AQ : Rantings and Ravings

I believe that in some ways that Cloverway did do a better job with the dubbing. Not because of the voices...*^^* but for the background music....that is one of my points in their direction. I love the japanese music, and at least they kept a portion of that. What else? Hmm....I'm not sure. They dubbing is about as good as DiC....the name changes and such. Really, they are about on the same level. I generally like the original.
- Lazuli

Both dubs are pretty similar, and there should be no real distinguishing of the two. Why?
1. They mess up the attack names, as much, if not more, than DIc did. Please do not say, "At least they tried to change it back or keep the origional names." They barely did, and they added stuff to them, like a planet name. ("Neptune Deep Submerge" etc.) Also, if you use this as an argument, think of poor Jupiter, who's attack changes daily, and Pluto, who's attack is nothing like the japanese. Pluto yells the phrase, and it's "Pluto Deadly Scream!"... If that's trying to stay truer to the origional, I must have been hit on the head as a small child...
2. Cloverway kept the origional music. That's great, a true win for the fans, but they still change some things. Ai no Senshi had english lyrics in the episode where Usagi...er, Serena is in the car with Michelle and Amara. Sure, they keep the BGM, but at climactic points do you really think they can resist pasting in "The Power of Love"? It happened in the R movie, and I bet it will happen sometime soon. Also, the ending song and beginning song is the Dic version, not our lovely Moonlight Densetsuor Tuxedo Mirage... Cherish the music while it lasts. :)
3. Transformations. Never try using this as an argument. They still smudge barely-there breastlines and buttocks lines, and they still can't decide on a name. Everyday, it's either "Blank Star Power!", "Blank Crystal Power!", or "Blank Planet Power!"... Can't they decide on one name? It's confusing, and I don't like it at all... for either season.
4. Amercianizing. THIS IS A HUGE ONE! They americanize in every episode, dumbing down content and making something that is a japanese custom into something else, and it's pretty bad... (Note- For the next section I am using, as a resource, The Sailor Senshi Page*. They have everything in every episode that the dub changed.) In episode 103, there is no mention of Maya being taiko drummer. She's just a drummer. The festival is called a kimono festival, but the senshi are wearing yukatas. In the next episode, where Chibi-usa shows the letter from Neo-Queen Serenity, there is no mention or it being written with no kanji. They also see that the letter had the wrong kanji, but that it was erased. They also said Usagi was too lazy to use a dictionary. In the dub, they say that letter from the future is hard to understand because it is written with few letters a pictures. That is quite a way to talk about kanji, huh? The boy, Tamasaburo, is a girl in the dub. So, they really do change and americanize a lot of things. I could write them all down, but this is getting long.
5. Censoring. Think they do less in the new dub? You're wrong. Numerous shots of the Daimon's causing physical harm to either a main character or a secondary character are cut short. When a daimon pulls up a bit of clothing to reveal a star, they cut that part out, so all of a sudden you are looking at a star. (Oh my god! It appeared from nowhere!) Usually, the violence is just cut of early. Numerous shots of Serena or a fellow scout being slammed into a wall, a tree, etc, have been cut. This means you see them after, lying against a tree or in a heap, but you never see it on impact. Also, since the changing of Haruka and Michiru IS censorship, I must note that here. I don't really have to say anymore on this, except that this is the main censorship that they have done. Also, they cut out any, or change any, dialogue that concerns their relationship. They also tweak whole episode, like the episode where Makoto has what appears to be a "crush" on Haruka. Also, they change the genders of males who look a little too femanine. Tamasaburo is an example of this.
6. Plot points are tweaked and modified. Things are changed, like the names of the important players and items. Examples- Messiah=Ambassador of Good, Holy Grail=Purity Chalice, Talsimans= Um, Crystal Treasures, Treasures, Pure Crystal Treasures, it's really a put luck on any given day... As you can see, they do change a lot of the origional plot points. The Death Busters are now called the "Bureau of Bad Behavior", the Messiah of Silence is the "Sovereign of Silence", and a really weird change was also made in episode 111. Uranus says that the chalice can be used by two people. One bad... and one is a legendary Princess. Ok, this is not what the origional said at all. It was the MESSIAH. This is just a really bad way to tell the audience that Sailormoon will use it or have something to do with it. Besides... Who is the only princess in this season...? I thought so.
7. Name changes. They actually kept the villain names, Tomoe's name, and Hotaru's name, but they are all pronounced strangely. Hotaru's name is pronounced like someone would pronounce a japanese name that had never heard any speak japanese, as well as Tomoe's. Names have been changed for the Outer Senshi. Also, they change the names of some of the victims of the day to make them more amercian. Just like Dic, ne?
Those are the main points. I won't bash the voices or anything else. That's too easy. If you look at everything that Cloverway has changed, they aren't that much different from Dic. I wonder if people are just trying to feel better about the dub, even when it's almost just as badly done.
- Erin

I believe that they both had there strong points and their horrible points, and I don't really see that one is better than the other. When I first saw SM everything fit fine to me. The music and stuff, and in my eyes I didn't see anything wrong with it. I still sorta watch it, but have purchased my subs and stuff. My reaction to the original music was "This is WRONG!" (even though I'd seen the original) It didn't fit, with everything else. It's Japanese people singing in an Americanized cartoon and it doesn't fit. Its better, but it didn't fit. I don't know, but has anyone thought, the VA for Serena was hired by somebody!? My question is WHO!? The voice is bad, but the other's were okay, and Rini's voice is wonderful to me! I like it better than the Japanese. Kudos for them !! The inconsistencies in both dubs is confusing, but keeping some names Japanese and others not is confusing and well strange. I guess its still good, because if it were horrible we wouldn't be watching it would we? Oh well...
- Moon-star

I like each dub for different reasons. The DiC dub was better than the Cloverway one because they tried harder. They wrote new music and translated the Japanese writing. Cloverway just left it how it was.
DiC was consistent in the attack names and henshin phrases (most of the time at least) Cloverway has Jupiter attacking with a different attack name each time!
Cloverway dub is better than the DiC dub because I love the music. They left the music the same! I personally love the Japanese BGM especially the outer's henshin music. They wrote English lyrics to Ai no Senshi though -_- Cloverway also gets points for even TRYING to dub the S series, which has the whole Uranus and Neptune "issue" and a whole lot of religious symbolism.
They're dubbing every episode too, not skipping random episodes. (yes I know there's supposed to be a reason for each one but still!) Names...I don't really care about the names that much, but I think that the 2 companies are about even on this one.
So, I like both dubs about the same, but for different reasons. If I had to choose between DiC and Cloverway though, I'd choose Cloverway because of the music.
- Diana