How American Censorship Impacted Sailor Moon

The Big Picture

• The English dub of
  Sailor Moon
  was heavily censored, diluting the series’ key themes, removing references to death, and toning down LGBTQ+ representation.
• DIC Entertainment made various changes to the original series, including changing Serena’s name and adding the segment, “Sailor Says.”
• Sailor Moon
  found new life with
  Sailor Moon Crystal
  , which restored the original themes and introduced new voice actors. The debate continues between fans of the original DIC dub and the VIZ version.

There’s a handful of series that come to mind when anime is discussed, and Sailor Moon is near the top of the list. Naoko Takeuchi’s story of teenage girls was unlike anything that had come before; it deftly blended elements of the tokusatsu series Super Sentai with the more standard tropes of shoujo manga, leading to a unique hybrid. It continues to inspire various animated projects, including Pixar’s Turning Red. There’s even a channel on the Pluto TV streaming service that plays Sailor Moon 24/7!

Sailor Moon‘s biggest claim to fame was the fact that it was one of the first anime series, alongside Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon that U.S. viewers became fans of in the ’90s. But the English dubs of the series would often go out of their way to make things more palatable to American audiences — cutting out references to death, as well as excess violence and sexual subject matter. While sometimes this was necessary (see the infamous episode of Pokémon that only aired once in Japan), censors would often take things to the extreme, creating a transmogrification of the series due to Westernization and conservative norms. Sailor Moon was a strong case for this, as its original English dub was extremely edited to the point where some of the series’ key themes were diluted.

How U.S. Censorship Impacted ‘Sailor Moon’

The original English dub of Sailor Moon was overseen by DIC Entertainment, which oversaw a number of animated series including The Real Ghostbusters as well as Street Sharks and Extreme Dinosaurs (the latter two series being among the few cartoons that took the right lessons from the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.) Naturally, that came with a flurry of changes. The titular heroine saw her name being changed from Usagi Tsukino to Serena, and the Japanese intro was replaced with an admittedly catchy English theme. The DIC dub also added a segment titled, “Sailor Says” where the Sailor Scouts would impart lessons to viewers. The company took a similar approach with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, so it only makes sense that it would try the same approach for a series as popular as Sailor Moon.

Some of the U.S. censorship, however, was frankly ridiculous. Chief among that censorship was the removal of death scenes. Instead, the evil Queen Beryl’s minions “were sent to the Negaverse.” This didn’t make any sense as, for one, the Sailor Scouts’ attacks were fairly destructive. Sailor Mars summons a flaming arrow, and Sailor Jupiter can manifest a dragon composed entirely of lightning, so there isn’t much left in the way of the monsters’ bodies. But most important was the fact that the Negaverse is Beryl’s domain, therefore, sending her minions back would only empower them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the fifth and final season of Sailor Moon never aired in the U.S. due to Minako, aka Sailor Venus, having fantasies about her favorite band, the Three Lights, as men. Takeuchi was never shy about exploring LGBTQ+ themes in the Sailor Moon manga, so it would only make sense that those themes would appear in the anime. But American censors would scramble to tone down those elements to align with more Western binaric thoughts and norms. But that wasn’t the only infamous example of DIC’s attempts to rewrite the show.

‘Sailor Moon’ Characters Were Re-Written To Reduce LGBTQ+ Representation

As Sailor Moon progressed, more Sailor Scouts beyond the core five would be introduced. Two of those scouts were Michiru Kaiou (Sailor Neptune) and Haruka Tenou (Sailor Uranus). The two were as different as night and day: Michiru was a refined violinist while Haruka was a confident, outgoing race car driver. But the biggest revelation came from the fact that the two were lovers, making them the first lesbian couple in Sailor Moon. It wasn’t the first time the series featured a same-sex relationship: the Dark Kingdom generals Zoisite and Kunzite were shown to be in a relationship, with Kunzite mourning Zoisite after Beryl executed him for attempting to kill Tuxedo Mask.

DIC’s censorship could be felt the heaviest here in the U.S. version of Sailor Moon, with Zoisite being referred to as a woman (even having a female voice actress in Kristen Bishop), while Neptune and Uranus were referred to as cousins. This caused a sharp debate among Sailor Moon fans that exists to this day. Some fans prefer the dub due to the fact that it was their introduction to Sailor Moon, while others have balked at the egregious changes that scrubbed out a great deal of LGBTQ+ representation at a time when most fans could have used it. For a time, the DIC dub was the only way for Sailor Moon fans to engage with the show — but that all changed in 2014.

Sailor Moon would race back into prominence with the debut of Sailor Moon Crystal, a new series from Toei Animation that hewed far closer to the original series than the first anime did. To that extent, many of the series’ original themes have been restored, including Zoisite’s gender as well as Neptune and Uranus’ romantic relationships. The original series was also redubbed with all new voice actors, which also kept the original themes intact. Both series would fall under the purview of VIZ Media, which obtained the license for Sailor Moon in 2014.

Once again, this opened up a debate between Sailor Moon fans, as some prefer the new dub while others express their love of the DIC dub with its warts and all. No matter what side of the debate one falls on, it is clear that the VIZ version of the series hews far closer to Takeuchi’s original vision and keeps in all the themes that made the series worth a watch. With Sailor Moon Cosmos having debuted in June 2023, the legacy of Sailor Moon proves to endure no matter what umbrella it’s under, or what censorship issues it’s faced in the past.

Sailor Moon is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

WATCH ON HULU