Yeah, its a shame the old dub won't ever be re-released probably. The series would not of become so popular without it. Sure, its inaccurate, but for a show airing on TV in kids blocks, I guess it makes sense to a degree.
Using english names and music made it more relatable for kids at the time I think. I dunno, it might of taken off with it mostly the same as Japan, but those english songs are still catchy and are still embedded in many peoples heads.
How much was actually cut from the initial series? Im unsure of most of the details in how much they differ.
I think the show would have done just fine with an accurate dub. The show got huge ratings in Canada because YTV gave it a good timeslot. It got lousy ratings in America because they couldn't get a good timeslot, until the Cartoon Network gave it one, and the ratings jumped.
YTV would have been happy to air the show unaltered. YTV was willing to air kids shows that had swear words in them, because if a show went too far, well... that's what the [bleep] button was for. They picked up Gundam Wing, and the opening song was still in Japanese, so they said "nice" and put it on the air. And Canadian audiences loved it.
Cartoon Network put the show on next to characters with names like "Tenchi". Their audience was willing to handle Japanese names.
One of the bigger censorships of the original dub was that they changed Zoicite's gender to female, to avoid having gay men in their show. It's been argued that they
had to censor the gays, because America wasn't ready to see gay people existing, but I don't believe that. DiC and Optimum simply didn't have the courage to be a leader (in a market that had a reputation for being edgy, and already had gay people on display, albeit with a smaller spotlight). By the time they censored Haruka and Michiru, DiC and Optimum were widely considered to be a bunch of backwards-thinking dinosaurs and a pathetic joke for doing so.
I consider myself to be a fan of the dub, and I've got the entire dub on DVD, and I've got Terri Hawkes' autograph, but she could have toned it down a notch or three, and it really wouldn't have hurt the show.
Edit:
Also, DiC killed the series after 65 episodes, because they had already sold off the lucrative merchandising rights. Most other owners would have pushed the series though (Pioneer and ADV and YTV and Irwin and so many others tried to push DiC), so without DiC, we probably would have had all five seasons, including SailorStars, in a short timeframe.
Edit2:
And regarding the 65 episodes, DiC/Optimum cut/merged episodes and tied three different storylines together under the "Negaverse" banner, in order to make an ideal 65-episode syndication package. And then the show bombed in syndication. YTV pushed for 17 new episodes, which is not a syndication package. 13 episodes is a syndication package. Did YTV ask DiC/Optimum to cut four more episodes? Hell no, they asked DiC/Optimum to
stop cutting episodes. And then when Cartoon Network saw 85 episodes were available (not a syndication package), they said "Oooh nice, can we have that?" DiC/Optimum literally chopped up the show for people who didn't want it, and the people who wanted it would have preferred to have the whole thing.
Edit3:
One more! DiC/Optimum tried to censor death.
was "blasted back to the Negaverse". But kids cried when Maxfield Stanton
died. That's proof that kids could see right through the censorship, and DiC/Optimum were wrong to even attempt it.
