So, what is everyone's opinion on the slang used in the Sailor Moon dub?

For me, it depends on the episode, and on the slang. I don't mind slang used in more lighthearted episodes, and I think it can even be charming sometimes. I'm pretty sure there's Japanese slang used in the original version, although I'm not sure what constitutes "slang" in Japanese.

So for "So You Want to Be a Superstar" (the contest episode from early on in the first season)? Sure! "Second Chance" (the second-last episode in the third season)? OH MY GOD NO. In serious episodes, the presence of slang is distracting and spoils the mood.

Also, some slang is better than others. For example, I've heard people use "fine" to mean "attractive" when talking about someone, and Hawk's-eye calling Tiger's-eye "bro" isn't that big of a deal. It's not like they're super serious villains to begin with. Same with Mimete greeting Prof. Tomoe with "Yo!" I suppose "character" is another factor in this. It's not in-character for Trista or Amy to use slang, but it seems more likely with Mina and Serena.

"Wicked" isn't too bad, although "wicked cool" sounds a little over-the-top to me. But the problem with "wicked" is that it makes the name "Wicked Lady" seem kind of strange. It's like they're calling her "Cool Lady" instead of "Evil Lady." I doubt the dub team was looking that far ahead, though.

Some words are a little outdated. I mean, this is from the 90's, but did anyone say "major boss" even then?

I never knew anyone who used "phat" seriously.

"Buggin'" is, I think, still used in some circles--or at least it was in the 90's. "Girls" and "girlfriends" are still used by some girls and women to address a group of female friends.

I had never even heard of "hunkasaurus" until I watched the show. I don't mind "hunk" in small doses, although "stud" seems like it was more recently used. Raye's comment to Darien that he looked like a total "guy" in a tuxedo didn't make sense to me. I was like, "Of course he does, he is a guy!" I've never really heard anything like that, except maybe someone telling a guy he looks like a "real man."

"The bomb" was used a couple of times. I heard it every now and then growing up. I didn't really like it used when Raye said it to Serena ("Everyone knows you're the bomb with lots of other good qualities!"). The tone she used was all wrong. "The bomb" shouldn't be used in long sentences. That little girl in the fourth season saying "You're the bomb, Raye!" wasn't so bad.

I'm not a huge fan of slang in particular. I don't use it much myself--at least, I don't think I do. Maybe I do, but I just don't consider it slang.

The only slang I can think of that I absolutely did not like was "phat." Rini's friend used it in the episode where she was asked out by Robert (that kid on the soccer team), and I didn't think it was really in-character for a 7-to-9-year-old to use it. But who knows? I admit I don't know a whole lot about how elementary school students talked back then.

I'd love to hear some other thoughts.

I think in the Dub, some of the slang is really over used and obnoxious, but at times it fit the scene and the girls. I think if they had chosen more appropriate slang for the time period it would have fit, but they really went over the top at times.

"Cool your jets"?? What is jets referring too? I was always confused about that line. And i think they used it a few times too. XD

My dad uses "phat" forsrs. It makes me cringe. The problem with slang in the English dub is that it's done in a way that sounds just like that- older people trying to sound hip for the kids (which could easily apply to the writers for the dub anyway? lol). And like you said, some of them don't make sense or are obviously made up- like "hunkasaurus" :lol:

My personal favorite: "GRANDPA, YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A GRANOLA BAR."
Edit: clip

LOL what the hell is that even supposed to mean! XD Oh man, those poor voice actors were probably laughing their asses off when they were recording some of these lines.

May I just say how much I love you for making this post?

I remember when I was younger and I watched the DUB I was in love with everything that Usagi said. I loved her valley girl talk and the weird expressions that she made up. It was just so awesome to me. Years later I switched to the Sub and read the manga and now I am recently re-visiting the DUB and hearing her talk and those expressions makes me slap my forehead and fall over backwards. XD It is so ridiculous!!! I realize a lot of it had to do with the 90's and all, but I NEVER talked like that and neither did my friends.

There is no way the writers should have been able to get away with lines like "hunkasouras." They were really pushing it with that one. I remember there being other weird lines said by everyone but I can not remember at the moment.

After watching the sub, I realized how inappropriate the timing was for a lot of those slangs -- and Usagi's valley girl talk. There were a lot of times when a scene was serious or emotional and it was changed to comical because of her slang and speech. I never realized the change of atmosphere until I watched the Sub and compared the two.

Speaking of that, a while back, I had two of my friends over, who liked Sailor Moon but had yet to see it subbed, so I had a Sailor Moon girl night and whipped out my 1st seasons uncut boxset. They were so shocked at how different it was. One girl said it was like watching another show. And really, it is when you go back and look at it. I think thats why I can always still love the dub, but I just kind of view it as a different "version" of Sailor Moon instead of a horrible abomination that some people view it as.

Awesome, I got responses! (Amazing what happens when you post!)

I've heard "Cool your jets!" before. It's similar to "Simmer down!" It's used to try and calm someone when they're losing their temper, but tends to have the opposite effect. (at least, it does when you use it on me and many other people)

I love the "granola bar" line. XD I'm not sure if that's slang though, or Raye's VA just being weird.

Yeah, i kind of understood what "cool your jets" meant, but I had NEVER heard it used until I watched Sailor Moon. XD But then again i live in a place where ain't and y'all is part of the dictionary.

I find the English slang found in the dub to be forced and unnecessary to a great degree. It's as if they wanted to draw your attention to each slang word introduced into the conversation. I doubt that the writers for the dub were attempting to be faithful to Japanese slang; I've held the impression that they put it in for its own sake.

Not all colloquial terminology (I admit wanting to avoid using the word "slang" yet again) is inherently bad. I could imagine Usagi telling Rei to "chill out" if she were especially exasperated. It would help get the point across in English even if Usagi didn't literally say "chill out" in Japanese. But under no circumstances could I envision Makoto referring to some guy as "majorly hunky." It's just... bleh...

A bit off-topic: I always giggle when I think of Hawk's Eye (I think it was him) calling Tiger's Eye "bro" because if you spliced certain lines together, you could get humorous results. For example, in the dub, when Fisheye was going after Robert in episode 143 (which had the unfortunate title in the dub of "Kickin' into High Gear"---even the title cards aren't safe!), Tiger's Eye says to Fisheye, "What's wrong with you? He's just a child." But I remember editing it so the line would become: "What's wrong with you? He's just a bro."

With their dub voices, it was fantastic.

Thereisnospoon303 wrote:

I find the English slang found in the dub to be forced and unnecessary to a great degree. It's as if they wanted to draw your attention to each slang word introduced into the conversation. I doubt that the writers for the dub were attempting to be faithful to Japanese slang; I've held the impression that they put it in for its own sake.

I agree with you completely. Every era always has some kind of "slang" or "catch phrases" that are used, but I think the DUB anime grossly exaggerated such. As I said before, there were a lot of slangs that I never even heard used in my daily life, even though some of the phrases did have a 90s feel to it. I think the writers were also stereotyping different classes of girls: the valley girl type, the studious figure, the "cool guy" character and what he might say to sound "hip and groovy" -- but none of it was very realistic. I think they were pushing a little too hard to appeal to the their young group of female audiences.


Granted, I was so enamored by Usagi and everything about her that I loved everything she had to say. XD Looking back on it now, I cringe every time she opens her mouth.

Speaking of Usagi's dub voice, I recall going into a Sailor Moon chat (back in the days of AOL's height of power) and reading an overall negative response to the new voice actress they brought in for the S season. She was especially grating on the ears.

Thereisnospoon303 wrote:

Speaking of Usagi's dub voice, I recall going into a Sailor Moon chat (back in the days of AOL's height of power) and reading an overall negative response to the new voice actress they brought in for the S season. She was especially grating on the ears.

Don't even get me started. I could write you a Master's Thesis on how horrendous that girl was. I remember when Toonami FINALLY aired the S season after their lengthy hiatus. I was so eagerly excited and then that girl spoke and I actually was put into a depression for a very long time. Back then, I thought the R season Usagi was beautiful in her voice and Terri Hawkes was Usagi in every way.

The new dub was terrible for so many reasons. First of all, she was a bad VA. I do not know what was up with her voice, but it was just horrendous. What added to the misery of listening to her speak was that she tried to be a new version of Terri Hawkes -- she tried to imitate the voice inflections and attitude that Hawkes brought to the character of Usagi. If the new VA had possibly tried her own style, maybe there would have been some hope.

But in general, her voice was terrible. She replaced the VA of the woman who had made Usagi everything I knew her to be, and she tried to mimic it.

I suppose if we could pay her one compliment, she probably could yodel pretty darn well. IF mY vOIce cOULd dO thAT, I'd bE vEry ImprESSED.

I know the distress of a Sailor Moon fan all too well. A good friend of mine, a huge fan of Sailor Uranus, absolutely hates the dub version of her.

Awfully implemented slang + bad VAs = torture under international law

Thereisnospoon303 wrote:

I suppose if we could pay her one compliment, she probably could yodel pretty darn well. IF mY vOIce cOULd dO thAT, I'd bE vEry ImprESSED.

I know the distress of a Sailor Moon fan all too well. A good friend of mine, a huge fan of Sailor Uranus, absolutely hates the dub version of her.

Awfully implemented slang + bad VAs = torture under international law

Hear, hear, Spoons, I completely agree. That girl's voice was all over the place. Yodeling was clearly her true calling and she became side tracked along the way.

Uranus' voice was more flat than anything else. A godsend compared to the Yodeling Goat Herder.

Uranus' voice was always flat to me, but I could deal with it. It was Neptune's voice that had me up all wall. When she spook, it sounded like she was out of breath. I get what they were trying to do was making should "breathy" and "sexy", but Michiru voice had more of an elegant grace to it rather then sexy tone. Every word she said made me wonder if she had run a track race with Haruka before hand.

Serena's voice was only annoying to me when I got older, but I could get over in Classics and R because that's what I grew up with. When I finally saw the S dub it been had been on Youtube when I was 14 (I couldn't watch it otherwise because when Toonami stopped beating around the bush, it was on late at night when I was allowed to see it).

I agree about VA number 2; she sounded like she was trying too hard. And if it just me or did the slang get worse as soon as Cloverway got involved? I never noticed it being that bad in DiC.

Morpheus wrote:

I agree about VA number 2; she sounded like she was trying too hard. And if it just me or did the slang get worse as soon as Cloverway got involved? I never noticed it being that bad in DiC.

I'm rather certain it got worse with Cloverway. Mostly you had occasional valley girl slang in the DiC dub; atrocious still, but it was never prominent. With S and SuperS, you had the introduction of a vast array of early 90s slang which sought to get your attention. "Hey, look! Look! Look at me! I'm slang!" Sailor Moon Uncensored documented very well the explosion in stale and unnecessary slang phrases found in the Cloverway dub.

There's an episode where Andrew's little sister says "what's up dog?"

WHY????????????????????

UM BECAUSE WHAT'S UP? DOG. ITS HIP. DIDN'T YOU KNOW?


lolololol...i'm j/k btw

This all really makes me wonder as to the age of the writers. Where were they pulling these phrases from? O.o

Slang is very difficult to pull off using, since it changes so much and so quickly. S:

Just a note about "wicked". It's used in New England ALL THE TIME. It is part of the regional slang, especially from the Boston area.

Examples: It can be wicked hot out, or that movie was wicked awesome, or even as a reply: That food was awful. Response: Wicked.

I guarantee I say it probably a dozen times a day if not more.

Quote :

I'm rather certain it got worse with Cloverway. Mostly you had occasional valley girl slang in the DiC dub;

Yeah, but Dic had the horrible trash talk. I'll take horrible slang over trash talk. Oh, I can't wait for the day when epic and fail will be outdated XD

arashi wrote:

Just a note about "wicked". It's used in New England ALL THE TIME. It is part of the regional slang, especially from the Boston area.

Examples: It can be wicked hot out, or that movie was wicked awesome, or even as a reply: That food was awful. Response: Wicked.

I guarantee I say it probably a dozen times a day if not more.

Yes, indeed. If a slang is used in its country of origin -- that's fine. But when it is used in a place that does not use the slang or if it is outdated -- then the people just sound like they're trying too hard.

the slang is horrible but i find it hilarious. in sailor moon R: the promise of the rose i recall rini telling sailor moon "go get'em moon mama"
i laughed so hard.

sail0rluna wrote:

the slang is horrible but i find it hilarious. in sailor moon R: the promise of the rose i recall rini telling sailor moon "go get'em moon mama"
i laughed so hard.

Yes, indeed! I can hear her voice so plainly in my head. At the time I thought, "Aw, she loves Usagi!" but when I look back at it, oh goodness.

It's so bad when she does that because I think that the R movie is supposed to be set up before they known Rini/Chibi-Usa is Usagi's daughter, but she knows their identities.

Maybe it takes place right after she discovers that Usagi is sailor moon. Then again the movies don't go along with the series.

Well the fact that she doesn't mention it at all in the subbed version is what has got me thinking. I kinda got that from a timeline theory i had read somewhere.

Brit-chan wrote:

It's so bad when she does that because I think that the R movie is supposed to be set up before they known Rini/Chibi-Usa is Usagi's daughter, but she knows their identities.

I always figured that she didn't literally mean "mother" when she said "mama," but simply "woman." You've never heard "mama" used to mean "lady" or "girl"? It kind of works the same as "girlfriend." "Hey, mama! What's going on?"

Here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mama

You'll see a lot variations, particularly on the second page.

Can't say that I have ever really heard someone refer to someone as as mama unless they are their mama. But I am from the south and we are rather ignorant.lol