Sailormoon World -- Information Notebook -- DiC Episode Changes and Additions

In Japan, Sailor Moon is geared towards the audience of females aged 8 thru 16, so some of the content of Sailor Moon has a bit of mature themes within the story. DiC dubbed the North American version of Sailor Moon and when they did this, they geared the show for younger kids. By doing this, DiC had to make changes and censor some of the episodes and even cut a few episodes from the series. This did upset many of the fans of the original series, but censorship in North American does seem to be much more strict, than in Japan. People must remember that if it wasn't for DiC, many of them would not even know that Sailor Moon exists. Below, we have pointed out some of the changes that DiC made to the show.

Transformations: In the original showing of Sailor Moon, when Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako transform into the Sailor Senshi (Scouts), they appear to be nude with contour lines forming their body and chest. DiC edited out some of the lines for fear that some might see it as nudity. They didn't have to edit Serena's transformation, due to the fact that she didn't have the line that might suggest nudity.

Risque Shots: DiC either edited or cut screens that might appear too risque to some. Some examples of this are:
Cutting scenes where views might be looking up the skirts of the Sailor Scouts.
In a scene where Serena is taking a bath, DiC raised the level of the bathwater for fear of showing too much clevage of her chest.

Zoisite (Japanese name: Zoycite): Zoisite is a male in the original japanese show, but was changed into a female due to the fact that Zoycite and Malachite (Japanese name: Kunzite) have a relationship.

Violence: Scenes were cut that were deemed to violet for younger viewers. Some of these were:
Serena getting slapped by Raye. (Twice)
Rini getting a spanking from Serena.
Serena getting shot from a toy gun by Rini.
One episode in which Serena gets strangled by a monster.

Sailor Moon Says: A moral has been added at the end of each episode titled 'Sailor Moon Says'. DiC was required to do this, because television shows for younger viewers in the United States are required to have a percentage of educational content.

Airtime Cuts: Some scenes were cut for the simple fact of fitting the episode in the alotted time made for watching the show.

Cultural Item: Some of the items that reflect Japanese culture have been cut. Perhaps this was done so that kids in North America could relate better to the show. This would be the same reason the character names were changed. One of the items is the bento boxes. These are boxes that contain specially arranged school lunches. They do show the bento boxes in a few episodes, one of the episodes is #49 'Food Fetish'.

Opening & Ending: The original Japanese opening and ending of the show is not used by DiC. They also do not change the name of the series like they did in Japan. In the DiC version, the Sailor Moon R series is still referred to as Sailor Moon.

Music: DiC uses the Japanese opening melody for the opening and closing, although its not totally original to the Japanese one, because DiC gives it new words. Basically, all the music in the DiC version was either replaced, edited or cut. The transformation music, Tuxedo Mask's theme and Alan's flute music are different from the Japanese ones.