Sailor Moon S Cuts/Changes

Sailor Moon season S has been dubbed by Cloverway, a division of Toei and Optimum Productions. In the US, it's being run exclusively on Cartoon Network. The only affiliation with DiC is the use of their opening theme music. These same companies will be doing the SS season and that will air on Cartoon Network (we just don't know when yet).

Format Changes

In the original, there would be a small teaser to tell you what was coming up in the episode. This is usually pretty humorous and narrated by one of the senshi. This is followed by the opening sequence. For season S, the opening sequence would vary as the season went on. Somewhere along the way, Uranus and Neptune show up in the sequence, and things like that.

Now, Cloverway and Optimum did translate this part. They changed the opening sequence so it's the DiC theme song to seemingly random Sailor Moon clips. All of the clips of the outer senshi were from the movies. None of the clips were from the SMS season. It was rather weird. Now, Cartoon Network didn't show this part. So how do I know? Well, they did show it for one episode. Possibly to make up for a number of cuts that made the episode short, possibly because of a mistake. Either way, we only saw it once, but once was enough. It was just plain weird.

Cartoon Network stuck in their own Toonami opening sequence. Scenes from the first two Sailor Moon seasons to their Toonami music, with some random sound bites. So, like, whatever. I would've preferred to see the original opening sequence with the original music. But I'll have to settle for watching it on my raw Japanese tapes. Now, to make this Toonami sequence look Japanese and "cool", they stuck in some Japanese writing. Know what it says? "Sailor Ve-" Clearly the start of Sailor Venus' name. Apparently it's now her show. (Note: Sailor V was Sailor Moon's predecessor. Maybe she's reclaiming what's rightfully hers!)

Also in the original, there would be the ending sequence and a teaser for the next episode. This was changed. They give us part of the ending sequence with a different version of the right music. And they cut the teaser. And we get to hear (in the later episodes), "Cloverway! Representing the Best in Japanese Animation!". Mmhmm. Right. You could represent it better, guys.

The background music is more or less intact. In a few episodes, you'll hear an English version of one of the songs, but it's not too bad. It's the same music, just done in English. So, those who are wondering, yes, when Sailor Moon transforms, it really does have the music o/~ Sailor Mooon.. o/~.

All of the art/animation is intact. All the signs and letters are still in Japanese. Prompting Mina to say in one episode "It's written in funny symbols!". Rini and Serena seem to have no problem reading Japanese though. Go figure. The scene wipes are cheesy though. We get stars, and hearts, and Moon wands and things. Sometimes you can ignore them, sometimes they just seem so inappropriate and annoying.

Names

In the early episodes, they were being referred to as Sailor Soldiers. We cheered! That was great! Much better translation for the word Senshi! But.. then they got turned back into Scouts after a few episodes. Siiigh.

All of the DiC names were kept, and you can take a look at the cast list for a complete rundown. Amy, who had once in the DiC episodes answered the phone, "Anderson residence", is referred to once in SMS as Mizuno. Hurrah! We never hear anyone else's last name, except for the four outers.

Ten'ou Haruka is Amara Ten'ou. Kaiou Michiru is Michelle Kaiou. Meiou Setsuna is Trista Meiou (pronounced Mayo). What's interesting there is that we were all betting on Susan, and it turns out her new voice actor's name is Susan. Tomoe Hotaru is Hotaru Tomo(e). It's pronounced like Tomo, but we assume it's the proper spelling.

Most of the bad guys got to keep their names, or nearly. Most of the extras also got to keep their names as long as they hadn't shown up in any of the DiC episodes.

Relationships

Amara and Michelle are cousins. And they must be wearing it on their sleeves or something, because everyone knows they're cousins. Not only that, but Uranus and Neptune are also cousins. Sailor Moon seems to just randomly know they're cousins. Just like Amara randomly calls her "Moonface". If it's Serena Tsukino and Amara speaks Japanese, well that'd make sense.. if Amara knew she was Sailor Moon (which she didn't at that point), then it'd make sense.. *sigh*

People were erroneously reporting that these two were sisters. Well, they're not. Never have been, never will be. Thank goodness. Hey, cousins can be involved all they want! Just look at Card Captor Sakura!

Also, in one episode, Rini calls Amara and Michelle her "favorite cousins". This is followed by a comment from Serena about it being pretend cousins. The implication being that Rini is pretending Amara and Michelle are her cousins. Jeez! Wasn't pretending your mother is your cousin bad enough? (Note: This is the only canonical cousin part. Chibiusa and Usagi do pretend to be cousins, to explain where she came from and why they're living together.)

Religion

In the original, everyone is trying to find the three talismans to summon the Holy Grail to awaken the Messiah. Or something like that. It does get confusing. But Cloverway's version just makes it all that much more confusing.

It's a Purity Chalice, and they're looking for the Ambassador of Good. There's a Sovereign of Silence. The Deathbusters are The Bureau of Bad Behavior. And I'd go into greater detail, but it really did confuse the heck out of me.

Voice Actors

Amy's voice sounds much better. The other "Scouts" don't sound too bad. Serena was suffering a few problems in the early episodes, but she got better as the season went along. I wasn't cringing after the first half dozen episodes. Rini is wonderful. She is the absolutely best casting job they did. But enough gushing.

Trista (Pluto) sounds way, way too young. The cats, Dr. Tomoe, Hotaru, everyone else, they're okay. Well, we're used to the cats, so.. hey, at least they're not Phil Hartman!

Transformations/Attacks

Some of the inner senshi have their proper attacks, which is surprising. Some, though, don't. Venus in particular. "Venus Love Chain Whip!" Um.. her attack seems to change depending on what she's doing with it.

Uranus and Neptune are very strange. Usually their transformations and attacks are wrong. "Uranus Star Power!" "Neptune Deep Submerge!" But on rare occasion, they'd be right! (Or nearly so) "Neptune Planet Power!" "World Shaking!"

Pluto, the idiot, shouts her attack. It's supposed to be a whisper! Grrr. "Pluto Deadly Scream!" instead of "deado scream".

If I get ambitious enough, I'll make a chart of who says what transformation/attack in what episode.

Wrapup

That about sums it up. In some ways, it is better than DiC's version. But for what they did to Haruka and Michiru? Urusanai! Otaku ni kawatte oshiokiyo!