AQ : Rantings and Ravings

Well, the Cloverway dub is better because it uses the original music. Gone is the repetitive, intrusive, unemotional tripe droning in the background of the DiC dub! I never thought I could grow to hate Moonlight Densetsu.
But there's more to the show than the music. If you set aside the BGM and concentrated on the script and the acting, then the Cloverway dub is a definite step down. The replacements for Serena and Amy sound like they're mocking the old voice actors. Trista's voice is just stupid. And having Pluto say "Check it OUT!" is so wrong, for so many reasons. And the script, well, surely ANYTHING has got to be an improvement over that old "wicked kewl" stuff, right? Wrong. Before, the dialogue was stupid. Now it's stupid and completely incomprehensible.
First off is the whole Talisman/Holy Grail/Messiah thing Yeah, DiC wavered on the title of the Silver Imperium Moon Crystal, but it was always a slight difference, like Silver Crystal or Imperium Crystal. They didn't call it the Moon Crystal in one episode, the Sparkly Thing in the next, and the Magical Doohicky in the one after that. The word "talisman" which is evil and satanic enough to be censored (I've heard "talisman" on The Thundercats before) was called everything from The Pure Hearts to The Pure Hearts with Special Powers to These Powerful Things We're Looking For. The Holy Grail was called the Purity Force, The Almightiness, the Ultimate Power, and finally the Purity Chalice. And the Messiah, good lord! (so to speak) I can't even LIST em all! It went from being the Ambassador of Good (?!) to the Legendary Princess to the Sovereign. The whole thing has never ONCE been properly explained or even attempted without being completely re-writen later.
When the dialogue isn't incomprehensible it's mind-numbingly stupid. I don't recall Queen Beryl ever saying she feels "not so hot" and that her head is full of pea soup (Sovereign of Silence). I don't think Queen Serenity ever said "You wanna know? Hear me out!" (Pluto). So, no, no one ever says "wicked kewl" anymore, but no one ever delivers an impressive line of good dialogue the way DiC sometimes did, either. Except for Tomoe, of course, who has the best voice actor in the show. Rini's actress does an impressive job of imitating Araki Kae's voice, too. They should fire whoever the hell is doing Serena and get THIS girl to do the job. But aside from these two (and that glorious music) it's pretty much an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" type situation.
- Frostbite

I think they both suck. I mean first off they are dubs so that just ruins them right there, Cloverway kept the same "voice actors", if you can even call them that. They both cut eps, they both changed names I mean cloverway left Hotaru, but after me and a friend thought about it it would have been better for them to change it. Cause now people watching "Sailor Moon" will think that, that is the REAL Hotaru from BSSM, and we wouldn't want that! Cloverway left in some Japanese music but it sounds HORRIBLE with "Serena" saying "moon cosmic power" over it w/ her horrible voice anyway. DiC added the "Negaverse" but Cloverway.... still changed "Death Busters" to "Heart Snachers". So, my answer is that they both suck and have ruined the show tremendously.
- cHiBi No BaKa

As far as I'm concerned, both versions are throughly sucky. Cloverway did get decent voices as replacements for Mars and Mercury, but Serena...*twitch* Oh, goddess, Serena. And Mini-Moon. The name..."Mini-Moon, stop humping the wand!" And I keep getting the image of "Mini-Moon" chewing on Luna's ear, and later Diana's...
The only good thing I can see that Cloverway did right is they kept Hotaru's name. Since Hotaru is quite possibly the coolest character ever, keeping her Japanese name instead of changing it to something goofy was a good move. Setsuna to Trista, though? What were these people thinking...
- Emelyn

Neither. I couldn't care less about either production of the English dub. I don't dislike them and I don't like them. Additionally, I don't dislike the fans who enjoy watching them. To me, the two productions of the dub are just "there." They just exist. I don't care much for the lack of consistency in them. In the original, there is a fair amount of consistency. The only thing I really do like about the dub is the fact that they kept the name of my favorite character, Hotaru!
- Ian M.

For me, Dic has an edge over Cloverway in the battle. Why? One word: Consistency. Cloverway has been so inconsistent with story lines, names, attack and call phrases- it's unbelievable! Even though Dic's version was a "bad adaptation", at least they were consistent! And what bugs me the most is that most of the mistakes are small enough that they shouldn't have been mistakes! When my friends and I talk about this, we can always say "Don't worry, the outers will probably use their planet call phrase next time." or "I hope to god that they don't keep calling the Messiah 'The Ambassador of Good'."
Another important point comes from the inconsistency. And quite frankly, it could be considered the worst offense cloverway has committed (excluding the last 17 R episodes from Dic). Cloverway has mixed the "Dub" and the Original. What we in the SM Community thought was the worst mistake a Webmaster/Webmistress could do, has now been done to theactual show. And that's what I think. Besides, I'd take Terri Hawkes' voice as Serena over the new VA any day.
- Athena

I have to say that neither dub is better than the other. I honestly don't see much of a difference.
Cloverway's dub keeps the Japanese music, but that is about it. The counter to that would be that DiC is actually more consistent. Hard to believe, huh? That is my main pet peeve with the Cloverway dub: they are inconsistent in almost every episode. Uranus will use "World Shaking" when Neptune uses "Neptune Deep Submerge", or vice versa. Of course the next day, they both might use the original attack names, or they might add the planet's name onto the attack.
Besides, how is the Cloverway dub better than the DiC dub when it uses DiC names and attacks? They also use the old DiC voices, and some of the new voices are actually worse than DiC's! Also, the Cloverway dub still renames almost everything, just like DiC did. "The Bureau of Bad Behavior" is just as immature as the "Negaverse", in my opinion.
- Stacy

Well, I'm going to have to go with Cloverway. Yes, they have the dub song, and the dub voices, and, of course, the names. But they were just following suit. It would be very confusing to watch the last DiC episode "Follow the Leader" with the names Serena, Amy, Raye, Lita, and Mina, and then jump into the Cloverway dub "Star Struck, Bad Luck" with the names Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako. And who can forget Amarra, Michelle, and Trista? I would have to agree with Michelle over Nerissa (I believe that was her Irwin/DiC name), because it is closer to Michiru.
Anyway, enough about CWI, I will have to go on to DiC. I didn't like their episodes to much. They followed very little of the original script, cut out episodes, and started making up wild names, like Serena, Lita, Molly, etc., etc.. CWI had no choice but to keep these names, and some of their VAs (i.e., Molly, Melvin, Lita, and Raye's second voice). They also cut any sliver of the original music, inserting weird electronic music instead. CWI did have the decency to keep this music.
So again, I have to go with Cloverway for better dubbing.
- Kayla