Interactive >> Article "Sailor Moon S: What Went Wrong for America :: Revised"

You've probably seen it. More powerful than a locomotive, able to clear buildings in a single- oh, wait, scratch that, and one of the worst things that the Japanese Anime fans saw for Sailormoon Super's dubbing: Cloverway. A lot of people who've seen my binder of Materials Collection pages who don't know about Anime suddenly remember somewhat like this: "Oh yeah, I remember that show. What's it? Oh yeah, it was Sailor Moon! My favorite character was (enter senshi name here)." But I don't blame them for not knowing the true colors and horrors of this dub.

Cloverway's slogan is "Bringing out the best in anime." But by looking at Sailor Moon S, it's highly doubtful. This season was the most hacked and slashed dub; a whopping (approximately) 89% was cut! This little essay is dedicated to explaining the things that REALLY ticked off this purist.

1) Inconsistency. This is what turned off many original AND dub fans alike. Let's focus on poor Mako-chan (whoops, I mean "Lita") for a second. Sparkling Wide Pressure had FOUR names, oh the horror! A) "Sparkling Wide Pressure!" B) "Jupiter Thunder Power!" C) "Supreme Thunder Crash!" D) "Jupiter Thunderclap Zap!" If you ask me, D was the name that DiC gave to Sparkling Wide Pressure, so that should have been consistent. I watched two episodes and Cloverway left me scratching my head over which was the real name. Poor Minako had to endure the tortures of: "Venus Love Chain Whip!" (Isn't that kind of redundant?), "Venus Love Chain Harness!" (Is it just me, or does that sound kind of ecchi? O.o), and a couple others I forgot.

2) Homophobia. This is what ticked off a LOT of Haruka+Michiru fans. Instead of the sweet lovers they are, they're COUSINS! Yes, related! This messed up a lot of the plot later in the series, and caused some shots to be cut. T.T I'm not going to comment, the folks over at Sailor Moon: Uncensored have done that.

3) Careless errors. There were quite a few of these. One was the "Venus Crystal Power!" error that I caught when I was watching it for the first time. (Gee, Minako, I didn't know that you could go Super already!) Another was "Mini Prism Power!" (Chibi-Usa: Mini Prism Power, Make-up! *shrinks* Hey!) error which was pointless, and VERY stupid. On to the next thing before I ramble for two hours.

4) *THE* CENSOR. In dub episode 112 (Japanese episode 119) the daimon U-Chouten's breasts were bare EXCEPT for two VERY BIG red stars covering up each breast. BUT! Cartoon Network sent the episode back to Cloverway and skipped it, and went on with the series. Oh. My. Kami. When it did air, something was most definitely wrong. U-Chouten had...A GREEN BRA!!!! Cloverway had digitally painted on a bra and panties for the daimon! (Imagine how Mimete feels!)

5) The hideous voices. Why is it that the Voice Actresses can't grunt without sounding like they're having sex? Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna's voices all sounded too feminine. Hotaru's was so-so.

6) Pointless cuts. There was a cut of Usagi and Minako slipping on an oil puddle and crashing into a huge pile of oil cans in episode 92 (dub 85). You see them slipping, you see them in the pile of cans, but you don't see them hitting the cans! Is there something in the FCC that states that you cannot be a klutz? Then, in the next episode, there is a shot of Usagi and Mamoru hugging after the cookie incident, that cuts to a shot of a statue of two people hugging. Both the shots were cut. Is Cloverway suddenly anti-romantic?

7) And to top this all off, the VALLEY GIRL SLANG!!!!! I heard Michiru say "What's up, 'cuz?" in one of the episodes (cannot recall number) to Haruka (the cousins thing was bad enough!). That almost left me with an asthma attack from screaming.

This is pretty comprehensive. Look at SM Uncensored for more information.

Remember, cheese and chocolate are holy!

*This is my opinion, and solely mine. If you disagree, too bad. I think this way, and you're not going to change it.