Sailor Moon FAQ – The Show
What are the pictures in the tiara for the dub scene changes?
As the tiara zooms in and out between scene changes, a video and image clips
are shown in high speed. You can see them by freeze framing on your VCR (almost
any episode).
Some of the pictures are: Princess Serenity, Queen Beryl's oracle, The first
three inner Senshi dancing with scarves (Moon, Mars, and Mercury – from opening
credits), and the Princess fighting Queen Beryl.
What is that background
behind Usagi when she runs to Tuxedo Mask in the opening dub credits?
The background is part of the painting
"Starry Night" by Van Gogh. You see it when Usagi, in her sailor fuku, is running
towards Tuxedo Mask (who's dressed completely in white).
Why does everyone look American if this is a translated Japanese show?
It's the style used in anime. The large
eyes date back to artists partly inspired by Disney (American artists are also
said to be influenced by anime/ manga artists, particularly by Hayao Miyazaki).
The hair is not
really
colored the way you see it; normally, the hair color
of Japanese characters in anime is always brown or black no matter what you see
on the screen. It is shown as something else only to visually distinguish between
characters.
Why do the heroines
get their power from jewelry and makeup if they're supposed to be fighting sexism?
They aren't fighting sexism (except in
the sense of having heroic female characters).
The anti-sexism idea seems to come from an early press release. It described
a scene (in dub episode 10) where the Sailor Scouts dodge airplanes sent after
them by Jadeite and make comments about how women aren't fools, not to belittle
women, etc. The speech was there, but someone took it more seriously than it should
be. When the episode appeared in the dub, the lines were removed.
Are there male monsters-of-the-episode?
The monsters of the episode are usually
female, but there is a point where Zoicite is turning ordinary people (reincarnated
youma) into monsters, which includes several males (a priest, Rei's grandfather,
and Uruwa). Still, it's usually pretty rare.
Also, in episode 18, the monster is formless but has Nephrite's voice, and might be considered male (the episode was adapted from a manga story, so the monster is a little unusual), and in episode 35 two skaters, one male, are changed into monsters. And in Sailor Moon SuperS, Fish Eye's monsters are male. The gender of the monster of the episode seems mostly random in Sailor Stars.
The original names of all of the monsters of the episode are as follows:
Episodes 1-46 (versus the Dark Kingdom): youma
Episodes 47-59 (versus Earl and Ann): cardian (also used in the dub)
Episodes 60-88 (versus the Black Moon): droid (also used in the dub)
Episodes 90-125 (versus Master Pharaoh 90, Mistress 9, Professor Tomoe, and the Death Busters): daimon
Episodes 128-166 (versus the Dead Moon Circus): lemures
Episodes 167-172: mirror paredories
Episodes 173-200: phage
When does the series
continue?
Part of the R season was originally shown out of order when the episodes were first run; making the end of the Alan/Ann story the last episode of the R season. In reruns, they're usually shown in the proper order.
Cloverway took over the dubbed Sailor Moon television series (replacing DiC),
and they did a fairly good job with translations. They also kept a lot of the
names consistent. Hotaru Tomoe keeps her original name, Setsuna has her name changed
to Trista, Haruka is Amarah, and Michiru is Michelle.
The relationship between Haruka (Uranus) and Michiru (Neptune) has been changed
in the dubs, making them "cousins." This is probably due to a feared
backlash for having a lesbian couple in what has become a children's cartoon series
in North America. However, in the Japanese anime series, they don't even kiss
on screen, and they never flat out admit to being a couple. Some of the voice
actors have also changed, the most noticeable being the actress for Sailor Moon
(Terri Hawkes needed to be replaced due to pregnancy leave), and Sailor "Minimoon,"
who has been given the cutesy voice of Stephanie Beard. Fortunately, Cloverway
also limits their cuts, and as far as I know, they haven't fully deleted any episodes.
There is no current word on anyone dubbing the Sailor Stars season. This may
be related to the characters of the Starlights - who are human males (and have
a popular boy band) but change into females when they fight. The final episode
(#200) is also another impending problem – because Sailor Moon is naked almost
the entire time. This series is also, no longer available in a North
American DVD release.
Why do we see <something> a
few times and then we never see it again when we logically should?
Values of <something>:
Sailor Moon's parents
and other relatives, Uruwa, Reika, Queen Serenity's ghost, Moon Tiara Stardust,
Unazuki, Naru, Umino and Naru together, Yuuichirou, etc.The anime was partly based on the manga,
but was weekly instead of monthly, so it had to be stretched out. This means that
one shot or minor characters from the manga got major roles in several stories,
and it also means several characters and subplots were completely invented for
the TV series. This made it look like something was a big part of the series when
it really never was.
Why are the attacks
in the Mixxzine translated manga different from the ones shown in the dub?
The dub use different attack names from the original TV episodes. Also, the
original comics used different names (or even different attacks) from the original TV episodes.
The Mixxzine/ Tokyopop version is different for both of these reasons. For
instance, the original manga (and Mixxzine) uses "Moon Frisbee", the original
TV uses "Moon Tiara Action," and the dub uses "Moon Tiara Magic." Mixx used the
original; they didn't change it. This does not apply to "cow tails," which is
not from the original.
When do the movies take place, chronologically?
It isn't really possible to fit the movies into the series continuity.
ChibiUsa appears in the R movie, but she leaves at the end of the R series. That means the R movie could only happen if the Black Moon villains are alive but for some reason not doing anything during the movie.
In the S movie, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto appear. Pluto goes away before the S series ends, which means that the S series villains would also have to be alive but not doing anything. Furthermore, Hotaru does not appear in the movie, yet in the S series she is already around when Pluto reappears. (This movie was based on a manga story, and probably fits into manga continuity.)
In the SuperS movie, Pluto appears, yet in the Sailor Stars series, the Senshi are surprised to learn she's alive.
Why do the villains
all attack places in walking distance of where the Senshi are? They don't teleport
routinely, so if the villains attacked another country, the heroines would be
helpless to stop them. For that matter, why don't they ever attack when they're
in class?
There probably isn't any valid reason. But it's likely that it would just take
too long to incorporate changes for worldwide attacks into the episode timeslots.
Why does nobody attack when the Senshi are transforming or charging their attacks?
Usually, transformations don't take time, and are there just for the viewers' sake. (e.g. near the end of the first series where Usagi and Mamoru are attacked, Usagi transforms while the attack is still in the air.)
There is an episode, however, where Jupiter does her usual motions to attack and gets tied up, mid-gesture.
In dub #32, Sailor Moon was attacked while trying to "heal" the youma.
According to the storyboard writers, in dub #30 Usagi was embarrassed at transforming in front of Mamoru because she would be seen naked, implying the transformations do take some time (Source: Animage 5/93, formerly translated on ftp.tcp.com). The odd part about this is that her body is coloured with computer animation, even in the original episodes; so you could argue that she isn't
really
naked (but maybe she doesn't know that). However, she might just have been embarrassed to have Mamoru see her transform because it's unusual to divulge her secret identity in front of someone she personally knows.
Why does Sailor Moon
stop using some of her magic items later on? Why does everyone else stop using
some of their attacks?
The attack in the first episode, where she hurts the monster by crying, reappears
in Sailor Moon SuperS, as a joint attack of Usagi and ChibiUsa.
Usagi loses the first moon stick at the end of the first storyline and never gets it back, though she does recover and use the silver crystal (which moves to her brooch). There is no explanation of why she stops using the disguise pen. (It is still around because Venus uses it later in the S series to disguise herself as Sailor Moon.)
The explanation of why she can't use her moon tiara is that she has to really
want to be Sailor Moon to use it. This immediately makes you wonder if she uses it again when her mood improves. In (Japanese) episodes 98, 100, and 123, she does use it again, although the attack is stock footage, cut so that you can't see that she wore a different brooch when the stock footage was drawn. She also uses it in the R movie, episode 163, and the SuperS movie without the old stock footage. The Eternal Sailor Moon outfit in Sailor Stars no longer includes a tiara; however, Usagi uses "Moon Tiara Action" with a frozen pizza in episode 184. Another reason she might not use it is because it is one of her weaker attacks; as the series progresses the monsters become stronger, as do the Senshi (and subsequently, their attacks).
The attacks that the Senshi get in the Earl/Ann story are later ignored almost
completely except for Sailor Moon's. Crescent Beam Shower shows up in #141 with
a different name, and Shabon Spray Freezing is reused in #80. The real explanation
is that these episodes were something of a fill-in (the original comic is monthly,
and the series is weekly, so they had to stretch it out). Note that in the clips
episodes (Japanese #89 and the start of the SuperS special) no clips from these
episodes are shown.
Why are there some out of order episodes in the English dub?
The 13 episodes with the two aliens (episodes
41-53) were shown out of order, after episodes 54-65. Janice Sonski (Sailor Moon
co-executive-producer) explained: "We hoped we would be able to place the Alan
and Ann story on a network and so we held them out as 13 exclusive episodes, but
no decision [had] been made and we needed to run them." In reruns, the episodes
usually appear in the proper order. Episode 41 was also shown out of sequence
as a special on Fox on September 2, 1995, before the regular series started.