I never really got interested in Sailor Moon until halfway through the first airing of the S season here in the US. At the time, I had almost no exposure whatsoever to the japanese version of the anime, and since I'd heard that this was far less butchured than the first couple of seasons I'd barely seen, I figured that what I saw was what it truly was.
*grins* I've since learned otherwise, lol
Since then, having done my homework, I've concluded that to not only truly understand SM from more than one angle, but to keep from hating the dub, I had to learn to view the anime on several different levels.
Having seen the dub first, yes, admittedly on one level I truly enjoy it; after all, it is in my language and Rini is cute. I am a person who is unbothered by all but the dorkiest slang, and one of the few things I cannot stand is cut/missing/censored footage. (Why I bless DVD's....)
However, on the level that SM dub tends to, uh, "diverge" from the true original script, that, too, drives me crazy. I don't like to listen to my language on an anime and think that whatever it is they're saying isn't what was meant to be implied.
That caused me to develop and master a skill I enjoy having, thanks to DVD editions. I love to listen to the dub while, at the same time, reading the subtitles and comparing what was "really" said.
Everyone asks: Why change the script? If it is not obvious, why censor something, and thus make it sound stupid? (i.e "three o'clock MONDAY", Serena's "SYMBOLS", talk where there originally wasn't any.....)
My first answer is in the vastly different, "typical" storytelling styles between America and Japan. I've done my homework enough to know that emphasis on silence, sparse sound, no "explanation" for why everything is happening, etc is the general Japanese storytelling style.
Here in America, however, we seem to be obsessed with noise. We don't like silence. When we talk the one thing we can't seem to stand is silences, we have to make "small talk" to fill in that gap. The same for trying to "americanize" a popular anime. There MUST be talk. There MUST be lots of noise, and yes, there MUST be an explanation for why things are happening around us, something I have heard consultants from Japan say isn't always the point of a Japanese film. I'm no expert, of course, but from what I have seen in various anime, Sailor Moon included, this seems to be the case.
However, in this day and age, is doing that necessary? Yes, doing this can interfere and ruin any anime, and in numerous instances, ruined important cruical aspects of Sailor Moon. (Sestuna's "Dead Scream" whisper becoming a shrieking "PLUTO DEADLY SCREAM" being one of them....she has this shadowy, forbidding look in her eyes when she whispers it, it looks so earthreal and appropriate. When she screams it in the dub, that look takes on a very different dimension....she looks like she's on LDS when you couple that look with that scream....it's horrible!)
Besides, look at the huge, and I mean HUGE, anime explosion in the past couple of years. It is everywhere, and much more faithfully translated than ever, in general (I love "Chobits" for this....). I wish they'd do some work on SM and ante up the more faithful translation.
In general, I can enjoy the dub (including the movies, S being my favorite) when I am not comparing it against the sub, but when I do compare, the dub loses much value. Overall, I prefer the sub.....at least it's real.
