. I'd also love to hear gender bent Luna and Artemis. XD

Brit-chan wrote:

Do you have any video clips of the portugese dub?

Seach "Luna Luna" on Youtube. I've tried to post it but it says I can't post links because I'm new. For the video clips search "navegantes da lua" on Youtube and you'll get full episodes.

Well I found the opening. It's weird hearing it with Heart Moving. ^^;

Rokusasu92 has a better version of the opening song and bits from episodes in portuguese. Look at the first one from episode 19: Motoki and Mamoru have the same voice actor. Oh well...

Brit-chan wrote:

Well I found the opening. It's weird hearing it with Heart Moving. ^^;

The first time I saw the original opening I was like "Hey! This is not the same song!"
I never thought it would be different because "Heart Moving" plays during some romantic or emotional scenes.

Wow, that opening is so precious! I like a lot (being in love with Heart Moving helps).
It's cute that portuguese!Mamoru was made all romantic, I wish it was the same in the original version! Or in the french dub at least /sigh.

Sailor Night wrote:

Wow, that opening is so precious! I like a lot (being in love with Heart Moving helps).

I love it too. The lyrics could be a little bit better, though. By the way, the french opening could be the theme of some series about Tom Sawyer or something. It sounds like that type of song.

Spoiler:

Quote :

It's cute that portuguese!Mamoru was made all romantic, I wish it was the same in the original version! Or in the french dub at least /sigh.

It's amazing what a little bit of extra romance here and there can do. I was reading some Sailor Moon portuguese forums and Mamoru is a really, really loved character (and Seiya's nickname is "horsey") but when I read some messages boards in english... he gets so much hate sometimes...

And I have to agree with you, Bourdu sounds like a creepy old man. I wonder if Usagi's first kiss in french is super creepy...

I found this on WikiMoon:

In the French dub of the anime, both Luna and Artemis were female when they first appeared, which implied that they were lesbians. However, Artemis was later referred to as a male in subsequent episodes.

Is it true?

Nina wrote:

By the way, the french opening could be the theme of some series about Tom Sawyer or something. It sounds like that type of song.

It totally is, isn't it. Sailor Moon isn't the only show to have a disastrous french opening!
It was dubbed by a company dubbing an awful lot of other japanese anime at the same time in the early 90's ; so the dubbing was probably rushed and poorly done, but it didn't stop french kids to love the show.

Quote :

I found this on WikiMoon:

In the French dub of the anime, both Luna and Artemis were female when they first appeared, which implied that they were lesbians. However, Artemis was later referred to as a male in subsequent episodes.

Is it true?

Yes, Artemis has a girl voice! Even girlier than Luna's. But I don't remember anything about his gender being clearly said as female even in the early episodes, though everyone thought he was a girl. (I can just remember wrong, also.)
It was a big shock when, somehow, we learnt he was male. x'D

That's strange. Why a girl's voice (and girlier than Luna's) if he's a male? Maybe thay thought Artemis was a girl but when they found out he was male it was too late to change his voice or they wanted to make him female but then decided to keep him male.



^^ A scene with male Luna

Ohhh man, the Swedish dub is a thing of infamy. Since I was late to the fandom I didn't actually see it, but fans of longer standing that I know asked me v. v. quickly and with a certain horror if I was watching it in Swedish, with overtones of "please say no please say no please say no."

Usagi is called Annie. Minako is called Arianne. Ami is voiced by the same person who did the dubbed voice of Velma in Scooby Doo. Naturally Zoisite is a lady. The full trauma I cannot speak for, though, since I've only seen clips. Did get serious scooby doo related cognitive dissonace from the whole experience though. (This is a common problem in Swedish dubs, because there are so few voice actors doing this stuff. The same ones are basically in absolutely everything....)

Aaaw, Rei's voice is cute! It's weird hearing Luna with such a manly voice when you're not used to it. xD



You can hear a bit of Artemis's super girly voice here, at 04:00 then 04:40. He's talking as a male, though! ("Je suis trop petit" = I'm too small. 'Petit' is a male adjective.)

And while I'm at it : Haruka's change of voice, before and after transformation.



*crying tears of blood*

Wow! Artemis sounds 100% female. That's weird. If you want him male, give him a male voice.

Poor Haruka... I don't even know what to say... Is she a guy or a girl? I mean, she looks like a girl, she has breasts and big eyelashes even though she dresses like a man and they give her a male voice? And she turns into a woman to be Uranus? What about Michiru? When Haruka wears pants they're straight but when Haruka is Uranus they're lesbians?


And I thought tranny Yaten was bad...

Civil Haruka is supposed to be a girl. She does say (with her Uranus voice) "I don't remember telling I was a boy" in the episode when her and Michiru are introduced, and Usagi often remembers to the others (like Jupiter having a crush on her) "but Haruka is a girl!". BUT she has this man voice.

OMG YATEN.
I mean. OMG.

Sailor Night wrote:

BUT she has this man voice.

Yes, that makes no sense. She sounds like a man and a mature one. Is that Bourdu's voice (aka that creepy 40 year old male voice)? There's no way a woman has a voice like that.

Sailor Night wrote:

OMG YATEN.
I mean. OMG.

I know! I laugh every time he opens his mouth. You just can't take him seriously with that voice. Even Fisheye (played by the same actor) sounded normal.
More Yaten because he's so awesome!

OMG The French dub. I had heard that Haruka was male in her everyday form and then transform in a girl, but, she's actually implied to be a girl with an awful man voice.

I think I have a new favorite word BOURDU BOURDU BOURDU. He sounds villan-ish and creepy.

La dame noire, however, sounds bada*s

And what was up with Yaten in the Portuguese dub? XD He sounds just like the gingerbread man from Shrek :p

Amaranta wrote:

And what was up with Yaten in the Portuguese dub? XD He sounds just like the gingerbread man from Shrek :p

He does sound like him! I think they took the concept of transsexual characters way too far. That and that actor was voicing both Taiki and Yaten and had to come up with an extra female voice.

Sailor Night wrote:

And while I'm at it : Haruka's change of voice, before and after transformation.



*crying tears of blood*

...I'm not even sure what to think of that. Just out of curiosity, did Haruka use masculine or feminine speech in her civillian form? I would think she would use masculine speech in her civillian form, but I've never watched the French dub before so I have no idea.

Nina wrote:

And I thought tranny Yaten was bad...

BAHAHA I can't stop laughing!

Quote :

I think I have a new favorite word BOURDU BOURDU BOURDU.

Hahaha! I love to say this name all over too, it's so ugly. Especially when said in french.

Quote :

...I'm not even sure what to think of that. Just out of curiosity, did Haruka use masculine or feminine speech in her civillian form? I would think she would use masculine speech in her civillian form, but I've never watched the French dub before so I have no idea.

I'm sorry I had to share such a cruel thing to fellow Uranus fans.
Now that you ask it, I don't remember clearly ; I think she used more masculine speech usually, but sometimes feminine too and it was confusing. I have found some french episodes online, I'll take a look when I have more time (and braveness) and tell you that!

Nina wrote:

"OH MY GOD" is seriously my only reaction, but for some reason I can't stop listening to this. Poor Yaten!