Where would I start with "Sailor Moon"?

[marillion]

Sailor Moon is one of the many animes I've been curious to check out, so this thread has been very helpful for me too. Anybody know if the live action version is available anywhere in the US and if it's any good?

Back when my daughter was very young, we got into Sailor Moon in a heavy way. We have the entire series on DVD, including the final season of the original, called Sailor Moon Stars, which was never shown in the US. It features some gender bending characters and I guess DIC couldn't figure out a way to work around that for our overly-sensitive minds (UGH!).

I also got a fan-sub of the live series and movie and calling it cheesy is doing a disservice to cheese. I say that, but we still watched it all and honestly enjoyed it. It definitely suffers from a small budget. Luna the cat starts off as a horribly rendered CGI character but then suddenly becomes a puppet before finally transforming into Chibi Usagi. The storyline doesn't really follow any of the animations.

My daughter (now in college) did watch SM Crystal and said it was very good. As has been stated, it's mostly a remake of series 1, but it's more directly taken from the original manga rather than the cartoon. Plus, the animation is somewhat better.

If you can find the original Japanese subbed versions, go with those. The translations are more true to the script, where they curse and don't gloss over "controversial" subjects, specifically the sexuality of certain characters.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Finding the original Japanese versions of the classic Anime with Subs isn't necessary because of the existence of the Viz Media Dub, which presents the classic series completely uncut.

 

[Takeru]

^ Finding the original Japanese versions of the classic Anime with Subs isn't necessary because of the existence of the Viz Media Dub, which presents the classic series completely uncut.

The dub isn't very good though, watching the show subbed is a better experience.

 

[DigificWriter]

The dub isn't very good though

Is this opinion coming from first-hand experience?

 

[Takeru]

Obviously, how could I have a second hand opinion?

I don't think the VA's are very good or maybe it's the direction but the episodes I watched often had really weird deliveries of lines, the dialog didn't sound natural and some choices were bizarre, Shingo sounds older than Usagi, Kunzite's VA does a voice that ridiculous, he's not a guy with a deep voice, he's a guy pretending to have a deep voice.
The dub isn't awful but not particularly good either, watching it in japanese is definitely a better experience.

 

[DigificWriter]

Obviously, how could I have a second hand opinion?

By not having bothered to watch it yourself but relying on what other people have said.

I don't think the VA's are very good or maybe it's the direction but the episodes I watched often had really weird deliveries of lines, the dialog didn't sound natural and some choices were bizarre, Shingo sounds older than Usagi, Kunzite's VA does a voice that ridiculous, he's not a guy with a deep voice, he's a guy pretending to have a deep voice.
The dub isn't awful but not particularly good either, watching it in japanese is definitely a better experience.

Ok.

I'm a Dub fan primarily myself, and we've all sort of been talking about Dubs rather than Subs, at least thus far.

 

[Takeru]

By not having bothered to watch it yourself but relying on what other people have said.

But that's not having an opinion, that's just parroting.

Ok.

I'm a Dub fan primarily myself, and we've all sort of been talking about Dubs rather than Subs, at least thus far.

If you enjoy it that's great, I'm not against dubs on principle (personally I really enjoy the german dub even if the quality suffered a bit starting with season 2), it's just that this dub always sounds a bit off to me. I can see and hear that a lot of effort went into it but it just doesn't work for me.

 

[JD]

I'm assuming Hulu has the Viz Media version?
How different is the dialogue in the dub vs the sub?
I'm a big fan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and for years I always watched the subtitled version, and then I eventually decided to try the dubbed version, and I was shocked that the dialogue was totally different, and it actually explained a lot more of what was going on. I had always assumed with this kind stuff that the dubbed versions had the exact same dialogue, just spoken instead of written.

 

[Takeru]

I'm assuming Hulu has the Viz Media version?
How different is the dialogue in the dub vs the sub?
I'm a big fan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and for years I always watched the subtitled version, and then I eventually decided to try the dubbed version, and I was shocked that the dialogue was totally different, and it actually explained a lot more of what was going on. I had always assumed with this kind stuff that the dubbed versions had the exact same dialogue, just spoken instead of written.

I haven't watched the Viz sub but there will definitely be some differences, because the raw translations have to be tweaked for the dub to match the mouth flaps and for the sub to fit on screen.
From the spoken dialog in the dub I know that the translation is close to the original and there's no reason for me to assume that the sub won't be close to it as well, maybe someone who has watched both can confirm.

And yes, Hulu has the Viz version, the original dub is longer being distributed.

 

[JD]

Does the Viz version leave the gay characters gay? I read a while ago how one of the versions turned the two gay characters in a relationship into sisters or best friends or something like that.

 

[Samurai8472]

Make it so....

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

And it happened!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ great clip but wrong thread I presume?

 

[DigificWriter]

Does the Viz version leave the gay characters gay?

Yes.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

No.

If you want to see the original Sailor Moon series in a dub, the best option is the new Viz Media dub that was done in 2014.

Plus it looks like Viz managed to get everything.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think Viz is streaming these for free
https://www.viz.com/watch/streaming/sailor-moon

 

[Anwar]

Does the Viz version leave the gay characters gay? I read a while ago how one of the versions turned the two gay characters in a relationship into sisters or best friends or something like that.

Totally uncut, the Lesbians are Lesbians.

The voice acting though falls a bit flat. They more often than not sound like folks just reading lines instead of acting, even though it's a good cast.

The DiC dub and Cloverway Dub, for all their flaws, at least had the actors trying to act.

 

[JD]

I'm gonna probably do the subtitled version, I usually prefer that over dubbed.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Mostly the latter. The S stands for Super and Sailor Moon powers up into Super Sailor Moon and Sailor Stars refers to some new characters but that's the entire extent of the titles having any meaning.

What about "R"? Does "R" mean anything?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

What about "R"? Does "R" mean anything?

Saw this on wiki a while back:
According to the booklet from the Sailor Moon Memorial Song Box,[3] the letter "R" stands for the word "Romance", "Return" or "Rose".

So no, doesn't really mean anything.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I was a big fan of the DIC dub as a kid though I really only watched the first season with a bit of the other seasons here and there. I tried rewatching it twice in the last few years but adult me just couldn’t get into it. There’s still a bit of nostalgia there.

Two years ago I watched Crystal and loved it! No fillers and certain characters were nicer, and certain characters weren’t straight-washed. It did take me a while to get used to the new Usagi dub actress because I was so accustomed to Terri Hawkes’ voice.

I’m actually doing a second binge of Crystal and I think at some point this year I want to read the manga for the first time.