Or is the rumors false?
Just type “Sailor Moon porn” into Google. I’m sure that’ll give you the answer.
Shouldn’t that be “Sailor Poon”?
As I understand it (and I had friends who followed it but never did myself), Sailor Moon in the original was not pornographic per se but had a very clear Lesbian subtext that was bowlderized in the American release. Which is not to say that there wasn’t some eroticism involved.
What Polycarp said, plus, in the original, she’s clearly nude during the transformation sequence.
I think it’s more a matter of different societal taboos than the Japanese version being porn.
Yeah, not so much porn, as it is most anime, it seems, has some kind of nudity/toplessness in its original form. I don’t know why Japanese cartoon producers seem to think everyone wants to see animated boobies, but if it helps them sell their product, more power to them. But I would think that with approx. 90% of all anime showing boobies, it’s not so much a marketing point as it is just the norm to have them in there. Like maybe how most American cartoons have…ummm…something. I’m sure most American cartoons share some kind of similar quality, but I don’t know what it is. Maybe some foreigner can tell us something they notice in most American cartoons that isn’t in theirs.
Ranma 1/2has lots of boobies and it’s one of the more innocent animes. Just a cultural difference. We Americans are fairly uptight about boobies.
I’m a girl and I vote for more boobies in movies.
No. The original manga by Takeuchi Naoko was racy by American standards, but far from pornographic.
Having said that, there was a delay of all of a month before pornographic doujinshi began to show up.
Since then there’s been the anime (non-pornographic), the musicals, and the live-action (non-pornographic) series. And more pornographic and merely suggestive manga and doujinshi than one can shake a … stick, dammit. I meant to say stick! Ah hem. And at least one live-action pornographic movie I’ve heard about, plus several animated “parodies.”
I’m a guy and I vote for more boobies in movies 
but only because the whole “guy and girl wake up after sleeping together, sheet is placed *just right * to cover any naughty bits” is silly. More genitals in general, please.
And more brother-sister incestuous subtext. The Japanese are a lot more open about horny teenage boys oogling their sisters, though admittedly it usually doesn’t go anywhere.
I have encountered a lot of people on the Dope who say that if it’s got boobies or butts, it’s porn. No matter how little, no matter why, no matter if there’s a lot of non-sexual content as well. They’re Americans. So I seriously doubt if your idea of American standards is universal. (My own take is that it’s not porn if it has any real attempt at plot and characterization, even if it includes explicit sex, but I don’t think I have a lot of company there.)
Dude, she’s a girl who uses a wand to “make up” into a short-skirted warrior for love. Of course there’s subtext. Freud would have a field day with this stuff. (In fact, every once in a while some troll on rec.arts.anime.misc would publish his great thesis about Sailor Moon and the Sacred Feminine…)
But pornographic? Whoever suggested that has obviously never seen any actual porn from Japan.
Argh, my post got eaten! I hope it’ll help the hampsters run faster…
Anyways, as far as nudity–in the original, they were technically naked when they transformed. But this is true for the dub as well–they’re just really glowy and sparkly soyou dont’ notice as much (though there was a slight panty shot in Jupiter’s transformation that was hidden with a flash of light in the early part of the dub). There’s some real nudity later on, including the infamous scene in the last episode where we can clearly see that Usagi has the anatomy of a Barbie doll. No Tittygates here.
About those gaydar readings you’re getting, the original featured 5 gay main characters in various seasons. Season one had Zoicite and Kunzite, season 3 has Uranus and Neptune, and season 4 had Fish Eye who hit on all the boys. (I’m not touching Seiya’s crush on Usagi–does that count as gay, straight or bi?). Zoicite and Fish Eye became females in the dub, and Uranus and Neptune pretended to be cousins. Rather, the dub had them as cousins, but they acted rather friendly for that kind of relationship (Show of hands–who knows what I mean when I mention the hand-sex scene? I never did anything like that with any of MY cousins).
My vote–not porn. Not by a longshot.
I’m a guy, and I, for one, welcome our new boobie overlords… err overladies. 
yeah, it had to be said, and yeah, I’m such a :wally
A magazine called <b>Anime Insider</b> once published a top 50 list of cuts from <b>Sailor Moon</b>. But as others have said, it was nudity and suggestiveness that were cut, not graphic sex. Also, queer characters were heterosexualized, and all references to teens drinking alcohol and some bathroom humour was removed.
I’ve heard some aspects of the ending were changed as well.
This tended to happen a lot, and still does occasionally, with anime. Most North Americans have never seen an uncut version of <b>Card Captor Sakura</b> (which has one gay couple and a lesbian crush). When <b>The Battleship Yamato</b> was turned into <b>Starblazers</b>, the truly disturbing ending was altered, and a number of deaths were changed into non-fatal injuries.
An honest subtitled translation of <b>Neon Genesis Evangelion</b> replaced the censored VHS subtitles on the DVD release, though the original subtitling problems may have just been a bad translation as opposed to actual censorship.
I will remember that Vb code uses square brackets…
I will remember that Vb code uses square brackets…
I will remember that Vb code uses square brackets…
:smack:
Which ending? The ending of the first season was horribly altered–namely, cut from two episodes to one. Although in general I actually prefer the dub, this is one instance where I greatly, greatly prefer the original. There are some very touching moments (My favorite one being one where Usagi will not kiss Mamoru). In this instance though, the edits were more to do with violence than with anything sexual. There were other instances of violence being cut as well, my pet peeve being when Mars slaps Moon–the scene following the cut doesn’t make sense without it. But the final episode of Season 1 is jumpy, haphazard and confusing in English. I remember the last time I watched it, I don’t think I’d even seen the original yet, yet every couple minutes I was thinking to myself, “Cut.” I don’t know how I made sense of it when I was ten. I’ve watched enough anime in Japanese now that it’s easy to see where things probably were changed in translation.
The actual ending to the series lies in the never-officially-translated fifth season, so that one hasn’t been changed at all. I’m unaware of what changes may have been made to the other four storyline endings.
I call myself a Ghost in the Shell fangirl and what do I spend all my time talking about?
As far as anime tending to get altered in translation, it depends on which company is doing the translation, and who their audience is. Groups like Manga and ADV seem to be good about staying authentic to the original, and they cater to the older group, especially those who care about that stuff. Groups like Nelvana and 4Kids (Oh how I loathe 4Kids…) tend to aim towards a younger audience, and change more in their shows. The types of shows each company will translate will vary depending on their audience, but those aiming at younger viewers seem to do more Americanizing with their translations (these usually being the more cliche-ish type shows to begin with).
I’d heard that the ending of the series involved several deaths that were cut out. I’m going by Anime Insider’s description, however.
**As far as anime tending to get altered in translation, it depends on which company is doing the translation, and who their audience is. Groups like Manga and ADV seem to be good about staying authentic to the original, and they cater to the older group, especially those who care about that stuff.
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ADV has gotten a lot better, but there were quite a few things left on the cutting-room floor in their older days. I’m pretty sure at least one of the scenes of Evangelion was intentionally mangled, though a few others seem to be genuine mistakes.
I can’t fault them lately, though.
Though I fully agree about Nelvana. I’ve never seen anything done by 4Kids – what have they done?
They do all the FoxKids shows, like One Piece and Shaman King. I’ve only heard of ADV recently, and actually haven’t watched much dubbed by them–I personally only own subs by them (though I want to see Chrno Crusade).
And yes, in the final episode of season 1, everyone dies (not for the last time either). Darien, all four scouts in turn (their ghosts come back to comfort Sailor Moon–interestingly this was cut out of the episode but left in the episode preview, or was it Sailor Moon Says? Whatever, it was there.) and Sailor Moon herself almost dies from using the crystal, but then wishes to be a normal girl again and that brings everyone back to life, sans their memories. I’m just being nitpicky because as I said, the final ending hasn’t been shown here. But this episode seems to be touted a lot as the Holy Grail of Bad Dubbing and Censorship.
I haven’t seen the original Cardcaptor Sakura, but I’d like to. The dub is still watchable though.
Pretty much everything you’ll find on the Fox Box or Kids WB. Okay, not all of it, but about that. Yugioh, Shaman King, Tokyo Mew Mew, One Piece…