Sailor Moon - -dub-
But the DiC dub is a time capsule. It’s the "Sailor Moon" where Sailor Mars says "Raye" with a snarl, where the Negaverse was a constant threat, and where we didn't know that Sailors Uranus and Neptune were lovers because we were too busy being confused about why they held hands so much. Watch the DiC/Cloverway dub if: You are feeling nostalgic. You want to laugh at the censorship while simultaneously crying happy tears at the theme song. You need to hear "Go bleach your roots, creep!" (Sailor Jupiter’s iconic dub line) again.
What are your memories of the old Sailor Moon dub? Did you prefer Serena’s original voice or the later voices? Drop a comment below—but please, no spoilers about the Sailor Stars dub we never got! Sailor Moon -Dub-
So, here’s to you, Serena. Here’s to you, Darien. And here’s to that terrible, wonderful, beautiful rock guitar solo. But the DiC dub is a time capsule
Terri Hawkes (and later Tracey Moore) as Serena/Usagi captured the clumsy, hungry, crybaby essence perfectly. When Serena whined "Moooonieee," you felt it. And who can forget the late, great Jill Frappier as Luna? Sure, she sounded like a stern British aunt rather than a magical cat, but that maternal scolding was exactly what Serena needed. You want to laugh at the censorship while
Now, decades later, with the ability to stream the original Japanese subtitled version (and the excellent Viz Media redub), I decided to go back and revisit the "DiC" and "Cloverway" dubs of my youth. Was it as good as I remembered? Or was I just hypnotized by the glittering transformation sequences?
You have never seen Sailor Moon before and want the actual plot. In that case, go watch the Viz redub. The DiC version cuts out entire character arcs (Nephrite and Naru’s tragedy hits way harder in Japanese). Closing Thoughts The English dub of Sailor Moon is a bad translation. It is a product of a time when America was terrified of anime being "too foreign." But it is also the reason millions of us fell in love with the genre.