Have you always wanted to share the silly fun of Sailor Moon with your geeklings? Now’s your chance! 23 episodes of the original, newly re-dubbed anime are now available online through Viz Media and Hulu.
If you suffered through the Sailor Moon DiC dub in the 90s, you’ll find things are different now. In Viz’s new dub, character names now match the manga. Sorry, Serena! The voice acting seems to be higher quality, with an admirable effort at matching the animated mouth movements without rushing the dialogue too much to fit the words in. Usagi is appropriately cute and whiny without being grating; my five-year-old commented more than once, “Sailor Moon is hilarious!”
The opening and ending songs, as well as the background and transformation music, remain unchanged and undubbed, which made me happy as an anime watcher who prefers subs over dubs. (I’m a sub snob.)
All 200 episodes and 3 films will eventually be released in English through Viz, without alterations to the story or characters. If you’re a collector, the first 23 episodes (both subtitled and dubbed) will be available in November in new, remastered DVD/Blu-ray boxed sets.
I’m especially happy that the same-sex relationships in the original are not going to be recast into “cousins” as it was for the original US translation.
Now that the dubs are out, I’m also hoping my 5 year old (who doesn’t yet read, and certainly not at the pace required for subtitling) will get into Sailor Moon.
It’s a little late for us, as we’re in Sailor Moon S already- subtitled! My 8 and 9 year old girls read it very well, by the way. Once we did accidentally hear a couple seconds of the original dub and the kids were horrified! They didn’t want to hear it again!
Given that I have both editions of the manga, I will probably end up with the complete anime over again too. I don’t even think my husband will complain much, I can point to all the editions of the Star Wars movies after all! 😉
“My 8 and 9 year old girls read it very well, by the way. Once we did accidentally hear a couple seconds of the original dub and the kids were horrified! They didn’t want to hear it again!”
Parenting, you’re doing it right!
Serious note: I like the new Sailor Moon dub a lot. I had some doubts when it was announced, but now that I’ve watched the first 23 episodes, I can say that I do enjoy it.