By: Shellder
A couple of years ago, my sisters found themselves watching a new show
on (in our area) UPN, Channel 13. They told me that it was about a
girl who saves the world with special powers. That show was the dubbed
version of Sailormoon. I got hooked. After watching episodes from the
first season and the first half of the second season, where the series
was cut off, I got on the internet to learn more. You can't imagine how
blown away I was by what I found.
I found that Sailor Moon was a Japanese anime show; that Sailor Moon is
one word, Sailormoon, in Japan; that there are five seasons, all of
which are referred to by different titles; that there were more than five
"Sailor Scouts". The list goes on. What really surprised me were the
differences between the original and the English dub. Body lines were
erased. Violent scenes were removed. The Sailor Senshi died in the
battle with Beryl and Metallia; the Sailor Scouts simply "fainted", but
returned later to help Sailor Moon.
Many people today are disgusted, angry, and annoyed with the dub of the
first four seasons. I have to say that I am slightly disappointed, but
what many people don't understand is that our society is different from
Japanese society. Nudity and homosexuality aren't as accepted here as
they are in Japan; we don't find it a very good idea to present these
ideas to small children, who are easily influenced. (Ask my sister,
whose kindergarten classmates attacked each other like Power Rangers when
the show first came on.) Kids just don't know how different reality is
from fantasy, and tend to bring fantasy ideas over to the real world.
You say that erasing body lines is too much; American censors didn't
find it appropriate to show fourteen-year-old girls with such developed
bodies. Haruka and Michiru are lovers, not "cousins", but American
censors don't like to promote homosexuality to small children. The Sailor
Senshi died in that last battle; maybe they did, but American ce!
nsors didn't want to tell young children that you can die, but later
come back to give your power and help save the universe. Young children
have sketchy concepts of life and death, and may not realize that just
because Sailor Moon and her Sailor Scouts came back to life, it doesn't
mean that they can too.
And so, with reading this, I hope many people may come to realize that
edits to the original Sailormoon series were done in the best interest
of the American children, who, I would like to point out, were the main
audience for this show in the first place. I'm not necessarily saying
that older people (I'm fifteen myself, and just finished watching the
dubbed version of "Sailormoon Super S") shouldn't be watching the show,
but they need to remember that the show just wasn't aimed toward them.
It's like saying that Barney the Purple Dinosaur's songs are too cushy,
and need more edge to them, but Barney isn't aimed toward older people.
It's for the preschool crowd, which is exactly where Sailor Moon was
originally aimed. Because of this marketing scheme, Amara and Michelle
are very close cousins, the Sailor Scouts have flat bodies when they
transform, Zoicite and Fisheye are girls, and the Sailor Scouts lived
through that last battle. They can't die, never will. It'd crush !
the American children.
Comments on this article can be sent to: Shellder.
