[Part 4: Japanese Episodes 73-88]

These episodes of Sailor Moon were originally broadcast in English in 1997. They completed the Dark Moon Family story arc that was left unfinished in the original 1995 English TV broadcast of Sailor Moon. When discussing the English-language version of Sailor Moon, I refer to the Dark Moon Family story arc as 'Series 3'.

When Esmerodo (Emerald) first appears at the start of the Japanese episode, the camera slowly pans up from her feet and sexy swing music plays in the background. This is skipped in English; it just goes straight from the close-up of her green gems, to her and Rubeus talking.

At the end of the Japanese episode, Usagi (Serena) gets upset with Chibi Usa (Rini), blaming her for what has happened and raises her hand to slap her. Tuxedo Mask stops her. In English, they skip the whole scene. You can see part of this scene in the preview to series 3 episode 14.

The voice of Darien/Tuxedo Mask is now provided by Vince Corazza who was the voice of Allan in Series 2. After they had finished the first batch of English Sailor Moon episodes, Toby Proctor who used to do Darien's voice had gotten a new job on "Police Academy: The TV Series". Raye/Mars also has a new voice.

Rubeus has captured all the Sailor Scouts except for Sailor Moon. In the Japanese version he imprisons them on crystal crosses. All of the scenes with the crosses are removed in the English version.

They leave in some of the sound effects which were previously removed from the English version of the Dark Moon Family story arc. For instance the metallic echoing footsteps of Rubeus when in his spaceship were never heard in parts 1-12 (English episodes 54-65).

Rubeus says that Rini is trapped in a force field, but actually it is the Scouts, who she is trying to reach, who are trapped behind a force field. They change this because they want to leave out the fact that the Scouts are trapped on those crosses (although you can see the back of Mars' head when Rini is trying to break through the barrier).

For some reason, they shorten the scene of Rini pulling out the crystal power amplifier; you don't actually see her pull it out, just the resulting explosion. In English Rubeus says that the ship is programmed to self-destruct, but in Japanese he says that it will blow up because Rini destroyed the crystal power amplifier.

In this episode, they start calling the Luna Ball, Luna-P, which is what it was called in Japanese. In Japanese, Chibi-Usa's nickname for Sailor Pluto was "Puu". Everything else in this episode is similar to the original.

When Emerald explains her plan to Prince Diamond, Saphire says that he can make more wedges but he hopes Emerald doesn't waste them. In Japanese, Safiel says that he made the wedges in the shape Esmeraude requested although he finds it distasteful!

In English, Artemis says that sardines are better than cake, but in Japanese he complains about being thoughtlessly stuck in the little basket.

When Mamoru sees the suspicious waitress, he grabs a plate from a table and throws it frisbee-style at her. She jumps aside and turns back into "Margipan"/Marizpan, the droid. In English they cut out the part where he throws the plate.

When Mercury attacks, she now says the Japanese name of her attack "Shine Aqua Illusion".

In both versions, Esmeraude/Emerald teases the Sailor Scouts about being little girls, but in Japanese she says they are little girls with flat hips and flat chests which is why Sailor Moon is holding her arms over her chest and looking disappointed. In both versions, Jupiter tells her off and calls her an old lady.

The Japanese episode has a very funny opening scene which is skipped in English. Naru (Molly) says "promise ring" and Usagi (Serena) thinks she says "pro-wrestling" (English "r" and "l" sound pretty much the same in Japanese). Usagi conjures up an image of Naru beating up Umino (Melvin) in a wrestling ring.

In this English episode Emerald uses the Japanese pronunciation "droido" for "droid", and Tuxedo Mask calls the girls "Sailor Soldiers" (the literal translation of sailor senshi), rather than "Sailor Scouts".

Incidently, I actually thought this English episode was really well done.

A very funny scene gets deleted from the English version. When Usagi is having her feverish dream, she says "Oh, it's wonderful to spend Christmas with Mamo-chan like this" [I've noticed in anime that Christmas in Japan has an association with romance, whereas in North America we consider it to be family time]. Anyway, they're having this romantic dinner and getting very lovey-dovey, then all of a sudden Rei appears and yells "Hold it!" Ami sounds shocked, "Usagi-chan, you're still in junior high!". "You're too young for this kind of date", says Rei. "With dinner and cake and Mamoru-san!" says Makoto. The girls appear and say "We'll put them away.", then everything starts disappearing (the dinner, the romantic music, Mamoru-san...). Then Usagi wakes up.

Slight change at the beginning; Artemis says he was checking out that restaurant because he thought it could be a Negamoon hideout [they've started calling it the Negamoon instead of the Dark Moon] and Luna says that he just happened to check out one of the finest seafood restaurants in the city. In Japanese, Artemis says he's been working hard searching for Black Moon enemies everywhere and Luna comments that he's only been searching in restaurants.

In the original episode, Emerald gets tinkled on twice, once at the end as we saw, but also near the beginning, when she first finds the animal shelter.

Alan's flute music reappears for some reason in the English version.

Some scenes of the Dark Energy controlled dogs attacking people were removed. Also there's a scene that gives the impression that everyone has been knocked down, immediately followed by a scene where everyone seems to be standing.

Sailor Moon used to say "Moon Sceptre Elimination", but now says "Moon Sceptre Activation". In Japanese she says "moon princess halation" which in Japanese sounds like "muun pu-rinsesu haray-shun".

The English version cuts the opening, in which Emerald/Esmeraude is taking a bath and showing off her legs. She's busy talking to herself about how beautiful she is when Sapphire/Safiel appears and criticizes her for not being at work. Esmeraude yells at him for walking in on a woman's bath. This part is skipped in English but did you notice that Emerald is wearing a bathrobe and has a towel in her hair when she appears above the school and plants the Dark Energy wedge?

The English translation was a bit confusing with respect to the schools. The negative energy point was at Eisai Juku, which they called "Alberta Einstein School for the Gifted" in English. Juku is night school for extra studying and tutoring, sometimes called "cram school". All the students go to the same regular school, but only Amy and some of the others go to Eisai Juku. Serena and Lita don't go to juku and Amy apparently wasn't taking the class that was in session when the dark energy was planted (otherwise she would have been affected too).

Mistrust uses her hallucination power on Sailor Moon. In English:

Here's one fan translation of the Japanese (I don't know who wrote it):

VKLL translation of the Japanese:

The opening scene was dropped. It was a flashback to Chibi-Usa's first day at school. A boy started making fun of Chibi-Usa's name (its literal meaning is "little rabbit") until he got hammered on the head by the girl behind him. This girl whose name was Mamo-chan, became Chibi-Usa's friend.

Later, when Rini feels better and goes to school, the playground is in chaos. She sees Mamo-chan threatened by a bigger boy. In the Japanese version, Mamo-chan beats up the boy. Chibi-Usa runs over, then Mamo-chan trips her.

The Dic version calls the twins "Doom" and "Gloom" (didn't they use those names for other villians before?). In Japanese, they are called "Chiral" and "Achiral", which are organic chemistry terms for structural asymmetry and symmetry respectively.

Another scene that was cut: when Sailor Moon arrives at the school, someone throws a chair through the window.

Tuxedo Mask chastises the twin droids for corrupting a place of learning. In Japanese he tells Sailor Moon to "teach them the ABC's of justice"!

The second half of the episode is pretty much unchanged in English.

Wiseman chastises Diamond for listening to an Earthling. In Japanese, he scolds Dimando for listening to a woman.

The English adapation of this episode was quite disappointing and some confusing changes were made. For instance, Wicked Lady says that she will destroy Tuxedo Mask, but she actually attacks Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Mask throws himself in the way to protect Sailor Moon and Wicked Lady is shocked. She asks why Sailor Moon protected Tuxedo Mask when really it was the other way around.

Later, Sailor Venus says "Sailor Moon turned into Queen Serenity". Sailor Moon did not turn into her own mother, she turned into her future self Neo-Queen Serenity.

The English version omits the true nature of the Silver Crystal. The power of the Silver Crystal is in proportion to the depth of desire in the heart of the person wielding the Crystal. Therefore to use the full power of the Crystal, the user must want something so badly that they will give up their own life. That is why Tuxedo Mask and the others are upset that Serena (as Neo-Queen Serenity) is going to use the full power of the Crystal. Similarily, Rini/Chibi-Usa risks her own life by using the Crystal from the future. In fact, both girls do use their full power. What really happens in the scene in which Sailor Moon and Rini are floating against the pink hazy background is that the voice of the original Queen Serenity comes to them and says that since the greatest wish each of them had in their hearts was to save the other, they will both be restored to life, through the powers of the present and future Silver Crystals.

In the original, Usagi and Chibi-Usa did not cry when they were saying goodbye to each other in the park. You can see that Rini is actually smiling.

This is a real Japanese episode, not something that DiC made up, but the episode episode itself is really just a 25-minute advertisement for the next season of Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon S).

Sailor Moon S (Super) series was broadcast in English in 2000; see Missing and Changed Episodes Part 5 for more details.

Original videos as well as various written translations were consulted. The authors of those translations included Giovanni Beltrame, Hitoshi Doi, Tjuana Tenise Gaines, Valirianus Lam, and Donald Simmons.