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Sailor Moon Community Thread: She Blinded Me With Science!
- Thread starter MikeMyers
- Start date
I wouldn't describe the DVD release as "really cheap". It comes with a slipcase. That's pretty much all you get with Diamond/Platinum Edition Disney releases. Miyazaki movies get slipcases. That's all you ever really get with a regular top quality release. Sometimes you get unlucky and they send you one without a slipcase, and when you call to complain, they say "Argh, what are you complaining about, everyone else just rips them off and throws them away. You really want one? All right, we'll send you a replacement slipcase, but you have to pay postage." Basic budget-release DVDs never come with slipcases.
The BD/DVD combo pack comes with an artbox. An artbox is the bare minimum expectation for a North American anime Limited Edition. All the rest of the effort in the LE production went to including the fakerays. That's all the LE has, an artbox and fakerays. And LE #2 won't even have an artbox, because it's gonna share.
The LE is still an LE, and the budget DVD is still a budget DVD, but the budget DVD is much more respectable, and is a better value, if you ask me.
cj_iwakura
Member
Definitely sticking with my ADVs. Much classier packaging.
cj_iwakura
Member
Wait, what?
Wow, first time reading all the dub names.. I like how some of them are kind of subtle and make sense, but how does "Mamoru" become "Darien" and "Setsuna" become "Trista"? Oh well.. Whatever floats their boat~
I could never imagine Usagi as "Serena".
Do you guys who grew up with the dub think the original Japanese names are very weird?
Serena sort of works since she's the daughter of Queen Serenity. But yeah those other ones you mentioned are just wut?
cj_iwakura
Member
I grew up with the dub, and I was delighted when I learned their real names, especially the meanings(i.e. Rabbit of the Moon).
The dub names weren't initially so mixed up. At first, their last names weren't really established. It was just...
Usagi -> Serena (the producers also considered calling her "Victoria", to imply British-flavored royalty)
Ami -> Amy
Rei -> Raye
Makoto -> Lita
Minako -> Mina
Mamoru -> Darien
At the time, it was normal in America for anime to be "Americanized", and the dub went out of it's way to remove Japanese culture references. This wasn't abnormal, at the time. Only niche products proudly preserved their Japanese origins, mainstream products tended to Americanize. I remember these was some sort of interview where Naoko Takeuchi said that it was mind-boggling to her, that a totally-Japanese girl like Usagi could pass as an American girl so easily, just by changing her name and speaking with an American accent. It spoke to the universality of teenage life.
A few years later, "Cardcaptors" mangled the adaptation of Card Captor Sakura (turning it into a group action show, as much about Syaoran and Meiling Li as it was about Sakura, and neutering all the layers of romance), but they were actually very progressive by allowing Sakura to remain "Sakura", although they mangled the pronunciation, and gave her an American last name.
During the first run of Sailor Moon, Amy and Raye's last names were briefly mentioned once, and they were "Anderson" and "Hino". Fans dove on these tidbits of info and ate them up. It didn't matter that one was English and one was Japanese. If anything, there was a wave of "Hey, they used Raye's Japanese name. That's cool."
Then the Sailor Moon anime went dark for a while.
Then Mixx picked up the rights to the manga, and they (mostly) used the established English names, even though the wind had started to change, because there was too much money wrapped up in the Americanized brand. But they did trumpet their horn about how they were honored to invent Darien's new last name, "Shields", to try and preserve the Mamoru/protect gags. (Were there actually any of those gags? I don't recall any.) They also announced that they were unofficially changing Serena's name/nickname to "Bunny", to preserve the rabbit jokes. This drew some raised eyebrows, because "Bunny" had a very strong association as a stripper nickname. They also invented "Buns" as a substitute for "Usako", which was very much associated with "Ass". Essentially, Mixx had characters in their translation saying things that sounded like "Hey whore, get your fine ass over here" for no apparent reason. This was not helped by Mixx's overall presentation being one of a company run by crude, misogynistic assholes. They suggested that boys insecure with reading shojo should just tell their friends that it was fapping material.
A while later, Mixx hired some real translators and evolved into Tokyopop, and when they got to Sailor Moon S, they made no more attempt to change the names of characters, so it became a sloppy mix of English and Japanese names.
When the anime was finally removed from DiC's sleeping hands and given to Cloverway, Cloverway insisted on doing things "the DiC way", because there was too much money involved to risk change, so they made up Amara and Michelle, as names for Haruka and Michiru, but times had changed and these new names were quite unpopular, so Cloverway stopped trying to force Americanization onto the series.
Cheerliee,
Thank you for such a detailed answer! I've heard many bad things about Mixx and how they butcher the original text and take credit for things they shouldn't.
Out if curiosity, I tried watching Sailor Moon dubs online before. It made me cringe very hard.. It was only the first episode, and if I remember correctly, Mamo-chan's attitude just came off as an ass instead of a "cool older guy".
I know of stuff like Kim Possible from Disney Channel (my hate for dubs go both ways, especially when their mouth don't match up with the audio) and that's the kind of cartoon I find very American even in Japanese (obviously since it's cartoon vs anime)
For those who grew up with the dub:
How do you guys see the Sailor Moon dub? I know a lot of you have watched other anime only in its original audio.. Do you see Sailor Moon as a little different in English? Kinda like one of those generic American cartoons? Sorry if my question doesn't make sense, I'm having a hard time explaining what I mean by it..
When I saw the dub online, I felt like the anime was really Americanized and kinda uninteresting.. I dunno. I was too busy cringing about everything at the same time.
Thank you for such a detailed answer! I've heard many bad things about Mixx and how they butcher the original text and take credit for things they shouldn't.
Out if curiosity, I tried watching Sailor Moon dubs online before. It made me cringe very hard.. It was only the first episode, and if I remember correctly, Mamo-chan's attitude just came off as an ass instead of a "cool older guy".
I know of stuff like Kim Possible from Disney Channel (my hate for dubs go both ways, especially when their mouth don't match up with the audio) and that's the kind of cartoon I find very American even in Japanese (obviously since it's cartoon vs anime)
For those who grew up with the dub:
How do you guys see the Sailor Moon dub? I know a lot of you have watched other anime only in its original audio.. Do you see Sailor Moon as a little different in English? Kinda like one of those generic American cartoons? Sorry if my question doesn't make sense, I'm having a hard time explaining what I mean by it..
When I saw the dub online, I felt like the anime was really Americanized and kinda uninteresting.. I dunno. I was too busy cringing about everything at the same time.
Well, when anime like Pokemon did first come to TV, I actually did assume it was an American cartoon. It wasn't until I discovered the International Channel and they were airing DBZ and Slayers did I realize what anime was. It never really bothered me that it wasn't my native tongue, I was just like "okay lets check this out" and I did. But to answer your question, yeah, the dubs did feel like different shows entirely.
I'm kind of curious to how it works in Japan though. Do people have debates wherever Kim Possible sounds better in English or Japanese, like people do in the US over anime?
Oh, and happy birthday, Sailor Pluto!
I'm kind of curious to how it works in Japan though. Do people have debates wherever Kim Possible sounds better in English or Japanese, like people do in the US over anime?
Oh, and happy birthday, Sailor Pluto!
I didn't describe the entire release as really cheap, just the look and I stand by that, a simple black amaray, no booklet and a flimsy slipcase, what they did is just slightly above the bare minimum packaging wise.
Compare that to the german release of episodes 1-23:
Outer box, sturdy cardboard
Inner box thing (I have no idea what it's called, it opens up)
More artwork on the inner box
booklet, discs 1&2
Discs, 3-6
Everything released so far
Keep in mind that I'm not saying the german release is better, it has its own issues. This is just about the packaging and there the german release wins by a mile, many people will probably prefer a slimmer amaray but I'm a sucker for box sets even if they take up more space.
I grew up with funny cartoons, like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, until Transformers appeared in the 80's and we got "exciting cartoons". Right after that, Robotech came out, which was a heavily Americanized version of Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeda, so that was exciting and also dramatic and very well put together. I knew before it came out that this was Japanese, and learned about Americanization, and was told that Macross was even better than Robotech. Many years later, I was finally able to see the original, and I found that the Americanization complaints were overblown. Robotech was an exceptionally good quality dub, Macross was virtually unchanged, Southern Cross was kind of mangled, but Mospeda got better by attaching it to Macross, and the whole was better than the sum of it's parts.
I saw a lot of Japanese anime between Robotech and Sailor Moon, in English and Japanese. So much blood. So many boobies.
When Sailor Moon came out on TV, it had a new style which I hadn't seen before, and I really liked it. It was the core experience of Sailor Moon which I saw, and the Americanization wasn't able to ruin that. I wasn't bothered by the name changes or the censorship, although by this point I was aware enough to recognize the changes without being told they were there.
My first exposure to uncensored Sailor Moon was a fansub of the Sailor Moon R movie, and when I saw that it was like finding treasure. I can say with certainty that the Japanese version is better than the first American dub of Sailor Moon, but unlike some people, I wouldn't say that it was "butchered" (except the end of season 1) and it doesn't make me mad. Also, the English voice actors seem to have been a love-them-or-hate-them kind of thing, and I liked them.
I have warm nostalgia for the first dub of Sailor Moon, and mixed feelings towards the first manga release. The Sailor Moon manga deserved the retranslation made with love and care and skill and experience which Kodansha USA recently gave it, and the anime deserves it's new dub.
Yeah, I just meant that "slightly above bare minimum" is basically "the best you can hope for" in America these days. "Has a flimsy slipcase" is seen as the gold standard. I'm surprised that they even went that far.
That's a beautiful package. Seriously beautiful.
It's no Kenshiro vs Tank or Goku Vs Not having a Driving Licence.Sailor Moon R 67
The girls go to the beach and Chibiusa befriends a dinosaur. Episode was merely okay. I missed my Black Moon villains.
MikeMyers,
(Sorry for not quoting you guys, I'm on mobile, so there will be mistakes below.)
There are certain shows that just don't work in Japanese because the references, humor and puns would be completely lost in translation (and the audience wouldn't understand or learn anything). Such as South Park, Futurama, Simpsons, etc. South Park and Simpons were both try & fail in Japan. Also I'm too old for Kim Possible, it happened after me.
Japan has Cartoon Network and trust me, it isn't really popular. Kids prefer Japanese shows because everyone knows it and you see it everywhere (Doraemon, Anpanman).
It isn't possible to compare anime in the West and cartoon in Japan. The latter is just.. There. People love Japanese mascots and characters so much better. And there were some small controversy, I think, that Japan doesn't want too much foreign cartoons since they tend to be less "educational". I use Hulu Japan and the shows always have Japanese subtitles. Soooo much gets lost there. And if we go to the movies to watch American movies, sometimes only a handful of people laugh at really great puns simply because it cannot be translated.
I guess my point is that American cartoons aren't comparable because most of the plot gets lost, and it was also created for a very different type of audience. Also keep in mind that Japan LOVES Disney to death. Any kind of Disney movie is so well received. I think maybe that's why everything else from America is put into some kind of mediocre shadow. Japan wants a specific super-cute-educational type of thing.
Sorry if we're going completely off-topic now.
Happy Birthday, Sailor Pluto! ♡
(Sorry for not quoting you guys, I'm on mobile, so there will be mistakes below.)
There are certain shows that just don't work in Japanese because the references, humor and puns would be completely lost in translation (and the audience wouldn't understand or learn anything). Such as South Park, Futurama, Simpsons, etc. South Park and Simpons were both try & fail in Japan. Also I'm too old for Kim Possible, it happened after me.
Japan has Cartoon Network and trust me, it isn't really popular. Kids prefer Japanese shows because everyone knows it and you see it everywhere (Doraemon, Anpanman).
It isn't possible to compare anime in the West and cartoon in Japan. The latter is just.. There. People love Japanese mascots and characters so much better. And there were some small controversy, I think, that Japan doesn't want too much foreign cartoons since they tend to be less "educational". I use Hulu Japan and the shows always have Japanese subtitles. Soooo much gets lost there. And if we go to the movies to watch American movies, sometimes only a handful of people laugh at really great puns simply because it cannot be translated.
I guess my point is that American cartoons aren't comparable because most of the plot gets lost, and it was also created for a very different type of audience. Also keep in mind that Japan LOVES Disney to death. Any kind of Disney movie is so well received. I think maybe that's why everything else from America is put into some kind of mediocre shadow. Japan wants a specific super-cute-educational type of thing.
Sorry if we're going completely off-topic now.
Happy Birthday, Sailor Pluto! ♡
eastx
Member
Oddly, I got an email today saying mine was backordered. They shipped everything else in the order today though.
Somebody in the anime thread something similar, like they put a hold on his card or something. It's not unreasonable to think they have a lot more preorders for this than they usually get
Either way, I"m a bit annoyed if they charged me for it without actually shipping it yet (not that I'd cancel my preorder or anything).
Zoe
Member
Kaori's definitely a fan--she broke out into the speech on Utaban IIRC. With her height she'd be forced to be Jupiter though.
Of current gen, probably only Sayu and Haruna know anything about the series ;_;
Zoe
Member
Tsuji Nozomi, formerly Morning Musume, currently queen of mamadols everywhere and wife of Ultraman.
Apparently there's a Tamashii stream right now, announcing the new RPG toy for Sailor Moon Crystal.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tamashii-stream
Which also means my Twitter feed is full of Sailor Moon people who all compete against being the first to tweet every little detail and photo from the stream....
And then Tumblr is gonna be full of the same proplica images for 1 week, all posted by 1000 different people.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tamashii-stream
Which also means my Twitter feed is full of Sailor Moon people who all compete against being the first to tweet every little detail and photo from the stream....
And then Tumblr is gonna be full of the same proplica images for 1 week, all posted by 1000 different people.
Finally finished redoing the OP, to clear up some stuff I was getting asked about frequently, like the purpose of the Ali and Ann arc.
Ah okay, it would be very weird to watch something like South Park dubbed in another language.
Ah okay, it would be very weird to watch something like South Park dubbed in another language.
You can find some on YouTube, which I'm probably not allowed to link here.
Man, there are some seriously nice/cute Sailor Moon Crystal gifs out there.
"Coincidentally" most of them feature Usagi herself.. I said this before during this episode, but I really love how she looked here. :3
MikeHattsu
Member
What time?
MikeHattsu
Member
Yeah, I can do that.
You can find it on YouTube, which I probably can't link here. It's insanely stupid in Japanese!
How about tomorrow? Unless you guys have plans. At least I think I don't. Got invited out on Saturday though, no idea what time. I can figure it out by tomorrow, if tomorrow doesn't work for you guys.
Btw, whoever I was talking to the other day about making figures based on the Sailor Moon Crystal design.... well, I guess they decided to finally do it.
Sailor Moon, Chibiusa and Tuxedo Mask!
Source with photos here (Japanese):
http://hobby-maniax.com/archives/20264
Not sure how I feel about these? They're definitely not as bad as I expected. Amichan looks quite adorable, actually! Not really a fan of glossy figures though. They look kinda nice, in a weird day. :3 Will definitely buy Mercury!
(Dunno how many of you are fans of CCS, but Sakura looks quite nice!)
MikeHattsu
Member
I'm working so I'm not back home until 01:00 Japan time. Dunno if that works for you? Early Saturday morning Japan time would also work. Like 08:00 JST or something...
Those small figures are the ones I'm most likely to get.
I'm at work then.
Hmm.. I have to figure out what time we're leaving on Saturday. Dunno if the event is early or late. How about.. today? :3 I'm here for the rest of the night anyway, how about you guys? Were others supposed to join or did no one else reply?
MikeHattsu
Member
I'm at work for 5 more hours.
If you have time after, I'll probably be here for another 5-6 hours. (1-2 AM)
MikeHattsu
Member
Sure. Dunno if that works for MikeMyers though?
Let's see tomorrow then, how everyone's plans are like.
Good night, Mike~
Ai no Senshi is soo good, I love it so much. <3
Zoe
Member
Wow, the classic ones look like such toys next to the new ones :lol
Which ones do you like the most, Zoe? Did you buy any of the first ones?
Btw MikeMyers & MikeHattsu (and whoever wants to add me on Skype), I switched Skype so if we end up watching stuff, I won't be online on the one I gave you ー will you PM me your usernames so I can add you on my active one?
Zoe
Member
I'm not really into figurines, so I don't have any. I prefer the look of the Crystal ones though.
I do kinda want the Petit Chara sets...
MikeHattsu
Member
Sent you a PM
They shipped mine today.
MikeHattsu
Member
1 hour before the new Crystal episode ok then?
Sorry, but I'm going to sleep right now, but before I go to bed:
Sailor Moon R 68
I absolutely love this episode. It has everyone confronting each other while "Ai no Senshi" plays. What's there not to like?
Pretty sure Jupiter's fight scene is ripped straight out of episode 65. Tragic.